Tuesday 23 October 2007
We had left Peru behind us and entered Bolivia.
We decided to stay in Copacabana for a couple of days before heading to La Paz.
Copacabana is on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which is the largest lake in South America. Copacabana is also where boats leave to visit Isla del Sol or the Island of the Sun. Isla del Sol is where the Incan Sun God is said to have been born.
We found a pretty nice room in Copcabana with a small balcony that had a lovely view. I’ve just had a bit of a giggle reading my travel diary .. I’ve capitalised and starred ‘*SQUEAKY BEDS’ on that day’s entry!
Thursday 25 October 2007
Nell wasn’t very well. It had started the previous night so she had a rest day and I went down to the shores of the lake to catch one of the boats out to Isla del Sol. The boat ride took about 2 hours and even though it was freezing, I sat on the bow of the boat with my camera. The view was gorgeous.
The lake is at 3800m and to the south east is the Cordillera Real – a range of granite fold mountains.
We arrived at the island at a village called Cha’llapampa. This is one of the largest towns on the island and there is a small museum there with a few pieces of dive gear. There have been quite a few archeological dives in the lake.
From there we walked the paved paths that wind through the centre of the island.
There are no vehicles on the island – these paths run everywhere.
We headed to what the locals told us were the ‘best ruins’. We had just come from the Sacred Valley in Peru – we’d seen some pretty amazing ruins however Isla del Sol had the most wonderful mix of colours. It was just a real shame about all the litter.
The Sacred Rock – Titikala – is where the first Incan, Manco Capac, is said to have emerged from. Manco is the son of Inti, the Andean deity identifed as the sun.
There are two versions of the story;
One that the people were without light in the sky for many days and grew frightened of the darkness. Finally the Sun emerged from the rock and the people believed it to be its dwelling place.
The second says that the people believed that the rock was dedicated to the Sun as it hid underneath this rock in a great flood. Isla del Sol was the first land that appeared after the flood waters began to recede and the Sun emerged from Titkala to sit in the sun again.
There was a temple built here.
The island is terraced for agriculture so that a lot of the rocky terrain can be used. It is mostly subsistence farming with some fishing and tourism helping a little. As we walked around the island, kids would wave and smile. They know how to say a few English words and like to hear you speak but I don’t think they understand much in return.
I enjoyed my day on the island.
It was really interesting to see where the Incan civilisation was supposed to have started and to see some of the early history that has been found. People all over the world do the best they can to preserve some of their history, even if it is keeping it in a small room in a village on the shores of a lake.
After walking all day, I slept a little on the boat ride back to Copacabana.
But I did get to see the start of a lovely sunset …
There are more photographs from Bolivia in my album on Flickr;
The first post on Isla del Sol appeared on ‘The Flashpackers’ in November 2007
My Travel Diary is a collection of photographs and comments from diaries I wrote whilst traveling. Whilst I will always keep the diaries, I love reliving those experiences and writing about them here makes me very happy. Events, television shows and songs remind me of certain places, so I’m picking them out at random.
