Naughty Boy- La la la (feat. Sam Smith)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1_3zBUKM8

Naughty Boy- La la la (feat. Sam Smith)

It seems that this music video is based on a 19th century Bolivian legend, but has been produced as a story within a story, so parallels are made with The Wizard of Oz. The boy, from an abusive background, begins in the streets of La Paz, Bolivia, progresses to the salt flats in Uyuni, and then ends up in Potosi. The boy finds a dog, resembling the lion, then the tin man, who gets a heart and finally the scarecrow.

A strong mining theme runs throughout; shots of the train cemetery, which once connected Bolivian mines to further afield. Potosi, debatably one of the highest cities in the world, famous for its mining of silver and disheartening 'chisel and head torch' working conditions.

It's not often you see a music video that is as impressive as this, with great visuals. I may be biased, seeing as Bolivia is one of my favourite countries with lovely people and an interesting history, but the scenes are beautiful and so what better place than to film a music video in the desolate southwest of the country. Amazing.

These are a few snaps of my experiences of these areas of Bolivia. The photos don't do it justice, but it gives you an idea:

Lagoon with pink flamingos

Potosi

Red Lagoon

Salt Flats

Potosi miners

http://elitedaily.com/news/world/man-writes-lengthy-complaint-airline-sit-next-thought-infant-hippopotamus/

Maybe I should have written a more comical letter of complaint to Fiji Airways like the one above...

Salt Flats

DAY 1:

Packed, eaten, paid, ready to go. We went to the 'Red Planet' offices and got in our jeep. There are four jeeps in total, two guides, and one driver per vehicle, so the group was split in two for the purpose of the guides. We all travelled as four jeeps together though. The first stop was at abandoned railway tracks and trains. We had a great time exploring and taking photos. The weather was really windy and it was starting to rain. We drove to this place where we stopped for lunch, picked up a few props for the salt flats and were shown the process from taking the salt in its purest form to bagging it up and taking it to be sold. We then set off again and drove to the salt flats. They are 12,000 square kilometres. We drove for quite a way to this small land island in the middle with loads of cactuses on. It was pretty cool and the views of the salt flats were incredible. It was so white and just disappeared into the horizon. It was such a shame it was such bad weather though. We tried our best to take some cool photos, distorting the perspective, but our props kept blowing over. We drove and drove, the views being absolutely amazing. As the day went on the rain stopped and it cleared up a bit. The water on top of the salt created reflections of the mountains in the distance. It was pretty stunning. We stayed the night at a salt hostel (everything being made out of salt) in the middle of nowhere. We had a questionable dinner, which we barely touched, consisting of egg, hot dog, chips, onion... It was all very bizarre. We got chatting to various people in the group, everyone was very friendly!

DAY 2:

Up at 6am and leaving at 7am, we left the salt hostel and headed off on the road. We ended up driving for ages today. I feel like I've seen a lot of Bolivia's beautiful landscape from this tour and have really enjoyed it. Throughout the day we regularly stopped off at different points. One of the first ones was by loads of massive volcanic rock where you could see the active volcano in the distance with smoke coming from it. The desert terrain we were driving on was rocky and our guide, Gonzalez told us it was once at the bottom of the ocean, which was hard to comprehend! We then saw loads of llamas crossing the road, all belonging to one woman. A train passed us in the middle of nowhere too. We then went to see loads of flamingos on a lagoon. I've never seen wild flamingos- they were so pink and stood on one leg like flamingos are meant to do! That wasn't the end to the flamingos though; we kept seeing them again and again throughout the day at various lagoons. My favourite was the final one we saw: it was massive, had white, green, blue and red colourings in the water, caused by sulphur, the sun, different minerals. It was beautiful. As we drove I also found a great sense of remoteness and scale. It was amazing, like nothing I'd ever seen before. On our right as we drove, Chile was located just over the mountains, so we were very close. We also saw geysers and hot mud pools boiling away when we were stood inside the crater of a volcano. We got very close and the steam was so fierce. We also saw the big rocks where Salvador Dali was inspired. There was one rock which I distinctly recognise in one of his paintings. It was so surreal seeing it in person! After arriving at our hostel in the evening in the middle of absolutely nowhere, we ate, watched to sun go down and once it got dark ran down to the hot water springs and relaxed in there for probably two hours! We saw lightning in the distance and watched the stars. The moon lit up quite a lot of the landscape considering it was pitch black. It was chilly once you got out, but we dried off quickly and are all now tucked up in bed. It was a great day!

DAY 3:

Our first stop was the Salvador Dali desert. There were massive boulders of rock scattered sporadically around the area. It just reminded me of Dali's paintings, so for me it was really interesting. We then drove to the Laguna Verde- the 'Green Lagoon'. It literally appeared as it is called and we spent a few moments there taking group photos. Gonzalez pointed out that we we stood in Bolivia, to our right was Chile and to our left was Argentina. We then drove a short way to the Chilian border to drop half the group there as they were catching the bus. For the rest of the day we drove back to Uyuni. The drive wasn't that bad as the scenery was very beautiful, stopping for lunch around midday. We arrived in Uyuni at about 4pm and are back at the hostel. We spent ages sorting ourselves out. I've lost my black cardi, which is a slightly annoying as it is so useful- I don't know where I've left it at all. Possibly, mislaid it after picking up washing. At least that's all I've lost this whole trip- touch wood. There's no power here, so we're waiting for it to be turned on for a hot shower... It's on now!! Yes, can't wait to feel clean again! Overnight bus to La Paz to tonight.

Potosi

Potosi- highest city in the world at 4,067m. Once we got to our hostel in Potosi, located right by the main square, we headed out for something to eat and found one of the only places open was a Mexican place called 'Coyote'. The woman who worked there had a really tiny puppy that was only one month old. I asked to hold it- it was so cute and just wanted to play and bite everything. It made Jenny jump at first because it was walking around in the restaurant on its own and she felt something rub against her leg. It gave everyone there a good laugh!

In the morning we took the 8:30am Potosi mines tour, along with loads of people from our hostel. The guides got us dressed up in protective over trousers and coat, wellies, a helmet, torch and some trendy bags to put our cameras and water in. We drove a short way to the miner's market, which was a street selling all sorts of different things, like dynamite, ammonium nitrate and wire with gunpowder in. Basically everything to make an explosion in the mines. There was also a load of alcohol- 96%. So pure ethanol, which the miners drank. We realised that this is what we'd swigged on death road. We were encouraged to buy 'gifts' for the miners, so we bought an orange juice drink, alcohol (a decent amount priced at the equivalent of 80p) and gloves. We then drove to the entrance of the mine and waited to go in. On a normal day 12,000 miners work inside, all male, working up to 24 hours in one go. They manage to go all this time by chewing coca leaves, which surpress their hunger. We went inside. I found it very unsafe. The rocks were crumbling as you touched them and it was a bit of an obstacle course, climbing through small holes, scrambling onto pieces of unstable wood and climbing down ladders to another level. There was arsenic in the rocks too, which formed a red colour. The mine isn't government run and so the conditions they work in are terrible. The only thing helping them is the compresed air in pipes. It was interesting to see but not enjoyable one bit. I couldn't believe people worked like this still. A man was working in there with a chisel, seperating the silver and tin. We were told he'd worked there for fifteen years. A few people stayed to watch the lighting and the hear a dynamite explosion. I really didn't want to as it wasn't the most fun experience of my life and I didn't fancy risking rocks falling on me after an unsafe explosion, so I headed out with Jenny and a couple of other women. I was pretty relieved to see daylight to be honest- there's light at the end of the tunnel, literally!

That afternoon we received confirmation from our buses, had some lunch, picked our laundry up, made our way to the bus station. Waiting in the bus station was quite funny- women shouting 'siete media a la Uyuni' or 'ocho a la Uyuni'. I think they even found it funny, competing against each other and sounding like a broken record. We then caught a four hour bus to Uyuni which got in at about half ten. We arrived on a deserted random street, with no one around, especially no taxis. We didn't know what to do. We went in some doors to a hostel (the only place open) and asked where our hostel was. He said it was a couple of blocks away on the main square. We risked it, and hurried quickly to our hostel, using the small map with directions that he'd given us. We were pretty scared but five minutes later we were there. We went to bed and eventually got to sleep, despite the guy snoring in our room!

Sucre

Sucre is a really nice city. We stayed for two days, one night. I received some sad news that first morning from home, so we spent the morning at the hostel while I skyped my family. In the afternoon we headed out to the town and had some lunch on the square. We then walked around a bit and tried to find a tour agency to book our Salt Flats tour. We didn't have much luck, and found an internet cafe. We booked/ emailed/ called a few places to get it sorted. In the evening we walked around the square. The lights were so pretty and Christmassy and it was full of children. We proceeded to buy a Santa hat and thought it would be a good idea for the salt flats. We were suprised by the peacefulness of Sucre and wondered why it wasn't even more busy. I suppose it was so nice and quiet compared to La Paz.

On our second day we went to Casa de Liberatad and had a look around and to San Felipe cathedral (which was closed). We've tried to be travelling or on a tour or something on Sundays in Peru and Bolivia because nothing is ever open so we just had a wander around. We had something to eat and then went to catch our bus at 3pm from the bus station. It was about a three hour journey to Potosi.

La Paz

Loki is a crazy hostel. Maybe because we stayed in a 14 bed dorm, but it was loud, (not so much in the dorm,) and we had an eventful night. At 11am the following morning we started the 'Red C&P' walking tour of La Paz. It was a really entertaining tour done by a girl and an eccentric guy. We started by San Pedro prison in the centre of the city and then made our way to the markets, the witches market and San Francisco square and cathedral. It was interesting to discover La Paz's history and how it was built as a midpoint between Sucre/Uyuni and Cusco. It is also built in a big basin, with the poor living higher on the hill and the rich at the bottom, unlike any other city. The guides also talked of the women and their dress. They wear big patterned dresses with many layers, which make me feel hot just looking at them, but they put their calf on show as this is the most desirable trait to a man. If a woman is strong and has big hips, she therefore has strong calf muscles. At the end of the tour we finished at the top of a a five star hotel, with great views of the city.

After the tour finished, we weren't that hungry so decided to get going and do some shopping. We went to the area near the witches market. Oh, I forgot to say, that the witches market is so weird. It has dead llamas and weird herbal concoctions everywhere. It's a bit scary! We spent the afternoon searching through the small, jam packed shops and bargaining with the women. My best purchase was a big black and brown leather weekend bag. We got some great bargains, and knew we'd spend a fortune on these items at home. We got a bit carried away and lost track of time. We'd been shopping for three hours! We felt like we were a target, walking around with our leather bags and nipped into somewhere for something to eat. We went to catch our El Dorado bus at 7:30pm to Sucre. The bus was really nice, but we were very on edge with our bags because of the stories we'd heard about in Bolivia. We arrived in the morning at about 9am and felt like we'd slept which was good!

Death Road

Our first night in La Paz. We stayed in a 14 bed dorm in this crazy hostel. It was nice enough and there were people everywhere. We chatted a to few people in the room, then decided to see whether we could book death road for the following day. We booked with 'Barracuda' who were cheaper than 'Gravity'. We wondered what the difference in price was and discovered that Barracuda just use Gravity's old equipment. That evening we were recommended a restaurant called 'Cafe de Sol & Luna' on Cochabamba street, a short walk from the hostel. La Paz is mentally busy. We kept wondering what all these people were doing on a Wednesday evening. It was a mission to get anywhere. So we found this restaurant and went in. The food was amazing! We had beef, which we never normally do. It was such a posh meal in a lovely restaurant, and only a fiver... Bolivia is super cheap. It sounds like Jen and I elate eating out loads, which I admit is true, but the hostels here don't have kitchens and it would actually be more expensive to cook yourself! We've bought fruit and things from markets and street food too and it just works out so cheap. Their equivalent of a consumerist society is consuming the street food. In La Paz, or anywhere for that matter, you'll struggle to find a supermarket, but surety food and markets places with cheap set menus are everywhere!

We woke up early for Death Road and got to the meeting point at Oliver's pub at 6:45am. We left at about 7:30am after breakfast and when we were all signing off the list. There were two groups. Jen and I were in a group with 8 other boys. Our guide, called Gus, introduced himself and we had two guys named Jimmy and George from NZ on the tour from our room in the hostel who we'd chatted to the night before. We were all given helmets and gloves and a jacket which we had to wear. After the hour drive outside the city we were dropped off at a very high altitude of 4600m. We were each given our bikes, with incredible suspension, and we tested the brakes and gears and adjusted the seat before setting off on our adrenaline fuelled day.

The guides were great. There was two of them, one stayed at the front, one at the back at all times and the bus followed with all our stuff. We were filmed and photographed the entire journey by the other guide, called Cese, and were given it on a CD at the end of the day. We were briefed on how to use the bikes properly before we got on different terrain throughout the day; what brakes were best to use and how high your seat should be etc etc. We were wished good luck by Gus and he made us go round the circle, drop a bit of alcohol from his bottle onto the ground, the front wheel of the bike and then take a swig. We passed it around and everyone did it, eventhough the spirit, whatever it was, was horrid! The first hour or so was before Death Road and on tarmac. It was very smooth and we just went downhill on the mountain bikes. It was great fun and the views were amazing. They kept stopping every five minutes so we could get photos, admire the view and have the group stay close together. We kept going all the way down to Death Road. We got back on the bus for a small uphill section and got off at Death Road. The terrain was all gravel and rocky, therefore it was going to be very bumpy. The views were amazing and you could just see the road cut into the edge of the cliff. It was amazing. We stopped often at first as the track had a steep drop on the side we took photos and cycled through waterfalls. Some parts were really muddy and so we got wet got mud on our faces. The further down we went, the lower altitude it was, so it was hotter. I did get a little nervous nearer the end. I think I was hot and tired and it was hard to keep the bike steady on the gravel, stay slow and in control. It didn't help being in a group of fearless boys, who went ahead, however the guide constant lye stayed at the back, so I just took my time. Where was Jen? Way ahead- adrenaline junkie!

After another hour on the road we stopped at the lunch spot. We all got in the river and had a swim. It had a pretty strong current so we held onto the edge at first and walked upstream and found a nice spot on the rocks. The sun was strong and we felt like we were being burnt so we got out the river and changed our clothes and had lunch. The tv was playing with photos and footage from the ride- a 'crazy llama' picture was there! I spotted a parrot outside and we went to had a look. I gave the blue and yellow parrot some crusty bread, which he enjoyed. The feet, beak and tongue looked so strong.

So we were all on the bus and we  had the option to drive back up death road to get back, or go on the newly built road. We thought, 'okay, let's go on the new road because it will be tarmac es hopefully'. We found out it took longer and it was partly tarmaced and would be open in half an hr from that point as it was 'broken'. Reassuring. We decided on surviving death road twice and took the risk. We were only reassured in our driver's 35 year experience when he made a U-turn and landed in a ditch. Tying the van to another with a rope didn't work as it broke. They tried to double it up- you know what happened next. There was a reason for all the boys in our group: they all pushed the van out of the ditch. We got going, the journey being a little more terrifying than we had anticipated. The road only fitted one car, so much so that you could not see the road when you looked out the window on the cliff side. We stopped a couple of times to see car and van remains from recent accidents. More car accidents happened than cyclists, but they still happened. After a 2-3 hours and some tunes blaring in the van, we arrived safety back at the hostel.

We ended up going for dinner with Jimmy and George and an Australian girl from our room. We headed to the Christmas market. It was massive and had loads of stalls. We had an array of street food all costing about two quid in total. Dessert was the most interesting, although us girls were too full to fit anything else in, there were loads of similar stalls one after the other. They all had a tv in place playing a movie on repeat, with rows of table and benches. It was like a outside, Christmas market, street food cinema. It was bizarre, but good fun. The smurfs was our choice of film. Back at the hostel we bumped into Ian and Marie-Lou again and had a good chat with them. We intended on getting a drink and socialising, but we just went to bed!

Copacabana

Crossing the border was interesting. At the bus station in Puno an American guy on our bus had lost his passport. He claimed that someone had taken his money belt off him on the bus, so the group he was with wanted to search everyone on the bus. There weren't many people on the bus in the first instance, and I kind of doubt he'd had it cut when his friends were around. We suggested calling the police, but they knew Peruvian police wouldn't do anything about it. We decided to leave, as no one was doing anything about it and went into the bus terminal. We went up to practically the only open office, called 'Tulsa' and booked a bus to Copacabana. You can either get tourist buses or public buses. Tourist buses are more expensive, better, safer, and more comfortable. We took the 6:00am bus, bumping into Ian and Marie-Lou at the bus station. When we got to the border we didn't know we'd arrived there. Everyone got off the bus and so we followed the crowd. We got our passport and immigration card stamped. Then we walked the border and had the same happen on the Bolivian side. We then got on the bus for another 8km to Copacabana. After checking into our hostel we were so tired we had a nap! I don't feel at all that we'd recovered from the Inca Trial and an overnight bus. We eventually woke and got ready to go out and explore. We forgot about the time change and the clocks going forward. We had a look around the town and the main square. It is a really small place. Everywhere was selling fresh trout so Jens and I decided to get some. It was amazing. We explored the bay and the sun was shining- it was such a nice evening. Copacabana was at an altitude of 3841m, so we felt like we were struggling to breathe. We decided to climb up the peak behind our hotel (Hotel Utama) and watch the sunset. After many stops and a slight struggle to get to the top, we were pretty breathless. We looked over some amazing views of Lake Titicaca. The lake looks like the sea, it's so big, so much so you can't see land on the horizon. We didn't stop at Puno on the way here because everyone we'd spoken to had said that Copacabana was a nicer way to see the lake. We admired the views and watched the sunset. We got chatting to a girl called Nicola who was staying in our hotel and went back. Instead of going out to get food, as it was 8pm by that time, we chilled for a bit and ended up just going to sleep and skipping dinner.

In the morning we got up early and caught the 8:30am boat to Isla del Sol for a half day trip. We got chatting to an American who spoke Spanish who was very nice and friendly. The boat to Isla del Sol was soooooo slow. It was also delayed, so instead of travelling across with one engine, they added another on. We still went super slowly and arrived an hour later. We had a little look around and climbed up the hill for the view. It was very pretty and we had a good view of the lake again. After an hour or so we got on the boat to head back. However, the boat stopped just around the corner at some inca ruins. We were a bit confused as we had been told we'd get back at midday to Copacabana. The American girl asked the driver in Spanish what was going on and he said we were going to stop again in a bit at some floating islands, but we'd be back at 12:30pm. Then he proceeded to change it to, 'we'll arrive before 1pm'. After arriving at the floating islands it was 12:45 and he said we had half an hour there. The American girl was great and complained and complained to him, saying how it wasn't good enough and we all had a bus to catch at 1:30pm and we'd been told we'd get back at 12pm. I felt like we were in Fiji again, on 'Fiji time'. He stopped a boat eventually and we slowly made our way back to the bay. We arrived at 1:35 and raced, breathlessly too, to the bus stop. The bus had gone. The women advise us to catch a local bus leaving at 2pm, so we decided to just do it. It was an eventful journey. We paid £1.50 and got on. We crossed part off the lake on a dodgy looking barge. We had the driver saying something to us in Spanish, but eventhough half the bus got off, we wanted to stay with our luggage. So we stayed. We eventually got to the other side and once other people boarded, we set off. We travelled for three hours to La Paz and were dumped on some street somewhere. It wasn't even a bus stop or bus terminal. Anyway, we flagged a taxi down and got to our hostel 'Loki', renowned party hostel.

Post Inca Trail

Back at the hotel we presented Fernando and Berto with a tip from the group and thanked them for the most brilliant of treks. After the most amazing hot shower Jens and I sorted out our bags to allow for maximum amount of sleeping time in the morning before our 9:30am check out. We met the group at 8:30pm and went out to Norton's pub on the main square for some food to eat. We pretty much all had a burger and it was nice to spend a final night with the group. We also all looked unrecognisable to one another as we were all so clean! Jen and I called it a night and came back to the hotel, while half the group went to the pub for a drink. I was shattered and slept like a log!

We both woke up quite early, probably because we'd both been so used to getting up early over the past week. We went down for breakfast and apart from four people in our group who were catching flights, we were the first ones to breakfast. We hung around the hotel and caught up on emails and took advantage of the free wifi. We felt so tired still and our bodies were exhausted, so we decided to take it easy.

We went to a cafe up by San Blas square  called 'Pan...tastico'. It was tiny and only seated thirteen people. For the majority of the time we were the only ones in there. We were lured in by the most amazing passion fruit cake and when she brought out a straight out the oven banana and chocolate cake we couldn't resist! We then wandered down to the artisan market at the bottom of Av. del Sol. It was nice to look at all the handicrafts- there are so many nice things!

We then headed back to San Pedro market and had a strawberry and orange juice to share. It was amazing! By that point it was late afternoon, so we wrote some postcards back at the hotel, had a quick chat to Alice and Adam from our tour group and went to pick up our laundry from up the road. We then headed out to Paddy's pub, an Irish pub and by no means Peruvian- all we wanted was some nice comfort food after the trek! Inside, we bumped into Chris, the guy who wasn't able to do the trek because he did his elbow in. We had dinner with him which was nice!

We really love it here in Cusco, so are planning to come back on our way back to Lima in two weeks time. We're on the Cruz del Sur bus now to Puno. We get in at 4:30am and are going to catch another bus to Copacabana in the morning. Hello Bolivia!

Machu Picchu

DAY 4:

3am wake up call. We walked to the checkpoint about three minutes away where all the group were waiting in a queue under the shelter. Apparently you get up this early because the porters get the first 5:30am train back from Machu Picchu to Ollantaytambo. If they miss it they have to wait another 12 hours to get the next one. The one hour fifteen minute wait for the checkpoint to open was spent playing cards on the dusty ground getting even more dirty. Once the checkpoint opened we sped through and went single file along the narrow path all the way for an hour and a half to the Sun Gate. From there we could see a great view of Machu Picchu in the distance. The clouds were covering it so it wasn't the clearest view. We hung around for a while and began to make our way down to the ruins. As we got closer, the more we were able to see. Some visitors were walking up to the Sun Gate and passing us. It was nice to know we were the ones  descending from the Sun Gate and not walking up to it! The ruins looked exactly like a postcard picture- it was amazing and so big and impressive! We had a group picture and a few individual ones. It was amazing there and felt so worth the four day hike! We then went around with Fernando and he gave a us a bit of a guided tour, then left us to all walk around, which we did as one big happy 'family', as we became known as. We all felt knackered and our legs were giving in. We did our best and made our way around the site and saw the temples, a tomb, a garden growing loads of different plants including coco leaves. 'Machu Picchu' means old mountain and 'Waynapicchu' (the other peak) means young mountain. The Inca's water source came from a stream in the mountain up by the Sun Gate. Roughly 400 people lived there and their high position on the mountain made it easy to see around all sides of the valley below. After exploring for a while we got the bus (with amazingly comfy seats) down to Agua Calientes, a town near Machu Picchu where we ate lunch with the guides and picked up our duffle bags. We caught the train at 2:30pm and travelled for two hours to Ollantaytambo. The journey went by pretty quickly as we played 'Hearts'. I won! Woop woop! We're on the bus now and heading back to Cusco for a final night in Hotel Prisma. I can't wait for a shower! I think we're gonna go for a few drinks to celebrate our trek and give Fernando and Berto a tip to say thank you.

Inca Trail

DAY 1:

The first day was fairly easy. After an amazing night's sleep, we woke up bright and early and had our bags weighed. Jen and I finally got ours down to 2.5kg- I had to take the baby wipes and my fleece out and into my day sack. The only frustrating thing was that it was quite bulky but everyone was in the same position. We drove in the minibus to the start of the Inca Trail, took a group photo and went through the first official checkpoint where they matched your passport with your ticket and stamped it. We then set off up and down gravel terrain, stopping fairly frequently, every 45 mins or so. I personally thought the day was quite easy and Jens agreed- it was no Kilimanjaro or Colca Canyon. The group was really interested in the fact the pair of us had climbed Kili and asked us loads of questions about the altitude and things, as some people wanted to do it one day. Everest base camp came up in conversation too and me and Jens shook on it to say we'll do it one day...one day. We began walking at 10am and arrived at lunch three hours later. The porters had set up tents for us to sit in and we had soup, trout and tea for lunch. It was so nice! Another couple of hours walking and we arrived at camp. The mixture of sunscream, deet and sweat wasn't a very nice combination, so it was great when we had a bowl of warm water outside our tent that afternoon. We washed and had a wet wipe shower (being ultimate pros from Kili, we knew the routine!). The only trouble was, I was feeling worse than the day before, my glands were more swollen and I was blowing my nose all the time. The last thing I wanted was a cold! We had afternoon tea at camp, which consisted of tea, crackers and popcorn (I couldn't taste it) and then I had to go lie down for a bit. I'm not sure if we fell asleep, but it was good to close my eyes for a bit. For dinner we had soup again, spaghetti with chicken in an aubergine and courgette sauce and some jelly type stuff for dessert. The food on this trek is awesome! Bedtime at 8:30pm, we got tucked up in our warm sleeping bag and fell asleep.

DAY 2:

Day two is the hardest day of the Inca Trail so we were expecting the worst. We climbed from 3100m to 4200m. We started the day with porridge, bread and pancakes mmmmm. The first few hours of walking were varied. We climbed uphill, but it wasn't that steep, taking regular breaks. It began to get steeper and steeper and the terrain was steep steps. After our longest break we climbed loads more steps, the air getting thinner and hiked through Dead Woman's Pass. I was the third person to arrive at the top and we had a great view over the valley. It was chilly at the top, so we layered up while we waited for the others to arrive. The fastest time someone has climbed the entire Inca Trail is 3hr45, successfully completed by a porter, who was unfortunately not working on our trek. After making friends at the top of the hill and chatting to Marie-Lou and Ian from the Colca Canyon trek, we descended to our campsite. I hate going downhill as my knees kill and my legs shake. However, we arrived and had our usual wet wipe shower. We then had a great lunch of soup, beef, rice and chips and a creme caramel type dessert. It was delicious.

We then had an afternoon nap which was great and afternoon tea. We then had the porters introduce themselves to us and they told us what they carried and how old they were. The oldest porter in our group was 54 and the youngest 18. We then went round and introduced ourselves. Everyone had a good giggle when 'single' or 'married' came up. We played cards, namely 'shithead'. The day before Maria had got the crown of 'shithead', but after passing on the crown to various people throughout the game, it got to 6:30pm and there had to be a loser. After a long game of Rock Paper Scissors, I became 'shithead'... Boooooo! Dinner was great. Our chef actually won an award for best chef, so we were really lucky to have him cook for us. We had soup with chilli, mashed potato, chicken in mushroom sauce with some pasta and a cake with syrup for dessert. After a cup of tea we had a good laugh, but it started to pour down, so we're now all tucked up in bed listening to the thunder and lightening. Alice gave me some Olbas oil so out tent smells of eucalyptus! 8:30pm bedtime again.

DAY 3:

On day three we woke up early at 5:30am and started walking from our campsite soon after. It was a long day, arriving at our campsite at about 5pm. The trail was varied, up and down, some steep, some fairly flat. It took a while to get to lunch and it was pretty cold during the day. When we were walking it was hot but as soon as you stopped you felt the cold as there were clouds and a lot of mist. It rained in the afternoon when we were on route to lunch so we grabbed our waterproofs and got going. I wore the same shorts the whole time cause it was hot walking, but also skin is waterproof! We were so happy to arrive at lunch and it was buffet style. We were amazed when a pink iced cake with jelly appeared. If this chef can bake on a mountain, this is one great chef! Our lunch site was filled with llamas. It was pretty funny when a llama casually started to do his business in front of us. Nice. The afternoon was good and we stopped at a few Inca ruins. The group is definitely bonding loads, we're having a hell of a lot of fun! We arrived at the final Inca site and waited for the rest of the group to catch up. We'd formed a speedier group at the front with me, Jens, Josh, Maria, Adam and Selvan. 'Sexy' Berto (our second guide's nickname) usually walked at the front with us. He had trousers with a zip down which was undone, so thoroughly living up to his name. We could see the campsite down in the valley. Once we arrived we discovered the campsites for all the other groups were really close beside each other, so there was no weeing in the bush, so we had some 'lovely' toilets to contend with. After a wet wipe shower we had tea and played a good drinking game with our imaginary drinks- a celebrity name game going around the circle. It was really good fun and we had a great laugh. Berto asked whether we knew any chat up lines which was pretty funny and as a group we wrote a load of lines in his notebook. Sneakily, Fernando wrote a love note in his notebook, which Berto believed was from a girl in a previous group. It was hilarious. Our dinner consisted of a slice of pizza, chicken with spinach, rice and veg. Mmmm yum! We all chipped in and gave the porters a tip. They all gathered around in the tent and Evelin, who spoke Latin-American Spanish gave a little speech and said how grateful we were for their help along the trek. We then went around and shook their hands to thank them. The tip went to the head porter who was to share it amongst them all.

Group meeting and Sacred Valley

We checked into Hotel Prisma in the afternoon and behaved a bit like children who had had too much sugar when we got to our twin room with an ensuite and a... wait for it...balcony!! We then went down at 5pm for a meeting with our group of 16 and our guide who would be with us for the week. His name is Fernadez and he went through the route with us and what to pack and expect from the Inca Trail. Jen and I hired a warm sleeping bag and a thick mattress. G Adventures restrict you with 6kg that the porters can carry for you, so with the sleeping bag and foam mattress we were down to 2.5kg for clothes and toiletries. It wasn't much!

We went out after the meeting and bought snacks and useful things like sunscream and wet wipes, which took us forever! Afterwards we went to Quinoa and met the Austrailians for dinner. It was this tiny restaurant and we were all sat along the only table in there. A woman and man cooked everyone's meal from scratch. It consisted of soup, corn juice, trout with veg and rice and fruit with cinnamon for desert. For the third night running Jen and I were unlucky with food- my trout, even though the man wrote the order down on his pad, never came and so I waited a bit longer for my food. I think we'll go back there as the food was so nice and it was only 15 soles (£3.50). We walked via a crepe stall and couldn't resist a crepe with chocolate- it was amazing. Again, we'll be going back. We love Cusco.

It was getting late and we still had to pack. We quickly got all our things together and went to weigh our bag in the scales downstairs- 4kg!! Oh no...instead of sorting it out, we just went to sleep and decided to sort it later.

After a wake up call at 6am and a bad night's sleep, we left the hotel at 7:30am and drove away from the city, passing the Cristo Blanco (white statue of Christ overlooking the city) and Sacsayhuaman, inca ruins nearby. On route, we stopped at a lookout over the Sacred Valley. The views were amazing. It's really interesting how they grow their crops in steps up the sides of the hills. Apparently, different levels are best for different crops in order to have the perfect growing conditions. We then headed to the Pisac ruins which were also really cool and the scenery was impressive. There were men restoring the ruins, as they were slowly loosing their structure. Jen and I felt absolutely exhausted from a bad night's sleep, were so hot and hungry, so I don't think we 100% appreciated it, or rather enjoyed it to the max, but it was great all the same. 

After a great buffet lunch where we ate too much, we checked into our hotel in Ollantaytambo. It was a nice little hotel in the centre of town. We went for a walk around with the group and the guide and visited a house in the town. What was so crazy were the free range guinea pigs running around in the big bedroom/kitchen eating food and getting really plump. Guinea pig is more of an occasion food, so a Peruvian would eat one guinea pig on a birthday or something. There were skulls of the dead and baby lamas hanging up in the large room, which were all a bit ominous. We then head to the inca ruins in the town and had a wander round, Fernando telling us about the history. They would quarry the stones nearby, and it would take a hell of a lot of man power to pull the rocks up the ramp and into position. The rocks would be carved with chisels to fit perfectly together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was so impressive and I couldn't believe they did it this way.

After a couple of hours exploring, we chatted to an English couple from our group who had were about 25 and were travelling for just over a year in total. They were very nice and were also worried about the 2.5kg limit! We chilled in the hotel for a bit and headed out for a pancake with fruit. We just fancied it and were still full from lunch, so just wanted something that wasn't a big meal! Lights out at 9:30pm for a fun fuelled day one of the Inca Trail tomorrow! Exciting!

Cusco

Our first impression of Cusco was that we loved it! We caught a taxi with a couple at the bus station from Holland and Estonia to make the fare cheaper. We checked in to our hostel and cooked some eggs and ate some mango we had bought. I'm enjoying eating lots of tasty mango and avocado out here as it's so cheap! I then skyped my lovely mother to wish her a happy birthday and she was looking gorgeous as ever! She was chilling with the dog, but it sounded like she was going to have a nice evening at Helen's.

We stumbled across a tiny vegetarian restaurant for lunch and sat down with a local who we got chatting to. He was very friendly and he said he had family in Germany. I started speaking German to him, but his vocab was very basic. He was a local architect and gave us advice on what food and drinks to try in Peru. We also confirmed what guinea pig was in Spanish so we could avoid it!

Spending a few days in Cusco before doing the Inca trail is a good thing to adjust to the altitude a bit. My thoroat is very sore at the moment (hopefully I'm not ill) and I've had headaches, so we'll see how it goes... We wandered around the town, all the squares in Cusco and up some back streets. It was all really interesting and architecturally impressive with cobbled streets, arches and really ornate balconies. We then decided to go to the chocolate museum that had been recommended to us by the English couple from Arequipa as there were dark clouds and it was starting to rain a little. I think that's the first time we've seen rain since New Zealand, even if it did last about two minutes! Haha.

Mmmmm the smell of chocolate! We tried some cocoa tea which was really nice, a cocoa bean which was very bitter and some chocolate jam which was very tasty. We bumped into the couple we'd shared a taxi with that morning too. We keep bumping into lots of people in Cusco. It's nice as you know you're visiting the best places, and seeing some familiar faces!

We had another disaster with food that evening, after organising to meet the five Australians. We got chatting to people in our dorm and Jen cut my fringe, so we turned up just outside the restaurant called 'Quinoa' twenty minutes late. Laura and Alice were walking down the street towards us and said they were lost. A guy from a hotel on that road said the restaurant was closed that evening so we wondered what the other three had done. We decided to wander around and find somewhere to eat and after struggling we went to their hostel and ate there for convenience. However, our food was forgotten about (once again) and after an hour of waiting we ate our 'okay' food. It turned out the other three had knocked on the door on the closed restaurant and had a great meal. They had been the only ones in there and the woman cooking hadn't planned on opening that evening. We might go the tonight as we had food jealousy!

Today we visited San Pedro market just around the corner of our hostel. It sold everything and anything. There was clothing, material, loads of cheap street food, veg, fruit, tea and pulses. We stopped at a juice stool and the woman there made us two glasses of mango juice. It was so yummy and we got our daily dose of mango. We might go back after the Inca trail and get an orange and passion fruit juice drink! Think we'll also get some street food and sit with the locals in the market. Looking forward to it!

We then went to the Plaza Regocijo to begin the free walking tour. Our group was absolutely massive. Our guide, Luis, gave us tips on things like public transport, a history of the Incas and some samples of local food. It was really good and informative. We also went up to a great viewpoint of the entire city of Cusco and overall had a great time looking around and exploring side streets. It's a bit hilly in Cusco and I think we struggled with some of the steeps. I think the Inca Trail is going to be tough! We meet our group at 5pm in the hotel (yay, hotel!!) so Jen and I are hoping they're going to be good fun! Crossing my fingers!

Recovering from the trek

We spent one more day in Arequipa before moving on, but I think we needed it! I didn't sleep very well in the hostel- no one really did in our room, as we'd had such a weird sleeping pattern over the past couple of nights, plus we had been woken up by these fireworks going off at 5am. Two girls and a guy got up too to go to the airport (they'd had a nightmare: the boy had had his bag lost in all sorts of airports and the girl had had everything stolen apart from her passport, so it wasn't the best start to their trip!). Over breakfast we talked to an English couple our age who were travelling for five months. They recommended loads of things for us to do in Bolivia. We spent the day wandering around the town, our muscles killing, so we managed to squeeze an ice cream into our day! We sat in the main square for half an hour, minding our own business and watching the kids play with pigeons etc, but we were approached three times by people to have photos taken with us on the bench. It got pretty frustrating in the end, so just had to leave before we were pestered anymore.

We had initially been looking forward to buying some alpaca in Arequipa as a few people from the hostel had bought some really nice jumpers, but Sunday is their day off and the only shops that were open were food places. There also weren't any decent markets selling clothes that we'd seen either. It was lucky though because we got chatting to the English couple from breakfast outside that afternoon and they told us to save oursves for the markets in La Paz as the variety is great and it's so cheap to buy alpaca clothing so we plan to do some shopping on our way home. (Family, put your requests in soon!)

We got organised before heading out to dinner. First of all, we walked to the office were we did our canyon tour from, as we were picking up Laura's glasses as she left them at the oasis and was already in Cusco, so we were going to give them back to her when we next saw her. We went to the place we'd eaten lunch on the first day. Jen ordered spaghetti which came quickly enough. They ended up forgetting about my salad and it came 15 mins after Jen finished her food. We haven't had much luck with food before catching buses, so we raced back to the hostel. The couple we we going to share a taxi with to the bus station had already left and we caught one twenty minutes later. Anyway, we got there and it was fine! Our bus journey was okay and I slept for about five hours, before arriving early morning in Cusco, for our next adventure! Machu Picchu! Excited!

Colca Canyon

DAY 1:

The Colca Canyon trip was amazing. It was better, and different to what I expected. We left the hostel in a minibus at 3am and travelled for 3/4hrs to a place in the middle of nowhere and had some breakfast. We then travelled for another couple of hours and stopped off at a lookout over the canyon and spotted condors. They are one of the biggest birds in the world and have a massive wingspan. The roads were so bumpy and Jen and I were sat in the back so we had a bumpy ride. We then drove through a dusty tunnel and got into a bit of a traffic jam, so all the buses had to reverse out. We then went to the beginning of our trek where Pepe (our tour guide) gave us a history of the canyon and what they grow there and how the people live. We then started the trek and walked down one side of the canyon. It took us a few hours to get down. It kills on your legs going downhill so a few hours of walking was quite hard. The canyon was really steep and the sun was out so it was really hot. We stopped in a tiny village for lunch and topped up our sun cream. Pepe explained how the people living there were self sufficient and hardly left. They would only leave to buy clothes or things like that as the only way to get out of the canyon was the route we'd just walked. After lunch we walked along the bottom of the canyon, up and down hills and to an oasis. As soon as we arrived we jumped in the pool there (more like a pool of cold water), but it was refreshing and we 'washed' ourselves. After five minutes it was pretty cold in there and the sun was going down, so we went to play cards and have a drink near the kitchen area where there were tables and chairs. We then played cards with everyone and Pepe taught us a great version of snap which was good, being such a big group. They cooked us soup and then chicken and rice for dinner, followed by a cup of tea. We then went to bed at the late time of 9:15pm after looking at the stars. The beds were basic and comfy enough, too bad we were getting up at 4:45am though...

DAY 2:

I don't know what was more annoying: the dogs barking in the middle of the night, the cockerel making noises or Rene's alarm going off, the alarm being a person saying 'it's time to get up, it's 4:45am' on repeat for a whole minute. I can still recall that so vividly! We got up and started walking at 5:15am. Four girls opted to go up to the top on mules as they didn't think they could do the trek up the canyon, so they left later, at 6:30am. The rest of us wanted a challenge and slowly but surely climbed the way to the top. Everyone went at their own pace and we got there after 2 hrs 15 mins, so 45 mins earlier than predicted by Pepe. It was a great feeling getting to the top and my calf muscles were killing. We beat the mules though, and they arrived ten minutes after us. We had some snaps at the top and walked half an hour to the nearest village for some breakfast. We battled with a fast flowing stream along the way, some people taking their shoes off to climb across. After breakfast we got in the minibus and headed back to Arequipa. We stopped off at a couple of lookouts and then arrived at the hot springs. We'd all been looking forward to it. We crossed a rickety bridge one by one and chilled in the hot springs for an hour. We actually enjoyed sitting in the cold river with the sun on us as it was more refreshing, but we massaged our sore muscles in the hot pools. Afterwards, we re-fueled with a buffet lunch peruian style, and ate loads, so were super stuffed afterwards. It took us three hours to head back to Arequipa. We arrived at 5pm and said bye to our great group and Pepe. Jen and I had several cups of tea and showered. It got later and we just went and grabbed a sandwich in town and came back and headed to sleep!

Arequipa

Our Cruz del Sur bus arrived in Arequipa at about 11am. After we arrived at our hostel, we looked into how we wanted to spend our time. We booked onto the two day, one night Colca Canyon tour for the next day. A group of five Australians (four girls one boy) we'd shared a dorm with in Huacachina were staying in the same hostel in Arequipa too and when we arrived they were there too and also doing the canyon tour. We checked in and headed to the Plaza de Armas. The main square was really nice, with arches, pillars, a fountain, pigeons, well kept gardens and nice architecture. We had a wander around, had some lunch and then walked to Santa Catalina, a monestry in the centre of town. We had a tour guide take me and Jen around which was great cause she brought the place to life. She explained all the history of the nunery and showed us around the poorer nun's homes as well as the wealthier ones. She showed us the communal kitchen and bakery and how there purified their water. There was a lovely garden and a good system outside where they washed their clothes in big ceramic bowls. 24 nuns still live there in the monestry. It was a really interesting afternoon.

We bumped into the Austrailians and they recommended a market on the map to go to. It was a big local market selling loads of fruit, veg, juice, bread and meat (which we avoided as there were some horrible looking animal parts hanging up on the counters). We then went back to the hostel and sorted our bags out for the trek the next day. We had to be super  organised and pack what we needed as we were leaving our hostel at 3am the next morning. That evening we went for dinner with the Australians which was nice and bought some bananas and snacks to fuel our two day trek.

Huacachina

We took a 3hr bus in the morning at 10am from Lima to Ica. We booked it with Cruz del Sur. The seats were comfy and we got some food on the journey. We arrived and took a taxi from the bus terminal in Ica to a small village 15 minutes drive outside of the city. The village surrounded a lagoon (now man-made, as it dried up) and surrounded by sand dunes. We'd been warned it would be hot in Huacachina in comparison to Lima and it definitely was! Once we arrived at Banana hostel, we changed into our shorts. Our room was tiny and we were sharing with two girls who had been on our bus and were travelling in a group of five. They were called Alice and Laura and were very friendly. We soon found out they were staying in the same hostel in Arequipa too. By that point it was about 3pm and we booked a couple of activities for the next day. Out hostel was located facing the lagoon. We strolled out and around, taking us about 5 mins. We discovered that Huacachina is tiny! There were quite a few people walking up the sand dune immediately by Huacachina, so we decided to go for. It was hard! It seemed like we were taking two steps forward and one step back! We finally got to the very top and realised how steep it was. The sun was setting and we had a great view over Huacachina and Ica in the distance, and then loads of sand dunes behind us. We had a shower and headed a few doors down to 'Huacafuckinchina' (rude I know!), a bar/restaurant. We were served by a girl called Charlotte, who was on her gap year and had just left sixth form and it was her first day working there. It seemed she was there cause her teacher was Peruvian and from Ica. She was trying to improve her Spanish. I'm not sure she'll be talking much Spanish in a tourist spot but each to their own!

The next day we got up at 6am and took a bus to Paracas where we went on a tour to the Islas Ballestas. We thought it would be warm, but it really wasn't and we were really cold on the boat. We saw penguins, sea lions, loads and loads of birds and pelicans. We also saw this indent into the land which was covered in sand. It looked like a big cactus and was similar to the Nazca lines. Also, we decided not to do the Nazca lines because it seems a bit overrated and expensive. There are other things we'd much rather spend our money on! On the journey back form the islands the sun decided to come out and it was really nice. I didn't feel very well, so wasn't up to eating lunch. We chilled in the afternoon, and I read my book a lot of the day.

At 4pm we went sandboarding. We got in this big open car type thing which seated about twelve people. We had a mix of Spanish, Dutch and English speaking people in our group. When our leader picked us up he was this old, short man who looked really grumpy and mean... Oh boy were we wrong. He turned out to be the best 82 year old guide ever! He was so funny and although he was Spanish, we had a translation from the people in the car with us! We whizzed up the sand dunes and it felt like a roller coaster. The suspension was ridiculous. We would drive up the the top of a sand dune and down the other side. It was so steep, it was great fun. Julio (our leader) was such a cheeky chappy. There was no wasting time either. He got everyone to lie on your stomach on a board and slide down the sand. It was sooooo steep! You also had no control over the board, so I almost crashed into a few people, but they ran out of the way! Then we went to three steep sand dunes and went down them all one after another. Julio was waiting at the bottom. It was a great three hours! We had the best time. The sunset was amazing too and the views were awesome. We went to Huakafuckinchina that evening again. We like it there!

We had one more day left so we just chilled, had a massive bowl of fruit for breakfast and I read my book for most of the day around the lagoon. We wanted to have the BBQ at the hostel at 7.30pm, but it wasn't ready so we rushed back to Huacafuckinchina for the third and final time. That evening we were their best friends. We got greeted with kisses and hugs! Anyway, we didn't feel it was rude asking about having our dinner come ASAP as we were catching a bus to Arequipa at 9pm. After all the rush, our bus was delayed by 1hr 15mins which was annoying. Once our bus arrived we got on a went to sleep. We went with Cruz del Sur again. I felt like I was in first class; the seats were massive and so comfy. You had a foot rest that pulled out so we had a little bit of a bed going on, which was nice! I think I slept pretty well. 

Lima

Once we'd arrived in Lima, Peru we knew that our next flight in a month's time would be to go home. This was good news, because we knew we would spend a long time in one place, but also bad because it was near the end! We took a taxi from the airport, arranged for us by the hostel, to Miraflores. We soon realised how crazy the Peruvians were, driving on the road! We whizzed through the traffic and arrived in one piece at Pariwana Hostel. It was a really nice, big hostel with very comfy beds! We ordered a chicken caesar salad which was fresh and just what we needed after such a long journey! We chatted to a girl who worked at the hostel and was from Lima. She recommended quite a few things for us to do in Peru and we took note.

After sleeping like a log, we woke up and had breakfast in the hostel and booked a few things like buses and hostels and did some research into Peru. It gave us more of an idea of what places we wanted to prioritise with the time we had. I skyped mum and dad which was nice and afterwards Jen and I decided to have a wander around Miraflores. We went to the supermarket for some food first and then had a wander down to the seafront. There's an outdoor shopping complex that has been built just on the cliffs called Larcomar so we had a wander around. Apparently Lima is the place to do paragliding. We've met a few people from the hostel who have come here purely to do paragliding. Anyway, we saw loads of people doing it that afternoon. We also went to a square and saw a big crowd of people surrounding a mini atrium, where the locals were dancing inside. In the evening we talked to several people about what they recommended to do in Peru and Bolivia, including tours, places to stay and what bus companies to travel with.

Santa Cruz

Our muscles ached the following day. We got the Greyhound bus from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, which took about three hours. We were going there to meet Kayla, Jen's brother's girlfriend who lives there. Megabus is better than Greyhound. It stops less and is overall a quicker journey. However, the good wifi and leather seats made up for this! Because of our late arrival at the bus stop in Vegas, we allowed plenty of time (maybe too much time) and arrived 1hr30 before our departure time. Anyway, once we arrived in Santa Cruz we were pleasantly surprised with being greeted by Kayla's mum, Karen, who straight away took us in her car to her house. She told us to make ourselves at home while she went to pick Kayla's younger brother, Ryan, up from school. We eventually made a cup of tea and a sandwich. She returned home and asked whether we wanted to do any washing, which was very kind, so we combined some washing and put a load on. Once Kayla arrived home, the four of us got in the car and drove to the Redwoods forest. The trees are massive and really resistant to fire and sort of heal themselves as they grow. We went inside a Redwood tree called the 'Fremont Tree'. The hole was really small and it was dark inside so we used torches. It was quite cool seeing inside and you could stand up and look up into the trunk of the tree. We then walked around the forest. Apparently when it gets wet in winter 'banana slugs' come out. They are exactly as they are named: yellow with black patches and are very noticeable.

Afterwards, the sun was going down so we drove to the beach and watched the sunset. It was really pretty and the sky was pink and orange. I feel like I've see a lot of lovely sunsets on this trip! Kayla's mum was very kind and bought us and her family a burrito from a Mexican place in town for dinner. We went back to her house and ate it and chatted with the family. We met Kayla's father when he came home from work and we showed the family photos of our travels and they showed us photos of when Kayla went to England. We didn't realise, but the time was getting later and later and at 10pm we whizzed to the inn we were staying at after Kayla had backed up our photos of our travels on a USB for us. It was really nice being in a house after being in hostels and campervans and we had a great time. We went to the Torch Lite Inn and they made sure we were okay in our room. We were fine and had a decent night's sleep. In the morning we ate some breakfast and walked into downtown Santa Cruz. We sat and had a coffee near where we'd got a takeaway the previous night. There was a guy cycling up and down the street on a unicycle playing a guitar which we found quite amusing!

Our bus journey was loooooong. We left at 1:30pm and arrived in LA at about 11pm. We took a bus, a train and a shuttle to the airport. Then we arrived at the wrong terminal and ended up chatting to a security guard from Ghana, who had travelled the world, lived in London for ten years and every year returned to the UK. He kept saying how great it was we were travelling to all these different places. Anyway, we went to the right terminal, which was about 200m away, checked in and hung around for a little while. Luckily the connection at Panama was very short (45mins), so once we got off one flight we hoped on the other one. The journey was made worse by the fact that I had all of a sudden got a cold and felt awful, blowing my nose every five seconds. I slept a bit, but I was looking forward to arriving in Lima that night and having a good, long night's sleep!

San Francisco

We had to travel via LA to San Francisco so it ended up being a long journey. We took the megabus to LA, waking up in the early hours- oh I completely forgot, the journey to the bus terminal in Vegas was a nightmare. Judging by our bus ride in the opposite direction when we arrived a few days earlier, we thought it would take max 30 mins. We left an hour, but we got on a different bus to what we were going to get because the hostel gave us rubbish directions to the bus stop. Anyway, we hoped on the deuce which took us all the way there, in fact it was the last stop and we were so nervous as it was taking ages. When we arrived at 7:45am the bus was about to leave so we ran and just made it. So lucky!! In LA we hung round Union station and went to Denny's American diner for a few hours to kill some time. We picked the bus up again and got to San Francisco later than expected. We then caught the bus to the hostel and ended up walking in the wrong direction, but thanks to a map in the road we turned around and found our way there several minutes later. We arrived at Adelaide hostel at about 1am and after checking in, were greeted by a frail old lady in our dorm room. We told her to go to sleep, bless her! I've never seen an old woman like that in a hostel before! The next day she said she was moving hostels. 

The breakfast in the hostel was great: bagels, bread, homemade porridge with apple and sultanas, and fresh fruit. It was the best breakfast we've had all trip. The hostel is really homely and I would highly recommend it. The beds even have little curtains you pull close so you can have the best night's sleep!

We started our day by visiting Union Square, just down the road from our hostel. There was a massive Christmas tree and a nice skating ring. I guess that is the first hint of anything Christmassy. We then headed to Chinatown and had a walk through, bought some grapes of all things, and wandered up to Coit Tower, at the top of Telegraph Hill. There are some good views of the city from there. We wandered down and along the sea and visited Pier 39. There are loads of shops along the pier including the shop for left handed people, the magic shop and the shop that sells just magnets. We saw Alcatraz from the end of the pier and saw a bit of a magic show, which was no 'Penn & Teller'! We bought some fudge from the fudge shop and walked to Fisherman's wharf, booking the Alcatraz tour along the way for the following day. Fisherman's wharf was really busy and there were so many kinds of fresh fish on the stalls. It all looked delicious! There was a man on the street begging, who created quite an audience. There are loads of homeless people here, a lot more than LA even, which is really sad to see. Anyway, this guy had loads of branches with leaves on them, creating a kind of bush which he sat behind. He kept jumping out at people, and from our view across the street it created quite a funny show. Passers by understood what he was doing, and after the shock, they laughed and would donate some money. We then made our way to Lombard Street, which is a famous crooked street with eight turns, where cars are only allowed to drive one way. It was quite cool to see. The houses and gardens are all very well kept and the cars drive very slowly down the windy road. That evening we had our free chilli dinner in the hostel and chatted to some lovely Australians, two girls and a guy. I then skyped Mike, which was nice as I hadn't spoken to him on the phone for several weeks.

We got up early and walked to catch the ferry to Alcatraz. We arrived on the island, which is very close to the city. The view of San Francisco is clear and you can see how steep the city is. We began by watching a video of the history of Alcatraz then wandered around the main building, saw the prison cells, the dining area, kitchen, library, recreation area and remains of the living quarters for the workers and their families. The whole experience had become very touristy and there were loads of people there, but we had headphones which provided you with a self walking tour. The commentary was really interesting and it gave you a really good insight into what it might have been like here. Criminals such as Al Capone and Robert 'birdman' Stroud came to Alcatraz. Stories of escape attempts by the prisoners were talked about in the commentary. Even if the prisoners got out of the prison, the cold sea water and rough tide would never allow them to swim all the way to the coastline. We spent about three hours on the island and then left to go back to the mainland. We could see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, which I didn't realise was so far away from the centre of the city. We had a very late lunch and ate some soup and then headed back to the hostel as Jen and I weren't feeling well. We both had headaches- because of what, I don't know! That evening we ate a big burrito from around the corner of the hostel and booked buses and accomodation for later in the week and started to look into Peru after getting some good advice from a guy called Grant in our hostel, who had been in South America for a few months.

The following day the hostel told us it was the hottest day all week. We thought that we'd been really lucky with the weather and had had some very clear days. We hired a bike from a company around the corner, called Blazing Saddles, who had a deal with the hostel and we paid $15 each. In San Francisco there are specific bike routes so we cycled on those roads. We had a map and followed a route recommended by the hire place. We cycled to Alamo Square, a residential neighbourhood and park located west of our hostel and on a hill. There are some really nice houses around there and you can see some good views of the city. We also saw the famous 'Painted Ladies', a row of Victorian houses facing the park on Steiner Street. The architecture in San Francisco is very distinct and has great character to it. We then cycled through the Golden Gate Park, which was soooo big! It just went on and on and on. It was really pretty and green and there were loads of people out cycling, running and walking. As we were riding through the park the weather began to change: it was misty and cold. We got to the coast eventually and couldn't really see a thing, so stopped off at a tiny cafe to get a hot cup of tea and some soup. We knew we'd chosen to take the hilly route, but didn't anticipate how long and steep it was going to be! It just kept going and going forever. We eventually got to the Golden Gate bridge and couldn't see a thing! We decided to cycle over it and see if the fog had cleared at all on the other side. I'm so glad we did, because once we were on the other side we looked back and could see a great big area of fog that had hit San Francisco. The sun was almost setting, so the bridge looked a bright brick red. So the sun was going down and we still had to cycle back. We just kept going and eventually got there, exhausted, then had our free dinner at the hostel and went out to buy postcards and food for the next day. We packed, showered and despite everyone trying to persuade us to go out, we collapsed into bed!