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Published: August 6th 2008
Copacabana is not quite as we'd expected.. we'd imagined a lovely town nestled on the edge of Lake Titicaca.. in actual fact it's a bit run down, very touristy with not a lot to do! The plaza was the biggest let down as it's just a square where loads of buses park up but we were prepared to give it a go and see what we could experience while we were there...
We enjoyed a trip to the Isle Del Sol on our second day there which was a beautiful island in the middle of Lake Titicaca with the most amazing views of the lake and the 6000m plus snow peaked mountains behind. The island is supposedly where the sun was born from with it's brother the Isle De La Luna next door which is where the moon came from in Inca legend (and having experienced the sun sets and moon rises over the lake it's easy to see why they believed this).
Because we'd missed our opportunity to stay on an island lake when visiting Puno we decided to stay the night on this island and were so glad we did. Dale also managed to get us out
of paying the 5bol 'entrance fee' by walking straight past the ladies selling the tickets and shaking his head. We are getting a bit tired of all these supposed entrance fees to anywhere and everywhere with no real indication of where the money goes.
We found a lovely place to stay with views out over the lake from our window, the place had obviously just been finished and the man who owned it was very proud of what he'd done and was still making little tables & chairs from tree trunks outside while we were there, the look of achievement on his face when he completed them was so lovely to see that you felt like running over to him and giving him a big hug and a pat on the back but we both had a beer in hand so we gave him a smile instead.
In the evening we walked up the hill to the side of our accommodation, this is the highest point on the island and a fantastic place to watch the sun go down over the lake. The views of the mountains from here are also amazing and we just love the way
the landscape changes colour from aqua blues to amazing shades of red and purple as the sun sets around it. It really does feel like you are at the centre of the earth.
As you can imagine there isn't a lot on the island so after a very overpriced dinner (choice of one pizza from a hand written menu on graph paper) we made our way back to our room. The best thing at night is the stars, oh my god you have never seen anything like it and it really is breathtaking, you can see millions of stars and even the constallation of the milky way. Dale spent a good half an hour just admiring them and caused himself a stiff neck the following morning!
The next day we caught the 10.30 boat back to Copacabana and were quite amused when a load of people got on the wrong boat, watched the correct boats sail away then started screaming at the local people that they were stranded until the next boat went at 4.30.. oops!
There is a hill at the side of Copacabana town that we decided to walk up to gain yet more fantastic
views of the lake and to watch another breathtaking sunset. This hill is not just a hill and we had quite a random experience up there. In early August there is a festival in the town and we think that the things we saw were part of the lead up to this festival but there were lots of groups of people up there with trays of things..small toy plastic trucks, plastic computers and other random bits. They all made little fires and then put the things on top and burnt them.. plastic and everything. Whilst doing it they all sprayed beer everywhere and set off fireworks. This was all while they were drinking copious amounts of alcohol and staggering around! Very funny to us travellers but deadly serious to a Bolivian.
Aside from this there were people burning candles anywhere and everywhere and thowing confetti around. It was all quite surreal but interesting to watch.. until we got down and realised all our clothes smelt of burnt plastic.. yum!
They also bless the real cars, buses and trucks in this town and it's quite common to see cars with lots of ribbons and confetti all over them after
they have been blessed (a bit like a wedding car back home, but as if dressed by someone who was blind) ... we just like that idea that our journeys will be much safer after this has happened so have no complaints!
A few days in Copacabana are more than enough but was every bit worth just to see the Isle Del Sol... So we are off to La Paz to experience the highest capital city in the world! We know we say "in the world" a lot but its bloody true!....
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Mum Edwards
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Another great blog with fantastic photos. Lovely to talk to you last night and dad has got over his fright of possibly being charged for the call as he did it through MSN Messanger and not Skype, it's all a learning experience! Will be pleased to get text later today saying you have safely arrived at bottom of world's most dangerous road.