Eco Inn Puno

... a taxi to our hostel, Inkas Rest to meet the mad owner Alfredo. He was very amusing and incredibly efficient and helpful, and his hostel was something else! Not only did we have our room but we had a living room with TV and DVD, a dining table, another table with hot water for free tea, and a bathroom which was all for us and one other couple. It was like a mini apartment, fantastic and there was a small kitchen upstairs which we could use. We ...

... vegatable stew and even though there was a lot, we both managed to eat it all as we didnīt want to look rude. And then the main course came out and we found out that the stew was not a stew but a soup!!!!!!!! Our faces completely dropped at the thought of more food which we felt we had to eat. Mark did really well and finished his, but only just. I think he was gagging a bit at the end. Well, it was rice, pasta and potato casserole..... a lot of really filling food. I ...

... recommend a push on the budget and take this train rather than the bus.  It was not just the decadence of this train that made it but being in the heart of the countryside and going straight through some of the villages. The kids spent ages waving at everyone.  As we entered Puno the full moon was sitting beautifully just beside the mountains and over Lake Titicaca.   A magical time and moment. 

... just luck, i guess.
Anyhows, it was an early start this morning, packed and bfasted and out the door by 7.55am and down to the port for a trip to the famous floating islands of Uros on Lake Tits, the highest navigable lake in the world. Takes about 30min to get there thru a channel of tortora reeds (the stuff they make their boats and islands out of) and we spent about 2 hours on 2 different islands, taking a traditional reed boat across the lake from the 1st ...

... occupied despite the altitude and climate. One town appeared to have had an toilet project as every house had a bright blue corrugated steel outside toilet.
There are lots of cattle grazing, alpaca, llama, goats and sheep.
At least the dogs seem too tired or oxygen starved to run out in front of me.
A slight downhill run into Puno with a first view of Lake Titicaca.

... br>
We then set off for another boat ride to visit one of the peninsulas which juts out into the lake where we had an amazing three course lunch and enjoyed the view over the lake before setting off back. In the evening we went out for dinner and bumped into two English people we met in New Zealand who were travelling too so we whiled away a few hours in a bar chatting with them which was nice.

On Thursday ...

... door. I also cruised down to the lake, located two blocks from my hostal. There, I met some boat captains, one I liked a lot. We spent the day talking and shooting the breeze. He was pretty cool. I thought things couldn’t get much better. But they did.

The next morning, I went down to the dock and took my new friend’s boat (it was a tour of course- but he gave me a sweet discount- a guy I definitly didnt mind sharing some of my Sol with) from Puno to Uros, the ...

... of it and it was very hot. Seriously, the Battle Hymn of the Republic was blaring in my head the whole time I was in there.

By the way, last night we ate at Pachapapa (I think thatīs the name) in San Blas in Cusco. It was so good and still only about $12 a person. We had chicha morada, a drink made from sweet purple corn, which I liked a lot. San Blas is a more stylish part of Cusco and I wish we had spent more time there.

... and thus ended up living in the lake. This generation of Uros people are disappearing though as the young generations opt to go to school in the mainland and eventually work there.

It was about 7am, I had 2 layers of clothes, my SF winter jacket, and a beanie, but I was still shivering. It was freezing cold, the reeds which we were standing on were covered in ice, but the Uros people were walking barefoot ! We were told these ...

... We did role plays where they had to help so called tourists with questions,
or be tourists in an English speaking country themselves. (Most of the students
were learning English because they wanted to work in tourism.)

- We organised a day at the library for everyone who wanted to learn the basics
about internet and Hotmail. We showed them some discussion groups and interesting
web sites.



Our goal was ...