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Published: August 13th 2010
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More Climbing
Our hike up from boat on Taquile Island Puno Day 3
Wednesday, August 11th:
I did actually get some more sleep at about 3:30am. I woke up a bit past 6am and found my wife was already up and taking photos of sheep. After the necessities, we were served breakfast by Valentina. Breakfast consisted of crepes with a strawberry marmalade, a hard boiled egg, and coffee. Everything was very good. After eating, and before leaving, we paid Valentina for our homestay. 25 Soles or about $9 US each is not bad for a night's stay and 3 excellent meals! After our goodbyes, we hiked down to the dock to get our boat to Taquile Island.
The trip took about an hour and we didn't break down this time. The guide explained that we'd leave the boat and hike about 45 minutes to an hour, a lot of it uphill, to reach the main plaza where we could shop. We must be getting used to the altitude and climbing because eventhough it looked intimidating at times, the climb wasn't all that hard. When we arrived in the plaza, the guide told us we had 30 minutes free time. We browsed the little shops in the main building, but didn't buy
Up to the Room
View up to our room at guest home, Amantani Island anything until Manoli wanted to take photos of some little kids playing. She ended up buying 3 bracelets at one Sole each. After our free time, we took a small hike up (of course!) to our restaurant. Although it was a bit early for lunch at 10:30am, "when in Rome'... We all had a nice soup similar to what Valentina made, then a choice of trout or an omelet. Manoli had the trout and said it was quite good. I got the omelet which turned out to have tomatoes and onions and was good too. We both also had french fries and rice. Our lunch was part of our package so I'm not sure what the others paid. After lunch, the guide gave us a presentation on the various hats, pouches, and belts the Taquile people wear. We then hiked down 500 steps (or so said our guide... I didn't count!) to our waiting boat. I think we pretty much hiked over the island from one side to the other.
The boat ride back to Puno was 3 hours, where I wrote this in my notebook, since I'd left my netbook with our luggage in the hotel. Anyone who takes
Up With The Sun
Valentina entering her kitchen to prepare our breakfast this or a similar tour should keep in mind that there are no electrical outlets, bare but clean sanitation facilities, and everything you bring you'll have to carry uphill a lot or leave on the boat. The minivan returned us to our hotel, where we checked back in, got our luggage and went to the room. There still was no internet access in the hotel, so I typed in yesterday's journal, selected some photos to go with it, and put them on an SD card to take to an internet place in town. I had noticed that none of the outlets will accept a three-prong plug and my netbook 1st battery was getting low, so we went out in search of an internet shop, an adapter and dinner. I posted yesterday's journal for just one Sole, then we found the adapter at a "ferrateria" and paid only 2 Soles for it. We did a bit of shopping, where Manoli bought two dozern knitted finger puppet animals for one Sole each, then we stopped for dinner at El Porton Colonial. Manoli had a delicious vegetarian salad and I didn't want to upset my stomach, so I had spaghetti bolenese. Both were
Halfway There
Manoli at first archway of hike on Taquile Island very good, but my appetite hasn't been as good lately and I could only eat half of it. We returned to the hotel so I could type this and recharge the computer with the new adapter. We took a nice hot, long shower beforehand. Ahhh.
Well, we left a wake up call for 5:30am and asked the hotel to have a taxi waiting a 6:30am to take us to the bus terminal for our tour bus to Cusco, so its night, night time. Hope you are all enjoying following our travels.
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Ed MacDonald
non-member comment
JC's Travel Blog
We have been enjoying all your travels, thanks for sharing. I wonder how you remember all the details.