On the road again...

The next morning it was raining - again. Welcome to the rainy season.
We wanted to catch the early boat out but we were loathe to get out of our beds - it was cold and wet out there.

We did finally manage to get up and out and caught the 9:00 boat out. On board I met Philip, who lives in Sydney but is a native of Bolivia. As we were approaching Copacabana he pointed to some buildings a little farther down the coast line. "That´s Peru" he said. Really?? Who knew we were that close?!

By the time we reached shore the sun had come out again and Encarna and I were famished (no dinner, no brekkie yet). We sat in an outside patio and relished our breakfast in the sun (with sunscreen on).

While we were on the boat, Philip had suggested that I try the special popped corn that was sold in the streets. He said it was a great snack for the bus...I was going on a bus....Sooooo, I bought a 10 Boliviano bag of the stuff (just over $1) - this was the smallest bag available and it was massive! YUM! Lightly sweetened with honey, they´re like popcorn meets Sugar Crisp cereal, but not at sweet. It was really hard to stop munching on them.

Welcome to Peru

We caught the bus at 1:30 and 20 minutes later we were crossing the boarder into Peru - no muss, no fuss. Although I don´t know why you have to cross the border on foot. One couple told me their bus had left them at 10pm at the border between Peru and Ecuador...scary!

When we reached Puno, and checked into out hotel, which was a lot fancier than we were used to, we each enjoyed a hot hot shower and at the same time did some laundry.

There´s something to be said about a hot shower. We tend to take them for granted when we are at home - but when you´ve been marinating in your own sweat for a few days, because it´s not yet bad enough for you to suffer a cold shower...well, there´s nothing that beats a hot one...not even a nice bed, although that´s a really close second. So, please, next time you get in your shower, enjoy it. Relish it. It´s a wonderful place to be!

We had some dinner after our luxurious showers and then did a circuit to scope out the area around the centre of town. There´s a pedestrian street just off the Placa de Armas and we heard music coming from the far end. When we arrived there, we found a band and dancing Cholitas everywhere! They started to parade down the pedestrian street and when we tried to pass them we had great difficulty - especially past the drummers who wielded their drumsticks with much vigour!

A note on Cholitas: Cholitas are the traditionally dressed ladies that one sees mainly in Bolivia, although I did see them in Peru as well.