Blogs from Copacabana, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America

In the evening we arrived at Puno (Peru) on Lake Titicaca - It was semana santa (easter week) and there were religious parades. The following day we took bicycle taxis down to the harbour and went on a trip to the reed island - this is where people make floating reed islands, and they used to live on them. It was all a bit touristy for most of us - it seems to be a thriving business doing tours and selling thing. Later that day we left for Bolivia and went to a small town called Copacobana just over the border, due to easter week the place was busy with fiesta. The following day we went on a trip to the Isla del Sol (sun islands), on the way we saw a waterspout, then we walked ... read more

8 mars 2012 Après un peu plus de douze heures de bus, je pose enfin mon posrtérieur endormi à La Paz. Il fait 0 degré celsius et je fais de la buée en respirant. Je regarde les gens autour de moi et je leur dit " Mucho Frio" sans cesse. Difficile de ne pas retenir ces deux mots en espagnol...car je les dis à tous les jours depuis mon arrivée en Bolivie. Je pense que ça signifie " y fait frette en criss". Mon plan était de reprendre rapidos un bus pour Copacabana, sur les berges du lac Titicaca. Pas question de m´accrocher les pieds à La Paz. Il est 8h00AM et le départ pour Copacabana (Copa) se fait à 8h00AM. J´arrive pile-poil pour repartir. Quatre heures de bus cette fois. Ffffffffff. Je vais devoir déjeûner ... read more

Copacabana is a nice enough place without being anything too special in our book. We decided to stay here for a couple of nights mainly because we felt being near the lake would be preferable to the hustle and bustle of yet another large capital city, and as La Paz was our next stop we thought we would try avoid it for at least a couple more days. As our time in Copacabana was fairly uneventful, I think I am just going to run down a list of things that happened to us here rather than write it in the usual fashion, as I just think you will appreciate our feelings toward the place easier this way. Firstly, we couldn’t get a room. I left Donna in a café with the bags and went traipsing around ... read more

Lake Titicaca was one of the places we were both looking forward to visiting most in South America, as it the highest lake in the world. We left La Paz early in the morning which wasnt great for either of us, as I was still feeling rough from the temperature I´d had the previous night and Em was now doing some serious moaning about stomach pains! The bus ride was only 4 hours with some nice scenery along the way such as snow capped mountains and the locals going about their business in traditional bright clothing. At one point we had to cross the lake on a dodgy looking boat while the bus floated along next to us on an even worse looking barge. We arrived in Copacabana (not to be confused with the beach in ... read more

After much thought and calculation of bus times Chev and I decided that Bolivia was calling our names after all. We hoped on an overnight bus to the Bolivian town of Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titikaka. We made it to Bolivia without much ado, although we arrived a bit late and had to change buses three times. We met with some nice backpackers and joined them for a quick walk around Copacabana and lunch and then all set off to Isla Del Sol, the fabled birth place of Incan legends. According to legend, Manco Capac and his wife-sister, Mama Ocllo, the first Incans, were born out of the lake and the main god Viracocha first appeared at a site on the north end of the island. Chev and I of course had to go ... read more

We left La Paz behind us and headed towards the great Titicaca Lake. "Great" in the true sense of the word for the lake is the biggest in South America and it is really impressive and beautifully set within mountains. The busride was quite short but the Bolivians managed to surprise us again. We had to cross a part of the lake. So we boarded a small boat to the other side and our bus was shipped on a raft. Very adventurous. We stayed in the small town of Copacabana, unfortuntely, the beach did not stand the comparison to the famous Brazilian one of the same name. The whole town was a little quirky. It was super touristy with lots of hotels, hostels, restaurants and souvenir-stands but for some reason attracted a lot of hippies and ... read more

Dinsdag laatste keer geslapen in ons appartementje in San Jeronimo. Dat was toch beetje raar om na zo’n maand daar weg te gaan. Woensdag ’s morgens op tijd vertrokken met de taxi, bus en trein naar Aguas Calientes (=eigenlijk ‘warm water’ in het Spaans); het dorpje aan de voet van Machu Picchu. Daar een nachtje geslapen. Het hotel had zelfs een zalige douche en zalige bedden! Dan donderdag heel vroeg (5u30) met een busje naar Machu Picchu. We gingen voor het 1ste busje gaan zodat we Machu Picchu bij zonsopgang zouden zien…bleek het al lichter te zijn dan we dachten. Maar het was nog altijd de moeite om zo vroeg op te staan! Het busje reed ons via veel haarspeldbochten naar de top, naar Machu Picchu. We waanden ons al in de jungle; de beplanting was ... read more