Hello my dedicated readers,

I woke up to a nearly pitch-black room expect for some light emitting through the windows. That's how early we had to wake up this morning, 5:45 AM to be precise. I groggily dragged myself to the hot shower and next only thing I thought of was delicious and filling buffet-style breakfast provided by the hotel! As always, we helped ourselves to a feast. We all came back up to our rooms and brought our stuff with us. I swept my room quickly for one last time before checking out. The tour bus was supposed to pick us up from the hotel at 7 AM sharp, but I'm sure y'all can figure out what went wrong… Bus arrived late and we finally boarded the bus all eagerly to start our day. We were not too excited to leave our 5-star hotel though! :(

The bus was something that your regular megabus would look like, except it was single decked. The bus ride lasted around hour and half before arriving the local small fishing town. We hopped on small boat to get across the water to undercut the longer route. Wait, how did the bus get across water?? Oh, it just casually flew over the water! No, did it catch a ferry ride? Well yes, the bus loaded on the ferry and then we all watched bus backing up into ground again in awe. After the shortcut, we were still hour away from Copacabana, a radiant small town right by the Lake Titicaca. An hour of bumpy bus ride passed, and here we are! We didn't have chance to explore Copacabana further because the time didn't permitted. We walked down the street and ate our lunch. We had an option to order either fish, chicken, beef, or omelet. I personally went with the beef dish and it tasted decent. We left our big bags behind in a locked storage and waddled our way to the pier!

Going to the pier can mean only one thing, and that is hopping on the boat! There were 2 levels, the one inside boat and another one top outside. Only 7 could be on the upper deck and the rest sat downstairs. I was lucky enough to sit on the top, man, I'm telling you the breeze was very relaxing. I was also trying my best to get myself as tan as possible! Ha. We rode on the boat for another one and half-hour to our destination, Isla del Sol. Translated to English, it means Island of the Sun. This huge island is believed to be a birthplace of sun god, Viracocha, from Incas Empire, hence the island name. We docked the boat at the very ending southern tip of the island, and trekked our way up to the hostel. The view is just unbelievable, the glimmering sun reflection off the Lake Titicaca water, mountains in distance, and lastly, multiple small islands surrounding us. Wow. Right next to our hostel were some donkeys grazing the grasses. After we unloaded our stuff in our rooms, off we go to Yumani, a port in this island.

I wish the boat ride were longer than measly 5 minutes it took us to arrive Yumani. Regardless of the travel time, we all will still always appreciate the boat rides. Yumani was much different from our hostel location. Our hostel is very remoted and only has owner's house next to our hostel while Yumani is filled with multiple hostels, vendors, and of course, tens of tourists, including ourselves! We climbed up a stairs of 204 steps, and we all were panting for a breath every time we took a step. The steps were fairly steep and deep; combine that with thin air due to high elevation, there you see 12 Americans grasping for air. Once we reached to the top, we saw the famous supposedly fountain of youth. The stream runs up from the mountain and drains down through 3 openings. Some of us even dared to drink the fresh and ice-cold water! We weren't done and we continued to hike uphill for other 1 hour until we reached the ruins of what once was a Sun Temple. It was bare but it used to be covered with gold! Unfortunately, thieves out there exist. We walked back to our hostel and gathered ourselves in a dining room and shared plenty of laughter and conversations before the late dinner was served. Beef, chicken, and fish were served along with chicken soup as a starter dish. All of us were exhausted from a long day of riding so we all holed up in our own rooms and zoned off.

It has been my pleasure writing blogs for y'all, as seeing this will be my last one ever…

- Nevan