March 20, 2004
Copacabana, Bolivia

Hanging for the day in Copacabana... by the way, here's the skinny on the whole copacabana thing and how it ended up as a Barry Manilow song.  It all began long, long ago with the Incas... or rather before the incas came and kicked some local tail... 

The name Copacabana means 'lake view' in the local Aymara (ancient cousin of Quechua... the 'official' incan dialect)-- pronounced more correctly Kota Kahuana, or Copacahuana.  The Aymaras inhabited this area, and Lake Titicaca from way back.  Later, the incas came and conquered the Aymaras and incorporated them into the Incan kingdom.  As with all conquered tribes, they were forced to learn and speak Quechua.. the offician incan tongue.  (apparently the incas were only partly successful here as many folks still speak Aymara.)

Anyway, after the spanish came and took over things... they eventually made their way to copacabana.  as the story goes, after the franciscans got done putting their house in order--creating the image of the virgin mary, and converting the local heathens, and so forth--the miracles began in earnest.  the local monks must have been class A marketers, because somehow the miracles and healings in Copacabana rose above the din of other more mundane miracles happening the world over, and became somewhat noteworthy.  so noteworthy in fact, that copacabana became a pilgrimage destination of sorts for cathoholics from all over the continent.  (I'm sure the sunny beach-side location didn't hurt things.)

The Copacabana that you hear about in the song is about the Copacabana club on Copacabana beach in Rio--named after the local Copacabana cathedral which was named after the Copacabana cathedral in Bolivia on account of its having so many miracles. 

And there you have it...  best as i can decipher anyway.

I've decided that Bolivia is a bit like a giant Dollar Store.  Nearly everything around here seems to be about  a buck or less.  At 8 Bolivianos to the dollar, i can't think of too many key things that can't be bought in the single digits.  Sure, you can always splurge, but that would just be silly gringo gluttony.  A few key examples of the simple pleasures of the dollar's fine leverage:

• Beer!  you can buy almost a gallon of great bolivian beer for a buck.  5 bolivars will get you a icy cold 750ml bottle.  better find some friends or a nice cozy corner somewhere.

• Dinner:  how about a full meal for 6 bols?  a whole fried fish, some yummy pasta, mata tea, and a banana for dessert.

• A bed:  ok, you can find a bed for 8 bols somewhere, though it won't be much and you'd probably better check the weather forecast to make sure its not gonna rain.  (which it doesn't do much around here anyway).  so why not splurge and spend $3 for a luxury suite?

• A beautiful cruise to sunny Isla Del Sol!  That's right, you can get all the way to Isla Del Sol for the low-low price of $1.25.  ok, so you need to get back too.  that'll be 2.50.

• A shoe shine.  A great shoe shine with a fat tip will cost ya 5 bols.  come on you cheapskate backpackers... bring on those nasty ass boots. 

• Haircut.  Only 6 bols.  The good news is they won't even use a bol on your head.  yuk yuk.

• Puffed corn.  You can get a full year's supply of the local snack, puffed corn--kind of tastes like a sweetened styrofoam packing peanut--for a dollar.  If you don't end up eating it all you can use if for shipping material too.

Of course the low low prices bring out the best of the backpacking crowd as you can imagine... there are plenty of folks of obviously foreign, perhaps european, but otherwise questionable origin who string their bolivianos out with real travel on a shoestring talent.  come to think of it, a shoestring costs 3 or 4 bolivars, which is damn near a fortune, considering you could probably live easy for 2 or 3 days around here on that. 

Its amazing how quickly, in the presence of these people, that i get kind of sheepish about even ordering an a la carte meal, which might cost me the unthinkable fortune of $2 instead of opting for the fixed lunch special and asking for refills on everything till the poor restaurant owner won't even come to the table anymore.