Titanium toes attempts to trek the Inca Trail plus some travels either side

[JohnM]

The Intrepid itinerary describes the transport used between Puno and Cusco as a public bus.
What we boarded next
It was fantastic!

There's nothing like South America for excellent coaches! I've almost never used them, only because I prefer to rent a car for the independence - but I've certainly seen gazillions over much travel there, and peeked inside. They never cease to impress me.

 

[bPeteb]

Todays itinerary was Puno - Uros reed islands - Llachan.

The day started with a surprise - a ride down to the dock in a fleet of cyclos (they might have a different name in Peru).





It was a hoot. We came in last but that just meant we had the most time enjoying it.



The quality of our boat followed that of our busses. Clean, comfy seats, lots of room for us all.

Firts class even!



As we left Puno Eliseo explained that the city was pumping waste out into the lake and that was the reason for the murky green colour.



Lucky for the lake, and the Uros people who lived on the nearby reed islands, the reeds themselves act as a filter for the waste. Time for Puno to have a more effective waste water/sewerage treatment system. The lake is a jewel that shouldn’t be treated like a toilet!

 

[bPeteb]

You enter the reeds not long after leaving the jetty. Boats pay a toll (well some boats by the looks of things) as you enter the channel through the reeds.

The toll booth



To be honest I was, we both were, a bit disappointed by the reed islands. They were a bit too Disneyland. Everything was ‘performed’.



The people were genuinely friendly.





The explanation of why the Uros people are on the islands, how they construct them, their day to day lives all quite interesting. It just seemed like everyone was working off a script. Two interesting things we were told. The residents apparently don’t go to the toilet off the edge of their islands. They get in little boats and row as fast as they can out into the reeds. The second a bit funnier. If someone is looking to hook-up they row/motor out into specific secluded pick-up areas out amongst the reeds. No Tinder or Grindr for these folks!

There was a school, medical centre, large Seventh Day Adventist church (Adventist is the largest church), shops. Just like any small town.

 

[bPeteb]

One other surprising thing was the number of solar panels on the huts.



Our local guide explained that the Peruvian government had paid for both them, and the small battery storage systems that each house had.



So everyone had lighting, radio and some even had tv I suppose as there were also a couple of satellite dishes.

A couple more pictures from our short visit

 

[tgh]

hah .. I have seen that first lady before .. they run a well oiled machine…

 

[bPeteb]

Lookouts



and the famous reed boats

 

[bPeteb]

We left the islands and slowly motored across the lake to Llachan. It's on a peninsula that juts out into the lake.




We did a homestay on our Intrepid Sapa tour in Vietnam. For that one our whole group stayed in the same place, with our guide, so there were no language difficulties. For this one we already knew that we were being split up, we just hoped we wouldn’t end up on our own. This was for two reasons – our lack of Spanish and Quechua but more importantly being a middle aged gay couple. In the end neither was a problem at all.

We were met by a group of brightly dressed locals when we arrived at the jetty, our house mothers and the mayor who it turned out was also a house father.



We were introduced to Pilar (not spelt correctly and pronounced Pee-lah) and she walked us to her family home. It was the closest to the jetty, and by the sounds of things the nicest homestay by far. She showed us into a building that consisted of a ‘living room’ with amazing views across the lake and off that a large bedroom with a single and double bed.

 

[bPeteb]

Literally minutes after we arrived Pilar was serving us a lunch of soup and different veges – potatoes of different kinds, corn, rice.



Conversation over lunch was difficult but we managed. Names, ages, families, where we were from, we ‘talked’ about it all.

As part 'payment' for our visit, we all helped with the afternoon chores. For us that meant pulling up a bed of beans that had finished



removing the remaining dried up beans for the next crop



We hoed a much larger bed, at the instruction of son 13yo Alejandro, who took much joy in just telling us what to do with some very creative sign language



Then we sat out in the sun and peeled some very tiny potatoes with our fingers.

 

[bPeteb]

The view across the lake back towards Puno was quite spectacular. It was so peaceful!







The village up the hill behind our house

 

[bPeteb]

After that it was time for the Llachan volleyball championships that seemed to go for hours.





I played three games very badly. Three games of the 275 that were played until it finally went dark!



Al was a machine. Not a twinge from his knee!

After the game finished we went home and were dressed in local costumes and returned to the community hall. This is where dinner was held. By chance, this was all about 20 metres from our house!



Don't say a word!



Dinner was many courses of different vegetables that we'd peeled earlier and cut up when we'd arrived at teh community hall. There was beer and soft drink for sale. I was craving sugar and although I'd never drink it at home I had coke, and beer.

It was freezing, literally, by the time we wandered back to the homestay. After the slight let down of the reed islands, the afternoon had been brilliant.

The Diamox we were taking for tablets sickness made me pee like a fountain (as they should have) so I was up three times during the FREEZING night. The loo was on the other side of the courtyard in a surprisingly modern bathroom (you still used a bucket to flush the loo ). Sleeping in thermals, I got out from under the six or so blankets (Al wouldn’t sleep in the same bed to keep me warm!), pulled my shoes on, grabbed my torch and dashed across the courtyard.

Each time I was stopped in my tracks by the spectacular sky.

If it was good in the Amazon it was truly unbelievable above Lake Titicaca!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bPeteb]

No idea what the mattresses of our beds were made of. Straw maybe? Whatever they were we slept well. We'd even missed the intent of the plastic bottles of hot water in the room when we went to bed. Hot water bottles of course!

When Pilar came over to make breakfast she cracked the ice on the bowl of water that had been left at our door the afternoon before. When she tipped it on the garden the remaining water pretty much froze on contact with the ground.



Breakfast was way too much. It finished with a never ending pile of pancakes, with jam and white sugar. Yum! Even coffee with milk!!

As well as thirteen year old son Alejandro, Pilar and her husband had a two and a half year old daughter. She was hilarious. She'd come in, stare at us, pout then walk out.



Then she repeat the process, over and over.

Walking back to the jetty in the crisp air



What an unexpected surprise the homestay had been

 

[bPeteb]

The trip across to Taquile Island didn’t take long as it's straight across from Llachan.

The view aross the lake towards Bolivia and yet another amazing range of mountains. Royale someting maybe?



These pleasant looking stone heads were on either side of the gate



as walked up to the town square where there were a couple of large stores selling the knitting of the men of Taquile. It wasn’t cheap, but it was beautiful quality.



We continued the walk across the island



and on the other side stopped for dinner at a restaurant with a view up the lake and across to Llachan and back across to the high peaks of Bolivia. The view was amazing. We haven’t been there but it was what I pictures the Greek Islands might look like.
Lunch was soup, of course, and the local delicacy rainbow trout



or an omelette. I felt like neither. I just wanted a small bowl of chips and a coke. The chips were delicious.

 

[bPeteb]

It took two and a half hours to get back to Puno, a lovely lazy slow afternoon.

Entrance to another restaurant that we passed on the way to the boat





We passed the reed island communities on the way back through the reeds to Puno





We'd just taken our backpacks with us for the overnight stay and checked back into the same hotel. Same room even.

We had dinner at the restaurant next door to where we'd eaten two nights before. Both the service and the food were a bit better. The band we'd seen two nights before played for a bit here as well. Same same only different.

I of course had the cuy as it would be my last chance to gross the group out



I definitely preferred the earlier slow roasted to this deep fried version. Even though the crackling was delicious, I could have been eating deep fried anything.

 

[bPeteb]

Apologies in advance. A very wordy post but lots to say about this day...

We travelled by public bus to La Paz but this one was in a whole different world to the last one, and not a world we want to visit again.

The bus was late arriving at the bus terminal and when it did it didn't look promising. The windows of the bus were double glazed with tinted windows on the outside of inner 'clear' ones and the front tinted one on this one was shattered. We were hurried onboard and when I sat in my seat I reclined straight onto the person behind me. I watched a couple of others do the same. I could sit but not lean back on my seat or it just reclined. The bus was full so there was no changing seats.

I'll go as far as to say tourPeru seems to be a pretty **** bus company. It got so much worse...

Last view of Lake Titicaca, from Peru



In the bright sunshine and the thin air of the Altoplano the bus quickly heated up like an oven. We sat there expecting the driver to switch on the aircon but he didn’t, even when he was asked to by one of us melting passengers. Finally, after two hours, and only after the co-driver came back into the bus (there was a door between where the drivers sat and the rest of the bus), he switched the aircon on.

We had less than an hour of cool air before we arrived at the border crossing town of Desaguadero.

We piled off the bus and Carlos directed us to the money changers. I changed some Euros into Bolivianos at what I thought was a pretty ordinary rate but it turned out to be very close to the XE buy rate.

Looking towards Bolivia



Carlos introduced us to our Bolivian guide Marisol. It was never really explained why Carlos couldn’t continue on with us but I suppose by changing guides it supports jobs for Bolivians?

A guide makes a group tour and Carlos was fantastic. Out of four Intrepid trips, Carlos is head and shoulders above the others. He was organised. He was caring. He was patient. He is proud of, and loves his homeland of, Peru and so he should be. Peru is an amazing place and we can’t wait to revisit.

The Peruvian part of the process was painless. The Bolivian immigration process not so much. I really don’t know how long we shuffled along in the sun, on the side of a dusty road, then into a really hot building, to get a stamp from a surly Bolivian border guard. An hour? 75 minutes? However long it was it was too long and it was just another nail in the ‘why does Intrepid bother going to Bolivia’ coffin.

We trickled out of the immigration building and the assitant bus driver directed us down to where the bus was parked.

Before I forget – Carlos had told us not to take pictures of Bolivians unless we first asked permission. We had no issue with this as we’d been told this in other places as well. Why don't we always do this? Why should we presume that someone wants to be in one of our happy snaps? I'm as bad as the next photographer in doing this. I'm going to make an effort going forward.

Surprisingly the aircon was as we pulled out of Desaguadero.

I waved goodbye to my last view of Lake Titicaca



and drove towards La Paz. It was obvious there wasn’t the same money in Bolivia as there was in Peru. The roads weren’t as well maintained. The towns didn’t look as prosperous. It just looked 'poorer'.

We continued higher up on to the Altoplano.

Then... the bus broke down. We slowed for some roadworks and then when the driver tried to put the bus back into gear it wouldn't. We couldn't have been more than an hour from La Paz. It was too hot to sit on the bus so we sat outside in the sun.



At one point a minivan pulled up and after having a chat with our drivers the van driver went and got a handful of what looked like wire. Our drivers crawled under the bus multiple times and fiddled around but nothing got the bus moving.



Marisol was on and off the phone but told us nothing. Eventually, after 90 minutes, she decided she’d come talk to us. Only then it was possibly because Al and I had just confronted her and I'd told her that her communication was cough.

After the whole bus, except for our Intrepid group and one family of four, had decamped into minivans, Marisol finally decided we should do it to. She made another call, two pulled up, we loaded our luggage on to the roof and got in. No seat belts. Lovely hs&e.

Then miraculously the drivers got our bus into gear and it moved. I'm guessing a couple of strands of the bundle of wire were holding fast. So we unloaded the minivans, Marisol handed the drivers some cash for their trouble and we got back on the bus. We all held our breath as we slowly picked up speed.

As we reached El Alto, the air con went off again, and stayed off for the last 40 minutes until we reached the La Paz bus station.

That driver was a total f@&% wit and the bus was unsafe and I’d go with unroadworthy.

Our tour wasn't cheap. Intrepid shouldn't skimp and should never use tourPeru ever again.

Rant over.

 

[bPeteb]

The ride through El Alto and down into La Paz was quite amazing.



El Alto is slowly (rapidly?) spreading out across the plain away from La Paz.





It’s dusty and crowded but was quite mesmerising.



My El Alto highlight was the people dressed as zebras at many of the pedestrian crossings, a road safety campaign that has been apparently going for a long time.

That first sight of La Paz was mind blowing. We went around a corner and there it was below us.



A huge red and brown mass of buildings that filled the valley below us surrounded by crazy high sow capped mountains. WOW!

 

[bPeteb]

Our guide finally got something right. She had a bunch of taxis waiting for us outside the bus station to take us to the hotel.

I’m not sure why I’d got my brain picture of La Paz so wrong, especially where our hotel was. I’d looked at enough pictures online. Hotel Osira was cross the road from a very nice square but also Bolivia’s most infamous prison. My delusion had us across from a dusty square across a wide dusty road with a crumbling prison on the other side of the square. The pictures show how completely wrong my delusion was.



Hotel Osira was REALLY nice. A great location in the same street as the famous witches market. The staff were super nice. Our room was really comfortable with a view across the square from a little juliet balcony



One of the guard towers on the top of the prison across the road





The breakfast the best we had at any of our Intrepid hotels.

 

[bPeteb]

Marisol took us to a really great little ‘comfort food’ café for dinner. Great burgers, great desserts, great coughtails.









We were then taken on a walking tour after dinner and when we got back to the hotel Marisol organised a city tour the following day.

We know that Marisol had no control over the bus breaking down but she, and if it was the case, Intrepid in La Paz, handled the situation very badly. The minute it broke down they should have been looking at sending a bus from El Alto. It was 30 minutes away.

We were travelling in Argentina, Peru and Bolivia when they were all about to celebrate their independence (I think). This meant lots of celebratory marching and dancing.

When we got back from dinner the square across the hotel was full of groups of people practicing synchronised dances to very loud amplified music. Different groups. Different people. Different music. Oh, I forgot the marching bands practicing as well – brass instruments and drums.

My god it was loud but gee it was funny. I have no idea how they knew which music they should be dancing to. When you added in the beat of the drums it was a blur of sound. Signs in the square told them they had until 11pm. They went a little while longer but it did eventually go quiet.

 

[bPeteb]

We both had a really good night’s sleep after the dancing/marching crazies left. Breakfast was our last ‘Intrepid’ meal and Hotel Osira does a good breakfast. Great spread of cereals, fruit, breads, pastries, cheese, meat, great coffee and eggs cooked to order.

Marisol’s redemption was complete with the day tour that she organised for us. I can’t remember what it cost but it was great value for a guide, very comfortable van with driver and a half day and a bit tour of La Paz.

We started with the Ma Telerefico https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi_Teleférico and https://www.lapazlife.com/the-worlds-highest-cable-car-ride/ where we travelled on two of the lines - green and red. I HATE heights and really hate cable cars but I was surprisingly ok on this.







Maybe the altitude affected my mind.

The views across the city were amazing.

There was a tremendous amount of money on display below us

 

[bPeteb]

Cool street art below the cable car station



Big girls toys!



Then we went to Valley de la Luna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valle_de_la_Luna_(Bolivia).





An interesting hour that helped to explain a lot about the valleys that surround La Paz and the perils of building on the valley sides.

Next was a lookout that gave us an amazing perspective of La Paz

 

[bPeteb]

Followed by a short visit to the main square