The 6 hour bus ride to Puno was thoroughly uncomfortable and past scenery that we´d already seen between Arequipa and Cuzco. At least this time the bus stayed in one piece. We were on recommendations again for hotels and this time it was Don Tito - a pretty good place with the usual amenities. It was freezing cold though. The climate at 4000m really hit us and it was a good job we´d bought hats and gloves in Cuzco. This was another town that was firmly on the tourist trail and as such prices were still pretty high. We managed to find a restaurant offering penne pasta - this might now seem like such a big deal but I´d been craving it for ages. The lady who served us was lovely, an english student who was keen to practice on us and we were more than happy to let her, until she got my order wrong! Yes, after being very pleased with myself for finding a dish to satisfy my craving, i was confronted with spaghetti. Disaster. No matter how nice she was, she definitely wasn´t getting a tip. Things did improve however as we managed to find ourselves a nice cafe that served Baileys and Coffee. Yes it really is winter here. A Brahma followed in another bar and then we booked ourselves a trip onto Lake Titticaca for the following day.

The lake is the main reason everyone comes to Puno, that and the nearby border crossing with Bolivia. As one of the largest lakes at high altitude in the world its definitely a spectacular sight but sights don´t make tour operators money, boat trips do. We set off on what can only be described as a glorified barge with 20 others to our first stop, a man made floating reed island of which there are dozens. Building islands out of reeds and actually living on them is no small feat but this places seem to be built solely for tourists, I´m sure the Uros people would disagree but the craft market and pay-per-ride reed boats support my theory. The one redeeming factor had to be the cutest little girl ever who seemed content with trying to push me on the floor - even this was tainted when we heard about the 30% infant mortality rate, all because these people chose to live in basic conditions on these islands. Why? Well it looks more authentic to the tourists. This raises some serious questions about sustainable tourism and I must admit to feeling really uneasy with our visit.

The next stop was a real low point, a 2 1/2 hour boat ride to an island ´paradise´. It was anything but. Just an average island with a different set of indigenous people who were just as well drilled at taking your money. There was one real highlight though, the look on this American woman´s face when I told her that she had to manually flush the toilet with a bucket of water. Priceless. As fate would have it that evening (in an altogether cheaper restaurant) we were sat next to the waitress from the previous night, sufficed to say she wasn´t as friendly today! Next morning we would take the bus to Bolivia and La Paz.