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Published: March 17th 2007
Puno The 6 hour 'Royal Class' bus journey down to Puno was pretty relaxing, thanks to the reclining seats ... allowing me chance to catch up on my journal and writing postcards! Puno was fairly non-descript ... it was much less touristy than Cusco. It had a few nice bars and restaurants on the main street which of course I sampled ;-)
Lake Titicaca We headed out of Puno early in the morning to take a boat over to Tequile island. Unfortunately it was pissing it down, so the morale was pretty much like it used to be on one of those boring school trips. We had a decent meal there though and then trudged back to the boat. Then we headed to Amantani island for our homestay. Upon arrival we got allocated to our 'mama' whose house we would stay in for the night. There was no electricity, and the food was very basic (rice AND pasta!). We were told that the islanders would only speak Quechua (the native Inca language) but luckily the mother and her daughter spoke spanish so we were able to get along. We took a walk up the 'Pachatata' (Father Earth) hill
on the island, and had some great views back across to the mainland. It was a bloody cold night but luckily the weight of about 5 alpaca blankets stopped the cold from getting through, but made it hard to breathe :-)
In the morning, we headed back to Puno .. via the reed islands of the Uros people. We spent about an hour there, in the sun (finally!) .. learning about how they make their islands, boats etc and the pluses/negatives that tourism brings to their lives.
La Paz Another long bus ride - this time to the Peru/Bolivia border. It was a bit of a palava, having to get off the bus - get an exit stamp, walk over the border and then fill in and get stamped another visa for Bolivia. We got stopped twice by the military/police on the way to La Paz, the 2nd time we were boarded and all had our passports checked. A Korean couple were asked off the bus, and could only get back on after paying quite a few dollars. Corrupt!
La Paz is an absolutely crazy city - a million people crammed into a valley. The streets are steep
La Paz from on high
Its not as high as it looks ;-)and busy, the traffic doesn't follow any rules .. and the pollution is pretty bad. I've had a couple of really good nights out here. I had a day trip up to Tihuanaco ruins (Tihuanaco was an ancient Bolivian pre-Inca civilisation) which were impressive and the museum had some cool finds, including skulls whose craniums had been distorted (Tihuanacos and the Incas used to mould the skulls of their nobility from a young age - in order that they looked different to the rest of the 'normal' population).
Onwards Tonight I meet up with a new GAP group. Turns out that the Lima to Buenos Aires route is split into two legs, with 2 separate groups. I went out with a group of tour leaders last night, including my new one - who is pretty crazy. Next is Potosi and a 4x4 journey through the Atacama desert!
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Dad
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Leaping photos
Its great to see Matt leaping around the Soth American continent. So much to see. So much to learn about. Dad