Copacabana

As my Bolivian adventure draws to an end, the hippie draw card town of Copacabana is the final destination before entering Peru. Lake Titicaca which lies 3,812m above sea level and has a surface area of 8,372 square kilometres, borders Peru and Bolivia. A mate back home said I would be eating trout for breakfast, lunch an dinner, he wasn't wrong either. Here the menu of the day which usually consists of a soup choice, then a main (which is primarily grilled trout) and a small desert, will set you back less than $3 Aussie, all in an idyllic lakeside setting.

I'd decided to stop here to visit the largest island on the lake, Isle Del Sol which lies in the Bolivian territory. This ancient Incan holy site is said to be where Viracocha, the bearded god who created the universe, once rose from the waters and created the sun at this location. Feeling tired and uncomfortable from a developing Bolivia stomach bug I hastily checked in to a hotel room, not noticing the multi level mattress that was propped up on various angles from sacks of local produce below, easily the least comfortable bed I have ever slept in. At least the trout at sunset ended the day on a high note.

There's two options to get a boat over to Isle Del Sol, the first boat leaving at 8:30am followed by a second at 1:30pm. With no need to pre book tickets I wandered down and positioned myself on the roof top bench with another Aussie as we  cruised over on the surprisingly chilly ride thanks to the wind which had quickly picked up. We decided to walk from the North to the South of the island which is generally the most popular route taking around 3 hours, from there you can either take the 4:30 boat back to the mainland or spend the night at one of the many hostels, including a magnificent view of the lake.

At the northern point of the island there's a few Inca ruins including an Inca table once used for spiritual ceremony's, a puma rock that is supposed to look like a puma from a certain angle (obviously not the one I was looking from) and some ruins that were once used to contain various gifts including gold, silver, virgins and Llamas to stored and sacrificed.

After  very hilly walk, we bid farewell to half the group who was heading back to the mainland(tackling the 1,000 Inca steps on their way down) and checked in to our hostel to sample a few glasses of local red as the sun crept down to the horizon. Upon my suggestion of the Las Velas restaurant that I had heard some good review we begrudgingly headed back up the hill for a mediocre candle light dinner, redemption for my advice came in the form of an amazing sunset view across lake Titicaca.