Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the length of this entry. I hope I can capture and retain your attention for long enough.

Unfortunately, upon returning to La Paz, I had a horrible fever and Roses had had a day of illness again. We decided it was time to seek medical help. We were sent to a private hospital and upon taking a seat in the waiting room, a doctor rushed out and said "I'll just be 5 minutes". As patients of the NHS, this shocked us. We were left astonished by the quality of the consutation. He spoke perfect English, listened attentively, examined us thoroughly, explained clearly what he thought was wrong, explained the medicatrion he was prescribing and was charming and polite. He sent me to get some tests done. I was seen almost immediately and the lab was furnished with leather and art work. Within 6 hours the doctor came to visit us at our hostel at 10pm with the results. We were just blown away by this service.

Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world.

Next stop, Copacabana, Lake Titikaka. We quickly warmed to this quaint lake-side tourist town and found a room for the night for 1 pound 50 each! There was however a reason for this, the staff were not only useless but also tude and miserable. Early in the morning there was no hot water so I snooped around and found the boiler switch of the hostel and turned on the water myself (there was no staff to be found). Chuffed to be having a warm shower, I was then mildly electricuted whilst turning off the shower. Thank goodnes for rubber soles eh? We went to complain, but only found an 8 year old daughter of the owner from whom we took electrical safety advice.

The next day we took a 2 hour boat trip to the sacred Inca island "Isla del Sol", the Inca birth-place of the sun. On the way, the captain lifted-up some floorboards of the boat to reveal a hull full of water! As one can imagine, this was a tad unnerving considering we had 1.5 hours left of the journey and the board was rammed full of people. The men proceeded to empty the hull using buckets, throwing the water over-board. Thankfully, we arrived safely on the Island. We spent the day hiking the Island on a 21km trail. I can definatley see why the Incas thought this place was sacred. The views were utterly stunning. The lake itself was crystal blue and sparkling in the sunlight with a back-drop of towering snow-capped peaks. The island itself was so tranquil with no vehicles or modern buildings and only a few isolated communities. We walked across empty, sandy white beaches, shared only by a couple of cows, pigs and llama. The path took us to varous Inca ruins and offered views of many ancient Inca farming terraces. On route, we came across an Inca sacrificial offering table. Sat at the table was an elderly Bolivian man dressed in a flamboyant tradtional dress with a selection of bottles, flowers, charms and stones laid out on the stone. Curious and reasonably confident we weren't about to be sacrificed to the Gods, we approached the man. He was an Aymaran spiritual doctor and offered to pray to Mother Earth (Pachamama) for us. Roses agreed to undertake the ceremony (Unfortunately I was reluctant to be "blessed" as I knew I would struggle to keep a straight face). Roses sat on a rock and was told to place her hands out. The man proceeded to chant something in Aymaran whilst splashing sacred water from the lake onto her head then placing his hand on her head with her other hand on her heart. He was asking Mother Earth to give Roses luck in Health, Love, Profession and Education for the year to come. As you can imagine it was most surreal. The backdrop to this ceremony was the never-ending expanse of the 8000km2 Lake Titicaca.

That evening, Roses almost managed to clear-out the entire stock of Copacabana's alpaca market. I tell you, the Bolivian economy is greatly benefitting from our presence here. That evening Roses used her haggling expertise to get us a customised set dinner menu for 1 pound!

The next day marked the start of a new phase of our trip.......PERU! We got a bus to Puno, a town on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. After being hassled by various hotel reps just seconds after stepping off the bus, we checked into Duque hostal. As our taxi pulled up, 2 staff of our hostel came out and took our bags up to our rooms for us and showed us the amazing view we had of the lake. We were so excited to be in Peru and impressed by the gelpfullness of the Peruvians. We went for lunch at a typical Peruvian Cervicheria. This is a cold, raw, white fish speciality served in a variety of onion and peppery sauces. It was divine!! We tried 4 diffferent sauces and all were so interesting and rich in flavour. I´ve never had any fish like it. We asked to speak to the chef to congratulate him. Both the chef and the waiter were so flattered and offered to write down the recipes of all 4 for us and drop them off at our hostel. We have not come across such kindness and helpfullness in Bolivia. They even offered us a complimentary tiger milk. This is liquidised tiger fish brain with a little bit of milk. This was even more delicious than the cerviche! That night for dinner we had grilled alpaca which was also most scrumptious.

We embarked on a little exploration of the Islands of the lake. We started with a visit to las Islas Uros. These were amazing for so many reasons! They are a series of floating islands. They are tied together with a series of ropes so the inhabitants can decide to move the entire island at any time. What a wierd concept! Otherthan that, they are almost entirely made of reeds. The island ground is layered with reed, beautiful boats are made of it, houses, furniture and handicrafts. They also use it for food and fuel. The women of the island wear traditonal, eye-catching, brightly coloured clothes. An island man welcomed us into his home (which was the size of a small bedroom) to show us his handycrafts. We took a ride in one of the beautiful boats made of reed and took in the view of these amazing islands.

Next stop was a 3 hour boatride away to the island of Amantani. This is a small Quechua speaking island of 5000 people. Here we were welcomed by a group of women from the community. Eveyone in our group was alocated a homestay family for the night. It was a culture shock for us. Not only did it feel so remote, but the people and the culture here on the lake are really quite different to mainland Peru. So far, we have seen alot of people in traditional dress. Often in Peru however, these outfits are only worn for tourist attraction or fiestas. On this island this is their everyday dress. This consisted of a white blouse colourfully embroidered with a floral design, a black, red or pink waisted, layered skirt with a thick multicoloured striped waist belt, rubber sandels and a black shall that is usually worn as a veil over the head and trails down to the waist at the back. Flora took us to her home where we met Riana her 1 year old daughter, the grandfather Nicolas and the grandmother. They served us quinoa soup and an interesting selection of local potato species and fried cheese for lunch. One of the potatoes was purple and slightly sweet. I have never since seen/eaten it. Nicolas sat and chatted with us and showed us his textile work. Roses and I each bough a warm alpaca hat. That afternoon, Nicolas took us to meet the group. We hiked Pachatata which is a sacred hill in the middle of the island once used for sacrificial ceremonies. it was a hard walk at altitude but it offered incredible views of surrounding islands and the lake which looked almost artificially beautiful, still like a mirror. We reached the top just in time for sunset. This was accompanied by the charango, guitar and panpipe playing of local musicians. We spoke to the musicians about their music and Roses had a go at their version of the recorder. They were so kind and helpful. We were offered a free CD and information on where their instruments can be ordered including contacts in the UK. The Peruvians really do seem like lovely people, much warmer than the Bolivians.

That night we had dinner with Nicolas again and he told us alot about the culture and history of the island and taught us a bit of Quechua (the grandmother didn't speak Spanish because she didn't go to school and has never been on the mainland). There is no economy on the island. People grow their own food and keep their own livestock. The only money they earn is by receiving tourists like us. Because the mainland is so far away, we were told to bring them pasta, rice, sugar, yogurt or school materials. Otherwise, they have to travel 3 hours every month to the mainland to stock-up on these supplies. Unfortunately, we found out that the islanders actually receive very little of the money we pay to the tour agency (we were even very careful to choose a reputable one that trades fairly with the islanders). It seems very difficult to be responsible tourists here. After dinner, the grandparents dressed us up in the traditional dress and took us to the community centre to meet up with the other families and their guests. There was a local music group who played andean music as we leant to dance witht he locals. They then took us outside to dance around a fire in a big circle holding hands. Needless to say, Roses was an onlooker in all of this while I was getting really into the dancing. What a night!

The next day we said goodbye to our family and headed down to catch the boat to the nearby island of Taquile. Marita, our tour guide made a zoo our of the local women by asking them to stand in a line and put their hands out so that we could line-up and bid each of them fairwell with a wierd high-five style handshake followed by them saying goodbye in Quechua in unison. This all felt very awkward and embarassing to us. There is no need for them to put on a little show like this for tourists. It was so fake.

In Taquile they have this fascinating tradition of wearing clothing htat represents their marital status (and more). Married men wear red pointed hats and single men wear white ones. If a single man is not interested in being in a relationship, he wears his hat with the pom pom hanging down to his right side. If he has his eye on someone or is in love, he wears it to the right, next to his heart. Similarly, single women wear black shalls with brightly coloured pom poms on the end, convey signals of interest to men by a series or pom pom shakes behind their back. Married women's shalls have dark coloured pom poms which they are not permitted to shake.

After a lovely lunch of grilled Lago Titicaca trout, over looking the lake, we boarded the boat for Puno. It was a great experience to spend time with these islanders and get to know their cultures.