Copacabana, Lake Titicaca (snigger)

The final stop we made in Bolivia was copacabana on the edge of the brilliantly named (and equally beautiful) Lake Titicaca.
There is a theory that you know you have been in London too long when the posh station announcer on the Picadilly line saying "Cockfosters" stops making you chuckle ever so slightly.
I suspect that there is a similar rule when you are travelling relating to titter inducing place names (I am not at this stage yet, so I am suggesting a competition for the comments at the bottom to list the towns or cities with the funniest/rudest names).

The journey from La Paz to Copacabana took around 4 hours and was one of the more interesting trips so far. At one point we had to disembark our bus while it was loaded onto a raft (which I could have built) to cross the lake. Forget being robbed or using dodgy guardaequipage I think this was the closest we've come so far to losing our gear, and as we crossed in a motor boat next to our bus we'd have had front row seats to the whole thing!

When we arrived in Copacabana it was Friday and carnival was in full swing, this involved a marching band walking the streets playing the same 4 tunes from 7am until 4am the next morning, hundreds of people selling things in the mains plazas, people firing flare guns at all hours and perhaps craziest of all people dressing their cars up like Vegas show girls (think sparkly top hats, tinsel and other shiny things), parking them outside the cathedral and setting off a string of firecrackers they attached to the boot to get a blessing! Even if god wasn't paying attention everyone else in the plaza and most of the town could certainly hear it!

Copacabana itself is something of a hippy Mecca in South America. This was illustrated by lots of young dreadlocked people wearing ponchos and ali baba pants wandering the streets in the tourist area. There were also a lot of travellers sitting on the tourist strips selling their wears. Copacabana is something of a weekend retreat so once the weekend was over most of these people disappeared.

We stayed in Las Cupala which is a hostal overlooking the bay, it has a restaurant which I have to say I was a little disappointed by. Despite the great views the food was some of the more expensive we had and was no where near the quality of some of the other restaurants on the strip.

In fact at the start we found it hard to find good places to eat and drink, until we realised that quite a few of the tourist places on the strip had the same menu. After a couple of meals we surmised they must be sharing a central kitchen as the meals we had took forever to arrive and were usually Luke warm at best (this may or may not be true but once we avoided the places with this menu the food we were eating improved no end).

The best meal we had was once again provided by the Rosario hotel chain. The presentation and taste of typical Bolivian food with a fine dining twist could not be faulted and at around 130 bolivianos per person (13 pounds) for 3 courses and a glass of Bolivian wine (surprisingly drinkable if a touch sweet) it is good value (anywhere other than Bolivia, as a meal is usually 50 bolivianos per person)
For lunch we went with a cheap option of trout by the lake. Along the "beach" there were a row of "kioscos" selling trout, we picked one based on our usual criteria, are locals eating there? do they have a free table? and were treated to a wonderful meal. For 20 bolivianos we both got a full trout and sauce freshly cooked, my fiancée went for the garlic trout which looked nice but I was sold on the trucha del Diablo (devils trout) which was topped with chilli, tomatoes and onions and tasted amazing. Both these meals came with chips and rice included in the cost, it was a shame we only found it on our last day.

One final restaurant recommendation in copacabana was La Orilla which is a small place on the main tourist strip. It is recommended by a couple of the guide books and appears to be a family run place serving something like Bolivian cowboy (similar to Mexican) cuisine. The owner served all the tables while his wife cooked and his 4 year old daughter balanced precariously on a bar stool. If you get bored of trout this is the place for you as they served an excellent chilli, nachos and other meat based dishes for around 35 bolivianos a main course.

Luckily despite the plentiful food I found lots of ways to exercise, I tried running along the side of the lake, but as it turns out it is hard work at 3850m above sea level (so I managed around 3km before my lungs felt like they were on fire), instead we walked, first around the side of the lake before later tackling the 2 steep hills at the side of the bay which give great views of the lake and Copacabana itself.

I think spending a few days here relaxing was exactly what we needed before Peru as between now and Equador we'll be in constant motion as we try and cover Machu Picchu and the kolka canyon and still get to Quito in time for our trip to the Galapagos.

Pictured below are our bus crossing the lake, trout in garlic sauce and 2 pictures of Copacabana

La Paz - the dangers of a little knowledge

If we weren't looking forward to Bolivia in general then I should probably clarify that it was La Paz in particular that was concerning us.

Having read the dire warnings in the Lonely Planet about safety and scams, and having talked with my fiancée's cousin who herself had been a robbing victim in La Paz we were more than a little concerned about the city.

We also both read Rusty Young's Marching Powder (a book about San Pedro prison in central La Paz, which I would highly recommend) on our way through Argentina, so our view of the city was slighty slanted as a den of corruption and police brutality (note to self too much info can be a dangerous thing).

Had the other half not needed to get a visa for Brazil (apparently being Australian in South American is annoying) we'd have certainly not spent the 4 days we did there. In fact we may have skipped it all together.

We didn't arrive in the best of moods, despite paying and astronomical 130 bolivianos each (13 pounds, but bear in mind the rest of our transport around bolivia was about 30 bolivianos a trip) for the bus from sucre to la paz to get a suite style seat (literally turns into a fully reclining bed) with bolivias premium bus company el dorado (the golden bus) we didn't get much sleep as the winding road meant every time I dropped off the bus changed the position i was sleeping in.

It was cold, cloudy, raining and early (6:30am) when we arrived so we weren't really in the mood for looking around we just jumped in a taxi for the hotel. We expected to be waiting around for our room but from this moment on la paz surprised us and began to change our minds about it. We were allowed to check in when we arrived (5hours early) and they even gave us a complimentary breakfast that morning !

Although basic the hotel sagannara was centrally located, had friendly staff who spoke english; pretty good Internet access, hot running water all day, cable tv including axn and a pretty comfortable bed

It also had a great view of the city out of the window. We had been so tired we hadn't really looked, but the city view took my breath away (this was a common theme as the altitude of 3800m above sea level will also do that!).

The Main Street (called various things but referred to by the locals as "El Prado") runs along the floor of the valley and streets climb off it at a dizzying rate, house cling to the steep mountainside, beautiful squares abound and the effect is stunning.

We found the people friendly and helpful, we managed to get proper coffee for the first time in a couple of weeks, with a choice of which country the beans came from! The food was also more varied, there were many options from Dumbo's (which is a Bolivian/Mexican chain fast food place), Thai restaurants a plenty (we tried one and it is certainly interesting to see other people's take on a cuisine, which I think I will cover in another blog post) to the fine dining in the Rosario hotel (the food pictured) which was incredibly good quality and put Bolivian cuisine in a fine dining environment at a fraction of what you would expect to pay in most countries.

I think this reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend after he moved into a house in East London, I was asking him if he felt safe walking home from the tube. His reply was that at first he didn't but then he stopped reading the London Metro and Evening Standard (who delight in saying everything is terrible and the city is going to hell in a hand basket) and since then, although he is still sensible and careful he's not been worried at all. I think I now agree reading too much into the dangers can really stop you from enjoying a place. Luckily La Paz is so amazing we'd forgotten most of the bad stuff we'd read almost as soon as we started walking around.

Pictures below (because the iphone blogger software won't let me put it anywhere else) are the food from the hotel Rosario, the beautiful plaza Murillo, San Pedro prison as seen from San Pedro square and the view from outside our hotel on sanganarra street.

Bolivia, Tupiza to Sucre (it's about beef)

Bolivia was probably the country I was looking forward to the least in our tour around South America. However I have to say that the 10 days I spent in the country so far have been really great despite the fact that we have stopped drinking for this part of our trip.

The people here have been much friendlier than Chile (although a pastor did spend 2 hours on a bus trip trying to convert me), the towns and cities have been a lot less run down than I expected and even the food has been much better than I imagined.

While in the country I have tried llama (very deer like, although a little on the chewy side it was very tasty) and several of the national specialities such as pincho de macho which is a pile of chips, steak, sausage, boiled eggs, tomatoes, lots of onion served in a beer based gravy and topped with cheese and jalapeño peppers and salteñas which are empanada like but with a different pastry.

Our first stop was Tupiza, where we ate like cowboys and I even went horse riding, which was fitting for a town which is heavily linked with the real Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid. The town was kind of how I imagined the Wild West to be, lots of horses and dust (as well as a load of pickup trucks). The food was mainly meat based, lots of beef, which was usually grilled on a barbecue (and which tastes excellent) with chicken and some sausage available as well. In Tupiza the steak was always excellent and cost very little, the one piece of advice I would offer is steer clear of the touristy pizza places, they are double the price of the more Bolivian restaurants. If there are no Bolivians eating in the restaurant you have chosen give it a miss!

Next stop was Potosi, which used to be a rich mining town blessed with abundant silver (apparently it bank rolled spain for 200 years!). Nowerdays the silver has dried up but the mining for other minerals continues around this growing city set 4000m above sea level. We got to Potosi just in time for Carnival in Bolivia. This entails lots of people (kids, adults, women and men) having massive water fights. Tourists are in no way exempt (in fact we found that, lugging our bags) we were good target practice. The mainly problem we had is that this far above sea level running away is difficult, and the other slight issue is that this water bombing starts at the end of January and runs through most of February.

Potosi is not really a tourist city, although there are several hostels in the centre, the main attractions are the mines, mainly to marvel at the third world conditions the people work in to this day. There is also mountain biking and horse riding but we were simply passing through and none of these really fitted our time table, so instead we looked around the old Spanish architecture in the centre and had a meal at a cafe which claimed to be 4060 metres above sea level. The food we found to be almost as good as the Bolivian was the Mexican, there were tacos, quesadillas and nachos all with a Bolivian twist, definitely preferable to the South American take on pasta which has, without fail, been served in a watery tomato sauce.

Our final stop on this leg was Sucre, this was different again from the workman like Potosi, boasting a centre full of beautiful buildings courtesy of the Spanish. Sucre was the former capital (now judicial capital) of Bolivia. It certainly had a more affluent feel in the centre with several up market shops and cafes.

To satisfy my inner science geek we went to Sucre's Dino park where we saw some dinosaur tracks dating back millions of years (not for everyone, I know), they are on a cliff face which they discovered while mining for cement.

Food wise the Belgian run cafe in the main square (whose name shamefully escapes me) was a good source of tasty nourishment and information (and wifi), perfect for a breakfast or lunch before exploring the city.

Although it was a little out of our way I have to say that sucre was well worth the trip, the only downside being the 12 hour overnight bus to La Paz (via Potosi) which followed.