Breathless in Copacabana

Author: By Robert L. Hilliard, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, April 19, 1998

Page: M7

Section: Travel

Lake Titicaca is considered to be the world's highest-elevation navigable lake, over 12,500 feet. At that altitude, one receives only about 50 percent of the oxygen as at sea level. For visitors from low-altitude areas, breathing becomes a major endeavor -- and accomplishment. Just walking or brushing one's teeth requires unexpected energy. The discomfort, however, is worth it. Lake Titicaca provides the tourist with special experiences only hinted at in those guidebooks.

the lake is 112 miles long and 37 miles wide, and is divided roughly in half between Bolivia and Peru, a somewhat wavy line of demarcation cutting through the lake from the north and exiting to the south. Thirty-six islands are scattered throughout the remarkably clear blue water, many of the islands worshiped as the source of various gods. In fact, Lake Titicaca itself is considered by the indigenous people who live along the shores -- mostly Aymara and Quechua Indians -- as the birthplace of the Sun God, who in turn created the people of the world.

The towns and villages along the lake are fascinating. We spent several days in Copacabana in Bolivia, not far from the Peruvian border. While the famed Copacabana nightclub in New York disappeared a long time ago, the city of Copacabana is a thriving religious mecca for pilgrims from all parts of Bolivia, although thus far largely undiscovered by foreign tourists. The nightclub was named after the entertainment district in Brazil, not after this center of worship in Bolivia. Bolivia's Copacabana has not a nightclub in sight!

A gleaming whitewalled cathedral dominates Copacabana. Initially built by the Spanish conquistadors between 1610 and 1619, it was reconstructed between 1668 and 1678 in honor of the Virgin Mary. In the 16th century, the then-village was given a statue of Mary and events believed by the inhabitants to be miracles began to happen almost immediately. The faithful believe that they still do. The cathedral's main chapel is unique. The altar is dominated by the statue of the Virgen de Copacabana, also called the Black Virgin, which was carved out of wood in 1592 by a Bolivian Indian sculptor, Francisco Tito Yupanaqui. The Black Virgin, however, is turned to face away from the congregation, toward a smaller chapel behind the altar.

Copacabana is situated between two large hills, both with religious significance. It is said that proper homage requires climbing to the very top of one or, preferably, both. With our Aymara Bolivian friends guiding us, we started the climb up a pathway of stone steps of the Cerro El Calvario, which offers a magnificent view of Lake Titicaca from the top. Each step was arduous. The higher we climbed, the harder it was to breathe. Finally, we told our friends to go on by themselves. We managed to make it halfway up, to a rest area with benches overlooking the lake.

We understood then why Bolivians and Peruvians whose ancestry is from the Altiplano appear to be barrel-chested. The Altiplano, after all, is the high flat area that dominates much of Bolivia and part of Peru, including Lake Titicaca, and in many places reaches 15,000 and more feet in altitude. One of our hosts said that evolutionary adaptation made it necessary for residents to acquire lung capacity not needed by those of us whose ancestry is from comparatively low lands.

Because Copacabana, with its cathedral, is the religious focal point for the country, it is host to a number of festivals, or fiestas, each year. The principal celebration takes place on Feb. 1 and 2, the Fiesta de la Virgen de Copacabana. Music and dancing fill the streets for the mostly Aymara and Quechua visitors from both the Bolivian and Peruvian sides of the lake. An even larger celebration is that of Independence Day, a weeklong fiesta Aug. 3-10 each year. This is accompanied by traditional music and dancing, marching bands, and parades.

We happened to be in Copacabana when two other events took place. One is the feast of San Antonio, organized and paid for each year by one family, a prestigious sponsorship that may use up all the family's available resources to treat the other townspeople to fireworks, a mariachi band, and dancers, followed by a party for the town's VIPs. The sponsor becomes the community's unofficial lay leader for the next year.

Another is the Blessing of the Automobiles, which occurs several times a year. While the other festivals are similar to ones we had seen in other places, this one was different. From all over the country, people drive their new cars, trucks, and even public transport buses to Copacabana's cathedral, to be blessed by the priest. First, the vehicles are decorated with multicolored flowers and ribbons. Flower and decoration vendors line the street in front of the cathedral. The entire family comes to be blessed along with their automobile, believing that it guarantees their and the vehicle's long life and safety. At the blessing, a bottle of champagne is opened and poured on the hood of the car, followed by photos of the family and their vehicle with the priest. Food and drink follow at one of the many restaurants in town. Some drivers are on the road literally for days to get the blessing for their vehicle.

One sidelight of this tradition: Many Aymarans believe that if they want something they do not yet have, such as an automobile, if they buy or make or are given a miniature of the object, that will improve their chances of having it within the year. One of our Aymara hosts did not have an automobile, but expressed the hope that he would be able to buy one soon. We bought him a small toy car a few inches long. That afternoon, as the automobiles were being blessed, it was touching to see him bring his toy car to the priest for a blessing, in the hope that this would make it even more likely that he would soon be the owner of a full-sized vehicle.

Mostly surrounded by hills and water, all Copacabana can be traversed in a couple hours. On the three sides of the main plaza facing the cathedral are shops and restaurants similar to the enclosed stalls and cafes in many small towns in many countries of the world. While prices of gifts are a bit higher than in the major ``mercado'' in Plaza de San Francisco in Bolivia's capital, La Paz, the required bargaining by seller and buyer makes souvenir shopping in Copacabana as inexpensive as almost anyplace in the country. Gifts made from wool, alpaca, and silver are special bargains. In addition, street vendors offer many of the same articles found in stores, sometimes at lower prices. The street market swells on weekends.

Two blocks from the main plaza is a combined indoor and outdoor food market. A bag of a hundred oranges costs the equivalent of $4 US. (Or you can buy five for one Boliviana -- about 20 cents.) For 40 cents, you can buy a large bag of Bolivian popcorn -- huge, sweetened kernels unlike the popcorn most of us know.

Restaurants are plentiful, with a continental breakfast costing about $1. If you want to splurge, some restaurants advertise American (meaning North American) breakfasts for about a dollar more. ``Almuerza,'' or the midday repast, is the big meal in South America. Our favorite dish was one of the many preparations of trout, ``trucha,'' from Lake Titicaca. It tastes like the best-quality salmon. At the Aransaya, one of the town's better restaurants, a full trucha (or sea bass or chicken or beef) meal with Bolivian beer costs about $4. At smaller restaurants, the daily almuerza of soup, a chicken dish, a dessert, and drink can be purchased for less than $2.

Accommodations are also cheap by US standards. Some hotels charge as little as $2 or $3 per person a night. A bit more upscale is Copacabana's best-known lodging, the old Ambassador Hotel, where a room with private bathroom costs $7 per person per night. The rooms face on an old courtyard with rattan chairs and tables for sitting in the sun before the afternoon siesta. Yet, like most of the hotels in town, it would be considered shabby by many foreign tourists, akin to the aging mom-and-pop motels along most roads in the United States before the superhighways with their large motel chains supplanted them.

Like almost all private homes and public accommodations in much of South America, the hotels in Copacabana do not have central heating. While the area's closeness to the equator would appear to make heating unnecessary, the high altitude results in drastic temperature changes, even in winter (June-September in the southern hemisphere), ranging from 70 degrees Fahrenheit during the day to below freezing at night. Three, four, and even five wool blankets are routinely supplied for each hotel bed.

A few newer hotels in Copacabana offer more up-to-date facilities, especially more easily obtainable hot water in bathrooms. The new Hotel Playa Azul, a couple of blocks closer to the main plaza than the Ambassador, offers a full room and board American plan for $22 per day single, $31 double, and $40 triple. Another new hotel, the Brisas de Titikaka, faces the beachfront on the lake and offers rooms at $6 per night for a single and $10 for a double.

Copacabana is, at this writing, one of the most inexpensive towns for a tourist in South America. During our visit, there were not yet luxury or even first-class hotels, with concomitant prices. Several were being built, however, along the shore of Lake Titicaca, and with an anticipated influx of tourists in the next few years, the cost of visiting the city will likely go up.

The lake and beach are only a few blocks from the main plaza, stretching north around one of the hills and west to the border of Peru, about 10 miles away. A few pleasure boats mingle with small fishing craft. Some rowboats have people fishing for a living, some have people simply enjoying a row on the lake. The name on one rowboat trying to make its way to shore was ``Titanic.''

The condition of the beach is indicative of the lack of foreign tourists thus far. Debris is scattered everywhere. Picnickers leave trash on the sand. The new lakeshore hotels and the expected increase of foreign visitors will undoubtedly prompt the town's officials to clean up the beach. In a few years, Copacabana may well become, at least in part, an upscale resort area.

Two important side trips from Copacabana are recommended. The Isla del Sol and the Isla del Luna in Lake Titicaca are worshiped as the home of deities. The two major indigenous Indian groups, the Aymara and the Quechua, believe the Isla del Sol to be the birthplace of the sun itself and of the first Incas. The Isla de la Luna contains the remains of an Inca temple that was a shrine to the Virgins of the Sun. Boat trips to both islands, either together or separately, can be arranged through tourist offices in the plaza or at the Ambassador Hotel, or you can rent one of the many motorboats or sailboats seeking passengers at the shore of the lake.

The most efficient way to get to Copacabana is by bus. From La Paz, one can take a deluxe tourist bus for about $20 per person or get on a long-distance private bus, which picks you up at your hotel, for about $14 round trip, or take a public bus for about $3. The four-hour scenic drive is impressive, not only along but literally through the lake. At one point, it is necessary to cross Lake Titicaca to avoid going through customs at the Peruvian border. The passengers leave the bus and take a small boat to the other side, which is Bolivian territory. Shortly afterward, the bus is driven onto a large raft and ferried across, where the passengers reboard and continue the journey to Copacabana. Renting a car and driving to Copacabana, taking the El Alto Highway out of La Paz over mostly paved roads, takes about two hours. Taxis from outside La Paz's Hotel El Dorado charge about $100 to Copacabana and back. To get to or come from Peru, one can also take a hydrofoil across the lake. A bus-hydrofoil trip between La Paz, Bolivia, and Puno, Peru, with a stop at Copacabana, costs $130 to $150, depending on which tour office is used. Most travelers prefer the much less expensive bus ride along the lake, between Copacabana and La Paz or between Copacabana and Puno, where one can visit Lake Titicaca's Uros floating reed islands, in which Thor Heyerdahl's found the model for his Pacific-crossing reed raft, Kon-Tiki.

For information before you go, try the Consulate of Bolivia, 211 East 42nd St., Suite 702, New York, NY 10017, telephone 212-687-0530, as well as your travel agent.

When in Bolivia, for tour, travel, and lodging information or arrangements, try Diana Tours in La Paz, Calle Saranaga 38, telephone 02-340356. Hydrofoil trips can be arranged by Transturin in La Paz at Camacho 1321, telephone 591-2-363654, and in Puno at Jiron Libertad 176, telephone 054155-2771; also by Crillon Tours in La Paz, Camacho 1223, telephone 591-2-35063. In Copacabana, a town information kiosk is in the main plaza right in front of the cathedral.

Hotel Playa Azul is at Av. 6 de Agosto, telephone 02-320068, and takes Visa and Mastercard. The Ambassador Hotel is at Plaza Sucre, telephone 021343110, and does not take credit cards. Some 40 hotels, most very basic in accommodations, are almost always available in Copacabana.