Leaving Bolivia, Back to Peru!

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After returning to La Paz from our wonderful journey through the Salt Flats outside of Uyuni, we stayed 2 nights and prepared to leave for Copacabana. We took a taxi up to the Cementario area where the buses and combis leave for Copacabana and found a bus ready to leave and we were in Copacabana in a few hours. We stayed at the Hostal Sonya, on the 4th floor -- a nice room, clean with hot water. We explored the town and found that our hotel was away from the tourist mess on the main street. We walked down past the Cathedral with the beautiful blue Portugeuse tiles on the domes and the main square was an interesting collection of street vendors selling religious paraphanalia (sp??) and other stuff. Then the main street to the port at lakeside turned into the typical tourist lineup of restaurants and tourist shops, a big contrast to the rest of the town.

We went over to the Las Cupolas restaurant (with a nice view of the town and port) and had a very nice dinner. I had lasagna while Lisa and Rumi shared an interesting Trout Fondue that came with lots of vegetables, some cubed bread (??), a great quinoa salad and a huge plate of frozen raw trout pieces (The fondue part was hot oil!!). They enjoyed that even though they were expecting a cheese fondue with cooked trout on the side!! It was a very nice restaurant and we recommend it for a splurge.

The next day we got up early to catch the boat over to the Isla del Sol at 8:30am. It was a 2 hour journey over to the Isla del Sol and we traveled up on top of the boat with a beautiful view of the lake and coastline. We met Michael from Nuremburg in Bavaria and enjoyed talking to him for the entire duration of the trip. We got off the boat on the northern end of the island and started hiking, first, to the Incan ruins and then southward to the boat pickup dock, about 3 hours away! It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny and the trail over the spine of the island was well delineated and, for the most part, easy to walk (Take about 2 L H2O per person, lots of sun cream and a lunch). It was a great hike and we met lots of other folks walking along the way.

We arrived at the dock at around 3pm (the boat left at 3:30pm) and had a nice trip back to Copacabana with Mike on the top of the boat. Boy, did we get tanned!!

The next morning, we left for Cusco!! Goodbye, Bolivia!! We loved you!!

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