After our day of exploring the reed islands on the Peruvian side of Titcaca, we were ready to see the islands on the Bolivian side. These weren't floating islands, but they were believed by the Incas to be their birth place. What the hell, I just wanted to attempt to cross the border, and it was on the way to La Paz where I would meet my coworker in two days.
We took a taxi early in the morning to the bus station in Puno where we bordered our bus for Copacabana. The bus was filled with backpackers, most likely because it was the one bus company recommended by Lonely Planet. Funny how that works.
The bus arrived at the Peruvian/Bolivian border a couple of hours later and waited for us to manage border crossing formalities. I showed the Bolivian border police my U.S. passport and they ushered me to a back room where one other U.S. citizen was waiting. Every other backpacker was spared the need for visa formailities. But the process went quickly. They seemed less concerned with all of my paperwork and more concerned with the $100 I had to pay to get the visa. In the end, my paper work was barely glanced at and shoved in a manilla folder and then into a drawer. Probably never to see the light of day again. But I had my visa so I didn't care.
We arrived in the grand Bolivian town of Copacabana a short ride later. Copacabana is small and, short of witnessing the "blessing of the cars" that we had missed by an hour, there was little to do but relax and enjoy the many restaurants serving more trout. We agreed to buy a boat ticket to the Isla del Sol immediately, along with a bus ticket to La Paz the next day. I left my large bag at the bus office, along with my dirty laundry (and the promise they would wash it), and we took a leisurely stroll down to the port to find our boat. It was easy. There was a large crowd gathered to board with us.
The boat ride was long, again. The wailing child and the loud Brazilian kids on board didn't make the ride any more pleasant. I read, my travel buddy dozed. It started to rain just as we arrived to the Isla del Sol 90 minutes later. Just in time to deboard on an island with no clue where to go. There were no roads, and with the hilly terrain and seemingly hidden town, we were at a loss as to where to go. So we just started walking up the same Inca stairs other people were climbing. The lake is at such a high altitude that walking any stairs is tough. Especially with the added weight of a backpack. People were struggling. The stairs seemed to go up forever. Local kids took advantage of the situation by offering to carry bags for a fee. Few people took the offer. One British girl, who was really struggling, refused to let the kids help her with the bag for the hefty sum of 75 cents. The kids were harrassing her and I felt bad for her. So I offered to carry her smaller bag the rest of the way up. Finally, seeing their last opportunity had vanished, the kids left us alone.
When we made it to the top of the hill we still had no idea where to go. We saw a few signs for hotels, but most of the people who arrived on the boat had dispersed towards various places, following kids promising hot showers. We were determined to find something on our own. Why? I have no idea. Maybe the altitude was making us stubburn. But we walked to a nicer looking place just down the path. It was empty. But a young woman heard us walk up and offered us a room for $6. There was no running water or heat. But the beds were comfy and there was electricity. And the view from our room was incredible, with the lake and snow-capped mountains in the distance. Exhausted, we dropped our bags and crashed into our beds. There we laid motionless for the next half hour.
There are a few ruins on the island, but they were small and the walk to see them was several hours away. We didn't have the energy. And sunset would be arriving within a few hours. Despite this it was agreed we needed to go out and explore the part of the island surrounding us. We heard bad band music in the distance and that became our target. Making our way through a maze of paths and rock fences and up and down hills, we took in the views of our tiny town. Eventually we found the music. What accompanied the music appeared to be a wedding ceremony. There was a man dressed up with flowers around his neck. There was a woman with the same appearance. There were two families seperated by sex. There was a LOT of beer. Several dozen crates of it. And there was music. We asked the small kid watching the ceremony beside us what was going on. He said it was a graduation. Uh, ok. We were still convinced we were watching a wedding. So we stared. It beat going off in search of ruins. And the people didn't seem to mind us watching.
Eventually we grew tired of watching. Or I just grew too hungry to keep watching. We made our way up to the top of the the hill and found a restaurant over-looking the other side of the island. A trout dinner was only a couple of bucks and we declared this our dinner choice. Until it was discovered neither of us had money. Ugh. Back down the hill we hiked to the hotel in search of money. Not happy. Too tired. Want food.
Money in hand, we started back towards the restaurant. It was a slow return. The altitude had completely wiped me out. As had three nights with no sleep. When we eventually made it back to the restaurant we found a one man show. One guy was running the entire restaurant. He took our orders, we saw him slip out the back for indgredients from a nearby market, and then back into the kitchen to start cooking. I nursed my grande beer. We played cards. We admired the view. 40 minutes later our trout dinner was served. I dove in, salivating as the bites hit my mouth. We ordered another grande beer. We were suddenly tipsy - giddy even. Altitude or beer or both? Whatever it was, it was getting dark. Time to walk back to the hostel. There was nothing else to do on the island.
Back in our room at 7pm, bundled up, we tucked ourselves into our beds and started reading. I read until 11:30pm when I passed out. I finally slept most of the night.
For pics of the islands of Titicaca, follow this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15233918@N00/sets/72157603664478790/
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