Bus to Puno

NB 5S = £1 ish.

We had booked a 9am bus to Puno but Anna was still feeling dodgy and it had no toilet onboard so I went down early this morning and they were kind enough to change it to the 1:30pm bus (Titicaca, 30B).

We checked out and stayed in the lobby until it was time to go.

The bus actually looked liked the picture and not a battered old imitation - a rarity in Bolivia - which is probably because the journey was mainly in Peru.

Fifteen minutes into our journey, we all got off at Kasani to go through the border to Peru - all went smoothly. We discovered that we've gone back another hour.

Another 3 hours of beautiful scenery (mainly farmland) driving along the lake took us to Puno which is a fairly large town (3,800m) and reportedly a dump. We only plan to stay long enough to visit the Uros islands tomorrow and then move on in search of lower lands.

We had decided to treat ourselves to a nicer hotel to cheer ourselves up a bit. After booking our onward bus tickets, we got a taxi (6S) to Hotel Sol Plaza (42 US) as Anna wasn't feeling capable of walking. Whilst our room is lacking the towel swans and petals shown in the pictures it does have carpet, a heater we can plug in anytime (limited 6-10pm in last place) and most excitingly a bath!! Our first! It also has 2 double beds - we are nearly always given twins and are too scared to ask for a matrimonial as gaydome is frowned upon in Bolivia.

I also chose the hotel because it offers free oxygen as room service! Anna took advantage and had 5 mins free plus a further 10 mins at 2S per month which eased her chest pains temporarily.

We wandered just around the corner of the hotel which is the main plaza, which then leads on to a strip of restaurants (mainly pizza) and then onto another plaza with a multicoloured-lit statue. So far Puno doesn't seem that dumpy...in fact we like it! Everyone is very friendly.

We changed our Bolivianos to Sols, booked a tour for tomorrow and were lured into Ekeko's by Walter with the promise of a show...and what a show it was! We only stayed for 3 of their 4 dances, all typical Peruvian dances apparently with great costumes. The first dance involved a lot of yelling and rolling around on the floor - our interpretation was you dance with a girl, rape her, then hit her! Hopefully we're wrong! Very amusing either way. The other dances were more tame and featured spinning skirts, flashing gold pants, and the Peruvian Elvis, all chanting what sounded like 'Ruth, Ruth, Ruth'. The place was absolutely rammed, mostly with Americans, which we've never experienced before. We shared a pizza and had drinks for 28S.

Back to the hotel, we had our much anticipated bath. I let the sick one go first and by my turn the lukewarm water was a bit on the cool side. My turn to go first tomorrow!Read more