Advertisement
Published: August 3rd 2010
Edit Blog Post
We left Cuzco on Wednesday (July 24th) with plans to stay in Puno to check out the gorgeous Lake Titicaca; however, upon arriving in Puno and seeing what a shanty town it was, we quickly decided to go straight into Bolivia to Copacaba instead. We had just missed the last bus to cross the border so I talked to a collectivo driver and convinced 8 Argentinians and 4 Europeans to change their plans and cross the border with us via minibus before border control closed. hehehe Success.
We crossed the border just in time and paid the steep $135 visa charge to enter Bolivia--Sim and I were the only ones. Man do I want an EU passport...We arrived in Copacabana and found a room for 25 Bolivianos (aka $3.50!) Dirt cheap. It was a bit cold and our bathroom wasn´t clean, but hey, you can´t beat that price come on! :P
The next morning we had hoped to do the day tour of Isla del Sol leaving at 8:30 in the morning, however, we forgot that Bolivia was an hour ahead of Peru so we missed the morning boat. We ended up exploring Copacabana´s nooks and crannies and discovered
Our first glasses of api
Api = traditional hot drink made out of purple corn, cinnamon, and clove a quaint little town...We took a stroll through the cathedral and then went to the market to try the traditional hot drink made out of purple corn, called api. Then we gasped up to the mirador to see Lake Titicaca in all is glory. We definitely felt the fact that it´s the highest navigable lake in the world with every deeper breath we tried to inhale on the way to the mirador in attempts to get a little extra oxygen. What should have taken 10 minutes took us 20 minutes because the air was so thin. Luckily shortness of breath and a minor headache here or there have been our only altitude sickness symptoms.
The following day (Saturday) we managed to wake up at the right time to catch the hour and a half boat ride to Isla del Sol. We landed at the north port and hiked 40 minutes up to the archeological site and then another 2 and a half hours over the island to the Inca steps near the south port. The path we took was apparently the 5 hour path, but we seriously hauled ass in fear that the return boat would leave without us
so we cut off a good chunk of time :P However, we are discovering more and more that the people here exaggerate the truth or straight up lie so now I´m having trouble believing people. It´s a shame. I want to trust people, but between the lies and my things getting stolen, I´m losing a little bit of faith.
Nonetheless, the island and the views of the lake were absolutely indescribable. I tried to think of good adjectives to describe it during our hike to the south port, but I just drew a blank. There is no one word nor phrase that can capture everything that Lake Titicaca is. You just have to see it for yourself.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0693s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Marcee from J&J
non-member comment
sheep
Are they alive? :-) Andre and I are curious!!! So glad you enjoyed Peru, my parents' homeland :-)