The bus from Arequipa to Puno was incredible. Never in my life have I slept well on any form of transport, and on this bus I slept all the way from 10 minutes into the journey until we arrived in Puno.
We got attacked by about 7 dufferent people selling tickets to Copacabana as we walked unto the bus station. Un the end we bought them off a man who took our money and just gave us a bit of paper with our names and the bus detauls on which wasn't even the bus company he said he was from... which was all very suspicious. But fine in the end.
We watched the sunrise accross the lake eating avocado sandwiches, then hopped on a bus which took 3 hours to cross it through beautiful wetlands to Copacabana. Here we crossed the border back into my homeland, Bolivia.
Immigration gave me another 30 day visa which I'm pretty sure they are not allowed to do, but I didn't say anything...
After sitting on the pier enjoying the lake and getting snacks we took a boat to la isla del sol. On the boat we met some Valencians with their lovely spanish accents. Juan had brought his clarinet so we were blessed with beautiful music whilst we contemplated the lake whilst our hair blew in the breeze. It was that poetic. And the lake is blooming huge, could have been a sea! Have a look at it on google maps, Lake Titicaca, you will not be dissapointed.
Arrived on the island on the north side we walked the 3 hours down to the south, after being offered super cheap rooms by a lot of 10 year olds. The most beautiful views of the beaches, the lake, the Andes on the mainland... crossed a lot of sheep and donkeys as we walked through the villages. You have to pay for the entry to the island and all of the locals on the way checked our tickets and pointed us in the right direction.
Life there just is so peaceful and far away from everything. Lovely.
On the south side there are a lot more hostels and restaurants, we decided to splash out and stay in the best one in the village, which cost 4 pounds a night, got a nice cuppa coca tea which was well needed as that place is blooming freezing!!
We got asked what we wanted to eat by this elderly guy who insisted on translating everything into english after he had said it in spanish, and while we were eating the delicious trout he came and asked if everthing was ok... so we assumed that he owned the hostel... but then discovered that he was just a tour guide that always brought his people there and liked to think he owned the hostel. Funny funny man...
Somehow I woke up just in time to see the sunrise behind the mountains, indescribable!
We took the boat back in the morning with the same funny old man, and learnt a lot about the island's corns spuds and beans, medicinal plants and economy on the way down to the boat, then had another idyllic ride back to Bolivia!
From there we travelled back to La Paz where I parted with Beth, Sarah and Annabell, who were destined to Sucre and Uyuni in the south, and hopped on a bus to Cochabamba, my home town...
I planned to stay one night, but as it turned out there were blockades, because the miners and the teachers want 100% of their pensions and the way they go about this in Bolivia is by blocking the roads. It works pretty well. The current president actually started the tradition himself before he was in power, and now he is getting a taste of his own medicine.
What I really love about Bolivia is how essential refreshment is in all situations. All the policemen guarding the ministry of education shared a couple of bottles of coke, and there were so many cholitas selling snacks to everyone doing the blocking.
So, at first I was going to leave on Tuesday... then that turned into Thursday... then it was Saturday morning, but in the end it was Saturday evening.
I had such a lovely week, seeing all of my old friends, seeing my mum, going to all of my old favourite places and eating the very much missed Cochabambino food...
I also went back to +Proyecto Horizonte and helped with my kids for a couple of days. It was so good to see them all! They really have grown a lot in the month I have been gone, they talk a lot more, and their behaviour has improved significantly.
I also had the great honour of cleaning the toilets in the school with the other volunteers, as an experiment to see whether they were smelly just because they were dirty or if there was a problem with the plumbing. We had all been out for a boogie the night before so were all feeling a wee bit under the weather but it was really funny as we had the spirit of the team and had funky music on. Without the music it would have just not been the same.
And so on Saturday I finally left Cochabamba, for the last time this year I think, and headed back to La Paz to spend a couple more days there...
No comments:
Post a Comment