6 Best Sights in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

This company normally organizes jungle trips, and they are very good at it, but they can also take you up most of Bolivia's best known peaks, like the accessible Huayna Potosí, the challenging Illimano, or Little Alpamayo, a great choice for less experienced ice climbers.

Part of the Inca Utama Hotel & Spa is this small but charming museum and exhibition on the culture and history of the region. Replicas of mud houses that many of the Chipaya people of the surrounding altiplano still live in are outside the museum, along with some disgruntled and very shaggy llamas. Probably the most interesting things are the replicas of the tortora (reed) boats used by explorer Thor Heyerdahl for his expeditions across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The real ones were built just down the coast. The Limachi brothers who built these, and who served in the crew for some of these epic journeys, are often here and happy to talk to you for the price of a postcard. The replicas themselves are not only technically impressive but also rather beautiful.

Marking the highest point of Copacabana are the Stations of the Cross, built in the 1950s for the thousands of pilgrims who summit the hill for prayer and penance on Good Friday. For many tourists, these stone monuments serve as the ideal spot to admire the city and watch the sunset.

If you can climb it or hike it anwhere in South America, odds are that these guys can get you there. Near Sorata, they offer a climb that takes you to the top of imposing Illimani in five days.

The town's breathtaking Moorish-style cathedral, built between 1610 and 1619 and formerly known as the Basilica of Our Lady of Copacabana, is where you'll find the striking sculpture of the Virgin of Copacabana. There was no choice but to build the church, because the statue, carved by Francisco Yupanqui in 1592, was already drawing pilgrims in search of miracles. If you see decorated cars lined up in front of the cathedral, the owners are waiting to have them blessed for safe travel. Walk around to a side door on the left and light a candle for those you wish to remember, then admire the gaudy glitter and wealth of the church interior itself. Throngs of young Paceños do the three-day walk to Copacabana from La Paz to pay homage to the statue with a candlelight procession on Good Friday. You can combine your visit with the semiscramble up past Cerro Calvario (Calvary Hill) on the point above the town. If the climb doesn't knock you out, the view will.

Dating from the 14th century BC, this structure in the southeast part of the city was originally built by the pre-Inca Chiripa culture as an astronomical observatory. Four of the seven horizontal rock slabs were later destroyed by the Spanish who believed gold was hidden inside. The remains of the ruins show signs of vandalism, yet still warrant a visit for those wanting to blend culture and exercise. The slope is steep and rather challenging, but the view of Lake Titicaca will help alleviate the pain.