Back in Puno (Dec 5th)

I awoke quite early on the 5th of December and used the time to make a bunch of calls on Skype and to update this blog. I then had took advantage of the hotel, rather than hostel, free breakfast and gorged myself on eggs, yogurt, cereal, cheese, bread, tea and orange juice. Then I went back upstairs and packed while James ate his breakfast, having learned that I take a significantly longer time at this than he does despite the similar size of our rucksacks. We both elected to wait until moving to our new hotel to shower, not wanting to have another confrontation with our host.

After that, the day was spent running errands, most importantly preparing my papers for crossing into Bolivia. Because of the frosty relations between Bolivia and the U.S. and the consequent distrust of American citizens on the part of Bolivian authorities, I hadn't planned on going to Bolivia at all. But I felt more confident entering with an Englishman, so I changed my plans. Unfortunately, because of the aforementioned frostiness and the hefty fees we charge foreigners to enter our country, Bolivia charges American citizens $135 and requires quite a bit of paperwork, so the gathering of the latter took up a fair portion of the day.

We ended the day in another bar, drinking beer and mulled wine, eating, and dissecting the merits of the 80's and 90's music videos being played continuously in the background. We ended the night back at the hotel with James giving me a tutorial in Indy Rock I hadn't yet discovered. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep to the sound of Kate Walsh's voice.


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Location:Puno, Peru