Advertisement
Published: March 10th 2007
Edit Blog Post
This will be a boring one and im sorry in advance i just wanna get it down cos i have no other way to remember all this. We all felt after over 6 weeks in what is the amazing Argentina it was time to head north.
After our 3 bus 27 hour lovely bus journey to Salta with the plastic paddys in tow, we were just about ready to die. Damien, Fran, Rob and Neil decided bravely(or madly) to continue with there trip to Peru(6 hour, 22 hour, 13 hour bus journey) while we decided to regroup and get our heads together and join up with Ciara. We meeting up again after the Inca Trail with the Plastics for our Paddys day fancy dress session.
After spending the day in Salta we were a little disappointed we didnt stay longer cos it was a really cool and relaxed city with great beer, food and waiters. I know waiters sounds weird but there all crap over here and it does make a difference.
Against sense and my bodies plea´s we headed out on the beer with Paddy and Paul who we hooked up with again after the crack in
BA. Somehow me Gar and Paddy ended up in the "Golden Dreams" casino for a few games of roulette(some backpáckers we are!!). I wont mention how i did but gar made a killing with about 40 euro profit(which is about a weeks accomodation) and paddy made a few quid aswell. I wasnt to sullen cos the free whiskey and cokes were a nice touch. Gar even met his childhod hero, he was a happy camper!!
Next day we went touristy and caught the cable cars up to the top of the mountain for a view over the valley. Touristy blah blah.
To Bolivia.....
At midnight the next day we took the short 6 and half hour bus journey to La Quicha on the Bolivian border. We got threw the border handily enough(we heard of 8-10 hour waits) and had to spend the day in Villazon before our "2nd class" bus at 6. The poverty was shocking, its hard to describe it really. The way the women dress is cool looking and they just lug everything on there shoulders, no bother to them. Anyway knackered and bored we hung around and caught our bus. It was funny. We
were used to beds on the Argintines buses. It had about the same leg room as a 77a, it stunk, it was 22 hours on a dirt road and i had the big bolivian woman´s arse on my leg for the whole journey. Cant expect much for 5 euro i suppose!! Interesting stuff along the way. We were wondering all day why the the woman were these big victorian like dresses. We found out soon enough that Bolivians have a love of pissing anywhere the feel like even when we stopped beside a restaurant with toilets, women inclusive. The dress is how the maintain the dignity i guess!! The lads also saw a horrible bus crash. Not suprised we didnt crash ourselves with him hitting 60 miles an hour on dirt road.
Finally got to La Paz which is the highest city in the world at 4200 mtrs and we decided we had to spend the night there as we were wrecked!! La Paz is a Brilliant city and so cheap!!! Our hostel was 3 euro, full dinner 3 euro and a jersey was 7 euro. Gonna ditch eveything in my bag when we get back there and buy
everything new. Everyone is so poor but the do there best by selling anything they can.
After a tough night sleep cos of the altitude, cold Irish weather(no tan to be had here Jackie either!!) and horrible nightmares(cos of the altitude sickness) we got our bus from La Paz to Cusco. It was thirteen hours long. The only interesting thing that happened(in this blog, sorry again if you got this far!!) was when we stopped there was this woman selling bits of pork on the side of the road. When the american girl we met jocoline(??) asked for some she just hacked the smi cooked pig up at the side of the road and handed it over in a bag(and she wondered why she has had intestinal parasites twice so far in Peru!!) Mad culture but really cool.
Got to Peru after 84 hours on buses in 7 days fr our long awaited Machu Piccu trek but cant wait to head back to Boliviain week or so.......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.039s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0207s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
ASHO
non-member comment
WOW!!!
HEY NIALL.... GREAT PICS U HAVE, FANTAAASTICS!! WE CAN SEE U ARE HAVING FUN LITTLE BOY!! I'LL WAIT FOR MORE...