Onwards into Peru

After a tough journey to Copacabana we decided to take it easy for a few days.  We did climb up the hill that overlooks Copa to see the amazing views of Lake Titicaca and the winding road that brought us into town winding through the mountains but aside from that we did nothing but rest and refuel.  Copacabana beach is not quite up to the standards of its illustrious Brazilian namesake, but we found a great spot on the waterfront for a drink in the sun where we could watch the boats bobbing back from the Isla del Sol.

The next day we were on one of those boats on our way out to Isla del Sol, believed to be the birthplace of the first Incas.  They must have been a fit bunch (or fitter than us at the very least) because the island rises steeply out of the lake and the only way to get anywhere is by clambering up the near-vertical paths and staircases that were built by Manco Capac and the other early Incas.  We stayed in a hotel perched high up on the terraced hillside and had an amazing view of the lake and the some of the tallest mountains in Bolivia - Illimani, Aconhuma, Illampu, and Huayana Potosi, all of which are over 6,000m high.  Given that Isla del Sol is only 6km long, and that it gets 363 days of sunshine a year, there was no excuse for not doing a few good walks so we strolled from one end of the island to the other and found a great cafe with views out over the Peruvian side of the lake.  

After a few days of  island life we returned to Copacabana and headed towards the border with Peru at a town called Yungayo.  The crossing at Yungayo is without doubt the least intimidating border crossing we´ve come across on our trip:  no armed guards, no high fences, no gates, no flags, not even a welcome sign.  Just two small immigration offices and two lengths of chain that span the road to stop anyone driving straight through.  It hardly felt like we were travelling between two different countries.


We´d heard a few reports from cyclists we´d met in Argentina and Chile that they got a frosty reception from the Peruvians, but thankfully during our first few days on the road here this hasn´t turned out to be the case.  In Bolivia we kept on getting attacked by sherpherdesses for some reason.  We encountered quite a few wild ladies with sheep in the hills between La Paz and Copacabana who hissed, threw stones, and chased us with sticks hurling incomprehensible Aymara insults at us.  But in Peru everyone, including the sheep herders, has been very friendly so far.  If anyone has an explanation for the hostile reception from shepherdesses we´d really like to hear it...


On our first night in Peru we stopped in Juli, a small town on the edge of the lake with five colonial churches, a great Sunday market and lots of people selling cups of jelly on the street.  The day after we cycled on to Chicuito, just outside Puno, and spent the afternoon at a brilliant mirador with great views of the lake and the mountains beyond.  Neither Juli nor Chicuito gets anything like the volume of tourists that you find in Copacabana or Puno, and it felt like the people there were far more welcoming as a result of not being swamped by outsiders.


The next morning we trundled round the edge of Lake Titicaca and into Puno, where we are having a rest before starting the ride through the Sacred Valley and up to Cusco.  A few days ago we decided that we´ll stop cycling when we get to Cusco for a couple of reasons.  Firstly we´ve heard that the road from Cusco to Lima is essentially a truck lane, so it´s not exactly scenic and certainly not a very fun place to be on a bike what with the fumes (rumour has it some trucks in Peru still run on coal) and the insane Peruvian truck drivers who have already demonstrated their disregard for cyclists amply.  The other good thing is that it´ll mean that we get to spend a bit more time exploring Cusco and Lima, rather than staring at the back end of a truck.