Hay mucho sol en la Isla Del Sol

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Early in the week, I decided that I was going to go away on the weekend because I really felt the urge to travel. My destination for this weekend: Copacabana (not the famous one in Brazil that there is a song about) and Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca. Feels strange to be going back to Lake Titicaca considering I was last there in May of 2005 on the Peruvian side. I never thought I would be back in this part of the world so quickly.

I invited my friend Kevin along for the trip, however when I called him Friday night to invite him, he was at his company's Christmas party and as I found out Saturday morning before 7AM that they only thing he remembered was that I called, not the fact that I was going to Copacabana and had invited him. The joys of talking to drunk people 😊 Alejandro and Linnea decided to go to Lake Titicaca as well, so the four of us decided to travel there together. As the buses that leave for Copacabana leave from the cemetary district rather than the bus terminal, we caught a taxi there. A 20 minute ride for the four of us only cost 10 bolivianos. The minute we stepped foot outside the taxi there were people from the bus companies asking us if we were going to Copacabana and wanting us to go with them. This is the first time I have seen touting like this in Bolivia. We found a bus company for the three and a half hour ride to Copacabana for 15 bolivianos (about $2). The first part of the ride took us up the mountain side to El Alto. From here there are some spectacular views on La Paz as El Alto is at the top of the "crater". Driving through El Alto is always interesting as it is a sprawling city (it is not part of La Paz) and the poverty level is extremely high. You can see the poverty when driving through it. Then came a part of town called "Rio Seco" which means "dry river". The road was absolutely horrible here with potholes larger than anything I have seen. (And yes, to the residents of my hometown of Miramichi, these potholes are a lot worse than I have experienced there.) The bus swerved around the potholes and sometimes we were in the way on traffic going the other way. Finally, we made it to some good road and this continued for quite some time. We were riding through the Altiplano, a flat and high altitude area that covers a good percentage of Bolivia. After living in La Paz for a couple of months, it is amazing how strange flat terrain looks.

About midway through the trip we were in the village of San Pablo de Tiquina. All of a sudden, everybody was getting off the bus and we didn't really understand why until a Bolivian lady explained to us what was going on. Ahead of us was the Strait of Tiquina which we needed to cross to get to Copacabana. As there is no bridge, there are boats that transport people across and barges that transport boats across. For safety reasons, people are not allowed to remain on the bus as it crosses on the barge, so the passengers have to take a boat to the other side at a cost of 1.50 bolivianos. It is interesting watching a barge carry a large passenger bus...I'm quite glad that we were not on the bus as it was going across! Talking to some local people, they say the floor of the Strait of Tiquina is scattered with buses because when there are high winds, tall buses have been blown over in the past. The passenger boat service is much faster than that of the barge service, so we had a few minutes to walk around the twin town of San Pedro de Tiquina (San Pablo de Tiquina is on the side where we originated). Back on the bus again to go to Copacabana. As the road wound its was to Copacabana, it followed the coast line on Lake Titicaca. Great to see water again!

At about 12:30PM, we arrived in Copacabana, passing the cathedral, where multiple weddings were going on, and ending in the main plaza. As it was lunch hour, we headed down to the beach to find some food. A speciality of Copacanaba is fresh-water trout and this is what I planned to eat all weekend as its accessibility in La Paz is not so good. The beach is lined with small stands that only serve trout, prepared in different ways. We found a small restaurant along the beach to eat at which was pretty good. It has been a while since I have had fresh fish, which probably made it taste even better.

Our plan was to go to Isla del Sol instead of spending our time in Copacabana. Unfortunately, the last "tourist" boat of the day had already left, so we hired a private boat to take us to Isla del Sol, and hour and a half journey from Copacabana. It ended up costing us 50 bolivianos each for the ride, instead of 15 bolivianos each for the tourist boat, however, it felt really nice to not be on such a crowded boat. An hour and a half later, we were at Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). Looking out into Lake Titicaca, you are able to see Isla de la Luna (Island of the Moon) as well, but on this trip, I would not make it there. The boat dropped up off at "El Fuente del Inca", which is a fountain from Incan times the runs down the hillside beside "La Escalera del Inca" the Incan staircase that takes you to the top of the island. After our enduring hike to the top of the island to find the village, we were joined by a little boy trying to get us to stay at his hostel, unfortunately it was on the other side of the town/hill. Ahis fter looking at other hostels, we ended up at hostel he was working for. For 25 bolivianos a person per night ($3.50 CAN), we got rooms on the upper floor with a patio that overlooked Isla Del Sol. Couldn't get much better than this! We searched out at a restaurant for dinner that happened to be in the middle of nowhere. We had to walk on a path through the woods to find it. Like I said before, I was going to enjoy the trout while here so for dinner I had a pasta pesto dish with a fillet of trout. It was really good! By the time we finished supper, the sun had set and we found out how tranquil the island is at night because there is nobody around and there are no sounds to be heard. We ended up playing "President" (I would prefer not to call it by its other name and one reason being the last time it was played, the game did not end nicely) for a couple of hours, enjoyed a few beers and then called it a night.

The next day Kevin and I woke up around 7AM. The main reason I woke up is because I really needed to use the washroom. As the bathroom was downstairs and it was raining quite hard all night, it is amazing how much you can hold off going to the washroom. Anyway after cleaning up a bit, Kevin and I hiked up towards the northern part of the island to get a glimpse of the island before finding breakfast. We think we found some gardens full of coca (and yes it is legal here). Unfortunately, none of the restaurants in town served up a traditional Bolivian breakfast so we were stuck with the American Breakfast of eggs, bread and coffee. Alejandro and Linnea woke up late and decided they would head back to Copacabana in the morning so they could get back to La Paz at a decent hour. After walking with them down to the dock and seeing them off, Kevin and I went to check out a reed boat that we could see from a distance when we arrived. Pretty amazing boat and definitely the largest reed boat that I have ever seen. Afterwards, we took the road not so much travelled to the southern part of the island to see some Incan ruins. I say the road is not so much traveled because a local person told us it was a shortcut, but some of the views looking straight down into the lake were a bit frightening. At the Incan Ruins of Pilko Kaina we were greeted by two girls, aged 8 and 10, who would be our guides of the ruins. I really think they were more interested in getting their pictures taken though. Then a sister of one of the girls came along and followed us on the tour. Cute kids! The cost for visiting the ruins was only 5 bolivianos and we seemed to have visited it at the right time as we were the only tourists. There is a boat dock at the ruins where tour groups get off for a few minutes to see it.

After the ruins, Kevin and I headed back to town to find lunch and I´ll let you figure out what I ate 😊 We roamed around the island a bit more before heading down to the boat docks to catch our 4PM boat back to Copacabana. I spend most of the ride back to Copacabana talking to a group of people who had been studying in Sucre. They convinced me that I should go to Sucre someday. Once back in Copacabana, we found a bus back to La Paz at 6:30PM which got us back to the cemetary district of La Paz at 10PM, definitely not the best time of day to be in this area, but as taxis are plenty, we jumped in on to take us home.

I decided that I need to go back to Isla del Sol sometime to explore the northern part of the island and maybe spend some more time in Copacabana. Be on the lookout for that entry sometime in the new year whenever I get there again.

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Photos

A Friendly Reminder
The lake is a treasure, its care guarantees our future.

Street Vendors
All these street vendors look to be selling is popcorn and peanuts.

Stalls selling "trucha" along beach
And these kids wanted in the picture.

Colored bags of popcorn
The kernels of corn here are much bigger than that in North America.

Comments

[Marina]

Happy New Year Pat :) belated
What happened to the New Year log? :) I am enjoying your entries a lot – Thanks for the pics; Gregory (who is tied up today with bugs and hotsites and Japanese localization :) suggested I let you know I read them lol All the best, mlk