Advertisement
Published: August 14th 2012
In Puno, we decided to play it safe and get the visa at the embassy before heading to the border. So, on Monday morning, 6 August, we headed out bright and early to the embassy. Armed with all the required documents that is needed for the American visa (passports, yellow fever vaccination, detailed itinerary, accommodation booking, copy of credit cards plus a kidney or two, just in case!), we walked in quite confident that the process would be a synch.
So it turns out it wasn’t going to be easy. Of all the luck, we had arrived at the embassy on Bolivia’s National Independence Day, and theoretically the embassy was closed! We just happened to catch the secretary coming in to water his plants (well, that’s what it seemed like it when we first walked in), and the consulate was just popping in to check his emails, or something like that!
After convincing the secretary that we had all the necessary documents and that we HAD to be in Copacabana that evening (all in very broken Spanglish), he kindly (and probably reluctantly!) processed our visa! After inserting the necessary stamps, getting the authorized signature from the email-checking consulate plus
sending us off down the road to make photocopies for him of the visa at a local shop (why on earth they don’t have a copier at the office, heaven knows!), we walked out of there the proud owners of 30-day-tourist-visas! Yeeahh!!!
PLUS, we somehow managed to get the visa for free!! We don’t know how but we walked out of the office without him asking for any payment, and saved ourselves $104, which has of course been set aside for drink money.
We caught the afternoon bus to Copacabana, Bolivia, went through the border without any issues and arrived in Copa as the sun was setting over Lake Titicaca. Absolutely stunning!
James was a bit anxious about heading into Bolivia, not because of the imminent food poisoning or extreme mountaineering, but rather because he didn’t know if there would be any decent beer!
Well, James was to experience ‘salmonella suzy’ before trying any beer! He was man down for pretty much 2 days once we arrived in Copa. All from a chicken curry from a ‘Gringo’ (fancy western restaurant) place in Puno! Thank goodness it passed fairly quickly and no emergency runs to the hospital!
We were very relieved that we were in a decent hostel and that we had booked in for 4 days. Enough time for James to recover and then for us to see some of the town and explore Isla Del Sol (Sun Island).
We had arrived in Bolivia on their Independence Day which meant that the town was very festive. It also coincided with a popular festival where hundreds of Peruvians cross the border and come to Copa as part of a religious pilgrimage. The days were filled with music, firecrackers and loads of cars and busses filled the brim with people
The religious pilgrimage also includes the extremely popular “Blessing of the Automobiles”, an extremely entertaining process. The owner of the vehicle decorates their car with flowers, streamers, a shiny top hat as well as a small alter with fake money and toy house, to get blessed too. The Andean priest then walks around the car chanting and spraying beer, not only on the car but also the whole family. More chanting and burning of incense is followed by lighting a few fire crackers. A donation is handed to the priest normally accompanied by beer or two.
We not too sure how much the whole blessing cost but the Peruvians claim it’s a lot cheap than car insurance. We wonder if there are different packages available, a basic blessing, then the ‘super’ package to get the shocks and cv-joints blessed…
Lake Titicaca is crystal clear and surrounded by the harsh hills of the Altiplano. It’s nearly 8400 sq km and 3808m high – the world’s largest high-altitude lake. The lake, and especially Isla Del Sol (Island of the Sun), is significant to the Incas as well as a few pre-Inca civilizations, who believed it was the birthplace of their people.
Isla del sol is a striking island, with ancient terracing and numerous ruins. We took a ‘quick’ (read 2 hour) boat trip to get to the northern end of the island, where we started the 3 hour hike down to the southern end. It was an enjoyable day, meandering along the ridge top, admiring the panoramic views of the lake.
Our day was made a bit more exciting when we stumbled into the Bolivian stretch of the Amazing Race, albeit the Spanish version! We came over the one hill to enter an Inca ruin,
and were met with the Amazing Race flags and envelopes. I tried to make a run for the envelope and but the ‘lookouts’ weren’t too impressed. We instead waited a few minutes to see if any contestants would arrive, and fortuitously a team came running up the hill, surrounded by a camera crew! Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to watch them do the whole challenge as we had to get a move on to meet the boat!
It was a pity we couldn’t stay longer on the island but nonetheless, we happy we got the opportunity to see it, even for a day!
Next stop, La Paz and our mountaineering trip!
Also, a quick note to say thank you to everyone who has read our ramblings and left comments. It means so much to us that you are willing to read to the bottom of the post, and we love reading the replies!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 8; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0633s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Michelle
non-member comment
That popcorn would be Tim's idea of heaven! Pity James's got sick but I suppose not too bad for having been there for a month (?) already. Sunsets have the strangest way of haunting your memories (still remember one from Christmas in Italy and Cornwall several years ago). They bring a certain magic to a place.