Ok so Sunday and Monday we went to Copacabana and Isla del Sol. It was a pretty quick trip. We took a bus from La Paz to Copacabana, then a 2 hour boat ride to the north end of Isla del Sol, or Island of the Sun in English, otherwise known as the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I seriously love this Island and could have easily spent a week there doing nothing but hiking and seeing all the amazing views. On the bus we met a guy from Belgium named Nikki that we actually already met a few nights ago at the Wild Rover Hostel and a German guy named Christian. We all decided to travel together and had a great time. Here's some highlights of the trip in order.
The bus has to stop in this small town on Lake Titicaca where the only way to keep going is to take a boat the short distance to the other side. We all got tickets to be taken across on one boat and our bus to another. We then got back on the bus and finished the drive to Copacabana.
This is one of the many spectacular views from the bus as you near Copacabana.
I have pictures of Copacabana from Sunday. For now we're skipping ahead to Challapampa, just about my favorite little pueblo ever. This is where we stayed on the north end of Isla del Sol. It's much smaller and less touristy than the southern village of Yumani that we walked to on Sunday, which we all liked about this place. We stayed here Monday night in a hostel right on the beach for the equivalent of about $3. I could probably stay in this place for a long time if given the opportunity.
This is the number one example I have of a picture doing the real thing absolutely no justice at all. On Monday we walked about 45 minutes to see the Inca Ruins on the north end of the island and the sunset. This picture was taken pretty early in that walk and it was the first of many places on this island where our jaws just dropped and we had to stop to take it all in.
There were animals everywhere on this walk. Pigs, cows, donkeys, sheep, and some dogs. This picture is taken back at where we were standing when the previous picture was taken.
Did I mention how beautiful this island is?
These are some Inca ruins know as "Laberinto" or "Chincana". It's this cool maze-like structure with all these little passageways leading all over the place and intersecting each other. I really wanted to take this picture because before I left the U.S. I looked up pictures from Isla del Sol on my iPod and I wound up setting one just like this as my background. My goal when I got here was to find the exact same place and take the same picture. I just though that would be cool. Going inside and running around through these ruins is cooler.
More of Laberinto.
You could see a couple really big mountains from Isla del Sol. These are the ones you can see from pretty much anywhere on the north side of the island. They looked sooooo cool when the sun was setting, but my camera couldn't quite capture it because they were so far away.
The sun setting from the western tip of the island that we walked to. The Inca believed that this island was the birthplace of the sun. It's easy to see why when you watch the sun set and rise here.
Taken on the way back after the sun went down. Laberinto is in the very bottom left corner for reference.
When we got back to Challapampa we found a place to get dinner (more delicious fish with quinoa soup), then we played some interesting card games at the hostel for the rest of the night.
Ok now check out day 2 for the sunrise, the highest point on the island that we couldn't force ourselves to leave, and Copacabana.
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