Copacabana and Isla del Luna

Hello again!

We are now writing to you from Copacabana, Bolivia. We arrived here yesterday by bus from Puno, Peru. It was a very interesting border crossing - after our documents being check on the Peruvian side, we were told to walk up a hill and through and arched stone entranceway into Bolivia. Our bus would then pick us up on the other side. Here we presented all our documents again, reboarded the bus and continued on for Copacabana.

Once in Copacabana, we walked to hotel - Hotel Rosario, which is vrey nice and located on the shore of Lake Titicaca (Bolivian side). We spent the afternoon wandering around Copa, it is a very beautiful hillside village of approximately 5000 people. There is an unmistakable laid back attitude to the town, created by the very gentle Bolivian people and the many young tourists (many rastafarians). As we wandered, we visited local shops, a beautiful cathedral, the town square and the local market which had stalls exhibiting raw meat cuts which were hanging and laying on counters (they didn't seem to notice the stray dogs licking the overhanging parts). We bought some oranges from a five year old girl as well as some sweetened popped corn (a local favourite resembling styrofoam) and some peanuts. After walking around for a few hours we went down the lakeshore where there are many kiosks selling food and drinks. We sat and enjoyed two very large cervasas (beers) at Kiosk 13 and enjoyed the afternoon sun.

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigatable lake in the world (higher than Lake Tahoe in the US). It is larger than Lake Geneva in Switzerland, and is approximately 8400 square metres and extremely deep at 246 metres, yet very clear. It is amazingly blue water, said to reflect the sky. It was interesting to learn that it is a salt water lake. The Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca is famous for the Isla del Luna and the Isla del Sol. We arranged a tour through our hotel and met with our guide Huaskar who led us to a boat at the lakeshore. We spent the day visitng and hiking Isle del Sol (the main island). First we visited a very tiny museum which held some interesting artifacts which have been found in the waters of Lake Titicaca by Jacques Cousteau in 1968. From there we walked along a trail with beautiful views of the island, the Isla del Luna and the shimmering waters of Lake Titicaca. The Inca believe that this was the birthplace of the Sun (hence the islands name). Huaskar was an excellent guide giving us alot of information about the legends surrounding the islands. We sat at the top of a beautiful hill and enjoyed a picnic lunch where we discussed sports in Bolivia and Canada with Huaskar.

We then visited the Chincana ruins, a labyrinth like structure. Nearby to the Chincana we visited a Shaman, who blessed us both, wishing us both good futures. The blessing consisted of alot of praying in his native tongue as well as sprinkling water on our heads and into our hands with which we were to wash our face. He placed his hands on our heads and prayed as well as continuous patting movements. Once we were both blessed, the ceremony concluded with a very long embrace in his arms. It was a very moving experience at the top of this beautiful island.

At this point we began our trek to the southside of the island, this is approximately a 12 km uphill hike under the midday sun. We were thankful for the cool breezes! Along the way we continued to see gorgeous views. We eventually reached the southside which is more populated with a few very small restaurant stalls at the edge of the hillside. Once again we met up with our boat and set off to the southern tip of the island to visit Challapampa. This is an Incan temple which housed priests and was a place of pilgrimmage for many Inca people.

It was an absolutely wonderful day, we love Bolivia and wish we could stay longer. Tomorrow we are off on another bus journey back to Peru, this time to visit Arequipa on the west coast.

We will try to blog again from Arequipa to update you all on our journey!

Ciao!

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