Her name was Lola ... She was a Showgirl

Thats right, were in a place called Copacabana, and Andy cant get the song out of his head!

This end of the lake is very different from Puno. Weve gone from industrial fast paced Puno (kind of like Newcastle) to laid back and beautiful Copacabana which is more like Byron Bay - after only a 2 hour bus trip with an "interesting" border crossing into Bolivia. Lets just say, theres nothing stopping people walking straight through the border.

Car blessing - cheaper than insurance

We had another chill day in Copacabana before doing a full-day "tour" of Isla Del Sol (the island of the Sun) where Manco Copec, the first Inca, was born. On our down day we witnesed a very bizarre ritual blessing at the Cathedral in town where people line up to have their cars blessed by the priests (for a small fee of course). People decorate their cars with ornate flowers before the priest comes around and blesses the car and family with holy water. After this the owners drench the car in alcohol and let off fireworks. We saw about 30 cars being done and it was a very strange sight. This happens every day at 10am and 2:30pm.

Cath hiking Isla Del Sol

The Isla Del Sol "tour" lasted for about an hour and then we were off walking the length of the island on our own to get to the pick up point. The walk was about 7km and took us about 2.5 hours at altitudes constantly above 4000m and lots of up and downs, some very steep. Along with the strenuous walk, the views along the way were breathtaking. It really is a very beautiful place with bluer than blue water and barren Medditeranean type landscapes. We were both really happy we chose to do the full-day hike from North to South as people on a half-day trip didnt see much at all except for the stairs coming out of the port. It took us half and hour to walk down them to meet our boat only just making it in time for the ride back to Copacabana.

View to Isla De la Luna from Isla del Sol

There is some bizarre weather up here. The air temperature is probably only 10-15 degrees but when you are in the sun it feels more like 25 and burns your skin in no time. When you venture into the shade, however, the cool breeze off the lake makes you switch from a t-shirt and sun hat to jumpers, jackets and beanies. It has also rained every day that we have been around the lake, and at this altitude it is basically ice and they have some wicked thunderstorms.

written by

Cath & Andy on April 30, 2007 from Copacabana, Bolivia

from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America

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