Cusco to La Paz...and a little beyond

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After one more full day in Cusco to recover from the epic Inca Trail, we left early for a long drive to Puno on Lake Titikaka. The highlight was a pedal rickshaw ride to the harbour, which turned into a competitive race between pairs if passengers...fortunately my driver earned his tip as we got there first. Nothing like a good laugh to wake us up, first thing in the morning! We visited the Uros Islands - floating islands made of reeds and were given the opportunity to look round the small houses and watch a demonstration showing us how the islands are made. It was a little too touristy but there is a danger that these communities will cease to exist soon, so if tourism helps, then it is not necessarily a bad thing.

We all entered a sweep stake to guess the time it would take to cross the border into Bolivia...and I won!! Pure luck, but it keeps the only boring aspect of the trip, mildly interesting!! Whilst driving through an incredible storm, we reached the next destination of Copacabana, on the Bolivian shore of Lake Titikaka. The following day, there was a chaotic boat journey to the Island Del Sol but it was worth it for the fantastic scenery and energetic 3 hour walk across it via some more Inca ruins.

Via a couple of traffic incidents (a 50 minute gridlock with all vehicles from all directions blocking every avenue round an intersection / roundabout and a demonstration blocking a bridge) we finally made it o La Paz. Not the most beautiful city but I enjoyed one of most nights in South America. The scene of the crime: an Irish pub called Oliver's with a massive fancy dress box and up to 10 of us at a time, dancing on the bar until 3am. Naturally, the following day was not the most productive as the recovery process took place.

The final day in La Paz was the day of the infamous "Death Road" on mountain bikes. It is a 64km single track road with drops of almost 400m to one side and we descended over 2000m but since they completed another road in 2006, there is now very little traffic. Despite a few high profile tourist deaths over the last few years, it was an incredible, adrenaline experience from start to finish even if I wasn't riding as fast as some of the front of our group and my hands hurt from the almost constant braking. On the way back to La Paz, we visited an animal sanctuary, entirely funded by charity and had a tour of the monkey area during feeding time.

A few days before Christmas, we arrived in the mining town of Potosi...most memorable for the frantic Secret Santa shopping in the markets and a hilarious Christmas parade through the small, impoverished town. A few passengers chose to go down the mines but I was in two minds whether to experience this cultural option. Children are employed within this industry, the conditions are horrendous and they are very poorly paid but it is also a huge part of Bolivian life. In the end, I decided against it but those that went, came back with mixed reactions.

The last town before Christmas was Uyuni - the destination for visiting the salt flats in Bolivia. On the outskirts of the town, we visited the train cemetery, abandoned trains since the 1940s and the location for some of the filming of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids. It was a surprisingly interesting and entertaining afternoon, with some spectacular photos taken, between the group. However, one of my highlights so far, was the Salt Flats, although it took a while to work out the perspective issue and great the right positioning for the best photos. We placed a wine glass very close to the camera and then stood about 30m away and it looked like I was a miniature person inside a wine glass. There were many other examples - the whole group standing on the arm of our driver and crawling into a beer bottle to name just a couple. After lunch, we explored a small island, with giant cactuses and amazing views of salt and blue, cloudless skies as far as the eye could see.

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