After a red-eye flight from DC to Lima and Lima to La Paz, I got stuck in immigration for awhile, waited at a taxi stand with zero taxis, and looked for the best way to spend 3 hours before my bus from La Paz to Lake Titicaca. Definitely not the over-engineered trip y’all are used to from me.

Some nice guy who takes care of airport transfer from Loki hostel (I’m staying there Saturday and Sunday so I knew I wouldn’t be taken) ultimately offered me a ride to city center with some German backpackers. Who knows how long I wouldn’t been in that taxi line otherwise…

The most amusing thing when I travel internationally is all the American songs on the radio that aren’t censored and make no sense. I couldn’t help but lol when the song went from “This song is gonna hurt like a m*****f*****” to Let It Go from Frozen…

Things of note:

• Teleferico. My plan was to take a taxi to Mirador Killi Killi to snap a cool photo and be on my merry way to the bus station. The lady next to me on the plane convinced me otherwise. She said the cable cars are the way to go! She probably wouldn’t have known that I had to wait an hour to buy tickets and wait in (some wrong) lines to take the trip up. Seriously the crowds were crazy. Tickets are only 3/Bs each way so probably $1 round trip converted. If you have the time, it was awesome! 10 minutes up and 10 minutes down. Worst part was having no place to sit, a hot sun beating down on me, and carrying both backpacks while waiting for 1.5 hours. My shoulders ache today.
• Day of the Dead. Really cool holiday and a treat to experience. The second teleferico stop is at the cemetery and I got to get an aerial view of live music, celebrations, and hoards of people visiting their ancestors.
• Buses. The 9 minute walk from the Teleferico central station to the bus station took me twice as long thanks to altitude and zero data on my phone. I made it, but was basically faint and in tears. Two nice police officers thankfully helped me connect to wifi and get me to the right bus company. I stocked up on crackers and water (seriously you never know when your next chance to get snacks and clean water will be) and waited to load the bus with a departure time of 13:30. Should’ve guessed that 13:30 was just a suggestion… technically a boarding time. We left at 2. Latinos are so chill about time!
• Copacobana and Lake Titicaca. The most confusing thing about my trip was waking up to someone telling me to get off the bus and walk to a pier to take a bus across some strait. I then watched my own bus load on a small barge (with my large backpack underneath!) and made friends with some other backpackers wondering what was going on. Needed 2/Bs to take a little human boat across, then the trip onwards was another 45 minutes. Arriving at Copacobana was awesome– people were partying in the streets for Day of the Dead. The perfect concha beach sprinkled with boats was also lovely… minus the fact that it is only 50-60 degrees.
• Altitude is no joke. I stopped 6 times to rest on my 5 minute, fairly flat walk from the bus station to my hostel. Stairs are the enemy! Copacobana is something like 11,000+ feet above sea level. Best thing I can say is to take your time getting around.
• Fancy hostels. The most exciting part of my day was getting to this beautiful hostel I booked several months ago which is more like a hotel. I get my own private room with 2 beds, bath, fireplace, view of the lake, roaming Alpacas, a restaurant, and good wifi (for Bolivia). The hostel next door even has a hot tub overlooking the lake that you can rent for an hour at a time. That– plus the alpaca playtime and mate de coca from a hammock– was pure bliss. La Cupula and Las Olas next door are quite the little gems! So glad I followed advice online and decided to maximize time here instead of La Paz.

Cheers!