Bear Grylles styling in the Bolivian Madidi rainforest

So having booked our flights in La Paz to Rurrenabaque (which is incredibly hard to pronounce in Spanish as a word beginning in R is rolled as it a double R, so it was more like Rrrrrrurrrrrrenabaque, which was made even more difficult by the fact that I couldn't roll my R's) we finally jumped on the plane in the early hours of the morning. We had booked with Bolivia's military airline which offered commercial flights and ended up at a gated airport which was pretty much deserted apart from a few backpackers headed the same way as us.

 

Being quite a small plane with propellers, it was quite a rickety ride but we got there safely to see the most pathetic "airport" ever at Rurrenabaque.

 

 

 

That building below is all there was to it! Jump off the plane, walk across he mud and get whisked off in a minibus to the town itself. Having already prebooked our trips into the jungle, we were whisked straight off to the tour offices and paid our money, then dropped off at our hotel.

 

 

 

It wasn't the best conditions for the jungle, we were hoping for a bit of nice weather but this is what we were met with.

 

 

 

Not letting the crappy weather get us down, we got a nights sleep and then set off on our adventure the following day, with pretty much the same crappy conditions. In the knowledge that black caiman (crocs) and piranhas were in these waters, we weren't overly impressed that we were about a foot off the waters surface in these tiny boats being whizzed off to our ecolodge.

 

 

 

 

But with the rain beating down, our minds were more focussed on staying dry, thanks to the handy ponchos we were given by the tour guides.

 

 

 

And at least we weren't these people who we passed on our way, who were literally on a raft an inch off the surface, a much more appealing treat for any interested crocs. They would have been out there for ages as well, being rowed along, it took us 2 hours on the boat with an engine to get to our lodge.

 

 

 

But we got there in the end and were shown to our beautiful little shack for the next 2 nights in the middle of nowhere.

 

 

 

After settling in briefly we were introduced to our trek guide, and straight away set off on our first jungle trek. It was hard to contain our excitement, but it was somewhat dulled by the first "exciting" thing, a tree with red bits sticking out. To be fair it was quite interesting.

 

Thats doesn't float your boat.....what about this tree that had evolved spikes all over it to prevent animals from climbing up there. Not sure why it wouldn't want animals up there but there we go.

With our tour guide telling us to be super quiet he had supposedly heard something. He kept telling us there was a noise again but we couldn't hear it. Turns out he had heard the sound of a group of wild boar in the distance which took us about another 10 minutes before we could hear them when we got a bit closer. After being told there were no guarantees of seeing any wildlife whatsoever, we were super lucky to see this group of pigs crossing our path about 15 feet away as we hid behind a tree. They must have smelt us though as they squealed a bit then all bolted off, with the little piglets at the back trying to keep up with their tiny legs.

 

Pigs all gone, our guide chopped his way through some more foliage with his big ass knife and explained about some more trees.

 

However, he felt the need to relieve himself after we crossed a small river and left his things behind. I couldn't resist the temptation to have a little pose with it. Only later did I realise I massively resembled a pirate. Looks like this picture was taken in Somalia.

With the sound of him returning I quickly returned the knife and off we set leaving the path as the guide had heard more things and we went and found some elusive monkeys which again was quite a rare occurrence. Not only did we see these guys, but we saw 2 more breeds of monkey altogether with the guide not believing how lucky we'd been to see all this.



We also got to see a pretty colourful little beetle chap.

 

 

We also came across a massive clay pit thingy where loads of animals would roll around in and actually eat the mud to counter some of the poisonous fruits they would eat in the jungle with the salt content eradicating the danger.

 

 

Hiking back we grabbed some vegetarian food and we thought they had mistaken us as veggies as you had to tick a box back in the tour office, but we ate it anyway and hoped for some meat the following day.

But anyway, it was time for a night trek so we donned our head torches and set off into the forest, staying close to our guide as there were animals which could easily kill you out here and that's especially uncool seeing as the hospital is 2 hours away down a river back in Rurrenabaque.

But off we set in search of animals, mainly frogs which the guide said were out in full this time of night. But frogs we did not find, but we did see this little cricket fella with super long antenna thingies.

 

But the best thing we saw was this spider. We had seen other spiders but on webs and these spiders are not dangerous to humans as they catch flies in their webs hence no need for venom. However its the spiders that sit on leaves that don't make webs that you want to watch out for, as they could take a human down with one bite.....a bit like this beast. It might not seem too beastly but considering the leaf its on was about a foot in width, this spider was literally the size of a clenched fist. With the zoom on my camera not picking it up, I (probably quite foolishly given its venom) got in a close as I could and took this picture without zoom. Worked out alright so happy days.

 

Not seeing any frogs but happy with what we had saw we retreated back to our shack and got under our mosquito nights for some sleep.

Waking up the next morning to the sound of heavier rain we weren't gonna let that stop us and jumped on our little boat and went up river a bit to a rocky area. At one point it was that shallow that we got stuck out in the middle but it was only a foot deep or so, so our guides had to jump out and move the boat. Not something I'd do given the croc presence around here. We hadn't seen one but I don't know if that was a good or a bad thing. Are there none here or are they right under us and we just can't see them?!

 



Forgetting about that for a minute we saw some capybaras which are native to South America and look like massive rats but a bit cuter. They are actually the largest rodents in the world and you can save yourself some money by seeing them in zoos over here, as we had already done before coming out here so they weren't that impressive to us.

 

 

What was though was seeing a little family of the little chaps.

 

We also came across some jaguar tracks, as well as tapir, ocelot and other animal tracks which was pretty cool to see. Didn't really fancy coming across a jaguar as they would potentially maul us. Good job our guides had those big ass knifes on them.



But we hadn't come to this rocky area to look at tracks or capybaras, we were here to fish....but not for your average trout....we were here for piranhas! Cutting out a path a bit deeper into the jungle, and not knowing if we were wondering into a jaguars layer, the guides finally found us a secluded little pond area. Being given the most basic of fishing apparatus in a hook and line, we put a bit of meat on the end and threw it in not really expecting to catch much. However it took all of about 30 seconds for something to munch on our bate, and you had to pull the line out super fast to hook the fish otherwise it would spit it out. And after a few missed fish we both started pulling out some piranhas.

Of course me and Jen had to make a competition of it with me ending up winning with 4 fish to Jen's 3. In all fairness though she did catch the biggest one, but we all know its about quantity.

So what do you do with some piranhas? Put them back? Keep them as pets? Use them for bate? No silly, you fry them up and eat them!



 

They were pretty tasty, not the best fish I'd ever had, and not that much meat on them but definately worth the experience.

 

Back to the ecolodge we went and with some time to kill we were either offered another walk or some handycraft making, and with the rain kicking in, we chose the handycrafts. Some of you may have seen the little poncy black ring I've been wearing since I got back but that's because it's way cool, me and Jen both have one.

And where did it come from? This handycraft making experience in the Bolivian jungle which is why the ring is in fact cool. It started out life as a baby coconut believe it or not.

Anf following 2 hours of scoring the middle out with a knife and then sanding it down, followed by sanding the outside down with three different levels of sandpaper, we could finally die them with black coconut ash resulting in the black ring that I sport today.

Male accessorises are cool, who knew!

With more fish on the menu, this time being their local delicacy of cat fish, we chowed down and really enjoyed it, it was a super tasty fish and cooked their traditional way of in banana leaves.

With not much to do when the light went down we retired back to our room and played a few games of cards by head torch light and then called it a night.

The next day we got up for our final lunch here and heard some noises coming from round the corner. We were amazed to see a baby tapir chowing down on some cast away rotten bananas, literally in the camp itself. It wasn't scared of me at all, and this was no pet, it was a wild tapir who the guides say was part of a family of tapirs who lived not far away and sometimes they would come in a steal food. Was cool to see as we hadn't seen a tapir but we didn't get the sense it was wild much, it did kinda seem like a pet.

 

 

 

 

With that unexpected little treat at the end we packed up our stuff and jumped back on the boat for 2 hours back to Rurrenabaque for the night and went off to book our second trip into a different area of the jungle known as the pampas.

la paz (shopping!)

Leaving Copacabana we were jumping on a bus. Unlike the bus journeys we were used it was a free for all with bags. There was no one to label your bag and load it for you, it was just chuck it on there. With the storage compartment already pretty full, I put my bag on the floor and did some shrewd rearranging which took a good few minutes. Upon successfully making a space I turned to pick up my bag and before I could hoist it up there some rat of a girl had quickly put her bag there even though she had just watched me struggling. It was like those annoying chaps who sneak into a car park space when you have been waiting on the other side with your indicater on waiting for the car to come out. Cheeky rat girl is all I could describe her as but I wasn't in the mood for arguing so I just spent another few minutes making some more room and got my back up there. After all that the bus driver dude came out and upon realising it was pretty crowded in there he opening another compartment which Jen could just place her bag in with no worries! Annoying.

 

Just before getting to La Paz we could get a pretty cool shot of the enormity of the place. It's all build in, on and amongst hills with the wealthiest getting to be higher up the hills.

 

 

 

From the bus station we struggled to work out which direction to walk in, but a usful chap told us where our road is so we got there pretty easily. Our hostel turned out to be pretty cool, having it's own brewery which allowed you to have a free beer each night you stayed there. Result. Furthermore they did some bad ass brownies, super tasty (and no, not that type of brownie!).

 

It was time for a look around as we had heard that La Paz was the place to go shopping. But first thing was first, time to get the visas sorted out. After working out where the main square was we looked up to see a massive building which was the hotel presidente. It dominated the area and rooms there cost 140 US dollars per night. A bit of a price shock compared to the 2 quid hostel rooms we were getting in some poorer Bolivian countries. But we weren't interested in the hotel for that reason, it was more entertaining for its 50ft vertical wall of which people dressed up in spiderman outfits and forward abseiled down. Pretty crazy stuff, we sat there and watched for a while, about having a heart attack when the spiderman just free fell, but it was all part of the action, you could free fall for 20ft if you chose to.

 

 

Back to the mission at hand we found the embassy and waited for quite some time to be seen at the extension offices. Finally getting in there I had practiced my Spanish as to what to say regarding the visa only for me to struggle away and him to reply in perfect English. Could have interupted me there fella. But it was dead easy, he nulified the date stamped on our passport and gave us 90 days, not that we'd need that much but who cares!

 

With that sorted it was shopping time so we got back to what we came for. The streets were pretty sureal around La Paz, there was obviously a more build up newer area with modern shops but we were more interested in the older area, where you bought goods from markets. Besides, I think you'll have a hard time buying lama fetus's in a modern shop. But that's exactly what you could do from these streets, in an area known as the witches market due to the other bizarre things you could buy here such as ancient potions, alternatives for modern medicines.

 

After being asked by a certain Manc back home to bring him back a Sergio Aguero Argentina shirt, I told him there was no chance after looking in Buenos Aires and finding them for 90 quid. However, that was Argentina......and I was able to pick one up in Peru. La Paz seemed to have a street for everything from a street full of shops selling pipes and bathroom goods, to a street for handbags, to a street to alpaca goods to the all important street below which had about 20 shops all selling fake football shirts. Now not many people want fake football shirts, but you do when they are literal perfect copies of the originals, with the brand stitched in, the logos printed on, the names and numbers in the official style so of course it was football shirt shopping time much to Jen's dismay. After picking up 3 football shirts on my travels already I purchased a Bolivian pink shirt (which is bad ass).

But anyway, I was super happy at the time as I had bought the shirts on the cheap and having purchased that Manc his Aguero shirt back in Lima, I felt that I had to buy his Manc twin a South America shirt who also played for their beloved Man city. With the Manc giants injected with millions of UAE money, I was sure that they were going to buy either the Uruguayan Cavani or Columbian Falcao in the summer transfer window, and was also confident that the Argentinian Tevez would be on his way. So ignoring Tevez I picked up the other two confident one would be a city player. I'd later find out that both would disappear to PSG and Monaco respectively so I spent the next four days in La Paz trying to find a Zabaleta shirt to no avail. Dragging poor Jen along with me for a good 3 hours a day she had enough and that was the end of my football shirt shopping.

It was time for Jen's way, and onto the alpaca, handbag, shoes, scarfs and shirts streets, although I benefited from those shops also buying enough souvenirs to take up literally half the room in my 65 litre backpack, I don't know how we managed to squidge it in but we did, with a few items of clothing taking the hit like my worn out hoodie.

There literally were thousands of similar goods all across these streets, impossible for the indecisive Jenna to choose what she wanted, but we did have four days to make our choices.

A bit all shopped out, and with the knowledge we would be leaving the next day to the Bolivian jungle we decided to go on a free tour of La Paz. Being called redcap tours we were told to meet in a square near a prison. Sitting down on a bench we began scanning for someone with a red cap who looked like a tour guide. Spotting a few shady characters in almost red caps we dared each other to go and ask them but we didn't really fancy it being outside a prison so we just sat there and waited as it seemed other tourists were hanging around too. Finally a dude came up to us and asked if we were waiting for the tour, so we said yes. Then with a smile on his face he unzipped his jacket to reveal the red cap tour logo on his shirt and calmly explained that they had lost their actual red caps. Pretty stupid way of intentifying yourselves if you can't even go to the hundreds of shops on the markets that sell red caps for about 50p!

Anyway we'd made it and were with the tour group and the guy began to explain about what it probably the most bizarre prison in the world, not that the picture below would make you think that. If anyone has ever seen prison break season 3, it is pretty much like the Sona prison in Panama, which is ran by the inmates themselves. Now it sounds like I might be exeragerating but that is literally what happens here in the San Pedro prison, La Paz. Not only is it ran by the inmates, but they also have their entire families in there with them, including their children who are let out daily and go to a school outside the confinements of the prison walls. There's a lot of criminal acitivity going on inside the walls, including drugs and sending word to outside accomplices to steal cars and demand ransom for their returns. There's a hierachy with the topdogs giving out orders for stabbings which is sadly quite common practice.

There's a really interesting book by Rusty Young called "Marching Powder" which is the story of a British person, Thomas McFadden, incarcerated for drug related offences for five years. He became infamous for giving backpacker tours around the prison which is now banned due to a German fella being stabbed by one of the inmates.

 

 

 

Off to a more happy area back in the main area of the town where there were zebras who helped people across the busy roads when the lights changed. With drivers here a little mental, it was good that they were there to help you across the zebra crossings and also provided a bit of entertainment.

 

About half way through the tour another guide came running down the street and joined us as he'd just finished the morning tour (we were the afternoon one). I only mention this as the guy was a local but he had somehow managed to adopt the campest British accent ever, which made us all chuckle. He also told us about the Cholitas here who were the traditionally dressed woman. At one point I asked about Cholita wrestling which is a real thing here and you can pay to go watch it, but he responding by saying the Cholitas in the markets were way more brutal and you should stick around to see a real fight between some of them! These ladies are pretty hefty as they carry loads of goods around on their bags and apparently they sometimes knock each other out. Sadly never saw it though!

We did however end the tour by getting an elevator to the top of the hotel presidente and getting a view out of the city, you could even see the bit where nutters started their descent out the building in their spiderman outfit, but unfortunately there was no one doing it to watch when we were there. The view was good though so was worth it all the same.

 

With our tour over we went back to our hotel and enjoyed some more free beers and also the buckets they had on offer with cost about 3 quid for 7 shots. Bonus!

The stupiest border crossing system in the world

Having successfully crossed borders between Brazil and Argentina, Argentina and Chile, and Chile and Peru, we were hopeful that the crossing from Peru to Bolivia would go smoothly. Why was this on our minds you might ask? Well, it's because of the crossing from Chile to Peru when we were only given a 30 day visa by the border control officer when we were entitled up to 183 days. We had tried to extend our visa by first visiting the embassy in Lima but there was a ridiculous queue. Jen also rang the embassy but there was a Spanish automated message she didn't understand so we got the lady at the hostel to ring up for us and we were told that we would have to pay 1 US dollar per day that we stayed over our 30 days. We thought it a bit annoying seeing as we were entitled to 183 days but we just decided to accept it and were told we could pay our fine at the border when crossing. We couldn't leave before those 30 days were up as we had already booked in the Inca trail so we had to stay for at least 35 days. But with other places on our list it was 41 days before we came to cross the border.

 

When the day came we had booked a bus from Puno to Copacabana (which is on the other side of Lake Titikaka but on the Bolivian side) which would take us to the crossing and wait whilst the passport checks took place and then drive us onto Copacabana. Sadly, our journey did not work out that easily.

 

Having smoothly got to the border, we first went to a little hut where we got one stamp on our visa documents. Thinking this was a doddle and we might not even have to pay, we went onto the second hut where we got our passport stamped. It was here that the problems started. They quickly picked up that we had outstayed our welcome and began to issue us a ticket thingy with a fee to pay. Expecting a fee of 11 dollars we were dissapointed to see 21 dollars printed down. I asked them what the extra 10 dollars was for and at that point they conveniently could no longer understand my Spanish even though they had up until that point. We had read online that they might try and add on an admin fee but this wasn't actually part of the process and they do it to try and screw you out of some money. So on the internets advice we held our ground and refused to pay the extra 10. After a good 15 minutes of arguing we finally got our way and got it down to 11 dollars, so we were happy to hand over that much. We were then told that they couldn't take payment here (even though we were told they could by the embassy on the phone) but we would have to go to the bank. Looking outside we saw a sign for a bank so thought that wasn't too bad so went in there to try and pay. Sadly this was only a currency exchange bank so we couldn't pay there. After I was struggling to get the info I needed with my Spanish and Jen getting mightily miffed, we asked the bus driver guy who spoke English and he told us we would need to go back to a town we had just passed and pay at the bank there. Pretty annoyed, we were left with no option but to get a taxi back there. We asked the bus driver if they would wait which they wouldn't so we had to get our backpacks off the bus and jump in this taxi back to a local town.

 

Fortunately this town was only 5 minutes away so we jumped off and paid our debt at the bank. Unfortunately it was absolutely hammering it down and we were both wearing little plimmies. We were also told at the border we would need 3 photocopies of the fee debt reciept and our passports so we asked at the bank if they could do it. No they said, but pointed us towards a shop over the road which could. So off we trundled and asked in there when we were told that they had a powercut. Not thinking too much of it we went round the corner to another place that did photocopying only to be told that they didn't have power either. With our tails between our legs we went outside and noticed none of the lights were on in the square....it was a town wide powercut.

 

Back off we trundled in the taxi to the border (with the taxi driver waiting for us which was about the only positive thing that happened in this ordeal!) and explained there was a powercut in the local town so we couldn't get a photocopy and asked if we could get one here. The powercut had also affected the border crossing and they were out of power too. The rain had come down that much that we had to change our socks and shoes. Wondering if we were going to spend the night at the border until power was restored we were pretty happy to be marched over into Bolivia by the border control officer and use their photocopier yards into Bolivia. Weird how they had power literally 20 yards from the Peruvian offices but I assume they were on different power grids. Finally getting all of our photocopies and handing over the debt receipt we were told we were free to go into Bolivia. Now however with no bus waiting for us, we had to get a taxi to our hotel, which again was only 10 minutes drive to Copacabana so it wasn't too painful.

 

But all because of the douche bag at the Chilean/Peruvian border giving us only 30 days, we had lost a few hours and 30 or so dollars. And just to top it all off the Bolivian border control officer only gave us 30 days when we were entitled to 90. After a discussion with him and asking nicely for 90 days he would only give us 30, even though he had a piece of paper saying what each country was entitled to. We were told that we could get it extended for free in La Paz though but we weren't sure whether to trust that. But we put all this behind us and tried to enjoy our time in Copacabana!

 

Upon being dropped off right outside our hotel (better than walking from the bus drop off point so I suppose something good came of it!) we got our own private room again seeing as Bolivia was so cheap and used our private radiator to dry our socks and got some rest. The next day the rain had passed so we went out to have a look around with this view from near our hostel. 

 

Getting down to the lake we had a look around and they had the classic swan boat thingies.

 

 

Leaving the lake we saw an awesome church which had a massive complex surrounding it.

 

With an awful map from the hostel we set out to find two Inca ruins, one being some Inca seats which were carved out of rock which were pretty boring to be honest with you but at least it was free to have a look. At least they had a cool name in "Inti Kalla".

The other was a bit more interesting and also had a cool name, "La Horca del Inca". This means Incan gallows as the rock formation was wrongly thought (by the Spanish) to be some sort of torture device, where as it was actually an astronimcal observatory. With only one slab remaining today, originally there were seven flat slabs which allowed the Incas to measure and observe the stars and constellations.

 

It was quite a climb to get up here to see the rock formation but it was worth it. If the rok doesn't get you going then the view back down of the city might do.

That night we decided to eat at the restuarant above out hotel as trip advisor said it was good. But it turned out to be pretty mediocre and we weren't that hungry anyway so left half of it and went to bed. The following day we visited the Isla del Sol, or the Island of the Sun, which is the place where the Incas are said to have originated from.

With some impressive views once again we were dropped off at one end of the island and would be picked up from the other after a 2 hour walk.

Being on a non guided tour we thought we would be on our own, but were hoarded into a group to second we got off the boat by a guide. Thinking it was part of the deal we stuck about for a while but this old timer was taking ages gathering up more people, so along with some others we got bored of him and walked off. Again thinking we'd be on our own we kind of just joined onto another tour group who were just setting off.

However this guide only spoke Spanish but there was an American traveller who was translating for the rest of the group. After some information on the way up we got to the top were the good old Incas had another sacred rock, this time it was supposedly of a Puma. Yeah right?! If anyone can see the puma in that rock then let me know! Anyway, no one knows the meaning of titicaca, where the lake gets is best name, but the best guess if actually from this rock with "titi" meaning "puma" and "caca" meaning "rock". So it all gets its name from a rock which is shaped like a Puma, which is actually shaped nothing like a puma. Once again those Inca minds are running a bit wild.

There were some temple ruins which was something we had grown to expect on these trips! It was in these ruins that the guide, who couldn't even speak English wanted a tip. Cheeky boy, he made it out that it was part of the tour, o well, have 50p. You're welcome.

The view was pretty stunning though of the lake, which looked more like the sea, as it was that big you couldn't see the shores from the islands.

Well I lie a bit, look the other way and you can see the Andes.

Jumping back on our boat we spent the night back in our hotel with our eyes set on La Paz next.

Who said straw was only good for hats?!

We'd arrived in Puno, sitting proudly on the shores of Lake Titikaka. Booking into our own private room for the night into a nicer hotel turned out to be a bit of good fortune as I fell super ill, getting the worst stomach bug thingy I had ever experienced. If you don't like graphic descriptions then skip the rest of this paragraph out but it wrote us off for that entire day. With our private room came our own en suite literally a few yards from the bed which was awesome for me as I could manage an hour at most lying down until I had to go and empty the contents of my stomach, Iguasu falls style. Splash back was an issue! After quite some time of running back and forth to the toilet, a few times I literally finished one poo waterfall, sat back on the bed and immediately ran back for part two. I don't know where it was all coming from. Thinking it was just gonna be an issue of pooing, I was pretty upset to realise that I now felt sick as well. With the impending sick deciding to make itself known half way through waterall poo, I had to quickly block that passageway up in favour of another and through up into the mess that another orifice had just left. The smell is something that no person should ever have to go through, with the splattered pattern inches from my nostrils. No sooner had a finsihed throwing up that my original problem returned, so into the pooey sicky mess followed more streamline poo, which of course led to more splash back, leading me to literally be covered in shit and sick.

 

That was the fun that I had to endure for that night, sorry to be so graphic, but I thought that you should all know this kinda thing can happen to you when visiting these countries as it could happen to you! At least you'll be prepared so you should be thanking me! Anyway, fortunately this little stomach bug was only a 24 hour ordeal so I gathered up enough strength to get out the next morning. We took the opportunity go for a walk down by the harbour and randomly bumped into Lindsay and Jane who we had just conquered Machu Pichu with. Didn't think we'd be seeing them again this trip. They had just returned from a trip to some islands on Lake Titikaka and were quite tired so we left them to it and agreed to meet up for lunch later. Jen and I used the time inbetween to check out an awesome market where we purchased a few alpacha goods for ridiculously low prices. Meeting back up with the girls again later we tried to find a place for some stone baked pizzas but no where were doing them for lunch so we grabbed some lasagne of which I couldn't finish as I was still feeling a bit tender. And those of you who know my portion sizes will know thats an idicator of how ill I was!

 

Saying goodbye again to the girls Jen and I set off to book a trip to the Uros and Amantani islands, where the girls had just come from so the following morning we awaited for our minibus to pick us up from our hotel. An hour or so after the time we were told to be picked up, and with Jen worrying as per usual, a taxi turned up to take us to the harbour, clearly the minibus had forgotten to get us and they sent a taxi in its place. O well, we had got to the harbour and awaited our ride.

 

The wait was well worth it, as we sailed through the reeds (getting stuck on some), we finally turned up at the Uros islands which are actually constructed of straw and reeds!

Taking our first bouncy steps onto the islands we had a quick look around and were then shown how they construct and maintain their homes, with a huge mud block, which layers and layers of reed are placed ontop of. You could even eat this reed stuff when fresh, and it is as bad as it looks.

 

 

 

After our little demonstration we were shown someones little house thingy which was literally just a small room with a bed in it. The same person then pretty much bullied Jen into buying a cushion cover but I suppose it will be handy in the future, if you want to sit on the pachamama, I'm sure that won't offend her at all. When we were finally freed following the purchase we could climb up a viewing tower and have a good look around. It was then that you could really appreciate the islands, with over 100 families living out on the lake. They had everything they needed also with a floating church, hospital, school, shop amongst many other amenities.

 

 

Why were all these families out there though? Good question, living on lands seems like a much better idea. But the reasoning was quite simple.....to evade the Spanish who were burning down the houses in Puno itself, the people fled to the waters and simply never returned! Well they do return for things they need but the floating islands are their permanent homes. And the best bit is, if they don't like their neighbours, they simply untie their islands and float somewhere else and tie up there. Every cloud....

 

We were even given the opportinity to go on a reed boat which were awesome and took a 15 minute rowed trip whereas a powered boat would do the same in about 1 minute.

 

 

Here's the poor girl rowing her heart out. Don't envy her. I wonder if she knows that the other boats have engines, perhaps someone should tell her. It's not like they're against technology with each of them donning a mobile phone, getting reception out in the middle of Lake Titikaka when I can't even get any reception in little Gilmorton.

 

Jumping back on the boat we set off to our second island of Amantani. This one was actually a permanent island made of rock and whatever else it is that normal islands are made of so no more jelly legs for us. After a short walk up the banks we were met by the locals of who would house us for the night. After our meeting and greeting we were led off to the families home where they presented us with hats as it was pretty nippy, mine being a childrens hat as it barely fit on my head. Wearing one like this is in though right?!

The head of the family we were staying with spoke the native Quechua but also Spanish, and their children only spoke Spanish. They were a typical Peruvian family were traditions were quite strong with the wife spending most of her time in the kitchen whilst the head sat down and spoke to us. Well he spoke to me as Jen wasn't confident with her Spanish but I managed to hold a conversation whislt Jen just sat there smiling in the corner. They had 5 girls, 4 of whom were really shy and kind of stayed away from us whilst we were given dinner which was really tasty. The 5th girl was a bit older and talked to us and would later take us to a party. The younger girls would eventually grow a bit more confident though and came and sat with us and as they were shy I communicated with them by writing questions down on a napkin, much to their delight. It was so humbling being here, as they family would do everything they could to make us welcome there, even though we couldn't fully communicate with each other due to my mediocre Spanish. But you could just tell that they were really nice people.

Before dinner though we went for a stroll to the highest point on the island where we could take in the views. The water was so blue, it was pretty ace.

With the night creeping in we Jen deemed a wall a good photo....

.....but the sun set was more impressive.

Back down we came and back to the family house where they dressed us up in traditional clothing ready for a party in the communities centre, kind of like our town halls. It made me chuckle somewhat as upon receiving our outfits, the eldest girl and mother dressed Jen up in about 10 bits of clothing which took a good 20 minutes. When she was done the father took all of 5 seconds to drape a poncho on me.

Getting to the venue we all sat down around the side of the room and chatted to others that were visiting and dressed up. Then the live band started and the girl from our family jumped up and dragges us into the middle to dance. Traditional dancing consisted of all holding hands in a big circle, walking around anti clockwise, throwing your arms about wildly hence throwing the persons hands around you were holding, and sometimes being dragged into the middle of the circle and back out again. Pretty easy to pick up and although it might not sound much fun, was actually one of my favourite experiences of the whole travelling 6 month fiasco. The music was lively, everyone was dressed up and it was dead easy to pick up their dance, and the locals were all so happy. They don't have much and dancing is one of their ways of having fun and to be a part of it was massively rewarding.

 

After a great night we walked back to the house in the pitch black which was pretty dam hard with only our little head torches to navigate slippery mud paths and rocks sticking out. But we made it and had a good nights sleep after all the dancing about.

The next morning we said our goodbyes to the family, giving them a bag full of pasta, some sauce and some tuna which they were really grateful for, something that we would take for granted. I then asked the father if I could give his kids some sweets which I just so happened to have (if you're wondering I don't normally hand out sweets to small girls I've just met so hold off on the jokes!) and he was more than happy for me to do so. The look on their little faces brought further realisation to what little they had, they were so happy and it was nice to see them that way. Further more, my little correspondance on napkins the previous day had led me to discover their favourite fruits, and although not fruits themselves, they were their favourite flavours!

It was strangely sad to leave some people that we had only just met, but it was sad to say our goodbyes, but that we did and headed off to another island on the way back to Puno where we grabbed lunch with the rest of our tour group and found out how far away home was.

 

  

Finally back on dry land, we checked back into our hotel for the night and went out for some munch. Peru has a certain delicacy which we had refused to eat up until this point but the realisation dawned upon us that we wouldn't really ever get the chance again so it was time to man up and finally order ourselves a little guinea pig. Usually these little animals are cute looking things that run around and evade you when you try and pick them up. However this one was deep fried whole and wasn't going anywhere and it has somewhat lost its cuteness, looking more like fried roadkill with half its jaw sticking out. Appealing eh? Surprisingly it was quite tasty but don't let anyone fool you who claims it tastes like chicken cos it doesn't and neither do most things which are compared to chicken. This tasted like nothing I'd ever had before, albeit it barely any meat on it. The closest I could get to describing it is kind of like a cross between rabbit and pork but not gamey. You really have to try it to know as that's not the most accurate description.

To add to the experience there was a riot happening in the streets outside the restaurant which actually got quite bad with tear gas going off at one point. It was bad enough for the restaurant to lock us in and put the wire covers down meaning we had to stay in until the riot had passed.

 

 

Anyway we could finally say we had fully experienced Peru after our guinea pig dinner so off to bed we went and got up the next morning ready for our final country in South America, Bolivia. 

En route to puno

So after having been back home for 2 and a half months, with catching up with folk and a mini trip to Marrakech, we thought it was finally time to catch up on the blog. Not sure if anyone is reading it anymore but might as well finish it before we jet off to South East Asia on Wednesday!

After the success of the Inca trail, we decided it was time to hang up the old walking boots and put the trekking on hold for a while. It was time for us to make our way to our last stop in Peru, Puno, which sits on the legendary shores of lake Titikaka, the supposed birth place of the Incas.

We could have taken a five hour bus journey for this one or there was the option of a bus which stopped off at five different sites along the way which would obviously take a while longer but would be much more entertaining than boring each other on the bus with more card games, or the usual time killer, sleeping. So off we set on our site seeing tour bus, delightfully named, "the route of the sun".

I've handily put a little run down below with picture assistance for those who learn more through imagery (hey I did learn something at uni!) with the metres above sea level with each. We'd been in Cusco at 3,800 metres for a while now and tackled Machu Pichu so sitting on a bus 500 or so metres more wasn't going to be an issue.

• Cusco (3800 m.a.s.l.)
• Andahuaylillas (3122 m.a.s.l. )
• Raqchi (3450 m.a.s.l.)
• Sicuani Village (3552 m.a.s.l.)
• Raya Pass (4335 m.a.s.l )
• Pucara Museum (3900 m.a.s.l )
• Puno (3400 m.a.s.l ) 

Anyway first stop, Andahuaylillas, which basically meant we went to a big ass church. Exciting times.  As you can see from our picture, it isn't all that interesting. However, it is in fact interesting, we just weren't allowed to take pictures and this is the best that we could sneak in before we got to the actually interesting part!

The church is nicknamed "the Sixtine Chapel of America" because of the magnificent frescos that adorn its walls. Which through the power of google, you kids can now all see. I would have tried to lie that we took that picture, but those of you with any minimal detective skills will notice the logos and text at the bottom. I was tempted to crop them out but to be honest I just couldn't be bothered. I'm a busy man here taking time out from my viewing of Beauty and the Geek to catch up with this blog, and cropping isn't going to speed the process up. Plus you'd miss those lovely pews.

Viewing of church completed, we moved onto the much more interesting mini museum thingy. Why was it much more interesting than the Sixteen Chapel of America? Good question, and the answer lies in the mysterious world of the unknown.....alienology. The Privado Ritos Andinos museumm houses a skeleton claimed by many to be that of an alien due to its elongated skull and abnormally large eye sockets. Sceptics argue that it is simply the remains of a tribal child where evidence shows tribal rituals took place to alter the shape of the skull at a childs early age. The skull does have a soft spot seen in humans in their first year of life, however this skull also has two large molar teeth, only found in much older humans. Whatever it is, it's interesting. Make your own mind up. If you're interested, read more here.

Either way, if you hadn't made your own mind up, the museum were determined to assist you in your thought processes with their requests for funding.

With our minds made up, we jumped back onto the bus and next stopped at Raqchi, where we saw yet some more Inca ruins. For those of you who are interested, this site formally gave home to the Temple of Wiracocha, but all that stood now was a wall. O well, should have made their buildings out of something stronger than mud then. In its day however, it is believed to have sported the largest single roof in the entire Inca empire. Sadly the good old Spanish turned up and burned it to the ground, not sure how that was so destructive as I'm pretty sure mud and brick aren't flamable but they must have done something right as only one wall and a few supportive pillars stand today.

With the morning drawing to a close, we jumped back on the bus and stopped off at Sicuani Village for some lunch. No sites here, literally just a buffet lunch. Well thats all we thought we were been treated to until we needed the toilet which was outside where we saw the second delight of a super shaggy lama. Happy days.

With full bellies we set off to our fourth stop Raya Pass, at an impressive 4,335 metres above sea level. Raya Pass (as it's name would suggest) is a passageway through the La Raya mountain range. Thankfully we weren't out to trek today as that looks like a bit of a mish by this photo of the tallest summit in the range, Chimpulla at 5,489 metres.

Getting off at our last stop we were greeted by a majestic church, but we weren't here for that, but instead the "Museo Litico de Pucara" (Pucara Stone Museum), which displayed a good little selection of anthropomorphic monoliths, zoomorphic sculptures, ceramics, and other objects from the Pucara pre-Inca Culture. No I didn't know what any of that meant either but I would later find out that it refers to statue thingies of the human form with animal features or something along those lines. I'm still a bit confused.

Anyway, once again being informed that we couldn't take photos, I interpreted that as meaning that we weren't allowed to be caught taking photos, maybe it was lost in the Spanish translation somewhere. Anyway, here's a big statue thingy with a snake somewhere in there, it's been a while since we were told the explanation so that will about cover it for you guys, find a snake, it's in there somewhere probably along with some other interesting things.

Then there was this little chap who had a ceremonial knife in one hand and a head in the other. I wonder what that was depicting. We'd come across a few instances on our travels aluding to past cultures chopping others heads off, I'm assuming this was a similar instance.

There were some other cool artifacts in the museum, which I found hard to get a snap off so that's your lot on this one kids. We jumped back on the bus and headed to our final destination in Peru....Puno.