Lake Titicaca to Cusco

Friday 13 - Monday 16 May 2011

We took a morning tourist bus from La Paz to Copacabana, on the shore of Lake Titicaca. The bus first stopped at the bus terminal where Lawrie ran inside to get some cash out of the ATM, this resulted in a 2Bs charge as he had technically 'used' the terminal! We needed to get off the bus at one point & transfer onto a small boat while the bus is ferried across on a barge. Lawrie took this opportunity to get some Bolivian flag coloured jelly & enjoy the beautiful view.

Statue at San Pedro de Tiquina

Our bus on a barge

Beautiful day & boats!

We hadn't booked anywhere to stay so we walked up to a very nice hotel (La Cupula) which overlooked the lake and town, luckily they had rooms available.

View from our room

Lawn mowing service

We spent the afternoon exploring the town, getting a lunch at one of the shops on the foreshore. Lunch for Lawrie came in at around 17Bs, less than $3, for soup, half a trout, rice, veggies and papas frittas. We spent some time looking at the oldest cathedral in Boliva & the museum attached. Luckily the police escort for the museum got a little lost, so we were allowed to check out the inside courtyard.

One of the most beautiful courtyards so far.

Beautiful building

The outside of the church.

The night was very cold so we decided against trying to stay on Isla de Sol the next night, not knowing where to stay or how warm the accommodation would be!

We left early on Thursday morning on a boat to Isla de Sol, sitting up the top initially. Lawrie jumped at the chance to sit on the roof right out the front while Kitty retreated inside, which was much warmer! We luckily got a good mud map from the hostel so we had some idea ofwhere we were going around the island. The day was beautiful however cold out of the sun, luckily vegetation on the walking track was limited!

Scenery...stunning!

Isla del Sol

Looking back to the beach

Farming terraces, crystal clear water

The lake is absolutely huge!

We passed many ruins and sacred sites on our walk, walking from the top of the island to a town in the south.

Altar

Looking through the ruins

The town was surprisingly extensive

Not much grows at this altitude

Traditional sailing boat between the islands.

Terraces in use near the Southern town.

After our walk we stopped for a quick tea & lemonade to relax before taking the boat trip back to Copacabana. We spoke with a few fellow travellers who informed us that the road to Puno was closed due to protesters, this meant we would have to work out another way to get to Cusco! We spoke to a few companies who said that a boat trip to just past the blockade was possible, but we didn't make a decision yet, unsure of whether people could actually do this.

Llama!

This dude LOVED Inca cola sooo much!

'Traditional' reed boat

Friday morning we had a breakfast of crepés with grated apple and chocolate sauce at the attached (very nice) restaurant before speaking with a few more travellers and companies to organise a boat trip. While we were making up our minds we took a paddle on the lake and also headed off to see vehicles being blessed at the church. This is a big event, with people needing to book in advance. Blessings happen twice a day and see cars blessed with holy water (Christian) before the beer, ciebo & sparkling wine (for Pachamama). Fireworks are also lit below each front bumper! It was a very exciting time & we even got invited to join a family in some coca leaves.

The view from breakfast!

Lawrie drove...

Another 'traditional' reed boat

Looking back to Copacabana

Nice little rowing boat

Lawrie finally got to pat a llama (or two)

Blessing a motorbike

Neat as a pin VW...low humidity will do that!

In the end we parted with 170Bs for a boat to Juli, bus to Puno & a bus to Cusco. These people said to go to the border, get stamped out of Bolivia & into Peru then spend the night in Bolivia! We ended up going to the border to try and get post-dated stamps so we were technically still in Bolivia but only succeeded in getting a stamp out of Bolivia for the next day (the border officers were drunk). Peru didn't want to play the game so we had to go back the next morning.

Saturday we left early to head to the Peruvian immigration post. Peru is one hour behind Bolivia so the opening time of 7:30 Peru is actually 8:30 in Bolivia, not good when your boat leaves at 9:30 from Bolivia! We arrived and joined the rush of people trying to do the same thing, luckily we were a little ahead of the pack having already left Bolivia technically. We rushed back into Bolivia and were shocked when the lady said our tickets were now 200Bs, which was what everyone else was paying...having no other choice we paid the extra $4.50.

We packed into the boat, staying on the lower (warm) level and headed off across the lake.

The line up for boats 3-?

Boat one in the middle of the lake!

The journey was meant to take around 4 hours to Puno. After skimming the corner of the lake and getting a phone call, the boat driver kept going. He was getting directions from a passenger who knew the towns on the other side, which he definitely didn't. It turned out that the protesters worked out what was going on and moved the blockade further along, past Juli. By this point we were all very tired from the outboard fumes filling the cabin and spent the time reading & playing cards. After around 6 hours on the boat we arrived on shore then waited until a bus turned up to take us to Puno. We followed a bumpy dirt 'road´ for a few hours before arriving in Puno bus station and checking in to our night bus bound for Cusco. We had a quick dinner with some people from the boat & slept soundly (for Lawrie thanks to some free vodka) until we arrived in Cusco around 4:30am, taking a cab with two others (Jenny & Rachel) to our hostel.

We'd emailed the hostel the day before saying that we were arriving late and they took this to mean that we didn't want a bed that night. After waking up some poor people to find beds unmade we ended up getting a dorm room for just that night with Jenny & Rachel. All in all it took around 23hrs to get from Copacabana to Cusco, usually a fairly simple (and cheap) bus ride!