We left on the 10pm bus out of Cusco last night and tried to get some sleep through to our stop in Puno arriving before 5am. In Puno bus station we got our tickets to Copacabana in Bolivia and had breakfast, not a very exciting place to spend 3 hours before the 7.30am bus out.

Next bus took us over the border which was relatively easy as lots of tourist buses going through so we just followed people to the right desks to get stamps out of Peru, changed money, walked to the Bolivian side, more stamps and back onto the bus.

We arrived in Copacabana about lunch time and although really tired sorted out stuff from the next part of our trip to the salt flats, then got on the boat to Isla de Sol on Lake Titicaca. The lady in the travel agent we used offered to store our bags while we spent one night on the island but being tight for time I decided I did not have the energy to figure out what I might need, bad move, on arriving on the island we saw the Inka steps rising into the distance to get to any hostels! A 10 year old boy with great English, Adultoro (unfortunate name if that is what it was), led us up to the hostel we asked for with encouragement of just 25 mins, just another 15 mins, just another 10 mins..... as we panted. We were overtaken by donkeys carrying less then we were (Tom - your phrase of a donkey for 1 please in Spanish did spring to mind)! We made it to the hostel and Adultoro translated the options of bathroom, shared barthroom etc and got a big tip. It was all basic eg toilet flushes with a bucket.

The views were stunning and made up for any basic standards, the lake is so huge, it feels like the sea but hard to comprehend how high above sea level!

For food we had to climb higher and exhausted after so long on road flopped into a simple pizza place with a friendly lady who had no menu just listed the pizzas she could make for us in Spanish with a smile. It felt like someones mum making us some food. With some energy we climbed the final leg just over the top to see the sunset but cloudy, had coffee anyway in a restaurant that was still half being built, then back down to hostel to flop.

My hopes of a hot shower were dashed as when I switched on the basic looking electric shower all the lights dimmed as it took all the power and managed only just off cold, so I gave up after a splash. It is cold as soon as it gets dark here.

H