Copacabana and the Takesi Trek

Hello people. No entries for a while because, shock horror, we've been busy having adventures. And not just eating in new places. Well, not just that. I'm going to hand you over to my colleague, the admiral of the fleet, to tell you about our daring raid into Peru and sojourn in Copacabana (Bolivia not Brazil, obviously - just to clear up any confusion here and now) and then I will delight you with our thrilling exploits as we descended into the steamy Yungas. Exciting no?

Hello everyone, you will be pleased to hear that I have made a full recovery from my first bout of stomach lurgy, mercifully it was during the transport strike and as my beloved didn´t have classes he was able to mop my fevered brow, bring me refreshing beverages and make sympathetic comments after my many trips to the lavatory. I think he got bored of being Nurse Sam quite quickly though and decided to escape to the pub as soon as I was feeling slightly better. Things are still going well at the childrens home, we are currently in the process of making papier mache/balloon pumpkins for Halloween, the plan was to fill the pumpkins with sweets but alas some methods of construction have been less thorough than others and I don´t think they will withstand even a jelly tot unless some serious repair work is undertaken by the volunteers.

So anyway, our weekend in Copacabana actually started in Puno, Peru. Sam had to cross the border in order to get his visa renewed so we spent the night there before returning via Copacabana. Puno, like Copacabana, is on Lake Titicaca but was a bit of a dump to be honest, with not much to do in the way of tourist activities. It is possible to rent various small crafts for fun but apparently the water around Puno is mainly untreated sewage so we stayed on dry land and enjoyed the novelty of the cable television and a bath in our hotel room. We left early the next morning and arrived in Copacabana at around 11.30. It is a very pretty place and hence full of stripey trouser-wearing dreadlocked and bearded (Sam was quite jealous) traveller folk. Why oh why, when you have an enormous rucksack to carry, would you think it´s a good idea to bring a guitar and set of bongo drums along as well I wonder? So we got the boat over to Isla del Sol which was a pleasant but rather long three hour round trip, this is apparently the place where the Incas believed the sun was born and there are lots of interesting ruins which we didn´t get to see as we only had an hour there before having to return. We are planning to go back later in our trip though and will probably spend a few days seeing the place properly. Sam is getting restless now, having checked all the relevant sporting results (Yeovil Town are 2nd in League 2 everyone...hooray.), so I shall hand over to him now to tell you about our further exploits this weekend.

Can I just add, re Lake Titicaca, that I ate trout for for lunch, supper, lunch and supper (unfortunately it didn't appear on many breakfast menus). I had trout with butter and spring onions (7/10), trout "a la Don Piero" (includes bananas - 2/10), a trout sandwich with chips (7/10) and stuffed trout (8/10). Thought you might want to know.

This weekend we went trekking. On Saturday we started climbing upwards through drizzle into light snow and it was all very Welsh. Scenery-wise. And weather-wise. And we were with Welsh people which really sealed the Welshness. We eventually hauled ourselves to the top of...um Some Mountain where we were greeted with a spectacular vista of impenetrable mist. Then it started to just chuck it down and after negotiating some broiling torrents, we had to put up early in a barn and sit around in our wet clothing for hours. Mmmm. The next day was a considerable improvement - it was a clear day and the scenery was pretty amazing - these vast, steep mountains covered in luscious green vegetation etc etc....anyway, my rubbish photos will do slightly more justice to it than my rubbish words, so keep a look out for the new photos soon. Um, it got hotter, there were insects and there was a lot of downhill (after which you're quite keen for a bit of honest, straight-talking uphill). Then we finished and were taken back to La Paz in a taxi along what I thought was the Road of Certain Death but what was, in fact the Road of Entirely Possible Death. Hear me now; if that road was just child's play compared to the real road of death, you won't get me on it in this life. Or the next. Unless I come back as some sort of flying thing or insect or something that is good at climbing. The track (calling it road is way too generous) was the width of a small minibus and is flanked on one side by overhanging rocks which make the road slope sideways towards the thousand metres plus chasm on the other side. And it was raining. Urk. Sorry to dwell on this but you know how I feel about heights. We made it though. And our knees hurt.

So there you are, action-packed times. A quiet one this weekend, I think, with much sleeping. Do you know, I haven't had a lie in for about TWO WEEKS. Pffff. Hasta blogo proximo.