Hostal Qoniwasi Puno

... to find Huey, Duey and Louis, the three 10 yr olds watching WWF. One of them goes to scrabble around in he draw to find our bus ticket and promptly hands it over. Hang on a minute! We´re not f***g stupid, the bus ticket doesn´t even have our name on it, has things scribbled out all over the place and isn´t even for the right date or time. Right lads, refund time! Huey calls someone on the mobile as we stubbornly refuse to move until we have our 50 soles back for the bus ...

In Puno now.... Not much to the town but they do have the oldest boat on Lake Titicaca. Apparently they built it in England (of course!) and then shipped it to the coast of Peru and then up by Donkey to the lake (Highest in the world!). Apparently the transport guy said it wpiñd take 6 months to transport the bits by donkey.... It took 6 years (Must have been British judging by the transport system!)

... in het meer en worden bewoond door de Uros die hun eigen taal spreken, het Aymara. Nadat we aanmeren worden we in het Aymara welkom geheten en krijgen we uitleg over hoe de mensen hier leven. De eilanden worden overigens nog met de hand gemaakt evenals de huizen en de boten. Ondanks het feit dat het er allemaal vrij primitief uitziet staan er wel zonnepanelen op sommige huisjes. Deze schijnen kado te zijn gedaan door de regering van Peru ...

... all the spice extracted, punching holes in the reeds and dipping me hand into the coldish water, which he measured using a deadweight as being 13m depth below us. They have little observation towers built out of reeds of course, about 5m high to give a bit of a panorama. It was a lovely morning and the contrast of the wooden reed huts and boats against the azure sky and greenish lake was all very fetching, but for all that I wouldn´t fancy it myself, no squash courts ...

... had a lovely lunch in a local restaurant before getting the boat for the 3 hour journey back to Puno.

I had really enjoyed my time on Lake Titicaca more than I had expected. I thought it would be really touristy, which is was, but it was much more interesting than I had expected. Back in Puno though it was back to being hassled by shoe shine boys and I quickly booked my bus out to my next stop, Arequipa.

... time, on this island for the 2 nights I stayed. I have always had a strong desire to devote my life to a life of simplicity and study. I’ve had a secret fantasy to be a monk for a huge part of my life. The last couple days, I allowed myself a taste of that simplicity, and found that those hungers are not misplaced, that they are pure and perhaps, someday I can honor them the way they deserve to be honored.

Plus, I hear monks make some kick ass booze.

Cheers!

... plush with a broken front windshield and questionable seats. One could've thrown chickens and pigs in there and the stench would've been unchanged. But so what... this was the real Peru we thought. We were on our way... or so we thought.

At about 12AM, I was awakened by the conductor and some strange dude having a shouting match on our level of the bus (it was a 2 level bus). The bus had stopped completely and there was a lot ...

... village told us how they built their reed islands and boats. The islands, 2m thick, continue to rot from the bottom and new layers are placed on top. They anchor them with reed rops to the bottom of the lake so they don´t float away, and the effect is like walking on a massive trampoline. The elder also paddled us across his waterway in his reed boat to his 'neighbour' who had a mini trout hatchery embedded in the reeds. Really interesting.

... bank account. He thought that was a wonderful, novel idea! :-) But
we just got this cheque-sort-of note that we'd have to take to the bank.



So on we went with all the teachers, to the bank that was only open for a few
hours a day. (By this time we were already working for a few hours on getting
our salary). The bank was absolutely stuffed with people and we had to wait
in line for an hour or more. Some men ...