After spending a surprisingly long time in La Paz, it was good to finally leave it. The city itself is very enjoyable with lots to see, do and eat, and we definitely made the most of it. However after a week in total here the smog really starts to get to you, and at an altitude of 3600m, walking any kind of distance during the day becomes a chore.
Our next stop was Copacabana, a town on the edge of the amusingly named Lake Titicaca (I know I'm going to be 30 this year, but that name makes me laugh anytime I hear it!). After a fairly short, easy bus journey of about 4 hours from La Paz we arrived at the slightly higher altitude of 3800m in gorgeous smog-free sunshine. After dropping our bags off at the very nice Hotel Utama, we went exploring round the town.
Lake Titicaca is known for being the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, the largest lake in south America (spanning Bolivia and Peru) and having extremely tasty trout. The last one interested me the most but as we were planning to go on a boat trip first thing the next morning I thought I'd wait before testing out the food hygiene control in this town! The town itself is a very nice seaside style town and we enjoyed a walk up to Cerro Calvario, the highest point, for some beautiful sunset views over the lake. We also spent a large part of the day trying to organise a trip to Isla del Sol, an island in the lake. The reason it took so long was not because we were bartering for a good price but because we were trying to find the safest looking boat. George and Liszi, who we did the salt flats tour with, had an unfortunate boat sinking incident in the middle of the lake and warned us to check the boats before we book! Unfortunately, all the boats looked exactly the same; old, rickety and dodgy! In the end we decided to just take our chances with the company the hostel recommended and hope that sinkings were a once a year occurrence!
With great trepidation we boarded the boat at a very early hour the following morning and set off to the island. The ride took around 2 hours, going past several other picturesque islands with clear blue skies over head, and passed without incident. We were very happy to get onto solid ground at the Northern tip of the island and, dodging all the tour operators, we started on our own trek down to the South of the island. As it turns out not many people take this option, preferring to take a short guided tour of the North before getting a boat down to the South to sit around for the afternoon before getting the boat home. This meant that we had a very quiet 4 hour trek along one of the most beautiful islands we have been on. Surrounded by the wonderfully blue Lake Titicaca with the snow capped Andes in the distance and lush green rolling hills all around us, we had a fantastic day.
The first hour was a tough climb up to the highest summit on the island, a touch over 4000m, and we were both pretty breathless at the top. After completing this section Gen was pleased to hear that she could now say that her highest summit is 3 times higher than the highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis, standing at a puny 1300m! (We'll keep it to ourselves that we only climbed up 400m!).
After this peak, the rest of the walk was relatively easy and we continued to be in awe of the views on offer. I have lost count of how many amazing views we have seen on this trip but I can safely say I have not tired of them and hope we still have many more to come.
The boat ride back was, thankfully, uneventful and we headed out for a trout dinner that night with some guys from our hostel (I say 'we', obviously Gen was slightly less excited by this prospect and ended up having a disappointingly dry rice and veggies dish). The trout was really tasty and I went to bed a very satisfied boy!
The next morning was a bit of a sad day as it was finally time for us to leave Bolivia. This country has been far and away one of my favourite places we have visited. The people are amazing, the scenery has been stunning, the towns and cities endlessly interesting and the food has been some of the best we have eaten in the last 8 months. Good times.
And the mighty quins keep on marching.