Chicuito, 6:30pm

Well, the adventure continues....It's amazing what can happen when you don't make plans.  So we went to Machu Picchu with the Australians that we met and we did get to see it in the sun this time which was very nice.   It was good to be back there again...we actually went later in the afternoon to avoid the crowds and the energy was much calmer.  The only crazy thing was that Stephen and I (no one else from our group) got attacked by these crazy Peruvian mesquitos that left dozens of bites all over our legs.  Not fun...very itchy but we're pretty well through it now.

After Machu Picchu we thought we would go back to Cusco on our own until the co-ordinator of the Australian tour started talking up the next leg of their journey to Lake Titikaka, telling us how much we would love it, etc.  So they kindly invited us along with them.   We are staying just outside of Puno which is one of the southernmost cities in Peru, right on the famous lake.  It's apparently the highest lake in the world, higher in altitude than Machu Picchu actually.  We have been touring lots of sacred sites and beautiful landmarks.  Today we went out on the boat and visited Santa Maria island and Tequile island (not to be confused with Tequila;)  Santa Maria island was great- like someting out of a movie.  It's part of a group of 40 islands they call the "floating islands".  They are literally made of reeds from the water.  Everything on the islands are made of reeds.  They are anchored into the lake so they don't float away!  It was pretty wild...I even rode a boat that was made of reeds.  The natives were very sweet and had all of their goods out for sale.   Tequile island wiped out half of our group- the altitude was too much for some people so only a small group of us made it to the top of the hill to the main square.  Then 3 hours on the boat there and back...it was a long day.

Happy to be back at the hotel now, able to relax and go to bed a bit early.  We have been waking up super early to go on excursions so an early night will do us good.

That's all for now folks...

Cheerio,

Andrea & Stephen