May 22, 2026
Expanding on yesterday, since I emailed before dinner.
Wandered around trying to find someone willing to exchange food for money. Discovered I wasn’t the only tourist on the island. There was another lady doing the same thing as me. We both ended up being fed by an elderly woman who was really put out about it. In retrospect, with the blockade in Bolivia they aren’t receiving any supplies, since they’re not going to pay customs duties to ship them in from Peru. So as much as they need tourist money, we were still taking food out of their mouths. But, 50 bolivianos for a plate of spaghetti with a dollop of ketchup on it. Better than starving, but not by much.
Then I wandered around with my dslr taking golden hour photos until the sun set. I uploaded the best of those to facebook. But for the sake of not dragging this to a multi part email I’m only going to attach my two favorites.
Just a man taking his sheep for a long romantic sunset walk on the beach.
And
Two ducks getting the hell off the island.
In all truth, I enjoyed the golden and blue hours out there. As absolutely expensive as going to that island turned out to be I don’t regret it.
I ended up crashing out around 9pm, woke up around 5am. Packed, and when my host woke up at 730 I checked out and began the process of trying to find a boat off the island.
In retrospect, I should’ve filled my water bottles before hand. I had no fluids, and was absolutely unable to get a boat on the north end of the island. I was basically repeatedly told by multiple people that I needed to hike to the south end of the island and try there.
It’s supposed to be a 4-6 hour hike, per the internet, corroborated by the locals. It’s also not an easy hike – up and down 800 to 1000 feet multiple times.
I did it in 2.5 hours. Carrying way too much stuff. Without water. It sucked. It sucked a lot.
At the halfway point there’s another community which is nameless on my map, and I didn’t see any signs with names while I was there. The locals of that place aren’t used to seeing gringos. Several old men would say things to me that I didn’t understand, and when I explained that I didn’t understand and don’t know much Spanish I offered my phone for Google Translate, which was refused, and then I was chided for coming to Bolivia without knowing Spanish. Jerks.
I get to the south end, and no boats are leaving. Shit. But I did find a gentleman who’s son lives in the community on tip of the peninsula closest to the island, and he has a boat. So the guy called his son who came and got me, brought me to his community, and then drove me to Copacabana, for $145. I walked two blocks from where he dropped me off and caught a taxi to the border. Got stamped out of Bolivia, walked through no man’s land.
Didn’t notice that sign the last time I crossed, but I was facing the wrong way. Peru gave me a little grief for only leaving the country for two days, but they stamped me in.
Still have my friends honey.
Walked out of the immigration office and hopped into a colectivo to the bus station in yunguyo, hopped onto another colectivo to Puno. Walked from the colectivo terminal to the bus terminal, booked myself on a bus tomorrow morning to Cusco, walked to a hotel, got checked in, and now I’m out having dinner in Puno.
Also, bonus. My hotel was around the corner from a LATAM airlines ticket agent. Stopped in there and was able to argue force majeure to get a 70% refund of my tickets from La Paz to Ecuador. Tho I belatedly realized I could’ve saved even more money just bussing from here to Lima and flying direct from there. Oh well. I’m not opposed to spending several days in Cusco.
