We woke around 7am, had breakfast with fresh squeezed orange juice (the variety and quality of juices here is amazing!) and set off on a 4 hour hike to the northern part of the island. Along the way, the views were unbelievable – all around you were the lake and mountains in the distance. I’ll put up pictures soon so you can see for yourself, but there is really no way to really see it but to go there. Bolivia is probably one of the least visited countries in South America but it has so many interesting places and such kind people. Maybe people get scared off by the poverty statistic, but while there is a lot of poverty, there is also a middle and upper class here as well, and the tourism industry is much less corrupt than in most other places. It’s a contradiction because as much as I want other people to see how beautiful this country is, I don’t want it to be overrun by tourists either. Anyways, about the island. We saw the sacred rock, which, if you look at it from a certain point, looks like a puma head. A puma is called “titi” in Aymara (I think) and because of that rock, the lake was named Titicaca. This could all be wrong by the way, but you know how when you don’t understand the complete picture/idea, your brain starts filling in the blanks? That happens to me a lot in Spanish so take whatever facts I say with a grain of salt, especially ones about indigenous legends.
Throughout the hike, the landscape changed from mountainous dirt to wavy rocks and finally to a beach. On the beach, there was a small village with a school, a playground, and many restaurants and hostels. We found a boat there to take us to lunch. On our way though, our guide suggested that we hike some Inca steps (as if we hadn’t hiked enough yet – but just our luck, our guide was an expert in trekking so these hikes were nothing for him). We were too stubborn to admit we were all tired and accepted the suggestion. There was really nothing special about the steps except that apparently, if you shower with the water out of the spring at the top, you are supposed to get younger. I decided I don’t really need any of that at the moment. Then, we got on the ferry again, and docked at an isolated island 10 minutes off, where there was only one house that also served as a restaurant. If we weren’t with our guide, we would never have been able to get to this place. When we sat down, they brought out sacks (SACKS!) of 2 different types of potatoes wrapped in blankets. They also brought out chicken, beef, and trucha (trout), 2 types of Bolivian cheese (one tasted like feta, the other like sharp mozzarella), a bowl of hard-boiled eggs, a blanket of corn on the cob (except it was lighter in color and the kernels were much larger – we think that’s where the large popcorn comes from), beans, a type of root vegetable, and probably other things that I forgot about. It was a lot of food and they were terribly upset that we didn’t eat all the potatoes. If you look at my photos, you’ll see that it was a lot of potatoes. They are kind of a big deal in Bolivia.
Afterwards, we finally got back to Copacabana and took a bus back to La Paz. We were all exhausted and sun-burned. On the way back home, I couldn’t help but think of how unknown this country really is. I feel really lucky that I am getting to know this country and the people who live here as much as I really can in only 6 weeks. It seems that everyone who comes here falls in love with it and doesn’t want to leave. Manu, our other housemate, has extended her project for another month and says that if she had the option, she’d stay here an entire year. This country is not at all as scary and depressing as people and governments make it out to be.
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