Copacabana

Thursday, Oct. 14

Oh, the buns and the freshly-squeezed fruit juices. The buns have crispy crusts and melt-in-your-mouth sour dough centres. I will miss both.
Our tour bus to Lake Titicaca is one of those two-door jobbies you see from the cruise ships in Cabo. We must visit the police station and the Immigration office on our way out of Peru, walk across the border, and visit the Immigration off ice in Bolivia. The fellow there thought I had an Australian passport and said, “kangaroos?”, I said, “ no, snow, canadiense!” We both had a good laugh. We are herded into small van buses for the last few minutes into Copacabana. On the map we have, it is only three blocks to our hostel. What it doesn’t show is that it al all uphill on cobble streets. At this altitude, we took the odd break as we hauled our luggage uphill. I had my two Eagle Creek pieces zipped together and at the first pause, I securely tied my Peruvian carry bag onto the handle. That made the going much easier.
This hotel/hostel is a little more rustic, but we have a view of the lake and it has a wonderful atrium with three groupings of comfortable chesterfields and coffee tables. Felipe and his wife who run the place are always busy with some chore. Felipe even clears tables at breakfast when it get busy. We walk down to the waterfront that has a beautiful beach but it is way too cold for swimming. After a light lunch we return to the hotel and crash for a couple of hours. The town is very small and built into the hill. There are virtually no private cars and only a few taxis. You simply walk up and down the centre off all the streets. One of the first things I noticed is the lack of bars on the doors and windows! That night, as the shops closed, one shop by the market had a few big items still outside and only a card-type table on its side instead of a door. What a concept. We were told by one of the guides that the pre-Spanish and still rural philosophy is: Don’t lie; Don’t be idle; and Don’t steal. We would all live a more contented life if this was everyone’s behaviour. Instead of doors, a stick diagonally across the doorway means nobody is home so don’t enter. We actually saw this a few times during the day in shops in Copacabana.