March 21: Copacabana

I'm not a violent person, but I could very easily have murdered the barking dogs outside my window at the Casa de Crap-o-la. Needless to say, I was quite happy to get back on the road and on my way to Bolivia. The gringo bus for Copacabana left Puno at 7:30am and arrived, here, at the border at 10am... which leads me to believe that, had my ride from Cuzco not taken 8 hours and had there been a 3 o'clock-ish bus to Copacabana, making the whole trip in one day may have been possible. Bygones. At the border I exchanged S/. 100 and received 220 Bolivianos (Bs)... which is about 18 Bs less than a perfect exchange. Of course, that's only two bucks. So, considering that there's always a fee involved with changing money, I can report that it’s perfectly fine to go ahead and make the transaction at the border. Once passing through Peruvian customs, everybody has to actually walk over the border and go through Bolivian customs. Both sides are quick and easy, and the bus is waiting, ready to take you the final 5 miles (8km) to Copacabana. By the way, it may be worth purchasing a candy bar at the border just so you can have small Boliviano change for the Bs 1 Copacabana city entrance fee that you end up paying on the bus.

Copacabana is a fantastic little town right on the shore of Lake Titicaca. That said, it’s in no way a true image of life in Bolivia. Much like, say, Montañita in Ecuador, this is gringo town. Fortunately, despite the fact that the locals know you’re coming, there are still plenty of dirt cheap places to stay while you relax for a couple of days. Because I wasn’t really counting my every last penny on this short, two-week vacation, I ended up splurging on a proper hotel. By that I mean a $5 private room overlooking the water. Hey, big spender! My Xanadu was the Hotel Mirador, pictured below… it’s the two-tiered salmon colored one along the shore, just below that large green patch of grass. After checking in, I spent much of the morning exploring the town, watching organized court soccer by the water, and having lunch at the popular Restaurant Colonial.

Sadly, for those who get bored easily, there really isn’t much to do in Copacabana after you’ve walked up and down the main strip four or five times. However, if you are perfectly content just to climb a tall hill and enjoy a spectacular view, there’s Cerro Calvario (Calvary Hill). From a distance it seems like a nice, leisurely stroll, but it’s actually kind of a strenuous 30 minute hike to the top. Once you make it up, your efforts are rewarded by some interesting monuments and crosses that, I believe, may represent Jesus’ last procession through Jerusalem. It's also entirely possible that these are gravesites for travelers who underestimated both the Cerro and the altitude. Honestly, though, it's not that bad, and definitely worth the effort.

Of course, you are also rewarded by a 360 degree panorama view of Copacabana and Lake Titicaca. I ended up spending three hours on top of the hill, staring out over the water, reading my book, and relaxing under a perfectly sunny sky. There’s a strange, unwritten code of silence up there, and I found everyone to be incredibly respectful of other people’s tranquility. I only managed to peel myself down when it became quite clear that I wasn’t going to get my sunset… low clouds over the horizon. Later that night I had a decent meal at Mankha Uta with a lone Argentinean traveler I had met earlier. The town was pretty dead, actually, but we still enjoyed some live guitar-n-bongo music with our dinner.

Peru Home & Sidebar
Previous Day -- Next Day