Copacobana, Bolivia - Welcome Back Thu 24/4/2003   Yep back to Bolivia again, in Copacobana a small town set on the board of Lake Titicaca on a peninsula just across the border from Peru. The town is quite touristy, with lots of restaurants and pubs, and an interesting looking Moorish-style cathedral. Pretty much a place to come and relax, enjoy the very strong sun and climb some little peaks around the city which offer great views over the lake. Arrived in the early afternoon from Puno and unfortunately did not get a room in La Cúpula, so stayed in the friendly and much cheaper neighboring hotel Utama. The dismal weather in the morning in Puno had made way for a sunny afternoon which I used to wander around town, having lunch at an incredibly cheap place (8Bs almuerzo) before returning to the hotel to relax after the night on the bus. Went to La Cúpula's restaurant for dinner, which I thought was good but not as high standard as their hostal, with slightly elevated prices. There seem to be better and less expensive options down the main street near the harbour, which I did not get to try. Isla del Sol Fri 25/4/2003   Caught the 8:30 ferry to Cha'llapampa in the Northern part of the Isla del Sol where we visited the Chincana ruins and the stone of the Puma, according to legend the birthplace of the first Inca Manco Capac and his sister-wife Mama Huaca. Walked on a very well maintained trail to Yumani on the Southern tip of the Island, en route being hassled very persistently by various families or small kids to take a photograph / give sweets / eat at mothers restaurant / etc. Had some bits I had brought and bought for lunch in Yumani before heading back to Copacobana on the afternoon ferry at 4:00pm. The ferry got into Copacobana at around 5:30, just in time to pick up my bags from hotel Utama and leisurely head over to the Plaza Sucre from where the (mini)buses depart for various surrounding destinations. Left on the last bus to La Paz at 6:30pm (there are no later busses as the ferries across the Strait of Tiquina close at night) with Transtur 2 de Febrero (15Bs), only on departure realizing that the minibuses of Transporte 6 de Junio would have probably been a bit faster and more comfortable. Arrived in La Paz at around 10pm and quickly took a taxi to the Hostal Sucre where I met up with Anke and Dominik for the second time, going out to the Sol y Luna Pub for some decent cocktails and cool stories about how we had respectively spent the last month.	no map Hotel Utama C. Michael Perez, Copacobana, Ph: (0862)22013 Simple 40 Bs c/Bano Hostal Restaurant La Cúpula Copacobana - Ph: (0862) 2283 US$10 Single / US$16 Double Excellent setting, tasteful rooms, very friendly and good ambiente. Restaurant overpriced, food ok, great view from terrace.
Arbol cerca de Cha'llapampa Habitaciones Isla del Sol Cactus cerca Chincana Vista Lago Titicaca Nińas Isla del Sol
La Paz Sat 26/04/03   Visited the cathedral and looked at the government buildings around Plaza Pedro D Murillo before wandering to the Mercado Negro and Plaza San Francisco, with it's impressive old church. From there I was about to head towards Sopocachi when I fell prey to a very stupid con trick, loosing US$45 in the process. The trick plays on greed, honesty, pride and of course stupidity/gullibility, is called "La cuenta del tio" (the story of your part) and works like this: Your standing at a red pedestrian crossing and a guy runs buy dropping a plastic bag in front of you, which you ignore, whilst another person next to you picks it up and looks at the content which you are of course casually following. The contents turn out to be US$ and Bolivianos, so the guy asks what are we supposed to with this. So you answer lets go and look if we can find the guy who lost it and give it back. After a while of looking the other person concedes that it will probably be impossible to find the guy and that we should keep the money. At this point you're thinking he's probably right and why not keep it. So you sit down in a less crowded spot to count the money (ALARM) and just in that moment the guy who lost the money turns up asking if we had found a little plastic bag with cash. So you say yep maybe, but the guy next to you starts nudging you and you shut up. The guy with the loss starts to demonstrate the type of plastic bag with the money and asks if you really haven't seen it. At this point you start to assure the person that you don't have the money and start showing him your wallet together with the other guy (ALARM) which does not contain any of the notes stamped by the guy who lost it, who supposedly is a cambiador (money exchanger - they always stamp their notes). The fake cambiador starts again to demonstrate how the bag of cash looked with YOUR money (WOW AM I THICK) and then drops it from his back pocket, in the process swapping the plastic bag with your money for another one with old or fake notes. Then the person who found the cash hands the findings back to the fake cambiador and starts to run off. After that the cambiador starts to "chase" the other guy and you start running after them as you by know have figured out that there is something very wrong here. But of course you don't find any of them any more loosing whatever you had in your wallet. (Just writing this in the third person feels quite stupid, but oh well I guess there may be some other people who have fallen for this trick) So wandered back to the hostal to change some more money and visit the Museo de Coca in the afternoon, stopping off at the Inca Pallay store which sells the Jal'qua type carpets, but did not fancy replacing the one I had lost. In the evening went out to nice pub and continued on to Bizarro a pretty decent club by bolivian standards, with 3 different levels where I enjoyed a few drinks and talked to Sergio an architect from La Paz whom I had met in the bar I had visited before. Downhill Madness Sun 27/04/03   Woke up early and made my way to the Explorama Tours office where I had booked a mountain bike tour down the most dangerous road in the world, on the day before.(Explorama Tours, Sagarnaga #233, Ph: (02) 2311401, US$30 - 45) The road carries that name because it gets a lot of tired bus drivers arriving from the lower lying parts of Bolivia on the way to La Paz which subsequently crash or fall asleep steering of the road and dropping several hundred metres straight down. After we had finally collected everybody and had successfully avoided all the road closures due to the La Paz marathon that day, we were on our way to la Cumbre, the 4700m pass outside of La Paz which is the start of the 60km descent down 3500m of vertical elevation to Yolosa in the the rainforrest like Yungas. I had chosen to pay US$45 for a decent bike, rather than opting for the US$30 cheapy and had an excellent time of the varied descent starting from the dry and sunny top on tarred roads down through the rainy and cloudy precipitation zone of rainforrest vegetation to the humid and sunny bottom at Yolosa. A truly amazing experience for anyone who enjoys mountain biking.	Hostal Sucre Calle Colombia 340 La Paz - Ph:(02) 492038 Bar Sol y Luna Corner Ca. Mexico / Ca. Oruru, La Paz Decent interior, decent cocktails, decent music and decent staff. Bizarro (Fri/Sat) - Calle F. Guachalla 356 Sopocachi, La Paz Three rooms with different music, stylish interior, good music, very popular, young hip crowd Hostal Sucre Calle Colombia 340 La Paz - Ph:(02) 492038 Very clean and friendly, lukewarm showers, decent rooms good location & security
Catedral Pano Catedral Interior Palacio del Gobernmiento Iglesia San Franciso Iglesia San Franciso Iglesia San Franciso Interor Vista La Cumbre La Cumbre Empieza Downhill Pano Vista Parte Alto Vista Parte Alto - Richard Downhill - Richard Downhill Pano Paysaje Alto Pano Yunga y Carretera Yunga y Carretera Salta de Aqua La Paz por la Noche Read on about the week in Santiago before heading to Mexico.