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Published: July 23rd 2008
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Day 289 - Tuesday 15 July
We got into La Paz about half six in the morning and took a taxi over to the mountain bike company. We want to pick up our photos and free t-shirt before we leave town. We got there about seven and were hoping one of the guides would be there to sort us out. There was but he said we'd have to wait until 9am when the office opened. Stuck with our bags and with nothing to do we went to the cafe and managed to drag breakfast out for 2 hours.
At 9 o'clock we went back to the tour company. I don't believe it theres a whole street of them all next to each other. They're all open except ours. By half nine we were still waiting for someone to show up so I went and did all my internet stuff. Finally at 12 o'clock we got what we wanted. By now I was hungry so went for one last Burger King as I don't know when the next one will be.
I hoped to have left La Paz by about 9 this morning but finally just after 1 pm
I got into a minivan to Copacabana. I've really liked La Paz but unfortunately this time its goodbye for good. I'd like to think I'll come back one day but realistically I probably wont.
The driver to Copacabana was an absolute nutter and I was terrified we were going to fast and were going to go over the edge of a cliff. We didn't but we did however run over a dog. Im amazed its never happened before as I've been in so many near misses but this time we hit one head on. I looked back expecting to see a big mess in the road but amazingly the dog was on its feet and limping away. It cant have been in a good way though. Thankfully we reached Copacabana in one piece.
After finding some accommodation and booking our trips we had a look around the place. I'm not too impressed theres not much to see so will be glad when I leave. I did however have a great fish dinner for only a pound.
With nothing to do we headed back to the hotel for an early night. On the way back we passed all
View from the Isla del sol
Lake Titicaca, Isla del Sol and the Andes Mountains the schoolchildren playing the drums in a marching band along the street. They were in perfect rythem with each other and seemed to be organised into different teams competing against each other. How strange, I wonder what it is?
Day 290 - Wednesday 16 July
We had to be up reasonably early today to catch our boat to the Isla del Sol. Ledgend has it that Viracocha the creator God had his children spring from the water to found cusco and the Inca dynasty. A sacred rock on the island is supposed to be their birthplace.
We got down to the port at half past eight and I was amazed at how many tourists there were. Although there had been a few about town last night there are hundreds this morning. They must have come out of every nook and cranny. With a packed boat we made the 2 hour journey across Lake Titicaca to the island. Its not actually that far but the boat went painfully slow.
We got off at the north part of the island so we could do the supposidly three hour walk to the port at the south end. Theres no
signposts or anything on the island so although we saw some Inca ruins I don't actually know what thay are as my guidebook doesn't have a map of the island. We must have also walked straight past the sacred rock as there was nothing there telling us where it was but we followed all the paths.
The local villagers were also out to make some money as theres a tax to walk just about anywhere on the island. Although not much I thought it was a bit cheeky and by the third it got rather annoying as I hadn't expected it. Its a good job I had some money left over.
We´d been walking at a fair pace and about 3 and a half hours later we finally made it to the south port just in time before the boats back to Copacabana left. Back in town we had an hour to kill before our minibus took us to the border. After nearly 2 months I'm finally leaving Bolivia. Its quite cold and sometimes the locals "accidentally" short change you, but I've really enjoyed the place. I've had some great times here and met some great people. I'm a bit sad to leave but also glad in a way I need to move on.
I'd been expecting to get fined when I left as I hadn't been given an entry slip of paper when I'd crossed from Brazil. When Russ had left with Pa they'd both been fined 10 B (80P) each. I'd got my spanish teacher to teach me how to explain that I hadn't been given one and tried to talk my way out of it. Its not much but its the principle. Russ assured me it wouldn´t work but amazingly it did. I was well chuffed.
Just before half past seven in the evening I finally left Bolivia and crossed into Peru. Another minibus was waiting at the border to take us to Puno were we caught the overnight bus to Cuzco.
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