Visiting Isla Del Sol and Copacabana on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

This is a travel guide to visiting Isla del Sol and Copacabana on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. We take you a hiking tour of Isla del Sol and then show you around the city of Copacabana, Bolivia including visiting markets, walking along the boardwalk and eating rainbow trout (Trucha).
Visiting Isla Del Sol and Copacabana on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia Travel Video Transcript:
Good morning! Good morning everyone. It's bright and early today. We're here at Copacabana and this is the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We are going to an island called Isla del Sol which is the island of the sun. And we almost didn't think we'd be able to go today. We woke up and there is thunder and lightening. There was all kinds of rain. It was pouring. It was pouring outside but it has really cleared up now and we're excited to see if we can take the trip today. So the island is somewhere off in the distance over there.
So we have just arrived in Isla del Sol and the sun came out just in time. Now we're going to go visit some ruins and then we're planning to hike from the north end of the island to the south end.
The first thing that struck us about Isla del Sol were the landscapes. We had to climb some pretty steep inclines to reach the top of the island but once we did we got some incredible views of our surroundings. We also enjoyed making friends with lots of animals along the way including sleepy pigs basking in the sunshine and a mix of horses and donkeys.
While we enjoyed our day trip to Isla del Sol we did feel our visit was a bit rushed. We managed to walk the length of the island but we only made it back on the boat with 10 minutes to spare. Crossing the island takes a lot longer than tour operators let on so if you really want to visit and you don't mind a remote setting you may want to consider spending a night or two on Isla del Sol.
So hello from Copacabana. Hello! We're not in the famed beach from Rio de Janeiro this is actually a small little town on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca and we've been spending the past 5 days here. Yeah. Just relaxing, getting some rest and we actually left the vlogging until the very last day. I know, unfortunately it is a rainy day. Today is very overcast. What can you do. We're going to go out there and you show you the town anyway. Yep.
Right here is the main drag of town. You're going to find your restaurants, bars and live entertainment. And lots of hippies.
If there is one meal that you absolutely must try when you visit Copacabana and that is rainbow trout fished straight out of Lake Titicaca over there.
So you could choose an ordinary restaurant to have trout but where are we instead? Yeah, we're along the boardwalk and there are a gazillion restaurants literally lined along here. There actually not even restaurants. They are more like little stands. Yeah, exactly. Just like what you're seeing here. Tarp walls. And honestly we don't know where to go we just walked by a whole bunch of them and decided okay let's pick the last one why don't we go there. Yeah.
So this is the first bite. So what is this called locally? Trucha. Trucha. Trucha. We'll see.
So we just finished our meal. Now it is time to go paddle boat riding because we're all about cheesy adventure activities. Maybe we can get one that looks like a swan or a duck. It'll be fun. Yeah, let's do it.
So like we mentioned at the start of our vlog we haven't really been doing a whole lot in Copacabana. We've just been resting and relaxing and the highlight has actually been our accommodations. We're staying at a pretty cool place called Las Olas where they have like these weird cottages some of them look like tree houses, some of them are like little spirals and they have domes and I don't know. It just looks like this fantasy land so we're going to take you up and show you our cottage.
So here we are just swaying on the hammocks. Yep. What are your final impressions of Copacabana since we're leaving tomorrow? Well, Copacabana was everything we wanted it to be basically. We had been hiking in Machu Picchu, you know hiking the Inca Trail and then we really had a busy hiking tour while we were visiting Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian side. So we just wanted to come to a place that was really chill, that had a kind of a relaxed vibe and that was affordable. And Copacabana checked off all three of those boxes.
This is part of our Travel in Bolivia series. We're making a series of videos showcasing Bolivian culture, Bolivian arts, Bolivian foods, Bolivian religion, Bolivian cuisine and Bolivian people.
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All photos and video taken by Samuel Jeffery (Nomadic Samuel) and Audrey Bergner (That Backpacker).
Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network