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so turned up in puno on the peruvian side of lake titicaca, which is quite a horrid little town to be honest, really busy and smoggy and full of tuk-tuks whizzing around. much worse than copacabana anyway. on the plus side, people in peru seemed much more friendly than in bolivia - not that the bolivians were unfriendly, usually really nice once you give them a bit of chat, but they tended to be a bit surly whereas the peruvians were really smily and kept wanting to talk to me. people still try and flog you tat in the street, but they take no for an answer and seem to like when you give them some banter which was good. also the little kids always say "hello!" in english, and one night a scary looking man jumped out of a dark alley in front of me and shouted "HELLO GOOD EVENING!!" before sautering away looking quite pleased with himself. was only a little bit terrified. on the plus side, lots of nice restaurants on the high street, which seemed really expensive compared to bolivia but still ridiculously cheap when you actually think about it. ate lots of alpaca with rice, which was a nice change from chicken and rice or arbitrary piece of meat and rice which seemed to be the staples in bolivia.
the only reason to come here was to see the islands on the peruvian side of the lake (no beaches here, just horrid dirty port), including los uros which are floating islands made of reeds which indiginous people have lived on for over 1000 years. unfortunately theyre really touristy these days, mostly due to exploitative tour companies milking them for all theyre worth. because of this, and because i wasnt too keen on tours anymore after rurre and all the muppets on the tourist bus, denis and i shunned all the tours and went down to the dock, where we found a little quechua speaking man in a funny hat who said he would take us to the island on his boat. he was from taquile, one of the islands on the lake, and the boat was just to transport the locals to the mainland and back, so all the money went into the island community which was good. was really fun going on the boat with all the taquileños and their big bags of maize and chickens, all the men have funny hats and speak funny indian languages and mostly like knitting and sleeping on the deck with their hats over their faces. followed their example and had a good nap on the deck, then arrived at los uros briefly to have a look round. unlike most of the tour boats we actually went to one where people live (not just a floating souvenir stand) which was cool, loads of awesome dragon shaped boats made from reeds and people in traditional costumes. still quite touristy even there though and loads of people trying to sell me tat, one woman was insistent that i buy a huge childrens mobile from her, and when i said i didnt have room in my backpack and that it would probably break, she tried to claim both of those problems could be solved be wrapping it in a huge stripy blanket, which she promptly demonstrated. politely declined and got back on the boat, then went to taquile where most of the locals lived (after another good nap). quite similar to isla del sol, really beautiful little island but more populated with a proper town and stuff. ate in the local cooperative restaurant and got shown around my a lady wearing about 17 dresses (despite it being obscenely hot) and generally had a jolly old time. were a few other tourists on the boat with us, but was loads better than being with one of the huge tour groups that we saw walking around. had another good alpaca steak when i got back to puno and a few drinks in a really good rock bar, then went to arequipa early the next day. was quite easy to find the right bus, as there was a man walking round trying to get passengers by helpfully shouting arrrrreeeeee.........QUIPAQUIPAQUIPAQUIPAQUIPA really loudly. this wasnt so good once we got to a really horrid town called juliaca though, in which the bus spent about an hour driving round in circles shouting at people who clearly didnt want to go to arequipa, and were busy shouting other things at each other. this was especially frustrating as i had a bit of a dodgy tummy after the night before, and some bright spark had forgotten to unlock the toilet on the bus and hadnt given the driver a key. genius. eventually decided the bus wasnt going anywhere soon and had a mad rush around juliaca trying to find a toilet, eventually found the most horrid smelly little squatter in some dingy restaurant which was fairly unpleasant, did the job though and managed to get back on the bus before it finally gave up trying to get passengers, and went on our merry way to arequipa.
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