Two Japanese and a Frenchman 6/17/11

Woke up to catch the 830 ferry to Isla Del Sol (where the sun was born and a couple gods). Copabacana is a small town on the edge of Lake Titicaca- the highest fresh water lake in the world at 12.5k ft. The town is pretty dead but we managed to find the one coffee shop; and it happened to be playing rad 80’s music videos- awesome! On the three hour ferry ride we met a Japanese couple and a French dude (Julian) who were travelling together for a bit. Andy and Julian talked politics the whole time while I enjoyed the scenery. The sun was out which was a miracle since it hailed last night. Off in the distance you could see the snow-covered Andies in the background, a beautiful site.

We decided to go to the north shore of the island since we saw a nice picture of it and it looked cool- also the people we met were going there as well. We got off the ferry and Julian found a hostel for everyone. Nothing special, but pretty awesome at $6 for the two of us. We quickly dropped off our bags and headed out for lunch and to explore. We ate at maybe one of the two places open. All of us had the Trucha (Trout) since it’s supposed to be amazing here. Eating our delicious trout two hippies played guitars for us- for money of course. Most of the non-native people in this town are Argentinian hippies.

We then walked across the beach and up the mountain. The sun was shining and the view was amazing. We headed toward the north tip of the island to check out the Incan ruins. We saw a ceremonial table and a maze of stone walls- the view of the lake was most impressive. After spending some time at the north tip so everyone could get their photos in, we headed up the hill for more spectacular views. It was getting dark so we headed back, carefully climbing down the stone mountain back the to the village.

There are not many tourists here which make this place even more special. The people we were with needed their coffee fix so Julian knocked on someone’s house asking them to boil some water for us since we had no other options. We all drank coffee on the beach and watched the sun set on Lake Titicaca. We decided it was time to get some food before the only place serving shut down. We bought some crap wine and headed to the little shack making dinner. We all had Trout again. It was delicious but I was at my limit of fried food. You know that Japanese girl I told you about who died of the Death Road a couple weeks ago? Well that was this dude’s friend! He was travelling with her for two weeks and they did the Road of Death when she flew off the side. He had to pull her body up 820 ft with rope. How crazy is it that we met him? We couldn’t believe it. He didn’t say much else and we apologized for what he had to go through.We said our goodbyes to our new travel friends since we were heading out in the morning and they had plenty of time to do whatever on their couple year-long vacation. How do people do it!!?? Before we left for Titicaca we went to a travel agency to find out about the area and what they charged. They wanted $500 for the two of us which included: transport, one night lodging, and all meals. So far we had spent $5 on transport, $6 on lodging, and $30 on meals for the both of us! Travelling is awesome, but travelling on the cheap is even better.