Tupiza

Sun 21st August

Tupiza is called the wild west of South America due to its uncanny likeness with the wild west in the states! It is also said that the famous American out laws Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid met their demise here at the hands of the Bolivian army, ending their string of bank robberies! Pretty cool eh?!

Our stay in Tupiza would be short. Tupiza is a starting point from where you can do the Bolivian salt flat tour so the plan was to book a trip the day we got there to leave the following day.

We arrived in Tupiza at stupid O Clock (4am), we had no hostel booked but luckily reps from different hostels were at the station to meet the bus and catch the gringos. So we found one easy enough and fell into bed.

It was an early-ish rise today to head off and look for a company to head on the tour with. There were four of us in the group, Todd, Simon, Rich and myself. We went to a number of different companies until we found one which we were happy with. Its so important when booking tours like this that you get a good company and ask the right questions; Is water included in the price, do we get sleeping bags? Is there a cook? Can the guide speak English? Are soft drinks included? Where will we be staying? etc etc It really is worth taking the little bit of extra time so you get it right! So we were all happy and booked to leave the following morning.

With that done we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Unfortunately it was Sunday.... South America is old school when it comes to Sunday's and EVERYTHING is closed. I went for a little walk around but there wasn't really much to see or do. I decided that Id head back to the company we booked the tour with and see if the could sort me out with a bit of horse riding ... after all we were in the wild west... it would be rude not too!!!

I haven't been on a horse in about 15 years so I was a little apprehensive but excited!!
Ah it was great!!! We went out on the horses for 3 hours, on a tour of a canyon just outside Tupiza. The scenery was spectacular, red earth and cacti everywhere!

I thought that the trip would be at a nice slow pace but jesus can them horses run! ha They just take off and gallop at certain points on the trail. It was an experience and needless to say I had a very sore bum by the end of it ha :)

When we got back to Tupiza we headed for a little walk to watch the sunset from a viewpoint over the town. Dinner that night was pizza and then there was a quick shop for supplies for our trip..... toilet roll, smokes and rum.

                                                         The shop of champions!

Potosi

Wed 17th August

Ughhhh EVERYONE told me that I had been lucky not to be sick yet on my travels BUT that now I was in Bolivia that would change..... Bolivia is a third world country and its just a given that you will get sick if you come here.
And today I did :( Dodgey tummy  ... poor me.
I did manage to crawl on a night bus though that would take me to Potosi, 10 hours south of La Paz.

18th/Aug

Potosi is the highest city in the world at 4090 meters above sea level. It was once also the richest city in the WORLD thanks to its silver mines. Today the mines are still working mines but they are not producing nearly the same amount or same quality of minerals that they once did. It is these mines that make Potosi an interesting stop as you get to go into them......

I arrived into Potosi at 6am and headed straight to a hostel where a lad I knew was staying. I had only intended staying in Potosi for a day and catching a night bus out again but I checked in as I wasn't feeling great.
Headache, fatigue and a dodgy tummy.... BOOM altitude sickness had caught up with me and bitch slapped me across the face! I spent the day on the couch in the tv room with two other victims of the sickness watching movie's.

19th/Aug

Ok so i had to beat the sickness and make myself get up at 8am to do the mine tour. Woke up at 11am EPIC FAIL.... No worries there was another tour at 1 and even though I just wanted to stay in bed I really wanted to go and blow up stuff more ha!

The tour left from the hostel which was perfect. We headed to the office and got changed into our mining gear... overalls, wellies, helmet, mouth cover and light. I looked hot! We then headed to the miners market where we soda, coca leaves and EXPLOSIVES! The soda and coca leaves we would give as gifts to the miners as we passed them in the tunnels. The explosives we would blow up!

We were then taken on a tour of the 'processing plant'. I expected a huge that building but it was basically a shed with a few machines inside. Its here that the minerals are extracted from solid rock and it was pretty cool.

The mines themselves were next. The Bolivians like the Peruvians are extremely superstitious and offer a lot to Apacha Mama. The front entrance to the mine was covered in Llama blood.... this is done every Friday as an offering.

Our guide gave us a few instructions before we went in. This is a working mine so we had be aware of trolleys that might be coming up the tracks, holes in the ground and where we would have to crawl. We were only in the tunnel two minutes when someone shouted TROLLEY and we all had to jump to one side as a massive trolley full of rock was pushed passed us by a miner.

As I said the miners are very superstitious and as well as Apacha Mama they make offerings to Tio, the miners God.... who is in fact the devil. We were taken to Tio and left some coca leaves as an offering..... go figure Iv been  to SA and worshipped the devil!

We walked on a little further and it was here we made our bomb!!! We all had to roll together a small ball of nitroglycerine which felt just like plasticine!
SIDE NOTE: I just Google'd 'bomb making materials' because I couldn't remember the name of what we rolled up and Wiki said that's a no no to search that kinda stuff. So just in case the US government is tracking searches of that nature, Id just like to say IT WAS FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY!!!!!

Anyway, all our little balls were mashed together as one and our guide stuck in a fuse. Hey presto.... an explosive!! Then he lit it, an we all got to pass it around like it was a cute puppy or something. Now, I was oh yea this is great but after my turn holding it I swiftly made a move towards the other end of the tunnel ha.... The fuse was a 5minute fuse so we all waited at the end of the tunnel for the BOOM....

Now as we were waiting 'TROLLEY' was roared out so we all had to jump to the side, this momentarily made us all forget about this massive bomb we had just made and lit, so when it went off two seconds later we all got the FRIGHT OF OUR LIVES!!!
Ever had anyone jump out from behind a door and scare the shite out of you?? Well multiply that by 1000!! HAHA Jesus I jumped a mile, the noise was unreal BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!! Scary but feckin brilliant!

After all the excitement our guide knew what would calm us down, a ten minute crawl through a tiny tunnel on our bellies. God it was hard. We then had to descend down a ladder into a black hole and it was here we meet our first miners. Our guide handed out some of the soda. The miner we meet were the 'trolley runners' and work down there for up to 10 hours a day.
On we went down and down. At this stage it was starting to get hot. Our next warning was shouted out..... 'mind your eyes, don't touch the walls'.... we were only walking through a tunnel made of CYANIDE!!! I was starting to think I wasn't going to see the light of day again.
On we went down and down, hotter and hotter. Along the way we randomly bumped into miners and handed out the coca leaves and sodas. I also got to hop in a trolley and got a push, it was like being in a more real life version of a roller coaster in Disney Land!

We had been in the mines for what felt like a day but was in fact only about 2 hours. Now I would not consider myself at all claustrophobic but when the guide said 20minutes till the end (meaning light and fresh air!) I swear my  brain felt as if it was racing to get there.
I have no idea how those men hack 8/10 and sometimes even 13 hours at a time down there. Its hot, dark, damp and that tour made me appreciate things a little bit more.

Thankfully I had started to feel a bit better today. A few of us went out for dinner and a few beers. This turned out to be a very important dinner as I meet Todd and Simon two lads who were going the same direction as me. We had all planned to do the Salt Flats next and now we had found  a little group to do them with!! You just NEVER know what direction meeting random people will bring you in. I love it :)

20th

Today was a special day at home, it wasn't my Nans birthday but it was the day that everyone was going to her house in Galway to celebrate her 89th!

I woke up late today and realised that for nearly two weeks now I had never spent a day alone and I was CRAVING one!!! I started the day by trying to find an internet cafe that had a SKYPE connection that I could use to call my nan, but do you think I could find one? No. So I gave up and had to send a txt instead.
 For the rest of the day I did nothing but walk around the market, drank coffee, ate cake, drank juice and sat in the square in the lovely sunshine and read my book. It was bliss!

After a fantastic day of Aideen ha! Myself, Simon, Todd and Rich got on a night bus to Tupiza....     Bolivia's wild wild west!

Death Road

Mon 15/Aug

So I flew back to La Paz nice and early this morning (my flight was at 9). Took it pretty easy today but I also booked DEATH ROAD for tomorrow Aghhhhhhhhhhhh.

Tue 16/Aug

Death Road (officially known as Yungas Road)... let me explain:

The road of death is located about an hours drive outside La Paz, it is 61 km long and was christened death road by The Inter American Development Bank.
The road was built in the 30's and it was up until a few years ago the only road that connected the capital of La Paz to the Amazon region of the country. It is estimated that when this road was the primary route between La Paz and the Amazon 200/300 people died on it per year.
The road features extreme drop off's of 600 meters (on the left hand side as you are descending), a width of a single lane of traffic (most of the road is no wider than 3.2 meters) has very few guard rails and it is gravel.
On 24 July 1983, a bus veered off the Yungas Road and into a canyon, killing more than 100 passengers in what is said to be Bolivia's worst road accident. AT LEAST 18 cyclists have died on the road since 1998, the most recent being a Japanese girl..... two months before I did it.


So I signed up to do it with the company called Gravity, they are a little more expensive than most but they have a zero fatality rate and it was the founder of Gravity that was the first person ever to bring tourists down the road! 
It was an early start, I meet my guide and the rest of the group (which included a 13 year old boy and his Dad) at 6.30am. The reason we had to meet so early is that there were strikes over transport going on in the city so we had to try and leave the city before they set up the protesters set up the road blocks!
We got to our starting destination with no problems where we were given our bikes and safety gear. When I signed up I was measured for everything; bike, gloves, helmet, knee pads and high vis vest.

Our guide Clint was from NZ and a former stunt and overland bike rider. He was nice but firm on the rules as he went through them. After he had gone through everything it was time to make our offering to Apacha Mama (mother earth). This is a tradition done by everyone who cycles death road and involves sipping 97% alcohol which BURNS!!!!! Then we headed off!

The first part that we cycled is not death road, its a lovely downhill, tarmacked road that is part of the new road built to replace Yungas. So this was lovely and easy. Halfway down we had to get off our bikes and walk through a military drug checkpoint. The reason for this is that we were entering the valley in which most of Bolivia's coca leaves were produced. Bolivia has now over taken Colombia in the production of cocaine and the Bolivians are very active in trying to curb the production and exportation of the drug.


And then it began.... Death Road..... Aghhhh
It was not a race and I went as slowly as I felt comfortable with. To be honest I didnt really have time to take in what was around me as I never took my eyes off the road. We were warned not to or basically we would die. 

We went down the road in stages, I think there were 6 in all. After every stage we would stop and take a break and the guides would make sure everyone was OK. All the time we had one guide at the front of the group and one guide at the back. We were also followed all the way down by our van, so if anyone at any stage wanted to take a break they could! Halfway down we stopped for lunch so it gave everyone time to rest and get back on it again.

As we descended the thing I found most uncomfortable was the crosses and  memorials that were along the road, placed there by victims family's. There were a lot but apparently there were 3 times as many but a public committee in La Paz said they were bad for tourism and went along the road one day removing two thirds of the crosses and memorials.
Also the road was very deceiving, in parts where the cliff was there were trees and plants which gave you a false pretence that there was no 500ft drop on the other side.... 

So I reached the end of death road....alive! WAHOOOO! Obviously I did not dare have my camera with me while I was going down but one of the guides had a camera and took videos and photos for us.


The day was not yet over. As part of booking with Gravity you get to go to an animal refuge and have lunch there. The animal refuge was amazing! I stayed in with the monkeys the whole time who were sooooo cute!!! One of them did eat part of my hair braid though....

The ride back to La Paz was pretty interesting as we had to go back up death road to get home! It was here that we got to appreciate what we had just cycled down. It was also here that Clint told us the horror stories of the road... 
The latest person to die on the road was a Japanese cyclist two months previous. Her and her boyfriend had cheap'd out and gone with a 'pop up' company on a two for one deal. Her brakes failed, she went straight over the edge and died. Another French girl died when she lost balance as she was straddling her bike. She was close to the edge so when she fell over she fell off the side. That's why the number one rule is when you stop your bike you must dismount straight away and dismount to the right, not the left which is the most natural side anyone one get off there bike. He also told us of one poor English boy who just cycled straight off the ledge. He died and his parents donated £30,000 so that an ambulance could be put in place around the clock on the road. All very very sad stories.


Despite the horror stories it was a great day. I fully intended going out that night but I woke up from my power nap at 2.30am and didnt make it out of bed.

Amazon Pampas Tour - Rurrenabaque

11th/Aug

Jesus .... the plan fits 15 people and you can see the piolets. I am not a nervous flyer at all but this thing (plane) made me worry a bit. Luckily Barry a lad from Limerick entertained myself and Donna (a girl I met in line for the checkin) feel very at ease by telling us the story of the Andes crash where the rugby team were forced to eat their friends who had died after the plane crashed.The film about it is called ALIVE I think? It happened in the mountains we were flying over. Jesus.

Well obviously the plane didnt crash and Im still alive. We got to Rurrenabaque safe and sound and its like we landed on a different planet. No more cold, I was back to extreme humidity and heat. You never know whats around the corner when you travel... we tried to book into a hostel that was highly recommended but it was full and so we ended up going next door which was an army barracks that rents rooms. Well I can tell you now if there is ever an army you want to join for a good time its the Bolovian Army! ha It was a gas place where all the old army guys hung around listened to 80's classics and drank beer!!! It was actually a nice place with  a deck overlooking the river.

I hadn't booked my trek in La Paz just flights so I went with Donna that evening to the company she had book with to see if they had any space on her tour the following day. And success they did. I opted for a Pampas tour instead of a jungle tour. This basically meant you were foucsing on the animals of the Pampas  landscape rather than random things in the jungle. Very exciting!!!!!

12th/Aug

At 8am our group meet at the tour operator's office. There was Dan, Rich, Donna, 2 german girls whose names I forget, Joe, John and myself!!! Let the adventure begin. We had to drive for 3 hours first in a jeep to get to where we would meet our guide.

When we arrived we unloaded the jeep with all our supplies and loaded them into our baot that would take us down the river to our camp. After everything was loaded and we were introduced to our guide.... who Im going to call Ben because I actually cant remember his name and I never wrote it down........ off we went. The boat ride down the river was unreal. Literally every meter on the river bed there was an alligator. There were spider monkeys, countless types of birds, some crazy hamster like creature that was the size of a hippo and get this..... PINK DOLPHINS. WOW. The boat ride took nearly 3 hours as Ben went slow so we could see everything.

We eventually pulled up to our camp that would be home for the next two nights. The camp was cool. It was all built on high wodden stilts (so the alligators dont eat you when your sleeping) and we had a cabin to ourselves. We were fed a snack and then watched the sunset over the river which was stunning. We then had dinner and amazing meal and headed to the common room for cards and beers.

13/Aug

ANACONDA HUNTING..... Yes you heard, I was actually going into swamp land to look voluntary for Anacondas Ha. After a delicious brekkie (I have to note that I have been so so lucky that any of these types of trips Iv done I have eaten like a King!) off we went to the SWAMP. God I can tell you it was tough going. Walking through mud, in wellies and in the baking heat is not easy. I think we walked for an hour in this type of terrain before we headed into dryer land. We had zero luck with finding any Anacondas in the swamp which everyone was pretty dissapointed about. We then walked through some more jungle-ish terrain, all the time still on the hunt for the Anacondas. Our guide and co-guide knew exactly where to look for them but we had zero luck. We did however manage to find lots and lots of snake skins about the place. They were pretty cool but stank!

And then just as we had given up Ben lept into action and nabbed an Anaconda! I was releaved and dissapointed that it wasnt the bad boy that ate Jennifer Lopez in the movie, but I suppose if it was that guy Id have been eaten. Anyway we caught a snake wahoooo. I toucjed it for a split second but Il admit I was too chicken to hold it much longer than that. The poor guy got tormented but us for a while and then we let him off to do his thing. We were the only group fro our camp to have caught an Anaconda that morning.... they are shy little guys!

On the trek back to the boat we came across something very sad. A poor cow had gotten its self stuck in some ud. It had apparently been there for a few days. It was still alive but barely. Our guide and the lads from the group did their best to try and get it out. They did but it was so week it couldn't stand up. It was all bud dead so the most humane thing to do was to kill it. We walked off and our guide slit its throat :(

After lunch and a well needed siesta we went Parahna fishing. Like Im typing these sentences and  Im likexcuse me you did what?! ha Yes Parahnas, the guys that will rip the flesh off your skin in a second! 

On the way back to cam our guide got very excited. There was a Tapier swimming in the water! They are very rarely seen by anyone and so it was a rare and wonderful treat for all of us.

We headed up the river in the boat and hopped off at a small bank where there were no alligators. The fishing was tedious... I was the first out of everyone to catch something but unfortunatly it was a sardine not a parahna! We did a miserable job with the fishing, we only caught two.... and it was our guide who caught them!

We then headed further up the river to a spot on the riverbank where there was another camp. Here we watched sunset and even had a game of football against one of the other groups.
After it got dark we headed back to camp for dinner. On the way we all got out our torches and shined them at the water. By doing this we were able to see all the alligators eyes glowing! It was so cool. They are evil things just staring yellow eyed at you from the water.
After another serious meal, beers and many many games of Uno we headed to bed.

14th/Aug

Today was the last day of the tour. Up at 6am to go and watch sunrise. A very early start but worth it!! Then it was back to the camp to have some grub. Today was probably the most anticipated day as we would get to go swimming in the river with the pink dolphins.
Apparently when the pink dolphins are around all the other bad guys that might be in the river swim away! So we got the boat down to a spot in the river where the dolphins are known to hang around ..... AND IN WE GOT. Ugh it felt rotten, the bottom of the river was muddy and slimy and there was always that fear that a gator was going to eat your leg off! What was scary was the alligators on the river bank that were just staring at us like we were dinner!!! But it was great fun, the dolphins were there although they didn't come too close to us.
After lunch we got the boat back to where we had started the trip and then got the jeep back to  Rurrenabaque.

We all checked back into the Army Base, cheap and cheerful! After a little siesta it was party time in the Jungle ... cocktails and tequila all round!

La Paz

Im sitting in a bus station in Tucamon, Argentina waiting for my 1am (14hour) bus to Mendoza. I have a two hour wait but Iv no internet.... I dont fancy ready the book I have its hard work, so Im catching up with the blog in Windows note pad and I will copy it over later.... I am a genius!!

La Paz

La Paz again is a city I really liked but one which I had heard really bad stuff about! Again it just goes to show that you can hear all the travel talk you want on the trail but it really does come down to your own opinion. I had heard off a number of people that it was dangearous etc but I felt fine walking around DURING THE DAY. Once again the usual rules apply.... be safe etc etc. Now Im not silly even the hostel had signs up saying DO NOT GO OUT ON YOUR OWN AT NIGHT. So I didnt and all was well.
Im up a little higher again. La Paz is at 4000ft above sea level. The air is getting thinner all the time and its a city full of hills, damn it!!

7th/Aug

We were up at a decent hour this morning to run across to the Wild Rover and see if we could get a dorm. We did, success!! After getting comfy into our new home myself, Ash and Edel decided to go walk about. We were keen to explore the 'witches market' and see what it was all about.

The main square in La Paz is a busy place, the traffic is so heavy that .... listen to this ..... they have volunteers that are dressed up as Zebras to help you cross the road! It is the weirdest thing ever! And they people in the suits are jumping about the place happy as larry. I used to love holding hands and walking across the road with one of them hahaha!

We walked about the place and did the usual exploring. Then we got to the market. MY god, Iv said already how cheap Bolivia is but Il say it again. Bolivia is cheap. I could have shopped non stop but Ijust dont have the room. The main items that are on sale is 'Alpahcha' wear. Alpacha is an animal similar to a Llama, Im not 100% sure of the differences but I know Alpacha live higher up the mountains and their fur is warmer. Anyway every Gringo will have a piece of Alpacha on them!! Gloves, scarf, hat, socks, leg warmers you name it you can get it. You may have seen my photos where Im sporting my red Llama jumper.... a bargin at €8 (although I did pick this up in Cusco not La Paz) I love it and I never take it off. So as you can imagine we spent hours walking around the hundreds of places you can shop and it was great!! All I picked up was a tiny purse that cost me a euro, like I said I just dont have the room, my case is already bursting.

We finally came to the 'witches section' of the market which was a little dissapointing although we did see some weird shit such as dead baby Llama featuses. SICK.

Now every Sunday the wild rover sends a bus from the hostel to Bolovias version of WWF wrestleing. Yes I cant believe it either but I said Id go alone for the craic. The bus left the hostel at 4pm. On the way to the wrestling we stopped at a view point overlooking La Paz. My god its some city, it is VAST and sprawling and pretty impressive.

The wrestling I can honestly say was the worst 3 hours of my life. Ok maybe the first 10 seconds were a novelty but after that it was SHITE. I dont even want to waste my time talking about it. Luckily I was with the girls so we made our own fun.
We decided to treat ourselves that night and headed to The Steakhouse. This is the type of place you go to at home and pay €50 for a steak. I paid €18, expensive by Bolivian standards but well worth it. And it wasnt just any steak it was a Llama steak. Yes I went there I ate one of the cuttest animals on the planet and it was delicious ha!
After dinner we headed back to the Wild Rover for some serious wild antics :P

8th/Aug

Hangover day.... We managed to leave the hostel for a Korma at about 10 that night but apart from that the day was a write off!

9th/Aug

Spent today walking around La Paz, chilling in the square and the girls went mad in the market again. Ash and Edel are both teachers and were on the good aul teachers holidays so they had loads of roo to stock upon Alpacha crap! ha After the shopping spree we went for a loverly GnT. We really know how to spoil ourselves (dont we girls ;) It was their last night in La Paz so a far well night out was in order. We went mad..... again. Oooops.

10th/Aug

Not in the greatest of shape today and the girls left me this morning for Rio Booo :( Its the hardest thing about travelling, you meet great people but everyone has their own route and has to go their own way in the end.
I did manage to do somthing productive today and booked a trip to the Amazon!! Bolivias share of the Amazon is in Rurai, located on the opposite side of the country to La Paz so an inexpensive internal flight is required to get there.
Bag packed (again), early night.... the jungle awaits me.

Cusco

Damn it!!! Once again I have fallen seriously behind..... My last blog entry was 26 July 3 weeks ago and its now Aug 17th.... AUGUST. I cant believe it, where is the time going?! Iv done so so much in the past 3 weeks and Iv also fallen behind on my diary so its going to be tough to recall everything but Il do my best....

26/7/11 Cusco

Im really glad I flew from Colombia to Peru, it has saved me nearly a week in travel time so the few dollers extra to fly were well worth it. Cusco is located near the Andes mountain range and has an elevation of 3,400 meters above sea level. I... CANT.... BREATH. God almighty, its so high and the air is sooooo thin you take 3 steps and you are out of breath. Altitude sickness is a huge thing here, you can take tablets for it but  as I came from Bogota which is pretty high (2600 meters above sea level) I didnt bother.
Cusco is a major stop on the Gringo trail as it was the capital of the Inca Empire and it is from here that you do the famous Machu Picchu treck!

Peruvian & Inca Flag

I arrived in Cusco at 6am, seriously early.  I had my hostel booked so I headed straight to it. THE WILD ROVER is a famous Irish party hostel in SA. And bloody hell did it live up to its name!! You do not stay here if you intend to ever get a good nights sleep! There is a bar in the hostel that can be heard from most rooms and there are always people in and out of the room at all hours, whether they are heading out on early morning trecks or coming in from a night out!!! Check in wasnt till 2pm which was a pain in the ass so I hung around, got some food and booked my Inca Jungle Treck for the following Saturday. I slept most of the day as I had stayed up all night in the airport the night before and was pretty tired.

Turned out I was sharing my room with a load of 21 year old Brazilian lads who were all nice lads. Headed to the bar with them tonight and had a few drinks but nothing too mad. One of the rules is not to drink on your first night at altitude, so I was a good girl and followed the rules!

27/7/11

Eh yea I may as well have gone out and got pissed last night as the 3 beers I had gave me one of the worst hangovers ever!!! I shouldnt have had any at all..... I eventually draged myself out of bed and headed off out to walk around cusco. Beautiful, beautiful place. The weather here is weird, the sun is shining but its crisp and cold. Everything is uphill and down hill so walking around was hard. It was gas looking around and watching all the gringos huffing and puffing around the place.
Im ashamed to say I had a Maccy D's :( Im walking around this beautiful square and there it is in front of me, I couldnt resist! Plus they do a chicken big Mac here so that hooked me. I pretty much chiled out for the rest of the day and explored the city. Took it handy tonight and was in the leaba early.

30/7/11

Probably one of the best days of my trip so far just beacuse I accidently bumped into an old friend!
So Im up early and head down the stairs to the lobby, laptop in hand. I look up as Im halfway down the stairs and whos sitting on a bean bag in front of me but MARK MULLOOLY! He looks up and shouts then I start to scream and we cause a whole lot of comotion. For those of you who dont know, I went to college with Sparky and we spent an epic summer after our finals together in NY. I knew Mark was travelling SA but I had NO IDEA that we would be in Cusco at the same time! It was amazing and great to see someone who I actually knew already! Double excellent was the fact that Mark & his mate he was travelling with John had also booked the Inca Jungle Treck for Saturday!!!!!!

There was no escaping it now.... CARNAGE was about to insue!!

Messy night to say the least .... rum and coke + altitude = early night for Aids :P

28/7/11

PERU INDEPENDANCE DAY

Hangovers all round this morning so another trip to mac donalds was on the cards when we all eventually managed to get out of bed. We spent the day today chiling out on the main square. Myself and Emma (an English girl we had hooked up with) got hair braids which I LOVE!!

We wandered around and hit a few random museums and then we went in search of Peruvian flags. Wild Rover was throwing a special party that night in honour of Independance so we wanted to get kitted out for the event. You would think that being in Peru a Peruvian flag would be easy to come across.... Nope of course not! We walked for ages to try and find them but its on these random adventures that you always run into the coolest stuff. We stumbeled upon a religious prade and traditional dancing that was fun to watch and follow for a while. The traditions which the people here have a so far removed from anything we wold see at home its amazing!

We eventually managed to get our hands on some flags in the local market and headed back to WR to paaaaaaaaaaaarty!
A crazy night was had by all. I shall spare the details but it involved: flags, facepaint, nightclubs,
fountains, casinos and cats!!!

I LOVE CUSCO.....

29/7/11

Getting in a 6am does generally mean sleeping for the day which is what I did. My self John and Mark did make it out of the hostel to get food at one point but thats as about as productive as the day got. Tomorrow was Machu Picchu and we were being picked up at 7am to get going.

So an early night.