Lake Titticaca, Peru

After our amazing Jungle adventure Nicola and I flew back to the dizzying heights of La Paz. We both agreed that it was the worst flight we've ever had. The plane was tiny and even though it was only a 45 minute flight the turbulence was awful. We were both very happy to land! I'm not normally a bad flyer but I've decided I don't like hearing beeping sounds from the cockpit, or seeing pilots frantically pressing buttons. Ignorance is bliss.

Our plan was to only spend a night in La Paz before moving on to the town of Copacabana which is on the Bolivian side of Lake Titticaca. Unfortunately for us the Bolivians love a bit of social unrest. Some serious striking has meant that all roads to Copacabana and the town itself are closed. We moan about tube strikes that last a couple of days but when the Bolivians strike, they strike for weeks.

This was a real disappointment for us. From Copacabana it is possible to visit 'Isla Del Sol' which is an Island on the lake famous for being the birth place of the Inca's. It even has the ruins of the original settlements. Still, not wanting to miss out on seeing the lake we decided to take the alternative option of visiting Puno which is a town on the Peruvian side.

The coach journey from La Paz and across the border was only 6 hours and was really enjoyable as the scenery in this part of the world is stunning. After crossing yet another strange rural border, the journey rounds the edge of Lake so we got the chance to take in the true scale of it. At 3800m above sea level (higher than La Paz) it's the highest lake in the world and is truly enormous.

We arrived in Puno which in all honesty isn't the nicest of places. Most houses are completely unfinished with whole sections missing. Its fair to say that its a very poor place that is barely propped up by the passing tourism. I'll give the Peruvians some credit though as they do have a state of the art, rubber crumb, all weather football pitch. Priorities clearly in the right place.

There are day tours that you can do from Puno to some of the other islands on the lake but we decided to give this a miss . Some of them were expensive and we'd heard they were very touristy and not that great. Instead we chose to explore the town and go for some drinks with the Ozzy guys we met in Rurrenabaque. There was quite a lively pedestrian area in the town that had some nice bars and restaurants. The main highlight being a fish bowl cocktail called a 'Pisco Sour' which is a Peruvian special. It was very nice and I'm sure more will be consumed in Cuzco!

Overall it was probably the most disappointing part of our trip so far and a real shame that we missed out on Copacabana. We have now moved on to the historical and colonial capital of South America, Cuzco. We intend to spend about 9 days here to do some private Spanish lessons before setting off on the mighty 'Inca Trail' to Machu Picchu.

Thanks for all the messages!

Harry & Nicola

Copa Del Sh*thead Scoreboard: NH 122 - 136 HF