Friday 20th May - Wednesday

Friday 20th May
Caught the night bus to Puno ready for our trip to Lake Titicaca!

Saturday 21st May
Friday morning we were met at the bus station by Fernando who was supposed to be giving us our return tickets back to Cusco for Sunday night. He didn´t have our bus tickets but tried to sell us a tour of the lake and set us up with a hostal for the night. We agreed to the hostal and he said he would give us our return tickets when he picked us up later to take us on our tour.
In the taxi we decided he was totally ripping us off so rang him when we arrived at the hostal and told him we didnt want it. He said he would drop our tickets off at some point that night.

We walked down to the pier and got a boat which took us to the floating island of Uros. It was really wierd, like walking on a big soft hay bale, its made of read like thing that are woven and layered on top of eachother. Its anchored down so they dont float all the way to shore. Families live on all the different islands, and we had a little talk then got to try on the traditional dress!
We then got back on the boat and travelled to Taquille, a non floating island. It was quite a long journey and we were so tired after our night bus so kept falling asleep. We looked round the island which was really pretty and had an amazing view of the lake, there was a place with loads of woven things, Heather was going to buy a wall hanging, which turned out to be a mans belt.
After a couple of hours we got the boat back again. We were sat on the top deck enjoying the sun when we saw some dark clouds approaching. We decided we would sit it out, and that because we´re english we can face any storm out here. We layered up and put on our waterproofs...it was absolutely freezing! One of the guys on the boat came and told us to go inside and we gave up pretty quickly. There was hardly any space, Me and Laura had to sit on the floor between everyones feet. The boat was rocking from side to side and because we were on the floor we couldnt see out the windows which probably made it worse. Thankfully none of us got sea sick, but were all trying desperately to stay awake.

We got back to the hostal and there were no return tickets from Fernando, the woman who owned the hostal rang him for us on the hostal phone and Domenica spoke to him. He said, "im very busy, i´ll drop them round later, umm 6,7,8" We went out for dinner, came back and still no tickets. The woman at the hostal said Fernando is a good man, and she will go with us tomorrow morning to meet him, but we had to go early for the bus to Copacabana, and did not trust that he woudl be there. We decided to go to the bus station to try an get the tickets ourselves, she said he would be there because work takes him away in the evenings a lot but we thought we could find the company counter and go through them.
When we got there though, we managed to track him down. He was not happy to see us. He was trying to send us away, saying he was busy, but we followed him. He finally agreed to get the tickets, but he told us to sit down and started to wander off, we diodnt trust him at all and Domenica was like "it´s alright thanks, we´ll just come with you!" He kept shouting at her "por favor, sit down!" but she kept following, finally he turned around and shouted " I will go home!"... Domenica was like..."but, what about our tickets"...
Eventually we got them and went back to the hostal, we were so tired we just collapsed into bed.

Sunday 23rd May
Got the bus to Copacabana and had to go through border control which was very exciting. We had been warned that the guards can be really horrible and take your money and things, so we all went along with our money hidden in our bras...they were really friendly!
Got a hostal for the night for 25 bolivianos (about two pounds fifty,) then caught a boat from the pier to Isla Del Sol. We got a tour round the island and got to see the temple of the sun, where inka sacrifices used to take place, and they use it still and sacrafice llamas.
We had Perejey, or king fish, for dinner which is a dish Copacabana is known for with fish from the lake...it was alright but pretty bony.
We went to collect our rucksacks from the hostal and the woman wasnt there,we started to panic because we were due to catch the bus home, even Heather was on her knees trying to pick the lock! with about 10 minutes she finally turned up and let us in.

Monday 24th May
Had a lazy day in Cusco and went out for a posh meal for Heather´s leaving do.

Tuesday 25th May
Said goodbye to Heather this morning who has gone off into the amazon! It´s really wierd now there´s only 3 of us.
Went to the kindergarten where they were having a fiesta! We all had cake and danced around a lot. The kids looked so cute because they´d all been sent in in their smart suits and dresses!
Had a spanish lesson in the afternoon and wrote down what felt like hundreds and hundreds of regular verbs.
Had salsa again tonight which was really fun!

Wednesday 26th May
Just Laura and I at kindergarten today because Domenica was ill. Was a horrible cloudy day, we had no energy and it was hard work with just the two of us. Got to finish off the tiger masks with all the kids though which looked great. Turned out the year 3s didn´t like wearing them, but the year 4s loved them!