Peru to Bolivia

Well we´re now safely ensconced in Bolivia, seems like we´re tearing through Sth America!!

So just to let you know what we´ve been up to the last few days (apart from thinking about English grub and home!)
On Friday we took the bus from Arequipa to Puno, we were supposed to leave Puno on the 11.30am bus, it was 1pm by the time we pulled out of the bus station, we were a bit peeved as it was a 6-7 hour journey and we´d not booked a hostal in advance, which meant we would not be arriving til late.
All the time the bus was late all the locals were shouting at the driver and banging on the bus floor shouting "vamos" (which means "Let´s go") it was quite funny and even me and Matt took our turn!
The bus was really grotty, despite the fact that we had paid over the odds with a travel company (rather than book the tickets ourselves, we´re getting lazy!!) it was full of smelly locals with the contents of their houses, and no this time I´m not kidding!
There was one woman with the entire contents of her house in the underside luggage compartment of the bus (maybe this is why we were late getting away?)
I have even seen animals been bundled in there in Banos (Ecuador) but that is a visual I would rather forget!
Anyway the bus journey was pretty uneventful, the locals on the bus turned out to be really friendly, and one of them even asked us to keep an eye on his bags while he got off for a while, others were telling us how much longer it was before we arrived, where to get off etc, we felt like royalty!!
Once we got to Puno we were offered a hostal at the bus depot, luckily it´s one we had seen in our Rough Guide handbook so we jumped in a cab and got a nice room for 10GBP a night, with free internet access!!
Puno is a really nice place, despite what we had read about it, very touristy (if you like that kind of thing) lots of nice places to eat, the usual souvenir shops, internet cafes etc and the weather was decent too.
We booked a trip straight away to go on Lake Titicaca to see The Uros Floating Islands
They had just finished building a boat when we arrived so they cajoled us all into helping them launch it into the lake!
We then went another 2.5 hours by boat onto another Island, Taquile, which is often described as the closest you can get to heaven?!
There are only 2,200 inhabitants on Ths Island and it really was beautiful, although Matt was extremely ill with altitude sickness so we missed the tour guide and all the info he was telling us, so I can´t really tell you much about the place.
While the tour guide was telling us about the place I was patting Matt´s back while he threw up all over the beautiful Island ;-)
He was green in the face, I have never seen anybody that shade before and he was all cold and sticky, bless him, anyway he was a brave soldier and insisted on climbing up to the top despite his weakness and nausea, I´m pleased to say he´s much better today and back to his old self (looking at pics of food on the internet)
We have posted some pics today though of The Floating Islands and the Indigenous folk who live there, I´m sure you´ll find them extremely colourful!

Today we got the bus from Puno across the Bolivian Border to a place called Copacabana (I haven´t seen Barry Manilow yet??)
The border crossing was a breeze, which is a relief as you do hear quite a few horror stories as I´ve mentioned before.
The bus journey is only 3.5 hours and it was full of backpackers, and the bus was actually playing decent music!!
So when I say decent, I mean George Michael, Sting, The Stones, Supertramp, The Eagles etc, now I know Ben will be reading this and thinking "that´s not decent music" but when you have come by bus from Ecuador to Bolivia (which is a lot of miles!!) listening to the incessant tra la la la, diddle le de de bullshit that we have had to endure, then believe me this becomes decent music!!
Tomorrow we are back on the lake to The Isla Del Sol and The Isla De La Luna, which should be good, I´ll post more about that once we´ve returned.
It involves a strenuous 3 hour trek, I think we´ll be able to cope with that (GASP!)
The trip cost us $4 each, which is cheap as chips and it´s a full day on the lake with an English speaking guide!

On Tuesday we are getting the bus to La Paz (the capital) we have to be a bit tighter with our schedule now if we want to see and do everything that we have planned, plus the hostal that we chose this time is an absolute dump ($7 for the night, for us both!) so it´s an incentive for us to get our @rses into gear.
If I told you the bathroom was painted in pink gloss would that give you an idea??
The bus into La Paz is only 3.5 hours, which compared to some of the mammoth journeys we´ve done so far is like getting the bus at home into town!
This is another reason why we can´t afford to hang about anywhere as bus trips take up so many valuable days, night buses are available quite often but if you take the night bus then you don´t get to see anything, so it´s a bit of a compromise.

So that´s about it for the time being, will probably post again when we get to La Paz on Tuesday
Adios Amigo´s

P.S Matt has had a fry up for his brunch today (Bacon, Egg and Tomato) he seems a bit happier ;-)

Food, Glorious Food!

Hi, hope you are all well. Over the last few days (we are in Puno right in the south of Peru) I have been day dreaming quite a bit about food we have back home. Now I wouldn´t go as far as saying that the UK is well known in the gastronomy stakes, but there are a few dishes that I´m missing. For instance, roast dinners, a good fry up and a decent Indian curry (I know it isn´t technically a British dish, but people do say the balti was invented in Birmingham or was it Bradford?). This is not to say that the food we´ve been having in S.America is bad, far from it. There´s only been a few times when we´ve struggled to get a decent meal and you can always rely on Huevos y papas fritos in emergency (that´s egg and chips for the non-Spanish speaking).

So during my time on the Internet I´ve been searching through flickr photos for good pics of my favourite grub and added them to my favourites (in Flickr). To view these go to the Flickr button on our blog then click on it. Then click on Matt and Michelle Photostream and then click on Favourites (or just click here). Hopefully, you´ll agree that the photos are pretty good even if you don´t/can´t/won´t eat the food itself. (I´m thinking of Ben particularly who doesn´t eat meat or fish, commonly known as a vegetarian. Although he does he say he likes the smell of bacon even though he´s never eaten it.

Anyway, more posts to follow soon when we hit Bolivia on Sunday.

Adios.

Colca Canyon, Peru

Hi all! Well were back from the Colca where we have been for the last 2 days.
We went on an organised trip, with about 18 other tourists, there were a few religious Americans, some Ozzies (as you would expect) a Lithuanian, a French Canadian and some other Nationalities that I couldn´t fathom.
It´s about a 5 hour drive from Arequipa through the desert, you see some stunning scenery and lots of wildlife, we also passed the Misti Volcano which stands very proud in the middle of nowhere.
We stayed overnight at a place called Chivay, it wasn´t a very nice place with lots of poverty, luckily we were only staying one night.
We went to the thermal baths in the evening, I´ve never been to one before so was a bit apprehensive, especially being a non swimmer as I don´t really like water, but they were great!
We got chatting to some USA medical student while we were there who had been in Bolivia carrying out minor surgery as part of their studies!!
Anyway one of these guys had been to the UK about 8 years ago, after a lot of questions and trying to find out where he´d been it turned out it was Hull of all places!!
He wasn´t very impressed with the place (it was 8 years ago) although he was mortally embarrassed when I told him that´s where I was from.
The baths were lovely, we were outside bathing in the warm water under the stars, how romantic he he!!
After the baths we arranged to meet some of the other tourists from the trip for dinner, we went to a local place that was reccommended by the guide on our trip.
We walked in and we were the only ones in there, plus it was freezing, there is no heating anywhere in Peru, and in some places (Chivay being one of them) night time temperatures drop below freezing (this night was no exception)
We were a bit unsure wether we should stay or not, but decided to brave it out as nobody else was complaining.
Within about half an hour the place was full of other travellers and tourists and it was quite jovial but still fluffin freezing!!
Anyway we had our meal, I ordered spaghetti with pesto, well in Peru they have no idea what Pesto is (after my 2nd attempt with this dish) they just serve you a dish of spaghetti with a dollop of radio active green stuff on the top, with no taste whatsoever, I left it.
After our meal was over it got a bit noisy as a Peruvian Band came on with the pan pipes etc and started banging out some Andean music, to be fair it turned out to be a good night, with Peruvian men and women in their local costumes dancing and singing and trying to get the tourists up too.
To say they don´t have a pot to pi55 in between them they sure know how to enjoy themselves and make you feel welcome.
The next day we were up at 5.30 to get to the Colca Canyon in time to see the condors in flight, apparently there is a particular time that these are best viewed, which is early morning once the sun is up.
Again the drive there was stunning through the mountains, bright blue sky and sunshine, although really chilly.
We saw the condors and they were a sight to see, they are massive and move so gracefully, they just glide through the air, I´m not really a bird lover to be honest but it would be difficult not to appreciate the condor in full flight.
The size of them you would think they would pick one of us up and fly away, they are HUGE!
Matt took some pics of them but they don´t do the setting justice, the Canyon is 1200 metres deep and they just fly overhead.
After that we were back on the bus and then dropped off at various photo points and small towns to buy souveniers (we didnt buy any and we didnt take many photo´s)
The highest point that we reached on the trip was 4910 metres, which is pretty breath taking believe me.
One of the girls on the bus was really ill and had to dash off to be sick, it really does make you feel ill.
Luckily because we had previously been in Cusco (which again is really high) we didn´t feel too bad, just a little light headed.
Tomorrow we are heading for Puno which is even higher so I dread to think what it´s going to be like there.
We get the bus which will take us 6 hours, once were in Puno we will visit Lake Titicaca and The Floating Islands, after that we are off to Bolivia so we should be there by the weekend where we will definitely need our woolies and hat´s as the night time temperatures there can fall to -15!!

The new 7 Wonders of The World

When we were at the Machu Picchu on Thursday we were asked to vote for our favourite 7 Wonders of The World, which we did.
See below link if you feel like voting:

Vote 7 Wonders of The World

The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announced during the Official Declaration ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday, July 7, 2007 - 07.07.07.

Kids in Cusco

We arrived in Ariquipa this morning at about 6am after 9 hours on the overnight bus (which I slept right through)
We have got a really nice hostal, just on the edge of the town centre, probably one of the nicest we´ve stayed in so far, we were watching Wimbledon this morning as we´ve got Cable TV!
It´s gorgeous weather here today, about 22c, but the night´s get quite cold apparently.

Thought I´d just tell you about the local lads in Cusco while I still remember.
There is a large square in the centre of Cusco where all the cafes. bars and restaurants are, so obviously this is where you find all the tourists.
We would usually sit in there at some point during the day and do a bit of people watching (as us Brits love to do!)
There are so many locals trying to sell you little souvenirs, jumpers, hats, scarves, tours, pictures, you name it, they´re trying to sell it, and then there´s the postcards and shoe shine!!
There are a group of lads around 10 years of age who come round (individually) and try to sell you postcards, they have a little box with them in.
The first thing they say is "you wanna buy postcard, it pay for my English education", well the first time you hear it you may be inclined to buy a postcard or two (unless like us you´d already bought em from a shop) so we just said "no gracias" (the only phrase you need to know in Cusco)
They then try to worm their way round you and say "where you from?" to which we reply England, they say "capital London".
Anyway this goes on and on and during the day there is no telling how many times you can be approached by these kids, so you can imagine it get´s a bit repetitive!
So we decided to be mean, and instead of saying we were from England, we upped the stakes a little and said were from Australia!! (as not many people know the capital of Oz, (do they??))
The first time we said it, the kid just shrugged and walked off, the 2nd time the kid knew, Canberra, he was quite a bit younger than the other kids too, probably about 8-9.
We were well impressed as even I hadn´t known until Matt had told me a few weeks previously.
So then we started quizzing him and asking him all the Capitals of the Sth American countries, the only one he struggled with was Uruguay.
We then asked him some European Countries and the little tyke got them all, he even knew the Spanish President!!
We bought a postcard from him even though we didn´t need one, he did push his luck though and tell us he would like a football, I don´t know if he was inferring he wanted us to buy him one or that he was trying to save for one!
Another thing you are bugged about is having your shoes polished!!
Well me and Matt being the tourists that we are get our flip flops on at every opportunity, so you would think that would take us out the frame.. oh no!!
They still ask you "you want shoes cleaning?" you look at them as if to say you can´t be serious and then they say to you "it is possible!!"
One of them even offered to polish Matt´s brown flip flops and make them black!!
There was also a youngish girl yesterday (about 15) trying to sell us hand knitted finger puppets!!
I mean come on what do we want with a couple of finger puppets!
To be fair they were good, she had a variety of designs, Superman, Shrek, a Llama, a mouse, a donkey (you get the picture!!)
She kept asking "why you no buy?", what were we supposed to say after she had asked us about 6 times!!, luckily somebody blew the whistle on her otherwise it could have got a bit unpleasant ;-)
There are some kind of guards patrolling the streets and squares, and if they think you are been harassed by these young kids they blow a whistle and the kids scarper!
It might not seem funny when you read this, it´s probably one of them you have to be there moments.
On Monday we are going on an overnight trip to the Colca Canyon, again it´s quite a long one which is why we are staying over rather than do it all in one day.
Including the trip and our overnight accommodation it has cost us just over 10GBP each, bargain!!
Arequipa is a lovely place (what bit we´ve seen of it) much nicer than Lima, although not as many Westerners and tourists as Cusco, which means that there is not much English spoken and all the menus are in Spanish (imagine going for a Chinese and the menu is in Chinese and Spanish!!)
There is quite a bit of car horn honking going on too which is unfortunate as I thought we´d got away from that now!
Luckily Arequipa is about 1000 metres lower than Cusco so it´s much easier to walk about and breathe, it is to be short lived though as one of the places we visit on Monday is over 4000 metres, GASP!!!

MP Video

Hello just a quick post about Machu Piccu (as Michelle is writing a detailed blog next to me!). Check out this link to our video on YouTube, and also check out Flickr for some great pics, even if I do say so!

Click Here for YouTube Video

The AMAZING Machu Piccu

Morning folks, how y´all doing? Yesterday we went to the Machu Picchu, it was STUNNING, I have never seen anything so amazing in my life!
We went by train which takes about 4 hours, as the same with everywhere in Sth America we had to go through the mountains and the train often has to switch back on itself, so often you see the same scenery twice.
We had to be at the train station for 6:30 for a 7am departure, needless to say we were a bit tired, it was really cold too.
The train that we caught is called "The Backpacker Train" and is only available to backpackers, locals catch a different train which is less than half what the tourists have to pay.
We thought the train would be a bit dodgy but we were wrong, it was really nice and clean, you could even see out of the windows!!
The only problem we did have was leg room, or at least the lack of it.
Peruvians are really small so the trains are not really designed for anybody over 5´ft, anyway it was ok, I think we were that excited about the day that we didn´t really care.
We arrived at about 11am and then had to take the bus for about 20 minutes up the windy and steep roads to the ruins.
The drive was a bit of a hair raiser, one of those where you look out of the window and see a massive drop to the side of you!!!
Nothing can prepare you for the spectacular views and the ruins, no matter how much you read about it and how many pictures and postcards you see, nothing comes close to actually seeing it for yourself.
We have took lots and lots of pictures so I hope you get an idea how amazing it is, the only thing the camera can´t capture is the height.
So I´ll give you a few facts about Machu Picchu:
It is located in the district of Machupicchu, province of Urubamba. 72.5 miles by train, NW of Cusco. It is 2,432 metres above sea level. It has a semi tropical climate, and it has two marked seasons, dry:from April-October and rainy: from November-March.
The ruins were only actually discovered in 1911 by a North American Professor, Hiram Bingham who at the time was researching about the Military Campaigns of the liberator Simon Bolivar in Sth America.
Accompanied by Sergeant Carrasco his translator they started their journey through Cusco and through the sacred valley of the Incas, following the direction of the Urubamba River, they then arrived at a place called Mandorpampa in the Hacienda Cutija where they met a farmer called Melchor Artega.
Hiram Bingham gave the farmer a tip of one coin, the farmer then gave him information about the existance of some ruins at the top of "The Old Mountain" (which means Machu Picchu)
When they actually arrived at the ruins they found two farmers who were living there with their families, and were growing crops in some parts of the Inca Terraces.
It was one of the children of the farmer who actually led the professor into the archaeological remains.
On July 24th 1911, they first arrived to the Royal Tomb and then went on to discover the other ruins.
In 1912 Hiram Bingham organised a new expedition with specialists in Osteology, Natural Science, excavations and surveys and assistance to explore and to work in the cleaning and the archaelogical research.
Since then the Peruvian Government assumed the conservation of the Machu Picchu through the National Institute of Culture, this is now the official entity responsible for the conservation of this Peruvian Cultural Patrimony.

Peru really is an amazing place with a great culture, I would urge anybody to take a holiday here as there is so much to see and do.
It is also so cheap, leather and art and crafts are practically given away, clothing is also cheap, with most of the main brands sold at half the price that we would pay at home.
Peru is a lot more geared up towards Tourism too, unlike Ecuador which is an amazing country but not quite as appealing for a holiday.
We are leaving Cusco today for Arequipa, looking forward to moving on now as we have been in Cusco since Sunday, we will travel on the overnight bus tonight, it´s one of the luxury one´s with beds on!!
We got chatting to a couple of Brits on Wednesday who emigrated to Oz over 30 years ago, they are about the same age as our parents and they travel every 5-6 months.
This trip they have 4 months out and have started in Sydney, NZ, Easter Islands, Sth America, Miami, NY, Canada and then to see family in the UK!
It´s great that even at that age they are still getting out and about and seeing the world.
They have a son the same age as Matt who has been travelling for 9 years, obviously he has to work to support himself.
Anyway they have invited us over when we are in Oz in November, they live in Adelaide and said they would love to see us to hear about our travels and to down a few Ozzie beers and show us some good beauty spots that aren´t really on the map.
So we have got their address details and will probably look them up.
They also mentioned about how lucky Brits are at the moment with the strength of the pound (which we know anyway as we are having a great time of it)
At the moment the Ozzie Dollar is worth 40p against the Pound, which means they are in for an expensive time of it when they do come over.
Anyway that´s about it for today..
One last thing, just to say CONGRATULATIONS to everybody in my old team at Kitchen Science who last night won the NMA Retail Website of the year award for 2007, Im not really sure what that means for KS, but they were getting pi55ed up at The Grosvenor in Park Lane so it must be a good one!!
Well done all, Im glad tohave being part of the teams success, no doubt you´re all nursing hangovers today, lightweights!!!

Adios Tony and Good Riddance

Well it´s all going on at home by the looks of thing´s..
Wimbledon, The Weather, No Smoking in pubs (3 days to go) and the departure of Mr Blair at long last!
It seems ironic that he is set to become the Middle East peace envoy, I suppose if anybody can do it Big Tony can, after all he´s behind most of the trouble out there anyway! One things for sure, he´ll never be unemployed!!

Anyway.. enough politics!

So were still in Cusco, Peru and are now fully acclimatised and marching about like the locals, it took a few days but we got there in the end!!
Yesterday we went to see some more Inca ruins (Sacsayhuaman if anybody wants to look it up)
It was a steep forty minute 2 kilometre climb, and it was a really nice sunny day too, if we´d have attempted this on Sunday I think we would have died!!
The views and ruins were amazing and we have posted lots of pics on the blog.
There is also a FANTASTIC picture of a small Peruvian girl cuddling her Llama, check it out, it´s brilliant.
There are so many FAB restaurants here that you are spoilt for choice, last night we had Asian in a trendy Peruvian Bar, the night before we went for an Indian.
The Indian was ok, we had craved one since we left Ecuador, we waited almost an hour for our starter, the restaurant was freezing, and then when our main dish turned up they missed two of the dishes off!!
Everybody is touting for your business though and it gets a bit annoying as you get tired of saying "no gracias"

We have booked our train tickets to go to the Machu Picchu tomorrow, as I mentioned previously were not really into the hiking, only day trips.
We catch the train at 7am Thursday morning and it takes about 4 hours to get there, we then spend all day there and get the train back at 5pm, were both really looking forward to it.
On Friday we take the overnight bus to Arequipa, which is the 2nd biggest city in Peru, also quite a wealthy city too so that should be good, we will spend a few days there where we will visit the Colca Canyon and then head for Puno where we will visit Lake Titicaca.
Lake Titicaca is the world´s largest high-altitude body of water at 284km deep and more than 8500 square kilometres in area (15 times the size of Lake Geneva in Switzerland)
It is 70% owned Peruvian and 30% owned by Bolivia.
After Arequipa we will be heading to Puno where we will be suffering from altitude sickness again as it is 3870 metres above sea level (Cusco is 3500!)
It´s not a very good journey either (9 hours through the windy roads and through the Andean Mountains)
The days are also very hot but the night temperatures drop below freezing, so we have invested in some winter woolies from one of the locals in Cusco.
We are both proud owners of Llama woolen jumpers and hat´s (pics to follow!!)
Needless to say they´re not exactly the cutting edge of fashion but if they´re good enough for the Peruvians then they´re good enough for us tourists!!

The hostal were staying in at the moment has got a bath, complete luxury, it´s the first one we´ve had since we left my parents house in May, no wonder we stink ;-)
We seem to be spending plenty of money here in Peru despite it being so cheap, we can´t fathom what were spending it on, although beer and food seem to be high on the list!!
There is a great Irish Bar here that does Guiness (obviously) and great food (Shepperd´s Pie, Homemade Chips with vinegar) so we have been in there a few times.
There is also a local beer called Cusquena which is lovely and dirt cheap, look out for it in the supermarket and treat yourself.
Put on a big woolly jumper a silly hat and get yourself a bottle of Peruvian ale you can´t beat it :-)

Breathless in Cusco

Buonas Díaz, we´re now in Cusco, the old Inca capital, struggling to breathe due to the altitude! The flight in this morning was an early one, leaving Lima at 05:50, so we didn´t get much sleep (not that we would´ve anyway with all the HONKING!! see Michelle´s previous post). The flight was fairly bumpy as we flew over the mountains but the landing was pretty hair-raising to say the least. As there´s no real time for descending, and as Cusco is high up (about 3500m) the pilot pretty much clears the last peak and then ¨throws¨ the plane at the landing strip. You don´t even get time to slow down either so the landing speed was pretty much the same as the cruising speed. I thought I was a bad flier but the girl next to Michelle in the window seat looked like she was about to have kittens! We saw a great sunrise though just as we left Lima so I was pleased.

As I said we´re now in Cusco which is the highest place we´ve been to yet (another 1000m above Quito in Ecuador). As soon as we got here we had some Coca tea. It´s made from the same leaves that Cocaine is eventually made from but in tea form it´s legal and is supposed to help with the high altitude. Well I can´t say it did yet, but maybe if we have more it will; either that or we won´t care about the altitude! We just walked up from the Hostal to the main square in Cusco, which incidentally is superb, to get a drink and some food and Michelle nearly passed out. It really does get you. We´ll be taking it easy for a few days to aclimitise and then get a train to Macha Pichu. Macha Pichu is actually lower than Cusco even though in the pictures it looks really high up!

No sign of honking cars yet here, but it is a festival day and cars have been stopped entering the main square.

Well, I´m going to leave it at that, I know it´s a short post, but I´m sure Michelle will be posting too (or if not tmw)

Adios.

p.s. Does anyone remember that Harry Enfield character that always used to know best. He´d start off saying "Only Me" and then whatever anyone had done would constantly say ¨You didn´t wanna do that". The funniest one was in a greasy spoon cafe, and two fellas were talking about how they got into work that morning. One of them said "I didn´t come down the M25 this morning I came in on the A10" or words to that effect. Harry Enfield then starts saying "You didn´t wanna come down the M25 you wanted to come down the A10" , the guy replies "I didn´t", Harry Enfield "You didn´t wanna", the guy "I didn´t come down the M25 I came down the A10", Harry Enfield "You didn´t wanna". Harry Enfield actually starts laughing at one point too, as it´s so ridiculous. This goes on for about 10 mins. Anyway, my point was going to be, there was also a sketch that starts off in a theatre (it´s either Hamlet or Macbeth) the lead actor starts off with the monologue (actually I´m certain it´s Macbeth). "To be or not to be, that is the question". Then in the front row Harry Enfield is there. "Ooohh you don´t want to have that as the question, that´s a terrible question. You want "What´s the capital of Peru" that´s a good question". Lima is the answer" he says. All the time we were in Lima I kept remembering this and chuckling to myself, and repeating it to Michelle (to take her mind of the car honking).

p.p.s. You had to be there.

p.p.p.s. My p.s. is actually longer than this blog I think.

Sex, Drug´s and Rock & Roll!!

Well we arrived in Cusco this morning at about 8am, totally cream crackered after getting up at 4am!!
Lima was as busy at that time in a morning as it is during the day, all the street vendors work through the night and just cover themselves in a fusty old blanket, it´s a grim life.
The thing is they only sell stupid sweets and daft drinks, surely they can afford themselves a night off to sleep?
The car honking was as bad as ever last night so in the end we had to put our ear plugs in, it really was that bad, and we really did need to sleep to be up early.
The ear plugs are a Godsend and are very high on my list of "Glad I brought" things (obviously stilletos been number 1)
The flight was pretty straight forward, it was like an Easy Jet flight into Europe and we were on the plane less than an hour.
It was excellent flying over the Peruvian Mountains this morning as the sun came up, the sky was blood red, it was lovely.
The landing was a strange one, obviously we are really really high up here (more about that in a mo) and surrounded by mountains.
Normally when I´ve flown anywhere the plane start´s to descend and usually takes about 30-45 mins, well because Cusco is in a kind of valley the plane just kind of dropped out of the air and when we hit the run way we were still going at a fair old speed, so much so that I thought we would take off again at the other end!
Anyway it was a smooth landing.
So the altitude.. WOW!! (For anybody at Comet reading this, no I don´t mean week on week!!)
We knew it was going to be tough from our experience in Quito, and also the Rough Guide for Sth America that we have with us warns you about it too.
NOTHING could have prepared me for it, it was much more difficult than Quito and when we got into the restaurant after a walk of only a few 100 yards I thought I was going to collapse, I have never felt so ill.
It was like your worst hangover multiplied by a trillion!!
I was hot/cold, sweaty, clammy, couldn´t breathe and felt really nauseous, it took about 10 minutes to pass.
We are just ambling about now like a couple of old people because as soon as you start to exert yourself (even slightly) you just become really breathless and feel like your brain is going to explode!!
Nice ey??
It will take us a good couple of days to fully acclimatise, although Matt doesn´t seem to be struggling as much as I am.
The place, Cusco is great, it´s really clean and full of tourists from all over the world, so there´s lots of good pubs (The Cross Keys) and restaurants to choose from, although it is a bit pricey compared to the rest of Peru.
There is a restaurant next door to our hostal, and as soon as we got put of the taxi this morning on the menu I saw Guinea Pig!
It´s everywhere, luckily I haven´t seen any live ones in restaurant windows or anybody tucking into one, smothering it in tomato ketchup!
We have been given details of a trip to the Macchu Picchu already, and altitude permitting we are hoping to do it on Wednesday, we may need a couple more days though to get used to it.
So the sex drugs and rock & roll..
In Lima there is nothing that you cannot get on the street, we would be walking minding our own business and we would be approached by locals with a sign for the internet, when you tell them that you don´t want to use it, they ask you, "what you want, Grass, Drugs, you tell me what you want, I can get you ANYTHING"
We have also been handed (or should I say Matt has!!) various flyers for sex shops, God only knows why they´ve singled us out (no comments please, our parents read this blog ;-))
And then there´s the music, it´s all dodgy 80´s rock, apparently the Peruvians love it, Bonnie Tyler, Dire Straits etc.
Yesterday when we were talking to one of the locals he was asking where were from, what we do for a living (nothing) how old we were.
When I told him how old I was he was visibly shocked (he he) he could´t believe it as he was 35 (looked about 55) I didn´t have the heart to say to him "the reason I don´t look as old as you is because I don´t have to sell bottle openers to tourists every day"
I know it probably sounds harsh but that´s what he does day in day out, sell´s silly bottle openers for 10 sol (1.20GBP) and he will be very lucky to sell one a day!!
We really don´t know how lucky we are with our nice office jobs, A/C, staff canteen, internet, computers etc.
So that´s us for now, in Cusco for the next few days trying to catch our breath, we have a couple more weeks here (max) and then we will be crossing into Bolivia!!

(Un)gourmet Guinea Pig :-(

We´ve been seeing the sights of Lima the last few days.
Yesterday and today we have been in the Miraflores District, which is really popular with tourists as it´s right on the Pacific Coast, we have caught the local bus as it´s about 5p each to travel 30mins.
During that time you are entertained by all kinds of locals, selling stuff, preaching stuff and just generally making an @rse of themselves, you get a bit tired of listening to them to be honest and we haven´t got a clue what they´re talking about.
Although the weather has picked up a bit it´s still nowhere near the kind of sun/temps we could be getting back home!
It´s really hazy here (always is apparently) but we are in t-shirts so it´s not that cold.
We fly to Cusco tomorrow which seems to be the pest place in Peru according to the locals, the only thing that I´m not looking forward to though is the local delicacy there.. Guinea Pig!!
I always knew that they ate it here but up until now I have been lucky and not seen any, after just speaking with one of the locals, Cusco is where the Guinea Pigs are eaten!
I will be gutted to see it, I used to have 2 as pets (Shaggy and Scooby) and to think of them cooked :-(
They are the cutest little things ever, I´m dreading it.
Last night we went to a really good Italian and had some lovely pasta, Matt is really into the Pisco Sour, which is the Peruvian Cocktail.
Our hotel in Lima Centre is really noisy, they are OBSESSED here with honking their car horns and it really is starting to hack me off because they just honk it for nothing.
This morning at about 3am (I mean how busy can the roads be at that time) there must´ve been about 4-5 cars all just honking their horns for an eternity.
God only knows what the problem was, and it is like that ALL day EVERY day, 100 times worse than NYC.
Oh for a bit of peace and quiet and a night of unbroken sleep!!
We went to the Cinema yesterday and watched an American film (Bruce Willis & Hale Berry) it wasn´t very good but it was good to hear so much English being spoken!
They had Snickers and Milky Ways for sale too, Peruvian chocolate is HORRIBLE, you cant get Cadbury´s and Galaxy over here.
It´s all those little poxy wafers with cheap horrible melted chocolate on (the sort of thing you would get at your grandparents house when you was a kid)
We have found a Dunkin Donuts in Lima though and have been for breakfast the last couple of days!
Veggie food is not as popular here in Peru as Ecuador.
We have got our fingers crossed for Cusco tomorrow as the place that you can get a Sunday Roast apparently also does a good curry!!

Living it up in Lima!!

Last night we arrived in Lima, the capital of Peru.
It is a massive bustling City and really is a beautiful place, especially compared to Quito (the capital of Ecuador) which seems to be the poor relation by comparison.
There is very little poverty, it is much cleaner and not as run down.
We were recommended a hotel by Ozelyne (The French Tour Guide whose link I´ve added to our blog) so we headed straight here from the bus depot, despite the taxi driver trying to get us somewhere else (they get a kick back from the hotels/hostals)
The hotel is 3* and is costing us 10GBP a night, including breakfast.
It's very basic though, so basic in fact that we didn't have any towels this morning when I got a shower, plus I had to run the tap for a few minutes to get rid of the rusty water from the pipes!!!
It is in a great location though and well worth 10 pound a night of any body's money.
Oh yeah we can also get BBC World on the TV which is an absolute bonus.
This morning we booked some internal flights to take us from Lima to Cusco, we fly on Sunday morning at 5.50!!
It was either a 1 hour flight or a 20 hour bus ride, hmmm!!
When we get to Cusco we will have to acclimatise ourselves again as we will be at the same kind of heights as we were in Quito, and that was quite tough going.
Once we are acclimatised we are planning on visiting the Macchu Pichu, we are a couple of lightweights though and are doing it by train rather than trekking up there.
After talking to a few other people who have done the trek it is quite difficult, and to be honest me and Matt are only day trippers when it comes to hiking!!
There are a few other things we are hoping to visit while we are down that way but I will update you about those as we go along.
The bus ride into Lima was extremely luxurious, we had massive leather reclining seats, blankets, pillows, TV, food and drinks.
It was a 9 hour drive but because the bus was so comfy it didn't seem that long.
The bus trip takes you right along the coast line (Pacific) so it was a really good drive, we were sat at the front though so we had white knuckles every time the driver overtook another bus or lorry as we could see everything.
There wasn't anything to worry about though as he was a safe driver, unlike the Ecuadorian one's who should familiarise themselves with the brake a little bit more!!
So we have have been in Peru almost a week now and really enjoying it,looking forward to seeing more of Lima tomorrow and really looking forward to Cusco as there is a pub there that does an English Sunday Lunch!!!
Matt has uploaded the pics now from Peru and also a few that we took on the bus from Ecuador across the border that are worth a look.
If they're a little bit blurred it's because they were taken from the bus window.
Ecuadorian bus drivers stop for nobody!!!

Our day in Chan Chan, Peru

Today we have been on a trip to see the Chan Chan ruins, I wont bore you with all the details as you really have to be there to appreciate it (if anybody is genuinely interested then I'm sure you can get details on Wikkipedia!!)
We had our own English speaking guide (who is French) and a local guy who drives you round in his car (cosy) for 6 hours and the cost was 190 sol, which is 33GBP!!
If we did the same trip anywhere in Europe/States we would have paid hundreds!!
We got some good pics even though the weather is still really grey and overcast, we will try and get them uploaded in the next couple of days.
Tomorrow we are going to the Capital, Lima.
It is approx 570km and will take us 9 hours by bus, the bus cost 140 sol for both of us which is about 10GBP each.
Im sorry to keep quoting you prices but I'm just trying to get across how cheap it is here.
When I first met Matt we always talked about travelling and places we had been, places we would like to visit etc, and we agreed that we would go round the world together at some point.
As much as I love travelling and experiencing new things, I couldn't help think in the back of my mind, I won't go, I'm not cut out for travelling/backpacking and thought that when Matt would mention it again that I would just evade the subject and make plans for other things (i.e buying a house)(not babies!!!)
Matt would tell me about how cheap it was to travel in places like Thailand, and how he had spoken to other people/friends who had travelled through Sth America and how easy it was and all the time I would think, how can it be that cheap, you can't get a hostal for $4 a night, you cant go on an overnight bus journey for $10.
BUT YOU CAN!!!
It really is as cheap and as easy as he told me it would be and its GREAT!!
I never thought I was cut out for hostals, long bus trips, unwashed clothes (sometimes) cold showers, and even the jungle, but I have surprised myself with how resilient I am and Im having an amazing time (as you have probably worked out from the blog!!)
Don't get me wrong I still miss a nice bubble bath and all the other stuff, my nice clothes, my never ending supply of toiletries etc but it's all just superficial stuff that will be there when I get back (unless my mum and dad have thrown it all out!!!)
The buzz you get from arriving in a new place and learning about a new country, the cultre, it's politics etc is priceless (for everything else there's Mastercard!)
I have even found myself trying different food, which for most of you is probably no big deal, but back at home I am a bit of a fussy eater (no I wont be eating Guinea Pig in Peru and my Vegetarian Diet is going very well thank you!!)
The lady that was our guide today was about 60(ish) and she has been in Peru for 18 months, she is an extremely intelligent woman who has travelled the world extensively and knows all the pitfalls, politically and financially, she has decided to stay here in Huanchanco as it is a very uncomplicated life, wherby if she doesn't earn money she doesn't eat!, again here in Peru you get nothing from the state, if you dont work you have no money and you don't eat.
She stays/lives at a local hotel and gets a really good rate as she is here long term, she makes her money by giving these tours to the Chan Chan (all of which she has found out about by going to study with local archeaologists, reading and a general interest in Peru)
She really is an interesting woman and I wish her well, I will put a link onto her site later for anybody that wants to take a look.

Pacific(ally) Peru

Well we are now at "The Seaside" in Peru, how weird is that?
We got the bus from Piura yesterday which is approx 6 hours and through the Peruvian desert, so it´s 6 hours through the desert to the coast wehere it´s grey and cold!
We´re used to it though, were from England after all!
The bus journey was quite eventful as we got a puncture just before we reached our destination, and unlike back home where a mechanic would come out and fix it for you, here the driver had to do it himself.
It was about 7pm and total darkness, all he had was a small torch, so you can imagine the difficulty he had!!
He did have a jack and wheel brace too, I hope you dont think I meant he only had a torch to change the tyre with?!?!
Anyway to his credit he did a great job and we were back on the road in under an hour.
It was quite funny to be honest as Matt was trying to tell the driver that we actually had another torch that he could have used and that it was in our ruck sack in the luggage compartment.
He just shrugged his shoulders at Matt and carried on in darkness, God only knows what Matt was actually saying to him!!
While the driver was fixing the puncture we were left on the bus with no A/C on and it became really stuffy, I got up to use the toilet on the bus which was downsatirs (one of those posh double deckers) anyway when I got up all the locals must have thought I was getting off as when I came out of the toilet there were loads of Peruvians trying to get in thinking it was the exit!!
We arrived ok and the hostal were staying at is really nice, its like the sort of accommodation you get when you go on a cheapie hol to Greece?
Today we are in a 'place called Trujillo, it´s quite a large place and about 12km from where were staying.
We jumped on the local bus this morning, well what an experience that was..
The bus was knackered, if it was in the UK it would have been scrapped many years ago (along with the driver)
It was as if somebody had put a steering wheel, some wheels and some seats in a small garage and decided to drive it.
Talk about shake rattle and roll, it was funny though and we couldn´t stop laughing!
It cost us 2 sol which is about 30p (for both of us)
It seems that Peru is even cheaper than Ecuador (just when you think things cant get any cheaper)
Matt got a pair of Converse baseball boots before we left Ec for $15 (7.50), it really is cheap for clothes, shoes, handbags etc.
There are a few more Westerners here so were not getting quite as many stares as we were in Piura.
Tomorrow we are hoping to go on a trip to a place called Chan Chan which is some ancient Inca remains (don´t know too much about them at this stage)
Here there is a drink called Inca Kola and everybody drinks it, it´s like the fizzy green limeade we get in the UK.
Anyway that´s about it for now as I know Matt is posting too and probably repeating everything I´ve just posted.
Hope you´re all enjoying your summer hols and long summer night´s, it gets dark about 6pm everyday here!!

On The Buses (aka Adios Ecuador)

Hello All. We're now in Peru (as Michelle mentioned) after spending a fair few hours on the buses (more later on the buses). So, this brings the Ecuadorian part of our adventure to a close, so I'll just recap on that for a while. After getting over the initial shock of leaving the US, which really was a holiday for us, posing no problems whatsoever from a travelling point of view, except the huge portions of food which I've already bored you with, we found Ecuador to be an fantastic, diverse, friendly country with some amazing mountain scenery as well as the jungle of course! I think we were both a bit wary of it at first, due to it being one of the fewer travelled countries in S.America as well as there being a few warnings in the guide book about pickpockets, muggers, dodgy taxi drivers, etc. Mind you I'd have to agree with the dodgy taxidrivers; their sanity not their morals!

The people, even though 80% of them live in poverty, are so friendly and helpful. When we pulled up at any bus terminals, obviously standing out like sore thumbs, we were rushed by a variety of bus conductors, drivers, vendors and beggars. Once we'd wrestled the beggars to the floor and dodged the vendors, the bus company staff then tried to sell us all manner of tickets. Once we told them where we going even if it wasn't with their company they would still point us in the right direction of the bus we needed. I can't imagine that happening at home; if you aren't going on their bus most conductors/drivers don't want to know you!

So onto the buses. The last trip from Ecuador into Peru was easily the best and the longest! After leaving Loha the journey up (and then back down and then back up) the Andes starts. At one point we were passing in and out of clouds and there were a handful of condors flying past; the views were superb across the valleys. The edge of the roads aren't always sealed with barriers so the view directly down is interesting too! The border crossing into Peru was stress free too; the border guard gave me 90 days in Peru and Michelle only 60 for some reason. Loha (Ecuador) was uneventful really, the most exciting thing was me falling down the steps of a restaurant after our meal and sliding down a flight of steps on one of my ribs! It still hurts now! The same for Piura in Peru really, uneventful I mean, I managed to stay on my feet there.

The bus journey yesterday to Trujillo, where I'm writing this, however wasn't completely uneventful. We had a flat tire about 5 hours in. We couldn't really see what was happening for a while as the driver(s) wouldn't let us off the bus and it was dark by this point. After a while though, the passengers, including us, started banging on the windows, doors, roof, even the toilet door, and eventually the drivers let us off. Now, you can imagine how difficult it is to change a bus tyre in the daytime let only at night, especially when you have the bus jacked up on a couple of rocks! The drivers only had a little torch which they were passing between them, one of them lying under the bus and one of them p*ssing about with all manner of poles and spanners. Now I knew we had a torch in one of our packs which was locked up in the luggage compartment. So, using my broken Spanish (Michelle has resorted to calling me Manuel) I thought I'd be helpful and tell the driver that I had another torch and would he like to borrow it. "Tengo uno otro Luz" I said. Now, whether this was poor spanish or he just couldn't here me I don't know, but he looked at me as if I'd ask if his Grandmother was for sale. So, I tried again. Same response. So then I started asking the other passengers and got similar responses from them. Anyway, after a while I got bored and we got back on the bus. One other thing, when you change a tyre, not that I ever have, aren't you supposed to lower the vehicle and then tighten the wheel nuts rather than lodge a brick between the ground and the wheel to prevent it slipping? Obviously I didn't try to help the drivers on this either for fear of them trying to tighten MY nuts with their greasy tools! Still, we're here now.

Well I'd best be off now, keep the comments coming.

p.s. We just got a bus from Huanchaco, the beach where we're staying, to Trujillo which is about 15Km away. It was the funniest bus you have ever seen. The drivers seat looked like a deck chair just bolted to the floor and his rearview mirror looked like he'd stolen it from someone's bathroom!

Peru

Hi all, well we arrived in Peru safely yesterday at about 4pm, after a 9 hour bus ride!!
We caught it at 7am, it's the earliest we've been up since we finished work!!
They always have dodgy Spanish music playing full blast too which is not appreciated at that time in a morning (or any other time for that matter)
They did play a dodgy 80´s ballads CD at one point with some singers singing along badly to Chris De Burgh, Roxette etc!!
Ear plugs always come in handy on bus trips!!
It is red hot here as we are almost on the Peruvian coast at a place called Piura, the coast is the Peruvian Desert so you can imagine how hot it is, still after all the rain we had in Ecuador we're not complaining!!
We are here for one more night then we are back on the bus to a coastal resort where they have good beaches, it will be more like a holiday than travelling.
We are ready for a bit of R&R though as we have had a busy week on the buses getting from Quito to Peru.
The place we are at is really busy and it reminds me of Thailand (even though I've never been) there are 1000's of taxi's, those little motor bike ones, the roads are like Whacky Races and you need your wits about you when you´re crossing the road.
It seems richer than Ecuador and quite a few of the locals are a lot friendlier, although we have had some strange stares too, and we have only seen one group of Westerner's (some USA navy men, I dont mean navy in colour)
The border crossing was extremely straight forward despite all the horror stories we had heard and read, although we did chose the safest option after chatting to a few other people who had come from Peru to Ec.
The border officials have a sense of humour too which makes it a bit less stressful, we didnt have to pay any bribes either!!!
The drive from Ecuador into Peru was the most scenic we have had and it really is a beautiful country, despite the poverty.
If Ecuador got wise to tourism it would really improve their quality of life, as it is an amazing place.
You can all do your bit to help at home though by buying Ecuadorian bananas!! they are one of the country's BIGGEST exports (another been oil)
We went to the cinema when we were staying in Cuenca as we were fed up of walking round in the rain and were also soaked, we knew that there wouldnt be any English films but hey how difficult can it be to watch Spiderman 3 in Spanish!!
Anyway when we got there we were told that there was an English film just about to start!! so we opted for that, "Pathfinder" OMG it was garbage!! it was like one of Paul Deyes pirate copies, the sound was all warbled and the picture quality was awful, we were also the only people in there!!
We did get out of the rain for a couple of hours though, after that we went back to a really good bar that we found the night before, Eucalyptus, and dried out in front of their open log fire.
We blew the budget too and spent $17 on a bottle of wine which is cheap at 8 quid, but we had been paying $8 in other places which is only 4 quid.
For anybody who is wondering if Matt is still with me or if I'm on this trip alone (due to his lack of blogging) then don't worry he is fine, I keep telling him to get a post on, but he is too busy on messenger with his work colleagues!!!!!
So that's about it for now, were off into the town now, last night we went to an Italian that we had seen advertised on the back of a map that we had been given by the hostal, we asked 3 different taxi driver's if they could take us and nobody knew where it was, the 3rd one did drop us near it and we managed to find it round the corner.
Hopefully today we will find something more central and within walking distance!!
For anybody that has tried to text us since we left the USA, my phone hasn't been working in Ecuador due to some signal differences they have here that my phone is not compatible with, but it's working fine now were in Peru, so apologies for any unreturned texts!