19 de Octubre
Today we had a long bus journey to Puno. Puno is the town next to Lake Titicaca. At Puno bus station we got a taxi to take us to a hostal, then wandered around Puno.

Lake Titicaca Facts:
Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable (by big ships) lake in the world at 3812m;
By volume of water it is the largest lake in the whole of South America;
In the deepest part the of lake it is 281 metres deep;
The shore length is 699 miles long;
There are more than 42 islands in Lake Titicaca;
Lake Titicaca has shores both in Peru and Bolivia;
It is 118 miles long and 50 miles wide;
If you count the Caspian Sea as a lake, then it is the 18th biggest lake in the world!

20 de Octubre
Today we got on a boat to see................ The Uros floating islands! These island were first made by the Aymaran people so they could escape from the Incas. The islands are made with the reeds from the lake. The roots are used as the base and the top is covered by all the stalks of the reeds. The reeds on top are lovely to walk on as they are squishy. The island we went to was a home to 5 families, and almost everything they had was made of the reeds: including the houses and boats. There is also a part of the reed that you can eat! So of course we tried some: I didn't really like it, it was a bit weird. We learnt that they only really used thier houses to sleep in as they only had a bed inside them. When we had finished looking at the island we got on a reed boat to go to another island. The boat was quite slow, due to the fact that there were only two men rowing it. I didn't mind the speed as I'm sure they were much faster than I would have been! On the boat a boy called Brian sang a song, first in Aymaran, then in Spanish, and lastly in Japanese! Near the end Brian did a bit of rowing to get us to a big island with a restaurant and a lady grinding flour. I thought the islands were amazing, Jack even wanted to live on one!

The rest of the day was spent by getting on a bus, crossing the best border ever to Bolivia and going the rest of the way to Copacabana (which is still on the edge of lake Titicaca). The Peru to Bolivia border was the best ever crossing because: all our bags were on the bus so we didn't have to carry them as we walked through a quiet village, under an arch visiting the migration offices on the way. Also the fact that it wasn't hot made a very pleasant change!

21 de Octubre
BY JACK
We got up and went down 6 flights of stairs, out of the hotel and down to the beach. Here we went on a Donald Duck pedalo on Lake Titicaca. It was really hard to steer and we went the wrong way and the lady shouted at us.
After the pedalo we went on a bus to La Paz, but we had to cross a bit of the lake. There wasn't a bridge, so guess what? The bus went on a raft that looked like some planks of wood with a motor. We had to get off the bus and go on a different boat. I thought that the bus would sink but unfortunately it didn't sink.
We got back on the bus all the way to La Paz and found a hotel. I could live in this hotel because we had a gigantic flat! We had a sitting room for once and we even had a hiding place.

22 de Octubre
It's Dad's birthday today! He got two self-made cards (from Jack and I) and a woolly hat from Granny. Whilst we were lounging around it started to rain, so that delayed going out. So instead, we spent the morning in our penthouse apartment at the Hotel Continental.

The apartment had 4 bedrooms two of those bedrooms with an ensuite, a kitchen, a big sitting room, another room with a sofa, a third bathroom and a balcony! When it finally stopped raining we went out to a market, where Jack got an Alpaca cardigan. Some shops in the market were selling dried out, dead, baby Lamas. Urgh! For tea we had a massive broccoli pizza.

23 de Octubre
It rained again this morning, so we stayed in until it had stopped. When it stopped we went to the dead lama market (known as the Witches Market) again, and I got a jumper. This evening Granny went to the airport with Dad, whilst we went to bed.

24 de Octubre
Today - surprise surprise - it rained again, but unfortunatelly we had to go out. So we spent most of the day out in the rain. On our travels around La Paz I got a poncho, and found out that: in Spanish if you put "ria" on the end of anything it makes it a shop e.g a pizzaria is a pizza restaurant!

25 de Octubre
We walked to the bus station and got a bus to Oruro, then another bus to Potosi. On the journey to Potosi we saw some lovely views - some with lamas, others with a canyon. In Potosi we found a hotel then some delicious pizza.

Tammy Love the lake titicaca facts! and that you have had pizza a lot! xxx

Oct 26, 2013

Brendan Bolivia is a pizza cake!

Oct 27, 2013

grandma Did Daddys birthday Pizza have candles? What do people do with dead,dried,baby Llamas. Arent the Uros Islands amazing but a bit funny to walk on. Why did Jack want the bus to sink? I really look forward to getting your blog. Glad that Jack is writing some too.

Oct 28, 2013

Grandpa Great blog! Question: How do they get big ships up to Lake Titicaca? It's just as well you got out of the bus before it went on the raft, or else it would have sunk with Jack on it Grandma still worrying about dried dead baby llama - I obviously don't give her enough to worry about!

Oct 28, 2013

Wendy Sounds brilliant - if a bit wet! Was anything not made of reeds.. except the pizza? You seem to be learning a lot of Spanish too!

Oct 28, 2013

Garage and the whippet Hi josie and jack the uros floating islands soud amazing i wish i could see them can you speak spanish really fast now? you seem to get a lot of practise . Its raining alot here too . wheres the next stop??? Have fun ()-;

Oct 29, 2013