Puno . Lake Titicaca . Islas Flotantes

Finally, I had decided to go to Puno. It took me a while to actually decide to go because El Festival De La Virgen de Candelaria was going on. Supposedly all hostiles were booked and bus ticket prices were much higher than normal. But Finally, I went. Chossing a bus company is not the easiest, there are tons, from the most expensive (Cruz del Sur) to the cheapest (AAlas del Sur). I opted for cheap. Big mistake. My departure was at 2pm but we did not leae until 4pm. Not ony that, but when I first saw the bus, I was ready to buy another ticket woth another company. Our bus looked like it was held togeher with tape. Retarded me, still boarded and hoped that al would go well. It did. Six hours later, I was in PUNO.

The Hostel, Tumi II, was supposed to pick me up from the bus terminal but they were no where to be found. I called and they said, ¨Sorry, we can´t go but please take a taxi¨. It was now 9:45pm and I did not want to take a taxi that late at night. I huffed, took a deep breath and proceeded to find a taxi. The hostile for 15 soles had reserved a room for me in back of the hostile, away from everyone. Tired, I did not care. From outside, you could here the festivities, bands playing, people dancing in the streets...but again, i was too tired to go out ad join in. I slept like a rock.

Early in the morning, I was supposed to be at the ferry dock to leave for the islands in Lake Titicaca. But sleepy head was runng late. I scrambled to get everything ready, I paid for the room, when a two guys, that worked at the hostile, decided to bug me about going on a two day tour of the islands. ¨Nom thanks, I want to go by myself¨. ¨No, it´s a bad idea, you won´t enjoy it...¨ Blah, blah. Before I knew it, I had been signed up to go on the damn tour. Hmffff.

Inka tours, here we went. It was about 20 of us. Packed like lil sardines in the boat. An hour and half later, we were at our first floating Island, UROS. Here we were explained how the reed floating islands were made and how the Uros people lived. Most floating islands consist of no more than 6 families.

The next island was Amantani. Where we were to spend the night. Everyone in the group was divided up into threes and given a family to spend the night with. I was teamed with two Peruvian girls. Lil did I know what was going to happen that night!

WE got situated with the family, had a nice veggie soup. Then headed up to meet the group at 4pm. There we all went up to the highest point of the isand. The views were spectacular. You could see Bolivia and Chile in the far far distance. Two hours later, we all headed vback to the Pueblo.

Arriving, one of the Peruvian girls I was with was no where to be found! WE waited, it got dark, we wated some more for her to arrive. NOTHING! We notified the guide but she brushed us off by saying that 3 of the belgian girls were cold and she was going to accompany them back to their hist family. ¨Wait, The Peruvian is missing¨ Öh, she´ll turn up later, good night¨ WTF?

Finally, our host sister, Maxima, convinced us to head back to the house to eat and later we would look for our friend. I dunno why, but we listened. We ate . And still no Peruvian girl. WE went out in search for her. We screamed her name, asked around and NOTHING! WE thought the worst. Somehow agian, we were convinced to go back into the house to sleep. WTF? Yeah, worried and not not knowing what to do, we slept. Pretty unreal I thought. But Our family convinced us, again, by saying, that this happened all the time and that they were pretty sure she had gotten lost, found another family on the other side of the island and that her new family were going to bring her back in the morning. We slept.
Seven am, no peruvian Girl. By now, it had been raining all night and morning. We ate breakfast, no peruvian Girl. The family now was worried and had been searching for her, in the rain, all morning. They apoligized and sais we hould go to the dock to meet our group that was about to depart to the next island, Taquile. We arriced at the port, told the guide about the situation. ¨It´s the families fault, not mine, the father should have come told me at night but noone told me anything last night¨ The tour guide lied. We did tell her that night and she had opted to do nothing! ¨Look, you two girls can stay on the island to find your friend, i can be back in an hour to pick yall up, or you can come with all of us to the next island where im sure your friend will be. But I am not waiting just for ONE Missing person¨. Angry, not knowing what to do, we boarded the boat and hoped that the Peruvian girl would be the next island. Somehow, the guide had supposedly gotten ahold of the girl via cel phone and that she was on her way to Taquile. We did not believe the guide.

WE arrived in Taquile. No peruvian! Later when we were boarding the bpat to go back to Puno, we see her! I wanted to stranglle her! She had a big grin on her face and said she had just had an experience. Apparently, when she was on her way down from the mounatin, that night, she mistakenly followed the wrong group, that went to the other side of the island. By then it was dark and she had decided to seek refuge with a family she had met along the way. The family took her nto their care, took her to the local Pena (a dance place where the locals get together and show tourists their traditional dances) where she had a grand ol´time! I huffed, and thought, ¨this shithead, had us worried all night, we didnt get to go to our Pena becuase we were looking for her and here she was having the best adventure¨...Arg,hmm, wel, at least she was safe, I had to remind myself so as to not stranggle her!

What an adventure!

Back in Puno, the two Peruvians and I decided to stay n the same hostile and go out that night. The night was incredible. The festivities of La candelaria were still going on and we managed to see two dancing groups with their full costumes and bands. We danced and danced! What a good way to end the night in Puno!

The next moring, at 5am, the peruvian girls decide to wake up, turn on the TV aaand get ready to set off for the bolivian border. For about an hour I tried to sleep but I couldn´t. I turned over to look at them and they smiled and said, ¨we thought you might enjoy a lil TV!¨ WHAT THE HELL? I thought. Two hours later, they left and I was so glad!

What an adventure!

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