Lake Titicaca

Went to the terminal and met there some girls from the hostel. I've looked at their ticket, and it cost 60 soles until Puno (7 hours), while mine was 40 until Copacabana (10 hours). They're so good in here ripping people off !

Copacabana is a village on the lake Titicaca on the border between Peru and Bolivia. That was the first time when I took my laptop with me in the bus, usually I put it in checked in luggage. So no wonder that I dropped my bag like 5 times during the night, so now it has a black spot on the screen ... oh wait (1 week later it's gone !! :))), I just noticed :) ).The village is very nice, with a beautiful view on the lake, touristic with lots of hostels, bars and restaurants. I didn't have a guidebook yet, so didn't really know where to go, but as usual there was a woman where the bus stopped offering a hostel with a free taxi ride to it. Turns out later, that's where everybody ended up. Spent the whole day trying to exchange my Peru guidebook for a Bolivia guidebook. Such a rip off. In other places till Bolivia, the exchange was for free. And here it's free only 2X1 or if 1X1 you have to pay extra, and forget about guidebooks, they're for sale for ridiculous prices. Finaly found a place that has a 2004 version of lonely planet, so I exchanged my Peru 2007 for it. It's ok, the attractions are the same, prices vary, and some hostels and restaurants don't exist anymore. I was actually surprised that some prices are cheaper than they were 6 years ago.Next day wanted to do a day tour of Isla del Sol (the sun island), then I read the guidebook and it says that 1 day is not enough it's just been there done that. Fine, I'll stay there overnight. Took a 1.5 hour boat there. It had an open upper part, got talking to everybody and me, 1 Brazilian girl and 1 Torontonian guy (Andrew) are going together. When we got off the boat, some ladies cut off our path and said that we need to pay 5 Bolivianos to go in (7 Bolivianos = $1). That looked shady, so I just bypassed them, and they didn't notice. Andrew was running away from them saying that he doesn't need a ticket :) Found a guy who owns a hostel and went with him half an hour up to the village. That was hard at this altitude, but I'm used to it already, so actually it wasn't that bad. The girl wanted to stay there 2 days, and Andrew 6 days. Got to the top. The room was nice with a view on the lake and the snow capped mountains. When we went for dinner, absolutely everything was closed, no people outside, no nothing, absolutely everything was deserted. Good thing I wasn't hungry, when we finally found a restaurant, it cost twice as much, and food was horrible. There was no electricity after 7, the only source of light were lit candles. There was nothing to do, so we went to sleep at 8. Woke up at 7 to do a hike up to the north where the ruins are, and get the boat back at 1:30. By that time both the girl and Andrew were ready to head back. There is nothing to do on this island, and it's cold !! The hike was nothing special, views that I've seen 100 times already. Good thing that the hike wasn't hard, it was plane, and I got bored of walking and of the scenery. To get to the north had to pay 15 Bolivianos to enter (it was never like that before where there is charge for everything!). We said that it's too expensive and don't want to pay that. At the end the guy took out some 5 Boliviano ticket, wrote down "student" on it, and charged us 10. Ruins were not interesting. Anyway, we barely made it to the 1:30 boat. Stopped at the south again for an hour, have no clue why. I wanted to go to the washroom when all the ladies attacked us again for an entrance fee. I told them it's ridiculous to pay to go 10 meters to the washroom, they were persistent and told me to go back on the boat. I should've just passed through, but I didn't feel like fighting anymore. Then I heard some guy brainwashing them saying that we tourists pay 100 dollars to get to Machupichu, so we have to pay here, otherwise do not let anybody through. What a jerk! And this is NOT Machupichu !! A new boat arrived, and all of them run to it, that was my opportunity to sneak to the washroom :)On the way back stopped at some "floating" islands. Since Peru side has actual floating islands, I guess Bolivia wanted to mimic them, and created some small, useless islands that have nothing on it. We all just yelled to the driver to keep on going. In Copacabana had pizza, I usually don't like it, but what a nice change to rice and french-fries!What's very interesting that's happening here is that beside a church there is a car blessing ceremony. The drivers come from all over the place, decorate the whole car as though it's a wedding, and splash it with beer and champagne. It's very funny. The whole front of the church is packed with stands that sell flowers, and candies, alcohol and other stuff that's required for the blessing :) There is also some celebration where they decorate toy cars and houses, as though the blessing would pass to the real thing.That afternoon went to La Paz on a completely local bus with some annoying woman who kept talking and talking. We had to pass the lake on a floating something. Everybody got out. I got out too, and had no idea where to go, so I just went back to the bus. Apparently the bus can't pass the lake with people cause it's too heavy, so people take another boat to cross (and have to pay for it) :)

p.s. some stupid things

Went to the store.
How much are the apples?
2 for 5 Bolivianos.
How much is 1 apple?
2 Bolivianos.
Ok, give me 1
:)


Went to buy a train ticket
A ticket to Machupichu please
Could you write your name on this piece of paper
Yana Sizonenko (I wrote the "i" in my last name as a vertical line)
Ok, Yana, (now she spells it), es, one, zed ...
:S

pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/LakeTiticaca