"Throw the Jew down the well......."(Borat)

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We left Sucre for La Paz by plane, its the safest option when you see the state of the roads, there was no chance of a dodgy bus trip at night!! We wandered around the first day, big city, mad place and real hectic with loads of markets etc. The second day we booked in for a mountain bike trip down the worlds most dangerous road (WMDR)! It has claimed the title of the worlds most dangeorus road from all the accidents that occur on it: at least one bus, car or truck goes over the edge every 2 weeks, with a minimum of 100 people killed a year(350 2 years ago). After the bike ride we enquired how many tourist mountain bikers went over...9 since 2003...Luckily we didnt add to the statistics! But wow, what an experience -20 km of asphalt and 40 km of dirt track downhill, all on the knife edge of cliffs as high as 400m. We will let the pics speak for themselves!

After another day in La Paz we moved onto Copacabana on Lake Titikaka(meaning Puma rock). Its a small town full of tourists and hippies selling their wear! From here we took a boat out to Isla de Sol in the middle of the lake and stayed the night. We treked along from the south to the north seeing ¨ruins¨ along the way, eventually arriving at the puma rock-apparently its where the inca gods were born. We went back to Copacabana and on to Puno in Peru. From Puno we did a trip out to the floating islands. They are made of reed that has been dried out. The islanders replenish it every year as the bottom layer rots away. They also make their boats of reed, with the shape of a pumas head on the front. They created these islands to escape the local tribes at war on the main land, now they are just tourist attractions.

We headed to Cusco from Puno. A lovely colonial town, very European and again full of tourists. The only irritating thing is the locals, young and old badgering you to buy postcards, prints, sweets, cigarettes, tours and food, sometimes 3 of them at once...we should be wearing T-shirts screaming "No, Gracias!". After giving into one local dude selling tours, we booked into a 3 day white water river rafting trip down the Apurimac river. Unknownst to us it was full of Israelis(hence the title of this diary entry) and us being the only Irish couple on the trip was interesting!! It was an amazing trip, camping at night in some random clearings along the river in the middle of the Andes.

After a few days RnR we got ready for the Inca Trail. It was a very tough 4 day hike, along the original route the incas took from Ollantaytambo to Machu Pichu. The first day of the hike eased us into it, at a nice easy pace. The food was great, 3 course meals and plenty of snacks to keep you energised along the way. I prepared for the second day by handing over my backpack, sleeping bag and ground mat very gladly to a porter. The 4 hour up hill climb from 3,200m to 4,200m was tough but worth getting to the top of "Dead Womans Pass" for the spectacular views of the Andean mountains, glacuers, forests, rivers and jungles. The final day after gettin up at 4 a.m. to reach Machu Pichu for the sunrise was a little disappointing as the clouds didnt clear till after 11. However once they did the view of the lost city of the incas was spectacular and worth the hard slog of the previous few days!

Well thats it for now, heading back to Bolivia to go to the jungle.

Ciao Ciao

Aoilo and Iano

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