Freezing Lake Titicaca

After the cultural highlights in and around Cuzco (pics are coming soon) we decided to go to Lake Titicaca, almost 4000m high and – freezing, especially at night (it’s winter here).

Our night bus arrived earlier than expected (the first time in South America!!) and we knocked on our hostal door already at 5.15 am. The sleepy but extremly friendly owner opened the door and gave us coffee. At 6.30 am we started with some sightseeing as our room wasn’t ready.

First stop where the so called flooting islands, build of wood and a kind of straw. Very nice to look at, still everything build in the traditional way (= everything build with straw), however, main occupation of the islanders is not fishing anymore but tourism. And they live good with it…

After the flooting islands, we had to spend three more hours on a freezing boat…

… the next stop was Islas Tranquila – the island of the knitting men! No joke, women are spinning, men are knitting – especially their caps (married men have red caps, unmarried men have red and white caps)

In the evening, we found a nice pizzaria (yes, again!) with almost only Peruvians. The place was packed, it was warm (wood stove for pizzas and guest), the pizza was good, the prices where really fair and the bill was a surprise – apparently, there was a kind of pizza happy hour (pizza for half price). We should have ordered two each!!

The next day we visited the nearby ruins of funeral towers of the Incas and Pre-Incas. Those towers where only for the nobelties – one tower per family.

The next day, it was time to say…

So we got to Bolivia (passed the border by foot as a band did as well in the other direction with all their instruments but without registering), our first stop was Copacabana (yes, like the beach) on Lake Titicaca.

We found the extremely nice Hotel Cupula with a nice hostal pet.

Mowing in the hostal garden is done ecologically friendly.

We chilled a little in the hostal restaurant (very good food *smiley smiling* )…

… before we climed an almost 4000m Mountain (ok, it was a hill, 200m up from the city)…

… and had a look at the town.

The beach of Copacabana is the most beautiful public beach in Bolivia – well, it’s the only one, Bolivia has no sealine…

… but the sunset was nice!

The sun was gone, the temperature was going down… and it was getting “mucho frio”. But the hostel was superb, it offered hot-water bottles (additionally to the minimal heating). Suddenly, Thorsten was really nice to me, telling me nice things and said, I could get him such a hot-water bottle aswell when I get one for me. He would have rather freezed the whole night than asked for one *smiley winking*

The next day, after a superb crepe with fruits and cream (covering the calorie requirement of a whole day) we left for La Paz.

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