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Week 4 - Through the border to Bolivia.
Before we start this weeks blogg there were a few pics from last weeks blog that didn´t make it so you will see these in this weeks. Like the dogs humping in the middle of the square in Cuzco.
So we are now on our last day in Cuzco before heading to Puno. We managed to book a cheap bus ticket down druggy alley, which didn´t leave until 10pm following day. We spent the day calling home, doing our blog and wandering around Cuzco for the last time before finding a great Mexican for some dinner. We ordered some Taco´s while we sat and watched the worst game of Volleyball I have ever seen on the TV. Apparently in Peru the two main sports are football and volleyball, both of which they are not so good at. Anyway, before our Taco´s arrived Carol felt brave enough to order some of the local beer, which came in four different flavours, one of which was Coca beer. Carol took a punt on the Coca beer which, when it finally arrived resembled swamp water and didn´t taste any better than it looked. We sat and wondered how long it had been there and whether Carol was the first person ever to order it for about 5 minutes before our Taco´s/Burito´s arrived. I could have sworn we ordered Taco´s but they were definitely Burito´s! Anyway, they were absolutely stunning. Both plates came with a massive Chili on top, which looked like one of those that you usually find stuffed, not the kind that you expect to blow your head off. They were the hottest chili´s in the world!! We arrived early to bus station so had a bit of a wait on our hands before the bus was due to leave. Carol and I usually just fill this time with a bit of people watching. The bus trip, like many we have taken, was an absolute nightmare. The busses are great but it is so difficult to sleep when the driver seems to drive like he´s left the iron on and occasionally screeches to a hault to stop for a cigarette in a petrol station - hmmmmm. There was one guy on the bus who had booked his ticket directly to La Paz but was really paranoid as he seemed to shout out everytime the bus stopped “is this La Paz”. Carol and I found this extremely amusing as he got so paranoid that he ended up getting off at Puno, thinking that we had finally arrived in La Paz. I´m sure he worked it out in the end. We finally arrived at 5am, which we have grown to really dislike as you end up arriving in the pitch black with no idea where you are going. We got in a Taxi and asked for him to take us to the Plaza as you usually find a few hostels around the centre of any town. Not this time!! We continued to wander around looking down every street for a place to stay when we realised that we were being followed by a very ´pikey´ looking fellow. We were both too tired for this so we got in another taxi before we became the tourist that gave the pikey a good kicking. We finally arrived at the hostel with no name, which was the cheapest hostel we had stayed in, which you wouldn´t have dreamt of sleeping in without your sleeping bag as the sheets almost walked out of the room as we walked in. Can´t really complain though as we haven´t slept for the last day or so!
Following a bit of kip we decided to take a walk back into town to see if we could book a trip to the floating islands (uros islands). We booked the tour for the next day and we were advised to take a trip by public bus to Chicuto and the fertility temple. The public bus was a great experience, however you do just get stared at the whole time by the locals. When we arrived in Chicito it was a bit of a ghost town so we had to just wander around looking for the fertility temple until a young girl ran over and asked if we wanted her to show us where it was. We followed until we arrived at what looked like a small football pitch and a small ruins. We paid for our ticket and walked in, just the two of us. Usually these things are hosted by a tour guide but as we´d decided to go on our own we had no idea what we were looking at other than a mass of penis rocks. We looked around for a while until this really nice young Peruvian girl came over and asked if we spoke English and that she would give us the history of the temple. She was about 8 years old so Carol and I were quite surprised that she would have a lot of info about a fertility temple but as she is the only person in this town that speaks any English I guess it was a bonus. Anyway, she started telling us the full history of the temple, in Spanish, both of us expecting the info in English after her asking us if we spoke it?! Carol at this point was crying with laughter as this little girl stood there for a solid 20 minutes next to a 5ft penis and told us the full history of the temple, neither of us understanding 1 word. We both thanked her very much for her very detailed insight into the history of the temple and bought a key ring from her stall on the way out for her trouble. Bless her!! We left the temple with our key ring and headed over to where the bus dropped us off. As we were walking back there were a few small buses going past with kids shouting “Gringo, Gringo” out of the window. Ahh, lovely little things! We had a quick beer and then we were on the bus back. When we arrived we just looked for some dinner and thought we would go back for an early night before our trip to the islands in the morning. We found a dodgy chicken restaurant which was basically just a crap KFC and then we headed back for the night. Needless to say, I was sitting up all night with a tricky stomach and not feeling very enthusiastic about the tour the next day.
We arrived at the tour company early in the morning so we decided to go and get some breakfast. I will still feeling a little dodgy from that yummy chicken from the night before so breky really wasn’t top of my wish list. We managed to find a small cafe which sold really nice coffee and small pasties. I, incorrectly, seemed to order a banana and cheese one, hmmm. Outside the cafe there was a massive gathering of army cadets, there must have been thousands of them. We headed back to the tour company and thats pretty much where the nightmare started, We were told that a transfer bus would be there to meet us in the morning and take us to our night swanky boat with a really nice toilet and open top for the best view that would be our transport for morning. We had to be back in Puno by 12 so we could get to the station at 14.00 for our bus to La Paz. We waited for about 20 minutes and there was no transfer to our boat. No transfer turned up so one of the tour organisers got us on a trip to the boat in a taxi. We arrived at the dock and the boat from the picture wasn´t there. We were thinking that the tour may not turn out to be how it had been sold. The boat that we were put on was a shabby old thing with no toilet and a huge exhaust pipe that blew the smoke into the boat rather than out of it. The “English Speaking” guide came over and introduced himself, in Spanish! Carol and I just had a bit of a giggle and got on with it. We arrived at the islands which are absolutely stunning. Islands completely made from reeds that are weaved into blocks of roots and anchored to the bottom of the lake to avoid the island and its occupants floating away. The boat pulled up at one of the islands and we were greeted by local women wearing very colourful clothes. We were given a talk by the president of the island, who told us about how the islands were made and how they survive by eating fish and building houses and boats, also with the reeds. You are then given to one of the locals and they show you around their home and dress you in their clothes to give you an insight into their lives. At this point we were given one of the reeds, which they call the banana reed as you can peel them and eat the flesh. Its a tasteless, fiberous texture so not the kind of stuff you would eat too much of, however Carol felt obliged to eat the whole thing as they had spared it for her to try. Bless her, I had to tell her to stop as the grimace on her face told a story. We were asked if we would like to go out on the presidents Mercedes Benz, which is the boat made of reeds. We decided that we would stay on the island as it turned out to be one of those things that you had to pay for and we could take it or leave it. We noticed that the crappy boat that we had arrived on was now no longer tied up to the island and saw our tour guide heading off on a small speed boat. We were wondering where he was off to but knew there would be a logical explanation for his disappearance. Carol sat and had a chat with one of the local girls, Linda, who was telling Carol about her life on the island. Our guide came back an hour later with another boat and told us that we would now be heading over to our second of three island visits. We were now on a different boat to the one we arrived on. He dropped us off on the second island where we were given the opportunity to buy some of the local jewelry etc. He then left us again, having lost another boat. We then had to wait for another hour while he went to look for a replacement boat to take us back to Puno. We had to tell him at this point that we were supposed to be back in Puno for 12 for our bus and it was about 11.50 at this point. Not happy. There was the cutest puppy boxer on this island so at least we had some entertainment while we waited. Our guide returned with a boat, which if the day had gone to plan would have taken us to the 3rd island but due to the time it had taken to find another boat he had to take us back to Puno. We were pretty annoyed at this point as we only had a little time in Puno to get some lunch before we had to leave for our 7 hr bus to Copacabana. We finally arrived back in Puno an hour after we were due to so Carol and I had a bit of a mission to grab our bags, lunch and get to the bus station in time for our bus to Copacabana. When we arrived back at the tour company we were supposed to meet the guy who had sold us the ticket and he was going to arrange our transport to the bus station. When we arrived at the shop there was a massive padlock on the door as we gazed through the window at our bags. We looked at the sign on the door which said that they were closed. I was so annoyed at this point that I didn´t really know what to do with myself, we had an hour to get to the bus station for a bus that we had already paid for and there was nobody here. Carol suggested lunch so we went to grab a sandwich. We went back to the shop at half 1, leaving just half an hour until our bus was due to leave and the tour man finally turned up. Carol had to talk to him as I was a little annoyed about how the day had gone. He gave us our money back for the trip we had arranged with him in Copacabana and he got us in a taxi to the bus station, apologising about our day the whole way. We can laugh about it now but that was not the best trip we have been on, especially as the guy had asked us to write a review to the lonely planet for him! We arrived just in time to jump on our bus that would take us over the border of Bolivia to Copacabana.
The bus trip wasn´t too bad, just a 7 hr bus journey this time. We were both extremely amused when the driver stopped the bus to load on a sheep into the luggage compartment. I didn´t see them load it on and I thought Carol was joking until I saw them unload the poor thing about 15 miles down the road. The trip was stunning! The scenery is absolutely beautiful here, you never know what you´re going get, from snow capped mountains, to desert to green trees and sometimes all three at once. We had reached the end of our time in Peru and were now crossing the border to Bolivia. We were told that we had to get off the bus and visit two offices for a stamp in out Passports, one with the police and one with immigration. Carol was absolutely hanging for the toilet so we spoke to a police man to ask for a Banos (toilet). He looked at us with a small grin on his face and pointed back to the border, saying that there was one in Peru but not here. You should have seen the disappointment on Carols face and she wished she´d asked on the other side of the border. We arrived in Copacabana just in time for the most stunning sun set. We´d heard that you could get a hostel right on the beach so we headed down and managed to get a room with a sea view and beautiful view of the sunset. Copacabana has to be the most laid back place in the world. Everyone is a bit hippy. There are dredlocks and bongos lining every pub down the main street and everybody is really friendly. We dropped our bags off in our room and headed out for a few beers and some dinner. We went to a cool bar for some dinner where they had live music later in the evening, with a happy hour that included Mojito´s. Carol and I stayed there for the evening and had a skinful of Mojito´s before heading back for some much needed rest.
Needless to say we were feeling a little special in the morning but we were heading over to the sun island on what turned out to be the most choppy boat ride I have had in a long time! The boat got so choppy that they were unable to drop us off at the dock and had to find a place to swing the back of the boat around for us all to jump off. We ended up being dropped of quite a way away from where we were due to be dropped so we ended up walking along a steep, rocky path in a pair of shorts and flip flops looking for a place to stay for the night. We were greeted by a kid who told us that he had the best hostel in town which had views of both the sunset and sunrise. We agreed that we would pay 80 Bolivianos for the room, which when we got there he tried to tell us was 80 per person. We managed to stop him trying to stitch us up and got the room for the agreed price. We then went and sat in a lovely restaurant for a few beers and some dinner before the sun was due to set. The restaurant was run by the loveliest couple who must have been at least 70. They didn’t seem prepared for people to order food though as every time we ordered something, the poor man sighed and ran out to the shop to get it. Maybe that´s what we´ll do when we retire! We went back to our hostel and sat on the roof of the Restaurant to watch the sun set. It was worth every penny to be there. We did have a room though without a lock so we had to build a baracade with a sofa bed and chair before going to bed. Great nights sleep, we woke up an hour too late for the sun rise.
We got the boat back in the morning and headed for the nicest takeaway Sarnie ever! We didn´t have a lot of time before we had to jump on our bus to La Paz. We were in for another 7 hr bus journey but we´re used to that now. This bus journey was pretty eventful as well because at one point the driver told us all to get off so that he could load the bus onto a tiny river barge for its crossing over the river. There was something quite amusing about watching the bus sway from side to side looking like it was going to fall in the water until we realised that all our stuff was on board! One man has to punt it part way to before they can turn the engines on! A few hours later we arrive in La Paz, which has to be the craziest city that either of us have ever been to. It was great but we didn´t fancy staying for too long. We tried to get a taxi to the central plaza which is one of 13 in La Paz. As we were driving we saw an area that we wanted to stay in so we tried to ask the driver to stop. We used, stop, here, exit, get out and he didn´t understand anything. Carol was in the phrase book digging out word after word and he didn´t understand English or Spanish. We drove for another KM or two before he finally realised what we were trying to say, by which point we had a 3K walk back to where we had started saying that we wanted to get out. We found a decent hostel for the night and decided to go out for a walk and some dinner. We stumbled across a Thai/Indian restaurant, which we were both very pleased to see. (The food gets a bit boring in South America). I ordered a Chicken Jalfrezi and Carol had a green curry, neither of which actually resembled the dish we were expecting. It was nice all the same.
We woke early in the morning with the intention of getting out of La Paz so we went to a tour company to ask about the buses. The woman was very helpful but unfortunately she said there were no buses due to the bank holiday. They take Halloween very seriously here so everyone had booked the buses for the extended weekend with their family and friends. Carol and I were a bit disheartened so we decided to try our own luck at the bus station. We walked around to every bus company asking if they had a ticket to Potosi and there must have been about 30, each saying that they were sold out. We got to the last window and there was a young couple in front of us, just paying for their ticket to Potosi. We thought our luck was out when they said to us that there were two seats left on this bus and asked the ticket man to put our names down to secure them. This was Manuel and Dori who we would later spent the week with on the salt flats. We went and had some lunch and chilled our for the afternoon ready for our bus in the evening. Carol took this opportunity to go and get her legs waxed at the massage parlour. Poor Carol started to wish she hadn’t when they got the hot wax kit out! Although she had the least reaction ever and still has skin! We went and grabbed our bags from the hostel and headed for a Taxi to the bus station. The traffic was really busy and we really struggled to get a taxi. We were walking down the middle of the road trying to signal every taxi to pick us up with our big bag on our back and the small one on our front. I obviously didn´t see the big drain cover as I kicked it so hard that I smashed my big toe. Should have been wearing the boots!! Rather than stopping to check the toe we had to walk another mile or so back into town, still looking for a bloody taxi. We finally got one in town and headed back to the bus station for our 10 hr bus trip (with a very sore toe). We chatted with Manuel and Dori for a while before trying to get some sleep. The bus was very cold and we had a mother with a very young baby sitting in the row in front of us who cried a lot!! Carol also had an old woman sitting next to her who didn´t realise that her seat reclined until Carol showed her how it worked. This stopped the woman from falling asleep on Carol´s lap and she couldn´t thank her enough when she got off the bus, bless her. We didn´t get a lot of sleep on this trip.
The bus arrived 2 hours early, probably because the driver insisted on driving the whole way at wharp speed. We arrived at 5 in the morning. This is one things we have found a bit of a pain in the arse so far as everything is closed, the people are still out from the night before and you have no idea where you are going. Its not so bad when its light outside and there are a few people around. We walked around with Manuel and Dori looking for somewhere to stay, who both speak Spanish, thankfully! We tried a few places, both of which were full until we managed to find somewhere to stay. There were quite a lot of people stumbling around, still pissed from their night out who didn´t want to give us the fondest of welcomes off our bus. Whilst walking through the strets we saw one poor guy getting beaten up, that wasn’t a nice start to Potosi, we later walked past a group of still drunk and worried that we might be next when we heard touisto being said. Funnily though they started to wrestle amongt themselves and one was piled into the pavement before the police arrived and told them off! Ha ha! We managed to get ourselves into our hostel for a few hours kip before heading out to explore. We wandered out looking for a good place to use the internet so we could call home but all the places were either closed or had the worst connection. As the palce was tiny and with the holiday, pretty quiet, we decided to book our bus out of here in the hope that Uyuni would be more exciting. We also decided not to do the silver mine tour, when the man told us about a 10ft tunnel you have to crawl down, do not fancy that! Dinner was in a brilliant little pub place and then off to bed.
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