Oct 27, Thursday & Oct 28 Friday

Oct 27, Thursday

Side trip to Copacabana, Lake Titicaca & Isla del Sol

In a huge tourist bus with a lot of other people, heading north west towards Lake Titicaca.   I found out while I was planning this part of the trip that Copacabana, Bolivia is not the one from the Barry Manilow song.   And the song isn’t about the Copacabana in Brazil either, as I originally thought.    The Copacabana of the song is a club in Cuba.   I guess if I had listened to the words more carefully I would have heard “north of Havana”.    DUH !

Anyway, the drive to Lake Titicaca was fairly ordinary (highest point reached during the drive = 4,100 meters)  until we got to the lake , got off the bus, got on a small boat, and crossed a narrow straight.  The bus had to drive onto a large “raft” and get across separately.  

  Lago Titicaca

  Our ferry across

  The bus' ferry across

  Lago Titicaca

From there the scenery became really interesting;  lots of agriculture along the lake.   People are still doing most of the work by hand, tilling their fields, sowing, etc;   but I did spot a few tractors in the fields along the way.   We got to Copacabana in time for lunch, dropped our luggage off at our respective hotels, and then took off on another small boat to reach Isla del Sol / Island of the Sun.   There is also an Island of the moon, but it is privately owned and there isn’t much on it.   Not that there was much to see on Isla del Sol.   When we got off the boat on a rickety dock, we had to climb up a hill / mountain to reach an old Inca Temple and then continue up the mountain along a goat / burrow path.  

  Templo Pilkokaina

  Look back to the trail we walked up

  Looking down to the sacred staircase

  Llama along the way

The lake is at an elevation of 3,812 meters  (12,507 feet for my American friends), and this climb was exhausting.   I was with a group of 4 people; two from Germany (husband & wife) and two from Bolivia (Mother, daughter).   Thankfully the gentleman said he was also having a hard time climbing so we got to stop and rest along the way.   After all that climbing we reached a small village/tourist trap where we had to come back down the hill / mountain by a series of staircases.    Nothing at all like the beautiful island we visited on Lake Titicaca 2 ½ years ago where the entire island was an agricultural setting with small communities throughout who welcomed each of the groups with traditional dancing and a meal.   This one was really disappointing.  

Back to the boat for the ride back to Copacabana, which is a very small town, with probably too many people and tourists because you can smell the sewage along the beach front.  There was no room for me at the main hotel, so I had been booked into Ecolodge, which was a few minutes drive along the water, outside of Copacabana.   It was a real treat because the setting was magical.   Little casitas up on the hill behind the owner’s house/reception area/breakfast area.     I felt like I was on a Lord of the Rings movie set.    And I had a great view of the lake as well.

   My casita at Ecolodge

  My casita at Ecolodge

  Beautiful flowering cactus.  Blooms 4 to 5 inches wise

At 8 pm, after reading a few pages, I was out like a light.   I slept 10 hours !    Complete silence.   The wall must be more than 2 feet thick.   No TV, No wifi.   Nothing but peace and quiet.

Oct 28 Friday

Cab  picked me up at 9:20 to drive me back to the main hotel where the rest of the group were staying, and we set off for our “city tour”.     We walked up one street, acr-oss another, up one more block to the main square and the church and that was the end of the city tour ! ! !

The pics look really nice however

  Main street of Copacabana

  Construction in Copacabana (same elsewhere in alti-plano)

  Little guy playing with a stick on the street

  Venders selling their wares

  One of the other streets

  Want to buy some meat ?

  Fake reed boat

After the long drive back to La Paz, I concluded that these past two days were wasted.  Too much comparison to what I had seen in Puno (Peru), the floating islands and Isla Taquile 2 ½ years ago with Yvette.   So if any of you are planning a trip to Lake Titicaca, stick to the Peruvian side;  it’s much better.

Back at Hotel Rosario, but this time in a room on the first floor (which technically is on the second floor).  Window looks out to a small terrace at the back.   VERY VERY NICE.   So I shower and head back down to the Reception area because the young lady (Erika) at the travel agency indicated that she had completed all my travel plans and had all my vouchers ready for me.    Got that completed, paid for, got the vouchers and then the lights went out.   All the lights, not just in the hotel, but out in the streets.   It is a monthly occurrence so maybe they have brown-outs here as well.    I sat in the dark lobby for about 5 minutes, but decided to try to make it back to my room.  On the way up, I passed the restaurant and noticed that they had candles lit on all the tables (as usual, but you just don’t notice them as much when the lights are one).   So I went in and decided to order a salad for dinner.   They could still prepare food since they use propane or some other type of gas, but they were cooking by candle light !    After dinner, I managed to make it back to my room to get the little head-light Marjo / Helene got for me.    About two minutes after I had found it and lit it, all the lights came back on.

What a day !   Too tired to do anything else but go to bed.