20 October 2009
Not the famous Brazilian beach but a tiny sleepy village on the shore of the amazing lake Titicaca in Bolivia. We enter Bolivia on a pleasant bus from Puno (Peru), a beautiful ride along the lakeshore, and cross the border without any complication. The friendly bus assistant explains very clearly what we have to do at the border crossing. He even stops in front of a hut in a little village near the border and advises to change leftover Peruvian Soles into Bolivianos: however, the rate offered is very bad. Most tourists have no idea what the rate should be and change their money. The money exchange ladies run a profitable little business. After everybody is done, we go to the counter and demand a rate much more in our favour: the lady agrees to our rate. Gaudi is very proud to be the only tourist in the bus not to be ripped off, and to have saved about 2 USD that way.
We are very impressed by the setting of Copacabana right on the lakeshore with amazing views. Quite less impressed by the hotels and the rather unfriendly people of this town. We walk 20 min to the hotel we had reserved to find a half built place and a bunch of barking dogs as the welcome committee. Finally a woman shows up asking what we want. We ask if this could possibly be the Ecolodge. The woman needs to run back to verify what the place is or is called . . . Well needless to say, we started the walk back to town with our backpacks. After visiting numerous "hotels", and after a cold night in on of them, we do find a very pleasant one (not surprisingly German run) place, where we spend 4 nights. The breathtaking lake makes up for the unfriendliness we have to deal with when we do enter town (which we avoided as much as possible).
The hotel has a nice garden with hammocks to relalx in. The garden has colorful flowers and green grass in this area where every thing else is dried out - of course a gardener waters th plants daily. Not only the tourists enjoy the garden, but a local sheepherding lady discovered it too: for her sheep. She leads her flock into the garden and lets the sheep graze on each patch for half an hour - if they nibble on the flowers, she throws a rock at them (but still, there are noticably less flowers after her visit). I ask the hotel staff how official this arrangement is, and they are a bit evasive - maybe because the owner of the hotel is not in town at the moment? Well, at least this way they don't have to mow the grass.
While we are sitting in the garden, slowly surrrounded by about 15 sheep, the hotel dog comes close and stays with us. We realise that this dog is very afraid of the sheep and seeks protection! At one point the dog even jumps our bench and squeezes between us. Never before have I seen a dog so gentle that it is even afraid of sheep!
Not the famous Brazilian beach but a tiny sleepy village on the shore of the amazing lake Titicaca in Bolivia. We enter Bolivia on a pleasant bus from Puno (Peru), a beautiful ride along the lakeshore, and cross the border without any complication. The friendly bus assistant explains very clearly what we have to do at the border crossing. He even stops in front of a hut in a little village near the border and advises to change leftover Peruvian Soles into Bolivianos: however, the rate offered is very bad. Most tourists have no idea what the rate should be and change their money. The money exchange ladies run a profitable little business. After everybody is done, we go to the counter and demand a rate much more in our favour: the lady agrees to our rate. Gaudi is very proud to be the only tourist in the bus not to be ripped off, and to have saved about 2 USD that way.
We are very impressed by the setting of Copacabana right on the lakeshore with amazing views. Quite less impressed by the hotels and the rather unfriendly people of this town. We walk 20 min to the hotel we had reserved to find a half built place and a bunch of barking dogs as the welcome committee. Finally a woman shows up asking what we want. We ask if this could possibly be the Ecolodge. The woman needs to run back to verify what the place is or is called . . . Well needless to say, we started the walk back to town with our backpacks. After visiting numerous "hotels", and after a cold night in on of them, we do find a very pleasant one (not surprisingly German run) place, where we spend 4 nights. The breathtaking lake makes up for the unfriendliness we have to deal with when we do enter town (which we avoided as much as possible).
The hotel has a nice garden with hammocks to relalx in. The garden has colorful flowers and green grass in this area where every thing else is dried out - of course a gardener waters th plants daily. Not only the tourists enjoy the garden, but a local sheepherding lady discovered it too: for her sheep. She leads her flock into the garden and lets the sheep graze on each patch for half an hour - if they nibble on the flowers, she throws a rock at them (but still, there are noticably less flowers after her visit). I ask the hotel staff how official this arrangement is, and they are a bit evasive - maybe because the owner of the hotel is not in town at the moment? Well, at least this way they don't have to mow the grass.
While we are sitting in the garden, slowly surrrounded by about 15 sheep, the hotel dog comes close and stays with us. We realise that this dog is very afraid of the sheep and seeks protection! At one point the dog even jumps our bench and squeezes between us. Never before have I seen a dog so gentle that it is even afraid of sheep!
One of the highlights was a day trip to Isla del Sol, a slow 1.5 hour boat ride from Copacabana. We get dropped off at the north end of the island, and then follow a very nice path leading us to the south of the island, where we catch the boat back. The walk is wonderful with spectacular views of the island and lake. We even come by some trees, a rarity in this deforested region, and we explore a very interesting Inca site with mysterious labyrinths. Hmm we wondered whether the people of this islands would be any more welcoming but no such luck. The only welcome we got was no less then 3 tax posts! Yes the island (the lenght of which we walked in about 3 hours) is divided in 3 communities, each of which charged us an entry fee. Oh well, welcome to Bolivia I guess. 
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