The World's Highest Large Body of Water

Lake Titicaca has various islands and shoreside towns that you can visit. On the Bolivian side, we went to Copacabana. It's a pretty relaxed little town, which i'd say is half geared towards tourism and half towards a catholic pilgrimage.

We splashed out on an awesome BnB for the two nights we were there. It's made up of about 10 self contained units, designed in an under-the-sea theme. Our little house was 3 stories with a Rapunzel type turret at the top. Inside and out there was not a straight line or 90 degree angle to be seen, every element having been hand crafted with love. From the mosaic tiling and varnished floors to the circular beds (yes, plural), to the copious hammocks both inside and out, to the elaborate wrought iron door handles. This really is the Bolivian answer to the modernist ethos of Gaudi's Casa Battlo. It was a perfect place to relax for a couple of days, albeit Nick remarked that it is impossible to feel macho while peering out of the window of a fairy-tale turret. Also at 3,990 meters above sea level we were out of breath just carrying the luggage up the steps.

From Copacabana we took a 2 hour catamaran ride to the Isla del Sol (Sun Island). On disembarking the boat we witnessed various tourists having arguments with the boat operator man. These arguments seemed to fall into one of three categories:
- A twenty-something Italian woman demanding (with a lot of hand waving) to be taken to the Isla de la Luna (Moon Island). Apparently she did the 3.5 hour trek through Isla Del Sol yesterday and was not keen on repeating it.
- An elderly Bolivian-looking lady demanding to be dropped at the south of the Island instead of the north. Apparently she didn't want to do the 3.5 hour trek from one end of the island to the other either.
- Some Germans were requesting that the boat pick us up again at the advertised time of 4pm and not 3pm as the boat guy was now suggesting. We were in agreement that this now put the pressure on to complete the trek in time and make the pick up point.

The Isla del Sol is the centre of the Inca creation myth. Apparently the sun was made here from the sacred stone we saw at the northern tip of the island. It also boasts some beautiful views of "the world's highest large body of water", as well as some impressive Inca built steps and irrigation systems claiming magical properties and also many hectares of pre-Colombian farm terracing.

(Editors note- There follows a whole paragraph here written by Lindsay. I found the whole thing juvenile and it is included here against my better judgement.)

The next day we took a bus from Copacabana to Puno on the Peruvian side to check out the floating islands of the Uros people. At one point, we were ushered off the bus and told that we had to cross the lake by a small ferry. There was no space left above deck in the open air section, where most people were sitting, so we had to squash into a small cabin space at the front of the boat. It was quite cramped and stuffy with us plus 4 other tourists in there. Then a man got on board with his dog, which he made to wear a nappy. Of course there was a little parcel in the dogs nappy. It did not smell pleasant in that small boat cabin. Then the little dog started to shake itself, like dogs do when they are wet. You could imagine us all holding our breath, hoping and praying that that nappy was properly secured.

When we got to Puno, we visited two of the floating islands. They float since they are made from a special reed. The people that live on them are quite entrepreneurial, especially the litte girls, who will charm you into having your hair braided and then charge you 3 soles for the pleasure :)

The rest of the floating island tour was slightly exploitative, since it allowed us to gawp at the Peruvian people who choose to live in this manner. We visited 2 of the 70+ islands, and this must be the most touristy experience we have had on our journeys to date. In fact, I imagine there are people currently on the Space Mountain ride in the Epcot Centre in Disneyland who are having a less corporate and touristy time than this.