Day 43: Puno to Bolivia

Every once in a while we forget we are in South America and then we have a day like today where there is no possible way to forget that fact. At 7am we woke up with Allison feeling quite ill and prepared for a day of traveling to Bolivia. The plan was to go to Copacabana on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, then stay one night on the Isla del Sol before traveling to La Paz. However, the day did not go as planned.

We crossed the border to Bolivia with no problems, thank God. They didn´t have customs at the border, which we found slightly odd. We just carried our backpacks by foot across to the other side. When we arrived in Copacabana, we bought ferry tickets for the island. We had what we thought was about 4 hours to kill so we went to a cafe and had tea and soup. Then we decided it would be a good idea to pay for our bags to be locked up at a hostel, so we wouldn´t have to carry them up a ton of steps on the island. We headed to the port at 1:30 to catch the ferry, but it left an hour earlier. The man told us that it was 2:30, because Bolivia is one hour ahead of Peru. Someone failed to tell us this at the border, so we missed our chance to go to the Sun Island. Thats when we decided to get our bags and the money for them back. The lady at the hostel told us that there will be a strike the following day blocking all modes of transit. That is when we decided to hop on a bus to La Paz. The bus cost $2 USD for the three hour trip. The driver stopped for 30 minutes to change tires while we were all on the bus. It appeared that they were actually making the tires, but we tried not to think about it too much.

All in all we made it to La Paz at 7 in the evening and ate dinner at the hostel.

...this is how you know you are in South America!