La Paz- Copacabana

Weather: Absolutely freezing in Copacabana

Llama Count: Back in full swing... Inordinate amounts spotted from bus window in the Scrub land between La Paz and Copacabana.

I spent the last morning in La Paz wandering round one of the central churches, listening to some very unusual theology from the guide, apparently St Francis was the second coming of Jesus. To be fair  I could see it might seem like that from a Bolivian perspective, their country was completely dominated, and to a large extent run by the Franciscan order for quite a few centuries. The Virgin Mary was also referred to as Pachumama, with odd representations of the moon around her inferring whether she was pregnant or not. However, nothing compared to the morbid and macabre collection of life sized wax statues that surrounded the church, complete with real human hair.

Then it was time to leave for Copacabana, a port on the edge of Lake Titikaka. By this point I was travelling with three french- Pierre Alexandre and Alizee. I wouldn't say we were the most organised group. We got to the bus station to discover that all the tourist buses had left an hour ago, and our only option was to go up to the cemetery area and take a local bus. Have since discovered Lonely Planet considers this method of transport to be incredibly dangerous, and to be avoided at all costs due to a number of incidents. However, it fails to explain what these incidents are. Having safely reached Copacabana I can speculate it was probably one of the following.

1. The locals mug/ drug/ kidnap you. Pierre and Alexandre obviously put them off this idea, or possibly it was Alizee, who will take any opportunity to argue in Spanish.

2. The bus breaks down and you are stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a Llama for company for a freezing night. Luckily the punctures held off today.

3. When you take a ferry across Lake Titikaka the bus just drives off (with all you luggage  instead of waiting for you on the other side. (You have to take a separate ferry to the bus across the lake.) To be fair this almost happened. Thankfully even with a small back pack on I can run quite fast and Alizee can shriek in Spanish,

4. The chicken in the crate next to you escapes and gives you bird flu. Thankfully said chicken stayed put, and I can thank my lucky stars I am inoculated against that particular disease anyway as at some point my Dad told the government I was a poultry worker.

5.  The bus goes off the road and crashes down a cliff. This is standard Bolivian bus behavior anyway.

6. The bus driver recklessly overtakes into oncoming traffic. Again see above.

Thankfully Lonely Planets worst fears failed to come to fruition and we reached Copacabana in one piece. Just in time eat some enormous, gigantic trout for dinner.