Lago Titicaca, que frio !

There was a day when I started planning this trip, that I was dreaming about Bolivia : a country landlocked in South America, its sea edge 'stolen' by Chile ; a country with people so poor but with natural resources so rich ; a country with endless mountain ridges, salt deserts and steamy jungle ; a country that my good friend Lore had described with so much humour while living there for a year ; a country for which I had to take my time if I wanted to visit it. So, a bit fed up with the endless touristic hassle in Cuzco, I wanted to get a break as fast as possible and head down to Bolivia. Well, like you might have read in my last Peru story, this was a bit a mistake, never rush when there's still some stuff to do or see ! Well, if you have time to do and see it of course. Anyways, having been already in Bolivia, I really look forward to going back there. The introduction in the lake town of Copacabana (not to confuse with the Rio beach, going there later hehe) gave me already a bit of a taste : Bolivian siñoras that look up from under their hats at those strange gringos passing by, cars and camiones getting a colorful blessing in front of the Cathedral, a filling menu del dia and a mouthful of conversation for 10 bolivianos (about 1 euro), taxistas and bus drivers catching customers at loud voice, La Pa La Pa La Paz !! But for the rest... well honestly, there isn't much to do there (much like in Puno, at the other side of the lake), unless you get on a boat to some of the nearby islands or hike your way around the peninsula. Faced by a bit of rain and lots of cold, I decided to do the first thing and get on a two day trek around Isla del Sol. Well, when I got there, it didn't really live up to its name and by the end of the first day, I was feeling homesick for the first time in about 4 months. There was literaly nothing to do on the island, and the rain only made it more miserable. Luckily, I found a good hostal to crash for the night, and there I ran into a triple of really cool guys : Rob, a London college student ; Matt, a cast away English chap, gardening in Barcelona and travelling for most of his other time, and Kurt, a talentful Canadian musician just out of high school. With the four of us, we plunged into cheap Bolivian rum (what else can you do?), cardgames and an hilarious music jam on one guitar (all 4 playing the songs we knew). Needless to say I was already feeling a lot better. Not only the music and conversation helped, so did some hot soup and fried trout. That was about the only thing I could get on the island, but hey it was warm inside the resto so I didn't complain. I also tried to help out a couple of locals who were desperately trying to set up an antenna to catch the Bolivia-Chile soccer match on TV. Since it only passed on cable in Bolivia, they had put up the antenna on the highest point of the island, so they could catch the Peruvian signal coming from the other side. Unfortunately, the interference at 3900m altitude was a bit too strong, and after the commentator shouted over the radio 'Goooooooooooooaaaaal de Chillllleeeeeee!!!', the 5 technicians and 15 supporters decided to leave the snow on the screen for what it was. Chile won 0-2. It looked like the second day would be a copy of the first, starting off with rain and a chilly wind. It left Kurt and me almost desperate to leave (Matt and Rob already had), but just by the time we were almost packing our stuff, the sun broke through and in no time it was dry and hot ! So we took on the challenge to hike to the southern ruins of the Templo del Sol, where we had a full size picknick (at least I brought enough food!) of cheese, crackers, apples, bananas, Twix and Snickers. And after that, we even took on the challenge of taking our stinky bodies for a dip in the freezingly cold lake. I guess it must have been at 9-10 degrees, so verrrrry cold ! But the strong sun dried us in no time. So, having gotten a taste of the lake, I told myself I had to get back to Peru for some more. And so I did (see previous Peru section) ! After all the excitement and wonderful things I have seen around Lago de Titicaca, I feel very lucky. Lucky to be able to travel where I want and when I want, going by gut feeling and curiosity. Lucky to have still 3-4 weeks left to explore some parts of Bolivia, before heading east to Brazil. So, tomorrow I am off to La Paz (hopefully the weather there will be as good as the last 2 days, but I'd doubt it), the capital of Bolivia. More news to come from the Altiplano before Easter !