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Hey hey, sorry this is my first blog for about 2 weeks,?weve been so busy! Im currently in Puno, Peru, on the edge of the beautiful Lake Titicaca and its raining for the first time.
Right my last entry was in Salta, Argentina,?so what happened next........
We left Salta for Tupiza in Bolivia (interesting border crossing where we bribed the guards with beer!) and spent our first night in beds for a week. Bliss! The next day a few of us went on a 3hr horse trek into Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid territory. My horse was the slowest ever and was determined to eat everything regardless of how much I whipped him - I was the only one to be given a whip on account of my snail-horse! But the scenery was impressive with big red cliffs and desert etc. I must watch the film when Im home.
From Tupiza we travelled to Uyuni and ate "the highest pizza in the world - pizza with altitude!" Debatable claim but I reccommend the spicy llama pizza! The next day was spent exploring the salt flats. Theyre 2000 sq kms of salt and you just cant get to grips with the size of the place, its so impressive. We drove to see a hostel made of salt (which had all the flags of the world outside except the union jack) and then to Fish Island which has the biggest cacti Ive ever seen! Then spent the rest of our time taking silly photos - Im going to upload all my pics as soon as I get a?fast enough connection. In the eve we went to a train cemetry for some more silly pics?(and naked ones?- why do boys insist on doing that???)
From Uyuni we had a long bumpy?drive to Potosi, the highest city in the world at 4200m. Phew it makes you puff just walking down the road! Potosi is famous for its huge silver mines so we booked a trip round them. The min age for miners is 12 yrs old and av life expectancy is 40. Its horrendous down there, I struggled to spend half an hour down there, let alone a life time! The highlight of the day has to be the bomb making - yep Im serious! We bought sticks of plastic explosive and bags of ammonium nitrate from the market, went up to near the mines, had a lesson in bomb assembly (biting the detonator is scary!) then buried them, lit them, and ran like crazy!! We had 5 mins to get away but it was pretty scary (and running in welly boots at 4600m is tough!). Very cool!?
From Potosi we drove to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world. Spent the morning buying souveniers - sorry guys I do buy you things but then love them so much that I think Ill end up keeping it all!! Then caught a 45min flight?down to the Bolivian jungle/pampas lands. Nice small plane flying at what seemed like a 45 degree angle downwards the whole time! But Rurrenbaque, the town we stayed in, was nice and we had a good night out in the Moskkito Bar celebrating James bday. The next day consisted of a horrendous 3 hr jeep ride then a 2 hr canoe trip to?our Lodge. The jungle rocks! We saw pink dolphins, howler and spider monkeys, alligators, turtles?and lots of cool birds on the ride to the lodge. That eve we even went alligator hunting which felt very intrepid! The biggest we saw was 2m long and its pretty freaky to see their red eyes glinting back in the torchlight! The next day we went on a 2hr trek to find anacondas -?unfortunately all we saw were mosquitos though - followed by a failed attempt to swim with the dolphins! But the pirahna fishing was fun! Theyre vicious! I didnt catch any but some people did so we ate them for dinner - tasty but not much meat on them at all.
To cut a long story short, the river tried to swim with dolphins in turned out to not be the cleanest and 8 of the 12 of us got ill. Yuck! The return journey was horrendous with people being sick out of the jeep windows and on the plane. Lovely! I avoided being sick but felt horrendous for 24 hrs. It must have been a very nasty bug because our local guide got ill too and hes accustomed to most things and said hes never ill.
We spent the next day back in La Paz recovering and shopping (what better cure??) then met a whole new load of people in the eve for the next leg of our trip. We said a sad goodbye to the three Irish girls and gained another 10 people (again mostly aussies) bringing our numbers up to 19 and making it a squeeze in the truck!
Now comes definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far - Death Road! Yes I think I said I wouldnt do it but peer pressure got the best of me and I succumbed and Im very glad! Basically it was a 64km mountain bike ride, starting at 3365m altitude and ending at about 1000m. 99% was downhill so we had double suspension bikes with hydraulic disk brakes, full face helmet and gloves. We started above the clouds and ended in the jungle. Phew I was exhausted!! I dont need to explain why its called Death Road Im sure. Eek! The photos and videos are very cool!
So from La Paz in our crowded truck we drove to Puno where we are now. Yesterday morning we caught a boat out onto Lake Titicaca to visit the reed islands of Uros. People build these floating islands every few years to live on, its really interesting to see how they live and learn about their history. I was relieved that the reeds held our weight! We then visited the island of Amantani where we were split into pairs and united with our new families for the next 24hrs! My new mama is called Lidia and she lives with her parents and daughter in a tiny house with no electricty, running water or anything we are used to! We were given copious amounts of food for lunch which we had to eat to be polite so it was lucky it was really tasty, then met back up with our group to challenge the locals to a game of footie. Tough game! Then after more mountains of food for dinner, we were dressed up in local costume for an "Incatheque" (their version of a discotheque!) My mama was a whizz on the dance floor but I kept tripping up and couldnt breathe with my incredibly tight belt! Ive learnt a couple of words of Quechuan but Im sure Ill forget them. It was a great experience to live with the locals, eat with them, help with the chores and play with the children. Really fun and have some funny photos!
So that brings me to today. We said goodbye to our families and got a boat to the island of Taquile to explore, meet the people and have lunch, then a 3hr boat trip back to Puno. Want to eat alpaca again tonight, its great!
Im having a great time still, the people are really nice (except for the ongoing vegemite vs marmite war!) and the things im doing are so awesome! But of course Im missing you guys. Keep the messages up, I love reading them. I promise to write soon. Got the Inca Train in 3 nights so thats provided I survive!! Take care, lots of love xxxxxxxxx
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