At the Copa, Copacabana!

No, not the Copacabana that Barry Manilow famously serenaded – this is the original Copacabana in Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Copacabana beach in Brazil was named after the Bolivian original following the tale of a group Brazilian fishermen who were caught in a terrible storm on the lake and were apparently saved by a vision of the statue of the virgin Mary from the town’s church.

Copacabana nestles on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in South America, and, at 3812 masl, “The highest navigable lake in the world”. This claim to fame is now seared into our consciousness, as one is often reminded of it around town. It seems to be a claim built on thin ground. Navigable by what vessel? Surely one can paddle across the shallowest of ponds in an open canoe? Indeed we ourselves have recently seen lakes that were certainly higher in the Andes – Lagunas Blanca and Verde between San Pedro de Atacama and Uyuni are good recent examples.

Isla del Sol

Regardless of the validity of Lake Titicaca’s bona fides, it is a spectacular spot housing an abundance of ancient Inca history on its shores and islands, and lays claim as the birthplace of the Inca civilization. It is also home to the entirety of Bolivia’s naval fleet, as Bolivia has been a landlocked nation since the War of the Pacific of 1879 when Chile expanded its territory north up the coast – a touchy subject in these parts. The largest island in the lake is Isla del Sol, which was central to Inca culture as it contained the Inca temple to the revered sun gods. We took the hour boat ride here and made the short hike along the coastline. Along the way we took in the recently restored Templo del Sol, several small villages and hillsides offering spectacular views across the lake. Notably from here we could clearly see Isla de la Luna which is where Incan women were taken to be trained in wifely skills before being paired off with Incan men.

The Blessing of the Cars

A dominant feature within Copacabana is the huge white Basilica of our Lady of Copacabana, a 17th century Spanish colonial building containing the image of the Virgen de Copacabana. In a mix of traditions, this virgin was carved by a local Quechua artist and wears the clothing of an Inca princess. It is one of the most important churches in Bolivia, and as such is put to only the most high priority tasks. At any given time most days there is a queue of cars, microbuses and trucks who have travelled from all over the country waiting to be adorned with flowers and blessed, by the priest with a bucket of holy water and ice cold beer. It all makes for a tremendously bustling and colourful scene. Following the blessing, one can drive home feeling safer behind the wheel. The universal power of free market economics is at work here, if you’ve forgotten to adorn your car before arriving, all ones car blessing needs are efficiently catered for with flowers, bunting, jaunty little hats and other adornments available for purchase from stalls outside the church. I’m sure with some proportion of the earnings contributing to the parish coffers.

Messing about on boats and quad bikes

Copacabana is a favourite destination not just of pilgrims but also Bolivian and Peruvian sun seekers in the summer holidays. We were visiting in the low season, and while the town was still bustling the lakeside beach had more than a hint of faded Victorian northern England seaside town about it. Ranks of pedalos lay dormant waiting for the summer rush, while the thirty or more food stalls did a slow trade mainly in grilled trout and sausage and chips. The local traders were certainly happy to see a couple of kids with time on their hands.

The kids had a fantastic time careering up and down the beach side roads piloting quad bikes. Initially they seemed to have been detuned to go slow for us, but we quickly fixed that with a couple of twists on the throttle cable. There wasn’t an enormous regard for health and safety it has to be said, but the kids enjoyed themselves tremendously chasing each other while dodging the occasional truck or taxi.

Being pulled along on an inflatable behind a speedboat is surely always a winner. And that remained true here, with us returning more times than we care to remember to ride several of the different animals along the shore. The fast spinning octopi were particular favourites.

Climbing Cerro Calvario

Unsurprisingly for a town on the “highest navigable lake in the world” Copacabana is surrounded by steep sloped mountains. Atop Cerro Calvario are a series of shrines and so on, but for us the real win for us were the unrivalled views that the peak offers across town to one side, and on the other side out towards Isla del Sol and the Peruvian shore tantalisingly in the distance. Odessa in particular attacked the climb to the top with vigour and enjoyed exploring the various religious symbols and artefacts.

How we did it

Getting to Copacabana was something of a saga. Lake Titicaca straddles the border between Bolivia and southern Peru, with Puno being the main border town on the Peruvian side of the lake. We had originally envisaged stopping for a few days here at Copacabana on the way north and across the border into Peru. However, it was only after having booked the bus ride from La Paz to Puno via Copacabana that the bus company (Bolivia Hop) got in touch to advise that they couldn’t take us any further than the border post. The unrest in Peru since the start of the year had originated in Puno and was still continuing, often in the form of unpredictable road blocks and protests. There were certainly ways to proceed incognito aboard local transport which stood a reasonable chance of success, but especially with the kids with us we decided to head back to La Paz and find another route north.

The bus ride was interesting. The 5am start in La Paz had itself been brought forward due to the potential for striking teachers to set up their own roadblocks around the city. This did prove to be a problem but the nimble driver skirted round these by staying off the main roads. Three quarters of the way into the journey we all debussed onto a smaller boat while the bus took a separate ferry between San Pablo de Tiquina and San Pedro de Tiquina which gave us an opportunity to stretch our legs and take in the local sights.