Bus hop to Bolivia

Thursday 21^st April 

Decided to try the Bolivia Bus Hop Company which specialises in hop-on hop-off bus tours, aimed at backpackers, in Bolivia and Peru. First leg today is from Puno to Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca just across the border in Bolivia. Picked up from the hotel shortly after 8.00 and the bus left at 8.30. As expected the other passengers were mostly young backpackers. It’s a bright sunny day as we leave Puno, mountains with abandoned agricultural terraces on the right and Lake Titicaca on the left. After a while we leave the lake behind and the landscape is dominated by dry stone walls; all along the way there are isolated dwellings, mostly of adobe. The land looks to be mostly rough pasture for cows and sheep; it must be hard to scrape a living. There are so many abandoned terraces that I wonder if the area once supported a larger population. We pass a couple of small towns. Bus Hop makes a point in their sales pitch   that they show English language films but "Grown Ups 2" is at the lowest level of adolescent humour. Think I preferred the Thai martial arts film dubbed into Spanish on the last bus I took.

At about 1100 we reached the border where I changed my Peruvian Sols to Bolivianos and got stamped out of Peru. Then we had a short walk of about 100m to Bolivian immigration where we got stamped into Bolivia, all very straightforward. From there it didn't take long to reach Copacabana where I checked into The Lago Azul hotel which seems quite pleasant and has an excellent lake view. I booked to go on a boat trip to Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca which leaves at 2pm so time for a coffee and a bite to eat in a cafe by the big white anchor on the shore, the meeting point for the boat trip. Omelette and a very milky coffee came to about 20 Bolivianos, US$1 = 7B, £1 =10B. According to Wikipedia, this Copacabana in Bolivia is the original and the more famous beach in Rio came later.

Room with a View: Lake Titicaca

Met up with all the others at the White Anchor, one young couple, the woman looking stunning, two young women travelling together, one from Ireland the other from Canada, one young, very quiet, German guy, and a threesome from China, the two young women dressed very stylishly, the guy wearing standard jeans and hoodie. Out of the nine of us six were wearing hoodies! 

The boat trip was much longer than most of us expected, nearly one and a half hours. All of us were sitting on the top, open deck. The Chinese woman sitting next to me was quite chatty, tells me she is here on holiday with her friends for two weeks and works as a management consultant in a city close to Shanghai. She and her female friend taking lots of photos of each other.  I think, despite her many layers, she is feeling the cold.

When we finally reached Isla del Sol we had a quick look at the ancient temple near the landing point and then started up the hill. It isn't very far but it left me gasping for breath. There is a great view from the top and a much needed ten minute rest before starting down the hill which although not strenuous took longer than I expected since the path does a big zig zag and is just rough uneven stones. Also met many donkeys or mules and even encountered a mule jam. Walking on the Isla del Sol makes me realise that many of the terraces I thought were abandoned actually have crops growing on them.

Isla del Sol: Terraced Hillside

View from Isla del Sol

Small Harbour on Isla del Sol

Back on the boat just after 4.30 pm we all opted for the comfy seats inside where several of us drifted off to sleep.

Sunset on Lake Titicaca

In the evening I had trout for dinner with vegetables, potato and a Bolivian beer. (80 Bolivianos inc tip).

Back at the hotel the room was cold and when I finally went to bed it took a while to get warm enough to sleep. Apparently the outside temperature went down to 2C.

Friday 22nd April 2016

Eventually managed to get some hot water out of the shower and went down to breakfast which was OK, scrambled egg, bacon, fresh fruit, fruit juice and a cup of hot milk with a sachet of Nescafe. Checked out of the hotel, and decided to walk along the coast between Lake Titicaca and the crumbly cliffs. Like Lima's, they are conglomerates of rounded pebbles and larger stones cemented loosely together. Not sure if there are any real strata but there are layers of larger rocks on top of finer layers and these layers seem tilted which suggests they were deposited a long time ago. Wish I knew more Geology. Kept on hoping and expecting that round the next corner the scenery would change but it didn't, just more of the same, so eventually turned back. Feeling quite knackered by the time I sat down in a cafe for a cappuccino and chocolate pancake neither of which would win any prizes.

Donald Duck in Copacabana

Baa

Grazing Alpacas

Walked up to the surprisingly impressive church, in the centre of the town away from the lake shore. Later discovered that the church is the “Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana” and the location has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries being a sacred Aymara and Inca site before the Spanish conquest.

The Bolivia Bus Hop bus picked us up just after 6pm and it was about a four hour drive to La Paz. We came into La Paz through El Alto, a second city high up the hillside, which has a reputation for being dangerous, and from what I saw through the bus windows was not somewhere I would want to get lost in at night. On the plus side, the elevation provided an amazing view of the city lights spread out in the valley below. One of the plus factors of Bus Hop was that the bus took me to the corner of Linares Street, where my hotel was located, and the guide escorted me all the way to the hotel entrance.