Basically, Isla del Sol (The Island of the Sun) is supposed to be this great place to visit, a must-see in the travel books. It's an island in the middle of the Titicaca lake and has a Sun Temple - what could go wrong?
Well in fact as much as possible! (apparently Siavosh has a premonition on this picture). The boat that goes from Copacabana to Isla del Sol, at the first glance looks like it can carry the load of 70+ people, but in fact all that's driving it is a set of 2 standard motor-boat engines, held in place by a 10-year old boy. As a side note, child labor is no big deal in Bolivia, "make your child work for you" should be their slogan. The speed is predictably slow. It's seriously no faster than 10km/h and since the two motors are working overtime to try to pull this humongous boat they're not suited for, you are always afraid one of them is gonna fail half way into the trip.
When we arrived to the island, they gave us instructions about how to get there to the Sun Temple, but despite that, after 2 hours of walking, we didn't manage to find it, neither did most people from our boat. The boat operators couldn't care less if we found the Sun Temple, or got back to the boat in time (the adults went off for lunch, while the 10 year old boy was left to clean the motor). The inhabitants of the island often didn't know or gave us the wrong directions.
Then we went to another part of the island, and finally saw some ruins, but after all this hassle we were hoping for more than this:
Of course not all was bad that day. Long boat rides are good for nice conversation and getting to know your fellow travellers. Siteseeing-wise, the trip was still worth it, because of absolutely astonishing views of lake Titicaca.
An additional bonus on Isla del Sol was the massive cutness of piglets and herds of sheep.
Kinda makes u forget all the inconveniences :)
For magnificent views from this part of the trip, check out this link
1 comment:
dude, there were 2 motors, but only one of them was running
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