Travel
On a more positive note here is a bit about some of the places I travelled to.
After working on the terraces for a little over a month I decided with my friends Nadia and Chris that we should have a wonder around South America and so we did.
The start of our journey was very civilised - we got the 'tourist' (nach!) train from Cusco to Puno. The train ride is amazing, passing from Cusco (3300m) over the high pampas (4000m+) and then to Puno and lake Titikaka (3800m). The high pampas are very strange. Only the tufty pampas grass grows here and a few llamas and the odd vicuna can be seen grazing. The people who live up here in small mud huts, breathing the rarefied air and building artificial lakes for their herds are incredibly tough.
In Puno we took a boat to see the floating islands. These huge reed constructions float on the lake and can be moved around the lake to a certain degree. The inhabitants now seem to make all their money from tourists. There are reed huts that they claim to live in but a glance beyond these reveals a floating metal shanty town. Not so tourist friendly, but equally impressive in many ways.
The next day we hopped over the border to Copacabana in Bolivia. Here we saw the isla del sol (island of the sun) which contains an ancient sun temple. One of the Inca myths told of how the first Inca rose from the lake and brought together the Inca empire. Ironically Peru (the land of the Incas) has lost this land to Bolivia. The Bolivians belonging to one of only two land locked countries in South America show off their Navy of three boats every day by making patrols of this Bolivian corner of the lake.
A long overnight bus ride took us to La Paz, the capital of the poorest country in SA and also the highest capital in the world. During the bus ride we saw a huge lightning storm which raged for many hours with lightning striking every few seconds. To add spice to the journey the Bus has to cross Lake Titikaka, this is done on a very unstable looking barge while we cruised over in a small boat with an outboard.
