Having survived Death Road and woken up stiffer than i have been for a while we were back on the bus at 8:30am for a day trip to Tiwanacu pre Inca archeological site. I'll be honest I was quite up for accidentally missing the bus and staying on bed, but alas no. On route we stopped at a view point to admire the snowy mountains from a distance, and heard about the Bolivian traditions which provided an explanation about how and why they provided offerings to Mama Pacha, mother earth and explained to us how they use the baby lamas in the ceremonies. Now we understood why they were for sale in the witches markets.

We arrived at the ruins and walked around and visited the 7 stepped pyramid, of which 5 have been dug up by archeologists, the nice thing about this is that rather than ship in an international team of archaeologists they are using local people. This project will continue for 10 years whist they uncover from ruins and continue to explore the history of he area. We were also able to visit an underground section which was very echoey. We also saw the sun gate. A really interesting morning, from here it was more souvenir shopping, which involved another hat, a pair of gloves and a traditionally dressed lady scaring the living daylights out of me by jumping out of the pile of hats that i was looking at to see if i needed any help! We then made our way back to the hotel for more shopping, we don't know how we are getting to Puno yet as there is a strike so we are on food buying duty and more wrist bands, because i really don't have enough.We then discover we are leaving at 6:00am, deep joy! So an early diner and then to bed.

The alarm goes off at 5:30am, oh dear god, really! Feeling really rather unsociable and irritated I board the bus and in 20 mins the bloody thing has broken down. But to be fair a replacement rocked up pretty quickly, the two G groups hop on the next one, we had just warmed the first one up and then got on this one and it was like an ice block. I was just hoping that my bag had made it from the broken bus to the new bus……..we shall see.

We then arrive at Lake Tekkikaka where we begin our border crossing experience. We make it across on a very small and fumey boat, the bus precariously balanced on a tiny floating wooden thing made it across. We all had a funny feeling, out of one of the small cafes the most gloomy and dramatic music, and a boat called titanic. The bus made it across without getting wet, we board and then get dropped at the Bolivia exit, we then make the walk with all our gear into Peru, this was tough and again i couldnt breathe because of the altitude which is 10times worse when lugging 30kgs of crap!

We then hop on a boat after a 20min walk and i then spend the next 3 hrs desperately trying to get these up to date. We then arrive in Puno, where we start of by getting a cyclo type thing, but with all our rucksacks, poor blokes cycling! Immediately we hit a drain and thought we might fall out. 5mins in we were cycling straight into a protest, my first thought cling on to all my stuff, it was fine. Its was due to the fact some people were still working even though there was a strike on. We arrive at the hotel and immediately head out to buy gifts for the families we will be staying with tomorrow night.

It was also a member of the groups birthday so it was drinks night, we haven't really had a proper night out since our first night in Sucre. We found a nice little pub, i sampled the local beer again, pisco sours were doing the rounds, then a drinking game was started, not totally sure what it was but involved potentially embarrassing questions, a pack of cards and a shot of tequila. I didn't lose thank god. We then ended up in a deserted club and rocked the dance floor till about 1ish, the single ladies in the group then made our way back in fits of giggles again…….luckily i didn't get silenco shouted at me this time when we got back to the hotel.

Definitely knew i had been out the night before but wasn't feeling too ropey, today we board our boat that will take us to the floating islands. There are 120 in total, they are 3 meters deep. And all the houses are made of reeds, it takes about 2 weeks to build a house. We saw inside the houses and went for a ride on a reed boat. I then nearly got left on the island, I got to the boat as it was pulling off!!! We then made our way to taquile island where we made the long walk up to the top. All the farm land here is on terraces as it's so steep. A lot of these were pre inca. We saw a lot of traditional dress, the type of clothes they wear tell you what their status is. If a man wears a white hat it means he is single. The women's clothes also show whether she is married or single. We had a very nice lunch and then made our way down the 500 odd steps back to the boat. From here we made our way back to the main land to a place called Luquina where we would meet our families that we would be staying with. But first on the agenda was the football match aghast the locals, this was quite funny to watch.

We then met our families, Amanda and I were going to be staying with Mama and Papa, Pedro and Matilda and their two daughters aged 12 and 15. the older daughter then provided us with the traditional dress, which comprised of a pink skirts, black jacket, pom poms, hat and white sash. We then watched them perform the traditional dance. Next was our turn, it was good fun, but my co-ordination wasn't great as normal and my pom poms were out of control, poor chris got smacked in the face with one! It was really good fun. After we trekked up the hill through much farm land in the picth black to our families home where we would have dinner with them. i thought i was going to pass out, i had so many layers on underneath i was massively overheating after the walk. The daughter couldn't help but smile whilst i was struggling to get my waterproof, puffer jacket and hoodie off from underneath the traditional coat, oh and not forgetting my massive scarf!

Our room was simple but absolutely lovely. We had a vegetable soup to start off with which was a like a broth brimming with veggies with a slight curry flavour, it was delicious. We then had a veggie stew with rice, very tasty again. We were so full, we had opted to keep our traditional dress on from dinner, but this probably wasn't the best idea as the belt was so tight ! We were in bed by 8:30pm and up and making bread with Matilda at 6:45am. They were such a lovely family, for the morning we spent our time helping Matilda peel potatoes, popping beans and separating dried beans. We were also in charge of watering the potatoes, now, we were being very careful to make sure we got the roots wet and tried to avoid the leaves, mum had always said don't water the leaves, they will scorch in the sun, well, not the case here. Pedro then showed us how it should really be done. You just launch a bucket of water over everything! Then we were on piglet duty, we had to round them up, they were very quick and didn't want to move, I was useless. They were very cute through!

After this we bid farewell to our families and thanked them for looking after and made our way back to Puno. I bought another woolly hat, this one is my favourite and will be my inca trail hat.

Another day another bus, and today we are off to Cusco, first job to sort out all our hiking gear.

laters......

Lou (I am nearly home.....) wood