Back On The Road Again

After saying goodbye to Cusco, we hit the road again, though a little apprehensively, towards Bolivia. It is possible that I was the only apprehensive one though. I had come to South America expecting to meet warm, bubbly people, like my Latin American acquaintances back in Israel. I had instead encountered what people told me was the ¨real¨ South America, ie the indigenous people and culture. No doubt I saw some amazing places and met the odd sweet person like my Spanish teacher, but I was still longing to be in a place where I could have normal conversations with people on the street. Bolivia sounded quite the opposite and I decided that I would not stay there for too long. What I didn´t know then was that one doesn´t control one´s vacation in Bolivia, it´s quite the other way around. You will understand this better when I write about my experiences in later posts.

What you see above is one of the most touristy things I did while in South America. The picture is that of a ¨floating islands¨ located on Lake Titicaca at the border of Peru and Bolivia. These are a group of man made islands off the coast of Puno where everything is made out of reeds. A lot of people told us it was a big hoax, claiming the people we would meet on the islands actually don´t live there, but travel back and forth between the mainland and the islands. We opted to go because we thought it would be interesting to see anyway. As our (very weird) guide explained to us on the way there, people who live on the islands indeed make a living from the tourism surrounding the islands, but they do actually live there as well. It´s up to you to choose whom to believe.

A welcoming committee greeted us as we came on to one of the islands. They had a little demonstration showing how the islands are built. The large blackish mass at the bottom is what keeps the islands floating and is dried reeds. They replenish the upper level of reeds every few months. It was a very weird sensation walking on it, I almost felt like my feet would sink through.

The Uros, as the people on the islands are called, originally built the islands for defensive purposes. They use these boats (above) made of reeds to travel around. We took a ride across and were impressed with how sturdy they were. It all became clear a few weeks later when we met another fellow traveller who told us the boats were actually made of rubber.

We were offered some reeds to eat which I actually found quite refreshing. There are now about 40 of these islands left in Titicaca, some of which house only 1-2 families. Not all the islands have all the amenities, things like school for the younger children are located on one of the larger islands where there are 10 families or so. Although the Uros population living on the islands (there are many more of them living on the mainland) is only a few hundred people, they end up polluting the lake with all their waste since there's no proper sewage system in place.

Overall I found it fascinating and I'm glad I went, even though the cheesy singing of English and Hebrew songs by the locals made it a little uncomfortable at the end. I think what some people don't understand in these touristy places is that the place is interesting enough on its own so there's really no need to humiliate themselves to make it more likeable.

At any rate, the visit to the islands took only a few hours and after a short bus ride we made it to the border with Bolivia. We spent the night in Copacabana on the side of Bolivia which had a fantastic sunset.

The picture, taken from inside the bus, really doesn't do it justice. The next day we headed to Isla Del Sol, a few hours off the coast. We got off the boat at one end of the island and hiked about 2.5 hours to the other end. It was the most stunning place I had seen so far. The combination of the sun and the mountains and the sea reminded me a little bit of Capetown.

It's very difficult to capture panoramic beauty and I feel like none of my pictures from this area really do a good job. At some point during the trail, the gorgeous view extends to both sides, blue and serene and I felt like opening my arms wide so I could hug it all in one giant embrace.

What really made it awesome I think was the addition of the snow on top of the mountains in the distance, but I stupidly only took very few pictures of it.

So far I liked what I was seeing of Bolivia...