Hola from La Paz!!!!!

We´ve had a very busy 2 weeks on our tour with Gap adventures!!!

Our tour began in Lima where we met Stu and Dave - two fellow Brummies, Claudia from Switzerland and our guide Jesus (pronounced hezuus)! Our trip began early the next day with a flight into Puerto Maldornado for some jungle action!!! We stayed in the Cayman lodge and not long after arriving were introduced to a massive tarantula which lived under Stu and Daves room, haha! The following few days consisted of a night walk when we were left on our own for 10 mins in the darkness of the jungle! aaaahh, a trek and canoe ride where we saw loooooads of cute little monkeys! awwww! Amazing food, a mud bath and a swim in the Amazon made the jungle a place we will never forget. :)

Next was a flight to Cuzco, a tour round the sacred valley of the Inca´s and then some rest in Ollytantambo (sp?!) to acclimatise. Then began our Inca trail trek, which we were very lucky to do as we began on the first day of it reopening, meaning we were the first people to do it in two months! It was four days of absolutely stunning views, Inca ruins but lots and lots of steps, in particular Dead Womans pass on the 2nd day which was EFFORT, but all was worth it with our first glimpse of Macchu Picchu from the sun gate! The whole experience was made even better by the incredible porters that carried all our stuff, cooked us dinner (including cake - very impressive 4000 meters above sea level!) and even bought us hot water to wash at 5 in the morning! We were even lucky enough to meet the porter that completed the Inca trail in a mere 3hrs 40mins! Insane!

After finishing the trek we headed back to Cuzco for a day to recover, our muscles required some much needed rest. Then was a visit to Lake Titicaca, where we visited people who lived on floating islands (who were surprisingly large considering they had a diet of potato, corn, and fish... suprising these floating islands are still afloat..). Was pretty incredible to see though, we made friends with an islander called Victoria who invited us to her house, although she spoke no English, so we sat in awkward silence for a bit and then politely smiled and left, tehe. After heading to Taquille island for lunch, we returned to Puno for cocktails, kareoke, feathers and a hotel complaint the next morning for being noisy, pah!

The last stage of our tour was a bus journey to La Paz and a visit to Tiwanaku where we learned about the Aymara culture, in particular a special stone you rub to cure any ailments, and saw lots of pots. Next was a trip to the Witches market where they sell Llama foetuses (keep you guessing as to whos getting that as a present! ewww!) That evening we had a lovely meal - Bolivia is ridiculously cheap so we could really splash out, yumyum! We said goodbye to Jesus after our last supper, hehe, and prepared ourselves for death road the next day.

So now we begin our adventures in Bolivia, which started yesterday with a mountain bike down the worlds most dangerous road, although less scary than expected and a pretty incredible experience...if you go slow...! Perfect weather, amazing views, adrenaline rush and a swim and a beer to finish it all off. Awesome day!

Attempting to organise next few weeks which will hopefuly include some volunteering and a chance to improve our spanish, will update again soon, hope everyone is well!

Adios chicos! Muchos amore xxxx