24/08/2019 – Isla del Sol, Bolivia

We had an alarm free morning, and both had a nice lie in (barr a quick dash to the toilet from me.) We opened the curtains and enjoyed the beautiful view of the lake from bed until Josh got too hungry. We quickly got dressed and went just around the corner from our accommodation for Josh to have some breakfast. We sat outside in our jackets but were bathed in the glorious warmth of the sunshine. Josh had scrambled eggs, bread, juice and coffee. I still didn’t trust my stomach, so once Josh had finished went back home and had some dry crackers with marmite. Josh went down to the waterfront and enquired about the ferry for tomorrow. Then we sat on the grass on the mountainside outside out little room, and played monopoly deal. It was so peaceful.

View from our casa

The lady who owns the accommodation was sat on the grass doing her washing in some big bowls. Her little girl, who was probably about eight years old, carried a little kitten over to us to cuddle, and then sat near and kept watching as Josh and I played cards with each other. Once the sun had gone behind a big cloud, it got cold very quick. We went back into our room and had showers (the water is so cold that we have to shower before it is freezing outside, so as to have a chance at warming back up again!) We went for a walk up through the mountain on an old Inca path into the little village of Yumeni. We followed some donkeys carrying some supplies up, there are no roads or cars here. We walked all the way up to a viewpoint that was pretty much 360°, and the vastness of lake Titicaca really became apparent.

View point

4000m above sea level restaurant

The sun was low and casting golden light across the milky blue water, we could see snow capped mountains in one direction, and the other direction looked like it could have been the Mediterranean. It is easy to forget about the altitude until you do any kind of physical activity, and are immediately reminded by being so quickly out of breath. The children here have very practical protection from the sun, good sunhats, sunglasses, and are almost always in trousers and long sleeves. I don’t think they have sun cream so I guess it is the best alternative. The ladies wear very traditional dress, long skirts, wide brimmed hats, two long plaits joined together at the end with lots of tassles. It does make the young mums, I’m sure much younger than me, look so much older, until you see their face. We came across lots of donkeys, llamas, sheep on our walk. It was so peaceful, we only passed a handful of people. We were pretty tight on money by the evening as the island only accepts cash, there is no ATM, barely Wifi and certainly not card machines here. I was feeling able to eat a bit of something, so Josh and I shared a pizza (absolute result, I’m on the up finally!), with a view out across the lake at sunset. We walked back down the mountain to our accommodation in the dark, and a dog followed us all the way to our door! The stars were out and it was very calm. We started packing up our things, and then hopped into our silk liners (for the extra warmth) and into bed to tackle a catch up on the diary!