Isla del Sol

We got the ferry around 9 am and luckily there were enough of us to warrant a second boat instead of squeezing onto an already full boat. The boat journey to Challapampa took about 2 hours. It was a pretty smooth journey, despite one person being sea sick most of the trip...

Once we arrived at the port in Challapampa, we got ready to start our walk. The first part of the walk would see us going further north to Chinkana, the main set of ruins on the island. Isla del Sol is said to be the birthplace of the sun for the Incas, but the ruins reminded me more of rustic houses rather than anything religious (putting that good Inca Trail knowledge to good use 😉). I stayed and explored the ruins and took in the beautiful view and listened to the lake lapping and the ducks quaking while Allan ran up the nearby hill for a higher view.

After Chinkana, we started making our way back south toward Yumani where we are staying tonight. The walk wasn't too bad. It had some stretches of up and then would flatten out or be slightly down. It was very hot though and there wasn't a lot of shade on the walk. I can tell why the Incas thought this was the birthplace of the sun, because it was shining bright and not a cloud in sight. Along the way we saw what would be Inca terraces if they were to be excavated, but other than that, after Chinkana there wasn't any ruins which was a little disappointing. The views were amazing though, and the water was so blue.

Once we started reaching the end of our walk, we entered the town of Yumani in the south where we would stay the night. This was definitely the steepest part of the walk. We had to go all the way through the town because our hostel is at the very bottom near the port. It was a great view from the hostel over the port and convenient for when we have to go back to Copacabana in the morning (we went down to buy tickets but you can only buy them the day of).

I relaxed for about half an hour or so while Allan went off exploring towards a potential temple. When he got back we had quite the time trying to get a towel to take one of the shittiest showers we've had since travelling. We've also both now been mildly electrocuted by a shower, me yesterday and him today. For dinner we climbed back up the hill through Yumani (fucking stairs) towards Las Velas, a little restaurant on a cliff side with good sunset views. When we got there it was closed. Nowhere seems to be open when we want to go! Instead we walked back through the forest into the town and found a few restaurants on the cliff with sunset views. We sat outside enjoying some wine and watched the sun go down. It was so nice and peaceful (and the bottle of wine only cost £6.70). After the sun went down, we moved inside to eat. Allan had trout which is one is the dishes this area is famous for.

It was dark by the time we left, so we used our phone flashlights to get back down the stairs to the hostel and had an early bedtime. It's been a nice day 😊Leer más