Isla Del Sol is 60 km from Copacabana and is about 10km long. We took an early boat from Copacabana and were dropped off at the Island’s southeast corner at the base of the Island’s biggest village Yumani. Each with 20kg packs were stumbled up a thousands ancient Inca steps (an ancient Incan escalator would have been much more notable artefact) and more than an hour and a half later emerged at the top of Yumani village (at about 4050m). We checked into a small hotel with beautiful bay views. Most of the local’s houses double as hotels and this particular proprietor had convincingly lied she could provide 24 hour hot water, warm beds and an edible breakfast. After checking-in it dawned on us that we had been dropped at the wrong end of the Island and had a 6-hour (14km) return hike in front of us to reach the Chincana site (at the Islands NE corner) and return before sunset. There is no motorised transport on the Island so we footed it over tough terrain better suited to lamas, mountain goats and ancient weather beaten Quechuans. Periodically we were greeted by grubby Indians kindly offering to sell us tickets for the trail (a rocky path barely discernible from the non-path terrain). We were never quite sure if they were state sanctioned toll collectors or merely entrepreneurial opportunists cashing in tourists too exhausted to run around them. Never the less we generally complied and repeatedly forked out tolls of 10 Bolivianos each ($1.35) wasn’t too taxing.
Chincana literally means labyrinth or ‘place where people get lost’. There are several ruins co-located at the Chincana site:
1) The Labyrinth – series of small rooms and rabbit-warren like corridors used by the Quechuan priests and for storage.
2) Sacred rock – A large rock that apparently looks like a puma (we couldn’t see it). Has a hole in it where the sun and moon are said to have hidden.
3) Ceremonial site where they sacrificed lamas and alpacas, unfortunately not young virgins (they were kept at the nearby ‘Isla de Luna’).
The Chincana site lies on a narrow peninsula between two large peaks that rise sharply from Lake Titicaca (we had climbed over one of these to get there). Beyond the limits of Lake Titicaca and cloaked in ethereal mists, were the snow capped peaks of the Cordillera Real, the Andies mountain range to the NE of the lake. We wandered the sites and tried feebly to absorb as much of the surrounding beauty as possible while avoiding superfluous toll collectors. That being done we set off on the long icy hike back to our hotel dreaming of a hot shower and warm bed.
The following morning after a freezing and sleepless night, cold shower and crappy breakfast consisting of dry bread roles and jam, we took to the Inca path again but this time to the near-by site of Pilkakaina, a pre-Columbian Incan building. The intended short 2km walk turned into 2 1/2 hours of pain due to my being struck down by yet another mystery Bolivian illness. 
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