Welcome to Bolivia!!!

3rd-4th Dec
Again we must apoligise for our choice of hostels and hotels that promise wi-fi and they don't work!!! Because of this we have had to post three entries at once, so scroll down till you get to the bus trip and start from there. This is Rochelles nightmare and frustrations! Ahhhhh!!!

Friday we were up early to get the bus to Copacabana-Bolivia!! We tried to sleep most of the way, late night the night before. On the way we saw a guy on a push bike trying to double a sheep on his handle bars! He lost his balance and the poor sheep went rolling down a little hill. Think we’ve seen everything now. We stopped to change our money to Boliviano, and then stopped at the border. It didn’t really look like a border, just a arch over the road that was like a couple we had walked under on the islands. We waited in a long queue for the police, where there was just one man checking documents-they needed more, it was a mess. We had to walk up the hill, pass under an archway and hey presto we were in Bolivia! We went to immigration there, they stamped our passports, and that was that! Pretty easy. We hopped back on the bus and we were almost in Copacabana.

At the bus stop we were picked up and taken to our hostel, a beautiful looking building on a hill over looking the little town. We dropped our stuff off, and were off straight away to catch a boat to the Isla de Sol, Island of the Sun. Now, this part is my last bitch, I promise. When we booked the tour with the travel agent he said we would have enough time to have a good look around the Sol island. That we would arrive at 3.30pm and have till 6.30pm, enough time to look around, explore a bit. We asked him about the overnight stay and he said, no! That’s too long, the time allocated would be enough. Taking this guy’s advise we got to the boat only to have the driver tell us that the last boat back would be at 4pm, arriving back to Copacabana at 6.30pm. Not what we got told! The truth was that we needed to take an hour and a half boat ride each way and had only an one hour on the Island. That wasn’t even enough time to get to the top of the hill and back!!

The island looked beautiful too. There was a bit to explore on the island, as far as I could tell, and I would’ve been more than happy to just sit on the terraces with the trees and green grass and flowers if I had been given the opportunity. Not having more time on this Isla has been my biggest disappointment so far. Spending a nite there would have been heaven. Even two hours would have been nice.

We got back to Copacabana, had nachos and tacos on the main street, watched the sun set from the roof of our hostel and went to bed. Saturday morning after packing we had a great breakfast. Most of the time when breakfast is included in the room price its crap, but this morning we got pancakes and eggs and cereal and fruit and yoghurt. We had a little look around Copacabana and walked past the church just as a big band was walking past into the gates along with the military. We found out that it had something to do with being a once a year gathering of all the local police, and something to do with the virgin Mary? That’s the best we could understand. We took some photos then went to try and get hot chocolate but ended up with great big parfait glasses chocolate ice cream. Not exactly what you wanted when its 26 degrees and starting to hail. Copacabana is a very touristy town, not without its charm.

I think doing this all again we would have a whole day there too, as our bus to go to La Paz was leaving that afternoon. It would’ve been nice to see a bit more of the sights and sounds, maybe take a paddle boat on the lake, see the Inca sights. Anywho, our next entry will see us in La Paz, Bolivia’s capital city. Till next time- take care- Peter and Rochelle

Welcome to Bolivia!!!

Copacabana, Bolivia