Just got back from Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca. A couple of days ago we went to Tiwanaku to see some pre-Incan ruins. They weren´t that impressive on their own, but with a guide they were very good. We met a Flemish family traveling in South America/housesitting in Brazil for 11 months and shared a guide with them, as well as a micro bus back and forth. Their kids were pretty well behaved, even though the tour took 3 hours. The kids did throw each other around in the dirt a lot. We also saw them getting to the island as we were leaving it today. It´s funny how you keep running into the same people on a trip sometimes.
Apparently my debit card works at one ATM in La Paz, and it´s at the airport. Banco Ganador. Fortunately we will be flying a lot. I have Visa and Plus logos on my card, so it should work, but alas it does not. So I have been paying for things with the Lori bank, who I repay by buying plane tickets.
Yesterday we went to Isla del Sol. To get there from La Paz, we had to take a bus to Copacabana, which involved a ferry across a portion of the lake to get to another side. They offloaded the bus and had us go in a passenger boat while the bus took its own flat boat across. I was convinced that our boat was tilted to one side and was going to flip over, but Lori told me I was imagining things. The Bolivian woman also gripping a life jacket even said ¨Fuerza!¨ to me (strength!). No one else appeared to be concerned and most people seemed to be a little amused by the freaking out norteamericana. I have issues with water, but they usually aren´t a problem on a boat. And indeed for the rest of the boat rides I was fine, but the rest of the boats did not seem to be tilting. I´m not so scared of rocking if it´s not all to one side. This boat ride also took about all of 5 minutes.
When we got to Copacobana, we found that we had 15 minutes until the last boat departed to Isla del Sol (on Lake Titicaca), so we hurried to the boat and bought tickets, grabbing some stale bread along the way. Quote of the day- Lori ¨this bread is stale¨ me ¨oh well, it´s food¨
The island was gorgeous. It was really nice to go to a place without cars after La Paz. We stayed on the South end, which was definitely developed, and walked over to a small temple ruin before dinner. The sky was so full of stars that I didn´t think that it would be possible to make up constellations. The next day Lori and I hiked about 4 hours to the north end of the island to see some ruins of the original sun temple. The Incan foundation myth holds that the original forebearers of the Incan kings arose here, and the sun was worshiped there. The temple is still somewhat used, as evidenced by the burn marks from offerings. The temple wasn´t much, but the hike there was pretty great and not super busy, and I´m glad we went that way because a lot of people come up from the boat on the north side to just see the ruins and go back to the boat, so I was glad we went that way. We caught the 130 boat to go back to the south side, grabbed our bags at the hostel, and then went to Copacabana. We will go back to La Paz tomorrow, then fly to Tarija, take a bus to Tupiza, and visit the Salar from there. The price of this trip just went WAY up. Dang Potosians and their land dispute.
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