Another early rise and we headed off across the island. The return boat was at 1.30pm and we had an 8 kilometre walk to the north end of the island and then return to the village of Cha’llapampa for the boat.
A kilometre along the path we came to another ticket booth and a man tried to sell us two tickets each. One for visiting the Temple of The Sun ruins (10Bs) which we were planning to walk to and another (5Bs) which I think was for the north part of the island but was covered by the ruin ticket anyway. I think he was just trying to rip us off so we paid for the ruin tickets and were on our way.
The walk was quite easy for the most part but had a few steep bits up hills. We were attacked by some kind of Plover at one stage.
After a couple of hours we reached the northern end of the island and explored the Chincana ruins which were quite interesting. Lots of little rooms and tunnels running between them.
Nearby was Titicaca Rock/Rock of the Puma which according to Inca mythology is the birthplace of the Sun God Viracocha and the first Incas Manco Capac and Mama Huaca. I expected the rock to be carved or something but it was simply a small overhang. On the walk back to Ch’allapamapa we stopped at the ‘ruins’ of The Temple of the Sun which was a nice high peak with views of the sunrise and sunset over the lake but no ruins! Not sure what happened there, they are marked on all the maps and they don’t mention that there is no actual ruins to see. The Spanish were pretty keen on destroying any kind of sun-worshiping temples as being blasphemous so they might have had a go at this one.
We arrived at Ch’allapampa with a couple of hours to kill before the boat left. The town was not as nice as Yumani as it was at lake level, built on and around an isthmus and was very sandy and hot. The beaches were not that clean with weed and pigs all over although the water did look inviting. A few backpackers were sunbaking in bikinis while waiting for the boat. We had some lunch and enquired about boat tickets. There were two boats leaving at 1.30pm and both would be stopping at the south end for an hour before returning to Copacabana via the crappy fake floating islands at 5pm! We didn’t fancy taking that long to get back and sitting around doing nothing for an extra hour on the boat. Luckily we found another boat operator who was charging the same fee (20Bs) for a direct trip which would only take 2 hours. We got back to Copacabana at 3.40pm feeling quite tired but happy with our achievement having walked 13km yesterday and another 12 today. On the way back to our hostel we stopped at a ticket agent and picked up bus tickets for Las Paz leaving 1.30pm tomorrow.
We gave Copacabana Coffee House another chance that evening ordering a couple of hot chocolates. They had strange names on the menu and I did check with the waitress that they were chocolat calientes (hot chocolate) before I ordered but mine turned up as an Iced Chocolate with mostly chocolate icecream and Sarah’s was a luke-warm chocolate drink made with what tasted like cooking chocolate. Such a shame because the first coffee we got there was quite good.

Isla Del Sol (Island of the Sun)

Woke up early and packed our bags to head for Isla Del Sol. We were able to leave our Packs at the hostel so just had day packs for the walk. You can take boats direct from Copacabana but we thought it would be more fun to walk 17 km along the lake shore to Yampupata and get a boat across from there.
We arrived at Copacabana Coffee House for our morning Coffee at 7.40am to find the guy who told us they opened at 7am mopping the front tiles. We went to walk inside and he yelled at us to not walk on the tiles. “Are you open?” We asked. “10 minutes” he replied. So we went elsewhere for our Coffee.

The walk out of town was initially through paddocks along the lakeside and through a couple of villages before climbing inland through Eucalyptus forest. We collected a small dog a couple of km from town who we named Foxy because he was fairly slinky when he ran. After crossing a fairly high ridge (*puff puff*) we descended back to the lake and passed another village with some fake Islas Flotantes, floating reed islands like are found on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca. However, people don’t live like that in Bolivia so these were the Disney version purely as a tourist trap. I think most of the boats coming back from Isla Del Sol stop there and we were harassed by three separate people from the village to come and see them.
Walking on having gone about 13 km we were greeted by Hilario Paye who features in Lonely Planet and is described as “a colourful character who will happily take you on a ride on his puma-headed reed boat, or for a trip in his motorboat”. Along with a couple of American backpackers who were there, we opted for the motorboat to Isla Del Sol option. Foxy, who had followed us for the last 10km sadly sat on the end of the dock as we pulled out. The boat was quite small and although enclosed there was only glass in 2 of the 6 windows so we got a little splashed on the half hour trip to the island.
Arriving at a small dock on the south end of the island we alighted and waved goodbye to Hilario hoping he would make it home ok as his outboard motor had stopped 3 times in the last 10 minutes.
A small boy hit us up for 5 Bolivianos ($1 AUD) each as we left the dock which is a fee for visiting the South End of the Island. We passed some uninspiring Inca Ruins which we barely glanced at as we were keen to get to accommodation and find somewhere for lunch. It was another couple of kilometres walk up the hill and along the ridge to Yumani which is the largest town on the island. It is quite high on the hillside and top of the ridge so most places have a great view out over the lake. We chose a place just over the ridge which had an uninterrupted view all the way back to Peru. We checked in and went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Two small boys who were playing inside when we arrived came over after a few minutes and took our order. Was amusing to watch them fetch our large beer out of the fridge and discuss the best way to open it. We were wondering if they were going to cook our meals as well but they fetched mum from across the road for that.
Following a welcome afternoon nap we climbed the nearby hill (4068m) to watch the sunset. There was a small group of people doing the same thing along with a local woman armed with a Llama which she was pestering people to take photos of. (for a fee of course) When she didn’t have willing customers she started dragging the poor Llama into the background as people lined up their photo shots.
The sunset was magnificent and we watched the last of it from the hostel balcony.