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So after surviving a second tiny plane ride back from Rurrenabaque to La Paz and then dumping straight on a bus we were on our way to our final stop in Bolivia - Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca.
The bus journey itself proved slightly eventful as the quickest route crosses part of the lake so we were all told to jump off the bus and board a little motor boat while the bus itself (still with all our luggage on board) drove off to another slightly precarious looking ferry to be transported across. We only found out later on that apparently up until a few weeks ago, all the passengers used to stay on the bus while it crossed the lake; until one of the busses sank!
Luckily we didn´t have any such problems and arrived in town safe and sound. Copacabana itself doesn´t really have too much to offer beyond plenty of restaurants and a nice view of the lake so after one day we had pretty much exhausted the town and were ready to head off by boat to Isla del Sol in the middle of the lake.
Isla del Sol is known as the "birthplace of the Incas" and was hugely important in their religion so has plenty of Inca ruins to explore. Unfortunately the morning we chose to leave was pouring with rain but we decided to brave the rain and jump on a boat in the hope that it might clear up... Three very boring, rainy hours later we arrived at the southern end of the island just in time for the sun to come out and set off on our four hour walk to the northern end where we were planning to watch the sunset and stay overnight.
The walk itself was really beautiful. We climbed up to the highest point on the island and then walked along the top ridge for a while before coming down across a series of fields set out on the original Inca terraces. We seemed to lose the path somewhere at this point and ended up scrambling across a few fields before we managed to make our way back up to the main road where we were chased down the road by a local guide who thought we were trying to avoid paying the national park fee for the island by going off road!
After successfully finding the path for the rest of the walk which took us down along a beach and then back up and around the cliff top we arrived in the town at the northern end of the island just in time for some delicious Titicaca trout for lunch and then headed up to the main complex of ruins at the far northern edge of the island. There are a series of temple ruins, sacrificial tables and ceremonial rocks all lined up to coincide with the sunset which is meant to be pretty spectacular from the top of the island. Unfortunately the rain was beginning to come back just as the sun set and, although we saw some pretty spectacular lightning across the lake, the clouds came in and we didn´t get to see the spectacular sunset we´d been promised.
We were then left with a pretty speedy walk back to town to try and make it before the rain started and luckily we just made it - as we got to the hostel it started pouring and turned absolutely freezing so after a bit more trout and a few games of cards it was time to huddle up in bed and try to keep warm before boarding the boat back to Copacabana in the morning.
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