Lake Titicaca, Isla del Sol and the Floating Islands

Altitude increase again, heavy breathing and I was standing on my balcony (of my hostel room) staring out at the blue waters of Lake Titicaca from Copacabana in Bolivia. A truly stunning spot. The hostel (La Cupula) staff went out of their way to help me, from delivering a hot water bottle to my room, to carrying my 19kg backpack down the hill to the bus station – they wouldn’t let me do it and insisted!

Copacabana

Copacabana itself is very tourist ready, but once you get out to Isla del Sol (Island of the sun) you feel a million miles away from that.

I ventured out there for a day trip and made friends with some Swiss girls so I had company on the hike from North to South of the island. Given how much the altitude was affecting me the hike ended up taking close to 4 hours, just in time for the ferry. It was up and down all the way, but with some stunning views and only a little bit of rain!

Puno

Bidding farewell to Copacabana after a few lovely cosy days (heater+hot water bottle+cosy bed+lake views = winner) I moved onto Puno in Peru. I heard there wasn’t much to Puno and had booked two nights, but after seeing that the good bus company (Cruz del Sur – if you don’t sit at the front to see how they drive) leaves at 3pm, I decided to cut my Puno trip short by a day.

I took a 1/2 day tour to the floating islands of Uros and while they were cool, made of reeds floating in Lake Titicaca, it was super touristy. The whole point of the tour was to get us to buy stuff on the islands. I was glad I didn’t waste anymore time on a longer tour or in Puno.

Next stop the white town of Arequipa – and a slightly lower altitude!