At the Copa, Copacabana

Copacabana, Bolivia is apparently the namesake of the beach in Brazil that is actually the subject of the famous song. So no, we're not at "that" Copacabana. It's just as well, we only know that one line anyway.

Lake Titicaca is the largest, deepest, highest lake in the world. It is often compared to Tahoe in the US and Victoria in Africa. From Puno, it was not a very impressive lake as that section is very marshy/reedy and lacks the dark blue of a deep alpine lake. [We skipped the super-commercial tours of the Uros floating islands nearby.] About an hour and a half south of Puno, the view markedly improves as the marshes disappear and the Cordillera Real shows up on the other side of the lake, giving it the classic "blue lake surrounded by snowy mountains" look we expected considering the comparisons to Tahoe (which we saw in April). From Copacabana, the Cordillera isn't really visible but you still get the super blue color of the lake, and you can see Isla del Sol, the largest island in the lake and an important Inca site--the sun was born here and Manco Capac is supposed to have either appeared or otherwise been empowered here as well. Frankly we think Tahoe is more beautiful, with the steep wooded hillsides and the snowy mountains completely encircling the lake. But Titicaca is still pretty impressive.

Bolivia is one hour ahead of Peru, thankfully, so the sunrise here is at a more reasonable 5:30am. We picked up the last, and apparently best, room at La Cupula. Our room has a nice lake view and a sun porch with a hammock. Our first full day in Copacabana we took a morning walk along the lake, getting about halfway to Peru before the "road" died into a sheep path (complete with sheep and even a few concerned-looking donkeys). We planned to take the day tour of Isla del Sol the next day. Boy that didn't happen. Friday night's dinner apparently came with something extra, and Aaron was very (very, very) ill that night, the next day, and the next day. Just in time, Hilary picked up the exact same bug (parasite, bacteria, who knows?) Sunday night. Well now it's Tuesday. We had planned to stay in town 3 days and see the island (the only real reason we're in this particular place), and so far it's been 6 days and no island. As soon as we're safe to travel, we're bailing and heading to La Paz. On the plus side, the food at the hotel restaurant seems to be safe, we think, the hotel itself is clean and the views are nice. On the other hand, the water here is the nastiest it's been in all of South America, so we're not entirely sure which of about a dozen different contamination sources might have gotten us twice. Ah well, the island looks nice from here.