thursday, february 17, 2005 - copacabana - 6:42 pm

exhausting. strenuous. gorgeous. three words that aptly describe isla del sol in lake titicaca.

isla del sol

we hiked approximately 7km (about 4.3 miles) from north to south across open plateaus, eucalyptus groves and small villages. all at a little over 13,000 ft (4000m) above sea level. the even and downhill parts were lovely. the many, many uphill parts were simply unfair. if you want to make someone feel completely useless, take a former asthmatic that's 20 or so pounds overweight, stick him on a mountain island above the world's highest navigatible lake and make him climb hills.

the path on the island

true, the breathing difficulty stopped as soon as i did and catching my breath only took about two minutes, but how many "this has to be the last summit" or as we took to calling them "sucker's points" can there be?

the five-hour trek was amazing though. the lake is so blue and so big it's kind of hard to believe it's not the ocean at times. on the path itself, we encountered all manner of children selling the opportunity to take photos of them, their llamas or, in one instance, their beetle circus.

two boys and their beetles

the closer we got to the southern point, the more locals started appearing. herds of donkeys were certainly to blame for my personal slowness while descending to the dock where we met our boat back to copa.

burros!

overall, it was a painful experience that, now that i can breath and my feet have stopped throbbing, i am thoroughly glad we did.

the other great thing about today was that we continued spending time with our favorite argentinians, as well as an australian (the first of the trip shockingly) named kirsten. i love traveling with people i meet while abroad. it makes the experience so much richer.

cade, kirsten, jeff, olivia, art, dan at isla del sol

anyway, we all (nine or more in total) are meeting up in a bit to grab some dinner and pre-celebrate art's birthday since we are all parting tomorrow. should be a ripper…if only we could find a place open after 8.

sunburn update: my hands are still a little purple-ish and my face is coming off in sheets.

prolouge - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 7 - 8 - 9 - epilogue