Yet another early morning bus journey heading for Copacabana, not the Brazilian beach in Rio or the club immortalised by Barry Manilow …… No, this is a small town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which is the highest navigable lake in the world and spans the borders of Bolivia and Peru. We spent the night in Copacabana, where we stayed in the penthouse of a four storey greenhouse - Great view but hellishly hot. Next day we crossed to Isla Del Sol, landing on the north side of the island and hiked six hours to the south, where we would spend the night. The lake was at 4000 metres asl and the first 3 hours of our hike was all uphill with great views and a number of Incan and pre-Incan sites to explore.

On arrival at the southern village there was a very steep descent, through cobbled streets and no cars, only donkeys and llamas. We found a hostel and were the only guests, which was spooky especially given we were told that the islanders practised many pre-Christian rituals …..Memories of the "Wicker Man" kept drifting into our thoughts but we survived the freezing cold night and returned on the early boat to Copacabana.

We had a meal on the last night with Charlie and Jo (previously met in Salta and La Paz) and took a bus to Puno, Peru the following morning. Puno was a fairly dull town on the Peruvian shores of Lake Titicaca and its main claim to fame is its proximity to the "Floating Islands". These islands are man-made from reeds, with houses constructed of reeds and several hundred people live on them - They are the Uros people who began their floating existence centuries ago in an effort to isolate themselves from the aggressive Collas and the Incas.

We also visited Isla Taquile a "proper" island further into the sacred lake, where the Quechua speaking people maintain a lifestyle untouched by the modern world ….. and the men knit. After our visit to the islands we inadvertently found ourselves in a "Rock Bar" that had cheap cocktails and good music ….. Need we say more?