Bolivia and such

First things first, crossing the border.
This was difficult for me. Since my passport had been stolen previously in Peru, i had to get a new one. So I spent quiet a while kickin around Cusco waiting for 3 weeks for a new passport to arrive. It arrived, so I could continue into a brand-spankin new country. Marg and I hop onto a bus and make our way to the border. At the Peruvian frontier, since I dont have any entry stamps (hense a new passport) they tell me I cant exit because I shouldnt have ever been in their country in the first place. I show them my police document with official seals and signatures. they dont beleive me. then, they tell me they have to shred my passport because its fake. (WHAT!?) I ended up bribing them with all of the money i had left that my parents kindly western unioned me earlier that week just to pass through the border. here, i got an entry stamp, and an exit stamp. Next stop 4 minutes later, the Bolivian border. now, i heard that bolivians were much kinder than peruvians all around, this, if i may attest to honestly, is a lie. bolivians, for the most part unless they´re drunk at carnaval, unfortunately hate americans. so, the border wasnt any more fun than the peruvian border. we had to pay them MORE money just to get through, get a bolivian visa which was 135USD!, change our sols into bolivianos just to pay for all the paperwork which should have been free but for americans aparently isnt free and THEN had to hear it from the bus driver who also hates americans. we know this because he was screaming at margaret, I HATE AMERICANS over and over and over again. then, he drove the bus off without us and we had to go screaming and running after it since it had our backpacks in there and we paid to get all the way to Copacabana, not be left in the middle of no where with no bags. He was a jerk. Once we boarded the moving bus, i almost passed out because when you run that fast at 4500 meters high, lets just say i might have been a little winded.... but, we did get a roaring applause from the other travelers on the bus which was nice.

So, here we are in Copacabana, a very very expensive touristy town. I wasnt so into it. so, we ate. we went to this restaurant with a slanted floor and wondered why it was slanted over beer and nachos made of the end of a doritos bag (mostly crumbs). then, it started raining, then it started pouring buckets, then it started hailing so hard that the roof began to leak a little bit, then a lot, and then so much that literally, buckets of water and HUGE balls of hail started pouring through the ceiling all over people and their food. i literally got so much hail in my beer that it looked and served as ice. we decided the floor was slanted for this reason.

later that night at our hostel, we met our neighbors which were two argentian boys. we convinced them that peddling huge duck boats are really cool and they should buy us our tickets. so, the 4 of us headed to the beach of Lake Titi Kaka and rented a duck boat. we paddled out into the huge lake where i didnt have to convince too hard how much fun swimming can be. thus, we swam. i jumped off the ducks head into the crystal clear water. it might have been a little cold but i swam around for about 30 minutes. then stuggled my way back up into the floating duck and let the sun warm me up. all of a sudden, i lost my vision completely. 100%. margeret said there was no more blue in my eyes at all. i passed out. they peddled back to land, i woke up weak and stumbled to the road where i passed out again. i think a combination of the heat, then the cold of the water, then the exercise with the elevation and the dehydration and poor eating habits did me in. a stranger ran up and force fed me a spoon full of sugar and margaret ran screaming into the streets that she needed a taxi for an emergency. i ended up living. good old copacabana.