The relatively short journey of around 4 hours from La Paz
to Copacabana
including a short boat trip across lake Titicaca was quite an exhilirating one! Rising up high in the Andes, from a distance you could see the Bolivian cordillera, the chain oh high snow capped mountains
and then not long afterwards, you could begin to see the lake for the first time. Now to say this is a big lake is soewhat of an understatement, it is absolutely huge and looks like an ocean amongst land. Such a beautiful sight!
Finally after driving through, around and over the lake for an hour or so, I got my first glimpse of Copacabana where I would stay for one day and then head to Cuzco from there. I could indeed now see why the beach in Rio was named after this place as it was a similar layout with two high rocky outcrops at either end of the beach (or the bay as it was a lake remember) and it curves round in a similar fashion. A very beautiful looking town as we approached it from above and I was looking forward to exploring.
Unfortunately on arrival I discovered that the hostel I had booked was not actually in Copacabana but on an island on lake Titcaca called Isla del Sol which I had heard about and was planning to visit depending on time constraints. Well now it seemed that I was destined to see it so I booked my boat ticket which left in one hour so found my boat and dropped my large bag off so that I could do it quick tour of the town in the hour or so that I had. I had seen a nice looking church or cathedral and after walking along the bay seeing the market stalls, getting photos with the cutest baby llamas
Then I had a stroll through the park and by this time it was almost departure time so off I went to get on the boat.
The ride across the lake painted a pciture of the sheer size and scale of it. The biggest and highest navagable lake in the world, it really was like going out to see. One girl told me it was almost 500 metres deep in some places! Sitting up on top of the boat the sun was hot but the wind made it very chilly so I wrapped up warm and was even cold with my hat and gloves on! After about 2 hours on the boat (we had only travlled a tiny part of the lake and it had taken 2 hours!!) we reached Isla del Sol.
I was absolutely struck by the beauty of this place and I was so glad I had come. It was an Incan island and a community of natives called the Yucumani community lived there along with a large amount of backpackers who made their way there every day from Copacabana. The island was so remote (the only land nearby was the smaller Isla del Luna) meaning Island of the Moon that they were very scarce on certain things and there was no internet at all on the island. On disembarkation from the boat, I was quite releived to be on terra firma
as some parts of the boat ride had been quite choppy and I had a very sore bum sitting on the edge of a wooden plank for 2 hours but getting off the boat and asking where town and the hostels were, he pointed up to the top of the mountain simply saying 20 minutos arriba! 20 minutes up a very steep mountain face!! With a bag weighing 26kg on my back and hand luggage! This was certainly going to be a challenge I thought to myself!! It certainly was, absolutley exhausting walking up the steep valley steps, I thought my heart was
going to pop out of my chest at times it was beating so fast! I couldnt believe there had been no warning of this on the website! Or perhaps there had but since Id booked it in such a hurry I hadn't read that part. I didnt mind though as the scenery and views were simply amazing.
Once I finally reached my hostel I was totally shattered, it really had been a struggle but the view was one of the best I'd ever seen with a huge snow capped mountain chain directly opposite when looking out of the hostel window and the vast and seemingly neverending deep blue lake surrounding the island! It really was like I'd stumbled across a paradise island with thick green terraces all over, just a few small buildings, mainly restaurants and shops and isla del luna opposite I was so glad I'd made the error of booking my hostel here rather than Copacabana!
I went in to check in and met my hostel mates for the night. It was only a small hostel called Inga Pacha run souly by a rather old looking but very nice Bolivian woman. In total in the hostal there were just 6 of us so it meant we all got to know each other very well. It was especially nice the fact that 4 of us of the 6 were English, a lovely couple from Liverpool (beleive it or not you do get lovely people from Pool too), a guy from Bristol who was travelling with a girl from Belgium called Joy and a guy from Canada called Steve who freaked me out a bit at first but turned out to be a nice guy. Having all just arrived and checked in, we all decided to go for food and had a great laugh and the food was even pretty good, 3 courses (veggie soup, omelette and veg and banana split and tea) all for 25 bs which is 2 pounds 50!! All the guys turned out to be very nice and we all got on really well and decided we'd go on a walk and explore this mystical island a little. I'd heard from the woman at the hostal that there was a a temple called templo del sol about 30 mins walk towards the islands' peninsula so I suggested that we walked there and tried to catch the sunset so everyone agreed apart from Joy who was too tired and went to bed. Wrapping up warm and making sure we all had torches for the way back we headed out, I led the group as I was the one who had been told where it was and it was my idea so off we went on our intrepid adventure exploring this amazing island! We walked the path for a while until it disappeared ad then had to walk through crop fields, volt stone walls, climb terraces, jump down slopes and then finally we found a path again. It was all great fun but there was no sign of any Incan temple and it was getting darker and darker so we just decided to try and get to the highest point and get a view of the sunset from there although we were just too late, we got about half way up to the highest point we coupld see on the island and did witness a nice sunset behind the mainland with the suns reflection on the lake making it even more spectacular (I got a photo that actually looked like a lava flow, as it was such a bright red between the mountains and clouds)
but unfortunately we were just too late and now it was very dark and certainly time to try and find our way back or risk getting lost. It was a real shame we were all leaving the next day as I got well with them
all and I really would like to have been able to explore the island properly.
Apparently they have another community on the other side of the island but that's a 3 hour hike away and I certainly wasnt doing it in the dark and didnt have time in the morning as check out was 10, the boat was 10.30 which meant I'd get to Copacabana at around 12.30 leaving me just half an hour til my bus to Cuzco. We had planned to get up at 6.30 for sunrise which was supposed to be spectacular but I just thought that since my room was facing the mountains and
the direction where the sunrises, there wasnt too much point in getting out of bed for it, I'd just watch it from the comfort and warmth of bed! On return from our walk, Steve went to bed too, leaving just the English and we all agreed we'd try and find somehwere to eat dinner since it was only 8pm and we all felt like food and a beer so we had a beer each and headed for food but surprisingly there were no bars at all and none of the restaurants were open (only shops) so we just decided to get beers and crisps and play cards back at the hostel. This was good fun
and we shared some good fun times but soon it was midnight and everyone was tired and went to bed. After agreeing to get up early for sunrise, nobody did and I simply opened my eyes to watch it for a few moments at around 6.30am and then went back to sleep again. It was quite impressive but not really worth getting out of bed for especially when I could see it without the need to get out of bed! A few hours later at around 9.30 we were all up and ready to leave to catch the 10.30am boat back to Copacabana.
THis didnt seem to take nearly as long as the boat out to the island perhaps because I had people to talk to and also the lake seemed alot calmer as well as the fact that we had a bigger slightly more powerful boat than last time.
After 2 hours crossing the lake we arrived at Copacabana at 12.30 so I had 30 minutes until the long bus journey to Cusco (around 14 hours!).
Crossing into Peru was relatively straightforward although I had to wait in a long queue and then we headed up to Puno where we needed to change bus. Unfortunately this meant waiting around for a while for our bus to turn up which on arrival was loaded up
with crates and boxes and bags full of guinea pigs and chickens ready for sale and consumption. Very cruel treatment I thought, it made me very angry to see such treatment not to mention the smell but I just had to grin and bear it! Luckily, 3 nice young English girls were travelling on the same bus and one of them sat next to me and we pretty much told each other our life stories for 14 hours while everyone else went to sleep. I wasn't attracted to her but I felt comfortable chatting to her and felt I could confide in her so we had a great chat for a long long time! When we finally arrived at Cusco, I had no hotel booked so had foolishly gone for a hotel with the bus company guy which turned out to be a bad move as they were apparently fully booked when I arrived and so I had to stay in another and pay again which I was not too impressed about, bloody conman! Oh well, the next day I was meeting Dad and he'd be releiving me alot financially over the next couple of weeks so I wasn't too bothered. I was just looking forward to seeing Dad again and exploring Cusco and Peru!
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