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So after heading back from Macchu Picchu, we spent a brief night in Cusco, and caught a bus in the morning to Puno. Puno is a decent sized town on Lake Titicaca - the bigest high altitude lake in the world!
The bus trip was interesting! We caught Tour Peru company bus, it's normally used by tour groups and agencies, but it was the only one we could find to reserve online! Anyways, we left Cusco at 8am and the trip was meant to arrive in Puno at 2pm... but about two hours into the trip we got held up by a roadblock. The teachers in Peru have been protesting their (lack of) pay. Allegedly teachers and police officers are some of the better paid jobs available for lower/middle class people in Peru (according to a tour guide we overheard on the bus). They get approximately 1200 soles a month - which is around $550 (US) a month - it's not enough to have a family on really. I'm sure that people do, but you wouldn't ever be able to buy a house (a flat in Lima in the average areas costs about $80,000 (US). So anyway, apparently a common type of protest here is to block the highway - it's meant to attract political attention. We arrived not long after they had set up and about an hour later a lot of riot police turned up. They gave them an ultimatum of 11.30am to move on and if they didn't the police would move them on. About 11.40am the police made their move and it was all pretty civilised - no tear gas or shots or anthing (although the police all had that gear on them). They ended up only moving them off one side of the highway and some officers did traffic control to clear the back log of cars and trucks and buses.
We got into Puno around 4pm, and bought tickets to Copacabana, Bolivia the next day. We had booked into a Hostel Tayka which turned out to be quite nice. We went for a nice walk along the main street and square and cooked ourselves some pasta (Karl is still not very well) and had an early night - it's COLD here and there's no heating so the nicest place to be is under the covers!
So the next morning we got up super early (5.15) to get a bus to Copacabana - it was with the same company. The boarder crossing was fairly uneventful. Down here when you fill out your passenger card they have a rip off section that they stamp and you keep with your passport while your in country. Luckily entry into Bolivia is free for both Aussie and Kiwis, so no big bills - if you're American it's $130 for a 30 day visa! The bus dropped us off on the Peru side to exit - stamp from the police and then next door to immigration - then we walked about 300m to the Bolivian side where we got our passports stamped and got our little cards. "Ahhh- Australianos! Cangarus!" was all the customs official said to us!
We got into Copacabana about 11am (Bolivian Time) and immediately got tickets to head from the port town over to the Isla del Sol (Sun Island) which is where the Incans think that people come from. It's where their creation myth starts. The boat over took about 1.5hours - goes about as fast as the ferry's in Brisbane! Some of the floor boards gave a little under the weight of us, ther was a little water in the hull, no life jackets, but you know, tickets were less than $3 each!
We arrived in the mid afternoon to the port and then had to CLIMB up to the hostels... We couldn't prebook anything cuz there's no internet here so we just had to make a go of it. The lake is at 3800ms (and covers something like 8400 square meters) but all the hostels are in the township at the top of the hill - just you know, about 200m straight up - there's hardly any switch backs - it's all stairs just straight up. Kangaroo point cliffs eat your heart out. With our packs and food and water supplies and all that stuff, at altitude, still being a little unwell, it took us a while to climb up! The first two hostels that we got to were full, and we were getting a bit discouraged, but we had a local kid, Alex who was leading us up (they get a comission from the hostel owners for bringing us) - he just kind of adopted us and was hanging around us. Anyway, he turned out to be a help as he scamped up to a hostel on the ridge, slightly out of town and checked if there was space. There was, so we ended up here - I don't know it this hostel has a name. But it's very nice - for the price and region! We're paying approximately $23 a night and it's a private room, with a private bathroom and breakfast! It seems to just be a family who've built two cabins on their property. It's an extended family, so there's a few women, two men and about 5 kids. Plus, two pigs, piglets! four donkeys, an alpaca and a horse. It's a nice place to stay. They're pretty friendly and the kids all want to talk to us. There's a communal table for the cabins in the courtyard and it's spectacular!! The view down to the harbour and there's a massive mountain range along the coast of the lake opposite - snowcapped peaks and all!
We went for a walk up to the lookout - the highest part of the island for sunset - and it's was AMAZING! We got there at the perfect time to see a full moon rising over the snowcapped mountain range - it was massive and full and beautiful. About 5 minutes later the sun was setting over the mountains on the other side of the lake - also spectacularly beautiful. The sunset set the snowcapped peaks a pinky colour with the moon rising above it. Wonderful.
We wandered back down to the town and the reflection of the full moon on the lake was pretty special too! We had some dinner and had an early night - there's not much happening here normally :)
Today, 2 August, turns out to be the National day for the Country People (campesinos) - August 6 is the National day of Bolivia. So there's was a big concert on at the school. In the morning we went for a walk to the ruins - which were pretty average - but gave us a beautiful view of the lake and the island. Turns out the walk took it out of Karl pretty badly and he ended up in bed for the rest of the day. Altitude and gastro are not a fun mix and poor Karl just doesnt have enough energy to do much but what he has done he has enjoyed.
So after a mid day nap, Jane walked up to the school to see what was going on. All the kids from the school were doing traditional dances for all the regions of Bolivia. It was great to see the town all together and all the kids showing off their traditional costumes and dancing. There are judges and all the city council people were there to watch too. Lots of fun.
Tomorrow we're off to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. Try and get some (better) medical attention for Karl and plan the rest of our trip in Bolivia.
- comments
Val It's like a picture book story reading about your experiences. Thanks for email Karl - good to know you're starting to feel better. Enjoy discovering Bolivia.