#travelpost - La Paz, Bolivia

Three hours from Lake Titicaca down some very bumpy roads is the capital city of La Paz. At one point we needed to get off the bus whilst both us and the bus jumped on a boat across a narrow part of the lake which was a funny feeling... Watching your bus rock to and throw on a long barge is a bit wierd.

I was a bit nervous about La Paz before we arrived... Its reputation gives off danger signals and a list of 'what not to dos' but I'll give it to La Paz... It's not as scary as what you'd expect. 

It's busy. Like really busy but I was expecting some version of the madness I saw in Cairo! But no... It's just a very busy city with more order than what I ever expected. Don't get me wrong though, it's no normal city... There's strange sights on most corners, including the witches market full of herbs, potions and llama featuses used for good luck....

On our first night we had a walk around town and bumped into a girl, Jeanette, that had taken the same bus as us earlier that day. We shared some Chinese food from a local chifa and chatted the night away.

Early the next morning the three of us headed to a free walking tour of the city which happened to finish in an English pub with free shots of the Bolivian liquor Singani. We grabbed some salteñas from a lady and her stall before it started and oh my... They were good. Bubbly, crispy pastries filled with samosa style fillings and an array of sauces to eat them with. The tour started at the infamous San Pedro prison... Run from the inside by the inmates. You could see the guards on the gate and the wives of the inmates  selling things outside to make some money to take back in. Here the families and children can live inside with the husbands... A strange, strange place. 

We wandered through markets, ate strange fruits, learned about the Bolivian people's faith in 'potions' (no construction worker will start working on a site without a ritual being done first) and drank our first Bolivian beer. 

We got some good views of the city from the cable car that runs from the centre to the outer barrios but my favourite way of seeing La Paz was from Urban Rush.... A huge five star hotel in the middle of town and its top floor is used for abseiling. No... We didn't do this but our brave friend Jeanette did... Dressed as a rasher of bacon! We just admired the views and got a serious case of  butterflies just watching her!

For the rest of our time in the city we did the usual things... People watched, ate at the markets and drank lotsa coffee. We ate more pastries (what? It's hibernation season) and on the last day we had the worlds most delicious pasty with pulled pork! I'm still craving it now. We hung in the city centre mainly but we did have a walk down the huge avenue through town to a zone bit more chilled... Still in the centre but it was full of students sat about and everything was so much greener. It reminded us of Miraflores in Lima.

Oh there is one more thing... Whilst I wasted away a day in bed being chicken, Harry cycled down 'Death Road' - the worlds most dangerous. He came back in one piece with some scrapes, bruises and a big smile. They got a minivan to the starting point and in true Bolivian style had to take a shot of 80% alcohol to ask Mother Earth to look after them on the ride down... They even poured a shot on their bikes and the ground. He said it's one of the highlights of his trip!

On Friday we'll be doing a three day tour to Salar de Uyuni the salt flats and then working our way up through some UNESCO cities to our final stop before NY, Santa Cruz. 

Ciao X 

#travelpost - Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

The crossing to Bolivia must have taken us 15 minutes from getting off the bus to getting back on a huge difference from the long wait at the Ecuador/Peru border. We got to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca at midday and headed straight for our hotel. We knew we'd be filling the next few days relaxing and not doing too much so we spent a little extra on the hotel to get a balcony and a big room. 

Copacabana is famous for its perfect position on the lake (the highest inhabited in the world) and it's herd of swan pedalos. The town reminded us of a cheesy seaside resort in England in the 80s... Kind of trapped in time but we couldn't complain when it was back to the cheap food prices we were used to in Colombia and it had perfect views and spots to just sit and chill. 

Like I said, we didn't do much in Copacabana over the two days we were there... After a busy few weeks of tours and trips we wanted to have some down time. We headed straight to the shop I'm using shop loosely, more like a few shelves on the street with a lady sat next to them and bought a bottle of rum for two pounds. We spent both days eating trout from the lake, drinking rum and playing cards. Oh, we might have rented out a swan pedalo one afternoon too! 

On the third day we bought a boat ticket to Isla del Sol Island of the Sun... We did one way in the boat and the way back on the roof! We got dropped off half way down the island and walked for 2 hours to reach our hostel in the South. We bought a fried egg and tomato sandwich which was actually really nice haha and sat in the sun until we decided to hit the roof of our hostel and camp out there until the sun went down drinking more of our rum... We had that much we had to share with a German girl who decided to help us finish the bottle... We still didn't but by tonight it will be gone! 

A short post about a long few relaxing days but we didn't actually do that much to write about! Tomorrow morning we get the bus to the capital La Paz for what I imagine to be a very hectic few days! 

#travelpost - Arequipa, Peru

Arequipa is a cool city. 

We arrived really early in the morning from Cusco via our VIP bus... Hence the photos above. 

Arequipa is the second biggest city after Lima and is surrounded by three huge volcanoes. In fact, on the bus ride there, after googling Arequipa, I found an article with the title '5 cities that could be the next Pompeii...' And no surprise that Arequipa was riding high on that list! We chose a cheap hostel with a great rooftop terrace which had views of the city and volcanoes... It was a great setting for breakfast in the sunshine and even better with our free banana pancakes! A really nice change from the free bread and butter we've been getting in most hostels... 

Arequipa was the first time in a while where we felt like we were on holiday rather than travelling... The weather was in the high 20s everyday, the dreamy rooftop was perfect for afternoon beers, the town was pretty and bustling and there were plenty of bars and restaurants. 

We had our fair share of beers, coffees, cakes and a little bit of fast food which is a nice treat when you've been away for so long. We found a nice bar called Arequipa Beer Club which even had a little beer garden up top... We went twice, first for iced coffee and again for some good beer. We also stumbled across a lady selling the famous queso helado cheese ice cream... Named after its texture not its content thank god! It was the creamiest, cinnamon topped ice cream ever. 

We found the local market and we had to go twice because the food was so good. We found the perfect stall selling some of the cities specialties... One of which was pastel de papas. Think of the creamiest dauphinois potatoes with the crispiest top layer! I had mine with roast pork and Haz had his with another special rocoto relleno... Stuffed pepper with cheese and meat.

One of my favourite places in Arequipa was the Santa Catalina Monastery... It felt like a city within a city. It's a maze of courtyards, secret stairways, multi coloured walls and plazas filled with fruit trees. The rich widow that owned it brought over nuns from the wealthiest families in Spain in the 1500s which is why the whole place feels like Andalucia itself. The streets are appropriately named Calle Cordoba, Malaga, Sevilla..and are decorated with flowerpots and hanging plants. 

Between our 4 days in Arequipa we took an overnight tour to Colca Canyon... Ranked second deepest in the world. We visited the local villages, saw wild vicuñas the endangered cousins to alpacas and llamas, went swimming in thermal baths in the mountains and went to the highest point in the area with a height of 4800m above sea level. From that one spot we could see 7 different volcanoes, one of which was huffing and puffing! When we got to the heart of the canyon we left the bus and walked with the group for an hour to the lookout point to see the condors. We were lucky enough to catch two flying right over us when we first got there and they were huge... The adults grow to a wingspan of 2m. We didn't get chance to catch the first two on camera but we caught a few more in the distance later on in the day. 

And that's our time in Peru over with. We're sad to be leaving... But Bolivia calls! Tonight we are staying in Puno on the Peruvian side of the border and tomorrow we cross over to Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. The highest inhabited lake in the world! 

Thanks for reading,

Amiee x