I liked the lake a lot. Coming from the coast of Scotland I feel at home by large bodies of water. In my opinion Titicaca is almost as good as Lake Atitlan, Guatemala - the only difference is Copacabana is a tourist town. I prefer to be surrounded by locals. Most visitors at the lake turn up for a couple of days then zoom off to Cuzco or La Paz without taking a look around at what else is on offer!
Besides visiting La Isla del Sol or La Luna there’s at least couple of other things to do. There’s the 12 km walk to the end of the peninsula (my friend Helen and I cheated, we took a taxi to the reforestation project, then when we got to the end managed to catch a bus back) - which I think is better than the 3 hour walk you do on the island, although the views out from the island of the snowcapped mountains are fantastic. And there’s the climb up to the top of the nearby hill or the walk along the beach.
Copacabana itself is mainly just a couple of streets selling all sorts of tourist crap and restaurants selling average food. The important things to note is there’s no bank, so bring enough money to survive for a few days. In the 5 days I was there (yes, that long!) I only found one good place to eat - that’s up on the hill at the Copula hostel. It’s the most expensive place to stay in town, but it’s run by a Frenchman and his wife so the food is naturally good. And the full-day boat ride took 2.5 hours to get there and 1.5 hours to get back, a little longer than it should have taken. I love being on the water, but I was getting seriously bored on the way back.
I didn’t stay there because I prefer to slum it. Instead, I stayed in the Hostal Center, which I would recommend (great shower) except for two drawbacks: there’s no toilet seat in the bathroom. The place must have around 40 rooms but no toilet seats anywhere to be found. And as it right on the plaza where the taxi and bus drivers hang out I got woken up every morning by them shouting “Kasani Kasani Kasani” and tooting their horn like there was no tomorrow.
As I arrived before my friend Helen, I checked out a few places for her and decided to take her down to the Hotel Mirador which has a spectacular view of the lake through a huge arch window. She, unlike me, is not the sort to slum it. Unfortunately, what I didn’t notice was they were adding three extra stories to the original building. Imagine the bang going on. She soon moved out.
On our final night in town before we went our separate ways, we ate up at the Copula while watching a DVD. It felt like I was back home again. Well, almost.
