The Island of the Sun was our destination today, unfortunately it was just the three of us plus two guides as one of our group, Helen, is really suffering from altitude sickness. The doctor here said to get back to Lima, (sea level) as soon as possible but that is difficult to arrange at this time. Her husband John came with us and he isn’t doing all that well either mostly trying to deal with the shortness of breath.

We took a boat to the north end of the island and disembarked at a small village where we visited a very rough museum with some of the artifacts of the pre-Inka period and pictures of Jacque Cousteau when he visited the lake for a exploration of the deepest parts, searching for the giant frog. From there we took an Inka trail to the top, or almost to the top, where they had a temple to worship the sun and the earth. There is a huge rock that resembles a Puma, a sacred animal representing their life on earth. It was a wonderful walk and the scenery was splendid. I will admit that at this stage we getting a little “templed out” if you know what I mean. I am not saying that it wasn’t worth it, quite the opposite, but we have been hearing a different version of the same Inka story for 3 weeks now. Still interesting because this comes from another tribe called the  Ayamara who are indigenous in this region.

Jacque Cousteau came here in 1970’s to search for this giant frog that lives in Lake Titicaca. It is 55 cm long , can survive at 90 m below the surface and never needs to come up for air.  We saw some picture and the local guide told us that there is a farm locally that is raising them and putting them back into the lake. So for a few bolivianos we could visit the farm and see them first hand, no surprise Berniece wasn’t interested nor John but I thought, what the hell, I am here and why not go see them. Well that was a waste of time, or at least the frogs were, the trip to see them was a real adventure. We went down a dirt road through a farm, then walked to the lake were a local pulled a wooden boat, which could have used a little bailing, close to a slab walk ramp about 12 inches wide and 6 ft out into the water, (good balancing practice), which we boarded, (or fell into whichever you prefer), and then he rowed out to a raft that was equally unstable to show us this little frog which he claims was an immature one.  It was a bust but the frog is quite interesting if you look at it closely; well ok, it is just a frog but it was fun.