And so we made our way to the lake of Titicaca! Starting in Copacabana, visiting la Isla de Sol and making a final stop in Puno.

To get to Copacabana we took a bus at the cementerio of La Paz. It’s 20 soles for an most 4 hour ride. In Copacabana we stayed at a hostel called Florencia, run by a lovely lady. In town there’s not very much to do and it’s also not the most beautiful place. There is one main street with all touristic restaurants, bus ticket sellers and souvenir shops. We however went the next day early up the cerro de la cruz (hill with a religious cross) . Coming from the lake there is a crazy, little path which is quite steep and goes all around big rocks. It’s almost adventurous to go up there and also not very easy. It’s especially not easy because here you are at the shore of the highest navigable lake in the world! Around 4000m high – so no shame if you are out of breath quickly (hm, what?). It’s all worth it though, because the view is amazing! And you get a treat because on the other side are actually nice stairs that lead to the city center (no, we didn’t know there was an easier way up..)

At 1.30pm we took a boat with many more tourists to the isla de sol. It costs between 15 amd 25 soles and the boats leave at 8.30am and 1.30pm. To come back you have a couple more options so technically you could just go for the day to the island. The ride takes 1.30 hrs and arrives at a little port from where you have to walk a steep way up. There’s plenty of hostels and prices vary. You can stay in a dorm for 35 bolivianos or have a private room for 40 bolivianos. It’s better not to book in advance online, since the price can be up to 50$! We had a friend waiting for us there and she took us all the way up to the west side of the island. It was so tough to go up but in the end ery rewarding! The last houses on top of the hill face the west coast and have all really cute terasses. So for the rest of the afternoon we just sat there with a beer and some snacks and enjoyed the sun in our faces and lateron the sunset.

As you might have heard, the northern part of the island is blocked because of some local conflicts. As tourist you are not allowed anymore to walk there and boats don’t go there neither. Still, the next day we went on a walk to a mirador north of the setteling where we stayed and went even a bit further for the view. The lake Titicaca is more then impressive from there! And with all the sun, I completely understand the myth that the sun god Inti was born on this island.

Later that day we went on to Puno, which is not a nice city, but you can visit the floating islands from there. In Puno we stayed at Bonnie Hostel. There is no especially nice hostel and this one was cheap and had all ammenities one could want. Puno has one main touristic street with restaurants, shops and ATMs. Many of the restaurants offer a touristic menu between 18 and 20 soles, which includes a drink and dessert. We also visited the market close to the bus terminal. I actually really liked it: there were not many tourists (because the touristic map guides them to another market more in the center) and people were really friendly. For the first time I saw sales of guinea pigs, since it’s a local meal in Peru (16 soles the piece).

And then we finally went on a little tour to the floating islands! Man, everyone had warned us about it being a tourist trap, but they do it in a weird very straight forward, no scrupules kinda way which surprised me. We arrived on the first island where an indigenous man told us uninteresting info aboug the lake. Then every perdon from the island takes a tourist into their house and makes you buy a souvenir. Well, it was very awkward and I was happy to leave quickly. Apart from this, the islands are quite crazy made of bambu/straw something. We saw a beautiful sunset from the second island and then went back.

All in all the Titicaca lake gave us amazing views and it was just super relaxed with no rush to do anything. I hope you enjoy the pictures 🙂