Country #3!

We are on our way to our third country! Bolivia!

First stop: Copacabana, Bolivia

We had to get up early yet again to catch a bus to Copacabana. About 2 and 1/2 hours in we hit the border of Peru and Bolivia. We had to run around through a number of buildings to go through declaration of goods and immigration. Us luckly U.S. Citizens get to pay a hefty entry fee for the visa since we charge Bolivians the same thing to enter into our country. Once that was taken care of, we jumped back on the bus and into Copacabana.

Copacabana is a sleepy beach town apparently. It is scenic, nestled between two hills at 3900 meters or close to 13000 feet. We were confused as to why it was slow since it´s supposed to be high season right now. It was actually kind of nice to have a small town be so sleepy because we took it easy and we weren´t bothered very much. After all the organized tours in Cuzco, Machu Picchu and Puno, we decided to take it easy and leisurely spend our time as we wished. So the first day we walked along the lakefront, had some ice cream and then climb a short mountain that overlooks the city. At the top of the mountain was an incredible view of the lake and the entire town of Copacabana. For dinner we found a great traditional Bolivian restaurant--Jon had a whole grilled trout that was stuffed with ham, tomato and onions.

The next day, we decided to go to Chani, a small side town only 4km away from Copacabana. The road to Chani is flat, so we wanted to rent bikes, which would give Ching Jen lots of good practice (since the first time she road a bike was a year ago). However, the bike rental shops were closed, and thus we walked to Chani. The walk to Chani was pretty boring and dusty, but once there, we found a small bay with a beach. We took our shoes off and hung out on the beach for several hours, playing games and eating our boxed lunch. We had the beach to ourselves the whole time which was great and made it relaxing. For dinner we both had trout; Ching Jen had coconut curry with hers and Jon had another stuffed trout. Tomorrow we head to La Paz.