Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

ok so as most of you know we have safely arrived back to the united states. little did WE know that there were people actually following our blog and have been patiently awaiting our next update. so we have decided that although we are home to continue blogging..... last we left off we were in bolivia still...... so lets time warp back to october 23rd!!!!

We packed up our things and said goodbye to La Paz this day and were off to Copacabana. Copacabana is the main bolivian town on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is know as the birthplace of the Incas and therefore very sacred to the people here. According to Incan mythology, it was from Lake Titicaca that the creator god Viracoca rose up to create the sun, moon, stars, and first human beings (ok so the story is much more elaborate than just that but just to get the gist of things...). There are many ruins that can be seen in this area and very recently a large temple was discovered submerged in the lake. Aesthetically, it is stunning. It's honestly so big it feels like you are looking out over the ocean. It is 50 MILES wide, 118 MILES long, and its max. depth is about 1,000 ft.

Here we spent the first day just hanging out with some street vendors that we met and a few friends in the hostel; jessi got a hair wrap and I was learning how to make a necklace. We ended up heading over to the sand with them, a bongo drum, an abnormally large didgeridoo (it looked like it could have been a wooly mammoth tusk or something) that no one could really play that well because it was so big, and sang songs to pacha mama (mother earth). Ironically a tourist came by and took a picture of all of us.. we then asked for un boliviano (boliviano= bolivian money, thats what the locals do if you want to take a picture of them)... they didnt pay..

The next day we woke up to take a boat to la isla del sol, the island on the lake where the Incan sun god was said to be born. We of course were late and went running after the boat..... On the boat, it really truly looks like you are on the ocean. You cant see a single building or mountain or anything along the horizon. After about an hour, we arrived at la isla del sol. Here our 2 rasta friends from the other day set up camp on the beach and were planning on staying the night. We fed some of the little pigs that were running around on the sand and then went to have lunch. After lunch we just relaxed on the beach.. its very peaceful there.

The boat picked us up again and scooted us over to another island. We watched these little peruvian boys jumping in the freezing cold water for a swim, a woman washing her clothes and laying them out to dry on the rocks, and a little LITTLE boy leading his family's donkeys to the water for a drink.

It was around 4 p.m. by this point and time to hop on the boat to head back to Copacabana. We had crystal clear blue skies ALL day and as soon as we got on a boat a few darker clouds started rolling in. About 5 min before leaving a few rain drops started to fall. By the time we set out, there was a full on storm. The waves were pushing our little dinky boat around like crazy. Everyone from the roof came to the first floor to get out of the rain and we were all squashed in this cramped space that was not meant for that many people. It started to get hot. Babies were crying, people started vomiting. Some guy was yelling to turn the boat around and wait until the storm passed. Another was talking about punching through one of the windows because it was getting so hot. People were yelling for bags. Its kind of funny looking back on it now, but 3 hours of that and the boat going up and down and up and down and up and down was more like a nightmare at the time.

We were never so happy to see land.