A bit more Bolivia then Machu Picchu to Colombia

Bolivian ladies wrestling - bizarre!

We stayed in La Paz one more day- long enough for me to go and watch the Bolivian ladies wrestling, so strange! It’s Bolivian ladies in traditional dress fighting lycra clad men, the crowd loved it though!

Just minding his own business and enjoying the view, before water carrying duties!

From there we went to Copacabana for one night then over to Isla Del Sol for a night which is on Lake Titicaca.  The island was beautiful.  The place we stayed in had no electricity so we had to use candles at night (whilst watching a film on the laptop!) and all the water was brought up from the lake by donkeys.  The altitude made everything really tough.  It’s the highest lake in the world apparently.  

Highest point on Isla Del Sol

Daily life on Isla Del Sol- just putting the llamas away for the night!

We managed to walk to the highest point on the island and the views from the top were spectacular- we could see right over to Peru.  We went back to the main land the next day and caught a night bus over the border to Peru and all the way up to Cuzco.  Bolivia has been amazing definitely one of our favourite places so far, it is just a beautiful place with really friendly people.  

The view from our bedroom of the sunrise- amazing!

We arrived in Cuzco at about 3 in the morning (much earlier than we were told!)  very dazed and confused,  I managed to leave my MP3 player on the bus – I still have the headphones though, not sure how I managed that!  A lady at the bus station was advertising a hostel and because there was no other option we went there to get some sleep- big mistake.  The walls were paper thin and there was a hole in the wall from our room to the corridor so we got woken up early, the pillows were filled with cement or something similar so were quite uncomfortable, and when we had a shower in the morning there were actual mushrooms growing in the gaps between the tiles! Amazing really they were not small, big enough to eat- which after the measly breakfast we were considering doing.  We then checked in to a lovely little hotel for the rest of our time in Cuzco so no harm done.   

Sacred valley- that is sacred corn growing at the bottom!

We did a day tour of the Sacred Valley which has lots of Inca sites in the warm up to Machu Picchu the next day.  We had to get up at 3.30am to get in the queue for the bus to Machu Picchu, they only let 400 people go up Wayna Picchu which is a viewpoint so we had to get there early.  We managed to get the tickets and then wandered around Machu Picchu by ourselves for a while then had a tour for a couple of hours.  When we first got there we couldn’t see much as it was really misty but the mist cleared later for the tour and just long enough to get some pictures from the top- then it rained and rained!  It was really interesting though and very impressive.  The photos don’t really do it justice. 

Machu Picchu, Wayna Picchu is the mountain in the background- we climbed that!

View from the top of Wayna Picchu.  

From there we have mostly been on buses! We have travelled about 4000km in the last couple of weeks.  We stopped off at Quito for Good Friday and saw the Easter procession (and were in it by accident for a while!).  We are currently in Bogota, Colombia which is a lovely city, catching up on sleep and meals!    

In Quito, Good Friday Procession.   

Beautiful Bolivia!

Cowboy Timmy!

From Salta we caught a bus over the border into Bolivia and were there illegally for a few minutes as we followed an old Bolivian guy who took us the back way over the border!  We had to go back to the border crossing and get our passports stamped. We headed straight up to Tupiza, which is only a few km’s from the place where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed- it’s proper cowboy country which I loved, just like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (my favourite film!).  We decided to go horse riding and had a great morning doing lots of galloping, the scenery was awesome too. 

Tupiza Scenery

View of the mountains

From Tupiza we did a four day tour ending up in Uyani at the salt flats.  We were in a jeep for 4 days and stayed in really basic accommodation for 3 nights- no showers until the final night and it was freezing cold as we were at about 4000m.  

Glamorous Llama (yummy!)

We ate llama on the first day which was really nice although felt a bit bad as we were in a field of llama at the time!  The farmed llama have wool sewn into their ears to mark which farm they’re from which makes them look so cute and a bit glamorous like little earrings. 

Devil's pass, with the gang - Lorna, Guy and Tomar

Llama in the national park, the mountain behind is a volcano.

The tour was fantastic, we had a great group and an amazing guide.  We saw some really beautiful views, loads of llama, vizcachas (a cross between wallabies and rabbits), a fox, condors and flamingos.  

In the hot springs in the national park (our only bath for 3 days!)

The green lake- coloured by arsenic.  Tim suggested I have a little swim... that's what 8 months travelling does!

Flamingos on the red lake at sunrise

Vicacha! Check out his whiskers!

It included going to lots of different lakes of different colours because of the minerals in them, hot springs, little traditional Bolivian villages and finally the salt flats.  It was lots of early mornings, most days we were up before dawn but it was worth it to see the sunrise especially over the salt flats.  We had a lot of fun taking silly photos on the flats too.  The whole four days were brilliant, Bolivia is a really spectacular place and the people are so friendly.  

Another amazing lake/volcano combo

Sunrise on the salt flats

Silly salt flat photos! 

After the tour we got the night bus up to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia and are staying for a few days before crossing over into Peru.  We carried on travelling with some of the guys from the Tupiza tour and had a great night out on Saturday night although the altitude makes hangovers even worse!            

With the rest of the gang from the tour- it got messy from here on in! Ended up in a tiny, sweaty Bolivian nightclub until 5am!

Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Argentina (again)!



Montevideo - The Porche garage was round the corner

We went from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay where we only stayed for one night.  It is a funny city, a real mix of rich and poor.  We walked past a Porche garage then saw a Horse and cart on the same street.  There’s lots of people sleeping rough and living in little homemade tents too, it made me feel very lucky to have everything we have.  The town itself was beautiful though with the same sort of architecture as Buenos Aires.  We got to the bus station ready to get a bus to Sau Paulo in Brazil but there wasn’t one until the following week!  A quick check of the guide book and we decided Brazil would have to wait for another trip and headed up to Iguacu Falls in Argentina.  It took 3 buses and about 24 hours to get there but it was worth it as the falls were amazing.  They are huge and really beautiful.  We got a little train up to the Devil’s Throat which is the main attraction; it’s the biggest waterfall and is just phenomenal.  The water is so loud you can’t hear each other and we got soaked with the spray! Tim had the biggest steak I have ever seen in Puerto Iguacu, it was about 25 ounces and filled with bacon, cheese and tomato and about 3 inches thick.  Even Tim struggled with it but he did manage to finish it and his chips then we waddled home for a rest!

Iguacu Falls

The devil's throat

From there we headed to Paraguay, another very long bus journey with a strange arrangement at the border where they let you through, drop you off in town (which is full of dodgy looking Paraguayans)  then you have to walk back to get your passport stamped, then catch another bus to the bus station!  As we drove up to Asuncion, the capital, neither of us were very taken with Paraguay and decided it wasn’t for us.  So, at the bus station we got another bus straight up to Salta in Argentina (via a 10 hour wait in Corrientes).  We just can’t get enough of those steaks!  We have just been chilling out in Salta for the last couple of days, getting ready for the next bus journey to Bolivia and enjoying the sunshine (and more steaks and red wine!)

Yum Yum- Malbec and Steaks

Steak! This is nothing compared to Tim's from the previous night though!