The Uros
Hey Guys,
Hope the Xmas shopping is going well. We haven´t started ours so far...
Anyway, we said farewell to Bolivia. After 4 hours on the bus, we left Copa and reached Puno at 11:00am. We got lucky enough to find a woman offering us a nice place to stay. Never follow a stranger in the night. But she turned out to be a good person leading us to a brand new hotel giving their rooms away at a very cheap price compared to the quality of the place. We just felt so rich. They even had free coffee and tea at the reception. Even got the cable tv and towels! You may not understand our excitement but that´s a real treat for a backpacker.
We chose to come to Puno because it is a nice stop-over between Copa and Cuzco. Furthermore you can visit some flotting islands inhabited by people called the Uros. There are about 2000 of them living on 24 islands. We had seen some postcards from Bolivia picturing very dark skin people looking almost like Africans and we thought that they couldn´t be Bolivians. And then, we got to know about the Uros whose skin is very dark because of their living conditions.
We just had the choice of a two-hour tour on two islands in the afternoon and it was so great. The islands are made of reeds so as their houses and boats. Inhabitants even eat the reeds. It was full of kids everywhere standing for pics and asking for sweets. The atmosphere seemed unreal when returning to Puno on the boat and watching the islands disappearing behind the 
reeds. Just a different world.
Had an early start on Tuesday morning with David going to the loo every ten seconds. We both had the same food and nothing happened to me... I just touch wood, that´s my secret. We decided to go for the supposedly six-hour ride to Cuzco. Immodium Plus solved it all. Unfortunately Peruvians have some French blood and we were stuck in the mountains by strikers blocking the roads. So our driver decided to go for some rocky paths for David´s immense pleasure. Anyway after 8 hours, we eventually reached the touristy city of Cuzco. Peru is so different from Bolivia. I feel like being in India again with locals trying to sell you all sorts of goods. It is just so annoying to be harrassed at every step you make. They´d sell you anything from shoe-shinner to finger-puppets.
Again we followed someone to a hostel which proved to be very crap and cold. But we stayed there for the night.
20/12/06 Had a long night under layers and layers of duvets listening to the rain lashing against the windows. I couldn´t stand staying in this room for more than a night and as soon as we got up, we went 
checking out prices in nearby hostels. We finally got a cheap room in a two-star hotel in the city-centre. And we also found an agency through which we booked the Inca Trail. We will be doing it from Saturday to Tuesday. So on Xmas day, we should be somewhere between Cuzco and the Machu Picchu.
Spent the day visiting Cuzco with some of its museums and churches. Even listened to a wee concert in the cathedral. Cuzco is an amazing city so full of the Inca culture. History is just everywhere.
Tomorrow we will visit the Sacred Valley and see some of the Inca ruins. Bye for now!