I forgot what short sleeves felt like!

Well we made it to Cusco, barely. I am going to get the bad stuff out of the way so I can think more about the good stuff. Last night we were in Puno and had an 8pm bus to Cusco, which takes about 7 or 8 hours. We got to the bus station early, since we had been cutting earlier boats/buses a little close, and at 7:50 they put us all outside to wait for our bus. Like I`ve said before, it gets freezing here at night, so at about 8:15 we asked to wait back inside. By 8:30, everyone was asking where the bus was. There was one lady at the counter and she said the bus was at the cleaners and it would be about 5 minutes more. Well, we`ve heard that before. It wasn`t much warmer, or I guess I should say, it wasn´t any less cold, than standing outside, so we were sitting, standing, jumping, swinging our arms, but nothing worked. I can`t express enough how grateful I am that Lynne feels as miserable as I do when I`m freezing, we suffered together! 9 o´clock, no bus, 9:30, still at the cleaners? This bus doesn´t exist. We made the decision to spend 5 more dollars and buy a ticket to another bus that we could actually see sitting outside with people on board. We got on the dark, smelly bus, noticed there was no bathroom, little hope of heat and no tourists. We were a little nervous, but trying to tell ourselves at least we are on a bus going to Cusco. Well, our bus pulled up about 15 minutes later and without hesitation we jumped off the questionable bus and onto the, what looked to be, nicer and more tourist friendly bus. By 10:15, over two hours later than our scheduled departure, we were on the road to Cusco and anxiously waiting for the heater to come on, full blast. Nope, no heater. We tried moving to seats that were closer to other people, maybe we could feel the body heat from 3 feet away..? No, our faces said it all and we ended up laughing about it for a while. Lynne thought that maybe sticking her head under the seatback cover would keep her warm! We didn´t think there was any way we would make it to Cusco a)alive or b)incredibly sick. The bus stopped to pick up more people, everyone equipped with 2 or 3 blankets, clearly needed on an overnight bus with no heat in 30 degree weather, everyone know´s that.. Well, a very nice man, offered us one of his and we didn´t have to pay. You have to pay to use the bathroom here so I was pretty surprised when he said not to pay. Lynne and I say with the blanket over our heads for 8 hours, in and out of sleep, fearing hypothermia. At one point I opened my phone case to see what time it was and hearing the rip of the velcro, Lynne said `don`t tell me what time it is.` I didn´t but it was 2:45 and I really didn´t know how much longer. A couple hours later I felt the blanket being tugged off of us, I thought the devil of iceland was coming to kill us. But no, it was just the nice man wanting his blanket back because we were in Cusco. Finally! I could see a warm bed in front of me, but our journey wasn`t over. We waited for our bags, of course at the bottom of the huge pile, and made our way through the bus terminal to find a taxi. We stopped to look at the address of the hostel we had written down and when we looked up there were about 50 people waiting for a taxi. It was 5:30 in the morning and no way there were enough taxis for everyone. Our very infrequent luck seemed to kick in at that moment because a taxi driver came up to us before we even started looking for one and within a few minutes we were at out hostel. Still freezing, we burrito wrapped ourselves in extra blankets, that we asked for of course, and fell back asleep until about 11am. Outside our door is a courtyard that was filled with sun and I couldn´t be happier to be in a t-shirt right now. I am just scared for the sun to go down.

OK! Onto the good stuff. It`s been a while, and that`s because we didn´t have internet for a couple days and when we finally did and I was all set to blog the night away, the hostel `Dad`in Puno closed the computer room at 9:30. Who does that! So I am starting all the way back to La Paz. What a difference from anywhere I have ever been. We flew in at night so all we could see from the taxi to the hostel was a massive hillside of lights. The next day we walked down to the main Plaza and it was much more of a culture shock than Rio, BsAs, and Iguazu. No one has a car, the street is flooded with minibuses, taxis and people. When we could get a view of the surrounding hills, all we could see was brick colored and shaped houses for miles. We walked across the bridge in the background of this picture and if it`s big enough, you can see there are people lining the edge watching very intently. We thought something happened or there was something super cool to see. We took a peak over the edge and it was a construction site. Exciting stuff! Well, my dad might have enjoyed it, love you dad :) I still can`t really figure out why that many people were so fixated on the construction, and I never will. I promise not to lose sleep over it, the cold nights are enough to worry about. We walked up a hill to the bus station, taking it easy because of the high altitude, and found a bus leaving that day at 3 to Copacabana (right on Lake Titicaca), then to Puno, then to Cusco. Total price, 16 dollars. We had some time before the bus so we went down to the market square to get some sandwiches for the bus and couldn`t pass up the amazing fruit stands for a smoothie, mmm. Back to the bus station at 2:30 and 10 minutes later the ticket lady called us over and said there weren´t enough people at that station for the bus we were taking so she was going to go put us in a taxi to take us to the bus. Ok, kind of weird, but we weren´t going to try and walk there. Lynne asked her where we were going and she pointed at the driver and said, he knows. So Lynne then asked the driver and he mumbled some jibberish and that was that. Of course all the worst possible things are running through my head. The ticket lady is on it, the driver is taking us to someone that is going to run out and grab our bags, or us. BUT, no need to worry you with my crazy thoughts. We made it to the bus and it was not nearly on the same level as our luxurious bus to Iguazu, but it was also a much shorter trip to Copacabana. After a couple hours on a winding road, we entered the middle of nowhere in the mountains, but we were still picking people up! Where were these mountain people coming from? Some people on the bus were even getting off after curve number 172. That was weird. Also, I think it´s the law to honk at least 5 times a minute here. If you think you have road rage in the US, move here and they will crush any honking record you were hoping to break. So finally we see a glimpse of civilization. We stop and they are telling us to get off and take the boat across the water. I go to get my bag and they say no no, the bus is going across too. What was that? Yes, the bus is getting on a big, flat, floating surface and taking a ride across the channel of water, just like us. It was a pretty funny sight to see all these buses cruising along the water. We took a smaller boat for humans and waited for the bus on the other side. A couple more hours and we were in Copacabana. I was hoping to get there while the sun was still up but after picking up and dropping off all the mountain people, we got in after dark. We found a hotel right on the water, went out to dinner for 2 dollars each. You are probably thinking we had a piece of bread for dinner but you would be wrong. They had those three course dinners where you choose each course so we got two and shared everything. We both started with salads and bread, then a vegetable soup, a pumpkin stew and mashed potatoes, then a lasagna to split, and a chocolate cake to finish. After dinner we went to buy our tickets for Isla del Sol. Two people told us that they offer half days to the Island which was perfect because our bus to Puno left at 1:30. We bought our tickets with no problem and the next morning got to the dock, about a 2 second walk from out hotel, at 8:00. We boarded soon after and at 8:20 a man came up to us and said there wasn´t anyone else doing the half day so they couldn`t bring us back, but we could go out there with them and HOPE there are other boats, that we would have to pay extra for, to get us back. Super frustrated, Lynne talked/maybe slightly raised her voice at this guy, but bottom line, we didn´t want to get stuck out there and miss our bus. We were able to get our money back and the lady told us about another place we could go that was a lot closer. We hopped in a minibus that dropped us off about 10 minutes down the road. We walked through a deserted village, saw a few people, and the road ended at the water. We didn`t see the floating islands we were told about so we just started walking along the shore. As we passed some shelters that were about half way built with `totura` (the weed that grows in the water), we caught the attention of two dogs. We were down there by ourselves, but we kept walking, trying to keep a low profile, ya right. One dog started showing it´s teeth and Lynne said, `did you see it`s teeth!?´I kept walking, hoping it would realize we weren´t a threat, but it started barelling towards Lynne, barking, teeth fully showing. She yelled a little and it stopped. Hearts POUNDING, we were pretty scared but for some reason laughing at the same time. We saw a man in the distance waving his arms at us. A little embarassed by the dog encounter but happy to see another person, we made our way over to him and could see the floating islands from there. He explained that there was a ticket office back in the village but he would be willing to take us out to islands. There were three total and even though they were all close, we decided to just do one with the time we had. We got in the row boat and he was a great tour guide. Lynne got the impression he just worked for the tour company, cutting the totura and keeping everything clean, but since we were already down at the water, he just took us himself. The same way they make the balsas de totura (a miniature version is what I am putting on in the picture) they also make these floating islands and you can see the side of a hut behind me. Inside one hut were a bunch of bird eggs. He explained each one to us and showed us that we were actually on two islands that were linked together. So you can untie one island and float somewhere else. They are working on getting them ready for people to stay overnight. With solar heating and portable toilets. Pretty amazing what they can do with the totura. He also showed us that you can eat the end of it. The other picture is of us eating the end after you peel away the outter part. So we got our boat ride and private tour, just not to Isla del Sol. I don`t know what we missed out on but we had a lot of fun regardless.

In Rio we saw the most well kept dogs with owners. In BsAs, there was dog crap everywhere, scraggly looking dogs but still with owners. In Colonia there were a lot of strays and it has been that way since leaving BsAs. Copacabana was full of them but I liked this one :) I have so much more to talk about but our hostel has ´slow and steady wins the race´internet that you have to pay for so I came to an Internet Cafe and I am meeting Lynne in a bit back at the Plaza de Armas. I will pick up next time with Puno (such a great day) and Cusco.

Hope you are having sunshine like we are today!