I was fortunate enough to have a good friend travelling with me through Bolivia, our journey through began with the land border crossing from Peru next to Lake Titicaca. We arrived into a town named Copacabana and had met two people on our journey who were on the same bus as us. We had planned to stay a couple of days in this town but were warned us that there were planned protests in a couple of days so we should avoid La Paz (the capital) at that time. If you’re not aware, Bolivia experienced a lot of protests late in 2019, some became violent and lead to tourists becoming trapped in towns and cities until the demonstrations subsided. We didn’t want to take the risk of the protests developing again so we decided to go straight to an island on Lake Titicata for a night, then onto La Paz in order to pass through the capital before the protests were due to begin.
So, we boarded a ferry with our new found friends Maria, from Spain and Oswold from Bolivia (although both currently living in Bristol) the ferry cost 30 Bolivianos (£3) and took around 1.5hours to arrive to Isla del Sol. It was a very warm beautiful sunny day so the lake looked incredible. It was a deep blue shade and you couldn’t always see the mountains the other side so it really did look like a sea at times.
There were a few hotels adjacent to the port but speaking with a guy that worked on our boat he told us that he had a hostel that would fit all of us in, with a good view and just bs/35 a night (£3.50). Now bearing in mind Lake Titicata is the highest navigable lake in the world we had a bit of altitude to contend with. We were at around 4000m above sea level and were greeted with an immense set of stairs to climb, along with our heavy backpacks! We began our ascent and the owner had no trouble getting up the stairs, we had to stop a few times as we were feeling light headed. There is a natural spring half way up where we refilled our water bottles, and after what was probably 45 minutes finally reached the top of the stairs plopped our bags down and took in the stunningly beautiful view over the lake.
The hostel was basic as expected but the view from the room was unbeatable and well worth the trek up the stairs after all. We rested, unpacked a little, changed into our swimsuits and together headed to a beach the other side of the island where we were looking forward to a refreshing swim. First we had to walk up even more steps, passing lots of donkeys and their owners on the way. Eventually we made it to the top and then began our descent passing a few more donkeys. We passed a local and exchanged pleasantries, he asked us where it was we were all off to and when we told him the beach he asked if we planned on swimming. Of course we said yes! He then went on to tell us that due to the time of the year we shouldn’t be swimming and some locals would take offense. He said at this time of year (January) the glaciers start to melt, this water flows into the lake and it is considered the purest of waters. The locals believed that we may contaminate the water and the island, we were all a bit skeptical but agreed and continued on our walk, discussing on whether we should swim or not.
It was still quite a while until we got there, there was a little jetty on the beach that appeared to go nowhere as the water was only ankle deep. We took photos from the jetty and slowly more people began to join us at the beach. We met two guys from Argentina camping at that spot, shortly after three more people joined. One guy working on the island from Argentina, a German girl and a French guy who’d arrived the same day as we had, followed by a collection of local and excitable dogs that thought we were all very entertaining. We all stayed on the beach chatting for a while, some dipping their toes in the water. After a while the sun started to lower in the sky and we decided to go back up to the top of the hill to watch the sunset. Unfortunately we were a bit too slow and, beaten by the altitude to race back up the hill in time but it didn’t really matter. We all reconvened at a restaurant at the top, also meeting up with an Italian couple that someone had met earlier. In all there were about eight of us around this table having all just met, eating dinner together in the setting surrounded by the moonlit lake and mountains. As we were a large group our food took longer than we would have liked to arrive but it was delicious when it did. Many opted for the local dish of trout from the lake. It was dark by the time we decided to head back and pretty cold too, our swimsuits and shorts weren’t much to fend against the cold night’s air. However, the stars lit up the sky and we paused to take photos of the stars on our way home.
The French guy Arthur was unable to find his hostel during the day so, knowing there was space at ours we invited him to come back along with us. Upon arriving at the hostel we looked for the owners to ask them for a room for Arthur, but it turned out the owners didn’t live there, there was a couple watching the hostel for them but they didn’t want any responsibility for accepting new guests so said no! Not wanting to abandon Arthur and by chance there was a spare bed in one of our rooms so we figured we’d sneak him in there rather than risk stranding him in the cold night!
Once we thought we’d sorted all the palava we went to our room, when our key didn’t seem to fit with the lock on the door. We tried a few different methods before concluding that it definitely wasn’t us – the key must be wrong. The others tried a few times, then we asked the couple if they had some more keys, they didn’t. It appeared me and my friend were now at risk of spending the night outside. The owners had left a couple of other free bedrooms open so we realised we’d have to sleep in one of them, we decided to sleep in one with a double bed where we might be a bit warmer – we still with our shorts and swimsuits on in the freezing cold! It was clear the bed wasn’t particularly clean but it was better than sleeping outside, a stray cat made us jump too as it found its way into our bed and had a very snug night’s sleep in between us both. A little later it started to rain heavily and it’s safe to say neither of us slept very well during the night. When the owners turned up early in the morning and I asked for a new key they weren’t apologetic for my ordeal either. Tired, we packed up our things and headed back down the steep steps to catch the ferry back to the mainland!
Isla del Sol was such a beautiful place and I have really fond memories of the journey there, the walks and spending the evening with all the people we met, although it is safe to say that we slept VERY well in our comfy hostel the following night in Laz Paz!
BEACH YOU THERE 