Bolivia - Copacabana

Apologies to all for such a delay in posting, unfortunately the internet in Bolivia was as backwards as the country itself!!

SO... From Puno in Peru, I rode a beautiful stretch of road to the border with Bolivia, which was about 5 km inside of the lakeside town of Copacabana (absolutely no relation to the peter allen song). After the nightmares of border crossings I was prepared for the worst, yet I must say that it was a rather pleasant experience from both sides, that required no bribes or time wasting. Whilst there I happened to bump into another Aussie on a BMW 650 who had also just spent some time in Cusco and also had to leave his riding partner behind; unfortunately for him his friend had been feeling sick and went to get a check up, and found out he had cancer in his stomach and lungs!!

Anyways Copacabana... the difference between Peru and Bolivia is immediately apparent, the roads suck!! The town itself is no lakeside resort, kind of half finished, dirty and full of happy pants psuedo hippy traveller types. The town was full of restaurants and stores all too eager to rip one off, as well as cash changers who were adept at short changing. I was almost double charged immediately for a warm beer and the worst pizza I have experienced in my travels, under-exchanged a $20 U.S. note because it was a bit crinkled and charged almost $20 U.S. for a couple of kilo's of washing. That was in the first hour. On the positive though, the hotel I found was expensive, but had a nice view of the lake.

To cap off my rather crappy experience in Copacabana, I booked a ticket to see the spectacular Isle Del Sol for the next day, which was scheduled to leave at 8 am. I arrived at the dock the next day at 7:40, and waited in vain till after 8, whence I angrily walked to the office to demand a refund, only to learn that I had forgotten to turn my clock forward an hour to Bolivian time!!

I decided that it was a positive though since it meant that I wouldn't have to spend another night in Crapacabamba! I happily packed my bike and headed off to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia...