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Published: December 28th 2009
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La Raya, Peru
La Raya is the line dividing the regions of Cusco and Puno in Peru. At 4335 metres above sea level, La Raya provides beautiful views of the Andes rising high above alpaca farms. We left Cusco on the morning of the 18th and caught the 7:30am bus to Puno. We chose to take a tourist bus with ¨Inka Express¨that made 5 stops along the way at different archaeological sites and points of interest including Pikillacta, Andahuaylillas, Sicuani, La Raya and Queswachaca. We were unable to stop in Raqchi as the locals were on strike and blocking the road. Overall the bus ride was okay however the company ran my credit card twice and tried to sneak an additional $770.01 without me noticing. When I approached the man who sold us our tickets on the morning of our departure (Visa statement in hand), he was argumentative and rude and refused to acknowledge the over-charge. Visa has now launched an investigation (they thought it was amusing that a bus company would try to charge me $850 for two 8-hour bus tickets). I´m sure it will get worked out - I´m just happy for on-line banking! As for ¨Inka Express¨, I wouldn´t put them high on my list of recommendations.
We only spent a couple days in Puno doing laundry and recuperating from the Inca Trail. One thing we did do was take a boat trip
to the floating islands of Los Uros on Lake Titicaca. The islands themselves were interesting but they have been so over-exploited for the purpose of tourism that it became a frustrating trip with everyone hassling us for money and trying to sneak in extra charges for unnecessary boat rides to neighbouring islands. We also toured the ´Yavari´ ship which was commissioned by the Peruvian government in 1861 and is docked on Lake Titicaca. It was built in 2766 pieces and delivered by mule to the Lake over 2 miles because no railroad existed at the time between the Pacific coast and Puno, where it was to be assembled. The transportation through Peru took 6 years due to the extreme conditions and various unexpected delays and the steamboat was finally launched in 1870. The 60 horsepower (45 kW) steam engine was fed with dried llama dung.
We left Puno on the the 20th at 7:30am and headed to Copacabana. Upon arrival we decided to stay on the bus and go straight to La Paz, Bolivia instead. We arrived in La Paz at 5pm and checked into ´Hostal Austria´. It is a nice, cheap little hostal - quite basic, shared bathrooms,
Cusco - Puno
A statue displayed at the museum in Queswachaca. no TVs (we´ve been spoiled so far), very friendly staff. Since it´s the holiday season, we haven´t accomplished too much - there were some day trips we wanted to take but were unable to. For this reason, we do not have any pictures of the city. La Paz overall is not a nice city though - it is dirty, people urinate wherever they feel like, there are people begging everywhere in the streets (some have taught their small children to do this quite aggressively), and the shoeshine boys wear ski masks which is very creepy. We have however found a couple good bars and met some friendly people (one guy from Airdrie, another guy from the US who works at a local hostal and gave us a tour of the brewery) and pretty much waited for Christmas to pass.
As for Christmas, it didn´t really turn out the way we had planned. We had originally planned to have a traditional Christmas dinner at one of the local hostals but missed it at ´Adventure Brew Pub´ because they had it on the 24th, not the 25th. We were unable to attend the dinner at ´Wild Rover´ hostal because we weren´t
staying there, and we missed it at ´Oliver´s Travels´ pub because the place was jam-packed both times we attempted to enter. So we ended up eating a normal meal at ´The Steakhouse´ which was a nice place but the food was not good. We don´t recommend eating Bolivian steak - it is terrible (definitely not Alberta beef)!
What´s next, we´re not too sure. We plan on heading to Rurrenabaque as it will be our gateway into the jungle. We can´t believe we have been this close to the Amazon for so long and haven´t explored it yet. New Years is just around the corner - we´ll have to wait and see where we ring in 2010.
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