With the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu ticked off the bucket list it was time to enjoy the rest of our South American adventure as we headed further south towards Bolivia.
Leaving the town of Machu Picchu by train, we spent the night in Ollantaytambo where we recovered with a shower and good night’s sleep.
On our way back through the Sacred Valley to Cusco the next day, we detoured to visit a local town and a farming village where Tom found his true calling – ponchos and bean picking…
Lunch was another interesting culinary experience, with our first taste of roasted Guinea Pig.
Continuing on our way we stopped at a wildlife rescue reserve where we saw monkeys, llamas, Pumas and condors.
That night we were back in Cusco and enjoyed a free day with a stroll through the city at night before preparing for our next stop – Puno and Lake Titicaca.
Puno sits higher than Cusco altitude wise and is the gateway to Lake Titicaca – the highest navigatable lake in the world.
After spending the night in Puno, we packed our overnight bags and hopped on a boat heading for our first stop – the floating reed islands. Here we learned about how the locals build the floating islands as well as how they used to live, but their main purpose now appears to be tourism.
Our next stop was to one of the peninsulas where we would be staying overnight with a local Quechua family.
The language barrier was a challenge and their living conditions were quite the eye opener, but there’s one universal language that bonded families and tourists – sport!
After enjoying a lunch with our family and some bean and corn picking, we made our way to the local park to play some volleyball (football was banned as the locals were getting a little too competitive).
After enjoying the Lake Titicaca sunset we made our way to the group kitchen where we helped our families prepare a traditional dinner. Traditional cooking calls for traditional clothing and Tom was definitely enjoying his pink poncho a little too much!
After a cold night and early breakfast our group said farewell to the Quechua people and were back on the boat heading for Taquile Island, also known as the Island of the Knitting Men.
As the name suggests, knitting is exclusively performed by males. Beginning in early boyhood, the local men knit skirts, hats and Pom poms for their wives and daughters.
Our timing was perfect as the community of 2500 had their annual festival and we were treated to colourful costumes and music before enjoying a light lunch with stunning views which have been compared to the Greek Islands.
That night we returned to Puno for one last dinner with our guide Jorge, who would be leaving us the next day at the Bolivian border.
The next morning our bus ride to La Paz became quite the experience. One hour in our bus was forced to stop with a road block of protesters causing a debacle.
While they were kind enough to move on and let us pass… they put us two hours behind schedule.
When we made it to the Bolivian border it was a fairly easy process to cross for us, however, some young Americans who were sharing our ride didn’t realise they needed visas, and created another two hour delay for our bus (and didn’t even apologise).
A couple more hours and another short stop when the bus overheated and we finally made it to La Paz!
The city is built into a canyon and is stunning at night. After a good feed and a sleep we were feeling refreshed and ready to explore the city.
Our Bolivian guide Viv was amazing and took us on a walking tour to the main square which houses the presidential and government buildings where a parade was on to celebrate the city’s independence.
We then explored the San Francisco church and local witches markets which featured various offerings to the Mother Earth, from amulets to dried llama foetuses (used to ensure you have a nicely built house apparently), the markets felt a lot less touristy than those in Lima and Cusco.
The main public transport system in La Paz is cable cars, so that afternoon we hopped on and enjoyed a birds eye view of the city.
That night it was time to say goodbye to our group, with some continuing on the next South America tour, others going home, or some like us continuing on to our travels elsewhere.
Spain here we come!
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