Torture and the Isla del Sol

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28/10/09

What a day!!!
After trying to wash my hair in a dribbling electric shower that had no curtain i went and had a magnifisant breakfast!!
A fluffy pancake, yoghurt, fruit, bread and jam, then scrambled eggs!!! fab!!

I got a ticket for the boat for the hotel and the guy was very insitent he took me down to the port, which is about a 2min walk, in his minibus
Felt like the queen!

After sitting for a while waiting for the boat to fill up Michael, an aussi guy from the bus trip from Puno, came and sat down next to me
We chatted and it made the 2h boat trip seem a tiny little bit shorter

When we arrived a spanish speaking guide gave us a briefing which consequently few people understoon, it being in spanish and all
Some peopel asked me to translate and as they too were doing the same walk and not staying the night there we decided to stick together
There was a couple, Luke who is from Essex and Carol who is from Ireland on their honeymoon and another irish guy who lives in australia called Neil

We decided being lazy bums that rather walking all the way for 3h to the south side of the island we would go up to the ruins then come back down and lay on the rediculously beautiful beach and get the boat back to the south, then back to Copacabana
It really did look like paradise
there were naked children running around which was a bit strange...and piglets...odd eh??
Well we walked up to the ruins which were decidedly average, the views on the way made it well worth it though
We pootled back down to the beach chatting away and got an ice pole

Back on the boat we got talking to a traveller who was origionally from Ireland but had been travelling around for 35 years
He hadnt been home to see him ma for 7!!
Fair enough he was in his late 40s early 50s but still!!
He told us really interesting stories about his travells and some quite disturbing ones about being beaten up by the police in brazil for working in body peircing when as a gringo you cant work in the country
As he´d lived there for a while he was fluent in portuguese and as they were beating him he said ´i bet you shoot street kids for fun too´ the police turned put a guy in his mouth and said ´yeah and we´ll shoot you if you dont shut up´ scaryness
how much of it was just elaborated i´dont know
either way he had some really interesting stories and ´was quite cool
he is living on the island making jewelry for tourists at the moment
it was all very beautiful

When we reached the south of the island a storm had come in and the lake was really wavy and choppy
our boat struggled to port and when it did it kept bashing violently against the pier
another boat tried to port and there was an awful few minutes when we all thought it was going to be smashed to pieces
luckily it managed to moor with only a few dents
Our captain got all spooked so decided we were leaving right away instead of waiting for the others who had walked
it was so wavy and rocky and quite scary actually
not a great boat either
we ended up having to wait around the side of the island to see what to do about the other passengers
in the end we all hopped on one boat as there were a few who had done the same and we sent another boat back to the island

finally back in copacabanna Luke,Caren, Neil and I went for dinner at ´La Orilla´ the place i went to the night before
it was so lovely to have dinner with them
We had nachos and spring rolls to start to share
then i had a fab coconut and chicken curry with rice and veg
so scrummy
then for pudding crepes with ice cream and chocolate sauce!!!
mmmmmm!!!

then walked back to my hotel and snuggled down into the most comfortable bed ever!

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