http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/babyape/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from babyape en-us Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:36:10 +0000 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:36:10 +0000 Sorry for the delay on this blog but due to camera cables being swiped i've been unable to get to my picsSo 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 boo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-451169.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Piura/M-ncora/blog-446446.html 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 y http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Lima/Lima/blog-446444.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-446440.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Salkantay-Trail/blog-445294.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/Cusco/blog-445255.html 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 out http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Colca-Canyon/blog-445067.html 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 mi http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/Arequipa/blog-445065.html 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 real http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Puno/Puno/blog-444977.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/Copacabana/blog-444968.html Another long drive day all the way to La Paz a place most of us were looking forward too. We had a few drinks on the way then for some reason in the evening the truck just turned into one big moving nightclub. The music went up a notch the beers were flying down and everyone was up dancing. Great truck day We arrived at night slightly drunk and checked into another nice Bolivian hotel.A grou http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/La-Paz-Department/La-Paz/blog-444811.html The first night in Uyuni was pretty chilled. We arrived quite late and were booked into a hotel a real hotel no hostel or campsite bit of a treat really but Bolivia is very cheapWe ate the worlds highest pizza that night was ok then had a couple of drinks around town. The next day was gonna be a biggy so didn't go daftWe were picked up early after a nice scrambled eggs brekkars could g http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/Potosi-Department/Salar-de-Uyuni/blog-444779.html So almost the end of Argentina. We had a full day's drive towards the border over a pretty rough desert terrain no roads to speak of. It's a tough old truck but even this was too much and we had a few break downs along the way which is fun in the middle of absolute nowhere. After a long day we reached a dodgy hostel and slept. Nothing to do around there. Up early and the hostel treated us to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Bolivia/blog-441837.html We were up early for a short drive to a place just outside Salta called Salta Rafting. We arrived at midday and set up camp next to a river it was a stunning location. Suprisingly the big thing to do here is rafting but when the bloke said it was a grade 2 river no one wanted to do it grade 5 or nothing for us. So instead we all went Ziplining and we were all very glad we did. There were 9 http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Salta/Salta/blog-441833.html A short drive to Cafayate and we arrived at a big campsite which we pretty much had to ourselves. We spent the day walking around the town which was pretty nice small but pretty.The first night was typically spent on camp as we had a lot of booze to get through and the town didn't have many pubs. We cooked some great food and made a huge vat of mulled wine. It was another really good campsite http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Salta/Cafayate/blog-441831.html So a long drive back to BA and i arrived back at 5am so 21 hours awake so far and i had to jump straight onto a 12 hour bus to Cordoba. Decent journey but no sleep so 6pm in Cordoba and pretty tired. Still no rest i was meeting the tour group at a Ranch in the middle of nowhere. Another bus for 1 hour to a place called Rio Ceballos which is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Now the ra http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Cordoba/Cordoba/blog-441827.html So Saturday 5th September finally arrived the big match Argentina v Brazil in a World Cup Qualifier.I met my bus at 10am after waking up far too early and began the long drive up to Rosario. There were a good few buses going up and i was put with a group af Americans who were a good laugh but knew little about football or soccer.The drive was about 5 hours and we stopped half way at a roads http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Salta/Rosario-de-la-Frontera/blog-439441.html Back in Buenos Aires again this time with a big group.The truck arrived in the afternoon and we checked into our hotel no hostels this time altho it was next door to where i stayed previously. It was a decent place and nice to have a bed after a good bit of camping.We headed off into town for a few beers. We found a great restaurant with amazing food and great wine. After the meal we had a pu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-438615.html So from the amazing Iguacu Falls the next stop on the tour was the world famous breathtaking amazing......Jesuit Mission Ruins..........We arrived in the afternoon and our guide sat in a bar in the sun ordered a beer and ice cream and pointed us in the direction of the ruins with a smile on his face. He'd been before and knew how rubbish it was. He was right but it's part of the Tour so http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Misiones/blog-433888.html Iguacu Falls... where to start what a place. The drive down was a corker 5am till 9pm. The hostel was great we were camping but for a pound a night you could upgrade.... yes please we'd be there for 4 days so camping might get boring nice dorm with 6 of us in private bathroom was spot onIt was late when we arrived so we just ordered bar food at the hostel and hit the beers then the Cub http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Paran-/Foz-do-Igua-u/Igua-u-National-Park/blog-433645.html