Aug 2006

I survived the Inca Trek. What an amazing experience. The trek of 4 days started off really easy then kicked us in the arse on day 2. The porters carrying 25kg´s each of our shit ran up and down every hill in an incredible manner that blew me away. I could hardly walk on day 2. Day 2 consisted of walking 13k´s 1200 metres up and then 500 metres steeply down to camp.. testing all muscles. My boots were giving me a hard time but i banaged myself up and trooped on. The scenery was exasperating.. ever corner and ever breath taken was a mind blowing experience. I made friends with the porters along the way and every other trekker i came across.

The camping was all done for us it was like 5*. We arrived at camp with everything set up, they fed us 5 times a day and we played cards to fill the hours in the evenings up. Day 4 we woke at 4 am, set off at 5 to watch the sun rise over machu Picchu. It was dark as we set off and as we arrived at the sun gate.. wow! the clouds covered Machu Picchu but as they rose it was truely and incredible sight. Even though i have seen this pictutre a million times it was a breath taking view when we did get thee.. the cloud helped add to the mystical effect.. its ace. The history of the Incas is pretty mad too.. the spanish were such gits! So the aching bones and muscles of day 4 were certainly worth it.. i have to say i reckon its the most rewarding experience of my life so far!

2 extra ladies on my tour of the trek made y time and the guide Dionel.. we sang our way to the top.. and laughed like i havent for ages.. theyre a special 2 my new friends.

So here back in Cusco, 3 days to relax and rest the muscles that now look like Arnies. Alot of discoteques and beer drinking in the next few days just to make up for the days of exercise i have just had! On to the coast next.. back to sea level.. thank god.. be nice to breath properly again!

As i sit here writing this i have a little scruffy smelly cute child stroking my arm and staring intently at me.. as i am probably odd to her! Very amusing.. shes fascinated.. maybe its my arnie legs!

Well.. we stayed with a momma and her 6 kids on one of the islands on Lake Titicaca. Here they are Aymara Indians, speaking Quechua. What a massive lake, anyone would think that it was an ocean.. amazing to go by boat past the floating man made reed islands onto an island that we were to later stay on for the night with native familes.

3 of us stayed with a small tiny lady and her family. Her husband was in Lima. She fed us her 3 types of potatoe and squeeky cheese which i adored as it made me laugh when i ate it. Her kids names christian, walter and isaak, the others i forget were adorable. We gave them presents of colouring pencils and fruit and she took us to the local football ground.

From here we played at 4700 metres above sea level football with the locals...local women in their traditional dress and sandals against a load of gringos.. really amazing fun... 7 shots at goal and miss´s i realised i am not the next beckham.

Our momma dressed us up in the traditional gear and took us to the local fiesta. Here there were heaps of gringos also dressed up very funnily for the whole peruvian natives to laugh at. We all had different woollen hats so that at the end of the night they knew which gringo was theirs.In candlelight we undressed and lay in our small room.. very peaceful with the slight ecco of peruvian flute in the distance.

The following day after a good sleep on their straw beds and enough blankets to crush our lings we rose to water in buckets to wash and pancakes. We waved good bye to momma and kids and set off on the boat for 3 hours back to the main land via the Reed islands.

These man made islands were amazing... they had their farms of guinea pigs and these amazing houses.. each island houing maybe 7 families.. with some solar panels in there to get electric... all i could find to do was fall face first in the bed of the island.. those reeds are so relaxing.. the weather was good.. ideal to sink in the surroundings.

A night in puno with some quality ladies from another group and a good rest for todays 7 hour drive to Cusco.

And here i am.. about to embark on the inca trek tomorrow.. ready for the hell of a day 2 but looking forward to the rewards at the end of it.. a 4 day hike here i come. Our drive into cusco gave us an idea of what was about to come.. as we approached the mountains got higher and higher.. oh dear!

so.. with a mind full of thought we proceeded to La paz. The highest capital city in the world. A great city a stinky city. managed to do alot of shopping, bought alot of things for friends and family and now have the struggle of getting it to you all. The bolivians i love, i love Bolivia. The women and their funny charlie chaplin hats sat on their heads whilst they wear their fancy dresses and embroidered blankets. The lama fetuses of tradition, you place them under the house and they bring good luck.

The following day we embarked on Death Road. The moist dangerous road int he workld with a bus going over it just 10 days ago and all passengers being killed. We were to mountain bike down it. 80km from 4700 metres to 1200 metres, in the jungle. It was amazing. A grit road with sheer drops that were stomach churning just looking at them. The brakes would want to be working, it was razy. Full speed i dread to thin t what speed we were doing. It wtook ohours we fell we laughed we cried at the site of dead buses all along the stretch.. well in the distance at the bottom of the valleys. I stupidly thought the bus taking us home was taking a different oad and soon realised it was taking the same road back up. 5 hours later after a hair raising experince of a mini bus of us trying to go up and many 7% beers later after i had been afraid of the monkeys biting me.. we got home. And with a t-shirt telling us we survived.. ha! great day though!

i am so far behind on this thing i donno if i can catch up.. so i met the gruop back agin in Argentina in salta. The wankers of the group had left and the dinamics had improved so much.

A big walk up a hill in Salta a beautiful city gave us an amazing view of the smog ridden air. I tried my hand at horse riding again and loved it. A day with a true cowboy, a groucho that was awesome called enrique.. some magnificent views and some great red wine at the end of it.

Onto the road journey to Bolivia and a road block. Probably one of the highlights of the tour as the truck stopped at the side of the road and we stayed there the night. The road was blocked as the native andes people were trying to gain rights to the land so there fore blocked peopel passing through. 2km´s of traffic and a big party.. some argentinian wine to wash it all down with and a really memorable night.

We were in fear that we were gonna have to stay ont he road till it opened and the guide andy was going to take us lot over the barracade to take public transport to the next destination. Becasuse James the driver was gona be alone i chose to stay with him for company.. but as this was decided the barracade came down and on we travelled.

Bolivia here we were and what an amazing place. We stopped the first night in Tupiza, an unexpected stop and fter sleeping int he truck the night before it was well needed. A tinty little town that gave a great spirit to our first experience of Bolivia.

A massive drive the next day as the roads were blocked somewhere else so we drove off road all day down rivers and streams and through the most incredible terrain i think i have ever encountered. From rolling hills, the dessert flats, cliffs and mountains.. rugged to steep to flat.. th ecoloyrs were beyond me and the mountain people as we increased in altitude have to be as hard as nails. Watching as we drove past them and their flocks of mainly larma and sheep in their funny bowler hats and colourful blankets.. an amazing sight that wont ever leave me.

We got to Uyuni a sleepy dive of a place where we were to embark on the salt flats the next day. Bolivia is immediately very poor, with beggars everywhere.. it has amazed me as it is so incredibly different.. so amazing in ots beauty yet it has no money and the realisation to a westerner that lives in a world of so much money is that we really dont need so much.

The salt flats were mind blowing.. white for as far as the eye could see.. we drove for over an hour over them as we neared an island, fish island full of massive cacti.. wow! A cacti grows 10mm a year and these were massive.. it was incredible. So peaceful... a beautiful day.. followed by a great hotel where we drank sangria until dark.

From here we went to Potosi, once the greatest city in south america, a silver mining city in its day and now poor run down city striving to be as it once was.

On our way here we went past the place that Butch Cassidy robbed his last train.. not much of a place either but in its day it must have been a silver centre.

Ptosi was mind blowing for one reason. I went on a mine tour, somethign i may chose to never do again because its quite clausrtrophobic but also because it was a real eyeopener at what goes on out there. It upset me alot to see the conditions these miners are in and what they are working for. Absolutely nothing, mining only tin, zinc ad a little silver very little these days. These miners drink 96% alcohol, eat cocoa leaves all the time for altitude and are generally in the mines for between 12-24 hours a day for maybe a pound in payment. They were wankered when we came out of the mines, abused by the alcohol.. maybe happy but the last 2 men that we saw really made me sad.. to look into their eyes they had nothing in there.. they were sad.. they begged us for our buscuits and dinomite and they were struggling for survival.

I´ll end this here as this was the biggest eye opener i have ever had in life. I work in a commercial environment wher money is sen as a neccessity. These giys had nothing, they worked their arses off for somthign taht years ago was a rich ting and was once there. 6000 workers worked in these mines stil to this day.. the smile that a biscuit gave them even though it couldnt replace that lost soul that had gone from their eyes.. it was a momentous happiness.. short lived...i wished i could have done something else..

we walked away and i still havent stopped thinking of that moment.. of those eyes.

anymore and i`ll turn into one.
My long voyage to meet my group again across the otherside of the southern american plains and i am still on this long and trecorous voyage... i was told it was 30 hours but theres one thing you never do.. believe a brazillian first off.. i have just learnt that the long and painful way.

So i set off from the beautiful islands where the sun started to shine and surfers played with their waves and headed for the main land on friday night. I took a night bus saw my ankles swell with pride and crossed the brazillian border into Argentina yesterday. And what a contrast they are to the brazillians. I have taken a slight dislike to them immediately.. and i shouldnt as i know its my warped no sleep mind that is causing this! they dont smile as much thats for sure!

My lack of the language doesnt help, even though i had my lessons it went in one ear and out the other! So i waste a day in Iguazu on the argentinian side and catch anoter night bus last night to this place in argentina called Resistencia. I was told by the lovely brazillian lady at the argentinian bus depot that instead of getting the direct bus to my location that was 28 hours long i should get this one to Resistencia and change to salta as it would be far quicker as they have many buses a day.. at what point did i not question this i donno.. maybe i could see the light at the end of the tunnel... so off i trot.

On my 2nd night bus, alot nicer.. down i pop a valium and hey presto i sleep the entire journey, feet arent swollen, i am in great spirits. Arrive in the arse end of nowhere this morning at 7am, cold as... lots of staring as you can imagine as i am dressed like i just stepped off a carribean cruise.. so yeah.. i get to the ticket office and shit i´m fucked.. i cant say anything...

I scurry through some pigeon spanish and ask for a ticket to salta.. not till 6.30 tonight.. fuck! wicked.. so with my knowledge of the brazillians i go ask someone else.. they say the same.. and again and again.. fuck!

So heres to another day wasting the hours away dreaming of the night bus i am about to encounter tonight and what standard it will up to. I woke last night with a meal next to me which i thought was pretty nice, even though i didnt eat it.. the old valium and the fact it was 3am made me lose my appetite.

Apparently this town has 300 sculptures in it so i guess thats enough said about how busy i can be today searching for them... it may not be so bad after all.

i just got an email from my tour guide who says i started a trend and 4 group members have left followinhg my trend.. oops.. but the good thing is its all the idiots.. good one emm.. so i can rejoin minus them!