La Paz to Sucre It was time to be moving on from La Paz so we had booked a flight to Sucre as we were advised that the roads were dangerous both in terms of road safety and robberies that took place. Sucre is the capital of Bolivia and during our time in Bolivia there had been some serious protests and some people were telling us not to travel to Sucre as this was where most of the rioting was. However, we had to get to Sucre in order to get to Santa Cruz where we already had a nice hotel [View Full Entry]

---

---

We had arranged a four day tour to Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni and we knew this was to be one of the highlights of our travels and it definitely was that! We took the overnight bus from La Paz to a small town called Uyuni. We decided to take the tourist bus as we were warned that the roads throughout Bolivia were not the best, only 95% are paved and some roads are known for bandits. As always though, the bus was about an hour late but we were starting to get used to this. The bus was pretty comfy but [View Full Entry]

---

---

La Paz La Paz is probably the only city in the world with a setting like it. It is situated over 3,500m above sea level and sits in a canyon, it's like living in a bowl! On all sides of the valley, the slopes are covered in ramshackle houses, this is where the poorer people live and try to survive. It's hard to believe that the population of La Paz is only just over a million in the city because as you drive down the steep highway from El Alto there are people spilling onto the roads everywhere. La Paz justs [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today was one of the reasons we wanted to stay in La Paz and that was to mountain bike down the Worlds Most Dangerous Road. We spent a long time researching companies to go with and Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking was a clear winner. All the reviews were great and the equipment was the best. You don't exactly want anything less when you are cycling down the WMDR! An early start! As always on this trip, the excursions start early, so it was a 7am start at a café down beside the Gravity office. Gravity has now decided to class December [View Full Entry]

---

---

Puno So after out time at the Orphanage it was time to leave Cusco behind and journey southeast towards Lake Titicaca. We opted to take the scenic train rather than the bus. We both felt the train would be more relaxing and would allow us to see some of the rural countryside rather than other cars doing the same journey as we were doing. We were heading to Puno which is on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, the end of our train journey but also is the stop off for lots of travellers who want to either go and stay [View Full Entry]

---

---

Following the completion of the Inca Trail, there was no time to recover. We were whisked off to our accomodation and introduced to the boys and girls. The boys and girls are split into different districts of Cusco. The girls orphanage was in the suburb of Wanchaq which was only 5 mins in a tico taxi from the centre of Cuzco. Our accomodation was right on top of the girls Orphange which was very handy. The boys were about 10 minutes away in a slightly tougher neighbourhood, Santiago. The apartment was extremely basic, the kitchen consisted of a camping stove! Oh [View Full Entry]

---

---

Inca Trail - Day One Our Inca Trail essentials were all packed into two small backpacks and the large backpacks were given to our hostel for safe keeping. Our belongings were kept to a minimum with no luxuries packed as we were aiming to carry as little as possible. We both regretted not hiring local porters but that was in the past and if we wanted to get to Machu Picchu we would have to carry our own things. So after spending alot of the previous night drying our clothes from the torrential downpour we experienced on the way home from [View Full Entry]

---

---

Day 1 - Colca Canyon Tour Thursday 15th Nov Like every tour in Peru, there is always an early start, this one wasn't too bad though, pick up was at 8.30am. We were picked up in a nice little Merc Sprinter, better than we had anticipated and there was already a few others onboard. Abel seemed very nice and his english was good so all in all a good start. Our first stop was to a small shop in Arequipa to buy some coca leaves and candies to help with the altitude. We really weren't looking forward to chewing on some [View Full Entry]

---

---

Tuesday 13th November So following the overnight bus from Nazca, arriving at 7am, we hopped into a taxi and were whisked away to our hostel. Prior to arrival we faced the usual patter from the taxi driver that our hostel was no good. This a common ploy of South Amercian taxi drivers as they usually earn commission if they take you to a hotel that they work for. We were having none of it. Having done our research, we were happy with our choice and decided to see what it was like. On hindsight, it was very good with all staff [View Full Entry]

---

---

So we were on our way to Nazca. We left Ica early in the morning following Lynsey making a great effort at making a hotel reservation by phone in spanglish. At least we knew we had a bed for the night. We headed to the Cruz Del Sur bus station hoping to jump on a bus to Nazca. We were immediately shot down and told that there was only one seat left. This took a few moments to register as we couldnt or wouldnt accept that this was possible. Following "what are we going to do now?" (by Ross) we walked [View Full Entry]

---

---