Lago Titicaca

After the excitement of the Inca Trail, we had a very lazy day in Cusco, with lots of sleeping, visiting a few small museums/monuments, and catching up with our internet lives (allowing me to provide you with such up-to-date photos and news!). We caught an overnight bus to Puno, then another over the border and into Bolivia. The border control was even more slack than the Peru-Chile one, there wasn't even one guy checking bags or cars/buses for any illegal items.

01 On a boat to the island

Copacabana, Bolivia, isn't exactly a fun place, even though it has quite a spectacular cathedral. Funny how in the poorest country in South America, the church seems to have so much money but the people so little... So anyway, after meeting up with a friend from the Inca Trail (a german girl called Julia), we caught a boat out to an island in Lake Titicaca, called Isla del Sol. The scenery was magnificent, the lake is insanely blue. We found a cheap hostel after a bit of bargaining (US$1.50 pp per night), and walked around the island for a few hours, taking in all the beauty of this part of the world. Along the way, we bought some incredibly delicious mangoes (which had a hint of pineapple taste to them), probably the best mangoes I've ever tasted. We found a few chairs and tables overlooking the lake, and enjoyed the mangoes with some strong Bolivian beer (7%) as the rain approached (as it always does here in the rainy season, late afternoon). Ate dinner at a pretty dodgy restaurant with superb fresh local trout, and the rain hit. Hard. Had some trouble finding the hostel in the dark, got soaking wet, but got there eventually.

02 View from our hostel

The next day, we had to return for some more mangoes, booked seats on a boat back to Copacabana, and relaxed by the jetty. We explored some of the island's perimeter, sunbaked for a while, and were first pestered by kids wanting to sell us stuff, but then one of them turned out to really enjoy playing with my miniature talking Boony - very entertaining.

03 Llama gets close with Charlie

04 Brilliant view of Lake Titicaca

05 At the Inca Steps