Lake Titicaca is among the highest navigable lakes in the world, with its altitude of 3820 meter above sea level. It’s a huge lake that’s more than 230 km long, 97 km wide and has a lot of amazing history. The Incas believe that their first emperor rose from the Titicaca rock (Rock of the Puma), and the legend says that the sun was born here. In addition to all this, the Isla del Sol and Lake Titicaca in general, is a very beautiful place, surrounded by the mountains in this crazy high altitude.
We started by spending a night in Copacabana, before taking the ferry to Isla del Sol. I cannot recommend this though, as there is nothing really to do in Copacabana, other than shopping a bit of souvenirs, and spending way too many money on overpriced food and internet. This is, of course, the tourist hub for all the people going to Isla del Sol and Isla de la Luna. Since it was carnival time in Bolivia, this day just so happened to be their big day of carnival – which made the town a bit livelier. Dancing Pepinos (special type of clowns at carnival in Bolivia) in the street is always fun and entertaining, though I had enough of carnival after carnival in Oruro and even a couple of days of carnival in La Paz.
The next morning we went up early to go with the morning ferry to Isla del Sol. The boats are old and slow though, so it takes quite some hours to get to the northern part of the island, where we started our trek. We started by walking up to Cerro Tikani at the height of 3936 meters, where there is an amazing view over the island. On the way there, you go pass the Titicaca rock (Rock of the Puma) and the Chincana ruins. The Titicaca rock is not really impressive, and makes one wonder why they believe their first emperor rose from this stone… The Chincana ruins are a bit more impressive, and looked awesome from the view of Cerro Tikani. I can only recommend people going up there, since there is no tourists and an amazing view of the island.
Then we took the route down to the south end of the island, which takes about 3 hours to walk. On the way it features a lot of great views, and most of the time you can see both the Bolivian side with the small town of Copacabana, and the Peruvian side with the much bigger town of Puno. It is an amazing small trek, with a lot of really nice views of the lake and the island. It ends up in the small town of Yumani, where there are a lot of hostels and restaurants. Most of them feature terraces with fantastic views over the lake, the perfect spot to relax with a cold beer after the trek. Of course we were followed by the carnival again, so most of the restaurants where closed because the people were dancing and playing music around the island. At this point I was getting a bit tired of all the carnival music, dancing people and closed places because of this one-time-a-year event – it is really a big deal in Bolivia.
We took the ferry back to Copacabana early the next morning, so I was able to catch an overnight bus in the afternoon to Cusco. I spent the last afternoon walking around Copacabana, shopping a bit of souvenirs and drinking some beer until my bus left. Copacabana is absolutely just a stop on the way to Isla del Sol, and recommend staying as little time as possible in this boring little town. Next stop Cusco, and the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.
You can see more pictures from Isla del Sol and Copacabana here.
Thanks, for the notes. I’ll be there in two weeks but will be going to Isla Tequille.