Bolivia - Copacabana

We took a bus to Copacabana, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We had front seats on the bus - very good view:

We had to get off the bus for immigration processing at Peru-Bolivia border. Overland border crossings are always slightly unnerving since you hear so many bad stories. (And especially more so for me since I don´t have an American or European passport). Without fail, at Peru exit immigration, I got sent to another room (they wouldn´t let Bill in), where two military men went through and sniffed (yes, sniffed) all my stuff, including my money belt. One guy was even counting all my cash, and I do carry a bit of cash as we can´t always find a working ATM. I was flustered and annoyed, wondering if they were going to ´confiscate´my cash, and if so, how much I was going to let them take. Then one of them asked me if I was a student. I answered that I was an attorney in the US. Boom! Immediately, they were apologetically giving me all my stuff back, shooing me out of the room. Wow! Behold the power of esquiredom! I am taping the California bar registration card to my forehead at the next border crossing.

Bolivia is insanely cheap. You can get a room with private bathroom for less than $3 - which is probably why our $20 hotel room has this view of Lake Titicaca. This is Bolivia´s only public beach - Bolivia is land-locked since losing a territory war to Chile in the 1800´s:

This is at Isla del Sol, the birth place of the sun according to Inca legends:

Doorway to an Inca palace:

Boat back from Isla del Sol - note the backpackers passed out. Bolivia seems to attract more ´hardcore´ backpackers:

Bill in front of a store selling large sugared pop-corns (to the fellow Koreans: it´s exactly like kang-neang-yee! I didn´t know they had those outside Korea):