wednesday, february 16, 2005 - copacabana, bolivia - 4:00 pm

all together now:

"her name was lola. she was a showgirl…"

yes, i am in copacabana. not that copacabana, but copacabana nonetheless.

this morning started very, very early in puno. we got up at 5 and headed to the harbor to take a private boat out to the islands of the uros, an indigenous group who live and work on islands that they build themselves in lake titicaca, just off the coast of puno.

the fact that it was just the three of us and these people was pretty amazing. we walked around one island, chatting with the locals and then took a reed boat to another. sunrise on the lake and the simple life of the uros made for a fantastic morning…even if it all happened before 7.

lake titicaca and the islands of the uros.

we then caught our bus to copa in Bolivia on the other side of the lake. this is the kind of ride i'd been waiting for. we sat amongst a group of fellow, and far heartier, travelers. i sat next to a girl from denmark by way of england, named marian who is in month 4 of her 9 month tour through equador, peru, boliva and brazil. she reminded me just how much other countries travel right and we just "squeeze it in." well, we talked for a bit and also started sharing maté***** with an argentinian couple in front of us, maxi and maria. olivia chimed in in spanish and the whole group kind of clicked. we told stories, discussed rock bands of the 70's and 80's and drank maté. it was great. and one cannot help but like maxi, a benicio del toro type with a "death before disco" t-shirt. it was a very good bus ride. we crossed the border with no incident and made our way to copa.

maxi, cade, maria, olivia, art. crossing the border

unsure of when or where we were going to meet my cousin, jeff, we got off the bus and started across the street.

a vague "eric" rang across the road and there he was. easy enough considering we had only met like once before and that was over a decade ago. it's been great to hang out with someone who knows this country and has a similar countenance as us.

it's raining now, so off to find an internet café.

+++++

wednesday, february 16, 2005 - copacabana - 10:50 pm

not so much relaxing, but fun nonetheless.

after an hour of so of chatting about life and the world, we set out to find dinner. the funny thing about copacabana is that overall, it's pretty lame. there are a handful of shops and restaurants, all of which we have seen already…at least twice. and everything is pretty much closed by 8 pm.

@ nemo's (maxi, jeff, art, cade, maria, olivia)

we walked this street a million times

short story shorter, we ran into maxi and maria and stumbled into nemo's pub. pizza and beer were had and we all had a great time. it is truly a joy to get to know amazing people from unfamiliar parts of the world. and in addition, jeff has really added a new dynamic to the group. it was another perfect meal.

tomorrow, we go out to isla del sol (the island of the sun) to do a lot of hiking. should be a challenging, beautiful and exhausting day, if the rain manages to stay away (oh by the way, it finally rained during the day here. so much for the weather forecast of rain everyday.) and you can rest assured that i will be bathing in sunscreen tomorrow.

*****maté is apparently the official drink of argentina and uruguay, although popular in much of the rest of south america. it is a tea made from various herbs and plants. it is, in itself, a sub-culture. i was personally fond of the maté de coca (made from the coca plant, whose by product is known mostly for its contribution to the hollywood party scene in the 1970's.)

prolouge - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - epilogue