Titicaca to La Paz

Sonya failed to mention in a previous post that we had to pay an extra 5 Bolivianos so she could have a paddle boat with a duck head. They had boats with and without duck/goose heads, and really what´s the point of getting a paddle boat if it doesn´t have a head?

Duck Boating

We stayed one more night in Copacabana, then we took a boat out to Isla del Sol on the lake. This is the place where many cultures (from pre-Inca to modern indigenous people) believe the sun and first people came from. There´s a large rock on the island shaped like a puma (sorta) that supposedly has scars on it indicating the places the sun, moon, etc. came from. It´s a beautiful island. From the trail at the top you can see lake views over both sides with giant snow capped mountains in the distance.

Posing Like a Puma in Front of Rock (rock puma facing away with ears pointing back)

Our boat dropped us off at a different place than we were told, though, which caused a bit of confusion. We were supposed to hike about 3 hours to the other side of the island where we would stay the night. Being dropped at an unusual place made it difficult to orient ourselves, which made for a longer than expected trek. Such is life in Bolivia where you just have to go with the flow. We met some nice folks from Britain, though and had lunch with them at a small village. The village was right on the water with great beaches, strangely filled with farm animals (beach pigs, beach sheep, etc.).

Beach Pig on Isla del Sol

After lunch we got pretty turned around looking for the trail we wanted, but made plenty of Bolivian friends working on the island. One group of men really wanted to see our Lonely Planet book to see what it said about their island. They took a good 10 minutes to peruse the map of Isla del Sol and try to see if it looked good to them. They also wanted to know if we knew the archeologists from the US that had worked on the island (certainly we know them if they´re from the US!). They also gave me a hard time, since Sonya was carrying our pack. I tried to explain that she wouldn´t let me take a turn (true at the time), but they found it odd and told us about how women don´t do any work in Bolivia...only the men work. In fact this is quite untrue as evidenced by every woman on the island carrying huge amounts of weigh t around the island in a blanket on her back (either firewood, food, livestock, or children). The men were extremely friendly and nice, though, and they pointed us in the right direction for the trail. They also gladly accepted our gifts of San Francisco pens and sparkly headbands for their daughters.

Our local friends who pointed us in the right direction and examined our Lonely Planet (note SF pens hanging from their shirts)

Though Sonya was sure she couldn´t make it one more step a few times when going uphill at such altitude, we did find the main trail and made it to the village we were going to stay at. This also involved passing by multiple ¨ticket booths¨ on the island to buy very cheap passes to the island´s regions and archeological sites. The ticket booths consisted of a single person standing on the trail in the middle of nowhere and asking if you´ve gotten your ticket yet. No doubt they get commission for selling tickets and so there´s an incentive to set up your operation way out in front of the villages to catch the hikers at the first chance!

Isla del Sol ¨Ticket Booth¨ (i.e. the guy on the hill)

Our hotel for the night was amazing! Up on a hill overlooking the lake with a very friendly family working there. We hiked up to the top of the hill to see the sunset over the island and over the lake. Even though we´ve been here a while, it´s still tough to climb up mountains at 4,000 meters!

Made it to the Top and Waiting Sunset Over Isla del Sol

Dinner was very tasty and we were the only ones in the restaurant with windows looking out toward Copacabana. The only disadvantage was the CD of Andean-style covers of classic rock tunes playing (synth-heavy with pan-pipes playing the melody). At one point the CD ended and automatically switched to a Daddy Yankee (Reggaeton/modern latin rap). We much preferred this. A teenage boy came rushing out from the kitchen to save our delicate ears from such harsh music, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw us bobbing along to the music. He slowly retreated to the kitchen, where there ensued a family argument in Spanish about h im letting that music play for us. We heard him trying to explain to his family that ¨the tourists were dancing to it! they like it!¨ When he came out later we told him that Daddy Yankee was very popular in the US (some might remember John McCain doing a somewhat baffling and less-than-effective campaign stop with him last fall) and the music was fine with us!

On the trail atop Isla del Sol (lake and snow covered mountains in background)

The next day we saw a couple more ruins on the island and then took the slowest boat in history back to Copacabana to catch a bus to La Paz. The bus (named ¨Swift Wolf¨) was super cramped and filled mostly with stinky, porn-stache wearing, European travelers, but it got the job done. At one point we had to take a ferry across the lake, which was a little wild to watch. The bus had to get on its own ferry, which was a far cry from the vehicle ferries you might see in Seattle or BC. It looked for sure like the buses would tip into the water at any moment.

Our Bus Forging the Lake

On the other side, we also found a funny statue commemorating Bolivia regaining its coastline on the Pacific (note - this is an imaginary historical event). Bolivia has been land locked ever since Chile stole (won in a war) it´s slim bit of Pacific coast in the 1880´s. This is still the biggest gripe of any Bolivian, and they still religiously celebrate the Dia del Mar holiday every year where they lament the loss of their ocean. Every presidential candidate here runs at least partly on a platform of reclaiming the land. Note that this loss happened BACK IN THE 1880´s, and they have not gotten back (and likely never will get back) their coast. Just in case, though, Bolivia maintains a Naval fleet, which as far as we can tell mostly drives around in trucks. This is also the reason that Chile is so terribly despised by Bolivians (hence Sonya is doubly troublesome as a US citizen who has lived in Chile - both characteristics somewhat offensive to the Bolivian palate).

Statue Showing Bolivia Reclaiming their Ocean from Chile

We found out that (by chance, not by plan) we would be arriving in La Paz on the 200th anniversary of their revolution and founding of the state. This caused for some pretty wild and amazing sites, so hopefully Bolivian internet will cooperate and allow us to post some pics!