4-5 November 2008 - We arrived in the afternoon and got a taxi to Che Legarto hostel near Los Heroes metro and headed straight out for food at the Bar de la Union, a place the RG recommended for fish and the service, which was by "garrulous old men" in white jackets. It did not disappoint; in fact the waiter even swept my seat with a swish of a cloth before letting me sit down. It was very uch a man's joint, with lots of single older gents propping up the bar, but it was an entertaining spot to waste away [View Full Entry]

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31-10 - 3.11.08 - We were making the trip into the Salar from San Pedro de Atacama, which didn´t prove to be much more expensive than doing it from Bolivia and was relatively easy too. We started off early the first day and had breakfast at the Bolivian border. It was very entertaining as the Chilean border which you pass to exit is all professionalism. Then you get to the Bolivian border, which is a hut in the middle of nowhere with a burnt out bus nearby. Very reflective of the differences between the country. We saw Laguna Blanca first. As [View Full Entry]

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We got a flight to Tacna, which as I said in my previous blog was fraught with trouble, then got a bus across the border to Arica, where we booked a night bus to San Pedro for later that day. With time to kill, we got a taxi out to a restaurant that had been recommended, where we had some unbelievable seafood in a beautiful location overlooking the sea. We then decided to walk back to the bus station. This took us past some cliffs with large birds wheeling overhead, and then past the Plaza. it was so beautiful in the [View Full Entry]

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17 - 29 October - Back in Cusco. Shockingly enough, the Cruz del Sur bus arrived on time at five in the morning and we got a transfer with the hostel owner, Yuri, to the hostel. Had a quick shower and somehow managed not to go back to bed but instead headed into town for breakfast and to book a rainforest tour. We got a pretty good deal on an 8 day trip to the rainforest coming in and out by bus (as it saves money, not because I have a newfound love of buses! Much the reverse), so we booked [View Full Entry]

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13-17 October 2008 - We finally began the trip to Colca! It began in true Elliott style with being late for our transfer. Our transfer, it turned out, was to the bus terminal for a public bus to Cabanaconde. I had heard bad things about public buses and all of them were justified! Thankfully because we got on at Arequipa we had a seat but that was not true for the seemingly hundreds of people who crammed themselves into the aisles. One woman managed to fall asleep sat on her bag in the aisle - I don´t know how. My seat [View Full Entry]

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04.10.08 - To follow with more pics, out of time sorry! We arrived in Arequipa at 6 in the morning after our seemingly hundredth night bus from Ica. We got a taxi straight to a hostel and dropped off our bags then after a very brief nap ambitiously headed off to the plaza de armes for breakfast. We had arrived on a Sunday morning and there was some kind of parade going on. After checking it was definitely not a protest of any description (better to be safe than sorry) we took a seat in a cafe overlooking the plaza to [View Full Entry]

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02.10.08 - As ever, the Cruz del Sur bus was late at 7.30. When we got off the bus, Elliott asked the bus driver how much a taxi to Huacachina should cost. He said three or four soles. We then get out to the waiting room and got quoted ten soles for a taxi there. Elliott called the guy a liar (he´s getting very confrontational with taxi drivers!). The taxi driver then asked a random person how much it should cost to get to Huacachina. Entertainingly the guy said five soles, so we agreed on that and the taxi driver grudgingly [View Full Entry]

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29.09.08-Arrived in Lima late at around 7. Ironically one of the Cruz del Sur´s slogans is "puncualidad" or punctuality! We got a taxi to our hostel but it turned out that the booking hadn´t worked and therefore they directed us to another one of their hostels nearby. Of course we couldn´t find it - to be fair it wasn´t well signposted. Finally dumped our bags in our room, had an overpriced pizza and went to sleep! The next day we got up really early and headed to Huaca Pucllana, a pre Incan adobe pyramid/mound. Unfortunately we had chosen to come on [View Full Entry]

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24.09.08-28.09.08 - We got a taxi to the hostel we´d booked and a talkative Peruvian got in beside the taxi driver. I assumed he was a very diligent hostel employee (we were two hours late) so we chatted to him freely. Got to the hostel and were met by Senora Flor, a chirpy Peruvian lady who sat us down and gave us coca tea for the altitude. Hardly needed as we were by now seasoned altitude goers! The guy with us, whose name was Jonathan, kept going on and on about trekking and wouldn´t let up. We finally explained about my [View Full Entry]

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We finally got to Mancora at 5.45 in the morning. We were supposed to get in at 5am and I have to say I´d anticipated the lovely people at the bus company being later than that so we arrived apprehensively but luckily there was a mototaxi ready and waiting to take us to our hostel. We were staying at the Hostel Sol Y Mar. Much as I hated the place, it was an amazing location. We had asked for beach front rooms and we had a little table and chairs outside of our room. Next to that was a high fence [View Full Entry]

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