Walking along the Inca's Sacred Route of Eternity

As soon as we arrived in Copacabana (the town in Bolivia of course, not its famous Brazilian counterpart), we knew from our interaction with the locals that we were in a different country. There was a nonchalance when we asked a question or wanted to buy something or see a hotel room: people here did not really care. Not that they were unfriendly or anything, it just seemed that we bothered them with our questions or needs. It was a little odd, especially in a touristy town, but maybe it is a cultural difference with the other Latin American countries that we will learn to understand better over the next few weeks.

A special place where your wishes could come true

The most unique building in town was the large white cathedral, which looked like it came straight out of a middle-eastern fairy tale with its colorful Moorish style domes. The inside was heavily decorated with gold and statues of Jesus or Saints that looked like they were ready to come alive. On the side of the cathedral, we entered the dark Capilla de Vales (Candle Chapel) where people were lighting candles for the Virgin of Copacabana. The room was long and dark, with black stone walls, but the lights of the candles and the prayers directed to the Virgin were giving a lot of warmth to the place. As we left the chapel, it was almost time for sunset so we went to climb the Cerro Calvario south of town to enjoy a view of both the city and the Lago Titikaka. The climb was steep and long and at almost 4,000 meters (12.000 feet), we were breathing heavily. After thirty minutes of an intense effort, we reached the top of the hill where the views were well worth the effort.Lots of vendors were selling miniature cars, houses, travel bags or stacks of fake money on top of the hill. It definitively looked odd but we remembered we had read when visiting the cathedral that everyday, you can go and have your miniature items blessed so that you would get the real deal. A miniature house blessed would hopefully get you a real one for you and your family. The car and the fake stack of money would turn into real ones soon and your little travel bag means you were about to travel the world. We found the customs non-typical, especially in a catholic church; we saw however quite a few locals walking down the hill with miniature items they had bought so it may work better than we think!. Maybe we should have bought a few miniature items ourselves of things we would need for when our trip is over... We were smiling at the thought of walking around with a mini house or a stack of fake Euros, while watching the sun setting on the lake.

The island where the sun was born

We woke up bright and early the next day to catch a boat that would take us to the Isla del Sol. According to the Inca's legend, this is where the sun was born making it the birthplace of the Inca mythology. The lake was as calm as can be when we boarded and the two-hour sail to the north of the island could not have been smoother or nice under the morning sun. Looks like we were going to be lucky once more with the weather despite being in the rainy season. We arrived in the village of Cha'llapampa where we started the hike towards the ruins of Chincana. The trail was climbing up from the beach into the interior of the island, allowing us to enjoy great views of the lake and some of the more secluded beaches of the island. No swimmers though in sight as the water must have been really cold given the altitude. The ruins were right at the end of the island, overlooking the lake. A big stone close to the remains of a temple marked the exact place where the sun was born, hence creating the Inca civilization. We sat close to the rock, overlooking the extensive ruins of the temple where walls were still standing and enjoyed our picnic in the sun, avocado and fresh cheese sandwiches.

Content, we started the walk south towards the town of Yumani, where the boat would pick us up to bring us back to the mainland. The famous road we were about to hike would lead us along the ridge line of the island for about 10 Kms, following the steps of the Incas before us on the so called Sacred Route of Eternity. We were walking fast, the time spent in altitude and the trek in Peru finally paying off as the altitude was not that painful anymore, impressed by the quality and beauty of the path we were following. It was made of old stones, allowing us to get impressive views of both sides of the island, with the deep blue waters of the lake and even in the distance, the white peaks of the Cordillera Real. We were in good spirit with the sun, the beautiful lake and the cool breeze: this walk could have indeed last an eternity, we would not have minded. But all good things come to an end and as we reached the port, our boat was waiting for us to take us back to Copacabana.

In the morning, it was time for us to say our goodbyes to the lake as we were driving towards La Paz. It was a slow goodbye as the road was following the shoreline of the lake. We were happy to see that the road was not that bad and the curves in the mountain were pretty fun. After a turn, we saw the white summits of the Cordillera Real, reminding us how high we were since all these peaks are higher than 6,000 meters (almost 20.000 feet). And then the road came to an end: where the Lago Titikaka and Huinaimarca join, the only way to get through was to take a wooden barge. We asked why such a main road had no bridge and were told there was no money to build one. The five minute crossing was not that bad and we were amused to see that even big buses coming from La Paz were taking the barges. Quite impressive! Back on the road, we continued to La Paz and focused on navigating the thickening traffic as we were getting closer to the capital and some other obstacles such as a river crossing. We could not wait to see the famous capital, one of the highest in the world.