Brett and Emily in South America: Lake Titikaka...The Bolivian Side

We arrived in Copacabana, Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titikaka (3,800m above sea level) on Friday in the evening. After a semi-long exhaysted look for a hostel we decided to stay at a cheap hotel with a semi-good view of the Lake. Copacabana is a kind of small town that has two main squares. The first main square which is a lot less touristy is dominated by a huge Cathedral, the Basillica of Our Lady of Copacabana, that almost seems out of place in this small lakeside town. The building has large dominating white walls and a large courtyard that almost reminds you more of some mosque complexes in Moracco (the architecture I assume had a large influence from Spanish colonial architecture) then actually being in Bolivia. The second main square which is closer to the Lake, is completely for tourists. Almost every storefront in this square is filled with tourist agencies trying to sell bus tickets throughout Bolivia and Peru, boat trip and tickets to Isla del Sol, or other touristy needs. This doesn´t only continue throughout the square but all the way down the main road towards Lake Titikaka. The only difference being on the main road compared to the plaza is instead only every other building is a ´tourist agency.´ The other ones are either super-expensive gringo resturants or hostels. The problem that we discovered in the 3 places we visited in Bolivia is that many of the gringo/tourist resturants throughout the country are the only options for a true vegetarian menu. As compared to being able to go eat at food stalls for 5-15 bolivianos (75 cents-$2.15) or at the chicken places for 10 bolivianos ($1.50), the gringo resturants usually charge between 30-40 bolivianos for many of there dishes ($5-6). I know in reality it doesn´t sound like much, but compared to the other eating options it is pretty expensive. Because of this the other funny thing is, that throughout Bolivia it is cheaper to eat meat then to eat vegetarian. Anyway, all in all we were pretty unimpressed my Copacabana. As there is really not much to do there and it is just so enthronged with tourist agencies. Before we headed back for the night we enjoyed at the town´s market (which was filled with small drink stalls) Purple Chica, which here was served hot with spices but can also be served cold without spices. The drink is made from a purple corn native in the region and like acai in Brazil areally does wonders on your valve movements.

Sunset over the shores of Copacabana, Lake Titikaka

The Basillica of Our Lady of Copacabana, like many cathedrals in Bolivia and Peru it was built on religious ruins of the Incas

One of the nice ´touristy´ reed boats that our guide in Peru later called the BMWs of Lake Titikaka

Needless to say the next morning we woke up and took the next availible ´public boat´ to Isla del Sol (for 10 bolivianos we could take the public boat or for 140 bolivianos we could rent a boat with a driver, needless to say our budget is tight). As we saw most tourists (mainly backpackers) get on different boats we kind of assumed we got on the wrong boat. Luckly we didn´t though. We got dropped off at the right place and later found out that we paid 10 bolivianos to go on the ´locals´ boat while most backpackers paid 20 bolivianos to go on the ´tourist´ boat. After a bit over an hour boat ride we arrived at the Southern end of Isla del Sol, in the Yumani Community . The island is mainly famous in Inca lore for being the birthplace of the Sun God and his son the first Incan, Manco Capac. But overall the island is just an amazing beautiful place with good day hikes and Inca and pre-inca ruins. The first day we got in not knowing where we were staying but knowing that the South end of the island was loaded with hostels. The thing we didn{t realize was all of the places to sleep were way up the mountain. And by this I mean we had to lug all of our bags up around 200 meters I would say to the top of the mountain. About 3/4 of the way up we ran in to this little girl (no older then 5) who asked us if we needed a place to sleep (in spanish). We started to follow her and we kept passing by several sleeping places until we got to almost the way top. On the way we had asked other travelers who were looking for a place to sleep and they actually were going to the same place we were following the little girl because they said after checking 5 or so places that this was the cheapest. So we settled in and with a large group of other travelers we decided to head off and watch the sunset over a light snack before heading to have the Lake Titikaka speciality, trout (which we later learned was introduced to the lake and is not native and of recent years they have been realizing it might have been a mistake). The rest of the night we ust took it easy watching the gorgeous sunset and playing cards.

A random pack mule (which are heavily used on Isla del Sol) and Emily´s creepy smile

The snow capped Andes during sunset from Isla del Sol

Sunset

The next morning we woke up early and after enjoying our best breakfast in months (granola with yogurt, coffee/tea, and an amazing apple filled pancake) we decided to head off on a hike to the north side of the Island. There is evidently a main trail that 99% of the tourists take along the spine of the islands mountain line. Well needless to say we got a little lost and took a different route to the northside. The route (which took about the same time, 3 hours) took us along the east side of the island both in the hills and on to the beaches of some small villages. It was pretty cool seeing rural-island life and not just being in the two small towns on either end of the island which deals with the majority of the tourism on the island. At one point we stopped for a snack on a beach in a small cove along the island. And watched humerously as two traditionally dressed women and a man chased pigs around who found themselves enjoying a load of potatoes that had been left on the beach. As we continued and finally hit the north end of the island we found the tourist area to pay the small 10 boliviano fee to enter the archeological area. We started with a small museum, in the Challapampa Community, of archeological finds both on the island and from recent under water excavations near the island. We then began a 45 minute trek out to see 6 highlighted. Some were pretty simplistic as checking out the famous Incan farming terraces (piedra sagrada), an Incan temple, and what appeared to be a rebuilt alter (mesa de sacrificio). Additionally, we saw the rock (Roca Sagrada) where the Incans believed the Sun God first appeared and finally the last stop was Incan ruins (Laberinto Chinkana) overlooking the west side of the island. Most of the sites were pretty unimpressive until we hit the ruins. Even though we saw some ruins north of Salta, Argentina, these were the first ruins we had seen that had not been rebuilt at all. Overall though it was a great 3 hour hike out to the sites. When we returned another 45 minutes we ran in to our friends from the hostel the night before. They told us they rented a boat for the day and if we wanted to hitch a ride with them back to the otherside of the island it wouldn´t be a problem. We told them we heard there was a public boat at 4pm and it should give us enough time to get back to the hostel grab our bags get back down to the docks to go back to Copacabana and hopefully make a 6:30pm bus to Puno, Peru. Low and behold there was no 4pm ´public boat´ back to the other side of the island (evidently the boat was at 2pm). There were several boat operators who were willing to take us to the otherside of the island for 150-200 Bolivianos ($20-30!). We said no thank you and decided to wait for our friends from the hostel to get back and hopefully hitch a ride with them. When they finally returned around 4:30pm we tried to board the boat and offer the boat driver a little more for taking us two back with him. He refused and in classic Bolivian Socialism, aka extortion, he refused to take us unless we paid off his buddy who we had refused a boat from earlier. At the end of the day we had to pay the other boat driver 70 Bolivianos ($10) just to be able to get on a different boat. Kind of sucked but it was that or hike 3.5 hours back in the nearing darkness. By the time we returned to the South side of the Island we decided to just to stay at the same hostel for another night and get the 10:30am public boat back to Copacabana the next morning.