Copacabana

Day 246 – Copacabana, Bolivia

This was my last day in Copacabana. I had decided to take a night bus to Cuzco, so I was leaving at 6pm.

I was awoken at 7am by a brass band going down the street and petards were been joyously let off in the town.

I knew that around Candlemas, there was a festival of the Virgin in Copacabana, but I thought it started tomorrow… but was I happy to be wrong!

I started getting a real inkling of things when I saw platforms with huge speakers going up, but the best indication was seeing all these women in traditional garb decorating the streets with flowers.

Copacabana – Decorating the street

Said street was closed to traffic, and soon was lined from the Plaza Sucre to the cathedral in flower petals.

Then a small procession brought the statue of the Virgin Mary to the bottom of the street, with brass band, priest and attendants, waiting for the right time to begin.

One thing is sure, Bolivian people are small, and it is easy to take pictures and videos above their head!

I also had a great time admiring the traditional garb, since outside of the festival I hadn’t seen many women wearing it and it would have been awkward taking pictures!

I watched and recorded the first leg of the procession, I’ll try to put a link somewhere if you want to watch -for the interactions, the costumes, and so on. It is 5min, so it will take me some time to upload it on internet, but send me a message if you want it.

I took a break for lunch after that -I finally tried the local trout. I thought the festivities were over, but obviously it was just starting! When I went back out, it was to see group of dancers in elaborate (and sometimes skimpy) costumes, waiting their turn to dance around the plaza in front of the cathedral!

Copacabana – Dancing – See how the flowers are already gone from the street?

I have to say, I am envious of the boots with bells on.

I spent as much of the afternoon as I could taking pictures of outfits before having to go back to the hostel to grab my bag and board my luxurious bus (USB outlets, warm tea, movies, blanket, too much heating).

In South America, they put a tag on your bag when they load it and you have the other half, so you can claim them with the right number if necessary. It is a good system. This time, it was in addition colour-coded to your destination, since you could step off at Puno -a Peruvian city on the Peruvian side of the lake-, change bus later for Arequipa, or stay the whole night until Cuzco.

The Peruvian border is only a few minutes from Copacabana. We had to clear the Bolivian immigration first -took only a few minutes-, then walk across the border to the Peruvian immigration. A French passport is a glorious thing, I wasn’t asked any question, I got my stamp for a 90-days stay.

I changed my last bolivianos for soles at a very interesting rate. I had made a change in Copacabana, because I don’t like not having a bit of the local currency with me, and whereas at an airport you will find an ATM, at a bus terminal it can be chancy -especially since in Cuzco it was slightly outside downtown.

But since I was in Peru, I changed what little I had kept “in case”.

The bus was half-empty until Puno, so I was very happy. We were only -that I saw- tourists. We watched The Great Wall in Spanish, fortunately I had seen it in France -in an Imax theatre actually-, so I didn’t miss the dialogues. Anyway, what is interesting are the special effects during the battles, not the scenario. Even Matt Damon is too hairy for my preference in there.

But once in Puno, we were awoken, tickets were checked, we were told to switch our watches one hour back, we stayed an hour, and finally more passengers went on -locals this time. It was 10pm -11pm if you came from Bolivia-, and they put a new movie on! And they offered tea, which is nice, but not only I wanted to sleep, I didn’t want to have to go to the loo downstairs.

We were finally given blankets -unneeded, it was so warm- and we left.

All the pictures here!