Lake Titicaca

Monday morning I took the bus over to Copacabana on the Bolivian shores of Lake Titicaca. It was a nice little town so I checked out the big white church that dominated the main plaza. It was more impressive outside than inside. Next was a quick trek up the Cerro Calvario just to the north of town. The hill has some religious monuments on the top and is used by locals for their pilgrimages, placing rocks at all the crosses on the way up. It proved to be more popular with the tourists who didn´t have to carry rocks up the hill, so they flocked up there to see the sun set over the lake.
The next morning I packed my bags and set of on the 17km trek along the peninsula from Copacobana to the small village of Yampupata. This was a great walk passing through little villages. The locals here didn´t meet many tourists and all wanted to have a chat. Once I reached Yampupata I hired a little boat and a driver to take me across to Isla del Sol. The island is popular since it has several Inca ruins.
The boat dropped me off at the base of the Inca stairs which went straight up the hill to the small village of Yumani. I settled in to a hostel at the top of the ridge, with a great view out one side to Bolivia and the snow capped peaks of the Cordillera Real, and on the other side across the lake to Peru. After relaxing in the sun and enjoying the view I walked down to the main ruins on the south side of the island, Pilko Kaina.
Wednesday morning I had breakfast outside overlooking Peru, then grabbed my bags and trekked along the ridgeline to the northern end of the Island. The first challenge arose just outside of the village at the ticket office, where I had to convince the corrupt ticket salesman that I would not pay B15 for a B10 ticket. The trail followed the ridgeline for the length of the island. I had lunch with some hopeful mountain-bikers at some ruins and then explored the ruins of the Inca palace.
From here I went down to the village of Cha´llampampa and caught a boat back to the Inca stairway to lay in the sun for 2 hours while waiting for the next boat to go back to Copacobana. Enjoyed some good Lake Titicaca trout for dinner with the Kiwis I met a few days before on the bus.
Thursday morning I enjoyed another trout on the shores of the lake, and then caught the bus in the afternooon across the border to Puno, Peru.
Puno was actually quite a nice little town, with a pedestrian mall full of restaurants and bars that we had to check out.
Friday I did a full day tour to visit the main peruvian attractions in the lake. First stop was the Los Oros. These people didn´t seem to like living on land so they built their own floating islands from reeds. This keeps them busy as they have to keep piling on new reeds while the ones on the bottom rot away. The advantage being that if they don´t like their neighbours they just pull up anchor and float away (perhaps the Monc should´ve been on a reed island?). The Oros people also got creative with their reeds and made everything out of them, including their houses and some fancy boats.
We then took a boat for 2.5 hours out into the middle of the lake to visit Isla Taquine. The people on the island all wore their traditional outfits. The guys had to wear red hats if they were taken, and red and white if they are single. Unfortunately the girls didn´t have a similar system.
The 3 hour boat ride back to Puno was passed with several games of cards while sitting on the roof.
Saturday I took the bus over to Cusco in time for the big Inca festival of Inti Raymi (sun festival).