Sorry for the delay on this blog, but due to camera cables being swiped i've been unable to get to my pics!! So, the end of the trip, and i decided early on, as my flight was passing through Madrid, to stop there for a few days, as its a great place. I landed early afternoon after a duff flight in which the baggage handlers helped themselves to items in my bag, and found the hotel my parents had booked, quick tram ride away. Nice hotel, very 70's, but nice. I dumped my bags, had a shower and headed for the [View Full Entry]

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The VIP section of the bus to Mancora was sold out, so we had to make do with 2nd class, which is still luxurious. We arrived in Mancora in the morning, and after haggling with a tuk tuk driver we settled on staying at Kon Tiki Bungalows, a little bit of luxury to end my trip. They are set slightly above the town, and he soon realised his tuk tuk couldn't make the journey, so we had to walk. It was worth the walk tho, great views of the town and the ocean, a stunning restaurant bar, and 3 little bungalows. [View Full Entry]

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Early bus to Lima, and it was just a pitstop really. Claire was flying home, and we were heading way north the day after. I'd heard really bad things about Lima, so didn't expect much. What we saw of it, it ws beautiful. Yeah it ws a big city, but full of stunning squares and great old buildings. Granted, you are offered drugs literally every 30 seconds, but after a few minutes its just funny as you know every single person who approaches is trying to sell, so you have a bit of fun at their expense to pass the time. [View Full Entry]

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Trek over, 4 days of sobriety over, it was a 16 hour VIP bus to Ica. The journey was great, big leather seat in the posh section, only a handful of seats on the whole of the downstairs section. Had a nice meal and a few films and i arrived in Ica, where i caught a taxi to Huacachina, a little Oasis in the middle of the desert. Matt & Claire were already there as their little trek finished earlier than mine, so i met them at the hotel they had picked. Little cracker in the sand dunes with a pool. [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Cusco really early, around 6am, and found a stunning room overlooking the main Plaza. We managed to haggle price down and went out for some breakfast. After a few laps of town we headed for a bar called Nortons Rat. Nice place, and has 3 dart boards, that was me sorted for a while. We ordered a beer and played some darts. We then sat on the balcony and ordered a jug of Cuba Libre. To us it felt late as we'd been on the night bus, but an inspection of the watch said it was only 10.30am, [View Full Entry]

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So, it was finally here, my trek to Maccu Pichu. I wasn't on the Classic Inca Trail as i'd heard this was getting a bit commercialised and there were much better available (or i'd been drinking too much in South America and forgot to reserve a place. Only 500 people a day can go on this, and that includes 300 porters and staff). Anyway, it worked out better, i booked a longer trek called Salkantay, which is becoming the one to go on. It was just voted best alternative trek on the planet by National Geographic....not bad! However, i really should [View Full Entry]

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An early bus, booked all on our own now we were off the tour took us to Copacabana on the shore of Lake Titicaca. Stunning little place and we managed to get a brilliant room overlooking the lake. The sun was shining, and there ain't much to do around there, so we basked in the glorious weather and sampled the local food & drink. Got a bit drunk and forgot to put suncream on, burnt face. They love the set menu here, so for £1 you got a 3 course meal & a drink, albeit a soft drink, but bung in [View Full Entry]

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Another successful border crossing and i made it to Peru. A little town on the other side of Lake Titicaca called Puno, nowhere near as nice as Copacabana, but a good place to start Peru. After checking in we found a local pool hall and had a few games, same stupid tables so we didn't bother for long. Had a good walk around the City and noticed a really cool looking Football Stadium. It looked really old and looked to be made out of stone, had a real coliseam feeling to it. Again, we were able to stroll in, no questions [View Full Entry]

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So, after the floating islands we caught a bus to Arequipa, Peru's second largest city. We sadly caught a local bus, it was awful, Peruvians are crazy. Everytime the bus stopped, loads of locals would run on trying to sell you allsorts from clothes to food, stinking food, and the passengers would go mental and start stamping their feet and banging the windows. The bus actually broke down in the middle of nowhere and it seemed for a minute there was gonna be a mass riot. I was still feeling ropey from the food poisoning and just wanted to get there. [View Full Entry]

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The 3 of us set off for Chivay on our tour of Colca Canyon. We stopped at various tacky places on the way where the locals sell you tat and give you Coca Tea to help with altitude, not sure about that, it tastes awful tho...... Saw a lot of variety of Llama on the way, and finally made it to Chivay by 1pm. We checked into our hotel, and headed straight for the Thermal Springs. Loads of indoor & outdoor pools, really hot too. Spent a good few hours in them enjoying some large chilled beers. Didn't want to get [View Full Entry]

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