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Published: November 14th 2011
We left La Paz behind us and headed towards the great Titicaca Lake. "Great" in the true sense of the word for the lake is the biggest in South America and it is really impressive and beautifully set within mountains. The busride was quite short but the Bolivians managed to surprise us again. We had to cross a part of the lake. So we boarded a small boat to the other side and our bus was shipped on a raft. Very adventurous.
We stayed in the small town of Copacabana, unfortuntely, the beach did not stand the comparison to the famous Brazilian one of the same name. The whole town was a little quirky. It was super touristy with lots of hotels, hostels, restaurants and souvenir-stands but for some reason attracted a lot of hippies and esoteric freaks. We figured that was because of the "Isla del Sol". The island is the birthplace of the sun according to the Inca mythology and sun and hippies go hand in hand, obviously.
We thought we deserve some change from the hostel routine and booked ourselves a room in the "Cupula Hotel", a very nice little guesthouse overlooking the lake with hammocks
in the garden and a nice restaurant.
There were not that many things to do in town, we were quite amazed by the "cha'lla", the ritual blessings of CARS that takes place in front of the cathedral and we went to the small "Museo del Poncho" which shows a collection of different ponchos (!) from the different indiginous groups in Bolivia. We spend most of our time in Copacabana in the hammocks at our hotel.
We decided not to take a daytip to the "Isla del Sol" but to stay overnight there so that we would not be so rushed on the island. So when we finally boarded a boat to the island it was already past noon. The small motorboat had its best time behind it and when the driver fell asleep (!) during the cruise, I got a little freaked out. But we made it to the north part of the island safe and sound after two hours and began our hike. According to the travelguide, you can cross the entire island in 2 - 3 hours but i don't know if they meant if you jog or something.
We wanted to make it a
little more than halfway across it and we hiked for a couple hours, came past a beautiful beach where we stayed for a little while, shared the path with lamas and sheeps and went uphill and downhill and mostly uphill again. The scenery was fantastic but there was really no accomodation in sight. So when it started to get dark, we got a first glimpse of the little village where we wanted to spend the night. Due to the emerging darkness and my complete exhaustion, we stayed at the first hotel in reach which was of course the most expensive.
After a good night's sleep, I fell asleep at 8.30, we continued our tour towards the Inca ruins the next morning. Bolivians are not very keen on putting up signs, so instead of taking the straight way to the ruins, we had to climb down from the top of the island over countless terraces to the ruins. At the site, we were greeted by a group of esoteric-shaman-tourists doing yoga and breathing excercises. A little "loco" if you ask me but I guess I just didn't feel the vibes or something. We also saw the famous reed boats that
are shaped like dragons and cross the Titicaca Lake to Peru.
Our last stop was the village of Yumani where the boat would pick us up to go back to Copacabana. The walk/hike there was very uphill and exhausting again and a steep Inca staircase lead through the village down to the harbour but Yumani itself was very cute and all the effort is worth it in the end, isn't it?
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Mr Minivan
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