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| Family portrait standing above Cusco centre in the rain! |
Over the course of the past 2 and a half years we have travelled to many places and met many friends. We have learned numerous things and bumped into people several times.
Just when you think that you will not know anybody in a new country you release that you do in fact have friends there. The past two weeks has led to several such encounters and again shows how small this world really is!!
After journeying through Bolivia's mountainous south we reached La Paz and then travelled on to the fabled Lake Titicaca. The lake is the highest lake on the planet and is large, spanning the borders of both Bolivia and Peru. On driving around the lake we passed several Bolivian villages that seemed to be in festival spirit. We stopped at one and saw a group of older villagers dancing and drinking beer. We stopped got out and asked if there was any food for sell, only bread, but we were soon being encouraged to dance with the locals, which we obliged, a beer was put in my hand and my other hand was taken buy an elderly Bolivian lady! I then danced and turned like the way they did, it was fun! Afterwards I went to another group and repeated a similar dance, then the people started asking us to buy beer! The whole village was begging, they were all so drunk! It got a little overwhelming so we decided to leave! Exit stage left!
The plan was to go to Copacabana a name that most people associate with Brazil s Rio De Janeiro beach but in fact the name originates from the Bolivian town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, The story is apparently that Brazilian fishermen where caught in a storm on the lake, survived thanks to the magic powers of the lake and then returned to Rio and named a local beach after the sacred lake! Other people believe that the lake was the site of Atlantis and it can be found somewhere under the waters. The drive around the coast by Copacabana afforded wonderful views from cliff top perches and the blue colour was intense and beautiful. We had to cross the lake via a barge at one stage, which meant driving on a two car ferry which seemed very unstable, but brought us across without incident. The local food is mainly trout caught from the lake and after months of being in landlocked Paraguay and Bolivia fish was a welcome addition to our diet!
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| Kombi on the boat! |
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| Lake Camp site |
Copacabana is a small town and gives access to the island of the sun a sacred island with Inca trails and ruins. We found the beach had a road that ran along it and away from the town, so we parked near an eco hostel and set up a fire on the beach to cook Trout that we bought from the market. We were joined after a few days by another VW camper, in fact friends that we had met in Potosi Bolivia, it was great to spend some time as a collective group. One day we went to the island of Sun and decided to walk the Inca trail,which consists of 11km of mountainous trails at 4200m altitude. Of course we had Lili with us and she was not in the mood to walk, which meant Daddy was her personal taxi service!! Most people will struggle with that walk at that altitude just carrying themselves along let alone a 4 year old, I was well and truly tired at the end of the day... The island has archaeological sites and wonderful terraces carved into the mountainside, plus fantastic views of the lake. The island was and is considered very sacred by the Inca people.
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| Copacabana church |
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| Copacabana view from Church on Mountain |
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| Dad with beard! |
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| Lake view |
Copacabana is just 10km to the Peru border and passing into Peru I quickly felt a nice vibe and the roads where very well maintained although full of speed bumps going through villages, these speed bumps are mostly well marked although at night time can be a little hazardous. We drove almost directly to Cusco and found the school that we had arranged to volunteer at for a week. The school was for children Lilis age and had a nice trampoline in the play area, so she had a great week playing with the kids and the toys, in the afternoons after our volunteer work was done we explored Cusco city centre and some of the archaeological sites. Inca wall construction is amazing and the way they fit the stones together is mind boggling.
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| Cusco centre |
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| Inca walls above Cusco centre |
The second week we left Cusco and volunteered at a lake close to Cusco and surrounded by Archaeological sites. We helped with the gardens and renting out boats to weekend tourists from Cusco. Our next stop was the sacred valley, which was the centre if the Inca culture. The valley is wide and has been cultivated for hundreds of years, it offers a temperate climate year round. The world famous Machu Picchu is found at one end the valley.
Our friends Arafat and his girlfriend Lucile whom we had met in Malaysia whilst volunteering at Arafats farm where based at a farm in the sacred valley, we were invited to stay with them by the host Michael. We also received news that our friend Nadeem from Sitges, Spain would also be arriving in Cusco, so we invited him to meet us in the sacred valley.
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| Boys at the salt mines! |
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| Inca site at the lake |
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| Nadeem and Sandrine at the salt mines |
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| Peruvian girl at the lake |
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| Salt mines |
We were interested to meet a shaman and take sacred plants like San Pedro and Ayahuasca, which are famous in this area. It turned out that Michael has been holding ceremonies for the past 9 years for ayahuasca and we were invited to join his next ceremony. At the same time we also tracked down a shaman. The ceremonies where both very different but involved taking the medicines and then experiencing things that varied from person to person, some people experienced voices and were able to ask questions and help improve themselves. I in my experience of the two ceremonies have not had any such effects but may yet try again. Its nice to spend time with old friends in such a beautiful area with the area steeped in history... we have not yet made it to Machu Picchu, but will see what happens next!!
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| Debrief and mountains |
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| Nadeem with sacred pipe and shaman Tupaq |
