After another really cold night at Isla del Sol, Britta and I woke up early to get breakfast and enjoy another amazing sunrise. The plan for the day was hiking back to the harbor, taking the boat to Copacabana, check-in at our hostel, and then exploring the city and hiking up to the viewpoint for sunset.
For me, honestly, the only thing that makes cold nights like this worth it is a sunrise like this :)
Luckily the breakfast was also really good so that we could charge some energy and even could make some sandwiches for the day.
We decided to give our big bags away again, so the donkeys could start bringing them to the harbor while we were having breakfast and we had less luggage to carry ourselves.
With new energy, we started the hike - still being located over 4000m high. I know 1 hour way doesn't sound that far. But when the air is thin, it can be still quite hard. - At least the view was beautiful and the people really nice.
I was actually pretty happy when we arrived at the end of the Inca stairs and reached the harbor to buy a ticket. While we were waiting for the boat to arrive we could enjoy the sun and watch the local kids play.
The boat to Copacabana was a bit overcrowded, so it was very slow and took very long. On one hand that was nice because we could enjoy the view, on the other hand, it felt like we take forever and also at some points we weren't sure if we were moving still or if the engine died already - other boats passed us super fast.
When we finally reached Copacabana, we went straight to our hostel and had some lunch.
Copacabana is the country town in the department of La Paz and is located directly on the shore of the 3,812 m high Lake Titicaca. The Bolivian Navy has its only base here, as they don't have direct access to the ocean.
There is a belief that the name comes from the Aymara quta qawana, which means "view of the lake". Deviating from this, the scientist Mario Montaño Aragón found a completely different origin story in the "Indian Archives" in Seville (Spain): "Kotakawana" is the god of fertility in early Andean mythology, an equivalent to the classical Greek deity Aphrodite or the Roman deity Venus. This deity is androgynous and lives in Lake Titicaca. His court consists of male and female creatures who are represented in colonial sculptures. In the Catholic Church, they are called "umantuus", while in western culture their closest equivalent is the mermaid.
Sounds pretty nice right?! - I must say though that the place is not that impressive in the end. The place was full of a lot of empty and not nice-looking houses. It was obvious that all this was built because of tourism. - but it didn't have good energy nor looked good.
We had heard though that a fascinating view of the city and the lake can be had from the nearby Cerro Calvario, the 3,966 m high local mountain of Copacabana.
I imagine that this path is also popular with pilgrims, as it shows the suffering of Jesus up to the crucifixion at 14 stations. - I am not very religious, but if we couldn't explore most of the city in time, at least I wanted to see it from above.
That is why we decided to head directly to the hiking path of Cerro Calvario. We bought some snacks and water and went straight to the hill.
The starting point was quite easy to walk because the road was still wide and straight. After a little while though it became a real hiking path with big rocks to climb.
At about half of the path, we reached the first viewpoint, where we did a little break. From here we had an awesome view of the city and the Lake!
Half an hour later we reached the top of the hill: Cerro Calvario. The mountain was already a popular pilgrimage destination under the rule of the indigenous population of Qulla. From here the mythical cat head Titicaca was worshiped, to which human and animal sacrifices were also made in the course of fertility rites.
The Incas incorporated this cult into their sun worship and made Lake Titicaca the most important center of their faith. Later, these rituals were overlaid with Christian symbols, and the cult of the cat's head was replaced by Catholic Marian devotion, centered on the golden statue of Mary at the top of Cerro Calvario.
It was pretty interesting to see how all these cultures and beliefs were mixed in one place. There were crosses on big stones like on a graveyard and then candles, flowers, feeders and all kind of stuff on the other side where people were making rituals. Also, we were told that Pre-Christian rites have survived in the form of divination and the ritual use of coca leaves.
Of course on the top of the mountain we could buy new snacks and new water to enjoy the view of the city and then also the sunset!
We were super tired but really much enjoyed the sunset at this sacred place! What a beautiful way to say goodbye to Lake Titicaca :) We were almost a bit sad to be leaving that soon again. But more about that at the next post!
The perfect ending on that day was on our way back to the hostel though, when a lady was passing by with two alpacas! I love alpacas and asked her if I can say hi to them and take a picture! - It was awesome :)
I gave her some money to say thank you! - which she spent right away on calling a taxi, that would take her and the alpacas home faster :D - what a crazy world! But again- the perfect ending to a perfect day!
If you want to see some more on the video go ahead and enjoy:
Cheers,
Liz
Bolivia looks like an interesting place to go to. That breakfast looked so good lol.
Oh, it is definitely worth a visit ;)
Bellas fotos en Bolivia,paisajes y gente del lugar, felicitaciones
Si, espero que tenga el tiempo para escribir mas de este viaje pronto :) que bueno que te gustó @redactor1918
Full inversion sunrise over the valley, spectacular way to start the day! Followed by a cute donkey carrying your luggage, just as well with the hike back down!
Slow boat gave lovely set of photographic views to capture, towns and lakes like this are amazing to visit with blend of culture, history and scenery to enjoy when being on foot!
@tipu curate
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That´s righ @joanstewart ;) - Thanks for stopping by and curating my post! I highly appreciate your visit <3
Beautiful part of the world most will never get to! Have an amazing week 😌
Thanks @joanstewart, you too :)
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love that sun sett
Glad you like it @felerce93 :)
Que hermoso se Bolivia su paisajes cultura y gastronomía, me encantaría algún día poder visitar al antiguo Potosí tanta historia en un solo lugar. Saludos desde Venezuela
Que bueno que te guste el post @armasdiaze! Seguramente algun dia lo vas a visitar tu mismo. Hasta entonces te llevo conmigo a los lugares mas hermosos del pais si quieres ;) Saludos devuelta!
It's amazing, thanks for sharing.
You are welcome @brianhuang :) Glad you like the post
Ohohohoh grandiosas fotografías. Me gustaron mucho, excelente.
Que bueno @ismaelrd04 - me da mucho gusto :)
Thanks @hafizullah <3
¡Espectaculares paisajes! Y la historia también muy interesante, como en casi toda Latinoamérica, el sincretismo religioso está presente allí también.
¿En serio la señora montó a esas lindas alpacas en el taxi? Jajaja ¡hubiera querido ver eso!
Asi es @sofathana! Para mi es super interesante como los religiones o creencias se mezclan en las diferentes culturas. Y Siii, en serio se subió al taxi con sus Alpacas! Era increible :D
The sunrise looks picturesque. I think a good breakfast is the best way to start the day :) Thanks for sharing the video, I enjoyed it.
You are welcome @marytraveldiary! Glad you liked it and thanks for stopping by :)
Hi, just the other day I was watching a travel vlog from Bolivia and part of that vlog included the areas you described here in your post, what I found funny was when I saw your alpaca picture, in the vlog some women standing in front of a church had two alpacas with them for tourists to take pictures with, but in the meantime the police came and they left, apparently they are not allowed to do that because of animal protection.
Oh really? This women wasnt there to take pictures though. She was just walking by and I asked her for pictures. Giving money was not obligatory! ;) I hope I didn't give her the idea though - as this happened already a few years ago :D
As far as I have seen, animal welfare in Bolivia prohibits this because it is considered animal abuse.
good to know. Thanks :)
Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1481.
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Exciting adventure!😃
Glad you liked it @renanmatic92 :) Thanks for stopping by
the sunrise looks really good, a nice start in the day! I think an hour for 4000m altitude is very fast, and I imagine it would be very exhausting. you had a really great view over the city!
For sure! The sunrise made it worth it that we were freezing the whole night haha. Yes, 4000t hight is pretty exhausting for hiking, to be honest. The air is very thin up there. - A new experience ;)
haha yes was definitely worth it;). i can imagine that so far up:) cool that you have tried it out