On-the-Road Tales

Copacabana is a little lakeside water resort. Lots of hippiues in the street selling jewelry, though I think they are Argentines. The waterfront had kayaking, sail and paddle boats and lots of fresh trucha, or trout. Enjoyed a nice set menu for 17 BS or 2.50 of warm bread, huge plate of spaghetti with pesto and a glass of red wine. Yep, you could survive a long time here on very little money.

I headed out to Isla del sol. If I had any reservations about the boat the other day, they disappeared when I saw this contraption as I was hopping across missing planks on the gangway. A bunch of plywood nailed together, sort of, with cafeteria chairs nailed to the floor, well where they had not broken off and were threatening to poke a hole in the side. Yeah. What do you expect for a 4hr roundtrip $3 boat ride. We arrived at the north side of the island where a bunch of argentina hippies again were camped on the beach, with a pig roaming.

The Incas believe this island was the birthplace of their civilization. That the moon and stars and sol were born from the lake. It is the most reverent of their sites and contains a sacred rock which they believe has energy. Off from the rock, there are three tiny rock isles in the water that form a triangle. Jacques Costeau dove in the centre of these looking for the lost city of Atlantis. He found, about 15 meters down, offering of golds and vessels. There was an interesting little musuem of the excavations though I must read more in it in English.

The walk to the sacred rock and sacrificial table was stunning. The entire island at one point was terraced with agriculture and this part still was. There was amazing volcanic rock that melted like sands and layered rock. Clear blue water and green tinted beaches, houses adorned with colorful flowers. Amazing. I walked back to the boat with a German who was studying in Peru for 5 months and I had bumped into continously for the last 5 days days between Peru and here. Popular route.

We took the boat tot he south part of the Island and walked up 206 steps of original Inca construction with a supposed fountain of youth at the top. I wondered and came down some wrong path which turned out to be the local islander byway form port to house. Hence I had to suck tot he side of the stoneway as people rushed to meet the private supply boats with herds of donkeys to carry the goods back up, or donkeys laden with sacks to go off the island. Nothing like the stampeding sound of donkeys on your tail. Uncomfortable but uneventful journey back to the mainland. Up another couple hundred feet to La Paz manana….

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 11th, 2007 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.