This post isn’t what the title suggests, sorry. On my first day in Bolivia I was told by some locals that visiting Copacabana (yes, there’s several places with this name in Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia) at the Titicaca lake is a must-see. I was easily convinced, it’s on the border to Perú, my next destination, but also for another reason…
The Titicaca lake has been on my bucket list for 20 years. Not because of its beauty or unique geographical features of being the highest navigable lake in the world, but for a very personal reason.
Back in the day when I started studying biology, far away from home, at Heidelberg University in 1998 I got to know Olli, a fellow biology student, who would soon become my closest friend. We built our first HTML websites together, back in 1999. Unlike him, I had no taste for music at that time. This was the age of Napster where you could miraculously download single MP3 files with a lot of patience over a 56k dial-up modem connection. He was very much into music and we’d often listen to songs together and thus he had a great influence on my music taste.
One particular song I remember well from those days in early 2000 was De-Phazz – The Mambo Craze (Space Cake Break at the Titicaca Lake). It’s just one of those songs that got stuck in my head forever. Soon after, Olli passed away tragically in his mid 20s. All I got left was memories and his extensive music collection he left and which widened my musical taste.
Finally I am here at Titica lake in Bolivia. A beautiful place, though no space cakes around, just some coca leaves to chew on and lots of nostalgic memories…
Copacabana is kind of quiet as of now, tourists haven’t returned after the pandemic as I have been told. But it’s a great place nevertheless. Tomorrow I am off to Perú. The border is only 15 min from here. I will cross by foot and hope there’s no bad surprised like last time.