May 21, 2026
So I woke up this morning and headed down to the beach in Copacabana to see about getting a boat to Isla del Sol. Only one guy down there, so I asked him. He said he’d be willing to bring me out for 1000 Bolivianos. I agreed without doing the exchange rate math. Turns out it was $145.
After we cast off I realized I should specify I was going to the north end of the island. Normally the tourist colectivo boats just take you to the southern end of the island, and there’s an onward boat from there to the north. Once I let boat guy know the cost increased by another 300 Bolivanos. So $190 total to boat to this island.
We arrived.
A few years ago someone like me couldn’t have come here. The Bolivian constitution has a carve out allowing indigenous communities to manage their own affairs. There ended up being some sort of weird civil war between the community on the south end of the island and the community on the north. As a result, tourists weren’t allowed in the north until last year.
Immediately discovered my hotel here was closed. Thankfully this is an extremely small community, and a lone gringo arriving on shore was definitely noticed. So some scrambling occurred, the owner of my hotel was located, and my room was set up.
I am officially the only non local person on this entire island.
My hotel owner told me he thought I wasn’t coming due to the blockades. News to me. Apparently most of Bolivia is under regional blockades at the moment. Only way in or out of this region is through Peru. And that’s not the way people usually go. I’m running the gringo trail backwards. Normally people go Santiago to La Paz to Copacabana to Puno to Cusco to Arequipa to Lima. So whatever tourists were going to be here are stuck in La Paz.
That also triggered a bit of a panic. I was supposed to be flying out of La Paz on the 27th. There’s no way to get there from here. Quickly purchased some plane tickets out of Cusco. If the stars align I can get from this island to Cusco in 24 hours. I can definitely get there by the 27th. Sadly my plane tickets from La Paz were non refundable. So that’s $400 I’m out.
It’s also with some irony that i panicked about my flight in 6 days and not the more immediate concern of “I have absolutely no idea how I’m getting off this island”. Hoping I can pay one of the people here another $190 to take me back to Copacabana.
Bolivia was supposed to be the cheapest country on this trip. It is now officially the most expensive by a lot.
Also don’t know where I’m getting dinner here tonight. Couldn’t find an open restaurant last night either, so I haven’t eaten since lunch yesterday.
Anyway. I did get to hike up to the Incan ruins on the northern tip of the island and explore those completely alone, which was cool.
It’s one of those many picture sites, but I’m only attaching one.
There’s also a site on the southern end of the island that I was going to explore tomorrow, but I’m probably passing on it in favor of “operation: get off this island”. I did take pictures on the boat ride up tho.
All travel panic aside. This island is a very beautiful place and I’m glad I came here. Extremely tranquil. It’s also incredibly beautiful.
In the meantime, I’m gonna wander around and see if I can find some locals willing to exchange food for money.
