End of an epic 6 months

---

My last week in La Paz is somewhat of a blur if Im being honest. After Le Gran Poder, and few friends and me headed up to lake titicaca so that they could move on to Peru and that I could tick the last of my bolivia boxes. Eliot and I ignored lonely planets advice about not taking the minivans and the rest of the group took one of the tourist buses. Im not entirely sure why lonely planet discourages these, as they were significantly faster and just as comfy, also your less likely to be robbed as theres only 10 people on them. We finally got to Copacabana about 3 hours later and whilst waiting for the others found a pretty decent hostel for £2.5 a night. That evening we headed up to the view point. Usually this would have been a relatively easy walk up a relatively small hill, but Copacabana is at 3800m and the summit was about a half hour walk straight up. Despite nearly killing me, we made it to top and were truly rewarded with stunning views of the sunset over the highest lake in the world. The boat to Isla Del Sol was at 8:30 the next morning so an early night was in order. The boat the next morning was slightly horrendous, as it was an hour long journey and the lake was not particularly calm. Several people did have to run to the back to eject their breakfast but most of our group was fine to be honest. On arriving on the south side of the island we were faced with the usual barrage of people trying to get us to come to their hostel. After some discussion we found one at the top of the hill and began the ascent to it up the 160 steps in front of us. Again this shouldnt have been a particularly difficult job but we had all ignored the advice not to take our big bags and so were all carrying about 15kgs on our backs whilst climbing at 4000m. But again we survived (just). After catching our breath and dumping our stuff we grabbed a quick lunch and boarded a boat to the north side of the island so that we could walk back to the south side for the evening and see the sunset in the mean time, as well as taking all this gorgeous island had to offer. The walk wasnt too tiring but did have several steep hills, and several little checkpoints, i say checkpoints when really they were usually a man with a book of tickets asking for money. Unfortunately the weather wasnt particularly with us, as it was too cloudy to see the sunset and we decided to wake up for sunrise instead as our hostel overlooked the lake and gave a perfect view of sunrise. After about 4 hours of walking and getting a tad lost and confused we made it back to our hostel. By now the overcast day had turned into a full blown gail with driving rain and vicious winds. All of the little restaurants were shaking with the wind but this gave our dining experience, in a very questionable pizzeria, more of an atmosphere. Next morning we sort of woke up for the sunrise, as it was just on the balcony of the hostel we stumbled out of our rooms, realised it wasnt a great sunrise and went back to bed. It was then back to Copacabana. However because of the storm it was too rough to go all the way, so we had to stop at a different headland and get a minibus full of fresh sardines back to the main town. From here we said our goodbyes, as i headed back to la paz and the others up to peru. Again the rough seas prevented me from getting their quickly, as there is a little ferry you and your bus have to get. The Bolivian navy (just in case peru decides to attack by the lake!) had stopped the boats and we saying it might be until 6pm till we could get a boat. Being that it was 1pm i had no intention of waiting 5 hours for a 5 minute boat journey, so a me and a few other gringos decided to see if we could bribe the officials to get us across. Amazingly no one would take a bribe and trust me we tried everyone! Eventually they decided it was safe to cross and we carried on to la paz.
Back in La Paz for the fourth time and it was time to try and get a job in my beloved Wild Rover. Jack (the bar manager at a very old 21) said that if i did the hour of power with him i could have a job for the next 4 days. For anyone who doesnt know an hour of power is a shot of beer a minute for an hour. This equals about 5 pints of beer in an hour! Before it started Jack stopped the music and made everyone look at me so that if anyone thought i was cheating i should let Jack know and i would get a punishment. About half way through i headed to the loo for two minutes. From the toilet i could hear jack had stopped the music and was looking for me. On my return he had 5 shots lined up on the bar for me and refused to start the music until i did them all. By the way the bar was packed to capacity so no backing out of this one, and i wanted the job. But an hour later and i had the job. My shifts were 6pm till 2 am everyday until sunday when i was to work the day shift from 10am till 6pm. These few days are a blur of amazing times and awesome people, much like the past 6 months. I meet so many cool people in this last week and in la paz altogether to be honest, but what i miss most about la paz is being able to walk into that bar at any time and either meet new friends or bump into hundreds of people who knew me. The rest of the staff were awesome at showing me the ropes and it was honestly one of the best experiences of the trip. When it came time to leave i decided that an all nighter was in order as my flight was at 6am. So having worked from 10-6pm i then returned after packing to the bar. Somehow i got roped into working again and carried on until 1am. By this time i felt it was time to get out from behind the bar and went to chat with mates till about 3am when it was time to get my taxi to the airport.
Its a very surreal feeling leaving a country knowing that your probably not going to go back there, its even weirder if its the last country of an amazing 6 months. Two flights and god knows how long later I was back in England. These past 6 months have trully been the best experience and i would recommend anyone to take a gap year given the chance. The only thing I'd say is do what you want to do and try not to do the standard gap year trip that everyone does. Youll meet amazing people and have an amazing time as long as you get involved and jump into the fun of it. Also dont trust lonely planet, all its good for is maps of town and even these are often wrong. Go into a gringo or traveler bar and get talking to people, they know where to go and where not to bother with and youll hear more views and opinions than you know what to do with. So here's thanks to all the people who helped me out and for all the great times and experiences that i had. There honestly are more than i can even think to count and no one of them stands out as the best.

---