Trip Start Aug 10, 2008
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Trip End May 2009


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Flag of Peru  ,
Wednesday, October 1, 2008

       We arrived in Puno on the shores of lake Titicaca after a 5 hour bus journey which turned into a 7 hour voyage over bad roads and through the heart of a very active thunderstorm which lit up the surrounding countryside like giant strobe lights. We stayed in a hotel next to a building site where the builders were kind enough to wake us early enough to go to the burial site of Sallasestam, where we walked between pre Inca funerary towers lit by low dramatic lighting from another nearby thunderstorm. It is a very underdeveloped site with fragments of ancient pottery littering the ground. We stopped in a ´traditional´ Aymara farmhouse and saw lots of ´authentic´ souvenirs which were for sale and some guinea pig castles which weren´t.

  After another early wake up call from the builders - hope the housing slump hits Puno soon -.we went to the Uros Islands which are man made floating islands made of torta reeds, which have been lived on for centuries - sounds fascinating, and it is for about 10 minutes but you have to spend about an hour being harassed by souvenir sellers and begging children before you head back to Puno. Brenda did employ some child labourers to braid her hair in the traditional manner though.

    We then had a mad dash for the Bolivian boarder before it closed for the night in a collectivo taxi. We made it with 20 minutes to spare and arrived in Copacabana at nightfall.
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