The same day

August 8 continued…

I had the most relaxing sleep when I arrived to Hotel Utama on the north side of Copacabana. I slept till about 3 pm, but it was a dream induced jet lagged rest. I dreamnt that I would wake up at midnight wide awake and then my sleep schedule would be all off. Anyways, I woke a bit refreshed and hungry. It was cold. I was wearing a pair of long johns, a pair of pants, 2 pairs of socks, 3 shirts, and a tobagan. But, I was comfortable. I showered up when I woke and headed to the center of town, which is the street named 6 de Agosto – the day of the Bolivian independence. I exchanged some dollars – approximately 1 dollar is equivalent to 7.8 bolivianos. 25 bolivianos will get you a full meal and 40 bolivianos is sufficient for a night in a hostel.

For a late lunch I ate troucha – trout – at a side street restaurant. Lake Titicaca is full of trout, but before the early 1900s there were no trout in the lake. Some European placed some trout in the lake as an experiment and they just multiplied. The trout was great. After, I bought myself some hand woven Bolivian mittens and headed down to the lakeshore. On the way I stopped at la plaza Sucre where a Reggae band – of all things – was setting up to perform. There were 4 dread heads and a full ensemble – a guitarist, a bassist, 2 trumpeters, a drummer, and some hippie flailers. I never thought I would see a Reggae band in an area filled with indigenous Bolivians of Incan ancestry. They were pretty good. I especially liked their tune – “don’t never wanna work in the workin’ society.” The band, named Manana me chanto, was from all over – a couple of Italians, a Brazilian, an American, and some others.

I escaped the hippies and continued on my way to the shore. I was stopped once more by a girl named Katerine. She is from Germany, but spoke no English. Her Spanish was very good. She asked me how long I planned to stay in Copa and said she was looking for a hiking partner to trek from Copa to Yamaputata – a four hour hike. At Yamaputata you can catch a ferry to la isla del sol, an island on Lake Titicaca filled with Incan ruins. The problem though is that you need about 2 days to do this. I only had 1.5 days in Copa and was a bit tired to trek 4 hours at 13,000 feet. The alternative route is to take a 2 hour ferry from Copa to the island of the sun and spend half a day there to explore. I declined Katerine’s offer, but we talked for a bit. She is very cool. She is in her 2nd year in college in southern Germany, but took a year off to travel with her boyfriend in South America. Her boyfriend is currently studying in Chile and she has lived for 3 months with a family in Santa Cruz, a southeastern city in Bolivia. Before she arrived here she spoke no Spanish, but she now seemed fluent to me. We both agreed that being surrounded by a language is the best way to learn it. We said good bye, mucha suerte, and I walked along the shore.

There were still remnants of the August 6 independence day celebrations – firework wrappers, beer bottles, confetti, some families still parked in their kambees in the shoreline parking lot. The sun was slowly setting – el sol se pone. It was still cold. I took my photos and stopped in at an Americanized coffee spot to sip on mate de cocoa. This wasn’t a Starbucks, but it was close. Inside English rock blarred and the BBC World news was on the tellie. I sat outside and soaked in the mate de cocoa. It’s basically a pill of leaves from the cocoa plant and hot water. The cocoa plant in Bolivia is an ancient remedy and cooking ingredient, but has also been exploited. In the 70s with the cocaine boom in the States, Bolivian farmers were paid to grow massive amounts of the crop. It was then exported to Colombia where it was produced into cocaine and shipped to the world to use and abuse. These farmers were exploited and only saw a minute portion of the extreme profits made by many. Bolivia got a bad rap for their involvement and trade tariffs were enforced. Most recently the newly elected Evo Morales – the first indigenous president of Bolivia – has encouraged the growing and use of the crop for things outside of the drug world. It seems to make some Americanos shake their heads, but there’s a legitimate need and use for the crop and more importantly it’s a Bolivian cultural tradition. Mate de cocoa is delicious and is a remedy for the high altitudes. But, I don’t think I’ll be bringing any home anytime soon.

I sipped on my tea, wrote a bit, and ran into Katerine once again. We talked a bit more, sharing travel experiences and then invited another patron at the restaurant, who was solo, to join us. Her name was Paula and was a Marlboro Red chain smoking Argentinean actress. Paula had been traveling for 2 weeks all through Bolivia. The more I spoke with them both the more I realized I wished I had more time to explore. Sudamerica will definitely be a future travel spot for me. Paula was discussing how the movie business is all lies (mentiras). She said that there’s been several movies taking place in China and else where, but filmed all in Argentina. She also said that the movie 7 years in Tibet was all filmed in Chile and Peru. I was trying to be funny and told her that she was lying and that that was my favorite movie. I guess my humor, however, was lost in translation, because they both just looked at me like I was crazy. Allright, moving on, I thought, and changed the subject. They were both very cool and it was fun talking with them and practicing Spanish. We said our good byes and I went to my hotel and crashed.