I think it may have been a week since I last wrote, and it was the day before I was to head off to Puno for 2 nights of ´homestay´, for me to really understand the way of life of the farmers. Two nights in a mud brick hut with no shower and no flushing toilet, oh boy! I couldn´t wait.
Fortunately, there was still one more night in Cuzco. Given there was no need to be overly alert on a 7 hour bus ride the following day, we head out with our fellow trekkers for one last night in Cuzco.
We decide to go really authentic Peruvian: Paddy´s Irish Pub!
After a few too many Guinesses (or is it Guini?) and bourbons, (and purchasing Paddy´s Irish Pub tshirts that say ´No Grazias´, the phrase you utter about once every two seconds to all of the people trying to sell you wrist bands and beanies etc.), we head over to a night club called mythology, or mystical, or something beginning with ´M´ (...mmmmmAlcohol).
This place is awesome, and basically plays all your favourite hits from the 80s and 90s. Here we are partying down, in our newly acquired tshirts.
We may have partied a little too hard, but fortunately our tour guide, Patricia, manages to get us all into cabs back to the hostel.
We awake the next morning a little late, and realise we are supposed to be on a bus in about half an hour. It seems that even though Patricia got all of us home, she did not manage to get herself back to the hostel! When you have been on a tour for a few weeks, you completely lose your ability to be independent. So we just sat at the front of the hostel and waited. Eventually a man appears and tells us he is here to collect the intrepid group and take us to the bus station.
At the bus station, still no sign of Patricia, we board the bus. Alice and I find that someone is already sitting in our seats! We try to argue, but he refuses to move. He has been sold seat number 11, but that seat doesn´t exist, so he has sat in our seats. See, in South America, it doesn´t matter if something exists. Wherever you have a willing buyer, there you will find a willing seller. It will be someone elses problem when the product or service, or seat you have sold doesn´t exist.
We ask another tour leader to help, but she has no luck getting them to move either. Eventually Alice and I are ushered downstairs (it is a double decker bus) and told to crawl through a small door. Turns out, we will be sitting in the cabin, in the co-drivers seat for the journey!
A little alarming, but a great view!
Our tour guide tries to sneak onto the bus un-noticed. She doesn´t suspect that we will be sitting in the front seat to catch her in the act!
After a long day we arrive in Puno and check into a hostel, we are to head to the homestays the following morning. To get from the hostel to the port we catch a very safe tricycle... called ´Titanic´. It is cold, but hopefully not cold enough for an iceberg to form on the dry land.
And eventually, we are here and on the boat!
Lake Tits
We head off to some reed islands. We are on possibly the slowest boat on Earth. It takes about 2 hours and I think we have only travelled about the length of a swimming pool.
The reed islands are literally tiny islands made of reeds, no more than 20 or so metres in length and breadth. These people are in a constant state of rebuilding the islands, because it turns out floating reeds are not entirely imperveous to water. They started living on these 400 years ago when the Spaniards were killing their ancestors. Apparently nobody has let them know that the Spanish have gone and its safe to return to the dry land.
After about an hour on the floating reed island we head off to a peninsula on Lake Tits which will be the location of our homestay. Of course, the locals do not miss an opportunity to dress us up.
I am originally given a bright coloured poncho. But my fat western head will not fit through it, so our host retrieves what is probably just a potato sack for me to wear. Far less impressive than Ryan´s bright pink number! The hat also doesn´t fit, so has to perch on my head.
We head down to the shore of the lake for lunch where they have cooked us potatoes in the dirt. The same dirt that I can see 3 cows, 2 pigs, and a goat, crappign on. To ´clean´ the potatoes after they come out of the ground, they whack them with leaves... I don´t really see how this is cleaning them, but our tour leader assures us they are safe.
I choose to peel mine just in case.
Princess Glenn wants to go home
So by about now I have already realised that I am not going to last two nights of dressing up, eating food cooked in the ground, and not having a shower. I approach the tour guide Patricia, and ask if I can head back to Puno with the other group. She agrees, Alice also decides she wants to come back.
We head back to our homestay huts, and about half an hour later we get a knock on the door. It is Patricia, with the other members of our group. It turns out Beth and Michelle, two of the other girls on our trip, also wish to head back to Puno. Everyone uses the guise of wanting to spend an extra day in La Paz. I am honest, and say I want a hot shower, a flushing toilet, a TV, and a warm comfortable bed. Ryan, the 5th member of our group, is less keen on going back, but democracy rules and he reluctantly agrees.
During the day, before heading back to Puno, we go to an Island. Island of the moon? Island of the sun? one of those, can´t recall. Anyway, there is a festival going on that day and we are treated to a performance by a band of pipers.
They kind of sound like a grade 2 recorder band. People around me seem offended by my comment. Maybe I was referring to a really good grade 2 recorder band? (... because we have all heard so many of those!). Political correctness was never my strong point.
Anyway, I have solved their problem. It turns out they can´t see what they´re playing as they wear hats that completely cover their face!
Moving past the band, the island we are on is particularly beauitful. It is a very clear day with little wind so Lake Tits is blue and smooth. We had lunch at a local restaurant with an amazing view. It is trout and quite delicious!
Ask and you shall receive...
...whinge and you shall receive an upgrade
After a few hours on the island we head back to Puno. Fortunately, I am rewarded for my whinging! The 3 star hostel where we were staying is fully booked out as they weren´t expecting us until the following night. So we are upgraded to a 4 star hotel at no extra cost! I am so, so happy!
Not again...
The next day we are to board a bus to take us from Puno to La Paz, Bolivia. We arrive at the bus station. The bus is at least half an hour late. Once again, Alice and I board to find out that our seats are taken AGAIN!
Patricia argues with the bus company for a while. Alice and I, once again, are lead downstairs. Expecting to be sent through to the cabin again, we are surprised to find we are asked to instead head towards the back of the bus, where the business class seats are!
These leather seats are sooooo comfortable! Later that day, Patricia informs us that is actually us who were in the wrong this time! Apparently she booked us on a different bus, but that bus was crap, so she took a chance that she could convince the bus company that they had made an error. Her acting skills deserve an Oscar for an outcome like this!
This is the border between Bolivia and Peru. Looks secure don´t it?
We stroll across the border withouy anyone so much as blinking at us, and search for somewhere to get our passport stamped.
Once in Bolivia we have to change busses and leave our comfortable seats. We get on a crappier bus. Our guide tells us to go to the front of the queue because we are special. This causes an Italian man who has been waiting an hour for the bus to become quite irate. Everyone ignores him as he carries on for the next 15 minutes about how unfair it is, and how he hopes it happens to us. Fortunately, he assumes we are all Americans and none of us correct him.
There is a point where we have to get ourselves, and the bus, across Lake Titikaka. We disembark the bus and board a very shoddy overcrowded boat, to cross to the other side.
Our bus also has to board a barge. This thing appears to just rely entirely on the barge drifting randomly across the lake to get to the other side. Our bus does several 360s before reaching the other side.
La Paz
Here is a photo of La Paz.
We go on a city tour. This is possibly the most boring tour EVER. The local guide (not Patricia) finishes each sentence by asking us if we have any questions. However, everytime we ask a question he answers something completely unrelated. A question about the various districts in town (i.e., business, arts, food etc.) is met with an answer to do with the Spanish, the federation of Peru and Bolivia, and its collapse. Not one part of his answer comes even close to responding to the question. After that we give up on questions.
This is the last official night of our tour.
It is sad to say goodbye to our companions, who have been a source of much fun over the last three weeks! Also VERY sad to say goodbye to Patricia, who has done a sterling job of guiding us across Peru and into Bolivia. Not an easy task!
From here, Alice and I are on our own. Tomorrow we are heading to the salt flats for three days. Apparently it will get to minus 15 at night... sounds a bit frosty. We will be staying in salt hotels??? I am not sure that salt is a great insulator... I guess I will find out.
Will write again in a few days when we are back, I don´t think there is internet in the salt...
No comments:
Post a Comment