Copacabana, Bolivia

We spent four days on and around the massive Lake Titicaca (3,232 square miles) which is the highest navigable lake (located at 12,507 feet) in the world. It was amazing to know, even at that elevation, the lake never freezes due to weather patterns and lots of rain from the nearby Amazon Rain Forests. Part of the Lake Titicaca is in Bolivia and we entered Bolivia by road.

On the way to the Bolivian border. Beautiful view of the Bolivian Andes rising high above the blue waters of Lake Titicaca.

The highway connecting Puno, Peru to the Bolivian border town, Kasani is in excellent condition.
We took a left turn here and drove through the small town, Yunguyo.

Saying "Bye" to beautiful and enchanting Peru !!!

Walking across the Bolivian border !!!

Immigration at Kasani, Bolivia. You can get your Bolivian Visa as you enter.
Now that we have a 5 year Visa, may be, there is another trip to Bolivia in the next 5 years :)

View of Lake Titicaca from inside our hotel (Rosario Copacabana) room. Late afternoon.

View in the morning !!! If I tell you, that is the Pacific Ocean, you would believe it :)

From the hotel we walked to the nearby Basilica, "Virgen de Copacabana".
Our Bolivian guide, Rodrigo pointed out this car and asked me to guess what was going on.
I had no clue. He said that he will explain it later :)

Basilica of Our Lady Copacabana. Construction started on 1668 and was completed on 1805. As soon as we reached the Basilica, I understood what was going on !!!
We saw many cars nicely decorated with flower garlands and lined up outside. Just like the custom in India, after a car is bought (doesn't matter if it is old or new),
people decorate it nicely and bring it to the Basilica to be blessed by the priest !!! 
Here we go again, one more similarity between cultures that had no contact between them :)

It was a Sunday. People from near by villages had brought vegetables and other stuff to sell, turning the streets around the Basilica in to a temporary market.

Rodrigo was explaining that these people just sell enough things so that they can buy meats and other foods for that day. As soon they get their day's worth of money,
they just pack up and leave. They don't worry about the next day and there is no concept of saving for the future. I guess, they are living in the moment!

Walking towards the Copacabana boat pier to take a boat to our next stop,  "Isla Del Sol" (Island of the Sun).

View of Copacabana from the boat to Isla Del Sol!

Floating Uros !!!

Getting back to writing about the Peru & Bolivia trip from last summer. Still a lot to write! :)

The road trip from Colca Canyon ( Flight of the Condor, @Night: Colca Canyon ) to Puno city took approximately 7 hours with many stops in between for enjoying the beautiful scenery on the way and lunch. Compared to the Arequipa-Colca Canyon drive, this one was pretty much free of traffic. Puno is located at the western edge of the massive Lake Titicaca. Though there is nothing specifically interesting about Puno, the major draw for us are the floating islands which are easily accessible from Puno.

View of Lake Titicaca from the "Casa Andina Private Collection" Hotel at Puno. The hotel has its own Pier from where we took off by boat to visit the floating island, Uros.

There are around 40 floating islands on Lake Titicaca. The islands, the houses and the boats are all made of Totora reeds.

The Uros tribe used to live completely on these islands. Now, they spend their time equally on the island (catering to tourists) and on the main land.

The Uros islands are made up of many smaller islands (like a neighborhood with 3 or 4 houses).  We were told that modern toilet facilities do exist in one of the islands and any one rushing off in a motor boat (not the Totora Reed Boat) is likely heading to that island :)

Part of the cost of the entry ticket to the islands goes to the tribal families living on the islands. This woman explained how they bring blocks of soil with the Totora reeds, tie them all together and make the islands. Usually, 3 to 4 small huts are built on each island. She was joking that if there is a dispute with a neighbor, they simply cut off the neighbor's part of the island and let them float away to live on their own! May be, she was not kidding!!!

A girl and her Grandma sharing a joke! May be, they were laughing at us ;)

Though exactly not the same, these boats reminded me of the famous boats on the Dal lake at Jammu & Kashmir! Oh, Shikara :)

This big island is the shopping mall and pretty much every tourist to Uros stops by here. We tried a native Peruvian snack which looked like big Papad :)

Relaxing boat ride back to Puno at the top deck !!!

It is always very fascinating for me to learn that similar customs and day-to-day living practices were common among many different cultures across the world though there is no known contact among them! When writing this post, I searched the web to see whether any other country has/had floating islands. There are floating islands in many countries and I was surprised to know that India has some floating islands too on Loktak Lake in Manipur !!!