Lake Titicaca - Copacabana, Bolivia

When Mick arranged the dates for Copa, it was purely to fit into the journey – he had no idea we were arriving on the first day of the annual fiesta/carnival, and what a shin-dig it turned out to be!!!

But we shall start at the beginning – the drive from La Paz to Copa; the city sprawls on for miles across the El Alto plain before finally giving way to pretty rural scenery, though sadly, it was pretty cloudy and rainy, so not great pix.

 

The driver treated double yellow lines as guidance, preferring to keep to the left-hand side of the road, which was generally free of traffic, except when it was coming the other way. This made for an interesting drive.

The highlight of the journey was the ferry crossing at Tiquina, the villages being St Pedro de Tiquina on one side and St Pablo de Tiquina on the other!  It was quite tricky reversing off, given the big gap down the middle, but our guy had done it before!

 

Approaching Copa, we stopped for petrol and got a clue of what we were in for…..





The hotel was charming, though we wished our room was not on the third floor, no lift, as we both found the hilly streets and our stairs a challenge at over 3800m altitude.  However, the views and sunsets were spectacular, so worth the effort!

So off we set to explore, starting with the very lovely cathedral.. The front has an awning adorned with teddy-bears, which struck us as a bid odd.Teddy bears featured heavily in the costumes later, too – not sure why!!

 

At the street by the main entrance we found the main dignitaries’ stand, and preparations for the fiesta, with the road strewn in a wonderful pattern of flower petals and crowds gathering and staking their ring-side seats:

We strolled through the main square, and grabbed a street-stall empanada – it was sooo delicious. They are like a Cornish pasty but a bit smaller, and with olives and hardboiled egg in as well as meat and veg – yummy!!

and on the far side, we came across our first set of dancers –  what a sight it was!  The banner for the particular town comes first, followed by the main men, then the “top”  couple, then the fabulously-clad ladies, more men,  lively youngsters,  and finally The Band!!  Over the rest of the day, the costumes got wilder, the dancing more energetic (assisted by copious intake of beer and hooch – well, it’s thirsty work! – and much chewing of coca leaves), and a grand time was had by all, dancers, spectators, kids, vendors, judges……and us!

The bands deserve a special mention – dressed in suits and hats, “best” shoes, marching in the sun carrying a huge tuba/drums/crashing cybals takes some strength and endurance! Each band is about 30 strong, and the tunes are all much the same, incredibly loud – but fun!

As evening turned to night, the dancing went on, with the added fun of rockets and fireworks

The costumes seemed to get even more bizarre, with gorillas and pandas, and a man dancing with what appeared to be a live snake (he certainly held the head tightly the whole time!) thrown in to the pot too…..

And then the heavens opened, bowler hats were covered with plastic bags, the feathers became bedraggled and  fairly quickly, the crowds scattered, us included!  We decided it was time for supper, but managed to miss the one street of “gringo” cafes, so ended up at the local equivalent of Kentucky Fried Chicken – and very welcome it was:

Dog – WTF??  Any chicken to spare?

And on home, past the main bus square with three different pop groups competing for attention….. luckily, our hotel was a short walk along the beach, and we slept soundly…..