19-20.08.24
I was surprised when we (Alex) were travel planning to find out that there are multiple Copacabanas beyond the famous beachy-budgie-smuggler-enthusiast area of Rio de Janeiro. The small, lakeside town on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca is one of them and boy was it an experience, albeit with fewer budgie-smugglers on account of the altitude and winter weather. Actually, fun fact for you, the more famous Brazilian Copacabana was actually named after this one. Why, I can’t imagine.
We arrived at a central area where all the buses go from, but it’s not a bus station. We walked the short distance to the hostel which is… rustic, for want of a better word. As with so many buildings there seems to be a central void, presumably for ventilation, that opens into the room via a window. We’ve seen this before in bathrooms but never with a full window to access it. This one is filled with building rubble and timber.
The shower setup was… interesting… and not at all a fire/electrocution hazard. Presumably it’s your own deep-fried body that heats up the water. Needless to say in our one night at this establishment we preferred to go stinky rather than get electrocuted.
To be fair to the void window, the window letting light in was glass-block bricks, popular in bathrooms of the 90s and innovative house design of the 70s. We headed into town to make use of a cash point, as most places only seem to accept cash here. Our first attempts were fruitless, as not one of the three cash points accepted Mastercard. We thus had to return to the scary room to get my Visa.
This done, we returned to the first cash point and tried again. Success! But then horror, as once we had taken the money (here, whether you get your money or card back first is completely at random), the screen went entirely blue and it didn’t give me back my card. Which is our only Visa card. And some places in South America only accept Visa (top tip, that). Luckily Alex did not panic and just pressed cancel on the keypad, which returned my card to me. This happened both times we took money out. Fun! Not stressful at all!
There were many interesting things to note in Copacabana, Bolivia. As we went to get a Bolivian SIM card (it’s one of the few countries my O2 plan doesn’t cover), which in itself was a relatively easy, albeit bureaucratically over-complicated system (only Alex was allowed to go to pay for the SIM, despite me explaining that I was effectively the translator)… anyway on our way there we passed the main square and Cathedral of the town, which was pretty beautiful. But outside were multiple stores selling what I can only describe as “naff plastic catholic tat”. The purpose of much of these wares were seemingly to decorate cars, taxis, buses, vehicles of any sort. As Alex put it, it was like “Pimp my Ride – Catholic edition”.
There must have been some sort of event, as there appeared to be official photographers. Maybe a pageant? I wonder who won.
As we continued to wander about, we also noticed an abundance of shops and street stalls (or people with a blanket on the floor) selling much of the same stuff. Often, it was enormous bin bags of giant puffed corn, and other puffed corn snacks that looked like polystyrene packing peanuts. I had many an intrusive thought about just taking a running jump into one of the enormous piles of the stuff.
Another interesting factor of what appears to be a common Bolivian business model, is that most of these stalls and stores selling identical things were unattended. At one point we were trying to buy some travel snacks and we actually couldn’t buy them because there was no one to give our money to. We just want to exchange goods for cash!
This business model continued when trying to book a) an excursion to “Isla del Sol” and b) a bus to La Paz for the following day. Huge numbers of different companies, many people shouting next to buses “La Paz La Paz La Paz” lots of people shouting “Isla del Sol”. A very saturated market, but seemingly nowhere you could book both at once, at least no where that was open/manned. We did eventually find one that we had marked on the map, and, once the proprietor turned up from wherever she had been sitting down the road with a friend, we were able to book both.
It seems most places close for lunch, so prior to that, we had gone for a little drinky at a lakeside establishment and, as I was hungry having not had breakfast, I decided to order a plate of chips, which looked very alluring on the picture menu. I was imagining some crispy golden French fry style chips. Imagine my disappointment when the most anaemic, oily chips turned up.
Really didn’t help that they also tasted remarkably like pond-water. My only guess is that they were fried in the same oil used to fry fish.
That wasn’t our only interesting dining experience. We later went for dinner at the establishment with the highest Google Maps rating (this has had mixed success on the whole but what ya gonna do?). Given our general impressions of this unusual town, it was fine but hardly gourmet, and it was one of those menus that has a suspiciously large number of items on it that can’t possibly be easily sustainable. Being right next to the lake, I went for grilled Trout with lemon again. In spite of our proximity to one of the main trout sources, I wouldn’t say this was the freshest fish I’ve had, but it was fine. Alex went for a rogue lasagne which was surprisingly good, apparently.
The general ambience of the restaurant was interesting. There was a TV linked up to the sound system playing a wide array of music videos and live concerts. Initially it began with Boney M’s back catalogue of live performances. The 70s were a magical time. They moved seamlessly into the 80s with lots of Modern Talking, complete with orange tans and improbable hair. My favourite song was one called “Geronimo’s Cadillac” and another in which they drove onto stage in classic 80s muscle cars and proceeded to sit on the bonnets to perform the songs. The 80s were also magical. A golden era of music performance. The restaurant then clearly fancied a change of pace and went for a full live set of a techno DJ whose name I have forgotten.
A place of interesting experiences to say the least. We then returned to our freezing room and rock hard bed and pillows to watch BoJack Horseman on Alex’s iPad, before going to sleep. Not that we knew it then, but the following day was going to be a big day.