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Published: September 30th 2006
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We had caught the 10pm night bus to Puno. Shortly after our journey began vendors got onto the bus selling bread. I wasn't sure if this was going to be a really long journey or if there were bread shortages in Puno because the vendors were selling carrier bags full of bread for five soles. There didn't seem to be an option to buy less than a bag full & six vendors were selling upstairs alone. We risked starvation or not seeing bread for a while but didn't buy any. Rachel had warned us it may get cold if the bus didn't have heating & were fully prepared with hats gloves & all our jumpers. It was just as well as at about one in the morning the condensation on the inside of the windows turned to ice which made it impossible to see outside without furious scratching. Those who had only worn shirts for the journey were the ones who emptied their baggage on the floor at Puno bus station searching for thermal leggings & jumpers. One guy tried skateboarding around the station to get warm but soon came back saying that it had been a bad idea. We had paid for bed seats but were put in half bed seats for the journey & there was noone to complain to at 5:30am in Puno, the kid on the bus told us we would need to speak to someone in the Cusco office.
We caught the 7am bus to Copacobana, still with freezing feet & wearing all our clothes. It took a while for the to warm us up as we followed the road along Lake Titicaca's shore. In Peru the shoreline of the lake was covered in reeds & there seemed to be rubbish strewn everywhere. As the lake got pretty & cleaner the road got bumpier & we knew we were close to Bolivia. At the border we changed money & got our passports stamped, a relatively painless experience compared to Sorcha's ordeal. We were lucky in that the border guards had a whole coachload of people to process so didn't have the time to distract & rob us unlike Sorcha who went across on her own.
We were soon in Copacobana & the guy on our bus came round to tell us of a new hotel that would give favourable rates to those on the bus. As he wasn't at all pushy we decided to check it out. The hotel was new, they still hadn't finished building one of the floors (not that we heard any building work), the rooms were big & all had lake views, hot water & TV. For only $10 a night we checked into the
Hotel Mirador. We were soon having lunch at La Orilla restaurant, the food in Peru was cheap but in Bolivia it is ridiculously cheap & a huge meal of cannelone, nachos with cheese & four bowls of dips & drinks cost less than £2. And this was
al fresco dining in lovely surroundings at a good restaurant in a touristy part of Bolivia.
After lunch we headed down to the lake where shingle beaches were dotted with patches of white sand. The water was blue & the sun danced on the waves from the gentle breeze. There's a local saying that 'Bolivia got the Titi part of the lake whereas Peru got the Caca' & it certainly is spectacular in Copacobana although apparently the saying is the other way round in Peru. There were people along the shoreline with buckets, spades & other seaside paraphernalia but noone quite dared venture into water. After all this is mid winter & we are 4000m high in the Andes surrounded by snowcapped mountains. One kid with swimming trunks on put a foot in the water but it lasted all of two seconds & was accompanied by screams of pain. We had lots of offers to take us horse riding up to the ruins but Sam pointed out that none of their horses would be big enough for me & they had to agree. Copacobana is full of hippies, normally when someone comes up to me trying to sell me something I don't mind, I normally just reply 'No, gracias'. When it is a gringo hippie trying to sell me a tatty piece of string with a peanut shell stuck to it so he can escape reality a little longer & make it harder for the Bolivian craftsmen to earn a living, then it annoys me.
Back in our hotel room we watched the sunset into the lake through clear mountain air & then headed into town for dinner. Pacha restaurant served
trucha criolla, Lake Titicaca's giant trout in a myriad of forms along with giant pizzas. I had trout with garlic & some of Sam's giant pizza, when I asked for a beer the waiter was seen sprinting down the road to purchase one. After dinner we went to check out the Cafe Del Sol y Luna, but it was part of a hotel & didn't look very inviting so we went to Waykys bar which is where all the hippies hang out. The bar was really good with a large selection of drinks & messages that patrons had scrawled all over the walls. Later on a girl came round to say that a clown & puppet show would be starting in ten minutes & sure enough that's what happened. All very bizarre in a bar.
Drink of the Day: Tea Bolivian Style With Pisco, Lemon & Sugar
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