Puno

Hola todos!

Last night we supped on lamb and alpaca, then this morning headed for the jetties and boarded a boat to the Uros´ floating islands. The islands are made of big banks of reeds, and they literally do float, it´s a sort of trippy feeling to be out there just bobbing around.

The second island we visited seemed entirely designed to trap tourists, but the first did give us a bit of a glimpse into the island life, and we rode a reed boat between the two, which was cool.

This afternoon we´ve mostly just been wandering Puno, getting a feel for Peru. We´re killing time now til we eat dinner, and then we´re boarding a night bus to Cusco. Peruvian drivers suffer from a lot of machismo of the passing on the right variety, so I have to admit I´m a wee bit nervous about the bus. It should be fine though, and next time I write we´ll be in Cusco.

Might be a bit less in touch then - we´ll do the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu first, then we´re doing our tour in the Manu rainforest. We´ll head to Lima through Arequipa (which is actually about halfway between here and Cusco, but breaks up the bus journey to Cusco so it´s two 10-hour stretches rather than one 24 hour one.)

Seems like we left Bolivia just in time - a general strike seems to have crippled transportation and the like there today.

I think I am about done with this cafe, which is a bit full with underwashed web game types...