Coming down from Cuzco, Peru we decided to cross the border to Bolivia and enjoy the lake on the Bolivian side. The most popular destination is Isla del Sol and there is where we also went. Trip down from Cuzco: Took the 10 PM night bus to Puno, Peru. One of the best companies is Cruz del Sur. We paid 70 soles per person for VIP seats. It is a 6:30h trip, so we arrived in Puno at about 4:30 AM. Puno-Copacabana Once in Puno, we checked for buses going to Copacabana, in the end we went with Titicaca bus operator with 15 soles per person. The bus was leaving at 5:30AM and it was a 4-5h trip including the stop at the border where you need to get the exit stamp from Peru and the entrance stamp into Bolivia Keep in mind that:
Copacabana - Isla del Sol Boats leave towards the island 2 times a day once at 8 in the morning and once at 1:30 PM. On the way to the island it is quite easy to negotiate as there are several " companies" offering the service. The Island has to parts so you should decide where to go, if in the Northern (more things to see) or in the Southern (cheaper). You can walk from one side to the other as well. We decided to go to the Northern part and paid in the end 15 Bolivianos per person. Now the trip takes depending on the driver & it's boat. Besides the regular stop in the Southern part our driver also made a small detour to see his family :) in the middle part of the island so the trip was of about 4h. Once you get at your destination you will be welcomed by a lot of kids offering accommodation. As we did not have anything booked in advance we looked around. After so many hours from bus to bus the only thing we wanted was a room with private bathroom and hot shower :) ... which we found at a very very nice lady called Ana. Go on the 'Main' street, the house will be on the left hand side right before the "camping beach" Clean and cheap. She left the 3 of us sleep in a 2 persons room. We paid 80 bolivianos for it. It was already after 4PM so we left our staff and went around to get to the temple.You need to pay 10 bolivianos to enter the "site area" but the ticket is valid for a unspecified number of days :P It's a 1-1:30 h walk to the temple. The beauty of the landscape is hard to describe in words so I'll just add some pictures that would give you an idea. Once it started to get dark we went back to grab something to eat. We found a "restaurant"close to where the boat left us where we had some soup and trout. As it started raining we went to sleep at around 10 PM :) ... it rained all night till 8 AM so we had a great sleep very early, finally managing to refill our batteries. In the morning we bought our ticket back to Copacabana, here there is NO negotiation possible there is only an "office" where they sell the tickets. You have 3 options to leave the island at 8:30, 10:30 PM, 1:30 PM and it cost 25 bolivianos. Keep in mind that:
As we had some time till 1PM when we wanted to be at the boat we went towards the Southern part of the Island, once you reach the top you would need to pay 15 Bolivianos to cross to the other side, as we did not have so much time we decided to go back and not pay the ticket. We took the boat back to Copacabana where we arrived at 4PM. #ILoveToTravel
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