Copacabana, Bolivia, South America

I got up this morning and got a taxi over to the bus terminal to get my 7:30am bus to Copacabana, Bolivia. It’s a pretty nice bus, considering everyone had told me that all the busses in Bolivia are terrible. This one was fine. I was sat next to a Taiwanese guy named Jason (his english name obviously), and we had a good chat. He’s traveling for a long time as well, so it was good to hear about his trip so far.

About two hours into the journey we stopped at the border. We had to go through immigration on the Peruvian side, which went pretty quickly. We exchanged some money at the Peruvian side of the border and then walked across to Bolivia. Our bus was waiting for us on that side, and we had to stand in a queue to go through Bolivian immigration. It took forever! We were in line, in the sun, for about 40 minutes. I don’t know what was taking so long because when I went in to show my passport, it only took about a minute.

We got back on the bus, the didn’t do a head count or anything and just started driving away. A couple of people had to run up to the bus to catch it before we left them behind. I guess they do things a little differently in Bolivia. It was only about a half hour to get to Copacabana, so most of the journey took place at the border crossing. I like the look of Copacabana so far. It’s much smaller than Puno, but it looks much nicer. I checked in to Hotel Utama, which was up a small hill, but absolutely exhausting to walk up with my backpacks. I got there and found out I was on the third floor, so I had more hiking in front of me. It turns out this is a really cool hotel. The walls are painted with different scenes in the hallways and in the rooms. It’s a big room with a king size bed and I have my own bathroom. Not bad for $20 a night.

I went out and grabbed some lunch, and then had to find a working ATM to get some more Bolivianos. It took four ATM’s before I actually found one that worked, but I eventually got my money. This little walk around the town really highlighted just how small it is. There are a few streets that are just packed full of shops selling touristy crap, or travel agencies to book trips. Besides that, there’s not a lot here.

I went up to the top of the Cerro Calvario, which was recommended as the best viewpoint of the city. They weren’t wrong. The only thing the guide book failed to mention was that this was one of the hardest hikes I would ever do. It’s partially my fault because I was trying to hurry up the hill to make sure I was there in time for sunset. It turns out that trying to hurry up a huge hill at about 4,000m is a terrible idea. I finally got there and met up with Jason and his new Dutch friend Gino. We all took in what I guess was sunset, and then headed down to the town. There were a lot of clouds over the lake, so the sunset was less than impressive.

We went into town and had some dinner, which was actually pretty good. It was a recommended place in the Lonely Planet called Pueblo Viejo and the food was really good, even though the service was incredibly slow. Regardless, it was a good night with a couple of new friends, and tomorrow we are all planning on taking the day trip to Isla del Sol. I’ve heard good things from people who have been here, so I’m looking forward to it.