my arse was about a metre wide...

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A massive two entries today as i have been super busy in the last week...

so..lake titicaca is beautiful...it looks similar to being on a greek island when you are there...whilst there we had a homestay...this started with a boat trip around the lake..which is massive...and then lunch on one island....lunch was great - even tho it involved a 45min trek uphill to get to it....it was in an open air restaurant overlooking the lake, and consisted of just caught trout...it was v yummy..

we then headed to the homestay island....at the homestay the group was split into pairs and we stayed in the houses of the islanders for the evening...it was really interesting to see...all the floors are mud, the kitchen consisted of a wood fire and the toilet was a hole in a field a few minutes walk from the house...but it was great fun...and my broken spanish was just about enough to talk to the family over dinner...

then they dressed us in their traditional dress...the guys got a pretty good deal as they had ponchos and looked like they had walked straight off the set of a western...us girls however did not get a great deal...the traditional dress involves wearing several skirts..all of which are puffed and very thick..my arse was so huge by the end of the skirt putting on session that i couldnt actually get thru the door....the look was completed with plaited pigtails and a bowler hat...then we went to a local dance...where we attempted to join in with traditional dancing whilst not passing out from heat stroke...

the day after the home stay we went to see the floating islands...which are islands made completely of reeds by the communities which live on them..and they basically float...but they were vey impressive to see...

after lake titicaca we had what is officially the worlds scariest bus ride to cusco....the bus ride consisted of a lightening storm, the usual overtaking on blind bends with sheer drops, as well as land slides....somehow we survived and arrived in cusco...

cusco was the most important city during the inca period...and as suh there are some pretty impressive ruins around...as it was an important inca town..as you can imagine when the spanish arrived they quickly killed most people, removed most buildings and built a load of churches...but the churches, especially the cathedral are beautiful and a really interesting mix of incan and catholic theology...

after a day in cusco we took a short plane trip to the amazon....again this was fantastic..well it was for me...the rest of the group had food poisoning and spent the entire time throwing up....but i did a night trek thru the jungle..saw some pretty big bugs, and a day trek...saw some wild pigs, snakes, tarantulas, more bugs, birds etc....nd then a night water safari to spot cayman...all of which was amazing....and impressively i didnt get biten once...

then it was back to cusco...before heading out to ollytaytambo to start the lares trek...

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