Bienvenidos a Bolivia

This morning, I completed my first-ever international land border crossing. Being an Aussie and all, I don't get to see them all that often. Crossing from Peru into Bolivia was fairly easy, even for someone such as myself, with a mild hangover and a vicious bump on the head. Slightly overpriced exchange of money; walking through a simple stone gate; various stamps and taxes on each side of the green line; and I was done. So, now I'm in Bolivia!

Welcome to Bolivia, land of everything crazy.

Thus far, Bolivia seems pretty similar to Peru. Same big lake on each side of the border (Lake Titicaca, that is). Same toothless, smelly women with large, mysterious sacks of something permanently on their backs (I can never tell if they're got a bunch of potatoes or a baby inside). And same bargain basement prices: except in Bolivia, everything's even cheaper!

The border gate.

Anyway, after our bus from Puno was through the border, we all got back on, and continued on to the lovely lakeside town of Copacabana. There, Chris and I bought a ticket on the next ferry to Isla Del Sol, and I very much surprised myself, by making my first meal in Bolivia a gourmet lunch of grilled fish and fresh papaya juice (hardly matching with my preconceptions of Bolivia in general — as a dry, impoverished, culinary dunghole!).

If you too want a nice first meal in Bolivia, I highly recommend the restaurant in Copacabana, on the main street near the bus company offices. You can't miss it: just look for the monkey tied to a tree, and the world's-most-impossible-to-play-on pool table.