Negar and I left on a bus from La Paz to Copacabana on a very early bus the next day and I was devastated. We had been up quite late hanging out with people before Vaan came and found me and said it was cuddle time. Yay! But then the morning came too soon and we had to pack our last few things (I still managed to forget my trainers and charger there naturally) and say our sleepy goodbyes. Boarding that bus was in all honesty one of the hardest things I've ever done and I kept thinking about just going back inside and crawling back into bed with Vaan but the journey has to continue I suppose :(

In any case, we slept most of our short journey to Copacabana - no thanks to our seriously annoying super gay tour guide who wouldn't shut up about his sexual exploits and general party lifestyle. Bro, I just worked at Loki for three weeks - you're not impressing me.

We finally arrived in Copacabana and were able to escape annoying guide on a ferry over to Isla del Sol. The journey took about two hours and would have been fine except Negar and I were running on hardly any sleep and were slowly being suffocated by the gasoline fumes coming from the boat's motors. I was so uncomfortable leaning against the wall of the boat that I didn't manage to sleep even though I wanted nothing more in the world, so when we finally arrived on Isla del Sol and I recognized a guy from our hostel in Valparaiso offering hostel rooms, we immediately accepted and followed him up to the hostel. I remembered he was German so before we long we all started conversing in German about this and that. The hostel was up a hill with uneven stone steps as the only means upwards so needless to say I nearly fell to my death a few times. I had became delusional with my lack of sleep (and onset of depression??) but we finally arrived and he gave us a private room. For way cheaper than one would pay for a 14 bed dorm at Loki La Paz? Nice - we initially think.

We lie down for a little while and then decide to have a walk around the North part of the island we're staying on. Now, this island is called Isla del Sol - sun island in English. Except the day we arrived there was absolutely no sun to be found. Nowhere. It looked like it had never been sunny on that island a single day since the creation of this universe. It was gray and depressing and there were maybe five people to be seen on the street. What a change from La Paz and Loki, you might think... And f***ing right it was. Oh my goodness - I can't explain how depressed we felt that first day. Not only were our hearts already ripped out from leaving La Paz and amazing friends but now you're going to put me in this setting where there's nothing to distract me as I try not to cry over such recent amazing memories and thoughts as to what the guys might be doing at Loki this minute. f*** you, sun island. You little jerk.

Anyway, Negar and I tried to cheer ourselves up by getting some snacks and then getting into bed around 19:00. Oh also, the power wasn't working on the island on that first day so not only did that mean no "hot" showers until the next day (endless bulls***) but there was no light in our room. Also, the room was really creepy. I don't know if I can give it a just description but it was kind of like one of those creepy motel rooms you see in the movies, or maybe you've stayed in one (you do you). It had one of those big windows that looks out on to the walkway outside connecting rooms and had these ominous Bolivian photos on the wall that were weirdly spaced out. Besides that the walls were bare - I think Negar has a photo of it, go check it out. Needless to say Negar and I cuddled in my single bed so we could combine the blankets from both beds, as it was FREEZING (and distract ourselves from the creepiness), and looked through our photos from our amazing trip through South America over the past couple of months. I have to admit that laughing over amazing photos and sharing stories that corresponded with them made me feel so much better and I came to realize that there are still so many great times coming and maybe it's not the worst thing for you to be somewhere that's not Loki. Calm yourself.

So we went to bed at around 19:30 that night and were up by around 8:00 the next morning. We hadn't had that much sleep since Sucre most likely and it felt amazing. I think it was the first non-alcohol induced sleep in nearly a month and feeling functional for the first time in so long gave us the wild idea to attempt a hike up to the ruins on the North side of the island. Not that we moved very quickly from our beds, though. We didn't get up until about 12:30 and first stopped to get sandwiches (with squeaky cheese) and then started our journey. It really wasn't too tough and the scenery was indeed beautiful (albeit still not sunny as the island's name markets). We reached the ruins in about a half an hour - good ruins, not great, especially since we've now been to Machu Picchu lolz. We stayed at the top for a short while and then started making our way back down when we came across some seated sheep. I thought nothing of it but Negar then says seated sheep are a sign of rain. What?! Where does one even learn something like that? She says the farm we worked on in Argentina or something - can't remember - but my goodness was she right. About five minutes out from the bottom of the hill we start feeling some sprinkles which we thought nothing of cause we were so close to the hostel. Then boom. Hailing rain and we had to leg it to our hostel which was located across the beach and up those stupid stone steps. So we ran and got soaked... Awesome. We were having a pretty good day (minus the no sun part) but now my parade had literally been rained on. I decided it was time to take a shower in the hopes of warming up again. No. The shower was the coldest thing I've ever experienced. It was so cold I was afraid my body may go into shock. Needless to say when I returned to the room and Negar caught sight of me, she wasn't too excited about the shower ahead of her. She managed though and didn't die so when the rain stopped we went down to the Main Street and bought crisps, Toddy's (best cookies on the planet) and chocolate. Sorry, not sorry. It was a snacking kind of night and we crawled back into bed together and pretty much talked each other to sleep - dreaming of leaving this island sin sol the following day.

We awoke the next day and packed our things quickly to make sure we made the 10:30 ferry and got the hell off the island. Would you believe it - actually it's not surprising at all if previous events on this trip are anything to go by - that it was finally sunny that last day we were leaving? Par for the course, amirite?! Lolz anyway, we got on the ferry and set sail for Copacabana. We were actually quite looking forward to getting back to the mainland because Lucas (my son) was meant to be arriving from La Paz that day and I was sure he could cheer us up better than anyone. So off we set and arrived about two hours later. After having some sopa y segunda at a restaurant along the docks we walked up a fairly steep hill to find a hostel. Without too much effort we found a private room for quite cheap and dumped our stuff to to wait down on the pier for Lucas to arrive!! :) We figured that would be the one place in town everyone goes after arriving and sure enough after about two hours sitting on a rooftop I spot a yellow jacket looking at a map of the city. Mijo!!!!! He looks up at us waving at him frantically from the rooftop and comes on up. I don't know if it's even possible to describe how pleased I was to seem him. He had some stories to fill us in on from his last two nights in La Paz which we listened to giddily and then suggested we go to the forest (read La Paz: Part 2 for translation)... But on top of the massive hill in the city. Negar outright refused but I have such a hard time saying no to Lucas's sweet face, especially when he calls me "mom", that I agreed. Negar came with us half the way after Lucas wouldn't let her leave at the bar and then Lucas and I made it to the top after climbing too many stairs. Too many, too much climbing. No more, please. We were so exhausted after we got to the top we decided it wouldn't be healthy for our lungs to go to the forest there, so we eventually made our way back down and went to the beach to go to the forest. We chatted about this and that until the sun went down and then went to find Negar for dinner because we had all agreed we would go for trucha (trout), a local specialty.

We found her back at the hostel and set off for the tiendas set up on the beach. The trucha was good but I ate all the skin off the fish and upon noticing that neither Negar nor Lucas were eating theirs I immediately thought I was going to die. For some weird reason I say that I don't really like seafood, which Negar has called me out on a few times. I really do like seafood but I suppose I don't particularly know what I'm doing with it - like can I eat this part, where do I crack it, can I eat the skin? So I usually just get intimidated at restaurants and order chicken - yeah I'm that person. Anyway, I thought I might die that night (only mentally, of course) but in fact nothing happened. #winning

Lucas walked us back to the hostel and we had one last smoke before wishing him a good night. We had planned to meet up with him the following day before our bus departed at 17:00 but it ended up not happening (no worries, we saw him in Arequipa instead!!).

The next morning Negar and I took freezing cold showers yet again - so devastating since the showers at Loki had been out of sight. We packed our bags and then ran out to the sunlight for some breakfast and much needed warmth. We basically spent that whole day doing nothing at all waiting around for our bus. Couldn't really tell you what else happened but we were so pleased to be getting out of there and heading to Arequipa, which looked like a beautiful city! In any case, the bus finally came. We boarded the bus and left :)

So pretty uneventful on the Isla sin Sol but I think we were too wrapped up in our memories to really want to do much. We'd also heard from many people that all one does on the island is relax - something we hadn't done in a while - and to be fair we probably needed it. We got a twelve hour sleep each night there and awoke feeling rested, which is the best thing we could have done for our colds. In any case, the story continues my friends! Just wait ;)