Hostal Los Uros Puno

... in Brazil, not Bolivia (which we found out during our stay). We had it in our minds that it would be quite European and snazzy but it's a fairly functional place and absolutely packed with tourists. All of whom probably labouring under our false impressions and singing the Barry Manilow song under their breath all the time much as we were doing. We stayed for the first night in a very rustic (shockingly dirty) place but made the most of it with Contract Whist ...

... our way up the 536 stone steps (I counted) at an altitude of 4000m. Agat loved it! lol! Got to the top, walked around, checked out the overpriced artisanal market and then got back on the boat to Puno. Same night we grabbed a Bus for Cusco - yeah we´re going fast but Flore has got a fixed plan soon from Lima but more importantly Puno isnt the most attractive place to stay.





Vendredi 27 Novembre

Arrivée a oruro a 9h. Bus a 10h pour lka ...

... But at the same time, the sun is always out so you never know if it´s going to be be warm or if it´s going to be cold during the day.

I arrived so early and met up with some guys that were on the Inka jungle trek along with me. So they were going on the tour over to Islas Flotantes so I joined with them. The interesting thing was that the islands were made of reeds so they are there just for the sake of not having any other land to live off of. But at this point the islands ...

... on the side of the boat. My heart was beating so fast I thought it might burst through my chest. It took me a good half an hour to recover, well we are at 4000metres I suppose.

We got back to shore and back into Hotel Presidente just after 4pm.

We decided to nmove on tomorrow and so we went across the road and booked tomorrows trip to Copacabana for 15 soles each. A taxi would pick us up from the Hotel at 7am.

We went looking for a nice ...

... too touristy. Me and Tina went out to find a local place and ended up at a chinese restaurant, we got soup, wontons,drinks, and a main dish for 21 soles total! About 8 bucks. Bargain!
Then we met up with the group for drinks and Vladamir took us to a reggae bar, we had a few drinks there then went upstairs to a karkeoke bar and no one was around so we slaughtered a few songs but didn´t care! I sang Atlantic Star´s ¨Always¨¨ to Barry and Deirdre and told ...

... and heaps of Bryan Adams, who seems to have become a celebrity on this trip for some poorly understood reason. In any case, we managed to chase all the other restaurant patrons out with our alcohol induced singing, and great fun was had by all....
The evening ended with a trip a few doors down to a reggare & rock bar, where the group kicked back and raised several glasses to toast our trip. Good cheer had by all

Highlights of Puno town itself... well it has a pretty cathedral (don't all these Peruvian towns) and the hostel has comfortable beds and a buffet breakfast that turns out to be bread and jam.
Needless to say, we are not here to see Puno itself, but to see lake titicaca up close and personal (we've already seen it from the air) and the floating islands of Uros.
The floating islands are, well ...