After our great trip to Machu Picchu we returned to Cusco for a couple of nights to avoid having to travel on two days in a row. That left us with a full day in the town that we used mainly for resting and getting our laundry done. We took almost all of our clothes to a shop close by that was advertising laundry service for S/2 per kilogram. We paid S/3 to get them back on the same day. The only reason that doing laundry is worth a mention in a blog is that getting the clothes back turned out to be a bit of a problem. Usually in places like this they keep the clothes separate from other people's or manage to sort them out by themselves. Here we were forced to go through basically all of the laundry of the day and pull out our own things from the pile. We managed to find everything eventually, luckily by now we have a pretty good idea of what we have with us…

We arranged our bus tickets to our next destination, Puno by the Lake Titicaca, through our hostel. We paid S/5 each for service fees, but we got the tickets super easily. The ride cost us S/35 each with a company called Transzela and we were very happy with what we got. After paying S/6 for a taxi ride to the bus station (the driver tried to push us a fake coin as change but was unsuccessful) and additional S/1.30 each tax at the station we got on one of the most comfortable buses either of us has ever been on. Our seats were on the second row of the second floor, but that didn't bother us one bit since they were extremely comfortable. Usually a row on the second floor consists of two pairs of seats separated by a corridor, but here they had a pair of seats separated from a single seat, meaning just three in a row. As a result the seats were extra wide. They served us Coca Cola and tea two times on the seven hour drive but other than that there were no distractions since there was about seven people on the entire bus. The scenery isn't all that remarkable so we got some sleep along the way.

After arriving in Puno we took a taxi to our hostel, feeling content in paying S/7 instead of the S/4 our guidebook said it would cost since the driver knew where our reservation was. We had booked a room at a place called Huaytusive which proved to be quite nice. We paid about S/50 per night for a double room with a shared bathroom. The room had a table and a closet which are always a plus in cheaper places like this. Also, the wifi worked great with the transmitter situated about a meter away from our door. The shared bathroom was clean and there was very hot water available 24/7. The best thing about the place was that after we extended our stay by one night they moved us to an ensuite room for no additional cost because they started renovating the room next to our former one. They didn't want to bother us with the noise, isn't that great? Breakfast was basic with a couple of small breads per person served with coffee/tea/mate de coca and freshly made juice.

The city of Puno lies on the bank of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. What the navigable part means is a little beyond me but the point is this: the lake lies at about 3800 meters above sea level. That's a lot. Luckily we had spent five nights in total in Cusco, at 3400 meters, acclimatizing to the lower oxygen level, coming all the way up here straight from sea level might have been a very bad idea. Rising 400 meters from Cusco to Puno doesn't sound like a lot, but I at least felt the difference. My head hurt a little more than it had in Cusco and I got a little dizzy while walking too fast, although I have to admit that there might have been another reason for that as well. We'd both had some problems with our stomachs after a certain street meal we had in Pisac, so possibly the light headedness was caused by low blood sugar?

There wasn't too much to see in Puno so we felt like a couple of days there was enough. We saw the cathedral and walked to the surprisingly small handicraft market at the shore without buying anything. The main thing we did was to go see the floating islands of the Uros people living at the lake. We decided to participate on a guided tour instead of going by ourselves because the price difference wasn't all that big and we thought we might get a little more out of it with a guide. Edgar Adventure had a package costing S/35 per person and consisting of transport from and to the hotel, the boat trip, admission to the islands and an English speaking guide. Going alone would have meant paying S/10 for the boat and S/8 for the admission, but I'm not sure what one could have done at the islands after getting there.

After about twenty minutes on a bus sized boat we were dropped off on one of the floating islands where our guide explained how they were made. It takes a layer of dried reeds about two meters thick to form a platform buoyant enough to walk and build on and one has to add to it constantly because the bottom parts rot away in time. The eighty or so islands are anchored to the bottom with ropes but other than that they really don't have any connection to solid surfaces. Walking on the island still didn't feel like being on a boat or a ferry since it didn't seem to move at all with the still water. What it would be like to stand on one of them in a storm I can only guess. Walking there wasn't like walking on hard earth however, because the reeds are soft and sink underneath the step. If it wasn't for the moisture the entire surface would feel like a giant straw mattress, soft and comfortable enough to sleep on.

After our guide stopped talking we were free to walk around the small island. The family living there showed us their homes (we saw some CD's and TV antennas in them!) and offered us handicrafts to buy. This is where things got a little touristy and awkward. We walked around and asked polite questions about the buildings etc., but we didn't want to buy anything. That wasn't that much of a problem but the second part was, when the family "invited us on a ride with their reed boat". That's what our guide called it, over and over again, briefly mentioning that it wasn't included in the price of the tour but being suspiciously quiet about how much it would eventually cost. In the end it was "just" S/10 per person, which really isn't that much, but still we felt like we were fine without it and decided to skip it.

This earned us some strange looks. The thing is this: after having travelled for almost six months we've developed a pretty keen eye on possible hoaxes etc. and while this wasn't actually a hoax, going through with it would still have meant paying for something that we really didn't want to do. The applied pressure made everyone else on our tour take the boat ride even though there were clearly some people who, like us, would have preferred not to. With so many months of practice we've also grown quite a thick skin for the "strange looks" we got. And a good thing too: we were perfectly comfortable back in the engine powered boat watching the others cram themselves on the reed one. We watched on as the women of the family stood on the edge of the island singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as a farewell as the men started slowly paddling the heavy craft. Once a good distance away from "shore" the reed boat was met with an engine powered row boat that pushed it the rest of the way to the second island we were to visit. I'm not saying that the people on the reed boat didn't enjoy the trip, but I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have. The whole thing felt a little strange, from the English nursery song to the engine powered reed boat. We didn't go see the floating islands to get a taste of the authentic and real ways in which the people there live but we really didn't need to have our noses rubbed into the faking either. Of course they use engine powered boats to move around and listen to CD's inside of their reed huts, pretending like they lead their lives like they did a hundred years ago is just an act for the tourists. We wanted to see the islands themselves and also what remains of the old ways. Pretending and acting wasn't a part of that at all. It does seem to entertain the masses though…

We took the big boat to the second island where we were met with more handicraft sellers and some very persistent shouters advertising lunch menus. We suffered through the twenty minutes on the tourist packed island before returning to Puno in the boat. The whole trip lasted about three hours and we were glad we did it even though most of what we saw of the lives of the people living on the islands was clearly a show. It didn't cost that much and we got to see the islands and walk on them. Also, we got a cruise on the highest navigable lake in the world! That's really the reason we came to Puno after all.

I named this entry about Puno "The good, the bad and the ugly" even though the town wasn't really that bad (though it was pretty cold in there, according to weather forecasts the daily temperatures ranged between 12 and 1 degree Centigrade…). The other two fit the bill though, the trip there was exceptionally nice and the trip away quite horrible. We continued on to Arequipa, supposedly about six hours away by bus. We walked to the bus station in Puno to get the tickets the day before and tried to get them from Transzela because the last trip had been so great. For some reason they weren't running their 8:30 a.m. bus after all so we had to ask around some more. All of the companies our guidebook recommended were running only night busses so we ended up buying tickets from Sur Oriente that had a bus to Arequipa at 10:00 a.m. and a sign above their stand with a modern looking bus pictured on it. When we returned in the morning (taxi cost S/5, the bus station tax S/1.5 per person) we found our ride to be a rusty can of a bus with paint flaking on the outside and electrical wires sprouting out of places on the inside. Truth be told we only paid S/20 each for the tickets but we had still expected something a little better. 10 a.m. came and went but the bus stayed still, thundering awake no earlier than at 10:50 when it started its way to Juliaca where the road would turn towards Arequipa. At Juliaca we stopped quickly at the bus station and again just outside of it. Apparently there weren't enough passengers so we waited for some on the side of the street for about half an hour. This made even the locals traveling with us angry, they started stomping on the floor and yelling "¡Vamos!" until eventually we were off once more. That's when a very loud man started advertising some sort of a powdered miracle for the people on the bus. My Spanish isn't all that great but from what I gathered the substance was supposed to make you not only younger but also stronger and a bunch of other things as well. After he quieted down (having made substantial sales by the way) we were able to continue on in peace.

Until the bus stopped and we started hearing people gathering up tools. The bus had broken a wheel. To say that this happened in the middle of nowhere is quite an understatement, because it really happened in the middle of freaking nowhere! One of the eight hind wheels of the bus had peeled off its outer layers and the driver and other guys working in it started busying themselves with the repairs. After they got the wheel in front of the broken one off they started pulling out bent sheets of metal from somewhere under the bus. What that was about I'll never know… After maybe about an hour and a half a Transzela bus stopped behind us and offered to take in passengers but the guys doing the repairs refused to let us take out our backpacks from the luggage department because they were ready. They were putting the tire back on so we let the other bus continue on. Only to come out fifteen minutes later and find out that both of the wheels were off once more.

Luckily it didn't take long for another bus to stop and offer us assistance. This time a threesome of Spanish travelers that we had been talking to took matters in their own hands and dug their things and ours out from inside of the broken bus. We paid S/10 each for the rescue and continued our trip with a bus called Oriental. Whether or not the first bus ever made it to Arequipa is anyone's guess but we weren't willing to wait any longer. After about two hours of getting nowhere we felt extremely lucky to get seats next to each other at the back of the other bus. Sadly those were unoccupied probably because of the very smelly toilet next to us, but we didn't even mind that. We watched the sun set and darkness surround us before we finally made it to Arequipa at 7:20 p.m.. We had hoped to be there at 4 p.m.. I guess the lesson of the day is that you really do get what you pay for… The irony is that we were willing to pay for a more expensive company but couldn't find one with a schedule that suited our needs.

The next bus ride is going to be a sixteen hour drive from Arequipa to Lima. I guess we'll invest a little more on that one…