Copacabana is a small town in a beautiful setting on the edge of Lake Titicaca near the Bolivian border with Peru. It nestles between two hills and although it doesn't have the sand, glamour or burnt bodies of its more famous namesake in Rio, it's still a very nice place to stop for a couple of nights. Nearby in the lake is Isla de Sol, a mystical island of wonderful panoramas, ancient ruins and locals who will try to charge you every couple of hundred metres for walking over their land. They'll even try to sell you tickets to places they know you have no intention of going. The people of Copacabana itself are no better. They've had years to work out of to mercilessly rip-off tourists by, for example, blatantly overcharging and hoping you won't notice or quoting you one exchange rate then actually using another. Still, the street dogs are pretty friendly (for half an empanada).
There's a clearly defined gringo route through this part of the world and we keep running into the same people as we follow it up the continent. For all the minor mistakes we've made, it's always good to run into Brian the American who seems to be having an even harder time than we are. For one thing, every time he crosses a border he seems to have to pay over $100 just to get into the country (because that's what the USA charges the Bolivians, Chileans, etc to get a visa). He also seems to be fleeced more often by the locals because he doesn't shop around. We can always spot him a mile off because the only thick piece of clothing he has is an enormous silver puffer jacket he bought in New Zealand. It makes him stand out some what against the local Inca ruins. Hi Brian, if you're reading this...
On Sunday we crossed over into Peru and took a bus ride to Cusco. After all the promises of rape, pillage and torture at the hands of masked bandits apparently common on Peruvian roads, the trip was largely uneventful if a couple of hours late. We took a taxi to the hotel, avoiding being throttled in a knife attack as all Peruvian taxi drivers are prone to be complicit in and went to bed, fortunate to still be alive.
This is my second visit to the Inca capital but Dan's first. It's not a bad place to come to twice, although it's very expensive. I do drone on about the costs quite a lot so i won't mention them again except to say i haven't completely ruled out remortgaging the house. Cusco is certainly one of the most pretty towns in South America with its nicely preserved colonial architecture, grassy squares and mountain setting. There's everything a traveller would want here to take it easy for a few days before pushing on. That said, the food has been underwhelming to say the least, with a wet chili, poor service and utterly flavourless steak. Dan had the Guinea Pig one night. It was presented as billed in the menu, half an animal cleaved right down the middle with half it's head still attached, teeth an' all. It had the constitution of an old granny's handbag and there wasn't a single knife in the restaurant that could penetrate the skin. In the end he had to pick it up to eat it. It put me off my food just watching the show across the table.
We did Machu Picchu on Tuesday and it was still pretty amazing third time around. They've permanently shut the train station in Cusco now, so you have to get a coach 12km out of town to catch the train. This is a shame because the repeated switching back of the train on the way out of the steep Cusco valley was part of the fun of the trip. Our pick up wasn't particularly well organised and we only got to the station with minutes to spare. The guide was ok but we couldn't climb up the nearby mountain for the really good views this time as they've limited the number of people who can go up each day. To be honest, this was a theme repeated throughout our visit to Cusco. The authorities have restricted where and when you can go a great deal in the last five years. You can no longer climb over the ruins almost unfettered like before, but are herded in narrow corridors along pre-defined paths. I can understand why they would do this as some of the sights must have been being seriously damaged by all those tour groups trampling over them. However, it does detract quite a lot from the experience, especially as they haven't made alternatives available (such as raised platforms so you can see the carvings and markings on the top of the rocks you were once allowed to climb up to see).
We now have one more place left in South America before we start our very long trip home - Arequipa.
Rich.
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