I´m in LaPaz!

Mum said yesterday that I'm not updating enough... Opps... Sorry... Here I was thinking I was boring everyone to death with my long long posts of what I'm up to!

Well as the title says I'm now in Bolivia. I didn't realize but its been about 5 days since my last post... Time really does fly!

Tuesday (4/05) - I'm sitting here trying to remember what I did... I've had to read my last update to figure out where I'm at. Tuesday morning I actually slept in then went for a wonder around the pedestrian mall in Puno to try & find a good deal on the Floating Island & over night trip to Amantani tour thing. All of them were pretty much the same as the tout form the bus terminal had offered me so I thought it fair that he get the business so gave him a call to book it. I also booked a tour of the Inca & pre Inca fuernal towers for the afternoon. Figured I couldn't spend the whole day been lazy! The island tour cost me Sl.40 & the fuernal tower Sl.15 which is pretty good (I'm now trying to think in bolivianos so wont even attempt to do the exchange to $au, Sl.10 is $3.48au). The girl I ended up staying on the island with paid $30us!!! They rip you off as much as they can. Oh & I also took my washing to get done, Sl.5 or Sl.6 per kilo... Cant remember what it cost me but I had to take all these little staple things out of my clothes when they came back. So anyway after figuring out the tours I thought I should eat. I went in to a local restaurant & paid Sl.4 (have to do the exchange rate here, its only about $1.50au!) for a 3 course meal. Potato, meat & lettuce to start, full on veggie soup for second & chicken & rice as the third. Not to mention, juice, shot of some alcohol that's supposed to help with digestion & bread as well. So cheap. Its even cheaper here in Bolivia but Ill get into that later. I got picked up at 2.30 for the afternoon tour. The fuernal towers were interesting to see but something that could probably be missed. Its interesting how they were designed & they looked pretty impressive against the bleak landscape. Got back form the tour about 6ish I think... Cant quite remember. Didn't really meet anyone on the tour so went and ate dinner by myself in a restaurant. Have to remember to take a book or something to read with me. I attempted to read a political mag that was in Spanish... Umm, yeah, very interesting ;) Had a early night. Oh, brought a wool hat, scarf & gloves cause its bloody freezing!!!!

Wednesday (5/05) - Got picked up just after 8am form the hotel & we made our way down to the jetty where the boats leave for the islands. There was about 20 of us I think & we got off to a good start with the boat engine dying when we were about 5 min out on the lake. After a little fuss we were on our way again. It took us about 30 or 40min to get out to the first floating island of Uros. The floating islands are cool, a little different than I expected, when you walk its spongy. The ones we stopped at are, of course, very much aimed at tourists with lots of little craft stalls selling handicrafts. I'm been so good and haven't brought anything I haven't needed.

After stopping at a couple of islands we made our way to Amantani, which is the large island where we stayed, it took us about 3.5 hours to get there & I still wasn't feeling 100% so I pretty much slept most of the way. When we got there we had to walk up a really, really, really steep hill to get to the family home. It just about killed me. The island is about 4140m about sea level!!! There were 2 of us staying with the one family. Claudia from Switzerland & me. We got to the house about 2.30 & had they served us lunch about 3.30. The house was very basic but really clean. The doorway into our room was really low (even I had to duck to get in). There were normal beds, blankets a table & chair in our room. I think only 2 rooms of the house had windows & doors & the little I saw of kitchen was pretty much basic mud brick with a oven/fire & basic table with a dirt floor. There was a outside (non flush) toilet, which I didn't expect. It'd obviously been put in for the tourists & after you went you needed to put a bucket of water in the bowl.

After lunch we walked to the top of the island. This wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. At the top there was a preinca temple & a beautiful sunset. When we got back to the house we had a rest then were served dinner then they dressed us up in the traditional island dress for the party. I looked like a little fat dumpling. I'm very much tempted to delete the photos so you cant see but you might as well get a laugh out of it :) We had a traditional band play & danced for a while but it'd been a big day so we were in bed by 10.30pm. When we walked back to the house we had the most amazing view of the lake with a full moon & the stars were absolutely amazing! Its one of the things that I don't think Ill forget, it was so beautiful.

Thursday (6/05) - Wake up call at 7am then breakfast & the walk down to the boat. It took about 40min to get to the next island... I don't know how to spell it... Tranquile, I think... Anyway we walked about 1hour to the main plaza on the island looked at the handi crafts then walked another 20min up to restaurant and had lunch, Sl.8 for 3 courses. The island was really beautiful, the sea & sky were so blue. After lunch we walked 540 steps down to the boat & made our way back to Puno - another 3 or 4 hours. Oh I need to mention that the toilet on the boat was BAD! I had to use it the first day wasn't planning on using it again! I brought a snickers bar on this island to Sl.4 not as bad as MP :)

Thursday night met up with Claudia for dinner then went for a drink & had another early night cause my transfer for the bus to Lapaz was picking me up at 7am in the morning.

Friday (7/05) - Taxi picked me up & we went to where the bus was departing form. I was really happy with the bus, it had a toilet & I got 2 seats to myself which was cool. I really enjoyed watching the scenery go by, Peru really is beautiful. I´m still kicking myself for sleeping all the way form Cusco to Puno.

I've been typing for ages & are going to have to finish this tomorrow. Will try & upload more photos tomorrow too....

Lapaz - Bolivia, Saturday 8th May, 6.53pm