Around the Titicaca Lake

So we left Cuzco and took a bus to Puno, which was conveniently stopping at some Inca and pre-Inca sites while we were making our way across the Andean high plateau.



Puno is a nice little city, without too many things to see except for the lake, which is reedy and dirty on this side. Nevertheless it was one of the most laid back towns so far. Some other noteble things from Puno:

• There is a really big concrete skatepark
• Internet caffees are full with locals, we were struggling to find a place with finally ending up in the upmaket "Google" shop.
• There are some floating islands here, which are full with tourists (remember not too much else to do) and overweight locals, which has to come from eating reed. You can basically do everything from reed: Islands, houses, boats and you can eat it of course.
• Ate my first guiney pig here

Then we thought that we will have a look at the Titicaca lake from the Bolivian side. This included some walking at the border as we were used to it from Costa Rica and Panama. I was a bit scared because of the Hungarian terrorist threat in Bolivia, but the borderguard didn't seem to know/care about it.

We ended up in an place called Copacabana, which is even more laid back than Puno. The highlights:

• We took a room in one of the main hotels of the town, but could not check in, because they did not have a working pen.
• The beer is 620ml (not 2/3), sate brewed and has won the prestigious Monde Selection award, which everybody who knows Sopron beer will know to appreciate.
• There is a big white concrete anchor statue in the harbour. The top ring is made out of a painted car tyre.
• There is one ATM in town, which is guarded by a dedicated policeman, looks like the cockpit of a fighter jet and does not take foriegn cards (no worries we have good old cash)
• As the Titicaca lake is the highest commercially navigable lake on earth we could not resist to take a duck shaped pedal boat
• Real boats on the lake have two engines but only run with one (energy efficiency)
• The first time I saw the boat hitting the harbour wall hard was in Copacabana, it was our boat. (nobody/nothing got injured we all had a laugh)
• Isla del Sol has the nicest trekking path above 4000 m i have ever seen (and i have seen one already)
• We had the hotel with the best view in Isla del Sol for 4.8 EUR the night (cheapest yet)
• We had two unforgettable meals:
  On Isla del Sol every house is a restaurant at the same time, you go in, you order and the lady of the house will start to peel the potatoes. No fast food for sure. We had a great blackout during the meal. The whole island was without electricity until the morning. We were originally thinking that the candles were for decoration...
  In Copacabana went in for a pizza. The guy (one person restaurant) was watching TV (even flakier than usual) and told us that he had only pizza. Alright that's what we wanted - with some lemonade. When we told him this, he looked at the huge glass doored fridge next to his chair. It was empty except for a bottle of Fanta and a Coke. We understood our choices...

I don't know if it is clear from this, but I love Bolivia (and let's not be nationalists) the whole Titicaca lake area.