Hello all,

Well, Copacabana was soooo amazing. We had fun gettng there though.....our bus was at 7am from La Paz so we set an alarm for 5.50am (yuck!) and got to the correct address to find no bus/bus station, just closed offices. Thinking they had given us the incorrect address we went to the two bus stations in La Paz to try and locate our eleusive transfer. We ended up getting a brand new ticket (25 Bolivianos, shocking I know, ok so that is only 2.50 quid ha ha).

Anyway our bus rocked up, single decker, 16 seats, no recline, tassels EVERYWHERE! Pure comedy, then along came our humongous, sweating bus driver who proceeded to climb on the ROOF of the bus and load up our backpacks covered with a single piece of tarpolin. SOOOO funny.

To get to Copa you need to cross the Copa Strait which involves getting off the bus, on a tiny boat and your bus getting on a boat of its own. As we arrived the queues were horrendous. Apparently it was too windy to sail double deckers across the lake on a wooden plank......never....! So four and a half hours later we finally boarded our tiny boat and tried not to capsize as we crossed.

On the other side we waited for our bus which zoomed off into the town at about 100mph so then we proceeded to chase it (with backpacks on) until a 4x4 blocked it so he had no choice but to let us all pile in, it was hilarious. The views as we drove along the island were spectacular, glittering lake Titicaca in the sunshine, surrounded by dusty mountains, framed in the distance by hundreds of snow-capped peaks! Breathtaking.

Copa was gorgeous, we got a HUGE private room with a double and a single, windows all round and a bathroom that smelt like egg all for 10quid per night. We found Sam, Cat, Tink and Mo and some other friends (the geezer birds) Sophie, Amy and Louise and had a hectic night out. The following day Adds, Mo, Tink and I hiked a small mountain that overlooks the whole bay. We made it with 20 mins to spare before sunset which has now been added to one of our top trip moments. The top was scattered with huge religious concrete crosses, which made for some amazing pics when backed by the sunset.

Got sunburnt yesterday, despite being almost 0 degrees at night, its pretty hot in the day and we sat outside a reggae cafe for hours and hours, resulting in the lobster look. Must be the altitude........ha ha excuse for EVERYTHING here!

Yesterday we were supposed to have a pre-paid ticket to Puno with reed island trip included etc but the tour company had never heard of us, boo (same ticket as La Paz bus)! We contacted the people who we booked with in the UK and they are going to give us 300 quid refund whoopah.........bonus because its actually cheaper to do it ourselves. We got tickets from Copa with the rest of the gang at 6.30pm for a nice coach, oh no wait, it was a grungy minibus, we looked like a bus full of illegal immigrants being sneaked over the border. I sat up front with Cat, on the handbreak, gear lever in between my legs, not a great experience.

After 3 hours we were finally in Puno, said goodbye to everyone as they were jumping a night bus straight to Cuzco and got straight to where we are now, Point Hostel, Puno. Its pretty cool.

We are going to do an afternoon on the reed islands with the geezer birds which ends at 6.30 then get a night bus to Cuzco (this is 6.50 quid so just shows how much we were being ripped off). We will have until the 31st July to chill in Cuzco with everyone and explore the town as this is when the Inca Trail begins.

We are then planning a quick trip to a place called Huacachina, literally an oasis in the desert, check it out on google pics. You can sandboard, sunbathe and party there! Then we are heading further south to Arequipa by ourselves. We will finally be leaving the guys behind for good in Cuzco.....SUPER sad times.

Anyway, back to my cup of tea (second one in 6 weeks, i am almost drying up)

Lots of love

Both of us

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