As I mentioned before, Scott and I were going to Lake Titicaca! We got back Friday afternoon from our little adventure up in Puno. I think getting there was half the adventure. Let us begin!
It was a cloudy and misty morning. I was not inclined to get out of bed at 6am (seriously I hate getting up early). Obviously I got my ass out of bed and got ready. I did a quick run through in my head to make sure we had everything and then Scott and I went down to flag a taxi down to the airport.... He flagged down about 5 taxis before one said they would take us to the airport. Taxi drivers are weird about going certain places at certain times around here. I don't know if Scott had on some blinders but boy oh boy was this a bit of a hoopty wagon. A little dented, faded paint, you know the usual hoopty ghetto wagon taxi. As we rounded the corner from the apartment, I realized we forgot the camera. Who has to run and go get it??? This girl!!!! I would also like to note that I am not a runner, I do not like to do it and I especially do not like to do it early in the morning. Once I acquired the almost forgotten camera and jumped back in the taxi, I started to realize how much more of a hoopty wagon this thing really was. I'm talking rusty metal floor mats, no above the door/oh shit handle bar on my side, speedometer doesn't work, and where the RPM gauge should be there is a clock! Oh man! Priceless!
As we got closer to the airport, our taxi driver needed to use his wipers. Needless to say, good ol' hoopty wagon didn't let us down in the ghetto department. The passenger side wiper started to fall off and our driver had to pull over to reattach said wiper blade.... Quality vehicle right there folks! Now as we actually got to the airport, that's when things got really special. Homie wouldn't actually drive us into the airport. He kept saying something about the police. This leads Scott and I to believe he didn't have legit paperwork for his vehicle and couldn't actually drive in there.... Thanks pal for dropping us off in front of the airport in your hoopty wagon!
Now apparently 300 meters down from where we were was the pedestrian entrance. But F that bullshit kids... No bullshit security guard could stop us from marching on through that damn parking lot and into the airport. Seriously, why would I want to walk 300 meters out of my way just to get into the airport? Thank god that was the last of the weird crazy adventures for the morning.
After a short flight, half a beer (stingy mother fuckers wouldn't give us an entire can each... made us share), the nonstop screaming child and getting bitched at because my seat was broken and wouldn't go all the way up, we arrived at Juliaca airport. They had a lovely van service that takes you from the airport to your hotel in Puno for cheap! Only S./15 per person or for the two of us and in dollar terms, just over $11. Oh and yay us! Little Screamer was sitting right behind us in the van! When silence fell, I had Scott peak behind to see if the little shit fell asleep.... Nope! Kid finally got the boobie.... Momma couldn't have offered that up like 2 hours ago? Seriously if that's all he needed, I may have very well offered up one of mine 2 hours ago just to shut the lil shit up...... Anyways, back to the awesomeness of the adventure!
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| Arriving in Puno! Look there's the lake! |
Our hotel was pretty darn nice and we got a jacuzzi tub bitches! You know I relaxed in that :)
After a little lunch, Scott and I wandered around town a bit and walked down to the lake.
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| A hotel or as I liked to refer to it, Alcatraz! |
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| A walkway across part of the lake, view towards Puno |
After our lovely ride and a not so cold beer at a cevicheria, we decided a fun way to get back to the hotel would be in a pedicab!
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| Aren't we fucking dicks for making some guy pedal us up a hill to our hotel for only S./5 (that's about $1.85) |
We wrapped up that magical cool day and cold night with some dinner, jacuzzi and drink time and an early bed time (although I had a pathetic attempt to stay up and find out who won American Idol). Now sleeping was not the best sleeping either of us have ever done. Scott is a hot body, therefore I need air movement. What did we not have in that room? Air movement.... Also at around 13,000 ft, your breathing isn't that great. Damn you air for being thin! Oh well, still logged a couple okay hours of sleep :)
Another early morning for us! We had a to get up and go on a nice tour of the lake. I made sure I was all sorts of winterized for the morning. Scott thinks I may have over dressed but I was perfectly okay with that since I was all nice and cozy and I hadn't felt temperatures that cold in over a year! This has also made me realize that I will live in multiple sweaters and a coat at one time when I go back to Washington to visit my family in December....
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| Heading out on our boat tour to the floating islands |
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| What a beautiful morning! (and this is coming from a non-morning person) |
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| Approaching the floating islands |
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| The "Mercedes Benz" of reed boats |
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| Island president demonstrating how the island is made |
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| The cutest little island kids |
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| The water is about 50 feet deep here |
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| See all sorts of winterized :) |
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| Told you we would ride on a reed boat :) |
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| Cheaters! |
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| Yay Peru! |
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| Making yarn on the island of Taquile |
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| Hiking up the island |
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| Recovering from said hike up the island at 13,000ft |
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| Well worth the view! |
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| After lunch and about to walk down 550 steps to the tour boat |
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| Apparently people like to drop their livestock off on very shallow areas to eat reeds |
Shortly after that last picture we arrived back in Puno and got dropped off at our hotel. Crawled in the cozy bed for a few and then bundled back up to adventure out for some dinner... Dinner the night before was much better than dinner that night.... We had thought about hitting a couple bars after dinner but the realization of tiredness and knowing we had a jacuzzi tub, plus drinks in our room, changed our minds. I didn't make any pathetic attempts to watch the rerun of American Idol and I just rolled over and went to sleep by 9:30...
In the morning, after breakfast, we walked out to the Plaza de Armas to snag a couple photos of their main church since I had failed to do that the first day.
Now the flight back was a lot more uneventful, aside from Mr. BO sitting next to me... I'm not sure which is worse, the person with body odor or the screaming child. But seriously dude, European or not, a coat of deodorant or a shower won't kill you. In fact, it will help raise your popularity with your fellow passengers. Does anyone think it would be rude of me to have sample size deodorants in my carry-on to hand out if I get seated next to someone with B.O. again?
Even our taxi ride was uneventful. He knew the proper exit to take and got us home in one piece without me having an "Oh dear Jesus" moment about his driving... It was good to be home and at an elevation I could breathe properly at :)
Next adventure is in 2 weeks! Buenos Aires, here we come!
