Our boat to Isla del Sol was early in the morning, but not so early that we couldn't have breakfast. That was until the people in the hostel neglected to wake up to make breakfast. We woke them up, to be told that breakfast started at 7.30. It was, by this time, 7.40. We weren't pleased. They did eventually get breakfast on the go, and we wolfed some down before rushing to our boat.
Isla del Sol is the largest of the islands in Lake Titicaca. The Lonely Planet said it could be walked in 5 - 6 hours.
The boat to the south of Isla del Sol takes an hour and a half, despite the distance only being 14km. We had decided to stay in Yumani in the south, walk to the north, and then walk south again. We checked into the first hostel we saw which was fit for purpose, though definitely a bit rough around the edges
By 10.30am we were on our way around the island. There is a path which winds to the east of the island, and one which follows the spine. We decided to go east first. You have to pay to walk the island, and apparently there are three such pay points, though we only found one. We found the walking difficult in the heat of the day, up steep paths, on often treacherous ground, and at 3800 metres up to over 4000 metres. It also didn't help that at some point, we took a wrong turning and ended up in a very pretty village. We had to scramble up a rock face to get back to a path.
After abour three hours of solid walking, we made it to the north of the island and had some lunch. We didn't dare to stop for long as we knew that it got dark at about 6pm and neither of us had brought a torch with us. After the quick pit stop we made our way to the far north, where the Incan ruins lie. This included the Inca Table, Sacred Rock, Labyrinth, and Footsteps of the Sun. We spent about 15 minutes wandering around these before having to set off on the arduous journey back to the south of the island. The island itself is very pretty and very clean (we saw no rubbish at all), but the pace at which we had to move did not allow for time to admire the view. It was a long day.
That evening we were exhausted, and neither of us felt up to doing much
We had an early night and scrapped our plan to hike Isla de la Luna the following day, as we knew that a similar timescale of rushing around would be required.
On Wednesday 1st April, we caught a boat back to Copacabana, and a bus to our next destination - Puno, in Peru!
Some thoughts on Bolivia. We would not recommend Bolivia to just anyone. That's not to say that we wouldn't recommend Bolivia, more that Bolivia has it's highs and lows. It is a beautiful, diverse country, with lovely people, and is cheap to visit. It is also quite a tough country, with tropical heat, high altitudes, sub-standard accommodation, and, unfortunately, quite a lot of lies attached, in our experience. Plus the toilets are terrible. If you find a toilet, it may not have loo roll, a flush, soap, water to wash your hands with, anywhere to dry your hands, a toilet seat, a door, or in fact a toilet. Usually it was a combination of about six of these factors! Having said that, Bolivia is an absolutely beautiful country, with lots to offer an intrepid traveller. If you feel up the challenge, go to Bolivia!
On Wednesday 1st April, we caught a boat back to Copacabana, and a bus to our next destination - Puno, in Peru!
Some thoughts on Bolivia. We would not recommend Bolivia to just anyone. That's not to say that we wouldn't recommend Bolivia, more that Bolivia has it's highs and lows. It is a beautiful, diverse country, with lovely people, and is cheap to visit. It is also quite a tough country, with tropical heat, high altitudes, sub-standard accommodation, and, unfortunately, quite a lot of lies attached, in our experience. Plus the toilets are terrible. If you find a toilet, it may not have loo roll, a flush, soap, water to wash your hands with, anywhere to dry your hands, a toilet seat, a door, or in fact a toilet. Usually it was a combination of about six of these factors! Having said that, Bolivia is an absolutely beautiful country, with lots to offer an intrepid traveller. If you feel up the challenge, go to Bolivia!
