Crossing into corruption

Copacabana is a great little town on the edge of Lake Titicaca (I hope that word is funny until I die!). We found a good place to stay with an excellent view. The main attraction on the lake is the Isla del Sol. It has Incan ruins and is the origin of one of the Incan creation myths. It is also very beautiful and hot! We got annoyed with tourists and the heat and decided to head back to Copacabana for the night. We were pretty beat, out of Bolivian money (no ATMs on Copa), and excited for Peru.

We hit the border pretty early hoping to get to Arequipa with plenty of time to spare. We didn´t estimate getting pulled over four times. The first three were routine stops, they took time, but where fine. The final one was a little different. In all the countries we have driven in so far have had pretty basic rules. Peru however, has cops on crow towers directing traffic. I didn´t see one and went through an intersection. Of course we pretended not to speak Spanish hoping they would get bored. Two of them did, another threatened to keep my drivers license until I paid the fine for the ticket. We told him we didn´t understand and he decided that we would drive him to the police station. Once out of town a little, he straight up asked us for a bribe of around $20. We luckily only had change a little and got him out of the car with under $3. We made our way slowly up over 4,300m and down to the white city of Arequipa. We are going to explore the canyons, in hopes of viewing condors up close, for a few days and then head to Cusco to meet our Aunt Jeanne for a trek to Machu Picchu!