Bolivia - Puno to Copacabana 24th - 26th January 2011...

Hurray another stamp in the passport, but not until we have gone through the immigration process in Peru and then Bolivia (40 minutes of queuing here and there).

It was quite easy. The transition from Peru to Bolivia was not as dramatic, both countries border Lago Titiqaqa, both have quechua and Aymara speakers,both have rural economies and they are both at the same altitude.

Once across the border its only 8 kilometers to Copacabana, where you have to pay 1 bolviano to get into town.

There are inca ruins here and Pre Inca, but this place is more famous once the spanish arrive. The town has an impressive....

...Basilica, which houses "Our lady of Copacabana" one of several virgen morenos worshipped throughout S.A.

The Basilica is built over the site of an Incan fertility temple!!!!!

The locals also have their vehicles blessed at the Basilica, and promptly have a drink to celebrate, before driving off under the protection of god...

Trucks and flowers,...you've got to keep up Eddie Stobbart....

....and cars alike are dressed with flowers, blessed by the priest and driven off by the owners..

Oh and not to be outdone by Puno......

...they also have pedallos here too....

Nearby (well 2.5 hrs away by the slowest boat imaginable) is the mythical birthplace of the Inca royal line, La Isla Del Sol, which we decided to pay a visit to....

yep there she is...lucky we were on the slow boat otherwise we might have missed this shot...

 There is a wild beauty to this place...

...which pictures can't begin to capture....

There are also Inca ruins..

...woohoo...surprise... Inca ruins...

 But there were people here before them, the Tiwanakans' (say that carefully); more about these later in the Bolivia - La Paz blog.

We were dropped off the boat eventually (did we mention it was the slowest boat ever) at the north end of the island, and walked the 8 kms to the southern part of island. 

Besides the breathtaking scenery, this is an opportunity for the locals to levy small charges for you to use the only footpath on the island. There are 3 of these levvies to pay. one at the north, one in the middle, and one in the south, the path was suitably rocky. 

The time it took us to walk the 8 kms the boat managed to motor from our drop off point to the south part of the island to pick us up. We were told that it left at 1600 hrs, but there is an inexplicable temporal anomaly on this mysterious isle, because the boat left at 1530hrs; its a good job we didn't stop to take too many pictures.

Despite all these things it was a really nice day helped by good weather and a nice slow boat to relax on back to Copacabana.

Copacabana is a real staging post for turistas on their way to La Paz, and we are no exceptions; so the next stop is the highest capital city on the planet.