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Our last chapter of travels in South America
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La paz > Copacabana (Bolivia) > Puno (Peru) > Cusco >Aquas Calientes (Machu Picchu) >Lima
It was time to leave La Paz and take on the four hour bus journey to Copacabana in Bolivia . Copacabana is situated on the shores of Lake titicaca which is the worlds highest lake at 3800m above sea level so further struggles with altitude awaited us.
We arrived to the chilled out town and hotel the El mirador where we dropped the bags and headed to the shores where we chartered our own Yacht (maybe a small fishing boat with an old man driving) , he took us over to the floating islands which is islands made up of the totora reed which consists of whole villages floating permantly on the Lake . After an hour of having a drink with the locals and watching them farm trout at the lake we returned back to the mainland for further relaxation .
Copacabana is extremely sleepy so after a couple of nights we moved on by bus to Puno leaving happy memories of Bolivia behind as we crossed the border into Peru . The main basis of going to Puno is to take our next choice of travel to the more livelier and historic town being Cusco so it was an overnighter only here.
We was up early In Puno heading for the Peru rail station to which we was taking the Andean explorer 10 hour train journey to Cusco. The Andean explorer is the Peruvian equivalent to the Orient express at home and is packed with approx 30 tourists enjoying silver service 3course dinners , afternoon teas , traditional entertainment , drinks and plenty of photo opportunities from the back of the gold lined open ended back carriage , it suited me and Julia as two backpackers just perfect! We really enjoyed it though and as it is so expensive locals never get the chance to go on it so they literally at times run from there houses lined at the trackside just to wave or as we came into Cusco throw stones!
We spent a couple of days in Cusco doing the usual tourist thing , having our shoes cleaned by the pests that are shoe shine boys for 50p a pair , shopping , fine dining where i took on a fillet of alpaca which is a member of the llama family (i would not recommend it ) plus enjoying a few beers .
In Peru at the moment it is coming up to the election on October 4th so we got to see a few rallys with peruvians supporting there favoured party plus it was a one hundred year celebration of something , we never worked out actually what but you can see from the photos it was fairly colourful and lively!
After enjoying Cusco it was time to board the lowly backpacker train this time to Aquas calientes this is the nearest town to one of the wonders of the world Machu Picchu . Typical of Peru we endured the bearable train to our destination and once we got off we were told that Peru rail was on strike and we cannot get back for four days! This would not have been so bad except that train is the only way to get to Aquas calientes as there is no road which left hundreds of people in mad panic as plenty had to return the next day for flights onwards bound! This meant the majority got straight back on the train and went straight back not even seeing Machu Picchu before the strike began! Luckily me and Julia had a five day window so it was not too major except having to queue for 3 hours to get our new tickets printed and revised .
In Aquas calientes we stayed in a lovely hotel called Gringo Bills upon arrival we recieved a lovely upgrade to a super deluxe room with cable tv , a huge bed and balcony it was an easy relief from backpacking and hostels for a few days.
The next day at 4.45 am we were up and heading for the bus to Machu Picchu the lost city of the incas from 1400AD , the reason for being this early is that for Huayna Picchu the mountain next to Macchu Picchu to where you get the best view only has 400 restricted tickets a day and with 3500 people a day often visiting we thought it would be unlikely to get a ticket . Luckily because of the strike there were no same day visitors so we were so lucky to get a ticket and climb the 2720m to its peak to enjoy the best panoramic views . Although our lack of fitness really did show as we could barely move at the end of the day.
After being stranded for the few days with more pizzerias and massage offers than you can imagine the train strike ended and we returned to Cusco where we had one night before heading for the airport to Lima .
We are now in Lima , we arrived to the Hostel booked on the internet , now I (Mark) chose this Hostel and in my defence I can only say the internet deceived me! We were greeted by the hostal owner stinking of alcohol by midday introducing us to our room which resembled a squat! So out went the budget and we are now in a 3star hotel . Lovely!
We have spent two trips standing out like sore thumbs on the top level of sightseeing buses taking in the city and surrounding districts and visting further inca ruins which Peru is so famous for .
Two days left where we intend to relax before heading to New Zealand where hopefully some extreme activities will make for better photos and reading .
We hope you have enjoyed it so far .
Love Mark and Julia
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