3 Wrong Days...

6 hours into a 3 hour bus journey and we arrive in the crazy streets of Copacabana, on the shores of Lake Titicaca (boobpoo). The Bolivians are celebrating independance day, its caos, the streets are rammed with screaming market stall owners, and Bolivians who have made the trek to spend the weekend here.
To celebrate they scream, shout, get very drunk, hit drums and buy more dead llama foetus to bless thier cars with. Yep....to celebrate 151 years of Bolivian Independance they worship their Hyundais, Toyotas, and Mitsubishis. It´s hilarious, they jump up and down on them, beep the horns, and cover them in flowers and paper decorations etc..
We check into our hostel and get told for the 12th time that we are going to get mugged. Apparently all the Peruvians & Bolivian thieves have come here for the weekend.
So out we go into the bonkers town to find lunch. Two minutes down the road and a great BIG greeny gets spat on my neck from behind. I instantly recognise it as a scam where someone should now run up to me, try to wipe it off for me whilst picking my pocket. (Ok people stop laughing now). Before this happens you are supposed to run away and wipe it off when you are alone. So naturally like any grown man I stand still, close my eyes and hold onto my wallet. Nothing. No Bolivian. No Thief......I slowly open my eyes to see a 3 foot high crouched over old lady tottering away as fast as she can with my Spanish wife hot on her heels hollering the most obscene insults in Spanish that I could never print on the internet. Lucky for the old lady she escaped a royal kicking from Sam and dissapeared into the crowd, whilst Sam came over to me a wiped an apparent massive load of gob off my neck. Sam had been behind me and seen it all. For those of you that have heard the Barcelona mugging story, yes...you remember correctly, this is now the 2nd time my wife has fended off my muggers!
2 minutes later and we are laughing about it over a beer. The rest of the day is great, we chill out over looking the lake and have a good night out with two cool guys we met.
Next morning. It´s our wedding anniversary. We plan to spend a romantic day on the Isla De Sol, the birth place of the sun (according to the Inkas), then later out for a posh meal. OH CONTRA MUCHACHO! For the first time in 9 months we find ourselves without cash. There is no ATM and the bank is closed due to fiesta for 2 days. We are screwed, we don´t have enough cash to get the bus out of here, we don´t have any money for tonights accomadation or food. Balls!
Our only escape relies on us getting a refund for our Isle de Sol boat tickets. Begin begging. Nothing. Nada. Squat. The guy won´t budge. Our lives are over... but hey atleast we know a good spitting scam.
One last try and the tourist operator finally agrees to swap the boat ticket for a bus ticket out of Bolivia to Peru where they have ATMs.
So it´s 6pm on our wedding anniversary and we are 5 hours into a 3 hour bus journey. We arrive in Puno, Peru, withdraw some cash, and check into a smart hotel.
Getting ready for our night out Sam suddenly feels sick, feverish and sweaty....all the symptons of realisation that she has been married to me for a year.
We spend the night in watching TV, order room service and reserve the room for another night.
We are supposed to be going to Cuzco to do a trek to Machu Picchu, but Sam has been struggling for 2 weeks now on and off with Altitude sickness, so it looks like we may have to take her back down to the beach soon. For the moment though we are chilling in our posh hotel room watching TV for the first time in months. I saw my 1st F1 Grand Prix of the season (Get In Button!) and watched the Boca Juniors Fottball match. I´m happy.
Chris