After four hours sleep we got a taxi to the bus station to start our day tour to Puno. It was much more expensive than getting the direct bus but the direct bus got you into Puno at 4:30am which is just a ridiculous time to arrive anywhere.
The tour bus was about half full and the gave us a piece of bread to start which was nice. We also got free tea and coffee on board the bus.
Our first stop was to Andahuaylilla Where there was a really old church and even the outside was all painted. It looked just like an old Italian church and inside had massive paintings of the lives of Saint Peter and Paul. It also had giant gold pieces with figures of saints on. Our tour guide showed us parts of the church that also incorporated Inca designs such as the sun painted onto the ceiling.
After this we drove on towards our second stop in a village called Raqchi Here they had ruins of an entire Inca village, but the main thing to see was part of their old temple of which some of the walls were still standing and they must have been 20 feet high. Around this village they, like the Chinese, built a wall around themselves to keep out intruders and some could still be seen today. Although some of the villagers had used some of these bricks to build their own houses.
We wandered through the ruins which were built in the same style as Machu Picchu so to be honest they are a bit plain looking.
We then got to go for lunch! There was quite a large choice as it was buffet style but the altitude made me feel sick, although I'm sure Dan got his moneys worth. There were cute llamas outside to look at whilst we ate. One even had dreadlocks!
Our next stop was the highest altitude so far at just over 4300m?! We could also see a glacier in the distance which was cool! We just got out and took photos here there wasn't really anything to see.
Our final stop (it was a very long day!) Was to a town called Pukara Here they used to have Inca pyramids but now there is just ruins and rubble as they used some of the stones to build a church, and then used even more to build an even bigger church in the 1800s. Our first stop was a museum where our guide told us about the different statues and there meaning. Most were of catfish that you can still find in lake Titicaca today. Another was a puma and a leopard. And some we had seen pictures of in the museum in Lima I thought that it showed a person holding a baby, but apparently it was a person holding a decapitated head. Nice. We then 'hiked' up to the ruins. I say hiked but it really wasn't that far just the altitude makes everything so difficult, even our tour guide was huffing and puffing. He told us of a little tunnel you could still go through and we did it. But it was cramped and pitch black and I definitely put my hand in a spiders web!
Finally we arrived to Puno and a woman asked us if we wanted a taxi. First we wanted to book our bus to la paz which she helped us with. Apparently you signed your name up and then someone would deliver the tickets and get payment later. So we wrote our names down. This woman then hailed down a cab and got in with us, she wasn't actually a taxi driver she just wanted a free lift. But hailing taxis down is hard here and she helped us with the bus so we didn't really care.
We checked into our hotel and it was SO nice. We had definitely made a good decision, it even had a bath and a TV with a big bang theory marathon. We had read that you could only get WiFi in the lobby but they must have recently changed that because the WiFi was perfect and we could get room service! We really liked this hotel!
When the room service came it looks amazing, proper restaurant food, we ordered alpaca in a fig and red wine sauce and pork in honey and mustard. I had forgotten that pork is something of a luxury over her so we only got two tiny pieces of pork but everything was still delicious!
The next day was Christmas day!! We even got breakfast brought up to our room because we had missed the breakfast hours! So nice. Usually you only get crappy bread and jam and butter but we got so much! We really really liked this hotel! After breakfast and lots of skyping we went outside and booked a tour for the next day. We were just going to do the half day to enjoy the hotel room some more but the guy gave us discount on the full day and we needed up being roped into it even though we would have to get up at 5:30. Christmas day was entirely uneventful and we ordered room service again because it was so good yesterday. Dan ordered the alpaca and fig again and I ordered a pepper steak. Yum!
The tour the next day was so long and most of it spent on a boat. We really should have just done the half day which is what we actually wanted in the first place. The first stop we made was to an island made entirely out of reeds which was pretty cool and very surreal as the floor bounced around when you walked on it. The lady told us how they make it and then that they have to re-do the top layer of reeds twice a month. They also eat the reeds and we got to try some, they didn't taste that nice I didn't finish mine, but the kids who live on the island loved them! You could pay and extra 10 soles to go around the island on a reed boat. We didn't do it but most people did, when we were there the islanders made over £40 from this, so they make quite a bit of money from tourists.
The next island was called taquilla and it was just a normal island in the lake. Although it was mountainous terrain so to get to the main square we had to hike uphill for about half an hour. Which is harder then it sounds in the altitude. You had to pay 8 soles just to visit the island and then the guide said if you wanted a picture of any of the children you had to pay them 1 sol. But this just led to children jumping in people's photos to get money. Some houses also had solar panels on them so it didn't seem like they were poor. We had lunch at one of the restaurants and luckily we had paid for it to be included because it was 20 soles which was expensive for Peru, and we got soup for starter and trout for main course. It wasn't bad but was quite plain. Next came the hike back down which was over 500 stairs downhill, it was fine as with every step down you can breathe easier!
The boat back took 3 hours! We napped most of the way.
When we got back we checked to see if our bus tickets had arrived which they hadn't. We were then asked what company we booked with and to be honest neither of us had looked at what company. We decided to book a different bus as we hadn't paid for it anyway. But the only bus was at 6:00am and we didn't want to get up so early. We went to a different agency and I remembered that who we booked with had orange buses so the woman rang to see if we had booked with them and luckily we had. As we had only been quoted 30 soles and she charged 70 she wouldn't let us pay her for the tickets, we had to go and find the actual bus company shop. Once there the woman was so rude and didn't even apologise that no one had bothered to deliver our tickets. She also wasn't happy at the price we had been quoted. I think because that random woman was with us we got a local price rather then a tourist price. Finally she wouldn't accept money in dollars which is just stupid seeing as every single ATM in Peru let's you get out soles or dollars. So we then had to go find a money exchange. Finally we got our bus tickets! I once read some travel advice that said don't plan anything in advance because people will always be happy to take your money. I think this proves that really this is not the case.