Lake Titicaca and crossing into Bolivia

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After arriving at Lake Titicaca we decided to spend a few days in Puno, partly because we fancied chilling out for a while, and partly because Stuart changed his flight so instead of going into Bolivia he would fly back to Lima from Juliaca (which is quite near to Puno.)


The main touristy thing to do in Puno (well, the only touristy thing to do in Puno actually) is to visit the Uros Islands, which are floating islands made of dried reed, a short boat ride into the lake from Puno. Amazingly Bridget´s emergency sick-bag was not called into action on this intrepid journey. Each island is a couple of acres in size and is home to one family. Although we didn´t have a guide, we worked out a typical day for an Uros islander, depending on gender.

The men go out early in the morning to catch fish. Then when they come home they do a bit of DIY, maybe fix the reed roof or repair the reed guttering.
The women sit by their stalls selling "handmade reed gifts" (i.e. tat) to toursts.

Although it was interesting to see these islands first-hand, we all thought that the overwhelming whiff of ´total tourism´was a bit too much. Especially when Jez climbed up a reed observation tower and spied a village of houses made not of traditional dried reeds, but corrugated steel!



On returning to Puno Jez and Bridget decided to walk back to the hotel, thinking that playing the lazy tourist card was too much. But "Imperialist Stuart of Arabia" (we have more nicknames lined up if required!) decided to pay this poor Peruvian man the equivalent of 30 pence so that he could sit in this glorified wheelchair and have the chap cycle His Highness back to his hotel. Even when he got to the last 100 yards of steep uphill, and the exhausted man had to get out of his saddle and push, Stuart sat there smiling.

On our last night with Stuart we went out for a slap-up meal (thanks to Paula and Jamie for that), you can see the three of us in the photo. Although the camera never lies, Bridget would like to point out that her nose is not actually as red as the picture implies.

After saying goodbye to Stu on Monday, we caught the bus to Copacabana, which is on the southern side of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. As big Barry Manilow fans we couldn´t resist the opportunity of stopping off here for a couple of days.

Although the town was pretty rough at street-level (more stray dogs than a Saturday night in Krystals), from our fabulous accomodation (Las Olas if anyone reading is planning on visiting Copacabana) we had a fantastic view over the brightly-coloured town, the lake, and across to the Peruvian and Bolivian mountains of the Andes.

Jez was feeling a bit under the weather (ahh...) so when we went to the Island of the Sun Bridget did a four-hour walk, from one end of the island to the other, on her own (ahh...) while Jez sat in a little bar with a bottle of "Peru Gold" lager reading his book. Lovely!


Thursday saw us board a coach to La Paz - capital of Bolivia and highest capital in the world at 3636 metres, fact fans. The company we booked with was called Manco Capac, but Manky Capac would have been a better name for them. The worst coach we´ve been on by some way!

So far Bolivia seems very nice, and very cheap! Some sample prices:

Bottle of beer in a bar - 40p
Bottle of reasonable wine in a restaurant - ₤2.50
Three-hour coach journey to La Paz - ₤1.30
An hour on the internet writing blogs - 10p


OK, that´s all folks, but our next instalment will be about us riding bikes down "The World´s Most Dangerous Road". (Mums... we´re OK by the way).

Bye
Jez and Bridge
xx

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Photos

The Last Supper
Thanks Paula and Jamie!

View from our living room on Lake Titacaca.
Stu, it was rubbish, you didn´t miss much.

Comments

[lisa]

Now then Jezzer....
From reading your blogs one would assume that our Bridge is the one whose a little delicate, you know all those comments about her being sick etc.....however a little birdie told me that you had to get a lift on the support/emergency horse on the final stretch of the Inca trail whilst you left Bridget to hike up the remainder with all the bags?!! GO GO BRIDGET you could never take the Venture scout out of a girl!!!