Copacabana (no not that one, the real one!), Tuesday 30th August

Interesting fact number 1 - although we've spent quite a lot of time telling family and friends that no we haven't grown wings and ended up near Rio and that yes there are two (at least I suspect) Copacabanas in South America, it transpires that our one is in fact the original. It has a beautiful cathedral and was typically the focus of pilgrimages (alongside its companion the Isle del Sol).  People still bring all manner of moving vehicles to the church square to get blessed before a journey. As far as we can see this involves hanging decorations that look like an enthusiastic 5 year old has given the car a brightly coloured charm bracelet, some of the charms being fake dollar bills.  Feeling relieved that, all those decorated cars we passed coming across the border in both directions, didn't actually mean we'd managed to miss some massive festival, we took a look inside the church and said a few prayers. (despite the slow progress when we left the city, our bikes managed to escape being decorated, to their (and Ant's) relief. They would definitely not look cool with rainbow crape paper between their ears).
In the church yard, as you might expect, were several beggars. This raised an interesting moral question for me that I feel I should share. When you are lucky enough to take a break from work and travel the world, you feel you should help the world in some way too. If that means handing out a few bolivianos to people who have sat in the sun all day hoping for some charity then so be it. But ladies with disabled children screams either of desperation (of course we'll help) or exploitation (I'm not going to support and encourage this). Of course you give the benefit of the doubt, but having seen crowds of people gather in a square a few days ago in Ayavari to cheer and clap (and possibly laugh?!) whilst watching a very disabled person (with no legs) hobble around on the pavement, you get the impression opinions towards disability might be very different here. (Ant thought (hoped) it might have been some sort of healing the sick type of show, I'm not so sure, it felt uncomfortable to watch even though we only got a glance as we scurried quickly (and probably in a typically British and awkward fashion) passed. So to support a family in need of help, or promote exploitation of severely disabled children... I leave that thought with you as for me there is no clear solution.
After much deliberation as the alarm went off at 6.50am, should we bother to get up on our second rest day and do our own mini Isla del Sol pilgrimage, or should we just sleep, we did the comical thing of deciding to sleep, spending the next hour feeling guilty we'd decided to sleep and being unable to sleep, got up, and by now had a mad rush to get some breakfast and packed lunch and still make the 8.30 ferry. Somehow we managed this and were amused to be the only gringos crazy enough to turn up in shorts and down jackets (you may laugh at us and yes it may be icy now my friends and yes right now we may be more than a little cold, but just you wait until lunch time when you're hiking across a big old rock in the midday sun at altitude, you'll sure wish you weren't wearing your 3 thermal layers, super layered hiking trousers and questionably heavy hiking boots then!).
Somehow (and I'm still not sure how we managed this) we bought a ticket for the MOST degraded, dilapidated excuse for a boat that existed (no seats just planks and padding). This was no mean feat as there must have been at least ten plush (relatively speaking) boats to chose from. Anyway our bed was made, we hopped in the boat and the driver closed the window* to allow us to warm up. *window is a lose term for a pane of glass that at some point had been broken in two. The top segment was now placed at the bottom of the main segment, except when the window needed to be closed, then it was balanced precariously back in its original position and held with masking tape!
So the next two hours were not the most comfortable, but we got to the island (despite the creaking and lurching of the boat everytime it hit a wave!) and started the 8km hike up and over the 9km long (still haven't quite managed to square that circle!) island. At this point we were thankful for two things: 1- that we'd actually got up to see this beautiful place, clear blue lake water all around, with hills and huge white snowy mountains rising up in the distance; 2-that we had our shorts and t-shirts (said smugly as a French couple walk passed us trying desperately to roll up their trousers and delayer!!).
So the walk was fairly knackering, (I guess we can cycle at altitude now but not hike!), but it was stunning and well worth it. We managed to get back in good time for the return boat home (not quite enough for a beer or two in the port as we'd originally hoped for, but plenty of time to get water and tickets) and this time made quite sure we bought a ticket for a boat that actually had two engines and seats!
Back on shore we found a lovely Mexican restaurant (trip advisor number 2) to have a tasty and plentiful supper before getting an early night sleep in preparation for the start of our trip to La Paz tomorrow. Oh and the restaurant owner got super excited to show us the beautiful sunset over the lake... Man was it beautiful... If only we took the camera with us... Phone pics will have to suffice.