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Published: December 26th 2014
A White Christmas!
The snowy peaks of the Andes across Lake TitticacaFriday 26th December – Boxing Day
We left Puno on Tuesday 23
rd December to travel by bus across the border from Peru into Bolivia. The journey from Puno to Copacabana is only 178 kilometres, but it took five and a half hours, two and a half to the border, two and a half crossing the border, then another half an hour into the town of Copacabana. The journey wasn’t that scenic, Peruvians like littering their highways with mountains of dumped rubbish, and the coach windows were so filthy, that photographs would not have been any good anyway. Check out the photograph of the main bus terminal in Puno, next to the unofficial town rubbish tip; not exactly a good lasting impression of Peru, nor a good first impression for those arriving!
Bolivian bureaucracy is something else! However, Bolivia is so clean compared to Peru, that we can almost forgive the obsessive “rubber stamping” and entry checks (i.e. the police read and question every word one has filled in on the entry forms) at the Bolivian border. People who cannot speak
Spanish have to have a guide as an interpreter; friendly travellers are not allowed to help each other, it is strictly single file when one enters the building. No conferring! Only two coaches of travellers were crossing the border that morning, plus a few minivans, about a hundred people, yet it took two and a half hours to cross. Firstly, we had to get off the bus and queue up to clear Peruvian emigration, which didn´t take too long, then walk 350 metres across the police-manned border, then queue up to clear Bolivian immigration, and this part took two hours to process the paperwork for a hundred people! The bus then drove across and picked us up to continue our journey.
Copacabana is a nice little lakeside town, although our hostel was up a hill from where the coach dropped us, so we were a bit breathless by the time we had struggled up there with our backpacks. We are still suffering from altitude sickness. The hostel was pretty basic, but clean and cheap (just $15 for double room with private bathroom and free Wi-Fi) and we are going back there tomorrow; we have left one rucksack
there in storage.
On Christmas Eve we left Copacabana early, catching the 7.30 a.m. boat to the Isla del Sol. It was a beautiful sunny morning and a good crossing (about one and a half hours). Lake Titicaca is so huge, it is hard to comprehend the distances and the time taken to navigate this lake, which is more like an inland sea. Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world, and it is stunningly beautiful, fringed by the snow-capped peaks of the Andes. The Incas believed that the Sun God was born on this island, so according to their legends, this was the birthplace of their nation. Close by, is the island of the moon. There are just three small communities of native Quechua people who live on the island, and we are staying in the Yamuni community in the south. There is just a small harbour, then steep pathways leading up the hillside to various dwellings and a handful of hostels. There is also an Inca stairway, ascending about 60 metres to the “Fountain of Youth”, a natural spring, where the villagers get their drinking water to this day. There are no roads, only
donkey tracks, no vehicles, not even bicycles. It is one of the most peaceful spots one could wish for, especially after 4 p.m. when the boats taking day-trippers back to Copacabana depart. It is also, at night, the coldest place we have ever slept in in our lives; the hostel has no heating, and right now, as Viv is typing this blog, there is no electricity (we have had a power cut all day today). This blog will probably have to be published back in Copacabana tomorrow, and we shall probably be using candles and our head torches tonight! Sunscreen in the day and woolly socks and fleeces at night is the order of the day at this altitude; if one moves about too quickly the dizziness sets in. We are not exactly sure what the altitude is, but it is around 3,900 metres, which is only normal for alpacas and llamas in our opinion!
Christmas morning (yesterday) was rather disappointing for us, because although we had a good signal on arrival here on Christmas Eve, the internet went down on Christmas morning and never recovered until the afternoon. This meant that the plans for using SKYPE
to talk to family went astray somewhat and today there is no electricity! Hopefully tomorrow we can use the internet. We did manage to contact one of our sons but not the other, for the first time ever at Christmas, which made us feel a bit homesick for the first time since leaving home two months ago. This island is very beautiful and we are happy to be here, however, we really have missed being at home for Christmas, made worse by being unable to communicate. It didn´t really feel like Christmas yesterday and we have missed the food, all of those wonderful Christmas treats! A mince pie and a glass of brandy right now would be like eating Manna from Heaven washed down with Nectar! For our Christmas lunch we had a pizza. In the evening we had a very basic “menu del dia” with vegetable soup for starters, three choices for the main course and fruit for dessert. The three choices were grilled trout, fried trout or trout cooked in the oven. So we had trout! The trout was served, as everything seems to be in the Andes (Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) with potatoes and rice and if
one is really lucky, as we were for our Christmas dinner, some frozen vegetables, usually served cold! We washed it down with a bottle of Bolivian plonk (like cooking wine) and dreamed of turkey and Christmas pudding. Andean cuisine isn´t exactly Gourmet Heaven.
It is traditional to go for a walk on Boxing Day, and for us, today´s walk was one of the most enjoyable and scenic Boxing Day walks ever. We went down to the harbour, then ascended the Inca Stairway to the Fountain of Youth. From there, we continued on up to the top of the pretty steep hill to the village at the top. The views were awesome! We came down a different way, following the donkey trail, and at times we had to step aside to let donkeys pass. There were alpaca grazing on the hillside, little boats crossing the lake, which was blue, and the sun shone down. A very special Boxing Day! It is now afternoon and starting to get cold, so we need to wrap up for the night (we have been sleeping almost fully-clothed here on the island). We also need to pack before it gets dark, since it
is unlikely that we shall have any electricity today. Tomorrow morning we are going back to Copacabana. In the morning we shall pray to the Sun God for another smooth crossing! Being on the Isla del Sol has been a truly memorable experience and we are so glad that we came here, despite the cold, dizziness and the power problems. The people here are very unassuming and gentle; their way of life hasn´t changed much in centuries and everything is taken slowly, chilled out, as it comes. It isn´t an easy life, the people carry loads daily, as well as the donkeys, up and down the steep rugged pathways. Yet they have an aura of simple contentment that is enviable. We have enjoyed staying with them.
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