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Published: June 24th 2010
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So we were up for yet another bus ride from La Paz to Copacabana. We checked into our hostel (6 pounds a night for a double with private bathroom thank you very much) and took a stroll around the town which included seeing the blessing of the cars which is done twice a day outside the church at the centre of town. The process involves covering your car or truck in flowers, having it blessed by the priest and then pouring alcohol onto the car and on the ground around the car. This was a first for us and particularly enjoyed the moment when a woman who looked about 100 came up and did a prayer for the car and then was given some money as thanks for her prayers for the car. This also seemed to be a whole family exercise with children and brothers and sisters taking part…..certainly interesting viewing.
The main point of us being in Copacabana was to visit Isla Del Sol (island of the Sun) on Lake Titicaca. But first we witnessed a spectacular sun set over the lake from Copacabana, had a huge meal and settled in for an early night.
Rather than
take the ferry directly to the Island we had decided to trek for 17km to the peninsular and then find someone to take us over to the island from there. We set of about 8am and witnessed our first violence of the trip….and in such a small quiet town! We were walking along a market street towards the edge of town to start the trek when all of a sudden 3 young guys came charging round the corner about 2 metres away from us throwing punches at each other with one poor guy trying to break up the fight. Next thing we knew all the little old ladies around us were yelling out to the kids and trying to get the police…..this sort of thing was obviously not a regular occurrence. The fight got more serious when one of the kids pulled a big rock out and started trying to hit one of the other guys with it over the head. Finally one police man turned up and separated the fight (although he seemed to have no idea what to do besides blow his whistle either) and we could continue on our way.
We kept asking for directions along
the way as the only directions we had for our trek were a couple of lines in our lonely planet guide and the route was not exactly clearly marked out. Once we were out of town though, there was only one turn off option and that wasn’t for about 15km. The walk took us about 4 hours and was so spectacular - the views of the lake and the small villages we encountered on the way were really special. You may laugh at 4 hours for 17km but the altitude really slows you down and this was the highest we had been and actually done any exercise… We reached our destination (Yampupata), a very small village, and managed to locate a lovely little old man at the small port to take us to the Isla Del Sol on his little boat.
We were exhausted by this time and the boat ride was a nice relaxing trip. When we got to the island however, we were greeted with 240 steps that I swear were about a metre high (at least they felt that high) and given we had done our mornings trek at altitude and had not had any lunch
these were the last thing we wanted to have to conquer. A little boy met us at the boat and offered to show us his hostel so we decided to walk along with him…..we hope the small tip we gave him was still worth his while given he could have run up these steps and I was having to drag myself up there at a very slow pace, stopping every 5 or 6 steps...
The next morning we woke up early to begin the hike to the other end of the island as we had to be there to catch the last ferry back to the mainland at 1.30pm. This hike was bloomin’ hard at first and it felt like we were walking straight up, but then the hills got a bit less vertical and we found our rhythms, but the views were worth the effort! We were walking between 3,800m and 4,200, the whole time we were on the island so the lungs were getting an extra hard workout.
At the northern end of the island we reached the Inca ruins where their religious beliefs were born, took a good look around, and then grabbed a sandwich
Isla del Sol
this woman was running at full pelt down the mountain and jumped on a boat for the 2 hour ride back to Copacabana….
This was great preparation for the Inca trail, but that’s another story.
Next destination is Puno, also on Lake Titicaca.
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