Music and Fashion are always the Passion at Copa…Copacabana

Ok…so it’s not the same place as the song but that doesn’t mean Boos Boos wouldn’t stop singing the song for the whole bus trip! The trip from La Paz is only a few hours, but has a little interesting journey about midway through when we arrived at a small ferry port on the lake. Thinking we had arrived at Copacabana, we were amazed to see the bus then loaded onto THE smallest and dodgiest ferry/barge we have ever seen. This thing sat about a foot above the water, and there were many times as we watched that we were sure it was tipping over and the bus would be on the bottom of the lake within a minute – with all our crap inside. Thankfully we were ferried across in little boats, and had the pleasure of sitting on dry land watching the bus wobble its way across the channel – hilarious stuff. From there it was only a short journey to Copacabana, where we arrived just in time to watch the sun drop into the lake – pretty incredible sunset.

Copacabana was super cheap, costing us about $4 each for a nights’ accommodation, but was only a stopping point for us as we decided on a 3 day trek/camping trip out onto one of the nearby islands – Isla Del Sol, which was one of the original sites of Inca religion where the sun gods were said to dwell.

There were a few options of getting to the island, one a 17k walk and then a local fishing boat, or taking a boat direct from Copacabana. Boos Boos still wasn’t feeling 100%, so opted for the boat, while Vasiles and Doodles packed their shit and headed off early the next morning to tackle the trek before meeting Boos Boos on Isla Del Sol that afternoon. Apart from the death road the guys hadn’t done much exercise let alone walking with a 18kg pack in the midday sun at 4000m – so were pretty stuffed after getting across to the island that afternoon. It was well worth it though, the views of the giant lake were amazing, and the glimpses of the locals living in mud brick huts by the shore, tending to donkeys, pigs and sheep is their fantastically colourful garb were priceless.

On arriving to the island, we were greeted by the biggest frigging set of stairs ever. Boos Boos had most graciously decided to give Doodles the tent to carry at that point, further adding to the fun of lugging his sorry ass up those stairs. We walked about another 4kms to a bay, where we found an incredible camping spot looking over the lake to the south, and after setting up camp, settled down for a super cold nights relaxation. Needless to say Doodles slept well.

Waking the next morning, Doodles was feeling like shit… literally. Thanks to Boos Boos, he had gotten a hold of her gastro, so now we were both feeling pretty exhausted and unwell. We had planned to doing some walking that day further north, but the spot was so good and we were all feeling a bit lazy, so decided the day was better spent sitting by the shore of Lake Titicaca and reading, speaking shit and generally chilling out. There were a few farmhouses close by, and the local women would come wandering past with their sheep or pigs, collecting firewood and strapping it onto their donkeys back for cooking dinner that night. They don’t have fences or set grazing grounds – they just waddle behind their pigs with a stick and whack them on the ass if they wander the wrong way – so far away from the motorbikes and farming equipment they have at home. We shared a cup of café with one of the locals, we figured since we were camping in their general area, and stealing firewood which otherwise they would have used, we at least owed them that.

The next day we had to get going, and despite not having eaten much (and held it down), we set off back up the terraced hills, to a settlement in the north of the island where we could get a boat back to Copacabana that afternoon. That journey was HARD. With no food for energy, the sun, the altitude and the decent climbing, we (well not Vasiles – bastard) were struggling, and when we finally reached the crest – man that was a good feeling – sweet downhill! The settlement in the north was very small, with some great beaches, so the afternoon was spent swimming and resting until we jumped on the boat back to the mainland. Overall, apart from the stupid gastro, the few days on that island were incredibly rewarding, getting away from hostels and into the vibe of how the locals live every day. Pretty cool stuff.

Vasiles was keen to get into Peru, so took a bus that night for Cuzco, but we were feeling like dirt, so decided to stay a few more days in Copacabana, get well, and save some cash before heading off to Cuzco and the trek to Machu Picchu.

We took the night bus across the border via Puno a couple days later, feeling much better about ourselves and being able to hold down food again – a great feeling! Arriving in Cuzco at 4am, with no place to stay, probably wasn’t the greatest of plans – but all went well – some random lady offered us a cheap place, into a cab through the empty streets and into bed – welcome to Peru!

Peace and Love

Doodles and Boos Boos.

Loco La Paz

Yep. The trip here was a shocker. Got a massively raw deal on that one! To top it off, after a few hours sleep, Boos Boos wakes with the start of what would be 3 days of lovely lovely gastro… enough said – great fun for her, spending the first few days of our La Paz stay in bed in close proximity to the toilet.

Feeling refreshed from a day sleeping – Doodles and Vasiles decided to head upstairs to the rooftop bar for the free beer that came with a night in the hostel (we had managed to choose – in our very tired state in the morn and unbeknownst to us at the time – a hostel which had a microbrew setup in the basement – so the beer was kegged in the basement and lugged up the 7 stories of stairs to the bar. Funnily enough – the guys behind the bar were not in the mood to drag a keg up 7 flights of stairs, and also were well experienced in the ways of poor backpackers. Thus – 5 minutes after our first beer – we found ourselves being led down into the bowels of the hostel to check out the brewery and lug a new keg up the stairs – sounds easy… The Dialogue after that point went as follows:

V: This will be easy man – kegs aren’t that heavy and look – there is only 7 floors to go.

Picks up one end of the metal keg filled to the brim. Struggles. Stops and looks at Doodles.

V. Um.. ok this might be a little harder than we thought.

D: Yeah man – why again are we doing this?

V: Free pint sir!

D: Not worth it! Tell her 2 jugs.

V to Peruvian bar girl who has given us the tour. He had previously confessed his love for her to me:

This is pretty heavy – and there are a fair few stairs there – can we get 2 jugs?

BG: Lo siento, pero no es possible. Dos vasos! (sorry but its not possible – 2 glasses.)

V to me: Bugger. We still have to do it! Lets go come on.

Points to the other end and takes his end. I grab the end of the freezing cold keg. Wish I had gloves – shit.

So basically – this went on for 7 floors – lugging this freezing stupid keg – all for a beer each. Apparently we were supposed to be racing against the clock or something, but unfortunately for us, we sucked at this keg carrying business and probably set the world slowest “Carry a keg up 7 flights of stairs” record. Alas, we were greeted with a round of cheers from the bar when we finally got to the top – and welcomed with two pints of cold beer (much to the dismay of my pommy friend – warm beer lover – you fools are crazy!).

So – 2 free pints down, and being a Saturday night, we figured it was probably the best option to make an evening of it. I don’t think we actually made it into a club until about 1am, which is around about the time things start getting going – most things are empty until about midnight – if you go earlier you will be standing around wondering where anyone is. Needless to say it was quite a night – no need to go into any incriminating details here, but it finished up with a group of us singing along to a freak of a Swedish guy who was simply the worlds best human jukebox. You could name a song, and either he knew how to play it and sing the words perfectly, or he would strum a few cords before getting it right. He easily earned this “Worlds best Human Jukebox” title by playing – when randomly requested by a hammered Norwegian dude – a soundtrack from the ending credits of Aladdin the movie. Really cool way to finish an amazing night, watching the sun come up as Sven (forgotten his name) strummed out our favourite tunes on a dodgy old guitar. A side note here for the lake crew: he did slightly disappoint by not knowing ‘Nobody Likes a Bogan”, but redeemed by smashing out ‘Copperhead Road” and “Khe San’ flawlessly!

The next few days passed with Boos Boos loving her gastro and the closely located bathroom, and Doodles and Vasiles checking out the crazy capital of Bolivia. As we’ve mentioned before, they don’t follow road rules here, so the streets are a hectic mix of buses, taxis and collectives (mini vans which charge a set amount for a set route) all beeping, yelling and jockeying for position all over the place. Somehow though, they get through the intersections and don’t seem to crash often, which is amazing in itself.

Ever since reading the incredible story of Tomas in “Marching Powder”, the infamous San Pedro prison in La Paz was a must, so on Monday afternoon we took a stroll downtown to check it out (Boos Boos having felt a bit better and dying for some fresh air). We had read that the prison was shutdown, but the bevy of guards with shotguns at the entrance and the glimpses of prisoners inside told a different story. Apparently 2/3 of Bolivian cocaine is processed in this prison, and unfortunately for us, we found out that on Sundays if you hang around the front of the prison, you still get certain inmates who come out and run tours through the prison. We were really disappointed to miss that, so if you get to La Paz – make sure you check it out.

The other main reason for our coming to La Paz was to ride down the “Death Road” or Worlds Most Dangerous Road, which runs from La Cumbre (at 4800m), in the mountains above La Paz, down to Coroico (1100m) a small town which is in the jungle at the bottom of the mountain ranges.

The road is actually now safer than it used to be, because of a newer road having been built on a different route down the mountains which means the traffic on the old road is significantly less than before. Before they built the new road, on average 300 people died in bus or car accidents because at most points the road is only wide enough for one car and has no guard rails to stop them from falling off a 600m sheer cliff. Despite this only 18 people have died on push bikes in the last 12 years that the ride has been running, the most recent being an Israeli girl 22 days before we did the ride, apparently she was cleaning her goggles, hit a rock and went off the edge. There are a bunch of companies that do the ride; several have dodgy reputations for crap bikes and half assed safety procedures. We figured that we wanted to live through it so we spent a little extra money and went with Gravity Assisted Mountain biking, these guys were awesome, great bikes and our guide was really experienced and super pedantic about safety. The ride starts with an offering to Pachamama (mother earth) of 96% alcohol – a swig for us, a swig on the front tire and a swig on the ground for her.

The first 25km or so are on tarmac but it is all flat out downhill with incredible snow capped mountains and valleys around you.

After passing through a quick drug check point (they didn’t even check us so we got the heroin through easily) there was a sneaky 8km uphill that they neglected to tell us about. Luckily there was an option of riding it or getting in the bus. Of course all the macho boys wanted to do it and the girls got on the bus. So the race was on, last person to the top was to buy all the beer at the end. Funnily enough it started to piss down rain in the first kilometer, so add this to a dual suspension mountain bike, 8km of uphill and 4000m needless to say Boos Boos was glad to be sitting in the bus.

As usual the Aussies beat the Poms by a mile – earning some sweet beer in the process and gaining back some revenge from the devastating ping pong loss in Chile. From there it was straight onto the old road where it was conveniently pissing down rain and misty making our first 15km interesting to say the least. Boos Boos trailing behind had visions of becoming the next statistic. It was pretty cool because we were dropping so quickly the vegetation was changing every few minutes. Overall the ride was about 75km and took us 5 hours of sweet sweet downhill.

Fortunately for us we arrived unscathed at the final stop – La Sende Verde Animal Reserve. This place was setup to care for many of the animals that were rescued from the black market in La Paz where they are frequently sold for pets internationally and mistreated. Here it is the opposite of a traditional zoo, the animals live outside and humans are caged in huts. There were lots of crazy spider monkeys that run and jump up on you. So we spent the afternoon playing with the monkeys, unfortunately we didn’t bring money or sleeping gear as we definitely would have stayed for a few days.

Just before dark we piled back on the bus for what was promised to be the scariest journey of the day, going back up the old road in the minibus. But not before stopping to stock up on a delightful beverage know as Cuba Libre (Rum and coke) because our guide told us that the best way to do this trip was drunk, and since he had the next day off he was leading the charge, along with our Bolivian guide, Jose. Needless to say 3 hours later we arrive back in La Paz, Doodles was well boozed and proceeded to pass out rapidly on our last night in La Paz.

We had to get a riggle on as we only had 6 weeks to get to Colombia, so we jumped on a bus to Copa…Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca.

See you soon!

Peace and Love

Doodles and Boos Boos

The Journey to La Paz.

Well…. That was F*#KED! Excuse the French (never have understood that saying – can someone please explain?), but hold the judgement till you hear about our bus trip. Seriously Worst Bus Trip Ever. Simple.

We left you in Sucre all ready to jump in our comfy cama seats ready to curl up and sleep away the 14hrs to La Paz. It started well – we got the bus, found our seats, got comfy. In fact we were all giggling like school girls (well mostly Vasiles and Boos Boos – Doodles is a Man – he only fights people and drives utes ;)) about how incredibly good these seats were! Recline that seat, pull up the blanket, tuck the provided pillow behind your head, sit back and enjoy the ride…

Wrong. 2hrs later, the bus seems to be stopping a lot, and we aren’t going very fast? This is weird. Now we’re stopping. Sweet I need to pee anyway. Ah that’s better. Man its cold – we didn’t wear any warm clothes since we have this nice warm bus and great blanket.

1hr later: We still aren’t going anywhere. People are saying the bus is broken down (obviously), but the drivers haven’t said anything yet. Oh here they come. Yep its broken down. What?! Another hour until the replacement comes.

Another hour later: Shit man its cold. We should have worn warmer stuff – at least put shoes on, not thongs – Idiots! The bus is half an hour away? I thought it was only an hour an hour ago. Great. Awesome. Snuggle under this blanket – hopefully this new bus is good too.

The other bus is here? Great… No way… your kidding me?! That cant be our bus – it’s a mini bus?! I couldn’t fit my left leg in that f*@king bus! Man its cold. Ah well, should we bail out here and get another tomorrow? Nope – lets just toughen up and get on this thing. Hopefully they have blankets man I am freezing! Surprise surprise… No blankets. Did I mention it was chilly? VAMOS!

4hrs later: My god. I cant feel my legs. Or my fingers. Definitely not my feet – what are they again? This dickhead burger in front of me keeps trying to put his seat back. Dude – NO ES POSSIBLE! Im big ok – the seat wont go back further sorry. Is that snow out there? Boos Boos – is that snow? Its pretty white out there… and its soo cold. Its gotta be snow.

5hrs later: I still cant feel my legs. Least the suns coming up. Surely we have to be getting there soon. Man what a night. Yes we’re stopping. We’re here! What!? This isn’t La Paz? Where are we? Oruro – wheres that? WHAT!? Your joking… So we have to get off this bus, get on another, pay again, and endure another 3 & 1/2hrs to La Paz. Im putting shoes on. I need my feet back.

3 & 1/2hrs later: La Paz. We’re here. Find a hostel. That one? Taxi – ayer por favor. Oh your kidding me they are full. Where is another? There. Taxi man – ayer por favor. You have any rooms? Yep – oh GOD yes. Dump the bags, and sleep…

See you after a nap…

Peace and Love

Doodles and Boos Boos