A final fling in Peru

The last experience in Peru was another of those random, brilliant things which just seem to happen when travelling. The guide who had organised the trip to the islands (and incidentally also shown us a great place for dinner and taken us out to the local basketball final) had a friend, a fellow guide, who was keen on trialling a mountain bike trail that he was wanting to promote to tourists. We were the lucky guinea pigs to be taken for a free tour... This shot is after six hours of pretty gruelling riding around the Lake Titicaca area around Puno.

One of the best things about this was how we were shown the lives of the locals in a way that it is very difficult to experience normally I imagine. We visited quite isolated villages and stopped off at a farm which existed in much the same fashion I imagine it would have 400 years ago - no electricity, gas, or water, all the food prepared from the farm. We were even invited into the sleeping chamber of the family, where stuffed animals hung from the roof as charms.