Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Copocabana and Lake Titicaca
Kate had definitely made her mind up to do the volunteer project in Arequiba, Peru while I was taking the selfish option and travelling to the Bolivian salt flats and then on to Fiji with the plan to meet up in Auckland. Since we had decided to do that, when we arrived in Arequiba we got a bus straight to Puno. I wasn't too upset about not seeing Arequiba, all I'd really wanted to see was Juanita, the Ice Princess (a sacrificed young girl from Inca times who had been found preserved on the nearby 6000 metre plus mountain) but Kate said she's go and take pics if she could so I was happy. So an hour later we were on a bus to Puno that was meant to get there at 3pm so we could then get a bus to Copocabana in Bolivia the same day. Surprise surprise the bus was late into Puno….an hour late and the last bus to Copocabana had left ages beforehand. In fact the ladies behind the bus desk said we had no chance of making it before the border closed into Bolivia and that we should stay in Puno that night. We weren't convinced as we thought she just wanted us to sign up for her bus so we went and asked a taxi driver if he could get us to the border in time and how much it'd be. We'd heard it was 2 hrs plus to get to the border and we only had 1 hr 45 mins by now but for the sake of 20 pounds and not losing another precious day in South America, we were prepared to risk it for a biscuit. The taxi driver encouraged us by saying that we would make it…..just like they say they're 2 minutes away around the corner when they're late and they're really not…
We set off and literally sat and watched the minutes tick by nervously. There were more than a few moments when we thought we definitely weren't going to make it. WE thought about our options, one was to come back to Puno and get the bus in the morning, and the other was to stay in the town next to the border. This second option was until we actually got to the town and realised that it didn't really look like a place for tourists to hang around, s that only left us with one option.. The poor driver was as stressed as we were and kept taking his cap off to mop his brow! We eventually got to the border and literally had seconds to spare before the border closed. We ran in to get our stamps, got told to get exit stamps first across the road, then ran back and the taxi driver walked with us over the border to one of his awaiting Bolivian taxi driver friends. I was so happy we'd made it I kissed him on the cheek! I don't think he knew what to do!
So that was one hurdle, the next was that I was out of cash and I didn't know there wasn't a cash machine in Copocabana. Kate had some sols that she managed to change into Bolivianos and I was just hoping and praying hotels would accept card cos we were a bit stuck if not. We got the taxi to drop us at a German boutique hotel featured in the Lonely Planet (or the Lonely Liar as some travellers have taken to calling it due to the massive difference between their price estimations and the actual costs!) to see if they accepted card. The good news was they did. The bad news was they had no room that night. We decided to eat in the restaurant there anyway and had amazing trout fresh from Lake Titicaca for an incredibly cheap price. The hotel kindly rang another hotel for us to see if they had room but they warned us it was VERY expensive but it was late and we were desperate and knew hostels wouldn't accept cards. Turns out expensive was 15 pounds a night! The room was lovely, the beds were so comfy (so much more so when you've spent so many nights on buses) and the breakfast was one of the best we'd had since arriving in South America. Oh and when we opened our curtains in the morning we had a beautiful view of the Lake!
Since we were short of cash and time, we'd arranged a packed lunch with the hotel for the next day as we could pay on card. We picked them up after brekkie and they were in proper little cool bags. We then set off for our day of trekking on Isla del Sol in the middle of the Lake. We headed down to the lake and bought our tickets for the boat with Kate's limited funds. We knew we wouldn't have a lot left over but had calculated we should just have enough for the day as we already had lunch, had bought water and we'd paid for the bus to La Paz leaving that evening.
It was a beautiful sunny day so we decided like most of the other people on the boat to sit up on deck. However once we got going it was freezing and one by one everyone made their way downstairs. I suppose we forgot it is one of the highest navigable lakes in the world and so bound to be a bit cold. We met a German guy on board and chatted to him as he was also travelling around South America. He didn't realise that the boat took 2 hours and desperately needed the loo (of course there was none on board). In the end he couldn't even speak to us he was that desperate and took to staring straight ahead in concentration. I've never seen anyone get off a boat so fast in my life!
Once we arrived at the south port of the island, we set off on our trek. We had to be back to the north port by 3.45pm and were told if we wanted to make it back in time we couldn't hang around taking in the views for too long! There are hotels on the island but we couldn't afford to lose another day and we didn't have any stuff with us to stay overnight so we set off at a fast pace. We hadn't gone very far when we came to a woman with tickets. Apparently we had to pay 10 bolivanos to go through their village, which was about a pound each. Not much, but since Kate only had about 50 Bolivianos left it wasn't a great start to our not spending any money day. We hurried on and took in the views of the lake, (not for too long mind) which were incredible. The water is so blue it doesn't look real. There isn't too much to see on the actual island apart from a few small settlings and some Inca ruins where we stopped for (a very fast) lunch.After lunch we came to another woman demanding 10 bolivianos each so now Kate only had 10 left. We were panicking slightly as we now knew there was one more stop where they wanted paying. I thought I'd have to bargain with my left over banana and chocolate bar but turned out it was only 5 each. So we were now left with absolutely no money until we got to La Paz…I have since promised Kate that from now on I will always keep $50 stuffed down my bra for emergencies.
We made the boat back to the mainland with plenty of time to spare, think we did about 16km walking that day. Once back in Copocabana, we went back to the hotel, picked up our stuff and headed back to the bus where they put our bags on the roof and we set off to La Paz. When we got settled on the bus we were congratulating ourselves on how we'd spent so little money and that we'd made it and could now settle down for the 3 hours journey. Not so. About an hour into the journey we had to get off the bus and weren't sure why but we dutifully followed everyone off. That's when we saw the big expanse of lake that we obviously needed to cross (yes Lake Titicaca really is that big). We then watched on as the bus was driven onto a rickety old boat with all our bags still on top. We were told to get on this equally rickety boat to get to the other side to rejoin our bags. Only problem was you had to pay for the pleasure. We panicked a bit and told the driver 'no plata' but he just shrugged his shoulders. Eventually some kindly sole from our bus gave us the money, which was only about 15p each but we had absolutely nothing left and were extremely grateful. We then carried on the journey and surprisingly made it without any more drama.
- comments