La Paz

We left Copacabana with Wes and got a bus to La Paz which was a beautiful journey around the lake. The most amusing section was when they made all the passengers get off and cross the lake by boat and they put the entire bus on a dodgey looking barge and chugged it across. It seriously didn´t look like it would make it:

When in La Paz and firmly integrated into our dorm we begun our first crazy night with our fellow roommates. I went to Mongos and another club after that with Nicole from our dorm because everyone else feel asleep! Here are a few pictures from the night:

Matt, me, Jack and Bone:

Jack, Alexa, me, Chris and Matt:

Us with Nadia:

The next day Alexa and I hung out with different groups and we had our slumber party in the evening with Jack (!) The following day we were in a more energetic state so Alexa and I wandered all over the centre. Here are some pictures from the witches market:

Dried llama foetus:

Potions for everything:
We treated ourselves for lunch and had sushi which was excellent and very exciting!
That evening we went out to dinner with Eli, Wes and a random British guy to a "British Curry House" called Star of India. Eli took on the vindaloo challenge in attempt to get a t-shirt, he failed! The vindaloo made us cry with one mouthful but he did eat half. It was the most expensive but funniest meal I´ve had in a while! We had another early night in preparation for our tour the next day.

We signed up to cycle down "the worlds most dangerous road" aka "death road" with a company called Vertigo cycling. Got picked up at 8am and headed up to the highest point in the road which is about 4600m and way up in the clouds. We cycled along tarmac for half hour or so before we joined the death road. It´s called that because it has a 600m drop on the edge with no barriers and its only 3.2m wide. Loads of people used to die on it when it was the only road between La Paz and Coroico. Now it´s only used for cycling and is a pretty adrenaline filled ride. You skid round tight corners next to big crosses marking where people went off the edge. We had excellent guides and equipment though and I didn´t feel in any danger, however, our group was pretty rapid because we had 3 people who knew how to ride properly. You drop down to around 1500m so we went from being freezing cold and wet to sticky and hot in rainforest temperature! Afterwards we were taken for lunch in a hotel before the long, uncomfortable but beautiful journey back to La Paz (along the new road).
Us before we started:

A particularly wet corner:

In the evening, it being Friday and us having survived, we had another good night out. This time we celebrated in the Loki Bar before headed out to an overpriced club called Traffic:

Kerry (who was in our biking group), Alexa, Nick and Eli:

Matt, me, Eli and Bone:

Arequipa, Lake Titicaca and La Paz

We were staying in a really nice hostel near the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa called Hostel Los Andes. Once we finally had a room and a shower we explored the city a bit. It supposedly has the most beautiful main plaza in South America which is all made out of a white volcanic rock, it was very stunning. This is the facade of the Catherdral:

The plaza was full of pigeons and they just let their kids roll around the floor with them which I found quite disgusting:

We spent most of the afternoon shopping, or rather trying on silly hats and stopping ourselves from purchasing things we can´t carry:
In the evening we went to look around the Santa Catalina Monastery which is about 400 years old and is like a city within a city. It has high walls all around and once inside the nuns didn`t see anyone from the outside world. It`s a huge area, taking up an entire block of the city centre and inside there are loads of little houses and streets. The architecture is lovely with the arches and columns and little plazas but it`s quite a strange place to be, very still yet you can hear the city outside. It was a bit freaky seeing it as night fell because there`s some pretty dark rooms.

Here is a picture of one of the streets:

The next morning we weren`t feeling very well so we but our sensible hats on and decided to stay in Arequipa. We spent the day seeing the market, making jewellary and watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (so weird). In the evening we ate alpaca on one of the terraces over looking the plaza - very pretty!

The next morning we were very chuffed we had stayed because it was a perfect blue sky and we saw the volcanoes and mountains surrounding Arequipa which had previously been completely hidden by cloud. They are stunning and huge. This is the view from out hostel terrace:

This is from the plaza:
So, due to the weather we then were very excited about going to the Colca Canyon but when we arrived at the bus station we couldn`t find a bus leaving for over 4hours. Due to us still not feeling 100% and the idea of having to wait 4hours with nothing to do, and the fact that the canyon was 6hours off route anyway we decided to go straight to Puno. The bus journey to Puno on Lake Titicaca has to be one of the most stunning I have had yet. We were way up high on a plateau with snowy mountains sticking up in the distance. We then past a big lake with flamingoes on it! Here`s some pics out of the bus window:

First view of Puno:
When in Puno we went to a hostel called Inka rest but it was way too expensive so we bickered with the manager for a while and then left when they wouldn`t drop their prices but before doing so we bumped into Wes who we`d played pool with in Loki Cusco. He joined us for beer and dinner and we booked a tour for the next day to go see the islands.

On the tour we first went to the Islas de la Uros which are floating islands made out of reeds that grow in the lake. Apparently the people fled there when the Spanish came and have lived their ever since. There is a kind of desperation about the place in terms of tourism, they are so keen to have people visit so they can try and sell you some goods. Also, there are so many islands that they share the visitors around and so each island doesn`t have tourists every day. The women were literally jumping up and down when we arrived. I found it vry bizarre though, why would anyone want to live on a bunch of reeds in the middle of a freezing cold lake? Lake Titicaca is at around 3800m altitude so it is stunning because the clouds sit so low over the water but freezing. Here is some pictures from the community:

After that we sailed to Isla Taquile which is known for it`s textiles apparently. There are loads of people living on the island and it seems that every bit is covered in agriculture. We had an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around and then had trout from the lake for lunch!

This is us and Wes:

Some pictures from around the island:
We then had a 2.5hr boat ride back to Puno so we sat on deck and sung along to some cheese. Had some spectacular views:
That evening was our last in Peru so we went to a "posh" restaurant and had the local dish - cuy (guinea pig). Actually, we shared a guinea pig which I thought was pretty gross, like a fatty duck but with less flavour, and had alpaca steak as well which was soooo yummy. This is Bone with the cuy: The next day we all got a bus to Copacabana which is in Bolivia on the lake shore. It`s not a very interesting town but there were celebrating carnival which involved lots of shaving foam and water guns and car blessing. It`s quite bizarre. This is the view of the lake as we drove round it through the snow:
The only actual activity we did in Copacabana was pedalowing on the lake which was a laugh:
The next day we jumped on a bus to La Paz which I was extreemly excited about. We are staying in the Loki here (because Cusco was so much fun). We had quite a cool group of people in our dorm, 2 English - Jack and Nadia, and 3 Americans - Matt, Chris and errr someone else. After a group decision to all go out together that evening we bought a lot of vodka and "illegally" drunk in the dorm. By the end we had numerous people in the dorm and vodka everywhere. Being hardcore I made it out for the lovely clubbing scene of La Paz unlike the rest of the dorm - note: Alexa was asleep first before I`d even left. Got back at stupid 6am again and therefore wiped out most of the next day catching up on sleep. Alexa went out with Wes and Nadia so I went off with the Americans and some others. Ended up wandering round the witches market in La Paz with Matt and then going for a pint of tea in Olivers English Pub! I bumped into Oskar who we`d been with in Cusco which was cool. Had a slumber party in the evening with Jack and Alexa which was hysterical.

It is now Thursday 26th Feb (that took us a good 3mins to work out) and Alexa and I have been very proactive today. We wandered all over La Paz center and had sushi for lunch. Most excitingly we bumped into Eli who I travelled with for 3weeks in Colombia so we will be meeting him for dinner! Generally I`m feeling very excited and happy!!!

Machu Picchu

We had a four day tour for Machupicchu which was one day cycling, 2 days trekking, some of which was along an Inka path (not the Inka path), and a day at Machupicchu. It turned out there was just me and Alexa on our tour so we had our own guide. This was good because we had no faff but bad because we had no chat... It worked out ok though because we knew a load of people from the Loki who were doing the same tour as us but with a different agency so we crossed paths with them numerous times and got a little banter!

On the first day we sat on a public bus for over 5hrs (very irritating) but apparently the rain (there wasn´t any) meant it was dangerous to cycle. After we finally did get to cycle the bikes were so small and uncomfortable I wanted to get back on the bus! It was fun though and our guide was very good. That night we stayed in a tiny town and shared a room with a couple of Chilean girls but found the other group and had beers with them.

This is us with "princess paint" on our faces, we got the expression a bit wrong.

On the second day we were up early and hiked for about 12km. We walked along an amazing Inka path that went up over a mountain and had great views, we were lucky to have blue sky and sunshine. Lazed around in hammocks for a while over lunch time before hiking another couple of hours along the river to some hot springs. They were really nice springs, huge like a swimming pool but with the hot water just filtering out of the rocks. In the evening, it being Valentines Day, our guide was adament that we had to go to the disco. It turned out to be a messy and late night because the other group were all there including Dave and Will who we´d met in Huacachina. The early start the next day was slightly painful especially for the guides.

The hot springs:

The next day we walked for only 4 hours but half of that was along train tracks and was very dull. We were also all half dead due to lack of sleep. We arrived in Aguas Calientes (nearest town to Machupicchu) about 3pm and crashed out and slept all afternoon.

Me and Christian (our guide):

The next morning Alexa and I got up at 4am and climbed up the steps to Machupicchu on our own in pitch black and without a torch. We were one of the first lots to get up there though and so easily got tickets for Waynapicchu (the famous mountain the over looks Machupicchu). We had a pretty good tour round the site and then climbed Waynapicchu. I got challenged by an old French guy to run up so I did and he followed amazingly! The view was amazing. We were so lucky because it had been really thick fog/cloud that morning but by 10.30am it was hot sun. I burnt my nose again.

This is me right at the top of Waynapicchu with a couple of Americans we met:

The view of Machupicchu:

We sat at the top for ages and slept and sunbathed and ate grapefruit:

After we decended we wandered round Machupicchu alone. It´s awesome, I loved it. It is a shame about some of the reconstruction but still it´s a fabulous site mainly because of the scenary. A few snaps from around (we made good use of the timer function):

We then climbed up to the top on the otherside of the city and got great views of Waynapicchu behind the city. The classic photo:

After we had trekked back down the mountain we caught the train and bus back to Cusco and celebrated the day with a bottle of wine and a few games of Killer pool. Didn´t sleep until 2am and even then we were in the 18bedded dorm so were woken up at a lovely 7.30am. I was not happy. Didn´t really achieve a whole lot the next day in Cusco but I had a big night out that evening. Went out with Will, a guy called Alex and a group of random Irish to Roots and then when that closed at 4am, to Mama Africas. Needless to say I was in no fine state the next day and left Alexa to shop in Cusco alone. That evening we got an overnight bus to Arequipa and arrived at 5am then had to sleep on a sofa in a hostel like bums until our room was ready.