The floating islands: Lago Titicaca (and bitching about La Paz weather...)

It is absolutely pouring in La Paz at the moment. Our morning exploration of the 'Black Market' was cut short by a hail storm that came bucketing down without warning. We stood for at least half an hour in the door of a small shop, waiting for a moment to dash out to a coffee shop. The moment didn't really arrive. We were forced to make a run through torrents of water flooding the streets, collecting the garbage as it went. You definitely should not venture outside here without a raincoat. La Paz weather sucks... So as I'm trapped inside cause I don't fancy getting wet again I thought I would take a minute to update you all on our side track to the Islands of Amantani and Taquile on Lake Titicaca.

On our way down to Bolivia we made a quick pit stop in Puno, a lakeside town in Peru (the first time that I've seen water since the dirty Pacific Ocean in Lima!!). From Puno we took a boat, possibly the slowest boat in the history of mankind, for our tour of the islands. First stop was the floating islands where members of the Uros Tribe live. They were absolutely amazing! The islands and pretty much everything on them are made entirely of reeds (except for the solar power panels...) -

They loved their fluro colours here. All the ladies were dressed to the nines in fluro pinks, yellows, greens. The craft they made was also, you guessed it, made up primarily of fluro colours.

Next stop was the Island of Amantani. It was a good 4 hour boat ride. It was so nice sitting out on the back of the boat as we cruised over to the Island. (I may have severely singed my legs while sitting in the sun.... It has still not gone down and is beetroot red - ouch.) On Amantani we stayed the night with a local family - Florentino and Victoria. They were absolutely gorgeous. I think I'm short. These people are tiny. And for some reason they make their doors even smaller than they are.

It was slightly awkward though. Florentino spoke only Spanish, and his wife Quechua. We had no hope in the world so there was a lot of charades but we got through. I think they found us amusing. Victoria often giggled at us. Once at Claire for ruining a wall that is probably hundreds of years old while trying to adjust her shoe, and a couple of times because we were slow in making our way down the path. (I need to add that it was pitch black, pouring, slippery, and uneven ground (a good 15m walk) with one torch.....) Victoria had no torch, was in sandals and was a good 50 yards in front of us the whole time. Hmmmm.

That night the town held a local fiesta where they took all their guests dressed in traditional clothing - hilarious! The photos are pretty feral. We have banned each other from showing anyone. Here is one of my back though so you get an idea of both the size of Victoria and what we were dressed up in..... except Mel who was dressed in traditional men's attire (consisting of a massive green embroidered poncho and beanie), because they didn't have another skirt (hahahahaha).

Will write again soon xxx

Eating Cuy (aka... Guinea Pig)

On our return from Machu Picchu we felt the need to sample the local cuisine. We'd been fed Alpaca on the trek and had heard that Guinea Pig was 'the thing' to eat in Peru. Apparently it is a delicacy.... I cannot see why.

At first I thought it would be easy to eat - that is until it arrives at your table looking like this -

POOR LITTLE GUINEA PIG!!!!! Little feet, nails and everything all attached. Gross.

I made myself eat a bit. It tastes just like pork crackling, but not so tasty. And there is no flesh on the thing at all, so you much at it with your hands like you would ribs. Wouldn't order it again....

A local Peruvian school

On Monday we caught a taxi to the small agricultural community of Pumamarca to visit a friend of Claire's from uni who has just started working with an organisation called Peru's Challenge. The organisation is currenlty helping the local community build a school. Their help has seen primary school attendence in the area grow from 14 kids to over 150.

We were lucky enough to get a tour of the local school and spend time with the kids in their classes. We also helped to weed their vegie garden which grows enough produce to ensure the children are well feed (most were surviving on a cup of tea and a potato a day). They are such gorgeous children, however they suffer a lot from serious skin infections due to the dry air and most are infected with parasites from their local water supply.

They were all fascinated by the cameras!

The Inka Trail and Cusco

We survived the Inka Trail and are now back in Cusco for a few more days before we make our way to Lake Titicaca. In total we walked about 48km carrying backpacks which we should have made much lighter! Elistian, one of our guides, estimated that my bag weighed 12kg- eeek. Good thing I did all that bootcamp training.

The sites were amazing! I will try and post some photos soon. At our highest point we were 4200m above sea level. Luckily we are all adjusted to the altitude.

We all made it back in one piece with no major injuries. There was a lot of what we have dubbed ´rock surfing´ though where you lose your footing and slide along slippery rocks and luckily regain your balance before falling off the edge of the mountain and I have a busted knee from all the stairs that we had to climb and descend. To give you some idea we had to descend at least 2000 steps on the last day. They call them the ´Gringo Stairs´ because apparenlty all the Gringos complain on the way down - which I must admit we did a little bit of. Going down that many stairs gets very tedious - especially when you are forced to watch your feet and cannot really look at what is happening around you.

We were very lucky and had beautiful weather for the majority of the trek (it being the beginning of the wet season) - just the odd shower along the way. Just our luck though that it drizzled constantly on the last morning as we climbed the last 5km to Machu Picchu.... It did clear up in the afternoon though which allowed us to get some good photos and explore without being too freezing (Mum - your jumper has come in very handy and has kept me very warm and toasty!!!)

The campsite bathrooms along the trek had to be the most disgusting things you have ever seen!! Two words - drop hole. Need I say more than people seem to have very bad aim. YUK.

Am in the middle of planning our next few weeks so had best get back to it.
Hope to hear from you all soon xxx Boodle