21 October - 7 November 2008: Peru!

Ok... time for more Peru tales!

It has to be said that our time in Peru had the biggest highs, but also the biggest lows...

HIGH - The Inca Trail...

The Inca Trail was definately one of the best experiences of my life. It was tough at times, mainly due to a lack of sleep (the tents weren't the most comfortable and most nights they were conviently positioned on a hill... actually thinking back I feel very sorry for Manuel who had to wake us up every morning and be the first person to witness my bad moods!) and a lack of oxygen at 4600m above sea level but the scenery was stunning, the group we were with were brilliant and the food was supplied in copious amounts so it made it feel easy!

The second day hiking up to Dead Woman's Pass was definately the toughest day, and I'm quite embarrassed to report that Kat and I were beaten to the top by a 71 year old - the legendary Norm!!! To be fair he is officially the fittest man in the universe (we presented him with an award telling him so!) so I can't be too gutted, although we were also beaten by Paul (a fellow Loki dweller!), who appeared to be suffering from altitude belimia and was so ill he hadn't eaten for about 2 days! Now that is embarrassing!

The porter's carrying the tents, cooking equipment etc were INCREDIBLE!!! They were tiny (most people in Peru are - Kat feels right at home!) and went zooming past us with 10 times more weight on their backs... and then clapped us when we arrived!! Nuts! Maybe the corn beer that they drunk ALL day helped a bit?!

As some of you may have seen in photos self-image went out of the window whilst we were on the trail (that happens when you don't shower for 4 days!)... with the help of her cheap poncho Kat turned into a giant blue tent, Grant (another fellow Loki-ite) started to sport the nutty professor/fagan look, whilst the bags under my eyes got so big I looked like I'd been in a fight. Only Paul managed to reach Machu Picchu with some dignity... so much so that young girls started asking to have photos taken with him!!! Kian from Westlife eat your heart out!! (Paul if you're reading this that memory still makes me giggle!! hahaha).

On the 4th day we woke at 4am to walk to the sungate and see the sunrise over Machu Picchu... well at least that was the idea. We couldn't even see the sun through the cloud let alone Machu Picchu. As you can imagine we weren't best pleased, but as the cloud cleared so did our moods and I have to say that Machu Picchu really is as magical as everyone says. If you ever get the chance to do the Inca Trail DO IT!!!

LOW - Being robbed...

On a night bus from Cuzco to Pisco Kat had her camera and money stolen from her bag. A guy was being overly helpful so we were keeping an eye on him and kept our bags with us all the time but while we were asleep he must have managed to get into her bag. God knows how he didn't wake us up. Kat wasn't bothered about the cash or the actual camera but sadly all her photos have gone - gutting :-(

HIGH - Seeing hundreds of wild sea lions, penguins and various other birds (including the Peruvian Booby!) at the Isla Ballestes.

LOW - The way Peruvian man treated us... no more needs to be said about that!

HIGH - Sand boarding in Huacachina... brilliant fun!

LOW / HIGH.. just generally random actually - Scariest car journey of my life EVER from Huacachina to Arequipa...

I won't go into detail as it might give my parents a heart attack but I'll just say alarm bells should've started ringing when the driver drove us into the desert to roll a giant spliff... or maybe when we noticed the Indiana Jones style knife by his seat... or maybe when he told us he didn't like England becasue "you can't buy the police there"??! We decided to accept to offer of a lift after our previous bus trip ended up costing us a camera but actually ended up paying more for petrol than we would've for the bus and the journey took twice as long because our driver fell asleep for 6 hours! (he pulled over first don't worry!) But on a positive note we did wake up to find that he'd pulled over next to the ocean (it was pitch black when we stopped and we had no idea where we were but the sea was literally 5metres from my window) which is a pretty special view and certainly one you wouldn't get from a bus!

HIGH - Arequipa in general... beautiful buildings, crazy 5 1/2 horse trek with the maddest guide yet (riding up to a bar and ordering beer whilst on horse back was certainly a new experience for me!)

LOW - getting my drink drugged on our last night in Arequipa... but don't worry (as I know you all would!) I saw the guy do it and saw the pill floating in my drink so didn't touch it. Phew!

HIGH - White water rafting!

LOW - All thr bloody road blocks and strikes making it either impossible or really dengerous to travel anywehere. We ended up having to fly to Chile as no buses were crossing the border between Tacna in Peru to Arica in Chile.

I hope this doesn't make it sound like we had a bad time in Peru becasue we didn't, we had an absolutely brilliant time full of action, dramas and learning experiences, and, except for getting Kat's camera robbed, I wouldn't have changed our time there for anything.

18 - 21 October 2008: Lake Titicaca and into Peru...

Well, what can I say... Peru is one crazy country! Soooo much happened in the few weeks we spent here. I guess the best place to start is the beginning...

Lake Titicaca was stunning. It's just so huge it's impossible to think of it as a lake. We visited the Uros Islands (floating islands), which are made by weaving reeds together and can actually be moved around the lake. The families can just pull up the anchor and move to another part of the lake... if only moving house was so simple! Each isalnd is really small with only one or two families on each one, and families are getting a lot smaller now than they used to be as a result of a Japenese business man who donated solar panels for each island... this provided the power for TVs and in turn the average number of children reduced from 14 to about 4!!!

We stayed with a family on Amantani island over night which was an interesting experience. We felt very priviliged to be staying with the president of the island, Ignatious. His children were lovely however no-one spoke any English and our small amount of Spanish didn't really help as they spoke Quechua so there was a lot of gesturing, smiling and awkward silences!! We were hoping a family stay would provide us with a real taste of life on the islands, however it was clear they were behaving differently because we were there and didn't really involve us in their way of life which was a shame. We helped Olga, the mum, with dinner but when it came to eat we sat at a table and ate with cultlery and the family waited for us to finish before they sat around the stove and ate with their hands. The food - all cooked in a ceramic pot above a flame - was brilliant. All simple, natural food grown on the island and so tasty. Seeing what people can do with the most basic ingrediants and basic equipment has really made me re-think the way I eat.

After dinner Kat and I, and all the other visitors staying with other families, were dressed up in Peruvian national dress and marched down the hill to a 'party'. I was looking forward to it as it was my chance to learn the Peruvian national dance, but it was actually really cringe-worthy and we looked like complete plonkers!! It was so cold we couldn't bring ourselves to take our clothes off so had the dresses on over the top of jeans, jumper and trainers. Not a look I would usually go for I must admit! The 'party' consisted of a load of tourists - all looking as stupid as each other - being shoved in a freezing cold hall, watching some bad (and quite strage) Peruvian dancing (pretty sure the performers were completely plastered. At one point they started shaking up bottles of coke and spraying them at each other and then, unsurprisingly, kept falling over because the floor was so slippery. To this day no one has been able to explain why they did this!) and being dragged up to join in. Not quite the cultural experience we were hoping for!!

We spent the next day visiting Taquile island which was beautiful. The water was so blue and went on for as far as the eye could see. Just beautiful.

When we arrived back in Puno on the mainland we were informed that the bus we had booked to Cusco wouldn't be running as there was an agricultural strike and road blocks stopping any traffic getting to Cusco... this is where the infamous cab journey tale began...

The next day the buses still weren't running. We had to get to Cusco by the following day as we were starting the Inca Trail so, when faced with the choice of a ridiculously expensive flight or a cheaper but longer cab journey (the cab could fit along the mountain roads and avoid the road blocks), we decided to get a cab all the way... 8 hours! 2 Slovenian guys were having the same trouble as us so we decided to share a cab and managed to negotiate a really good price.

When we got to the car the cab drivers 2 kids were in the backseat. He said he needed to drop them at school on the way, but instead of leaving them in the back with us he picked them up and shoved them in the boot with our bags. I couldn't believe it! Once out of Puno - minus the kids - the journey seemed to be going quite smoothly. The driver kept offering to pull over so we could take pictures of the view and seemed like a decent guy... until we arrived at our destination that was and he started demanding double to agreed price. he pulled over on the outskirts of the city, locked our bags in the car and wouldn't let us go until we paid him. We refused (or should I say Matty and Matty our Slovenian body guards refused and took charge!) and managed to squeeze our bags out over the back seats and run away with the cab driver chasing after us and hurling abuse at us... what a great start to Peru!!

My interent time is about to run out, but there will be more tales to come asap...

14 - 18 October 2008: Bolivia - La Paz / Copacobana

La Paz was pretty much a write-off in terms of culture, however we did get very well aquainted with the hospital! The English speaking doctor was lovely (as were the others... didn`t mean for that to sound language-ist!) and the canteen did a mean coffee and pastry! Unfortunately all this time spent in the hospital meant that something was wrong and it turned out poor Rach has fractured her ankle. Ow! She`d been hobbling around on it for 2 days! After many phone calls to her insurance company, airlines etc. she`s decided to head home to recover and postpone the rest of her trip until next year. It`s so gutting for her and so upsetting, and it`s made me realise how quickly this dream could be over. Fingers (and toes) crossed that nothing like that happens to me or Kat.

La Paz isn`t the most convenient city to be on crutches in... in fact it is possibly the hilliest town in the world ever! So with Rach`s leg in cast we spent most of our time helping her drown her sorrows in the hostel bar. And what a bar it was! Loki La Paz is definately the best hostel we`ve been to so far. Great rooms, great building, great staff, great friends, great atmosphere, GREAT happy hour and a free breakfast till 1pm... just what you need after a night of partying!

The witches market was a bizarre experience, dead baby llamas strung up by their legs and all array of smells, in fact the whole of La Paz was quite a bizarre experience. The setting is stunning, tucked between towering snow topped mountains, so the view from afar is beautiful, but up-close and personal it`s not so pretty. It does have a great atmosphere though and the hussle and bussle is never ending! We had 3 days partying hard, said an emothional goodbye to rach and then headed to Copacobana with 2 friends from the hostel to spend time at Lake Titicaca.

It was a trying bus journey after a very heavy night out and once we arrived in Copacobana it was all Kat, Yvonne, Eric and I could do to put one foot in front of the other. Kat and I were heading for a hostel we`d read about, however with our hangovers, heavy bags and the midday heat we gave up and fell into the closest one we could find. After a couple of hours kip we felt revived and went for a walk, only to find the hostel we were looking for was only 2 doors further up, and looked a lot nicer!! Oh well!!

Copacobana is cute, arty town but obviously only there for the tourists. We met up with Eric and Yvonne for dinner and thought we`d found a real bargain when we can across a restaurant that had a set menu of 3 courses for 22 Bolivianos (less than 2 pounds!). Trout is supposedly the speciality here and all around Lake Titicaca so we ordered and eagerly awaited our dinner... no wonder it was so cheap!!!! The portions must have been designed for borrowers! If you weren´t looking closely you could have easily missed the lemon pie we had for desert!

Heading into Peru tomorrow to visit the other side of the lake and stay on the islands... bye bye Bolivia. It`s been emotional!!

9 - 13 October 2008: Bolivia - Tupiza to Uyuni

Another bus journey and another border crossing. We were expecting to have to hang around at the Bolivian border for the best part of the day as the trains aren`t very regular, but luckilly we managed to jump straight on a bus to Tupiza, out next destination.

Tupiza is a gorgeous little town that reminds me of the wild west! It`s surrounded by mountains and red rock and has a lovely laid back atmosphere. Our hotel was lovely - private room, hot showers and ridiculously cheap! One day in and I love Bolivia already!

From Tupiza we went on a 4 day trip to the Salar de Uyuni (the largest salt plain in the world). Words cannot describe what an amazing time I had. Our group was excellent - Rach, Kat and I along with Vesna and Jure, a crazy couple from Slovenia - our guide, Julio, and cook/surrogate Bolivian mummy, Berna, were absolutely brilliant and everyday was more beautiful and more breathtaking than the last. Bolivia has such an amazing landscape, it`s a completely different world from anything I have ever seen or anywhere I have ever been.

On day 1 we visited the Quebrada de Palala, a natural rock formation, and drove through beautiful mountains. We stopped at a small gold mining village in the middle of nowhere called Nazarenito, where 9 families live. We spent our first night 4260m above sea level... Being at such high altitude is bizarre... you get out of breath so quickly and can literally feel the oxygen getting thinner. It`s also FREEZING!!!! We wore every item of clothing in our bags, snuggled into slepping bags with about 4 blankets on top and had a swig of rum to warm us from inside! The stars were incredible, although we could only stay outside and brave the cold for about 20sec at a time!

Day 2 included a visit to a ghost town, some absolutlely stunning lagoons with hundreds of flamingos, hot springs and geysers. We reached our highest altitude - 5000m - and got quite light headed at times. South Americans swear by coca leaves to help with altitude sickness so we were all chewing away... they don`t taste particularly great (kind of like feet in fact) and make your mouth go numb but they supposedly help open up your capillaries so more oxygen can get around your body. God knows if that`s true!

Sitting in the hot springs was fantastic... sitting in a bikini in 35C water high up in the mountains looking out at stunning landscapes... wow!

On day 3 we saw even more impressive lagoons, more flamingos and visited a semi-active volcanoe. We drove through constantly changing landscapes and spent the night at a hotel made entirely from salt (which we had to lick of course!). After dinner (which was always amazing, we ate soooo much!) some local boys put on a show for us. Dressed in traditional dress they played the panpipes (VERY badly bless them!) and got us up dancing. They informed us they knew 22 songs... all of which I`m pretty convinced were identicle!! But however bad they were this was finally my chance to learn the traditional Bolivian dance. To be honest there`s not much to it... basically stepping backwards and forwards and swinging your arms around! You don`t really need a degree to master it!!

Day 4 was the final day... we got up super early to watch the sunrise from the salt desert and I can honestly say it was the most beautiful site ever. Freezing but beautiful! We visited a cactus island in the middle of the desert and spent time messing around on the salt plain taking silly photos! Having already visited a salt desert in Argentina I wasn`t expecting to be hugely impressed but I was completely blown away... the Salar de Uyuni is HUGE!!! 12,000km2... you can just see gleaming white for as far as the eye can see in every direction. Incredible!

We reached our final destination, the town of Uyuni, in the early afternoon, absolutely desperate for a shower (there was no running water in the desert and we all stank!!). Rach had hurt her ankle during the trip so we were pretty anxious to get to a hospital so, after a hot shower, we got an overnight bus to La Paz. Hell!!!! The worst bus journey so far. It was so bumpy we were practically being thrown from our seats, there was no toilet and the bus hardly ever stopped so we were too scared to drink anything. We were told food and drink would be included so hadn`t had dinner but it wasn`t, and we had a group of drunk Bolivian men sitting near us who spent the entire journey leering at Kat and Rachel and `accidently` sitting on Rach. It was horrible and freezing cold and we arrived in La Paz absolutely exhausted.

7 - 9 October 2008: Argentina (a very brief visit!)

The Argentinian buses are great! Comfy seats, friendly staff and you get dinner (albeit a cheese and ham sandwich accompanied with a cheese and ham sandwich and then, you guessed it, a cheese and ham sandwich to follow - bizarre!) We arrived in Salta and were reunited with Rach. It was so great to see her again. Salta itself is a lovely city and seemed really safe and friendly (a welcome change from Paraguay!).

We went on a spectacular day trip `to the clouds`. We visited gorges, small mountain villages, ghost towns, craft markets, saw beautiful views of the 7 Colour Mountains (stunning!) and visited the Salinhas Grandes salt plains. It was an incredibly long day with a lot of sitting in the back of a mini bus but was definately worth it. Unfortunately we only spent a couple of days in Argentina but it`s definately somewhere I`d like to return to to see it properly.

Next stop Bolivia...

1 - 6 October 2008: Iguaçu Falls and random trips to Paraguay... bye bye Brazil!

Ok... first of all I want to apologise for the huge delay in updating the blog. For one reason or another (being in the desert with no electricity, computers working no faster than a snail in Bolivia, being too tired to string a sentence together etc etc) I haven`t been able to spend much time on a computer but after a 4 day hike on the Inca trail I`m having a lazy day and have set up camp in an internet cafe!

So here we go...

Iguaçu Falls is incredible!! Wow! In fact I`m not sure I can describe it in words. You can`t appreciate the enormity of the falls until you`re there, feeling the spray and hearing the roar of the water. It`s deafening! The falls consist of 275 waterfalls spreading over Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. We spent time on both the Brazilian and Argentinian side of the Falls and they really are indescribable. As well as the falls the wildlife and surrounding jungle is gorgeous. Just take a look at the video, although that doesn`t even do it justice!



Sadly it was after visiting Iguacu Falls that Melissa left us and headed home :-(. We wanted to send her off in style and have a relaxing last day together so had a lovely day of sunbathing and swimming in the hostel pool planned, only to wake up to terrential rain. And I mean terrential! I`ve never seen anything like it! After taking a wander around Foz do Iguaçu (the town) we found shelter in a bar and dried off whilst enjoying a beer or few. We got chatting to some local Brazilian guys (Fernando, Roberto and Douglas (what a typical Brazilian name???!)) who, when I asked then for some advice about where to go in the evening, decided to take us under their wing and show us how the locals party! I can most definately say it was one of the more random nights of my life!

After sampling pineapple caipirinhas (most definately the most disgusting drink I`ve ever had misfortune to put in my mouth) and going to an all-you-can-eat restaurant with a showcase of South American dance and music (crazy women dancing with pots on their heads, glitzy costumes and far too many naked bum cheeks for dinner time...) we found ourselves clasping our passports and crossing the border into Paraguay for a night of clubbing! The club was awful and full of 15 year olds but we had a great time all the same and at about 3am, just when I thought the night couldn`t get any stranger, the worlds worst U2 tribute band came on stage! We think they were singing in English but can`t be sure! After a drunken border crossing back into Brazil we finally rolled in at about 4.30am, giving us just enough time to get a couple of hours sleep before having to pack, check out and move on to the next destination... we had an emotional goodbye and Melissa headed to Sao Paulo to catch her flight home, whilst Kat and I took another trip into Paraguay. Sobre this time!

I can`t believe our month in Brazil is already over. I`ve finally got the hang of Portuguese and now we`re going to have to change to Spanish! ahhh! Brazil really has been fantastic... it`s like a hundred different countries in one and no 2 places are the same. The people are friendly, the atmosphere is buzzing and - thankfully - we haven`t witnessed any of the horror stories you so often hear about.

We had never planned to stay in Paraguay, it was just the quickest route to from Brazil to Salta in Argentina, however we hadn`t expected to hate it quite so much! We arrived in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, at about 11pm, tired and keen to book our onward bus to Argentina. The people at the bus station were horrible and completely unhelpful and for a little while we thought we might be stuck in Paraguay forever as no-one could (or would) give us any information about how to get out of the god forsaken place. We decided to check into a hotel opposite the bus station and try again in the morning. The `Royal Hotel` was a treat... pretty much a prison cell containing 2 concrete slabs with duvets on and, rather weirdly, 2 bathrooms. One with wires hanging out of the walls where bathroom fittings should have been and one with, surprisingly, hot running water! Yippee!!!

Needless to stay we got out of Paraguay as quickly as possible. After a hectic couple of days on numerous buses, border crossings, delays and wrong tickets we finally arrived in Argentina in one piece! Phew!!!

25 - 30 September 2008: Campo Grande / Pantanal Jungle Stay

We arrived in Campo Grande tired, smelly and hungry! After trailing the streets for somewhere to eat (Brazilian's eat their main meal at lunchtime so not many restaurants are open in the evening) we found ourselves in a stange little place with dirty table cloths and no menu... the waiter (or should I say random man that came to our table) reeled off lots of words, none of which we understood except for "beefy", so we smiled and nodded at that and waited to see what would appear. The next thing we know numerous plates turned up piled high with salad, rice, chips, beans and beef with fried eggs on top. And all for about £2.50 each!

From Campo Grande we set off on a 4 day trek to the Pantanal (Huge wetland half the size of France!). We stayed in a 'rustic' jungle lodge where the water out of the tap was brown, showers were a cold drizzle, mice lived on the roof and were so noisy I swear they spent the nights wrestling with each other, and we shared our room with frogs, spiders and cockroaches. It was great!! We spent our time here going on boat trips, trekking through the jungle, going on a jeep safari, piranha fishing (and eating our catch for lunch!), alligator spotting, tubing down the river, horse riding and just generally getting close to nature! In fact we got a bit too close to alligators for my liking... I wouldn't even have needed to stretch my arm out to touch them!! The wildlife and biodiversity here is simply stunning. Seeing monkeys, armadillos, capybaras, alligators, caimens, macaws, toucans, giant otters and an amazing variety of colourful birds was a daily treat!

Our guide, Pipino (born and bred in the Pantanal), was slightly strange but very impressive with the animals.... he was like Dr Dolittle, making crazy noises and literally speaking to the animals! The noise made by the howler monkeys was incredible. SO loud! Not quite so impressive when they woke us up at 4am though!

Our last night in the Pantanal was definately one that I will never ever forget. A group of us were enjoying a beer round the campfire by the side of the river when Pipino and his cousin, Marcello, decided it would be a good idea to go swimming (in the same river that we'd spent the day piranha fishing and alligator spotting in!). Not to be beaten by the locals Kat and I followed suit... Splashing around in the dark with no idea what animals were around was amazing! Later, whilst drying out by the campfire the most incredible storm started. We could see it long before we could hear or feel it. The lightning was incredible and lit up not only the sky but everything. Every few minutes it was so bright that you would've sworn it was daytime. Then the wind came, almost knocking us over and sending the campfire flying, and then came the rain. Huge, heavy drops that soaked us through within a few seconds. Rather than retire to the rickety skack we were staying in I decided to enjoy the fresh air and dance in the rain. Unforgettable.

I really can't put in words what an incredible time I had and I think it's safe to say the Pantanal is one experience that will stay with me forever.