La Isla del Sol and Copacabana

This post is going to be more a photo diary, because I think it will just work better that way!  Enjoy the beauty that is Bolivia!  Also, most of my Rural Village stay story is about me being sick, so sorry!  But that's all I have to write about!  And it did make for some interesting village experiences and stories!

Our first view of Lago Titicaca was at Tupak Katari
but our first excursion into the water was when we crossed
via tiny motorboat and the bus crossed on a pontoon boat

In the middle of the lake!
The mountains frame it so perfectly!

Land Ho! Caro & I taking pictures with random tourist objects
on the other side of the lake while we waited for the bus

Then we got back on the bus and drove for another few hours to Copacabana, our final stop before La Isla del Sol.  We were rushed off the bus and boarded a boat very similar to the one we took earlier, except this one we spent two hours on instead of 15 minutes... The southern tip of La Isla del Sol is actually only about an hour or so away from Copacaban, but the village we were visiting for our rural village stay was in the center, so it was 2 hours on the boat.

Trying to keep warm on the top of the boat

The beginning of La Isla!
Also, the views of this house must be amazing!

Bolivia!

Getting ready to land!!
The beach directly ahead of us is our village!

After we landed we had to wait for all the families to congregate
so we hung out on the beach and these two children ran past
with all their sheep!

 In order to pick families to spend the weekend with, we all gathered in a circle, went around and said our names and then the village leader went Bolivian by Bolivian and said, "Okay, who wants to live with him?" and we had to volunteer and it was the most awkward partnering I've ever experienced and I went to summer camp for years!  I ended up with a man named Rodrigo and actually lucked out that my classmate Shana was also with the family!  So we got to share a room, which made the experience less awkward.  We got to the house (which is shared by the extended family, in total there are 5 families) and we had our own room.  We each had a bed, which I was definitely not expecting!  But I was still glad I had my sleeping bag, because it was freezing cold on la Isla!  They fed us coca tea, bread and cheese and our welcoming committee consisted of el gato and one of their children, Wilmer.

The cat was named "El Gato"
We fed him lots of our cheese because we were so excited to have
a cat, and got him in trouble, but it was worth it!
He sat in our laps and purred forever!

Wilmer:  the only word he knew was no..
typical two year old!

We met a few other family members, and Wilmer and his sister Elisa took us to see the pigs on the beach.  And by dinner time I was not feeling too well, and didn't want to eat dinner even though it was quinoa soup which is amazing... and well I ended up getting super sick!  I spent the entire night sick and the bathroom was about a 3 minute walk (although I'm sure I made it faster than that a few times) and it was an open outhouse of sorts with a hole carved out of the boards in the floor. That night lasted forever, I was sick for about 12 hours and the sun just refused to rise.  Although, the good thing about being so sick was that I spent a lot of time outside and got to see all of the stars!  I watched the sky move that night and it was incredibly clear and the stars were so brilliant!  I saw EVERY SINGLE star in Scorpio with such striking clarity it was unreal.  And when the winter hexagon appeared with Orion in the center, I could barely find his belt because all the other stars were so bright!  And I couldn't find any of the other constellations in the hexagon because there were just too many.  The stars served as a great distraction from my illness, but it was still the longest night I've ever experienced!  Luckily I had a wonderful roommate that made me drink rehydration salts and called our academic director to figure out what to do and didn't complain about what a pain I was!  The next day when I woke up I was still feeling pretty awful, but our host family had plans to go potato farming, and they couldn't leave me alone in the house for fear that I would get worse.  So, I drank a few cups of tea (coca, rosemary, some other herb), drank some chuno water which the family then proceeded to pour over me to get rid of my fever, bundled up, brought my hydration salt filled water and tried to walk to the lake (which was about 100 yards).  But after being sick all night it was almost impossible.  I kept telling the family "No puedo, no puedo."  But the indigenous people don't really get sick.  They kept telling Shana and I that it was normal for tourists to get sick, and that it would pass, but this was more than a traveler's illness.  We all boarded the row boat, me, Shana, our other classmate Micah, Micah's host dad (who was our host uncle), and both mine and Shana's family, husbands, wives and all the children and we rowed all the way across the lake.  It was a beautiful day on the lake and I wish I was feeling better because I could have enjoyed it, but it did feel better than sitting in my room!  But when we reached the island we had to walk 100 yards, which I couldn't do.  So my host brother, Micah and I got back in the boat to get me closer to the potato field, only to end up eating right on the beach because I was so weak.  I didn't eat any of the food, but they spread it out on their blankets and sat in a circle and just went at the food!  There were 4 or 5 different types of potatoes, fish from the lake, eggs, yuca.. I don't even remember! It was all just piled on top of the other things and you eat everything with your hands!  And lunch is even longer on the Isla than in Cochabamba because it's a break from field work!  After lunch, we all piled back into the boat and finally returned to our beach.  Our director had sent me medicine, but I was so weak at that point that we decided it was better that I head back to Copacabana.  Shana & Micah were heroes and packed up all my stuff for me, I boarded the boat, made a bed on the boat and slept until we reached Copacabana.  The captain of the baot was so nice and offered to walk me to the hotel, which I appreciated so much because I was so tired and we had to climb up a huge hill, there was no way I would have made it on my own!  And the next three days were spent in the bed of the hotel, with the company of Silvia (a good friend of our academic director) who stayed in Copacabana with me because Ismael had to go back to Cochabamba suddenly.  She and the entire hotel staff took such wonderful care of me.  The hotel receptionist sent me all sorts of different teas and called to check in.  All the waiters that brought the tea wanted to make sure I was okay, and when I finally emerged from my room they all knew I was the sick gringa and asked if I was better!  It was so sweet!  And definitely helped to lighten my mood!

This is the view from the BATHROOM
you could take a bath and look out over Copacabana!
Also, my bed was so comfortable is was like a cloud!!

After 3 days, I was finally able to hold down crackers and apples and because the hotel was completely booked, returned to La Isla with Silvia!  Our boat was packed, so I bundled up and sat on top where I met a group of Brazilians that were headed to La Isla for a day trip!  We chatted for a while and it made the time pass quickly, which was wonderful!  They were on an adventuring trip and had visited Salar de Uyuni, and afterwards were headed to Peru and eventually Cusco.  They also spoke English and Portuguese, which you can sort of understand if you know Spanish, but there were times I had no idea what was going on and we were speaking in English and I'm sure the same for them! We arrived at La Isla and I immediately went back to bed at Esteban's house (not my original family).  But it was wonderful to be able to return to La Isla.  It is so beautiful, although it did rain that entire afternoon, all night and into the morning.  But I wasn't getting sick, so there was no need to continually run to the bathroom (which was only 30 seconds away and a real toilet at Esteban's)!  Plus I would have had company, because Esteban keeps his donkeys back by the bathroom at night, so I came out early that morning to a donkey standing in my way!  That was a very rural village stay experience.

I walked out of my room the next morning and was greeted with this amazing view

Esteban's wife and I outside the kitchen!
Look how tiny that door is!
The roosters and guinea pigs live inside the kitchen
which I guess makes it really easy to eat?

The sky was so incredible!  So clear even after so much rain!

The next day we boarded the boat and headed back to Copacabana.  Everyone seemed to have had a wonderful time!  At Esteban's we played a lot of cards with his daughter Pomela and talked to her which was fun!  We kept teasing her because a boy kept calling her cell phone (yes they had cell phones on the Island)

The ride back to Copacabana was rather rough...
almost everyone was feeling lake sick
We also had to go a lot slower because of all the waves
so it took almost two and a half hours!

Arriving at Copacabana

Our last views of Lago Titicaca at Copacabana

 Luckily we had about 45 minutes to explore in Copacabana, eat some breakfast and settle our stomachs before heading back to La Paz for Tiwanaku and the airport.  We made it up to La Plaza Sucre which was gorgeous, but being sick still, I didn't really explore it.  At least I took pictures! :)

The Church!

Center of La Plaza

All in all, La Isla was not what I expected it to be, but even being sick I feel like I still gained some experience from it!  Hopefully I can do my ISP in a rural village to get the rural village experience, but it all depends.  It ended up that in total, during our trip to La Paz and La Isla that 5 or 6 people were sick at various times with various degrees of what I had, so it was most likely a stomach bug which is just upsetting!  But now I guess I have to go back to do the archeology tour of La Isla and experience it fully!  And if I hadn't been sick, I would have never seen the amazing night sky!  Or met Silvia, who's father is Aymara, and she was born in Bolivia but lives in California now and is traveling with her friend around Bolivia.  She is such a fascinating woman and to illustrate Vivir Bien in another way, Silvia told me that La Isla is a very powerful place.  It is where the first Inca is believed to have come from, so is the heart of Aymara culture.  She belives that I was so sick because I was worried about something that La Isla didn't think was important, or worth worrying about, so to get me to forget about it, made me sick in the hopes that I would realize my 'transgression.'  That thought process is so foreign to me, and I think it's incredible that even after living in the States and raising her family there, Silvia is still able to stay so connected to her Aymaran roots.  Maybe I was preoccupied on the Island, which made my stomach virus worse, who knows!  All I know is that after that weekend, being sick is going to be a breeze!

To impromptu stargazing that made being so sick sort of worth it,

Carly