This past Saturday and Sunday, I took a weekend vacation to Lake Titicaca with the other interns. I must say that the beauty of the lake and the surrounding scenery blew me away.
We left La Paz early Saturday morning via bus and set out towards Copacabana. On our way to Copacabana, we picked up our tour guide, Victor. I slept most of the time on the bus, but I must say that when I was awake it was nice to see another side to Bolivia. Currently, I’m living in one of the richest areas in La Paz called Sopocachi and haven’t really seen the “poverty stricken” Bolivia besides at the hospital.
About three hours after our departure from La Paz, we arrived at a river crossing in which we had to get off the bus and take a ferry across a river. The bus was also ferried across the river on a different ‘ferry.’ After we crossed the river, we got back on the bus and drove for about another hour to Copacabana, a place filled with a lot of European tourist and touristy shops. When we first arrived, we had lunch at a cute little restaurant and then after lunch we headed to a docking site on the lake where we chartered a private boat to take us to the Isla del Sol.
The boat ride from Copacabana to the Isla del Sol was close to an hour. Once we arrived on the Isla del Sol, we had to hike uphill for about another forty minutes to our hotel. I must say that I was definitely not prepared to hike UPHILL for forty minutes! I was in so much pain; I’m definitely not in shape.
Our hotel was on the top of the island and it overlooked Lake Titicaca. It was cool to see the lake and the rest of the island- definitely a site to behold. All I could see for miles upon miles was hills of all different shades surrounded by dark blue crisp water. Also in the background was snow covered Mt. Illimani.
After settling in at our eco-friendly and somewhat luxurious hotel, we decided to take another hike to a higher spot so we could watch the sunset. This time the hike wasn’t that bad and the sunset was gorgeous.
After watching the sunset, we returned to the hotel and had dinner. Following dinner, the other interns and I decided to sit under the stars and just hang out and chat. Because there were no tall buildings, I could see miles upon miles of stars. I could even see the Milky Way. In addition, for the very first time in my life, I saw a shooting star!
On Sunday morning, we woke up about 5:50 am and by 6 am we were on another walk so we could watch the sunrise. As the sun rose, I sat in silence and just admired the beauty that God had created.
As soon as the sun had fully risen, we returned to the hotel, had breakfast, and set out to return to La Paz. However, before we left the island, we made a stop at some Inca ruins. The ruins were awesome! After the ruins, we took a boat back to Copacabana where we walked around, shopped, and watched the final World Cup game. I must say that I was supper happy that Spain won.
However, because we decided to watch the final soccer match, we were not able to take our regular scheduled bus back to La Paz. Therefore, we had a difficult time securing a bus that would take us back to La Paz. Thankfully, we were able to find one and arrived back in La Paz around 10:30pm.
My next adventures include visiting some more museums in La Paz and taking a trip to Peru.
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