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Published: April 28th 2008
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How exciting! We were headed to the birthplace of the Incas on the mystical Isla del Sol - a spiritual experience awaited us, no doubt.
We set out along the shores of Lake Titicaca from Copacabana to Yampupata, where we planned to catch a small motor boat across to the island. En-route, Paul helped out a little old lady by carrying her (ridiculously heavy) bag for her for about half a km to deliver her husband's lunch to him in the fields. We were rewarded with sweets and smiles.
Slightly short of Yampupata, at Titicachi, we were chased-down by a man who came running across his fields. Despite initial appearances, he was wasn't upset with us; he just wanted to row us to the Isla Del Sol. Natural enough. After all, it would only take 1.5 hours of solid rowing (plus 1.5 hours back for him). He was about 50 and a little man. He wanted to charge 50 Boliviano $, about $AU8, so after we recovered from our shock we took him up on his offer. He kept a cracking pace with only a couple of breaks to wipe the sweat of his face and to drink a
few mouthfuls of water. It was a beautiful tranquil journey. Very spiritual so far. (We felt it was only right to double our man's fee as we disembarked)
On arrival, a short walk uphill along an ancient footpath brought us to our first Inca ruin. We weren't totally underwhelmed, although it did look a bit like a tumbledown 18th century house. They were clearly ahead of the times in these parts as the building apparently dated from the 1500s. We ended the day climbing down several hundred steps and back up several hundred different ones (actually quite impressive the Inca Steps and Fountain) back to the magnificent views from our perfectly located (if slightly overpriced and mouldy smelling) hostel. Pretty good so far.
The next day was the big walk around the island, taking in many more Inca ruins and the ingenious agricultural calendar we had heard about (using the sun to determine when crops needed planting etc.) We had a great walk in the sun to the north of the Island and the first of the ruins. We found it swarming with a tour group. (Incidentally the breakfast-munching Eastern-European tour group that had made us wait for
an hour for our breakfast by hogging the dining room of our hostal. Not that we were feeling grouchy).
Unable to find the ´calendar´, we realised we had missed an important Inca table and the most Sacred Inca rock on the way. It became evident that we had walked straight past both (and an Incan priest), when the tour group moved on to them - we had taken the spiritual leader, his artefacts and the altar as just another person trying to sell some lod tat. Ahem.
Backtracking, we listened in to the tour group presentation. From our understanding the Incas were around somewhere between 1500BC and 1500AD, and at one point Lake Titicaca had no water in it. The Inca rock looks like a puma (obviously only if you have chewed far too much coca.) The table looks like a table but was either not the original or was not in the original position. Clear as mud so far. However, its ok, we'll just go to the museum and everything will become clear...
By 3pm and after 6 hours of walking, up many hills, we were tired. Perhaps we wouldn't take the extended route to the
museum after all. We later found out the museum was still under construction, so it was a good job we didn't expend the extra energy. No sign of the agricultural calendar anywhere.
By 4pm we were once more sitting on the balcony of our hostal in the sun reading, after a hard day of archeological non-discovery. Maybe we'll do a bit more research before going to Machu Picchu???
Despite our ruinous failures, we did enjoy the Isla (where, incidentally, the sun did shine quite a lot) and on return to the mainland had a great couple of days at the Cupola in Copacabana (even were treated to some wholesome and delicious home cooking by the magnificently friendly Aussie couple Ben and Amy) before crossing the border into Peru.
Score on the Incan doors: Mad gives 7 and Paul 7.5
Postcript: After looking at the guide book there is no mention of the agricultural calendar - where did we get that from? We even remember seeing pictures?
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