Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow

January 6th, Puno Peru and La Paz Bolivia

We woke up early morning to catch our bus to La Paz via Copacabana (the original Copacabana, not the one in Rio). This time we were smart and we got a 25 soles ticket on bus 'Tour Peru', which I would recommend. I read a lot about the border crossing being chaotic so we were ready for anything.

We left Puno at 7:30 am and got to the Bolivian border by 10:15 am. The border crossing is quite confusing but fun. You need to get off the bus and exchange your Peruvian soles to Bolivianos and then queue up in a little bare room, the Police station, where they stamp your entry form. You then queue up in a separate building - the Peruvian immigration office where they take the paper and stamp your passport.

Then you actually walk on a little road, around 300 meters, with pigs and cows grazing on the side over the Bolivian border (an arch) passing by little food stalls, until you finally enter the immigration office for Bolivia! It was so cool, I've never actually walked across the border to enter a country. At this point, all Americans have to pay a fee of $135 because of the high fees Bolivians pay to enter the US. It's hilarious because all the Americans we met also find it funny and accept that they can't complain!

The border is quite strict and a family sitting behind us in the bus were not allowed to cross because their documents weren't in order. Additionally, the border is only open certain hours everyday, so you must make sure you take the morning bus from Puno, otherwise you have to go back, or wait on the road in the dark (I do not recommend).

8kms later, we get to Copacabana which is a very touristy town by the lake. We walked around a bit and decided not to stay as we knew there wasn't much to do (we'd already been to the floating islands). Additionally, the prices there were so hiked up, a packet of Doritos was 8 Bolivianos! So we went to the Tour Peru office and bought a ticket to La Paz. We were thrilled we paid less, after our last bus fiasco. Unfortunately, I made another rookie mistake. After paying, the guy told me that he'd written it on his clipboard and he'd be there at 1 pm when the bus leaves. I stupidly walked off without any ticket or acknowledgement. At 1 pm, there was no sign of the guy, but we got on the the bus. We started chatting with two Brits who were traveling for a year, when suddenly a guy starts asking for tickets. Bernie and I start explaining our situation but this man was not having any of it. 

So I jumped off the bus and ran to the Tour Peru office, only tor find the clipboard but not the guy. And his marking was a scribble next to our names which no one understood what it meant. But to our luck, he walked by just then and I grabbed him to explain to our bus conductor who grumpily let us stay. Once again we chatted with the Brits, good to hear their experiences. However I also realised that we are spending a lot of money and need to be a little more careful with splashing out. 

The bus got to Taqila port where we had to get off and get into motor boats to be ferried across. The bus drives itself onto a wooden raft, I kid you not, and is brought to the other side. It was really fascinating. After that back on the bus. We reached the shantytown of El Alto which I thought was La Paz and was quite scared. Turns out, it wasn't and getting into La Paz looking down at the city in a valley was really cool. 

We got to our hostel which is quite nice and our room is really huge, Hostal Sol Adina. La Paz is cheap, but the accommodation isn't but we decided that if we have to stay in a hostel, we're only staying in a private room with a private bathroom. We walked around the city and it's so much like Bombay. Stalls selling sweets next to stalls selling underwear, next to soft toys and clothes and herbal remedies etc! We passed through a lane of only hairdressers - around 50 shops on each side of the lane. And each one of them was packed! I don't know if it was a festival coming up or Bolivians get their hair done very often but there was both men and women in the same parlour and everyone buzzing around. 

We found a nice Mexican restaurant to eat in, at first I loved my food but pretty quickly started feeling sick and also drunk. I don't know if it's the food or altitude or the two mojitos so we gotback to the hostel where I promptly fell asleep at 9 pm. So far on the holiday, the latest I've gone to bed is 10 pm! I love this life. 

The title of this post is from the song 'A brimful of Asha' which I was listening to in the bus. It's true, everybody needs a bosom for a pillow!

A sample picture of the most beautiful drive

Jan 6th: No time like the present...

And so we come to today, a lovely day which we start off by getting great deals on our bus from Puno to Copacabana and further great deals from Copacabana to La Paz. I'm sitting on this latter bus now having read horror stories of having to take pictures of your bus in case they leave you in comfort with wifi ON THE BUS! met an English couple from London just now as well so things are going good and I'm finally writing so will post later and try to stay more on track.

Any questions you've got feel free to ask I'm aiming to get more likes and comments than Nadine because let's face it, it may not be a competition but it's funnier if I'm winning.

Asta luego.

Bernie.

Jan 5th: I'm on a boat...

Ok so I was on one yesterday but this is a happy time - the weather is great and Nadine is happy... We go to another (lonely) island - Taquila where we have to trek for an hour or so up and the again down but we get to a quaint little town and it's gorgeous views all around on the highest lake in the world. Everything's going good and we have a nice and peaceful boat ride back. Little gutted I passed up the opportunity to swim in the lake but it was 9 degrees and I didn't have more trousers. Also the boat trip is pretty windy if you sit outside to dry off so think I can live with it.

Back in Puno and Nadine shows the depth of her love for me... She gets a pizza back to the room so we don't have to go anywhere!! There's also a criminal minds marathon on tv in English so I am stoked for the night. I play ipad instead of writing to you guys - I am finally nearly caught up on a manga that started maybe 15 years ago - I have read around 30,000 pages of this 1 comic. Exciting stuff.

Jan 4th: Les miserables...

Or more accurately - le miserable. Nadine is angry we got 'ripped off', hates Puno (where we arrived) after 9 hours, doesn't want to get on a boat to these islands in lake Titicaca, doesn't want to walk up hills and doesn't want to stay in some random family's house.

We reach the first floating island and thankfully the weather picks up a bit so we get some nice views and it really is random. It's an island made of reeds that you can eat. I have NO idea why people would choose to live there other than a childhood fantasy of living on the moon and eating it because it's made out of cheese. Let's face it, it didn't work for hansel and gretel and if fairy tales aren't meant to teach us important lessons (don't wear slippers made of glass, if you're an egg - don't fall off a wall, don't steal stuff from bears) then I don't know why we have them at all.

Anyway, we meet some lovely Peruvians who are with the same host family as us and things are going a bit better... We skip a trek up to the highest point on our next island (it's not much higher than we had to trek to get to our house) and it turns the days round completely. We take an amazing nap while the rain and wind beat down ridiculously heavily and wake up refreshed and happy! Some terrible meals later we go to a fiesta! Not much of a party but cool music - I love the pan flute! (With guitars) and weird dancing - everyone holds hands and runs around in circleish shapes... Anyway, it's a short party where we meet a Mexican who sounds EXACTLY like Ric (accent, mannerism, tempo, timbre... Exactly) and we head back for round two of sleeping (we had four beds to choose from in our room!)

Awks

January 4th and 5th, Puno, Peru

So we are now in a really nice comfortable boat, headed to see the floating islands on Lake Titicaca - the highest lake in the world. It is a huge lake that borders both Bolivia and Peru, but we are on the Peru side. We enjoy the 3 hour ride until the first island. By now, Bernie has explained to me that it's not an "iceland" and also the difference between a normal island such as Australia and a floating island.

We get there and it's quite fascinating, the island is made up of reeds that grow in the water and the inhabitants of this little place have taken these reeds to create an island in the middle of the lake. There are ten houses on the island and they are so neatly built, once again with the reeds. What was most unbelievable is that I took a quick peep into a house and even saw a small tv! The people on this island don't have passports so they have to anchor the island to make sure it doesn't float into the Bolivian side. The main guy calls himself the president, which I thought was quite funny, but the island is almost like its own country with their specific culture.

We got back in the boat to head to the next island 3 hours away, where we would stay the night with a local family. When we got there, we were greeted by island locals wearing traditional costumes and basically we just stared at each other for 5 minutes.

Awks.

We were then divided into groups, Bernie and me with two girls from Lima and introduced to the local lady who's house we were going to stay in. She then began to lead us to her house which was uphill, once again. High altitude, once again. I threw a fit which poor Berns could only watch but I finally made it to the house, resolving never ever to walk up a mountain again in my life.

We got to the house and our host Nancy had actually made rooms with beds for us, so not as rustical and "original" as we had expected, but I wasn't complaining that we had sheets! We then had a meal of quinoa soup, boiled rice, boiled potatoes and fried cheese. Till date, this is the weirdest meal I have ever eaten. However we did drink 'munyo' tea which was great. We'd been drinking lots of coca tea and chewing the leaves but it doesn't actually do anything other than make you pee! It's supposed to be good for altitude sickness. Coca is the plant from which you extract cocaine.

We were then given the option to climb the mountain to see the local temple, which I flatly refused to do. Most people didn't actually go because it looked like rain. And twenty minutes after the group left, it began to pour. Heavy heavy rain coming down on our tin roof gave me the best 4 hour nap of my life. Though I was stroppy all morning about not wanting to be on this tour, I did admit it was worth it for the nap.

We had dinner, same as lunch and then got dressed up in traditional outfits to go to the siesta. There were about 60 tourists on the island, and all the locals. The dancing mostly consisted on holding hands and running around in circles slow and then really fast. They were selling beer, but Bernie didn't want to go to the bano in the middle of the night so we watched for a bit.

Once again we noticed the locals looked bored out of their minds and rarely smiled.

Awks.

As early as we could, which was in an hour we decided to leave and go back to sleep. Next morning after breakfast, we headed to the third and last island. Once again uphill, but the day was gorgeous, sunny blue skies, the view of the lake and all the different blues was so spectacular that even I couldn't be whiney for too long.

Bernie and I didn't change money at Puno so we had a few coins and bought some water and Oreos. We declined lunch as we knew we couldn't have any more quinoa soup or boiled potatoes, and we relaxed at the jetty enjoying the sun and chatting with all the other tourists. The most interesting lady we met there was a German grandmother who lives in Tahiti and has taken her pension to travel around the world, she suspects for about 3 years! When I'm old, I hope I still have some cool left in me.

We got back on the boat and headed back to the Puno port 3 hours away. It was a lovely ride, especially knowing we were heading to a hotel. Honestly, I would not recommend this tour, maybe just a day trip to visit the islands, staying for the night wasn't exactly the funnest experience, but an experience nonetheless. In Peru and Bolivia, it's hard to do or see anything without being a part of a tour so you need to research and pick an agency wisely.

At Puno, we checked into San Antonio Suites which was really nice. My nose is red, I realise I'm sunburnt because of the high altitude and super strong sun. The best thing we've discovered in Peru is that they have a channel AXN (different from India AXN) that is in English and plays Criminal Minds 24/7! We were both completely exhausted from nonstop travel, so I went to a pizzeria called Adina pizzeria (highly recommended) and got some pizzas for the room. It was heaven!

Awks=awkward

Donde esta Walter? (Where is Walter?)

January 4th 2014, Puno Cusco

After reading so many stories and blogs and travel forums on scams, we still ended up getting scammed! I guess I'll begin with the Puno tour. Jhonathan told us he has a friend in Puno who organises tours so he could arrange everything with him for us, including our bus tickets from Cusco to Puno - an 8 hour bus ride. Our Swiss friend told us that she'd paid 82 soles for a cama (sleeper) bus so we paid that amount for our bus and got tickets on "San Luis".

On the 3rd night, we hurriedly get to the bus station after many pisco sours and Chilcanos, ready for a good night's sleep. We don't see our bus anywhere so we begin to panic running around with our huge havasacks. Additionally, in Peru, you need to pay a lot of taxes, tourist tax, entrance tax, leaving tax etc so we were very confused. 

To our luck, we met a Colombian couple meant to travel on the same bus so we hung out with them. By 10:20pm, our 10 pm bus still hadn't shown up and all the others began to leave, so we started getting worried. Finally, the Colombians found out that our bus doesn't actually exist/didn't intend on showing up so we were to get on another bus. This was not a sleeper bus. The tickets on this bus cost 30 soles each. SCAMMED!!!

We tried arguing but the bus guy feigned ignorance, it looked like he's familiar with this routine and so we had to just take any available seat and stew in silence. In the midst of the drama, Berns thought it unsafe to keep our bags in the luggage compartment and so we sat with our bags on top of us, but poor Bernie holding on to our big bags left in the aisle. 

We decided to go to sleep and not get annoyed, which I did quite promptly. Then at about 4 am, I woke up as the bus pulled in to a petrol pump. At this point, Bernie got out of his seat to close the door that separates the bottom level from the stairs going up so there's less noise. As he did this, an older Peruvian lady began yelling at him: " no, no, Walter esta aqui... No." Poor Berns, thoroughly confused didn't know what she was saying and kept shutting and opening the doors of the toilet and our compartment door. "Donde esta Walter?" And then she realised Walter wasn't on the bus and it had begun to move and she began yelling to Bernie to stop the bus. I understood the whole thing, but poor Bernie was still opening and closing doors, no idea about poor Walter! 

Everyone kept shouting to doorman Bernie until finally another man sitting near us ran to the front and stopped the bus. Then we hung around for 20 minutes with the old lady shouting "walteeeeer, Donde esta?" and the bus kept honking, until finally Walter shows up with no explanation whatsoever. So random!

I really enjoyed the scene and went back to sleep, but when i awoke an hour late in Puno, the hours of sleep made me really angry that we got cheated and I wanted to fight with someone. Poor Mahatma Gandhi Bernie just wanted a quiet non violent morning, but no such luck. We got picked up by Edison from the tour and he seemed so sweet but I was too angry to chat with him. We left our bags at his shop for the night as our tour of the floating islands began at 8 am and we'd only return the following day. 

By the time we got to the port and on our lovely boat, I was in a much better mood. For now. The floating islands deserves it's own post.

When Jhonathan told us about the islands, he pronounced it "floating ice-lands". Keeping in mind that English is his third language, I still didn't get that he meant "Islands". So I'm now on this tour looking for floating bits of ice in the middle on lake Titicaca where local people live.