Adiós Peru.... Hola Bolivia.

---

Well, we´ve finally said "adiós" to Peru and crossed the border into its land-locked neighbour, Bolivia. The border crossing was very easy, the immigration guards looked at my half-finished visa, stamped it and as I tried to explain that I was struggling with certain bits, he waved me off with a Spanish "whatever"! I think this chilled out attitude is a good sign.

Although we crossed into Bolivia we didn´t go far, just 8km in fact to the small town of Copacabana, which like Puno is also on the shores of Lake Titicaca. First impressions of Bolivia were the following, nobody met us at the bus stop (this was highly unusual since normally you´re mobbed by people trying to sell stuff), it´s cheaper (approx. 1/3 of the cost of Peru - to get it in perspective, a decent rib-eye steak meal cost $2) and it has a cash availability problem (one bank which is closed Sunday to Tuesday and an ATM, which is only for its own users). It was due to the unavailability of cash (Bolivianos) that we were unable to do much at all, so we lounged around, wandered the quiet streets a bit and then planned our exit to the capital La Paz and an abundant source of cash.

For the record, Copacabana appears to be really nice, it is much smaller than Puno and sits on a quiet little bay on the Lake. Most people who visit Copacabana do trips out to the Isla de la Sol, the birthplace of the Inca creation legend, Manco Kapac and home to some nice Inca ruins. To be quite honest, we were not that bothered that we missed it, we are quite "runied-out" now and also feel that once you´ve seen Machu Picchu you´ll do well to find anything as special. I can say however, that if you do ever visit, bring Bolivianos with you - so many Gringos were wandering the streets with no money and no idea what to do.

---

Photos

Welcome to Bolivia
You can probably read the sign.

Pleasure Boats
With interesting names.

Comments

[lee]

ive actually read your journals blogs (well some!)
what's up guys, bofsquidge in the house. i'm sure you'll end up going to the salt deserts in bolivia (fucking amazing!). my only comment was that my airport-purchased alpaca hat is just like the ones they sell rurally. have a lovelly time (the towns of potosi and sucre were great when i went). if you do go to potosi however, avoid the pizza store that sells a vegetarian special. you'll be pooping liquid oil for days. xx

[Stuey]

Happy Birthday to you...
Didn't think you'd escape the ritual torturous singing did you? Obviously if I've got the date completely wrong I do apologise and send you my best wishes anyway. (Thanks for letting me back in the chat-room after my slight lapse of judgement - mind you, I notice there are no more rude pictures!)