On our own again and heading into the last leg of our trip across the Bolivian border to Peru. From El Alto we had a day to reach the mythical Lago Titicaca – renowned for being the highest largest lake in the world. It sits at 3825m and it is big enough that it feels like we are cruising the shores of the sea. In fact sometimes we feel we could be on Banks Peninsula – but there is a huge range of mountains – the Cordillera Real that are in the backdrop.
The vistas on the day to the town of Copacabana is one of Alan´s favourites. The road traverses high above lake level, was of a good gradient, paved and the views to the mountains fantastic with a fast 400m descent to the tourist haven of Copacabana. We met another cyclist who had been on the road for 8 years – yes we are just weekend warriors compared to some on two wheels. We have stayed off the tourist route mostly so these towns are a bit of a novelty in that we can get gringo kai!. We did our first touristie tour, taking a boat out to the Isla del Sol (island of the sun) which was a very important site for the Incas but everything got trashed by the spanish when they took over. Luckily they were not able to trash the views! We got dropped at the north end and spent 3-4hrs cruising the spine of the island. It was our rest day but we were pretty tired at the end of it. We haven´t had a total rest ‘rest day’ for a wee while now…
Dinner that night was a juxtaposition of street food for few bolivianos (trout and potatoes) followed by Jo’s desire for lemon meringue pie for muchas bolivianos in a trendy tourist restaurant. Topped off a great day.
Next day we crossed the border into Peru. Currency is Soles, more expensive than Bolivia, as friendly folk and much use of cycle rickshaws and motor taxis (tuk tuks in India) within towns. We carried on around the western side of the lake still enjoying lakeside vistas and it seemed warmer. We just passed thru the tourist town of Puna, atractively situated on the Lake and the largest town on the lake shore. The next major town was shown to be smaller than Puna on our map so we were a bit shocked to find ourselves finding our way thru a city of half a million and maybe Peru´s highest large city. So much for a quiet sunday on our bikes!
Only a few more days on our bikes till we reach Cusco, hoping to fit in the must do trip to Machu Pichuu before our flight home…
