We made it to Cusco bright and early and took a nap in the bean bags of our hostel before we could get into our room. That was becoming a common theme. What's the point of an overnight bus if you can't check in until 2pm? We had two days before our inca trek, so decided to make the most of it. If you didn't know, Peru is pretty famous for good food. For this reason we decided to do a cooking course, though our instructor wanted us to call it a "culinary experien...

Lake Titicaca - the highest lake in the world*. We ventured here from our party hostel in La Paz, in need of a break from the booze and some peace and quiet. Getting there was an adventure. We left bright and early on the bus, we didn't think this would be anything out of the ordinary until suddenly, a body of water was in front of us. Everyone was ordered off the bus and onto a couple of little boats. That was the easy part, we were on the other side of the riv...

We caught one of South America's great overnight buses to La Paz. Even in Bolivia they were still fairly comfortable and we managed to get some sleep. A highlight (for Kim and Justine, I was asleep) was when the bus stopped and all the traditionally dressed women, the Cholitas, jumped off the bus in their full skirts and pooped a squat all in a row. Apparently that is one reason they wear the full skirts, so they can go with some form of modesty everywhere. Geniu...

After the salt flats tour we jumped a local bus for the four hour trip to Potosi. Potosi is a town that causes some conflict amongst tourists. It is the highest town in Bolivia and also a mining town. Originally in this town the Spanish basically treated the Bolovians like slaves and sent them into the mines to come out with silver. The silver ran out years ago, but it is still a mining town for other minerals. Now - Potosi is a topic of conflict amongst touris...

After the bus ride from hell and making it to San Pedro de Atacama (which was a non event) we booked on a salt flats tour that would take us from Chile to Bolivia. Unfortunately, that meant not a long time in Chile, but we want to get used to altitude and see some more sites before we hit up the Inca Trail April 9th. We did our research on the companies, because you don't want to end up with a rusted bomb and a driver that gets drunk every night. We used Cordil...