We regretably decided to be a bit lazy and book a small tour to Isla del Sol from La Paz. I say regretably because our guide was pretty much entirely useless and we could and probably should have done it easily by ourselves.
We were picked up from our hostel early in the morning for the three and a half hour trip to Copacabana, which sits on the shores of Lake Titicaca not far from the Peruvian border. Before leaving, we had heard that the Peruvian border at Puno had finally re-opened after three weeks of protesting and rioting by Peruvian farmers in opposition to the proposed establishment of a mine on the Bolivian side of the border. However, within an hour of setting out from La Paz, we hit a new protest and a new road block, this time apparently by a transport syndicate that objected to the fact that tourist buses were not part of their syndicate. Fortunately for us, our bus driver knew a driver stuck on the far side of the blockade and we were able to get off the bus, grab our bags and walk past the blockade, swapping with the passengers on the other bus. The other tourists were not so lucky and all of their buses had to return to La Paz.
The next entertainment en route, although this time expected, was the fact that at one point we were all required to disembark such that the bus could be ferried across a small canal between Lake Titicaca and a smaller lake. Whilst it appeared at times that the bus and the ferry it was mounted on were dangerously close to sinking, it made it across and we were reunited with the bus and our baggage on the other side.
If only Copacabana had half of the entertainment and excitement to offer! Whilst it supposedly (according to our suspiciously uninformed guide) gave its name to the more famous Copacabana beach in Brasil, the beach was an absolute horror show. It was disgusting, dirty and it did not look like a single one of the dozens of run down pedalos had been used in years. The whole town smelled of urine. The only redeeming factors were the amazing cathedral which displayed heavy moorish influences and would have been at home in most major European cities and Calgary Hill, a steep hill overlooking both the town and the lake with stunning views from the top. Rather off putting however was the small Catholic church between the two dedicated to the "God of money"! We climbed Calgary Hill and soon became concerned regarding whether our guide would make it to the top. Whilst we aren´t exactly the fittest people in the world, our guide was bright red and sucking wind on about the third step. By the time we were half way up, we had to stop for a while to avoid him dropping dead of a heart attack - not very promising given the main event of the trip was a full day trek on Isla del Sol. The stop half way up however proved to be worth it as we were able to witness a local woman having her spirit cleansed and invoking the support of the Aymara gods against her many enemies. The ceremony was conducted by a local shaman with the support of large amounts of incense and splashes of alcohol. Our guide asked if we wanted to undergo a similar ceremony and seemed slightly offended when we said no. He looked even more put out when we did not agree to skip climbing the rest of the hill. Good times.
Never mind however, our reason for stopping in Copacabana was not the town itself but rather to visit Isla del Sol. Believed by Inca, Quechua and Aymara to be the birthplace of the sun, the island is the location of the most significant Inca ruins in Bolivia. We arrived on the island in the early morning and were immediately pleasantly surprised by how much cleaner the lake was and the fact that there were some quite nice little beaches. We landed in the north of the island and began making our way south. The track skirted the edges of the island, slowly working higher to around 4100 metres. The altitude afforded brilliant views out over the lake and even without the Inca sites along the route were good enough in themselves to justify the visit to the island and the five hour hike. That said, the Inca ruins certainly added to the experience. Having stopped to gather eucalyptus leaves to enable our guide to continue breathing, our first proper stop was at a large stone believed to have been the rock against which the Inca used to sacrifice virgins in honour of the gods. We continued on past a few odd and unimpressive rock formations attributed to be the foot steps of the sun god and a large puma respectively. From these formations, I have deduced that the sun god had oddly misshapen and different sized feet and a puma must look awefully like a run of the mill rock.
The next stop however, was at a medium sized temple complex and our first proper Inca ruin. It was very cool. Although I almost laughed out loud when our guide stated that the temple was like a labyrinth because each room joined onto another (most buildings do this last time I checked), the temple certainly was impressive. It cascaded down the hill side and despite being ruined it was intact enough that could easily imagine what it would have looked like prior to the arrival of the Spanish.
After the first temple, our trek took us the length of the island and afforded many more amazing views before arriving at the temple of the sun god in the far south of the island shortly before sunset. The temple of the sun god was not nearly as remarkable as the first ruin however, if our guide was to be believed, was precisely engineered such that at the solstice the sun would shin through a small opening illuminating the front chamber of the temple.
We enjoyed a nice quiet night on the island (and numerous more examples of guide incompetence and belligerence which we wont bother filling our blog with) before returning to Copacabana and bording a bus to Puno, where the border remained open - fortunately.
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