Goodbye Peru

Well, after nearly 5 weeks in Peru, we have now managed to cross the troublesome border into Bolivia. We have enjoyed Peru immensely and certainly finished on a high note with a spectacular trip to the Lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.....with the a highlight being summitting the amazing tooth like peak sitting behind the city. Sarah climbed up superbly, overtaking young backpackers and romping up the steep Inca stairways, through tunnels and up ropes to the pointed summit, all with no safety rails or barriers. Stepping off the summit to descend was heart stopping with nothing to hold onto and a huge drop into the valley below. It was a lifetime highlight for us both.
After some housekeeping back in Cusco - a US marine style haircut and a visit to a dentist for me (great when the batteries ran out in the light gun!) we grabbed a place on the night bus to get into Bolivia and to Copacabana on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. At 3800m (12,500´ or 757 perches) it is a sublime and beautiful location. We took the boat across to Sun Island, the legendary origin of the sun and got swept up in a mad and energetic fiesta....fabulous costumes & dancing but awful music and drunkeness a plenty. After a daywalk across the top of the island at over 4000m at times (puff, puff) and another lovely night in a village we returned to shore for a well earned shower.
Bolivia is wonderfully cheap`...$1.80 for the 1.5 hour boat trip, $7.50 for fillet steak with roquefort sauce and all the trimmings and around $25 a night for B&B in a nice hostel.
Now in crazy La Paz - hundreds of thousands of tatty brick buildings lining a gorge in the high ´altiplano´ full of diesel fumes and people. Not pleasent but interesting!
Following in Katie and Shay´s footsteps I cycled down the famous Death Road yesterday while Sarah and travelling friends watched Bolovias biggest carnival pass by our hostel. The road descends 3500m through 21 climatic zones, from iced up waterfalls down to the jungle with monkeys and butterflies. I had to use the brakes quite a lot! I caught the end of the spectacular 12hr carnival procession ....I think Sarah had a great day and eventually managed to find her in a posh hotel with some friends finishing a bottle of Bolivian red and a meal of llama steak !
Today will try to pick our way through the urine stained streets to watch the all-female wrestling held every Sunday afternoon - and we thought they were all God fearing Catholics here!

Walking trees ...!

Well, there´s certainly something wrong with my shoes! After wadding through an Amazonian swamp in my running shoes they have a smell that can clear a room in seconds - must be some sort of tropical bacteria living in there I reckon. I´ll give you all a sniff when we get back if you like - just like rotting meat and certainly not just my sweaty feet!
Apart from that we largely had an idylic trip 1.5hrs up river from Puerto Maldonado in a narrow boat. Just like on the telly, apart from the monkey pee all down my T-shirt. Why me?
Hot and humid with tarantulas and crocigattors a plenty as well as spectacular butterflies and birds....oh yes, and we actually saw walking palm trees in the jungle. They weren´t actually in motion but they can walk on their roots to an area with better light!
Also spotted a huge new suspension bridge under construction in the town as part of the inter-ocean highway through the Amazon Basin. What is the world coming too?
Yesterday we arrived via plane and taxi to the Shangri-la location of the Sacred Valley, back close to Cusco in the high Andes. So nice to be in the mountain air again. Inca temples and ruins all around and the village has been virtually unchanged since Inca times so is very characterful with streams running down open channels in the narrow cobbled streets.
A lovely hostel and lovely people. Jumping on the train to Machu Picchu tomorrow....
Currently working on a solution to getting to Bolivia in a few days time. The Peru/Bolivia border at Lake Titicaca is closed by violent protesters who don´t want mining in the area. Maybe an expensive flight is the only solution??