Back in Arequipa!

We got the bus from Copacabana to Arequipa via Puno. It was strange to be arriving back in places we had been before and felt like we new. We just had one night in Arequipa and decided to revisit the nice pizza place we had been to with Beth when we were here before. This time though we got there at 8pm and there was no one else there the whole time we were eating. We were treated to several 80´s classics on the big TV though which was a bonus.

On the way back to our hostel afterwards we crossed the road next to the square which was very quiet with no cars about at all. We were just going into the supermarket for a bottle of water when a Peruvian policewoman stopped me to talk to me. Jodie wondered off oblivious and I figured out the policewoman wanted to see my passport and then she told me to get Jodie back. When we were both there it turned out that we had not crossed the road at the crossing so she had to take down all our details including where we were staying, our passport numbers and then, after she had run back across the road exactly where we had crossed to get her ink, our fingerprints. We weren´t fined which was a surprise as we had been expecting to be but that seemed to just make it all the more pointless. When she had finished she just said thanks and we went on our way. Very strange!

Copacabana

We only stayed in Copacabana for 2 nights but we had a good old time having a look around and walking up the hill to look down over Lake Titicaca.

This is our view of the Lake from our room.





This is the Cathedral.




This is a pig we met on the way up the hill. He made a lot of noise.



The view from the top.

On the way to Copacabana

We got the bus to Copacabana and had to watch our bus floated precariously across Lake Titicaca while we went across in a little boat:









It made it and we got back on! Hooray!

La Paz

We arrived in La Paz at about dinner time, and starving after having eaten barely anything all day. As we came over the top of the valley in the bus and began to wind down to the valley bottom, the view of the city sprawling down the steep hills, with the snow-covered mountains in the background did take our breath away. And not just the view, as it was pretty difficult to breathe due to the altitude.

After checking into our hostel, which was amazing with a huge mural painted in our room, we went out and I managed to persuade Rich that we should go for a proper curry. Amazingly there is a brilliant British-owed curry house called the Star of India, at which we ate huge amounts.

We spent the next few days wandering around La Paz (slowly becuase of the altitude), doing some shopping, visiting museums and watching some Bolivian version of ´Trooping the colour´. We tried Bolivian Salteñas (a kind of pasty) whilst watching this for maximum Bolivian-ness, but weren´t prepared for all the juice which splurted out and all over us. Oh dear.

Cochabamba, Bolivia

We arrived in Cochabamba in the middle of the night after our super long bus journey. Our stay here mainly consisted of having a nice rest then going out to a nice coffee shop for breakfast then walking miles to find the bus station to book our onward journey. (We couldn´t find it as we were looking at the wrong thing on the map). We eventually found it and they told us we couldn´t buy our ticket until tomorrow when we wanted to leave. We had a good walk round the markets though which was interesting.



Afterwards we went to ´Dumbo´s´ to have some lunch and managed to order an amazing amount of juice. We showed the grumpy waitress we were made of sterner stuff when we managed to polish it all off!

Super Long bus journey to Santa Cruz, Bolivia

We were in good spirits after our stop in Asuncion despite the heat and were excited to be going to Bolivia... until our bus turned up.



We would rather have had this NASA bus sent from space as ours proceeded to break down numerous times in the middle of the night as well as in the day during our 28 hour journey. Here is one of the times our bus broke down:



Not only this but the super air conditioning dripped constantly on almost everyone on board but particularly Jodie which I won´t say much about- only that she wasn´t best pleased!

Anyway we made it through the border getting our passport stamped this time which was a relief and managed to get a taxi to the Hotel Italia which turned out to be very nice.

The next day we explored Santa Cruz and decided to take a trip to the zoo. We were hoping to see Sloths but some how they seemed to have hatched an escape plan and were nowhere to be seen. We saw plenty of other animals although a few that seemed a tad cooped up to say the least which was a bit sad!

Paraguay: Ciudad del Este and Asuncion

We took a bus to Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, and inadvertantly crossed the border into Brasil on the way. Unfortunately we haven´t got the passport stamps to prove it, but we were in Brazil, even if only for half an hour!

The border crossing was crowded and chaotic, and very hot. Since Paraguay is cheap for shopping, hoardes of Argentinians cross here and the place was full of billboards and street vendors and cars and noise as far as the eye could see! This didn´t trouble us though, since our bus driver didn´t bother to stop at the border and took us straight in to the bus station. Despite what I had read in ´the Book´, the Paraguayan policeman did not request a bribe and was very helpful, although totally wrong. We took a taxi back to the border and I struggled to fend off an offer of marriage whilst Rich was at the cash point. Eventually we were fully stamped and legal and headed back to the bus station for an onward bus to Asuncion, the capital.

We arrived 5 hours later and rather than drive around trying to find a nice place to stay, we picked the hotel Central next to the bus station, forgetting rule number one, which is never to go to a hotel near the bus station. We got ourselves a thoroughly cheap room which had a double bed and a single. Presumably the extra bed was for all the BUGS! Eurghh.

Luckily it did have air conditioning as outside was around 40 degrees, and also a TV to distract from the BUGS and what looked like chewing gum on one wall!

We put up with it for just the one night and headed to a much nice place with a pool in town. It being a Sunday, the place was deserted but we found a great restaurant full of Paraguayan families enjoying Sunday lunch, and where the waiters wore bow ties and ran around very efficiently - the best service in South America so far. People were very friendly, approaching us whilst we were having lunch. Apparently they don´t have many European tourists here and we certainly haven´t seen any.

We had another good wander around, looking at the Plaza de los Heroes and the old, pink government palace, which apparently we could have been shot for taking pictures of a few years ago. Still, it was too hot to be outside for a very long time, so we retreated to the airconditioned mall to do some updating of the blog and emailing home. We´ll probably have to leave eventuallly. But not yet, not yet...

Iguazu Falls

We got the overnight bus from Buenos Aries to Puerto Iguazu and were served our food on the bus by none other than Gerard Depardieu. (Or a close relative). To top this we were also poured a glass of champagne making us feel rather like filmstars! Very nice!





We arrived in Puerto Iguazu and the next day took the half an hour bus out to see the waterfalls. It was quite busy and very hot but the waterfalls were very impressive and we had a really fun day.



















In the middle of our lovely trip we decided to stop and tuck in to our sandwiches we had clevely prepared beforehand. Unfortunately a group of Coati´s had other ideas and appeared on the scene (they are not shy in the park it seems). We thought we had managed to avoid them and gobble down a sandwich getting up to go when the biggest of the bunch, the mum I think ran up Jodies leg and hung on to her bags with its claws stuck fast until she shook it off all to great amusement of everyone else watching!

Here is one of the before mentioned Coati´s:



Jodie clutching her bag of food tightly:



When we thought we had lost the pack of creatures we found ourselves another picnic spot to finish our lunch but this time looking around carefully as we ate. Luckily too as this chap strolled up then:



He had quite a tongue on him!