Lake Titicaca

---

We got together with two fellow brits, Kev and Claire, and a frenchman, Fabian, who we had met on the Colca canyon trek to tackle Bolivia. We all wanted to travel a similar route in Bolivia so it seemed to make sense.

The border crossing from Peru into Bolivia was suprisingly smooth. Our first stop in Bolivia was Copacabana set aside the mystical waters of lake Titicaca. The trout here was spectacular, simply grilled and served with chips and salad. Eating one of these with a local beer on the shores of Titicaca is the way that life should be lived.

A short boat ride away, but a world away from the hustle and bustle of Copacabana, the Isla del Sol. This island seems to float on Titicaca like a crouton in a huge bowl of perfectly blue soup. We spent two enjoyable nights on the island, watching the sunset in the evening and being woken by the spectacular sunrise. We walked from from Yumani in the South, where we stayed the first night, to Challapampa in the North, for our second night, passing Inca ruins on the way. Life on this island is about as far away from the Western world as we have managed to get on this trip. The beach in Challapampa, a playground for farmyard animals, a simply fantastic place to let life pass by. As a little piglet trots up to me and starts sniffing my toe, I´m hoping he doesn´t mistake it for food. He doesn´t, but a moment later this cheeky piglet has picked up my flip-flop and is making a run for it. And as I look around the beach its not the only piglet, there are loads of them! All snouting around for scraps of food like hoovers. It wasn´t just beach hoovers either, there were cows going for a dip in the lake to cool off, chickens, donkeys, sheep and goats all just hanging out on the beach - brilliant! As I watched this farmyard show playout, which I can tell you was thoroughly entertaining, something occured to me. All these different animals are getting along without a care in the world, they don´t care that they haven´t got a proper field to play in and that they have to share there space with all the other animals, there just chilled and happy. I have a feeling if these animals were from the UK they would be demanding a proper fenced field and there proper quota of fruit and vegetables each day, either that or they all would have eaten each other.

---