during our couple of days in arica in northern chile, we heard multiple rumors about teachers and miners striking and demonstrating in peru. we heard from some travellers that the border between chile and peru had been closed days before, and that demonstrators were crowding the roadsides and throwing stones at buses. we heard some people had been delayed hours and days trying to move between towns in peru & that the government was giving priority to tourists on buses, making tempers among locals flare even more...we also heard reports that things had since quieted down & it was no problem to cross the border, though we could get no confirmation that once we crossed to tacna, the border town, we'd be able to get safely to arequipa, the next town on the backpacker trail...sigh...so, despite our plans to skip bolivia, we decided to head to la paz for a few days to wait things out and see if we could learn more.
we'd not been enthusiastic about visiting bolivia for two reasons: one, the cold weather...we'd had enough & were interested only in moving towards warmer environs; and two, it's reputation as a cocaine haven... almost every backpacker we'd met had some story to tell about spending days smoked out on cocaine in la paz...
right...sounds like our type of place for sure!
la paz turned out to be quite a unique city set at such a high altitude with all it´s brick buildings set into the mountain sides...we´re glad we didn´t miss it...though we didn´t take much advantage of the tourist attractions as dp was suffering pretty miserably from altitude sickness...we upgraded to some relatively cushy digs - with heat - so he could recuperate comfortably, and spent a couple days wandering around the city checking out all the cheap souvenier shopping. with a little coca leaf tea and lots of rest, we both felt a lot better, except for getting winded climbing the slightest hill... so next, we headed to copacabana, a small town on lake titicaca...the 4-hour bus ride there was an adventure in a tiny, cramped local bus through breathtaking countryside, with a trip across a small stretch of water!we were confused when the bus stopped for what we thought was a pit stop. 
we had to get off and board a little boat to cross the water, while the bus rode a separate little rickety barge across...we had visions of our packs sinking to the bottom of the 60m deep lake strapped on top of the bus! copacabana proved to be a nice little place to spend a couple of nights, and we took a day trip to isl
a del sol, a huge island in the middle of the huge lake that has several inca ruins and beautiful views of the famous lake...
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