Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Day 107 (June 29) - Puno

Day 107 (June 29) - Puno
After a much needed sleep, we arranged for a day tour of the floating islands. Before the tour came to get us, it was time for a quick ATM / farmacia run (I had a cough and cold that was killing me). The pharmacy was closed but at least I found an ATM. Back at the hostel, I managed to have a small accident. I was taking a shower and I slipped. Nothing big, nothing dramatic, but I slipped. In doing so I apparently pulled some muscles.

It was actually so bad that I had to have help putting on and tying my shoes. I did manage to get out of the shower and put clothes on, painfully. I had some medication to take the edge off the pain but tried to take it easy. Even walking was difficult and coughing from the cold was damn painful.

There somewhere in the realm of 50 islands, some with just one or two families and some of the largest have about 10 families. The islands are constantly wearing down, disintegrating, rotting or otherwise disappearing so the locals most continually repair and maintain them.

We toured a small island and a larger one then headed
back to shore. I managed, with help, to get to the tour and to the boat. The islands are about 5 clicks out from the port and are inhabited by approximately 300 (there were a couple thousand but most moved to dry land) Uros people. They build their islands, boats, houses and most of their items from the totora reeds.

We had lunch nearby the main plaza (I had an alpaca steak, it really good!), got our bags and headed to the bus station. Unfortunately the tourist bus only runs in the morning and late at night... so we got a public bus. This put us on a bus that was not a nice, took a bit longer and wasn't as comfortable. Those aren't really big issues but my back was killing me! The strange part was about 3 hours from Cusco (it was about 9 hrs total I think) a lady got on the bus. She was extremely drunk, laid down in the aisle and passed out. Unfortunately she hadn't used the necessary before had and promptly lost control of herself... Unfortunately there was nothing we could do and even the locals were disgusted... We got to Cusco, got a cab to the hostel and went to sleep... at about 1 am.

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