Isla de la Sol, Bolivia

We arrived on the north side of Isla de la Sol early on Wedensday, March 26th, after a two hour boat ride from Copacabana. This Island and Lake Titicaca are central to Inca spirituality and history, as it is believed that the sun and moon rose from the water and was the birth place of all creation. We started off on a guided trek on an ancient Inca road, which ended at a beautiful and remote Inca ruin. Here we learned of the Inca creation story, which was decribed by our guide, who used the amazing rock formations and landscapes as visual aids. Now on our own, we enjoyed a little picnic in the ruins and hiked to the south end of the island. This was a spectacular trek that followed the top terraces of the slopping hills down to the water. After about three hours we arrived in Yumani. Here we found a hostel for the night, and an amazing restuarant to watch the sunset on their terrece (with thier llama), while playing cribbage and drinking a cold Bolivian Pilsener. After the sun went down we went into the restaurant for a lovely candle light dinner (they did not have electricity). Around 9 we found our way back to our hostel in the dark, we went to bed in this quiet town. Since we watched the sunset on the Island of the Sun, we thought we should watch the sunrise, which was a brilliant display of colours over the Andes. While we sat quietly watching, we also witnessed the morning ritual, of some of the town’s people, which is walking down the steep hill with two to six donkeys and dozens of water jugs, to then fill them , strap them to either side of the donkey and assend the hill, providing water for the enter town.
We visited another Inca ruin that morning, after arranging to be picked up by the small ferry boat at 10:30. We arrived back in Copacabana in time to catch our bus to Cusco. Before jumping on our bus, however, we ran into our family friends from Edmonton, the McPhee’s! Jennifer and Rob were heading south, so we only had time for a quick chat, in the middle of bus loading confussion, but it was wonderful to see familar faces!