Puno

Our day started with a web call with Push Dr, a service that we had included with our travel insurance, to double check whether I needed a rabies shot after my run in with the dog yesterday. Fortunately I was given the all clear however it wasn't particularly reassuring that she didn't know where Bolivia was so we got Simon's Mum to double check for us as well.

Today we tackled our final border crossing of South America into Peru. Our bus wasn't until 1:30pm so we treated ourselves to breakfast in El Conder & the Eagle, which is run by an Irish guy. We both had a latte which was one of the nicest coffees we have had in a long time. Simon opted for the homemade baked beans and I had homemade muesli with fruit, yoghurt and honey. It was so good to have real Greek yoghurt as in other places in Bolivia, if you order yogurt it's usually pineapple or strawberry flavour which just doesn't work with muesli.

After breakfast we finished packing and checked out of our hostel, said our farewells to the alpacas and headed to the bus company to drop off our rucksacks. We had a couple of hours to kill until our bus so we sat in a coffee shop on the lake.

Once on the bus it didn't take long for us to reach the border. We first visited Bolivian customs to get our stamp out of Bolivia. Some nationalities have to pay an exit fee from Bolivia but the U.K. isn't one of them. The Bolivian police however sometimes like to try their luck and con you out of 30 bolívianos. On the way to the border, the bus driver also pointed out a mark on our entry stamp that also shows we don't need to pay. As we reached customs, the policeman looked at Simons passport and asked for 30 bolívianos. After some pointing at the stamp and saying free the policeman nodded his head and let us off the fee. Nice try mate!

After getting our Bolivia stamps we had to walk across no mans land into Peru where we got our entry stamp. This was very quick and simple and before long we were back on the bus to Puno.

We were dropped at the main bus station so headed out to get a taxi to our hostel. The bus driver had kindly warned us that we shouldn't pay more than 7 Peruvian soles for a taxi. The taxi driver started at 10 but we managed to haggle him down to 8. We have certainly found our travelling feet now, 2 months ago we would have just paid the taxi man and police at the border.

From the outside, our hostel looked very dodgy but fortunately it wasn't so bad inside. There is no toilet seat in our bathroom though and the lights don't work! It will be do the job for 2 nights though. Fingers crossed the shower has hot water!

It was around 5pm at this point so we headed to the main street to locate an ATM, book our bus to Cusco and find somewhere for dinner. We stumbled across a restaurant called Colors which had a set menu which was 30 soles (£7.10) for 3 courses and a drink. What a bargain and it was delicious! I had a Greek salad to start, followed by steak and chocolate cake and ice cream. Simon is now open to trying all different kinds of foods and went for quinoa soup, followed by alpaca and chocolate cake and ice cream. It seems that every animal we take selfies with ends up on our dinner plate at some point. Now we are in Peru we are going to have to try guinea pig at some point too!

After dinner we went for a wander around the town. Most people miss out Puno as it's considered a dive but the town is actually pretty lively. There are lots of grockle shops to wander round selling all kinds of alpaca goodies. I've had to reign Simon in and stop him from buying ridiculous ponchos and colourful pyjama type pants! I think he is 'finding himself' and turning into a hippie!Read more