La Paz and Lake Titicaca

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My journey to La Paz nearly didn´t happen. I´d opted to fly - it was very cheap and would save me a full day on the bus. I'd also been told that La Paz was a great city to see from the air. I got to Sucre´s small, provincial airport in plenty of time and checked in for my flight. Naively I asumed that my flight would appear in due course on the flight departure board (other flights did). With about 20 minutes to go to take off and still no news of my flight I checked with the check in desk and quickly learnt the error of my ways. I rushed through the security checks in time to make the final boarding call.

Once airbourne I was able to enjoy Bolivia unfolding beneath me - mile after mile of steep green hills, intersected by dry river beds and very little else until we started to encounter the white peaks mountains of the Cordillera Real. As I'd been told the descent over La Paz was spectacular. La Paz is a city that sits in a natural bowl and seems intent on climbing up its steep sides onto the flat plateau above.

I was not sure what to expect from La Paz and for that reason I´d only booked a night's accommodation followed by a couple of nights at Lake Titicaca - reasoning that if I liked La Paz I could return after Lake Titicaca and head north into Peru from there.

I had an enjoyable afternoon pottering around. Fortunately my hostel was near the tourist sights so I wondered around churches, museums and markets and generally formed a favourable impression of La Paz. It was busy and frenetic but reasonably accessible. There were a multitude of tour operators offering everything from day trips - mountain biking down "Death Road" or trips out to pre-Colombian archeological sites - to tours trekking and climbing in the Cordillera Real. In fact my initial reaction was that there was too much choice and I was loathe to make a decision until I´d seen Lake Titicaca and decided how much time I wanted to spend there. My head had been turned by the prices too - where else could you spend 3 days climbing a 6,000 metre mountain, including full equipment hire, guides and a day´s ice-climbing practice, for less than £100? I was sorely tempted but it would play havoc with my already tight itinerary...

The journey out from La Paz to Lake Titicaca stalled in Saturday morning market traffic. As I sat on the bus it dawned on me that if I were to return to La Paz it would effectively mean adding another day´s travel to my itinerary - all the trips that had caught my eye were day trips that would require an early morning start. I would have some serious thinking and planning to do just to make a return to La Paz practical. Fortunately I was heading to a very tranquil spot, just the place for thinking and planning.

When I arrived in Copacabana, the main Bolivian town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, things immediately got off to a good start. Any hostel that sends mini-buses to meet buses to pick up guests gets a big tick in my book. To be fair it may have been compensating for some aesthetic failings - the hostel comprised of two floors of rooms opening out onto a scruffy inner courtyard. An arrangement that put me in mind of nothing so much as a prison - but the staff were extremely friendly and in addition to coming with a key the cells were en suite, comfortable enough and intermittently had wifi.

I set out to explore Copacabana - still unsure how to plan my next few days. I´d heard really good things about Lake Titicaca - more an inland sea than a lake. The altitude of 4,000 metres and the steep hills would make exploring a challenge, but it was an idyllic setting, the clear waters of the lake sparkling in the sun and stretching out to the snow-capped mountains on the horizon. In addition it came with some pretty good testimonials -pre-Inca civilisations saw the lake as the home of the sun and the Incas themselves saw it as the birthplace of their civilisation.

However, I´d heard mixed messages about Copacabana - would it prove a bit of a tourist trap? I needn´t have worried. The atmostphere in the town was helped by a small fiesta that was taking place in the main square, which later morphed into a baptism for various taxis - local custom has it that when you buy a new vehicle you get it blessed by the church to insure against accidents - judging by my limited experience of Bolivian drivers, an adherence to the speed limit (was there a limit?) and not overtaking on blind bends might be more effective - but as spectacles go it was novel enough. New cars were parked up in front of the cathedral, bedecked with flowers, happy owners sprayed beer and champagne over the wheels to ensure good fortune. I had exploring do to so I´m afraid I didn´t hang around for the holy water.

Copacabana sits in the valley between two steep hills both of which have Inca heritage and offer spectacular views across the town and out over the lake. I spent the better part of the afternoon climbing these hills, or to be a little more candid, panting and resting from the exertion of climb. It was well worth it for the view. Sunset over Lake Titicaca from Cerro Calvario, named for the 12 stations of the cross that mark its steep slopes - was particularly impressive.

The longer I spent at Lake Titicaca the more I liked it. Something about being in this ethereal atmosphere (or maybe it was just the lack of oxygen) persuaded me that the sensible thing to do would be to stay put here and enjoy the spectacular scenery. It would be a much easier journey to travel on up to Cusco from Copacabana rather than doubling back to La Paz and would mean that I would (in theory) still have plenty of time for Macchu Pichu.

I spent my second day at Lake Titicaca on Isla Del Sol. As you´d expect from the name it was sunny. Isla Del Sol had been the focal point of Inca civilisation in this region and as such was the richest location for remnants of the Inca civilisation. The island looks as though it is in touching distance from the shore of Copacabana but in fact it´s a good hour´s boat ride (two if like me you head to the North shore). It is about 10 kilometers long and has no roads, so the only means of transport (if you discount the occasional donkey) is to walk. The lack of cars and the presence of local communities, still tilling the fields in much the same way as they have for hundreds if not thousands of years, gives Isla Del Sol a timeless feel.

I was unsure whether to overnight on the island - there are plenty of hostels - and it had been suggested to me that this was the most tranquil way to soak up the atmosphere. However, this seemed a lot of time to dedicate to a relatively small area and there were a growing list of other calls on my time, so in the end I settled for an early morning boat out, a walk around the ruins in the north of the island and a trek down the ridge along its spine to get to the south in time to catch the mid-afternoon boat home. (I could always return if I felt like I´d left unfinished business). In terms of the walk it would be about 9 kilometres, through undulating country, with no massive climbs, so provided I had no problems with altitude I should have plenty of time to see a handful of Inca sites and make the ferry back to the mainland.

I enjoyed my first real taste of Inca history. The locals rely heavily on tourism to survive - so you´re never very far from a bedraggled urchin leaping out from behind a rock to demand a10 Bolivianos tribute for looking at his pile of Inca rubble. However, since this equates to less than a pound and it is after all his island, I felt this was a small price to pay. The ruins were by turns impressive and nondescript but the most remarkable feature of the day was the setting. Walking along the ridge that forms the spine of the island there were spectacular views pretty much in every direction. It felt great to be out walking again with the sun on my back. The altitude was not a problem and I must admit I fell a little under the spell of the island. However, good, even unmissable, though the experience had been, I decided I´d made the right decision and one day was enough.

After the Isla Del Sol I talked myself into staying another couple of days at Copacabana and bussing directly from there to Cusco. I spent a day walking the peninsular to the north of Copacabana. I got a taxi to a small village called Sampaya - very picturesque, stone built cottages and cobbled streets plunging down to the lake. I spent the better part of a day meandering my way back to Copacabana, trying to hunt out and keep to the old Inca paths (having no written language obviously didn´t help the Incas when it came to signposts), which mostly kept to the ridges, giving fantastic views on either side down to Lake Titicaca. The countryside reminded me a little of walking the Lycian coast of Turkey, a very tranquil, pastoral landscape, with the possibility of stumbling across the remains of some ancient memorial always just round the corner. Here there were sheep and llama rather than goats as in Turkey, but there was the same sense of timelessness. Until the final hour of the walk, when I approached Copacabana, I hadn´t seen a soul except for a couple of shepherdesses at waving distance.

My final day in Copacabana was pure indulgence. I fancied a day pottering around, staring out at the vast lake sparkling in the sun, with nothing more arduous to do than catch up on emails and find a nice restaurant for lunch. A fresh wind was now blowing off the lake and although the sun remained warm there was a suggestion of what Copacabana must be like when the winter arrives. I parked myself on a bench in the central square and watched the world go by, the locals greeting one another unhurriedly and the tourists wandering by aimlessly. Eventually I´d had enough of inertia and I walked out of town, following a flat road along the shore of the lake a couple of miles until I came to some "floating islands". There are large, floating reed islands at Puno on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, which are still occupied - the "islands" on the Bolivian side are a little less impressive. As you may gather from the photo little more than a pontoon decorated with reeds. (You may need to click on the photos link to see extra photos). Nonetheless it was a very tranquil spot and the trout hatcheries attached to the pontoon ensured that the fish was fresh. I wondered back to town to relax ahead of my 12 hour bus journey up to Cusco tomorrow and found a rooftop terrace bar on which to watch a final sunset over Lake Titicaca. It was good to have day without doing, just being, Lake Titicaca seemed to be that kind of place.

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Photos

Isla De Sol Across Lake Titicaca to the Cordillera Real
The Tunkas (terraces) have been farmed in pretty much the same way since pre-Inca days