Lake Titicaca: The Long-Awaited Conclusion

Internet issues have caused a delay in the posting of the conclusion to my Bolivia trip (hence the lack of pictures. Maybe later?). I apologize for any distress caused.

Saturday morning, we walked the 17km from Copacabana to Yampupata, a boat ride away from Isla del Sol, an island on Lake Titicaca. About a km in, Val and Jess decided they would rather take the two hour boat ride from Copacabana instead, but Peter and I perservered, and we were quite happy we did. The scenery was absolutely stunning. Plenty of coves and beaches, perfectly blue water. I forgot I was in South America. We walked through barely there Bolivian villages. The sun was intense. We stopped every hour on the hour to re-apply sunscreen. It was perfection.

When we got closer to Yampupata, a boy of about 8 years old offered to row us to Isla del Sol in 15 minutes. I knew he was lying, since it´s supposed to take an hour. One of the benefits of travelling through remote places is the ability for Peter and I to strategize without the kid knowing what we were saying. We decided that not only was he making promises he couldn´t keep, but we didn´t really feel all that comfortable with an 8 year old captaining the ship. We moved on while he continued his sales pitch.

Further down the road, we found an adult to row us. His name was Augusto, and he liked having his picture taken, eating our food, singing, whistling, and randomly bursting out with "Happy Happy!" Peter and I offered him part of our lunch- bread and bananas taken discreetly from the hotel breakfast buffet. After that, he asked us for any cookies or crackers we took out to snack on.

After a stop at a super-secret little cove, we set off for the island. Nice and relaxing, soaking up the sun in a row boat on a sparkling blue lake. The going was slow, but it got even slower as we got closer to the island. That´s when Augusto pulled out two more oars and handed one each to Peter and I. Once we got involved, we really started moving. I couldn´t help myself, I started a round of "Row, row, row your boat." Augusto dropped us off on a pile of rocks. We paid the man, said our good-byes, and scrambled up the rocks. We chose a path that we though would take us to some semblance of civilization, or at least some food and a place to sleep. We found both, plus another fantastic sunset.

During the night, I was having a dream that I could hear a donkey whining. I woke up to find that it wasn´t a dream, but in fact reality. On the way to the boat the next morning, I was following a herd (is that what you call it?) of 4 or 5 donkeys and passed several llamas and/or alpacas going the other way, and I wondered: When did this become normal? Because it was quite awhile before I thought anything of it.