Copacabana

Crossing the border was interesting. At the bus station in Puno an American guy on our bus had lost his passport. He claimed that someone had taken his money belt off him on the bus, so the group he was with wanted to search everyone on the bus. There weren't many people on the bus in the first instance, and I kind of doubt he'd had it cut when his friends were around. We suggested calling the police, but they knew Peruvian police wouldn't do anything about it. We decided to leave, as no one was doing anything about it and went into the bus terminal. We went up to practically the only open office, called 'Tulsa' and booked a bus to Copacabana. You can either get tourist buses or public buses. Tourist buses are more expensive, better, safer, and more comfortable. We took the 6:00am bus, bumping into Ian and Marie-Lou at the bus station. When we got to the border we didn't know we'd arrived there. Everyone got off the bus and so we followed the crowd. We got our passport and immigration card stamped. Then we walked the border and had the same happen on the Bolivian side. We then got on the bus for another 8km to Copacabana. After checking into our hostel we were so tired we had a nap! I don't feel at all that we'd recovered from the Inca Trial and an overnight bus. We eventually woke and got ready to go out and explore. We forgot about the time change and the clocks going forward. We had a look around the town and the main square. It is a really small place. Everywhere was selling fresh trout so Jens and I decided to get some. It was amazing. We explored the bay and the sun was shining- it was such a nice evening. Copacabana was at an altitude of 3841m, so we felt like we were struggling to breathe. We decided to climb up the peak behind our hotel (Hotel Utama) and watch the sunset. After many stops and a slight struggle to get to the top, we were pretty breathless. We looked over some amazing views of Lake Titicaca. The lake looks like the sea, it's so big, so much so you can't see land on the horizon. We didn't stop at Puno on the way here because everyone we'd spoken to had said that Copacabana was a nicer way to see the lake. We admired the views and watched the sunset. We got chatting to a girl called Nicola who was staying in our hotel and went back. Instead of going out to get food, as it was 8pm by that time, we chilled for a bit and ended up just going to sleep and skipping dinner.

In the morning we got up early and caught the 8:30am boat to Isla del Sol for a half day trip. We got chatting to an American who spoke Spanish who was very nice and friendly. The boat to Isla del Sol was soooooo slow. It was also delayed, so instead of travelling across with one engine, they added another on. We still went super slowly and arrived an hour later. We had a little look around and climbed up the hill for the view. It was very pretty and we had a good view of the lake again. After an hour or so we got on the boat to head back. However, the boat stopped just around the corner at some inca ruins. We were a bit confused as we had been told we'd get back at midday to Copacabana. The American girl asked the driver in Spanish what was going on and he said we were going to stop again in a bit at some floating islands, but we'd be back at 12:30pm. Then he proceeded to change it to, 'we'll arrive before 1pm'. After arriving at the floating islands it was 12:45 and he said we had half an hour there. The American girl was great and complained and complained to him, saying how it wasn't good enough and we all had a bus to catch at 1:30pm and we'd been told we'd get back at 12pm. I felt like we were in Fiji again, on 'Fiji time'. He stopped a boat eventually and we slowly made our way back to the bay. We arrived at 1:35 and raced, breathlessly too, to the bus stop. The bus had gone. The women advise us to catch a local bus leaving at 2pm, so we decided to just do it. It was an eventful journey. We paid £1.50 and got on. We crossed part off the lake on a dodgy looking barge. We had the driver saying something to us in Spanish, but eventhough half the bus got off, we wanted to stay with our luggage. So we stayed. We eventually got to the other side and once other people boarded, we set off. We travelled for three hours to La Paz and were dumped on some street somewhere. It wasn't even a bus stop or bus terminal. Anyway, we flagged a taxi down and got to our hostel 'Loki', renowned party hostel.