Bolivia: Lago Titicaca and Isla del Sol

Village life





boat trip




On 30th November,we crossed the border from Peru to Bolivia at Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world and lies at ca. 3,800m above sea level.
When we arrived in Copacabana on the Bolivian side, there was no electricity in the whole region for the last 2 days. That of course meant no warm showers either since they are all electrical and pretty dodgy. When the electricity finally came on again, we nearly got electrocuted under the shower because the wiring is very dodgy. No health and safety concerns here. It´s fun almost always!

The next day we decided to follow the wonderful Lonely Planet guide and do a walking tour of 3-4 hours from Copacabana to Yumbapata, where we could cross over to Isla del Sol, the birthplace of the Sun according to the Inkas. It was a lovely walk with nice scenery, but we got an offer from a local guy to cut short the walk. He rowed us over to the island in a small rowing boat for a very good price. Got to support the local community we thought!

I loved it, John was not feeling too chuffed about being in a boat, but did very well. The village on Isla del Sol was pretty small with a few hostels around and maybe 2-3 restaurants, so pretty dead at night. The hostel we picked from our now most hated Lonely Planet guide (wrong and completely outdated information) did not exist any more.

The next day we wanted to do some more walking and go to visit the Temple of the Sun on the island. Unfortunately our guidebook did not give us many clues as to where the path to the temple was. So we got completely lost and were climbing and scrambling on agricultural terraces, stepping on some farmer´s potato plants etc. for about an hour until we finally found a path. It was really hilarious thinking about it now,not at the time though.

Halfway thru the island we decided to take another rowboat to speed up our journey and to finally see the Temple of the Sun. When we got to the shore we found out that it was actually another hour´s walk to the ruins and the last and only boat for Copacabana would leave in half an hour. So there we were, never got to see the ruins but certainly got to know the island! Disaster, but nice scenery, have a look!