Lake Titicaca
I bought the perfect hat today. I look like the man from Del Monte but I don't care. It keeps the sun out of my eyes and the heat off my head. The perfect accessory for lazy stolls along the waterfront, copious amounts of wine consumption on the balcony, catnaps under the sun and even skinny dipping in the unbearably cold Lake Titicaca. But hat or no hat, Copacabana is proving to be the perfect place to do all these things and I have no intention of moving onwards anytime soon. I actually feel like I'm on vacation.* There's nothing much to do here except admire the extremely tranquil surroundings. The few streets lined with typical merchandise and western confectionery was quickly exhausted within a few hours whereas the church on the other hand was actually quite unique. The simplicty and beauty of the exterior warranted more attention than my usual reaction of "oh yes, look... another really ornate church." There's a handfull of decent restaurants and certainly no shortage of places to stay. The five of us picked a cheapy on the lakefront. Our room is on the top floor and from the balcony we have a great view of Titicaca, the highest navigatable lake in the world (3810m above sea-level if you're interested. I feel like my entries of late are riddled with a.s.l figures which may or may not be of interest but I suppose they're worth noting nonetheless). Ali and I are still traveling with Danielle, Jason and Gerard from the Salar de Uyuni trip. We are all starting to get to know each other a lot better so the past few days have been much more fun. When Jason found out about my hair cutting skills he asked me to cut his mop today. Of course I did a great job and Danielle couldn't resist taking some halarious pics of me in the process out on the balcony. So as we wile away the time drinking wine in unison to the lake's ebbs and flows, we discuss our future plans. It has been decided that a 3-day trek around Isla del Sol (an island in the lake not too far from Copacabana) would be a great way for me to prepare for Machu Picchu. With that in mind, I was determined to enjoy as much of this chillout time as possible.
*For those of you who laughed out loud at such a remark may want to adjust their opinions. Believe it or not, traveling for a long period of time is tough. Enjoyable yes, but difficult and far from being a vacation.
