Isla del Sol

An early bus, La Paz staying behing and a couple of hours later, the amazing scenary of this sea of sweet water located at 4000m of altitude that is Lake Titicaca. Destination: Copacabana and La Isla del Sol.

It is definitely a nice journey, with an interesting boat crossing 1h away from Copacabana, where we leave the bus, enter a boat and the bus crosses the lake on its own boat. I had never seen that before, but it works. It just makes the journey last about 30min more!

After reaching Copacabana we decide to buy the boat tickets to Isla del Sol and have to have a nice lunch before we get to the Island. It takes another hour to reach our destination. Then it comes one of hardest things I've done on this trip. Moving 200m uphill carrying my backpack. I move step by step, following the kid whom Emma negociated a room with. He looks like a mountain goat moving from step to step as if it was easy. We are at 4000m... He's a nice kid and the room is really ok with a view over the lake and the sunrise, which is supposed to be really nice.

After a deserved rest, we decide to explore the island. It is a small Island, this island where the Incas believed their supreme god was born - the sun. There are a few ruins around the island. The biggest ones are on the northern part of the island, so we decide to walk the Inca trail tomorrow and visit those. For the rest of the afternoon we wander around some ruins located south from the setlement and just spend our time wandering between tea houses and restaurants. There's really nothing to do, specially after the sun sets!

Getting up early, around 6, to see the sun rising prooved to be a fantastic experience. The sun erupts from behind the beautifull snow picks of the Andes bringing life and movement to the Island. We start our hike around 7. It took us almost 3 hours to do the 6-8 Km trail from south to north, until the ruins of the old Inca setlement. It's not the type of ruins I'm used to, so I am a bit disappointed, but the hike was really nice, although it was extenuating and hard due to the altitude.

After finishing our hike we go to the northern harbour and immediately take a boat to the southern part of the island. Once there I rush uphill to pick up our stuff while Emma stays and tries to convince the boat drivers to wait for us. It works, I didn't faint which means that my body is getting used to the altitude. Back in Copacabana we only have time to buy the bus ticket to La Paz and buy something to eat.

I am very quiet the whole trip. I know that tomorrow I will start moving back to my normal life. I will still stop for a couple of days in Antofagasta in Chile and meet Aurelie whom I had met in Valdivia. The plan was to go back to San Pedro and do some climbing, but I had to cancel that part due to my sudden change of plans. Well, that's life. A quiet evening watching some Confederations match and a very good meal in a fancy restaurant was my way to say goodbye to La Paz, this huge city, surrounded by enormous snowie peacks where I decided to go back to Europe and to the real world...