Puno...

                  Originally, I wasn’t sure about Puno. Was it a must see? I´d heard it was nothing special. But then I figured how many times will I be on Lake Titicaca? I may as well go see the floating houses.
                 Outside of really cheap market food and a nice kind of walking area, I really shouldn’t have gone to Puno. This is where my hard drive and camera were taken and this is where Aoife and I got put on the WRONG tour. They picked us up early and then told us to follow this man on to this boat. They didn´t even check our receipt. Seeing as how things like this are common in Peru and Bolivia, I was questioned it but then thought okay.
                  We were supposed to see three different types of floating islands. We saw one, where we learned some of the history, ate the root of the reeds, went on a reed boat and looked a local artisan crafts. Then we went to the island of Taquille to eat lunch. It was honestly a glorified boat ride. The island did provide some good cultural information about the groups of people who lived there and why they wore certain types of hats, but again not really what we were expecting. We later came back to the hostel to have a man from the tour come and tell us to pay for our lunch. In the tour we were supposed to be on, lunch was included. It was all so ridiculous and at this point I was more concerned about my hard drive than anything so we made a consensus that it wasn´t our problem and left.

Copacabana and Isla del Sol

             When Aoife and I decided to make our escape from La Paz, Copacabana was our destination. After taking a bus and a ferry to get there, we settled on a cheaper hostel (which in the end had some rooms that looked like murder scenes) and went to explore by the water. It was nice to be by the water again. Lake Titicaca is so vast that it looks like an ocean. It felt like being back on the Island as I soaked up the sunshine and watched the water.

 Pumped for what´s about to happen Zorbing!

               What made this even better though was the discovery that on Lake Titicaca they have zorbing balls. Zorbing balls! I have only ever heard of it being done in Germany, so when Aoife was keen to give it a go I was so in. I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard. If one person goes to move before the other, you´re falling and then toppling all over yourself just trying to stand back up. I lost the things in my purse so many times. You only go for 10 minutes but honestly 10 minutes is enough. Definitely a highlight in Copacabana.
          After that we went to a restaurant on the water for happy hour and dinner. After dinner, we went to use the bathroom above the restaurant. I went to take a picture of the view and my wallet fell out of my bag. I didn´t realize until we got back to the hostel and when we went back to the restaurant everything was closed and locked up. We banged on the door and shined our flashlights but no one answered. The area itself was kind of a little ally that shared its back with a hotel so we thought we´d go ask in there. The man at reception thought I lost my wallet in the bathroom and then after explaining took us out to the back where they hang the sheets and the wall is. While trying not to decapitate myself on clotheslines, I went closer to the wall. This led the man to think that we actually were trying to jump over the wall and break in and a bunch of yelling ensued. Not at all what was happening. Then we went back to the door and there was another man who had a key but he wouldn’t let us in because he didn’t know us, even after we explained all we wanted was to just look at the stairs. We gave up after that and went for drinks.
          The next day, when we went to the restaurant there was my wallet with all my cards (both debits, VISA, and Driver´s Liscence)! So lucky!! After that it was on to Isla del Sol. While everyone tells you to go to Isla del Sol, no one tells you how pretty it actually is.


 We got there around 3;30 in the afternoon and were welcomed by an Argentinean filled beach. This surprised me. I hadn´t expected beaches. We had decided to do the hike from North to South that day and set out for the ruins. By the ruins, there is another lovely beach that hardly anyone was at. If I were to go back in the non-rainy season this is definitely where I would choose to camp. The hike itself was very pretty. It gave views of the lakes and mountains and a thunder storm that kept threatening to take out the sun. However, we were lucky. We hit the south part of the island and found a hostel right as darkness was hitting. When we woke up the next day, it was pouring. So we waited it out rather than getting rained on and enjoyed ourselves for the sunny afternoon. When we got back to Copacabana, the power was out. This made for an interesting sing a long on the main road once it got dark out. It was really cool to be by the water and see all the stars and have a hippie group of Argentineans perform an impromptu concert