Copacabana and Isla del Sol

16/06/13 to 17/06/13 - After La Paz we hopped on a bus towards Copacabana, situated on the Bolivian banks of Lake Titicacca, thought to be the highest navigable lake in the world (we are getting a lot of these ‘highest in the world’ things ticked off aren’t we?).  The bus journey was just the normal spectacular journey, this time riding uphill and along ridgetops before crossing a section of the lake, the two of us on a small wooden boat and our bus on, well, a not much bigger wooden boat.  The water was a bit choppy and it was funny to see our bus coming towards us bobbing about like a cork.

We arrived in Copa (we’re sure that Barry Manilow wasn’t thinking of this one when he wrote the song) in the early evening and before we knew it we found ourselves in a nice hotel with views of the sunset over the lake (still no heating though).  After a night’s rest we woke early to take a boat over to Isla del Sol.  The boat took 2 hours to make the trip and was really chilly with the breeze coming off the water (and we’re still up at 4200m), but from the boat we had a great view back towards Copa and the surrounding mountains and agricultural Inca terracing. 

We got dropped off at the north of the island and spent a the morning hiking around the Inca archaeological sites in the north (including the table of sacrifice, where Llamas and even children would be sacrificed to the gods).  The views from the island were nice, with nice coves and beaches, the mountains of Peru in the distance, and the Cordillera Blanca on the Bolivian side of the lake.  The island too had an amazing amount of Inca terracing on even the steepest of hillsides.  Despite quite a few tourists visiting each day, the island still retains a remote feel, and you can see why the Incas may have thought the sun and the moon were born from the lake. 

After a sandwich we hiked to the south of the island past some small villages until we made it to the boat stop.  Once back in Copacabana, we just had time to try some Rainbow Trout from Lake Titicaca at a beachfront stall before hoping on a night bus bound for Cusco in Peru.  We just had to hop off at the border to get passports stamped, walk across to Peru and get back on the bus… the whole thing took 20 minutes, probably the quickest border we’ve been through.  Peru welcomed us with an Inca style archway, a 3metre tall can of beer and reflections of the stars above shimmering in the lake.