Getting a later bus than we had planned meant that we arrived in Peru later than we wanted to: in the pitch black and pouring rain. We stopped briefly at the border so everybody could jump off the coach and get their stamps and then we carried on for another 4 hours until we reached Puno in Peru. When we got off the coach it was raining and it was very dark. We were scared because we hadn't per-organised a hostel and Puno was a lot bigger than we had imagined. Also we had heard a lot of horror stories about travellers getting into taxis in Peru and then getting kidnapped and taken around cash points at knife point to withdraw all of their money. With this in mind, we entered the bus station trembling wondering how we would find a decent hostel for the night. It was at this point that a bespectacled woman in her 50s pushed a leaflet in our faces asking us to come with her to her hotel. Against all of our better judgement and instincts, we reluctantly followed her into a taxi: We didn't really have any other choice. All of the way in the taxi I kept saying to Jemma, she's going to kidnap us, lets get out now, she's taking us down a dark alley to rob us with the taxi driver. Luckily however, this wasn't the case, and we pulled up at a lovely little cheap hotel smack bang in the middle of the town, surrounded by restaurants and shops. I couldn't believe our luck. We had a lovely private room with a bathroom, hot water, internet and sky TV. I sighed a huge sigh of relief. The first thing that struck me about Peru was how friendly the people were. Not only was this woman extremely helpful, but so was the receptionist, the cleaner and everyone else we met. It was such a pleasant change from Bolivia where everybody was rude and treated us with suspicion.
We went to bed that night very happy: me with the internet, and Jemma watching Jamie Oliver and Nigella on the TV.
The next day we had a really long lie in and then wandered out into the town for breakfast and did some laundry. In the afternoon we decided to go to the dock and take a local boat to the floating islands rather than take a tour (on the advice of the cleaner). We were so glad we did. It was much cheaper and we ended up on a boat with a group of Peruvians who were on a big community trip together and were fascinated by us. They asked us all about the UK and expressed a wish to swap with us. They also asked about our husbands and couldnot believe how liberal they were letting us travel alone.
The Islands themselves were a big disappointment and were exactly as other tourists had told us they would be: like Disney Land. We pulled up at the Island to find a woman dressed in typical dress waving at us and welcoming us to her home. Then we got off our boat and were invited into a man's 'home'. 'Come into my home my friends'. It blatantly wasn't his home; it was just all set up for tourists, but as Jemma said, it was like a living museum. He told us about how they thatched their houses out of straw and how they caught fish out of the river for their meals. It was raining heavily and it was freezing cold so most of the Peruvians got back into the boat rather than wonder around this man's Island and look at his 'Mercedes Benz' (his boat made of reeds). It was all very fake but it was interesting to see as it is one of the top destinations in Bolivia and is famous worldwide (the world's highest and largest fresh water lake). The Peruvian tourists all wanted their picture taken with us. I guess we were more of a novelty than the Islands to them.
That night we went to the bus station to buy our tickets to Cusco and then we went to a KFC type place next door to our hotel for tea. We tried Inca kola for the first time: It tasted like Iron bru. When we got back to the hotel, we told the man at the reception we would be leaving early the next morning and would need our laundry before we left. We were pleasantly surprised when he turned up at our door and hour later with it all folded and vacuum packed. We spent the rest of the evening watching food programmes on TV, including one where a man goes on a tour of America eating all of the fast food challenges that most people can't eat. We also watched one about a cake makers in the USA where they build custom cakes, a bit like chocywoccydooda - it reminded me of Ross.
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