Blogs from Isla del Sol, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America

I woke early the following morning to an enormous clap of thunder followed by an almighty down pour of rather large hail stones. My dreams of watching sunrise on the beach were washed away within seconds. The lake is surrounded by 5000m+ mountains so the probability of a storm over the lake is very high. We sat watching out the window whilst the lightening and thunder cracked simultaneously. The poor farm animals had no shelter and donkeys look pretty miserable at the best of times anyway. If you unload a cloud load of hail on to them they look suicidal. The sadest donkeys in all the land were stood outside my window. We did think we might not make it back to the mainland but the hail was quickly over and the sun was shinning. Now ... read more

Hola a todos! Aquí estoy, desde el 18 de agosto viajando por cuenta propia. Primera parada, Copacabana. Ahí me quedé 2 semanas, ya que encontré trabajo. Estuve 10 días tocando por la noche en un bar, pasando la gorra y vendiendo mis discos. Ya llevo 6 ejemplares vendidos. De ahí fuí a la Isla del Sol. 8 días más. Impresionante. Necesitaba un poquito de playa, aunque fuera el Titicaca. Y me sumergí en esas frías aguas. Como veis, todos los animales van a la orilla a comer cositas, beber agua. Tuve un affair con una burrita bebé. Se acercó y estuvimos restregándonos las caras, acariciándonos y hablando de la vida... En catalán todo. Buenas gentes me acompañaron, Matt y Moh vinieron a encontrarme a la isla y pasamos grandes días juntos. Rosa, Maria, Karime, Demi, Sofía, ... read more

Next up was Lake Titicaca which is the highest big lake in the world or the biggest high lake or summat like that. It's big 'n' high. The bus journey from La Paz is made a bit more interesting when you reach part of the lake and have to get off the bus and into a mini boat to make a crossing. The bus itself is then put on a boat which is barely big enough and looks like it could sink any minute. We stayed in a little town called Copacabana which is a lot less sexy than the Brazilian one. From there we took a day trip to the Isla del Sol which is where the Inca's say the sun god was born, although I have my reservations. It was a 2 hour boat ... read more

Lago Titicaca is only a few hours from La Paz and, although we'd seen it from the Peruvian side last time around, we wanted to see the Bolivian part. It should have been a simple matter of grabbing a bus to Copacabana, and at first it was. We bought our tickets, and settled down to wait. Then, confusion. The manager of the bus station started to abuse the ticket sellers. Apparently the road to Copacabana was closed – protests and unrest – and they shouldn't have been selling tickets. Really? Did we need to reassess? No, we were assured, as long as you don't want to go onto Perú you would have no problems. The thing is, most tourists do want to go onto Perú. So, when we got on the bus, the police boarded and ... read more

I'm going to share with you possible one of the funniest quotes I've heard on my trip thus far...and I guess it's only funny because its oh so true, that and I think it makes for the perfect start to my blog A young backpacker turns to his friends and says; "you know its so funny how you when you travel you start to appreciate the small things in life, the other day I was so thankful that I was able to do a dry fart" I giggled to myself and thought, he's spot on, or as Mr McIvor would say "you've hit the nail on the head there hannah" When you travel you do start to appreciate the smaller things in life; like the ability to drink tap water, be able to make the decision ... read more