The after the bike ride on Death Road I planned to take a bus to Copacabana by lake Titicaca to visit the nearby Isla del Sol before heading to Puno. Couple of days prior, I had met Matthias who was also travelling in the same direction. We decided to take the same bus and ended up visiting almost all the sites together. He’s turned out to be a great travel buddy!

The journey from La Paz to Copacabana is about 4 hours. Halfway through the ride you get off the bus and take a 10 minute journey on small boats. You reunite with the bus which is transborated on large floating boats and carry on for another hour or so.

There is not much in Copacabana but it’s a good base to explore the nearby islands on the Lake Titicaca. However, the views of the lake is just gorgeous.

Standing by the Lake Titicaca, you could be forgiven to think that you’re in a small fishing village at sea level. However, doing a hike up to the Cerro Calvario, which is a big hill overlooking the town, you are quickly reminded that the lake is above 12,500 feet. Matthias being a climber (apparently with a genetic condition that makes him adaptable to high altitude) and me a fitness junkie who is now well acclimatised, we enjoyed a very fast uphill climb.

Cerro Calvario is a monument that represents 14 stations of the cross. Given that it was the morning of Christmas eve, there were many pilgrims making their way uphill. The hike is worthwhile even if you’re not a pilgrim as it gives spectacular views of the lake and the islands.

This local boy let me hold his cute puppy. It was such a warm, playful creature, after a while I reluctantly returned him.

After the hike and a quick lunch, we made it to the boat heading to Isla Del Sol. I was very keen to get there as had seen the amazing photos and knew to expect an untouched nature thanks to the ban on motor vehicles. Also, apparently it is possible to walk from one end of the island to the other and still see amazing Inca ruins. I wanted to run the distance instead and spend a quiet Christmas day there.

The boat journey takes about one hour. Once on the boat, we were asked to climb onto the upper deck. It may not be the safest thing to do with backpacks but the journey was great fun, especially because there was a group of Argentinan guys with a guitar playing cool songs. They even played a Manu Chao song I asked for!

On arrival we were greeted by bunch of donkeys and sat at a lovely cafe to figure out where we would walk etc.

There we received the bad news: due to an ongoing conflict between the north and the south part of the island, we cannot go beyond the marked sections.  It was hard to get a straight answer from the locals about the cause of the conflict and the exact danger (if any) should we attempt to pass to north. From a little research online I discovered that the issue relates to some land dispute and the southerners are not willing to share tourism with the north and destroying their infrastructure. It appears that the south is preventing us from getting to the other side (rather than northerners not allowing tourists).

Looking at the map, this means we are restricted to just one third of the island and cannot access the museum or any of the inca ruins, all of which are in the north. Not to discourage the tourists this information is kept secret until you arrive to the Island.
I was also disappointed that I was not going to be able to run the entire length of the island as planned.

The only thing left was to make most of the available section. Thankfully the place I chose to stay (La Estancia Eco Lodge) was far away from the town centre and once I entered through their gate, I completely forgot about all the bad news! This place was a complete heaven. Each room is built in a way to give full view of the lake and there is a magical, peaceful silence only disturbed by little birds.

The dinner included fresh trout from lake titicaca, I was impressed by their sophisticated range of wine and the quality and presentation of the food (even the bigger Island Copacabana didn’t have this). Their cozy fire place, board games and playing cards meant we all had a very cozy Christmas.

The next morning, again joined by Matthias, I attempted my run to see how far I could go towards north. The start of the run was steep uphill, I had hoped that the trail would flatten but soon I realised the whole way would be up or downhill. In fact soon we were jumping up and down different trails, even climbing rocks. The normal trail going north was blocked by the villagers holding. So, we wanted to steer away from them to avoid unpleasant discussions therefore found ourselves on this difficult terrain trying to run. Soon I accepted that this mostly a fast walk and ignored the 15 minute miles on my watch.

Once at the level of the lake, we saw this unmanned control point and passed walking on the rocks alongside the water. Soon the rocks started growing steeper and more slippy. I was curious to see how far we could get but Matthias sensibly warned that there was no point in going further because on the map we could see the cliffs were getting higher. Falling from one of the rocks, we would find it hard to get any help. Besides I love my “busy feet” and would like to do more runs! My only regret was that I didn’t carry a camera to capture the beauty before me and really hope to return there soon to do so.

Running the same way back, by the time we finished the run my watch was showing 9.5 km but nearly 2 hours time. Given the difficult terrain and the amount of time we spent jumping between rocks like small children, this was in fact rather fast. The remainder of the afternoon was spent at a good lunch spot before we had to race down in the other direction towards the boat that would take us back to Copacabana.

I was very disappointed about the conflict and I could not help but feel sorry for the northern side of the island which seems completely isolated despite being home to all the ruins and the museum. I do hope that they resolve the issue and I can go back to complete my original plan of running the entire length of the Island without having to hide and negotiate dodgy rocks and cliffs.

My next stop will be Puno and the floating Islands.