I was woken up at 1am last night. The hostel must be close to a nightclub. You could almost feel the thump of the beats. The Argentinians are out in force by the sounds of them. Its summer holidays here so all the students are travelling. Chants of "Argentina, Argentina" and "Diego, Diego" were accompanied by Olés from the street. This street party was soon brought to an abrupt halt as a big thunderstorm rolled in off the lake bringing torrents of rain. It didn´t stop the mob going back into the nightclub and continuing their singsongs there. Between thunderstorm and Argentinian songs I didn´t get back to sleep until 4am. It seemed to quiet down after that.
The boat left for Isla Del Sol around 8.30. The Bolivians don´t seem to have the same safety concerns as the Peruvians. They just piled in as many bodies as they could onto the boat and took off. The Isla Del Sol is a long, narrow island, about 13km in length and, maybe, 2km wide. We were heading for the northern end of the island which took about 2hrs. There was a big scatter of Argentinians and Brazilians on board. They are so different to the Peruvians and Bolivians. The Argentinians are loud, exuberant, confident. Very different to the more quiet, reserved Peruvians and Bolivians. There seems to be great camaraderie between themselves and the Brazilians. Both nationalities look and act more European than the other South American nationalities. No wonder there´s a bit of a gulf betwen the Argentinians and the other nations.
We landed at a small harbour at the top end o fthe island. A local guide met those of us who were visiting on a day trip. Most of the Argentinians were staying overnight and trooped off to set up their tents. We had to buy a ticket which gave entry to a small museum and a couple of Historic sites in the vicinity. This took an hour. The guide spoke in Spanish and, for myself and another Irish lad, added a commentary in English. To be honest it was easier to follow his Spanish as neither of us could understand his English. After this tour ended we had a choice to return to the boat which was heading to the southern end of the island, or to hike across the the hills which form a central spine along the length of the island and meet the boat at the southern harbour. Myself and Tom, from Kilkenny, opted for the hike.
A single path marked the route to the south. It took around 2hrs to complete. The island is divided into three zones, North, Central and South. In ancient times 2 ethnic groups shared the island and it appears that these divisions have been retained. With a population of 5,000 there are two villages on the island, one in the north, one in the South. One set of villagers speaks Aymara, the other, Quechua. At the boundary between each division we had to pay an entry tax of 5 Bolivianos (50cent) which left us more bemused than anything else. It was like passing through border controls as we entered each division. We had to show our little reciepts, pay the fee and we were then waved through. Still, the views fron the island were spectacular. I had to keep reminding myself we were in the middle of a lake and not at the sea.
Down at the southern harbour a couple of hundred tourists milled about waiting for the small armada of boats to start loading up. Very soon my boat began loading up. We were among the first to leave. We stopped off at a couple of floating islands on the way back which were so obviously fake that I didn´t bother getting off the boat. By 5pm we were back in Copacabana.
In the evening I had a last look around town. Up a the church a huge crowd was attending Saturday evening mass. THe church was crammed with people who spilled out the main doors and doen the steps. There wasn´t a whole lot to do tonight. The town was quiet. My face was bright red again after getting burned on the island.
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