In the evening on October 2, we flew from Uyuni to La Paz. We landed in La Paz around 10pm, and had a car from our hotel pick us up (we heard and read sketchy stories about taxis in La Paz, so we wanted to make sure to be extra safe).
The city at night from the sky was absolutely amazing! La Paz is like a big bowl and the airport sits at the rim of the bowl (at ~4,000m above sea level) while the rest of the city is at the base of the bowl. We drove down the sides of the bowl to reach our hotel. We checked in and went to bed right away, we were exhausted!
Early in the morning on October 3, we got picked up by a bus company called Bolivia Hop to take us to Copacabana. After about an hour on the bus, the guide informed us that there were blockades and protests at every bridge between La Paz and Copacabana. He said it was unfortunately normal and that he didn’t know how long it would take us to get to Copacabana. We ended up following another big tourist bus through some desolate villages in order to avoid the blockades. Fortunately, Bolivia Hop was extremely accommodating and ordered us lunch as well as told the boat in Copacabana to wait for us. It was a bit of a rocky start to the day, but we eventually got to Copacabana safe and sound.
Once we arrived in Copacabana, we got on a small boat to take us to Isla del Sol. The boat ride was about an hour and the views of Lake Titicaca were beautiful!
At Isla del Sol we did a quick hike to the top viewing point. We saw many of the homes and hostels on the hills.
After the trek we took the boat back to Copacabana and spent the next few hours crossing the border and taking another Bolivia Hop bus to Puno, Peru.
On October 4 we got picked up bright and early by Bolivia Hop to do a tour of the floating islands in Lake Titicaca. The islands are inhabited by the Uros people. Each island consists of about 5 families, each with their own hut. The women spend their days keeping the islands afloat by continually stacking more reeds on the ground and by anchoring parts of the island to avoid being moved by strong winds. The men historically focused on hunting and fishing, however, the primary industry today is tourism.
A woman took us into her hut to show us how she lives and her little daughter then brought us to their crafts table to convince us to buy something.
We then took a boat that they call their “Mercedes” to another part of the island.
It’s crazy to think that we were only visiting one island, but that there are over 100 floating islands in this area of Lake Titicaca!!
After our visit to the floating islands, we started our bus journey to Cusco, Peru. We arrived is Cusco at 5pm, grabbed a quick light dinner, and relaxed for the evening at the hostel.
Melanie & Cody 