Day 209: Travel depression

Ok, after my treatment against worms my digestion is better again. I always thought that that's something only our cat would get...

So, what's missing? The report on Copacabana and Isla del Sol at Lake Titikaka, Arequipa and Colca Canyon... Hmmm.

21.-28. April 2018

The bus from La Paz to Copacabana at Lake Titikaka took about 3h. The lake is at an altitude of about 3800m and a real disapointment.

In principle the lake is a dump and still everybody here eats the Rainbowtrout out of the lake. However, if you read that all the towns dump their untreated sewage into the lake and the Peruvian mines their contaminated waste waters then I'm loosing my appetite.

So instead I eat meat and get food poisoning once more. Even though it's less severe it still sucks... This is getting really annoying. So I spend the first couple of days in bed taking medication against worms and other parasites. At least it tastes like strawberries.

Then Annie and I want to go to Isla del Sol to get a couple of days of sunshine and R&R. At the day of our trip to the island the weather is really bad and the waves on the lake are up to 1m high. That wouldn't be bad if the boats weren't severely laking in engine power and the voyage takes about 2h!

The weather is ok at first, however, the nights are really cold. Naturally none of the places have heating and all the locals wear down jackets. Here's a view of the harbour of Isla del Sol.

Another tourist trap but nice to look at.

This picture cost me 7 Sol... Yes, already the young ones learn how to make money. 5 Sol were for the Alpaka and 2 Sol for its owner ;)

Right next to the harbout the locals burn the waste. What's not burnt will be blown out to the lake by the wind. The locals don't seem to care, the beaches are covered in plastic.

As the weather was cold and rainy we only spend two half days on the island instead of the 5 we'd planned. I've got to get to Peru.

Talking about the cold. Here I am in South America and most of the time it's really cold!!! Patagonia is just so far south and thus cold. Also the wind each day there is incredibly strong. In the deserts the days are usually warm but then at night it gets really cold again because they are so high up. For the last 2 months I've usually been between at altitudes between 3000m and 4500m and there, of course, it's cold. Only in Rurrenabaque it was pleasantly warm :)

It's about time that I speed up my journey to get to Columbia so it isn't only warm during noon time. Another 3-4 weeks and I should be there. Maybe I'll stop in Ecuador but that depends on the temperatures there.