Cusco to La Paz.

The last two weeks have been a very busy time! Finally made it out of Peru to get to La Paz. We got stuck a couple of days in Puno (pretty much a crap hole that you don´t want to stay in, on Lake Titicaca). There were riots, or protests and the buses weren´t crossing the border into Bolivia. So because of that, we missed a visit to Copacabana, a small town on the lake. Ah well, until that point we had been doing pretty well all things considered really! While in Puno we took a day trip on a boat out to a couple of islands. The ´reed´islands are islands literally built on reeds. They float, people live on them, and they build everything out of reeds. Quite amazing really, and it felt really odd walking around the little islands!

Isla Tequile was the other island we visited. It took about 3 hours on the boat to get there, and was just a small (maybe 2km width?) island in the middle of the lake. We stopped there for lunch, had a wander around and then headed back to Puno.

We started the long journey from Puno to La Paz early in the morning. The first bus was luxe, the second bus from the boarder crossing, not so much... But we made it. The scenery was crazy. For most of the trip we were so high, it looked like the clouds were hanging 100m up in the sky. The landscape was desert and snow capped mountains dotted with tiny little farms and ramshackle houses, all along the ´alto plano´.

La Paz isn´t what you would call a pretty city. The 7 of us made it there in one breathless piece, one day earlier than we had planned (thanks to missing Copacabana). So what does one do in La Paz on a Sunday? Cholita wrestling. What an idea. We thought we were going to see dwarf wrestling, so you can imagine that we were a little disappointed when all we saw were men vs. men, and men vs. women. But it was NUTS. And just hilarious to watch. It was so dodgily staged that all you coule do was giggle. Had a ball!

The next day Rick and Monica arrived, so finally all 9 of us were in one place! While in La Paz we ate really well, found some lovely restuarants, had quite a few drinks. And the 3 boys tried to eat ´the hottest vindaloo challenge´ to win a free t'shirt. I´m going to have to post some photos later, because I was crying so hard at Jeremy, Rick and Geoff´s little faces as they tried the challenge. Only Rick was successful in finishing!

Anyway, off to the Amazon next...