Back to square one

Hi everyone,
Shock, horror - I`m actually on time for the second week in a row!
Now as some of you already know I`m almost at the end of my trip - I`m now back in Cusco where my South American adventure first began and I`m waiting for my flight home in a couple of days. But before I go here`s a round up of the last week!

So after my last post I went out exploring with my latest travel buddie - an American guy on a short break from offshore work. We headed out to check out the market and had a traditional Peruvian breakfast - chinese rice for me and some sort of chicken rice dish for him - no joke, that`s a normal breakfast here and Chinese food is especially popular.

After pottering around at the hostel a bit longer and getting a quick nap to make up for the night bus we decided to walk up to a viewpoint across town we`d heard about. It took a while to find the path up to it but eventually we started our climb - which actually wasn`t too bad until the last stretch. At this point we`d also inadvertantly picked up a guide, a rather drunk old guy who insisted on showing us the way. We eventually got rid of him and made it up to the top of the hill with  a rather large white cross on top. There were some pretty awesome views from there right across the city but more amazingingly - the Cordillera Blanca - one of the biggest mountain ranges in the world. It was strange to think that just the day before we`d been in warm sunny Lima, with palm trees and surf beaches, and we were now looking across to beautiful snow capped mountains.
We hung out there a little while but very concious of the fact the clouds were coming down we headed off the hill and found a much nicer route down - a real road in fact...shame we hadn`t noticed it a few meters away on our way up the hill! We arrived back in the city centre just as the rain came on and ended up having to duck into a little local resturant for food and to wait out the worst of the rain. The rest of the evening - once we got back to the hostel was spent trying to stay warm and dry. We stayed in and watched a movie before calling it a night.

View from the viewpoint (mirador)

The following day we didn´t get up to a whole lot really, wandered around looking for somewhere to book a trip up onto the glacier, picked up some vegetables from the market and explored the town itself a little bit. Otherwise it was a pretty quiet day. The most interesting part of the day was probably trying to cook dinner that night. The hostel only had two rings on a gas stove or a BBQ which had been sitting in the rain. Eventually we succeeded in making our pasta but we decided not to try cooking there again - too much hassle and the`kitchen´ was outside and therefore pretty cold in the evening.

First thing next morning Josh set out to try and sort out something for us to do that day. It turned out we couldn`t get to the glacier due to protests nearby and we couldn`t go on an earlier tour since we had a friend from Lima expected to arrive on the bus at some point that morning.
He returned around 8.40am with our friend in tow since he`d found her at the bus station. He`d managed to set up a trip up onto the Cordillera Negra instead with a `guide`to leave at 10am so we grabbed some breakfast then waited for him to appear.
Now this guy wasn`t what you would expect as a guide - he smelled kinda bad, his clothes and shoes didn`t fit and he bought a bottle of beer to drink on the way but he did the job. We arrived to the bottom of the hill and started our 3 hour hike. It was pretty difficult being at such high altitude - around 4500m but the views from the top were spectacular.
Back at the bottom and after a quick bus back to the town Lena and I grabbed some tea while Josh got rid of the guide. We also went to try and find something to do together the following day since Josh was headed back to Lima but we had more issues with the guides and decided to try again later in the afternoon.
Eventually we managed to book a trip up to Laguna 69 for ourselves and two other girls from our hostel Elma and Nana.

hiking in the Cordillera Negra!

At 5am the following morning we were up and ready to go. Our bus collected us around 5.20am and set off for the national park. After a short breakfast stop we arrived to the start of our hike at around 8.30am and set off up the hill. Although the first big section was pretty flat the altitude made it feel like we were already heading straight up. It was a weird feeling, being out of breathe walking across the flat valley floor but it was so much worse once we started heading up! It took around 3 and a half hours to make the 7km hike up to he lake but it was worth it! We saw some spectacular views across to Peru´s biggest mountain and around the lake itself.
Although it snowed on and off on the way there it cleared in time for me and a couple of other stragglers to make it to the lake. We didn`t hang around long due to the weather turning again and instead headed back down the mountain - a considerably easier walk heading down!
We made it back to the hostel around 5 and after sorting out a few admin things such as my bus the following day we got some food and settled for an early night.

A large lake on our way to Laguna 69

On thursday morning I got a bus back to Lima. It left around 9.30am and was actually a fairly pleasant bus trip although the lack of air conditioning was a bit of an issue - a silly thing to complain about in South America I know but it was hot! We arrived in Lima around 5pm bus because of traffic it took me until almost 7pm to get backthe the Dragonfly hostel!
After a much needed shower, some food from the hostels BBQ and a beer I was feeling much better. The lads who work there were planning to go to a local indie-rock gig and invited me along. It ended up just being two of us going but the gig was really good. The bar felt more like a converted old house with the band area down in the basement. The music was great and it was nice to go somewhere a bit more local since the area the hostel is in is very much a touristy area!
After the gig we ended up back at the hostel for a couple more drinks and ended up staying up until somewhere round 6am hanging out and talking up on the roof. What a bad influence those lads are (joking - in case any of them read these haha).

Friday morning was very quiet and I spent most of it working through a few big mugs of coffee. Around lunch time I was off again and heading for my next bus - all the way to Cusco this time!
The bus journey took 22 hours although thankfully I`d thought ahead and booked one of the fancy seat in the downstairs part of the bus - the seats reclined to 160', each seat had it`s own private TV screen and headphones and for once there was plenty of leg room. I was also pretty lucky with the person sitting next to me - a nice trainee accountant from Ireland who didn`t snore and was decent to chat to.

At Laguna 69!

I arrived in Cusco around midday yesterday and after settling back into Estrellita - my go to Cusco hostel - I headed out to the Meeting Place - an American run cafe with great burgers, milkshakes and amazing waffles!!
Surprisingly while I was sat there my frined Rachel walked in! She`s an intern with the school for field studies and was supposed to be heading back to Villa Carmen except the road was blocked so she was back in Cusco for the day with her parents!
I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around with them and swapping news from the last month before heading back to my hostel.
There I found a couple who were offering up there extra rice pudding so I got a nice filling meal there and some tea before heading to bed in the otherwise empty dorm room!

Well I´d best get on - I haven´t really done anything else today and it`s half way through the afternoon!
I think I´m going to write one more post once I get home although it might be a couple of days late. But speak to you all again soon!!
Ciao

When in Lima

Hi everyone
just to surprise you all I´m actually on time this week!
Think this is going to be a short one because I´ve just arrived in Huaraz - next to the Cordillera Blanca and want to go exploring as soon as possible.

So last tuesday my new Canadian friends and I decided to take out the free kayaks our hostel provided. We spent a good hour or so out on the water because returning to sit by the pool and dry off a little. Unfortunately I managed to burn my legs in the process but it´s fine now.
Later in the day we had another wander around the small town of Paracas, though since it{s only a small town it wasn´t long before we headed back to the hostel and actually just spent the afternoon chilling out and watching movies. Josh and his mum Laurie left that evening for Lima while I stayed behind to enjoy one more day by the beach.

Wednesday was mostly spent catching up with some things online, chilling on the beach and hanging out with some Peruhopper´s who were heading in the other direction. Around 8pm, after a very unproductive day I caught the bus up to Lima where I arrived around midnight.
Luckily I had a hostel already sorted so I arrived and went straight to bed.

I decided to get straight into exploring Lima the next day and joined up with a free walking tour for the morning. The tour took us on the tram to the city centre were the guide showed us loads of cool churches, some museums to check out at some point and explained a lot about Peru before and after the Spanish. Their were some really great people also on the tour, including one guy from Scotland! One thing I´ve found in the few years I´ve been travelling is that I never see any other Scottish travellers so I was really happy to finally find one in Lima.
After the tour a group of us stuck together go get food and so some of us had our first taste of Cerviche - raw fish cured in citric juices (like lemon or lime). It was interesting but I don´t know if I´d want to try it again.
Our new little group decided to meet again that evening to go get a couple of drinks which proved rather difficult. We went to the ´party area´to find the place almost dead and after walking round for quite some time looking for a suitable place we instead headed back to the part of town we were staying in and ended up being taken to a gay bar near the park where we´d met originally.
I wasn´t really into the music and by that point I was pretty tired so I went back to my hostel, however once there I got talking to the guys who work at the hostel and instead of going to bed I ended up sitting up chatting until around 5am!

On Friday three of us went exploring to look for museums and found a museum with a really interesting exhibit about a terrorist factor called the Shining Path - they were actually still active here in Peru until around only a few years ago so it was really interesting to learn more about that. Shame I was too tired to think about taking notes but it was enjoyable all the same.
We finished around lunch time then found a chinese for food. Instead of gettign a bus back we just decided to walk back which was nice to see some new places. We also found all the craft markets to explore at a later date. In the evening the other two guys I´d been hanging out with came and hung out at my hostel since there was a bar on the roof - so they stuck around until the bar closed then we split and I went to bed.

Yesterday was another musuem day. We found a great art museum which some interesting exhibits and the park it was in was really nicetoo so after checking out the museum we hung out there for a while. There was actually a food festival going on at the same time so we got to try a few new things while we were there. Once we´d gotten tired of the park we went back to the area we were staying in - Miraflores - and walked the other way to go check out the coastline for a bit.
I went back to my hostel to hang out for a bit then after a quick meet up with the Scottish lad again for dinner I met with our other friend to get the next bus.
We travelled up to Huaraz on the overnight bus and arrived early this morning.

Ok Now I´d better go cause someone else is waiting to use the computer and I want to go exploring. I can´t add pictures right now but I´ll try and do it later.
Speak to you all soon!!

Ciao

The wheels on the bus go round and round

Hi everyone,
late as usual but once again it´s been a jam packed week. Plus by the time I arrived at my hostel last night it was a little late to be writing.
So, this is likely to be pretty long but hopefully it´ll be worth the read.

After writing my last post I pretty much spent my time making sure I had everything together, getting some food and saying a few goodbyes to my new friends. I had to get to the Peruhop office for around 8pm. For those of you who haven´t yet heard of Peruhop despite all my mentions they´re a great hop-on-hop-off bus company that goes between some of the most important places within Peru - it´s great value and the guides are awesome.
I got on the bus with a small group of other backpackers and we all settled down for about a 9 hour overnight bus journey.

The bus arrived in Puno very early on Monday morning but after only a short breakfast we were off again. We were all booked onto the Floating islands tour, where we got a boat out on to Lake Titicaca and explored these really cool islands made out of reeds. We spent the whole day out there checking out a number of the islands before returning to Puno. It was actually timed really well because as soon as we made it off the boat it started raining and didn´t stop of at least a couple of hours.
We met back up with our guide after dinner then it was back on the bus.
By this point I´d gotten talking to a couple of Canadian travellers -mother and son- and decided to book into the same hostel as them.

floating islands in Puno

One more night bus later and we all arrived in Arequipa - the 2nd biggest city in Peru. The three of us staying at Marlon´s house were dropped off and after a bit of sitting around headed out for breakfast while we waited for our rooms to be ready - it was still early after all. Considering we´d just done two night buses we spent a good part of the morning chilling out and catching up on some sleep before joining up with a free walking tour on the afternoon, The tour was great, the guide was funny, and we got to see quite a large part of the city. However we did find out that to visit the well known convent there would cost us each 40 soles, and decided to pass.
The tour went on quite a bit longer than expected so aferwards we just headed back to our hostel for food and an early night.

Wednesday got off to a fairly slow start since we all still needed to catch up on some rest. Once we got going though we wandered around away from the centre of the city and found some lovely parks. We also discovered a little convent tucked away where you normally wouldn´t find it. This one might have been smaller but only cost 5 soles so in we went. It also contained a pretty cool collection of Amazonian artifacts and an amazing library full of books from the 16-18th century!
After finishing up there we found a cheap local place to eat before heading up to the market to find something to cook for dinner. There´s a great market in Arequipa where everything is clean and organised and people are much less likely to beckon you over to their stall by shouting about their wares until you agree to buy something.
On our way back from the market we decided to stop and look into one of the small local museums (not much to see) and grab some coffee then look around the cathedral which was pretty impressive. They had a collection of some of the jewellery worn by the priest back in the day, including a crown covered in diamonds and emeralds weighing around 5kg! We had a guide who was great at explaining all the finer details within the cathedral but I couldn´t help but laugh at the fact she addressed the group as ´misters´, as in; "if you walk this way misters"...pretty funny at the time anyway.
By the time we got back all we had the energy for was food then bed,

3am on Thursday and it was time to go. Still half alseep we stumbled into a small bus and set off for the Colca Canyon. At around 6am we stopped for breakfast before pressing on again. By the time 8am arrived we were finally awake and just in time for us to make our big stop. We were there to see the Andean Condor leaving it´s nest to find food for the day, Their are very specific times when you can see them hence the really early start but it was so worth it! These beautiful birds have a wingspan of about 3m and look magestic gliding around on the air currents.
Eventually they left and so did we, them to find food - us to drive further along the canyon. We drove to the village at the end of the road to pick up some people who´d been hiking in the canyon before turning round to go back to Arequipa.
On the way we made a few stops and view points, little road side stores and towards the end some hot springs. They were a little artificial (they´d basically built a swimming pool around the spring) but it was still nice to sit and chill in there for a little while before getting back on the bus.
One more food stop then it was back to the city to reflect on what an awesome day we´d had.

Andean Condor in Colca Canyon

After another long day we had a bit of a slow morning, wandering round some of the craft markets and enjoying some really good ice cream. In the afternoon Josh and I went to do a bit more exploring while his mam chilled at the hostel. After as great stir fry we went back out but this time to get a few drinks. It was a fun night outand I got try try a few cocktail style drinks I otherwise probably wouldn´t have looked at so pretty good in all.

The late night was probably a bad choice since we had an early bus to get on saturday morning but I slept well on the bus so I didn´t really notice. We got all the way to Ica where we dropped off some people who wanted to get a flight over the lines. The rest of us stayed on the bus and went to a viewing tower to see a couple of the lines for free from there. They were pretty cool, we got to see the tree and a pair of hands. There´s a lot of uncertain history with the lines but either way they´re still super impressive. A couple of hours later we arrived in Huacachina - the only desert oasis in South America. It´s an interesting place environmentally but there was only a couple of streets and not much to do except relax or party - as was demonstrated at the hostel I stayed at - the party was still going some time after 5am the morning after.

Nazcar lines

On Sunday morning I sat and ate what food I had left (having assumed food in the oasis would be expensive) but it was fine - nothing wrong with avacado sandwiches for breakfast. I spent some time reading and having a little look around before settling down by the hostel pool for a little while.
At around midday, once the group was back together, we all went off for a free Pisco tour, where it was explained how they make Pisco, and what different types there are. They had 3 mains types - wine, spirit, and creams.
After that tour it was back to the hostel to get organised for sandbuggies and sandboarding! A group of 8 of us jumped into the buggy and were taken up into the sanddunes by a crazy driver who seemed determined to make us fly. Fortunately that was all part of the fun and the vehicle was kitted out with belts, rollcage, etc. The sandboarding was equally awesome. You could lie down or sand on the board going down the dunes; I stuck to lying down but it was still awesome! We stayed around until almost sunset before heading back down into the oasis and getting back on the bus.
It only took us about two hours to drive to Paracas - our next destination.
Upon arrival we quickly got settled into our hostel then went out with the group for some great pizza. Unfortunately I probably didn´t get to enjoy it fully but that´s just because I was so tired I was half sleeping at the table.

Sand buggy in Huacachina

So today - almost finished - we had a farily early start as we were going on a boat tour at 8am. We all met up before hand and made our way to the boat. Our trip took us out to the Ballestas Islands - a diverse group of islands sometimes referred to as a Poor Man´s Galápagos. On the way we saw dolphins and at the islands we got to see sealions, penguins, pelicans and some other amazing bird life! The tour only lasted 2 hours but we saw so many awesome things.
We got back to the hostel and hung out for a little while before going on to our next little excursion - a trip into the national reserve where we got to see some amazing views across the desert like terrain and see where it meets the ocean.

Sealions in Paracas

Well since the tour I´ve been spending my time trying to write this - not easy when the computer doesn´t want to cooperate. Now I think I´m going to go hang out by the pool.

Speak to you all again soon though!

Machu Picchu!!

Hi everyone,
a day late again I know but I only got back from Machu Picchu last night!!

So this whole week has been pretty jam packed and I don´t have that much time online but I´ll do my best!
After I finished writing my last blog post we all went up to Saqsaywaman - an archaeological site just above the city of Cusco. It was pretty impressive seeing the size of the structures and had an amazing view over the city. We stayed up there until it started getting dark, admiring the view before heading back to the city for Indian food in this great place Jimena and I found last time I was in Cusco.

Saqsaywaman - funny name I know

The following day we had some errands to run first like buying our ticket for MP and organising Heather´s friends Haley and Charlie´s flights, but after that we took a bus out to the Sacred Valley. After a quick bit of food and a look around the market we got a lift up to the top of the valley and from there we went exploring.
The ruins at Pisac were again really impressive. It was great cause we got to walk all the way along the ridge looking at dozen of ruins along the way, and bonus, we were practically the only people there!
After about a 10km walk we arrived back in the village of Pisac where we started and got a quick snack before catching a bus back to Cusco.
We found a nice little pizza place and decided to stay out a while after, resulting in a trip to one of the local nightclubs where we got in for free and met our friend Carlos from Villa Carmen.

Adventuring in Pisac

Wednesday morning got off to a bit of a slow start after the late night and even once we were up and about it took us forever to find breakfast - my favourite place was closed for New Year and it took us an extra 20 minutes wandering about to find anything else. After all that effort we decided to head back to the hostel and hang out there for a while, though we dropped Heather off at the internet cafe en route.
After a couple of hours there Haley and Charlie decided to head to Qorikancha - an interesting Inkan temple/Spanish Convent - and Heather showed up with Blair just in time to join them. I stayed behind having already visited but hung out with some new friends in the hostel instead.
That lead to me missing out on meeting the group for dinner because more and more hostel people appeared and suddenly it was party central. There were quite a few people staying for the New Year including a crowd of cyclists and a couple of guys with motorbikes and we had an awesome time hanging out. There was a great couple from Devon who I loved talking to and I´m kind of sad I didn´t get their contact details before they left.
Anyway, we took a break to go get Chinese food and all stayed up for the fireworks at midnight. At that point folk started splitting off to go to bed but a small group of us decided to walk up to the house of one of the bikers who actually lives in Cusco. It was an awful walk but we had a great time with the guy and I enjoyed hanging out with the 5 dogs he had there too!
At some point we headed back down to the plaza but it was really expensive to get in anywhere so we eventually decided to call it a night.

New Year´s day, as expected got off to a pretty slow start, we´d only really finished breakfast at the time we were supposed to check out. We also had another food fiasco, when the ´reasonable´looking place we found took our order once, waited almost an hour, double checked the order, then still hadn´t served us almost 45 minutes after that. For the first time for all of us we walked out without getting our food. However shortly after we found a really nice place with short serving time, nice atmosphere, and great food!
About two minutes after walking out of the restaurant we got caught in an awful hail storm, which left rivers running through the streets and all our shoes! We gave up our idea of a walk and tried to find coffee but had no luck there either and ended up back at the hostel cold and empty handed.
After sitting around there for a while we decided to finalise our Machu Picchu plans. Heather, Blair and I decided we would travel by buses and walking, while Haley and Charlie decided to get the train the following morning for Charlie´s birthday.
At 8pm our group headed for the bus. which left around 9pm and arrived in Santa Maria around 2am. From there we got a taxi to Santa Teresa arriving around 3am. Since we didn´t want to hike the rail line in the dark we found a clean spot in the Plaza and settled down for a couple of hours rest.

Walking in to Aguas Calientes

In the morning it was up first thing (since I doubt we would have been allowed to sleep in the plaza much later) and we got a collectivo to the Hydroelectric station. From there it was a two hour walk along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes. It was a pretty nice walk and we made good time. We also found a pretty reasonable hostel when we got to the town which had been a bit of a concern.
We waited for Haley and Charlie to arrive before getting food, exploring and running a few errands - like getting snacks for the big day.
By the time we´d finished getting organised it was time for food again, which we followed up with a couple of drinks in this really cool reggae bar we found. Unfortunately the guy had never even heard of Bunny and the Wailers but the place had a great vibe and we got to chill out and play a couple of games of pool before bed.

At the Sun Gate

The big day. We didn´t get up as early as planned but it didn´t really matter. After coffee we caught the bus up to the entrance and without wasting too much time we hiked straight up to the Sun Gate. What an amazing view! I remember very distinctly as a little kid, I was 9 years old and at a regular Girls Brigade night, we were asked what our big dream was for when we grew up, I instantly said travel and when prompted answered that I most wanted to go to Peru, especially to see Machu Picchu. It was a very surreal, and quite an emotional experience the 11 years later, I was finally there.
We spent a good half hour just sitting looking out at the view before walking back down to do the real exploring. It´s impossible to really describe how much of an amazing place it is, the location, sheer size and magnificence of it all. Instead you´ll just have to check out the pictures and try to imagine for yourself. We spent some time wandering around the site until the rain and hunger finally won out.
Seeing the lines to get a bus back down we decided to chance it and walk back down the mountain instead. It was only about 2km using the steps or 6km on the road but it was pretty steep either way.
Back in Aguas we half crawled our way into the first food place we found - a pizza place with an offer of cheap food and free drink. After consuming 3 family sized pizzas between the 5 of us we plodded back up to our hostel, were I had to quickly gather my things.
Everyone else was staying an extra night but I had to come back to Cusco early as a have a bus to catch down to Lake Titicaca tonight.I decided to treat myself and catch the train which was pretty cool. I was seated next to this 12 year old Columbian kid who´s family were sitting opposite. As soon as they realised I spoke English they told their son to practice his English with me. I didn´t mind though, I learnt a lot about Columbia on that train, and for 12 years old he knew a surprising amount about a number of topics - including Columbian political history!
By the time we all arrived back in Cusco I was told to come and visit them when I make it to Columbia in the future and I was actually gifted a little something for spending my time talking to the kid - that part was a bit weird to be honest but I wasn´t going to refuse.

Machu Picchu!

Anyway, I got back to the hostel last night and have spent most of the day catching up on errands, chilling out and drinking to drink enough tea to drown the cough I can´t seem to get rid of.
Now though I´d better go, must get some food and get everything charged before Lake Titicaca tomorrow!!!

ciao