3 Conversations: Copacabana. Lake Titicaca. Isla del Sol.

Dark Man and Beth.  Sunburned.  nose peeling.  Must. Hide. From. Sun.

Copacabana
A fat San Franciscan walks into a tour agency...in Copacabana, run by a Bolivian.
SF: What the hell is there to do in this town?
B: No entiendo.
SF: No entiende?  I asked you what's there to do here, not to speak gibberish.  
B: No entiendo.  Lo siento.
SF: I don't give a damn about your seat.  I've been here three hours.  There's souvenir shopping, which I had enough of after about twenty minutes.  There's about fifty places that serve the same variations of trout and half are lined up side-by-side in shacks along the shores of lake T, not to mention all the hype-people screaming gibberish at me as I walk by.  There's two plazas, a central market (that has the stink of rotted sea), and the most famous lake in South America, yet nothing to do?  This is America, isn't it?
B: Quieres ir a isla del Sol?
SF: Absolutamente, senor!  Porque no digame antes?        

Lake Titicaca
A conversation between BETH and jason. 
Beth: That's a big fucking lake.
Jason: Yes, the enormous size almost appears to create its own ocean-like influence upon the surrounding environment. Or, perhaps, something akin to the great lakes.
B:  that's what I said: 'that's a big fucking lake'.  Fucking dark blue too.
J: Yes, it's a deep, cobalt hue of blue.  Like fresh blueberries meeting indigo in spring.
B: You sappy pussy.  It's blue like opening day at Dodger Stadium, but with less Spanish speakers.
J: You have a point.  I wonder if it is the remains of an ancient inland sea and if so, if the water has a high salinity content?  
Beth: Shut up already, there's animals over there drinking the water, you think it's salty if animals drink it.  They ain't camels.  And of course it's an inland sea, it's enormous. But not that kind.  We are at 3800m, there are glaciers and rivers everywhere.  It's fed by them.  
J: Wow, that's amazing.  Such a large body of water fed just by glacial melt and rain.
B: What, you think god just took a hose and filled a giant hole he had dug by slave labor?  No.     
J: I love lake Titicaca.  
B: Quiet, please.  Just enjoy the sunset.


Isla del Sol
A conversation between a stone tablet journalist of pre-Incan Isla del Sol and a native.

"My name is Pachu Machu and I'm a pre-Incan native of Isla del Sol--though at this point I don't know I'm pre-Incan, because Incan doesn't exist."

And how long have you lived on this island?
"My friend Wiki Puma tells me that artifacts found here have been dated from 2200 BC and the ruins speckled throughout the island date to around the 15th century."     

How do you farm in such steep and rocky terrain?
"It's easy, we terrace most of the hills, leaving the land striarated with mini-farms of wheat, barley, maize and the protein-packed quinoa.  The effect created resembling an island of giant steps."
  
How do you defend yourself?
"Defending is not so easy, in fact, now that I think about it I have no idea how we ineffectually defended this island.  Being a figment of jasons imagination has its factual limitations, clearly.  As the island is one of the holliest of Incan [This is what the guidebook says at least] sites and the birth of Inca creation myth, it must be that the Incas attacked better than we defended."  

What exactly do you know then?
"The first thing that comes to mind is that i have long black hair, in a ponytail and wear a loincloth, though when I think about that it makes no sense seeing as we are located in the middle of the Andes at around 3800m.  Once again, I blame my creator for this lack of insight."

And what about the island itself?
"Physically, the island is about 12km long, it's the biggest, of many islands doting the surface of lake titicaca and it's a serene place to live when it isn't cold [LT has never frozen over, so it doesn't get that cold] and we aren't being attacked by the future Inca and/or their future enemies, the Spanish.  And perhaps, if one were visiting as a tourist, they might spend two days here hiking across the island, seeing our predecessors ruins and enjoying the peaceful demeanor of a modern tourist destination that has yet to be invaded by roads, tourist companies and fast good joints."   

If you zoom in, it looks as if the islands in the background are floating.  Lake Titicaca: great name, great views.

This hike, as in Sorata, was about 24km.  A long day, but filled with happiness, as you can see in Beth´s face...errr, mine.

A bit desolate, but yet had whole sections of preserved ruins.  This is prime time real estate for some ruins.

The land is dry and desolate, but the natives were able to manipulate this arid land into a habitable space.  Beautiful views out over the lake.  Not sure the balanced rocks are relics of the past.