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.

Ecuador - Snow storms, Equator, White water rafting and Big Dangerous Cities!

The first day or two in Ecuador wasnt too impressive. We hadnt met too many friendly local people or rather we met a few downright ignorant people, weather wasnt too great, and basically it just wasn't Colombia!! But it got better and better as the week went on. The hostel we stayed in, the Secret Garden was a bit of a rip off. They were out to make money in every way possible and would nearly charge you to piss. We still had fun though and had lots of parties in our room over the weekend until they politely asked about 6 of us to leave on the sunday morning.

Quito is high. Very high so that even climbing a few flights of stairs makes you puff and pant. And its very scenic. Spread out all over the hills, from the rooftop bar of our hostel you could see all around. But also dangerous. After been in Colombia for so long we werent so used to taking care of our things again and looking out for people who will rob you. But from day one all we heard was stories from people getting robbed in Ecuador and especially Quito. Its quite funny cause a lot of people were actually starting their trip in Quito and skipping Colombia cause some stupid travel agent at home told them Colombia was dangerous. Never understand travel agents. They get everything wrong and rip you off so much. But anyway, there were a few groups of people that got robbed once and some of them twice within their first two days. This ranges from people throwing actual human shit on their shoulders, offering to wipe it off and pickpocketing you, or slipping their hands into bags on buses or just slashing bags with a knife from around your back and gone before you even know it. On buses in Ecuador you see every local on the bus with their bags in their laps and their hands around the straps. The thieves are quite cunning and have lots of ways to rob you without knowing. In Colombia on the other hand we could have left everything on the bus and gone into a shop and come back it will still be there. Either way this was the only drawback. We just didnt walk around the streets with any valuables and always stuck in groups.

One of the days I went to the equator. The tourist spot that they say is the equator turns out it actually isn´t. And its a big rip off. The real equator is actually 200 metres down the road and luckily I bumped into a kiwi guy I knew there who had the info on it. So we went here and it was pretty cool. So many random little tests we did. Like we poured water down a drain on the south side, the north side and the centre and sure enough it goes clockwise or anti clockwise depending if your in the northern hemisphere or the southern. Right on the line it flows down straight. We were also able to balance an egg on a nail on the equator. And then other random expirements like walking along in a straight line with you eyes closed o the line and you´l automatically veer to one side. Its mad because literally a few centimeters from the equator those effects didnt exist. It was great!!

We went out with a group from the hostel over the weekend and the night life in town was pretty mad. Bars and clubs everywhere. Also we had been told that Ecuador was the same price as Colombia which for us was the most expensive country so far and not far off Europe for some things. Well dont know where people got that idea cause Ecuador is as cheap as chips. Paying not more than 1 dollar for a meal, 4.50 for a big bottle of rum, 20 cents for petrol per litre and fuck all for buses. Its just all the cool activities here that really add up. After a few days in Quito we had quite a good group of two canadians, two english who wed met in Colombia and two Dutch so we moved onto Cotopaxi in the middle of nowhere in the countryside to a hostel without electricity and views of one of the tallest active volcanoes in the world.

The hostel we paid for included all our meals, jacuzzi and some activities. Owned by the same people as Secret Garden in Quito but so much better. An hour and a half bumpy ride through the country side in the back of a pickup truck to get there a lot of the scenery very like Ireland at times. Green fields, cows, and lots of grey cloud but this was hiding the snowcapped mountains thousands of metres hgh around us! Spent the first day drinking rum in the jacuzzi party. The second day we planned on climbing up to the glaciers of cotopaxi. The weather was pretty cloudy so we couldnt see the volcano from where we were but as we were driving up in started snowing more and more. By the time we got to 4500 metres where we would start the climb it was snowing quite heavily and I was loving it. Obviously it would have been nice to see blue skies and scenery but I just love the fact that there was snow about 50 km from the equator. We were to climb to a refuge at 4800 metres stop for a break and then keep going until we got to glaciers. Once we got there though the snow was too thick to go any further without proper gear. So we stayed made a snowman and had some snowfights. It was so much fun. And the views that we did see were incredible also even though a lot of it was covered in cloud. Since I have been travelling through warm climates I´d no proper warm clothes. Using surfing clothes to keep me warm, socks as gloves, rash vest as warmth on the inside, surfing tshirts and hoodies and even plastic bags over my socks to stop me feet getting wet. Worked a charm!! Altitude that high is crazy. The amount of puffing and panting you do. Even at above 3000 metres we were noticing all the little effects on our bodies some which I won´t mention!! But even on other things like electronic equipment working weird and shower gel and deodrants over leaking and stuff cause of the pressure. A few of the others did a proper climb to the summit of the mountain the following day. This was about 5800 metres I think. They got provided with proper crampons and ice axes and stuff and started hiking at 1am. The photos of this looked incredible cause they got a bluebird day for it. We had woken up one morning the day after our climb in our hostel to see a clear blue sky and the volcano standing there tall and proud covered in snow in front of us.

A group of about 7 of us decided then to move onto Banos and adventure sports town in the middle of Ecuador. Still pretty high but finally got some nice sunny warm weather. Back to tshirts and shorts and flip flops. Really reminds me of Queenstown without the lake. So much stuff going on here. Lots of cool bars and restaurants all looking for staff. Definitely a place I could stay for a while and work if I wasn´t moving on I´d say. Its surrounded by enormous mountains on all sides with waterfalls gushing down the sides of them. First day we took some buggys out for a drive and went into the country side to cross some bridges, driving through tunnels and visiting a number of waterfalls. The second day we went to do white water rafting. Last time I did this was in Thailand four yrs ago and was scared shitless when our boat flipped, someone got stuck underneath it and we banged off rocks. But there was a group of us doing it and it was 16 euros for a half day including lunch so wasnt going to turn it down. Turned out to be brilliant fun. Nobody fell in either and we managed the waves pretty well. That night cooked a huge meal for 12 people and downed rum until the wee hours of the morning. Was very much a tourist town for going out and first weekend in a long time we were out in tourist bars. Had some funny times as usual though and great stories but will save those for the uncut version of the blog!!

Am heading to New York now for a few days for a bit of a break!! A holiday you could say, or really just to meet the family who are there for a few days. Good opportunity to say hello to everyone. They are kinda going for Emers 21st! But also gives me a chance to do some shopping for warmer clothes and stuff I need. Funnily enough New York is so much cheaper for a lot of stuff like clothes and electronics. A lot of the group are either going to hang out on surfing beaches or go to the Galapogos while I´m gone and then were all meeting up in Mancora for Halloween and surf! So if anyones around the 31st Oct or start of Nov give us a shout! Also anyone who's around New York this weekend give us a shout if your up for meeting up. Not sure what I'm doing Friday night yet, mite head out to Philly or might stay around the city.

Photos for Ecuador up at Ecuador 1 and another album of stuff at Ecuador 2

El primer día o dos en el Ecuador no era muy impresionante. Nos hadnt se reunió también mucha gente local amistosa o, más bien nos encontramos con unas pocas personas absolutamente ignorantes, no era tiempo demasiado grande, y, básicamente, sólo que no fue Colombia! Pero es mejor que nunca y mejor que la semana que pasó. El albergue nos quedamos en el Jardín Secreto fue un poco de una estafa. Ellos fueron a hacer el dinero en todas las formas posibles y casi se le cobran a mear. Todavía se divirtieron y aunque había muchas fiestas en la sala de este fin de semana hasta que cortésmente le preguntó sobre seis de nosotros para salir en la mañana del domingo.

Quito es alto. Muy alto, así que incluso subir algunos vuelos de las escaleras que te hace puff y pantalón. Y su gran belleza paisajística. Repartidos por todo los cerros, desde el bar de la azotea del albergue que se podía ver por todas partes. Pero también es peligroso. Después de estado en Colombia desde hace tanto tiempo no estábamos tan acostumbrados a cuidar de nuestras cosas de nuevo y mirar hacia fuera para la gente que le roban. Pero desde el primer día todos hemos escuchado historias de personas era ser robado en el Ecuador y en especial Quito. Su causa bastante divertido un montón de gente eran en realidad de comenzar su viaje en Quito y saltar Colombia causar alguna agencia de viajes estúpida en su casa les dijo que Colombia era peligroso. No entiendo las agencias de viajes. Consiguen todo lo malo y robarte mucho. Pero de todos modos, hubo algunos grupos de personas que robaron una vez y algunos de ellos dos veces en sus dos primeros días. Esto va desde la gente tirando mierda humana real sobre sus hombros, que ofrece para limpiar y carteristas que, o deslizamiento sus manos en las bolsas en los autobuses o simplemente recortando bolsas con un cuchillo de alrededor de su espalda y se fue antes de que siquiera lo saben.En los autobuses en el Ecuador que ves todos los locales en el autobús con sus bolsas en sus piernas y sus manos alrededor de las correas. Los ladrones son muy astutos y tienen un montón de maneras de robar sin saber. En Colombia, por su parte que podríamos haber dejado todo en el bus y se fue a una tienda y regresar todavía estará allí. De cualquier manera este fue el único inconveniente. Simplemente aún no ha pasear por las calles con objetos de valor y siempre atascado en grupos.

Uno de los días me fui a la línea ecuatorial. El punto turístico que dicen que es el ecuador resulta que en realidad no lo es. Y es una gran estafa. El ecuador real es de 200 metros por el camino y por suerte me encontré con un tipo de kiwi sabía que quien tenía la información sobre ella. Así que fuimos aquí y fue muy bien. Así que muchas pequeñas pruebas al azar que hicimos. Al igual que echó agua en un desagüe en el lado sur, el lado norte y el centro y por supuesto que va en sentido horario o antihorario dependiendo si su en el hemisferio norte o el sur de la. Justo en la línea que fluye hacia abajo. También fuimos capaces de equilibrar un huevo sobre un clavo en el ecuador. Y luego expirements otros al azar, como caminar a lo largo de una línea recta con los ojos cerrados o que la línea y ninfómana y automáticamente vire hacia un lado. Su loca porque, literalmente, a pocos centímetros de la línea ecuatorial que aún no ha efectos existen. Fue genial!

Fuimos con un grupo del albergue durante los fines de semana y la vida nocturna de la ciudad fue bastante loco. Bares y clubes de todo el mundo. También nos habían dicho que el Ecuador era el mismo precio que Colombia, que para nosotros fue el país más caro hasta el momento y no muy lejos de Europa para algunas cosas. Bueno no sé donde la gente tiene esa idea de causar el Ecuador es tan barato como patatas fritas. Pagar no más de 1 dólar por una comida, 4.50 para una gran botella de ron, 20 centavos por litro para la gasolina y follar todos los autobuses. Su justo de todas las actividades fresco aquí que realmente se suman. Después de unos días en Quito que había un grupo bastante bueno de los dos canadienses, dos Inglés que se casó se reunieron en Colombia y dos holandeses, así que se trasladaron a Cotopaxi en medio de la nada en el campo a un albergue sin electricidad y las vistas de uno de los más alto de los volcanes activos del mundo.

El albergue que pagamos por incluyó todas nuestras comidas, jacuzzi y algunas actividades. Propiedad de las mismas personas como Secret Garden en Quito, pero mucho mejor. Una hora y media un paseo lleno de baches a través del campo en la parte trasera de una camioneta para llegar allí gran parte del paisaje muy parecido a Irlanda, a veces. Verdes prados, vacas, y un montón de nubes grises, pero se trataba de ocultar a los miles de metros nevados HGH a nuestro alrededor! Pasó el día bebiendo ron por primera vez en el partido jacuzzi. El segundo día se planificó en la escalada hasta los glaciares del Cotopaxi. El clima estaba bastante nublado, así que no pude ver el volcán desde donde estábamos, pero como íbamos en comenzó a nevar más y más. En el momento en que llegamos a 4500 metros donde se inicia el ascenso estaba nevando muy fuertemente y me encanta.Obviamente, habría sido agradable ver el cielo azul y el paisaje, pero me encanta el hecho de que había nieve a unos 50 km del ecuador. Teníamos que subir a un refugio a 4800 metros de parada para un descanso y luego continuar hasta llegar a los glaciares. Una vez que llegamos allí, sin embargo la nieve era demasiado grueso para ir más allá sin equipo adecuado. Así que nos quedamos hizo un muñeco de nieve y había algunos snowfights. Fue muy divertido. Y las opiniones que vimos fueron increíbles también, aunque mucho de ello estaba cubierto de nubes. Desde que he estado viajando a través de climas cálidos yo sin ropa de abrigo adecuada. Uso de ropa de surf para mantenerme caliente, calcetines, guantes, chaleco erupción en forma de calor en el interior, el surf camisetas y sudaderas e incluso bolsas de plástico en los calcetines que me deje de mojarse los pies. Trabajó un encanto! Altitud tan alto es una locura. La cantidad de resoplando y jadeando que haces. Incluso por encima de 3000 metros estábamos notando todos los pequeños efectos en nuestros cuerpos algunas de las cuales no voy a mencionar! Pero incluso en otras cosas como equipos de trabajo por medios electrónicos gel de ducha y extraños y deodrants sobre fugas y causar cosas de la presión. Algunos de los otros lo hicieron de una subida adecuada a la cumbre de la montaña al día siguiente. Esto fue sobre 5800 metros, creo.Llegaron provistos de crampones y piolet adecuado y esas cosas y comenzó a caminar a la 1am. Las fotos de esta causa parecía increíble que tiene un día pájaro azul de la misma. Habíamos despertado una mañana, un día después de la subida en el albergue para ver un cielo azul claro y el volcán de pie alto y orgulloso cubierta de nieve frente a nosotros.

Un grupo de cerca de 7 de nosotros decidió entonces pasar a Baños y la ciudad deportes de aventura en el centro del Ecuador.Sigue siendo bastante alta, pero finalmente consiguió un buen clima cálido y soleado. Volver a las camisetas y pantalones cortos y sandalias. Realmente me recuerda a Queenstown sin el lago.Tantas cosas pasando aquí. Muchos de los bares de moda y restaurantes de todos en busca de personal. Definitivamente un lugar que podría permanecer por un tiempo y trabajo si no se estaba moviendo en diría yo. Su rodeado de enormes montañas en todos los lados, con cascadas que brota por los lados de ellos.El primer día tomamos algunas buggys para unos tiros y se fue al campo a cruzar algunos puentes, la conducción a través de túneles y visita una serie de cascadas. El segundo día fuimos a hacer rafting. La última vez que hizo esto fue en Tailandia hace cuatro años y estaba cagado de miedo cuando el barco volcó, alguien se quedó atascado debajo de ella y nos golpeó de las rocas. Pero hubo un grupo de nosotros hacerlo y fue de 16 euros por medio día con almuerzo para no iba a rechazarlo. Resultó ser divertido brillante. Nadie cayó en cualquiera y nos las arreglamos bastante bien las olas. Esa noche cocinó una gran comida para 12 personas y derribó el ron hasta altas horas de la mañana. Fue en gran medida una ciudad turística para salir de fin de semana por primera vez en mucho tiempo que estaban en los bares turísticos. Había algunos momentos divertidos, como de costumbre y aunque grandes historias, pero se ahorrará los de la versión sin cortes del blog!

Soy la partida a Nueva York ahora por unos días para un poco de descanso! Unas vacaciones que se podría decir, o en realidad sólo para conocer a la familia que están allí por unos días. Buena oportunidad para saludar a todo el mundo. Son un poco a su favor Emers 21! Pero también me da la oportunidad de hacer algunas compras para la ropa más caliente y otras cosas que necesito.Curiosamente Nueva York es mucho más barato para un montón de cosas como la ropa y la electrónica. Muchos de los grupos están o van a pasar el rato en las playas de surf o ir a la Galapogos mientras estoy fuera y luego fueron todas las reuniones en Máncora para Halloween y el surf! Así que si anyones alrededor del 31 de octubre o principios de noviembre nos dan una nota! También cualquier persona que en todo Nueva York este fin de semana nos dará una nota si para reunirse. No está seguro de lo que estoy haciendo la noche del viernes, sin embargo, la cabeza del ácaro a Filadelfia o podría estar alrededor de la ciudad.