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Janine & Andrea on tour
Well, never thought I would have enjoyed a 24 hour coach trip, but the journey from Salta to Arica, northern Chile, was amazing! We crossed so many landscapes from cactus covered hills, salt plains then sandy mountains and desert. We also had a lovely steward, who catered to Andrea's every whim. Had altitude sickness by the time we arrived at Calama to catch overnight to Arica but coach beds were the best yet. Arica, on the north coast of Chile is not a particularly nice place so only stayed the night before going on to Puno by Lake Titicaca. However, getting there was not as straight forward as we anticipated.
Thought we'd bought coach ticket to Puno, but when we arrived in the morning we were greeted by middle aged guy who ushered us around the back of coach station to get into old chevrolet with three other Chilean women. We were put in the front and Andrea not best pleased as she was squashed up next to the guy and all the way to the border he either picked his nose or did three hail marys each time we passed a roadside shrine. I wasn't pleased as my door didn't shut properly and so clung onto Andrea all the way to border. We were then dropped at Tacna bus station, first town in Chile, to catch bus to Puno, only to be told the bus had left and was full anyway. Meanwhile chevrolet guy had done a runner leaving us wondering what to do next. Rather than wait at the most scruffiest station ever we had our ticket transferred to one to Arequipa, ten minutes later we were on our way, only six hours. As soon as we reached Arequipa we enquired about ticket to Puno and were told we could get one at station across the road. We managed to get police escort across very  busy road, must have looked helpless pulling our cases looking bemused, and bought a ticket leaving directly, from what can only be described as a Wall Street for bus tickets. It took five hours to each Puno, on a freezing cold, most bumpy ride ever. All the locals looked totally prepared with blankets an all, where as Andrea and I resorted to draping our old copies of Hello and OK over our knees.
Well, all that was definitely worth the trip as an excursion we had the next day blew us away. Went on a boat trip on Lake Titicaca, firstly visiting the floating islands of Uros which are made of reeds from the lake....in fact everything on the islands re made from reeds, buildings, boats and they are even their main diet. Was an amazing sight, was quite surreal, has to be seen to be believed! They have some great customs too, like, if the have disputes with neighbours they simply cut the island in half and drift further away.  We then went onto the beautiful island, Taquile. Here we had to trek uphill for 45 mins to reach the main plaza to have lunch and learn about the people who lived there. The scenery was absolutely stunning and the locals so colourful and friendly. We had a simple lunch of soup and fish while being serenaded by one of the locals. However, the trek continued as we had to circumnavigate the island to meet the boat at another harbour, by this time we were well and truly knackered! Puno is a very colourful place, with lots of cycling taxis and women dressed in traditional costume but time to move onto Cusco.l
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