But most of us probably know that the town of Copacabana sits on the shores of Lake Titicaca somewhere in Bolivia... But if you are like me, thats about all you know.
And what I didnt know, and what most of you probably didnt know is that its actually a very small town... And its absolutely full of tourists!
In fact, Copacabana is about the closest thing to (the town where I was staying for a few months) San-Pedro on lake Atitlan in Guatemala that I have come across in my travels...
Both are small towns with strong local culture.
Both are located on the shores of beautiful lakes.
Both are in tropical Latin America and are Spanish speaking.
Both are very much "tourist towns" with many bars and restaurants and tour companies etc.
Both are full of young tourists whose main focus seems to be to live as cheaply as possible, stay as long as possible away from their home countries, party as much as possible, and make the most of whatever drugs (nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, cocain etc) they can get their hands on. :)))
Its amazingly similar!
There are differences of course. The main one being that Copacabana is located at 3800m ASL (compared to San Pedro at about 1600m ASL) which makes it quite cold at night, but it also means that the sunshine has a very strong "bite" during the day.
For my story, I arrived in the little town after riding for a couple of hours and having no problems at all in crossing the Peru-Bolivia boarder that morning. Note, this makes the Peruvian boarders the "friendliest" and easiest of all the countries that I have visited in Latin America so far :)
But, when I rode in to the town, apart from being a bit surprised at how small it was, it was also clear that something was going on! There were many cars and trucks about the place with flowers decorating them... and when I got to the central plaza, it was "cordoned off", and there were several stages set up and bands playing loud modern music (their music and rhythms conflicting mildly with each other).
After finding a place to park and more importantly, some liquid to drink (you dehydrate so quickly at these high altitudes!), I asked what was up, and it was the towns (and regions) largest festival of the year... The celebration of the "Virgin"... Of course!, what else would it be! :)))
Anyway, the decorated cars (from all over the region) were all being driven up to the church and being blessed... This is the local version of accident insurance for the next year!...
Fair enough I guess, so off I went and bought a few flowers and decorated the bike. Then I went to the church and had myself and my trusty stead blessed :)
And while I was there at the church, and it was a day of celebration, and there was a little girl who seemed a bit upset at something, I decided to bestow on her the small gift of a little "cuddly toy" duck :) It had been travelling with me from Vancouver.It was given to me by a friend for the express purpose of being a gift to some child as I saw fit. I figured I would have found the "right" opportunity long before this, but it hadnt happened, and it was looking like the duck may be getting a ride all the way South to have a visit with the penguins in Patagonia... But this seemed like the right occasion; So, I-Fan, your duck has a new home :)))
Then I did what every one else in the town seemed to be doing... I went and had a beer :)
But I just had the one... The locals were "really going for it!". It was about 2pm, and already, there were large numbers of them staggering about the place... Usually in twos and threes. And it wasnt just the men... There were just as many of the women in the same "condition"... Actually, while it seemed that the men were mostly drinking out of plastic cups,the women seemed to be clutching the full size beer bottles :)))
And plenty of them seemed to be making immediate use of that "blessing" as there were plenty of cars and trucks meandering erratically about the roads too!
And, with all that intake of fluids, there was the unavoidable outlet of fluids too, and people (both men and women) were "releaving them selves" just about anywhere... Truck and car wheels, lamp posts, trees, even the big speakers for the bands were suitable targets!
The streets were literally running with the stuff... I was definitely going to need to wash my shoes before I packed them!...
But that solved its self when it started to rain at about 6pm and continued steadily all night. It didnt stop the revelry though... They kept that up till the wee hours; But it did clean the streets, and my shoes :)
But, they were all a very merry lot, and processions of them would come dancing down the streets with singing and music and prancing and costumes; And there was plenty of dancing in the streets to the music from the bands in the square... A good time was being had by all.
The tourists who are probably usually the rowdy ones seemed very tame in comparison to the locals. There were quite a few who joined in, but this was very definitely an event for the "locals".
I didnt party too hard, and the next morning there were fluffy white clouds in a blue sky and I rode off towards the big city of LaPaz through the country-side and around the shores of the lake... And it is truly beautiful with the islands and the farm land and the surrounding snow capped peaks :)
And there was another small ferry crossing to get across the narrows of the larger and smaller sections of this very large lake. I was smart this time, and I reversed the bike down onto the barge so that getting it back off on the other side was easy :))
And then I rode on to LaPaz...
