Hola!

Now that I have found a dream computer its blog city! This next entry comes from Copacabana on the edge of Lake Titicaca, one of the highest navigable lakes in the world it sits at 3820m, is more than 230km long and 97km wide. It is a remnant of Lago Ballivian, an ancient inland sea, and straddles the Bolivia and Peru borders.

The bus ride from La Paz was only 3.5 hours and went past fairly quickly. When we got to the edge of Lake Titicaca we all had to get out of the bus and ride a stretch in a boat whilst the bus went on a larger ferry. The scenery was beautiful and I have never seen water so inky blue.

When the bus arrived we caught a taxi up to a hotel called La Cupola which was meant to be a Bolivian splurge because Mark wasn´t feeling very well. Unfortunately it was all booked out so we ended up next door at its ugly sister! Hotel Utama was very comfortable but had an obsession with orange.

We realised we didn´t have much money on us and received the good news that there is no ATM that accepts foreign cards...b*****! So what do responsible people do when they have little cash?! Head straight to a nice restaurant and order a bottle of wine! Who knows it could have been our last supper.

The next day Kate and I embarked on a day trip to Isla Del Sol (Island of the Sun). Poor Mark and now Jane were holed up at the hotel recuperating. Altitude sickness really is horrible and can strike anyone no matter their fitness level. It often presents the symptons of a chest infection but doesn´t respond to antibiotics. The only thing you can do is drink coca tea, chew the leaves or move to a lower altitude. Helpful when its difficult not to be at altitude in Bolivia!! The poor things struggled to breathe when walking and so were under strict instructions to rest. They did manage to get us money though which we were very grateful for!

Kate and I were picked up at the hotel and taken down to the boat. We were to be dropped off at the northern edge of the island, Cha´llapampa which would take 2 hours to reach. The plan was to then walk from the north end to the south end which would take 4-5 hours.

The boat was quite possibly the slowest vessel we have been on and at times felt like it was going backwards. It had hard school chairs inside and benches up top and both Kate and I fell asleep along the way. When we got there we bought tickets to visit the Inca ruins and walk the trail. The Isla Del Sol is the legendary Inca creation site and is the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology.

We commenced the walk and visited the first set of ruins, Chincana, which is the site of the sacred rock where the Inca creation legend began. Kate and I found ourselves caught up in some spanish speaking tour. The guide seemed determined to speak at us and so we nodded and ummed in the right places before deciding it was best to do a runner before he asked questions!

The walk to Yumani, the southern village, is described as taking anywhere between 3-5 hours. We were expecting a leisurely stroll and what we got was a full on hike! As we gasped and dragged ourselves up the hills that seemed to never end we cursed the guidebooks for such beige information. Having said that, it was truly spectacular and utterly worth it. We caught our first glimpses of Peru and the sun came out in the afternoon radiating off the landscape.

We saw an entrepreneurial man selling hamburgers along the way but didn´t give in to the temptation to re-fuel until we hit the 3 hour mark. We found a little stall selling lollipops and surrendered. We hit a check point about 15 mins later where the man said we had 20 mins to go. Normally most people would be spurred on to finish that final segment but we decided to sit down, have a rest and chat to the man. It was here we noticed that we were one of the first groups through and everyone else was behind us. Suddenly we felt like we were on the Amazing Race and got all competitive wanting to be at the front again....this lasted 30 seconds and then we agreed we were happy to know had we kept going we would have won!!

The final 20mins were probably the prettiest and in the photos where the water appears the most blue and flowers start cropping up too. The village of Yumani is much prettier than Cha´llapampa and there were many new restaurants and hostels cropping up. We picked a restaurant with fantastic hilltop views over the lake. The american guys next to us had been waiting for their pizza for 1 hour so we figured we would have the easy option of soup and a sandwich..much quicker.

The descent down to the boat jetty was very taxing and where you would expect to have an injury. Thankfully we didn´t (that would come later!). It would have been nice to stay a night on the island but the guidebooks we have are so out of date that they didn´t have all of the information around how much is on offer now. I am not sure we could have expected Mark and Jane to walk up the steep ascent either.

The boat ride home was just as long and a girl fainted on me which was exciting! Well not really but it made it different from the trip over. We passed through a village that uses the lake reeds to make its houses and boats etc.

Mark met us at the jetty and he was already looking better. We had a very simple meal before Kate and I nearly fell asleep at the table. We had done more exercise than perhaps the entire trip put together! We had also got some sun and were thoroughly exhausted.

Our next stop is the bus to Cuzco, Peru. We will pass through Puno very quickly which is on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. It would have been nice to spend more time here just relaxing but we had covered all the sights and it was time to keep moving. So goodbye Bolivia, you were such a plesant surprise to what we were expecting. Not to say that was bad but we hadn´t anticipated enjoying it so much. I would thoroughly recommend people visit!