I love getting stuck in Taganga Colombia!

After Med I left the girls behind and headed off to the bus station at 6am after about 2 hrs of sleep. I found a bus and settled in for my 15hr drive up to the coast. The drive was mostly uneventful, but beautiful and we got in just after a brilliant sunset over the Caribbean sea. Cart is possibly the most beautiful town I have been in yet, at least the old city. The old part of town is built in a circular area on one point of coast line and is exquisite. It was built by the Spanish as a fort town and is still surrounded by a big stone wall with cannons pointed out to sea. the architecture is old colonial and it feel so romantic just walking through the streets. The part of town I was staying in was a short 5 min walk to the old town and itself had lots of old colonial architecture as well but was much seeder and had a lot of life to it. It was a bit funny getting into town, it was hot as hell which I didn't realize before I exited the bus because they air condition the hell out of the buses here, you might be sweating buckets out side but in the bus you need a sleeping bag. Anyway I arrived into town around 8 or 9, after dark and found a bus that took me down town but got a little lost once I was there and had to wander the streets for a bit asking people directions before I found the hostel. It is funny down here streets are most often not named or labeled at all but in Cart they had different names than were on the map making it extra confusing. I dropped my stuff of jumped into a cold shower (the only type around here) then went out to explore the town. The town had a real Caribbean feel to it, lots of life especially people crowed out on the street and in the plazas, loud salsa music, hot as hell. It was great. I got some food then finally hit the sack. The next day I was up pretty early and went to explore the old town, just lazily walking up this street and down that one only stopping to buy a fruit shake (I cant go a day without one). I really cannot get over the Passion fruit down here I will miss it more than anything else I think. Anyway as the day progressed it got hotter and hotter. It was so hot you just sweat and sweat sitting still. I went to explore a big stone fort that over looked the old town and you could see the whole area from up there. After that I found an air conditioned Internet cafe and just fucked around on the computer so I could be cold. I thought about going to a movie so I could sit some where air conditioned but the only movie playing in the new part of town was dubbed over. So I contented myself with getting some lunch and taking a long walk on the beach. The new part of town looks just like what I think Miami would look like, lots of high rise condos overlooking a long beach dotted with umbrellas. As the sun set I wandered back over to the new city and sat up on the stone wall until it started to down pour. After that I headed back to the hostel drenched through which wasn't a bad thing because it cooled me off a bit. The next morning I headed back to the bus terminal and caught a bus to Santa Marta which was about 4 hrs away. From the Santa Marta terminal I caught a collectivo into town and tried to book the lost city trek for the next day (it is this 6 day trek in a near by town to a lost city) Anyway I couldn't start a trek for another couple of days so I caught another collectivo to Taganga a fishing town about 15min outside of Santa Marta. It is super cute and relaxed. I found myself a room of my own (I thought I would treat myself ) booked a scuba diving course for the next day and ate some freshly caught fish down on the beach. Delicious. Then at the local Internet cafe I was writing a friend i met on the Salt flats and it turned out he was in the same Internet cafe so we hung out for the rest of the day, he was staying at a hostel up on a hill so we chilled in hammocks that over looked the harbor until the sun set then we had some more fish and some very delicious pina coladas. The next morning I was up early and went down to my diving company. I was doing the PADI open water course which was 4 days long. It turned out I was doing it with this Swedish girl I met earlier in Colombia, such a coincidence but really they are not that rare when you travel. We watched the video in the morning and did the test dive then I went back into Santa Marta to go to the bank and do some shopping. The next day up early and did my first two real open water dives. I cannot describe how awesome diving is I love it completely, I have seen so many things and this is not even the best place to go diving. We saw all sorts of fish including barracuda, moray eels, flounders, sea horses, puffer fish, flying fish which are crazy looking when they fly over the water next to the boat and a million other things. That afternoon I just relaxed, moved hostels and watched tv. I really like the hostel I am in, it has a great view and a ton of hammocks and lots of good people. There is also this baguette place in town that makes the best sandwiches I have ever had, I eat there every night, the owners know me. The next day we went diving again then just chilled out and had some drinks, the dutch girls I was traveling with before met up with me and we had a good night. The next day was my last day of diving and brought another trip to Santa Marta. They have manikins in stores here with the craziest biggest boobs they look soo silly, but so many women have fake breasts I guess it suits. The next day i head out with a dutch girl i met in taganga named marlios and bj and Australian i met before. We went out to tayrona a big national park about an hour from Santa Marta. After taking a bus to the entrance and going through drug security we had to buy a ticket then catch a truck cab into the park about twenty minutes then from there we had to walk for about an hour into the beach (and we were caring all of our water because in the park everything costs a ton of money) but it was worth it. It turns out the park is actually owned by a french dude that all the big parks are privately owned in Colombia. The park is like a paradise; beautiful beach palm trees the Caribbean ocean. It was unbelievable. We rented hammocks for the night and just chilled out drank some of the rum i brought and had a great time. Although we became something of a spectacle to some of the Colombian teenagers who were there, they all wanted pictures with us and all wanted pictures of my tattoos. The next morning after getting eaten my mosquitoes we decided to walk town all of the beaches. We really took our time stopping to swim at every beach along the way. We even had one all to ourselves that looked like a movie set with perfect palm trees and a ship wreak off shore. We finally reached the final beach swam and then i headed back, packed up my stuff and headed out of the park. I caught a bus back to Santa Marta and then back to taganga with enough time to grab some drinks with friends and relax. That brings us up to today, today i started my advanced open water course and now i am just chilling at the hostel; it is really really hot and i am drinking lots of water and keeping to the shade and in my hammock: its a good life.

Colombia here I come!!

So I left off in Quito (not a huge fan). Well I was staying at this hostel which is a pretty fun party place. And I met these two Dutch girls, Marcia and Lizzy who were also leaving for Colombia on the same day as me so I decided to go along with them. But the bad part was not only was the night before I was planing to leave rum and coke night at the hostel (which means they put a big bucket of rum and coke out in the common area and you can drink for free) but I also had to get up at 5am the next morning to catch the bus the girls were taking. So after partying until quite late I woke up at 4am and convinced myself that perhaps there had been a time change from Peru to Ecuador and that maybe I was late for getting up, that maybe it was really 5am. So I dragged myself downstairs to ask the front desk what time it was ( the man at the front desk who was sleeping at the time was somewhat confused as to exactly what I wanted) and then I couldn't fall back asleep worried that I would miss my alarm ( I think I was still a bit drunk) But I got up at the right time and the three of us set up in the misty premorning light. It was almost as if a huge cloud had settled over Quito making it look sketcher and more mysterious than ever. We got to the bus station by taxi and had to wait for a bit for the bus. I was a bit worried again that I wouldn't be able to get a ticket (the girls already had theirs) and that I would be stuck alone in a bus stop in Quito at 5.30 am but the bus was basically empty so we settled in for the 6 hr bus ride to the border with Colombia. It was beautiful. Quito is in a mountain range and we spent the next couple of hours driving from cloud filled valley to mountain top and back down again. We finally reached the Ecuadorian border town named Tulcan and had to catch a cab to the border. We ended up getting a ride in the back of this guy's old wooden tarp covered truck. It was hilarious. There we were in this old wooden truck bed speeding towards the Colombian border in the middle of nowhere, I felt like we were being smuggled or something. We reached the border and after some confusion we exited Ecuador and then stood in line for about 2 hrs to enter Colombia. It was the most ridiculous border crossing I have done so far. There were so many people waiting in this huge line and one man slowly servicing all of them despite the fact there were booths for about 4 other people to be working. And in South America there is quite the culture of cutting the line so there were more than a few occasions were we watched people duck into the front. After we had finally reached the front of the line this woman comes up and asks Marcia if she can just ask the border official one quick question so Marcia says sure, well her question turned out to be "can you stamp my passport". You just had to laugh damn it! I amused myself at one point by looking at all the wanted signs they had posted all over the border (FARC rebels) "I am in Colombia now!" I thought. From the border we took another cab to the Colombian border town and from there we caught a bus to Cali. The bus ride took until 2am (long day) and was on perhaps the windiest road in the world. We spent the entire trip being thrown from one side of the bus to the other and sped around each progressive corner. It was spectacular though. Colombia is beyond beautiful and is about a million shades of green. We started out on this winding cliff road which would have been terrifying if I hadn't already been to Bolivia. The scenery is so lush and there were about a hundred waterfalls along the way. We started up and over a whole other series of mountain ranges. I was dead tired when we arrived in Cali. We caught a cab and after much confusion found a hostel and I hit the sack.

The next we hung out in Cali. Colombia is so modern and developed compared to the rest of South America (or at least Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador) Cali is a beautiful city, really modern yet with a kinda old European feel as well. I guess I have ended up in Colombia during rainy season or something because every afternoon so far it has just poured down rain. We spent the afternoon very happily watching a cheesy movie and then hung out and went out with some other people from the hostel. Good fun.

Yesterday we woke up late and caught a bus to Medellin, the former capital of Drug dealing in Colombia and was home to Pablo Escobar. It took about 9 hours and we got in about 10pm. We are staying at a super party hostel. I think I can only handle it for one more night then I will need some peace and quiet. We went out to a club last night and I cannot describe the girls here. I have never seen so much tits and ass and skimpy cloths in my life, although I do have to admit I don't go to clubs all that often at home so maybe what do I know. Anyway today is a bit of a down day and tomorrow I am hoping to head up to the coast. Sand and sun here I come.

Mancora to Quito with a bit of surfing and paragliding (and a lot of drinking) along the way

hey!

So I got across the border just fine. I actually really didn't like Mancora, I found it really didn't have any good vibes at all, maybe it was the wrong time of year to go there. First there were no waves so I couldn't go surfing and secondly in the 24 hours I was there three people got mugged at gun point right outside my hostel which didn't really endear the place to me. My hostel was in kind of a bad location I guess. It was set back off the main street by this deserted stretch of road. And it was in this no-mans land in which all of the muggings took place. I hate being places where I don't feel safe going out alone at night. Anyway so I decided to leave town and head up to a beach town in Ecuador named Montanita which I heard rocked. So I woke up early and paid for my hostel and then had to cross the no-mans land alone in the wee hours of the morning, not an exciting prospect I will tell you. So being the coward that I am I took of at a lopping gait and reached the other side save and sound and in record time. I wandered into town and found myself a collectivo (a collective bus) to Tumbus the last semi big town before the border town Aguas Verdes. In Tumbus I found a bus that would take me all the way to Guayaquil, the biggest town in Ecuador where I could catch another bus to Montanita. It worked out perfectly the direct bus left 45mins after I got into town giving me time to change my money (they use the us dollar in Ecuador). And then on the bus and across the border no problem. I didn't find it sketchy at all yet we stopped in Aguas Verdes and a British guy got on the bus and he had just been totally fleeced crossing part of the border. He had ended up in this cab with a bunch of locals who demanded money and threatened violence and he had to give the border guards money too, pretty shitty and he was pretty shaken up. After that the bus ride was really nice, we drove past more banana trees than I thought existed and lots of mountains and villages, I saw a bunch of cock fighting pits, it is a big sport here, but no actual fights. We finally arrived in Guayaquil after about 6 hours on the bus. Guayaquil has the most modern bus terminal I have seen in South America so far. It was crazy almost like being in some western shopping mall/bus terminal. From there I caught the nicest bus I have been on since Argentina to Montanita. It was full of gringos since Montanita is a real hippy surf town. It was nice though I met a bunch of people who I hung out with for the next couple of days, especially this couple form California, Laura and Ramie, who ended up traveling to Quito with. Anyway back to the story at hand. We rolled in to Montanita at about 9pm (it was a long day). Montanita is a really funny place. It is such a little gringo mecca. There is one main strip that is about three blocks long, chock a block with restaurants and bars that offer 24 hr a day happy hour, two for one deals. So I proceeded to get my room, shower and then go for a drink! It was a great way to end the day, we even went dancing. The next day I woke up late, wandered around, got breakfast and ran into Laura who invited me to go paragliding with her and Ramie so I said ¨fuck ya¨ and half an hour later we were off and heading down the beach to a cliff. It was an awesome experience. It was tandem paragliding so really you are just attached to the guy who is actually flying the thing, but it was so much fun, we soared up above the cliff and the beach spread out below us, a long golden strip that slipped into the beautiful blue ocean. He also did all of these really sharp turns which kinda throw up to one side or another. I just loved it. I was amazing just to be hanging there up in the sky, no engine noise, just gliding on the breeze. After that we headed back to down got some lunch and a couple of drinks (damn they were cheap and tasty) then really just hung out on the beach the rest of the day and went out again at night, it is kinda the only thing to do there. Although the next morning I groggily awoke from my drunken slumber at 5:30am to the sound of a complete marching band parading up and down the main strip, I still have no idea what they were celebrating, maybe they were just fucking with all the gringos. If there is something I have learned about south america by now is that they love their parades, I mean love them! They have parades for just about any occasion you can think of, and on top of that they love to have parades at very inappropriate hours. I have seen them early in the morning and late at night and have often woken to the noise of a parade but this was by far the earliest parade yet!

The next day I switched hostels to Laura and Ramie´s and then proceeded to do nothing all day. I read, I swam, the ocean here is warm, not hot so perfect for swimming in and I drank. It was great. The next day I finally got out on a surf board. It was alot of fun to be doing something active and I even got up which for me is all I can ask for. Although I ended up surfing down one end of the beach so I wouldn't get to in the way of people who can really surf but at one point I started thinking about sharks and being all on my own. I hate thoughts like that when your feet are hang down in to the dark waters below. But luckily I surfed for a couple of hours with no shark bites or even nibbles. Then it was back to my old routine of sleeping, reading and drinking. The next day Laura, Ramie and I rolled out of town early on our way to Quito. It took from about 9am to 12am to make it there and by the time we arrived I was dead beat and ready for sleep. I am not a huge fan of Quito as far as cities I have been in it doesn't rank high in excitement or beauty and about a person a night, sometimes more, from my hostel is mugged on their way back to the hostel. Which makes a place slightly less appealing. I haven't really been up to much since I have been here. Mostly just hanging out with people at the hostel (a really nice group) and I went up a cable car to the top of a near by mountain. You can see down on to all of Quito and it looks pretty huge and spectacular from up there. I also went to the equator today which was interesting. It is funny though they have two monuments. One was put up by the French I think and is wrong, not actually on the equator, but it is the bigger of the two and the more visited. Then there is a little museum on the real equator that was cute and kitchy. They do all sorts of little experiments, one where they drain a sink of water on the northern hemisphere and it drains counter clockwise and on the southern hemisphere it drains clockwise and on the equator it drains straight down. Lonely planet says it is all a lie that you cant see the difference so close the equator but to me you could really see it so I choose to believe my eyes! I also balanced an egg on a nail right on the equator and got a certificate for doing it. One of my highest achievements to date! Anyway I am off for Columbia tomorrow and another slightly dubious border crossing but I have so many under my belt now I am sure I will be fine. I am excited about Columbia I have been looking forward to this for so long.

Getting to Mancora and being left by the side of the road at a godforsaken hour!

So lets see my last blog entry left off with us arriving to Lima. We loved Lima, I think not so much because it was Lima but more because it wasn't Puerto Maldonado. It was big and the area we stayed in called Miraflores was very modern and you could even buy English newspapers (Anna almost fainted with joy, especially over the combination of English news papers and good coffee). So we spent the first day just chilling out in our new hood enjoying the finer things in life, like chocolate mouse. The second day we were set to head on into the centre of town. We thought this was going to be easier than it was and it ended up involving a lot of yelling at buses asking them if they went to the centre and then a lot of people on buses shaking their fingers at us. It is a thing here, only north of Cuzco I think, but it is as if you are almost too stupid of a no or a shake of the head so you receive a wag of the finger as if we had been very naughty indeed to even ask. We finally found our bus, climbed on and spent the next 45 mins watching the driver veer dangerously in and out of traffic alike a maniac on some sort of caffeine rush, I witnessed about a dozen almost accidents. Finally making it down town we happily exited the bus and found our way into the centre of town. Being that it was Anna and I, we scoped out the first food joint we found, which turned out to be basically an old parking lot converted into more than a dozen food stands. At the very back we found this place that served fried calamari so we ordered ourselves up a plate and I don't even know how to describe the joy that exploded within us at what we received. It was the hugest plate of fried calamari and fish that I have ever had and man o man was it AMAZING! And I am not even a huge seafood person but I now consider myself a convert to the ways of the sea! There was this dipping sauce as well, I cant even describe it! Anyway we polished it off pretty quickly and then talked about how great it was for the next 12 blocks, and all for the low low price of 10 soles. I know I know much of this blog has been a long description of different foods I have eaten but you know what, it´s what makes me happy. They also have another delightful seafood dish here called Ceviche which is raw or hardly cooked fish in this citrus sauce, also amazing. Ok so moving on. . . . . We looking around the down town for the next couple of hours, finally finding ourselves in some crazy warehouse district where you can by any cloths and shoes that you want for super cheap in these enormous air hanger like buildings. After shopping for a bit we headed back to get more calamari (yes I know we have one track minds) and ended up running into our old friend Kaye who was only in town for a day, so we had some coffee and chilled out and then headed back to our hostel together (minus the calamari they had closed for the day). The next day Anna was not well. She had spent the night with a high fever and throwing up, it was terrible. So after making her as comfy as possible I headed back down town to do a little exploring by my self. I ended up some what rashly deciding to get a tattoo since I had little else to do! I love it! It says ¨I have everything that I need¨ in Spanish on the side of my foot. The idea came from this book I read while down here, which included Taoist teachings and one of them included this idea that we all already possess all that we need, anyway I feel that idea really symbolizes much of what I have learned and been through on this trip so now it is on my foot, cheesy I know but I never confessed to be otherwise. After the tattoo (and some more calamari, shit I know I am like a broken record) I headed back to Anna who was doing no better. She had another feverish night during which I had to put wet towels on her to keep her cool. The next day she was a might bit better and I had to leave to travel up the coast, yet i was starting to feel a little unwell myself. Saying our goodbyes after all this time was hard and then I headed off to catch my bus. I ended up meeting up with this girl I had met before named Sophie and we spent a pleasant 10 hr bus ride chatting and making fun of the terrible movies they decided to show us. At about 10pm we rolled into Trujillo a town about halfway up the northern coast. I was feeling pretty shitty by our arrival and was very happy to lay my head down when we had found a hostel. The next day we slept in, got breakfast and then headed out to some ruins near town called Chan Chan. It is the ruins of a great city (the capital of a northern Peruvian civilization) that was conquered by the Incas. We got dropped off at the road in but really it only looked like some abandoned building site with piles of dirt and half destroyed adobe walls everywhere. After walking about 2 km into the site we bought out tickets and looked around. It actually turned out to be pretty interesting and the site was pretty well preserved with intricate carvings in the wall and this one enclosure in a mud and sand landscape that held a big lagoon. After that we headed to the Chan Chan museum and then on to a smaller surf town in the area where Sophie was looking to volunteer for a month. I started to feel shitty again so after a walk down the beach I headed back and started the epic mission to by a bus ticket up the coast. The first two companies I went to had nothing, or didn't go up the coast so after a slight bit of panic that I would have to wait days and days to leave town the third company had seats for that night, so I booked. It really makes little to no sense to me but they only have buses that do the trip up at night so you start your journey at about 8:30pm have a shitty restless night and then roll into town at 5:30 am which it is a stupid time to arrive anywhere. So I get to the bus station a half an hour before I am supposed to and soon start to realize that perhaps I have chosen the shady bus company which would explain why they still had room on their bus. Checking in I not only noticed a whole row of pictures of criminals to watch out for behind the clerk´s desk but I also had to give them my finger print as part of the check in process and then before the bus left someone came around the bus and filmed every ones faces, this was for robbers the girl next to be explained. Great, just great! I thought. So not only was it a terrible uncomfortable, hot as hell, drive during which my sickness returned but I was also super worried that something was going to get stolen. I finally fell asleep on and off and woke up just as we were about to pull out of Mancora, my destination. So stumbling out of sleep I made my way off the bus, gathered my bag and was tossed unceremoniously onto a dark and deserted street alone at 5:30am. What Now? I asked myself so I pulled out my lonely planet page on Mancora which didn't include any sort of map and decided that I should just start walking since I was attracting the attention of some very unsavory characters. A motor cab slowly pulled by me loaded with 4 creepy dudes, shit I thought I might get mugged but I have found that it is best just to start moving and look like you know what you are supposed to be doing. A minute later another motocab pulled up and I got him to take me to the first hostel on the lonely planet list, I just wanted to be off the dark and sketchy street! Well of course no one was awake at the hostel since it was so god damn early in the morning but some dude staying there let me in and I slept in one of their hammocks until one of the staff woke up and put me in a room with some German guy. Thankful that I made it and had not been mugged I fell asleep happy. Now I am just wandering the town. Which is pretty deserted, I thought I would be able to surf but it is the wrong time of year I will have to go further north, although I did learn how lucky I was last night since only yesterday at dusk this girl near my hostel was mugged at gun point and that was only at dusk not in the middle of the night! I think I might travel on pretty soon, even tomorrow. I think my shitty arrival has really ruined me on this town. And I seem to have ants in my pants and a need to keep moving on, despite the continued state of sickness. So wish me luck since I have no idea the best way to get to Ecuador and it is suppose to be the worse most corrupt border crossing in South America, weeeeee!!! I just have to remember I have everything that I need!!!!!

Puerto Maldonado to Lima

oh where oh where have I been. Well I have been in a crazy jungle town named Puerto Maldonado. Anna and I spent a week there dodging the largest number of motorcycles and mototaxis that I have ever seen. There actually seemed to be more mototaxis than people in the town which makes little mathematical or economic sense but then I never claimed to be a mathimagician! The first day it was as hot as hell and felt like you were walking through a big pot of soup, and despite how much I love soup it was an uncomfortable situation. It actually cooled down for the rest of our time there which was awesome. The town was a funny place. Surrounding it is really touristy, lots of jungle lodges and such but the town was almost gringo free, which was a delightful change from Cuzco, which was like being just another gringo sardine getting shoved into a tin already too full of gringo sardines (did anyone actually enjoy that analogy) Anyway, we ended up finding our selves one gringo friend. A dude named Ceri from Britain who became our partner in crime for the week, and helped us polish off a cheap bottle of Pisco in the park the second or third night. We flew out today but really had nothing but bad luck at the airport. We arrived early for our flight yesterday (we thought an hour early but it turned out to be 24 hrs early) And we were shocked to find no one manning the ticket desk and finally, angrily, found a someone and demanded to be put on the plane until the gentleman pointed out that our tickets were in fact for the 6th of may not the 5th and that we should consider returning the next day, where in we might have more luck catching our flight. So very embarrassed Anna and I exited the airport only to find the same mototaxi driver that drove us most of the way to the airport already, then returned to town for my hat that had been left behind, only to drive us to the airport again and now back to town AGAIN! Today we headed out to the airport, this time I remembered my hat which was lucky because despite the fact that our tickets said that our flight departed at 12;15, and we arrived an hour early, our plane was almost ready to taxi down the runway on our arrival. We luckily found someone to rush us through the gate and ran out on the tarmac barely catching the plane as it was set to leave. We were very luck since Anna and I both agreed if we had to spend any more time in Puerto Maldonado, we would have probably committed some sort of ritual group suicide. So now here we sit in Lima, enjoying the facilities of the first actual cosmopolitan city we have been in since Buenos Aries.

Cuzco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

Well it has been a while. So I arrived in Cuzco about 2 in the afternoon. After finally finding a hostel, this cute little place that looks ancient on the inside. I set about wandering around the city. It is a really amazing place. I have to admit very touristy but so much history. There are a number of large plazas in the center of town that are ringed with huge old cathedrals. When the Spanish built them they used a bunch of Inca ruins to construct the bases so the foundation of most of these old buildings are made from giant stones perfectly sculpted to fit against one another. Everywhere you step is a piece of ancient history. After a bit of a walk which involved finding the central market, I seem to have a nose for finding markets now. (the central market here is awesome so much food and fruit shakes, I have been getting a mango, banana, ginger and milk shake every morning.) I finally wandered back to my hostel which is up hill from the center of town, good for me but very tiring. I met this other couple who were staying at my hostel and ended up going out to a party at another hostel in town. We definitely whopped it up and didn't get back until the wee hours of the morning. The next day I was more than a might bit hung over and took myself out for a big old breakfast at a gringo place then got some coffee and finally met up with Anna who had arrived in late the night before and found a different hostel because she didn't know where I was at. Life without cell phones is definitely different when it comes to organizing meetings. We mostly just explored the city some more and I chilled out read and got over my headache.

The next day (being April 20th) Anna, I and the couple from my hostel went out for breakfast at the market place, went for coffee and then again just explored the city. It is hard to explain how everything here is done so differently not many people have cell phones so there are always people wandering the streets with cell phones you can pay to use, like mobile pay phones. Driving is something else. I cannot even explain how much I hate getting into a vehicle, they drive like maniacs and don't stop for anything. I have seen so many close calls I hardly even blink an eye anymore.

The next day we finally set off for something new. Anna and I caught a local bus to a near by town named Pisaq. It is basically the first town in the Sacred Valley that leads to Machu Picchu. There are so many Inca ruins throughout this whole area it is hard to see them all. Pisaq turned out to be a really cute little town. It had a big center square with a big old moss ladened tree in the center. The whole square was taken up with stalls selling all sorts of crafts and jewelry etc. We stopped and got a coffee and ran into a guy we had met on the Bolivian salt flats, Eliott. So we talked with him and his friend for a while then set off to find a hostel. We found a cheap place dropped our stuff off and headed down to a local cafe that looked really great. It was run by a German lady and was totally a gringo hangout but had amazing food and drinks and great atmosphere, some times you really miss that cafe atmosphere that you can find on almost any street in Canada (especially Victoria). Finally after lounging around for some time we decided to hike up to the Inca ruins that lay on the mountain that over looked the town. First I should interject and explain that of course the sacred valley is really a valley. It is flanked on either side by crazy steep mountains and there is a big river that flows right down the center of the valley. It is an amazing sight, very idyllic. there are alot of westerners living in the valley especially near Pisaq because it is so beautiful. At the base of the hike we had to buy ¨tourist tickets¨ that allow you to get into all of the sacred valley ruins (but not Machu Picchu of course that is more money) the tickets are not cheap and Anna and I talked our way into getting student tickets which are half the price. Then up and up and up. We were really sweating and huffing and puffing by the time we neared the top. It was a steep route, I have come to a very decisive conclusion that not only were the Incas the most fit people in the history of the world but they were also a touch mad! The Pisaq ruins run for quite a distance along the ridge of this mountain that has one point over looking the town. It was amazing! Machu Picchu as I will talk about later is spectacular but I really liked these ruins too. they are pretty large as well with lots to see and hardly touristy at all. At certain points Anna and I seemed to be the only people up there. Well we had no idea how big the ruins were and we had gone up way to late in the day to see them all. There is an agricultural area, a temple area, a fortress area and a bunch of other clusters of buildings. So we saw as much as we could but as dusk set in we had to start down the path again because in the best of conditions it is a steep unforgiving route and in the dark with no light it would have been worse. We reached the town just as dark set in and headed back to our favorite cafe for dinner (which was as Clare would say taste-tacular!) Every time we went to that cafe we seemed to randomly meet some new and interesting person, we met this one woman who had sold everything she had in Canada to move to this valley and start a treatment centre with a friend of hers, we met this very lovely Israeli couple with an adorable young son who lived on a kabutz. Everyone was very inspiring and seemed to be doing exactly what they wanted to be doing. The next day we decided to stay in Pisaq instead of moving on. We spent the morning looking around the market, which was even bigger than the day before, then we took a cab up to the other end of the ruins. This time we gave ourselves most of the afternoon. Something interesting about the ruins down here is that they are so different than any historical site in Canada, you really seem to be able to go just about anywhere you want, they are not really roped off at all and there are no real guards. Anna and I found ourselves a nice comfy place on one of the huge terraces and sat and read and slept with a incredible view of the valley bellow and off on one of the ruins there was a flute player who just filled the air with the most magical music, and again we were practically alone. It was almost as if you could imagine being back when this was an actual community. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring. They let you climb all over these ruins, and much of it can be very dangerous, the liability in Canada would be out of this world but here they just seem to trust that you wont fall some great distance and kill yourself. And most people are fine, it really makes you question how overly concerned with safety we are in Canada. At dusk we climbed down again into the town for another delicious meal and then to bed. ( I have been seriously catching up on my sleep lately, early to bed and late to rise).

The next day (april 23) we caught a local bus to the next town named Urabumba which the guide book describes as a ugly place but we both really liked it. It was not touristy at all. Most people to the sacred valley with a tour group and they mostly just go the ruins and skip the towns, especially this one, but it was great to be somewhere that was really just Peruvian. There was a great central market and we (after much searching) found a great hostel, eat some lunch and set off for the main drag where we after much arguing and bartering found a cabbie to take us to the local ruins that were to far out of town to walk to (the cab was also full of school children on their way home and we spent a funny twenty minutes trying to talk to them and telling them words they wanted to know in English ( on a side note they really crowd cars here in the cab there was Anna, I, the driver and 8 children, seat belts are not a concern. We also caught a collectivo between towns, which is like a vehicle slightly bigger than a mini van and it operates like a bus going between towns but you can get on and off anywhere and at one point there were at least 23 people in the mini van, it was intense, and that is not counting all of the stuff people have with them). These are the Moray ruins and they are very interesting. They are more terraced gardens but they are are circular terraces built down into natural indents in the earth, like mini canons. People are still not certain about their purpose but they have discovered that each level has a slightly different micro climate, they are all about 5 degrees different in temperature so it is thought they were used as testing grounds for crops to be used in the area or all over the empire. Again we were practically the only ones there. Catching the cab back, again i will not comment on the driving except to say that this guys seemed to consider driving on the right side of the road a mere suggestion) we got back to town safe and sound. After that we wondered around for a bit and started to notice there were these brooms with red plastic wrapped around the ends sticking out like flag poles from lots of the houses. We got curious. At one Anna kinda stuck her head in and this man promptly invited us in. We soon discovered that these were Chicha houses ( I have no idea about spelling here) it is an alcoholic brew made from corn and an in this case strawberries. It was really good. We got one is the huge glass out of this big pot on the floor. The room itself was crazy, it was low ceiling with on long table and some chairs and bags of who know what piled in one corner. It was dark, only the light from the door illuminated the place and there were about 8 locals in there drinking. Our host was pretty drunk and we found out he worked as a porter for the Inca trail. It was fun and mostly everyone just laughed at us trying to speak Spanish. After about 3 giant glasses between the two of us, Anna and I were definitely feeling it. Politely we declined more and stumbled our way back to our hostel. Later after a nap we got some dinner and went to bed.

The next morning we were set to go all the way to Aguas Calientes which is the town that you have to go to if you want to go to Machu Picchu. Getting there is expensive and a pain in the ass. Either you can take the train right from Cuzco, which costs a lot of money or you can take it from Ollantaytambo which is the town at the end of the Sacred Valley and it costs less. There is not really a road to Aguas Calientes, I mean there is but it is very backwards and hard to use and at some points dangerous so we decided just to take the train. So after catching a ride on another Collectivo we arrived in Ollantaytambo an hour before the train, bought our tickets and waited. The train ride is spectacular, it is down along the valley as it descends into jungle. It takes about an hour and a half to two hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. Aguas Calientes (which means hot water because there are hot springs above the town) is situated at the meeting of two valleys. It is a really lovely tropical spot alongside rapids. But the town itself is crazy chimerical because it exists to serves tourists going to machu picchu. We found an alright place that was much cheaper than we expected and I explored the town. There is for sure a locals area and a tourist area. The town is tiny though and really cant expand much because it is surrounded by vertical mountains, which are covered in all sorts of jungle fauna. We ate dinner and went to bed early because we decided that instead of spending the 12 dollars to take the bus up to Machu Picchu (on top of the 40 dollar pass you had to buy to go, on top of the train ride) we were going to hike up. So at 4:30 am we set off in the dark with the barest of descriptions as to where we were supposed to be going. We wanted to be up at the top for sun rise. But neither of us had slept well (my stomach infection seems to have reappeared) walking down some completely black jungle road searching for a path up a mountain seemed slightly foolhardy. But we found the tail and we climbed and climbed and climbed. There were about 5 other people we ran into doing the hike up in the dark and one dog that seems to follow people up daily just for fun. It was a hard hike, all up and all stairs and parts were very steep. I ended up vomiting because of my stomach but we finally made it up to the top only to be made to wait for the site to open. From this point you cannot see to ruins so we waited in great suspense.

After a small problem with Anna's ticket, we walked around the corner and Machu Picchu appeared in front of us. And it is unbelievable. It looks just like you are walking into a postcard, it is perfect. We climbed to a high point on one side (where most of the post card pics are taken from) and watched the sun rise over the far mountains. The site is as unbelievable as the ruins themselves. It is perched on a mountain that is ringed by other mountains and far down in the valley below ringed by a river. All of the mountains are severely steep and covered in jungle green. Far away on one side of the ruins you can see a snow capped range. As dawn broke fog fell then lifted from the valleys giving the ruins an even more mysterious look and swallows flung themselves around us in great numbers. We wandered all over the ruins. I have been obsessed with this place since I was a kid so it was just awesome to be able to see it all in person. It is huge and there are so many aspects to it you could take days really exploring it all. Anna and I didn't hire a guide but I listened in on lots of the tours for interesting facts. We went for a hike around back of the ruins to a place called the Inca´s drawbridge. It was a narrow path winding around one of the mountain sides that ended in a totally vertical stone wall that the Inca´s had built a brick road in front of but left one section open, only spanned by logs that could be pulled back making the way impassible. I also climbed up Huayna Picchu (which means young mountain where Machu Picchu means old mountain) which is the peak that over looks Machu Picchu in all the post cards. It was a hard climb up but the view from the very top was incredible. I could look down on all of machu picchu like it was little. They even built buildings and terraced gardens all the way up there. It was madness and there were so many places you could just fall right off the mountain it was intense. I finally, after a bit of a nap on a terraced garden, climbed down to Machu Picchu, did a bunch more exploring, they even have llamas wandering around it is hilarious. There are also so many amazing wildflowers up there, they really add to the magical feeling. I finally convinced myself to walk down at about 5pm. Exhausted I rolled into town ate some needed food (I did a lot of hiking) and then promptly fell asleep.

The next day we took the train back to the town where we boarded it and then grabbed a collective taxi (ie shared it with a bunch of people) back to Cuzco. One of the dudes was super chatty and told me he worked as a guide at Machu Picchu and all about being a porter on the Inca trail as well, he was very fit. The driver of the cab was a bit nuts, he almost drove straight into a bolder that had fallen in the road (we were on some narrow back road) when he was trying to change the radio station and passing on blind corners is a national past time here. We made it back to Cuzco safe and sound and mostly chilled out for the rest of the day.

Yesterday I visited Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman) an old Inca military fortress that sits high above Cuzco, it was pretty cool. And Anna and I booked our flight to the jungle, Puerto Maldonado. We are going to spend about a week there and then fly from there to Lima. We wanted to see the jungle one last time and we also wanted to avoid the insanely long bus ride from Cuzco to Lima. After that I am heading up the coast and then on to Ecuador.

Cocacabana, Lake Titicaca, The Island of the Sun, a floating island and one of the best places I have ever been!

So lets see I left off last time with getting back to La Paz. So we spent another day or two there and then we were off for Cocacabana which is on the Bolivian part of Lake Titicaca. We had to take a smaller bus because at one point we had to get off and take a ferry across this straight while the bus had to be loaded on to this raft like barge and boated across and a full sized bus would have been too big. We reached Cocacabana at sun set and it was just beautiful. It is a small, pretty hippy, touristy town, but it is beautiful and had such clean air compared with La Paz. We got a hostel and just crashed the first night. The next day was glorious. It was clear and the lake is amazing, Anna never having been to the great lakes couldn't get over the fact that it was a lake not the ocean because it looks so big. There are all of these trout stands by the shores of the lake, that is the major fish they catch here, but as it turns out it is not a native species but was put there by westerners. The trout was fresh caught that day and amazingly delicious. And I am not even a big fish person. Then we walked down the beach. Anna was feeling a bit sick so she stayed on a pier and I ventured all the way around this big point until I could see into the next bay. Then I sat in a cave and just stared out at the lake. It is a truly wonderful place. It kinda feels spiritual, I know that sounds silly but it does. Finally I ventured back, picked up Anna and we headed into town. We hung out there for a bit then we climbed up the steep hill that shoots up on one side of Cocacabana. It is hard climbing up anything at this altitude and it took us some huffing and puffing and a bit of time. But at the top there is this long line of giant crosses and a plaza. We sat up there and watched the sun set over the lake and the Island of the sun which you can see from Cocacabana. It was great. All around this area are ancient terraced gardens which people still farm. They shape all of the steep hills into puzzles of fences and ridges. I was the last person on the hill and had to climb down the steep and jagged stairs in the dark. I made it down safety found Anna and we went to dinner. Then we hung out at this pretentious cafe that I (obviously) didn't really like then went to bed only to listen to a huge thunderstorm shake the sky, I love storms. We woak up to a clear day and we were off to the Island of the sun, which is supposed to be the birth place of the first Inca and the first in a number of energy points that lead to Cuzco (which also includes the two islands I visit later). It is about an hour and a half boat ride to get there. I wrapped myself up in all of my layers and sat up on top of the boat, out side for the whole trip. The boat takes up to the north end of the island and you spend a number of hours working your way to the south end where the boat picks you up again. It was a great day, we saw a number of ruins and the island itself is spectacular. We ended the trip with a beer in the last village on the south end of the island. All towns in this area are built on steep hills, because everything is a steep hill, and this village was no exception. It was a long and steep decent to the boats. And as we walked down there were all of these women hauling up cement or brick building blocks up in their cloth packs. They haul up every single block to build the houses. It is a lot of work. The women here are really really tough, they do everything, they are always carrying these huge loads and do all of the cooking, looking after the kids and make all of the handy crafts and they run all of the markets we have every been to. It is really impressive. Anyway Anna and I took the boat back just before sunset, had dinner and chilled out. We were pooped and I got way to much sun and had really silly burn lines around where my sunglasses had been.

The next day we checked out of our hostel, Anna found another because she was staying in Cocacabana because she still was not feeling well, then we went out for breakfast and then trout ( I eat way to much!) and then I got on a bus to Puno in Peru. The trip went fine until I got to the border and it turns out I had to pay some sort of fine that I still don't really understand because I couldn't understand what the border guard was saying but I think I over stayed my visa. I was lucky I had some money on my at all, barely enough. Then back on the bus and into puno. Puno is no Cocacabana, it is a work a day town, not pretty at all. And I guess in Peru people don't have to pay as much tax on an unfinished building so most of the new buildings are never finished completely so they don't have to pay the tax, but it leaves the town with a very unfinished look. Well I found a hotel, settled in and booked an Island tour for the next day.

Waking bright and early the next day (after some unexplained middle of the night yelling) I was ready to go. A mini bus came and picked me up and then a bunch of other people and we ended up at the docks and got onto a pretty nice boat and we were off. The first stop was about a half and hour out of Puno harbour (now remember this is all on Lake Titicaca as well) we went to these floating islands. Which are crazy and an incredible human invention, but oddly placed in sight of this grubby working town, but they have been there forever since Inca times. These islands are built on the floating roots of the reed that grow in the area. On top of the floating roots people place layer after layer of reeds, until you can build on it and it feel pretty sturdy although when wave pass under it you can feel the whole thing go up and down, kinda like a water bed. All of the houses, which are tiny one room places, are also built from reeds and they have reed boats as well. It was an amazing sight. So cool and our guide explained the whole history to us it was very interesting. These islands are about two meters thick and they float on more than 15 meters of water. And we got to go for a ride on one of the reed boats. After that we had a three hour trip out to the island that we were going to spend the night on. Now this island is a regular old rock island but it was amazingly beautiful. Of any small place (ie not big city) I have seen I would choose to live here. It was incredible! The island has about 4000 people on it and has not one car. All of the people there are basically subsistence farmers who work the islands hundreds of terraced gardens. When we got to the island we were assigned the families we were going to be staying with. Me and this Israeli couple stayed with this family, Maria and Martin who had two kids one was four and the other just a baby. They were very nice, and they made us lunch and dinner that day and breakfast the next. We ate pretty typical food which they grow there, mostly potatoes and quinoa. It was tasty. We also had this tea made out of this type of mint that grows there, I loved it I wish it grew at home.

I spoke more Spanish than the Israelis, although they mostly speak a native language on the island. But I tried to talk to the couple a bit, Maria turned out to be 29 which was crazy to see some one of a similar age but totally different life. She cooked over an open fire in a clay base in this little separate house that was the kitchen, the fire is in this tiny alcove that she has a seat so she sits there as she cuts up veggies, cooks and stokes the fire. It was great to stay with a family like that and really get to interact with them. I would have liked to get to know her better she was very a interesting impressive person. After lunch and resting for a bit we set off to climb to the top of one of the hills on the island where there was an old temple ie rock wall enclosure to the Earth father, on the opposite hill was a temple to the earth mother who is most revered in this area. We watched the sun set from the top of the hill and then went back for dinner. After dinner the family dressed us in traditional outfits and we went out to a party with a band and everything. I did a bit of dancing but it was hard at that altitude as well as with how tight Maria had tied on my skirt. Finally we wandered back with the moon showing us the way. It was perfectly quiet, no cars, no lights just animal noises. I fell asleep pretty quickly, I wanted to also because if I had to go pee they wanted me to use a chamber pot and I just wanted it to be morning so I could use the outhouse.

The morning brought a wonderful breakfast and a goodbye to the family and we were off for another island. Similar to the one we had just been on but smaller. I cannot emphasise enough how beautiful these places are, with everyone just walking everywhere and the noise of sheep in the air. The whole island is carved up into these ancient terraced gardens. We walked up for a while until we reached the main plaza where we hung out. Everyone here still wears the traditional cloths and all the woman are constantly pulling wool on these spools. We had a lunch of trout and then we did some more hiking and finally we were off for Puno, three hours away. Now I am back in Puno and I have booked my bus tomorrow, very early for Cuzco and I am excited. I have heard such great things about the city. So much history. Hope you are all well!