March 15- Beautiful Day on Isla del Sol

 A day full of beauty and insanity.  Being a control freak I’d tried to find alternate travel arrangements back home as country after country in South America closed its borders, even to transiting passengers.  I was originally scheduled to depart from Quito, Ecuador April 4 and moved that to March 19.  Then Ecuador closed to transiting passengers.  Delta sent me an e-mail telling me my flight from Ecuador was cancelled and they were trying to re-book me.  Good luck with that, Dude.  A couple of days later I just cancelled and requested a refund.  They never did come up with a re-booking.  No surprise there.   I found a flight from La Paz to the US via Bogota.  In the morning Bogota was open to transiting passengers.  By the afternoon they were not accepting transiting passengers. Finally I left it in the hands of the tour company even though they hadn’t booked my original flights.

Despite that we had a wonderful day.  We took a boat out to Isla del Sol (Sun Island) and the two of us hardy enough to hike to the top went with the guide.  I had hiking poles that were sold only in pairs and I was used to working with only one.  The other woman didn’t have them so I gave her my spare.  We were both grateful to have them!  On the way up the mountain, we bought items from several vendors.  We stopped at the toilets, which cost 2 Bolivianos about 30 cents) to use.  I fished through my coins, selected a large shiny one and handed it to the young lady, who told me in Spanish that she couldn’t accept it. “Por que (why)?” I asked.  Then I looked at it.  It was a Mexican peso coin from my trip a year ago.  Oops.

Note stairway on the left- it was a steep climb at the very beginning.

Abandoned temple on the way up the mountain

There were more vendors higher up on the island.  I bought a wonderful, soft alpaca poncho from the woman who made it.  Williams had known her for years and she told him this was her last year selling alpaca products- there was too much competition and she’d met a lady who got good prices for fava beans selling them for export to China and was planning to grow more of them.  I was very glad I had a chance to buy from her and glad to know the story behind the poncho.

Some people were NOT on vacation.

Grazing alpaca

Isla de la Luna

Note terracing on the mountainside- this was done hundreds of years ago.  Our guide, Williams, in foreground.

Coca leaf tea break.  It's a remedy for altitude sickness and they told us that the real mind-altering effects of cocaine come from the chemical process used to distill cocaine from coca leaves.

Made it to the top- 13,000 feet elevation, but I;d been at 12,000 feet since my arrival, anyway.

Another view of the terracing

It's all downhill from here.

Lunch was especially welcome after the hike.  It was at an Inn at the bottom of the island and started with a large selection of baked vegetables wrapped in a colorful cloth- fava beans, corn (both much larger than their US counterparts), potatoes, dehydrated potatoes and baked plaintains.  Virginia, the owner, then brought out homemade cheese, hard-boiled eggs and platters of vegetable fritters, fish and chicken.  Dessert was a platter of bananas and tangerines- the latter had green skins but were orange inside, and a little more tart than the ones at home. 

Potatoes, dehydrated potatoes, fava beans, corn and baked plaintain. And that was just the appetizer!

Lunch with a view

After our return to our hotel we visited the town square and the Basilica, built over the site of an Inca temple.  Williams told us that about 5% of Bolivians are returning to the indigenous religions.   

Door carvings, above and below.   Photos inside the building were prohibited.

We then explored the nearby markets.  The two older women decided to take the minivan back but I decided to walk the side streets with CJ, who had been on the hike.  We bought a few more items from vendors- she’s fond of hats- and she suggested having a beer on the upstairs patio of one of the bars.  It was Happy Hour- we got two huge bottles of beer (one each) for the equivalent of about $6.  We were up there for at least an hour, talking and enjoying the view of the lake as the music shifted from Bob Marley to Spanish hip-hop.  It was one of those priceless experiences- not expensive not dramatic, but really enjoying the moment.

Beer with a View