Alright, this one could also be called ‘Isla del Sol’, but so could part I be called ‘Copacabana’ – whatever… this blog has intros, so I fill them 🙂
So we got to the island around 3.30 p.m. and started climbming up the ‘Escalera del Inca’. Of course with all our luggage we got pretty tired and needed quite some time to get up to Yumani, the main settlment in the southern part of the island. I had read about a good hostel named INTI WAYRA, and headed out to check it out. The argentinians had seemed to be up for a good hostel, while the chilean guys wanted to camp.
The INTI WAYRA was a very nice hostel with a lovely chola as landlady. All rooms had magnificent views and I decided to stay there. I hurried back to the others, but by now, all they cared about was the ‘norte’. They all wanted to walk up to the north, which takes about 2 to 3 hours. I was a bit confused but decided to not change my plans, which were to make Yumani my base camp and to explore the island from there on a daily basis. Thus, they went on walking and I got back to the hostel and booked myself in the nicest room with a fantastic view and a private bath for a whopping 70 Bs. Well, well… I think it was worth it.
View from my room:
The guy from the hostel then suggested to me to climb up to the peak right behind the accommodation. So that’s what I did and it was not too steep and not very long, so it was nice and the view even better:
Coming back I had dinner, they served a very good vegetable soup followed by delicious trout – sopa de verduras y trucha, mmmh…
Next day I did a longer hike towards the north. I don’t know which of the peaks I climbed, this time it really was a climbing, since I took some weird route, where I ended up passing through scratching bushes and cobwebs. But I’m pretty sure it was one of the peaks over 4k. Let’s say it was the one at 4024m. I stayed up there a while and filled my memory cards with some more data, before slowly walking down and back towards Yumani.
View from the peak:
I approached the village from the north, walked by a path leading to a cancha (football pitch), took some step back and went toward it. Had a look around and after a while some kids showed up and offered amazing photo opportunities and giggled when looking at themselves on the screen of my camera. Had a really good time and I’m very thankful I had this chance.
Some of the kids:
At their favorite game:
OK, I think I’ll close with this for the moment, I want to catch the bus in an hour and should get ready after having uploaded this stuff…
So I guess there will be a third part.
Nos vemos