Hello, and welcome to the 2nd to last installment of the South American Odyssey. We spent last week on the peaceful banks of the famous Lago Titicaca. The lake is at about 4000 m above sea level, and has been considered the highest navigable body of water, although there are rivers that are at a higher altitude that are also considered "navigable." Anyway the lake is 4 kilometers in the air and it´s pretty massive!
Copacabana
After leaving La Paz we rode on a bus for about 3 hours to the peaceful beachtown. Bolivianos don´t have any ocean access so the lakes are a favourite destination for vacationing nationals. Copacabana was a nice place to relax and do a little mingling with travellers from all over the planet. We wined and dined. We watched the sunset. We met friends Sergio, Liz, and Janine. We only spent 2 nights there. The town was nice, but we had come to the lake to visit the Isla del Sol (Island of the sun)
Isla del Sol
Isla del Sol kicked my ass.
Melissa is alluding to the altitude and lack of level pathways to walk on.
Most visitors to the island take a boat from Copacabana but we decided to walk for 15km through the countryside and then hire a private boat from another location.
The walk was beautiful and I´m glad we did it. The private boat was owned by a guy who approached us on the side of the road and told us he had a boat. (8 foot dinghy with a 10 horse motor)
The island is said to be the birth place of the Inca Empire. The legend goes that there were 4 couples that were forced to survive in the wild and fight one another. The last couple standing then gave birth to the first Inca.
The island of the sun (appropriately named) has about 5000 residents today, 5 soccer teams, 800 pigs, and has a counterpart nearby called the Island of the moon. (Isla de la Luna) We spent 3 nights there and hiked around the island to various Inca ruins which were about half as impressive as the view of the lake and surrounding mountains. I guess we´re holding our breath for Machu Picchu. We were even offered a llama by one of the local indigenous women. (2 Israeli guys bought one for just over 100 US to carry their bags!) While we were over on the island there was a full moon (rises directly over the Isla de la Luna) which apparently causes the natives to get a bit restless! Parties and fiestas broke out, which were only dwarfed by the Easter celebration.
Thousands of Bolivians pilgramage from La Paz and beyond to Copacabana and the island for the Easter long weekend. Most arrive with nothing more then a simple back-pack, walking stick, and wad of coca leaves in their cheeks. A few townies arrive in their SUVs and look even more ridiculous wandering around then the gringo tourists. We arrived back in Copacabana after our 3 nights on the island to find it a completely new place. Prices had soared, and you could barely walk throught the once sleepy town without having to fight your way through a crowd! Quite the experience...
So now we have left Copacabana and the lake, (and Bolivia) and are currently hanging out in the Puma shaped city of Cusco, Peru. (the city architects of old actually designed it into the shape of a crouching puma!) Tomorrow we head off to probably the most famous archeological site in the Americas, Machu Picchu.
We´ll talk to you next time from back above the 49th parallel (well not really we´ll be in Southern Ontario...)
C + M
ps. sorry no pictures this time due to technical problems
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