Most of Monday was spent on the long bus ride to Puno so we arrived in evening and really only had time for a quick stroll around, visit the main square and pedestrian street and out for dinner - a classic Peruvian fast food sandwich.

Early the next morning we took our 'eco-taxis' to the port. Luckily for them the ride is all down hill so, not much peddling and a whole lot of gliding. The bike Ineke and Laura got in must've been the 'party man', he was cranking his stero the whole time - even belted out an oldschool backstreet boys tune, in Spanish. Was hilarious.

Lake Titikaka is absolutely massive and, truly gorgeous. It is the highest lake in the world ... it's weird to be surrounded by water and still feeling the affects of altitude. We had a lovely chilled out ride to the Island of Tequeno island,which we hiked up to the main square of ... it wasn't the far but sesh the altitude makes it seem far!...

After a relaxing lunch and hearing all about the Armayian culture we got back on the boat to the penisula community we're we'd be staying for the night. The boys played a game of football againist the locals here. They trained to claim they were at an instant disadvantage with the altitude and I think that it's still not exactly agreed upon who actually won...

After the match Laura, Ineke and I meet the family we'd be staying with. So, lovely - no English and we had no Armyan or Spanish so ... was interesting but they were so warm and beautiful we had such a fantastic time! We helped them prepare dinner, they feed us a ridiculous amount and Ronanol (our 11yearold host brother who I totally wanted to take home with me ha) played board games with us. After dinner we got all dressed up in the traditional local get up and all walked down (in the pouring rain, thunder and lightening) to the local community hall and learnt how to dance like locals! It was great fun, but boy is it tiring trying to keep up with an 11yearold dancing in altitude!

In the morning after breakfast we had to say goodbye to our family, and all the animals and we jumped back on to the boat to head for Uros (floating) Islands. Here we heard all about how they create these islands out of the reef and how they sustain their lives on them and basically use the reef for everything, including eating it. We also had an interesting gondala ride around the area and saw all the different communities and families, a fascinating way to live.

It was during our picnic lunch that we heard about the impending strikes/protests planned for Peru the next day so, our plans had to be changed and we had to head straight back to Puno and then instead of staying - head straight for the border and La Paz so we didn't get stuck in Peru.

As it was so last minute, the trip was interesting. The border normally closes earlier but, after a bit of convincing, they stayed open for us ... but literally slamed the door directly on our heels ... we were also a little late for the ferry crossing so ... we all stayed on the bus as it drove on to what seemed like this dingy type thing which took the bus, with us in it over the water ... was rather disconcerting.. It felt like the longest trip ever and, the bus was generally freezing as we climbed further in to altitude and La Paz but, thankfully and perhaps somewhat surprisingly we made it safely around midnight!