La Paz, Lake Titicacha (Copacabana - Bolivia, Puno - Peru)

After a very bumpy bus ride with limited sleep we arrived in La Paz early on Wednesday morning. We didn't have a hostel booked so asked the cabbie to drop us off on a busy street in the town centre so we could go in search of one. We ended up at the Estella Andina, a really nice hotel, with lovely bright rooms, with paintings by local artists adorning the walls and a fantsatic room terrace with panaromic views of the city. The hotel was expensive though so we decided to stay there one night to enjoy the comfy bed and cable tv after our sleepless bus journey and to find somewhere more budget friendly for the following nights. The next day we moved to Hostal Republica, a really beautiful old house with a lovely sunny courtyard. The house used to be the home of General Jose Manuel Pando the President of the Bolivian Republic before he was assassinated in 1917!

We spent most of our time in La Paz wandering the streets at a very slow pace!! The altitude there makes it difficult to be energetic and we were happy to fit in with the leisurely pace of life!

We spent quite a bit of time perusing the witches market, where you can buy all sorts of Bolivian knitwear items, such as wooly socks and ponchos as well as more unusual souvenirs...dried llama foetus anyone??! David bought a cosy jumper from one of the stalls, while Lynne purchased a poncho and some pressies for the folks back home. After exhausting ourselves with all that shopping we retired to the local cafes for brews and large slices of lemon cake!!

We stayed 4 nights in total in La Paz and enjoyed trying out many of the local restaurants which offer 3 course lunch for 85 bolivianos(about 85p)!! As well as sampling the 'not so local' Irish and English pubs with some fellow travellers. Olivers Travels became a favourite due to the fact they served pints...of tea as well as beer! We also managed to met up with Jen and Joe on our last day to watch the final day of the six nations and that extraordinary win for the Scots in Dublin that put a big smile on Lynne's face!

On one rainy afternoon, we enjoyed the four local museums situated in the old part of the city, which gave us a great insight into the traditional Bolivian way of life and the feelings of the indigenous people at the arrival of the Spanish.

La Paz very much feels like a mixture of cultures, where old meets new. We noticed that the upper class La Paz residents seem keen to shrug off the traditional ways of life and look down upon the poorer classes who work extremely hard to make ends meet. It will be interesting to see how Bolivia progresses over the next few years and whether globalisation will have the same effects as it has on many other South American countries.

After four nights in La Paz, we took an early bus up to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca and arrived there around 3pm, we were immediately set upon by hoteliers offering us rooms and we ended up following one landlord back to his hostel. To be honest, this place would have made Fawlty Towers look flawless! The staff were really disorganised and half the hotel wasn't actually finished, having said that it was clean, the showers were hot and it was very cheap so we decided to give it a go! We decided to visit the Isla del Sol the next day so bought our boat tickets then spent the rest of the day exploring the town, chilling on the coast with the locals and climbing the hill 'Calvario', passing many crosses and monuments of the way to the top where we had great views of the lake below. We also visited the Cathedral in the main square, where, bizarrely, locals bring their cars to be blessed. We watched in amusement as they draped their vehicles in flowers and confetti, then doused them in fizzy wine and beer!!

The next morning we took the boat from Copacabana to Isla del Sol. This route is really popular with tourists and there were about thirty of us crowded into the vessel for the two hour trip. We landed on the north of the island around 10.00am and proceeded to take the Inca path which would lead us to the south of the island in approx four hours. The scenery en route was beautiful and we saw a number of Inca and pre Inca ruins, including a sacred stone shaped as a puma (you had to use your imagination a bit here) and a sacrifice table. The only downside to the island walk was that we had to buy 'tickets' from locals at three points along the pathway in order to visit or just pass through their community. We weren't told about this previously so it was just luck that we had enough cash to do this and we couldn't help but feel that we were being scammed! We also ended up paying over the odds to get back to the mainland, as following the Lonely Planet's advice we only purchased a one-way ticket just in case we didn't make it back in time for the 2.30pm boat and had to stay over on the island. We had no choice but to pay a ridiculously inflated fee for a boat to take us back...don't listen to the LP just buy a return ticket in the first place!! However, despite the dent to our funds, we still enjoyed our trek across the island and the picturesque views along the way. We had dinner in one of the local beachfront restaurants, both opting for the local specialty of trout from the lake, then watched as the locals set up lanterns and stages along the waterfront for the Fiesta del Mar which was taking place the next day.

The next morning we joined crowds of residents and tourists who turned out to watch parades of schoolkids, navy officers and other local dignitaries. It was an array of colour, with traditional costumes and music and pretty entertaining! Lago Titicaca is especially important to the Bolivians, since Peru snatched their sea coast in the War of the Pacific between 1879-1884, it is their only waterfront and the base for their Navy! As the speeches started we began to lose interest and went off in search of some lunch, before boarding the bus to Puno, Peru.

We boarded our bus to Puno about 1pm, the bus was full of other backpackers and as we approached the border we were given a few tourist warnings, such not to change money from touts in the border region. We then disembarked en masse for the immigration offices. The border crossing between Bolivia and Peru were surprisingly efficient and we arrived in Puno in the early evening. The bus conductor recommended a hostel to us (his mate's hostel obviously!) at a really good price so we decided to give it a go. Puno is much bigger and far less picturesque than Cobabcana and the main reason to come here is the floating islands, so we set about finding a tour company to take us there the next day and booking our bus out of there afterwards! After arranging the tour we had a wander round the main streets of the town, coming across the local market where we bought the veggies for that night's dinner. Then it was a quiet night in for us, with the surprising luxury of cable tv to send us off to sleep!!

The next morning we joined our tour group to the floating islands. This is really touristy but also worth doing to see how the people lived on the islands and how important the lake was to those previous generations. The pre-Incan Uros people, who initially began the tradition of the floating islands, did so for a peaceful lifestyle, to escape the violent struggles on land. The island are made of totora, a type of rush growing native in the lake. Its dense roots support the top layer, which rots and must be replaced regularly by stacking more reeds on top of the layer beneath. The boat trips leave in their dozens and we were directed to one of the islands and greeted by the families that supposedly live there now (we were somewhat skeptical of this). After being herded off the boat our guide took us through the history and culture of these islands, this was the highlight of the tour and really interesting to hear. Then we were invited to speak to the islanders and look around their houses, while they tried to sell us their 'hand-made' crafts!! We then took a reed boat to another island where we could again part with our hard-earned cash for drinks and snacks. We returned to the mainland about 2pm just as the heavens opened and the rain lashed down so we made a run for it to a cafe for a brew and some food. It continued to rain into the night and so we abandoned ideas of going out, opting for another night in, some home-cooked food and a beer!