JD and Coke

...........Taxi pick up at 6-30am for transfer to Poroy rail station, for the train to Machu Picchu. Poroy station has all the nice touches that come with following a tourist trail catering for rich Americans. It has the nice coffee bar, John has his first coffee in 2 weeks............................and a waiting area reproduced to a time of the 1920s. As we follow the rivers and valleys, 3 hours in total, we can see the walkers on the Inca Trail at the side of the tracks, which is quite sad for us really, when you think we have our passes in our bags but cant use them....................nevermind, we arrive at the town station at about 12pm. No problems with travel or sickness, and we decide to leave the oxygen tank in the hotel, taking only the emergency ... read more

Get ready - this is gonna blow your socks off.................. We get up at about 6:30am to meet Mary, to goto the passport office. 7am South American time now translates to 11am. The streets of Puno are busy with speakers in the town´s squares preparing for today´s 5pm meeting to resolve the problems.......but not another tourist face to be seen. Passport office is closed, Mary persists (South American style) and eventually we enter via the garage and get our stamps. Lunch is soup from a Peruvian restaurant - lovely, and only GBP7 with drinks. Holiday budget is going well, you can´t spend much when you are sat on top of a boat in the middle of a lake, I guess........ Back to hotel and wait to meet Mary at 3:30 for trip to discuss a trip ... read more

After arriving in La Paz yesterday and spending the afternoon resting we decide to head out on a sightseeing tour today. On the way from the airport yesterday Denise spotted a double decker red bus, we don´t normally do the "tourist" thing but still feeling a little dizzy with the altitute we decide that spending a couple of hours being driven around La Paz is the best option to see this sprawling city. After breakfast we head across the square to catch the bus, it´s BS50 each (5 pounds) which is quite expensive for the average Bolivian (this would buy a three course meal). We encounter our first problem, they don´t accept US dollars and the hotel cambio does not work in the mornings, banks don´t open until 9.30 and with 5 minutes before the bus ... read more

Apologies for the break in continuity......! Feeling better this morning.......breakfast is good: ham & eggs, and ham & cheese croissants - yep, they're beginning to feature more and more in the daily diet...... We head out into Cusco and visit the Inca Walls and wander the narrow cobbled streets where the relentless street hawkers ply their crafts in pursuit of the tourist pound. At every attempt we buy water and when we can, Coke Zero.....even if the sell-by dates have always expired. We visit Inglesia de Santa Domingo, a church from the middle ages and then set off to find the main railway station that we remember Palin arriving into Cusco via. We struggle, even though our map is current and despite several attempts by John......"donde esta l'staticion"......I'm sure that's how Raul taught me to say ... read more