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Published: February 11th 2007
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Pimp my Ride - Bolivia
We have pimped this beetle with some flowers...... thats it really. On our way to La Paz we decided to stop in the town of Puno. The trip here started in Cusco on a bus journey that Victor, our taxidriver / travel arranger had recommend. It turned out to be a whopping 15soles each for the 5 hour trip (5quid for both of our travel, bargin). The bus must have been the cheapest on offer as all the locals turned out to be on here. That said it wasn´t a chicken-bus like the one we had to Colca Canyon, but a slightly more civilised affair. Rather comically though the TV at the front had bare wires dangling from it and was a strictly DIY job. In order to keep it in it´s bracket, there was a piece of string wrapped around it, which went through the middle of the screen, genius. The bus journey turned out to be quite eventfull with stops just about everwhere. At every stop someone would hop on or off, either to go the toilet or to sell us food. At one point we bought pan con queso, which was lobbed into the window by a young lad, and we in turn chucked a coin at him. Was
A bathroom with a view
.... a very small window, with a view that is. delicious bread by the way, a kind of Ciabatta style, obviously cooked at home in their wood oven. Another stop saw us pick up a bunch of passengers from a bus that was stranded in the middle of the road, clearly not making it any further on its journey. The scenery on the way was truely stunning and I only wish we could have taken some pictures, if you ever get the chance to travel from Cusco to Puno, do it during the day, and do not fall asleep, it is really amazing. All our stops and schenanigans meant the 5 hour journey was probably closer to a 7 hour journey, but it wasn't too terrible and was extremely cheap!
The city of Puno made it´s name for two reasons. Firstly it is known as the folkloric capital of Peru, and if you are lucky you can spot the cultural dances on the beautiful plaza de armas. Secondly, Puno is located at the edge of the lake Titikaka, and therefore a good base to explore the lake and the 41 floating islands. We did take our time to research about the organised tours to the lake and it´s inhabitants
Some band
just randomly playing in the street. Not sure why..... sometimes best not to know and decided not to take part. We just do not feel comfortable walking through villages as part of a gringo tour - but everyone should decide that for themselves.
So, instead we found a nice place to stay and simply relaxed for a few nights. We caught up with friends and family, sorted out our blog, revised a bit of spanish and dived into our new books that we paid a fortune for in Cusco. Our peruvian friends don´t miss a business oportunity and make some good money from what is normally gratis and known as "Book exchange". They basically sell the books that we backpackers leave behind. If you want to exchange a book you will find that they will either charge you for the privelage, or, because the book you want has suddenly a price on it, you will be able to sell the book you wanted to exchange for about 5 soles and end up still to pay 20-30 Soles for the "new" second hand book. Strictly it is an exchange as you are exchanging your hard earned money for a book, but not really what us travelers have in mind when we see book exchange.
Nevermind 😊
We also indulged one of our greatest passions in Puno (no not that you dirty minded people), eating of course. Lazy breakfasts at Riccos Pan bakery, lunches at either a local restaurant or the chinese. Chinese turned out to be the tastiest place, the cheapest and also a lovely change from the usual cuisine. Not that we don't like most of the food here, but it is nice to get something different for a change. Not sure of the name of the chinese place, but it is in the centre somewhere and has chinese dry foodstuffs at the front for takehome sale. A true bargin is the 8 sole meal deal. A wanton soup, and a choice of a dish with fried rice. Now the portion was big enough for 2 people easily, but of course, Andy managed to shovel it all down himself and finished with a big smile on his face. So easily pleased. We also discovered that Coke is unbelievably fizzy here, appartently due to the altitude. It feels like drinking air, which results in a lot of burping 😊 Very strange!
The days in Puno are full of sunshine with a cool
breeze from the lake. The nights are chilly, and there is no heating in the rooms like in Cusco. Nevertheless, we were lucky not to be here during their winter time when temperatures can fall below 0. Brrrrr!!! But as it is two of us, we quite enjoy the snuggling evenings under 4 rugs of alpaca 😊
Not very exciting reading we know, but sometimes you have to sit back and take stock of things, and just relax. You are probably thinking that is what we do everyday, with no work or anything to worry about, but not true. Traveling can be really tiring sometimes, always being on the move, sleeping on busses, worrying about where you will spend the night, not having a space to call your own and if you will be safe or not. Sometimes you land in nice places, sometimes they are not so nice, sometimes they are dowright dirty and nasty. We would not change it for the world though, and we are lucky, but it can take it out of ya.
The pictures also cover our bus trip to La Paz which included an hour stop in Copacabana, Bolivia. Small little town,
pretty colourfull, seemed to be full of european hippes and drop-outs hawking their tatty jewelry creations. Not much more to say about it than that really, a nice stop all the same.
That´s it from Puno, pretty uneventfull stay and with recharged batteries we will leave for La Paz on Sunday.
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Katerina
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la Paz
Hey, you've neraly made it to La Paz. i can't wait to read what you have to say about it! And I wanna see some photos! I am off to Fiji next monday (19th). Exciting!