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We took the 3hr bus from La Paz to Copacabana on Lake Titikaka at another bargain basement price of 1.50p! When we got to the lake initially we were all told to get off the bus and board a small boat whilst the bus was transferred across the lake via a large barge thing... all very strange!! Anyway arrived in Copacabana which is a quaint little place not much happening but nice all the same. We located a cheap hostel again 1.50GBP each per night which is crazy cheap even for Bolivia then headed out for a smooze around the town. We headed straight for the lake and found a nice little restaurant over looking it and both got some lovely fish fresh out the lake for lunch/dinner. We spent the remainder of the evening trying to spend the Bolivianos we had withdrawn buying hats, gloves and other novelty items. We also booked a ticket to the largest island on the Lake Isla del Sol for the next day where we were going to stay for the night.
Early start as the boat left Copacabana for the 1.5hour trip to the Island at 8am they seem to power these large vessels using a speed boat engine so your not moving at the speed of light or anything close to!! There are two sides to the island the North and the South, we decided to stay in the South the bigger town (well I say town but I mean cluster of houses). We arrived to be met by "The Inca Stairs" which take you from the harbour up to the village. Bear in mind that this is still 3000+ meters above sea level so it was hard work. Chloe managed 6 steps then paid a little local kid 1 quid (who was no more than 14yrs old) to carry her big bag the rest of the way up to the hostel. It was gruelling I must admit my chest was burning and we stopped at least 5 times on the way up muc to the amusement of the kid who seemed to be floating up!! Got to the hostel which overlooked the lake and decided to grab some breakfast before heading off on our trek to the Inca ruins which were located on the North of the Island. The first thing we noticed was everyone here seemed to be so freindly all saying hello and good morning (must be the sun!!). As we headed through town up towards a hill via a dusty path the last person we saw was a young kid who seemed to be telling us something we took it as another freindly greeting and carried on towards the summit. After about 45mins walking the path we were following seemed to disappear into nothing and we found ourselves at the top of a very large hill in fields with sheep and goats. Surveying the landscape we saw across the valley the path we should have taken, so turns out the kid must have been saying "No its not that way....." followed probably by "Stupíd English" when we just smiled and said "Hola" back to him! The route to the other path was not easy we jumped, climbed and skided down the step hill across numerous fields eventually reaching the bottom of the valley an hour or so later, again much to Chloes displeasure! Once on the path the journey was a breeze we passed through the other two villages which were both having fiestas and the scenery was spectacular. When we got to the Northern most village we decided against lunch as we planned to get back there and catch a boat back to the South instead getting a Snickers each and carrying on our walk to the ruins which were another hour trek from the village. We finally found the ruins which was formerly the Inca Temple of the Sun where according to legend was the place where the sun god was created (well something like that for more information.... look it up!!). We checked out the map in lonely planet and decided to take an alternative route back which appeared quicker and we didnt want to risk there not being a boat and us having to walk back the way we came. This was to put it lightly the route from hell, an undulating path crossing every major hill peak on the island it took us a good 3 hours and Chloe was adament she hit "The wall" yes what marathon runners hit, in her defence I tried to run up part of the path and it felt like an irn was pressed against my heart and my lungs were about to explode, lesson learnt! By the time we finally arrived back to our village around dusk we were famished, we went to one restaurant who were unfamiliar with the term for menu in either Sapnish or English so went to one we had seen earlier which looked quite nice. It turned out to be the most bizarre eatery we have ever encountered. It was run by a solitary women who thught that the best service method was to do each table at a time that is starter for that table followed by main for tha table followed by the bill for that table before moving onto the next. She also kept locking the door to stop more people coming in, talk about loving your job!! When a young kid eventually did turn up to help he served a couple of beers to another table by haning them the bottles and throwing the bottle opener at them before nonchalently turning away. Following our days experiences I decided the Island was were they sent the mental/simple Bolivians and the friendliness early encountered was actually simplicity!! Needless to say early night, we were exhausted. Next day I got up and watched the sun rise what with us being on the Island of the Sun I thought it was only right, it was beautiful! Got the return boat to Copacabana grabbed some lunch then waved goodbye to Bolivia and headed into Peru across top Puno.
Peru seems alot more organised than Bolivia and we were on the swankiest bus we had seen since leaving Argentina. We were met at the bus terminal by a Peruvian hustler who gave us a great deal on a hotel room with T.V and Hot showers. We also booked an island tour for the next day. 7am start the following morning we were picked up and taken by boat (a little quicker thean the Bolivian equivalent, but not much) to our first stop The Uros Islands, or the floating islands. They were unbelievable definately one of the most impressive things we have seen, they were made entirely from reed, they had actually moved the islands closer to Puno dragging them by boats to be closer to the tourists it was all very surreal to imagine this as a way of life, a little Spanish boy on our tour loved the springiness of the reeds launching himself around the place (looked like alot of fun). Chloe always a sucker for pretty things bought a lovely hand made wall hanging, then we got on a boat again made from reed and crossed to another floating island. After this we travelled another 2hrs to Tequili a natural island. This wasnt very impressive and more a time filler than anything else but you never know until you get there, it consisted of yet more hiking, a lunch stop and thats about it! That evening we bought our bus tickets to Arequipa went out and ended up in a high end restaurant lured by the promise of free Pisco Sours, I had Llama meat whilst Chloe played it safe and went with beef. Mixed emotions about the Lake but overall definately enjoyed it.
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