Wet Puno!

We arrived in Puno to bright blue skies and sun after a 6.5 hour coach journey from Cuzco.

After settling into our hotel (room had a smell of cabbage, not pleasant) we met up with Aussie ladies and Lucho and went out to see the parade, as February in Puno is carnival time, amazing experience as we watched the bands and dancers go past in various costumes and colours. It seemed to go on for ages until Lucho took us to the town square where the parade ends up, quite a journey as roads were absolute packed with people; seemed like all Puno was out to see parade!

We stayed in the square for a while and then went to a restaurant for a meal. Just before we were due to leave the restaurant, the heavens opened, so we decided to wait until the rain subsided. It seemed to ease a bit, so we thought we would head back to hotel, unfortunately once we left it got heavier and we had not seen rain like it, roads turned into rivers and everyone was trying to get somewhere or take shelter. We thought we had lost Lucho and Aussie ladies and we tried to find shelter, this was not possible and in any event, Lucho had kept an eye on us. We eventually got back to the hotel completely soaked and cold, so straight to our cabbage smelling room to change. We only had single beds in this room and no heating, and as it turns out, no hot water. Went to bed to the sound of heavy rain and bands still playing (although under cover). However, I could not get warm and in the middle of the night had to wake Dave and get into his single bed so that I could warm up!

Next morning up early as we were going on a boat trip on lake Titikaka, which is just enormous. This trip also included an overnight's stay with a Peruvian family. After the previous night's rain, the harbour area was flooded and we were in a taxi with the water high enough to come into the car - Lucho very kindly took his shoes off, rolled up his trousers and went to get our water and gifts for the families we were to stay with. Lucho was not joining us on this trip, so we joined another group of 10. We then got onto the boat for a 3 hour trip to an island where we were to have lunch and tour the island. Weather was overcast, but it gradually improved and by the time we arrived, the sun was coming through. After an uphill hike (quite a challenge at this altitude ) we stopped for lunch provided by the islanders of soup, fish or omelette with veg, rice and chips. We had a guide who gave us the history of the island. After lunch we continued our uphill hike to the centre of the village and then it was a downhill walk of just under an hour back to the boat. I particularly enjoyed this walk, it was downhill, the sun was out and the views of the lake were stunning.

Back at the boat, one of the guys decided to take a dip in the lake - I think Dave wished he had taken a change of clothes!

It was then onto our overnight stay destination. The weather started to change again and it started to rain and was very overcast. We arrived to be met by some of the Islanders, who turned out to be the host families, "Mamas" and "Papas". We were to stay with a single lady. Her name was mentioned once, but too quickly to catch, so we addressed her by by her title of "Mama". She took us back to her house and showed us where were to sleep, which was like a little house with two beds inside, one double and one single. The guide on this trip was also staying here. She introduced us to her parents, who were just bringing back the animals from the fields; her father is 90 and her mother was of similar age - Mama is 57, however, she could easily have been 67, Peruvian women do not age well. We then went to the kitchen, which was very basic, a calor gas two ring cooker and an open fire for cooking and a sink; the floor was mud, plus a small table and chairs. Electricity is provided by solar panels and was not particularly bright and flickered a lot. We peeled potatoes and had a meal of soup followed by veg and rice. Our guide joined us for dinner. After the meal we went to bed. There was no bathroom, just an outhouse with loo and sink. We slept in our clothes and it was surprisingly warm, although the blankets were extremely heavy. After a long night, we had gone to bed at 8 pm and a couple of trips to the loo (which meant putting on shoes and waterproofs) we were up at 6.30am and Mama cooked us breakfast of pancakes with jam - we rolled out the small pancakes - very nice they were too! After this, it was time to get our stuff together, but not before Mama brought us traditional dress for a photo opportunity! Lovely we looked too!

Then it was back to the boat and we set off for the floating islands, which was about a two hour boat trip. Weather was not good, rain and very cold. Gwen, one of the Aussie ladies, was not at all well, so she stayed on the boat when we got to the islands.

The islands were very interesting, not somewhere I would like to live though. The islands are made up of reeds and a new layer of reeds are added every three months; after 100 years the reeds touch the bottom of the lake, therefore does not float and a new island needs to be made. They have little reed houses, which basically consists of one room with beds in. Again they dressed us in traditional costume for a photo opportunity. The clothes are very heavy, which I think they need to be as they don't appear to have heating anywhere on Peru!

The Aussie ladies had asked to be moved to another hotel, because the hotel was cold and had no hot water, and Gwen really was not well, therefore, we asked to be moved too.

We got back to Puno and were taken to new hotel, which was a great improvement; there was just something about the original hotel that was not right, not just the smell or water issue, could have been bad karma. Lucho had arranged for our luggage to be transferred to new hotel, which was great.

Our new room also had a bath - yippee - and I had a long soak. I do prefer bath to a shower.

We went out for a meal in the evening, although Gwen did not come. Festival was still going strong in Puno, although we stayed away from the main square.

We did not have a late night, as it was. again an early start the next morning to catch our first bus to La Paz, Bolivia.

Up early for breakfast and it was good to see that Gwen was much better. It was then off to the bus station to catch bus which would take us to the Peruvian / Bolivian border, a journey of just over two hours. When we arrived, it was a case of going through immigration procedures. We then proceeded to Copacabana, where after an hour's stop for lunch, we were to pick up our next bus for the final leg to La Paz, a journey of about three hours.

Part of this journey took us round lake Titikaka, which really is amazing and seems to go on forever.

We also had a five minute ferry crossing, the bus went separately over the water!

We arrived in La Paz about 4pm at the higher level and the bus stopped for us to take pictures from the higher level to the lower level - fab views.

La Paz is a large city and it took another 30 minutes to reach our hotel. Traffic was also bad, worse than Lima, which I had thought was bad.