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As G said in his last blog, the Andean Explorer between Cusco and Puno is described as one of the best train journeys in the world, and we did it! We settled into our comfy arm chairs for the 10 hr journey leaving the Sacred Valley of the Incas behind and heading up further onto the Altiplano which will be our "domain" for a week or so. The train was a lovely old fashioned carriage with little tables and lamps. There was a bar and observatory carriage at the back to make the most of the views. We stopped at Raya, the highest point on the journey, 4,500m, to window shop more Alpaca(acrylic!) knitted products and feel the sun burn in an instant. It is lethal this high, even though you don't feel hot it leaves you red!
We were served a lovely three course lunch, wine, pisco sours and entertained by two great Andean bands. What a lovely way to travel, shame its so pricey! We pulled into Puno about 6:30 after a lovely relaxing day.
Puno is nothing to write home about, we've been spoilt by other Peruvian cities. Our hotel was nice though and the restaurant had great views over Lake Titicaca (which is the reason we're here I suppose)! We headed out onto the lake the following morning to the Uros floating islands, incredible. The islanders have taken reeds, used their roots as a base and then laid a metre of reeds ontop and thats what they live on. It is continual work as they need to be re-built every month as they rot but they seem to have no desire to live on the mainland. Then we headed to Taquille, a normal island, where time has stood still for decades. Lovely to see such a simple way of life, just farming and smiling! We walked up and across the island to see some lovely views across the lake, it's vast. It is horrible being so out of breath just going up 10 steps, but at least altitude sickness hasn't struck again!
We left Puno, and Peru, and headed round the Lake to Bolivia, and Copacabana (yes I've been singing Barry Manilow)! We had the loveliest room, very quirky with stained glass floor to ceiling windows and the most stunning lake views, hammocks and a little garden inside the bathroom and all for £23 a night. It is dirt cheap here, you can tell its a few steps behind the other countries we've visited but so far so good. We had a spare day to play with so we had a much needed chilled out day in the village and our hammocks to recharge the batteries. That said, we did go to the cathedral/basilica and walked up to a viewpoint, the views were incredible although a big cloud ruined the sunset! Bolivia does not appear to be that set up for tourism, there was rubbish and graffiti all over the mountain and lake front - it was still lovely but they could make it so much nicer.
Isla del Sol is one of the reasons people come here so we set off on an insufferably slow boat trip the next morning. We walked around a ridge at the north end of the island and saw stunning views, Inca ruins and the sacred rock "Titicaca" that the lake is named after. Then a quick stop on the South of the island to walk up Inca steps and see Inca fountains - apart from thinking I was going to die everytime we went uphill and the slowest boat in the world, it was a lovely day! We have also been incredibly lucky with the weather, it was forecast for rain every day but we have somehow avoided it pretty much.
The next morning saw our £2 four hour local bus ride to La Paz. Apart from the slightly strange smells along the way and being surrounded by women in bowler hats, it was nothing out of the ordinary really!
The first views of La Paz from up high were stunning, it is built in a valley with moumtains all around, covered in crazy, busy suburbs. After struggling to find a cab, we made it to our posh 5 star hotel, thank god for that as La Paz is a bit of a dump really. There was some sort of carnival going on so roads were closed but we managed to make it to the coca museum - fascinating to read about how long the indigenous people have used it as a medicine; to fight evil spirits; increase work levels..... basically it is the reason for all things good in their view! Then the West come along and ruin it by extracting cocaine and abusing it!! We also had a wander around the witchcraft market, llama foetuses hanging up to scare off evil spirits is not for the vegetarians amongst you! The rest of the time we have spent chilling and eating in our lovely hotel!
Our pre-booked tour starts today for seven days as we were told Bolivia is so hard to get around independently if you don't have oodles of time. So me being the control freak I am is having to hand the reins over to someone else (argh)! Just hope they turn up on time as we've got a flight to catch!!!
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