Crossing a border and the Isla del Sol, Bolivia

June 3rd was a big day for us: we were going to arrive in a new country. In fact, we were really only going to the other side of the lake, not the Stau in Esch, no, no, the Titikaka lake, which involved three hours' drive. Stu was a bit nervous, but I thought: 'How different is it gonna be, there's a lake, there's potatoes, there's panpipes, there's funny hats... at the end of the day, we'll just be crossing a line on a map.'

Well, how wrong could we be... Firstly, the meals still cost 22, but Bolivianos, which means 2.2 Euros, that is exactly half price from Peru. Everything seemed dead cheap and very creative, especially the showers: they actually put the electric wiring THROUGH the shower, so that you get electrocuted every time you touch the (obviously metal) taps. Next thing, we check our email, and the guy tries to rip us off! The price per hour was 50 cents, and he tried to make us pay 80 cents, claiming we had been there for more than an hour, when we had actually only spent 40 minutes there. The cheek! He obviously doesn't know what 30 cents are to two teachers when you've not worked for a year and have been lying in the sun, sipping G+T for three hours before arriving at the internet cafe! In revenge, when we arrived at the Isla del Sol, we haggled so long (with our interpreter Helenka's help) with the lady until we got our brand new ensuite room for 10 Euros instead of 15.