Between the beautiful Andes and Buenos Aires

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OK, so i want to start with apologising for not writing in ages. If there are many of you reading it, i don´t know...Anyways, the only thing i can say that we haven´t spent that much time in internetcafés (which is actually a good thing when you think about it) and when we have i have written my swedish blo and then got fed up with being in front of a computer...

So what have happened since last time? Too much to write about...
Peru was brilliant! I must say that the Incatrail has been the highlight on our trip so far, easily on of the top ten things i´ve done in my life! And that is all because of the people. Our group was quite young and consisted of only eng-speaking people, apart from us of course...7 aussies, 2 english, 1 scottish and 3 irish and all of them were so much fun hanging out with. First day we went to Cusco and prepared, got used to the altitude (still got out of breath just walking up the stairs in the hotel...), checked out a brilliant market and ate good food. Then the adventure started and we had a guoded tour through sacred valley first. I got to try weaving at a stop we made to see traditionally dressed women weaving all day long, nice experience for sure. Saw an inca sughts and got some history behind the srchitecture (impressive constructions!). Our guide, Ali, was great, so much fun and mixed with the group very well.

The following day we started the hike and it was an easy one first. Arrived at camp too fast almost, could have kept on. We realised what the standard was going to be like when we got a delicious two course lunch that day and great service. Had time to chat while we were walking and i really enjoyed the landscape. The Andes are so powerful , i just love them! Love the campig life also and sleeping in tent i sbrilliant (except from when your sleepingbag is to ¡o cold and you have to sleep with all your wardrobe on to keep the wrmth (talking oabout the second night). Dinners together and some cardgames with a lot of talking and laughing, that was evry day the case and i enjoyed every single minute of it!
Second day was the toughest with 6 h of walking, mainly uphill til we reacxhed the peak of 4200 above sea level. I haven´t breath that heavily in my whole life and was wrecked at the top (even though i´m fit back home, it doesn´t matter when you´re so high up!). I didn´t enjoy the lunch that day because of my painful headache (teh altitude really got me there), even less the dinner and the night...
But all good the third day, which also was my favourite one. We walked all day long, not as steep though and checked out many sights and got a lit of info about teh inkas. Just walking for hourse in th emountains was so magical, didn´t want to leave and arrive at camp (whee they actually were civilased with a rest and everyting, nothing for us though, who wanted thhe ´real´thing...). Machu Picchu following morning and it was brilliant, but less than i would have thought since the trtail in itself was so good! So hot that day and i thinkw eall gto burnt. Really cool walking around and imagining historical times, felt like an inka myself almost...
Headed back to Cusco and had the best shower ever in my life. A sleepy dinner, but really nice. A group of us moved on to a hostel nearby to stay longe in Cusco, teh other part where going to the jungle too. The day was well spent and i really like the city of cusco, really touristy, but beautifl and i woul drecomand it all times! HAd our last dinner together, which was so sad, but a greta night. Party at the hostel was the last we did.

Me and Lahib had some very busy days in Peru after that. Basically tehy passed like this: Parachuting over sacred valley the following day (brilliant flying experience, so cool just running off a cliff and sitting in the air fo r40 min!), nightbus to Nazca where we flew over the lines and had a guided tour to a cementary, lunch at the square before we took the bus up to Pisco (really rough place and i didn´t feel safe at all, whole city destroyed after an earthquake a year ago actually...), next day a boattour out to some islands with some nice animals and birds (beautiful being on the sea and get away from Pisco), bus down to Ica and Huacachina in teh afternoon, an oasis in the desert where we did a sandbaggy-tour (so much fun driving like crazy over the sanddunes and go sandboarding down slopes, that went FAST, can tell you that!). Hostel party in eve with BBQ and so many nice people. We walked up a sand dune at midnight to have a wonderful view over the big city nearby, look at the star and the moon. I loved it!

Next day time to leave and we headed up to LIma, hte airport and arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning. Turned out some of our frends from the trail were on the same flight as us. We headed staright up to Rosario in the north, a very nice city and we just relaxed there. Went to the beach and ate good food. Met som ereallynice asutraian girls there too that actually stayed at teh same place for christmas up at the iguazu falls as well, funny coincidence fo rsure. Posadas was another cute city further up north, we adapted to the ergentinian culture there with siestas, dinners at 10-11pm and the going out dancing from after midnight to the morning. Crazy, but fun! Met up with a CSer too that showedus around and tauht us al lot about argentina and its history, people and politics. Am so interested in learning that so i ha agerat time with him!

Iguazu next where we spent one day on the brazuilian side (cool panorama views over the falls), but nothing compared to the argentinian side. The waterfalls were just so impressive, i couldm´t get enough of watching them! I am amazed that the earth can create so beautiful things. Christmas eve was spent there as well and it was a strange one, no feelings at all and a BBQ-party at bnight with a lit of samba dancing. It wa great fun though and met a lot of fun-loving people through the night.
Very enjoyable staying there for three night, longest fo rus, we have been travelling aorund so much so far.

BA is the city where i am now and we arrived here about six days ago now. A lot of good and bad things ahve happened. We have had some really nice eves sitting outside in Plazas around the city having dinner and lunch. Strolled around cute, bohemian areas, went to some cool markets, seen a special cementary (Recoleta, with houses as graves, really cool!), gone to a BBQ with CSers, cycled around in the city, seen a little tango show, danced to drumsessions, in hostelperties and at nihtclubs (until late at night) and have ahd so much fun! One really bad thing happened to us as well three days ago, we gt mugged, actually Lahib. Her bag was stolen, containing all her valuables including passport, creditcards, money, camera, USB (with all our pics from our trip so far...), ipod, personal belongings, flight tickets, visas and so on, th elist is unfort quite long...The men played an ugly trick on us and everything went so fast, nothing to do now. I am just glad Lahib is alright (they didn´t use violence, but she set off after the and wa sgin efor a while when i almost atrted to panick in the meantime). Things are just things, but the fatc that she is ok is eough fo rme. We manaed to get to the swe embassy today and she wil get a new passport sent. We only have to change our route a little bit with one more week in Arg and one less in NZ (which is a sheam, but i am just so glad that she actualy cam keep on travelling!). So all is good now, she is in a good moos despit eevrything that´s happened and we just want to have som e fun now this weekend. We learnt a big and valuable lesson thoigh and i am glad i´m not s naiv anymore, we´v ebecome experianced travellers finally...:-)

That´s all up tp this point. JUst to give you a little glimpse of all the amazing experiences we´ve been through so far. I have met so many facinating people and had interseting conversations. The cultural exchange is wonderful and i learn things about myself all the time. Am more convinced that i chose the right carrier now, which is great. So so many magical moments that would take days to share with you now! Can´t wait for the future now either, we have so many terrific experiences, but every time we leave we move on to another one, as good as the previous. Now we´ll head west afetr the weekend an dexplore more of this huge country.

Have fun until then!

Ps. Again i have to apologise for the spelling mistakes, like i said, i´ve been siting in frot of this box too long now and am dying to get out in the sun for a few hours. I think you´ll be able to read it anyway...:-)

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