Copacabana & Isla del Sol, Bolivia

Hello Bolivia, country number 9! Due to recurring recommendations, we skipped the peruvian part of lake Titicaca and went directly to Copacabana in Bolivia. Copacabana is another tourist town used as stop-over on the way to la Paz or/and as the gateway to the famous Isla del Sol. Besides visiting the island(s) and watching the rather impressive sunsets at the shore of lake Titicaca (with either good peruvian or shitty bolivian beer), there is not much to do in Copacabana. In fact, we found that Copacabana lacked all the charme which we kind of expected it to have - I guess we will never learn to either lower our expectations or to look destinations up before we go 🤷🏻‍♀️ - and even though super touristy for years, it had only non-aestethically pleasing restaurants with below-average food and bad coffee. Nevertheless, and especially looking back now, it was a really interesting first stop in Bolivia as it threw all the main differences to Peru straight into your face: much more dirty, and much less developed. Especially interesting - and a little shocking - was the viewpoint on Cerro Calvario, which is frequently used as a spot to watch the sunset over the lake Titicaca. What it really is, though, is a religious place, and the way up is lined with 14 crosses, representing a Via Crucis (look it up if interested, a catholic thing that has to do with Jesus suffering on his way to his crucifixion) and leading to a big-ass holy virgin depiction. What we found all the way up and on top of the rather holy place - besides the group of praying pilgrims - were loads and loads of empty beer bottles, cans, broken glass and other waste of all different kinds.

The Isla del Sol is a small island on the Titicaca lake which plays a crucial role in the believes of the Incas: It was on the Isla del Sol where the very first Inca - son of the sun god Inti and the moon goddess Mama Killa (that’s her name, no kidding) appeared.
The whole Island can be crossed by foot in approx. 3 hours and can be roughly divided into the touristy south with many hotels, hostals and the famous Inca templo del sol, and the more quiet and less touristy north of the island. As we were really feeling the need of some quiet and slow days after our sick-days in Cusco, we opted for the North and had no regrets whatsoever about it from the very first second of arrival! The little village called Challapampa, at which we had our hostal, is a sleepy little thing with only few tourists, few restaurant choices and very-little-to-no Wifi available, but instead offers a lot of free running pigs, donkeys, cats and dogs in the streets and on the beach and the loveliest town folk ever ❤️ So we spent our two days on the island watching the sleepy Challapampa life go by, eating delicious fresh trout from lake Titicaca, and a little bit of hiking to the ruins of the Chincana labyrinth and the nearest village called Challa. The labyrinth, by the way, was amazing and truly the very definition of a labyrinth - lucky us that it is a ruin and therefore easier to navigate due to its low walls, otherwise we’d have spent more time there 😂
Enjoy the views, the sunset and the sunrise over lake Titicaca as seen from the beautiful Challapampa village ❤️Baca lagi