In the Copa, Copacabana

10-5-08

So we finally left Cusco. We took a night bus from Cusco to Copacabana, Bolivia. Ok its not the real Copacabana in the song but still called Copacabana. 5 of us took the night bus which included Unger, Sara, me, an English guy named Jonathon, and an American named Jason, who grew up in Sacramento, went to Berkeley and happens to know some of the same people I know in Monterey. Small world. Anyway the bus seemed nice although for the 20th time this trip the we were lied to. The bus we had reserved was a double decker bus and of course this bus was older than the bus in the photo and was only one story. For this reason I decided to find the best seat which was the very front because it has the most leg room. The bus was empty, so no big deal right? Wrong. Some Peruvian lady got onto the bus thiry minutes late and told me first to move my backpack which I had locked to the seat for safety reasons. Then proceeded to ask me if I thought maybe one of the other 20 open seats would be preferable. Jonathon, who was sitting in the seat next to me asked her if she thought one of the seats would be good for her. She smiled and said that she preferred this seat. So I decided, screw it, and moved. At least my new seat didn´t have anybody sitting in the seat in front of it. Wrong again? It turns out that my new friend (the peruvian lady) had asked the bus company to keep the approximately 30 people on the bus waiting for her friends to show up from Machu Picchu. So not only were they almost an hour late but they decided to sit in the ¨best seat¨on the bus, the one right in front of me. Needless to say I was a little upset and decided my knees were not moving so every time the guy tried to put his seat all the way back his chair ran into my unmoving legs. Problem solved. So finally the bus left an hour late. Only in Peru...and Ecuador...and soon to find out Bolivia. Well we were off, ready to avoid getting stoned to death in Bolivia, since according to the media, all Bolivians are violent and riots are happening in the streets throughout the country. About an hour into the ride, the bus stopped and my friend and her two late friends got out and went into a Panaderia (bakery for anybody who doesn´t know basic spanish). At this point all the passengers (at least the white ones, this could be standard procedures since the locals on the bus did not look surprised) were in shock. Not only did this lady and her friends have the nerve to show up to the bus late, but now they were buying bread? At 11pm, buying bread. Well she gets back on the bus with her huge back of bread and a smug look on her face. Jonathon turns to her and says "Do we need to stop for eggs and milk too?". She wasn´t amused. I thought it was funny. Now that all the shopping had been completed we were off. I took a sleeping pill and had a relatively nice sleep, even with the chair in front of me slamming into my legs and the bus driver taking turns like we were trying to win a Nascar race. We finally arrived early the next morning at a turnoff and the bus driver told us this was our stop. All the tourists got off the bus and were transferred to a small van. Not very comfortable. We were driven to the border. Now I typically picture borders and fenced off areas with lots of security, guns, etc. Not in Bolivia. We could have, and maybe should have walked right though into Bolivia. But since we are honest Americans ready for our fate we walked right into that office and took our punishment for being American like men. A tear might have escaped my eye as I passed the nice gentlemen $135 for my Bolivian visa, but I am a man so I wiped it away quickly. On the bright side of things, he smiled and stated that my visa was valid for 5 more years so if I happen to be passing through Bolivia in the next 5 years I don´t have to pay again. Yay for me. We then got into another van and headed for Copacabana. It is a nice little beach town on Lake Titicaca (highest navigable lake in the world, whatever that means). We decided to rent a boat and go fishing. 7 of us (met two Aussies from Salkantay) piled into this boat with a stick attached to a 2 by 6 board for oars. Oh and the thing had sails. Now the seven of us combined knew as much about sailing as we do about astro-physics (I´m not even sure how to spell it) but oh well, its Bolivia, where there is no speed limit and mothers teach there children to pee on busy streets and not aim elsewhere when people are walking by (Unger had a very close call). We didn´t catch anything, the wind was blowing away from the shore, which made our return trip very enjoyable and tiring, but all in all it was an enjoyable adventure. We ate Mexican food, drank some wine and went to bed. And by the way, so far so good. No angry Bolivians with stones or guns trying to kill us. As a matter of fact earlier in the day we saw a bunch of cars sitting on the street with incense burning and the cars decorated with flowers and other things. A very nice man came up to us and explained that every saturday and sunday everybody drives there car up here and has the car blessed for safety. The interesting thing is that after the blessing they celebrate by drinking alcohol and then driving home. Now in the states this is illegal but as I learned and will be explaining more in depth later, Bolivia has different views about drinking and driving. But my point is that the man who told us about the event was very nice and welcomed us to Bolivia.

10-6-08

We woke up the next day and went to Isla del Sol which is an island off the coast of Copacabana. We paid $25 Boliviano which is about $3.50 to go. The boat was nice, sort of and it took about 2 hours to get there. Now we were under the impression, based on what the guy at the hotel told us, that the boat, 4 hours of hiking and the return trip were part of that price. It turns out we had to pay $10 Boliviano to do the 4 hour hike. Halfway through the hike another man stopped us and had us pay $5B since he was from a different community. He promised this was it for payments. About 1km before the boat another man stopped us to have us pay $5B more since he too was from a different community. Now in total the day cost about $7 US and I probably would have payed more since it was a beautiful island and hike, but it is still bothersome to be lied to and it seems it is pretty standard to lie to tourists in these countries. The boat almost died on the way back. I´m pretty sure when we weren´t looking the driver was kicking the motor. It took a long time to get home but all in all "vale la pena", it was worth it. We got back and raced up this hill to watch the sunset. Jonathon and I did the poor man's view which was about 2/3 of the way up since Copacabana is at about 12000 feet and altitude still gets to me when I sprint up a mountain. But it was incredible. Unger and Jason (later nicknamed action man because he is always climbing up things, or doing something active) made it to the top. Went down, ate a pizza, watched some little kids play soccer and then went to bed.