I got "Sol"

My last week or so has been eventful with little time for blogging, and I forget most things, but I always have time for stupid puns.

We never did that sunset walk. Instead, we hung out at a cafe playing Spit until it closed. Maeve insisted on playing with two hands, which I rejected as a barbarity.

Where did I leave off before? Forgive me, dear reader, but my doctor (one of them) has said that despite my medication, "an occasional glass of wine or occasional beer should not be an issue."

So...

I walked from Copacabana to Yampupata, a small town on the peninsula that juts into Lake Titicaca toward the Isla del Sol. LP says seven hours, so I did it in about three or so. No brawn necessary this time. I met a few other walkers who did it in the same, non-ambling time, including an Italian guy from Florence. He crafts.. crafts.. and then travels to sell them. Right now, he is on his way to Buenos Aires to buy materials (cheap) to sell to Venezuelans (rich). I wish I could remember his name. He was actually going to walk back to Copacabana, because the rowboat captain wanted $4 for the trip over to the island. Then he met me, so we split it. This isn't necessarily penny-pinching or penury, just an instance of a phenomenon I have personally experienced as well as observed everywhere in the world: backpacker stubbornness.

At the main town on the Isla, Yumani, I dumped myself into a chair at a cafe and observed how even in the Bolivian countryside, you can still purchase bottles of fine wine (warmed by the altiplano sun) in tourist areas. I was waiting for Maeve, who took the ferry over instead, and who arrived quite battered in the feet for having walked too blithely out of the hotel wearing the wrong shoes. We talked about food, sex, and all the people who just piss in the streets (including women) here. Then, I started my solitary journey to the north of the island, where I figured I would sleep. Warned it would take five hours, I got there in one without rushing. What is with people and the slow walking? The views were extraordinary, and Lake Titicaca from the Isla del Sol is just so BLUE. Thanks again to Ryoko for recommending this little trip specifically for me, though she spent a few days there, I gather, and I've met plenty of other people who've done the same. I saw some ruins, a table where human sacrifices used to take place and is today used as a picnic spot, the "footprints of the sun", and the puma-shaped rock after which the lake is named. I looked at my watch after all this sightseeing and though I had a chance to make it back to Yumani via a different route before it got dark. Well, I didnt't, but luckily, I had my headlamp, and thanks to Zach for introducing me to the wonders of modern trekking equipment. Really, I would be nowhere without my friends. Anyway, I trudged into a hotel in the pitchy darkness, got my $3 bed, went to have my $4 grilled trout dinner, went to sleep, and got the 8:30 am ferry ($2) back to Copacabana. Next: La Paz.