5 day trip to Lake Titicaca

I started off from La Paz at about 9.00, and climbed the autopista up to El Alto, 400m above. The "motorway" is a lot more pleasant than it sounds, as it is largely traffic free and very wide. After about 6 km it makes a big bend and goes in the opposite direction, and then one can see fantastic views over La Paz with the 6500m ilimani in the background. This time I'm cycling minus about 20 kilos of luggage, and hills are a lot more pleasant.
 The first half of the day included at least 20km through El Alto, the sprawling city above La Paz. The traffic was bad and I saw one minibus with "Jesus loves you" written in big letters on the back ram into another. The argument that followed between the two drivers didn't seem to feature much of Jesus's love.
After a lunch at a roadside stall of delicious rice and veg soup I got to Lake Titicaca, and began cycling around the edge of it. The scenery was spectacular.
  I met some Spanish cyclists after lunch who had cycled since Ecuador. It had taken the couple nine months, which was not suprising given their trailers looked like they belonged on the back of a car. They were living very cheap, sleeping on school floors and selling handicrafts to make money. They were doing about 30 / 40 km a day, and they said they were carrying a mattress in their trailer!
The afternoon's cycling was some of the best I've  done here, the shoreside was spectacular. Eventually I got to the straights where the two sections of Titicaca meet and took a 10 min ferry across. I debated doing the extra 40 km to Copacabana ( the largest town on the lake)  that night, but I had to wait a while for the ferry so didn't. I stayed in the town on the other side, after having done 120km. I regretted my decision a little as the room was horrible even by my low standards, and I broke the key to the door. In my defense I warned the owner that I couldn´t open the door beforehand, but he claimed it was possible and did a complicated routine which took him a few minutes, and then he gave the key to me and I came back later and on first try broke the key. I had to climb through a very small window in order to open the door from the inside!
After having fallen asleep very early (it was freezing and there was nothing to do) I woke up at 5.30 the next morning and cycled the 40km to Copacabana. The road went high along the ridgeline of the peninsula separating the two parts of the lake, and the view was very nice in the dawn light.
I arrived in Copacabana freezing after the morning descent down to the lake, and after breakfast had a look around town. I saw the famous "vehicle blessings" where drivers from all over Bolivia bring their new vehicles to town to be blessed by a priest for a fee.
I waited for the boat to go to the famous Isla del Sol just after lunch. This was a two hour boat across to an island very significant in the creation theories of at least 10 pre- Colombian cultures, including the Incas. The island is very touristy, but it is still very much worth going for its beauty and history. In the morning I hiked the length of the island, which took two hours, and the trail was not that crowded as I did it early. The walk was spectacular for it's views of the island itself and across Titicaca. On the other side of Titicaca it's possible to see the Cordillera Real, a snow capped range with heights up to 6500 m. At the end of the walk I got to the most spectacular Inca ruins on the island, with spiritual significance due to the location. They were built next to the "sacred rock", a rock sacred to the Incas and several cultures before them.
 After lunch I took the boat back from the north of the island to Copacabana. It was a long ride back but it was nice to chat to lots of Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian travellers on the way. I was wondering why the ride was going to take so long and then just before Copacabana the boat moored at some "floating islands" where local people were supposed to live. It was one of the most obviously fake tourist constructions I have ever seen, and only about three people bothered to get off the boat to see it! There exist genuine floating islands (made of reeds) where people actually live but I definitely didn't see them this time.
  Copacabana is a nice town but is certainly a bit of a tourist trap (although these places are unavoidable sometimes). My dinner was overpriced cold spaghetti, I did a better job myself in a freezing tent with one gas burner and that certainly didn't taste very nice. Come to think of it I think the restaurant used the same jar of sauce.
  The next day I crossed the Peruvian border which is only about 5 miles out of Copacabana, and spent a punishing morning fighting a strong headwind. I arrived in a town called Juli and relaxed for a while after lunch. It was a pleasant town and I was reminded why in a way cycling is such a great way to see places (after cursing my bike all morning). Old men came up to chat to me about my journey and my bike, and I saw a nice town that I might not have seen in a bus rushing between tourist attractions.
 The afternoon was nicer cycling; there was a headwind but not so strong. I saw some interesting birdlife ( no idea what any of it was called- but it looked very different to British birdlife!) Farmers were working in the fields and people on all kinds of transport honked me (usually in support). There are lots more motortrike cabs and cycle rickshaws in Peru, and one guy on his bicycle was being towed along by a motorbike with a rope at speed!
 I arrived in a town called Ilave after 85km and decided to call it a day, leaving myself about 50km to my destination in the morning (a homestay in a community on a peninsula sticking out into Titicaca). Ilave is nothing special but after the over the top tourist experience of Copacabana something "normal" is a change. The only problem for me was the huge number of chicken restaurants, I'm not exaggerating when I say I asked in 15 restaurants if they had anything but chicken and they said no. Eventually I found a restaurant doing some local semolina and potato soup.
     I got up early and started cycling, 20 km or so before breakfast. The cycling was easier without a headwind. Just before I got to my breakfast stop I had to fend off a pack of dogs, mainly by pretending to throw stones, or actually throwing the stones so as to miss them.
After breakfast at a roadside stall (a hot quinoa drink and some sweet bread) I looked for the road to Liquina Chico, my destination at the end of a peninsula sticking into Lake Titicaca. I didn't have a map with this minor road on it so I had to ask around, but eventually I found it. The road was about 30 km long and not paved, but it was a very beautiful ride alongside reed marshes.
 The village I was aiming for was a place at the end of the  peninsula where I could stay with a family for the night. The families in this small community take turns to receive visitors, and I stayed with a nice family of brothers and sisters in the middle of this Aymara speaking village. They come from a family of 10 brothers and 1 sister (not all living there). The 18 year old Wilbur, showed me around the village and took me with him on some of his farming tasks. I "helped" to move some sheep to a different part of the village, but they proved difficult to catch. He was an enthusiastic guide as his ambition was to be a proper tourist guide.
I was offered the chance to hire a rowing boat in the afternoon, but it was not the peaceful row on the lake I was hoping for. Wilbur came with me, as it was not an easy boat. The seat was too far back to row comfortably and water came in and needed to be bailed out every so often. I'm sure we returned before the hour that I hired was up but I didn't complain.
I walked on the beach just below the village and watched the sun set in this very beautiful setting, and skimmed stones with one of the village kids. After that I went back for  supper and chatted to one of the brothers, a fisherman, about their life in the village and answered his questions about the UK. There was a two year old daughter of the sister that was there but she didn't have any siblings, perhaps her mother saw what a difficult life her own mother had.
 The next day I took a series of buses (or micros) back to La Paz, over the border. I persuaded the drivers to strap my bike to the luggage racks on top. The border was no problem but on the Bolivian side just before I was going to get my passport stamped a group of border guards hauled me over, but they just wanted to poke around my bike and trailer rather than conduct a genuine inspection. When they had asked all their non- duty related questions they let me go. My trailer creates a lot of interest generally, I guess the type I have isn't very common in the UK either! Or come to think of it, bike trailers are not that common anywhere. The guidebook said that the border town I went through was a bit dodgy, but I experienced no problems. There were a lot of rickshaws ferrying people and goods across the border. Very interesting for a rickshaw aficionado like myself!
 Back in La Paz and with Gloria and Rene again, it's nice to be back! Just having a shower was fantastic- there was no way I was having showers without hot water in sub- zero altiplano temperatures. The shower here seems amazing in comparison- even though it is an art form to adjust the dial to the minute point where some hot water comes out. Perhaps that's why I travel the hard way sometimes- so everything else seems a luxury afterwards.
 It's a nice place to stay too, much better than a hotel as it's easy to chat to the family and other travelers, and they are always ready with help and information.