Lake Titicaca and bad fish

Machu Picchu is a hard act to follow, but we had our sights on heading straight to Bolivia after the wonderful excursion. We were told Isla del Sol, nestled in Lake Titicaca, was not to be missed. From Cusco, we took a rickety "direct" bus to Copacabana. After the freezing over night ride, we awoke to a man alerting us to get off the bus in order to make the border crossing. Reluctantly, we squeezed onto a minibus and began to fill out paperwork. As Americans, Josh and I had to pay $130.00 to get into Bolivia (Israelis and US citizens are the only ones who have to pay to enter). During the hectic crossing, I started to develop signs of girardia, a nasty parasite which gives you wicked sulphur tasting burps and horrid diarrhea, and Josh injured his back by lifting his backpack in a hurry. We were a sorry site by the time we reached Copacabana. We decided to press on and take the hour and a half boat ride to Isla del Sol after Josh received some reflexology and brief massage from a rather crazy woman in town.Calcium bentonite clay saved me once again, as the boat had no bathroom. The boat docked on the south part of the island, and we proceeded to climb up the side of the mountain to find lodging. It was all I could do to take a few steps, then rest on a rock (avoiding copious amounts of poop scattered about everywhere) to catch my breath. I kept thinking if we could just get to the center of town I could get my bearings and feel better. There is no center, however, just more steps and winding paths. Josh took off with a teenage boy to find a hostal as I sat trying to get my burps to calm down. We finally found ourselves in a lovely hostal overlooking the Peruvian side of the lake.
Isla del Sol is the birthplace of the Incan empire. The people on the island speak Aymara and some Spanish. Electricity came to the island six years ago, and the tourists came with it. Water on the south island is a big issue, so when we asked the hostal owner if we could do a bit of laundry, he told us to go down to the beach. So down the other side of the mountain we went. The steep rocky path took an hour to descend.
Josh relaxing after a vigorous yoga practice to help his back heal. The laundry dried in the strong sun in about two hours.
The restaurants on the island serve two dishes : trout, quinoa soup. and pizza. We treated ourselves to pizza on our second night. I played some fiddle for the proprietors while we waited for our food to arrive. It is hard to play when your fingers won't warm up. The island is very cold at night.
The infrastructure on the island is not very developed, and many of the locals we encountered didn't seem very excited about our presence. Most people I saw seemed totally bewildered that we were there. They have no point of reference to relate to us, and it is quite puzzling to them, I'm sure, that we have the resources to come to their country and spend the same amount of money on a meal as they may spend all week. We were told routinely not to use any water where we were staying, and obtaining something as simple as hot water seemed to inconvenience and annoy. On our fourth day, we decided to head to the north island, where we heard we could stay right on the coast.
Our new spot, the Pacha Mama, was right on the beach and we immediately started to feel better about the island. We spent the afternoon on the beach playing frisbee with the local kids and watching them catch trout in the lake. The process was quite amazing to watch, as the kids circled up and splashed the fish into the net. Their excitement was incredible when the came up with a huge load of fish to take home for dinner.



Josh gave yoga lessons to some curious boys.

After a lovely hike, we went out for trout, as this is the only thing semi-vegetarian available option on the north part of the island. Josh's trout was undercooked, and he contracted a wicked case of food born illness. He spent the next day and a half in bed or in the bathroom. It was not a very fun way to spend our last two days on the island. We left Isla del Sol bewildered and weary, similar to how we felt when we arrived. I think we may have had a better experience sans digestive issues, but we made the best of it.
After siphoning gasoline by mouth to start the boat, our captain navigated the entire ride back to Copacabana with his foot. We played chess and fiddle with friends and looked forward to La Paz.