Lake Titicaca

---

We lovingly left La Paz early in the morning, bound for the town of Copacobana situated on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, the worlds largest high altitude lake. The lake itself is over 8400 sq km, the size of a very small country or a very large city which ever way you look at it. During the 3 hour journey we had views of the lake for 75%!o(MISSING)f the time and we could see the extent of its vastness.

With the 3 hour journey over and done with we pulled into Copacobana at mid day, feeling both ill and tired. Something had made us bot ill, wether it be food or water we hadn't the faintest idea, all we knew was that we needed bed. We quickly had something to eat, the traditional Trucha or Trout from the lake and then quickly scampered off to bed.

We had the majority of the afternoon in bed wallowing in self pity. Both our stomachs had been hit hard by the bug forcing us to spend rather a lot of time on the toilet. By 5 o clock we seemed to both have stabilised a little and we went out on the search of food and energy. We planned to walk up a nearby hill that night where you can see the sunset over the lake, and we wanted to follow the plan through. The energy came in he form of a hot chocolate and an apple pie, which surprisingly worked and the following hour we started to make our way up the hill. It was nothing more than a 200m climb, easily doable in 30 minutes but we were racing against the sun. It took us a heart rendering 20 minutes of sweating to get to the top, the effect of the altitude made it feel like we had run up it. However once we got to the top it was worth every bead of sweat. We had timed it to perfection and arrived just as the sun hit the horizon, ready for its decent leaving us in darkness. We also met the guys from the bike ride the day before, so once the sun had done its business it was out for tea and a couple of drinks.

The next morning we had all planned to meet again, this time to go and explore the Isla del Sol, which is believed widely to be the birthplace of the incas. We had an unsatisfactory free breakfast, consisting of bread (which Laura can't eat), banana bites and coffee. It wasn't exactly the substantial breakfast that we were after before a days walking. So rather hungry still we went down to the jetty, bought ourselves the boat tickets to the island and then hopped aboard. The other 4 were on a different boat so we had to make do on our own. The journey was no more than 5 miles and it took the boat 2 hours to complete the journey, halfway through we considered swimming the remainder.

By 10.30am we made port at the north end if the island. Our boat was one of the last ones in and the other guys had been there a couple of minutes already. But once we were off the boat, we caught up with them, bought our first ticket for the island and then headed out along the path. The island itself is around 8 km long and we had a 'C' shape to do, making the trip more like 10-12km and along the way are a handful of small villages and houses. The scenery along the way was similar to a Greek island or at least how I can imagine one, turquoise water, sandy lakeside beaches and a bright blue sky, but rather than being at sea level the islands highest point is at 4000m.

Our first stop along the way was the most impressive, an old patch of ruins. The ruins at one time may have been a small settlement but now they are no more than a 5 foot high roofless patch of rubble. You can still imagine how it would have been and we saw this as a warm up to Macchu Picchu. From there we walked to the very far north end of the island, a steady and steep climb to the top where it gives views of the northern quarter. For me this was the second best part of the island, including in the view the ruins and the turquoise waters.

However the rest of the island was a little bit of a let down. The walk was challenging at points due to the altitude but the views after the north end went down hill. There was the odd panoramic view of the island and distant views of the Cordillera mountain range but there was nothing in the way of more ruins or old inca markers. The 8km walk down to the south therefore was dull on the visual front, it was just a good job that we were with an awesome group of people.

Once we made it to the south port we were famished, having not eaten since 8am and the time now past 2pm. We grabbed a tube of Pringles and some chocolate to try and offset the hunger for now. It worked for a while but when we got down to the waterside there were a couple of food vendors and we went for the chicken sandwich option. It would have been nice if the chicken wasn't pink!! Still hungry we were back on the boat and making our way back into Copacobana.

The 2 hour journey had been shortened to 1 1/2 on the way back, pulling in just before the sun started to set. Laura and I booked ourselves onto a bus for the next day, had a shower and then went back to the same restaurant as the night before. That night the two of us had the best steak in a long time and for the cheap price of £4.50, it was cooked to perfection, wrapped in Parma ham and topped with a peppercorn sauce. So the second night in the restaurant, 4/6ths of us had the steak, all of whom were satisfied immensely. Once we'd finished the food we went round to some of the guys hostel and had a couple of beers, another successful day over.

We were into day 3 of the Lake Titicaca and onto the peruvian side with it. The bus ride took us all of 3 hours, weaving its way round the lakeside with constant views of the mass of water. With Peru an hour behind we arrived at 11.30 in the morning with the rest of the day to go to the Floating Islands of Uros. There had been a man who came on the bus an hour or so before landing into Puno trying to sell his tour and also various hostels. We had declined all of his offers but the 4 other guys that we were with took him up on the hostel, the best part of it was that it included a free ride into town. We all ended up going to the same hostel in the end, the salesman had made himself some commission. Be that as it may though, he had given us a room for half the usual price unbeknown to the manager of the hotel, which he wasn't happy about at all. It was the best room that we had in the whole of South America, it even came with a TV and wifi. Everyone took advantage of the wifi and gave home a ring, and a couple of hours later we all congregated again about to start the tour of the islands, organised by our little bus salesman. He gave us a good price on that too.

But what was to be included on the trip took us all by surprise. The floating islands of Uros are located 8km into the lake, and consist of 50 or more, small houses all resting on a bed of crafted floating reeds. As we sailed in we could see the 2km wide aquatic town approaching us but no more than that. The closer we got the more intricate the houses and boats seemed. The houses and boats alike were all made of reeds and the islands which the sat on were a lot bigger than they first looked. On some of the islands we could see kids playing football on a miniature, reed covered pitch but on the island which we sailed into we could see stalls and man of them.

The guide on the way into the village had taught us the way to respond to the locals welcome gestures, so when we pulled into their island it was like a gimmicky theatre production. As we got off we were greeted by the island 'mother', who quickly shuffled us all off to a bunch of benches and gave us a presentation on how the islands are made and what island life is like. But the whole time she was doing this the rest of the island livers were setting up their stalls ready for the tourists to buy of them. So once she had finished her pretty interesting talk we were then all whipped off our seats and forced to look around the houses and the stalls. We managed to avoid buying anything but the tourist trap worked and they will have made a fair bit of money. And it didn't finish there, as we were about to get back on board the boat, the mother of the island invited everyone to travel by her reed boat instead, however you had to pay extra for the privilege. Whilst the reed boat left the island we went back onto our free boat and caught up with them pretty quickly. It was over to the second island.

The second was bigger than the first and had on it a bar/cafe. Instead of being met by shop owners we were met by kids, all wanting us to play football. We couldn't let them down and it was better than looking at more of the islands stalls. However when the time came to leave they all ran over to us begging for money, it wasn't a nice situation to be in.

The whole experience seemed like a circus show. I don't think that anyone would mind paying to go see the islands as the are truly unique and stunning, but the way they go about the tour is completely wrong. It would be much better to sail around them and look from the boat rather than being forced to buy gifts and be left feeling guilty by children. We were all more than happy to get back on the boat.

Once we got back on dry land it was dark and we were ready again for food. For lunch we had been for a pizza and tea we hoped was going to be a cheap one. But one pizza wasn't enough for one day so we went for number two. We weren't disappointed. When we had finished the pizza and our drinks we were done for the day. Sleep time.

Our final morning around the lake we got up early to see off the guys we had been with for the last 3 days, we had our breakfast, walked to the bus station and got onto our next bus to Arequipa where we are going to start our trekking frenzy!

---