Day 8 - Puno

On sunday morning, we boarded yet another bus which took us from Arequipa to Puno. The ride was 6 hours but we got to watch a few movies which helped pass the time and created some trip inside jokes. The middle movie, Fireproof was a really horrible church movie about saving a marriage and finding jesus. Our friend's commentary helped get us through the cheesiness of the film. Though we can't deny that we were relieved when the next film was Beverly Hills Chiuahua... who could resist taking dogs?
We got to Puno at around 3, checked into our hotel and then we had a late lunch, which was more of a linner. Our guide said that it is not good to eat big meals before bed when at high altitude, so that worked out fine. Puno is at a higher altitude than Arequipa, at close to 4000 metres above sea level. We went to the bank to exchange more dollars into soles (dollars are really useless here despite what we were told predeparture). It is really interesting because the money exchange people won't accept any american bills that are written on or even have the slightest tear. Next, we went to do a bit of shopping. We each bought a sweater and a warm hat, both items which will be very useful for the rest of the trip...obviously our purchases matched, and once again we were dressed identically to the enjoyment of our trip mates. The ladies here are difficult to bargain with. Emily came up with a good method though: bring the price as low as they will go, and then hand them a few soles less, usually they take it. We also went to the grocery store on Sunday night to buy food for our island home stay families for the following night! We were told to buy basic non perishables, and so we bought sugar, flour, jam, pasta, tuna, rice, jam, etc. We also threw in a few canadian souvenirs.