Saturday 20th October - Rugby World Cup day

We had to take a risk and travel into Puno (peru) to stay on schedule, but risked missing the rugby world cup if no where in Puno was playing it!!!! We got a coach at 8am which took us through the bolivian border into peru. We arrived at what we thought was the border, but it was a lake the coach needed to cross, by boat.. well if you could call it that!! we all got off and hop'd on to a small raft to cross the lake.. our coach drove on to a floating platform and crossed with us!!!!!!! we boarded the coach again and head off round the mountains until we finally reached the border, which you get off and walk across after getting your exit stamp, and entry stamp the other end! after being hounded by the locals on the coach we set off again. The views across the lake titicaca were great, well it looks like the sea its soooooooo big!!! Nikki was getting very worried by now as we'd been delayed quite a bit by traffic coming out of la paz and we were missing the kick off!!! At Puno we got a taxi with a friendly backpacker.. basically cos we had NO peruvian money and they wouldnt take $$$$... at the hostel we checked in, rather slowly and rushed through town to found a pub playing the world cup. Puno town was refreshing as it was lively, lots of nice restuarants and pubs etc and people understood english! we were just about to give up when down a side alley we heard the roar of english men, they must be watching the world cup!! and sure enough they were, so nikki was very happy as we took seats at the side and ordered drinks and food.. I was daring (considering the state of my tummy still) and ordered a local dish which was basically mashed potatoes in balls fried with spag bol sauce and fresh veg inside, yum yum yum, everyone was admiring my dish while england were loosing!!! there was a very brave south african guy in the bar too, who cheered his head off when they won, but the english were good and laughed at him and shook his hand, then moaned about their loss!!! That night we ate out in a pizzeria (which there are millions off in puno) and had a great meal, though tom had kebab sticks and i had spag bol to be safe..

Sunday 21st October

VERY early start for our day trip on lake titicaca, 6.30am we were to be met, but that ended up being 7.30am, so we were NOT impressed! we headed down to a boat in the port and met a nice couple from kent who had been travelling around the world for 11 months and had 1 month left. Tom was relieved to have some male company, and they had lots in common so Tom shared his collection of FHM magazines whilst we sailed across the lakes!!!! Our first stop was at the floating reed islands, which literally do as they say on the tin.. we were warned they were really touristy and they were, but fun none the less. We arrived at one island with a group of women in local bright costume waiting for us. The islands are very weird to walk on, very squidgy! We sat on reed benches whilst shown how they made they islands, which is very clever, and ate reed roots while learning of their history. After nikki and i (lisa) went into one of the reed houses with a local girl and both came out dressed in the huge bright puffy skirts, jackets and bonnets!!! Tom had a giggle while taking pics of us twirling around outside the houses!!! after buying a tonne of bracelets they were selling we got a reed boat to another island, where we made friends with the island birds (feathered variety) before getting back on our yacht again. We had a 2 1/2 hour boat ride (because they go slow to save diesel!!) to an island in the lakes (this was were tom and charlie entertained them selves with FHM magazines and a debate on whether FHM or Cosmo was a better magazine!!!). When we finally arrived we had to hike up endless steps to the top of the mountain, and was promptly hounded by a hord of young kids selling more bracelets!!! i brought 1 and ended up with about 20 kids in my face trying to make me buy more. Lunch was in a house overlooking the lake, where i tried trout and really enjoyed it. After we learnt about the local culture and how to identify single and married men and women (by their hats and scarves)... that kept us entertained on the hike down as we tried to work out who was single and married etc!!! 3 1/2 hours back was not great but was better being able to chat to our new english friends, and the aussies we had on board as well!!!! was a good but tiring day, and we really fancied mexican food that night :o) to our surprise we found a mexican restaurant with very strange things hanging around the walls and ceiling, but the food was great!!!!!!

Monday 22nd October

We had booked the luxury Inca Express to Cusco, as we didnt fancy a boring 5 hour journey!! the inca express was 9 hours but stopped about every 1 1/2 hours at inca sites, which was quite interesting, and we stopped for lunch.. It was definately worth doing, though we did get bored looking at stones in the inca museum and looking at their church which is their version of the sisteen chapel... But the church did have a cool painting showing that poor people go to heaven and rich people go to hell!!!! i'm soooooooooo poor right now!!!!! was a good day and definately recommend the inca express... we arrived in cuzco about 5pm after driving through some crazy storms in the mountians...