Day 21: Stranded in Puno

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Today we were informed that we had to stay in Puno another day cos the border to Bolivia was shut and no one knew what was gonna happen. So we had a decent sleep in and just pretty much chilled the whole day. Everyone had a bit of “me” time, watched TV, read, slept and there were a few poker games also. At one point there was an option to catch a boat at 3am the next day to a diff border which would have cost us each an extra $100US and was 8 hours and then 2 public buses and we wouldn’t have got our truck back. No-one was very keen on that idea we all kept our fingers crossed and hoped for the best!
At about 4pm we all got our rooms called and got asked to rush downstairs cos they had an idea and we had to get down to the immigration office in Puno to get our exit stamps for Peru by 5 when everything shut. For this we needed our passports and our exit slips that we got at the airports - these flimsy lil bits of paper which were were told to hold onto for our baggage!! So Elle threw hers away early on to be told by Mala that we did in fact need them. Lucky at the very start of the tour we had made photocopies of them. And in true fashion on the Inca trail while giving myself a stamp, mine must have fallen out of my passport also! So the great NZ’ers had copies instead of originals! Which we were told were fine! We all raced over to the justice department where there was some confusion as to why mine and ells didn’t have anything on the back of the exit slips (cos wed copied the front side only) but they ended up stamping them and we thought we were home free! Raced over to immigration to get in line and get our stamps. Elle was first and got stamped sweet but when it came to me they realised mine was a copy and refused to stamp it!!! So, the drama began!!!
It was 4.45pm and we had 15mins to sort this before leaving first thing in the morning so I took a translator and went upstairs. He moved at the speed of a snail and said I needed to go to the bank and pay 8sol, get a receipt and come back. Naturally it was pay day in Puno and there were cues for miles literally from every bank so we found a secret little bank and begged our way to the front, paid and ran back to immigration. I swear the man had a condition in which he either didn’t have a caring bone in his body or he was born with verrrrrryyyyy slow moving muscles!! It was 5pm and he tells us we now needed to go back to justice and get a stamp and then back to him, but seeing as though it as after 5 he couldn’t do the last part till the next day! So we begged and sprinted, just made it in the doors to the justice department sprinted back and begged them to give us the stamp and it was done. I was dying cos am really struggling to breathe with the altitude when walking but thank goodness – no jail for me and I wasn’t stranded any longer in Puno!!

Interesting but great hamburger with lil fries in it for dinner and an early night cos it was an early start the next day and a 14 hour journey!

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