We heard about Bolivia Hop from Sophia, the woman we met on our walking tour in Sucre, and we thought it sounded like a fun way to see Lake Titicaca while crossing the border from Bolivia to Peru. Bolivia Hop is a recent expansion of Peru Hop and so far only goes to Copacabana and La Paz. Peru Hop has seven destinations in southern Peru and you can hop on and off along the route and stay as long as you like in between.
We booked Bolivia Hop between La Paz and Puno a few days in advance. We were picked up at 7am at a nearby hostel. At 9:45am, we arrived at the Tiquina Mirador viewpoint which was our first view of Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3,812 meters (11,500 ft)above sea level and the largest lake in South America.
About 15 minutes later we arrived at the Strait of Tiquina ferry crossing where we got off the bus and onto a small ferry to cross a small stretch of water. The bus was driven onto a larger raft and ferried across the water to meet us on the other side.
At 11:30, we arrived at Copacabana which is a beautiful small town on the edge of the lake surrounded by mountains. We had 90 minutes in Copacabana to explore, so we elected to walk up Cerro Calvario which has shrines at the top. The walk up was tough given the steepness of the hill (we think this is the steepest road we’ve ever walked on) and the thinness of the air at this altitude. We were rewarded at the top with stunning views of Copacabana and Lake Titicaca though, so it was well worth the effort to get there. We ate a quick sandwich and then started our descent down in search of a cappuccino. There are tons of restaurants on the Main Street and near the port, so we popped into one and ordered a cappuccino and a mango milkshake to use up the last of our bolivianos. The cappuccino took a surprisingly long time to prepare so we had to gulp it down when it arrived, but it was delicious.
View of Copacabana from Cerro Calvario 
View of Lake Titicaca from Cerro Calvario
We were in a hurry to catch the boat to Isla del Sol which left at 1pm. The boat rides low in the water and the views from the lake are pretty. It takes a little more than an hour to reach Isla del Sol where we took a 40 minute stroll to the Sun Temple and a viewpoint. The island is covered in these amazing terraces, many of which date back to pre-Incan times. The views from the island were also beautiful. Afterwards, we boarded the boat again to go back to Copacabana to catch the bus to the Peruvian border.
The border is no more than 20 minutes from Copacabana, so we arrived around 5:30pm. We took everything off the bus and stood in line to exit Bolivia. It turns out Eric and I overstayed our visa by one day because we entered on the 2nd of March and left on the 2nd of April, so we had to pay a small fine of 27 bolivianos ($4) per person. Unfortunately, we had diligently spent our last Bolivianos on cappuccino, and despite having multiple Visa and MasterCard stickers on the Payments window, the border doesn’t actually accept credit cards. Of course, there are people right outside waiting to exchange money for you, so we were able to convert dollars to bolivianos to pay our fine before leaving, but they gouge you on the conversion of your change into Peruvian soles, so try to convert the exact amount you need.
Once we were out of Bolivia, we had to walk to Peru which was around the corner and down the street. Then we stood in line to get our entry stamp to Peru. We expect to be in Peru for roughly 25 days, but we said 30 just in case and they gave us 60 day stamps. When we crossed the Peru line, we automatically gained an hour which had the funny effect of erasing the hour we spent at the border from the clock.
Having entered Peru, we got on our next Hop bus on the way to Puno for the night. With the time change, it gets dark quite early, so it was pitch black outside by 6pm and there was a fantastic lightning storm out the window.
We’d say our first Bolivia Hop experience was a success. It’s a very easy, stress-free way to travel, but we think it takes a bit of fun out of it. We spent the entire day surrounded by other tourists and everything was done in English. Even though Peru Hop offers buses and tours around other parts of Peru, we’ve elected to go it on our own for the rest of the trip, so we can have a more local experience.