At least one cab is here when we come outside at 5:40am. We are driving through the dusty streets of Uyuni one last time and manage to get to the airport in time for the sunrise. There is exactly one (!) gate. :) Although we are checked in already and there are only 5 people ahead of us, we are in the queue for more than half an hour.
The security check has a human scanner but no x-ray for the handluggage, so it gets searched individually. The gas heater in the waiting room is very popular with the Latvians which travel with us. First, we have breakfast ... Pringles and Twix. We are hoping to get more when we make it to La Paz.
The Amaszonas Air plane looks good and we are positively surprised. The flight is nice and we have the best view on the salt flat thanks to the girl who checked us in on the right side yesterday.
It is raining when we land in La Paz and we are hoping that this fact will make the air cleaner, but that is not the case :( In the busterminal we find out that busses to Copacabana leave from the cemetery and we need another taxi. What is driving us can almost not be called a car anymore. The transmission is done after gear 1 and 2 and the noises it makes, makes you want to jump out immediately. Thanks to the rug and the hanging decorations in front of the dashboard we cannot see anything, but experience shows that nothing is working in the display anyway.
We somehow make it to the cemetery and find a bus that leaves 20 min later. We buy more cookies because that is the only thing we can find at 8am and sit on the bus. Since this is not the fancy tourist kind, it is not heated and I run out again to get the sleeping bag so we won't freeze. The Bolivians love the "fresh" air coming from outside and leave the windows wide open in 40 degree weather and rain.
Wrapped in hat, fleece and sleeping bag we need 2h to get out of La Paz. Here there are many little communities which all have their own markets and inner life.
At several spots we pick up more people and luggage. The mountain overshadowing La Paz has some fresh snow and looks beautiful so sugarcoated.
The road to Copacabana is paved really well. We are amazed and happy and Arzu even gets to sleep a little.
Several times we get stopped by the military and the driver has to show the passenger list.
Then the bus stops at the lake and we all have to get off. The bus is being transferred on something that is supposed to be a ferry, but i am not sure, the bus and our luggage will make it. We have to take a passenger boat which looks equally unsafe and get shipped over the little channel. On the other side we walk to the place where the bus will "land" which is completely unnecessary because the bus is stopping in the middle of the town square. Noone is around anymore. Everybody went to get food or presents. Not even when the bus starts to honk loudly they come back and the bus needs to drive away before everybody comes running. This is the only way to Copacabana, the other one already leads through Peru.
We arrive and are surprised by the huge church. First we need to change money and therefore we walk down the shopping street with all our luggage until we find a changing office/ travel agency. We take a taxi to the cool hostel, but unfortunately they have no room available. We are supposed to come back after 2pm to see if someone who reserved didn't show up. We have lunch there in the cute restaurant and have Lasagne and tomato salad. The owner must be German since they have potato salad, "Bratkartoffeln" and Fondue.
Only the internet is not working and we cannot check our trip to Cusco. I just read that it takes 15h to get there by bus and I don't want to believe that. There has to be a faster way. My idea is to go back to La Paz and fly from there, but Arzu wants to avoid that city. She is looking for other ways to get there faster, but nothing is really working out. Another option is to take the bus to Puno in 4h and then a train to Cusco, but that means we have to leave tonight, skipping the Isla del sol. Since we are only speculating, we need internet and so we leave our luggage with the German owner :) and go to town to find a coffeeplace with internet. We cannot even find a coffeeplace though and so we end up in a crappy internet place where I have the keyboard drawer on my lap, the mouse is hardly working and the connection is slow. We find out that there is no better option and we go to a travel agency to book the bus. We see that there is a direct bus to Cusco which only takes 10h and has sleeping beds. Oh yes! Let's take it. They have no more space tonight, but tomorrow and so we book a trip to the Isla del Sol for tomorrow. And it is all cheaper than the horrorbus to Uyuni.
Back at the hotel we get a room and are really happy. The view is breathtaking, there are hammocks everywhere and it is clean. The toilet works as well :)
Finally I can do some laundry. The lady promises 3h, we give her 4 and start shopping... We come back to our comfy beds and rest a while before having coffee in the wood stove heated restaurant.
At 8 we run down for our laundry which is not ready yet, they need one more hour. So we have dinner and finally a salad since they wash everything with bottled water. The water in Copacabana is so bad that it is even recommended to brush your teeth with bottled water.
We go back to the laundry place at 10 but it is still not entirely done. Half of my stuff is still wet and Arzu's jeans as well. We take the dry and half dru stuff as well as the jeans and decide to dry it in the hallway in front of our room because there is a wooden stove. Finally I get to unpack my clothes line, improvise with two nails, put some more wood in the stove and we hope for the best. We go to bed and have the best mattress ever!
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