Isla Del Sol

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Woke up early doors this morning and collected our packed lunch from the restaurant at the hotel. It was a tastey chicken sandwich, chocolate, banana, apple, water and yoghurt drink - sounds fantastic as long as it stays inside! Yes my belly is still dodgy!!

We walked down to town and got some breakfast - or rather I watched Pauline have breakfast as I was on a no food policy to try and shift this 'stomach bug', and then got down to our boat. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and blue skies so we, foolishly, went on the top of the boat to make the most of the 2 hours sailing over to Isla Del Sol (The Sun Island). After 5 mins we realised we had made a mistake. The wind was blowing, I had no jacket, it was bloody freezing and no fun whatsoever!! All the clever people had realised this would happen and so there was no room inside for us! After 2 hours of bitterly cold winds, we finally arrived at our first port of call - Challapama. Here we were greeted by an over enthusiatic little S.American guide who babbled on in Spanish about dusty pots for a good 15 mins. Thouroughly bored and disheartened we turned our backs on him and wondered out into the Island with 2 english girls we had met called Helen and Caroline.

Isla Del Sol is, to give you a breif history, basically the birth place of the Incas. It is where the Inca god rose up out of a rock (Titicaca rock none-the-less) and created the sun, moon and the Inca dynasty. The scenery is fantastic and the camera just doesn't do it justice. Initially we walked for about 45 mins to a set of Inca ruins overlooking the bay. Along the way we passed local Inca's trying to control their rowdy cows and motivate lazy ass donkeys - much like me trying to get Pauline up some of the hills! Ouch!!

From these first set of ruins we were then faced with a 3 hour walk through the middle of the Island to another set of ruins in the South of the Island. The walk was exhausting. Maybe naievely, we hadn´t predicted the amount of hills that would be on this Island - I started to think that if this Inca god (Viracocha to give him his full name) had any real powers he would have started by levelling the whole Island and then moving on to the sun, moon etc after the real work was done! Anyway well before halfway a lunch stop was due so we all sat down on the edge of the trail and admired the views.

Pulling our much anticpated lunches from our bags I was mortified to find that the nice man in the restaurant this morning had skanked me. Instead of my nice chicken sandwich, I had a sweaty fried cheese sandwich! What was he thinking - doesn´t he know I hate cheese! Maybe he knew i shouldn´t be eating and so thought he was doing me a favour, but it didn´t feel like it at that precise moment!

Not put off by the lack of lunch, we continued our walk up and down many hills but through some absolutely breath taking scenery. There was no real path of any description but anytime we thought we had strayed from the right path, we would turn a corner and find some local peddling their wares to us - a sure sign we were still on the beaten tourist track! Eventually we saw the bay below us and started to make our way down to be collected and sailed back home. No foolish behaviour this time as we booked our places firmly in the bottom of the boat!

Back in Copacabana for our last night we went ot the restaurant in the hotel (excellent by the way) and feasted on local trout and the ultimate delicacy of chocolate fondue. Oh yeah!! It was simply divine. Unfortunately for me, it didn´t stay inside for too long, but was well worth the unforseen hours on the toilet preceeding it!!

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Photos

Paradise
Once we escaped the Spanish guide we found paradise

Inca Ruins
Just like a pile of rocks to the untrained eye, these were infact ancient Inca Ruins!

An Island with a view
Looking out from the Isla Del Sol

Surely they won´t float?
Foolishly, the Incas made boats of straw... what were they thinking!

Distressed Pauline
Not amused at the fact her shampoo bottle had exploded in her wash kit, i took the opportunity for a quick piccie!