Lake Titicaca, Llama foetuses and how to make life very difficult for yourself

Lake titicaca viewed from isla del sol



Floating village Uros

 I finally got out of Cusco, but it still wasn’t straight forward! Only one bus company was running on the now day 3 of the 2 day strike so i had to pay extra to switch my bus ticket.

We left Cusco without any problems, but a couple of hours in we reached the blockade between Cusco and Puno. We all had to get off the bus, collect our bags, and walk across the blockade to catch a bus that would meet us on the other side.

The blockade consisted of a lot of large rocks put across the road, with the remains of several bonfires still smouldering. I thought the atmosphere was ok, but a couple of australian guys spotted a couple of anti-american banners, and a few protestors asked them if they were American so not sure if they were looking for an excuse to start a ruckus!

We eventualy set off from the other side, but after a few minutes the bus in front stopped. A few of us got off, and in front 3 lorries facing in the opposite dirrection had pulled across blocking the road. After an hour they moved, but the same happened again a few minutes later, and again they moved but i couldn’t help getting visions of being stuck there indefinitely, as very little traffic was moving that day and they obviously objected to us moving around.

Lake Titicaca is a huge fresh water lake that sits at 3700m above sea level, slightly higher than Cusco, and is shared between Peru and Bolivia. The Incas believed that the creators of the Incan empire came from the lake.

Puno sites on the edge of the lake near the Bolivian border, and is a bustling little town. The following day i took a trip to the floating village of Uros. This is a large community that live on islands made from reeds. The decendents moved there in the 11^th Century to escape persecution by pre Incan civilisations.

It was highly geared for tourism, but still very interesting. If there are disputes in the community, the islands are cut and seperated until they are reconciled.

The next day i got the bus over the border to Copacabana in Bolivia that also sits on Lake Titicaca. This is smaller but a lot more attractive.

When i got there i discovered there was no ATM, i only had about 20 soles (4GBP) but remembered i had 500USD in travellers cheques for similar pickles. So i went to dig them out, to find they were missing! Great.

I thought about cancelling them, and remembered my receipt and only copy of the serial numbers were in the wallet i lost in Colca Canyon.  

Thankfully i remembered i had some Argentinian currency left over, and found somewhere to change it to Bolivianos at a pretty poor rate but i was still fairly relieved despite the problem with the missing travellers cheques.

I took a boat ride to Isla Del Sol about 2 hours away. I met a great couple from London, Gareth and Lizzie, and a Canadian guy Rene and spent the day with them.

Isla del Sol is beautiful, we did a walk from the North to the South side, in the process i discovered Gareths music taste was freakishly close to mine including being a fellow Neil Young obsessive, we had read similar books, Lizzie was listening to an audio version of Tipping Point that i am currently reading, and she also went to York University and lived on the same street there!

I didn’t want to stay in Copacabana another night as it is small and not ideal for the solo traveller due to the lack of things to do, so i booked a bus ticket that night to leave with them for La Paz.

What followed was so typical of South America.

I was given seat number 1, got on the bus, to find someone else had seat number 1. The conductor gave me seat 27, so i moved to the back to find a Brazilian guy Markus had been given 27, so i sat next to him in 28.

The bus was full, we pulled away but stopped a minute later. Who should get on, but Gareth, Lizzie and a very pissed off Rene. They had been given seat numbers that didn’t exist, so had to stand. After an hour we had to get off to cross the lake. The bus got on a little barge and sailed away into the dark with all our belongings, while we got on a speedboad and crossed the lake with an alarming lack of lighting to the other side!

Llama foetuses at the witches market. Roll up roll up!

We got to La Paz at 10pm, and went and found a hostal. I skyped Emma first thing in the morning, and being the amazing human being she is contacted Thomson and got copies of my traveller cheque numbers, so i was able then to contact American Express and cancel them thank god!!!

My conversation with AMEX was great........"can i have a contact number......no i lost my phone" "are you employed or self employed.......errr neither i quit my job to travel....congratulations sir, i wish i was brave enough!" "can i have your driving licence number....no i lost it aswell" "is there a reference number on your receipt.....errr not sure i lost the receipt" "did you lose your phone in the same incident?.......no i was in a canyon in the middle of nowhere with 3 other people and it vanished" "were the cheques stolen......no i think i put them in with my laundry when i got a service wash because i am a moron........"

I really need Emma out here ASAP to stop me getting in situations like this to start with! 4 weeks and counting......

We spent today looking around the city. The highlight of the day was the witchcraft market, with all kinds of delightful objects to make spells with.
If anyone has run out of Llama foetuses they are only about 2GBP for a small one (8GBP for large) so let me know. Your ex won’t have a clue whats happened to him/her when all their teeth fall out.