Isla del Sol

Wow! I take back what I said about Lake Titicaca not being blue! It´s amazingly blue around Isla del Sol and I should be able to post some pictures once we get to Buenos Aires. Kevin still has his camera, although he doesn´t have the charger anymore. So we took some amazing pictures, fortunately.
I will edit this post with more info later. I´m currently in La Paz and sick as a dog. I need to get back to bed now.
More later...

It´s later...
We walked from Copacabana to the shores of Lake Titicaca across from Isla del Sol, where we and a couple fellow travelers were looking for a boat to take us across. There we found a wonderful man who offered his rowboat for a very low price but first we would have to look at his 1001 postcards from around the world. I got his address to add Los Angeles to his collection and we were on our way. It ended up being his friend who rowed us across. Apparently he´s the salesman. The wind was strong and blowing in the opposite direction, so the boatman was absolutely exhausted after rowing for about an hour. He dropped us off at the southern tip of Isla del Sol, which looked absolutely rocky and jagged. After jumping off the boat onto the rocks, we quickly found a path through the rocks and made our way north. After about an hour of walking and climbing we reached the first village where we were intending to stay.
The views from this village were absolutely astounding. First, the water is a gorgeous blue and the sun was reflecting on it and making it sparkle. Second, you could see Isla de la Luna between the village and the shore, which looked beautiful. And third, behind the shore across the lake, the Cordillera Real peaks rose snowcapped and magnificent into the sky. It was truly stunning. I had wondered before why I was in Bolivia and at that moment I was so glad I had come.
The next day we trekked the entire length of the island and then back some distance, taking a boat the rest of the way back to the same village. The trek north was along the spine of the island and reached some of the highest peaks from where we could see the entire island and the whole of Lake Titicaca. Again, the blue of the water was breathtaking. There were many small ruins along the spine path, which was apparently the path that the Incas had used during their time there. Once at the north peak, we visited the ruins there which were more extensive than the ones along the way. From the ruins, you can look down at a beautiful white sand beach that is absolutely breath-taking. I almost wanted to go swimming, but realized that Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world... hence, it is very cold.
Walking south again down the east coastal path, the sand changed color about every 15 minutes, then changed every few steps. It was brown, white, pink, grey, and various mixed shades as well. Along the path we saw the Aymara community at work on the path... looked like the whole community was either working on it or watching as the others did. Then we stopped at another small lakeside community, ate lunch, then found our way to the port where we were to catch a boat back to the village we had stayed at the night before. There we waited for quite some time for more people to come to lower the individual price for the boat ride. There were only 5 of us and a small kid and we needed 8-10 people for the boat to take off. Since no one else came, we were supposed to pay a higher price but one man said he´d take us for less. All the other boat owners got really mad and one of them punched our guy in the mouth. Bleeding, angry, and apparently drunk, he got in the boat and we took off. I thought about the various ways people implement the rules of a cartel and laughed at this version of punishment for breaking those rules. Primitive, yet effective for what it´s worth. Needless to say, though, competition broke through in the end and the cartel was damaged for the day if not forever. The drunk capitalist, after he cooled from his anger and wiped his blood away, began falling asleep as he steered the motorboat. All of the passengers, including myself, laughed quite a bit until he was nearing a cliff, then woke him up. We made it safely back to the village where we ate and looked at the beautiful scenery, not wanting the sun to set. The next morning we took our last look at the beauty and headed back to Copacabana on the slowest motorboat in the world.