hIt may not have been the Copacabana, but that didn't stop us from singing the song as often as we could during our stay. This, the original Copacabana, is the base for exploring the Bolivian (less touristy) side of Lake Titicaca, but it is also a relaxing holiday destination in its own right. After the pace of the last week and a bit, we were all happy to slow down a gear or two – this was meant to be a holiday for Pete and Claire, after all!

Copacabana used to be a mecca for religious pilgrims, and the cathedral still dominates the town. The Lonely Planet mentioned a daily “Blessing of the Automobiles” held there, but we couldn't find it despite our best efforts. Instead we had a pleasant little wander around the Moorish-influenced building, and Claire and I went to the Candle Chapel, a dark dismal side building when unlit, but which must be spectacular when it's completely filled with candles.

The main purpose of our visit was a day trip to the Isla del Sol, the main island on the Bolivian side of the Lake and the alleged birthplace of the Sun in Inca mythology. So a pretty important place all in all. We were expecting a similar 'tour' to the one we'd already enjoyed (or endured, in James's case) from Puno, but we were to discover that the Bolivian approach to tourism is much more relaxed / half-assed than their Peruvian neighbours. What we'd actually bought was our boat ticket to and from the island: what we did when we got there was up to us. We did nearly get collared by a very enthusiastic local tour guide as we arrived in Cha'llapama, a village to the north of the island. When I tried politely to put him off by saying “Sorry, we don't speak Spanish” his response was admirable “That's ok, I'll go slowly!” He was impressively persistent, but eventually we gave him the slip and headed off on our own.

From Cha'llapama, there was a path running the entire length of the island to the southern port of Yumani. As we had time, and our legs had just about recovered from the Inca Trail, we decided to give it a go. The views were stunning, more reminiscent of holidays to Greek islands than South America, although in the heat of the midday sun, at 3820m above sea level, it was pretty hard going. I also managed to drop my camera into the dirt, ruining the zoom function (albeit only temporarily – amazingly it now works perfectly again. Clearly this is the indestructable camera!)

We arrived in Yumani with just enough time to grab a sandwich from a cafe overlooking the bay before our return boat picked us up. As we ate, we watched a boat being unloaded with goods for the village. Fresh water, gas canisters, and suitcases were all unloaded and then reloaded onto a pack of half a dozen tired-looking mules. Poor things!

We also used Copacabana, as our first stop in Bolivia, to sample the local alcoholic beverages, specifically beer. Unfortunately it seems we have been spoiled by Peruvian Cusqueña. Bolivian beer is on the whole, crap – redeemed only by BOCK, a 7% lager, which tasted a lot like Heineken. The cocktails are rather more palatable – we all tried Chuflay, the local spirit made from grape skins and mixed with Sprite. It's a lot like a slightly sour white wine spritzer. We were introduced to the drink in a delightful bar with a magical 4 hour happy hour. This resulted in Claire inadvertently consuming half a litre of rum in two mojitos, and the boys drinking four Cuba Libres apiece.

We decided to take a tour bus from Cuzco to Puno, as none of us fancied just sitting in a bus for 9 hours – after 4 days of walking we were worried we might never get up again! The added bonus was we got to see a couple of interesting sites en route, including the resplendent church of the village of Andahuaylillas and the remains of the biggest Inca temple in the whole of the Empire. The remains were pretty sizeable so I imagine in all its glory it would have been incredible. However, the main thing that will stay with me from the trip is the inane conversation which took place between 3 young American girls sitting in front of us on the bus. I knew things were going to be bad when the opening gambit involved a discussion about which colour of bandanna they were each going to wear on their 'super-fun' trip. I gather they hadn't seen each other for a while, as from there we were updated on each of their relationships IN GRAPHIC DETAIL. For those interested, Brian wasn't going to get ANY for at least 3 days (after flying halfway around the world to see his girlfriend). I opted for putting in earplugs when the talk turned to 'scrapbooking.' Apparently when one of them broke up with her last boyfriend she had to ask for the scrapbook she had made him back – because too much time and effort had gone into it to simply lose it. “WHAT a loseeeer.”

The port of Puno is the jumping off point for the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca (the Lake is jointly owned by Peru and Bolivia). It's also the highest point we've stayed at during our journey so far, at some 3600m. We arrived craving pizza after 4 days of Peruvian cuisine, and luckily we found a restaurant that served fantastic pizza – with the added bonus that it was also built to look like a medieval castle. The pizza was so good we went back on our second evening there. Puno is pretty touristy, set up to cater to the needs of western tourists (hence the pizza). However, despite this, we did see more indigenous people than anywhere else so far – Quechua women in enormous skirts and tiny bowler hats perched precariously on their heads. We have no idea how or why this developed as a fashion, but it seems to have caught on.

The main purpose of our stay here was a trip to the Lake, and so bright and early the next morning we were picked up for a full day tour of the islands. We learned that Titicaca is often incorrectly described by tour guides as 'The World's Highest Navigable Lake', but it is pretty high, at 3820m, and it is enormous (more than 230km long and 97km wide). In fact, I started to forget we were on a lake at all: it could easily have been the sea.

Our trip started with a trip to the island of Uros, part of the Floating Islands, which are made entirely from mud and reeds, anchored to the bottom of the lake with ropes. New reeds have to be added every few months in order to keep them above water. There are about 40 of these islands in total. They were originally created by local Quechua people fleeing Spanish conquistadors and a life of slavery working in the Bolivian silver mines. Some people still live on the islands, although numbers are declining as younger generations are lured by the better quality of life offered in the cities.

The islands were quite fascinating to see, and frightening to walk on – most were less than 10m end to end. To get between the islands we were treated to a ride in a boat made entirely from reeds. It was all incredibly touristy – we were serenaded by the 4 woman who lived on one of the islands we visited, in several different languages. We thought this was charming until we pulled up at the next island, and saw the women there singing the exact same songs in the exact same order to another group of tourists!

From there it was on to Taquile, the second biggest island on Titicaca. Whilst it is the island of choice for day-trippers, it's incredibly poor. Farming is the main industry, but I don't think they do too well out of it. Tourism brings much-needed additional revenue, but otherwise the locals have little contact with the outside world. The walk up to the main square at the top of the island was a bit of a struggle as our legs were still sore after the Inca Trail, but we were rewarded with delicious trout for lunch...and then a walk down to the other side to pick up our boat. En route we passed many children selling woven friendship bracelets and llama finger puppets. We had half thought about doing a 'homestay' on one of these islands, but in the end we were very glad to be heading back to our comfortable hotel, and another pizza.