Drago D21 The original Copacabana

Breakfast was an odd site as our group had shrunk to five. Joining us are Karen from outside London, and Ollie who has been travelling with Dragoman since Rio Carnaval.

Jumping on Mamasita the first hurdle was to find a road out of La Paz that was open and truck friendly. We had many quizzical looks from the locals as the mobile maps sent the truck up a steep hill with a dead end. The angle was above 45 degrees and it felt like an impossible task to get us down. Izzy and I started praying. Thank god David used to drive trucks for the army as he safley got us down. After an hour through market filled streets we made it to El Alto where the road promptly finishes as its still being built. Its guesswork to find a diversion.

Once we finally escaped the city it was 2 hours until we had the first glimpse of lake Titicaca the worlds largest lake at altitude. Going on for miles it truly looks more like a sea. Putting Dave and Mamasita on a barge where the driver was busy bailing out water (!), we passengers hoped on a small ferry boat and hoped he would make it across. Reunited in one piece we continued on to Copacabana.

A religious town with a large basilica Copacabana is also very touristy. We decided to climb up the hill to get views of the town below. Within a few steps we were reminded that despite the fact that the lake looks like a sea, we were definetly not at sea level. Taking it slow we continued up passing stations of the cross until the top. We had a beautiful view down to Copacabana where a brass band had started to play. By the time we were back down the band had packed up but we wandered around its pretty basilica.

At 7 we were marsheled over to Bistro Cafe where we met the infamous Fatima. She once helped Dragoman when they had a border problem, and she now runs the monopoly on a few of the dragoman activities. She served up an amazing trout and chocolate mousse meal.

Her son Leo was our guide for the next day so after a brief on our activities we set off to bed.Read more