Sonali does Lago Titicaca

Day 4 started early, I mean we had to be ready at our hotels at 5:15 am to be picked up by our tour bus(transturin). Lago Titicaca is the deepest navigable lake in South America and also the second largest one. In case you are curious, Titi means wild cat and Caca means rock in Aymara a pre-inkan culture/language. Our day trip to Lago Titicaca consisted of a 2 hr bus ride to puerto chua where we took a catamaran to the sun island, one of the bigger islands on the Bolivian side of the lake. (Yes Peru owns 60% of the lake). The catamaran built locally in Peru was pretty neat. We were served breakfast when we first got on board. It had an upper deck with fantastic,no filter views of the lake. 

Our guide( Grace Arnez) was hilarious. She spoke in English and Spanish to cater to the tourists in her group. She was able to turn the long day of buses and boats into something super fun. So yes, where was i? Sun island. Highlights: 1. lot of pre inkan steps 2. Llamas and alpacas! We saw a whole pack of them feeding. We took turns trying to get their attention with food. Quick tip to distinguish the two. Llamas have pointy ears and pointy tails. 3. Museum with cool artifacts from the pre inkan days. So we are talking tiwanaku and aymaras. 4. Totora boats and sofas, made from the Totora plant that grows in the water. The guide made us pose on the sofa for the inkan calendar ( had to stop at May for lack of time). We also took one of the Totora boats to another part of the island during which the guide decided to amuse herself with some competitive games. I obviously volunteered. Me against another girl from Switzerland. As a pre game pitch, we were asked to show what we've got on the runway. I obviously killed it. The actual competition was to see who could row the boat the fastest. I obviously did not kill it. Lol 5. Herb garden: with rosemary, oregano, etc 6. I learnt to say "I love you" in Aymara : Moonsamauwa. 7. We participated in a Kallawaya ceremony. The Kallawaya is the local doctor who offers sugar biscuits to the gods while praying for everyone's general well being. 

The next stop on our day trip was the island Copacabana not to be confused with he one in Brazil. Here we saw the cathedral of madona. The trip back to la Paz was long! We had to take a bus to get to Tiqina. There we hopped on this tiny boat with 20 other people to ferry us across. This was followed by a 4 hr bus ride all the way to la Paz. Some pics from the trip: 

    A bus being ferried across

    Llama selfie or selfie llama  

         

    Kallawaya ceremony 

    Totora boat