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Isla del Sol & Lake Titicaca

Added: July 10, 2010

Tags: Bolivia RTW SouthAmerica lake photos ruins
Trip to Isla Del Sol, important place in mythology of Incas, deserves whole day. Or two. We had only one, but it was enough to say this place is amazing. Rugged rocks, green terraced fields, cacti, dark blue water of Lake Titicaca, small settlements and most important of all pre-Inca and Inca ruins.

Day did not start with nice weather, but to our pleasure it changed quickly and stayed nice for rest of the day.

Lake Titicaca, Southern part of Isla del Sol and Copacabana

We were on our way back to Copacabana. We are going to stop at the southern end of Isla del Sol again, at the same place we stopped before, but this time we will spend about an hour there so we will have a chance to look around.

Then we will go to "floating island" before returning to Copacabana. I used quotes, because it was a joke compared to Uros in Peru we went to next day. Just one floating square covered by reed, but I am not sure its floating capabilities were provided by the reed. Four reed buildings on it were helping to make better impression, but despite of them I was disappointed. I am not going to show any photo of that.

Boat trip at Lake Titicaca

I did not take many photos in the morning. We were inside the boat due to rain and those few I took are not good. But situation was different on our way back. We were sitting on the roof, sun was shining, so I could take many photos. Also panoramas. I would not say it is possible to take panoramas from moving vehicle, but the boat was quite slow and there was no foreground.

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Terraced fields with (probably) poppies.
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Isla de la Luna with Andes in distance.
Isla de la Luna with Andes in distance

Another settlement at Isla del Sol.
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Sailing at Lake Titicaca

Lone tree at small island in Lake Titicaca with mountains in background

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Sailing at Lake TIticaca near Copacabana

Bolivian shore of Lake Titicaca.
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Another view of Bolivian shore of Lake Titicaca.
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Inca Stairway

We stopped at the southern end of island. There is small settlement, some restaurants and a hotel. But tourists go there to see Inca Stairway.

We looked around, but it is pretty small place, so we were done rather quickly. Then we just rested in shade.

Up the stairs is a path leading to other places on island. It is possible to have nice hikes around. A couple from Ireland we went to Cha'llapampa in the morning with arrived shortly before our boat left. They walked through whole island in about 4 hours. I think they did not have enough time to enjoy the place.

According to crowd it seems Inca Stairway must be favourite attraction.
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It was green and lush place as you can see from the previous photos. But it was also good place to take photos of lake, boats and people.

Look at that! Read boat!
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Our boat waiting for us.
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Arrival of another bunch of tourists.
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I have pretty bad habit. I need to be everywhere on time, certainly not late. So when captain called to us we hurried to board the boat. Despite of fact we knew this boat is always 20-30 minutes late. And it happened again! But at least I could take photos of surrounding boats.
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Arrival to Copacabana

Last time I wrote about Copacabana I was in hurry. I needed to pack before leaving to holiday so I forgot I have more photos of Copacabana from this day. They belong to that other post, but I am not going to modify it now. I will show them here.

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Top of Cerro Calvario from beach.
Top of Cerro Calvario

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Strange architecture in Copacabana.
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