Return to Cusco, Puno and Copacabana

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There were 2 aims for out return to Cusco; get Hollies camera fixed
and Sunday dinner at the Real McCoy.
Before the Real McCoy we found a camera shop that could fix Hollies
camera for 160 soles (£40) and if they couldn't fix it, it would only
cost 20 soles (a fiver) which we didn't think was bad although didn't
hold much hope as the guy who was tryig to fix it looked like Mr
Muyagi (karate kid) but with longer finger nails. As Mr Muyagi needed
24 hours to fix the camera we needed to spend another day in Cusco. We
wanted somewhere quiet and cheap so booked into a little hotel near
Plaza de San Francisco it was ok clean sheets, wifi, Internet, free
breakfast and only 50 soles per double room (£12.50).
We arranged to meet everyone at the Real McCoy at 5pm on the Sunday
and the Real McCoy didn't disappoint. Big bowls of cauliflower cheese,
carrots, broccoli and gravy then everybody got meat or pie (Hollie)
and roasties on their plate, Craig not being happy that I got more
roasties because I told the woman I didn't like cauliflower, also a
free beer when you order a Sunday dinner on a Sunday. The only slight
disappointment was the Yorkshire puddings they were more like
dumplings we thought because they probably couldn't get there oven hot
enough. We finished dinner swapped emails and facebook names said
goodbye and headed our separate ways.

The next day all we did was laundry, have a beer at a nice little pub
(Muse too), get a kebab from the only kebab shop we have seen in South
America, get some tickets for the bus to Puno, some sandwiches for the
bus and pickup Hollies fixed camera from Mr Muyagi (LEGEND).

We woke up about 7ish had the free breakfast, took the last snaps of
Cusco and headed to the bus station.
The bus to Puno was about 7 hours down a straight road very easy
journey although no scenery at all for a day bus.
We knew we had spent too much time in Cusco and wanted to spend at
least 4 days in La Paz so time was counting down, therefore we decided
to do the journey between in 5th gear. We made a reservation at the
cheapest place in Puno and you could tell they hasn't gone all our to
impress the guests, but the water wa warmish, the sheets were thick
(Puno is cold) and they had a cool little dog called Luna that looked
like a guinea pig.
We walked round Puno which could definitely be done in one day, it had
a ok Plaza de Armas and a nice street of bars and restaurants which we
sampled on the night. We booked a trip to the Isles of Uros (floating
islands) with a bus taking us to Copacabana straight afterwards. After
booking our trip we walked down to the sea front looking in the big
marketplace near the harbour then got an old man to cycle us back to
the centre having to get off half way back as we thought he was going
to have a coronary.
Like I mentioned we went out for a meal at a pizzeria in Puno and got
a meat calzone which was nice, then went to a heavy rock bar and
played Jenga something everybody should do before they die!
It was an early start the next morning getting picked up at 7.45am
from our hostel just after breakfast in bed. We were in a group if
about 12 with a really frindly columbian family onboard with us, even
though we haven't visited Columbia they are the friendliest south
American race we have met while we have been away.
It took about 40 minutes to get to Uros from the harbour and was
amazing to see how little the people survived off in the middle of a
HUGE lake, they had straw houses, boats, floor, everything. We learnt
all about their history, culture, religion an society it was really
interesting and the people were soo friendly with a woman inviting us
into her home and asking us questions and vice versa. I think it was
probably because the people had so little and we were pretty close to
the end of our weekly budget plus the only thing we could afford but
we bought a cushion cover, yes a cushion cover god knows what we are
going to do with it for the next 18 months but at least we helped that
family out a little. We spent about 2 1/2 hours on 2 different islands
in Uros sending a potcard from the only floating post office in the
world.

After Uros we picked up some pasta, cheese and tomatoes and made a
simple pasta giving some to Luna just to shut her up. With a bit of a
mixup between a local and our driver and 8 soles later we boarded our
bus to Copacabana, late and at the very back of the bus but better
than not at all.

The border crossing again was easy 1 stamp on the Peruvian side a 5
minute walk and another stamp on the Bolivian side, although the bus
nearly went without the girl sat next to me, good job the driver knew
what WOOAH meant at high volume.
About an hour from the border on the shore of Lake Titicaca was the
beautiful town of Copacabana or that's how it looked from above in the
distance. We didn't get to Copacabana till half 7 and had a lot to do,
firstly we found a hostel called Hotel Colonial (50 bolivianos for
both of us = a fiver) then we shopped around a couple of tour
operators for the Isla del sol visit (island of the sun) for the
following morning which we got for 25 bolivianos each not bad £2.50
(Bolivianos are really easy to convert you just divide by 10 to get
pounds), then we found something to eat. The eating was the hardest
part, I had fancied a Mexican since Mancora but had struggled to find
a decent one so we walked up and down the main street looking with
again no luck.
The main thing you need to remember about Copacabana if you visit is
there is NO CASHMACHINE which we didn't realize till we got there,
luckily Hollie found 100 soles in her purse which we got converted so
we had to buy our tickets to Isla del Sol, a night in the hotel,
dinner and our bus tickets to La Paz all on £25. This narrowed the
amount of places we could afford to eat but we found a good set menu
for 20 B's which included hot bread, soup and a spicy Bolivian beef
thing, Hollie sulked because everything she asked for on the menu the
waiter said 'non finite' so she ended up getting the veg set menu with
pumpkin stew which looked like vomit and didn't taste too good either.
With an 8.30 start again we headed to bed using the Internet en-route
to book Loki and Hotel Republica both for La Paz.

We woke up at 7.45 and quickly got ready, shot the free breakfast down
our throat and marched down to the shore. I can't remember whether it
was my idea or Hollies but we decided to sit on the roof of the boat
for the 2 hour trip which was Baltic and after an hour had to go
downstairs to the mild heat.
I wasn't expecting much from the Isla del Sol as from what I had read
and heard it was just another place the Incas had a settlement and the
place the first Incas were born. I was pleasantly surprised the
scenery was unbelievable everywhere you looked was a different
landscape; beautiful beaches, snow capped mountains and gorgeus sea
views. We walked up to the Inca ruins and a little boy showed us
around in Spanish, it wasn't his job he was just being friendy so we
sat and played cards with him (pairs) which he always semes to win, I
give him some sweets then we set off. We only did the 1 day trip to
Isla del Sol because we wanted to get to La Paz which meant we only
had 4 hours on the island and they drop you off in the north and pick
you up in the south. The island took 3 hours according to the map to
walk and with us spending 40 minutes playing cards we were running
late. Hollie was still aching from the Inca trail so I felt like Mr
Motivator trying to get her up the inclines but we made it to the
south with 35 minutes spare and had a beer with a slovakian/lithuanian
couple from London (working in London). We got the boat in time and
met an English couple from oxford who are doing our 18 month trip in 6
weeks they must be mad. When we got off the boat we had another beer
with the English couple then headed to our bus to La Paz picking up a
street burger on the way which tasted like the tinned burgers you get
from Scarborough water park.

Really looking forward to La Paz there is soo much there I want to do!

Muchos love

Brown

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