Santa Maria Hotel Puno

... three hours talking to the travel agents and my insurance company to see what I could do in advance. Then I went to the pharmacy to pack up on malaria pills as well. When I felt that everything was settled I was able to go on a tour with one of my trekmates to Sullestrani.<br><br>The tour itself was alright but I had just sent my laundry to be done so I had shorts on and it was raining so I was miserable. We eventually turned ourselves into photo maniacs and made several funny photos ...

... 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! <br>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 ...

... although think we held up dinner cos we were so slow!! Their 2 youngest daughters were gorgeous, Solinda 7 and Solimar 10.....their eldest was 15 and was out watching the sheep. AFter a dinner i could barely eat - so much, a huge bowl of soup with potato followed by a stew of potato, quinoa, rice and pasta - every carb known to mankind!!! We then had to get ready for the local dance ie dress up in traditional clothes, - multilayered skirtrs, jackets ...

... aboard at 6am, with little time to arrange our travel plans that were centered on seeing a few of Titi hha ha´s 60-some islands, then only to hop on another night bus to Cusco (7 hours), all in the idea that Puno was a tourist trap and had little to offer in the way of good food, nightlife, etc. We did find an amazing cafeteria called Cafeteria Sal y Azucar, after we got back from the islands, on a sidestreet off Puno´s main pedestrian avenue. I ...

... made as much noise as possible all night, shouting, ringing the door bell, being idiots... (we were the only guests I think!)... couldnt sleep so got up early and tried to check out, but it was all locked up, so wandered about, shouted and eventually stumbledinto the store room where the kids were sleeping, woke them up, shouted at them (I am such a teacher!), paid and went to buy out own bus ticket from the terminal... for 20s cheaper!<br><br>The bus journey to Cusco is another story....

... just luck, i guess.<br>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 ...

... wanting to show us how they originally survived just on dried fish and coots, but now they trade too so they have fruits and veggies. All the kids go to a school on one of the biggest islands. Marta, one of the women on the island we visited invited us into her house to have a look and then offered for us to dress up in traditional clothes - which we did, and then they sang songs and danced with us which was good fun ...

Lo que pasa es que en Puno siempre llueve. I've been to Puno twice, and twice it rained at night. <br><br>I spend a day in Chucuito, which is a temple of fertility. Aparently the culture who built the temple was quite open about their sexuality, the justification of which is presented as an interesting variety of stone phallic symbols. Most of them are human-size, and all of them are rather realistic ...

... with the occasional translation <br> or explanation in Spanish). My first group consisted of about four kids in the <br> age of 13 to 15 years old; a few older guys who were history or philosophy teachers <br> themselves, and the rest were students of my own age (somewhere between 20 and <br> 25). <br><br> <br><br> The <br> second group were mostly students and one or two teachers. <br><br> <br><br> <br><br> <br><br> Group <br> 1 - 16:00 ...