Hi,

So...after we left Puno and Lake Titicaca behind, we travelled over the border (a rundown, dirty, smelly border at that) into Bolivia. The first thing we noticed is that Bolivia is poorer than Peru. Things are generally a bit more run down, but it does make things even cheaper for us gringos.

 

Our first stop in Bolivia was La Paz. This is the de facto capital of Bolivia and is the world´s highest capital (lodged in the mountains at around 3,600m). This was the night of our ´hat and porn facial hair´party. All the guys had not been shaving for a while and had to shape their facial hair into something more suited to a blue movie. After careful research, I went for a goatee with connecting strips to my sideburns. All of us then had to buy stupid and bizarre hats from the local market. I´ve not been able to post any photos just yet, but I´m sure that when I do, you´ll appreciate just how stupid they look. We had a great night though. Xana bought a strawberry outfit which was definitely the best and had to contend with most of evening having people taking bites out of her strawberry body, spilling red wine over herself and us all singing "what´s that coming over the hill? Is it a strawberry? Is it a strawberry?" at her! All good.

 

The next couple of days we spent exploring La Paz, buying a few things and sending some stuff home. The people in Bolivia don´t seem to pester you as much as in Peru, but the service isn´t anywhere near as good. People don´t seem to be particularly pleased to see us when we go into their shop/restaurant/etc. I´m not expecting a huge welcome mat and banners, but it would be nice if they actually looked slightly happy that they were getting some business...

 

After La Paz, we drove to Potosi. This used to be the world´s richest city (due to the masses of silver that were extracted from there by the Spanish during colonial times) and is currently the world´s highest city (about 4,100m). It is pretty run down these days, but there are a few lovely buildings that have been restored (the city is a UNESCO world heritage site). The main thing to do here is explore one of the local mines. There is a mountain behind Potosi that is still worked as a mine and has been since the 1500s. We got kitted out in dapper overalls, wellys and hard hats and headed up to the market to buy the miners some gifts (including dynamite!).

 

After a quick dynamite explosion demonstration(!), we then spent over an hour in the mines seeing how the miners work (very dangerously - they usually die very young or retire with really bad respiratory problems...over 8 million miners have died here since the mines first opened) and generally spending time in small places! It was really interesting and well worth doing, if not the most comfortable experience.

 

In the evening we went to a nearby cafe/bar that served great fallafel and had good bottles of Bolivian wine (yes, they were actually good!) for 30 bolivianos - about 2 pound twenty! So, we proceeded to enjoy the wine and food (but definitely not the grumpy service - see above) for several hours.

 

The next day (today) we drove to Uyuni. This is a small town in the middle of nowhere that is close to the largest salt flats in the world. These are all that remain of a dried up lake and should be a really surreall experience. Tomorrow we drive out to them, so will let you all know how we get on...

 

 

 

Well, we did it - we survived the Inca Trail! Four days (okay three and a bit) of hiking over mountainous terrain at altitudes of up to 4,200m! Tough work and no mistake.

I´ve copied the photos onto this site, so you´ll be able to see what we saw. It was really hard work (especially the 4,200m Dead Woman´s Pass - the highest point on the hike), but well worth it. The scenary was fantastic - snow-topped mountains, alpine passes, Inca ruins. And finished up with the climb down to Machu Picchu. It´s definitely one of my favouraite places on the planet. It has an amazing feel to it. The only problem is that you are so knackered after the hike that you can´t always make the most of it and see everything. Xana suffered a bit from the altitude and felt that she didn´t make the most of the experience, but it´s onlymade her more determined to come back some day and see it again!

 

I climbed the mountain behind Machu Picchu (Wayna Picchu) for some of the photos you´ll see. We even saw a condor from the base (albeit in the distance).

 

Xana was attacked by a cow before lunch on the first day! She was just walking past it and it took offence at her passing by and decided to raise its horns into her. Luckily it was more of a butt than a charge, but you can see the bruise caused in the photos!

 

The porters on the hike are amazing. They carry 20kilos up the trail and are generally going about twice the speed we do! They get into each lunch or evening stop and have all the tents set up with some drink awaiting us. After cooking us a great meal (including pancakes, spagetti bolognase, a cake and more), they then wake us up with a cup of hot coca tea. They are paid pretty poorly though and have terrible clothes (especially shoes), so we made sure they got a tip at the end - although it´s never enough.

 

When we got back from Machu Picchu, there was the 24 hour challenge waiting for us - make through from 3.30, when we were woken up that morning, until 3.30 the next morning. Whilst we did well (made it to 1.45), there were only two or three from the group that made it. I can say that I did the full 24 hours last time round!

 

After a couple of days in Cuzco to chill out (and the nicest steak at a very cool restaurant that had a glass table supported on a bath tub with live fish in!), we headed to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. This is the stop off for the trip onto the islands and our stay with a local family. We headed off yesterday and visited the floating islands (made from reeds) of the Uros people. We then headed out on to the open lake and a really rough ride to the island of Amantani. This took much longer than planned and we later discovered that the rough crossing was caused by an earthquake to the north that caused choppy seas.We don´t believe anyone was killed, but it was around 6.0 on the Richter scale, so pretty serious.

 

We arrived on the island safely (minus a few lost breakfasts...) and went off to meet our host family. They were an older couple who farmed on the island. They cooked our lunch (we helped peel the potatoes) and, after we had eaten that, we headed off for a game of football against some of the locals (at over 4000m above sea level). It was a close run thing and we aquited ourselves well, but we lost 4-3. Not bad for a team who could barely walk at that altitude!

 

We then got dressed up in local customes for a dance and a beer. There´s some good photos that I will post shortly. Next day we visited a nearby island and then headed back (much more smoothly) to Puno.

 

Tomorrow we leave Peru and drive to La Paz in Bolivia. So, our next country awaits!

 

 

 

Hi,

Okay, so what have we been up to since Arequipa? We left the city on the 10th and headed to Colca Canyon. This is the second largest canyon in the world and home to condors. We left the truck and joined a small bus that would take us deep into the canyon. After a long drive across a high plain (almost 5,000m above sea level), we passed down into the start of the canyon. The scenery was fantastic (will post photos soon). We stopped off at some hot srpings for an hour or so and then headed on to our hotel for the night. This was a lovely complex in a tiny village. They served us a great three course meal, with some local soup. Unfortunately, we hadn´t brought too much money with us (and Xana had spent most of what we did have on a jumper from some local people selling by the side of the road!), so we had to retire early after dinner and save our cash for the tip for our guide. He was a really knowledgable guy, who seemed to know something about everything - from history, to geography, to politics... The next day we got up at about 5.30 to try and go and see some condors. This was the same place where I had seen a couple of condors the last time I was in Peru, but, unfortunately, we waited for a couple of hours and didn´t see any. The guide took us to another look out place in the hope of spotting some from there, but we had no more luck there.

 

After another drive back out of the canyon, we met back up with the truck and carried on our way towards Cuzco. We camped out overnight by a small river in the middle of nowhere. This was a high altitude camp (4,200m above sea level), so it was extremely cold at night and hard to breath. It was good to get acclimatised to the high altitude for the Inca Trail, though.

 

The next day we drove to Cuzco (7 hour drive). We stopped off on a hill above Cuzco for an exellent view over the city. Xana wasn´t feeling too great so spent a couple of hours in the hotel. I went for a wander with a couple of other people from the truck for a look around the city. It´s a really nice city, with loads of lovely buildings and a nice, if slightly touristy in places, feel. There´s loads of markets to explore and has probaly the best restaurants of our trip so far. Having said that, we were good last night and went to a nearby restaurant where we got three courses, a fresh fruit juice and a small alchoholic drink for just 30 soles (about four pound fifty) between us!! It was simple, but tasty. Tonight, I think we´re going to another restaurant which will be a bit more expensive, but a bit funkier.

 

Today, we´ve spent the day wandering around the town. Had a really nice breakfast in a cafe which had a balcony overlooking the central plaza. We then ended up buying a really nice tablecloth for 48 soles (about eight pounds!). It should cover our table at home really well - Mum and Dad - you really need to leave some spare room in your suitcases!! There´s so much so buy here, it´s hard resisting sometimes. We saw a really nice picture that was painted by a local artist for 280 soles (just under fifty quid), which we could have bargained down a bit, but it was about 1.5m by 2m, so would have been a challenge transporting it around!! Things are so nice and so cheap that you just want to buy everything!

 

Anyway, tomorrow we start the Inca trail, so this maybe the last ever blog!! Hopefully, we´ll both make it back in one piece! Xana´s been a bit affected by the altitude, so we´re hoping there´s no problems. I think we´ll both be fine and will have a great time - will let you all know after we get back on Tuesday!

 

Hi,

 

We´re now in Arequipa. We joined the Oasis Overland tour last Thursday and headed straight down the coast to Paracase. Here we camped out  (although it wasn´t too painful as there was a swimming pool and shower block!). The next day we travelled into the desert for a small oasis. Here we exchanged our big yellow truck for a few dune buggies and spent the next couple of hours hairing around the desert in the buggies and doing some sandboarding. It was great fun, loads of huge sunes to ride up and over and loads to surf down. The sand goes everywhere, but it is well worth it! We saw the sun go down out in the desert and then headed to the middle of nowhere where the drivers collegues had set up a small camp with lots of beer, pisco (the national tipple) and a bbq. All very nice. We had plenty of music going and did a few night sand boarding trips as well. It was very cold, so we slept close to the fire. One of the drives was extremely drunk and kept trying to sleep next to some of the girls and they had to get up and move. I woke up with Xana on the other side of me to where she had gone to sleep, which was a bit of a surprise.

 

The next morning we got back on the dune buggies and headed back to the truck for our frive to the Nazca lines. The flight was only 30 minutes but we were both feeling pretty sick by the time came to land. The lines are pretty impressive, but sometimes hard to pick out. We then drove back down the coast to Puerta Inca (and old Inca port in the midle of nowhere) for another night of camping. This was right on a beach and great spot. Xana was on cooking duty so helped out making a really nice soup (with rice pudding to follow!).

 

Next day, we packed up the tents again and this time I was on breakfast and lunch duty, so helped sort that out. We were delayed leaving Puerta Inca because of a rally caming down the road, so didn´t leave for the 8 hour drive to Arequipa until 11. The drive wasn´t too bad, broken up by pitstops and trying to make sandwiches on the move (not too messy!). We got in about 7.30, so we headed out for some food. Xana and I passed this nice looking restaurant and saw some of the others from the truck in there so decided to drop our plans for a cheap meal and joined them. The food was really nice (I had shark curry!) and it was a pretty cool (and cheap by UK standards) place.

Today, we´re just chilling out in Arequipa as Xana´s got a bit of a cold and the next few days will be quite busy (Colca Canyon, a freecamp at altitude and then Cuzo). Tonight we´re going out for a meal as it´s someone on the trucks birthday.

 

The people on the truck seem really nice. We joined an existing tour in Lima (with one other guy), so felt a bit like the new guys for a while, althought that´s starting to wear off now. There´s 23 of us on the truck, plus a driver and a tour guide, which makes for a full truck and slightly more than we´d imagined, but it´s okay so far. Some of them go on travelling after they leave the tour so we might try and meet up with them around the place.

 

Anyway, lunch time, so time to go. Hope everyone is okay. Take care. Paul

 

 

 

Hi,

 

We're in Lima a the moment. Arrived okay on Sunday evening at about midnight. Got picked up from the airport by someone holding a sign with our names on (amongst what felt like thousands of other people doing the same). We were whisked off to our hostal (a really nice old building, although the staff aren't overly friendly...). Yesterday we wandered around part of the old town and changed some money. Our first impressions were that it is very crowded and dirty, but that has changed today. I then got an e-mail from work telling me that I had to re-apply for my job at NU, so need to take some time out this week to fill in a form - will see how that goes. Should know by the end of the month what the situation is...

 

Last night we got a taxi to Barranco (a suburb of Lima near the coast), where we were supposed to meet an Argentian guy called Martin we met in Quito (who we bumped into coinciedently at the airport in Quito), but nobody had heard of the bar that we were supposed to meet at! Anyway, we had a good nose around Barranco and went for a drink in a really nice, old bar with very high ceilings. It was a Monday night, and was pretty quiet, so we decided to head home in the world most rickety taxi. It stank of petrol, had pretty much zero suspension, and no seatbelts! If I'd have had any fillings I think they would have been shacken loose by that journey!

 

Today we got up and had a late breakfast at a cafe around the corner at a nearby cafe. It was one of those slightly surreal experiences that makes travelling so interesting... It was like something out of the 1940s. The was an old music system playing organ music (which we realised were covers of songs such as 'If you don't love me by now' and 'I just called to say I love you'!), lots of doilies and frilly tableclothes, old women talking gossip and a feeling of faded grandeur. Nice way to start the day.

 

We then got a bus south to Miraflores. This is a quiet well off suburb of Lima on the coast. The feeling there is very different to central Lima. Because of the sea being next door, you get a much bigger feeling of space and not such a cramped feeling. It's still busy, but in a less intense, manic way. Also, the buildings are either newer or in better condition, so it's got a better look to it. I think Miraflores is a nicer place to stay, but our current hotel is near the one where we leave for our trip, so it's okay.

 

Leaving Quito has been slightly strange. We were so well looked after and always had someone to ask about places to go and how to get there, that Lima feels a bit impersonal to start with. The first day we spent feeling a bit on edge, but today is much better and we're starting to appreciate Lima a bit. It's just that with a city Lima's size (similar to London), not having the people at the school and our host family to support us, it's always going to take a bit longer.

 

We're missing the people from Quito, but will be meeting our fellow travellers on the next tour on Wednesday evening/Thursday morning, so here's hoping that they're as nice!

 

 

Well, today is our last day in Quito. We fly to Lima at about 8.30 tonight, for the next stage of our journey. It'll be a shame to leave Quito as we've met some really nice people from the school (and have their e-mail details, so will definitely be keeping in touch and will, hopefully, meet up with some of them again elsewhere in South America) and our family have been really lovely. We gave them some gifts to say thankyou and Manuel has given us a signed copy of his recent book (an anthology of his poems), which is pretty cool.

 

We went out for a meal on Thurday to celebrate our four year anniversary. The restaurant recommended by the family was closed, so we went to another restaurant called Boco de Lobo (bite of the wolf!). It was a really nice place, so we splashed out a bit, but it was well worth it. Prior to the meal, we both went to the salsa lessons. We could only dance by ourselves as there were two guys (including me) and about twelve girls!

 

On Friday we had our last lessons (part of which was, for me, a cookery lesson in a typical Ecuadorian dish!) and then a presentation of a certificate to say that we had passed the course. Unfortunately, Xana missed her presentation as she was being given some typical Ecuadorian firewater! She felt a bit light-headed afterwards, but managed to pick up her certificate later.

 

In the evening we went out for what was to be our last night out in Quito. We ate at home, but then met up for some beers in the cafe I'm in now, went for a wander to see a local performance, expecting it to be a band, but it turned out to be a modern dance performance, so we headed off to a local salsa bar. It was a bit too packed, so some of the people we were with recommened another club over the road and we headed there. It was the last chance to see some of the people we've met, so we didn't get in until 2.

 

On Saturday we had to get up early to head to some local (well two hours away!) thermal baths. We ended up bumping into Evelyn from the school on the bus as she was heading to the jungle, but sharing the same bus as us for the first leg. She's spending four months teaching German in a school that is so remote she has to take a canoe to get there! Xana, Tracey (an American girl who lives in the house next to ours) and I found ourselves in a tiny village (Papallacta) in the middle of some gorgeous mountains, so we wandered around and found a small cafe that served a three course meal for $2.50! The main course was some really nice trout, so we did pretty well. We then got a lift up to the thermal baths where we spent three or four hours chilling out in the warms waters admiring the view. Very nice.

 

We were so tired when we got back (had to spend half the journey standing up in the bus as it was so busy), that we stayed in last night.

 

Okay, last thoughts on Quito: it's highly polluted, has manic traffic, is occasionally dangerous and very noisy (traffic, horns, car alarms, aeroplanes and dogs), but is in a beautiful setting, with loads of good things to do near by and some really friendly, generous people, so well worth a visit. Let's see how Lima compares...