Several countries later...

As you attentive followers noticed i stopped that last blog rather abrubtly (has now been finished if you fancy a lengthy read) as i was offered lunch by a lovely chilean girl at the hostel, and have now fallen even farther behind than previously with this blog number. A catch up is needed and pronto so i shall try to summarise the last nearly 2 weeks of my life, given my rambling writing style i may not be able to restrict myself to bulletpoints but here goes.
So the day after returning from Machu Picchu Magnificence, Sunday 8th Feb, i spent a very large portion of the day trying to have a much needed shower (which meant a fair chunk of time with plunger in hand) then vainly attempted a blog catch up to be interrupted by said chilean and a delicious pasta-vegie lunch which led to spending the evening strolling around cuzco with the 4 lovely chileans going into a couple of beautiful churches and seeing a bit further afield than we had previously. Stopped at a market and bartered myself some $7.50 cuzco pants (yay) then went back to the hostel accompanied by a bottle of havanna club and kola real. Much too late Jon and i made a failed attempt at getting some dinner, missing out even on street food and being too fussy for McD's. Did bump into Andres and Francia from the trek though and chatted to them for a bit.
Monday was check out day because on Sunday we had also spent a heck of a lot of money on LIM-EZE flights as we realised sitting on a bus the whole way through bolivia was not really the best option and we still wouldn't get anywhere in time for anything. This meant to get to our wed morning flight on time we really had to leave Cuzco so it was time to say goodbye to balcon colonial (and it's awful shower). Before setting off on another 20 hour bus ride I got myself a full body hour long massage for 20 soles (being able to say sí, gracias to the millionth massage flyer instead of the usual stream of no, gracias, no gracias, no gracias) while Jon purchased a couple of souvenirs, then we went in search of Cuy, a local speciality. The guinea pig itself was ok but the meal as a whole was a real letdown. You'd think a place that boasts over 400 varieties of potato could at least cook the damn things. And don't even get me started on the "salad". Anyway worth it for the experience but we were left with rumbling stomachs. Farewelled Rolando and caught a cab to the bus station and we were on our way to Lima. Also managed to farewell the cd we'd just burned of all our cuzco and machu picchu photos, hopefully not forever though, aiming for a reunion with it before we leave the continent as it is currently in safe hands.
Arrived the following afternoon after a stream of more weird movies back in the desert. Lima is not a pretty city. Nor does it have a central bus station, you just get dropped at your respective buses small terminal in a not so flash neighbourhood. We then walked for ages to find the info centre going by the not altogether accurate or detailed map in lonely planet to confirm our flight then walked for ages plus forever to get to Mira Flores - the nicer part of town. Decided not to check out the central area. Got a delicious lunch/dinner from a vegetarian restaurant overlooking the park at the entrance to mira flores and a flag lowering ceremony complete with bugle player. Then flagged down a taxi to take us to the airport and our accommodation for the night! Interesting taxi ride, very jovial driver, lima traffic lived up to all we'd heard about it, there was more than a little nervous laughter on my part - and not just about the traffic. But we got to the airport and the driver willingly accepted my donation of 3/4 of a bag of coca leaves which i wasn't sure would make it into BA (plus no more altitude for us so no more chewing the disgusting things or drinking the vegetable water tasting tea they brew). After a few games of cards and a half-hearted attempt to get on an earlier flight we found a corner and settled in for the night with a surprisingly large number of other happy campers. Following morning, with cramped necks, did the whole check-in thing, spent our last few soles (can't get much for 7 soles at airport duty free - could only find 4 fairly tacky beads for it), and flew back to BA. nuff said.
Arrived back at La Casa Fitz Roy, after trying to catch a bus to Retiro that didn't actually end up going there, to discover that not only had natasha gone to iguazu the day before but we'd also missed the ibells by a day. Went and found some empanadas and went to sleep unsure of what to do next.
Slept through check out on thursday so that made the decision to stay for us. Had a very lazy day, leaving the hostel around 5pm for the first time to do some laundry - finally! - then more empanadas followed by a power walk to the galileo galilei planetarium for the 6pm show "Viaja por el Cosmos" (or something similar). Can't say i learned much about the galaxy and whatnot given that it was all in spanish and quite a bizarre experience but i enjoyed being there nonetheless! Maybe uranus was formed by first being a more solid planet that got crashed into by a meteor and turned into a swirling, planet shaped cloud of debris. Or maybe not. Did shed some light on the imagery of some of the constellations, quite imaginative.Cooked some dinner then went for dessert at the delicious old man heladoria which we were still eating by the time the clock ticked over to my birthday argentinian time - good way to start the day :)
Friday the 13th!!!

still not caught up but off to the beach now so will try again later!!

Trekking with Elvis Presley and Enrique Iglesias

Tuesday morning started with a much earlier balcony breakfast as we were to be picked up before 8 to head off on our 4 day adventure to Machu Picchu! Met our guide, Elvis, and the rest of our 6 strong group, Paola the geneticist/cancer scientist from BsAs, Francia and Andreas the married professors from Santiago and Enrique the crazy brazilian! We started out with a spectacular 3 hour car ride up to the highest point of the trip, from where we were to mountain bike down to Santa Maria to spend the night. Stopped in Ollantaytambo on the way, with its own inca ruins on the hillside, and bought bright coloured plastic ponchos as we'd been promised rain and probably lots of it as it's the rainy season afterall. Then carried on to the top "Abra del Malaga" (4350m) along winding roads past the occasional quaint little house with families sitting outside in traditional dress. Unloaded the bikes, kitted up (the crazy brazilian in a wetsuit) and we were off. Lost sight of the brazilian pretty much immediately, musta been due to that streamlined speedsuit. First 40mins was smooth paved road, twisting down the mountain side into the jungle, passing through lots of fords and surrounded by thousands of butterflies! Those shimmery ones that i've only seen in museum cabinets before look infinitely better in flight, their colours changing like a kaleidoscope. Then it was into the hot jungle and onto the rough, bumpy stuff that makes your arms jiggle painfully and hands and bums quite sore. It was pretty much all downhill for around 6 hours until we reached Santa Maria at just 1430m, which was just as well as the few uphill stints did not leave me wanting more. Stopped a couple of times for "agua fria, por favor!" and had my first encounter with a hole in the ground squat toilet. Seemed to be some procedure to it that i just didn't get so the kid ended up just saying "chao". At one point 3 young girls were lying in ambush with water balloons and big buckets. I was third in the procession so they were ready for me and i got well and truly hit. Wish i'd said thank you cos it was just what i needed despite all my protests. Felt good to get off the bikes by the end, even though we'd had a blast, and lie down/take a well earned freezing cold shower at the hostel. Got to know our fellow trekkers a bit better and went for a hearty dinner followed by a sound sleep, ready for an even earlier morning.
Wednesday we were up before 6 and outta the hostel for breakfast of banana and pancake with chocolate sauce, yum!, to fuel us for the long day of walking ahead, about 8 hours. We were to follow what could have been the trail some inca's used to get to their last refuge point when the spanish came, never to be seen again. It was a scorcher of a day, none of that promised rain in sight. We walked through the jungle heading back up the other side of the valley we had come down the day before, heading upstream above the massive river with some outstanding views. Elvis pointed out some vegetation of interest such as the coca plantations, tobacco, banana and avocado plants, a flower that will poison/kill you if you even touch it and a plant with seeds that were used to dye fabrics a vibrant red/orange. Stopped at a house that had a mono called martín (that i got to carry for a wee while!) and a coati (that clawed at my shorts) and hammocks! Stopped later for a two course lunch and discovered 2 of the people in the other group we had been playing leapfrog with were from NZ, one from chch and one from timaru! Carried on along the riverbed for a few more hours (saw a mini bronze coloured snake in the grasses) until we reached the Ullumire hot springs - that's right hot springs! Boy were they good. Lazed around soaking for a good couple of hours with views of mountain passes with waterfalls, a rainbow and the moon came out too. Jon and i found a real hot bath sized pool that was too hot to stay in for long and just had room for two. There was also ones where you could sit and have a fountain of warm water give you a shoulder massage. Bliss. Caught the bus on to Santa Teresa and to our next hostel, a step up from the last. Still no hot shower though. Tried to hit the town but it wasn't long lived despite the promise of happy hour everywhere.
On thursday the group made a unanimous desicion to sleep in and catch a bus instead of walking 3 more hours in the morning. So had a later breakfast of ... pancake with banana and chocolate (or omelette both days if you were jon) then caught the minibus, that crazy brazilian hung out the window, to only 10 mins walk from where we to have lunch! Sat around and played cards for a bit then Jon and I followed Enrique along the traintracks, scrambled up a path, along some more traintracks to a rock over the raging river. Ran back (way too hot for this) for lunch which the others had already eaten so gobbled down our two hearty courses in record time then set off along the traintracks again for a 3 hour walk to Aguas Calientes (just as the group with the kiwis arrived, hot and sweaty from walking all the way to the lunch spot, not like us lazy sods). Just before reaching AC we got to bust out the colourful plastic ponchos for our first taste of real rain, not that it was long til we reached the best hostel yet - including beautiful hot showers! and quite possibly the worlds best pillows. Had our "last supper" in town, serenaded by a musical troupe, and promptly hit the sack.
Next day, the final day, we were up at 3.45 and out the door on the last step of the way to machu picchu! It was a solid hour and a half of stairclimbing, big rock steps, that had the sweat dripping from every pore. Arrived panting at the gate bang on 6am to collect our tickets and snacks from Elvis and enter the fabled Machu Picchu proper. Was quite a cool, cloudy morning, and after having been sooo hot i was suddenly freezing. We were supposed to start our tour but the crazy brazilian was nowhere to be found! So after a while we started the tour without him, Elvis giving us a much needed history lesson then showing us the more important features of the ruins like the sun temple, the house with 3 windows, the sacrificial slab etc. The whole thing is really too incredible to try and describe, how they managed it i'll never know. Lucky the spanish never found it. Right as the tour ended Enrique showed up having had a rather unpleasant morning, many trips to the bathroom. Then at 10am, just as the day was heating up, we all climbed up Waynapicchu (yet more big stone steps!) and wow. Just wow. Jon and I had to catch the early train and had barely left enough time to get there so after Waynapicchu we said farewell to our great little group of trekkers and missioned it back down to Aguas Calientes at top speed. Made it all the way back within a record 40mins! Caught some zzzzz's on the train back to Ollantaytambo then were plunged into the mayhem of a typical peruvian station, every taxi collectivo driver wanting you to fill up their car so they can leave quickly. We were supposed to be catching Bus Lucy which we found no trouble. Apparently nobody else was looking for her though and that included a driver. The bus next to it was filling up quick and the guy in charge seemed pretty keen for us to get on that one instead. Said it wouldn't cost us anything which was just as well as we were completely skint at this stage, having spent every last centimo that we'd taken with us. Only hitch was there was only one seat left, the passenger seat beside the driver. So Jon took that seat and i got a cushion with a view, perched between him and the driver! Pretty cool riding the bus through that countryside back to cuzco with only the windscreen in front of you. Got dropped off right near the centre of town at 6pm and went on a desperate crusade for WATER and lots of it. Had some pizza for a very late lunch then back to the hostel where Jon got hit by the altitude. He was not a happy chappy. We had arranged, to meet the other guys who were catching a later train, in the plaza at 10pm. Slept through that but woke in time to get there around 20past but no sign of them. As it turned out they'd been delayed and didn't make it back til 11 by which time we'd crashed, Jon aided by a cup of coca tea which did the trick fighting off the altitude woes.
So that was that! I swear i have never sweat so much so steadily for such a long period of time in my life and was very glad when i got to take my boots off and change into clean(er) clothes. Was even thankful to be back in the chilly climes of cuzco (you really do need your alpaca sweater there - and alpaca hat, alpaca scarf, socks, mittens, long johns!). Didn't ever get much use outta those ponchos though.

a desperate attempt at a catch up...

I've been about a week behind on this for a while now so time for hopefully a bit of a catch up. Arrived in Cuzco very early in the morning on sat 31/1 (happy birthday to a certain jelly baby!) after a rattly ride. The bus got very cold as well which we were not prepared for so didn't do too well in the sleep stakes. Stumbled bleary eyed into the station to be pounced upon by various people from hostels and taxis - more than we could cope with at the time but thankfully i remembered frith had said to barter for a hostel at the station rather than trying our luck in town so managed to get a place for pretty cheap (we think) and got bustled into a taxi (lovely driver! had a 'good' chat in spanish) and arrived at our abode to try catch up on a bit of sleep. We're staying at Balcón Colonial which is a 5 min walk from the main plaza. It's pretty simple but for 15 soles ($9) a night we have our own room with private bathroom (pretty rubbish shower tho) and a little balcony with a table on it that's perfect for breakfasting and the only one in the place, score! The main staff here is a cool young guy (18) called Rolando who we have fun trying to speak spanish with and teaching a little english.
So on saturday we spent most of the day with Frith (girl who was in my spanish class in chch) who has been here since november and was leaving on the 2nd. Did a lot of eating and meandered up to the Jesus statue on the hill to get a view of the whole city. Cuzco is gorgeous. Even meandering left us pretty out of breath but thankfully haven't really suffered many ill effects from the altitude besides that and the occasional headache. That evening we went to a 'discotheque' that has social salsa from 9-11 every night - amazing to watch! no way we were gonna join in though, lots of regulars who are incredible, did do a little shuffling at the side. At 11 the music turned pretty cringeworthy and we were tired so we bailed pretty early, leaving frith dancing on the bar!
On Sunday we had a sort of rest day, slept in and wandered about a bit. Found the crazy market place that Frith had given directions to. It's supposedly closed on a sunday but there was still a lot there, including several aisles of animal parts including whole skinned cow heads, insane. Managed to only eat bread and cheese that day i think, although pan con queso frito is delicious enough in itself. The cheese is a bit weird and plasticy but that makes it good for frying. On the way to the market we passed by a crowd of locals in plaza san fransisco. There were street performers and what looked like fun-fair type gambling stations, food vendors selling nothing even vaguely familiar and artists, was quite the spectacle! The only other touristy looking person we saw looked as bemused as we must have. Further on down the street there was a little parade happening with a marching band and people carrying a golden cloth of some sort, we've now come to realise that these little parades seem to be quite common place as we've seen several more since then. Would be nice to know what any of it meant though!
Monday morning we ate breakfast on said breakfast balcony then went back to the market to hunt for avocados and ended up getting a few other things besides (including some more pan con queso frito). Put our bartering skills to good use. The market is divided up into sections and there'll be rows of people selling pretty much the exact same thing right next to each other, talk about competition. Don't really understand how it works for them, we mostly just pick who we go to at random. That evening we hunted down some Ceviche and Causa washed down with Cusqueña cerveza for dinner - local dishes that were recommended to us by the australian girls at the hostel in BA. Pretty scrumptuous. After dinner we strolled the streets again (so pretty day and night) then headed up the hill to The One Bar on 7 Angelitos for happy hour mojitos (apparently the best in town - they were good) and chilcanos whilst listening to a local band, very enjoyable. The band asked where everyone had come from and we were by far the furthest from home.
On Tuesday after our ritual balcony breakfast we booked our inca trail adventure leaving the following morning. Then headed to Jack's cafe to share a massive and delicious second breakfast (lunch) and lots of their ginger, lemon and honey tea. Whilst there we saw/heard a more impressive parade going past outside with some people carrying a big wooden shrine type thing (probably has a real name - looked like something princesses would be carried around in on servants' shoulders). The street was packed and once again i wish we knew anything about why it was happening! No one near me had any idea either. Went back to the hostel with the intent of then carrying on to a museum but got a bit waylaid as it started hailing hard out, fairly substantial sized hail stones too and lasted quite a while. On our walk to the museum there were even piles of hail up against buildings. Walked around the Museo Inka trying to make sense of the spanish descriptions (there were a few in english too). Learnt a bit about the history of the region we think, though we coulda had it all wrong! Saw some incan gold and mummies and traditional weaving techniques. Lots of old, old pottery, the influence of the spanish etc. For dinner we tried making some instant Tarwi stew - interesting to say the least! supposed to have more protein than soy but doubt i managed to eat enough to get any benefit. Then we packed our stuff up ready to begin our expedition to Machu Picchu the next morning!

Sunny Days en Arica

Bit of a pun in that title cos not only was the backpackers we stayed at called Sunny Days we also got extremely sunny days during our brief stay in Arica. So we arrived and checked into our beautiful room (most amazing tiled floor) at Sunny Days which is run by a Kiwi expat who used to live in Rangiora i think! We even had a private bathroom in our spacious dorm room for the first few hours until an irish girl arrived later that evening. Ross (kiwi owner) suggested a couple of places we might find a reasonably priced feed so we headed round the corner to get a "sandwich". For 1750 chilean pesos (less than $6) we got a ginormously humongous vege burger, thankfully our waiter (who spoke perfect english, none of the others did apparently) strongly suggested we get one to share as we only managed to eat half our halves! Also got much too much freshly juiced mango juice (a glass each plus they brought out a 500ml jug of the stuff each). Feeling pretty stuffed we headed to the beach and discovered it to be surprisingly alive with karaoke, food stalls, bouncy castles, live music/dj's, souvenir stalls etc etc. We were expecting a quiet dark beach to ourselves! After a stroll we headed back to REAL BEDS - bliss.
The following day we decided to see the sights of Arica (initially we were gonna head on thru to peru but thought the better of it). Ross had provided us with a map and a double sided A4 page of activities plus lonely planet had a wee bit to say.
Once again Arica surprised us as from the bus ride in we had expected a very small, derelict village given the boxy houses with no proper roofs and dusty desert streets. The town however was a hubbub of activity and jam packed full of people, shops and stalls. We realised the boxy houses only looked run down and slum-like because they were such an unfamiliar design but if it never rains who really needs an A-frame roof? We climbed up to the Jesus on the hill overlooking the town (which also turned out to be much larger than expected when u could see it all) and the pacific ocean - stunning view. Lots of army/war themed things up the top including a war museum. Ate the remainder of our giant burger for lunch then headed down to check out some of the notable architecture - mainly a church made all of aluminium/steel/metal that was maybe designed by the same guy as the eiffel tower.
When the heat of the day had died down we went to the beach and threw around a kiwi frisbee, played some beach tennis (trying to avoid the big jellyfish all over the sand) then ate a dozen churros (deep fried batter covered in icing sugar!) and went to get empanadas.
After being out in the sun all day, Jon discovered what it's like to be sunburnt for the first time proper and i found out it is possible to get sunburnt on the front of your neck, where i'd missed with the sunscreen (looked really weird).
The following morning (thurs 29/1) we had our second and last amazing Sunny Days breakfast (really is something to write home about) and prepared to cross another border into peru. Thankfully Ross had shared his knowledge on the subject the night before cos it's quite the system and we woulda been completely lost without his help. It was still a challenge. But we made it first to Tacna and then to Arequipa without too much drama, just more long bus rides and random police checks and sugary food. Amazing scenery once again, the hills turned red at points with cacti and dramatic green oases/oasises?? Also must've gone up pretty high as the ball popped out of my deodorant bottle the next time i went to use it and all our other bottles had inflated somewhat. Sat next to JK from singapore/new york who we ended up hanging out with in Arequipa the following day and sharing hostels and taxis etc with. Didn't make it to Arequipa in time to get into the volunteer office (by minutes!) so that got canned unfortunately. Our bid at couch surfing also fell through, though not entirely. We didn't get a couch for the night but the girl we had asked invited us to a couch surfing get together that evening at a french style bar where we sampled our first pisco sours and arequipeña cerveza in fine company before heading back to our delightful, possibly mediterranean style hostel, complete with solar water heating and a roof top patio with a view.
The following day was spent wandering around Arequipa with JK, saw some beautiful cathedrals, a nice view of El Misti in the morning (the volcano that Arequipa is at the foot of) before it disappeared behind the clouds. Walked up to a look out point where you can see most of the city from and just missed out on trying a "queso helado" which translates to cheese icecream, have no idea what it could taste like. Went and got a very late lunch at a creperie that has over 100 different types of crepes - delicious, especially the dessert one! Good thing we shared it. Slightly strange that during our short time in Arequipa, which has a rich history of local foods, we only managed to eat french style food. After that we ambled through the neighbourhood of San Larázno (?) which has narrow winding paved streets (no cars, which was nice as crossing the street anywhere in Arequipa was a challenge. Around 90% of the vehicles were taxis and another maybe 7% were bus/public transport vehicles and they all drive like maniacs, lots of horn tooting which woke us up in the morning), larger houses, flower pots hanging up along the alleyways and supposedly a lovely church not to be missed - we didn't think the church was all that.
Then it was time to catch another overnight bus to Cuzco which was all organised by the lovely people at the hostel (though we're certain they took a cut) including a prepaid taxi ride that got us to the station in the nick of time.

Adios BsAs y buses buses buses

Sunday was actually our last day in BsAs. Got up in time for check out then went back to the market to buy the beautiful dress we'd reserved the previous day, had to wait awhile but saw some people shooting a cheesy as commercial in the meantime! Then it was off in a bid to start our mammoth trek to peru in as little time as possible. Caught the real train to retiro so think we covered all forms of public transportation in BA - train's even cheaper than the subway (70 centavos), less destinations tho and pretty minimalistic. Saw the slum area for the first time from the train, crazy. Next challenge was to find a bus to Santiago or Arica out of over 200 different cashier desks (good thing we went to the info desk first!) Managed to get one leaving that afternoon (4pm sunday) to Santiago after 2 no goes then battled to get out some cash to pay for it - atm's suck. Hung around til departure time, went thru the pretty hard out customs type thing just to get on the bus then we were off! For the next 5 hours the view was flat flat flat with the occasional little farm house and truck stop type things. I was sat right down the back next to Gustavo's "office", jon was a couple of seats ahead of me. Gustavo was the lovely young chilean guy running the show - making everyone sweet tea and coffee, handing out the little bags of goodies, pillows, blankets, chivalry and comedy (if you understood it). He spoke only a few words of english and decided he was gonna teach me spanish, but for the most part he spoke way too fast so i didn't learn that much! Was fun trying tho. Him and the older guy working had fun teasing jon and i i think, saying that jon couldn't be without me and watch out gustavo is gonna steal me away or some such! Stopped at a little cafeteria in the middle of nowhere for chicken and chips with crackers and some delicious green mayo dip, best part (included in the bus fare). Jon got to come sit in the "office" seat overnight, slept ok, and woke up to find ourselves in the Andes! beautiful. Then an intense Chilean border crossing (especially compared with getting into argentina at the airport) and another few hours of spectacular scenery until we arrived in Santiago about 1pm monday. Then some stress trying to figure out which bus we'd take to Arica, took the one leaving in just a couple of hours then went and found some lunch from the most gigantic supermarket i've ever been in, then more stress trying to find where our bus departed from! We were in the right place as it turned out, bus was 20 mins late (conveniently their clock said it was 4 when we left) so we were pretty worried (read: panicked!). Took our places on the second level of the double decker, this time across the aisle from each other. No paper bag of treats this time unfortunately but a guy jumped on selling dulce de leche pastries so inadvertently spent our coins on a selection of those which was just as well cos that turned out to be dinner (no quaint cafeteria this time). We were able to sit in the free seats in front of us until about 11 that night. Watched as the landscape change from green rolling hills with andes in the background to total desert, bizarre and unexpected. Caught a glimpse of the pacific ocean from the other side. Caught some zzzz's. Watched a few movies (quiet english, english subtitles or dubbed spanish trying to guess the storyline) and marvelled at the crazy scenery, inscriptions on the hills and few uninhabitable looking desert towns til we rolled into arica (along roads much worse looking than the one up to Dobson mum!) at around 8.30pm on tuesday, very happy to get off the bus and to find a real bed and real food that wasn't just sugar! (for breakfast and lunch we were given sponge cake, sweet juice, a lolly and peanuts pretty much). Made our way to Sunny Days = heaven! Tune in next time for "ARICA" (if you survived this post. i'd recommend skimming if you didn't already, or in summary: loooong time on buses, 2797km as the crow flies)