They also approach T junctions and crossroads beeping their horns as if it acts as a magical forcefield around their vehicles to protect them and their passengers.
We've grown accustomed to this alien concept over the last couple of months but were reminded on Tuesday morning at 6am when we realised the hostel room we'd checked into late the night before was overlooking a busy crossroads! As the urban frog chorus got louder and louder they were joined by the most annoying Cholita selling her wares on her market stall below our window. We couldn't understand what she was saying but she went on and on akin to a child asking their parents, "are we there yet?" for the entirety of a three hour car journey.
Safe to say, we didn't need our alarm clock to wake us and we arrived at the bus terminal ready for our pre booked trip to the Lake Titicaca floating islands just about on time (with a minor delay due to a temporarily lost ticket!).
We were driven to the port and got on to our second boat in 2 days. To our surprise, 5 minutes later, Lewis and Dylan, who we'd spent Christmas Day with, got on board! It was great to see them, especially as they'll be reading this blog later today and we'll probably be spending New Year with them in Cusco ;-)
This is our "Gangsta" pose (Dylan on the left, Lewis next to him)
Here's our "Hippy" pose (we don't know why either, Lewis just suggested our selfies should have a theme)!
200 years ago, a group of indigenous people left Puno, Peru as they were being harassed by the Incas.
They built a few large boats out of the plentiful reeds in Lake Titicaca, constructed small houses on the boats and anchored themselves in various areas of the lake, away from the Incas.
They soon realised that tiny houses on reed boats wasn't conducive to happy living (too small) so they started to cut blocks out of the roots of the growing reeds and wove colossal reed mats and laid them on top, creating floating islands. They traded woven goods, fish (caught from the lake) and other goods for large stakes and anchored each island deep into the bottom of the lake.
On their new floating islands they built houses and 200 years later their descendants are still living there, on 87 separate islands!
As we approached the first island we weren't really sure what to expect but we were welcomed by some of the 6 families that lived on the island and were given a history lesson and tour of the island.
Small versions of the root blocks which form the foundation of the islands
The reeds are first woven then laid on top in layers of about 1.5 metres and an extra layer is added to the whole island every 13 days as the bottom layer continually rots
Large wooden poles are then thrust through the reeds and anchored in the bottom of the lake
The houses were incredibly built and completely waterproof
The huts are very basic inside
Individual solar panels give the huts power!
Each hut has a communication tower to send messages between all the different islands
The view from a very rickety communication tower!
The locals waved us off and sung to us in 4 languages including English (Twinkle, twinkle little star). It felt a little touristy!
We jumped at the chance of this authentic opportunity and were loving it until we realised that we weren't being rowed but literally being pushed along by a fella in a modern (ish) boat with a 75cc motor!
The second island was much like the first except they had their own Trout farm! Saves time fishing I guess!!
When we returned to dry land we hailed a cab and headed to a restaurant recommended on Trip Advisor for lunch.
Puno had hundreds of tiny taxis, almost like motorised rickshaws, so we got ourselves a lift in one.
The driver dropped us off near the city square and we ate our first Peruvian meal.
After a quick catch up with family on FaceTime we made a quick dash to the bus station to get our bus to Cusco.
It turned out that we'd been misinformed
and our bus was departing at 4:30pm not 4pm so we had a while to kill at the station.
This little boy was bored too and played 'peepoe' with me for best part of the hour!
About 40 minutes late, our bus finally departed.
We'd heard that Peruvian buses weren't anywhere near as nice as the rest of South America and we can now concur.
The seats were all dirty, most had holes in and it looked like someone had eaten the arm rest on the one next to me!
There was way less leg room than any other bus we'd been on which, for a 7 hour ride, was bad news. As soon as the man in front of me reclined his shabby seat, I was forced into sitting like a frog for the duration of the journey; One knee in the aisle and the other incroaching in Lauren's minimal space.
Unfortunately for us, the journey wasn't to be 7 hours, it was 10 and goes into our top 3 worst bus journeys ever!
The woman directly behind me was on the phone when we got on the bus. Her phone continued ringing at least 20-30 times, mostly while everyone was trying to sleep, throughout the tedious journey.
Her loud voice was so frustrating but wasn't the only noisy thing to contend with.
There was a Chinese guy on my right who'd drawn the short straw and was sitting in the chewed seat. It turns out his Father was Darth Vader and his mother was an asthmatic walrus. As the phone lady finished a call, Chinese Walrus-Vader would start snoring as if his life depended on it. The only thing that stopped him was when the lady's phone rang again.
Safe to say we arrived in Cusco completely shattered at 2am instead of 11pm and a taxi took us to our hard to find hotel deep in the hills of San Blas, Cusco.
We hit the sack ready for a completely different New Year's Eve in one of South America's craziest party cities!
