anywhereSF

Today I’m looking back upon a lovely evening in Copacabana, part of me wishing I was back there instead of passing the days here in the rain in La Paz.

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted much lately, and my 365 project is still stuck back at day 150. Well, to be honest, that project got a bit out of hand. Taking a photo everyday is one thing, but the scanning/organizing/processing that follows with film turned out to be more than I could realistically keep up with while still having a day job and a life outside of my photo world. I still have all of the photos (minus a few days where I later realized I was shooting without film in my camera…doh) and will gradually post them, but I’m thinking I’ll take a year off of the arduous photo projects while I catch up and just take some time to enjoy taking photos when I can without making it a requirement.

For now, though, something completely different! I currently sit here in La Paz, home of my first somewhat reliable internet in a week or so, in the midst of a 2 month trip through South America. After a bit over a week in Peru over the holidays, I’ve made my way into Bolivia and will be crossing into Chile from here in about a week. From there, I’m not quite certain where I’m going, but I have a flight home from Buenos Aires on February 23rd, so I suppose I have to make it there eventually…

Anyway, back to Copacabana: I loved this little town! It surely helped that my altitude sickness had subsided by the time I arrived, but compared to the Peruvian side of Titicaca, this was night and day. Where Puno in Peru is sprawling and industrial, Copacabana has a quaint and welcoming charm. I arrived in town much later than expected after a sketchy bus ride across the border from Peru that involved slow going in the driving rain, a leaky roof, and a surly driver ditching a few people at the border because they were taking too long in line for visas. After a long walk in the rain following bad google directions (something that is becoming a theme in Bolivia), I managed to get directions from a couple helpful shopkeepers and made it to my hotel, relatively exhausted from lugging my gear around at 12,500 feet. From there, everything just got better.

I ended up staying in Hotel La Cupula, which I think is somewhat high end by Copacabana standards, but at $19 a night, wasn’t going to break my budget, and I couldn’t have been happier with the stay. I had a great view, plenty of blankets to fight off the cold nights at this altitude, and an onsite restaurant where I managed to get a steak and glass of wine for somewhere around $11. Not too shabby. After a cozy night listening to the thunder and rain outside, the next days were spent exploring Isla del Sol and the rest of this lovely little town.

Note: If you happen to book a room at Hotel La Cupula, walk a couple blocks uphill from Plaza Sucre and turn left, it’s at the end of the road overlooking the lake, not several blocks inland, as Google would have you believe. Don’t trust the Googles.