Bolivia.. what a party

OK... I am still alive after the little side trip to Copacabana, Bolivia and I am currently in Arequipa. Plans have changed again... we are going to take a night bus to lima on friday night and arrive there on saturday morning, which then leaves us a day to sight see in the city. I really didnt want to head back to Cusco because we have spend a large portion of our time there already... so i convinced Trev and Dave to come with me to lima. The bus rides are about the same lenght so it makes no sense to revisit cusco... although now we cant get another inca massage, but I did find a massage place down the street from our new hostel so maybe get one there instead.

Any how... Bolivia was a blast....

We were paniking on the morning we were heading to Copacabana because we only had our record of payment but no bus tickets. The bus was set to leave at 730am and it was 710 before we found the lady that sold us the tickets. As it turned out, the record of payment was all we needed. The tour lady was awesome and payed for our taxi ride to the inner city bus pick up location. it was sweet because by not going to the bus stationing directly we don´t have to pay the traveling tax... ya saving money.

The ride to the border was uneventful... although i did meet an older guy biking around peru (he also buses occationally)... his trip sounded like fun.

I can say that I have walked to and from Bolivia because we have to all get off the bus... exit peru, walk across the border line and then do the custom thing in bolivia. Copacabana is only 20 mins from the border and it is a very touristy town... i liked it.

The day we arrived, we booked at tour to the Island of the sun and a bus back to puno. After shopping (yes, I have bought a couple presents) for a couple hours... we all needed a little dessert. we found this cute little restuarant on the tourist street where we munched on chocolate cake and coke while playing Spanish Clue. Trev kicked ass... he cheated thou. This was a relaxing day. In was sunday so we decided that we needed to attend church (it was trevs idea). The central church was impressive and grand, the only downfall was that the church service was in spanish so it was a litte hard to follow, but even so I enjoyed the experience. It was the first time I have been to a service in 13 years. Dave had never been to church before and trev... well he is an alter boy back home.

We have started buying breakfast foods for the days that we are on tours because we keep picking hostels that dont serve us breakfast. In Copacabana, the town has to majo0r streets, one is very touristy and the other is a local street. The local street has a massive supermarket thing that is made up of various little stalls not one big store. It is like the one in Puno. We have left over cheese.. but we bought sliced meat and more bread. We have officially given up on jam and butter... it is too messy. So we have made breakfast on a train, 2 buses and a boat.

Just for Gordon we had good old fashion traditional food for dinner... yummy....

Any how we went to bed pretty early because we had to be at the dock at 8 to get to the Island of the sun. It was an amazing trip, because the Bolivia side of lake titicaca is not over polluted. The water is crystal clear and very very blue. It the water wasnt about -15 degree i would have gone swimming. I loved the day trip and I have about 40 pictures of the lake... man... oh man... i missed water... i am glad i am moving to bc for the summer. On the Island of the Sun we got a guided tour.. but he only spoken spanish so I didnt really take much out of it. I enjoyed the view instead. After visiting a museum, and 2 sets of runes, we set out on the 8km hike to the south end of the island. It was alot of uphill... even thou i just completed an 8 day trekk with lots of up... i still find myself out of breathe.

The little hike was suppost to take up 2.5 -3 hours... we did it in under 2hours. That left us time to go restuarant hunting. And I mean huntting. We arrived in the south side of the island at 2pm, which coinsides with nap time... we tryed 2 restuarant that turned out to be a good 5 min walk down a grassy path... it took us about 30 mins to find an open restuarant willing to serve us hungry tourists. And the only place we could find... only had sandwiches. I was disappointed... i wanted pizza. But then the ppl beside up recieved pasta... ohhhh ... so we convinced the 13 year old waitress that we really wanted pasta... it took a lot of convincing to get her to change our order.... and we shared 2 liters of coke. I think i have had more coke in the last 2 days then I have in the last year. The view from the restuarant was awesome as well because there was a well kept church and then more sparkling water below. Its funny we have all become additicted to playing cards. Before and after lunch we played war and asshole, on the boat ride we played as well. I love it.

We almost missed the boat ride home and I had a hard time finding the ticket for the ride back... I am not allowed to hold on to anything important anymore... hehhe ... So i have lost my passport once and almost lost lots of other belongings. The boat ride home was good... we met a women from scotland, a women from england and a younger guy from Switzerland. The Younger guy was fun to talk to... this trip for him has been an excuse to party and drinking so the stories we shared with me were very entertaining to say the least. He was been traveling on his own from 3 months and has 2 more to go and I recieved a few good tips from him when travelling alone.

Once back to town, we proceeded to climb up the hill adjacent to the main plaza. the climb was disturbing because there was garbag and writing everywhere. It was grost... but we wanted to see the sunset from the top so i climbed on. Dave and trev walk way to fast uphills but that was ok because allowed be to walk slowly by myself and to take lots of photos with out slowing them down. I have pretty pics to add later.

For dinner we all tryed a street vendor... it turned out to be one of the best and cheapest meals of the trip. I am going to have to try a first more vendors while traveling in the future. When we were walking throu town earlier we found this bar with a sign that said Drink Beer, save water. I had to go in there... so we had pina coladas in copacabana. This pub was a sketchy bar... we were the only ones in there and the walls were covered in graffiti. It was a bar that probably would allow drug to be smoked in it... but we had a good time just drinking there. After 3 drinks there we left to find so where more populated.

At the next bar... we played pool... i met an english guy, a guy from calgary and a guy from so where else. It was a good night until me and dave started doing double shots of tequila... it all gets hazy after that. But the boys made sure that i got home safely.

I was definity a little hungover the next morning. I slept in while.. the boys went shopping and the cold shower helped sober me up. I was sort of still drunk when i woke up. Lunch/brekfast was a traditional el menu (set meal). Soup, then trout with rice and fries followed by coffee. Lunch lasted too long, meals here always do thou. We were supposed to be at the bus at 1... and we were still at lunch then... but as it turns out the bus didnt actually leave until 130 so that left more shopping time. I have finished my shopping for family and friends so it was time to shop for me... i bought the coolest ring and necklace from street vendors... i cant wait to show them off.

Things seem to work out for us because the minute we arrived back in Puno we were able to get on a bus to Arequipa. Although we havent prefected paying for things... at the bus station u have to pay a departure tax and I only paid for 2 taxes and there was three of us traveling.. the offical checking tickets wanted us to go back and get another one... instead trev bribe the guy by paying him the sol... instead of going back inside... we bribed our first offical. After ways we got on the 330 bus to arequipa and arrived in the city at 930ish.

Stupid taxi drivers... our driver tryed to tell us that the hostel we wanted was fully... i am glad that dave speaks fluent spanish because we assure the driver that we would find our own hostel. The one we wanted did have 3 beds open. It was a sweet ass room.. the nicest yet. It had its one bathroom and tv, plus i got the top bunk bed. We were all in bad moods were we arrived because we didnt have time to buy food in puno... no one had eaten in 9 hours, but after a yummy meal of pasta with pesto and other various foods all was well. We returned to the hostel at 12am and proceed to watch 2 movies. We havent watched any tv in 3 weeks so it was a treat to watch something, anything. It fell asleep during Blade 1....

The next day, the only day we were spending in Arequipe wasnt spent the way I wanted to spend it because we didnt get up until 9ish... i made the mistake of turning the tv on... Ever after was on and it is my favourite movie so i made the boys watch it with me...hehhe that was mean of me... We didnt end up leaving the hostel until 11ish... breakfast at the central plaza took forever... dave and trev wanted to shop.. and I just wanted to do the tourist things... and they didnt want be to do the tourist thing by melf... which i understand... but i was still annoyed. When we finally started the tourist thing we got lost... it was fustrating.

We ended up finded the largest monestry in the area. It was expensive to get in but it took us over 2.5 hours to look through everything. There we couryards, nun and priest houses... 6 street full of houses, a restuarant... and lots of random corners. It wasnt like any other place we had been too. I liked it.

After that we headed back to the hostel to set up our trip to the canyon and book our tickets for the bus to lima. That could a long long time.

The musuem that I want to really hit contained a mummy that was discovered at the top of one of the located volcanos near arequipa. The museum was amazing. It started with a 20min video and finished with a 40m,in guided tour of the artifacts that we found with the mummy and the mummy its self. SOOOO cool.

We were planning on trying cuy (guinne pig) tonight for dinner... but the resturant recommended by the guide of the museum was closed for the day ... so we went across the street and had chinese food. Odd chinese food in Peru... but it was good... we chased the food down with Peruvian beer. That makes it all better eh.

I am going to say good night... and head to the casino to join dave and trev there. It was Trevors idea...

Later