No Fixed Plans

We started the day early with a 7 hour public day bus to Puno. 

Upon arriving, we grabbed our bags from the bus and went over to the cars. 4 ended up in one while the other 14 of us ended up in a van. The 4 who chose to go in the car ended up having the smarter idea as the 14 person van ended driving into a wall and, making oil leak everywhere and leaving half the bumper next the road. Despite the fact none of us were wearing seatbelts, surprisingly none of us were injured. All of us were in shocked silence for about 30 seconds, which is something our driver didn’t struggle with as he just kept driving. Luckily after the shock wore off one of the guys noticed the oil and started telling the driver to stop, however this took a few tries for the driver to actually listen.

We all got out, took our bags (luckily for me and one of the other guys, our bags ended up in the other car) and walked 5 minutes to the hotel. The driver didn’t say a word during that whole encounter. 

Our ceo was extremely apologetic, even after we all told him we didn’t blame him and it wasn’t his fault. He ended up telling us the driver got drug and alcohol tested and that the alcohol was clean. We never heard about the drug so we assumed that was clean too. 

We settled into our hotel rooms and went on a short orientation walk and then went to a restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. All of us decided to order a lot as it was 4:30pm, we had to be up early the next morning and given we were a group of 19 and everything in South America takes a long time as it is, we knew we wouldn’t be eating until 5:15 anyway and wouldn’t be hungry later. 

After the dinner we all went to a supermarket and then headed back to the hotel, where I called my aunt for her birthday before heading to bed. 

The next morning we headed off to lake titicaca. A guide met us at the hotel and took us to these cyclists with seats attached that reminded us all of Mario cart to take us down to the marina where we could buy gifts for the family’s we’d be staying with that night (we were told it was expected) before heading onto the boat. Our first stop was at an Uros floating island, which is an island made from Totora reeds which they pull from the ocean. They explained to us how they expand the island and why some parts feel bouncy while others don’t (the bouncy bits are the man made bits). They also allowed us to step inside the homes. We then all did a boat tour around the ocean where we got shown where the reeds are as well as the fruit that we saw the kids eating was. They explained that because they only travel to mainland on Sundays, the kids only get fresh fruit on Mondays and Tuesdays while the rest of the week they got those plants. 

We then went back to the island and got back onto our boat to continue to Taquile island. We had a steep hike up to the top of the mountain where we saw locals perform a dance (some of the group were invited to get up and join after) before we walked up a little further to were we would be eating lunch. 

We had the choice between fish and an omelette (both for 45 soles) and majority of us chose the fish. We also had soup and bread included with both options. 

We were initially told that we’d only be able to watch the first half of the World Cup match but given that there was 10 of us really interested in watching it, our guide and ceo were both interested, and we had stolen two peoples phone’s who had wifi to watch it, they let us stay and watch until the end. Personally, I think the ceo was more inclined to let us stay in hopes that England would loose and he could see the reaction of one of the guys (spoilers, that was reaction was him loudly running around the table, scream chanting “Lizzie’s in a box, in a box, Lizzie’s in a box). 

After arriving at the home stay island, we walked up to the school and the families were there, ready to dress us up in traditional clothes. They then performed a dance, which we later had to do (one of the women was laughing at how bad I was). 

We then went back to their homes, got shown were our rooms were and then had about 15 minutes until we were due in the kitchen for dinner. I was in home with two of the other girls where we had befriended their 4 month old kitten, who loved that we all wanted to pat her. 

When we went into the kitchen, we asked them about the kitten and what happened to its mother and they told us (with smiles on their faces) that the mother was a barn cat and had chocked to death on a mouse. We moved on to dinner, where their 7 year old daughter was making us laugh for most of it. 

After dinner, we helped the wife with the dishes and then went to bed, ready for our 6am wake up. 

We were due in the kitchen to help with the bread making at 7am. I had left the room at 6:45am where their kitten had run up to me and started crying for me to pick her up, so I did (and held her until we went into the kitchen). We helped them make their local fried bread (apparently not one of my strong suits, I spent 15 minutes with one piece and it was very broken) and then had it for breakfast along with a hard boiled egg. 

We offered to help clean up but the wife said the water was too cold so it would be done later and gave us 10 minutes before we were due to start helping (we were expected to help them all day until we were due back at the marina at 1pm). When I came out, the cat had found me again and I was holding it until I was told what we were helping with. Turns out, they and they’re neighbours owned a bunch of sheep so the three of us plus the two that were staying next door were told to help the husband of our house heard all of the sheep and bring them on a 20 minute walk to a field, where they get tied and left during the day. Only 2 of the sheep and their lambs were left when we came back. We then had another 10 or so minutes before we went into the neighbours garden and helped to peel the corn (of course, the kitten finding me again before we had to go). We did that for about an hour and a half before they told us it was enough and gave us a free two hours to do whatever we wanted. 

The three of us sat in the field near the sheep, talking and going on our phones, surprised that they had no more work for us to do. The cat ended up joining us for a while, but was put off when one of the lambs walked over to us (we think it was scared of the lamb), however the cat was pretty happy when it’s mum kept yelling at the lamb to get away from us. 

Once it hit 12pm, we wondered back into the kitchen of our home where we realised it was only the wife left and we ate lunch with her. Afterwards, she pulled out a pouch thing, which is when we learned that she normally weaves during the day and would sell them. We each decided to buy something off her, and then walked down to the marina to meet the rest of our group (they were also shocked to learn that from 10:30am onwards we were expected to do anything).

We all thanked them and then headed back onto the boat to go back to Puno.

When we arrived there, it was a similar car situation where there was 5 of us in one car and the remaining 13 in a van. The 5 of us in the car had all been in the accident the day prior, and two of the guys were saying they were hoping we got into another accident so that we’d hopefully get vouchers from G, much to one of the girl’s dismay. 

Unfortunately for them, we all arrived to the hotel safely. 

Upon arriving back, about 8 of us went for crepes as an afternoon snack (it was about 4pm) and then we all went our separate ways for dinner as again, we had to meet early the next day for our day bus to La Paz.