Lake Titicaca Islands & La Paz

Day 23 Sunday 28th December 2008 Puno to Copacabana/Island of the Sun

Finally a morning sleep in as we departed our Puno Hotel at the leisurely hour of 9 am for the short drive to the Bolivian border. This was the only part of our trip so far where the arrangement seemed a tad vague – one guide took us to the border with the assurance that someone else would meet us … which did turn out to be the case. Land border crossings are always interesting … there is always a “DMZ” across which cars cannot travel, so you have to walk and be able to carry all your luggage … and this one was up the hill ! Fortunately we are prepared for these scenarios …

After meeting up with out new guide on the Bolivian side of the border, another short ride to the small town on Copocabana on the edge of Lake Titicaca … and it was a little amusing, they have attempted to make the beach look like the Brazilian version … but it doesn´t quite cut it … We were not there for the beach and jumped in a small boat to take us out into the lake to the Island of the Moon, to visit the ruins of the Inca moon temple … in the Incas time this was “boarding school” for all the local virgins until they were married. While one may think it gets tiring visiting site after site of Inca ruins, it is fascinating to find each has it´s unique features and all had one distinct purpose.

Another short ride took us across to the much larger Island of the Sun, where we had a wonderful local lunch prepared for us – the hot food wrapped in a cloth to keep warm included potato, sweet potato, broad beans and sweet corn (on steroids) all from the local farms … as well as chicken, local trout and local small sardine like fish. Wonderful ! We then hiked across the island terraces to an “ecolodge” perched on the side of the hill where we would spend the night. Just amazing views over the lake and fantastic hospitality in the lodge run by local people.

We haven´t spoken much about the affects of altitude in this region … we found Cusco at 3,300 m above sea level took a few days to get used to, but we were not doing much physical. On the Island of the Sun, we slept just under 4,000 m and any walking is a task, let alone climbing Inca terraces ! You find you have to stop regularly to try and catch your breath and are always breathing heavily through your mouth to suck in enough oxygen – makes for sore throats at the end of any day that includes an amount of walking. Even at night, you disturb your own sleep occasionally in having to draw an extra breath. Gives you new respect for people living at these altitudes and the mountaineers who go even higher …

Day 24 Monday 29th December 2008 Island of the Sun/La Paz

Woke up at first light to see the sunrise …. But there wasn´t one, the skies were cloudy. Back on our boat and around to the very north of the Island of the Sun to visit one more Inca site, the Temple of the Sun. This site was for trainee priests and was quite large in terms of the size of the temple. The local word for the temple means ¨”labyrinth”, which is exactly was it was – small winding passages interconnected all the various meeting and sleeping rooms. Even without a roof it was east to get lost … fortunately the Incas were small so we could see over most of the remaining walls !

Apparently the local myth is that the last Inca being chased by the Spaniards when they invaded ran into this temple and quickly lost his pursuers in the corridors, allowing him to gather up the remaining Inca treasures, escape out the far side and throw them into the lake before the Spaniards to get their hands on them. We returned to Copocabana for lunch, including a quick visit to the local Cathedral – seems to be a must for most towns you visit. Then back in our mini bus for the drive to La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, the largest city in the country and also the highest city in the world. We climbed away from the Lake and up onto the Bolivian high plains .. again, more spectacular countryside and we also drove through a fierce hailstorm – the sheep along the roadside looked as though they had been snowed on ! Tomorrow we have a tour of the city, before continuing our journey south by bus and train to Uyini. Note: Again, apologies we cannot load more photos at present ... we´ll get some more pics uploaded ASAP after 1 Jan ...

Day 25 Tuesday 30th December 2008 La Paz/ Morning city tour & Moon Valley

A great short tour of the city of La Paz today ... first up, a trip up out of the city valley to Moon Valley - a section of mountainside where the wind and rain has eroded the soil away from some more solid cores of rock to create this fascinating landscape that resembles the moon .. hence the name. Then back down to the top of the city to a lookout that gives panomaric views of the whole city down the valley - beautiful. We finished up back in the middle of the city to see the main plaza and yet another cathedral ... this one very big but at least more modest with the decorations.

And finally a visit to the "witches market", a section of the large market where the local "medicine men/women" bring their cures to sell ... and a lot of it seems to be very much based on surperstition ... and funny contradiction for a country and professes to be very religous in the traditional sense.

Day 26 Wednesday 31st December 2008 La Paz to Oruro to Uyuni

We departed La Paz today for another travel day to head further south into Bolivia ... Firstly a bus trip on a local bus to the town of Oruro ... a journey supposed to take 3 hours but took 4 1/2 ... mainly because the driver seemed content to stop frequently to pick up locals and allow them to ride in the lower section of the bus, no doubt for a small "fare".

This was fine to an extent, but the side effect was that with annoying frequency one would appear on the top deck and try and sell something ... grapes, giant popcorn, drinks, ice creams and pastries were all on offer during the journey. And one lad stood up and offered about a 15 minute speech or sermon about something to do with health ... we picked up the words cancer and osteoporosis ... but then is was entirely unclear what he was selling to cure these ills ... a potion or magic powder perhaps ? We did no invest to find out ...

At Oruro, with the help of our guide we transferred from bus to train, for a evening journey across most of the Bolivian Aliplano ... a 7 pm departure made for a spectacular and colourful sunset as the train departed ... but our attempts at sleep were frequently interupted by not very comforable chairs and fellow passengers who insisted on having loud conversations with each other when it was quite obvious many people were trying to sleep.

Oh, and this was our New Years Eve ... but we pretty much just saw in the new year in a state of semi consciousness while trying to grap a little bit of sleep as the train clattered along. We arrived bleary eyed at 2:30 am in Uyini, population about 20,000 ... the upside of a small town being a 5 minute drive to our hotel for some extra shuteye.