Isla Del Sol

We got up at 7 today so we could catch the boat to Isla del Sol. Walking up to the tourist office at 8 as we had been told we found it was closed!! Slightly annoyed by this we walked down toward the shore anyway and were lucky enough to find another office open selling the same tours although the guy behind the desk attempted to charge us more at first! We also picked up a couple of sandwiches and pastries from a little stand on the street and proceeded to find our boat. When it eventually moored up the group of people waiting was split into those going for a day trip and those planning to stay over night, since we were planning to stay over night we then had to wait around in the rain for an extra 20 mins while they faffed about boarding the day trippers. Eventually we were boarded onto the boat although we still have no idea why they split us up in the first place... The journey to the island took about 2 ½ hours although the scenery was quite cool we were sat in the front of the boat making it hard to see. We arrived at the northern end of the island around 11 and by this time the sun had come out, we were taken by the guide to a small museum which houses artefacts which have been recovered from the 'sunken city' at the bottom of lake Titicaca. Some of the pottery representations of animals were pretty cool and there was some interesting info displayed on posters. After this we set of on a 45 mins hike up the hill at the north end of the island. As we walked we passed a couple of waterfalls, many potato fields and some rocky landscapes which somewhat resemble parts of Wales... All the while of course you can see out over the lake and some of the many islands within it. All in all it makes for a fairly spectacular setting. We eventually arrived at the destination of our journey which is the 'Sacred Rock' which is the basis of the Inca creation myth, apparently the first two Inca are said to have risen from this rock and founded the Inca's civilisation, the rock itself has two formations which are said to resemble these two people and also to grant wishes. Next to it is the ceremonial table made of a huge slab of rock set on four smaller rocks with many rock stools surrounding it, Mae said it looked a little like the stone table in 'The lion, the witch and the wardrobe'. We then proceeded a little further to some Inca ruins located almost at the end of the island, we spent some time walking around these and decided that they would be a good place to have lunch as well. The ruins themselves are quite small but the interior structure is quite complex and they could have been quite hard to navigate when they were complete. After lunch the guide led the day trippers back to the boat while we took a different path as we were planning to hike to the other end of the island along the ridgeline. The views along this route were spectacular with views of beautiful green bays, terraced hills, little villages and the constant backdrop of Lake Titicaca's amazing blue waters. If we looked to our left we could see Bolivia with it's snowcapped peaks in the distance and looking right we could see the light reflecting off the building in some large Peruvian towns. The hike takes approximatly 3-4 hours, although we stopped for coffee along the way and made a slight detour to climb the second highest peak in the centre of the island. (4032m) This also allowed us to detour around some local brats who were pestering us to buy something from them, or give them something or so on. By the time we reached the village of Yumani at the southern end of the island we were both very hot and running low in drink, however we soon discovered that to see the Inca steps and garden it is necessary to descend a long series of very badly made steps. It is testament to either the engineering skill of the Incas or the laziness of the local population that after 4000 years the Inca made steps are in much better condition and better designed than those used by the locals on a daily basis!! The Inca garden is made up of local fragrant plants and is much more a treat for your sense of smell than your eyes as it dosen't look like a garden at all. (Barring the two large statues of Incas at the bottom of the steps) It does however have a water fall running down the length of it and as we reached the top we found the source of this which is known as the Inca spring. We took this opportunity to refill our water bottle before setting out to try and find the Sun Temple which was supposed to be located almost at the southern end of the island. We coudn't however find the correct path to get there and decided that we would go cross country instead... After negotiating a couple of fences we found ourselves on a sort of path which the locals must use as at this point we could now see some tourists on the correct path further up. We continued on our makeshift route around a corner of the island and were rewarded with an amazing view of the sun temple from above, this is clearly a view you can't get walking the tourist path and we were glad to have taken this slight detour. We decided it would be best to rejoin the correct path before we got too close and scrambled up several terraces to find it. We spent the next hour or so exploring the many rooms of the temple, which appears to have a damp problem as the roofs were still dripping water from the rain earlier today. Once we were done exploring we made the walk back to Yumani managing to get stuck behind a herd of sheep and a donkey along the way. We quickly found ourselves somewhere to stay for the night in a pretty room which had some great views over the lake and the set off to find dinner. We found a nice restaurant with bay windows where we hoped to watch the sunset and ordered trout each, this time I had lemon trout while Mae had it simply grilled. Once again we were impressed with how amazing it tasted and this more than made up for the large cloud that drifted in to spoil our sunset!! After dinner we walked back to our room before it got too dark to see and climbed into the very warm bed.