Blanco Perdido

---

The bus ride to the shores of Lake Titicaca was amazing and cold! When first got on board I could not stop shivering due to the the lack of heat at the fact that Bolivia is deep into its winter. I am definitely wearing my sneakers on the way back because my feet definitely got the brunt of the cold. Coming through the outskirts of El Alto feels like some kind of apocalyptic mountain survivor landscape. It is cold, dusty with various Aymara people wandering here and there. Also there are these ramshackle brick structure thrown up all along the road. I am sure that they are just partially finished buildings, but it reminds me of all those bombed out buildings of Europe following World War II. I thought about how desperate it would be to live here and wondering how the people managed it.

Once leaving La Paz behind our bus wound its way through desolate plains and distant mountain peaks. Some of which were regally snow capped. It was like being transported back in time. Eventually the massive Lake Titicaca emerged in the distance to make periodic appearences.

At one point our bus stopped and some indistinguishable announcemnet was made. From what i gathered we were supposed to bring two bolivianos and our passports with us. We were then left to wander around outside on our own devices without any real instruction. At first I though we had arrived our destination because there was the lake, although this dilapidated frontier town was not what I had been expecting. I figured that the people getting on the boats were going to Peru and I was staying here in this crap Copacabana.I was relived to find out from a Bolivian that this was not Copacabana and that I should purchase a ticket and get on the boat. ¨Peru here I come¨ I thought. And without my bag!

Luckily this was not the case. Our bus would take its own barge over to the other side of the lake shortly after. A short time later I was in Copacabana wandering up to my Hostal Cupula on a hill high above the town overlooking the lake. I spent the night at a local bar talking with the Argentinian barman and trying all different kinds of Bolivian beers and spirits. After that it was time for a well deserved solid bout of lakeside shut eye.

---

Photos

Landscape
There were more impressive vistas, but this was the only time the bus slowed down enough to make a photo possible.