Salt Lakes

We began our Salt Lake adventure in Uyuni in the middle of Bolivia at ridiculous o’clock in the morning after yet another overnight bus ride, this time from La Paz. We both must have eaten something dodgy the night before because we felt terrible and were close to blowing the trip off for the day and finding a comfortable hotel to die in. But with the help of some local medication and a hundred trips to the toilet we were ready to go.
First stop was only 10 mins out of town where lay a graveyard for abandoned steam locomotives, about 50 all in all. From there we drove onto the largest salt lake about an hour away. It was pretty majestic – flat and white for as far as the eye could see… and yes I did lick the ground, tasty! We moved onto an island in the middle of the lake that was completely covered in huge cacti, it was eerie yet beautiful. We stayed in the middle of nowhere that night but had a great time drinking cheap wine and getting to know the other 4 people in our 4x4 slightly better.
Over the next two more days we visited countless deserts, strange rock formations, geysers, active volcanoes and crazy coloured lakes. We saw eagles, chinchillas, pink flamingos and loads of other amazing wild life. All in all, this was the best tour that we had been on.

La Paz

We only stayed in La Paz for a couple of days but if we had more time we would have stayed much longer. La Paz is built in a basin and you approach the city from a road running around the top, which is absolutely spectacular. We indulged in some amazing food, including a couple of currys, whilst enjoying the mountainous skyline. Our other main activity was shopping, which we had saved for Bolivia since we had heard it was cheap. It certainly was, and we spent a meagre amount of money buying ponchos, hats, t-shirts and tacky souvenirs. We were tempted by the llama foetuses, which you are supposed to bury under your front door for good luck, but decided that they probably wouldn’t get past Australian customs. Maybe next time.

Puno & Lake Titicaca

Puno is situated on the Peruvian shores of Lake Titicaca - the world’s highest lake at 3800m. It’s also pretty big. We arrived in Puno at 5am having taken an overnight bus from Cusco. We then started the tour a few hours later, beginning with the floating villages, which are man-made islands consisting of what looks like rotting leaves. We then moved onto a bigger natural island where we stayed with a local family for the night. We ate plenty of carb-heavy meals (rice with pasta and a side of potatoes) and climbed up a mountain named father earth (Pachutata). The following day we went to another island, which apparently sells the most amazing handicrafts ever for a mere 100 dollars. Fortunately we are not suckers so we ignored this advice to get our wallets out and instead enjoyed the beautiful surroundings for free. That night we went into Puno town and had quite possibly the most amazing pizza of our lives, washed down with some vino caliente to warm our cold bones.

Cusco

Cusco…the gateway to the Inca empire, or so it is billed. To be fair it is quite a lovely city with plenty of old school charm , cobbled narrow streets and beautiful plazas and churches. We had a lovely couple of days chilling out here and acclimatising to the altitude (3300m) before heading out on our own Inca adventure. No, not the Inca trail, way to expensive for our pathetic budget but the more youthful sounding Jungle Trek!
We began with a morning mountain biking adventure, all downhill (4200m – 2000m), before embarking of the most hair-raising car journeys we have had all holiday. The second day was merely walking and walking and walking, not really jungle but beautiful. And on the final day we went to Machapicchu, definitely the highlight of trek and one of the highlights South America.
All in all, this was the most expensive and disorganised nonsense that we have yet encounted but unfortunately for the average tourist it is completely unavoidable. The Peruvian Government have made it impossible not to take a tour and the price reflects this. On the upside however it is absolutely beautiful and the spectacular final day really does help to melt away the annoyance that otherwise would overshadow this amazing part of the world!