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Published: September 26th 2007
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Actually I was in Peru already when I wrote the last post, but didn't have time to tell you about it.
The day after the spring solstice, we drove from La Paz to Tiquina, the narrowest part of Lake Titicaca. It was really interesting, the way we crossed. We had to get out of the bus, which ended up in a long queue. One by one, the buses were driven onto barges (angled pieces of wood were placed in front of the barge until the front wheels of the bus went on it, after which the barge had sunk enough to be at the same level as the platform). If there was enough space, a small car would be placed at the end of the barge as well. Then an athletic man with a long pole would push the barge away from the platform he is standing on, vault over onto the barge, and somehow turn the it around with his stick. These men pushed so hard they were leaning way out, and I wondered a number of times if they would actually fall into the water. Once the barges had been turned around, the onboard motor could then be
used. The passengers were ferried across in a different boat, and waited on the other side until their bus reappeared.
Because this whole lake crossing thing took so long, we only had about half an hour to see Copacabana. Some people had lunch. I tried to send a postcard, but the post office was shut as it was 1pm. In the end, I just took photos of the cathedral and left (I still haven't posted those postcards yet).
About 10 minutes' drive away, we came to the border between Bolivia and Peru. I was very disappointed that we were going to Peru already, because we hadn't explored the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca yet, and the Sun and Moon Islands are the most famous. Our (new) guide told us to pretend we didn't know her, as she is (like the old guide) Peruvian, and Bolivians don't like Peruvians.
On the Peruvian side, it was as hassle-free as it was on the Bolivian side. Some boys sat outside the office though, and tried to give us shoe shines. They were really smart! They saw from my passport that I was from New Zealand, and showed me their Kiwi brand shoe polish. When the Danish couple came out, the boys were able to say 'shoe shine' to them in Danish!
These boys came up to us again just after we had changed some money, and told us there were problems with our stamps and we had to return to immigration. We were suspicious, of course, but they were right---our passports had been stamped with 22 August rather than 22 September. We had to queue up again while the sheepish immigration official restamped everything.
Puno was the first Peruvian town we stayed at. It seemed less friendly than Bolivian towns, but perhaps that was because everyone stayed at home as it was raining. Apart from the main pedestrian street and town square, there didn't seem to be much to see (especially as I didn't dare walk up a mountain alone). I guess the novel things for me were the taxi-chollos (not sure if I spelt that right, but they are basically tricycle or rickshaw things, very ecological taxis), and the advertisements for Inca Kola everywhere (and other types of cola too). I was surprised to discover that Inca Kola is yellow in colour and tastes nothing like Coca Cola.
Another drink I tried is of course Pisco Sour. It tasted good, but I found it more sweet than sour. It was a bit like a lemonade, but strong, similar to mojitos or caipirinhas I guess, but without the fresh fruit. And tonight, I not only tried a frutillada (a chicha blanca with strawberries, a fermented corn drink that I discovered too late should not be drunk at night) but also a chicha morada, which tasted like mulled wine, but is not alcoholic.
What I forgot to write about the Salar de Uyuni was that the Danish grandmother in the tour group got terribly sick. We were in freezing dorm rooms (7 in my room; my usual roommate was in another room and everyone teased her afterwards about setting her alarm for 3.30am), and she discovered that she could not breathe, due to the altitude (over 4000m) and the cold. She had a panic attack and was in tears until we all got up at 5am for the next day's journey. She refused to spend another day out and was driven back to Uyuni one night early.
This Danish woman also had trouble breathing at Puno, and thought she would not be able to visit the islands of Lake Titicaca or do the Inca Trail. In the end, after hours of staying up in panic, she took half a pill of Diamox, which I had given her after the Uyuni incident, and she was able to sleep for 2 hours until we had to get up for the islands. I am so glad the pill worked for her, as she really loved the visit of the islands, which I will tell you about at the next opportunity. (Am now in Cusco, which has fast internet, i.e. a simple pictureless webpage no longer takes 3 seconds to load. Might even be tempted to upload pictures!)
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