There's not too much to tell about Cusco as we spent time there either side of the Inca trail so spent most of the time beforehand shopping for warm socks and gloves and relaxing when we got back. They do good massages there and they cost less than £4 an hour! We spent my birthday in Cusco and had a meal with our group that night and even had a birthday cake! One thing we did notice is that there were far more foreigners (or gringos as they call us!) there than anywhere else, they seem to out number the locals.

After leaving Cusco we had to head to Puno, unfortunately it meant that we had to go back along the road where we encountered the rioting farmers and the protesting was still going on. We left early in the morning and luckily the blockades were deserted, we are not sure if that was because some agreement with the government had just been reached or because the police had shot some of the farmers! The majority of the blockades were still there with some being about 3 foot high, but a way through had been cleared and the beginnings of a clear up operation seemed to be in place.

From Puno we took a boat trip to Uros Island which is basically a floating island made of reeds on Lake Titicaca. The Uros people made it 500-600 years ago to escape the Incas and still live there today. They gather the reeds from the lake and they are very important to them as they form the island they live on, they build their houses and boats with them and they eat them. One lady invited us into her reed house which was quite small and simple, and most of it was taken up by the bed. They have electricity from solar panels which look a little out of place stood next to reed houses. We had a short ride in one of ther elaborate reed boats before seeing the biggest condor we have ever seen with a wing span of at least two metres, it seemed to be a pet of one of the Uros people. While on the reed boat we looked up and saw a complete rainbow circling the sun. Next stop - Bolivia.