Peru / Bolivia - Border Crossing

We've heard all sorts of stories about border crossings and after Ecuador / Peru systems down saga we braced for more of the same. You can get a tourist bus that takes you through the border and helps out with the paperwork, we took this. We also shoved all our US dollars into shoes, underwear etc after hearing that Bolivian officials often tried to confiscate 'fake' dollars.

At the border we were shepherded out the bus, taken to exchange Peruvian Soles and US Dollars for Bolivian Bolivianos. Thereafter a few stamps in the Peru office and then we walked across the border. En route there was the largest bag of popcorn I'd ever seen filled with the largest popcorn I've ever seen. The maize here is large, so you get large popcorn. Like a moth to a flame I had to get a photo and a couple more of the border crossing - this was much too Mandy's disapproval as there shouldn't be any photos at border crossings as she'd learnt from African border crossing days.

The Bolivian side was similar and after an uneventful no systems required manual border crossing we were in Bolivia and off to Copacabana.

The guide books all warn about fake money, especially in Bolivia - that won't happen to us!

Peru - Puno, Lake Titicaca and the Amantani home stay

Puno is a town on the banks of the enormous Lake Titicaca. The Lake is the largest high altitude lake in the world at 3800 meters and is 8400 square km's. Not much happens in Puno, but is a springboard to visit the floating reed islands and larger permanent islands on Titicaca.

From the bus station, we told the taxi the name of the hostel we were staying in, Quechua Backpackers. The taxi had no idea of our interpretation on the pronunciation and we couldn't show him the name or address as we only had this on the Internet. A lady overheard us and then spoke to the taxi pronouncing it correctly and giving him directions - thanks to her we had a place to stay that night. Embarrassingly Quechua is their local language, we couldn't even work that out from the spelling. From now on we write down the name and address of each hostel so we can give it to the taxi and are going to make a point of thinking more South American for our pronunciations.

We quizzed Leo, the manager at Quechua Backpackers, about the home stay options and he told us how we could do it ourselves or take a "tour" - the package was not much more so we booked for the 80 Soles (£20).

Some Chileans, Argentineans and Peruvians joined us at the pickup on the same package. At the small harbour I went to the market and bought batteries, rice and milk as suggested by Leo as a gift for the home stay family.

All of the boats for the transfer are the same and dead slow - we couldn't work out if the boats are restricted on the lake (but there are some fast 1 day tour boats) or whether they'e generally just slow boats. We puttered along towards the reed islands.

Uros is one of 2 well known reed islands, a 50 sq meters man made island. Quite something to visit with 8 families housed on the island and it anchored in position in the lake. Originally this reed island was built to escape attack on the main land and the families have continued to live on and further build islands. As you can imagine, fish is their usual meal.

Amantini is a larger island with two mountain peaks and the whole island groomed for agriculture. Santa Rosa is the small village we stayed in - their small port was lined with ladies all in village dress to meet us, these were our hosts. Our guide called out names of hosts and matched to home stayers. We were first and it seemed we landed up with the main host family.

A broken greeting and away we walked with Dionescia and her grandson, Junior. We ascended the steep walkway from the dock and wound through to her house. It was very basic with a clay ground courtyard and buildings surrounding it. Grandparents and one daughter with 2 children lived there. We were taken upstairs to our room... Problem ... The door took me up to my chest! I ducked through and luckily I could stand in the room, only just.

We dropped our bags and headed into the courtyard awkwardly trying to figure out what to do next. 5 minutes later we were called in for lunch starting with soup and then cheese (like halloumi) potatoes and vegetables - really good. Triple tea consisting of Munas - oxygen releasing plant helping with altitude breath shortage, Coca leaves - altitude, alertness, suppress appetite and Eucalyptus leaves - dry throats, rounded off the meal. We continued broken conversations with Dionescia and her 2 daughters Sabina and Julia.

Sabina's kids, Miguel and Junior, played outside with their cousin and a balloon tied to the washing line. This was endless laughter and proof that all kids are the same. I handed over the present of batteries, milk and rice and they eagerly accepted.

Again, we were ushered to our room for quiet time until we were taken to meet up with the group. It was breathless walking with the altitude, where Dionescia took it in her stride. We stopped outside a tuck shop style shop and I offered to buy the kids and Dionescia a sweet. They'd had this offer before as each went for a pack of biscuits or wafers as opposed to the single bars. Interestingly, no straight chocolate or sugar - mainly biscuit.

Miguel and Junior were entertained by the camera and liked looking at photos of themselves. We've found this with all ages over Peru and Ecuador. Plazas often have "professional" camera men taking photos of families with sites in the background. They then run off to a shop and print the digital photo and return it. Our porters on the inca trail were also very curious to see the images in the camera.

Our group walked up the stone path to the Pacha Tata (Father Earth) ruins on top of one of the mountains. Pacha Tata and Pacha Mama are gods representing earth and are made offerings for agriculture. although 90% of South American countries are Catholic, they have a fusion with other indigenous religions and continue to carry out such rituals. Local ladies were dotted along the path selling woven goods and snacks. Munas plants, as we'd had before, provided a good oxygen rescue when breaking them and inhaling.

Good views across the island. We were also told that you could walk around the Pacha Tata walled garden 3 times, place a stone in the wall and make a wish.

Back at the house and it was dinner time. Dionescia's husband, Presentor, was now around. He joined us for dinner and we made broken conversation - really wish we knew more Spanish now. Mands did a whole lot better than me. They have had solar energy now for the past 3 years and that was allowing good developments to their daily life (and lesser need for batteries).

It was time for the village to gather at the hall for a fiesta, but not before we were proudly handed out traditional village dress! Presentor and Dionescia took us through for the dance. Dionescia jumped up and pulled us up for each song - each song we'd start in small groups and half way through join into one big circle holding hands and running around with our hands waving. I was tentative with granny Dionescia, but she was having no problem flinging us around.

Breakfast was more good food and 2 large crumpets followed by a third that I had little chance to accept before it landed on my plate.

Just as we started, Dionescia and Junior and now Presentor escorted us back to the boat. Really good experience in Amantini. It was great to see the closeness of the families and how the families who had very little and no modern "must haves" were happy with what they had. Also that the tourist trips were quite empowering as income for women on the islands.

Back in Puno we had a couple of cevercas and dinner before heading back to the hostel. En route back the roads were in full carnival flow with thousands of people. Band after band with dancers paraded around. The strangest were groups of men with dead armadillos mounted on sticks that made a snapping noise when spun round!?!

We'd booked bus tickets to cross to Bolivia from our hostel, but there was a problem getting the right tickets delivered the next morning. We became more and more anxious with little information and lack of tickets - the next thing a car arrives, saying it's here to pick us of to get the tickets from the bus station. We launched in knowing we had no time to spare. Our guide from the island tour then appeared unexpectedly and was our fixer, guiding us from counter to counter and finally onto the bus as it was pulling out the terminal! Off to Bolivia!

Peru - Colca Canyon

3am pickup is as early as they get! The minibus did it's rounds collecting hikers from Arequipa and set off for the the 4 hour transfer to the canyon. We dosed on and off, each time looking out at the ever changing foreign landscape from grass to Mars like rock lands to snow covered volcanic bases. It would have been cold had it not been for the lava like electric heater modified into the side of the bus!

Chivay is a small town we stopped in to pay canyon tax and have breakfast. We chatted to the others on tour including 2 English, 2 Spanish (one Ibiza born and bred who was a dead ringer for Pauly Shore) and a French couple.

We stopped at Cruz Del Condor, a sight high up on the side of the canyon where we, if lucky, would be able to see condors. We'd been hearing about these 3 meter wingspan vulture birds ever since Ecuador, but they had always moved on due to human expansion. This time we were in luck. There perched
on a rock outcrop were 5 condors. Every few minutes one or all of the giant birds would take to flight over the canyon and return, often flying over our heads. Many photos of the condors, but where there's people in the photo, you truly got to appreciate their size.

We continued to the start of the canyon hike. This tour consisted of a hike down the canyon, across the river and lunch in a local home stay, then further 2 hours to the oasis where we'd spend the night and take on the morning hike out the canyon. We'd just completed the Inca trail, so were ready for anything.

From the starting gun, it was clear that this would be different to the Inca Trail's more controlled manner. It was every couple for themselves. We'd meet at the bridge in 2 to 3 hours. The path is pretty raw with sandy and rocky sections and ever present drops that would be impossible to get back up.

We happily held back and took photos and quizzed Angel the guide along the way. The canyon is the deepest in the world - we weren't doing that part (7 days down and up), but were going down the 1.2 km descent. The people in different villages here come from 2 backgrounds, speaking 2 different dialects and dressing differently. Back in the day, the villagers' new born would have wood strapped to their heads for 4 years to mould the shape of the head to represent a volcano (upside down V), the other flattened heads representing 3 volcanos. Children fatalities would result during this. Today, it's less barbaric with bowler type hats representing this.

We learnt that the Condor is a sacred bird representing heaven and the afterlife, The Puma represents earth and hell is represented by the serpent. These 3 are all found in the canyon.

2 hours brisk paced walk later we met at the bridge and continued to lunch at the home stay - although it seemed more purpose built for tours now.

We had a 30 minute taster of the ascent after lunch - altitude uphill. These 30 minutes were worse then the Inca trail! My lungs worked double time and Mands hit a few walls - lack of air and dizziness. Angel ran off and came back with a plant that when rubbed gives off oxygen and helps out immediately with altitude related sickness. This seemed to help and Mands soldiered on with frequent rests to the top. With the poor / lack of sleep we'd had for the 2 pervious nights Angel said he'd seen this happen to a few people in this section. The next hour and a half to the oasis was fine.

The oasis was fantastic - crystal clear swimming pools, bright green grass and flower beds seemingly landscaped out with basic bamboo cabins dotted throughout. All of this set against the red wall of the canyon. Palm trees provided shade and we all raced off for costumes and then into the pool! Well deserved.

You could order beers, pisco sours or virtually anything from their bar and they laid on a great dinner with plenty of spaghetti for the next day.

"Blow that I'm walking" was the shortened response Mandy gave to the suggestion by Angel to take a donkey out of the canyon. We headed off at 5am and a good time to finish would be 3 hours. We got into a cycle of 10 minute walk, drink, 10 minute walk, eat. Along the hike up were a few donkey convoys with Gringo's clinging on. Most of the way up we could look back down to the oasis that quickly shrunk with each step.

We reached the top in 2h45. What a great feeling to have completed a challenge and all of this by 8am! We walked through the surrounding maize fields to a small town where we were given breakfast with huevos (these eggs were like gold after that walk).

We had about an hour before pickup and we spent it with Maria and Peppe, a 4 year old girl and her llama that were dressed up for photos for tourists. I bought her a couple of sweets (against Mandy's advice) and she gulped them down before her llama got too interested. Llamas eat anything and everything!

On the way back we noticed how the tunnels for the road were only carved into the mountain - no reinforcement, straight carving!

We stopped at a natural hot spring swimming pool for a half hour dip and then raced (we were getting a bus pickup to go to Puno) back to pick up our luggage from yesterday's breakfast spot and get our bus. With 0 seconds to spare we boarded the bus and continued the adventure.

Instead of going back to Arequipa we left the tour early and took a 100 Soles touristico bus to Puno. Not much tourist about it besides a couple of announcements and school type sandwich with jamon y queso. We did save a day in getting to Puno, so all worth it. There were some amazing views along the way, particularly the rainbow and the lake.