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after getting back to la paz i had to go to the slightly dodgy cementary district to get my bus to the amusingly named lake titicaca, managed not to get mugged though and set off to copacabana on the eastern shore of the lake. got chatting to one of the stripy shawl/bowler hat ladies on the bus, before i knew it i had had a half hour conversation in spanish about nothing in particular without even thinking, first time that had happened so was quite pleased with myself! then another woman got on and started ranting in aymara (one of the indigenous languages), slightly harder to understand what she was on about, really wierd language. as usual they crammed as many people on the bus as possible, but luckily i was squeezed in the back seat with two kiwis and an irishman, which spared me the usual fat smelly bolivian woman stuffing her face with chicken and meant i had some mates for the journey. when we got to the lake they ordered us off the bus and into an even smaller boat to cross over to copacabana, whilst the bus with all our luggage was loaded onto a decidely unstable looking barge and somehow managed to float its way across the lake.
copacabana is a beautiful little town and we arrived just as the sun was setting over the lake, awesome. got a really good hostel as well with the lads from the bus, had an awesome room with a balcony outside, overlooking the lake. weren't entirely convinced with the hostel man's claims that he was going to put a 4th bed in our room, as everytime we asked him he seemed to be quite busy sitting around doing nothing and not too motivated to lug a bed up 2 flights of stairs. however later when we got back from dinner he had somehow managed to squeeze a ridiculous little camp bed into our already full room. we drew straws and luckily i didnt have to sleep in the gay bed, so had a really good nights sleep for the first time in ages. the food in copacabana pretty much consisted of trout, trout and more trout, so ate quite a lot of trout. some of it amazing and some of it slightly less appetizing, with head still on and tasting worryingly like cheese. didnt seem to get any food poisoning though which was a bonus.
the next day the irishman (denis) and i got a boat over the the appropriately named isla del sol (it was really really sunny), which is a beautiful island on the lake with loads of inca ruins and various indiginous people living there with their donkeys and llamas. the boat was full of tourists so we had a fairly ridiculous breakfast (no bread, so she gave us crackers instead) whilst waiting for the crowds to disperse, than had a lovely little stroll over the island. except because of the altitude even the slightest exertion leaves you breathless, so spend most of the hike puffing and panting like an old man. so worth it though, loads of amazing views of the lake, which is a really deep blue and sparkles in the sun, and you can see snow capped mountains in the distance. got a bit sunburnt though, not that surprising on the island of the sun. met a really cool old canadian man and a columbian with a really good hat on the boat on the way back, who reassured me that the recent trouble with venezuela was just a load of talk, and that columbia is actually really safe. well.....
also met a couple who turned out to be staying in the same hostel as us, who invited us to have a beer with them on their balcony and watch the sunset, which was awesome. also went to dinner with them, where the waited looked slightly concerned when we placed our order, went and had an argument in the kitchen, then went running out of the restaurant. he snuck back in a bit later with a suspicious looking shopping bag. then there were more sounds of arguing in the kitchen, followed by the waiter running out again with a packet of instant soup in his hand, looked to be chicken and vegetable rather than the chicken and mushroom we had ordered, silly man. back to the corner shop for him. so we eventually got lukewarm instant soup, followed by the cheesy trout which didnt go down particularly well, not the best meal ever. luckily made up for it by going to the pub to get some beer, where we met up with the kiwis who had spent the day sleeping, drinking, watching football and smoking with a random bolivian hippy they met in a souvenir shop, who kept nodding wisely and saying "mmmm.....tranquiiilooo." sounded like a really good day. we all left quite early except denis, who stayed to drink wih some english lads he knew from somewhere. next thing we know he had stormed in at 3am, steaming drunk, soaking wet and rum and coke in hand. turned out he had been trying to hijack one of he peddle boats which were along the edge of the lake, and kept ranting about how he didnt know why they didnt go anywhere. discovered the next morning that they were actually kept on land over night, and he had just been sitting on a boat on the beach peddling furiously. so proud of my irish heritage.
so left copacabana the next day to head into peru - the kiwis had cleverly decided to spend another day doing nothing, but i needed to get moving and denis decided to tag along. crossed the border really easily, although had mistakenly bought tickets for the tourist bus so had to put up with loads of inane english and american tourists being ridiculous the whole way, then made our way towards puno in peru.
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