Feeling sick in Copacabana and Isla del Sol

As I mentioned in the last post, my first day in Copacabana was spent in bed sick. It was unpleasant and miserable. While I was wishing for death, Hannah explored the town and found that there was little to do. Copacabana is a small town on Lake Titicaca with a famous church and one or two bustling streets. It's a stone throws distance from Peru and a departure point to get to Isle de Sol. 

The day after my unplanned rest day (April 17th to be exact), we caught a boat to Isle de Sol with the intention of staying the night. Isle de Sol is the largest island in Lake Titicaca and takes a little over a hour to get too. We ran into someone we had met in La Paz and joined him and his friends at a hostel. This sounds simple enough but Isle de Sol is all uphill and we were dying by the time we reached our hostel. I may have been in high altitude for the last 5 weeks but I never seem to be able to get any air in my lungs. 

Stairs leading into the island. You pay a small entrance fee. 

Shot of the harbor as we climbed to our hostel. 

Girl with llama. So sneaky. She posed and then asked for money. 

The view from our hostel room. Breathtaking. 

After checking into the hostel we were determined to see the sunset from a nice viewpoint at the top of a hill. As great as this sounded I was still feeling sick. The sunset ended up being a bit disappointing due to the clouds and I was happy to head back to sleep. 

The walk to the top of the hill. Random donkeys everywhere. 

Maria. She tried (and semi-succeeded) to sell as items at the top of the hill. She also had a swig of our wine. 

The next day we hiked from the south end of the island to the north- a total of 4 hours following a beautiful hike. You actually pay more to 'enter' the north end of the island via hike (15 soles) than the total you pay to enter the island (5 soles). Once again I was still feeling pretty sick so the hike was a pretty big challenge for me (I was dying). The hike ended at Inca ruins and a beach. The ruins were really interesting (tiny door frames for tiny people, a ceremonial table, etc) but there were also some intense religious experiences taking place. We showed up at the ruins right on time to see a women crying and praying. It's always intense (and strangely beautiful) to see so much spiritual fervency. 

This is the only picture I took from the entire hike. It was hard to appreciate nature when I felt so sick :( 

When we got down to the beach to catch a boat back to the other side of the island things start getting blurry for me. I'm pretty sure my fever came back at this point. I passed out on the boat and almost fainted a few times on the climb back to our hostel (it felt like we were scaling Everest at the time- pure turture). After a nap I was feeling a bit better. We went out for dinner that night and supposedly had the greatest trout (it's so fresh!) of the trip but I couldn't get any down. Early bed time again. 

Of course on the day we were leaving I was magically cured of all illness. Oh well. Isle de Sol was still beautiful. The island's landscape looked unreal (the land looked like an elaborate jigsaw puzzle due to the people using every inch of the land for agriculture) and the water around the island was serene. The lake is so large it felt as though we were in the middle of the ocean. Gorgeous. 

When we got back to Copacabana we were amazed at the amount of people. When we had left the town was practically deserted. Copacabana is the place to be for Easter Sunday and pilgrims were flocking to the Virgin de la Candelaria church. It was built in the 16th century, is one of the most famous churches in Bolivia, and is the most important pilgrimage destination in Bolivia. There's a statue at the church of the Virgin Mary that was built pre-Inca and believed to create miracles. Some people had walked from as far as La Paz to get to Copacabana. The small beach at the dock was covered with tents and food tents had been set up everywhere. It was a giant fiesta. 

People covering the tiny beach to celebrate Easter. 

Another fun event that was taking place in honor of Easter was the blessing of the cars. It seems you can do this everyday for a small price but it was especially popular with the pilgrims during Easter weekend. People decorated their cars in colorful garlands and had the priest bless them. 

A priest blessing a car in front of the church. 

We had every intention of catching the 1:30 bus to Puno (Peru) but things happen that you don't expect. At least, we didn't expect to get on the wrong bus at 1:30. 

We handed our ticket (clearly marked Puno) to the man marking people down for the buses and he directed us to a bus. An hour into our ride we realized we were heading back to La Paz. Luckily, we jumped off, grabbed our things, and a nice lady helped us procure a bus back to Copacabana. To say we were a bit flustered would be putting it mildly. 

We ended up talking with the lady who sold us the bus ticket and got seats for the 6:30 bus the same day. Yay! We spent our extra time using Internet cafés and eating (my trout intake at this point: 3). 

We hoped on the bus and NEXT POST: Entering Peru: Puno and the floating islands.