Blogs from Puno, Peru, South America - page 72

Hi again all! So I think we left you in Arequipa! Well we had what can only be described as an very entertaining bus ride to Puno! We saved some money and got the local bus which was grubbier but still fine and we were the only gringos on it. It took 6 hours and for almost all the time we had live infomercials!!! One guy spoke for an hour trying to sell everyone tea bags that seemed to cure every known desease to man but the prize goes to the guy who rambled for 25 minutes to sell Olde English toffees, pricelesss! Also, everytim the bus stopped, be it for petrol, a traffic light, a woman crossing the road, all the locals stamped their feet, banged the window and shouted "VAMOS" angrily! We really ... read more

Hello everyone, We´ve arrived in the town of Puno and, it seems, mostly crossed the antiplano. Might get a whole lot hiller from now on. Been taking lots of breaks along the way eating lots of Titicaca trout and generally easing our way into this cycling caper so as not to tyre ourselves out (ouch) by the end. It´s a marathon not a sprint remember, but we´re making better progress than expected as the road has been mostly straight and flat so our rough estimate of doubling the as the crow flies distance was only half right. You get to take in a lot as the legs go round - which they are by now without me doing too much egging them on. There are some sort of regional elections coming up on 19th November. I´m ... read more

Day three just finished, the cycling anyway. Very hot, refreshed after break, beautiful largo side cycling up and down but not too bad. Short only 65km. Was another 40km to next place to stay and we started late, so along one tomorrow! It appears you were all saved the most tedius of postings from my textual diahorea a few days ago, as certainly I can´t find Day 1. There was one, but from memory, which haden´t really returned by then, it was a very dull, event by event, account of the first day. So perhaps a part of me in a greater wisdom to the hungover me deleted instead of posted. Now in Peru, and definately met with more ´Gringo´s´than in Boliva, already. Think they are wiser to the treasures carried. They might be a bit ... read more

Following in the footsteps of the famous Western bank robbers, we decided that our next destination should be Bolivia. Our journey was a little more straightforward than theirs, and was just a couple of buses. It's a great route around Lake Titicaca, with a remarkably civil border crossing. In general Bolivia doesn't get on too well with its neighbours, mostly on account of having fought and lost wars against the majority of them, so we were surprised how polite the officials were there. We changed buses in a town called Copacabana. Despite the name Barry Manilow has never sung about, or in, this place. Ed came here 4 years ago and it has changed enormously since then. It's now far more backpacker-friendly, with plenty of places serving cappuccinos and vegetarian dishes, and even a screening of ... read more

After a breakfast of pancake and muña tea, our party set off for the harbour, where we were waved off by our island families. We sailed to the beautiful island of Taquile, distinct from the others, our guide informed us, by the richness of its agriculture, the use of Quechua (instead of Aymara) as the official language, and the extent of inbreeding. Walking to the island´s plaza de armas, I felt like I could have been on some lovely deserted island in the Med. After a quick look round the artesan fair and photo exhibit, we treked up to our restaurant for lunch, where, for 12 soles we were served a delicious yellowy soup and a main course of trout, chips and rice, served with more muña tea. We then descended the 500-odd steps to the ... read more