HJSTravel

Arrived in Lima after a pretty rough bus from Punta Hermosa, which apparently is only really busy in the Peruvian summer....ahh damn! Anyway, we bagged a dorm room at one of the Flying Dog hostals which looks out onto Parque Kennedy in the centre of Miraflores in Lima. Really pretty area and loads going on in and around the park.... Crashed out pretty early the first night and spent yesterday having a casual wander, where we visited the remains of an Inca pyramid in the middle of the city. Miraflores is a really cool, happening area, and in the day its really cool to hang out and wander. But in the night Lima really seems to come to life, we only caught a glimpse after heading to a couple of bars last night, which were themselves ... read more

....the small town of Huacachina - a desert oasis set at the foot of some pretty spectacular sand dunes, and surrounding a small lake around which several bars, restaurants and hostals circulate around. Really cool place to hang out for a couple of days - after a little wander spent the first night chilling at the hostal supping on a couple of cocktails before we ended up getting the Charango out and having a Huacachinajam until the early hours complete with spoons, beers bottles and a host of other improvised instruments!! The next day had a swim in the pool, and a really relaxed day with a decent lunch. Couple of hours before sun set I headed out in a dune buggy which was a lot of fun - bombing around the desert up and down ... read more

So after the very interesting experience which was Arequipa, a town that failed to match our expectations, we decided to quickly leave and head up the coast of Peru in search of other places to explore. Il explain the whole Arequipa experience later.... Frist up was the coastal town of Chala, which being the only gringos in town provided an unsuprisingly fun experience. Carlos was a good lad at the hostal and the town was full of interesting characters and places, definitley a quirky little place! Anyway Chala was funny, decent ish walk along the beach, a couple of tasty meals, beers on the roof top and the most amazing little bananas that were divine on our next little journey up the coast to Nasca. Famous for the staggering and weird Nasca Lines, its a pretty ... read more

Been a really long but exciting week!! Left La Paz after the jungle to head to the lake again for a night as some of the guys from Bolivian Express were heading there anyway for the weekend. Had another fresh trucha by the water before taking a boat out on the lake for the sunset which was pretty spectacular!! Had a few beers in the evening in Copacabana and saw some Christian rap event going on in the town centre which was rather interesting!! Next day I headed off to Cusco while the others headed to Isla del Sol. Interesting journey which involved 2 minibuses, a cycle taxi, a regular taxi and finally a bus to Cusco!! Arrived and met up with Doug and Paul and even Mark and we had a day around the city ... read more

Awesome last couple of weeks, muchos blogging to do, but I'll try and cover everything!! So I left La Paz, went to La Senda Verde for a night to drop off a couple of magazines with the article I wrote about them...nice to be there again and good to see a few people and of course the monkeys!! Took a taxi early hours at about 3 and after worrying wait in the rain in the middle of the night, was finally picked up by Raoul on the bus to go and start the rafting about half 4! After a rough bus journey through the night, arrived in Caranavi for a traditional Bolivian breakfas, although it was pretty much a lunch dish coinsisting of beef, tomatoes, egg and...standard...rice! The 10 of us plus Raoul, our cook and ... read more

Hi folks, Been a great week or so since my last blog! Had a tour round La Paz with Dany on Thursday - good to see a few different parts of the city before leaving after this weekend. Wandered round a couple of crazy markets and headed up to El Alto for more spectacular views over La Paz. Went to see Matamba (one of Bolivia's biggest reggae bands) supporting Los Pericos on Friday, the latter being the biggest reggae band and perhaps the biggest musical export to come out of Argentina. In an open air venue, the atmosphere was awesome, and Matamba certainly got the crowd going with their funky beats, rocky solos and stage presence. During the cross-over between bands the rain started falling, followed by heavier rain and hail stones!! Everyone went crazy for ... read more

Been a pretty awesome week or so since the last blog!! Took a trip to Uyuni last Tuesday with Toni for a few days. Had a tour with 4 other travellers and our driver, Primo, or El Jefe!! Pretty much impossible to describe the trip - it is totally incredible. From the biggest salt lake in the world to deserts, volcanic rocks, geyers, hot springs, 25ft cacti, flamingos, hostals made entirely from salt and a whole lot more, the trip was amazing! Some of the scenery was stunning, and the ever changing setting was breath-taking everytime you moved on to somewhere else. I will put some pictures up I promise - just hassle innit and had plenty of work to keep me busy when I haven't been out the city travelling!! Returned from Uyuni on Saturday ... read more

Hola First things first - my laptop is broken and therefore blogs might become a little less frequent, particularly after I leave Bolivia! Had a great week - after recovering from food poisoning last week, went out to see a twelve piece jazz band last friday at Thelonious Jazz Club - pretty special!! This was followed by a night at Ttkos on the saturday, and a reggae night on the Tuesday, again with live music, getting a serious groove on with Felipe, Toni, Maddie and Deshan! Went to Lago Titicaca on the Wednesday with Toni, Danny, Caro and Deshan. Fantastic couple of days....spent the first day at Copacabana, enjoying a tasty Trucha (fresh trout) by the lakeside with a cold one. Went for a laal walk up to a point above the town, a religious and ... read more

Hola Been lazy on the old blog recently - last week was fairly quiet in all honesty. Strikes all week in La Paz and huge marches, as in bigger than usual, all the time, meant leaving and even getting around the city was slightly problematic!! Still managed to have a lot of fun :) Got couple of other articles done and saw another couple of gigs as well as my friend Benjamin´s party on friday which was an absolutle blast!! Definitely didnt end until an early hour. Went quad biking with everyone on Sunday which was a laugh, although I did manage to tip my quad over by turning a bit fast!! The biking was set in the appropriately named ´moon valley´. Incredible scenery and awesome to be racing around on a pretty fast quad!! Went ... read more

So as you can tell, judging by the title of this entry, I set up a hammock in the solarium in the flat, which is like a top floor conservatory!! Since the antics of last weekend, kinda of had to get cracking with a bit of work this week so that took a couple of days of casual grafting! Articles are progressing well and looking forward to the publication of the next issue. Actually spent Thursday afternoon distributing the latest edition of Bolivian Express, about the theatre of La Paz and other areas of the country. If you like you can read it here though there are none of my articles in this edition: http://www.bolivianexpress.org/ Had a few nice meals out, couple of trips to Cafe Alexanders and Cafe Beirut were pretty tasty! On my way ... read more