1. Bolivia - Copacabana and on to La Paz

 

the view from the hotel garden

the scrum at Bolivian border control

We were still on the lake but now on the Bolivian side in a town called Copacabana staying in a very imaginatively designed hotel on a steep hillside.  Lots of separate rooms with little bits of garden around them.   It was bit like Gaudi meets a Hobbithouse and we were near the top.  Then we were asked to change rooms because somebody wanted the triple we were in.  Not very happy because we had great views across the lake.  Anyway, Heather negotiated the room above the one we were in which was much bigger and the top-most room with even better views for about £2 a day more.  We had a king size bed, a small wood burner, a small kitchen area and our own jacuzzi plus the view.  Fantastic.

our room at the top

the blessing of the car 

Copacabana was a nondescript place with a curving grubby beach of greyish looking sand with the land rising behind it but it did have cars being blessed outside the Cathedral.  They were all lined up, polished and clean with decorations of flowers over them.  Then what looked like a monk walked out (he was in a brown habit) carrying some water and a brush.  Words were said, water was flicked over the car and the people with it, money changed hands which was quickly trousered and the Priest/Monk went to the next car.  This certainly happened on at least two days we were there.  Lonely Planet said that alcohol was poured over the cars but more went into the drivers and that the blessing is probably cheaper than proper insurance. 

A tired looking young English couple arrived at the hotel while we were there who had just come from Cuzco like us but with difficulties.  They’d booked a flight which was cancelled and so switched to the coach for an overnight eight hour journey all the way to Copacabana.  Partway through the night they encountered a protest roadblock which they were told was to be in place for three days so the coach had to go most of the way back to Cuzco and take an alternative long way round route.  They eventually got to the border forty five minutes after it had shut for the night and then had to find accommodation.  So they eventually completed their trip from Cuzco in a bit over twenty four hours.  No wonder they were tired.

While sitting contemplating the view of the lake I got to musing on altitudes and where we were compared to other places we’d visited.  So armed with no more than all the resources of the internet I did some checking.   In a previous blog I’d written about Machu Picchu being set atop a truncated mountain which it is and I found out that while I sat looking at Titicaca, that day’s Machu Picchu visitors were over 4,500 feet below the surface of the lake.  Not a lotta people know that.

yes, Machu Picchu is 4,500 feet below this !

Our three to four hour coach out to Bolivia’s capital La Paz left in the early evening so disappointingly we missed most of the countryside on the way.  We did have to take a ferry across half a mile or so of Lake Titicaca as night was falling.  Passengers transferred to a small launch while the coach floated across on what looked no more than a lightly powered raft.  It certainly didn’t look very safe but I don’t suppose they lose many coaches or they’d change the system (you’d hope).

yes, this is our coach - with our luggage on board

Our first big mistake of this trip was back before we even left home and that was booking our air tickets before sorting out travel insurance.  Such insurance comes in time bands, 30 days is easy 42 not bad, 60 probable, 90 possible.  Over that combined with our ages and destinations it gets very difficult, perhaps 120 days at the outside.  Our booking meant that we were away for 156 days but eventually we found a company which would cover us at a premium of £1500+ !   We were a bit stuck really and then found one company which would cover us for a mere (by comparison) £750.   We considered the price of flying back to the UK halfway through the trip to establish that it was really two 80 day trips.  I suggested to Heather that as a British Embassy is UK Sovereign Territory we might pop into one, be in the UK and then walk out again.  Sadly we decided that these evasions would not stand up to the small print.  Then after we’d taken out the cover but within the cancellation period, a friend whose name I won’t mention to save his blushes but for the sake of argument I’ll call Peter Willgoss mentioned how he gets travel cover.  It’s a bank account with The Nationwide which will extend cover for a fee.  So we tried them and were quoted £180 for a 156 day trip.  And not just that.  I was told on the phone that we could go on as many 156 day trips in the year as we wanted !  We quickly opened an account, signed up for the insurance and were able to cancel the 750 smackers one and get a refund.  There is a further twist to this tale though.  The cover we specified included visits to Peru and Bolivia, whose capital La Paz lies at 3,640 metres above sea level.  I was asked if I needed Dangerous Activities cover.  No I said, we won’t be skiing or skydiving or free jumping.  Will we be walking above 3000m I was asked.  Well I said, I have cover for a trip to Bolivia and when I land at the capital La Paz I shall be above that just walking into the airport terminal.  Ah, then you need Dangerous Activity cover.  So we now have cover for pretty much any dangerous activity there is for as many 156 days trips this year as we care to take and all we want to do is walk.

not the Norfolk Broads - Titicaca