Buenos Aires to Vegas - The Trek

After Copacabana I had another 12 hours on a bus. This journey was a bit crazy for as soon as we got through customs into Peru we heard that a general transport strike was to commence the next day in the Puno area. We were hounded by locals all trying to get on to the bus to get out of town so I was forced to endure most of the journey with people sitting in the aisle with all their associated pots, pans and children and associated wildlife. We also got stopped by the police who hauled 3 people off the bus for smuggling contraband. This involved a lot of screaming, crying and shoving until finally they were off. To make things even worse, the toilet was broken, so when I decide to go relieve myself outside, the bus decided to move on. Quick action on my part had me sprinting alongside the bus banging on the side for it to stop. 12am and we reached Cuzco. I caught a cab to the Hostal Familiar Llimpimpac and I met Britters who was enjoying a good sleep. After some quick exchanges of ...

Breathing a sigh of relief on the bus, I bade farewell to La Paz. I was now en-route to Lake Titicaca. Copacabana is the main Bolivian town from which to do excursions onto Lake Titicaca and to the nearby Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). The town itself offers little other than boating trips to the island and a large amount of restaurants serving trout (trucha) and another fish called pejerrey. Wikipedia: "Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Bolivia was born here. and Peru. It sits 3,812 m (12,500 ft) above sea level making it one of the highest commercially navigable lakes in the world. On the Isla del Sol, there are over 180 Incan ruins. In the religion of the Incas, it was believed that the sun god, Inti, was born here" Our bus getting ferried across on the dodgiest pontoon I have ever seen Copacabana Some tourists thought it necessary to hire a military boat (complete with front mounted machine gun) to ferry them to the island I shared the bus with another ...

The Cama bus was a great idea which resulted in us arriving in La Paz early in the morning feeling quite refreshed and excited. Viewing the city is quite unique as it is located in a depressed bowl below the altiplano (upper plateau). This means that you get a view of city below you as you descend into the downtown area. Thankfully we had acclimatised to the altitude and so did not feel uncomfortable in the highest capital city in the world. We were booked into the Wild Rovers hostel. An Irish place with a notorious reputation for crazy parties. Wikipedia : "La Paz (meaning "The Peace" in Spanish) is the administrative capital of Bolivia. As of the 2001 census, the city of La Paz had a population of 789,585 , and together with the neighboring cities of El Alto and Viacha , make the biggest urban area of Bolivia, with a population of over 1.6 million inhabitants. Located at an altitude of 3,660 metres (12,008 ft), it is the world's highest capital city." Th...