Isla Del Sol

The pictures are:

1.Eva and Ince ruins

2. Coke stop with a furry friend

3. Why is it so hard to resist taking photos of cute little kids and llamas?

4. One of the amazing views

The next morning we set out on an excursion onto the lake. There is a popular day trip from Copacabana, out to the Isla Del Sol. You can have a boat drop you off at one end of the Island and pick you up 5-6 hours later from the other. We joined about 40 others on the boat and headed out for the day.

The Island has a trail across its spine and has several small fishing and farming villages. All over the Island there are amazing views of the lake as well. We had very clear weather and could see for miles. Some directions you couldn't even see the other side of the lake. The Island is a very special place for the Incas and I can see why. The following is from the Lonely Planet website.

"The Island of the Sun is the legendary Inca creation site and is the birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology. It was here that the bearded white god Viracocha and the first Incas, Manco Capac and his sister-wife Mama Huaca (or Mama Ocllo), made their mystical appearances.
With a population of around 5,000, Isla del Sol is dotted with several villages, of which Yumani and Cha'llapampa are the largest. The island's Inca ruins include Pilko Kaina at the southern end and the Chincana complex in the north, which is the site of the sacred rock where the Inca creation legend began. At Cha'llapampa, there's a museum with gold artifacts from the underwater excavations near Isla Koa, north of Isla del Sol. The Museo Templo de Sol near Cha'lla features a collection of all things Aymara, one of Bolivia's largest indigenous groups."

We started the day in Cha'llapampa and then hiked our way up to the ruins. Not the most impressive set of Inca ruins we saw, but the setting was amazing. Then over the next 5 hours or so we hiked our way south. It was not easy hiking at that elevation and we had to stop frequently. I felt a painful feeling in my lungs I have never felt before. Fortunately (as I have mentioned many times, the view during our stops was never lacking). Along the walk we often bumped into others from the boat, all going at different paces.

Eventually we made it to the southern village and had a half hour to kill in a little restaurant before catching the slow boat back to the mainland. It was a long day and although we were sun burned (after all we were on the Isla Del Sol) and tired, we were fulfilled.