Lago Titicaca (who didn't laugh?)

So we are in Bolivia!
We left Puno, Peru, catching a small combi so we could stop off and see a fertility temple, but unfortunately we never saw the town, and no one announced it, so we drove right by. Oops. What may have been a 3 hour trip on one bus to Bolivia's border, turned out to be 4.5 hours. Five combi´s, 3 trici-taxis, 1 bus, 1 moto-taxi and one taxi later we arrived in Copacabana (after the Peruvian police went through my lugage, not Colin's, at the border). We tried to make this day of border crossing just as interesting as the last, nothing will compare though. We stayed for two nights in Bolivia's only beach town and spent a day hiking around some of the nearby rocky hills. Copacabana is way too cold at all times of the year to host anysort of beach life, but the meter wide pebbley shore is lined with many swan and draggon paddle boats and a few sailing and rowing boats too.

Our second night we hiked up to the religious monument which has 14 stations of the cross and an amazing lookout over Lago Titicaca (Bolivians apparently say that they have the titi and that Peru has the caca, since they share the lake. We agree. Heh.). We brought our books, a Toblerone chocolate bar (imported from Switzerland), and some Bolivian wine (only $2.50!). From the top we could see Isla del Sol where we were planning on hiking most of the way to the next day. Unfortunately, we woke up to thunderstorms the next morning, and decided to opt for the two hour boat ride over instead.

As we arrived on the island, we were bombarded with several children asking us if we wanted a hostal or room for the night, but we wanted to get away from the southern end of the island, away from the tourists, ha. We walked for about an hour and a half, through tiny communities and up and down the rocky hills. We eventually came to a small community called Challa, on a beach mid way on the eastern shore, and stayed at Hostal Qhumphuri run by Juan and Rita. We ate fish right from the lake, trucha that was artificially stocked in the lake by the Spanish to add more protein to the diets of the Indigenous people, and potatoes and vegies from the Island as well.

The next day we were rained in once again, but as the sun started to peak through the clouds, we hiked up to the northern end of the Island where there are some more Inca ruins. One of which is a maze, many passageways and doors leading nowwhere inparticular. We played there for a bit, scaring the sheep who were grazing as we would suddenly appear from around a corner. The hike back to the hostal followed a rocky trail up over the main ridge of the Island. We even found some 'dung beatles' working hard, and having alot of trouble rolling their dungballs over the rocky path. Ha. The next day we hiked the rest of the ridge trail to the south and sadly borded the first boat back to the mainland.

Actually we loved the Island so much, we decided to invest in some property there. It's the perfect place for a cottage of sorts, has a huge lake, sailing, fishing, lots of eucalyptus trees, morning walkup calls from the local donkey, and it's cheap! Our land is in a small cove (reminded us of a pirate's cove) on the north east side...everyone can visit!

Ok. April Fool's.
Harhar.

We came to LaPaz today, Bolivia's biggest city, and actually for once in our travelling careers, were denied rooms! Five times! Everything's booked. Tomorrow we try to extend our Visa's and explore this crazy place (there's a witches market where they sell dead baby alpaca's! The horrror!).