Hotel Franci's Puno

... so commercialized that as one of my travelmates called it &lt;&lt;Disneyland&gt;&gt;. You get to dress up in the local´s wears as you look at their local houses and then they take you to their personal mercado to sell their wares. Then you get the option to go on their reed boat for a small fee as well. It was a nice tour and I enjoyed it but many did not.<br><br>Then the next day I got a few things sorted out because I noticed that my flight to Lima had my name reversed. So I spent the ...

... on when we arrived, there is always some kind of parade or festival going on here!! We watched for about an hour and then visited the coca museum. Just a tiny museum of 2 rooms and the first one we sat down and watched a short video about the history of the parade costumes, most of them are mocking the Spanish invaders. We were able to try on the masks and some outfits and cracked up at ourselves. <br>I didn´t want to do dinner with the group again, too expensive ...

... the morning sun was bright as ever. We enjoyed a breakfast of bread and pancakes before we said goodbye to our kind hosts and caught the boat to nearby Taquile. I would recommend another day if someone is looking to escape the hectic, traffic filled nearby cities. With limited electricity and no motorized vehicles, this island makes for a tranquil escape to catch up on reading or writing, stroll the beaches or admire the hardworking locals.

... t play as I as slightly worried I´d have an unpleasant accident, yep dodgy stomach again!<br>Pedro walked Ali and I up to his house which seemed an awfully long way up.....luckily Pedro spoke spanish - most of the adults only speak Amarya (or is it Quechua, I can´t remember!!!) while the kids learn spanish at school - which made it slightly easier for communication. Even I could get the gist of some of the conversations! Ali and I helped peel potatoes with his wife ...

... is because the hotel seemed emtpy. It was 3 blocks from the mall, on the same block as the post office and a few blocks from a lavendaria/laundry and there are plenty of restaurants nearby. Check out is 12pm.<br><br>The tour company we used from the Puno bus station is ´´Inka Tours´´ and we found them pretty good. Although the all-inclusive ticket didnt include the reed boat ride that they lead you onto. Apart from that they were friendly and our guide was informative.<br><br>

... detail... and he was really funny!, had lunch together and went back to the boat... and back to puno. met Milo and Jessica for cake and then had dinner, found als lost hat and went back to the hostal.<br><br>We checked back into the crazy hotel where there were only kids at the desk, tried to teach one of them how to book our bus ticket... it all went wrong (they made the bus ticket up and got all the details wrong, took me over an hour to get my money back... and then the little ...

... meds (3 days) and take it fairly slow for the first few days. Fortunately, we have no issues and were back to normal within days.<br><br>While in Puno we explored the city by foot and mototaxi, we indulged in Guinea Pig, Alpaca and plenty of local beer. We also managed to catch a local rally and a few sunsets.<br><br>Enjoy the photos

... last night without a reservation and managed to get 1 night but he told me a 2nd night was non possible, so I resigned myself to having to lug my backpack round to Jennys this evening to try my luck there, but lo and behold, when I got back from my trip to Uros (more later), a room miraculosly appeared and i took the monster mochilla (backpack) from storage and up into the room, so it all worked out in the end. Not sure if there´s a moral there, prob a bit of a ...

... other tribes. The reeds are woven about 80cms deep and they are on a big bed of the roots which float too - and they are anchored down so they don't float away. Amusingly, if they have a disagreement with the other people on the island then they cut the island down the middle and float away a bit and then re-anchor and start a new island.<br><br> All the people who live there that we met were really happy and ...

... Virgen de la Candelaria, <br> Puno, Feb. 1998 <br><br> <br><br> <br><br> The school we were going to teach at was actually a language department (Centro <br> de Idiomas), part of the university of Puno that goes by the wonderful name <br> of "Universidad Nacional del Altiplano". <br><br> <br><br> My students<br><br> <br><br> Each of us had two groups of about 15-20 students, all of them were advanced <br> English students so we could do it all in ...