Enough with the tours already
Lake Titicaca. The standard island tour takes you to the famous floating reed islands followed by an overnight stay on Amanti island with a local family where they dress you up in local garb and force you to folkdance with them to awful music at 13500' until you think you'll either pass out or start coughing up blood, and finally a brief walk and lunch on Taquile island the next day where you learn how to identify single men and women by the color of their floppy hats.
I planned on going out to the islands by myself on the ferry but in the end I was offered such a good price by a tour operator that it didnt seem like I would be gaining anything going solo. In truth, some of the information provided by the guide is interesting, and it's nice not to have to worry about finding out which boat you're supposed to be on next. However, it irks me to be wandering around with a big herd of other travelers, and the whole experience (however impressive) feels canned.
No sooner had I renounced the tour companies when I find that to get to Copacabana (Bolivia) from Puno all the buses seem to leave at 7:30am and there´s a tour shuttle that also leaves then for the same price that supposedly makes things easier at the border and it picks you up at your hostel. Oh, ok then. So, we´re at the border and the bus stops next to a money exchange so we can convert our Soles into Bolivianos. Thinking this money exchange was 'recommended' by the tour company and not seeing the usual pack of money changers on the street and being a little slow with the arithmetic because at the last minute I threw in some extra Soles in change that I had in my pocket, I didn't protest soon enough when the sum of Bolivianos I got back was quite a bit lower than I had expected. Turned out the rate was more than 10% under the offical rate, so I lost about $8 more than I should have, and I'm sure the driver gets a kickback.
Now $8 may not seem like that big a deal, but when you consider that there are kids starving on the street outside and a three course meal sets you back $2 and my hotel room with a killer lake view is costing me $1.25 tonight it puts it in perspective.
So enough with the ´convenience' of tour companies. They´re bad travel karma.
I planned on going out to the islands by myself on the ferry but in the end I was offered such a good price by a tour operator that it didnt seem like I would be gaining anything going solo. In truth, some of the information provided by the guide is interesting, and it's nice not to have to worry about finding out which boat you're supposed to be on next. However, it irks me to be wandering around with a big herd of other travelers, and the whole experience (however impressive) feels canned.
No sooner had I renounced the tour companies when I find that to get to Copacabana (Bolivia) from Puno all the buses seem to leave at 7:30am and there´s a tour shuttle that also leaves then for the same price that supposedly makes things easier at the border and it picks you up at your hostel. Oh, ok then. So, we´re at the border and the bus stops next to a money exchange so we can convert our Soles into Bolivianos. Thinking this money exchange was 'recommended' by the tour company and not seeing the usual pack of money changers on the street and being a little slow with the arithmetic because at the last minute I threw in some extra Soles in change that I had in my pocket, I didn't protest soon enough when the sum of Bolivianos I got back was quite a bit lower than I had expected. Turned out the rate was more than 10% under the offical rate, so I lost about $8 more than I should have, and I'm sure the driver gets a kickback.
Now $8 may not seem like that big a deal, but when you consider that there are kids starving on the street outside and a three course meal sets you back $2 and my hotel room with a killer lake view is costing me $1.25 tonight it puts it in perspective.
So enough with the ´convenience' of tour companies. They´re bad travel karma.
1 Comments:
I love sitting here in my pajamas following you up and down mts & around the world
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