Hi All,

This blog is going to cover our entire visit to lake Titicaca. Both Copacabana on the Bolivian side and Puno on the Peruvian side.

Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3800m and split between Bolivia and Peru, Peru owning 55%. It is considered a fresh water lake as there is less than 1g of salt/100litres of water.

We arrived in Copacabana on the Bolivian side on Sunday after a 4 hour coach transfer from La Paz. Halfway there we had to cross a part of the lake so we were bundled out of the bus and into fishing boats while our bus was ferried across on what looked like a dubious raft (I will add pics).

Once we arrived in Copacabana we checked into our very nice, very over budget, hotel (needed after Churro Trek... Or that's my excuse!). Our balcony looked out over the 'beach' which was littered with hundreds of swan pedal-lows, jet skis with blow up boats on the back and zorbing tubes for kids to roll around in. There was probably enough swan pedal-lows on the beach to transfer the entire population of Bolivia over to Peru. The funny thing is the water is about 8 degrees and so none of the activities actually involve getting wet. As we had arrived at the weekend it was very busy with Bolivian tourists bobbing about on various floating objects and eating trout from the 'beach'-side stalls. I use the term 'beach' loosely because there wasn't really any sand and although the sun shone 100% of the time the wind was cold so there was no one in a bathing costume sunbathing.

The first day we were still both a bit knackered so we chilled out. In the evening we ate at an Italian restaurant which appeared to be someone's house that they had turned into a restaurant in case anyone wanted to pop in. We were the only people eating there and, despite the fly filled cobweb balls all over the ceiling, we had great food! We were given a free plate of delicious garlic bread to start and then homemade pasta pesto followed by chocolate biscuit cake. We also had a bottle of Bolivian red which was delicious. We left rather merry and full. I think the owner must have been Italian and it was very much a family affair with his kids running around the kitchen.

The next day we had planned to hire a scooter and explore along the coast but this proved impossible so instead we hiked up to some viewpoints next to the town and in the afternoon took a long walk along the coast in the other direction. Another chilled out day.

On our last full day in Copacabana we took the ferry over to Isla Del Sol. This is an island believed by the Inka's to be where the sun originated from and has a large Inka ruin situated on it. The ferry took 2.5 rocking hours and I was feeling fairly queasy when we finally reached the far side of the island! Once on dry land we started on the 8km hike across to the port on the side of the island closer to Copacabana. On the way we passed Inca Ruins and several local footpath toll booths where you had to pay your way across the island, much to Esben's annoyance.

The walk was fairly tough due to the high altitude but it was enjoyable. Once we reached the other port we had a quick chicken sandwich and arranged to catch the boat back to Copacabana. What I hadn't realised was that the highest UV levels ever recorded were that day between Bolivia and Peru, ironic as we were on Isla Del Sol, and when we got back to the hotel my back was deep deep red!

The next day it was time to say goodbye to Bolivia and cross the border to Peru. It also happened to be the second time I managed to contract some fairly horrific food poisoning. I somehow managed to cross the borders running for toilets and being sick in cardboard boxes on the bus ... joyful! The rest of the day in Puno, our first Peruvian location, was a write off for me other than venturing out for some spinach soup and watching the most boring World Cup game ever (Holland versus Argentina).

The second day we decided to take the floating island boat tour. Because we got on the wrong boat we only managed to spend about 5 minutes on the reed floating islands. They were incredible to see. I can't believe people live on reeds floating around this huge huge lake! Next we visited a land island and had some delicious fresh water trout. All in all the boat journey took up about 90% of the day and after 5 hours of boating around I really really wish I had my book!!! Esben and I resorted to playing hand slapping games... we went a bit mad.

We had both had enough of Puno by the time we got back to dry land and arranged to take a bus to Arequipa the following day where it was lower, warmer and apparently much nicer. Before the bus journey we took a taxi out to a pre-inka and inka burial site. They had built these huge, round stone structures over the graves of the rich and it was really cool to see. It was also an incredibly peaceful area and we could understand why they had chosen it as a burial site. Each of the structures had an opening, where they hadn't been blasted with dynamite by treasure hunters, facing east to symbolise the sun rise.

In the after noon we took the 6 hour bus to Arequipa where we are now.

I will blog again soon.

Alice
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