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Published: August 17th 2006
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Isla del Sol? Could be Greece
Placid waters, sandy beaches and craggy bits. Hard to believe it´s fresh water. It had to happen sooner or later. Graham started feeling a bit stomachy about 10 minutes over the Peru-Bolivia border and spent a couple of days dashing between bed and bathroom. I got a lesser bug two days later. Neither of us were horrendously ill, but it wasn´t very pleasant. We ended up staying a lot longer than anticipated on the shores of Lake Titicaca. On a not unrelated note, Titicaca, we learned, is pronounced Titichacha (like the ch in ´loch´). In the local Aymara language it means stone puma. And it seems everyone has a good laugh about tourists pronouncing it wrong. ´Caca´means the same in any language. The Peruvians argue Bolivia is the ´caca´ side and Bolivians argue the other way. From our experience it would seem the Peruvians have got it right. But stomach bugs aside, the Bolivian side and Isla del Sol - a large and craggy island in the Lake - are very beautiful.
On the Peruvian side, we transferred from Arequipa to Puno on the shores of the lake and spent a day visiting the traditional floating islands of Uros and a non-floating one called Taquile. These day trips are criticised as real tourist
traps, but we actually had a nice time. The islands don´t so much float as wobble a bit on the water. I think they´re tethered - maybe so the tourist boats know where to find them in the morning. Made entirely from the reeds growing naturally on Lake Titicaca, each island is home to four or five families. There is one island with a school on it too. There were dozens of daytripping boats out on the lake, but they all go to visit different islands so it doesn´t seem too bad when you´re actually there.
After Uros, we got the boat to Taquile where more tourist fare was laid on. Dancing and music in the main square and a slap-up Titicaca trout lunch. Not bad.
We had read and heard Copacobana was a place we should stay to enjoy Lake Titicaca properly. We had got the general idea already. It´s a big lake and it looks like it must be a sea. And then we got a bit ill. But even if we´d been feeling perky, Copacobana would have been disappointing. It feels very run-down and seasidey and was really filthy. One of the most important Catholic
Floating Reed Islands
Feeling a bit seasick pilgrimmage sites is based here - the stations of the cross positioned up a steep hillside overlooking the town. We walked up there and were amazed at the number of locals dilligently making their pilgrimmage whilst quite contentedly chucking all their rubbish down the same hillside. There is also a big smelly drainage channel down the middle of the ´beach´. Not the nicest place to be poorly, but a lot nicer than Puno, which really is a dump.
We took a ridiculously underpowered and overcrowded passenger boat over to the Isla del Sol in order to spend the day there and walk the length of the Island. It was really beautiful and worth the whole episode. It could have been the Med or the Aegean. A really peaceful, craggy place with amazing mountain views over Bolivia. One of the striking differences between Peru and Bolivia from a tourist perspective is the laid back approach to tourism in Bolivia. In Peru, everybody wants your tourist dollar. In Bolivia, nobody bothers to shout about their alpaca hats or wants you to take their photo. There are boats for tourists and tourist offices and things, but they don´t really care what you
Crazy dancing
Traditional dance and pan pipers piping in the main square on Taquile Island do or why. The boat to Isla del Sol left us at the port and told us to be at the other end of the island by a certain time then left us to it. Fair enough, it wasn´t too hard to find the main pathway and work out where you should go, but in Peru there would have been hoardes of would-be guides waiting for us, keen to bargain a price for their services. We both found the change in tourism-culture a big relief.
After our day on the island, we booked a bus to La Paz. Feeling exhausted but in good intestinal health, we were a bit nervous about hitting the big city. The short ferry crossing was fun, but after that, it was straight to the outskirts of La Paz. High altitude, huge and intimidating, nestling in between mountains on all sides. Quite a breathtaking view from above. Literally.
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