Hola Amigo´s,

Well we have done so much since I last wrote. If I try to fit it all on here i´ll have to come home after paying all the internet fees!!! :-) So, i´ll break it up and i´ll keep you all on the edge of your seats.....you´ll have to wait for the Amazon update!

I´ll start with the bus journey from Arequipa to Puno. This is just after we´d been to the docs, we went to the hostel, packed and waited for our bus. As it was so last minute, we had a really cheap bus and it was more used by Peruvians than tourists. The whole journey was hilarious. Kirsty had gone on by herself to do the 2 day Lake Titicaca trip as she was feeling OK so it was just the 3 of us. I very kindly volunteered to sit by myself as I was secretly thinking I could have 2 seats and get some sleep. The driver started the engine and I looked across at Lisa and said, "yey, I have 2 seats to myself" The bus was only half full. Hmm...seems I was a little premature. A few minutes later a VERY large lady got on the bus and yep...she had the seat next to me!! She will appear a few times in this story so lets call her Flo - no idea why!!

Anyway, hers was the window seat so I had to get up. Then a peruvian woman got on the bus with a bag of suites that she´d clearly just bought for about 2 soles. She tipped 5 sweets into my lap and then said "1 sole" How cheeky?! Next time i´m short of cash, i´m gonna buy a bag of crisps and charge people 1 sole per handful!! :-) Lisa and I got the giggles about this.

By this time it was 6:45pm and the bus should have left at 6:30 so everyone on the bus started shouting "Yamos, Yamos" or lets go and stamping their feet like when you´re waiting for an encore at a gig. This made us giggle even more. Flo didn´t shout though as she was too busy stuffing Oreos in her mouth one after the other.

Finally the conductor man got up and locked the door that seperated us from the driver, great! Now we were locked in with everyone. Flo was actually quite sweet and everytime me and Lisa giggled, she did too.

After a while, I noticed a MAJOR draft and I was literally shivering. We realised that the window was kind of broke and didn´t shut properly. Flo even though she had plenty to keep her warm also seemed cold and kept saying, "tengo Frio, tengo frio". We decided to use our combined strength to try and shut the window - with no success. Gemma and Lisa across the aisle literally had tears streaming down their faces. Then Flo in very quick spanish started ranting at me. I guessed that she was asking me to get the conductor and make him shut the window but we were on the 2nd row and the whole bus was looking so I tried to pretend I couldn´t understand. Her hand gestures just got bigger so eventually I had no choice but to tap on the door between us and the driver. The door flew open and I panicked thinking, how am I going to tell the guy what I want.

I needn´t have worried. Flo started yelling from her seat in Spanish. I couldn´t understand but I gather the gist of it was, he didn´t care one bit and wasn´t going to get up. Flo decided to move me out the way and go and argue herself so she wedged herself in the door and started arguing with him. By this point, the whole bus was gripped and Lisa, Gemma and I were about on the floor!!! She argued for about 5 minutes until it became clear he wasn´t getting up and he then slammed and locked the door in her face!!

She came back to our row, hugged herself and said, "mucho Frio" and pointed for me to move by the window. Clearly she doesn´t realise I am THE neshest person on the planet. I tried the ignoring tactic again but then decided that if she chose to sit on me, I would be dead so I may aswell just move. I spent the rest of the journey wrapped up in a jumper, scarves, socks and gloves while she went to sleep.

By the time we arrived in Puno, I was freezing cold and couldbn´t get warm. I had to sleep in my sleeping bag. But - it was all an experience and we tightened our stomach musles with all the laughing.

Next day, we were up at 5:30am to do a trip to Lake Titicaca and it made everything worthwhile. When we first left the port, I was really disappointed as it was a really murky grey colour, not what i´d imagined but I guess that was just the pollution from Puno becuase the further we got from Puno, the more beautiful the lake was. It was amazing. We arrived at the famous Floating Islands or Los Uros. They are so amazing. Little islands made from Reeds. We got off the boat and this man who lives on the island we were on sat us all down on a little bench made from reeds and welcomed us to "Lake Titihaha". Apparently, Titicaca is a terrible pronunciation and we shouldn´t say it. He talked to us for about 20 minutes about how they make the islands. He was actually quite funny. He said if it´s windy,they sometimes wake up in Bolivia!! :-)

He was really nice and told us we could look around and take as many pics as we wanted. Still, it was slightly weird poking round people´s houses. It was so bizarre, they had tv´s and stereo´s etc and about 50 blankets each. Temperatures in winter apparently drop to below -20. Needless to say i´m not planning on moving there anytime soon. There was also a huge looking post from which you could see all the other floating islands and the little floating school. So cute. We went over to another island in a reed boat which was cool. The island was pretty much the same. Then we got our boat over to a normal or I suppose I should say non floating Island called Taquile. The guide said there was a 20 minute walk to lunch. Hmm...it was all uphill and we all nearly died. Bizarrely, Lake Titicaca is almost 4,000 metres above sea level so we all cóuldn´t breathe from the altitiude. How did a lake get up there?! So weird.

The 60 minute uphill walk was worth it though as the views were fantastic. It was such a gorgeous colour and was more like the Mediterranean sea than a lake. Absoloutely beautiful. We also had an amazing meal up there. Fresh fish from the lake, yum.

After this it was time to head back. Lake "Titihaha" was more beautiful than I imagined and is definitely worth seeing.

When we arrived back to our hotel in Puno, we met back up with Kirsty and her, Lisa and myself decided to go to find food. More hilarity ensued. As they are both vegetarian, we went to a vegetarian restaurant and there was no one else in it. Lisa and I ordered veggie burgers and Kirsty a pizza. After taking our order, the waiter disappeared and then so did abnother waitress. 30 minutes later, the guy walked in with a pizza base and 15 minutes after that, the woman walked in with a bag of banana´s to make Lisa´s smoothie. Luckily, we found it all quite funny!! Altough we made a pretty hasty exit when Kirsty found a hair in her pizza. (When it eventually came!)

Anyway, sorry for rambling yet again but believe me, this is very much the edited version. I don´t think i could fit everything on.

Seeing as you all probably have square eyes from reading this.....i´lll update you on the Amazon tomorrow.

Hope you´re all OK

Lisa

xx