Well we made it to Peru our final country destination!!

We arrived in Lima at about midnight and got a taxi straight to our hostel in Miraflores, the next day the nice people at the hostel helped us sort out our plans while we`re here and so we bombed it down to buy a bus ticket for that night to Puno as due to lack of time here we`re having to miss Nasca :(

The hostel sorted our out hostel in Puno and our trip to Lake titicaca too so we were all set and once again preparing for an extensive bus journey! We got the bus from Lima at 6pm and it was an OK bus that we had a game of Bingo on - it was like being back in Spanish class at school plaing it in spanish obviously - we didnt win.

We arrived in Arequipa at 9am and then had to wait till 12.30 for our connecting bus to Puno, we then arrived in Puno at about 6pm after a very windy route!

We were met at the bus station and taken to our hotel where we just crashed out from lack of sleep till the morning. Where we were picked up at 7.45am to be taken on our tour of Lake Titicaca.

We boarded the boat and there were about 22 of us - including an irish girl who was the only other person our age and she was really nice (Jo) and a group of 8 freaks from America who were ´spiritual healers´whatever they are!!

Our first destination in the Lake was the floating islands of Uros, that are just made out of the reeds that grow in the lake, the guide showed us how the islands are made and anchored down to stop them floating around, and each family there had a stall selling handicrafts. Here on the islands the reeds are used for pretty much everything including food so we all tried eating the reeds but to be honest they didnt taste of anything. We then got on a reed boat across to another part of Uros and had another little wander about before getting on our boat again for the 3 hr drive across to Amantani, where we reached the port we were then split out to the families so Vic and I and Jo (irish girl) were handed to Errmandahildo (god knows how you spell his name!) who walked us to his house - up the hill so as we weren´t used tothe altitude we had to keep stopping. At the house we were shown our room which was like a shed with a stone floor and walls and a thatched roof and a candle - as theres no electricity here on the island apart from some places that run off a generator.

Matilda is the woman of the house and Errmandahildos daughter and she has a husband and baby who also live there. She cooked us lunch of soup and a plate of potatoes and tomato and cheese, which we couldnt finish there was so much of it. We then all met up with the rest of the group for a walk up to the highest point on the island which was hard work due to the altitude as at the top it was 4130metres above sea level!

After that we went down to the plaza and bought some supplies for our family to say thank you such as rice and sugar and candles. We then had dinner of soup again and then omlette and rice, then we sat chatting in our room as we couldnt really communicate with Matilda, then she came in with traditioanl peruvian dress for us for dress in - very funny i got the giggles which set matilda off with them too! We then walked up to the main plaza and in a little room just off it there was a fiesta with a little band and dancing for a couple of hours which was fun although tiring. We then crawled into bed hoping we`d be warm enough through out the night.

I didnt manage to get any sleep at all there not sure if it was due to the lumpy bed or whether it was because according to the freaky spiritualists a magnetical line runs through the island and apparently they all didnt get much sleep either as they were too energised from that!?! Any way we left really early and got the boat at 8am after having a pancake for brekkie and then Matilda giving us flower necklaces.

We were then on the boat for an hour till we reached Taquile where we walked for about an hour from the port up to the main plaza where there was an arts and crafts shop and a couple of cafes. We sat there in the sun for a while but around the sun was a weird shadow and rainbow thing - apparently due to the rain clouds that are there?! We then walked a bit further to a restaurant where we were talked through some of the traditional wear and crafts then we ate lunch there before heading down the 500 and odd steps down to the port where we got back on the boat for the 3 hour ride back to puno.