Victory! I made the 17-hour bus trip back to La Paz from Rurrenabaque without vomiting out the window (or anywhere). My legs were so itchy from bites that I was pleased to be back at altitude where the wild things don't bite, but displeased to be constantly out of breath. Before heading down to Rurrenabaque we had spent two weeks or more at altitude, but that seemed to count for nothing after six days or so at near sea level. Like fitness, the body seems wired up to lose altitude acclimatisation after just a few days.
Consequently, when we got to Copacabana after a pretty bus ride around Lake Titicaca and short ferry ride, walking a few blocks from the bus stop to the hostel just about killed us. So too did the walk up to the amazing lookout on Cerro Calvario we endured to see the sun set over little Copacabana. It really is a pretty town sitting on the edge of the lake with an attractive Moorish-style cathedral and is very tourist focused.
Nearly everyone gets a ferry from there over to Isla de la Sol (Sun Island) which is the legendary birthplace of the Inca civilisation. Instead we decided to walk the 17km to Yampupata and take a boat from there, as described in our Lonely Planet trekking guide.
Trek to and around Isla de la Sol
Day one
The first amazing thing we saw was just leading out of town. There was a roundabout that also seemed to be the town dump but amongst the mud and pools were an uncountable number of little frogs. We had to watch out not to step on them. So cute to see them hopping and swimming, resting their long back legs every few seconds by floating.
We wandered along the road, admiring the vistas of reeds and later sparkling water as the sun came out (sparkles on Lake Titicaca are the biggest I've seen). Everyone talks about the luminous quality of the light in the area, but Mark and I couldn't see it. We decided that it is similar to the light in the South Island so it wasn't special for us. Also, with light grey hills, we thought the lake looked like Banks Peninsula in NZ.
Our guidebook described a short detour from the road past a Virgin Mary grotto, following an old Inca road. It wasn't obvious where the trail was, but we went up and found something resembling a track. We stopped for lunch and were overtaken by three walkers. They were unsure they were on the right track but we took mutual comfort in each others presence. So we pressed on along the faint track on the side of a steep cliff with amazing views. After an hour or so, the track seemed to end, right before a rocky outcrop that was almost impassable. When we looked at the guidebook again, we saw that the detour was very short, so we must have blundered. While Mark went up the cliff to see if there was a clear route back to the road, one of the guys in the other group saw a fisherman rowing his boat to shore and urged him over. He agreed to row us the short distance around the headland to the town where we could pick up the road again. We all laughed at the feeling of being shipwrecked and then rescued, relieved we didn't have to backtrack or find a way over the difficult headland.
We gave the kind man a small donation and started walking again. There were kids around, who called hello and asked for lollies, and one upfront boy who asked if we had an extra camera he could have. As if.
About an hour from Yampupata we refused the insistent offers for transport to the island by one man, thinking it should be cheaper at the dock. We slogged on, only to find it was more expensive, despite being closer. The other guys had wanted to hire a rowboat, but that wasn't allowed, the men had to row you. Plus it cost more to be rowed than to take a motorboat, which was contrary to what was written in the guide book.I figured the men had got lazier and didn't want to row anymore, so had hiked the price. It was difficult to haggle down the price of the motor boat as man kept complaining about the cost of petrol.
So we hired a man to take us, pleased we could split the cost by five. It was a short trip but halfway over the great Bolivian mountains of the main range came into view, going pink with the dusk.
We were dropped off at some rough rocks on the south-side of the island and Mark and I set up camp a few metres up the hill while the others walked on to Yumani where there are hostels.
We had a pleasant night apart from being haggled for an entrance fee by two guys who had been quarrying nearby. We refused to pay, since we hadn't heard you needed to pay just to arrive on the island, as they were saying, and they didn't have any tickets. The price dropped by half when it looked like we wouldn't pay and then we said we would pay in the morning if they brought official tickets. We never saw them again, though we did get off to a crackingly early start.
Day two
According to the guidebook we could walk around the island, skipping the Yumani township before joining the trail going north. The descriptions of the track made no sense, so following the only track we could see, we ended up in Yumani. Still, it was a beautiful walk along the island's Western ridge.
After paying what looked to be a legitimate fee to enter the north of the island we walked on four a couple of hours with many tourists to see the sacred rock (though we didn't recognise it at the time) and plaza, the supposed birthplace of the Incas, and the Chincana ruins there. The ruins overlook the most beautiful bay with white sand and light blue water at the shore, and we sat admiring it for ages while we had lunch, watching sheep being herded along it.
We then walked around the northern headland to another gorgeous bay, called Bahia Sabacera, where we set up camp. I tried to go for a swim, figuring I'd be well conditioned from freezing Patagonian lakes and the frigid Chilean Pacific coast, but alas, I only managed to get in up to my waist. It was so blissful lying on the sand though and that night the moon was so bright, the shadows were almost day-length, it was like being under floodlights.
Day three
The guidebook describes the area as looking like Greek Islands and it surely was gorgeous the next day walking along the East Coast of the island. We walked through little villages and were joined by locals on the track moving sheep, pigs and donkeys (the island is swarming with donkeys and pigs, so I was happy). The whole island is covered in small terraces, which the Incas used for agricultural production.
We had planned to follow the coast all the way to the Inca Staircase, the port down the hill from Yumani, but wouldn't you know it, we ended up in Yumani again. We didn't know if we were simply useless at following directions or if the guidebook was very unreliable. It makes us nervous to attempt other treks in the book alone, where going the wrong way has serious consequences.
After a few hours relaxing below the lush Inca Staircase, watered by a natural spring, we got a boat back to Copacabana, enjoying seeing where we had walked (and gone wrong) on day one and enjoying the surrounds of the pretty lake.
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