Copacabana

Anna was still unable to move far from the bathroom so we were room-bound again. We are both getting cabin fever but on the bright side I have been racing through my kindle library this past week!

We did manage to venture out long enough to watch the sunset from another terrace bar and I had some nachos whilst Anna stuck to a liquid diet.

I attempted to improve my Spanish in the evening watching Over the Hedge and Pirates of the Caribbean.

As it's our last day in Bolivia, here are my thoughts of the country:

We've stayed much longer than we expected for a relatively small country. The landscape is absolutely stunning and extremely varied and I have some amazing memories. However altitude sickness has spoilt our time a great deal and I doubt I could be persuaded to return (apart from the jungle which wasn't ridiculously high in the sky). One advantage to this has been the shedding of most of our ski season weight, however I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a weight loss programme!

Another thing we disliked were the cold evenings and lack of sufficient heating. It effectively meant that as soon as the sun went down, we ran for hiding under our duvets and refused to move for the evening. Great for reading but it made the days feel very short.

It is probably just as well we lost our appetites for most of our stay as portion sizes are huge. Bolivians love their food and junk food and as a result are not the smallest of people.

The people move at snail speed and they will never give way on a pavement, apart from some young lads. I don't think this is distain for foreigners but rather they are in a world of their own. They are a very couply nation with younger couples everywhere holding hands and seeming besotted with each other. Compare this with our Spanish teacher and her friends who are divorced with kids and slate Bolivian men as old-fashioned and act like teenagers getting drunk and clubbing every weekend.

There are also the traditional ladies everywhere who have 2 long braids tied together with tassles, the typical hat and a puffy skirt which makes their hips look as wide as a bus. They carry everything, children included, in a sling across their backs and are generally more smiley.

Many stall holders have evidently missed their customer service training and seemed completely unfazed whether we bought anything from them or not. Whereas others are yelling and grabbing at us for our business and are very chatty. They appear less friendly than the previous two countries and rarely smile at strangers, however all the Bolivians that we spent time with were absolutely lovely.

Bolivia wasn't as cheap as expected. It wasn't massively cheaper than the other 2 countries we've been to, apart from bus travel. The Jeep and Amazon tour were pretty pricey. The only cheap tour we found was in Copacabana for about £3 for the whole day but sadly we were too sick to go on this!

In conclusion, I'm very glad I've been but even more glad to be moving on! Another few stops in Peru and then we will be heading away from the Andes :)Read more