Goodbye Peru/Hello Bolivia

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From Cuzco I was on the bus to the Lake Titicaca town of Puno. The first night in Puno was one for relaxing before getting up early the next morning to head out to Amantani Island where I was doing a home stay with a local family. First thing in the morning i was up and met by a local guide to get down to the jetty to catch a boat out to Amantani Island, stopping along the way at the magical floating islands. These island were build by the locals using the roots of reeds as the floating base and covered with reeds to make a cushy base for walking on. These people also built their own boats out of reeds and rope which we went for a spin around the islands, the locals then gave us a demonstration on how they built the islands which was quite impressive. From the floating islands it was off to Amantani Island where we would be staying with a local family in their home. Paulo would be my "mama" for the night, with "papa" still at work, Paulo was a very cute, older lady who prepared lunch for myself, Nick and Maeve and Aiden (an Irish couple). After our late lunch we met up with others from the group we had travelled to the island with and hiked up a hill (the highest point on the island) where we arrived in time to see the sunset which was spectacular. After returning down to our homes for the night,we had traditional Peruvian food which largely consists of rice and vegetables. After dinner we got dressed in traditional Peruvian clothing and then went to the community hall where we all danced with the locals. This, surprisingly was a lot of fun and allowed us all to laugh and have a good time with our families, an unexpected, extremely fun and laughter filled night. The following morning we were up and fed early before leaving for Taquile Island, this island was not as impressive as Amantani, but still quite pretty and the meal was quite good. After a few hours on Taquile it was back to the mainland (Puno). That might we went out for dinner, Maeve and Aiden joining us, for our last night in Peru. After dinner Nick, Maeve, Aiden and I all went to a local bar where we tried some of the local beverages, and I also ended up behind the bar making drinks. I then also romanced a local guy (about 70 years old) with my dance moves (which were no good), but it provided a lot of entertainment and laughter.The following morning I woke up feeling shocking (from the altitude) and we got on a bus headed for Copacobanna on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. At one point we had to get ferried across in small boats and only after arriving safely on the other side did the guide with us inform me that a lot of those boats used to sink. We then watched our bus get ferried across and while i was ready to call my travel insurance agency to get all of my luggage replaced, the bus, surprisingly, got across. We got through immigration into Bolivia easily (luckily) although our guide nearly got pulled out the back of the police station, but he knew one of the police officers so he was ok. He told us that they had wanted a bribe from him. So once through immigration we arrived in the cruisey lake side town of Copacobanna which was quite pretty. After a day of travel and my "altitude sickness" it was an early night for me. The following day I got up and went for a hike up a hill on the lake's shoreline which provided some really pretty views, afterwards having lunch, before getting on a bus to La Paz to properly start my Bolivan experience. Starting with downhill biking Death Road on Friday the 13th...

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