Titikaka

A quick ride in a passenger pushbike dodging traffic and realising there are no rules. The easiest way to get your licence is on the black market. 

A short stop on the floating islands (hit wikipedia for this) but the people live on islands made of reeds. We were there long enough for Annette to spend money at the markets. Tick off another continent for market action.

From there we cruised for 3 hours. The lake is massive. A long way to our left, oops sorry, to our port side was Bolivia, final destination for Butch and Sundance. 

On arrival at our first destination we took a short walk up a steep hill. The red blood cells haven't done their job yet. Luckily lunch was at the top overlooking the lake. It made places like Doyles look like a corner fish and chip shop. Two courses for around $8 each. From there it was a 20 minute walk and back on the boat.

Its really hard to explain the altitude. I keep feeling like I have forgotten to take a couple of breaths. One girl on the tour collapsed as soon as she got off the plane. 

We then headed to our night with a host family.

So it was with great pain that the first thing we (I) did on arrival was play soccer against the local teenagers on a concrete field the size of a basketball court. Now I got a better knowledge of how hard it is for  sportsmen to play at altitude. The burning in my chest was big. 

Maybe 20 minutes of this and as the sun set the locals danced for us. Then we got dressed in local costumes and did the same dance. Finally we finished and left for our stay with our host. So off we walked up the rather large hill in the dark with only my trusty Aldi light leading the way. All this while still wearing the costume. What I didn't know at the time was that we were making our way through the farming land. At night you can't see the thousands of tiny little sheep, pig, donkey, cow and chicken crap everywhere.

On arrival to our room we talked to stephanie our host. She didn't speak English and we didn't speak her language. We did understand dinner.

We had a really nice meal of soup, a vegetarian stew and a hot drink. This would come back to haunt me later. Then it was off to bed............. at730. Finally a good sleep only interrupted by an angry donkey next door(or Annette snoring, not sure)

Now going to bed so early straight after soup and hot drink, and with the toilet  outside and too far to walk to in my sleepy state could only mean one thing

Chamber pot. Using the ipod as a torch, I reached under the bed, got my pottie and went, making as little noise as I could.