Isla del Sol y Luna, Titicaca

  Copacabana, Bolivia
Tuesday, January 29, 2002

Juliette had been worried about the end of our trip since Panama (although truthfully since we started in Mexico). She always wondered what was my plan after the trip, well, until now, I didn't worry much, as enjoying this once in a lifetime trip was more important; and since I couldn't predict the future, I did not have an answer to her question. After yesterday's "revelation", I started to worry. I never liked to think too much of the future, as it just complicates the present and, in theory, complicates the future as well. The only time I thought about the future is at home dreaming of my next adventure. Travelling is about enjoying the moment and feel free. The "future" are for those who do not travel, for those who are stuck in a mortgage, for those who invest in long term stock portfolios, for those whose lives are dictated by an invisible thought, and for those who never enjoy the present. The differece between "us" and "them" is that "them" no longer has the capacity to dream and "us" that is lost in dreams.

Since today, and for the rest of our trip, I worried about the future as Juliette had (I blamed her and yelled at her yesterday because of it). The truth is, because of this mental weakness, I did not enjoyed the trip as much as before.

Another early morning wake up call, we stumbled out of our bed, had some bread & jams for breakfast and walked down to the beach. The tour boats were waiting. We got on among 20 other travellers and squeezed ourselves in the small inner compartment of the boat. We were headed to Isla del Sol, the mythical island in the middle of Lake Titicaca. It started raining as soon as we left the shores, and the waves were pushing the boat sideways. The ride was not comfortable by any means as the boat bounced frequently; my butt was getting sore after a while and standing up was not an option since there was no headroom and a sudden bounce would have cracked my skull open.

We all endured this torture for about an hour (which we each paid $10 for). When we arrived on Isla del Sol, the Sun God was kind enough to lend us his warmth. The island was almost bare with few trees growing on random spots. Our tour instructor spoke in slow Spanish told us that we have 1 hr to hike around and the boat would leave on time with or without us. So me and Juliette among many others took the main hiking path to an old ruin. The walk was tiring, and the ruins was, honestly not worth the effort. It was just few old rocks stacked together to make it look like a ruin, compared to Machu Picchu, Tikal, and Teotihuancan, well, of course we were very disappointed. The view of the lake was amazing enough that we didn't totally regret we did the walk. The distant snowcapped peaks made a great panoramic view and the scattered clouds seemed low enough to touch as we stood at the highest point of the hike.




Our boat departed on time and to enjoy the nice weather we sat on the sun deck along with few Argentinian students just came back from their camping trip on the island. They sang, danced, chatted, and shared a silver cup of mate de coca with everyone. It was a mini fiesta on our boat, and even the captain sang along with us. We visited the Isla de la Luna, which was almost as non-exciting as Sol, so me and Juliette just took a leisure walk on the beach. The local villages were simple and the villagers were quite shy. Local boys were playing with sticks while the girls dressed in traditional clothes selling handicraft to tourists. I sometimes envy their simple life, however, on second thought, I would never trade my passport for anything.

We came back in late afternoon, the ride was much more smooth in clear weather. After a day of shadeless walks and sun decks, I began to feel the strong highland sun burning my face and neck. For the first time since Costa Rica, I had to put a lot of sunblock lotion. We had a simple evening and tried to get some rest. Travelling through these highlands was extremely exhausting and my body was just trying to hang on until we get to sea level soon. Walking under the near full moon, I coughed in the cold air and my mind started to worry again.....