Not the one from the song

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It was a lovely drive to Copacabana. We had to take a ferry at Tiquina which was interesting. We had to get off the truck as there was the risk the truck ferry might sink. It was just a big barge. A good swell and you could imagine it going over. In fact, there is a Kamuka truck at the bottom of the straight, still with everyone's luggage on it. And a bus had gone in the day before.

Copacabana is a picturesque little town on Lake Titicaca with a magnificent cathedral. The Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana is a huge white and green tiled building. The interior is fairly typical and the virgin is displayed in all her glory. We visited the museum which was fascinating. The entrance was off a beautiful courtyard with lots of flowers. There are rooms stuffed with religious artifacts and lots of vases for some reason. The most fascinating thing was the cupboards jammed with what we guessed were gowns for the virgin. People had donated them and they would each get their turn on the virgin. From the list we could see that the gown currently being worn was donated back in 1988. And all the gowns in the cupboard were labeled. We saw one labeled for 2043. Out from of the basilica was a priest blessing cars. The cars or buses or trucks were decorated with flowers, lots of gladioli.

We had arrived on a Sunday so the beach was quite busy with local sunseekers. No beach to lie on as such but the shore was lined with very colorful pedal boats. Also lined on the shore are 15 or so little shacks with covered seating, selling nothing but trout. But they are only open during daylight hours because when the sun goes down, it gets very very cold.

We had a day trip to the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). It took 2 hours by boat but the boat was going really bloody slow. Stopping on the north beach, we visited a small museum. Not much there, but some stuff was retrieved from Lake Titicaca by Jacques Cousteau. There was one stone container which had been found with little gold people and llamas inside. These were now residing in the gold room in the Calle Jaen Museums in La Paz. We remembered seeing them a few days earlier.

We walked through a village, passing houses, pigs, sheep, donkeys and a school. At one house the guide asked permission for us to visit her garden. In the garden was an incan sacrificial stone. We walked on for half an hour around the hills, with great views of bays and penisulars.

While others indulged in a touristy blessing by a local shaman we sat and enjoyed the view of an Incan ruin perched on the edge of a cliff. It was our first Incan ruin and it was pretty cool.

We returned to the North beach while others walked to the South beach. Pieter´s asthma was playing up so we wanted to minimise the walking. This meant that we had a private 40 minute cruise on the boat around the South beach. The sun was shining and we reclined on the roof. It was great day out.

Dinner is worth a mention. We found a quiet little restaurant with just a few tables, lit by candlelight, and we were the only customers. We were served by quite a shy man and his pregnant wife was sitting nearby. We enjoyed a good Bolivian red wine with our trout and fried chicken. The funny thing was that every time we ordered something the lady or a boy who was hanging around would go out the front door and come back with some of the ingredients. We couldn't see what, but when we saw the lady going out the door with an ice cream scoop we knew she was going to get the ice cream to go with our ice cream and chocolate pancake.

There is a navy base just around from the town, and at 5:15 am they start their drill. Machine guns and lots of shouting. Funny thing is that we can't see that they have any boats. We only saw a couple of swan shaped peddle boats on the beach near the base.

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Photos

Tiquina
Cameron on the ferry

Tiquina
Everyone else on the ferry

Tiquina
A lady selling gladioli

Copacabana
First view of the town

Copacabana
Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana

Copacabana
Cars getting blessed

Copacabana
The beach

Isla del Sol
Our first Inca ruins