After a week or so of partying in Cusco, we decided it would be a good idea to detox in Arequipa. Lots of people had recommended Arequipa so we were looking forward to getting to the Spanish colonial city that’s surrounded by volcanos. The city did not disappoint! We stayed at Arequipay Backpackers Downtown, which is in a big old house with a sunny garden and awesome bug-eyed boxer called Molly.
We didn’t achieve too much in Arequipa (as said, a detox of sorts) but many people use it as a base to explore the Colca Canyon. We chose to spend our brief couple of days wandering the cobbled stoned streets, shopping for fresh produce at Mercado San Camilo and enjoying pisco sours while the sun sets at Restaurant on the Roof.
Our plan was to start travelling towards Bolivia with a stopover at Lake Titicaca. We had heard that you could travel from Arequipa to Copacabana on the Bolivian side in a day with a 2 hour stopover at the floating villages provided you leave on the first buses at 7am. Pisco sour hangovers, however, meant a delayed start to our morning so we finally headed off to Puno at midday on a rickety old bus and seated next to a chicken. I drifted off for a few minutes during the 6 hour bus ride and when I awoke it was snowing! It’s pretty unusual to get snow at this time of year, even at high altitude, and I was a bit concerned about whether our bus would make it. Fortunately it did and we pulled into Puno around 6pm in the evening.
Now Puno really isn’t the nicest of destinations. In fact, one would go so far to say it is a shithole. We spent an average night in a very cold hostel before taking a tour of the floating villages the following morning. We managed to join a tour at the wharf for 20 pesos, but for this price you get a Spanish speaking guide so we spent the next few hours not understanding much. The tour of the floating villages wasn’t that great – extremely cold, not particularly exciting, and what we did experience felt exploitive of the people who live there. We even gatecrashed a wedding! The poor bride looked more than annoyed with the groups of tourists being brought in to snap photos of the big day – I would be pissed too.
Feeling cold and fed up, we decided to make the 6 hour journey to La Paz in Bolivia. This meant a long day of travel but it was worth it to get to our next destination in one go. I’ve heard good things about visiting Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca from the Bolivian side, so in hindsight we should have made the effort to travel to Copacabana. But at the least the real party can begin now that we have reached La Paz!
Chasing the Cheese 