boat trip to Isla de Sol, Lake Titicaca


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South America » Bolivia » La Paz Department » Isla del Sol
February 11th 2015
Published: February 22nd 2015
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We got on the boat to get to Isla de Sol which is located in the middle of Lake Titicaca. We sat down on the top deck with a bunch of 14 Argentinians from Buenos Aires who had come to Bolivia to dance caporalles, one of the dances danced in Carnaval . They were rowdy, laughing and joking and after an hour into the boat trip, they had finished two litres of some blue syrupy sweet cocktail. For the last half hour of the boat trip they were very drunk, all singing songs about the dance and waving bottles of cocktail in the air. Half way through the boat ride we got caught in a hail storm and it was really cold and windy, but fun.

Once we arrived on the island Ronald and I, and a group of about 7 people met our guide called Severino. Serverino took us up 204 steep steps to the top of the island. The island was about 11 kilometres long and 8 kilometros wide, 4705 metres above sea level and had about 3,080 inhabitants. We were then given a medicinal plant to eat which would help us avoid altitude sickness and stomach aches, it is widely used in a typical soup of Titicaca which contains trout, or it can be drunk as a mate (a strong tea). We all ate the leaves and rubbed it between our hands as the smell was meant to give us energy to be able to climb up the hill. It worked for me! Not sure about Ronald though who was using photo breaks as an excuse for a rest. I’m glad I’m doing these kind of steep climbs now because with the high altitude I think that in a few years my body wouldn’t be able to get used to it as all the walking we are doing is at a high altitude so we have to move slower than normal or we get breathless. After us chasing a bull for 10 metres that took my energy for the rest of the day.

We were then taken up to the water of eternal youth which we all washed ourselves in to stave off old age. We then came across an alpaca being herded down the mountain by one of the indigenous children, and I got a photo with it. I’m crazy about alpacas as I’ve seen them on the farm in Leeds and consider them to be graceful animals but I never had the chance to hug one before. Then we learned about why the lake was called Titicaca – titis, in the indigenous language meant pumas and carca meant rock but as the spanish had problems pronouncing ‘r’ they dropped the ‘r’ and name it Lake Titicaca.

I really enjoyed the tour and I got to buy a bandana made by indigenous people and an Andina cross. Ronald was in charge of taking photos with both mine and his camera, and I was supposed to be listening to the guide and making notes. Tomorrow we will put all the photos together and choose the best ones. We returned by boat and like everybody else on the bottom deck of the boat, had a nap for the next hour and a half. The Argentinians continued to party on top of the boat but we were some of the sensible ones.

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