Copacabana, Bolivia,

Isla del Sol and Tiwanaku

by David K. Johnson

On February 9 I arrived in Copacabana, Bolivia, and the Peruvian tour guide departed after checking me in at Hotel Rosario del Lago. This is a new hotel right on Lake Titicaca. The view from my third story room was spectacular! My Bolivian tour guide arrived soon, and we had lunch (a typical 4-course meal in Bolivia). 

The activity for the afternoon was a tour of Isla del Sol (Sun Island), which is said to be the origin of the first Inca. We hopped in a large Dodge van, and the driver headed out of Copacabana over one of the worst, one-lane, dirt mountain roads I have been on. About an hour later we arrived at a small village where boats were waiting. 

Our boat was sort of a "cabin cruiser," very old, with a 55 hp Evinrude outboard motor. It took about 25 minutes to cross over to Isla del Sol. The water was fairly smooth - it can be very rough. 

Isla del Sol is 7 or 8 miles long and maybe a mile wide. It is covered with terraces that were built around 1,000 B. C. There are some ruins that are pre-Inca. The guide and I walked along the terraces for a mile or so. This island is a very holy place for both the Inca descendants (Peruvians) and Aymara descendants (Bolivians). Over the centuries as people came here to visit and live the tradition was for them to bring some soil with them. As a result the soil on the island is very fertile, and a wide range of crops, flowers and herbs can be grown.

 My tour guide sent the boat driver off to find a "holy man." Tradition days that one must make an offering to Mother Earth before setting foot on Isla del Sol. We were going to do that just before leaving. The holy man had prepared a ritual on the hillside at the end of our walk. One by one he placed some colored squares and other symbolic items in a shallow metal dish. There was some clay in the bottom to hold each item in place. Each item represented something for which he asked Mother Earth to bless me - health, family, intelligence, work, wealth, etc. He then sprinkled water (I think) on the objects while continuing his chant in the Aymara language. Next he sprinkled my head and hands, and the tour guide's head and hands. Then he started a fire, and added two different powders to the fire. He took the dish, with all the objects, and "marched" around the fire on his knees. Then he placed the dish in the fire and burned everything.

 For me it was a very emotional ceremony. I felt that Mother Earth had now said it is okay to be on Isla del Sol.

 The return trip was similar to the journey out to the island, except we gave a Chola (Indian woman) and her daughter a ride. She was carrying hand-woven "table clothes" to sell in Copacabana, and an empty propane cylinder to fill.

 Before returning to the hotel we stopped at the large church in the center of Copacabana. In this church is a wooden statue - the Virgin of Candelaria. She is deemed to be the mother of all Bolivian people. An Indian who dreamed that God told him to carve the statue carved her in the 1500's. Even the Pope has traveled to Bolivia to bless this statue (the ceremony was held in La Paz because Copacabana is just too small to handle the crowd that came to see the Pope).

 Once per year people flock here to adore the Virgin. The town's population swells from 5,000 to 50,000 for several days. A replica of the statue is carried around several towns in Bolivia and Peru to celebrate the "Candelaria."

 The statue normally faces a small chapel, but can be rotated 180 degrees to face the main part of the huge church. I viewed her from the chapel. I got my camera out and popped up the flash to take a photo of the Virgin. When I pressed the shutter release nothing happened. The battery indicator was flashing, so I thought the battery was exhausted. After returning to the hotel I checked the manual on how to replace the battery. It said that a flashing indicator means a "camera malfunction." So I turned the camera on to check it again - it worked perfectly! I think the Virgin of Candelaria did not want me to take her picture.

 On February 10 we headed out of Copacabana in the Dodge van. After about an hour we came to the Tiquina narrows - a narrow strip of deep water between the large, north part of Lake Titicaca and the small, south part of the lake. We crossed over on a "ferry" (it looked like a small barge).

 From there we continued onward to Tiwanaku. This is one of several pre-Inca temples around Lake Titicaca. The site has a 7-level pyramid (mainly covered with dirt excavated from the middle when the Spaniards thought that the pyramid must contain treasure - it didn't), a "semi-subterranean" temple (built several centuries B. C.), and an aboveground, open-air temple. The later is the location of the famous "sun gate." There are several monolith statues in both temples.

 The Tiwanaku civilization lasted for nearly 3,000 years. The people finally left the area when confronted with a drought that lasted 90 years!

 After a nice lunch at a local restaurant we headed for La Paz.