We made it to Bolivia!!

We left the hot, humid and wonderful jungle for another night of motorcycle riding and a great meal in Puerto Maldanado. Now we were officially done with tours and I was ready to begin more independent travelling. Tours are easy and relaxing, for sure. But lacking in something....The next afternoon we caught our flight to Cusco and planned to get a night bus to Puno. Night busses are often no recommended but we weren´t sure we´d make a day one, given the time. We arrived in Cusco and as I got the bags, Aimey got us a taxi driver. We already new it should only cost 10 soles for a ride to the bus station so (and we´re getting good at this), when the driver insisted on 15, we said thank you (gracis, amigo) no! "Okay, Okay. Ten soles" and we left with him but first had to get through the trongs of other drivers promising cheaper and better lifts to the same place. We arrive at the bus station and the driver (still trying to scam money) said, "Oh, I´ll drive you to the terminal but there is a 1 soles tax, so you´ll pay me 11 soles". NO AMIGO!! We´ll walk. "No, there is a tax" he insisted. "No, amigo. There isn´t!" He was friendly enough but we just wanted to catch a bus.

We enter the station and, unlike Greyhound, there are a bazillion different operators. Each telling you that the others are terrible. Although for a while I thought all busses were only going to Arequipa because that seemed to be what everyone was yelling! It was 1:45 and we managed to get on a 2:30 day bus to Puno. It was 8 hours so we´d still arrive in the dark but it was better than nothing. We opted for a cheaper ($6 each) bus and then hurried to an internet cafe to try (unsuccessfully) to book a hotel in Puno. Either way, we get on the bus. All locals. We´re the only "gringos" (affectionate term used for white tourists in South America). We settled in for the journey. Aimey´s not feeling hot, I´m worried about altitude sickness and there´s no bathroom on board!!! Oh well....here we go!

The bus ride itself was interesting. Hawkers selling everything from all natural puffed wheat bars to Encyclopedias on CD-Rom. At some point a man who Aimey named "Stinky George" got on the bus. He didn´t have a seat and thought the best idea was to stand next to me. There were a number of questions I had for him. "Stinky George, would you mind removing your bum from my shoulder?" "Stinky George, could you please stop picking food out of your teeth?" "Stinky George, please take your greasy hands away from me?" "Stinky George, when was it you last showered?" Of course, these questions remained unanswered. He got off shortly afterward. We passed one bus accident, which looked pretty bad. I didn´t realize how bad it was until I saw the next day´s papers. 17 people were killed when the bus rolled over. Peru is notorious for bus accidents. I was just happy to not be part of it. When it got dark the kids and some adults on the bus started shouting for a movie! (This I understood when the little boy sitting across the aisle from me ran back to his seat and said "We´ll see a movie now") The word they used sounded like¨"dao" but I´m not sure what it was. They yelled, they stomped their feet and they rapped on the driver´s window. All attempts for the movie were igored. They even started shouting using different voices (as if this would convince the driver!). Eventually, he did start to play a movie. I didn´t realize that The Gods Must Be Crazy is just as funny in Spanish as it is in English!!! So, we continued to lumber down the road rather peacefully. I dozed off until I was awoken but a noticeable change in the rhythm of the bus. It felt like to jumped the paved road in favour of a dirt field! When I looked out the window, that is, indeed what happened. There had been a detour of sorts and so we were merrily bumping along someone´s field, in the middle of the night. Instead of watching where we were going, I closed the curtain again and went back to sleep. I would rather not see what was happening!!

Finally, 1 hour and half late, we arrived in Puno. We found a lovely taxi driver, Olegario, who took us to a decent hotel. Aimey wasn´t feeling well but he left us alone eventually, where (freezing, since we were now about 3500 meters about sea level and not in beautiful Pto. Maldanado) we climbed under two layers of llama woolen blankets and dozed, blissfully off to sleep.

Morning came and Aimey stayed in bed, trying to pull herself together. I got us breakfast but not before catching a glimpse of lake Titicaca. The hightest, largest, navigatable lake in the world, and the sacred lake of the Incas. We met Olegario at 9am and he got us our 2:30 tickets to Copacabana, Bolivia. So we had the day to explore! At 11:30, we boarded a boat and headed to the reed islands. The Uros people. This was a two hour trip. Perfect! We´d be back at the hotel for 1:45, ready to catch our ride to the bus terminal. Little did I know, that the Inca God´s are sun gods, not time-sensitive Gods and that arriving on time would not be in the plans.

We arrived at the island listened to how these floating islands are made entirely from totora reeds and anchored down so that the island doesn´t float away to Bolivia. It´s pretty impressive actually. The islands are build on 1 metre of root and then 2 meters of reeds. The reeds are added every 15 days during dry season because the ones on the bottom begin to deteriorate. The reeds are used for everything from the ground, to beds, to fuel, to salad. All of this we learned thanks to a guy we met from Brazil who also speaks Spanish and English. He translated for us. We continued for a while until we realized that our boat would not make it back for 1:30. Uh oh. What to do? We jumped on a boat that was leaving earlier. Phew. Close call! Oh wait. It is stopping at another island. Okay, seriously folks, if you´ve seen one totora reed island on Lake Titicaca, you´ve seen them all. Lét´s move it!!! Our boat finally leaves and we pull into the dock no ealier than 1:58pm. We need to be at our hotel to meet our transer at 2:10 and it was a 25 minute walk! This is when our practice for the Amazing Race came in very handy. The boat hadn´t stopped but we jumped from ship to shore and began to ran. We were going to run like we were on the Race and gunning for first place (no free trip would be awared however). We needed to avoid elimination. We ran and we ran and we began to cough and wheeze and double over with shortness of breath! What was happening? We´re in shape. We go to the gym! We swim!! Oh, yeah but not at 3800 meters above sea level. This altitude thing can really be a bitch! We´re never going to make it. We´ll be stuck in Puno forever!! No, wait! What´s that I see? A mototaxi. Praise the Inca Gods. We make a dash for it and in true Amazing Race style say "Rapido, señor, rapido!" (I have ALWAYS wanted to say that!!) We ran red lights, avoided moto vs. moto accidents and pulled up to the hotel at 2:08pm. Phew!

Board bus to Copacabana and relax!! This was more like it. ANd there was an el baño on board! Yeah!! We get to the border and go to immigration. We get our cards stamped and turn to watch our bus slowly drive away. No panic, it will meet us in Bolivia. We cash some US dollars in Peru to avoid getting fake ones in Bolivia. (not that Peru is golden, either, mind you. I´d already been given a fake 5 soles piece) We walk across the borded into Bolivia and head to immigration. He stamps Aimey´s passport and then changes his mind! What! We were worried he was going to to to us what he did to the American ahead of us. He told her she needed a visa, which is inaccurate. I started to get frustrated until a great Norweigen guy explains that we just need to visit another office on the Peru side to actually get our exit passes in our passports. We wander across, get them stamped and head back to Bolivia - take two. This time, no problem, amigas! Back on the bus and within 10 minutes we´re in Copacabana!

We wander around and find a hotel, head for dinner and then to an early sleep. We woke up this morning and had a great breakfast. Then tried the shower. Agua caliente it is NOT!! We were told hot water was available but I´d say more like luke warm, if that. There´s not shower curtain to keep the steam in either so, I´m freezing and spraying water all over the freaking bathroom until I accidently hit a plastic spout and all of sudden water is POURING everywhere, behind the toilet, onto the floor and I can´t find the stupid piece because my glasses are off. AND I¨M FREEZING!!! Meanwhile, Aimey can hear me making noises and sounds only heart attack victims probably make, because I´m so cold and she´s yelling "Is it warm? It doesn´t sound warm? Honeslty, is it warm?" I say (through the shivers) "Ye..ye...yes....it...it...it´s...okay!" I was later called a big liar when she was in the shower but I had to. For both our sakes. We hadn´t showered in a few days, and we needed it!!

We strolled the markets in the morning and got some great gifts for people back home. We made it up to the cathedral to watch cars being blessed by the priests. Its festival time here this week and so many people come to get their cars blessed. It involves holy water, plastic and real flowers, fire crackers and pouring champagne over the car! I think my brothers ´89 Volvo could use this, just to get it to next summer. Had lunch, contimplated buying a llama fetus and now here I sit. I love this blog thing. No journal for me to lug around and I´m a much faster typer than writer. Plus, this thing (despite what you read) has spell check!!

We´re heading on a hike this afternoon, Isla de Sols on the lake tomorrow and La Paz on the 4th for a few days. We´ll be there for their independence day and really looking forward to it. Hope all is well back home, or wherever you are.