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Megamoon
The plan was to go from La Paz to the Bolivian shore of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at 3,812m. Due to protestors and a road blockade that had been on and off for a week, the direct route straight to Copacabana was closed, but we found one bus company running an alternative option....... It involved going the long way round to the Peruvian border, changing buses then to the shore of the lake where we could catch a boat for 45 mins to Copacabana. We then found out that the protesters had taken all the boats!
In the end it wasn't possible to get to Copacabana by bus, having spoken to a group going in the opposite direction at the border it would have involved a couple of hours walk with our big backpacks on..... not fun or doable! So we jumped on a bus direct to Puno. We were going to explore the area from the Peruvian side instead!
We whiled away a few happy days by the lake, eating lots of good cheap "menu del dia" lunches and sampling the infamous Pisco Sours. One of the popular local dishes was "Cuy" or Guinea Pig which Bee tried, though as it is served whole, spread-eagled on the plate teeth poking out it was a little strange to look at. If your wondering, no it didn't taste like chicken and 'yes' there wasn't much meat on it! Moored on the shore of the lake is the ship YAVARI built in England 1862 and was delivered in 2,766 pieces by mule over a period of five years and was rebuilt to be used as a gun boat. She has now been restored to her former glory and is now a quirky B&B, though we didn't manage to stay here. The highlight of our stay was a trip to the nearby islands on the lake. The water was sparkly crystal clear and the sun was out, it was hard to keep remembering this was actually a lake, as it was so massive it felt like being out at sea.
The first island Uros was pretty touristy but interesting to see how the floating islands were made from the totora reeds. The second island of Amantani where we stayed the night was a lot more traditional, our family had a six year old daughter Yeni who we spent the afternoon teaching Uno to (she was even better than Bee at playing!)
We got to wear traditional dress and go dancing in the evening with the mother from our family, which got pretty toasty as Bee had been laced into her costume on top of all her ski thermals and fleece jumper! The last day included a fish lunch over looking the lake, this preceded the 500+ steps back to shore before our return boat ride back to Puno. We'd really got a taste for traditional island life but we had to keep on moving, he famous city of Cusco and The Inca Trail was next!
In the end it wasn't possible to get to Copacabana by bus, having spoken to a group going in the opposite direction at the border it would have involved a couple of hours walk with our big backpacks on..... not fun or doable! So we jumped on a bus direct to Puno. We were going to explore the area from the Peruvian side instead!
We whiled away a few happy days by the lake, eating lots of good cheap "menu del dia" lunches and sampling the infamous Pisco Sours. One of the popular local dishes was "Cuy" or Guinea Pig which Bee tried, though as it is served whole, spread-eagled on the plate teeth poking out it was a little strange to look at. If your wondering, no it didn't taste like chicken and 'yes' there wasn't much meat on it! Moored on the shore of the lake is the ship YAVARI built in England 1862 and was delivered in 2,766 pieces by mule over a period of five years and was rebuilt to be used as a gun boat. She has now been restored to her former glory and is now a quirky B&B, though we didn't manage to stay here. The highlight of our stay was a trip to the nearby islands on the lake. The water was sparkly crystal clear and the sun was out, it was hard to keep remembering this was actually a lake, as it was so massive it felt like being out at sea.
The first island Uros was pretty touristy but interesting to see how the floating islands were made from the totora reeds. The second island of Amantani where we stayed the night was a lot more traditional, our family had a six year old daughter Yeni who we spent the afternoon teaching Uno to (she was even better than Bee at playing!)
We got to wear traditional dress and go dancing in the evening with the mother from our family, which got pretty toasty as Bee had been laced into her costume on top of all her ski thermals and fleece jumper! The last day included a fish lunch over looking the lake, this preceded the 500+ steps back to shore before our return boat ride back to Puno. We'd really got a taste for traditional island life but we had to keep on moving, he famous city of Cusco and The Inca Trail was next!
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