SB: Shopper Backpacker
CG: Candy Girl
TH: The Historian
After 2 days and 2 nights of adventure in Bolivia, it was time to say goodbye, but another exciting leg of the trip awaited us in Peru. At the start of the trip, SB asked all of us, which part of the trip that each of us was most looking forward to (it was a 3-week trip, we talked about lots of stuff). I knew SB was most excited about Machu Picchu, so was CG, TH was excited about Death Road.. as for me, I was in the middle between Machu Picchu and Death Road. Its like, how can you choose between one of the Wonders of The World and mountain biking down The World's Most Dangerous Road??? how can..... but I was slightly leaning towards the latter somehow.
We took an early morning bus from La Paz to Copacabana, the main Bolivian town located on the shores of Lake Titicaca. I would say its has become a backpackers town of sort, because well, they were everywhere! including us of course. On the way, we passed by El Alto, a slum area just on the outskirts of La Paz. Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, its also the highest navigable lake in the world, at 3800m (12500ft) above sea level (Mt Kinabalu peak is 4095m, for comparison). Before we were able to reach Copa town, we had to cross a narrow part of the lake on a small boat. I've read about and seen pictures of busses having to cross the lake on a huge raft, but to see it with my own eyes was really something else! The huge raft was able to fit a small van too. It was a good thing that we weren't allowed to stay on the bus when it was crossing the lake, I wouldn't have wanted to anyway! It looked scary.. also kinda funny haha. It was also good to get to walk around after a 5-hour bus ride or so. So we waited for the bus at the other side of the lake, there were a few busses in queue to use the several rafts that was available.
After 30 minutes or so on the road that runs along the lake (awesome view btw), we finally reached Copa, and the town was bustling.. there was a marching band performance in the main square (I dont know what was the occasion), backpackers were walking up and down the small streets that sold food and souvenirs, and the locals were busy attending to backpackers looking for boat rides to the islands. One of the European travelers (I forgot which country) I talked to on the bus gave me a banana. Lucky! There were 2 choices, to visit the islands and then take an evening bus to Puno, or go there straight away. Since it was still only noon and we had nothing planned anyway, we opted to hang around. So we bought tickets for the bus and boat ride to Isla del Sol (one of the islands on Lake Titicaca) and left our heavy backpacks with the tour operators.
Famished, we bought some food and something that looked like popcorn, but much bigger than what we are used to. It was cheap and it looked delicious, but maybe because we were just super hungry so everything looks delicious. As it turned out, the 'popcorn' was lemau and tasteless. Bland. But then again, I got used to it and somehow the taste seemed to get better and better, lo and behold, I finished it off haha. So to my dear brain, thank you for the mind tricks.
When the time came, we climbed onto our boat at the dock. There were so many people, we managed to get seats and somehow got to talking to this French lady who came alone from Puno for a day trip to check out Isla del Sol. At first she was friendly and gave us some infos and stuff. It was time to go but the boat wasn't moving. There was a commotion, people were talking loudly around us, in spanish of course, we had no idea what was going on, of course. The Friendly French lady told us that we had to change to another boat, I cant recall exactly what was wrong about the boat we were on. I think because it was too small to fit all the people that was supposed to get on it. So we dutifully moved to the adjacent boat that was bigger, by the time it was filled to capacity and started moving, we were already 30 minutes behind schedule.
The Friendly French lady sat behind us, and it seemed like she made some new friends with some other lady travelers. They were like long lost friends and anyone would've thought they have known each other for eternity. Of course I didnt mind this, I kinda get it that traveling alone is, well, lonely, and one would want to have conversations with just about anybody to feel normal. But they were giggly and loud and boisterous to the point of irritating, if you get what I mean. Anyway, that aside, suddenly the tour guide started making an announcement to everyone on the boat, in spanish, of course!! and then, he proceeded to collect money and the passengers started paying up. What the hell was going on la? We definitely weren't gonna pay without knowing what we were paying for, the guide came to us and spoke English (laaa.. tau cakap english rupanya! bukan nak bagitau awal2, penat2 je confuse). But even so, it was still confusing! We were the only ones who didnt understand spanish, how novel. We had no choice but to ask Friendly French (even she knows some amount of spanish) to explain to us what the hell was going on. Finally we understood, after 10 minutes of talking back and forth with the guide and Friendly French, and paid up. Basically there were 2 ways of going around the island, each of which had different pick up dock locations, and different rates. We also had to pay the locals upon arrival on the island.
After all that commotion, we were enjoying the ride and all, although it was rather cold, the guide and some other workers starting shouting at each other from the front to the back, then they opened a slab of the wooden floor board of the boat, and whaddaya know... there was water!!!! and quite alot. They got hold of a bucket and started scooping the water and throwing it out to the lake. By then all I could do was take a picture and laugh. We were at the risk of getting sinked on an overloaded boat yang bocor into a freezing lake with no life jackets.
Oh well.
At least there was Friendly French Lacy to keep us company, hehe.
Isla del Sol warmly greeted us with a huge signboard that beared its name and a map of the island, and a flight of stairs of at least 200 steps, hmm... wonderful. Remember that we were at 3800m ASL, and even after 3 days, our bodies were still acclimatizing to the high altitude. So the climb was... not that easy. We had to take short rests in between to catch our breath. But it wasn't that bad really. I did ok actually.
There are many islands on Lake Titicaca, the nearest one being Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). The main economy of the villagers living on the island is farming, next being fishing and tourism. At the top of the stairs, the guide explained, in spanish, then later in english for our benefits, the history of the Incas and about the religious ruins on the island. I listened for a while but tuned out later on. I was also checking out this guy's hat. It looked like the hats the Dwarfs wore in Snow White, except that this guy is reaaaalllly tall. He looked European, and was with another friend. It was a cool hat, really.
Needless to say, the views on the island was breathtaking. The surrounding Lake Titicaca waters was of the deepest blue hue, the skies were clear and the sun shone brightly, giving some heat to the chill weather and cool wind that was blowing. The hilly terrain was terraced with farms, lush and green. The dirt and cobbled stone pathways were narrow and novel, with small houses built along it and locals selling scarves and souvenirs. To top it all up, not so far away was an island with snow-capped mountain peaks.
We turned out to be the last ones in the trail of people walking and following the guide, who was talking and explaining still. He spoke spanish of course, we didnt bother to get close to him to hear him speak in english, and in the end he didnt have to because we weren't even there to listen. At one point we were left so far behind that we almost got lost.
Basically, we walked from one end of the island to the other, sort of. We managed to catch up with the group when nearing the end of the trail. By the time we were all gathered at an area to wait for the boat, The Dwarf Hat guy and his friend, I'm gonna call him The Aviator because he was wearing an aviator sunglasses, were chatting us up. Friendly French and Long Lost Friend were already long forgotten. So they were Germans, just fresh out of high school, and was traveling for 3 months before starting university. Ah... a typical story when it comes to Europeans and British. Its like a trend, or a way of life, or what was expected, Its the norm, and I think its damn awesome.
(to be continued...)
p/s: I'm on night shift, and I'm too sleepy to keep on writing.. this post is turning out to be longer than I expected.. crazy.. also no pics for now, they're all in the pc at home, will upload in a later post.
No comments:
Post a Comment