Going away with the 5000

When my family invited me to go on holiday with them to Copacabana I really didn’t know what to expect but it was not what it turned out to be. Literally there wad 22 members of the family including cousins, arties, grandparents and then me! We journeyed the 12 hours between cocha and Copacabana in the party bus which the my host dad drives and arrived at 9AM on Friday morning, it is a beautiful place but situated at 4000m I was too worried about my breathing to take in the views, but after some coca leaves which really do help, i felt fine. Then came the realisation that the prime reason for this trip was for religious devotion to the Virgin of Copacabana who is of great importance to many Bolivian families, and there was me thinking we were on a tourist holiday! They were very shocked when I told them that I was not catholic, however out of respect did visit the virgin once. As Copacabana is a very touristy place I did bumped into many a gingo who was just travelling and had dinner or drinks which was a nice, however I was with my family and spend most of the days with them. We climbed a mountain to show your devotion to the virgin, when we reached the summit, there are stalls where you can buy little items such as cars, houses or  even passports which you give to the virgin and hope that she will make these things real in the next year, this a tradition throughout Bolivia, for many families. We spend the afternoon in the neighbouring town of Yongo, in Peru. I was rather excited about getting another stamp in my passport but we just walked straight through to my disappointment, so I must have been an illegal immigrant in Peru for a few hours! The following day without my family, I travelled to Isla del sol, which is the place of the Inca creation myth. This was insanely beautiful, situated in the middle of Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. We visited the Inca ruins, including the sacred rock, which the Inca’s prayed to every day for the rising of the sun. After almost missing my boat back to Copacabana I got back to our hotel exhausted after a full day of walking and being a gringo. After another long bus trip I am now back in Cocha, looking forward to my Bolivian Christmas, If i don’t post again, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and new year, sending much love and wishes from Bolivia!