jd's blogspot

arrive in puerto Madryn about 12 noon. its a bit of a dead day, as am knackered after being on a bus all night. twon was founded by Welsh settlers in 1886. nice place, seside resort. just potter around town. it has a lively touristy scene, but without being too much. beach is lovley. Hello Atlantic!!

20th January 2007

early start as we are being picked up at 7.30 for a tour of Peninsula Valdes. its a bleak looking peninsula, shaped by two large bays and the Atlantic. its a wildlife wonderland with sealions, elephant selas, hares, armadillos, foxes and magellanic penguins. its also the place to sea Orca whales, but its the wrong season for that. pitstop at teh interpretation centre forst and see some amazing photos of the whales etc. we see ostrich like birds running along teh road and one of them gets himself stuck in the fence. but after a lot of flapping around, finally frees himself!! the place is totally wild. there is nothing out here but bushes, scrub and its almost totally flat. the minivan forces itself along gravel and shale tracks - it makes incredible noise under the van.  stop at a tiny place called Puerto Piramides, a tiny village, where we hop into a boat and go out to see a sealion colony. wow, its nuts. there are about 500 sealions all sitting and lying on the rocks. the landscape is amazing. teh sea is beautiful and th rocks are all flat.  sealions are everywhere. its crazy! boat gets quite close. the males are enormous & actually have a mane type thing around their heads. they make noises like really loud sheep - i know, very weird!! then decide to go snorkelling. the water is freezing, but jump in anyway! not everyone does. see some coral. its cery pretty and you dont notice the cold after a few mins. get back to boat and first guy helps me take the top half of my wetsuit off. then you move down a bit and a second guy helps with the bottom half. its like being 4yrs old again, when you had to sit down on the floor to get your trousers off!!! fun!! i have to say, its rather difficult getting dried and dressed on a small boat while its rocking and swaying!! there was potential for complete exposure!!! after lunch, move farther into the peninsula to Caleta Valdes where there are literally hundreds of sealions just lying on the beach. they smell like wet dog & seaweed - pleasant!! its crazy to see, very hard to describe. further on we pull into a place where there are loads of penguins. they are really cute, quite small only 45cms tall & 5kgs. dont spend too much time there, as we are going to see penguins tomorrow. move onto the last stop where there are young elephant seals. they are enormous. they are all so lazy. they look like rocks in the stony beach. they dont move at all. the water is so clear and blue. its very peaceful up here. head back to Puerto Madryn, takes about 2hrs so most of us sleep on teh bus.

21st January 2007

up early again, collected at 7.30. going to Punta Tomba fo rthe day. its the biggest continental magellanic penguin reserve. there are thousands of them in their natural habitat. first we stop in a town called Rawson, where you have the option of going dolphin watching. decide not to, as have done it before and will save my money for something else. go for a walk instead, while others go on dolphin trip. Very quite town. head out to Punta Tomba next. the area is very wild and very dessert like. very flat and nothing for miles and miles. arrive and hike up to the reserve. there are thousands of penguins all over the place. its nuts1 they walk from their  nests to the sea, sometimes hundreds of metres away, to feed before returning to their nests. there are loads of new chicks as well. they are molting, so look a bit weird. its bizarre, they are warm weather penguins. its strange seein gtheir nests under bushes!  I want to get a photo of a penguinand me. unfortunately, I pick a penguin that doesnt like me!! I get too close to a nest with a mother and chick. Daddy penguin doesnt like that and he goes for my leg. and yes, I actually get bitten by a penguin! my first animal bite and its in a penguin attack!!! their beaks are very strong - stupid flightless bird!! they are incredible to watch. there are literally fields of them everywhere. they have teh right of way here, so you have to move back and wait for them to get out of your way!

move on and head to a Welsh village called Gaiman. go to a local tea house for traditional tea and cakes. you get tea, cheese sandwiches and a variety of cakes. its nice but an absolute rip off.   head back home after tea. another 2hrs back. great day. the penguins are so cool to watch them waddle about. 

22nd January 2007 

 up early again. have a tour in a 4WD today. there is just the two of us and our  driver/guide. head out of town and go off road. bounce about on more gravel tracks and head onto some very small sand dunes. check out the view form a cliff overlooking the town - its beautiful and really quiet out here, very isolated. the ocean is a really nice blue/green colour with a small stripe of black through it. it looks like oil, but guide tells us its from jellyfish. well, he texts his sister to translate it for us, as we couldnt work it out!! head down to another beach and test teh water to see how cold it is. its freezing and I successfully manage to get one whole runner and sock soaking wet!  dry it by hanging it out the window of teh jeep as we drive along!! its total wilderness out here and very flat. go through a horse ranch. stop and the horses come over to the jeep and one of them drools all over the window!  move on and go to the top of one cliff to see the view. its stunning and weird at the same time. its tatally dry up here and dessert as far as you can see, but then on one side is the Atlantic ocean!! strange but really pretty. guide produces a tool kit, so i presume there is something wrong with teh jeep. No, its his Mate kit!! Mate is tea that all the Argentinans drink. they walk around carrying a flask of boiling water, a meatl/wooden cup and a silver straw. the tea is like sawdust. its a green colour and quite dusty. its tastes like strong green tea - its nice. but not worth carrying it all around with you all day!!

head over to a sealion colony. they are swimming in the sea at this one. the pups are really cute. teh male one is just hugh and makes an awful lot of noise. there are tons of Comerants flying around as well. views are great. 

head back to town and spend the day in teh internet cafe trying to download photos. again the machine crashes so nothing saved -great!! Have over 1,000 pictures, so its going to take forever! apparently it never rains in Puerto Madryn - well while we were at dinner the heavens opened. the streets were converted in to mini rivers. it was torrential. and we had to walk back to the hostel in it!! so , as we were going to be on a bus for the next 19hrs, I couldnt afford to get my only pair of shoes wet, so decision was taken that I take them off. so I ran down 8 blocks completely barefoot in the lashing rain with my shoes and socks in a plastic bag!!

ready to be picked up at 8.45 and its still lashing rain outside.  9pm comes and still no sign of our car. get woman at reception to call agency.  she is very unhelpful and just says that they are late. no kidding!!!  so at 9.15 they still havent arrived. our bus is at 9.30, so Emer runs out in the rain and is dashing about a crossorads trying to watch four streets for a taxi. meanwhile, Im inside telling the two behind the desk that they are going to have to drive us. and because they refused to call a cab at 9 when we asked, that if we missed the bus they were going to have to refund the cost of teh ticket and all our accommodation that would be lost. eventually, the guy from the agency arrived and had to call the bus to tell them not to leave without us. he was very cute, so was difficult to get mad at him!! anyway, made teh bus with about 1 minute to spare. not impressed, but I suppose we got it.  actually get some sleep on the bus and will be in Bariloche in 15hrs.

easy day, sort of. today is a day of tasks. get subway across town and find american express first. its packed and also has a wonderful service system!! join one queue to register my details and then join another queue to actually get my money - brilliant!!! this whole process takes about 40 mins. finally get my money and am not impressed that he claims i have to give him 1% commission if i want my money in US Dollars - I shouldnt have to pay anything but there is no negotiation on his part. eventually, get sorted and next stop is FedEx. thats actually very quick. then move on  to find a Cambio that changes Peruvian Soloes - there is only one in Beunos Aires that does!! and again queue at one counter to register details and then join another queue to get my money!! have spent most of the afternoon in a queu, not really a fan!!!

finally get to so some fun stuff and head for the shops. get a bag and thats about it. head back to the hostel as have a tango experience tonight. supposed to be picked up at teh hostel at 7.30, but the guy at teh counter comes over to us at 7.30 and says you are supposed to be at another place instead. so jump in a taxi. get a wine when we arrive. apparently there are others who thought they were to be picked up as well - so dont know what happened there. then move on to  a place where we are having a tango lesson. there are about 25 people and actually a few guys. lesson is good. we have to change partners after ever song, so its quite sociable. after a while she blindfolds the women, as you are to "feel the steps". great fun. after teh lesson, we haed to another hostel and have a few pizzas and beer.  then its off to a traditional tango club. the teacher goes through teh etiquette of teh place. women are not supposed to ask the men to dance and if you refuse to dance with someone, you may not be asked again, especially by him and his mates!  teh venue is really cool, very old and antiquey. i fell like i should be in come dancing !! most of the locals are over 45 and are really good. they make it look so easy. we all look a bit odd on the dancefloor, apart from our dancing, we all have flipflops on!! there is a raffle for free tango lessons and I win - yipee. but i have to give it away as i wouldnt been able to go.  there is a quick performance afterwards - really good. they really are incredible.

18th January 2007

check out, but bus isnt until 7.15 so head for internet cafe. spend 4.5hrs online, trying to download photos. computers are slow and it jams as I have over 1,000 photos to do. so to my absolute dlight, after 4.5hrs it crashes and none of my stuff has been saved.  decide its time to leave as my head is about to explode. go to bus station. get a full cama bus to Puerto Madryn - so nice. its like flying first class. I get wine with my dinner, watch 2 films and recline fully for a sleep. 19hrs later arrive in Puerto Madryn.

up at 6am - go to Uraguay for the day. get taxi to the port and encounter the most ridiculous ticketing system ever!! the place is packed with people everywhere. so the guy at teh info desk sends us to a counter on the far side of the hall where we have to register our details. then we have to join another queue, which did I mention is on the opposite side of teh hall - near the info desk!!!  there we can buy a ticket. so queue for a ticket. then join another queue for check in!!!  then join another queue for immigration so we can get our passports all sorted out and stamped!   this was all at 7am ! anyway, ferry takes about 1hr 15mins. change money once we cross the border. its one of those irritating currencies where you have to divide by 30 to get teh price in Euros. wander up to the town and get breakfast. its a really nice town, but there really isnt anything to do here. some lovely little cobbled streets and a nice church. the first one I have seen here that isnt way over the top.  climb up to th etop of the lighthouse and get some nice views of the place. the River Plate is completely brown - dont know whether its pollution of just mud and sedement, but there are people fishing in it!! go down and watch them fish for a bit. one guy catches a really big one - looks like a salmon, but doubt it. meet an Irish couple on their honeymoon so we all go for a drink to get out of the sun for a while. we a re a bit bored, so head back into town. check out the local "fair", which consists of a few small market stalls selling the usual tat and there are a few amusement rides as well. now I use teh term amusement rides very loosely!! there is a tiny "big wheel", bumpers, a few kiddies ones and a satelite one which looks like a complete death trap!! go back to the park and sleep for about 2hrs. successfully get eaten alive by some insects - they get me 16 times. I have beautiful fat red lumos all down my arms and legs!! head back to the ferry. its school holidays here, so there are kids all over the place - nice and peaceful!!

get back to the hostel and go for dinner with two guys that are staying there. go to a really cheap steak place - delicious. get back to the hostel and head to the roof for a few drinks. good night until I go to bed abd notice that there is a hole in my skirt. now, the hole was so big that i was able to put my entire arm, up to my shoulder, through it!!! so i have no idea how long my ass was on show for, hopefully the two boys didnt notice!! if they did, they were too embarrassed to tell me - great!!

Go to the cemetary in Recoleta, its where Evita is buried. Oh my god - I have never seen anything like it. its surrounded by massive walls and once you go inside its like a little town. the tombs are absolutley enormous and so extravagant. some of them are about 3 metres high. they are like little houses with front doors. some of them even have a downstairs compartment!! its totally bizarre, you can actually see the coffins!! its totally engrossing in a really morbid way! some of the coffins have photos of the person on top of them - now thats just creepy!! its like, well this is who is in this one!!! the greveyard is enormous. they also have some like in a morgue, where you just slide teh coffin in to a space in a wall! its totally nuts! Evitas grave is a bit hidden. she is buried with her family, so its almost a disappointment as its not one of the very fancy graves/houses. there are two Irish guys, Fahy & Brown, here and have teo prime spots in the central section. Fahy was a missionary Brown helped establish the Argentinian navy. its a strange place and definatley the weirdest cemetary I have ever been in.

went shopping after that. tons of shops but nothing too exciting. Dont know whether there was a load of rubbish out for the sales, but was a bit disappointed as everyone was raving about how fab the shops were.

Up at 4am, have to be at the airport at 5 - yipee!! Im supposed to be on holiday and have had more crazy early starts than I care to count!! guy at teh check in desk has some issue with the ticket, but when we explain that yes we failed to show for one flight, we had sorted it all out in the LAN office in Cusco. so he seemed fine with that and we were all checked in. inly 4hrs to Buenos Aires. flight is practically empty. arrive and its very hot and humid. but will enjoy the heat for the next few days as it will get very cold as we head south to Patagonia. its 3 o`clock by teh time we get to teh hostel, so its shower, nap and dinner. go for dinner with an english girl in our room. as we are both recovering from dodgy tummies, the three of us have a great chat about our best bowel movement moments!! She has some great ones about India -her boyfriend having to strip off in the middle of a dessert cos he didnt know which end was going to expolde first!!! Classic!

 13th January 2007

get up and wander down to teh Recoleta district of BA. Its very pretty - rich part of town. have lunch and wait to be picked up for a city tour. head to teh cathedral first. doesnt look like a church, looks more like a government building. alter is all gold and silver. outside in the square, there are lots of scarves painted onto the ground. they represent teh women who come there every thursday to demonstrate/commemerate their missing children who disappeared under the regime 25/30 yrs ago. the pink palace, where Evita´s balcony is, is completely covered in scaffolding and hoarding, so cant see that. move onto the La Boca part of town. its home to the Boca Juniors football club. go to the stadium, and not surprisingly there is Maradona stuff everywhere!!stadium is fine, a bit strange being in there when there isnt a game. its the only place in teh world where you get Coca-cola in black cans and not red ones! all teh coke ads are in black as well. its because the other team in BA, River, their colours are red, so coke have to be impartial!  then move onto one of teh tango districts. its called Caminetta and its really pretty. all the buildings are different colours. apparently, the reason is because it was an immigrant area and they couldnt afford materials to build homes. so they used to go to the docks and get leftovers from the ships, hence its a mish mash of different materials and colours. its really cool and seems to work well. there is a great atmosphere about the place. there are tango dancers on teh streets.  then head back downtown. go across the widest street. its 18 lanes and takes 3 stops to try and walk across it! cant be done in one go! head back to hostel and go to BBQ they are having on the roof. massive slabs of meat on teh BBQ - smells great.  get chatting to loads of people and we all decide to go out to a club. go to a place called Opera Bay. its built like sydney opera house, but obviously only a fraction of teh size. the venue is cool. there are 3 different rooms and each one has different music. there were ponds in each room as well! if that was at home, there would be people swimming in them within minutes!! there is a disco ball in the shape of a camel, which is really funky. its not the liveliest of places, so head home about 4am.

14th January 2007

wake up early and have to make an emergency run to the loo - both ends are active!!! Again! convinced it was the sausage I ate at teh BBQ. have to make another 3 runs in quick succession!  one of the girls in teh dorm went to the loo and actually locked the rest of us into the room! someone has security issues!!! Had to ask her not the lock the door as looking for keys when your bottom is about to erupt was not a prospect I wanted to experience!!   finally get up and I go to teh market in San Telmo. its mostly antiques, with a few bits of jewellery. there are tango dancers on the streets - really good.  wander around the market for a while and soak up the atmosphere. the whole are is little cobled streets and great buildings. has a very Italian feel to it, perfect for a sunday afternoon.

head off to a tango show. get subway across town and arrive at teh venue and am surprised with a tango lesson!! so have lesson for 1hr before show. its actually great fun. as there is a severe shortage of men, half of the girls are substituted, including me! the place is full of grannies, clearly teh Womens Institute is out for the night!!! blue rinse heaven! the room is quite small and is also L shaped, so when the old dears bang into you they just continue on. but when we bang into them, they start muttering and complaining about us. lesson is fun, but now time for dinner and a show. move into a small ballroom typoe hall. its stunning, very decorative. loads of tables and a stage on one side. get seated right next to teh stage, so have a great view. dinner is great. get 3 courses and unlimited wine - excellent! about 10.15 the show begins. its done like a drama with 6/7 dancers and two tango singers singing the story. its brilliant. their legs can move like plastacine!! fear for my head, as some of them get really close to teh edge of teh stage!! they go in between the tables as well and dance with some of the guests. costumes are really good. show lasts about 1hr and is absolutely fantastic, well worth it.

Leave huacachina and head for Lima. BUs is only 4.5hrs, so not bad. its basically dessert for most of the journey, then the coast begins to make an appearance. Hello Pacific!! just as we enter Lima, coming off a flyover on to the main dual carriageway when there is a small bang from the back of teh bus. Im downstairs, so can see whats going on. bus then pulls in and the police appear!! the bus driver has clipped the side of a minivan taxi. have visions of being there for hours while they try to sort it all out. but, surprisingly, within 10 mins we are moving again. coming into the city feels very like coming into any american city. everyone we have met has said that Lima is a horrible, dangerous city, so will check into the hostel and decide for myself.  get to hostel and after 10 weeks on the road, I shamefully have to admit that i got very excited when Mcdonalds, KFC, burger king & pizza hut appeared!!! I know, its very embarrassing but these things happen!! McD´s is the choice for dinner.

8th January 2007

head downtown to central Lima to check out some of the museums. the main square is blocked off from traffic, so we walk in. teh place is surprisingly quiet for the centre of a city with 8m people. then notice that there are riot police everywhere and two tanks. one policeman comes over and says we should leave as ther is going to be a demonstration, so time to move quickly!! its about prevention of violence to women and children. decide its best to leave central Lima and go shopping in miraflores instead. actually find a starbucks in the middle of the shopping centre!! so far Lima has been very nice. shop for the afternoon. go for dinner and have to pay an additional 29% again!!!

9th January 2007

second attempt to go see the museums. head back downtown. watch teh changing of the guards outside the palace. they have ridiculous uniforms, really funny, all red and blue. talk about being a bit over protective!! there are riot police and tanks. they wont let anyone within 10m of the palace. get a great picture of a very cute policeman with his machine gun!!! he just laughs. band is playing and they prance about with a very silly raised leg march!  head off to see the Monasteria de San francisco. its a monastary with an amazing library and catacombs underneath it. library is very impressive. the only people allowed near the books are historians and archeologists. monastary is really big and currently houses 14 monks. then head down to the catacombs. its really big down there and there is a total of 25,000 bodies down there. for some reason, the archeologists sorted all teh bones and have displayed them all in pretty patterns!!! bizarre and a bit eerie down there but its really interesting. the monastary is fab and some of teh artwork is incredible.  go to the Inquisition museum afterwards. again building is amazing. start in the main court where cases were heard. then head down underneath to where a waxwork model of various different torture methods. it includes a stretching device, a suffocation chair, stocks, being hung by your arms & dropped, but not to the ground only enough so that your shoulders are dislocated. its really interesting.  then move onto a caonvent. Im thinking of joining!!! I think Im very suited to a simple lifestyle!! building is beautiful. some amazing courtyards with a rose garden. archetecture is fantastic, so much detail.   am all museumed out so head back for dinner and a night in front of teh tv.

10th & 11th January 2007

easy days, watch tv and catch up on some stuff. Still cant see why everyone hates Lima, I quite like it. Just another big city.  Fedex some stuff home. they are such a rip off, but unfortunately a necessary one.

Go for a wine tour today. not expecting much, as we are not exactly in prime wine country!!  first vineyard is a small family run operation. everything is done by hand, nothing mechanised. they make wine, pisco and a drink like baileys from pisco, milk & figs. quite impressed with the place. go for a tasting after the tour. . wine is alright, but the 41% pisco will blow your brains out. seriously, its toxic!!

move onto teh second vineyard. its much larger and much more modern.  more of what I had initially expected. its not in season, so all is quiet. the place is quite big. it also grows figs and pecan nuts. the trees are enormous. the place has a really spanish feel to it. really nice. another tasting after teh tour. the sweet wines are nice and again teh 38% pisco could strip paint!! get a bit of a tour of Ica in the taxi, as it is a bit out of town. its not a nice town. enjoyed the wine tour, was much better than I was expecting.

Chill out by the pool for teh morning, preserving my energy for teh dune buggy and sandboarding later on. pick teh trip at 4.30, so can see teh sun set.

7 of us plus the driver in the buggy. set off around teh corner, where we come to a stand still - we have to pay tax!!  get going at high speed. the seatbelts are like teh ones in roller coasters that go over your head and in between your legs.  boy, do you need them!! within seconds, get rocked and thrown about the buggy. my stomach is already in my mouth! after a few mins we go over a massive dune and my prescription sunglasses fly off my head! so get teh guy to stop and find them . off we speed again! its amazing, its pure dessert. views are incredible. get rocked about and at one point think the seatbelt will prevent me from ever having children!! stop on one of the dunes for photos - didnt bring my camera, decided it would be destroyed from the sand. then head off to where we go sandboarding. am a total beginner at this, havent been snowboarding either, so needless to say I spend alot of time sliding down on my ass!! its actually great fun. buggy collects us at teh bottom and drives us back up for another turn. go down sitting this time - much better and so much fun.  there are two spanish girls in teh group who are really good.  move on for more of teh dune buggy and to get a few more bruises!! teh dunes for sandboarding get larger and steeper the more we progress. the driver is fun and is laughing at our reactions. on one of the really sttep ones, he sets us up on the boards lying on your stomach and then he pushes you through his legs and away you go!! I was not doing that, so go down stading up. well, at least I started standing up but ended up on my ass!!  at least teh sand was soft so it didnt hurtwhen you fell. I thought it was going to be like falling on sandpaper! Mind you the sand does go everywhere and I mean everywhere!!  every human orifice had a deposit! teh ears and bellybutton were tricky to clear out afterwards!  do a few more rounds of buggy and sandboard and then go to watch the sun set. it was beautiful. teh view was fab - massive sand dunes in the foreground, then mountains behind and then a red/orange sky behind it all - amazing. head back to buggy and head back. after a few mins, notice that all the buggies have accumulated and stopped around one point. so we join them to discover that one of the buggies is stuck in the sand!! the front of it is buried in a dune! very funny, there are about 20 men trying to push it forward out of the sand!! finally one of teh other buggies tows it out, with the help of teh 20 men. Cheers all round!!  head off again for the last dune. its so steep and we go down so fast that Emer looses her hat - it just flew off her head!! its too steep to go back for it - cant stop on it.

get back to hostel and the shower is the first port of call. need to remove all teh sand from places where sand should not be!!! go for really nice dinner and get caught for teh annoying 29% that some peruvian restaurants add onto your bill - excellent!!

arrive in Nazca about 9am after the best bus journey ever!! its pure dessert out here, literally are in the middle of nowhere. surrounded by pure rock and mountains. views are incredible. am expecting to see some tumbleweed roll by!! arrange to do the lines tomorrow, so chill out for the rest fo the day. its boiling hot, which makes a changes from wearing jeans and jumpers for the last 5 weeks. flip flops can make a reappearance!!  turns out that Dave, an english guy we keep meeting in various places, is in teh next room!!

4th January 2006

up early, get collected before 8am. head off out to the local airport to see teh Nazca Lines. best views are from the air. go to a little museum type place first and watch a discovery chanel programme about the area first. then head across teh raod to the airport, using the term loosely here!!  pay the airport tax and get into a little 6 seater plane.  i get to sit beside the pilot. all set, the flight takes about 30 mins. take off. there are more shpaes than I had expected. teh plane tips from left to right so everyone can see. the first time he went left he went really far over, i thought I am going to die in a mountain!! but after that it was fine. the lines are really cool, absolutely enormous. they are just drawn out on teh floor of teh dessert, its amazing. there is a monkey, an austronaut, dog, hummingbird, parrot, tree and a few others and also teh lines which all meet at a central point. they are really fantastic. head back into town after flight & get teh bus to Ica.

Ica is about 2hrs away. we arrive and are actually heading to a dessert oasis called Hauchachina (cant spell it). Its really different and tiny. teh scenery literally changes from mountains of rock to mountains of sand. its mind blowing. the place is all centered around teh oasis.

there is a mascarade ball in the hostel tonight for new years. Yellow is the colour of good luck in Peru, so there is yellow baloons and decorations everywhere. so we head off in search of yellow masks and hats for the party. there is another market in the main square and its really big, people everywhere. potter around town and head back to hostel for the party.

almost everyone has masks and something yellow. there are two guys behind who have delboy and rodney masks!! they are brilliant. think i am the only one not drunk. have had a seriusly dodgy tummy all day. there is finger food and loads of vodka jellies floating around. decide that the square is the place to be. there was a great atmosphere in town all day. so head off down town. the square is mental . there are people everywhere. police with machine guns around as well. the sqaure is packed. loads of fire crackers anf fireworks going off all over theplace. its just brilliant. lots of yellow stuff. head up to the cathedral to get a better view over the square. midnight strikes and the place goes wild. it was brilliant. all of a sudden everyone starts running. I thought something had happened and that the police were coming behind. but no. its a tradition here to run around the square for good luck and prosperity. so we all link arms, as we had already lost 3 others, and run all the way around teh square!! its crazy, bangers and fireworks going off everywhere, including at street level!! head off to a bar afterwards, loose a few others along the way! have a great night, one of the best new years Ive ever had.   go home about 3ish. had an emergeny run to the loo, not alcohol related, the dodgy tummy had finally kicked in with avengence!!

1st January 2007

quiet day. sleep and recovery.

2nd January 2006

leaving Cusco tonight. have great fun with teh bus tickets!! bought them two days ago. when I went to collect them, they said it was normal service at 8.00 and cost S70. when I pointed out to the guy that it was supposed to be imperial service at 10.00 and we paid S90, he said oh well there is commission. so I said he was not getting S20 commission per ticket. he was taking the p&%s! so he said, oh come back tom and we will change your tickets. upshot was that they never changed to ticket, so we got the difference back, but ended up stuck on a local bus for a 14 hour journey!!  well, it was an interesting trip!! i was sitting in the aisle seat. teh bus is full when it leaves teh station and teh "security" man films all our faces and then once we leave teh station, the bus driver opens the door and lets all the locals who dont have tickets on board!!!!  now, im in the aisle seat opposite the toilet/stairs bit - lucky me!! so this family gets on, there is mummy, daddy and thre kids, two of which are quite small. and then mummy starts producing blankets and actually makes a bed on top of the toilet roof for the two small ones!!  I was waiting for a bedtime story!! but my personal favourite was the mother, who hadnt washed in quite some time, kept using me as her armrest!! teh road was incredibly bendy so everytime she needed to hold on, my arm proved very effective!!  the bus was really warm, and the guy behind kept telling us to close the window, which meant the aroma of locals, especially my favourite family, was particularly delightful!!!

teh views are spectacular. teh mountains are just so vast, just pure rock all around you. teh bus was overtaking things on blind bends with sheer drops on the other side. you hear news sotries of buses just falling off cliffs, well now I know how!! rules of teh road in south america - just go for it and hope for a good outcome!!