We marvelled at the nice things of Peru, but it was now time to move on to Bolivia. By car, at 4 in the morning, we left the ancient Incan capital city of Cusco (meaning in Quechua, the old Incan language “bellybutton” for it was the bellybutton of the old Incan empire) for the border in between both countries (village of Yunguyo). After the controls, we walked to the arch, pushing our luggage up the little hill 🥵 (bon, ok, we had some help). We crossed the arch and hop! we were now in Bolivia 🇧🇴😄!
We moved on directly to Copacabana. Over a dusty road, we checked into our hotel with a lovely view over the pontoons. Papa was very excited – he loooooves lakes and now actually being on Lake Titicaca was a dream come true! With the one hour time difference it was already afternoon, but after the long drive we were famished. Mama found us the “hot spot” for delicious empanadas (thank you, tripadvisor!) and so we had an empanada festival by the Plaza de Sucre, amidst the shouting bus drivers leaving for La Paz and stands overflowing with giant popcorn in all variations, beans and nuts. Between the spicy vegan, the Indian style veggie tart or the leek & ham, it is hard to decide which of the empanadas was our favourite, but luckily: we didn’t need to choose! Off for a stroll to the famous cathedral, Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana, surprisingly grand and impressive, and we fortunately met some children on the Plaza 2 de Febrero and got to play a game of football. Tired, we had an early dinner, in the traditional Bolivian “set menu” fashion, that is an appetiser (usually soup, in this case Quinoa vegetable), a main course (large vegetarian options usually available) and sometimes a dessert for roughly 35bs (5CHF) pp. Off to the hotel where I luckily met a new friend: Edouarda, 8 years old, from Brazil, travelling for 5 months around South America with her parents. She became our play buddy for the next 2 days.
The next day we just relaxed – in the morning some school work, and after lunch we got to go into funny “balloon wheels” out on the lake where you can run around inside to make them spin, like a hamster wheel on the water. Mama said it’s a good practice for life, whatever that means. 🤔
Some (pre-) Incan mythological history…
Once upon a time, there was darkness. Suddenly, a very powerful god, called Viracocha, arose from the depths of Lake Titicaca (not entirely sure how this is possible given the Earth wasn’t created yet, but let’s go with the flow, because this is MYTHOLOGY (Mama really struggles with accepting this)) . He created the heavens, the earth, the moon and the sun. Do you know why the moon shines less brightly than the sun? The Incans have an explanation. Originally the moon was brighter than the sun and the sun was very jealous of this. So, one night, he took a handful of ashes from the earth and threw them at the moon. The moon’s light became dim and this is how it is ever since. Vicarocha sat on the shore of what is now Copacabana and formed giants with clay. “Live!”, he said to the giants. “Live! And serve and obey your creator. Live! And do not quarrel with one another.” The giants obeyed Viracocha but after a while they chose to forget the instructions and started to quarrel with one another. More so, they did not obey and serve Viracocha anymore. He was furious and so sent floods to destroy the giants. The ones who survived he turned into stone, those are the mountains. Saddened that his first creation had failed, he recollected himself on the Isla del Sol and his tears made it rain for 60 days and 60 nights. His entire first creation was destroyed.
He gave it another attempt. This time, he made the sun and the moon first making the sun brighter this time and fortunately the moon was wiser and not jealous (a she, Mama likes to precise). The people he created were smaller this time. The pre-Incans believed that these were them. He gave them the same instructions and this time, they obeyed him and so were not destroyed. Viracocha was pleased and went back down to the depths of Lake Titicaca.
The second most famous Incan legend also starts in Lake Titicaca and tells of two men and a woman (this is only a few hundred years ago) who were the children of the Sun and the Moon. Some say they rose from the depths of Lake Titicaca, others say they came from a cave with three windows (this inspired the house of windows in Machu Picchu). In any event, one of the men, suddenly, as soon as he was “born”, transformed into an angel and went to the gods. The Sun and the Moon sent him back to Earth with a very important message: the other man was to change his name to Manco Cápac and the woman to Máma Ócllo. They were to get married, go to the valley and plant a golden rod, found a city called Cusco and with it an empire with them as Queen and King. After delivering the message, the angel/messenger/brother turned to stone. Guess he pulled the short straw. 😯. Source: Me
Some historians say they were the first governors of Cusco, possibly in the 13th century, but since there is no written history of the pre- and Incan times, this is debated.
Of course, there were already many pre-Incan tribes living in the valleys around Cusco. The Incans were very smart in conquering them by offering them access to all their intellectual progress (such as the agriculture of terraces allowing significantly higher harvests because the water was so better distributed and the rains did not wash the fertile top soil off the mountain – smart! 🤓 💡), integrating the tribes’ best knowledge (instead of being arrogant and squashing it) and so managing to conquer a lot of land albeit being few and a relatively young civilisation.