More photos - jungle and Isla Del Sol

Some day soon we´ll get organised and add photos inline to the blog!

Onto Bolivia - Isla del Sol and Copacabana

On tuesday we left Cusco and headed to Copacabana in Bolivia. Spent the usual 10 hours on a bus and the border crossing was easy altho for some reason we only got a 30 day visa. Think there`s some tightening up of visas in Bolivia at the moment. Should be sufficient for us I think.

Stayed in Copacabana on tues night in the ambassador hotel which boasted hot water which was one of the selling points (altho at that stage any bed was beginning to look good). Was relishing the thought of a nice hot shower to wash the accumulated day of bus grime but when we turned on the shower, hot it turns out is relative. The tap water in this town is freezing .. about 6C SO the electric shower managed to heat this upto a massive maybe 14C ie bloody freezing. Had a very quick dip and hair washing as that would have taken me at least 20 mins to get wet hair not to mind rinsing.

Next day got the ferry out to Isla del Sol which is an island on Lake Titicaca. Ferry is also relative. Its a boat carrying way to many people with a small outboard that moves at approx slow walking speed. Took 2 hours to get to the north of the island and from there we walked back to the south. Stayed in Yumani which is a nice little village on a ridge with great views. Very pleasant place to chill out and heaps of places to choose to eat from and stay. Was some spectacular lightening, hail and rain storms that night and we had only just missed snow a few days before.

Returned the next morning on the Inti Kala boat (name of place we also stayed which was friendly and great views, good food too) which was `muy rapido` well at least 20 minutes faster! Got the bus to La Paz and staying here in Hotel Fuentes which is lovely and cosy since its cold and raining. Off to get some lunch of saltenas now.

From here the plan is vague. We are going to Buenos Aires to my aunt Helen for xmas so we have 3 weeks to get there. The rough plan is Chochamba (maybe for one day), Santa Cruz (hopfully get to Amboros NP and if we win the lotto a trip to Noel Kempff NP would be awesome but thats a dream-on scenario), Roboro (on the way to Brazil might do some hiking there weather permitting), border with Brazil, Panatal (4 day tour) either side of border depending on whats available, and the Iguazu Falls and then BA. If anyone has any tips for anywhere along that route fire them this way!

More stuff we forgot to add about the jungle trip ...

Hmm as you can tell we REALLY really liked our 2 weeks from Los Piedras. Some stuff I forgot to mention in the first blog is below ...

Sounds

• Frog Chorus .. seriously this was incredible (and we did have a sound clip which some langar from Cork accidently deleted from the camera ... sigh). We stood on the edge of the swamp one night after rain and the chorus of frogs was so loud we had to talk loudly to hear each other. It was deafening and it was cool when we saw the frogs which did make the sound as they had these massive puffed out air sacs to help them make this sound.
• Rain on the way - its really very special to lie in a hammock in the hunidity and listen to a storm approaching. You know its really near when ya can hear all the rain drops on the forest canopy and its just gets louder and louder until it reaches ya. Not so nice if your out in the jungle and have to walk back!
• Falling trees ... lots of this happens this time of year as the ground gets soft and the winds in storms knock anything unstable over.
• Mosquito whines, and bats! ahh the pleasure of hearing a mossie whine near your mossie net and then a bat flutter and then no more mossie whine!

Other stuff

• Bats ... we saw heaps of these. Some had really pretty faces NOT especially the ones that flew out of the termite nest on a tree.
• Turtles ... saw a few of these too ... poor sods get an awful time from the mossies.
• Frogs ... think my favorites are the clown frogs!
• Snakes. Saw a small snake trying to swallow a frog one night ... really cool
• Opposum .. saw a cool little fella one night!
• Brazil nuts come from a BIG shell .. if it fell and hit ya on the head then that would be the end. Be kind of ironic to get nailed by a brazil nut when there´s so much other dangerous stuff out there!
• Dunk climbed the platform and was watched by Howler monkeys - that was very special!!
• Banana mash called Taracha (I think) which we had in Puerto Maldonado. Made from green bananas, bbq´d then mashed with pork rind and fat (very healthy for the heart) - yummo!
• Peccaries (small black bush pigs that eat nuts) - good god they smell awful, sound weird (make this clacking noise) and travel in large groups that can be dangerous so you need to be able to climb trees just in case they attack!

Ok there`s heaps more great stuff that we saw, did, heard, smelt, learnt, etc but its lunchtime here so the rest you will just have to go and experience yourself!