 |
| Lake Titicaca is immense |
We left
Peru with heavy hearts and a lot of great souvenirs. We were headed for Bolivia
and the lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable lake in
the world. It sits at more than 3800m above sea level and with more than
8000km² it is 4 times bigger than Mauritius!
 |
| The lake from our hostel |
We decided
to skip Puno on the Peruvian side because of all we had heard about it and
headed directly to Copacabana, Bolivia. From what we gathered afterwards we did
do well. Copacabana was supposed to be quieter and prettier than Puno and with
an easy access to the Isla del Sol.
 |
| We're allowed inside Bolivia |
We were a
bit worried about the border crossing because of what we had read beforehand
about the immigration officers finding something “wrong” with the visum and
asking for US$100 to make the visum “right”. But we were lucky I guess and we
got our passports stamped without any questions.
There is a US$135
“anti-imperialism” visa fee that US citizens (and some other countries like
Russia as well) need to pay to enter Bolivia. There was an American couple who
were not impressed with that and found it revolting. What I found bizarre was
1) that they did not know about it beforehand 2) for people who travel around
they don’t realize how the US treats the rest of the world in terms of visa requirement
… I am no fan of Bolivia but I believe in reciprocity ... I only wish more countries would do the same.
 |
| The returning officer counting the votes in the municipal council election |
Anyway we
got to Copacabana after clearing a high pass where it started to snow and we
were stopped at the entrance of town for a 1 Boliviano (10 Euro cents)
municipal tax. The officer climbed on board and was surprised to see that only a handful of passengers had loose change. Considering we had only crossed the
border 15 minutes before, I could only laugh at his amazement.
 |
| View of the lake from the room |
We stayed
at a very nice hostel on the side of a hill overlooking the
lake. It had all the amenities and spectacular views of the lake. They had the
best shower we’ve seen in weeks and I even managed to watch “7 years In Tibet”
that afternoon! That evening we ate in the hostel restaurant and got the
confirmation of what we had heard (foodwise) : we are not in Peru anymore, sadly.
 |
| Roxana skyping in the sun bathed garden |
 |
| Superb sunset behind the Isla del Sol |
The
following morning we went to the Isla del Sol where the Sun God is said to have
been born and from where the first Inca Manco Cápac is said to have emerged.
This is where the Inca culture effectively originates from.
 |
| Pre-Inca ruins |
The ferry
dropped us at the north end of the island where there are a few ruins but most
importantly the sacred rock revered throughout the Inca world even to this day.
It is believed that this rock has special powers to heal all manners of
ailments.
We walked
the 9km to the south part and we obviously had to pay a right of way throughout
the island : 10Bs in the north + 5Bs in the middle and 5Bs in the south … We
took time to soak in the atmosphere and the spectacular scenery. We were very
pleasantly surprised by what we saw. The panorama reminded us a lot of the Mediterranean.
The northern side of the island is by far the nicest. We reached the south in about 2.5 hours.
When we got
there we started looking for a place to stay. As it was really low season we
could negociate the quoted prices downwards a lot. The place was brand new, and
good thing too because it gets really chilly at night. There we also met Hakim
and Mohamed from the Paris region. We chatted a lot with them and decided we
would have dinner together.
 |
| A fisherman's boat in the lagoon |
After a
good night’s rest we took the ferry back to the mainland. Although we were
quoted 10Bs for the return trip by all the agencies on the mainland I was very
annoyed to see that once on the island the only price that would get you to the
other side was 20Bs. Only now it became clear why they would not sell us the
return ticket from the mainland, only the outbound one. There is a little price
fixing mafia going on – so much so for helping the local island economy. The scam
in absolute value is very little but I don’t agree on the principle of it.
 |
| Lambs accompanying us on our way to the south |
We got back
to Copacabana and I went to the market to buy all we needed for lunch, dinner
and breakfast the following day. I got myself a very nice piece of steak which
will later cause me some stomach upsets! Next stop : La Paz.
For more photos : Lake Titicaca, Copacabana, Isla Del Sol
No comments:
Post a Comment