Activity Summary
Tuesday 10th October - Day 371
Arrive in Puno
Nap & veg out in hotel
Lake Titicaca tour
Uros floating islands
Dinner at Mojsa restaurant
Wednesday 11th October - Day 372
Border crossing to Bolivia (Puno to Copacabana)
Summary
Puno
Not a whole lot here but it broke up the travel and border crossing quite nicely and allowed us to see some of Lake Titicaca.
Lake Titicaca
Big ol lake and the highest navigable one in the world. The floating islands were interesting, if not a bit perplexing.
Transport
Puno
Taxi to Cusco Peru Hop terminal
Overnight Peru Hop bus to Puno
Minivan to hotel
Accommodation
Puno - Kaaro Hotel El Buho
Number of nights - 1
Price per night per person - £10
Positives:
Allowed to check in super early
Pretty comfortable during the day
Negatives:
The room was loud as fuck at night from running water and maintenance issues
Recommend?
If on the fifth floor - absolutely not
Diary
Tuesday 10th October - Day 371
It was another nasty 5/6am arrival in a city and meant everything was shut. Everyone was transferred into a minivan and we were dropped off at our hotel.
This time at least the hotel had someone inside to let us in. We had a short wait in the lobby before they said they had a room available and were allowed to crawl straight into bed, very important for a tired Nicola who can’t handle night buses.
Post a decent nap we went for lunch at a really terrible local place. The service sucked and the food wasn’t great, Nicola especially struggling to eat.
We were back in the hotel to chill until our lake Titicaca tour bus arrived at 4pm. From there we drive to the lakeside and on to a boat for our tour.
The boat ride was enjoyable enough. It was a slow journey out from the harbour and down some narrow weed channels.
After some time we arrived at one of the Uros floating islands. Everyone disembarked and we’re given a talk from the island chieftain about how the islands were made and peoples roles in the community.
It was pretty interesting to hear how the reed and mud roots were harvested and floated as a result of air gaps in the blocks. These would be tied and staked together, covered with more reeds and the island complete. The shelf life of these islands was up to 20 years and always required constant work, so no small feat.
Once the interesting part was done it naturally became very gimmicky, getting taken into a home where trinkets could be bought and also pay for a ride on a historical Uros boat. We both opted against this and it didn’t seem like the majority who did enjoyed it that much.
There was some more flapping around another island until we all boarded the boat back to Puno.
The shuttle dropped us into town and went for dinner at Mojsa restaurant. Was a decent restaurant and offered something a bit different we hadn’t had for a long time.
Wednesday 11th October - Day 372
Sadly what was once a room held in high regard turned out to be a nightmare in the evening. At about 11pm a large group returned to a nearby room and the fallout from them getting ready, showering and doing god knows what else for well over 2 hours. The use of the shower for some reason made the whole pipe system sound like it was about to collapse and was crying out in pain with its use.
Just as we thought they were done, it would start up again and it went on for ages. Nicola went downstairs to change rooms in the middle of the night and was told it wasn’t possible. Seriously unpleasant and naturally when Luke complained they did fuck all.
Our morning pick up was supposed to be from 7.30am-8am (hate a long pick up window like this) and to make it worse they arrived near enough 10 minutes early. The end of Luke’s breakfast was unnecessarily frantic plus having to check out and continue the day on its rather sour note. Luke’s all important ham and cheese takeaway sandwich was a much needed energy source for Nicola later in the morning.
The minivan that picked up the Peru Hop gringos dropped us at the main bus and we were on our way to the border with Bolivia. Coming full circle with Peru Hop we were reunited with our very first guide, Gerry, who played a big part in helping us recover our lost bag in Cusco so while he was a little strange we were happy to see him. This did go out of the window when he started coughing and spluttering with what looked like a pretty debilitating cold. Everyone is frikin ill and Nicola over the last few days has been building something similar.
The border was not far and once there everyone disembarked with all their gear, got stamped out of Peru in the office and walked across the lane bridge border into Bolivia. There is minimal security and everyone can just cross without stress, clearly being a regular occurrence for locals on either side.
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