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| 2013-10-03 click for more |
The first 80
km or so of the day passed by pretty quickly on good roads just
gently undulating. The landscape was pretty uninspiring though. We
had had high hopes off cycling out along the lake but had to wait
until we had climbed over a small pass for the scenery to improve.
And soon it did get better, the lake was blue and it was much quieter
and less build up. It was beautiful riding. We even saw the odd white
Bolivian peak in the distance across the lake. To call it a lake
seems odd as it seems as vast as the sea.
The plan at
the beginning of the day was to try to do the two day distance in one
but the contingency plan was to finish the day at Juli if the
progress was slow . Juli was preceded by an off putting headwind but
fortunately after climbing the only big climb after Juli the wind
eased and we picked up speed again . Pomata was a beautiful town
where we coincided with all the school kid going home , some on
motorbikes, without helmets of course , and looking to be only 12
-13. Quite a few of them tried to say hello or something similar in
English. After Pomata we turned 90 degrees to the East and straight
into a strength sapping headwind again at which point we began to
regret the decision to push on to Copacabana . There was a confusing
routine at the border of seeking clearance from the police, checking
out of Peru and into Bolivia , but all went well and the Bolivian
border guard was very helpful and insisted on extending our visa from
30 to 90 days. We were cheered to see that from the border it was
only 8 kms to goal but cruelly disappointed to find them hilly just
when the fuel tanks were beyond low.
When we
finally rolled into Copacabana after 142 km we immediately liked the
place. It is quite small with beautiful views of the lake and we
managed to find a hotel right on the beach with beautiful lake views
and breakfast for £ 5.- each. There are nice places to eat and it
didn't take us long to decide to stay.
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