Lago Titicaca - the world´s highest lake!

After the big carnival in La Paz on Saturday, we took a day trip to Tiwanaku. It's a ruin of an important ceremonial site from pre inca civilisation called Tiwanaku. It was alright but nothing spectacular. From there we went to Copacabana, a small town next to Lake Titicaca., the world´s highest lake located almost 4000m above sea level. The town was beautiful and peaceful, but most people go there to get to the Isal Del Sun island. That's what we did. We went to Copacabana and stayed there for one night in a hostel on the beach front with great lake views. If you love fish, you can find many restaurants serve trout and king fish for only 20bs (under 3AUD). They taste really nice. I ate four fish dishes in just two days. But do not go to the restaurant that has a big palm tree sign on the main road and offers expensive and four different types of menus. We went there and it was a big rip off!

The next morning we took a ferry to the Sun Island. According to the Inca religion, it is the birthplace of the Sun God. We got off at the north side first, visited a museum and the famous archeological sites and later had lunch near the dock. Guess what, we ate trouch again! It was a simple and yummy meal, so we decided to take a walk and let the meal settle with the stunning views on the top of the island. The view is a bit smiliar to the ocrean view from the Greek Islands I guess although I haven´t been there yet but I´ve seen enough from all the photos, postcards and movies.

We walked all the way to the south part of the island and it took us more than three hours to finish the 7km trail due to the high altitude perhaps. We stayed for the night on the top of the hill out of Yumani, the main village on the south. The sunset from Copacabana is beautiful and it's equally great to see the sunrise from he island. Andre and I stayed at Inti Kala hostel, with offers private room with bath and breakfast for 80bs pp (12AUD). It is basic but well functional and we definitely can recommend it. We really enjoyed our time on the island. I also liked the authenticity of all the local villagers, even though there are plenty of restaurants, hotels and pizzerias, most of the farmers (and hundreds of llamas, sheep, donkeys and dogs) there just mind their own business and go on about their daily routines.

After that we went to Puno and from there we saw the Peru side of Titicaca. The day we visited the floating island of the Uros tribe coincided with my birthday. It was a special experience as our kind tour guide who found out that it was my birthday from the hotel staff got the local Uro ladies on the island to sing the happy birthday song to me in Spanish. It was a good surprise to me and I really enjoyed all the attention as other tourists in our group as joined in the singing. Also, it was the first time that people have sung the happy birthday sone to me in Spanish. But although Puno is only three hours away by bus from Copacabana, it was much colder than Copacabana and it actually rained and hailed heavily at that night. Luckily, our tour finished just early enough to avoid the bad weather.

After three relaxing days in Puno we headed to Cusco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire, that is going to be the defining point of our trip. it's a very beautiful city! Andre and I will probably stay here for a week and are very tempted to do the inca trail!!