isla de sol, bolivia

according to the inca legend, manco cápac, the son of inti (the sun) was born here in isla de sol (island of the sun) and mama ocllo was born in isla de luna (island of the moon). they set out and together, founded cusco, the center of the inca empire. that morning, it was raining, pretty bad, people, i even bought a poncho. a poncho. yes, i bought a poncho and 20 minutes later, the sun came out, beautiful day. we got on the boat at 13:30, and it was a 2 - 3 hr trip. we were sitting on top of the boat, and of course, the crowd cornered me (literally) with questions about puerto rico, you know, the usual. 

 isla de sol is relaxing paradise. we got to the beach... yes, the beach, on the lake, that one. yes, the one at 3800 m above sea level. the one with all the hippies camping on the beach. this beach is on the north of the island in yumani. locals live off agriculture, taking care of their cows and sheeps and llamas, and tourism. relaxing paradise. i didn´t carry my camera on the first day. we just walked around, cooked on the beach, made new friends and drank some cheap and sweet bolivian wine.

walking around i petted donkeys. i know it must be the silliest thing ever, but they are so soft! and sweet! and they look like they are about to cry! ...so it is like sad and sweet, and soft :) later, we met chico, a llama with his owner. i have no idea what was the gentleman´s name, but his love for chico was amazing! ...maybe sweeter than the donkeys, i can´t make up my mind. but i can say, there was affection, or love, between chico and the gentleman.

after it got dark, i went up to my room and about an hour later, we heard a guitar and people singing. music from puerto rico, and no puerto rican to be found. so, we all went down to the beach, it was an amazing latinamerican mix... music lasted until the rain came, chile leading the music, as colombia and i kept pushing for our music. fun fun fun times!  ...the hostel is closed? it´s ok, we jump the fence. ;)ç

the next day we decided to walk to the southern part of the island, with our backpacks (the heavy ones, yes) we heard it was about 3 hours, that turned into 5... in the sun, with the backpacks. but the views... oh the views were amazingly beautiful. it is evident why it was thought that this is where the sun had his son or where the inca civilization started, because this place is magical.

there are inca ruins and inca terraces for agriculture still around the island. we ended up catching a boat back to copacabana, and guess what? the ride, with the sunset, and the friends, and the breeze, and the sitting-after-walking-5-hours, was sooooo awesome!!!