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

Peru Coastline - Beaches, Halloween, surfing, nightclubs and concerts

After the flight from New York I went straight to a hostel in Ecuador for a rest before a day trip to Peru! Found a cool hostel about 15 minutes from the airport and was well needed my own bed after the previous few nights out!! The following day woke up to get the bus to Mancora for Halloween night. I’ve never seen a bus station so busy. I reckon there must have been 10’s of thousands of people in there. Massive queues. People pushing etc. Luckily I’m bigger than most Ecuadorians and got to the front of a queue pretty quickly and got myself some tickets. I met a Swiss guy coming on my bus that had also just arrived off the plane all the way from Switzerland and unfortunately he had just gotten robbed straight away. Ecuador and Barcelona are the worst places I’ve heard about people getting robbed. Always seems to happen. Someone had taken his iPod out of his pocket. He figured he knew who did it and asked the see his bag etc. The guy showed up but obviously just didn’t show him the iPod.

We arrived into Mancora that evening, a nice beach town on the coast of Peru. At the start it was chilly compared to NY but it got nice and sunny and hot everyday! The place we were staying in was like a resort. Literally the type of place I don’t go near when I’m in Spain but this was kitted out for backpackers so loved it. Never even needed to leave the complex for days. They had a big pool, pool volleyball, beach volleyball, ping pong, games, competitions, parties, bar, restaurant, movies, Internet etc etc. You name it it was there. Plus it was full of all sorts of backpackers from different countries. It was on the beach as well. The food and drink here was so nice and so good priced as well. Adrian had spent the whole week there, ate there most days and did all his drinking there and at the end of the week his bill came to $140 including accommodation. Couldn’t get over the prices. Whoever did the business plan for this hostel knows what they were doing! Keep people in. As I said most people didn’t even leave the place. Took me two days before I went to see what the outside of Peru was like! It's a chain of four hostels around Peru and Bolivia and I think three or four Irish guys own it along with two others. I've heard the profit they make is incredible as well. Def a way I'd base a hostel on if I was to own one!! It’s very very much a party place so I’ll save most of the stories for the uncut blog!!

Was a shame when we had to leave cause there was a group of nine of us leaving, most of who I’d known for a few weeks but we still were waiting for two Canadians that we’ve known since mid October to come down from Galapagos as well. Unfortunately we didn’t know what day they were arriving, so after a very indecisive should we stay or should we go we decided to move onto Lima on a 19 hour bus ride through the desert. The further south you go the better the buses get. Am still looking forward to these Argentinian buses I’ve heard so much about but the Peru luxury ones are still amazing. Had one of the best sleeps ever on it. There’s a waiter in a waistcoat serving us dinner and breakfast. Non stop movies. And so much space. Am writing this now as we drive though the desert watching the sun rise!! So good not to be worried about getting robbed on the buses anymore either. In Ecuador everyone including the locals literally has their bags on their laps, strapped around their arms and still people get robbed like that. These luxury buses they actually take a video of everyone getting on board and their seats for security!

I like to judge a book by its cover in a way. And on this trip first impressions have always been the best. Within the first few minutes of a new place I seem to have judged it and the majority of time that will stick with me. This goes for new countries, cities, hostels even. Like by day on in Colombia I realised it was one of my favourite places and 7 weeks later it had just gotten better and better. My first few minutes in Quito I realised I wasn't too big a fan and that also stuck with me. But anyway Lima, we arrived in and before we got off the bus I realised it was going to be a good city and after 5 days there we just had to get out it was so good!! I'd had no great expectations at all for Peru originally but right now it is totally nothing what I thought it would be like. In one way I had thought it would be a lot cheaper and poorer. Didn't realise it would be so built up and modern. Like Colombia there are so many things that are so much more modern and newer than in Europe of America.

A lot of coastal Peru so far as reminded me very much of California. Parts of it with vineyards, lots of desert along big huge cliffs with surf below. And a very similar climate as well. Warm, sunny and dry but not humid. Even Lima seems to get the similar June gloom to San Diego just not in June. Lima is massive. Over 8 million people or so. Loads of different neighbourhoods like in LA or San Diego. It's not without its slums or poor people but that's a side we didn't see. We saw skyscrapers, posh shiny hotels, casinos, cool shopping malls and big ass highways full of traffic and big cars. It seems to be definitely a mix between LA and San Diego. A bit cleaner than LA and a bit dirtier than San Diego!! It also is on the coast so the surfing beaches were two blocks from our hostel.

It's also the type of place where you need to know someone to get somewhere. The lads had met two really nice girls in Mancora from Lima who were willing to take us out and show us around. They seemed to know everyone and have loads of cool contacts to get us onto lists of big night clubs and past bouncers that we wouldn't have had a chance at getting into otherwise. First night, Thursday we started out in Miraflores and then split up to go to separate night clubs. The girls had called ahead to the place we were going to, to get the bouncer to let us in for free and they brought the other guys to another big place! Thanks girls!! On the Friday then we found out Fat Boy Slim was playing in Lima. A lot of big concerts seem to come here. Fat Boy Slim was never the type of music I thought I would be into. Had absolutely no interest in going to his concert but we were in Portugal last summer and about ten of my friends were going so I joined them and it turned out to be the best concert I've ever been to. Plus I love the fact that he plays all night. There's no stopping him!! So I decided to go to it again and it didn't fail to impress. I'd recommend anyone no matter what type of music you like to try him out if you have the chance.

On the Sat after very little sleep and quite a hangover day myself and Adrian decided to go for a quite drink at this bar we'd heard about at 4 O'clock. At the door there was loads of bouncers and we could see inside. They wanted to charge us in and Adrian, in English which the bouncers didn't understand too well started saying we were on the list! They said there was no list and he repeats, my name is Adrian check the list were on it! Like I said Lima is about who you know. They got the gist of it and let us in for free. Of course there was no list and we weren't on it. He later talked his way into the VIP area for us when they were trying to charge us 20 soles extra to get in!! So we go into this bar and can't believe our eyes. It was like Spring break had hit the place. The most beautiful women I've seen dancing all over the place. People dancing on tables and chairs, people drinking like mad. It was popping. And I don't mean strippers dancing, more uni students and the young rich kids of Lima I presume!! It was amazing. And people were so friendly. Got chatting to a good few people and got a load of numbers of people who wanted to take us out that night. Asked them was there something special going on but apparently it was just a normal Saturday! By 8 O'clock it dies down and people go to other bars, or to eat and change to go back out again. The street outside it at 8 O'clock was like 3am in Dublin on a Sat night. We went back to the hostel to get the others, some people not making it out at all due to the lack of sleep. The guy who owned our hostel a French guy brought us to a French house party and then me and the girls and a Peruvian guy went out to the night life area of Miraflores. Again this guy Miguel was so friendly. He wouldn't let us pay for any taxi's or drinks but I managed to sneak a beer in anyway. He is head of Sales for Sony for south America. Really nice guy and gets to travel over! Tried to talk him into getting me a job in Buenos Aires Sony office when I get there!!

On Sunday the Dutch girls, English guys and Irish guy we've been travelling with moved onto the next place but myself and Adrian decided to wait on to meet up with the Canadian girls that we'd been travelling with previously. Tough thing about travelling in this part of the world is that everyone is on a different time limit plus there's so much to do we keep getting split up. At least in Asia or something like that most people are on the exact same time limit. But we hung back for the girls for a day and then on Monday followed the others again onto our next stop!!

Photos up at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254125&id=509199014&l=795076d0d3

New York - Oct 2010

My parents and sisters were heading to New York for a few days shopping and also as a birthday present for Emer's 21st. So I decided to fly up for a couple of days to join them. Plus it was a good excuse to do some shopping as clothes and electronics are so expensive in South America. I left Ecuador on route to New York with a stop off in Miami. I have never been to Miami before but it was only three hours so not much time to go out and explore. But first things I noticed was the amount of Spanish been spoken in the airport. Funnily enough even though my Spanish is awful I found myself thinking in Spanish over the few days in America and actually having to translate my thoughts to English in bars and restaurants. Or even accidently speaking Spanish to Taxi drivers who didn't have a clue what I was saying! Other thing about Miami was the heat and humidity of the place. This didn't change once I hit NY. Even though it was the end of Oct it was a warm sticky night. As I got a bus and subway from Queens into Manhatten I couldn't help but think how much older, dirty and run down a lot of things looked compared to Colombia. Always get a different perspective of a country depending on which one you've come from and at first Colombia just seemed so much more modern and developed. The shopping malls were way more modern, cleaner and fancier, the subways and public transport the same, no graffiti anywhere and even small things like the sidewalks were so dirty in NY. But once I got downtown this all changed. As I was on the subway I was getting more and more excited about seeing everyone and arrived at the hotel room to find most of them in bed but they were happy to see me!!

The first day there we headed out to Jersey Gardens to do some shopping. We got on the coach and funnily enough there wasn't enough seats for everyone so half the people had to stand. Again this is something I'd usually associate with more developing countries. If you buy a ticket it usually guarentees you a seat. It didn't help that most of the people were Irish. Around me I literally didn't hear one person that wasn't Irish actually. We got to the shopping mall just before it opened and there were literally shopping trolleys that you could take to bring around the shops which most Irish grabbed straight away. Other people literally had wheely suitcases with them. Dragging a big empty wheely bag around the mall with the intention of filling it up. Later on we saw people barely able to lift them onto the bus. Even at the front door of the mall they were handing out booklets of discounts for people who had Irish passports. I couldn't understand what was going on. Wasn't sure was everyone over here spending their hard earned dole money or what!! But then someone in a shop mentioned that it was Halloween break at home so possibly it was a lot of teachers on break! Plus the exchange rate helps immensely as well. Could not get over the prices. Its so so cheap for everything. And not just clothes and stuff. In New York, food, drinks, bars everything is so much cheaper than in Ireland. And I guess a lot of things are cheaper than in Colombia as well. Obviously you can find your high end stuff as well!

The following day myself and Seamie went out to some shopping malls in Queens while the girls went downtown. We went to Steinway street in Astoria to see Essie, my Grand Aunts old apartment where I stayed back in '94 and Seamie had prob stayed in about 10 times over the years. Was interesting to go back here. Again walking around was crazy hot. New York can get so humid and last June was probably the humidest I've seen it but even though it was practically November the weather hadn't let up much!! Some of the nights it didn't even go below 17 degrees celcius which would be a nice summers day at home!

Thursday was probably one of the best days of the trip. It was a beautiful blue sky day and a scorcher. Usually when I'm in cities I'm not into any of the cheesy tourist things most of all tour buses. But one thing that I had done before, the circle line is a ferry right around Manhatten and is well worth doing. I've done it before and would definitely do it again. You get great views from all around the city and find out a world of info about the city that I didn't know at all before. The guy who did the tour was the same guy I think I had the last time I did it 6 years ago. Very good personality and very knowledgable. I love my facts and numbers so will write down a few random ones that he mentioned. Whether it bores the rest of you or not I found them quite interesting! I'll put these down the bottom. We enjoyed the rest of this day walking around in the heat, going to the highline park, an old elevated railway track that they turned into a park and then I went and bought a laptop. Never had one before but so many people travelling have them and it can be so handy especially since theres Wifi everywhere lately. Plus the price of them are so cheap in NY. In South America they are two and a half or three times more expensive. That night myself, Kate and Emer went out on the lower east side on a bit of a bar crawl.

We woke up the last morning to a freezing cold Autumn day. The seasons had really changed. Christmas decorations were starting to come up along with the Halloween ones. A number of outdoor icerinks were open which was quite strange when it was about 25 degrees the previous few days but it fit the part now! We walked around Central Park enjoying the atmosphere, the leaves that were now very multicoloured been blown down around us. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to the others that afternoon. Usually its me thats leaving to the airport not them! So I had an hour to put in myself until I met up with two friends from college, Kate and James. Kate is living in Philly and I meet up with her quite regularly when I come over. James literally just moved to NY two days ago. Am so jealous! He got a three year contract here with Goal and is living the dream!! Me and him both dreamed of living in NY at some point so was quite exciting for him to get this. Been friends with him for years but funnily enought havn't had the chance to meet him in Ireland in ages. We always seem to cross paths in other countries! So far this year he's been volunteering in Haiti after the earthquake and Pakistan after the floods. Myself and Kate wandered around for two hours looking for a case for my laptop. I had seen one I wanted earlier in staples but couldn't remember which shop! So it took us 7 different shops around the city to find it again. All Staples shops. Never seen so many of them in my life they are everywhere and still just couldn't find the right one for hours! We met with James then and he'd just come from a meeting in DC! Only two days there and he was already meeting with the big guys in DC!!!

Went back to James apartment in the Village. And what a nice area. Really cool little pizza places, cafes restaurants and just nice and relaxed but totally central. Just a few blocks from both union square and washington Square. And the apartment is so cool. He lives with a guy called Andrew who was so much fun. James had warned us he was fun but literally from the minute we met him he was non stop!! Like myself he seems to not bother sleeping much and partying all the time! Having music blaring to all hours of the morning. Loved it. I've gotten so many warnings when I was living in college for too loud music and parties but for some reason all the other apts around either don't hear them or don't care which I'd love! From the roof top of the apartment you can see the skyline, the empire state and they were planning a halloween party up there for Sunday night! I think James really got lucked out with the apt and the people he got to live with.

So the night started out with pizza and drinks and music at James house then we went on to a house party of people who are friends of Andrew. Another pretty cool apartment on 8th and 54th with views of Times Square from one of the bedrooms. They had converted another bedroom into a dancefloor, beer pong in the tv room and drinks and snacks around the house! Met a lot of interesting people in there. Funnily enough none of them were from NY but were all living in NY and loving it. Really have to come back and do the illegal Irish thing there someday!! The night went onto some night club that the guys got us into for free and then back to Andrew and James place where we only got 2 hours sleep before the guys woke us up to more music and introduce us to the other roommate Ryan who was also just as wild!! He had literally just flown in from Brazil and was full of energy and mad to drive me to the airport!! Well I had the option of getting a subway and bus, laden down with a bag that is now nearly 20 kilos and been hungover or gettting in a BMW with the two guys and a free lift to the airport! Of course I chose the BMW, great sound system in it blaring out the tunes driving across Manhatten bridge and out to La Guardia.

I am now sitting on the plane looking out over the Caribbean islands still recovering from last night on my way back to Ecuador! Had a great time in New York and was great to meet up with everyone! And thanks for everything there!

New York Photos up at here

Some random NY Facts:

On the buildings in Times Sq there is more money made on adivrtising on the outside than the companies that are in the inside.

On any average day there are roughly 5 million people on the island of Manhatten. In the evening 3 million of these leave the island at pretty much the same time. Taking a taxi across town at this hour would be an average of 1.4 mph.

On Ellis island where they checked people for diseases in the past 98% of the people got through. I wonder do this many people get in these days! I thought that would have been way less back then.

Central park if it was sold for development is worth $580 billion dollars.

There are roughly 600,000 millionaires in Manhatten.

Roughly 600,000 students in Manhatten.

The new tower in the world trade centre is going to be 541 metres tall!

The circle line boat carried 35,000 people on 911.

575 miles of coastline.

13,000 cabs in the city.