Rocky Mountain high

Los Glazers are fatigued, hungry and back in La Paz after three days at the world´s "highest navigable lake," Titicaca.
The sun is bright up there and roasted both the fair-skinned and the browner members of this pseudo-Bolivian family as we hiked around what locals believe to be the birthplace of civilization.
We spent Thursday with a new friend from Madrid hiking the length of La Isla Del Sol, about a three-hour ferry ride from our base in the travelers´ hub of Copacabana. At the northern tip is a set of pre-Inca ruins -- a labyrinth used most likely for ceremonial purposes (isn´t that the archeologist´s cop out?). There also was a hole purported to be the mouth of a tunnel, dug by the Incas, that led to Cuzco hundreds of miles away and other important hubs.
We learned all this from a nice Dutch grad student who is there doing his dissertation. He also shared some coca leaves with us as we hiked the six-mile rolling Inca trail to the southern part of the island. Doesn´t sound like much distance, but at close to 15,000 feet each step is a chore. The wad of pungent leaves in our mouth -- yes, Sonya partook as well -- gave at least a placebic boost for the second half of the trip. Of course we have lots of photos, including one of Sonya spitting out her chaw, but won´t be able to post them until we return to Santa Cruz next week.
We took another hike yesterday from Copacabana but got a bit lost. While we didn´t see any of the ruins or fish hatcheries that the cabronazo Lonely Planet promised us, we did catch some good scenery and exposure to Andean farm life.
We also made the acquaintance of a black sheep dog who we named Sebastian. The poor guy followed us, panting, for three hours from a village in the middle of nowhere back almost to Copacabana. When the city was finally visible, Sebastian started to whine and turned around. I guess he realized he had followed the wrong couple.