PUNO: better than we expected, Part 2

After we left Amantaní Island, we had a nauseating boat ride to the island of Taquile. It was horribly choppy and I definitely thought I was going to be sick for most of it. Thankfully, it was only an hour, so Leah and I hopped off as quickly as possible and slowly walked the 2km journey to the center of town while trying to regain our equilibrium. We are pleased to say that we were totally the strangely attractive tour guide`s favorites because we were the only ones who didn`t complain about the walking or altitude.

Once we got to town we had some coca tea and listened to the history of the island. The most interesting part had to do with the hats the men wore and the shawls the women wore. A man was known to be single or married depending on the color of his hat and the angle it was placed at, while the woman showed this by the size of the colorful balls on their shawls.

After this informative talk, we enjoyed lunch with some Israelies who talked politics with Phil and food and travel with us. They did not understand my desire for Dr. Pepper, but definitely enjoyed our stories of the jungle and Inca Trail. Afterwords, we walked across the island and headed back into Puno.

Luckily for us, Puno was celebrating some festival that went on for days and included a never ending parade of colorful dancers. As soon as we got back we went to the square and sat on the curb, watching the show. At one point we nearly got trampled by horses, but other then that, it was a great experience.

After we got sick of the parades, Phil and I went on a quest to find a place showing the superbowl and Leah went to do some internet stuff. Phil and I found this crazy chicken place that had cable, so we ordered some roasted chicken with fries and sat down to enjoy the game. Tragically, ESPN Latino froze after the first quarter, so 30 minutes later we left the chicken place defeated and returned to the hostel.

We played gin for a while until the man working at the hostel asked to join in. We started playing Gulpes, which is similar to Gin Rummy, which I am terrible at. He had his friend bring some beer and we played this game until Leah got back. I was losing by about 200 pts and the hostel guy harassed me the entire time, telling me to stay postive and that in Puno they believe in being optimistic. He was pretty obnoxious. After a while, I just gave up and went to bed, it was just way too embarassing to continue. Besides, we had to get up early the next day to get our stuff in order, because we were moving on to BOLIVIA!