Coroico and Copacabana

---

Hey everyone!

We just wanted to extend our gratitude to everyone for continuing to show interest in our travels and for your comments. We have great friends and family!

Now for our next stop. After our jungle trip, we stayed in La Paz for another couple of days (nursing our nasty bug bites and swollen ankles, which might I add are still itchy from time to time and still visible!). We really got into relax mode (as is easy to do at this hostel - private room with ensuite bathroom, cable tv with HBO and Warner....verrryyyyy easy to relax in seclusion!). So really nothing special to note here.

After our relaxation in La Paz, we decided to head to Coroico in the Yungas region of Bolivia. Some of you may know of Death Road or "Worlds Most Dangerous Road" that people bike down (and is seriously a very dangerous adventure, but very popular all the same). This is the area that we went to, but don't worry parents, we did not do this trip, the bus ride was adventure enough! A minibus took us from La Paz to Coroico on a road that weaves through the mountains next to sheer cliff. The drive is at a high altitude and at one point we were so high that instead of rain (like in La Paz) there was snow on the roads (awww a nice reminder of home). The drive is a breathtaking 3 hour journey, but challenging for those afraid of heights (Greg although uneasy made it out alive!).

We booked in at a hostel owned by a French man (again private room for 8$ each) and the owner also ran an attached restaurant with excellent food. Our view from our room was incredible. Coroico is perched on top of a hill at 1760m overlooking the valley below (often clouds sit in this valley making for a very interesting view). Although beautiful, we quickly realized that if you wanted to do any activities in Coroico (ie mountain biking) you had to arrange for it in La Paz. Coroico is a very small town and many of the companies up and moved to La Paz due to low demand. So the only activity we did was Pizo de Vagantes, a river with small waterfalls. At this river you were suppose to be able to sit under the waterfalls for a 'hydro massage'. But the water must have been very high, because there was so much powerful water going over these falls that it would have rather been a 'hydro murder'. At the time that we went to Coroico, I (Laura) had been feeling sick for a bit over a week and Greg had a touch of it as well. So needless to say, I wasn't up for doing much and the meds I took to hopefully cure my gastro illness gave me some unfavourable side effects. So we headed back to La Paz after two days with not much of an adventure to speak of in Coroico, but we did have beautiful views!

Back in La Paz, I called a doctor who came right to my hostel room, drove me to the lab for blood work and then came back to my hostel with results (a minor bacterial infection) and prescriptions. What a service! And only 60$ for his two visits and one injection. The first few days of his treatment made me feel god awful, but eventually the antibiotics (which he prescribed for me as well as Greg) kicked in and I was back on my feet.

So then we headed to Copacabana. There is a few Copacabanas FYI, we aren't all the sudden on the carribean, we're still in Bolivia! Copacabana sits right on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world sitting at approximately 3800m above sea level. The lake is a beautiful blue and changes colours from turquoise to emerald to royal blue depending on the sun. We stayed at a not mentionable hotel the first night and the second and third night at this very cozy and friendly hotel (Hotel Utama) with the best breakfast we've had! Pancake, bread, cereal, yogurt, fruit cup, scrambled or fried egg and then coffee, tea and juice..mmmmmmm. During the days, we went into town, strolled around the main street, visited the huge cathedral, went peddle boating in a swan peddle boat on the lake and watched the streets fill with a parade and band for the inaugeration? (we're not entirely sure what it was).

One of the nights, we climbed Cerro Calvario, one of the hills (slowly because it was steep and altitude kicks the crap out of your respiratory system) to see the sunset over the lake. It had a beautiful view of the town below and the distant islands. Although the sunset didn't shape up due to the clouds, it was still beautiful. Our last night in Copa was our anniversary of 6 years woo! So we went for supper at a hostel/restaurant La Cupula (definetely would recommend this place to stay or eat if you're planning on going to Copa!). I had filet mignion and Greg had bone filled trout that was delicious all the same.

The next morning, we headed on a 2 day cruise of Lake Titicaca with Transturin. The catarmaran was very nice with a top deck, beautiful dining room and cabins. We took the catarmaran to Isla del Sol, the site of the main inca creation myth. Here, our bilingual guide lead us onto the island to see their botanical gardens, museum, participate in a traditional inca ceremony where we were blessed by the preist and later on a hike on the north side of the island to an inca palace. The island was beautiful and the inca palace was very interesting (and a wonderful alternative to machu pichu because we aren't able to book a tour unfortunately). The islands inhabitants are indigenous people who cultiivate the islands terraces with potatoes, quinua and many more vegetables. There is also pigs, cows, sheep and llamas running around aimlessly (as well as a bull that was following us for a while and was a bit unnerving). We went back to the catarmaran for a wonderful dinner and some of the local people came to play music and dance in their traditional clothes (Greg and I had to join in...I am not a very good dancer).

We slept in the catarmaran in a tiny but cozy cabin, and the next morning headed back to Copa for lunch and on to Puno, Peru by bus.

Stay tuned for our next entry on Arequipa, Peru!

Take care everyone,

Laura and Greg

---