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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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