The day we were due to cross over into Peru we arrived at the bus company's office to find out that the road from Puno to Cusco (both on the Peruvian side) was blockaded, and that the bus would only be able to take us as far as Puno. We figured that was fine, at least we'd be in Peru, and we got some money back from our ticket.
The back story is that in the high plateau region of both Bolivia and Peru there are a lot of things worth mining, particularly silver, and lately a Canadian company either tried to or already has been mining in the area, something which the local people are very much against. This is because the environmental affects on the area from the mining can be disastrous, and apparently a lot of these mining companies also do things illegally, which makes it worse. The people don't really have a voice, especially at the moment because they have just voted in a new president who I think starts his term in just under a month, and so no one is taking any notice to the problem. So in order to get the attention they think it deserves they have claimed the streets as their own and blocked them with rocks and their own presence.
Practically speaking it means that any vehicles using these roads have to try and talk the locals into letting them pass, often involving a cash bribe, but this isn't always the case. Sometimes they just won't let you pass. In other occasions if the bus doesn't pay enough the people will throw rocks at the bus, until they either pay up or leave.
Back to our story: we got in our bus which crossed the border with no problem, it's only about 20 mins from Copacabana. We drove for about another 15 mins before we came across small rocks across the road, and our driver basically turned the bus around and said "They've extended the blockade, there's no way through, I can't take responsibility for what happens if we go through because it'll be too dangerous so I'm going back. Make your own way.", which left us pretty scared to say the least.
We got back to the border, annuled our entry to Peru, reentered Bolivia and decided to go back with the bus to Copacabana to work out a new plan. Meanwhile, the rest of uor bus managed to get on a Peruvian bus that was arriving into Copacabana from Puno and was about to do the return journey. So when we got into Copacabana we went to the office of the same company and managed to get 4 seats on a bus load heading that way, which was a private tour. The driver was totally chilled about it, and said maybe our driver had freaked out because he didn't know how to handle it, and didn't want to risk his bus either. So we set off an hour later, left Bolivia and entered Peru, again (we have 6 passport stamps from the 15th June, and were told not to come back to Bolivia!), and headed to Puno. We had two detours, and the journey ended up being I think 5 hours long instead of an hour and a half, but I didn't feel in danger at any point.
It's not ideal for the people nor for us from the sense that the tourism is incredibly important to Peru's income, and hindering people coming in is never a good thing, but I get the impression that there really is nothing else the people can do to get attention for the cause.
We took an overnight bus from Puno to Cusco that same evening, arriving here at 9am the following day.
I need to check out of this hostel now - Machu Picchu tales coming asap.
XO
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