After a relaxing few days in Cusco after the Inca trail and Christmas, we left for Puno which is on the shores of Lake Titikaka - the highest lake in South America at 4000m.
I have unbelievable views of the lake that i will post when I can download my photos. We had a very interesting experience staying with a local family on one of the islands in the lake - our VERY basic Spanish (together with hand signals!) was just enough to find out where the toilet was and what time dinner and breakfast would be - the bare essentials. But the bed was comfortable enough even though the roof felt like it was going to blow off in the night along with the torrential rain that comes with the rainy season in South America ...
But all in all an interesting experience to see how the locals live, very far removed from the way of life we are used to. But extremely happy with their lifestyle, refreshing to see.
This was our last stop before leaving Peru and crossing into Bolivia. Our first city in Bolivia being La Paz - the town to experience the death road mountain bike race! What an experience .... details and photos to follow - but highly recommended!!
Another experience we had was the road blockades being staged at the same time we were there due to the government subsidy for petrol being cut by the government - interesting times but standard for a third world country and very standard apparently for Bolivia. Lucky we are used to protests, and luckily the ones we saw were non-violent. Needless to say after a few days of protests (some parts of the country had violent clashes and protests) the government reinstated the subsidy and life is back to normal here
Will upload some photos as soon as I can
Happy new year everyone, may 2011 be a great one for all
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