Wednesday morning brought an unsuccessful search for a cashpoint in dollars, and then a hotel pick-up for our first Bolivia Hop! This is a hop-on hop-off bus service that we are using to get from Puno to La Paz. The double decker bus that we were taken to looked huge and rather out of place on the streets of Puno, next to the tiny local collectivo equivalents. In comparison it was luxurious inside, with wide reclining seats and personal space to boot.
The journey to the boarder was just over two hours of hill and lakeside views - very pleasant once the driver had managed to switch on the fans. It was a clear and bright morning, meaning Peru was shown off in its best light. Sitting on the top of the bus provided a great vantage point, in particular for getting a look at the local buildings. Most are concrete framed, with copious amounts of rebar left sticking out of the top - presumably for the ease of adding storeys in the future. In the meantime, I have observed numerous uses for this, including as a parapet, washing line support, TV areal support, electricity power cable attachment and even a climbing plant support. More generally, I have seen rebar (particularly lattice girders) used as trellises, gutter supports and even as roof trusses!
Once we arrived at the border we were told to take all our belongings from the comfy bus and go to immigration for our exit stamp. This process was repeated once we had walked through the boarder to the Bolivian side where we got our entrance stamp. The Hop bus that was waiting for us on the Bolivian side was distinctly different - no luxurious reclining seats here! However, it was a short half hour journey (I had miscalculated as I had forgotten about the hour time difference so was pleased to suddenly drop an hour of the journey) to Copacabana.
Copacabana itself is a small beach town, which we spent all of ten minutes in before boarding the public boat to the Isla del Sol. Once again I decided to sit on the roof of the boat in order to get the best views. We were joined by about ten others, and three bike boxes (interesting, for an island with no roads...). I had underestimated the journey, and a scenic two hours later my sit bones were very relieved to reach the port of Yumani, to the south of the island. Yumani is a bustling place, with many people offers of guides or rooms as soon as we set foot from the boat. Luckily we had rooms booked for both nights, so we climbed up a very steep section (hard work with our big bags!) to our second night hostel to leave our bags. An awkward Spanish conversation later (my Spanish leaves a lot to be desired!) and we had left our bags and set off for the north of the island.
The maps of the island show two clear routes from north to south - one on the north-east coast and one on the ridge. We had arrived at 15:30 and needed to get to the north before dusk so I chose the easier coastal route, in order to save the ridge for the full day tomorrow. Frustratingly, the maps were very basic and sign posts non-existent, so before long I realised we were not where I thought we should be. However, we were going in the right direction and the scenery was simply stunning - terraced farms with a very blue lake backdrop - so I followed my sense of direction through a couple of settlements until we rejoined the "main" path.
Unfortunately Peter wasn't enjoying it as much as me - he had awoken feeling slightly under the weather and a five mile hike did nothing to improve the situation. Given the navigational challenges we were therefore very pleased to find our hostel, and be shown to a simple but homely double-aspect room, with incredible views directly onto the beach.
I'd spotted an empanado vendor close to the hostel, so popped out for a very tasty cheese, tomato and herb flavoured dinner. When I returned I found the local police knocking on the door and demanding to see passports. Reluctant to hand these over as I had no idea why they wanted them, we showed then photocopies and I managed to cobble together enough Spanish to tell them that our actual passports were in our big bags elsewhere. This ordeal over, it was time to watch the sunset over the beach, and head to bed.
The journey to the boarder was just over two hours of hill and lakeside views - very pleasant once the driver had managed to switch on the fans. It was a clear and bright morning, meaning Peru was shown off in its best light. Sitting on the top of the bus provided a great vantage point, in particular for getting a look at the local buildings. Most are concrete framed, with copious amounts of rebar left sticking out of the top - presumably for the ease of adding storeys in the future. In the meantime, I have observed numerous uses for this, including as a parapet, washing line support, TV areal support, electricity power cable attachment and even a climbing plant support. More generally, I have seen rebar (particularly lattice girders) used as trellises, gutter supports and even as roof trusses!
Once we arrived at the border we were told to take all our belongings from the comfy bus and go to immigration for our exit stamp. This process was repeated once we had walked through the boarder to the Bolivian side where we got our entrance stamp. The Hop bus that was waiting for us on the Bolivian side was distinctly different - no luxurious reclining seats here! However, it was a short half hour journey (I had miscalculated as I had forgotten about the hour time difference so was pleased to suddenly drop an hour of the journey) to Copacabana.
Copacabana itself is a small beach town, which we spent all of ten minutes in before boarding the public boat to the Isla del Sol. Once again I decided to sit on the roof of the boat in order to get the best views. We were joined by about ten others, and three bike boxes (interesting, for an island with no roads...). I had underestimated the journey, and a scenic two hours later my sit bones were very relieved to reach the port of Yumani, to the south of the island. Yumani is a bustling place, with many people offers of guides or rooms as soon as we set foot from the boat. Luckily we had rooms booked for both nights, so we climbed up a very steep section (hard work with our big bags!) to our second night hostel to leave our bags. An awkward Spanish conversation later (my Spanish leaves a lot to be desired!) and we had left our bags and set off for the north of the island.
The maps of the island show two clear routes from north to south - one on the north-east coast and one on the ridge. We had arrived at 15:30 and needed to get to the north before dusk so I chose the easier coastal route, in order to save the ridge for the full day tomorrow. Frustratingly, the maps were very basic and sign posts non-existent, so before long I realised we were not where I thought we should be. However, we were going in the right direction and the scenery was simply stunning - terraced farms with a very blue lake backdrop - so I followed my sense of direction through a couple of settlements until we rejoined the "main" path.
Unfortunately Peter wasn't enjoying it as much as me - he had awoken feeling slightly under the weather and a five mile hike did nothing to improve the situation. Given the navigational challenges we were therefore very pleased to find our hostel, and be shown to a simple but homely double-aspect room, with incredible views directly onto the beach.
I'd spotted an empanado vendor close to the hostel, so popped out for a very tasty cheese, tomato and herb flavoured dinner. When I returned I found the local police knocking on the door and demanding to see passports. Reluctant to hand these over as I had no idea why they wanted them, we showed then photocopies and I managed to cobble together enough Spanish to tell them that our actual passports were in our big bags elsewhere. This ordeal over, it was time to watch the sunset over the beach, and head to bed.
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