Woke up and had a leisurely breakfast and took a walk down hill to the San Franciscan Cathedral. This was extremely ornate and we wandered down the right aisle and up the left-hand one and made our getaway as a service was about to commence. La Paz does not appear to be a particularly inspiring city and we really couldn't be bothered with the small museums as information is mostly in Spanish..... Walking around La Paz takes effort as it is on a steep hill. Going down is fine but walking back up is very hard work and if you don't walk really slowly, you can be out of breath very quickly. We wondered back up to the 'Witches Market' which is really a market where many different types of herbs and oils beneficial to health ... read more

Breakfast and down to the quayside. The Dragoman trip coming the other way from Rio to Lima was in Copacabana at the same time as us although they were staying at a different hotel and it was arranged that the two groups would head out together to the Isla del Sol which legend says is the birthplace of the Incan Sun God. The boat trip was fairly tedious in a rather delapidated boat. It took a while to get going because the leader from the other group who accompanied us seemed to think that 30 odd people could fit into one boat and finally, had to hire a second one. Neither boat had a toilet and the trip was over two hours to reach the island. We were both first off to find the nearest rocky ... read more

Early breakfast and the bus loaded by 7.00 am and we were on our way. Bye-bye Cusco! Long driving day. Back past the most miserable Peruvian town we have come across - Juliaca - it was really depressing both times we passed it. Just huge long roads awash with mud, broken down lorries and cars and unfinished buildings...... A couple of toilet stops along the way and lunch off the road on a grassy area. Brown rolls, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber and some strange fruits we have never seen before - all bought from the local market by our drivers yesterday. Stopped at around 4.00 pm at Silustani. A pre-Incan burial area overlooking a large volcanic lake/crater. We had a local guide who told us all about it but not sure that we took much in ... read more

Woke up this morning with great excitement as Jo had been looking forward to seeing Machu Picchu for a while... After an early breakfast, the group walked to the train station 5 minutes down the road to catch a 7.20 am train to Aguas Calientes (the nearest point to Machu Picchu). We were extremely surprised to find a one-carriage rather plush train with clear glass windows and part-glass roof with a free snack service of sandwich roll, three biscuits and soft drinks - like on an airplane) Tickets cost $50 each way and were included with our trip. The train ran on a single track alongside the river which due to the season (rainy) was a raging torrent - and between steep and high mountains. The train stopped a couple of times for a train to ... read more

Someone informed us this morning that it was Valentine´s Day. There were a few shops with red heart-shaped balloons around the door-frames and the Choco Museo had a few heart-shaped chocolates for sale but other than that, it does not appear to be publicised as it is in the UK! We went to the Chocolate museum again this morning to see if there was a cookery course available. However, it would appear that nobody wants to cook Peruvian food, just make chocolate so we have booked ourselves onto a 2-hour chocolate making course for our return to Cusco in a couple of days' time as we are now Cusco'd out and there is very little to see in the town that we haven't already seen!! This morning we walked to the last museum on our tourist ... read more