If you fly with TAM do not go to the main airport. You need to be a the military airport, if you do check in at the main terminal go outside and find the minibus that will take you across the tarmac. Quick, easy flight to Rurrembaque to find our 4x4 jeep was in fact a decrepit Toyota Minivan with no openable windows in the back but once on the river, at camp, swimming or trudging through the pampas this was a great adventure.... read more

The bus from Puno to Copacabana was interesting, don't get too comfortable - everybody off so the bus can drive onto a dodgy barge and the passengers line up for tickets on a little ferry with a crazed driver, pile back on, then off again for exiting Peru then walking up the hill (Wayne helped push a cart of tomatoes up) to enter Bolivia, then on the bus again for the last 5 mins to Copacabana. Bus arrived 11.30, we threw our bags into the big pink hotel and headed straight out to meet our lovely guide who had come over from his home on Isla del a Sol and offered us the choice of a boat that'd seat around 20 or a smaller, faster one. We sped out across the lake somehow jagging our own ... read more

Collected in a bus and herded onto a boat in grey drizzly morning = not much fun but after 2hrs of putting across the lake, the sun came out and we found we had a great guide and had arrived at Taquille which to me was not much more than a square with handicraft stores and tourist restaurants. The walk across the island was very pretty. The Uros or floating islands were very interesting (and yes very touristy) but I enjoyed chatting with one of the ladies I bought a tapestry from and her family do live there (I've read and heard they just motor out and dress up for tourists). The tourist income pays for things they wouldn't get by their traditional subsistence/trade like solar panels and tv (not that thats a great thing as ... read more

Quietly dragging everyone out of bed at 3.30am, leaving our backpack at the reception desk with a note written in my questionable Spanish and walking down to the bus stop was not much fun (but everyone agreed later totally worth it). We arrived at 4.07am to a line of around 90 people which continued to grow (both in front and behind - I don't accept that having to do your makeup or fit into short shorts means you can join your friends in line an hour later than the rest of us, grrrr) as well as others marching by, forgoing the bus for a hike up the mountain in the dark, cold, wet morning (I reckon everyone keen enough to do this should get an automatic Huaynapichu stamp). As we had arrived in the dark it ... read more

Spent yesterday recovering from the mammoth 14hr bus ride from Nazca to Cusco and getting acclimatised to the altitude. So now for birthday number 41: wandering through cuzco's cobblestone streets lined with inca walls and colonial buildings in the glorious sunshine; cheap and fun shopping for cute mementos and gifts with tasha; yummy lunch overlooking a beautiful park; visits to a bunch of awesome ruins; delicious dinner where wayne somehow managed to manifest a scrumptious cake complete with my name and had panpiper/charango players sing me happy birthday in spanish with the whole restaurant clapping along; great coffee; pleasant evening stroll with my love to find a birthday present and check out everything lit up at night. Buenissimo! In the middle of Cusco there is evidence that this was once an Incan city, from the stones ... read more