Hi All,
Today was a very cruisy day :)
I had a good breakfast at my hotel and then walked 200m to the take the 8:30am ferry to the Isla de la Sol...its a small island about a (very slow) 2 hour trip from Cococabana. The ferry was packed with tourists so at first I was regreting my decision as I had wanted to spend as much time learning about Bolivia but I recognized my new friends from Switzerland (Thomas & Nicola) and enjoyed chatting with them on the 2 hour trip. It has been a while since I've been in a touristy setting where everyone friendly folks exchange tips and stories...its a good place to be.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
DAY 5: Isla de la Sol - Hiking
Das Boat
Thomas & Nicola from Switzerland
I had originally thought to spend the night there, I'd packed an overnight pack and brought a one way ticket....but as soon as I realized how slow the boat was I realized it would be impossible to get an early start riding tomorrow. Tomorrow I ride into Peru and then circle back towards Bolivia towards La Paz...I have a terrible 1:2,500,000 map and so I want as much time as possible to handle the likely issues...it may be my first camping experience in Peru/Bolivia :)
Anyway...enough of my fears!...The first thing i did was visit a very small but interesting museum...I was a bit shocked to see a skelton sitting on top of a display case in a big pile for so you could touch if you wanted (I didn't) I did take a picture though.
Hopefully not an unlucky Tourist!
Being the clumsy buffoon I am I did manage to break a display squeezing past folks on the way out(hopefully no priceless treasure)...thats where I first met the Aussie Ed who immediately gave me a had time about being a clumsy Kiwi :)
Afterwards I started the hike on an old Inca road to the various Inca and pre-Inca ruins:
Afterwards I started the hike on an old Inca road to the various Inca and pre-Inca ruins:
Inca Sacrifical Alter
Pre-Inca Ruins
I meant some more great people...an older (but still young!) couple from Austrailia (Ed and Babs), a great Irish couple in their late 20's (Francis & Ed) , a great guy from Slovakia(Ondraj) and a fun Scottish girl (Mash). I am meeting most of them for dinner tonite - it would be VERY easy to leave my biking ambitions behind and join up with some good folks and do the tourist circuit...we will see...
Ed (from Aussie) putting a gap on Thomas & Nicola (Switzerland)
The nine of us hiked together, chatted, took photos etc...it was a fun and eclectic group that you'll only get travellign to interesting places. For those that think my month tour of Bolivia is extravagent please note that I am the short timer the group...they are all down in South America for at least 3 months.
An old cementary...graves marked with Cairns...Cordillera Real in the background
Ed with Nicola...good view of the Inca road
Neal taking a break...note the OverMountain Extreme/Blckdome Cap ;)
Ondraj, Francis, Edward & Mash...sorry for the bad pic skills!
The hike was pretty mild...inca trail was great to walk on...they knew how to make roads and the sacrifical alter and other ruins were very cool but I would have liked to have done a bit more reading to know what I was looking at...there was a guided tour in Spanish available for US$1.50 but my Spanish has not quite progressed that far. The hike got a bit intereting as we had 5 1/2 hours to make it back for the last ferry and the climbing at elevation was taking its toll everyone ...Babs his wife was tough in a nice way and helped keep the pace up - she was always in the lead!)...everybody did great and we arrived with maybe 45 min to spare.
Arriving back at Cococabana about 5:45pm I had to find a hostel...being Saturday it to0k a bit of looking but I found a nice room with double bed, private bath, shower and great lake views for 50 Bolivianos (US$7) for the night including breakfast!...my days of hotels are over! I am back on budget! ;)
My US$7 room (I paid for the whole room)
View from my room - white domed Hotel Restaurant (La Copia) is where we ate dinner
I meet the friendly Irish couple (Ed and Francis), the cool Slovakian (Ondraj) and the nice Scottish girl (Mash) at 8pm for a dinner and a few wines - life is GOOD! - great meal 3 courses and copius wine for US$6 a person
View from my room - sunsetting over Lake Titikaka - end of another great day :)
I hope everybody is well!
Cheers,
Neal
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