Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca sits at 3800m above sea level and is one of the natural wonders of the world for good reason! This big bad boy was the next stop on the Mavrixs epic tour del Sud America and was a worthy stop if for no other reason than we got to eat seafood again for the first time since entering Bolivia. Actually it was some of the first decent food we got to eat since entering Bolivia, Bolivia thinks that every meal should have rice AND potatos...and maybe some starch for flavour too. Here in Copacabana (the little town on the shores of the Lake) we got to eat Trout, big ass Trouts like youve never seen or tasted, with roasted veggies and spicy sauces...yum!

All the normal tourists spend one night in Copacabana then take the morning boat to Isla del Sol (the mythical birthplace of the sun for the Incas) and then the afternoon boat back, but since when have the Mavrix wanted to do what everyone else does. We decided to use wind power instead and hire a little sailboat to the island, this would mean a 6am start with a 9am finish we were told, ¨great!¨ we said ¨we can watch the sun rise as the wind and spray hit our faces¨. Like this we would even get to the island an hour before the other sheep like tourists and have that much longer to explore.

6am the Mavrix got to the pier and were greated by our friendly sailor man Ernesto. We jumped in the little boat pushed off the pier and watched from under the sleeping bag as Ernesto started rowing to where presumably the wind would catch us and the smooth sailing would start. After some instruction in the art of sailing the M whose name Marino means ¨sailor¨in Spanish started steering the boat (heaven help us) and doing things like trimming the sail and changing the angle of said sail for maximum wind power, however no matter the direction we pointed it the wind would not cooperate and pretty soon Vix was called out of her slumber to steer the boat while M spat on his hands and set to the task of rowing with Ernesto...any moment now the wind will change he said so off we rowed using muscles the M didnt know existed or didnt care to discover....

So 4 hours later Ms blistered hands and stiff back with the help of some excellent steering from the V got us to Isla del Sol. In the meantime the boats we were supposed to beat by a full hour were all overtaking us with hordes of tourists leaning over the edge to take photos of the Mavrix hard at work (We hate Paparazzi!). As much as it was hard work though we really did enjoy it, its something we probably wont do again but still rowing our way through the worlds highest navigable lake (dont forget the altitude) and seeing the sun rise over it is something we wont forget!

After taking a well deserved breather the Mavrix climbed the 200 hundred or more steps at altitude to the top of the mountain ridge and started our walk. As beautiful as the scenery was we wanted to get back to Copa that day so when we found out from some passers by that the last boat was at 13h30 and it was already 12h30 and the boat left from the other side of the island our easy paced walk turned into some serious running. The Mavrix did a 4 hour route in about an hour of running and bundu bashing through forest, hillside and farm house with only a vague idea of where the port that was out destination really was! Luckly we made it with about 3 minutes to spare and actually ended up having a brilliant day of excerise and fun to remember, I dont think anyones ever done the Isla del Sol quite like that....