Hello Bolivia! After a bit of recovery from our trek, we decided to skip the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca and go straight to Bolivia. Our bus ended up changing in Puno anyway, so we did catch a glimpse of the sunrise on the lake before we reached Copacabana.
We had a bite to eat and a walk around the small town, and then got a boat over to Isla del Sol where we stayed for three nights.
As part of the ongoing economic and political crisis in Bolivia, their currency (the Boliviano) is not worth very much. If you can bring dollars into the country, you can have a lot of fun going around money changers on the street trying to find the best rate. The official rate is 1$ to 6.9 BOB, but on the ground you can get 16 BOB for 1$. The crisper, cleaner and higher value your dollar bills are, the better rate you get too.
Lake Titicaca is home to the Incas and Isla del Sol is a sacred island, next to its counterpart the Isla de la Luna. The islands are very sparsely populated, making them really quiet and peaceful – perfect for relaxing and taking in the views. We enjoyed our time here, taking it easy, walking, and breathing the fresh air.
Weather:
Warm and dry, but rather cold at night! Sleeping with 4 blankets makes it easy to get tangled, but was necessary in this case.
Where we stayed:
We stayed at a very cute family-run hostel, in the community of Yumani. This was probably the cleanest and prettiest room we’ve stayed in, with our window giving a fantastic view of the lake and mountains.
Best thing we ate:
Well, the only thing we ate was trout….which aren’t even native to Lake Titicaca! Nonetheless, after their introduction in the 20th century the lake is full of it, and tasty ones too. Las Velas restaurant offered a candlelit trout dinner, along with warming Bolivian mulled wine (with Singani).
Coolest thing we did:
A ‘private’ boat tour (with extra American tourist apparently included), took us first of all to the Isla de La Luna. Here we saw a pre-Incan Moon Temple, which was half restored to show how it would have looked originally. While smaller than some of the Incan sites we’ve seen in Peru, this was impressive by its much older age and remote location.
A long stretch of boat ride then took us to the north of the Isla de La Luna. After a steep climb, we enjoyed stunning views of the lake as we hiked along the ridge-top path. As well the Chincana ruins and a sacred rock, we saw a ceremonial table / altar, possibly used for human sacrifices!
Lunch in Challapampa, a fishing village, consisted of….trout, and was fairly tasty. We then got our swimmers on and ventured into the lake. For me this was just a paddle, but Florence went for a full swim – only a few thousand metres higher than her normal spot in Hampstead!
A couple of hours more hiking brought us back to the Yumani community, and we opted for dinner at the hostel, not wanting to climb any more hills to the restaurants!
Bonus:
Our bus company to La Paz got in touch to let us know the bus was cancelled due to road blockades, and that no alternative buses were running. We thought the dreaded Bolivian blockades (a popular form of political protest here) had arrived to interrupt our plans.
This was very frustrating, but we decided to have a positive mindset, get the boat back to the mainland, then search the whole town for any bus, minibus, taxi or otherwise that would be willing to take us to La Paz, one way or another.
To our delight and surprise, we had barely stepped off the boat before we had multiple women shouting ‘LA PAAAAAZ LA PAZ’ at us.
40 bolivianos later and we were on our way – no idea why the original one cancelled!
Next stop, La Paz!
Besos,
Chris y Florence