This one is a Novel, after a great week.

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I have had a great week. I am
loving my time more and more here. The week started off pretty well.
It was a few of the girls last week here so we went out to this nice
Peruvian Restaurant called Inca Wasi we tried Cuy, I'm sure you've
seen the pictures on Facebook. I didn't think I would like it but I
really did. Everyone says it tastes like chicken, but it doesn't,
it's a lot more gamey, a little like Duck I guess, I even ate the
Heart, it was delicious. We all shared the one Guinea pig between us.
For a main I had Alpaca, something else I was looking forward to
trying. I loved it, it's hard to describe what it tastes like, given
how much I hate lamb I was really unsure if I would like it or not,
but it was amazing and will definitely be eating more of it. A few of
us went out for a while latter and ended up at this bar called wild
rover, it's a backpackers were a lot of the volunteers go because of
the cheep drinks, not my favourite, but still o.k. There was a quiz
so it made for a good night

Tuesday was a pretty chilled out day. I did another walk to Jesus,
still felt like I was going to die, but it is still amazing when you
get to the top. The girls at the orphanage had to leave early to
practice for first communion, which meant no home work or shower time,
so we just played games with them. We just chilled out at home
watching movies, which is a little hard with so many people in the
house, they decided on Love Actually (one of my fav's) so that was nice.

On Wednesday we ended going out again, Tim one of the guys in the
house had some people he knew from the states come over and took them
to a peruvian pub, we met up with him there. It was quite cool, the
place had some amazing artwork and really cool masks. They made
really bad Pico sours though, ( after doing my culinary tour in Lima
and trying them everywhere I have decided that I am a bit of a
connoisseurs when it comes to Pico sours, these were blended, not
shaken and to much lime) After that we ended up at Wild Rovers again
were the whole house was there, it was good fun. A few of us decided
to go out dancing and some how ended up in a combi van with the roof
cut out and cookie monster in it, if it reads like something out of
the hangover it sure felt like it. They took us to a dance club, it
was crazy but so much fun, Dijana and I were laughing so much.
Unfortunately when we got to the club there were very few people there
so we stayed for a little while then went to Inca team for some salsa
dancing, it ended up being a great night. Got home very late though.Thursday morning was a bit tough, due to such a late night, but by the afternoon it was off to the orphanage again and

it was great spending time with the girls. Even though my spanish is
still quite poor we make progress with the homework and they had a
prize giving with the girls which was neat. That night Maximo had a
quiz night as a fun raiser to help by toys for the orphanages for
christmas. Our house had to split into two teams but we ended up
coming first and secound, I had to make that one and early night
though, tired from the night before and also had out trip to Lake
titicaca the next night.

On Friday we decided to go out for lunch, there are all these
restaurants called Pollo Rostieries, which are basically places that
serve spit roasted chicken, They are awesome, the chicken here is
amazing. I had decided that day I didn't want to wear my hiking
boots, that I wear pretty much every day, and upon comenting on how
slippery the streets are here, managed to slip an roll my ankle.
Great work! Thankfully I was just out side the Maximo office, so a bit
of Ice, some anti inflamitries and a cab ride home I spent the next
few hours with my foot up in determination that I was still going to
do my trip. They are a little, well a lot lax with over the counter
meds here so I got some painkiller that helped me sleep on the bus and
with some strapping I was all good to go.

We left Cusco (Dijana, Cracker, Connor and myself) on Friday night.
Due to my spanish name narcotics I got a good sleep, the others not so
much. We arrived at 5am and had to wait around to 7.30am for our tour
guide. On the bus I was busting to pee, but thought I would wait
until I got to Puno. BIG BIG BIG mistake. First you had to pay 50
centemos to receive a ticket and 3 squares of toilet paper. then go
into a crowed bathroom with some lady that would bang on the toilets
yelling at people in the toilet if she felt they were taking too long.
When some one butted in front of D and me she literally grabbed the
women by the hair and pulled her out of the toilet, and yelled a lot
in spanish. I was a little bewilded, but then everyone started yelling, I got a little
scared so I just ran into the toilet to discover to my horror that the
toilets didn't flush!!!!! Apparently the lady controlling the toilets
puts a bucket of water in it to flush it every 10 people or so! It
was all kind of horrifying. There was also no soap or paper towel,
thankfully I carry a little bottle of hand wash and sanitiser with me
everywhere. I left a little tramitised and never wanting to
experience that again. We went upstairs to get breakfast. Another
not so pleasant experience. For a country that grows so much coffee
someone should teach them how to make it, and don't even get me
started on the omelette. Either I have a iron clad stomach, or that
collera vaccination really does help with dodgy food. For the first
time I didn't get bread envy when the others got there toast. At that
stage everyone was getting a little cranky. Cracker decided to pay
the 20 soles to get a room for an hour or so, so he could have a rest
and use a clean toilet. D and Connor went into the room as well, when
I went in to change and brush my teeth, we had another person come and
yell at us because there were to many people in the room. I decided
to leave and went for a walk for a bit until our guide turned up.

Thankfully that was the worst part of the trip. Once the guide turned
up we got taken to a boat were we had a 30 minute ride out to the
floating, or reed Islands. They are Islands that are man made and made
entirely out of reeds. They start of with the roots and then place the
reeds on top. The Islands have been in existence for around 1000
years. They float so they have to anchored down but you can move your
island if you want. They have to place new reeds on the island every
week and they can move there houses as well to place reeds under them.
It was quite amazing. They do a lot of textile work, and I am bummed
that people told me not to take much money because there was this
beautiful wall hanging that one of the islanders made and it was only
80 soles which works out to be about $40 nsd, it would be so much more
here in Cusco, it was a shame. We had a bit of a look around the
island, then we took a ride on a reed boat across to another Island.

After we spend a bit more time on the other Island we headed off on a
three hour boat ride to Amantaní island, this is where we would spend
the rest of the day and night with a host family. I slept a lot on
the boat, when I woke I went up the top where we had good views of the
lake, It was really relaxing. When we got to Amantani we met Silvia
who was our host for the night, she was lovely. Back at her house we
settled into our rooms then went down for lunch. They have this tea
they make from Munta which is a herb, that I am convinced is what we
call Thyme. It is used for altitude sickness, shortness of breath,
stomach upsets like sea sickness. You can press it on your head for a
head ache, It worked really well, and was nice. After lunch we went
for a hike up the mountain on the island up to Pachamama. The
mountain peak is about 4200mt above sea level. It was a bit of a
tough hike but was awesome when we got to the top. When we got to the
bottom there were some people cooking street food we found some
Anticuchos (cow heart) which was delicious. We went back to Silvia's
and had dinner before heading out to the town hall for a dance. They
put on a dance for the tourists were you dress up in the locals
cloths. It was a fun night but we were shattered so we headed home
early for good nights sleep.

On Sunday we got up early to rain, but as we left it started to clear
up and the Island looked amazing with the sun coming through the
clouds. We headed off at about 8am for a one hour boat ride to
Taquile. As we came up to the Island it didn't look like much, but
once we got on it for yet another hike up a mountain, you could see
it's true beauty. It is one of the most beautiful places I have been.
It is very untouched, and still runs the way it has done for hundreds
of years, and run on the inca model of society. Everyone wears
traditional costume. I got some good shots. We had lunch there,
grilled trout, which was amazing. I was really sad to leave the
Island, I would of liked to stay for much longer but we had to go. We
had a 3 hour boat ride back to Puno which again was nice and relaxing.

Once back at Puno we had about 5 1/2 hours to kill before the bus, we
were a little concerned about what we were going to do, we needn't
have worried as Puno was celebrating its 340 year anniversary and had
a 6 hour long festival. It was awesome, the costumes are amazing and
there is so much energy going on. We found a restaurant, where for 18
soles ($9 nsd) we got a three corse meal with a pisco sour. It was
great food as well. After dinner we found this this little rock and
reggie bar that had an upstairs area with cushions, It was an awesome
way to spend our last few hours in Puno. It was such a great weekend,
I had so much fun. I am really looking forward to my next trip. The
only downer was that when I got home I released that my iPhone was
missing. It was in my bag as I left the pub, and not there when I got
of the bus, I am guessing someone stole it on the bus. It happens a
lot and I thought I was safe but somehow some one got it out. It's a
bit of a bummer, but at least it can be replaced.

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