Music and passion...

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- FOOD: Dark choc Toblerone - mmmmmmmm. Very good trout dinner. Mexican but just not as good as home. Lovely Chiflay cocktails once more.

- PEOPLE: Crazy (or just plain drunk) bus driver, bloody stubborn ridiculous tourists who haven't learnt the South American laid back way of life very well.

- AREA: The maddest bus journey yet to small tourist town Copacabana. Ferry across Lake Titicaca to Isla del Sol - another Inca paradise. Beautiful views from the cemetry at Cerro Calvario. Virgen de Copacabana dressed up doll (that is very important!)

- WEATHER: Hot at high, high altitude


Sun 17th: I caught a bus to Copacabana - supposedly a nice quick 3 hour journey. 6 hours later, after spending most of the time wondering if the driver was very new or drunk, we arrived in one piece.
He kept banging the kerbs on corners, asking directions, was VERY slow in places... and speedy in the wrong places (dusty, windy, narrow mountain roads). At one point all the locals stood up and started shouting at him to GO BACK as he nearly went off the bend!!!
It was the first time I've been really scared being on one of those buses.

Just when we thought we were there, we all had to get off the bus and catch a ferry across Lake Titicaca. The bus had it's own ferry - or rather a few planks of wood tied together that roughly resembled a ferry. The passenger ferry wasn't in much better condition and the choppy water was determined to drown us. The positive of being on such a Gringo Trail was that I had others to bond with on our near death experience.

Finally we made it to Copacabana (the Rio beach got it's name from here) but I was too late to take a boat to Isla del Sol. The buses to Puno are only once a day so I was forced to chill in a relaxed outdoor restaurant and eat gorgeous trout. I also found BLACK TOBLERONE - oh my god, a first and I was more than happy to spend 50 quid on it (I would've done - Steph will understand this madness).
Even the karoake beat with loud talking not even singing which was going on all night near my hostel didn't ruin this find.


Mon 18th: Got on the boat with every other person in this small town to Isla del Sol. I bumped into the German couple I'd bonded with yesterday (we were all calmer) and an American guy and we chatted away the 2 hour 30 min journey to the island. Wasn't it supposed to be only 1 hour 30? Yes, typical Bolivia coming through here. Lake Titicaca is beautiful to spend that much time on though - bright blue and the highest lake in the world. The Inca's believed the creator god Viracocha rose from the lake to create the sun and moon here and also that the Inca population began here.

There's a small but not very interesting museum on the island and then the 4 of us hiked from one end to the other, up and down steps and past Inca ruins and shrines and very lovely views of the lake - the Incas did good with their locations... very peaceful and stunning scenery.
I was gutted not to be able to visit the Isla de la Luna - another important religious and spiritual site for the Incas but one can't have everything.

I met the others for dinner that night and discovered why I shouldn't hang out with people on 2 week holidays. After nachos and then fajitas (just not the same as a Mexican back 'ome), many Chiflay cocktails etc. my budget for the week was blown.


Tue 19th: I started the day walking up Cerro Calvario - the big steep hill of the town which also doubles up as a cemetry. There were lots of big crosses and graves all the way up - a good excuse to keep stopping to catch my breath as even though it was early, the sun was boiling and the hill VERY steep. I blame it on the altitude of course and not my lack of fitness.

The views of the lake and town from the top were very nice and after chilling for a bit, I took a very slow, leisurely walk back down and headed to the Cathedral. Well, I have to say, the Virgen de Copacabana (where the famous Rio beach got it's name from) is nothing special at all. The town of Copacabana is the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in Bolivia and she an important shrine. I don't know what I was expecting but what I saw was a big doll dressed up to the nines in a frilly frock. They can only free her from her glass case to take her on a walk around the town at fiesta time otherwise the region will flood!

After a nice long lunch in the sun I attempted to catch my bus across the border into Peru. Of course, being Bolivia, nothing is so simple. Some tickets weren't numbered, some were, some seats were double booked as different agencies dealt with the bookings and obviously just shoved any old number on the ticket to keep the gringo happy.
But people just sat anywhere to begin with with no problems.... that is until we had to get off the bus to cross the border and then reboard. Some anal tourists who had happily sat anywhere before became determined to have 'their' seat as obviously each seat is incredibly different.
Oh the chaos - grown adults bundling onto the bus as fast as possible, everyone getting arsey as people had swapped seats, stubborn people not moving, lots of bad name calling. RIDICULOUS. I'm sure the laid back South Americans were highly entertained by this display of immaturity. Of course all the couples just HAD to sit together so I knew I'd get lumped with the single Israeli guy who had caused lots of the problems by moving to 'his' seat and then not backing down and moving back to his original seat. WHO CARES - it's just a bloody seat on the bus - at least we were all seated and not squashed standing like some journeys I've had.

Anyway, he fidgeted the whole way and huffed and puffed in his sulk. Thank god we all had to change buses at Puno. But the problems continued - those that were carrying on to Arequipa had to pay extra money as apparently the tickets bought in Copacabana weren't valid. Also, the luxurious tourist buses we'd been promised didn't exist so we had to get on a manky, cramped local bus - no big deal whatsoever for me but a HUGE deal to some who were already wound up about the whole seat thing. Anyone would think the world was about to end - I can't believe people come to these countries and expect buses that run like clockwork - just like back home (hmmm).

So the gringoes were moaning, the drivers weren't doing much, the locals were shouting and banging on the windows as the bus had already sat there for an hour longer than it should have done and when we eventually moved, I couldn't sleep, couldn't read as the light was going and there were no films or even pan pipe music (now I'm the moaning minnie).

Enough said about one journey anyway. All was good again when I got to Arequipa (my second favourite city so far) - LOVELY taxi driver, good hostel, LOVELY hostel man and nice food sat on a balcony overlooking my favourite plaza. Ahhh, so nice to be back.

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