28-30 December – Isla Del Sol, Bolivia – Passive me, Aggressive you, The Naked and Famous
Breathless as the sun was starting its drop into the horizon, the immigration guard was looking through every page of my second passport, looking for something that wasn’t there. He looked at me and grunted in his Bolivian accent “¿Donde esta el estampa para salir de Peru?”. I shrugged in my most innocent manner, looked him in the eye and exploded in the manner of one attaining a bright idea. I removed my NZ passport from its sheath and placed it on the desk in front of his enquiring face. His eyes swiftly looked up towards god as if saying in the universal language of animal, “you my friend,… are an idiot”.
He proceeded to search through the passport. Slowly, leafing page by page, checking each and every stamp for the evidence that mentioned I had already been into Bolivia that year….page 23, damned page 23. He grunted nasally as he found it, and his slow gaze turned from the passport to me, calculating, thinking, I could almost hear the clunking of his monkey brain. He cocked his head to the side as if to hear another long and tall story. Him knowing that I was trying to sneak back in to his stunning country, and armed with the knowledge that I had the cheek to stroll into his office with the reason to deceive. Deceive the laws of immigration, and more importantly to deceive him. He was dressed in a perfectly pressed khaki suit, perfectly manicured beard, every step a soldier. He grunted at me, “¿cuantas dias necesita?”
Wow, what an exciting first day on tour with my sweetheart Sara. We managed to skip back into my new favourite country, one that she has been neighbourly too her whole life and yet never visited. We busted in great style. Late in the afternoon we jumped one of those local taxi vans, the ones that you need to wait in until they are full before departure, and drove towards Copacabana and the setting sun. It’s a small town on the shore of the highest navigable lake in the world and I was hoping we could jump a boat across the lake before the darkness set in, and spend our first night on the beautiful island of that gave birth to the sun, the famous Isla Del Sol.
 We had made it!! All of the public boats had stopped running for the evening, but we managed to do what often happens when on the road, we met the right person at the right time and jumped a boat full of boat drivers. |  Our crossing took us into the night and to the southern port of the island. We climbed out cold, wobbly and out of breath. Everything is a difficult at this altitude. And we suffered as we climbed the 200 meters of stairs up to the small town, where awaited a dinner of chicken soup, fried trout and candlelit views across the lake. |
 The next day we went to discover the legend of the island and find the famous “foundation stone”. Along the way we came across some friendly monkeys |  and strange crosses marking the path. The island has beautiful views |
 A local girl posed for my photo. |  We searched everywhere for the lost stone! |
 And Yeeehaa, we found it,… I think… |  After a tough days hunt we settled into a nice bottle of wine, and a delicious sunset |
The island is beautiful, rustic and above all tranquil. I totally recommend it for a few days relaxation. The restaurants are simple and operate by candles after 9pm, when the power goes out.
We left early the next morning, being the 30th December. Only 2 nights till the new year and a great one to look forward too. We had decided to bus to Sucre, a place I knew that has some nice people and would have a nice party as well.
Laters.x.brad.
