COUNTRYSIDE… LAKE TITICACA
Lets leave the BigCity and enter in the countryside… well… we are not really prepaired but neither surprised… the situation is sad.
Much more worse than in La Paz. People are poor and basically live in a top of a rubbish hill. Obviously nobody is collecting the rubbish (the normal one, i dont dare to think about recycling here) – so it covers everything.
Even if u find a bin on the street – probably someone is coming to empty it on the border of the village (as Gigi and Gabor saw it today when a man stopped with his car and threw bags of sh*t to the local stream). People do not think.

And people are rude. VERY F*CKIN RUDE! I mean like literally everyone. They deal with u if its necessary – cause u want to pay for some service or some food or anything – but they dont look into your eyes, hardly want to answer at all.
As they would have better things to do but talk to u.
For dinner i wanted to buy this local fresh cheese i saw in a few corners being sold by old granmas… so as an adventure just put my shoes on and get out to find it.
Gigi came with me and after a couple of streets (Copacabana is not a massive city) we found 3 women sat on the pavement. One of them had 3 pieces of this cow-milk cheese. With all my respect, spanish language knowledge and ass licking smiling eyes was trying to buy the smallest one. It was hard – but i got it. With a tiny smile with granmas face.

Happened the same with 4 piece of bread – the lady didnt even look at me, answered because it was a must… i just wonder why they are like this? Cause its always a possibility to hate someone (black, white, clever, stupid or talkig other language…) BUT… If u know that u are living from travellers (i dont wanna use the word turist with reason) and they are the only chance to sell your products – cause locals will never by… u should think before kill us just with your eye. We leave our money with u, in your country hoping that it helps something.
We – travellers – really dont want any ass-licking kindness (like somewhere happens in Asia) but a minimum respect. Dont make me feel sorry to buy your stuff from your shop and pay the amount what u asked (without bargain). This country has a lot to learn.

 

COPACABANA
Surprisingly big city – approx. 54.000 the population – however it does look small. Not much to do or see. It has a little hill to climb, the view is amazing from up there u can see the whole harbour. Locals coming to do this Cerro Calvario by religious reasons, light a candel, pray for big house and nice car and wishing good luck.

After that… a couple of streets which are more interested than beautiful… and u can ended up in a big square in front of the Moorish style Cathedral whats quite impressive. Another interesting thing happens in this square – the ritual of blessing cars. Its a bit funny for us – they decorate the cars with flowers and ribbons (like in a wedding) when the priest comes to give his blessing with a brush and somekindof strange liquid (smells wine). FUNNY. REALLY FUNNY. Worth a GoPro definitely.

 

The whole city is just too turistic – but in a bad way… cause local people want to adapt their restaurants, bars, pubs to the “western stereotype” without having the proper knowledge doing it. For example me and Gigi love coffee… and we wanted to have one in an afternoon… well, the Bolivian coffee itself exists and its good but here people dont drink coffees (just coca mate) and missing the ceremony of a coffee break. Still they call their places as a “cafe bar” having million types of coffees and frappes on the menu without having a grinder and a single espresso machine!!!
So u need to wait like 30 minutes for a cafe con leche – cause the poor waiter boy has no f*ckin clue even how to turn on the machine and let the milk gets burned badly… we knew its not his fault, they just should not offer something what they dont know how to procceed – and we should not expect anything if we know it simply can not happen.

Or… our hotel… hehehehe… was funny… after travelling all day and reached our destination they let us know that the hot water runs just from 7-9am and 19-21pm. Ok, accepted. BUT:…
19:00: no hot water
19:10: no hot water
19:20: no hot water
19:22: we went down for dinner
20:10: Gigi came up to have a shower – with lots of boiling hot water
20:30: i came up to have a shower
20:31: checking the tap: NO HOT WATER. NOTHING
20:32: F*CKING ANGRY
The End – without happy ending. And the problem again is not the fact that there is no hot water – it happened million times before (in our 3days trip in the mountains and desserts for example). The problem is that they make u pay for something what eventually u dont get. And this makes us upset.

If u say that the breakfast is included in the price and its available from 7:00am – i want my muesli with coffee at 7:01am. Dont come with idiot excuses at 7:45 that sorry, hm, this and that happened etc etc – like at Cordoba, when the guys were partying all night at New Years Eve and all forgot to buy some bread and butter. However the breakfast was included so u expected. Dont bullshit around, we pay the price.
If u can not provide breakfast in the exact time in the morning, or wi-fi internet, or hot shower or anything… DONT OFFER. Easy lesson.
Conclusion of Copacabana: “Sihanoukville was million times better – even if i was vomiting all the time” – was Gigi·s statement. We dont really understand why the Lonely Planet overrates that much.

 

ISLA DEL SOL
We booked a little tour to go and see the biggest island at the Lake Titicaca. Wanted to go alone with a normal transit – but the bolivians are clever enough to organize in a way that u need a tourist office to a tour and pay for them. The reason in this case is that there is 2 main attractions in the island: first inka ruins at North and second ruins at South. The distance is too big so u cant go to one side of the island by boat and crossing thru to check the other one (unless u sleep on the island). They managed to launch boats just twice, from 8:30 and 13:30. No way that u can do the whole island seeing all the ruins and coming back in the same day.

Thats why we needed a tour which brings to the Northern point in the morning to see the ruins then picks up and takes us to the Southern point. All in one day. Wasnt even too expensive – 35 boliviano each. But just to show how unorganized here – no signs show the way to any of the ruins so u can easily get lost between the paths and run out of time before the boat launch again. This happened with us on the South side of the island. Anyway. Was a good trip – even if we started with heavy rain – and got sunny weather.
Tomorrow we catch a bus and crossing thru Puno to reach Cusco. Juheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :) Just get the f*ck out of here!