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Published: September 16th 2005
I was planning a feature packed few days, leaving La Paz on a high and making my way to Cusco, via the highlights of Lake Titicaca: the much-hyped Isla del Sol in Bolivia and the fascinating Islas Flotantes de Uros on the Peruvian side. Things dont always go to plan though.
First, an awesome day of singletrack mountain biking near La Paz was cancelled cos the 3 other participants pulled out ot the last minute. This cloud actually had a silver lining as I didnt know about the cancellation until I turned up at the house in Sopocachi, La Paz. Although disappointed I got to see lots of new and fascinating bits of La Paz as I wandered back home (including arguing with some Bolivian military personel for 30 minutes because they thought I´d taken a picture of San Pedro Prison). And I got some time to update the blog of course.
Next the 3 hour journey from La Paz to Copacabana took 18 hours and involved a very cold and contorted night on the bus, due to bad weather making a water-crossing too dangerous. I finally arrived at Copacabana at 8 oclock in the morning rather than 4 oclock the previous afternoon. Whilst these sorts of delays are to be expected when travelling around Bolivia by bus, it was bad news for my tight schedule. Actually I was probably lucky to get out of La Paz at all as there were some protests in the centre (lots of chanting and constant cracking of something: teargas, guns or just firecrackers - I couldnt tell) and traffic was brought to a standstill.
Whats more when I finally got to Copacabana it was cloudy, cold and raining and Isla del Sol (which ironically the Incas believed to be the birthplace of the sun) did not look appealing. Myself and Jon, a French guy I´d met on the nightmare bus journey, decided to hope the weather would improve the next day and head to the island then.
The next day it was sunny, but my luck did not improve! I had pretty bad food poisoning during the night and was in no state to do anything, let alone a 3 hour trek across the island. My only enterainment for the day was my book which I´m now thoroughly sick of. What I wouldnt have given for a television!
So I´ve had three very boring days in Copacabana, and will now probably miss out on everything I had planned for Lake Titicaca as I need to get to Cusco for tomorrow in order to start the Inca Trail on Monday. So I have the prospect of 14 hour bus journey later on, a nightmare when one feels ill: bring on the Immodium!
Ah well, this is all par for the course when travelling in South America. I dont suppose you guys at home, stuck in the office, will feel sorry for me. But its times like these when you really miss the convenience and home comforts of real life.
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Phil Wilson
non-member comment
Well.......
If you are going to go travelling around the world, expect it to fall out of your arse at some point. I may not have strange countries to explore, and exciting people to talk to, and new things to see, but I have a telly! God my life is rubbish!