Ok, so I have neglected this blog alot despite my best intentions. So here´s a blog of some of the stuff I have been up to over the last month or so.... excluding the dreaded Inca Trail!

After the salt flats we continued our travels through Bolivia. Bolivia is a beautiful country in terms of the landscape and the people, who are so friendly, however it is the poorest country we´ve visited due to it being landlocked and as such it has limted trading.

POTOSI
So we headed to Potosi, the highest city in the world and a city that in its day was bigger than London or Paris. The main attraction there is the mountain where silver and gold have been mined for centuries and the workers still mine in the same conditions leading to life spans averaging 35 years due to asbestosis and silicosis. Bearing this in mine and an NHS warning in the guide book we decided not to venture into the mines but instead saw a film about the conditions and life of the miners. It was pretty sobering stuff to find out that the cost of the film and a drink was the amount the miners earned in a week.

SUCRE
After Potosi we headed to the capital of Bolivia, Sucre (although confusingly many people think La Paz is the capital as it is the biggest city in Bolivia and the government reside there, odd). Sucre is beautiful! It is a World Heritage site and so all the buildings are painted white and the streets are clean and there is lots of topiary. Jen and I decided to have Spanish lessons for a week there as ´una cervaza, por favor´could only get us so far and whilst ordering beer is pretty important, finding places to stay and asking for pretty much anything else had so far involved lots of pointing, acting things out and looking to Franki who speaks good Spanish. Our lovely teacher Jorge put up with our random ranting and vacant stares and now we are both pros... at least we now think we are after una cervaza.

We also took in some of the sights in Sucre including going to see Dinosaur footprints which are fossilised on this big wall. I have no idea what types of dinosaurs they were, but i have promised Trine that I took a photo of this painting depicting which dino made which footprint and I´m sure she could fill you all in, if you are interested...

We also went out in Sucre and ended up going to this random local bar where you have to go to what appears to be a closed, locked door like any other and knock to get let in. It was like being back in Tallin last year when Stef and I found a similar strange bar.

LA PAZ
We met up with some of the boys from our Salt Flat tour again in La Paz and went to the hostel quiz night, which we won! Unfortunately the prize was a bottle of liquer made from coco leaves, which is foul. They are slightly obsessed with the coco plant in Bolivia. Before it was discovered that cocaine could be produced from the plant it was used for more legal activities such as chewing to relieve altitude sickness, as a tea, in sweets and in liquer. These are all still going strong today and having tried the different varieties we have decided that it tastes disguisting in whatever guise, especially just chewing leaves since they taste of just leaves. This is why is is legal to grow a small amount of coco plants here and one of the reasons Bolivia is the largest coke producing country in the world (unofficially of course).

As well as enjoying the nightlife, we went to do some cultural stuff too. We got to see our first set of Inca ruins, Tiwinaku. The most fun thing about the trip was being stuck in a minivan with 11 Bolivian women all in their traditional dress (large hooped skirts, lots of brightly coloured blankets and what look like bowler hats, only too small and balanced precariously on their heads) with there huge bags tied around them carrying food including raw meat and sometimes small children (their children... not in any way food, just to be clear). This along with all the tourists in a 12 seater vehicle was hilarious, if a little squished. We saw the ruins, which were cool, and then a sand storm hit! We of course had gone out in shorts and vest tops in glorious sunshine only to end the day huddled in a random museum on a mountain top with locals asking for photos of the stupid ´gringos´in the sandstorm. We needed a caipirinha or two to recover from that one.

We explored the many markets in La Paz and went to see the outside of the famous San Pedro prison. Inside the prison prisoners have to buy their own cell and get the title transferred to them or they sleep in the alleys. They are allowed TV´s and all home comforts if they pay for them and there are shops and restaurants in the prison. The wives and children of inmates also live with their husbands and fathers in the prison, the children going out to school each day from the prison. It´s also famous because you used to be able to do tours of the prison (although the Bolivian government deny this was the case). The guy who started the tours was an Englishman who was in San Pedro for drug trafficking, but he was released back in 2004 and since then other inmates have taken over and it is less safe and there has recently been a crack-down on it making it harder to get in to do the tours without givng large bribes to the guards. Needless to say we didn´t bother trying as no one we spoke to in La Paz had managed to go in. However, I just finished reading Marching Powder, which is a book about the Engligh guy, Thomas and his time in there and I´d definately reccomend it.

I also tried a Llama tikka massala in La Paz... delcious!

PAMPAS
From La Paz we got a flight in a 19 seater plane to Rurrenabaque, a small town in the rainforrest/lowland areas of Bolivia. The flight was awesome, we flew in over the rainforrest to land on a grass runway to then go around to the side of the plane for the ´baggage reclaim.´ It was awesome, and completely made your stomach drop when he was bringing the plane down...almost as good as Disney´s Tower of Terror :)

The next day we set off on our river boat for our 3 day tour of the Pampas lowland region in Bolivia. We saw loads of alligators, tortoises, eagles, monkeys and birds of paradise and plenty of sunsets over the following days. We also went Anaconda hunting, and found one! On the second day we went swimming in the same river with alligators sat along the banks, which was supposedly safe since there was a pink river dolphin there too...hmmmm.... well we made it anyway and given how hot it was getting into the water was needed! On the final day we went piranha fishing... yes in the same river we swam in! It took a while but eventually I caught a piranha only to accidently fling it free in the bottom of the boat. Our guide Lewis jumped to the rescue and scooped up the piranha only for it to bite his finger! He seemed to find this brilliant and insisted on loads of photos with the fish, whilst we insisted we head back so he could get stitches!

PUNO + LAKE TITIKAKA
After the Pampas we flew back to La Paz and then headed on to Peru and to our first stop there, Puno, which lies on the bank of Lake Titikaka, the largest lake at such a high altitude... to me it looked like it might as well have been a sea or an ocean it went on forever. The next day we went on a trip out to the floating islands, islands made entirely of reeds and mud blocks where whole communities live. We befriended one girl, Melissa, who lives there and she let us try on all her traditional clothes... much like the Bolivian womens, but much brighter neon colours...we all looked pretty dam hot.

AREQUIPA + COLCA CANYON
Our second stop in Peru was Arequipa, which is a really pretty town. From here we were able to go on a trip out to see the Colca Canyon, the deepest Canyon in the world. En route we saw loads of Inca terraces where they used to grow crops and some Inca cemeteries. Finally we made it to the Canyon, which was vast and got to see the second main attraction, the Condors flying over the canyon. We were really lucky, as Condors are quite elusive, and saw loads of them and even some young ones. Afterwards we headed to some hotsprings for a swim and I realised how ridiculous the sunburn I had got wearing my shorts in the Pampas looked when the girls tried not to laugh too much ... luckily this in now fading!

CUSCO
We then headed up to Cusco to see the city and get a bit more used to altitude (although we had been at over 3000m for a few weeks by this point) before we had to undertake the Inca Trail.

Cusco is brilliant! I think it is my favourite city so far (well maybe Rio too...). It is beautiful because there is a mixture of Inca and colonial buildings. There are loads of Inca ruins surrounding the city too, which we visited. The main square is stunning. We sat there and relaxed with tea and cake and just watched the world go by. There is loads of shopping to do to, particularly if you want alpaca wool products, but I headed to Topitop, which Trine has recommended to me and felt like I was back home, especially when I got my card out to buy and entire new outfit from there and then went back to see the girls who wondered how I was going to fit more stuff into my bag.... by posting other stuff home of course! And so the shopping continued!

We were staying in Loki hostel and there was a new bar opening up there and so we had a really fun night with everyone in fancy dress dancing on the tables and the bar, me included. The best/funniest thing was that the bar staff were more drunk than anyone else there and so drinks prices became really variable.... pretty much to whatever you offered to pay. We didn´t even make it down to the main bars in Cusco as the party just carried on at the hostel.

After the Inca Trail (which I will do a seperate blog about) we returned to Cusco and rested. Then when fully recovered I went to see some more Inca ruins in the Sacred Valley and did more shopping for random Peruvian items. Jen and I also ventured out to sample the legendary Cusco nightlife. We had heard you didnt need to buy any drinks in Cusco and the rumours were true. We headed across the main square to be accosted by about 12 Pervians all trying to give us free drinks vouchers and get us to come to their bar. It all became a bit mental and so to escape Jen and I ran into McDonald´s (yes they have taken over the world). There were then all these people loitering outside waiting. It was crazy. We decided on a bar and then headed to it making sure we got our complimentary drinks. After a while the music went downhill and so we headed out to another bar and another set of free drinks. The night continued like this with us ending up having a lot of fun. The only annoyong thing was getting mobbed everytime you went outside and some people would try to grab you and pull you to their bar. Jen and I soon showed them not to mess with us as she shouted at one boy and I cracked out the Karate moves.... they didn´t bother us again after they noted the skills :)

NAZCA

We finally left Cusco and headed to Nazca to see the legendary Nazca lines.... huge drawings in the desert that date back a long time and match up with the constilations when you look at the night sky... i think. Our guide, Jesus, was awesome and really enthusiastic, but didn´t speak very much English and so whilst I got the jist of what he was trying to tell us I often thought I heard details I didn´t or filled in gaps myself rather inaccurately. Franki, who understood what he was saying, found this hilarious, particularly when I thought he was suggesting the Nazca´s used to fly in planes when actually he was talking about how the heat from the rocks prevents the wind blowing the lines away. So basically, there are these mysterious lines in the desert.... who knows why, certainly not me. Nevertheless, I did go in a 6 seater plane over each of the lines to see them all, which was fantastic! The flight itself was great, if slightly nauseating the way the pilot span the plane to the left and right to make sure everyone got a good view and the lines were also cool...whoever made them and whatever they mean.

HUACCACHINA
This next place is awesome! It is an oasis in the middle of the desert. We stayed here a few days and lounged by the pool, which was relaxing. However, we also wanted to try out Sandboarding! The sandboarding itself was great! We were taken to the top of sand dunes and could either try standing up and going down like you would snowboarding, or you could lie on you stomach. I tried a bit of both. I did ok at standing up and even when you fell over it was pretty funny and a soft landing. Lying on you stomach was just as much fun as you went straight down the dune headfirst at speed with no real way to stop until you reach the bottom. It´s mental, especially when you can´t even see where the bottom of the dune is and you are building speed, you just sort of hope! I went first on a couple of the dunes too, which was worse as I was basically the test dummy. That however was all mild compared to the sangbuggy we went in to get to the top of the sand dunes. Our driver was metal. He would drive at speed to the top of a sand dune and then launch us off the other side so at times we were flying mid air. It was literally like being on a rollercoster,. only it isn´t on runners and your not sure if the whole thing might just roll over out of control at any moment. He didn´t even look where he was going most of the time! It was insane!

THE REST OF PERU

We have since been to Paracus and to see some islands known as the ´poor man´s galapagous islands.´ I believe this is because there are soooooo many birds and other forms of wildlife and not because it´s particularly pretty, because it isn´t. It smelt awful because of all the guava (bird crap) which they actually harvest and sell as fertilser. There were some cool penguins and sealions too. But mainly we spent the trip under our ponchos hoping we didn´t get any guava raining down on us. I think if I never see another bird again it won´t matter, I´ve definately seen my lifetime quoto.

We are now in Pisco, which was hit by a massive earthquake 2 years ago and is only just starting to be rebuilt. There are loads of fronts to houses and then a cloth door behind which you can see there is nothing but rubble, and those are some of the better off ones. Having said that it has a really good feel about it and the main square is looking great, even if the dome of the cathedral is all cracked and caved in...it´s rather fortunate they don´t get much rain here. Tomorrow we head off to visit two Pisco factories when the local spirit Pisco is made! After that we are hoping to spend a day or two learning to surf, although it´s not looking too hopeful with the weather atm and then on to Lima the capital for a day or two before flying down to Buenos Aires for a bit more culture and a lot of nightlife.

If you read this far then that´s an achievement! I will write about the Inca Trail soon and I´ll try not to leave it so long between blogs next time....well maybe. I hope you are all well whatever you are up to at the moment. It would be great to hear what you are all doing... send me emails!

Bye for now
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