Having finished off the main bulk of our Bolivian travels in La Paz, we went briefly to Lake Titicaca, on the border of Bolivia and Peru. The lake itself is not all that impressive, other than for its title of being "the world´s highest naviagable lake". Having arrived in Lake Titicaca at a place called Copacabana (which lends its name to the beach in Rio) on the Bolivian side, our attempts to get to the Isla del Sol (which is the main island worth visiting on the lake from the Bolivian side) were rained off, so we headed straight to Puno, which is the equivalent town on the Peruvian side. From there, we went to see the floating islands, which are a collection of islands (floting, as the name implies) made out of reeds on which small communities of local families live, in houses made entirely out of reeds. It was a pretty impressive thing to see, but definitely only worth the hour or so we spent wandering around on the islands. So we headed pretty much straight out of Puno and onto Cusco, where our travels as a 6 were extended for a few more days.
Cusco is a really pretty city, with lots of nice restaurants and good night life. We spent a couple of days wandering round the city, sampling the local clubs (which are completely free, so obviously I was happy!). I was unfortunately ill for our entire stay in Cusco with some sort of stomach infection, which slightly tainted my time there, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless
Keen for some real sunshine (in Cusco, it is really warm and sunny all day until about 4pm when it starts to pour with rain) and a pool to sit by, I then headed to Huacachina for a few days. Huacachina is the "Oasis of the Americas" - a lagoon in the middle of a vast expanse of sand dunes. So I was very content to catch some rays and sit by the lovely pool in a nice hotel. I climbed to the top of one of the sand dunes one evening in order to catch the sunset. Didn´t quite realise that the climb up was practically vertical and incredibly long. But with the help of a couple of Israeli soldiers I had met, we eventually managed to get to the top to catch the most amazing sunset I´ve ever seen, with views for miles of steep sand dunes and very little else. The main thing to do in Huacachina, other than being incredibly lazy, is to take a trip on a sand buggy, which hurtles up and down the dunes at full speed, followed by sand boarding. So I did this on one of the afternoons, and it was great fun.
After Huacachina, I was meant to be heading to Arequipa, in Southern Peru. However, a miners strike which caused all the buses heading in that direction to be delayed for 4 days prevented me from doing so. So I took an unplanned diversion to Lima, which in the end turned out to be a good thing as I wouldn´t have otherwise had the time to get to Lima, which is an amazing city. It´s incredibly modern, with a European/American feel to it, and best of all it has Starbucks!! Our hostel was located in one of the "trendy" parts of town called Barranco, right by the sea. So I had a really great few days enjoying Lima, and spending copious amounts of time in Starbucks.
Now we have all returned to Cusco, where yesterday we celebrated Dan´s birthday (with a great lunch at a restaurant called Jack's cafe where every gringo in town seems to head to, and hence has a queue outside at all times, followed by a massage for the boys and a facial for me!). We are now awaiting the start of our Ina trail on Tuesday, where we will spend 4 days trekking and sleeping out in tents, arriving on our final day in Machu Picchu (the route to which has now been almost completely fixed). We will then spend our last few days together before the boys head up to central America, and I fly out to New Zealand!!
