3days across desert to leave Bolivia(Thank God) and back to the modern world in Chile + the Atacama!

So not too much more to say about Bolivia apart from the fact that its definitely not far up on my list of countries. Pretty much down the bottom to be honest. Hate to say that about a place but I just wasn't impressed. It was cheap, sunny and we had a great crowd of people to travel with plus did a lot of cool activities so should have had all the good factors there but something just didn't add up and it was mainly the Bolivian people and service. The highlights were the Loki hostel in La Paz(which isn't Bolivian owned), the food in the tourist restaurants(which isn't Bolivian), the Death Road cycle (which was great but still a road that a lot of people died on), the visit to prison(an amazing experience and definitely something I'd do again but still we're bribing cops, murderers and drug dealers to show us the inside of a prison) and the first day of the Salt Flats(which our guide was absolutely shit!) So sorry to sound so negative. I had a great time there. Enjoyed most of. Don't get me wrong but overall as a country it just didn't impress me. The scenery was nowhere near as good as Peru, the people were very different to the friendliness of Peru and Colombia. The local food was very basic and unhygienic. Been eating a lot of street food the whole way from Mexico to Peru but barely touched it in Bolivia. The tourist infrastructure is there but just not in good service. As soon as they have the tour or product sold they don't care anymore. The exception to this is our tour on the death road. Our guide was brilliant. I didn't go to the jungle thank god but eight of the others did a tour there, got a shit guide, very little food and bitten all over my mosquito's. Everyone we met heading north had absolutely loved Bolivia. And to be honest a lot of people I've travelled with before who are probably reading this also said Bolivia is one of their favourite countries. And I can totally understand why and the different perspectives you get when you head from south to north rather than the way we did it. For example I absolutely loved Vietnam, one of my favourite countries but a lot of people I met hate it. Funny how you can think different things that way.

Anyway, after Sucre which I actually quite liked, we went to Potosi. This was another tour where you go into the mines to see how people work. Under the same conditions that they did hundreds of years ago. Another tour that sees the hardship of the Bolivian people. Well we didn't bother with it in the end and spent about three days doing nothing but staying in bed and watching movies. From here it was a bus trip to Uyuni across roads that weren't really roads just dirt and mud and potholes until we got to a big flat plain spread out for as far as the eye can see. Coming into this town all we could see was rubbish everywhere. Literally plastic bags in particular strewn all over the place. It was very ugly. The town didn't have much to offer either but it was just the starting point to our Salt Flats tour. Most of them didn't provide English speaking guides but we eventually found a really nice agent whose husband did the three day tour to the Chilean border across the Salt Flats and the desert. This was three days across no roads I think more than 600km but honestly some of the driving on the Salt Flats is better than most Bolivian "roads"!! Although we had pretty good experiences on buses in Bolivia I've heard about other dodgy roads and stuff. I guess we avoided a lot of them.

The Salt Flats in Bolivia are amazing. It is the worlds largest at 10582 sq km. To put this into perspective Ireland is 84421 sq km. So about 1/8 the size of Ireland. Its flat as can be and covered in salt. The jeeps drive across this. There are hotels made of salt here as well. It was very impressive and we did all the cheesy photos that everyone does that with the perspective issue. The first night we stayed in a salt hotel and the food was pretty good the first few days as well. Got llama which I quite like and there was decent portions as well so me with my huge appetite got at least three helpings.

Our guide was pretty useless and kinda but a dampener on the whole trip. Even though his wife in the tourist agency sold the trip well he was just a bit strange. Started out the first hour all cheerful and happy but after that he barely spoke to us. Barely told us a thing and after the first day he stopped speaking English altogether. Most of us had enough Spanish to understand everything except he didn't speak that either. He started falling asleep at the wheel which wasn't that big an issue cause there are no roads to drive on but still that wasn't the point. He slept in, in the mornings when he told us to be up at a certain hour and then when we questioned him about things like that he pretended not to understand. He'd throw out the food to us and then go off to sleep or chatting to other guides or something. In Peru and the death road we had meet such nice people doing tours. Really friendly. Such a different experience in most of Bolivia. I just couldn't wait to get to the border and get to a modern developed country!! We spent most of the second day driving across desert that went up to 5000 metres high. Windy as fuck, hot, cold, freezing. It kept changing and would have been amazing except for the fact that we were just in a bad mood with the driver. Had a really nice Irish couple in the car with us that we got on really well with and funnily enough also new a good few people I've worked with in hotels over the years!! And a very odd Barcelona guy who didn't talk too much at all. Most of the highlights of this desert and salt flats trip are in the photos so won't bore with the details here.

The second night was freezing. Had had a shit dinner the night before, shit breakfast that morning and just wanted to get straight to the border. We all woke up feeling the effects of the altitude and it was that day that we hit 5025 metres. The bottle of red wine and beers the night before didn't help it. We finally got to the border at around 930 and to top it off the border guards wanted to make us pay to leave the country. An unofficial payment that goes straight into their pockets which usually you don' t have any choice but to pay. Just one last straw to top off Bolivian hospitality.

We got in a Chilean bus and already the driver was friendly. You could see the difference in peoples faces. He started describing all sorts of stuff to us. 45 minute journey from here where we actually got proper roads again at over 4000 metres down to the Atacama desert at around 2000 and something. The driest desert in the world we were stopping off in a town called San Pedro de Atacama. The Chilean side of the border was an ordeal because they didn't want any food, wood or anything like that coming into the country from Bolivia. And what a relief it was to get there. Felt like been back in Europe. Proper hostels, showers, toilets, cars, roads. All the things we're used to but usually culture shock for me is coming back to normality rather than the opposite way around. Stuff you'd never really appreciate or notice but when you don't have it for a while and then get it back its mad!!

San Pedro is a beautiful little tourist town. Even so modern that out in the middle of the park in the centre they have wifi and all around. Christmas decorations are up with a big Christmas tree right in the middle of the town sq. Great star gazing at night and great food. I've been looking forward to Argentinian and Chilean food for so long now. We got this meal in the tourist restaurant in the Sq and even though Chile is meant to be expensive $10 for this was great value. Bread with Olive oil, Greek salad lots of olives, pork steak(the girls got salmon pasta, and a pasta pesto which I also got to finish), glass of amazing wine(and i never notice the difference with wines) and an ice cream!! Was in heaven. Might sound plane but it had so much flavour. And the hostels also have kitchens. Been so looking forward to been able to cook my own meals again!!

Anyway, sorry to sound so negative about Bolivia but Chile is definitely a positive so far. Love the people, the food and everything about it so far. Only going to spend two days here though then get the bus to Argentina spend a few weeks there and back to Chile then for New Years. Will probably be switching in and out of the two countries over the next few weeks.

Salt Flat Photos Day 1

Driving through the desert photos

Map of Route

Bolivia - Prisons, Highest cities, Cycling Death Road, lots of Irish

Entering Bolivia after Peru was like going back in time a lot. Lots and lots of more indigenous people and we had heard how cheap it would be but literally couldn't believe how cheap it was. Imagine stuff priced the same in numbers as in Ireland. But the exchange rate is roughly ten to one. So you could get a cheap meal for 10 or so an expensive meal for 20. But really that's 1 or 2 euros. Or a room in a hotel was varying from 15 to 40, per room, not per person. Couldn't get over it. Possible to live good here for 5 or 6 euros a day including transport but its all the activities that really add up and cost a fortune.

So the first few days we stopped off at Copacabana by Lake Titicaca the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. 3811 metres with snow capped mountains around as well. The whole town was geared up for tourists but no tourists were around. It was more like a weird little ghost town so we just spent the day sitting out on some sun chairs by the lake drinking some beers and reading some books. Then two random Irish guys showed up who recognized us from Ecuador and we stopped to chat to them for a while. We decided the following day we were going to take a boat out to Isla Del Sol island, trek across it, come back and get to La Paz the following day then. We were a bit bored of the town.

Funnily enough the boat out to Isla del Sol, 2.5 hrs worth was mainly Irish people on it. Had a good chat and got to the island with great views of the lake all around. Very flat lake, nice sunny day but the people, the locals we met just weren't that friendly. Not like what we are used to. And even though the money is nothing they all seem out to want to make money off the stupidest things! Like at three different sections of our walk there was a local there trying to charge us to get by. It was a three or four hour walk from the north to the south in which we mainly stuck with the Irish and a few Canadians. Had known this guy Aiden now for a few days and had done a bit of the usual stupid small talk where you find out where people are going and stuff. But whatever way the conversation went we discovered that we share first cousins. He's just on the other side of the family than me, and he had been to my house yrs ago and I'd probably visited him too. Am used to meeting Irish I know in Australia or Asia but a little random island in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia when you discover someone your kinda related to was quite random!!

That night we got back got the bus to La Paz and went to The Wild Rover an Irish hostel famous for its parties, Irish food, big warm duvets etc. Three beers in got me so drunk. probably the first time that little since I was 15 or something. But we were at over 3600 metres where all sorts of crazy stuff effects your body. You should see the state of some people who've flown in directly from sea level. Also found out later the beer which is a good beer was 7% and also larger than a pint for less than 2 euros so that helped explain it.

One of the days in La Paz I went to this place which claims to have the hottest chilli's in the world. So if I finish the Vindaloo dish I get a free tshirt. I love spicy food so had to do this challenge and wasn't too bad. Hottest thing I've ever had still is called an Issan salad in Thailand!

We ended up spending about 6 days in La Paz. I wasn't too impressed to be honest it was just the crowd we had and the hostels that were great. We left the Wild Rover and moved to Loki probably one of the best hostel chains in the world!! Might have talked a lot about these hostels already but they have everything. Absolutely everything. This one even had oxegen tanks for people who were feeling the altitude!!! We had a few nights out drinking. Nothing special except that it was so easy to get drunk. A lot of people we've met come to La Paz and stay for weeks or months. I honestly could not see the attraction at all. For the first few days in Bolivia I seemed to bump into someone I kind of knew nearly everyday. For months without seeing Irish people there were nearly a majority of us in every hostel. One night in a bar saw this girl I recognized from Uni. Turned out she was in loads of my photos from the last week of Uni and recognized loads of people I knew. Then another girl in my dorm went to school around the corner for me and lived where I surf. This kind of stuff kept happening until I was out in one shitty nightclub in La Paz that reminded me of the old version of the knights at home and I bump into about three people from Clare.

Since the middle of October there has been a group of about ten of us travelling some people parting for a few days and joining up again and also a few new members to the group as well so have had lots of people to do activities with. We got a group of 12 people to go cycle the death road. A lot of people I know have done this. Lonely Planet which I always recommend for everywhere but have found it useless for South America says how you should only go with this one company gravity and a lot of the other companies have dodgy equipment. This road is described as one of the worlds most dangerous roads cause of its high cliffs, tight turns, crazy drivers and mainly the amount of people killed on it each year. There is barely enough room for two cars to pass on it not to mind the amount of trucks and buses travelling from La Paz to the Amazon. It closed two yrs ago due to a new road opening and is now open only to cyclists. So you do need good safety equipment to cycle it. I shopped around to about 12 different places checking it all out and decided on one company. A few of the others were skeptical about it because of the Lonely Planet article saying not to trust other companies. Well later on when we were on the road we could see that the company Lonely Planet recommend that charges 720 Bolivianos had the worst equipment, just luminous vests, no proper clothes, shoddy saddles and bicycle helmets. We got the cheapest price of all of them at 420 and got the best gear. Proper waterproof and protective coats and pants that barely any other company gave. Vests, helmets that were like motorcycle helmets, proper knee pads, bikes worth $3500 USD before they were shipped and breakfast, lunch and two big decent snacks and water. Plus a guy to take our photos and videos. It was great. The bikes were double suspension with hydraulic breaks.

So we started off the day pretty early, great that we were all friends already and went up to 4600metres to start our cycle on a tarmac road. We had a good number of Dutch with us who claimed they would be no good cause they are used to flat roads and of course they went flying ahead. They were so fast. This wasn't the death road the first few km but I found it more scary cause I thought I should try keep up with them which I obviously failed to do!! We were told we were going at a max speed of 60 - 65 kmph at this section. We then reached the start of the death road. Gravel, very tight curves, getting warmer as we were going down and stripping off the layers. We were losing 1000metres every hour or so. By the end of it we had gone down something like 3700 metres from snow capped mountains in a moon like landscape where nothing grows, through pine forests, into jungle with banana trees and tropical weather to near the amazon. Very interesting change of scenery. The cycle on the death road was very interesting. Fast speeds, slowing down for corners one guide at the front, one behind, another for photos and two support vehicles. There was three minor accidents among our group! One girl fell at very start of death road and cut side of her face. Then one of the guys we came upon and he was halfway off the side of the mountain with his bike on top of him. Think he flipped over the handlebars. He got up laughing as if nothing happened. But looked quite scary from where we were. Then another guy did a slip over a rock in the middle of the road, not near the edge but still cut himself in a few places!! Id highly recommend Overdose if anyone else is going. I know a lot of people have done this already and have seen loads of photos but great guide, and great company.

So after this most of the group were heading to the jungle, amazon for a few days, Adrian was going ahead to Argentina cause he had to start his work visa by the 5th so myself and Mallory decided to head to Sucre and meet up with the rest of the group for the Salt Flats for the weekend. We bought our ticket for the night bus and it was only 70 Bolivianos which is $10 for a luxurious night bus that was like 12 hours. Even though Bolivia is cheap I was sure we were been scammed. Usually we were bargaining for buses in other countries but here I felt like I should have been offering him more than this just to get something comfortable. Like bargaining in the opposite way. Am so used to buses in Asia screwing you over, and in south America buses are better than first class planes. Just couldn't understand why a bus would be this price. So waited around for an hour and got on. Wasn't too bad. Full reclining seats and all that is practically a bed but just no toilet on board.

The main plan for the next few days was just to sit around relaxing and doing nothing. Dec 1st was our first day in Sucre and also the first day of summer and sure felt like it. The weather here changes usually with altitude not so much with season or distance from the equator. But definitely felt like a lovely summers day!! Weird when looking at all the pictures of the snow at home. Heading south from here the weather should keep getting warmer for a while, even though were going further from the equator we've been at altitude for so long now its been chilly enough at nights. Rain usually follows me everywhere I go but I must have some good luck charm lately with me cause I think I've only seen two days of rain since the start of October. Loving it. Also even though there was Xmas decorations as far back as October in Colombia we are seeing them more and more. Keep forgetting its nearly Xmas. And compared to Australia and NZ which seemed to do very little for Xmas with regards to decorations South America is definitely into it in places!!

Had a nice walk around Sucre and relaxed in the park reading and stuff. Very very much reminded me of Spain, blue skies, white buildings, hot, red roofs and pretty churches. Nothing to keep us there too long though to following day we moved onto Potosi the highest city in the world at over 4000 metres. Again was skeptical about the bus cause it was only 1.50 EUR for 4 hours. But of course it was fine again.

After that we are planning on moving on to Uyuni to do a salt flats tour and then head into the north of Chile and onto Argentina. Been looking forward to Argentina for so long now!!! Can't wait.

This is a map of the route with the list of hostels and transport and all that.

Bolivia Photos

Death Road Photos

Tour of San Pedro Prison - A prison run by the prisoners - La Paz

A lot of you may have heard of San Pedro. A lot of you may have been there and I know a few others couldn't go there cause it was closed when you were in La Paz. Anyone who hasn't heard of it but has seen the third season of prison break when they were in Sona this is what it is like but more so. It is a prison run by the prisoners. It is a society within itself. This is a brief description taken from Wikipedia

Significantly different from most correctional facilities, inmates at San Pedro have jobs inside the community, pay or rent their accommodation, and often live with their families. The sale of cocaine base to visiting tourists gives those inside a significant income and an unusual amount of freedom within the prison walls. Elected leaders enforce the laws of the community, with stabbings being commonplace. The prison is home to approximately 1,500 inmates, with additional guests staying in the prison hotel

So coming south we had a heard a lot about this prison. And also from other people on facebook who have travelled south America before. You go to the prison, wait around outside and somebody will offer you a tour. We also heard of a few people getting ripped off. Some of our friends went one day. They met a guy offering a tour. Paid him 50 Bolivianos each as a deposit and the guy asked for the biggest one of them to come to the police station with him to sign the papers to enter. Well when they got to the police station the guy walked through the back door obviously giving the police a cut and running off with the rest of the money. So we made sure this didn't happen us.

Unlike most prisons this prison is right in the city centre. Right beside a nice park and restaurants. We turned up outside not sure would we get a tour or not because of all the different rumors we'd heard. This ranged from the days of the week it was open, the hours you could go in and even that Brad Pitt was making a movie inside so we couldn't go in. Well there was no problem. Within Min's we had a group of 10 and a really friendly lady brought us up to the prison. Here we were ushered inside, through a metal detector that didn't work and into the police room to pay our 400 Bolivianos to the cops which was the standard rate. All the girls in our group staying huddled next to the guys cause they were a bit nervous and also most of them wrapped up in warm alpaca hoodys keeping as much skin covered as they could. We then went upstairs to wait a few minutes, the cops really friendly thanking us for coming and we were split into two groups of 5 for the tour. The cops are on the outside of this place. Not the inside. Unless there is a murder or a very drunken brawl inside they rarely go in. Within a few minutes our guide came, a prisoner, baseball hat on, hoody and some stubble. He also had a guy with us for security and told us to keep very close together. He was at the front and the security guy was at the back.

The prison is divided into different sections of what you could nearly call neighbourhoods. Roughly 2000 prisoners living in there not including their kids and families. Each section has a crest and different types of things in it. From what we've heard in the day time its very safe, especially for tourists and kids but once night falls its a different place altogether. It gets dark at 6 or 7 but they don't shut the gates between the sections until 10. It is also a class system. The prisoners buy their cells or apartments in there so there are rich areas and poor areas. There is also a boss for each section. We walked into the first section and we just see a sea of faces. Everyone going about their daily routine. Shops open, restaurants cooking like street food, women and kids around. People were chatting, playing chess, eating random food etc. Kids were running around and playing. The prisoners are allowed to have their kids in with them for free but the wives have to pay an extra 5 Bolivianos per day. All the kids seemed so happy running around not knowing any different. It was just like been out on the street to be honest. A lot of the kids actually grow up in here. One story we heard is no matter what goes on in the prison, fights, or murders or drugs or whatever that if a kid is around they stop it immediately. Even if its two gangs fighting each other they all have respect for the kids. There is even a school for the kids here for those who can't afford a school outside. The wives and kids are allowed to come and go as they please. So this is what we took in, within the first few Min's walking through the first section. The food looked good and so did the street stalls.

We then moved onto the rich section. People were in courtyards watching flat screen TVs with surround sound. Cable TV and water comes free for all prisoners and in the poorer sections they didn't have flat screens but still had TVs and even little street stalls selling copyright DVDs. In the rich section you can buy or rent cells or apartments. I've heard the most expensive is $10,000 USD. Most of the others could have been roughly $400 - $800 to buy. I'm not sure of the exact figures though. The people living in this section would not walk around other poorer sections cause they would be robbed and killed for their money. In this area our prisoner was meant to be but he couldn't afford it so had to live in a poorer section. In this area it was roughly 105 Bolivians to rent per month or 800 to buy I think. In the poorer sections they talk in Bolivianos rather than dollars. There are also hostel like areas or dorms which are 2.50 per night. For the record 1 Dollar is 7 Bolivians or 9 Euros. Within the rich and medium class sections there was a sauna, gym in which they paid 20 Bolivians per month to use and there was a number of basketball courts throughout. Each section was part of a soccer tournament also. These were played on the basketball courts. As I said already in each section they had crests painted up just like soccer crests and teams. Regularly these matches would develop into flights which depending how violent it got the police might come in the stop it.

At one point our guide stopped to show us another section we couldn't go to. He said that's where all the murders and rapists went. Because everyone around us was so friendly and with their families we then figured we were in an area of people who had done less crimes than that. We asked him what most people were here for and he said trafficking. Again because of the friendliness of the people one of the girls actually asked the Q: "road trafficking?"!!!! Was so funny. Of course he meant drug trafficking. But we found out a few minutes later that we'd misunderstood him. When he'd pointed out the off limits section for murderers and stuff he meant people who had murdered within the prison. Not people who were in for murder. So everyone in the public areas was there for all sorts of crimes. Any westerners were all there for drugs. We weren't sure whether to ask him what he was in for or not but then one of the guys decided to. He said are you sure you want to know?? Cause its pretty bad. We said ya. Apparently he'd gotten in a bar fight, drunken, the other guy was trying to stab him and it was either him or the other guy. So he ended up murdering the other guy. He was only 25. A really really nice guy. I know it sounds stupid but you could see how sorry he was for what he'd done. I actually felt sorry for him. He was living in there with his wife, a beautiful girl who was pregnant in one of the poorer sections. A tiny cramped little room that sometimes has three or four people living inside. Down this dark narrow corridor where in the hallways nearby were just smelling of piss. You'd think we should have been the ones nervous doing the tour but a lot lot of tourists come in and out of here everyday. There has never been an incident we heard of, of anything happening to any tourist cause the prisoners and the cops get a lot of money out of this. So it was funny that our guide was more nervous than us. He kept saying how nervous he was cause it was his first time doing the tour and he wanted to do it right!

After seeing his section we moved throughout a few others. He showed us a place where two or three guys had had a cell and dug a tunnel under the prison to escape never to be seen again. He showed us dark corridors where bodies used to be left when they were murdered. We saw punishment pools, pools of freezing cold water where people would be put for half an hour for doing bad things and having to thread water. The isolation section where people could be left for 40 days. Then the games room, gyms, saunas etc. Even PlayStation for the kids. We obviously saw the nice calm side of it. But as the book says its not a place you want to be at night. Life looks simple here during the day, a lot nicer than any other prison you can imagine cause they have the freedom but this is just an illusion I guess. In the past it was apparently very different as well. The book March Powder is about an English guy who was locked up in there. I've only just started it, but its famous around here and well worth it. The author of it was a backpacker like us who'd heard about the place, met this English prisoner doing a tour and then decided to move in there for three months to write a book about him. He paid the cops to move into the prison. So a lot of the prisoners have read the book and they might not have as much freedom as they used to before. We've heard that they used to be able to pay the cops to let themselves outside for the day! On the other hand things aren't as dangerous as they used to be either I think. Apparently they are now making a movie about it so watch out for that.

Inside the prison they also have beers and bars. At the end of our tour we were taken to a room where we were offered whatever we want. There is drug factories inside the prison. Apparently some of the best Cocaine in Bolivia is manufactured inside here. All the tourists are offered it on their trip, a lot of them buy it and leave the prison with it the cops saying nothing. A lot of them try it in there. Its known as part of the tour. None of our group wanted to do it but while we were in there there was a lot of other groups we passed by where a few of them tried it. A lot of the prisoners as well are addicted but this is just another business inside. The prisoners need to work to make money to survive and they all have different jobs. As I said some of them work in restaurants, our guide make little bracelets and jewellery. Other people make coke. Some of the richer prisoners will buy two or three cells and rent them out therefore making them more money. Those who refused to work were sent to the kitchen where they had the biggest cooking pots I've ever seen and were made sleep on the floor and got beaten for not working. I also heard the any rapists or murderers that arrive in get beaten non stop for months by the inmates. These are seen as the worst guys. Walking around we saw a lot of scars and prisoners faces as well that are obviously knife wounds.

Don't read some of these stories if you don't want to hear some sick stuff:

Everyone that went there had a different experience cause of the different guides they had. I would love to try it again to hear some of the stories. One of my friends had some pretty awful. His neighbour was in there for murder. He had taken his wife or girlfriend and slit her from her head to her vagina. Then cut off her head and opened her body up. In court he claimed he was crazy and got out within 24 months. Another story was someone was killed in the prison and chopped into pieces and put into a garbage can. Wasn't found for three days. One of the guides was in there twice for armed robbery. He told their group that he had one or two weeks left. One if he could afford to pay the cops off. He also mentioned as soon as he got out he was going to rob again and would probably be back in there again. Some of the people get so accustomed to life in here they just want to get back in. That what they said about some of the kids growing up in there. They'll leave and commit a crime just to get back in.

All in all it was a very interesting place. By the way I wrote this it might have sounded like we were at risk or danger but there was absolutely no danger bout it. We had a bodyguard and a guide. Apart from when the place is shut due to the governors regulations there are shit loads of tourists coming in there everyday and the inmates have no reason to harm something that is binging them lots and lots of money. I could probably have written a totally different experience if I had read the book first but for anyone who's interested in reading it, its called Marching Powder by Rusty Young and Thomas Mcfadden. Someone asked me is the book true, and yes everything in it is or was true but they might now have as many privileges anymore since the book came out.

Cusco and Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu

Arriving into Cusco we very much needed a quite relaxing hostel. Cusco is a huge party town but also a place to do a lot of treks so a lot of the hostels advertise either quite and relaxing or party party party. Well we found this perfect spot to chill out for a few days. Lots of movies, bean bags, couches and a great kitchen with unlimited fruit pancakes for breakfast. After Colca Canyon we needed to rest up before doing our first hike. Plus one of the girls was sick as well and needed some good sleep. Pretty much did nothing the first day, shopped around for a few treks and then went looking for a fake student ID so we could get it cheaper. Pretty much went on a bit of a wild goose chase around Cusco looking for this ending up in some random market areas where you could get anything but a fake student ID. Outside of the tourist region was fascinating. Markets with all sorts of food. People all over the streets selling everything from huge bags of Coca leaves bigger than bin bags, all sorts of herbs, cheeses, breads even meat sections where they were cutting open the animals on the floor and hanging up the meat on hooks. All over Central and South America we have been eating amazing street food. Usually the best food as well and never seemed unhygienic but some of this place felt like food poisoning just waiting to happen. Was interesting though. Plus it was so cheap. Cannot believe how cheap Peru is for some stuff. Adrian got a really good meal with Guinea big head and rice and salad and chips for like 60 cents or so. You could get all sorts of meals around cusco even two course meals for less than a euro.

The second day in Cusco we were to go shopping for hikes but I woke up feeling like absolute shit. A few people we've been with lately have been sick and I guess I must have caught something unless it was something from the food the day before! Anyway we shopped around for treks and then decided to postpone it another day due to my illness and spent the whole day and night in bed. On the third day I was a bit better so we booked and that evening went out to Loki to meet a load of the others we knew. Again its another big party hostel that is set up perfectly. Loki hostels just seem to do everything right, get the people in, get them to stay and are like big massive hotels.

Salkantay Day 1

Woke up at 330 in the morning to get the bus to Mollepata. Wrecked from the night before and the windy roads didn't help it. Met our group for the trek. It was actually two groups together so we had two guides and all but would be split up for meals and stuff. In the last two days the only food I had eaten due to been sick was some chicken the night before. Well that morning that all came up and there was no way I could stomach anything else. And throughout the whole day couldn't even look at food. So ended up walking 21 km up mountains as far as about 3900 metres on an empty stomach. Shouldn't really have been the toughest day but for me it kinda was. Simple little hills caught my breath. As we got further up towards our camp we see these huge glaciated mountains towering in front of us, little streams running off the sides and thundering rivers flowing down below. We made our way to camp before sunset putting on the layers as it got colder and colder. We were told it would get to -5 or -6 at night but back in July in the winter it could have been as low as -20 in this place. The last ten minutes up to camp were the worst and I was ready to collapse when I arrived. Had a dinner and spent half an hour taking in the scenery around us. There was a full moon night lighting up the snow capped peaks with a number of stars around. After this it must have been 8 O'clock or so and time for everyone to pass out! Funnily enough after weeks of going out and barely getting to bed before sunlight its now gone the opposite way. With all the night buses we have been getting and trekking a sleep in at this stage is 7 O'clock. A lot of the times we've had to be up for 4am!!

Salkantay Day 2

Another early rise at 5am to the cocks crowing. Full of energy I was ready for anything. Started out to blue blue skies with random clouds rolling in every now and then. I had totally recovered from been sick and was practically running up the mountains. Had the music playing on random and every song that came on just fit the moment of the scenery. Was absolutely loving it. Thinking it was one of the best days of my life. All around you could see everything from massive glaciers, rolling green hills, more little rivers, boulders ten times the size of us. All the coca leaves we've been taking as well probably helped with the mood!! Coca leaves are the leaves all the locals chew or make tea out of to give a bit of energy and help with the altitude. They are sold everywhere and its very common all day in tea. We made it up to 4600 metres which wasn't a peak but the highest point of our trek. Some people were short on air up here, this is 15000 ft above sea level for those who don't know metric. Compare that to Carontoohil, the tallest in Ireland which is roughly 1038 metres or about 3405 ft. After some chill out time up here we walked down and down towards our second camp getting warmer all the time. This was through a huge valley. Lots of scree and boulders around stuff I'd learnt in Geography years and years ago. You could totally see how the glaciers had carved out these massive mountains and left so much junk behind it. Night two we were down to 2900 metres so was a nice bit warmer and time for some beers. Our guide said we had made record time and we had done another 19km or so.

Salkantay Day 3

Day three was a lot easier. I think roughly 14km or so down through the jungle. The whole landscape had changed at this stage to warmer weather, palm trees started to appear and all sorts of tropical fruits. Saw more locals around. There were trees growing peaches, papaya, avocado and banana's. Amazing how much the altitude effects everything and how a whole other world can be just another thousand metres below. This also brought the mozzys out unfortunately and we all got some terrible bites from some sort of yellow mozzys that we'd never heard of before. In all the walking I did over the few days the feet were fine but these bites fucked them up on day 5. I could barely walk due to the swollen ankles they gave! We really only walked here till mid afternoon then camped out in some half built building and spent the afternoon in these natural hot springs in another huge valley. That night some people had a few beers, tried to check out a night club in the local town which didn't seem to be open so went back to the campfire chatting to Eddie our guide who is a local. Eddie was a great guy. Full of personality and local as well. He had some great stories and has travelled all over South America and Switzerland. It's great to hear how much some of the locals have travelled here.

Salkantay Day 4

Half the group decided to get the bus to the lunch stop. The rest of us walked. After lunch we walked all along the railroad tracks at the back of Machu Picchu to Agues Calientes. This is the town at the bottom of Machu Pichu. Felt like a scene out of Stand by me!! Arriving into Agues Calientes was a bit of culture shock after been in the middle of nowhere. From down this road here come 20 dirty people, wrecked from walking 78km, unshaven, carrying backpacks and just literally coming out of the jungle and here we see real tourists. All clean wearing proper shoes and shirts. Most likely paid a fortune to get the train or bus here. Eating in crazy expensive restaurant's that were in the town. Even the locals in the town were probably shocked to hear us speaking Spanish. We went for food in one local restaurant and even though the whole town is tourist a few of the locals here wanted to take our picture cause they'd never seen a tourist in there before. And its the local places that usually end up been the best. Well we were hear for three or four O'clock, actually got a shower (although it was cold) and a bed. Decided it was time to go drinking and spent the night drinking until 10!! Never have I been to bed that early from drink but we had another 4am wake up to get up the Machu Picchu.

Salkantay Day 5 - Machu Picchu

We needed to climb 1700 Inca steps to get to the entrance. Most of the tourist would get the tourist bus up but we wanted to be up there early and first to get extra tickets for another mountain called Waynupichu. Raced up a couple of hundred metres to the top in about 40 mins watching the sunrise as we went and managed to get our spot for the other mountain. Up until 9 0'Clock the weather varied so much from having one layer of clothes to getting freezing cold when the clouds rolled in but as soon as the sun came out the area was beautiful. Most peaks all around and the ruins in the middle of it all. Climbing the other mountains over Machu Pichu called Huayna Picchu was probably the highlight. I think this was another 600 metres or so up again. Very very steep and they only let 200 people at a time do it. After days of been used to only 20 people around all the time was weird to see the hundreds of tourists around. Been at the peak of Huayna Picchu was incredible though. Looking down on the ruins from a few hundred metres above. Spent a couple of hours relaxing around until it was time to head back to Agues Calientes. Actually raced the tourist bus down and made it to the bottom the exact same time as the bus had to go via the windy roads and we could go down the steps a few hundred metres.

We did just under 100km of walking in 5 days. I will never think of my feet the same again. The last few weeks of trekking and all the other stuff we've been doing have been some of the best days of my life. Peru is amazing for that and definitely a place I would love to come back to. Some of the mornings getting up, putting on the shoes and putting one step in front of the other was so difficult for the first few minutes but then we quickly got back into the rhythm and ready to go again. Stopping for breaks was the hardest part of getting stuck behind someone slow is also hard cause you can't do your own pace. All in all I totally enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to everyone. Had a great sleep when we got back to Cusco and the following day sitting to breakfast we hear all about Ireland on the news. It was plastered on the front pages of every major news channels and even local Peruvian channels all about the bailout and the economy. Brian Cohen's face today is all over the world on most front pages. They were interviewing lots of random Irish on the streets of Dublin and showing it here and even showing clips of protests that make it look to be riots when you don't know what's actually going on.

Right now as I'm writing this I'm on another cool bus on the way to the Bolivian border. Going to spend a few days at Lake Titicaca one of the highest lakes or something like that and then onto La Paz to party at the Wild Rover a famous Irish hostel!

Photos of Salkantay Day 1 + 2

Photos of Salkantay Days 3-5 and Machu Picchu

Peru - Desert to snowy mountains to Canyons over 3km deep.

Peru hasn't failed to impress. Within a week we went from great surfing beaches, to big cities with concerts and top night clubs, to sand boarding in the desert and then two days later driving through mountains covered in snow, then hiking from over 4000 metres down into a canyon 3000 metres deep. Each place eating great food and staying in pretty nice hotels or hostels for fuck all money.

After Lima myself, Adrian moved onto Huacachina further down south to go sand boarding. Here we met up with most of the rest of are group that had gone ahead a few days earlier. They had told us what hostel they were going to and we checked in but couldn't find anyone. It was a very strange hostel indeed. The people working there were just way to over enthusiastic and very much pushing you to eat at their restaurant and do their tours. We didn't like it at all. Like the following morning when we woke up they ask us do we want breakfast, first thing. We said no and they ask us where were going what were doing etc etc and tell us to come back for lunch. Then we told them we were moving to another hostel with friends they said why and told us to bring all our friends there. Sounds simple really but it was just non stop. Travelling Asia this happens all the time but its normal there and were used to it. But in this part of the world they don't need to do it. We later found the others and they didn't really like the place either so they had also checked out. We found a nice hotel across the street with friendly staff, a pool and all for $5 per night. About a week later we realised that a lot of money, ipods, sunglasses etc had been robbed from some of the others bags here while we were sandboarding.

Huacachina is a small little oasis in the middle of the desert. More like a little pond with a number of restaurants around it. We wake up to blue blue skies and dry heat every day. Whats crazy is in New York I found very little Wifi that was free or fast around the place and the same in Ireland. My phone has Wifi so I usually just use facebook to contact people or to find out advice about where I'm going etc so always handy. Don't use it for calls or texts. In South and Central America there is Wifi everywhere and even here in the middle of the desert I could pick it up outside sitting on a bench beside the oasis. A lot of the buses in Peru even have it. Later on on the second day the Canadian girls Mallory and Amanda followed us down from Lima to do some sand boarding.

The sand boarding is crazy. Riding around in these dune buggy's at top speeds, turning crazy turns on steep massive hills of sand, bouncing around. They take you from dune to dune and then give you a board to go down. It was scary but more exciting than any roller coaster I've been on!! Some people had actual snowboards for the sand boarding but its totally different to snowboarding. People who have snowboarded before actually are at a disadvantage for it usually. To be honest most of us didn't even bother standing as lying down head first on the board makes you go way quicker. Don't know the actual height of these hills and in the pictures the size doesn't give a great perspective but some of them are scarily high especially when going down head first!! This went on for a few hours and then we stopped to watch the sunset before heading back to the hotel.

The people in Huacachina were all a bit weird. Maybe it was because they were all trying to sell something. Either over enthusiastic over nothing or something. Was hard to describe. Not dangerous in anyway though. But we felt we needed to move on so took another luxurious night bus the following night to Arequipa. We were talking about stopping off at the Nazca lines which are these massive drawings in the middle of the desert. They can only be seen from the air but when they were done back in BC or the first century or something like that they obviously didn't have planes. So nobody knows why they are there. Plus there are drawings of dogs and astronauts ands stuff which in this part of the world back then didn't exist. But anyway, we were too lazy to stop there and just sat by the pool for the day.

Funny story about when we got a taxi to go get our bus tickets. The driver asks us where we are from and we said Ireland. He then made an explosion sound and boomed his two hands together and then pretended to start firing guns off!! Talking about how dangerous it was and how a friend of his got shot of something in Belfast. I think an Irish friend yrs ago. But just goes to show the false stereotype some people will have of places like Mexico or Colombia and still people have that impression of Ireland and how dangerous they think it still is!!! He was a funny guy though.

Arequpia is another colonial city in the south. Reminded me a bit of Granada in Nicaragua or Antigua in Guatemala. Lots of high volcano's surrounding it. Some of them over 6000 metres high. The main reason we were stopping here was to do a trek through the Colca canyon the deepest canyon in the world. Now everyone has heard of the Grand Canyon in the States. This is pretty impressive and pretty deep. But its actually only 1830 metres. The Colca canyon is 4160 metres deep from top to bottom. The rest of our group, the Dutch girls and Dara from Ireland and another couple wanted to do a three day trek but we were kinda stuck on time so decided on a two day trek. This was 21km in total, 14km on the first day and 7km straight uphill on the second.

We got up at 3am and our bus started driving through desert, mountains and then snow. We stopped for breakfast, broke down for a while, went to this amazing view point called Cruz del Condor which s 4300 high and has many condors flying around. Looking down from here we were looking down on a river at 2180 metres. At about 11 that morning we stopped in the middle of nowhere and met a guy called John who was our guide for the next few days. The moment we met him he was smiling and didn't stop been friendly and smiling for two days! He was great. Would definitely do a trek with him again. Anytime we were in difficulty he's stop and wait. And had lots of patience with me stopping for tonnes of photos!! Also quite funny. At one stage we were taking photos and he said to tag him in on facebook. Were asking does he have facebook all the way up here in the mountains and his reply was: "Of course, everybody has facebook... except the Chinese"!!!! He speaks Spanish, English, Italian, German and two other local languages here as well I think. Great guide to bring us around! He was also telling us that in August the busy month there could be 400 people on this trek. But in November its more like 30 to 40. I usually don't care too many tourists around but definitely got the feeling for it here. Was great to be out in the middle of nowhere by ourselves. Lots of photo opportunities without people in the way. Keep in mind that the Inca trail is 500 people per day max but there are all sorts of treks to machu pichu and a train there so I'm guessing that must be a few thousand people per day there.

So the whole first day we spent walking around steep mountains edges, no barriers and very steep drops. Mountains all around. Blue skies and the sun shining. Quite warm as well despite the height. It is honestly the best scenery I've ever seen in my life. We stopped for lunch where we met the others that were on the three day hike and then kept going for another three hours until we got to an oasis at the bottom of the canyon. This was a little green area with bungalows and pools and food. Funnily enough proper toilets, running water, sinks etc which when we have done things like this in other parts of the world you wouldn't find. Had a great feed and was in bed by 9 for the tough trek the following day. Here is a photo of the path we had to do. It was a 1100 metre vertical climb in three hours. Started at 5am and John held back for anyone who was finding it tough. Keep in mind that this wasn't starting from sea level. The bottom of the canyon where we were at is at 2200 metres which already you can start feeling altitude sickness. We took our time and stopped frequently for photos. I was just awestruck at the views.

One thing I noticed in Central America is a lot of people I had met have travelled all over the world and seen a lot. I had this conversation with a few people but a few of us just weren't so impressed with beaches or scenery that we really should have been cause we had all seen better in other places. That's the problem when you travel a lot. And this was the general consensus that I found from a lot of people. They figured they were spoilt. But since we have been to Panama and all of South American so far this has totally changed. Everything I have seen here is by far more scenic and awestruck than anywhere else.

At the top of this mountain there was a short walk through some crop growing fields and into a little village for breakfast before heading back to Arequipa. Funnily enough in this random little restaurant if that's what you can call it at the top of the mountain, miles from anywhere they were blaring out westlife at 8am in the morning. Driving back we stopped for views, some hot springs and lunch and then finally got back to Arequpa at around 6 in the evening absolutely tired out. These were two of my favourite days of my trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Also the cost for the guide, all the transport, accommodation and all the meals except the last lunch was 25 euros. Not so expensive. Right now I'm on the bus wrecked after the last few days on our way to Cuzco to organise a hike to Machu Pichu.

Photos of the SandBoarding

Photos of the Colca Canyon