Potosí is a small town south of La Paz, its architecture reflecting a very special, long-held colonial interest. It is the town sitting around the base of the Cerro Rico - the Rich Mountain - a red hill revered in sacred art from the 17th century onwards, the Virgin being portrayed sitting on it as she would on a throne. One day, a long time ago, a llama farmer lost one of his flock in the wilds of the Bolivian foothills. He walked and walked to retrieve it, finally coming upon it on this prominent hill as night fell. Too late [View Full Entry]

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The Oruro madness winding up, I headed back to La Paz for some rest and recuperation, only to discover on arrival that in fact Carnaval happens all over Bolivia that week, and the capital city is no exception. After an age wandering around the bus terminal´s taxis bedecked with multicoloured streamers, flowers and drunk taxi drivers hanging out of their car doors, singing tunelessly to Peruvian panpipe techno, I finally made my way to a hot shower. It wasn't all so uneventful however. The Carnaval spirit in La Paz also extends to the aggravating water balloons and shaving foam bombardments, wi [View Full Entry]

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-- "Hello. Where are you from?" - "England." -- "Do you like Peru?" - "Yes, it's very nice." -- "What do you think of the foreign policy of your government?" - "Um, I haven't lived there for a while, I don't know much about it." Meanwhile, some other bloke on the other side of me, was trying to pickpocket the contents of my jeans pockets, namely a torn photocopied map of Lima, and a flyer for some discoteca. Needless to say the last question gave him away. It's a novel one at least. I had another brief stopover in Lima before [View Full Entry]

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So, much to the dismay of my brother, I made it to Colombia. His warnings of the Cali and Medellin drug cartels, Pablo Escobar stories, the fact it produces 80% of the world´s cocaine, and has regular tales of kidnappings and murders, was enough to put some doubts in my mind. But the experiences of everyone else I have met on the road proclaims it to be one of the world's best kept secrets. Let´s keep it that way, eh? It is, and I am not exagerrating, one of the most beautiful, peaceful and friendly places I have ever been to [View Full Entry]

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At the end of our little cruise we touched down in Santa Rosa, which is the Peruvian side of the river. From where we stood, we could see Leticia (the Colombian border town) and Tabatinga (the Brazilian town) on this three-way border. After a few emigration formalities, mainly involving me paying a small fine for overstaying my Peruvian visa, we hopped from dirty nappy to dirty nappy to get into a boat for five minutes to take us to Colombia. Expecting full body cavity searches and hectic immigration, we were surprised to find absolutely nothing in the way of immigration - [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon Basin, late the next evening, and whizzed around the centre in a little moto-taxi with open sides as the full force of a tropical storm unleashed itself around us. The plan was to get a boat up the Amazon from Iquitos to Leticia, in Colombia, and cross the border off the beaten track, spending a memorable New Year on a boat with hundreds of Peruvians and two toilets. Unfortunately, though hardly unsurprising, no one wanted to work over the New Year period, preferring instead to sit on the docked boats in the mud, [View Full Entry]

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Following the rather eventful last few days in Pisco, it was certainly a relief to be out of the place. On that bus, about 6 hours later than we planned to leave due to an urgent appointment with an ultrasound machine and the nice Cuban doctors, I watched the sun set over the desert for the final time as the bus sped through the ruins of Ica province. Still in ruins, still so much to be done, but not by us. I've just found out that following Paul's little incident with a Peruvian and an "arma blanca" (what we think now [View Full Entry]

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Ok, this one you'll never believe. So Paul (one of the four Hardcore Ica Classroom Builders who I am travelling round Colombia with) and I were planning to leave on Saturday morning, early, to meet Kristina at Lima airport before flying out to Iquitos to meet John, on the start of New Year Odyssey down the Amazon to Colombia. Everyone in in Pisco was having a quiet one, which suited me just fine, watching films and such like, so it was just the old timers having a quiet bevvy at the Cock in Box (a little man who opened a beer [View Full Entry]

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Indeed, Ica is now well and truly finished. It's done. 86 or so woven cane classrooms constructed, touched up, demolished (not the ones we built...obviously) and rebuilt in the capital of the region. The place the Governor lives. The place that received 10 million soles out of 20 million for reconstruction, when Pisco received 5 million and Chincha 3 million. And do you know why it was such a fun five weeks down there? Because it was hardly affected by the earthquake so the bars and restaurants and water system and swimming pools were all working perfectly. That said, the larger [View Full Entry]

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Some interesting observations about Peru. They all think the world thinks they are lazy and all thieves. They dislike, and distrust, other Peruvians to the extent that they will not allow them into their houses. It must be a lonely life for the Peruvian to categorically refuse any Peruvian friends. Panpipe techno is a must-hear. It shall be introduced to the UK music scene very shortly, I promise... I have, again, spent the last few weeks being a team leader here in Ica, an hour south of Pisco. I haven´t returned to Pisco for what feels like a lifetime, and indeed [View Full Entry]

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