After a god nights sleep. i had to get up at 4:30am in order to make my way to the airport. I had been such an idiot. Lazyness got the better of me the night before after the choro trek, so i didnt bother going to get some more money out of the bank! HUGE mistake. In the moringn, woke up late, had to call for a taxi. didnt have enough money to pay my hostal, so had to leg it to the cash machine... no easy task at 4000m, then run back pay fro my room, then jump in the taxi to the airport. Luckily the ride to the airport only took about 15mins, not 30 as i had been warned. but this meant i turned up only 5 mins later than i should have. Got in the queue to check in.. it doesnt move till 6:50am which is our departure time!! We start walking to the plane and i almost burst out laughing. As it turned out it is a TINY plane. Max about 20 passengers. It was also very cool never flown in such a small plane. You could see right out the cockpit, and see what all the pilots were doing etc. Very funky. As we began our flight we flew through the mountains. Literally with the peaks at our eye level.. and the winds causing loads of turbulance there. the views were ablsolutly stunning. The flight was slightly traumatic, because the windows had holes in them, so the air pressure was crazily low, causing some kids on the plane to cry all the way. The flight was pretty short... just to find us decending to land on a mud track, with just a kid directing the plane from the ground and a small shack for an airport.
Luckily transport was provided by the airline to the town centre, direct to the door of the travel agency i had booked my tours with! Perfect.
I was just standing around minding my own business when i got a tap on the shoulder. There was a guy who had vaguely agreed to come with me, in a severly drunken state before i went to choro, and had loads of my DVDs. This was pretty cool. Someone i know with me.... but means i needn't have carried all the books and magazines i had brought. We set off in a minivan. JESUS CHRIST! between the seats there was about 20cm... way too small for my gringo legs, and the guy who i was travelling with is 6ft5"... this was a crazy bumpy, painful 3.5 hours on a dirt track road into the pampas. We were so annoyed because the short little bolivians took all the seats with the leg room, and we had to keep switching positions just to cope with the pain of squeezing in our legs!
Finally we arrived by the river. We got into a small cannoe type of boat, and set off down the river. I thought that this was going to be a pretty boring trip, but literaly within seconds we see aligators, turtles and the giant hamster animals. There were hundreds of birds around, and also we saw pink dolphins. Me and Jim the dutch guy i was traveling with were having photo competions, trying to take the best pics.. but the 4 hours passed by pretty quick. We got to our camp, which was a huge dorm with about 50 beds, CrAzy! but the most annoying thing was the bolivian doorways, meaning we had to bed over everytime we went through a door. We then went to watch the sunset from the mirador... it was stunning, but then some crazy auzzie started walking towards the aligators sat on the riverbank below us... We all thought he was going to get attacked any second, he was trying to grab the croc's tail.!! Luckily the gaiter was more scared of him and legged it. Otherwise we would have had nasty accident! We ended up with an early bedtime, as in the morning, we were going to see the sunrise, not before getting the wonderful surprise whilst brushing my teeth, that the water was the brown river water... mmmm lush!
Woke up at 5:30am... got in a boat and went downstream to a giant field. It was really wierd, beacuse i thought pampas was meant to be a kind of jungle, but it was much more like a safari. The landscape honestly resembles that of a safari. We watched the sunrise over the 'safari' which was pretty amazing. Then we returned to our camp and after breakfast we headed anaconda hunting. we walked for about 45 minutes through marshland. looking for anacondas! We were successful!!! It was wicked. It was only a baby one though i think. About 3metres long.
After our sucessful anaconda hunt, we returned to camp for lunch, and a power nap, before heading back out into the river . This time we were going to brave it and swim with the dolphins! BUT.. this also meant we were swimming with the aligators, pyranas, and the snakes! Mmmm lovely! What was more disconcerting, was that although our guide told us that GENERALLY people didnt get attacked by any of the animals, was that as we pulled up in the boat to the swimming spot, i watched a big aligator dive down in the water....!!!! SCARY! But i got in, and it was fine. We were fairly unlucky beacuse none of the dolphins came particularily close, but i had one a meter away from me. They are scary looking creatures. Unfortunatly wasnt able to get any pictures, because they were so quick at moving. They are quite pinky, and have a wierd hump on their back, not quite a fin, and their noses are higher up than on a conventional dolphin. Very freaky!
This night, me and Jimme and some crazy canadians we met, all requested to be taken downriver to the sunset bar. On the way we did some aligator watching.. which is basically shining a torch in their eyes. And then they glow red! When we got to the bar, one of the guys jumped out the boat and stright into this nasty clay/mud and just started sinking! It was hilarious. The bar itself was dead apart from 2 Israilis. So we ended up listening to the Canadians crazy stories and sittting in the hammocks swinging into eachother.. seeing who can spill the least beer! - One of the best stories they told was of a flight in Venezuela. It was raining, and the plane still took off. Then water started dripping into the plane, not only all over them, but all ove the instruments in the cockpit. Then the pilot couldnt see where he was going, so he opened the window and was poking his head out the window as he flew.!!! (obviously.. the plane wasnt very high!)
Day 3, we woke up at a human hour after a freezing night... luckily a fairly late breakfast before heading out to the river.. ONCE AGAIN... for pyrana fishing. I have to admit i had a lot more fun than i thought i would. I managed to catch 4 pyranas. We were told that whatever we caught we could eat.. but they were all pretty small, so we just threw them back. One of mine was saved for dinner though, becasue i managed to catch it right through the eye, so everyone decided we should eat it! Everyone in our group did pretty well at catching pyranas, apart from one guy who managed to catch 6 catfish!
After the fun morning we had lunch.. unfrtunatly not our pyranas.. and set off back to Santa Rosa by boat, from where we took our favourite minibus back to Rurrenabaque.
Overall it was a wicked trip. Saw loads of animals. Managed not to get too bitten by Mosquitos.. and was very happy!
Unfortunatly the day came to a poor end. We went out for dinner... and Jimme was served something he didnt order.. then we went tot he night club, where they only played raggeton and the DJ wouldnt stop talking over the music. I actually asked him 4 times to stop talking.. but he just laughed. However, we did find the best hostal, we got the penthouse suit, with unbelieveable views of the sunset and the town!
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
The Choro Trek 72km- death road 2
Day 1
Set off early in the morning to a similar starting point as our death ride. But started a bit higher 4900m. It was Freezing! Snowing at the top... We sooo werent prepared for this. (we being me and an Auzzie i had recruited as i really didnt want to go alone.)
Meeting the guide had been pretty interesting. He was an old guy, about 50yrs, didnt even introduce himself. Just started walking. Also we noticed he only had 1 tent. Did that mean we were sharing with him!? But i suppose you get what you pay for!! - and we payed comparitavly little. At the top we also met a group of Islrali boys. They were looking for the path, but refused to listen to our guide because they had a story written down in hebrew of how to find it! they were also doing the hike carrying a guitar! Nutters! but they said it was a necessity!
Anyway, we started walking and it was pretty steep downhill. Also night before i had only had 2 hours sleep, as i had thought it would be a good time to go for a night out. This then resulted in me falling over and ripping my best pair of trousers. I now have NO clean or unripped trousers! How depressing! Mum.. send me more... out here it is impossible to find new trousers which fit. All South americans are way too short!
Anyway.. i had a bit of blood, but it was no big deal. My greater concern was the weather. it had been understandably cloudy above, but once we were walking lower... it shuldnt have been. We were still in a cloud and it was raining. It rained all day! and the fog was so bad we couldnt see 5 meters in front all the way. This is supposed to be a famous trek for its beautiful scenery, and we werent seeing none of it! As we walked on and got tot he bottom of the valley the path was made of rocks. This was a killer. another girl we met fell over 3 times! All of us were close to falling. it was torture. wet, cold and slippery. When we arrived at camp, it was no better, there was no fire to dry our clothes, so we had a cold uncomfortable night.
DAY 2
When we woke all the clouds were gone thankfully! We could see that we had managed to walk to the cloud forest. This meant for a hot and humid day! But none of us minded. We all needed our clothes to dry off! i went to brush my teeth and found the Israili boys, they invited me in for coffee.. offered me needle and thread for my trousers, and were fantastic, and invited me to come listen to them playing tonight. I was gone so long that my guide came looking for me, as apparently i was holding them up. I really liked these 5 boys. they were doing the trek alone. and that seemed like way more fun!
The trek was pretty tough. I had worn bad socks the day before, and also my knees were killing me from my fall. I hoped at least the path would be better, but instead it was worse. The humid air made the stairs ultra slippery. I fell over and now have a GIANT balck bruise on my buM! sooo not fair! However the views were amazing and there were so many butterflys, i felt like a little girl in a cartoon! they were flying all around. the flowers were pretty awesome too!
After 8 hours walk, we reached our camp, munched dinner then i joined the Israilis for a fire. Unfortunatly a cloud came over, so we couldnt light a fire, but they made hot soup, then caramelised peanuts, and tea, and played songs in english and hebrew on the guitar. They also told me their war stories, trainig stories, and also how to get discounts for everything. and not to be so polite. For example. One of them walked in to the tourist agency, asked for the price of the tour, got the price down, paid, and then 5 people turned up. becasue the tourist agent hadnt asked how many people. CHEEKY! Also they just tend to get discounts at restaurants and stuff... just coz their israili! Sooo not fair. but we had good laughs and a good night overall!
DAY 3
After having stayed up with the boys to the small hours i was knakered. We had an ultra early start of 6am!The path was pretty easy in general! a bit of uphill,. a bit of down, and a lot of flat. I thought i was going to die by the end. All becasue i hadnt looked after my feeet on the first day. It was a fairly peaceful walk back, but a bit shoddy as again.. we were in a cloud! that is just so, not coool! Nothing to see.
Anyway.. got back to la paz safely.. and have to go to bed as have a 6:30am flight to catch to the jungle. thats where i will be for the bext few days, so expect no reply!
xxxx
Set off early in the morning to a similar starting point as our death ride. But started a bit higher 4900m. It was Freezing! Snowing at the top... We sooo werent prepared for this. (we being me and an Auzzie i had recruited as i really didnt want to go alone.)
Meeting the guide had been pretty interesting. He was an old guy, about 50yrs, didnt even introduce himself. Just started walking. Also we noticed he only had 1 tent. Did that mean we were sharing with him!? But i suppose you get what you pay for!! - and we payed comparitavly little. At the top we also met a group of Islrali boys. They were looking for the path, but refused to listen to our guide because they had a story written down in hebrew of how to find it! they were also doing the hike carrying a guitar! Nutters! but they said it was a necessity!
Anyway, we started walking and it was pretty steep downhill. Also night before i had only had 2 hours sleep, as i had thought it would be a good time to go for a night out. This then resulted in me falling over and ripping my best pair of trousers. I now have NO clean or unripped trousers! How depressing! Mum.. send me more... out here it is impossible to find new trousers which fit. All South americans are way too short!
Anyway.. i had a bit of blood, but it was no big deal. My greater concern was the weather. it had been understandably cloudy above, but once we were walking lower... it shuldnt have been. We were still in a cloud and it was raining. It rained all day! and the fog was so bad we couldnt see 5 meters in front all the way. This is supposed to be a famous trek for its beautiful scenery, and we werent seeing none of it! As we walked on and got tot he bottom of the valley the path was made of rocks. This was a killer. another girl we met fell over 3 times! All of us were close to falling. it was torture. wet, cold and slippery. When we arrived at camp, it was no better, there was no fire to dry our clothes, so we had a cold uncomfortable night.
DAY 2
When we woke all the clouds were gone thankfully! We could see that we had managed to walk to the cloud forest. This meant for a hot and humid day! But none of us minded. We all needed our clothes to dry off! i went to brush my teeth and found the Israili boys, they invited me in for coffee.. offered me needle and thread for my trousers, and were fantastic, and invited me to come listen to them playing tonight. I was gone so long that my guide came looking for me, as apparently i was holding them up. I really liked these 5 boys. they were doing the trek alone. and that seemed like way more fun!
The trek was pretty tough. I had worn bad socks the day before, and also my knees were killing me from my fall. I hoped at least the path would be better, but instead it was worse. The humid air made the stairs ultra slippery. I fell over and now have a GIANT balck bruise on my buM! sooo not fair! However the views were amazing and there were so many butterflys, i felt like a little girl in a cartoon! they were flying all around. the flowers were pretty awesome too!
After 8 hours walk, we reached our camp, munched dinner then i joined the Israilis for a fire. Unfortunatly a cloud came over, so we couldnt light a fire, but they made hot soup, then caramelised peanuts, and tea, and played songs in english and hebrew on the guitar. They also told me their war stories, trainig stories, and also how to get discounts for everything. and not to be so polite. For example. One of them walked in to the tourist agency, asked for the price of the tour, got the price down, paid, and then 5 people turned up. becasue the tourist agent hadnt asked how many people. CHEEKY! Also they just tend to get discounts at restaurants and stuff... just coz their israili! Sooo not fair. but we had good laughs and a good night overall!
DAY 3
After having stayed up with the boys to the small hours i was knakered. We had an ultra early start of 6am!The path was pretty easy in general! a bit of uphill,. a bit of down, and a lot of flat. I thought i was going to die by the end. All becasue i hadnt looked after my feeet on the first day. It was a fairly peaceful walk back, but a bit shoddy as again.. we were in a cloud! that is just so, not coool! Nothing to see.
Anyway.. got back to la paz safely.. and have to go to bed as have a 6:30am flight to catch to the jungle. thats where i will be for the bext few days, so expect no reply!
xxxx
Sunday, 24 June 2007
The Death Road - 60km downhill biking.
The worlds most dangerous road. A narrow 40km stretch of road along a cliff edge, barely wide enough to carry one bus, carried 2 way traffic for years. It is so narrow, and with a 400m drop on one side and a rock on the other, if busses met, one had to reverse backwards till it reached a point in the road wide enough. The road is very whindy(bendy), and it resulted in many buses driving off backwards!
Went weith a bunch of people i have been travelling with briefly. We started at 4700m. The bikes were top of the range, we got loads of protective gear and wore loads of warnm clothes, coz it was absolutlu FREEZING up there! The first stretch which lasted just over half an hour was all tarmac, and wide roads. Then after about 20km we reached the real DEATH ROAD. Not only have many buses gone over the edge, but as have many cyclists, due to stupidity, faulty breaks, or just being an idiot!
It was quite tough.. required loads of concentration, and was qiuite difficult as the path had loads of loose stones which are easy to skid on, many tight corners - which are easy not to make.
The 40km took about 3 hours. Quite a few stops, as the guide always kept us informed on what was coming up next, and how not to kill ourselves! We also had loads of photos and films taken, which was great. We managed to finish the bike ride with only 2 accidents. One due to boys racing eachother, but it was a minor cut along the arm, and a girl whose entre chin was ripped open. Whilst riding under a waterfall her tyres slipped and she flew over the handlebars straight onto her chin! poor girl.
At the end of the fday however, we had a lovely surprise in store. we were taken to an animal sanctuary. All the animals were fere to roam. So we had monkeys jumping onto our shoulders and parrots(makaws) and we played with a baby ossilate!
Over all the company -Gravity that i went with was great. good guide, we got a free beer, free t-shirt and taken tp the sanctuary where we could have free hot showers and buffet lunch!
That evening my Polish also came in useful!! I translated 2 A4 pages of advertising about the Hostel i am staying at Into POLISH, and for that i got 2 free nights!! Rock on!
Went weith a bunch of people i have been travelling with briefly. We started at 4700m. The bikes were top of the range, we got loads of protective gear and wore loads of warnm clothes, coz it was absolutlu FREEZING up there! The first stretch which lasted just over half an hour was all tarmac, and wide roads. Then after about 20km we reached the real DEATH ROAD. Not only have many buses gone over the edge, but as have many cyclists, due to stupidity, faulty breaks, or just being an idiot!
It was quite tough.. required loads of concentration, and was qiuite difficult as the path had loads of loose stones which are easy to skid on, many tight corners - which are easy not to make.
The 40km took about 3 hours. Quite a few stops, as the guide always kept us informed on what was coming up next, and how not to kill ourselves! We also had loads of photos and films taken, which was great. We managed to finish the bike ride with only 2 accidents. One due to boys racing eachother, but it was a minor cut along the arm, and a girl whose entre chin was ripped open. Whilst riding under a waterfall her tyres slipped and she flew over the handlebars straight onto her chin! poor girl.
At the end of the fday however, we had a lovely surprise in store. we were taken to an animal sanctuary. All the animals were fere to roam. So we had monkeys jumping onto our shoulders and parrots(makaws) and we played with a baby ossilate!
Over all the company -Gravity that i went with was great. good guide, we got a free beer, free t-shirt and taken tp the sanctuary where we could have free hot showers and buffet lunch!
That evening my Polish also came in useful!! I translated 2 A4 pages of advertising about the Hostel i am staying at Into POLISH, and for that i got 2 free nights!! Rock on!
Saturday, 23 June 2007
La Paz by night - the drug den
Went out to the city centre by night. what a different place. The market turns into a semi funfair. Huge stalls with loads of cuddly toys and stalls selling fireworks come out. And hundreds of fast food stalls! These people really love their fried foods. Today i managed to see people doing tatoos on the street! A touch dangerous one would think.
Last night was a bit crazy. We started off with a nice english bar, then moved to another chilled club, before going to vivians place. Crazy club. Behind a garage door, charging 5times the actual price for all drinks, and with drugs practically on the menu... not really my scene. Really desperate for some good pumping music.. a nice drum and bass bar, but i dont think i am gonna find one out here. Maybe when i get to Buenos Aires.
Everyday i just see the wierdest things... i cant get over how wierd it all is.
Today i even found a shop selling COFFINS! ha ha ha! how funny is that.
I have an exciting week ahead.. tomorrow doing the death road, monday going on a 3 day trek, and thursday flying up north to the Jungle for 5days. As soon as i get back i am leaving again, to head south to potosi to the mines!
Last night was a bit crazy. We started off with a nice english bar, then moved to another chilled club, before going to vivians place. Crazy club. Behind a garage door, charging 5times the actual price for all drinks, and with drugs practically on the menu... not really my scene. Really desperate for some good pumping music.. a nice drum and bass bar, but i dont think i am gonna find one out here. Maybe when i get to Buenos Aires.
Everyday i just see the wierdest things... i cant get over how wierd it all is.
Today i even found a shop selling COFFINS! ha ha ha! how funny is that.
I have an exciting week ahead.. tomorrow doing the death road, monday going on a 3 day trek, and thursday flying up north to the Jungle for 5days. As soon as i get back i am leaving again, to head south to potosi to the mines!
Friday, 22 June 2007
The Bizzare city of La Paz
I think i like this place!
It had beautiful views last night. A huge city, built into the cliffs. The Roads are literally one above the other. On one side of the road is always a cliff, and the other side a sheer drop.
We are at 4000m, and it is fantastic. Luckily, not feeling altitude sick.
Today went out to the city for a walk. I have to admit the men here are worse than anywhere i have been in terms of their reaction to me. The shoe-shine boys are wierd, they all wear balaclavas, and when i asked why.. they told me beacuse they are terrorists! Ha ha ha! But at least i got my shoes polished properly! he took off all my laces and everything! I was very impressed. I then wandered around the market! My heaven! However i am very confused as to where all these rumours of a cheap Bolivia are from. Everything i have found is more expensive than peru, apart from the food! What is going on!
Also, there are telephone pylons everywhere!!! What is the deal with that!!!
Anyway, planning to do some trekking, the deathroad, and then off to the jungle for a week!
xxx
It had beautiful views last night. A huge city, built into the cliffs. The Roads are literally one above the other. On one side of the road is always a cliff, and the other side a sheer drop.
We are at 4000m, and it is fantastic. Luckily, not feeling altitude sick.
Today went out to the city for a walk. I have to admit the men here are worse than anywhere i have been in terms of their reaction to me. The shoe-shine boys are wierd, they all wear balaclavas, and when i asked why.. they told me beacuse they are terrorists! Ha ha ha! But at least i got my shoes polished properly! he took off all my laces and everything! I was very impressed. I then wandered around the market! My heaven! However i am very confused as to where all these rumours of a cheap Bolivia are from. Everything i have found is more expensive than peru, apart from the food! What is going on!
Also, there are telephone pylons everywhere!!! What is the deal with that!!!
Anyway, planning to do some trekking, the deathroad, and then off to the jungle for a week!
xxx
Thursday, 21 June 2007
Isla Del Sol - La Paz
We OVERSLEPT! - Missed the sacrifice of the lama.. so we were all gutted, but just about managed to wake for our boat to Isla del Sol.
it was a long boat ride again.. but i am getting used to that. when we arrrived it was an absolutly stunning Island. Some of our group booked into a hostal to stay the night, but i realised i only had another 4 weeks left here till I fly from Buenos Aires to Lima!! I panicked and legged it acros the Island to the south side to catch the boat back to Copacabana with all the others. The walk was beautiful apart from the odd peruvian kid popping out of the trees saying ' un photito?' jesus christ they were annoying! and if you said no, then they would give you the wrong directions to the other side of the island if any!
managed to make the 3hour walk in 2 hours despite the annoying kids trying to mislead me!
When we arrived back in Copacabana we booked ourselves onto the final bus leaving copacabana for la paz, which was at 6.30pm.
When we got on the bus we were told its a tourist bus, so we wuold prett much be alone. We sat ourselves down comfortably, then some guy starts tellling us to get off.. get on another bus! We all freaked out, coz locals were getting on, they were trying to throw us off, and all our stuff was on the bus. We were so lucky that we were in such a big group. Eventually the driver had to get the woman who sold us the tickets to come and sort it out! We couldnt believe what a mess had been made of selling us a few tickets!
Finally we set off, and the bus was banging away. The driver stopped, picked up a brick from the side of the road and started hitting something. When we started driving again the banging continued.. so he just switched on the radio full blast! - Ha ha! Problem fixed the Bolivian way!
After about 2 hours into the drive we stopped because we had reached the edge of the lake, and we had to cross it. We got off the bus and were told to go and pay for a boat across. We then watched our bus drive onto a WOODEN RAFT! followed by all the locals that were on the bus! Then a boy with a big stick start to puch the boat across!! I cant even begin to explain how funny this was to watch! it was absolutly Hilarious!!! I wish i could have taken a photo, but unfortunatly was way too dark! But i did absolutly flip at the fact that beacuse we were white we had to pay to get another boat across! i started shouting at the guy, and his response was that it was too dangerous to go on the raft, because the buses did fall off quite often! - UNACCEPTABLE!!!
On the other side, we waited for our bus, and drove the rest of the way to La Paz. We had been told we would be dropped off at the bus terminal which was next door to the hostal where we wanted to stay. But guess what! the cheecky bastards lied. We drove up a deserted street and were told to get off. resulting in a 10min ride to our hostel in a taxi.!! But at least we had finally arrived.
it was a long boat ride again.. but i am getting used to that. when we arrrived it was an absolutly stunning Island. Some of our group booked into a hostal to stay the night, but i realised i only had another 4 weeks left here till I fly from Buenos Aires to Lima!! I panicked and legged it acros the Island to the south side to catch the boat back to Copacabana with all the others. The walk was beautiful apart from the odd peruvian kid popping out of the trees saying ' un photito?' jesus christ they were annoying! and if you said no, then they would give you the wrong directions to the other side of the island if any!
managed to make the 3hour walk in 2 hours despite the annoying kids trying to mislead me!
When we arrived back in Copacabana we booked ourselves onto the final bus leaving copacabana for la paz, which was at 6.30pm.
When we got on the bus we were told its a tourist bus, so we wuold prett much be alone. We sat ourselves down comfortably, then some guy starts tellling us to get off.. get on another bus! We all freaked out, coz locals were getting on, they were trying to throw us off, and all our stuff was on the bus. We were so lucky that we were in such a big group. Eventually the driver had to get the woman who sold us the tickets to come and sort it out! We couldnt believe what a mess had been made of selling us a few tickets!
Finally we set off, and the bus was banging away. The driver stopped, picked up a brick from the side of the road and started hitting something. When we started driving again the banging continued.. so he just switched on the radio full blast! - Ha ha! Problem fixed the Bolivian way!
After about 2 hours into the drive we stopped because we had reached the edge of the lake, and we had to cross it. We got off the bus and were told to go and pay for a boat across. We then watched our bus drive onto a WOODEN RAFT! followed by all the locals that were on the bus! Then a boy with a big stick start to puch the boat across!! I cant even begin to explain how funny this was to watch! it was absolutly Hilarious!!! I wish i could have taken a photo, but unfortunatly was way too dark! But i did absolutly flip at the fact that beacuse we were white we had to pay to get another boat across! i started shouting at the guy, and his response was that it was too dangerous to go on the raft, because the buses did fall off quite often! - UNACCEPTABLE!!!
On the other side, we waited for our bus, and drove the rest of the way to La Paz. We had been told we would be dropped off at the bus terminal which was next door to the hostal where we wanted to stay. But guess what! the cheecky bastards lied. We drove up a deserted street and were told to get off. resulting in a 10min ride to our hostel in a taxi.!! But at least we had finally arrived.
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Copacabana - Bolivia
Woke nice and early to walk to the border. it was only 15mins away, but the other guys decided to go by motor taxi. (motorbike rikshaw) At the border they wanted to search us all for drugs.. but also just asked - do you have any cocaine or marujana on you! Well of course we are going to say no!
I just asked where the dogs were to check.. and they told me they were at the vet! - yeah right!
Finally reached Bolivia, and took a taxi 8km to Copacabana! WOW absolutly beautiful! it was so stunning like you wouldnt believe. I was expecting an ugly place just like Puno.. so i was very pleasantly surprised.
I also couldnt wait for all the cheap stuff i had heard about! Unfortunatly... Internet was 10bolivianos. thats like 5times the price of internet in Peru! I was horrified. The food was also pretty expensive.
This place was lovely, but something i noticed was that it was FULL of hippies. just loads of white people with dreads and making jewelry.
That evening we climbed up to a small moutain they have with statues at the top to watch the beautiful sunrise. We then headed down and cooked ourselves some dinner, and headed out to the bars. The bars were good fun! I managed to actually chat to an Israili. Surprisingly he pulled away from the pack, and told me how by being israili he automatically gets 10% discounts in restaurnts. - No idea why this is, but hey.. and all menus are in Hebrew!
I then got chatted up by a peruvian who wanted to braid my hair.. that was some pretty interesting chat. You would all laugh if you saw his dreads!!!
Later that night whilst chatting to some Canadians I found out that of course tomorrow is the summer solctice, i-e 21st June - longest day! the celebrations include watching the sunrise, fires, and the sacrifice of a lama. this exciting news made us all finish our evening early so we could get up to watch it all!!
I just asked where the dogs were to check.. and they told me they were at the vet! - yeah right!
Finally reached Bolivia, and took a taxi 8km to Copacabana! WOW absolutly beautiful! it was so stunning like you wouldnt believe. I was expecting an ugly place just like Puno.. so i was very pleasantly surprised.
I also couldnt wait for all the cheap stuff i had heard about! Unfortunatly... Internet was 10bolivianos. thats like 5times the price of internet in Peru! I was horrified. The food was also pretty expensive.
This place was lovely, but something i noticed was that it was FULL of hippies. just loads of white people with dreads and making jewelry.
That evening we climbed up to a small moutain they have with statues at the top to watch the beautiful sunrise. We then headed down and cooked ourselves some dinner, and headed out to the bars. The bars were good fun! I managed to actually chat to an Israili. Surprisingly he pulled away from the pack, and told me how by being israili he automatically gets 10% discounts in restaurnts. - No idea why this is, but hey.. and all menus are in Hebrew!
I then got chatted up by a peruvian who wanted to braid my hair.. that was some pretty interesting chat. You would all laugh if you saw his dreads!!!
Later that night whilst chatting to some Canadians I found out that of course tomorrow is the summer solctice, i-e 21st June - longest day! the celebrations include watching the sunrise, fires, and the sacrifice of a lama. this exciting news made us all finish our evening early so we could get up to watch it all!!
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Lake Titicaca and the Islands - Yuntungo
Puno is not a particularily amazing place. First thing in morning, headed off to the port to catch a boat into the lake to visit the Islands. There are 3 main islands you can visit on this side of the lake. We set off at 8.20 and first went to Uros! This is actually a group of islands. they are also known as the floating Islands.. guess why... beacuse thy are floating. They were made by people to escape the incas, and are basically made of reeds! about 3 metres deep. They need to relay the surface every 2-3 weeks. to do this they need to pick up the houses. They are anchored down by rocks. But they move the islands every year and have a race between the boats because of all the sewage from the islanders. Also, all the islands are at a different stage of evolution. some have just houses, others have international telephones, restaurants, everything. The wierdest thing was that they all had TV's, radio and solar pannels.
We also got to try island platano. which is basically eating the bottom of the reeds like a banana. They were a bit watery, but the kids live off it, coz its full of iron! Also, walking on all the reeds feels like your ona bouncy castle.. it was Awesome!
Next we went to Amantaní. We were given a family to stay with. After eating a very interesting peasants lunch consisting of delicious soup, but followed by squeaky cheese and 'pirple things' called oki, which i think are part of the carrot family! We chilled out for a short while in the mud house, and then went for a walk to the top of the island, to the temple. The views from there were amazing. They had an interesting museum! it was sporting a hollow pig, which they say they used to use as a backpack! (from what i understood). We stayed at the top till sunset, when it became freezing!! then walked back down to the house and i went to watch the mum of the house cook. Another reason why i went tot the kitchen was that it was well and truly the warmest place!!! It was so nice to just sit and watch. The whole family gathered, like they did in Colca cannoyon. The litttle boy took a liking to me(2.5yrs).. so i played with him, but it was really wierd, coz the family kept telling us all that he had no father. Everyone in the damily individually told me this!! WHY!!
Dinner was a huge improvement on lunch.. and then afterwards they family got out all the traditonal clothing, and dressed us up! the boys were first and they were lucky! they managed to get away with just having to wear a poncho and a peruvian hat! Us girls on the otherhand had to wear a traditional whitel shirt with embroidery, then a huge skirt which made our bums look about 5 times their actual size, and a belt which was tied as tight as a corset.. so walking was definitly a challenge.. especially with the lack of air.. as we were at an altitude of 3800m
This island was so bizzare.. there were street lights everywhere, and lighbulbs, but NO electricity. Apparently the government stopped pumping gas and petrol to them 3 years ago. When we arrived at the party there was a traditional band, and everyone was dancing. The family gave us a bit of a lesson in peruvian dancing.. and that was awesome! All in all a fantastic day!
The next morning after a freezing night in the mud hut we set of for the island of Tequlia - not actually how you spell it, but thats how you pronounce it.
The island itself was pretty similar to the other one. But we didnt really do much other than go for a bit of a hike, get forced to eat food we didnt really want and then we went back on the boat for a 3.5hr journey back.
When we got back we were in a mad rush to catch a bus to the border. There were going to be apparently no buses on the wednesday due to a strike, and I definitly didnt want to be staying in peru a further 2 nights. We managed to make it onto a bus, but the border shut at 6 which meant we were needing to stay the night at yuntungo the border town.
This village was bizzare. When we got off the bus in the main square at 8pm, the whole square was full of male locals. The square was completely bordered by fast food stands. There were also fooseball tables in the square. Then we went to the hostal. 9people. We had additions from the people we met whilst visiting the islands on lake titicaca. - The hostal was unbelieveably cheap, but there were no showers. In the bathrooms they had a hole where the showerhead was supposed to be, and holes for the knobs, but NO shower! Who would think to build a hostal without showers!!!
After checking into our hostal we decided to go out for dinner and the only thing other than street stands were retaurants selling solely CHicken!
I then got a migraine and went to the farmacy. No one there. Empty.
Then had an incident when asking for the bill for our chicken.. firstly they wouldnt give us our free water, then the restaurant owner was asleep on the floor behind the bar!
Then i went to buy some biscuits off the street and was met by an intelligent peruvian. I paid him, and he didnt seem to understand I needed change... probably because he was serving 2 people at once and it baffled him!
Then went to an internet cafe. As soon as i sit down a guy asks me if i speak english, Made the biggest mistake by replying that I do. He then would not shut up! he just kept asking me wierd questions about Peru. I thought i was going to kill him! Didnt he ned to write emails too!!! In the meantime 2 o the people I was travelling with were in hysterics listening to my conversation.
Finally just had to leave... early start the next morning. Had the Border Crossing.
fooseball tables
We also got to try island platano. which is basically eating the bottom of the reeds like a banana. They were a bit watery, but the kids live off it, coz its full of iron! Also, walking on all the reeds feels like your ona bouncy castle.. it was Awesome!
Next we went to Amantaní. We were given a family to stay with. After eating a very interesting peasants lunch consisting of delicious soup, but followed by squeaky cheese and 'pirple things' called oki, which i think are part of the carrot family! We chilled out for a short while in the mud house, and then went for a walk to the top of the island, to the temple. The views from there were amazing. They had an interesting museum! it was sporting a hollow pig, which they say they used to use as a backpack! (from what i understood). We stayed at the top till sunset, when it became freezing!! then walked back down to the house and i went to watch the mum of the house cook. Another reason why i went tot the kitchen was that it was well and truly the warmest place!!! It was so nice to just sit and watch. The whole family gathered, like they did in Colca cannoyon. The litttle boy took a liking to me(2.5yrs).. so i played with him, but it was really wierd, coz the family kept telling us all that he had no father. Everyone in the damily individually told me this!! WHY!!
Dinner was a huge improvement on lunch.. and then afterwards they family got out all the traditonal clothing, and dressed us up! the boys were first and they were lucky! they managed to get away with just having to wear a poncho and a peruvian hat! Us girls on the otherhand had to wear a traditional whitel shirt with embroidery, then a huge skirt which made our bums look about 5 times their actual size, and a belt which was tied as tight as a corset.. so walking was definitly a challenge.. especially with the lack of air.. as we were at an altitude of 3800m
This island was so bizzare.. there were street lights everywhere, and lighbulbs, but NO electricity. Apparently the government stopped pumping gas and petrol to them 3 years ago. When we arrived at the party there was a traditional band, and everyone was dancing. The family gave us a bit of a lesson in peruvian dancing.. and that was awesome! All in all a fantastic day!
The next morning after a freezing night in the mud hut we set of for the island of Tequlia - not actually how you spell it, but thats how you pronounce it.
The island itself was pretty similar to the other one. But we didnt really do much other than go for a bit of a hike, get forced to eat food we didnt really want and then we went back on the boat for a 3.5hr journey back.
When we got back we were in a mad rush to catch a bus to the border. There were going to be apparently no buses on the wednesday due to a strike, and I definitly didnt want to be staying in peru a further 2 nights. We managed to make it onto a bus, but the border shut at 6 which meant we were needing to stay the night at yuntungo the border town.
This village was bizzare. When we got off the bus in the main square at 8pm, the whole square was full of male locals. The square was completely bordered by fast food stands. There were also fooseball tables in the square. Then we went to the hostal. 9people. We had additions from the people we met whilst visiting the islands on lake titicaca. - The hostal was unbelieveably cheap, but there were no showers. In the bathrooms they had a hole where the showerhead was supposed to be, and holes for the knobs, but NO shower! Who would think to build a hostal without showers!!!
After checking into our hostal we decided to go out for dinner and the only thing other than street stands were retaurants selling solely CHicken!
I then got a migraine and went to the farmacy. No one there. Empty.
Then had an incident when asking for the bill for our chicken.. firstly they wouldnt give us our free water, then the restaurant owner was asleep on the floor behind the bar!
Then i went to buy some biscuits off the street and was met by an intelligent peruvian. I paid him, and he didnt seem to understand I needed change... probably because he was serving 2 people at once and it baffled him!
Then went to an internet cafe. As soon as i sit down a guy asks me if i speak english, Made the biggest mistake by replying that I do. He then would not shut up! he just kept asking me wierd questions about Peru. I thought i was going to kill him! Didnt he ned to write emails too!!! In the meantime 2 o the people I was travelling with were in hysterics listening to my conversation.
Finally just had to leave... early start the next morning. Had the Border Crossing.
fooseball tables
Sunday, 17 June 2007
Chilling in Arequipa - Puno
At the moment have just arrived in Puno. It is on Lake Titicacca.- which i cant spell yet!
Not been up to too much.. after getting back from the colca cannyon trek i managed to waste an entire day on the internet writing it up,- mainly because my computer crashed a million times! then joined some people I have met out here in the middle of their drinking session. They had started at 2pm.
We chilled out for a while, bar hopped, got paid for to go to a hawaian party at another hostel.. which turned out to be empty.. and ended up in the most rubbish club i could possibly envisage.
The music was just... abominable.. i dont even know how to describe it! It was noise. I requested some good old D&B but the DJ claimed he listened to it all the time and loved it, but just didnt have any with him.
At the end of his 5 hour set which ended at about 4:30am.. He was being quite nice to me, and i went ahead and told him that I was less than impressed with the tunes. Then I went upstairs to the bathroom, and for the first time noticed that his head was on all the posters.-- he was one of the biggest DJs from around Peru.. specially in Arequipa from Lima to play his set. Whoops... that might have explained the excess of peruvians fighting at the door to get in! O well..
The next day i managed to be much more roductive. I visitied the monostario de Santa Catalina... which was a bloody rip off, but good to see. it used to be a convent. It was huge.. but bloody expensive. luckily, i was actaully alowed to take photos in there. Normally you can only buy postcards... and then i went to see Juanita (an incan sacrifice to the mountain god to stop the volcanos erupting, found frozen on Ampato)
The peruvians are actually a very intelligent Nation. they have this whole.. taking advantage of tourists thing down to a T.
In cusco, if you want to see ANYTHING. you have to buy a tourist ticket for 70 soles. this is like 12quid!! what a rip off.. the chances are, you will only see about 3 of the 15 things on the ticket! I had to pay so much to visit 1 thing on the sacred valley. They wont accept any less. The same thing thenm happened to me when i was going to the Colca Canyon. In order to get off the bus at any point along the bus journey to the colca cannyon you need a bloody tourist ticket. And i had to pay 35soles... and i was only going to see one thing.
Another great way they make moeny is that NO PHOTOS ANYWHERE.. so then if you want any memory of the churches, ruins etc... you have to buy bloody postcards!!!
Another thing i forgot to mention previouly was that the women round here are crazy!! When i was hiking up the incatrail.. there was a woman walking her donkey and knitting at the same time!
Then in the colca cannyon... same thing! but this time weaving wool!!!! Crazy things!
Not been up to too much.. after getting back from the colca cannyon trek i managed to waste an entire day on the internet writing it up,- mainly because my computer crashed a million times! then joined some people I have met out here in the middle of their drinking session. They had started at 2pm.
We chilled out for a while, bar hopped, got paid for to go to a hawaian party at another hostel.. which turned out to be empty.. and ended up in the most rubbish club i could possibly envisage.
The music was just... abominable.. i dont even know how to describe it! It was noise. I requested some good old D&B but the DJ claimed he listened to it all the time and loved it, but just didnt have any with him.
At the end of his 5 hour set which ended at about 4:30am.. He was being quite nice to me, and i went ahead and told him that I was less than impressed with the tunes. Then I went upstairs to the bathroom, and for the first time noticed that his head was on all the posters.-- he was one of the biggest DJs from around Peru.. specially in Arequipa from Lima to play his set. Whoops... that might have explained the excess of peruvians fighting at the door to get in! O well..
The next day i managed to be much more roductive. I visitied the monostario de Santa Catalina... which was a bloody rip off, but good to see. it used to be a convent. It was huge.. but bloody expensive. luckily, i was actaully alowed to take photos in there. Normally you can only buy postcards... and then i went to see Juanita (an incan sacrifice to the mountain god to stop the volcanos erupting, found frozen on Ampato)
The peruvians are actually a very intelligent Nation. they have this whole.. taking advantage of tourists thing down to a T.
In cusco, if you want to see ANYTHING. you have to buy a tourist ticket for 70 soles. this is like 12quid!! what a rip off.. the chances are, you will only see about 3 of the 15 things on the ticket! I had to pay so much to visit 1 thing on the sacred valley. They wont accept any less. The same thing thenm happened to me when i was going to the Colca Canyon. In order to get off the bus at any point along the bus journey to the colca cannyon you need a bloody tourist ticket. And i had to pay 35soles... and i was only going to see one thing.
Another great way they make moeny is that NO PHOTOS ANYWHERE.. so then if you want any memory of the churches, ruins etc... you have to buy bloody postcards!!!
Another thing i forgot to mention previouly was that the women round here are crazy!! When i was hiking up the incatrail.. there was a woman walking her donkey and knitting at the same time!
Then in the colca cannyon... same thing! but this time weaving wool!!!! Crazy things!
Puno
Arrived in Puno... to be fair a bit of a hole No real views over the supposed amazingly beautiful lake Titicaca.
I arrived early in the morning, after a paranoid bus ride, beacuse i had left my passport i my main luggage, and we were stopping numerous times to unload stuff in various different towns.
Once i arrived in Puno, getting to the hostal etc was pretty easy, with a private bathroom, and allowed me time to go for a wonder round town!
There really isnt much to see in puno, The main square, some bars and restaurants and thats it. There was one church, but that was closed, so not worth going into.
That evening, the bunch of people i am currently travelling with Arrived. we went out to dinner... and boy was that an unwise thing to do.
Ha ha ha! I can only laugh. Firstly, puno is absolutly Freezing! Everywhere is cold. My room in particvular,... the next day when i woke up the apple i had eaten before bed hadn't browned and the banana was as solid as a rock.
We dressed up in loads of thick layers for going out. We found a restaurant and went in. Of course.. it was cold. We nearly set the whole place alight though, because just by the entrance was a huge fire. Right in the doorway. It was a big pan thing with oil burning! Soooo dangerous. Then we were sat down on a stage at the front of the restaurant looking down on everyone else eating, when one of the napkins on our table caught fire(from a candle)! This was a badly designed restaurant. The walls were made of wicker, it was generally cramped. They had lots of napkins in wineglasses as decoration and lots of candles. Also on the wall was a deer head, and the best part was that they had used its hooves as coathangers!! it was hilarious. Then, while waiting to be served a napkin on another table managed to catch fire. This place as crazy. Just before we left, another guy didnt tip the waitress enough and she started crying! Very Bizzare.
We then went onto a reggae and rock bar. Again... a ver wierd night! We had the wierdest bar tender. We kept ordering drinks, and he would just walk off without taking our order. He was just so hilariously funny. I would liove to describe him, but unfortunatly i think you had to be there to appriciate him. So i will save myself the time. Anyway, this internet cafe is so expensive.. i am going to have to leave, and will write when i reach a major city. xxxx
I arrived early in the morning, after a paranoid bus ride, beacuse i had left my passport i my main luggage, and we were stopping numerous times to unload stuff in various different towns.
Once i arrived in Puno, getting to the hostal etc was pretty easy, with a private bathroom, and allowed me time to go for a wonder round town!
There really isnt much to see in puno, The main square, some bars and restaurants and thats it. There was one church, but that was closed, so not worth going into.
That evening, the bunch of people i am currently travelling with Arrived. we went out to dinner... and boy was that an unwise thing to do.
Ha ha ha! I can only laugh. Firstly, puno is absolutly Freezing! Everywhere is cold. My room in particvular,... the next day when i woke up the apple i had eaten before bed hadn't browned and the banana was as solid as a rock.
We dressed up in loads of thick layers for going out. We found a restaurant and went in. Of course.. it was cold. We nearly set the whole place alight though, because just by the entrance was a huge fire. Right in the doorway. It was a big pan thing with oil burning! Soooo dangerous. Then we were sat down on a stage at the front of the restaurant looking down on everyone else eating, when one of the napkins on our table caught fire(from a candle)! This was a badly designed restaurant. The walls were made of wicker, it was generally cramped. They had lots of napkins in wineglasses as decoration and lots of candles. Also on the wall was a deer head, and the best part was that they had used its hooves as coathangers!! it was hilarious. Then, while waiting to be served a napkin on another table managed to catch fire. This place as crazy. Just before we left, another guy didnt tip the waitress enough and she started crying! Very Bizzare.
We then went onto a reggae and rock bar. Again... a ver wierd night! We had the wierdest bar tender. We kept ordering drinks, and he would just walk off without taking our order. He was just so hilariously funny. I would liove to describe him, but unfortunatly i think you had to be there to appriciate him. So i will save myself the time. Anyway, this internet cafe is so expensive.. i am going to have to leave, and will write when i reach a major city. xxxx
Friday, 15 June 2007
The Colca Cannyon Trek - 3 days!
Set off on Tuesday morning at 5am for Colca Cannyon, a 3 day trek into the second deepest cannyon in the world.. apparently over 3300m.. but I'm not too sure that i buy any of this.. because we start in a village called cabanaconde which is only just over 3300m and then when we decend to the bottom, we only go down by 1200m. So i think that the way that they must measure these things is by counting right down to sea level! Also... what is the excat difference between a valley and a canyon! To me they looked pretty smilar, just the cannyon was a slighly steeper drop than a valley to the bottom. But its not quite how i would have envisagd a canyon.. where it is flat land and then a steep drop!
Anyway... DaY1!
Set off early as the one and only bus a day departs at 6:30am everyday to Cabanaconde. The bus ride was pretty uneventful in itself.. slept most of the way. When we reached the the Cruz del Condor suddenly a huge group of about 20women in traditional dress hopped on the bus! This was very cool! They werent dressed in what you may percieve to be traditional peruvian Dress.. they were wearing heavily embroided hats and a waistcoat. with a velvet shirt underneath and velvet skirt! They piled all their tens of bags on the roof then piled into the bus! Very cool, also saw a condor flying very close to our bus! When we reached Cobanaconde we went for lunch in a dodgy little restaurant, then set off for our decent into the canyon. The views were pretty spectacular as you would expect, and we saw another condor! We walked downhill for about 3 hours before we reached the Colca river and crossed over the bridge to walk through the canyon. We walked along for about half an hour till we reached the first town where other groups were going to be staying and had to walk a further hour uphill to reach a small village where we were staying the night. I was a bit annoyed that we had started so late, because it meant that we had to trek in the dark which is not my favourite pastime when the rocks are a bit dodgy. However, the extra hour was certainly worth it. A) becasue there was HOT water!! and B) because the family we were staying with was awesome. We were staying in Mud huts!! For dinner we joined the mum as she cooked in the kitchen. Despite the cold temperature, they had no doors to anywhere,.. instead of walls they had bamboo walls which you could see right through! It was so homely and amazing. All the kids were helping with the cooking.. including the men of the family.. they were chopping and peeling... she was cooking over an open fire in a tiny room.. and it was so simple, it was fantastic.. they even had the cuy in the corner(guinea-pig).
DAY 2
Got to sleep in because we had walked ahead of the other groups the day before, and had a fantastic breakfast of pancakes!!
We set off back down to the bottom of the cannyon and crossed the river again, and reached the OASIS. A small plot of land with grass, palm trees and 'hotsprings'. We had 3 hours to kill here before our climb. It was beautiful surroundings but i have to admit i was less than impressed with the hot springs! After you sat in the close to freezing pool, then placed your hand into the spring, it then felt luke warm! So instead, we spent our time basking in the sun on a giant warm rock!! The tour guide in the meantime prepared lunch for us which was delicious. I think i could get used to this preparation of food by men.. and men doing their bit around the house! After lunch the guide got in the water.. and i was surprised to see that he could swim..
It is surprising, but south americans never seem to be able to swim.. and when they can.. they always look like they are about to drown. In particular on the galapagos. No one could swim really.. apart from the young locals who surfed... but i dont think they could swim well either.. they always went in with the protection of the surf board...
Anyway.. we stayed in paradise till 3pm, once the sun had hidden behind the mountain. We started our 3 hour hike back up out of the cannyon! It wasnt anywhere near as tireing as Inca or as hard..but just seemed to go on forever.. Also i was a bit annoyed for having started the trek so late, because it meant we had to have a bit of a race against the sun. Again, as the night before, when we reached the top it was pitch-black! so again couldnt see anything, and from there, we had a further half hour walk through fields back to the town.
When we got back to the town we were all pretty tired, but went for dinner to the dodgy restaurant again, and on our way ouit we found where the real party was at. It turns out that they are currently celebrating Sagrado Corazon de Jesus- the sacred hert of jesus. There was a huge band playing and parading round the city. The whole town seemed to be out, and dancing and drinking Chicha!! (the local beer of the mountains... but its homemade... because you cant buy it in shops!) - sorry have to interrupt this report as somone is smoking a joint in the internet cafe!!! How bizarre!!-
So we stayed out for a bit and listened and watched the dancing. I really enoyed this. It was so nice to get the real feel for the town, especailly as all the locals were out. This trip has definitly been a hightlight.. becasue of the way i have been able to get in touch with the culture a bit more and get away from the GRINGOS!(tourists) - also.. i found out that they call us ehite people chickens!!! Because when you pluck a chicken the skin is white like ours!
DAY 3
An early this morning... unfortuntly no walking was to be invoved on this day. W caught the early morning bus to Cruz del Condor to do some condor spotting for an hour.
Unfortunatly we had very little luck. I only saw one condor.. and 2 falcons!! I am just glad i had seen the condors on the way over.. otherwise i would hav been really disappointed.
After our unsuccessful condor spotting session we went to Chivay, where there was the option of going to the hotsprings... I decided to pass on this... as we had already attended the Oasis, and also I had been told by some boys in my hostal that they are really small, not that hot and full of old french ladies! - I have much better springs to look forward to in Potosi in Bolivia! where apparently the outside temp is -12 and inside the water it is near 35 degrees! Sounds Perfect!
Instead i chilled out in the main square of the town. Went to the locals market.. (not the tourist artesian market) and then made my way back to the bus station in the early afternoon for the long journey back!
All in all, it was a fantastic trip! I am so glad i did it. Definitly a highlight so far.. so lets hope many more to come! xxxx Leaving for Puno tomorrow i hope.. to see lake titicacca, and hoping to spend a night on one of the islands with a local family.. wish me luck!xxx
Anyway... DaY1!
Set off early as the one and only bus a day departs at 6:30am everyday to Cabanaconde. The bus ride was pretty uneventful in itself.. slept most of the way. When we reached the the Cruz del Condor suddenly a huge group of about 20women in traditional dress hopped on the bus! This was very cool! They werent dressed in what you may percieve to be traditional peruvian Dress.. they were wearing heavily embroided hats and a waistcoat. with a velvet shirt underneath and velvet skirt! They piled all their tens of bags on the roof then piled into the bus! Very cool, also saw a condor flying very close to our bus! When we reached Cobanaconde we went for lunch in a dodgy little restaurant, then set off for our decent into the canyon. The views were pretty spectacular as you would expect, and we saw another condor! We walked downhill for about 3 hours before we reached the Colca river and crossed over the bridge to walk through the canyon. We walked along for about half an hour till we reached the first town where other groups were going to be staying and had to walk a further hour uphill to reach a small village where we were staying the night. I was a bit annoyed that we had started so late, because it meant that we had to trek in the dark which is not my favourite pastime when the rocks are a bit dodgy. However, the extra hour was certainly worth it. A) becasue there was HOT water!! and B) because the family we were staying with was awesome. We were staying in Mud huts!! For dinner we joined the mum as she cooked in the kitchen. Despite the cold temperature, they had no doors to anywhere,.. instead of walls they had bamboo walls which you could see right through! It was so homely and amazing. All the kids were helping with the cooking.. including the men of the family.. they were chopping and peeling... she was cooking over an open fire in a tiny room.. and it was so simple, it was fantastic.. they even had the cuy in the corner(guinea-pig).
DAY 2
Got to sleep in because we had walked ahead of the other groups the day before, and had a fantastic breakfast of pancakes!!
We set off back down to the bottom of the cannyon and crossed the river again, and reached the OASIS. A small plot of land with grass, palm trees and 'hotsprings'. We had 3 hours to kill here before our climb. It was beautiful surroundings but i have to admit i was less than impressed with the hot springs! After you sat in the close to freezing pool, then placed your hand into the spring, it then felt luke warm! So instead, we spent our time basking in the sun on a giant warm rock!! The tour guide in the meantime prepared lunch for us which was delicious. I think i could get used to this preparation of food by men.. and men doing their bit around the house! After lunch the guide got in the water.. and i was surprised to see that he could swim..
It is surprising, but south americans never seem to be able to swim.. and when they can.. they always look like they are about to drown. In particular on the galapagos. No one could swim really.. apart from the young locals who surfed... but i dont think they could swim well either.. they always went in with the protection of the surf board...
Anyway.. we stayed in paradise till 3pm, once the sun had hidden behind the mountain. We started our 3 hour hike back up out of the cannyon! It wasnt anywhere near as tireing as Inca or as hard..but just seemed to go on forever.. Also i was a bit annoyed for having started the trek so late, because it meant we had to have a bit of a race against the sun. Again, as the night before, when we reached the top it was pitch-black! so again couldnt see anything, and from there, we had a further half hour walk through fields back to the town.
When we got back to the town we were all pretty tired, but went for dinner to the dodgy restaurant again, and on our way ouit we found where the real party was at. It turns out that they are currently celebrating Sagrado Corazon de Jesus- the sacred hert of jesus. There was a huge band playing and parading round the city. The whole town seemed to be out, and dancing and drinking Chicha!! (the local beer of the mountains... but its homemade... because you cant buy it in shops!) - sorry have to interrupt this report as somone is smoking a joint in the internet cafe!!! How bizarre!!-
So we stayed out for a bit and listened and watched the dancing. I really enoyed this. It was so nice to get the real feel for the town, especailly as all the locals were out. This trip has definitly been a hightlight.. becasue of the way i have been able to get in touch with the culture a bit more and get away from the GRINGOS!(tourists) - also.. i found out that they call us ehite people chickens!!! Because when you pluck a chicken the skin is white like ours!
DAY 3
An early this morning... unfortuntly no walking was to be invoved on this day. W caught the early morning bus to Cruz del Condor to do some condor spotting for an hour.
Unfortunatly we had very little luck. I only saw one condor.. and 2 falcons!! I am just glad i had seen the condors on the way over.. otherwise i would hav been really disappointed.
After our unsuccessful condor spotting session we went to Chivay, where there was the option of going to the hotsprings... I decided to pass on this... as we had already attended the Oasis, and also I had been told by some boys in my hostal that they are really small, not that hot and full of old french ladies! - I have much better springs to look forward to in Potosi in Bolivia! where apparently the outside temp is -12 and inside the water it is near 35 degrees! Sounds Perfect!
Instead i chilled out in the main square of the town. Went to the locals market.. (not the tourist artesian market) and then made my way back to the bus station in the early afternoon for the long journey back!
All in all, it was a fantastic trip! I am so glad i did it. Definitly a highlight so far.. so lets hope many more to come! xxxx Leaving for Puno tomorrow i hope.. to see lake titicacca, and hoping to spend a night on one of the islands with a local family.. wish me luck!xxx
Monday, 11 June 2007
Sacred Valley - Arequipa
The day after the inca trail I spent in Cusco, seeing some of the sites. Namely the Koricancha and the inca Museum. Then for my last day in Cusco I went for a trip to the sacred Valley. I first went to Pisac Market.. unfortunatly didnt have enough time to climb pisac as it takes about 3 hours. Then we went for lunch in a very lush restaurant, and then to Ollantaytambo.. to which i have been twice already which was a bit annoying.. but saw the ruins and they were very goog. Learnt about how the Inkas carried the stones 7 km to where they built the temple.. how they manage to lift them onto eachother and many other fascinating facts.. but not enough walking!
When I got back at 6:30, I quickly ate and headed for th bus station and bought a night bus ticket to Arequipa.
WHat on earth is here you may ask! Well... i wandered the same thing, but it is actually the second biggest city in Peru, and is absolutly stunning. Very colonial, but very safe feeling. Not too many Gringos.. which is always good! Also there is a volcano 5897m that you can climb, and a mountain 6087m. There is also Colca Cannyon which you can trek through which is what I am doing tomorrow. It is a 3 day trek, into the second deepest cannyon in the world. It is over 3000m deep! I will also be stopping at the hot springs and hopefully seeing Condors! The largest birds in the area with a wingspan of over 4.5m. They were one of the most inmportant symbols for the Incas, along with the Puma and the serpent.
Unfortunatly my journey to Arequipa was pretty aweful. Despite taking a first class ticket.. again... this time i FROZE!! It was sooo cold all night.. and also there was a cat on board! It would not stop meaowing the entire night!! Then it wee'd in the middle of the journey and stank out the whole bus!!! I was soooo not a happy bunny this morning. But managed to make it to my hostel without getting ripped off.. and found a friend from Quito...!!
Anyway... will let you know how the colca cannyon goes!!!!
xxxxx
When I got back at 6:30, I quickly ate and headed for th bus station and bought a night bus ticket to Arequipa.
WHat on earth is here you may ask! Well... i wandered the same thing, but it is actually the second biggest city in Peru, and is absolutly stunning. Very colonial, but very safe feeling. Not too many Gringos.. which is always good! Also there is a volcano 5897m that you can climb, and a mountain 6087m. There is also Colca Cannyon which you can trek through which is what I am doing tomorrow. It is a 3 day trek, into the second deepest cannyon in the world. It is over 3000m deep! I will also be stopping at the hot springs and hopefully seeing Condors! The largest birds in the area with a wingspan of over 4.5m. They were one of the most inmportant symbols for the Incas, along with the Puma and the serpent.
Unfortunatly my journey to Arequipa was pretty aweful. Despite taking a first class ticket.. again... this time i FROZE!! It was sooo cold all night.. and also there was a cat on board! It would not stop meaowing the entire night!! Then it wee'd in the middle of the journey and stank out the whole bus!!! I was soooo not a happy bunny this morning. But managed to make it to my hostel without getting ripped off.. and found a friend from Quito...!!
Anyway... will let you know how the colca cannyon goes!!!!
xxxxx
Saturday, 9 June 2007
The Inca Trail
Whoo hoo!! Back already after 4 fantastic days trekking through the Andes to see the almightly MachuPicchu! I managed to survive the 45km trek over 4 days.. carrying all my own stuff.. with bad knees and dodgy lungs!
Day1
I was surprised I even got picked up on the morning of the first day. The organisation had been so poor that I really thought i wasnt going to be going! Of course they managed to pick me up over an hour late, but what can i expect.. its South America! We picked up the rest of the group and there were 6 of us in total! We head off to kilometer82.. where we all purchased walking sticks.. and water.. water purification tablets.. cocoa leaves for the altitude etc.
First thing we had to do was show our tickets at the checkpoint.. and i couldnt believe it it, but i was was now 20yrs old, Nicole CHUMBERS, and the ticket had the wrong passport number.. also they had me written as Male!!! Ha ha ha! - obviusly great transcribers!
Finally we started walking and it was a relaxing walk along the Urubamaba river... mainly flat, and very beautiful! After only abouit 2 hours of walking we stopped for lunch and thi is when we first got a taste of the good treatment we were going to be getting. I think we were all expecting to be eating out of tins round a small fire.. but it was quite the contrary.. all very civilised! We had a tent.. then the chef brought asparagus soup for starter... then out came the chicken burgers, chips and rice and other veg. Then we were given lots of different types of teas for the altitude. After lunch we walked a further 2 hours before reaching a small village where we camped. As soon as the sun set we could feel the cold! It was absolutly freezing.. but we were then served 'tea' at 5;30 - which consisted of popcorn, cookies, and teas,... and then we had diner at 7. another good hearty meal... always stating with good hot soup and followed by solids!
The sky was amazing that night.. as it was everynight, and we managd to see the southern cross, and the milky way!
The sleeping arrangements were such that we were in pairs. There were two american girls, Amanda and Krista, 2 canadians Matt and Mark, and i shared my tent with a fellow brit Steve. I did however have the option of haring with our guide Fredy who was offering out free massages.. but thought it was best to pass him up on that offer.
That nigh we all went to bed fairly early, as we had an early start, and we had all forgotton to bring cards.. plus no fires allowed, so it was fairly quiet.
Day 2
Got woken up bright and early with a cup of tea at 5am.. luckily wasnt too hard due to the previousl early night! Today was to be the most challenging day. We had to accend 1200m over 'dead womans pass' it would take about 5 hours. Then we would have to decend again about 600m to the campsite.
We left our campsite at aboutb 6:30am after some delicious pancakes.... and started making our way up the mountain! It looked so far away, and the only way we could identify it, was by calling it the nipple.. as it looked like a womands brest! Every 1.5 hours we stopped for a rest before accending up the next part. The accent was divided into 3 parts. The first 2 werent too much of a problem.. it was the third and final part which was a killer. It was bove the tree line, so i think it was the sun which really killed us.. as before, we had been walking in the shade.. and it was a real real struggle. I started to suffer from the altitude a little.. i got a bit of a headache.. and just lost my speach entirely.. it was so woerd. I couldnt form sentences in English!
The route wasnt particularily scenic, it was just a big uphill struggle, but very satisfying when we reached the top. The walk down on the other side was painful on the toes, but luckily wasnt too far! When we reached camp at 1pm, the chef whipped up some good, much earned food. Then the majority of the group took a siesta before tea and dinner. I on the otherhand was bored and not exhausted enough, so i decided to start making my way up the next mountain which we would be tackling in the morning! I walked up abouut 250m.. saw some of the inca ruins, and just kept walking.. it hadnt been my intntion to go so high at all.. but i just kepot going.. till i realised i was 4:45 and it would be very drk soon. The way up had been extremely steep and coming down in the dark wouldnt be fun! I also cursed myself for having forgotton my camera as the pics would have been pretty good.. especially as there were no tourists, no porters... no one! The path had been tough without a bag.. tomorrow would be a really hard challenge... especailly as it was much steeper than anything we had done so far!
That night after dinner we did a spot of star gazing again, and saw southrn cross, the big dipper, lama, scorpion, and milkyway. Matt who was the photographer of the group got some fantastic pictures of the sky! So we all look forward to seeing those posted on the net!
Day 3
Apparently the previos night was supposed to have been our coldest, but i had been sweating all night due to the great sleeping bag, and wearing way too many clothes!
We started our trek up the econd pass.. it was hard work, but we made it. The way down the otherside was just as hellish as it was extremely steep! Along the way we ay 2 ruins which was pretty cool. It was all very difficult, but the porters who i have failed to mention before practically run it, with 25kg each on their back.. with tables, chairs, gas tanks stacked on their backs, and many carry other peoples bags for them too, so most people waling the trail just carry day packs.
A bit of trivia for you!!.. the inca trail is shut every february for restoration. during this time the porters all have a race to machupicchu.. and the fastest time to do the whole route which takes us 4 days.. was 3hours and 45mins!!! Can you believe it!!
After lunch and Jupe (we were serve orange juice which was abut 35 degrees.. and named it jupe. When we irt took a sip we all pretty much spat it out because it was so warm and vile) we started the best part of our walk. We went up only 100m and then walkd along the side of the mountain. We cuold see all the snow capped mountains around us and it was stunning. It was a wal through the cloud forest, but we were very luckily, as there were absolutly NO clouds at all.. so when we finally got to the 3rd pass we were able to see 360 degrees around us, which our guide says he hasnt seen in 2yrs of doing this trail. And he does it every week! We could also see the rainbow flag of Cuzco which is on the mountain of Machupicchu.. so we knew it was close.
After having some fun with the cameras and posing on the top of the mouintain we were the last group up there.. and started making our 1000m decent to camp! This was really tough going on the knees. Left me limping by the end, despte being on painkillers, neurophen cream, and supports! It took about 2 and a half hours to get to camp.. where for the first time all the groups were gathered.. and there was a restaurant, so we were able to eat inside!!
This was by far the most tiring day! after dinner, we just thanked the porters for all their work and said goodnight! We wouldnt be seeing them in the morning as they had to take a different route, and werent allowed to see machupicchu, becasue they go so fast they used to knock tourists off the narrow trail.
Day 4
We were roused at 3:45am for breakfast.. then quickly went to the gates to queue to get into the final part of the trail. We were the second group by the gates, and had to wait 45mins till 5:30 for them to open! We felt like caged animals.. and the boys got particularily competative. Once we were let in the boys literally ran! It only took an hour to reach the sun gate.. but our grup decided we wanted the postcard pic for the sunrise.. so we made another mad dash to the watchtower for the sunrise!
It was beautiful.. we all went crazy with the photos.. but were VERY annoyed as some idiots had gone INSIDE the ruins.. so lots of photoshop needs doing to the pics as there are loads of tourists in the ruins!
After sunrise we were given a tour of the ruins.. after which we climbed Wanupicchu, which is the mountain in the background of Machupicchu! The views from there were amazing! but it was a very steep climb!
We travelled to Aguas Calientes for 1:30pm to meet with our tour guide to say goodbye and have lunch. On the bus down there was the strangest boy. He ran all the way dopwn the mountain waving and shouting at our bus, then at the botom, got on and screamed at us in Quechua, and then asked for money. The he got a lift back up!
At lunch we fund out our transport arrangements for going home! OMG! This company was rubbish. The canadians were on a different train to us, leaving an hour later and going direct to cuszco. Me and Steve were on a different train to a wierd town, where we wuld be picked up by bus! On the train, we didnt even have seats together, and when we got off the bus it was close to impssible to find the sig with our names.. finally steve spotted his, and mine was below as 'Naomi Chumbers' ... WOW these people really cant transcribe.
Finally we got to Cuszco safe and sound, and then went for our celebratory night out.
On the whole the group was fantastic, and had a brilliant time despite the terrible organiation! Wouldnt change it for any other group/experience.. other than i wouldnt mind doing without the knee pain! Everyone was fantastic... and we will forever have gret memories of the Canadian shower and Jupe!
Day1
I was surprised I even got picked up on the morning of the first day. The organisation had been so poor that I really thought i wasnt going to be going! Of course they managed to pick me up over an hour late, but what can i expect.. its South America! We picked up the rest of the group and there were 6 of us in total! We head off to kilometer82.. where we all purchased walking sticks.. and water.. water purification tablets.. cocoa leaves for the altitude etc.
First thing we had to do was show our tickets at the checkpoint.. and i couldnt believe it it, but i was was now 20yrs old, Nicole CHUMBERS, and the ticket had the wrong passport number.. also they had me written as Male!!! Ha ha ha! - obviusly great transcribers!
Finally we started walking and it was a relaxing walk along the Urubamaba river... mainly flat, and very beautiful! After only abouit 2 hours of walking we stopped for lunch and thi is when we first got a taste of the good treatment we were going to be getting. I think we were all expecting to be eating out of tins round a small fire.. but it was quite the contrary.. all very civilised! We had a tent.. then the chef brought asparagus soup for starter... then out came the chicken burgers, chips and rice and other veg. Then we were given lots of different types of teas for the altitude. After lunch we walked a further 2 hours before reaching a small village where we camped. As soon as the sun set we could feel the cold! It was absolutly freezing.. but we were then served 'tea' at 5;30 - which consisted of popcorn, cookies, and teas,... and then we had diner at 7. another good hearty meal... always stating with good hot soup and followed by solids!
The sky was amazing that night.. as it was everynight, and we managd to see the southern cross, and the milky way!
The sleeping arrangements were such that we were in pairs. There were two american girls, Amanda and Krista, 2 canadians Matt and Mark, and i shared my tent with a fellow brit Steve. I did however have the option of haring with our guide Fredy who was offering out free massages.. but thought it was best to pass him up on that offer.
That nigh we all went to bed fairly early, as we had an early start, and we had all forgotton to bring cards.. plus no fires allowed, so it was fairly quiet.
Day 2
Got woken up bright and early with a cup of tea at 5am.. luckily wasnt too hard due to the previousl early night! Today was to be the most challenging day. We had to accend 1200m over 'dead womans pass' it would take about 5 hours. Then we would have to decend again about 600m to the campsite.
We left our campsite at aboutb 6:30am after some delicious pancakes.... and started making our way up the mountain! It looked so far away, and the only way we could identify it, was by calling it the nipple.. as it looked like a womands brest! Every 1.5 hours we stopped for a rest before accending up the next part. The accent was divided into 3 parts. The first 2 werent too much of a problem.. it was the third and final part which was a killer. It was bove the tree line, so i think it was the sun which really killed us.. as before, we had been walking in the shade.. and it was a real real struggle. I started to suffer from the altitude a little.. i got a bit of a headache.. and just lost my speach entirely.. it was so woerd. I couldnt form sentences in English!
The route wasnt particularily scenic, it was just a big uphill struggle, but very satisfying when we reached the top. The walk down on the other side was painful on the toes, but luckily wasnt too far! When we reached camp at 1pm, the chef whipped up some good, much earned food. Then the majority of the group took a siesta before tea and dinner. I on the otherhand was bored and not exhausted enough, so i decided to start making my way up the next mountain which we would be tackling in the morning! I walked up abouut 250m.. saw some of the inca ruins, and just kept walking.. it hadnt been my intntion to go so high at all.. but i just kepot going.. till i realised i was 4:45 and it would be very drk soon. The way up had been extremely steep and coming down in the dark wouldnt be fun! I also cursed myself for having forgotton my camera as the pics would have been pretty good.. especially as there were no tourists, no porters... no one! The path had been tough without a bag.. tomorrow would be a really hard challenge... especailly as it was much steeper than anything we had done so far!
That night after dinner we did a spot of star gazing again, and saw southrn cross, the big dipper, lama, scorpion, and milkyway. Matt who was the photographer of the group got some fantastic pictures of the sky! So we all look forward to seeing those posted on the net!
Day 3
Apparently the previos night was supposed to have been our coldest, but i had been sweating all night due to the great sleeping bag, and wearing way too many clothes!
We started our trek up the econd pass.. it was hard work, but we made it. The way down the otherside was just as hellish as it was extremely steep! Along the way we ay 2 ruins which was pretty cool. It was all very difficult, but the porters who i have failed to mention before practically run it, with 25kg each on their back.. with tables, chairs, gas tanks stacked on their backs, and many carry other peoples bags for them too, so most people waling the trail just carry day packs.
A bit of trivia for you!!.. the inca trail is shut every february for restoration. during this time the porters all have a race to machupicchu.. and the fastest time to do the whole route which takes us 4 days.. was 3hours and 45mins!!! Can you believe it!!
After lunch and Jupe (we were serve orange juice which was abut 35 degrees.. and named it jupe. When we irt took a sip we all pretty much spat it out because it was so warm and vile) we started the best part of our walk. We went up only 100m and then walkd along the side of the mountain. We cuold see all the snow capped mountains around us and it was stunning. It was a wal through the cloud forest, but we were very luckily, as there were absolutly NO clouds at all.. so when we finally got to the 3rd pass we were able to see 360 degrees around us, which our guide says he hasnt seen in 2yrs of doing this trail. And he does it every week! We could also see the rainbow flag of Cuzco which is on the mountain of Machupicchu.. so we knew it was close.
After having some fun with the cameras and posing on the top of the mouintain we were the last group up there.. and started making our 1000m decent to camp! This was really tough going on the knees. Left me limping by the end, despte being on painkillers, neurophen cream, and supports! It took about 2 and a half hours to get to camp.. where for the first time all the groups were gathered.. and there was a restaurant, so we were able to eat inside!!
This was by far the most tiring day! after dinner, we just thanked the porters for all their work and said goodnight! We wouldnt be seeing them in the morning as they had to take a different route, and werent allowed to see machupicchu, becasue they go so fast they used to knock tourists off the narrow trail.
Day 4
We were roused at 3:45am for breakfast.. then quickly went to the gates to queue to get into the final part of the trail. We were the second group by the gates, and had to wait 45mins till 5:30 for them to open! We felt like caged animals.. and the boys got particularily competative. Once we were let in the boys literally ran! It only took an hour to reach the sun gate.. but our grup decided we wanted the postcard pic for the sunrise.. so we made another mad dash to the watchtower for the sunrise!
It was beautiful.. we all went crazy with the photos.. but were VERY annoyed as some idiots had gone INSIDE the ruins.. so lots of photoshop needs doing to the pics as there are loads of tourists in the ruins!
After sunrise we were given a tour of the ruins.. after which we climbed Wanupicchu, which is the mountain in the background of Machupicchu! The views from there were amazing! but it was a very steep climb!
We travelled to Aguas Calientes for 1:30pm to meet with our tour guide to say goodbye and have lunch. On the bus down there was the strangest boy. He ran all the way dopwn the mountain waving and shouting at our bus, then at the botom, got on and screamed at us in Quechua, and then asked for money. The he got a lift back up!
At lunch we fund out our transport arrangements for going home! OMG! This company was rubbish. The canadians were on a different train to us, leaving an hour later and going direct to cuszco. Me and Steve were on a different train to a wierd town, where we wuld be picked up by bus! On the train, we didnt even have seats together, and when we got off the bus it was close to impssible to find the sig with our names.. finally steve spotted his, and mine was below as 'Naomi Chumbers' ... WOW these people really cant transcribe.
Finally we got to Cuszco safe and sound, and then went for our celebratory night out.
On the whole the group was fantastic, and had a brilliant time despite the terrible organiation! Wouldnt change it for any other group/experience.. other than i wouldnt mind doing without the knee pain! Everyone was fantastic... and we will forever have gret memories of the Canadian shower and Jupe!
Monday, 4 June 2007
I didnt know that Jesus served Cuy at the Last Supper??
Arrived Safely in Cuzco, after a really bad bus journey. It was supposed to be first class.. - ehich i have been recommended to take by all travellers, as its only a couple of dollars more, and yet service is much better. I was served cold beef and rice for dinner, then for breakfast and lunch i was served a packet of crisps and wafers!!!! What the hell!!! and the only drink they had was 'Inka Cola' which i havent tried yrt, but it is some fizzy yellow liquid.. looks a bit scary.. they didnt even serve water!!!
Anyway.. once i arrived i went straight to a hostal near the centre.. wanted to be near some gringos, as have been seriously deprived over the last few days! Also... finally HOT WATER after 3 days of wearing the same clothes.. and sleeping on a bloody coach! Also was starving.. so went on the prowl for actual hot food. Met a nice couple whilst eating my meal, so we moved onto an Irish bar... I wasnt too happy about this as i dont like being abroad, but hanging out with english people in english bars.. but didnt stay out too long as desperate for sleep.
Slept in till late.. then set out trying to hunt down the agency with which i have booked the Inca trail. I still havent heard from them and i am doing the inca trail tomorrow!! Went to the adress.. it was now a hairdressing salon! I ende up phoning round everywhere.. and am hoping to meet the lady with who i am going in 10mins.. so wish me luck that she actually shows.
After the trauma of the morning i went for a stroll around the city. It is Stunning! absolutly beautiful. but too many tourists! .. but what can you do.
There are loads of churches and cathedrals.. so i visited 5 churches this afternoon.. and they are amazing. The most beautiful churches i have ever seen i think. BUt unfortunatly, you cant take photos, and they dont sell postcards,. so you can only find out by coming.
However.. there is one thing i really wish i could have got a photo of, and that was a painting of the last supper. Jesus was not only breaking bread, but there was PAPAYA and CUY(guniea pig) on the table!!! How crazy is that!!!!.. anyway.. gotta dash! will write when i get back from the inca trail. - If i go!!!
Anyway.. once i arrived i went straight to a hostal near the centre.. wanted to be near some gringos, as have been seriously deprived over the last few days! Also... finally HOT WATER after 3 days of wearing the same clothes.. and sleeping on a bloody coach! Also was starving.. so went on the prowl for actual hot food. Met a nice couple whilst eating my meal, so we moved onto an Irish bar... I wasnt too happy about this as i dont like being abroad, but hanging out with english people in english bars.. but didnt stay out too long as desperate for sleep.
Slept in till late.. then set out trying to hunt down the agency with which i have booked the Inca trail. I still havent heard from them and i am doing the inca trail tomorrow!! Went to the adress.. it was now a hairdressing salon! I ende up phoning round everywhere.. and am hoping to meet the lady with who i am going in 10mins.. so wish me luck that she actually shows.
After the trauma of the morning i went for a stroll around the city. It is Stunning! absolutly beautiful. but too many tourists! .. but what can you do.
There are loads of churches and cathedrals.. so i visited 5 churches this afternoon.. and they are amazing. The most beautiful churches i have ever seen i think. BUt unfortunatly, you cant take photos, and they dont sell postcards,. so you can only find out by coming.
However.. there is one thing i really wish i could have got a photo of, and that was a painting of the last supper. Jesus was not only breaking bread, but there was PAPAYA and CUY(guniea pig) on the table!!! How crazy is that!!!!.. anyway.. gotta dash! will write when i get back from the inca trail. - If i go!!!
Saturday, 2 June 2007
Luxury to Lima
Last night took the night bus from Piura to Lima. Wow.. now that was what i call luxury. I went in a lush bus, with leather seats, almost fully reclining...on the top floor.
We had a stewardess and we got served dinner and breakfast.. all very lush.. they really ned to upgrade more buses to be like this one!! - i was truely travelling in style.
I arrived in Lima, and all the bloody bus stations are so far apart.. i had to take a taxi to another station to find a bus to Cusco. Its a bloody pain, and have to wait 6 hours for my bus to depart.. and i'm hoping i will be travelling in the same luxury... especially as my trip is 8 hours longer than the previous one.
I had to laugh at the security on these buses though!! i think it is slightly excessive!! it is like going through security in America. You have to first show your passport or ID with your ticket. They then take your FINGERPRINT! and then you have to go through metal detectors, while your bag gets inspected.. its CRAZY!!!
Similar thing happened on my bus to Piura, but i think their budget was a little lower, coz the security guy just came through the bus with a video camera, and filmed evberyomnes face for a few seconds... crazy stuf!!
Also--- i learn today, apparently i am not speaking spanish out here.. its castelano.- people are so fussy!xx
write again in 24hours or more
chiau xxx
We had a stewardess and we got served dinner and breakfast.. all very lush.. they really ned to upgrade more buses to be like this one!! - i was truely travelling in style.
I arrived in Lima, and all the bloody bus stations are so far apart.. i had to take a taxi to another station to find a bus to Cusco. Its a bloody pain, and have to wait 6 hours for my bus to depart.. and i'm hoping i will be travelling in the same luxury... especially as my trip is 8 hours longer than the previous one.
I had to laugh at the security on these buses though!! i think it is slightly excessive!! it is like going through security in America. You have to first show your passport or ID with your ticket. They then take your FINGERPRINT! and then you have to go through metal detectors, while your bag gets inspected.. its CRAZY!!!
Similar thing happened on my bus to Piura, but i think their budget was a little lower, coz the security guy just came through the bus with a video camera, and filmed evberyomnes face for a few seconds... crazy stuf!!
Also--- i learn today, apparently i am not speaking spanish out here.. its castelano.- people are so fussy!xx
write again in 24hours or more
chiau xxx
Friday, 1 June 2007
Peru-Piura
I am only writing in order to escape some Ecuadorians - correction- Peruvians.
Last night, i crossed the peruvian border safely and without any problems... then i arrived in Puira at 7am.... I went looking for a Bus to Lima.. which was quite a challenge, as there is no single bus terminal., they are spread all down the street..
First Impression of Peru... much poorer.. the cabs are like from "total recall" but yellow! they are kinda cute! and there are motorbike taxis too.
Apparently this town is the most colonial in Peru... i dont believe it. There are No Cafeterias, there is only like 1 unimpressive church.. and no white people. I think i am feeling a little intimidated. Also everyone i meet is very friendly, but telling me to watch my stuff...
I decided to sit down and read my book in the park.. and some peruvians sat next to me and started chatting. they were law students, and were very nice.. they gave me a quick tour of thier town, but i am still feeling sick, therefore not really in the mood for being out in the sun.. just wanna sit in the shade. they managed to attach themselves to me for about 4hours.. and i really wanted to be alone! So i have escaped to the internet cafe!! Whoo hoo!! I am trying to prepare myself for the 16hours to lima.. where i hope catching a bus to cusco will be much easier... but i hear its 22hours!!!!!
Last night, i crossed the peruvian border safely and without any problems... then i arrived in Puira at 7am.... I went looking for a Bus to Lima.. which was quite a challenge, as there is no single bus terminal., they are spread all down the street..
First Impression of Peru... much poorer.. the cabs are like from "total recall" but yellow! they are kinda cute! and there are motorbike taxis too.
Apparently this town is the most colonial in Peru... i dont believe it. There are No Cafeterias, there is only like 1 unimpressive church.. and no white people. I think i am feeling a little intimidated. Also everyone i meet is very friendly, but telling me to watch my stuff...
I decided to sit down and read my book in the park.. and some peruvians sat next to me and started chatting. they were law students, and were very nice.. they gave me a quick tour of thier town, but i am still feeling sick, therefore not really in the mood for being out in the sun.. just wanna sit in the shade. they managed to attach themselves to me for about 4hours.. and i really wanted to be alone! So i have escaped to the internet cafe!! Whoo hoo!! I am trying to prepare myself for the 16hours to lima.. where i hope catching a bus to cusco will be much easier... but i hear its 22hours!!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
