Kristy & Adam - South America Adventures

Hola from Lake Titicaca!
Hope you are all well. We have just returned from a two day trip to Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian side.
The first Island we visited was the Uros Floating Islands. It was really interesting to see how the Islanders live, their island is made purely of floating reeds, and their housing of dried reeds. They survivie by eating fish, birds and by eating the reeds on the Island. Supposably the reeds taste like banana`s, after a quick bite I don`t really agree!!!
The islands feel really strange to walk on you feel like you are bouncing around, As usual I was getting excited and taking loads of photos and I took a few steps in the wrong direction, and put my foot right through some reeds and ended up almost knee deep in water...WOOPS

The next Island we visited was Amanti where we stayed overnight. Our host family was a family of 7. They provided lunch and dinner for us and took us out to the towns fiesta for the evening where we dressed up in the traditional clothing and taught us traditional dancing.
The meals were cooking in a mud hut with a fire and some cast iron pots, at first we were a bit worried that we would get sick as the food was washed and cooked in tap water, but so far, touch wood we are ok! They cooked us traditional soups, vegetables and rice.
The fiesta was fun. Adam wore a brown poncho and special beanie they had knitted for us, and I wore about 3 layers of skirts, a traditional top and a special headress. Wait till you see the pics, what a classic. It was really cold so I had about 4 layers underneath the costume, so I look like I`m about 25 stone!!

Today we visited Taquile Island, it wasn`t as interesting as the others, we hiked for about an hour to reach the top of the island where we chilled out in the town square.
Tomorrow we are heading to Copacabana in Bolivia. So till then take care and keep in touch

Kristy & Adam

Hey all!
Well we have just arrived back in Cuzco from our two day Inca trail trek.
What an amazing experience! We were picked up from our hotel very early, then boarded the train for few hours. We were dropped off at the passport checkpoint, met our guide, then we were on our way. We booked a private 2 day tour so it was just the three of us which was really nice, we didn`t have to rush or worry about holding a group up if we were too slow.

As it ended up our guide told us we were very fit and going faster than the average person! At one stage he had to ask us to slow down as he needed a rest! We walked 6 kilometers, a mixture of up and down stairs, and some flat areas, through the valleys, and past Inca ruins, for this part of the trip the weather was mixed, we had our jumpers and rain coats on and off the whole time.

We finally reached our first stop off for lunch after about 4 hours of hiking. After lunch we walked a further 6 kilometers, this part of the track was a lot easier, less stairs to begin with and flatter ground, however it was raining the whole time which made the paths pretty slippery! We both nearly stacked it several times! Afer a further 3 hours we finally reached the Sun gate where we had our first glance of Machu Picchu. Tottally amazing The area was fairly clouded so a bit dissapointing, but as we made our way down the final decent the clouds lifted and we got some amazing photos.
In the evening we relaxed after our big day and had dinner with our guide.

The following day he took us and another smaller group for a 3 hour tour of Machu Picchu. Was really fascinating to learn about the history and how the Inca`s lived, the only downside, it was raining the whole time he was talking to us, So I donned a lovely purple plastic poncho to protect the camera goods and keep me dry! Wait till you see the pics! CLASSIC!! When the tour was finished the rain eased and we spent a few more hours taking pics and walking around. We caught a train back to Cuzco and arrived late last night.

(If anyone was wondering the normal trek for the Inca trail is 4 days 50km, we did the 2 day one because of my back, I still think it was a MAJOR achievement for me, as three years ago I couldn´t walk for 15 minutes without pain! Very proud of myself

We are having a relaxing day today, then making our way down to Lake Titicaca tommorrow, we will be spending a night on the Islands with a family so should be really interesting!! Keep in touch!

Kristy & Adam

Hola from Peru!
Hope you`re all well. We`ve been in Peru for about a week. Our first stop was Lima, it wasn`t terribly interesting just another big city really, we just walked around the suburbs of Miraflores and Baranco and visited a big local market, and bought a few more Christmas pressies The bags are getting noticably heavier now!!!
We flew to Cuzco after a few days in Lima. Cuzco is really beautiful, full of culture and a lovely big square to walk around. We went for a big hike to the top of three Inca ruins the other day and we did a Sacred valley tour yesterday. We saw some llama`s Met some fellow Aussies, Penny and John so we`ve been doing lots of sightseeing with them. Tomorrow is the big day, Starting our 2 day Inca trail trek.
Wish us luck!
Keep in touch
Kristy & Adam