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