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Published: October 19th 2008
Umm where to start
Having left Puno, we ventured out onto Lake Titicaca to the floating reed islands of the Uros indians.
Fascinating stuff, but we left with the view that it has now become more of a tourist performance than a real way of life. That said, the way these people live (or lived) is indeed fascinating. A couple of shots to show the atmosphere of the place - including Chris getting dressed in local garb and hamming it up. There are 35 of these islands - with several families on each, so there must be some substance to it.
We then had a good bus drive through pretty arid land to the Bolivian border - where we had to walk through and .... no photos! Went without a hitch - then changed some money and jumped on our Bolivian transport - a rickety bus whose bald tyres needed chocking to prevent it rolling downhill. We then only had an 8km journey to Copacabana (Bolivia - not Brazil, and we are advised that this is the original after which the Rio beach was named by visit Jesuits). This is our jumping off point to the 60 minute
boat trip to Sun Island on Lake Titicaca. We had a 2 night stay at La Estancia Indian Lodge. What we werent told is that from the drop off point, there is a 3-4 km trek to the Lodge - including a 300+ metre elevation increase from 3700 metres to 4000+ metres. For those of you who need a perspective, this is 2.5 miles above sea level.
Pleasingly, our bags were carried uphill by some of the workers and a handfull of mules / donkeys / burroughs.
Despite that, we were all affected in various ways by the exersion at this altitude. Some did better than others, and you trusty correspondent , his wife and B I Law were luckily some of the least affected. Lulling us into a false sense of security, we predictably over imbibed on some very nice Bolivian Beer and wine - and had nights of less sleep than ideal, dried extremities and racing and palpitating hearts at various times.
To spend a moment on Lake Titicaca, this is a mammoth stretch of water - 8500 sq kilometres in size (3-4 times Port Philip Bay we estimate from afar), and is a magnificent
stretch of water mainly controlled by Peru, but the lesser amount controlled by Bolivia is by far the more interesting - apparently agreed by both sides.
Sun Island is a beautiful place, almost completely terraced for cultivation, but very brown at the end of the dry season as we now are. The wet starts in November so again, our timing is perfect and we are blessed by great days. The Backdrop on the eastern Bolivian side is a magnificent section of the Andes - snowcapped of course in picture postcard style. The one horrible aspect is that most of the development - including our lodge, is at the top of the island. Great for views but not so good for the active guests.
Our second day at the lodge included (if you wanted), a boat ride to the northern end of the island, a visit to the (different) Inca ruins, and a trek some of the way back, where we are again met by the boat, had a picnic box lunch, then a journey to nearby moon island. Not nearly as large or attractive as Sun island, it did however serve the important purpose housing the inca 'nunnery'
that provided the virgins necessary for the sacrifices by the bold incas on sun island. Indeed we even saw the sacrificial table - complete with its surrounding 12 'seats'in the inner circle and 4 seats in the outer circle. There was a great tale as to what all of these things meant - as well as the nearby maze that determined the brightest prince to be the next king, and a Puma rock (that took so much imagination to interpret nobody even took a photo!), but by this time I was finding the adjacent donkey trio and nomadic sheep herdsman who passed over the sacred site with his herd marginally more interesting.
The trek was exhausting (Pete's pedometre indicated around 18,000 steps for the day - or around 12kms over a very harsh and undulating seies of donkey tracks.)
We then had the very serious push uphill back to the lodge. On the sound reasoning that only 8 of the 16 guests bothered to take on the day (as they were the more confident), we used a nearer harbour so the distance was shorter, but you guessed it, it went largely straight up hill for part of the way.
Anyway, it was good fun if tiring, and we had all agreed to take in less alcohol in the night! Silly us! We were true to our word (except Chris who had effectively given up in her normal cavalier style), but our intentions were thwarted when our Indian hosts wanted to show their appreciation of our patronage by providing free Pisco sours to start the meal (3 course based on locally caught trout) and finished of by free wine. There went our sober night - however most handled it quite well.
After a hearty breakfast that included scrambled eggs and the freshest cornflakes we have had on the trip, we tackled the downhill trek to the boat - our adventure to sun island complete. While largely downhill, numerous uphill pushes were present to test us even further. The ladies with the donkeys and our bags, who had given us 20 minutes start caught us by the time we reached the bottom!
We then had a walk though Copacabama Town including a visit to the local Moorish cathedral (Catholic of course) where we winessed a marriage as well as a 'pilgramage' by local mothers to give thanks for
the success they had enjoyed for the past year.
After another heary lunch, we headed off in a much improved bus (It had thread in its tyres) for the 4.5 hour trip to LaPaz.
Several highlights there including the wonderful backdrop of the snow capped andes (the same ones we could see from Sun Island), the boat trip across the narrowest point of the Lake (while the bus went on the didgiest ferry you could hope for), and being held up by a peaceful march of local rural citizens that will take 3 days to reach LaPaz and is aimed at achieving a better deal under a revised constitution.
On reaching LaPaz, we came inat 4000 metres, but the city proper is crammed into a valley 400 metres below. Houses are crammed onto the hillsides in the valley, and even Alan, our local guide, lost his family house recently in a landslide - that apparent occurs quite regularly.
More on LaPaz and its surrounds tomorrow or the next day, but meantime we are in a very nice 5 star hotel in the middle of this jungle.
Peter Chris and I snuck away for a Whopper
meal at Burger King tonight since Peter has been craving french fries from day one!
Now a plea. I have been particulary exhaustive tonight in a deliberate attempt to try to invoke comments in response to these note. Only John and Marilyn have been forthcoming with regular comments, so some feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Until tomorrow (or the next day which is a free day), Bye for now
Ian
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Mandy
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Barry
Hi ya, the landscape sure looks different at every place you go. It looks like you were all walking in the desert - but then around the corner, crystal clear waters.... I do have one question for you all, did you find it difficult not to break out in song in Copacabana? I did reading your blog! Her name was lola ....