The day I almost died on the way to Isla del Sol
We woke up on our 5th day in Copacabana and had about a 10 minute window to decide whether today would be the day we would take the small speed boat over to Isla del Sol. The weather wasn’t fantastic and the lake was still pretty choppy but oh well let’s do it, it was our safety we were most worried about and we thought we would be ok.
I dropped a travel sickness tablet, left over from our trip to Antarctica where they absolutely did not work but I took it regardless as I had them on hand anyway. Twenty minutes in to the boat trip with another hundred left to go, the sea sickness kicked in and although I did not through up I felt so, so awful, seriously ill for the entire boat trip.
Five minutes after arriving on Isla del Sol, trying to recover with something to eat and drink.
We made it to the North end of Isla del Sol which takes two hours and from there intended to walk the 3-4 hours to the other end of the island where we would stay the night, catching the return boat back to Copacabana the following morning. You can choose to catch the boat straight to the Northern end and walk North to South and stay at this end, or even catch a boat straight back to Copa for just a day trip. Nonetheless I was not prepared for the 3-4 (I think it may have been 5) hour walk, we had thankfully left our big packs on Copa for the night so only had small packs but mine was still pretty heavy with my laptop in it as we didn’t want to leave it behind. It may have been the bad start to the day with my sea sickness, or the way too many layers we ended up wearing but I did not enjoy the trek one bit. I even started crying at one point and Rob had to carry mine and his bag, I have some definite work to do before our FOUR DAY, 40 something kilometer Inca trail trek.
Rob told me to look the other way for this picture as my face was so grumpy
It was however worth the sweat and tears as it is a lovely island to explore, there are Inca ruins to check out and a constant sprawling view of the enormous lake Titicaca around you. Once we made it to the South end of the island, where you will find most of the accommodation and restaurants we found a bed for the night at Casa del Luna. We then set out to find a bottle of wine with our name on it so took to the waters edge to purchase our tickets for the boat trip back to Copa the next morning and to visit one of the basic restaurants perched on the hill down at the “port”.
Inca ruins on Isla del Sol
Must find wine, it took about 20 minutes for a bottle opener to be located but we got there in the end
We found something red and after consuming that we took to the hill to find an organic restaurant we had heard about, we soon learned why it is advised to leave your large bags in Copa, the South end of the island is extremely hilly.
The stairs at the foot of the hill at the South end of the Island, this is only the beginning of what is yet to come
The streets of Isla del Sol, donkeys, sheep and me.
We found the restaurant we were after Las Vejas, hidden in a forest of Sycamore trees and just caught the end of the sunset, it was a perfect spot for a dinner by candlelight (as the restaurant does not have any electricity). I had Kingfish, only later wondering how it was kept cold prior to me ordering it, nonetheless I lived and with morning came calmer seas and the 90 minute trip back to Copa was far more enjoyable this time around.
We luckily caught the end of the sun at Las Vejas, as shortly after the sun went down we were in complete darkness. We ended up having to help some German tourists through the forest with our phone torch as it was completely dark.
