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Published: October 16th 2009
Hey hey guys, sorry 7 weeks in now and I know I have been slack with this blog, but still aware that I need to do it, just hard finding the time to sit and remember wat I have been doing, bare with me coz the weeks tend to roll into one so I will fill you in best I can!!!
So I tink I left my last blog in Peru??? Peru was a grat diverse country, we went from camping in a natural oasis, sand dunes, beaches to cities and Mountains!!!Views we ave seen just don´t come close to any pictures we have taken!The place is fantastic!!!
In peru also came our biggest challenge yet, and actually perhaps ever!!!!!!! We arrived in Cusco from Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world, spotted some Condor (3 meters in length) and then drove to our hostel....Cusco is a great city, we went to the most beautiful Cathedral in the main Plaza it was breathtaking and sent shivers, such amazing architecture and has been destroyed 3 times by earthquake!! After a day o exploring we had some dinner and an early night ready for the Inca Trail!!!!Possibly the 4 hardest days of my life but the best experience I could have asked for, such an emotional 4 days, began our trek as a group with a team of 22 people, 2 tour guides and 20 porters who carried everything we needed for the 4 days along the same trek we did, and they did it in less time and set up camp and cooked for us, this was amazing, so much respect for these guys...they carry 20 kg on their backs up inclines down inclines, all at altitude. On the second day we had to reach 4,200m above sea level, this was a challenge but so rewarding when you make it the views were spectacular, everytime I think about this it is so emotional, such an experience!!!I busted my knee though on day 2 soooo not the best walking downhill all day on day 3, but still so great,I just had to walk slower, but got to take in more of te view, hehe! After the Inca we headed back to Cusco, went for a drink but laura and I were falling asleep in our cocktails so didn´t stay out too late, the next day we slept in until 2pm and relaxed! We then travelled 9 hours to Puno where we stopped on the way for an aerial view of Lake Titicaca where we were to spend our next 2 nights!
We visited a floating Island on Lake titicaca which was made purely of reeds that surround the lake, they use the reeds for their houses, boats and build it all themselves! From tis island we met the families we were to be staying with around the islands for the next 2 nights. We met our first family in Luquina, there were 2 cildren, 7 and 8 and a baby of 9 months, called Elvis...we played football with the kids then played football with the locals....all at altitude in flip flops..not easy, hehe! That evening we ate with our families and then they dressed us up in their traditional dress and then took us dancing, again not too much fun at altitude, but still lovely!We ten made our way to another familiy in a different community...agauin we did the same, but we had older children a boy called Luis who was 10, his brother Guam wo was 16 and their Sister Flora wo cooked for us...lots of rice and potatoes! We did the same here, played football and traditional dance!
BOLIVIAAAAAA!!!!!!La Paz was our next stop....where we lost a lot of our group and our tour leader Manuel :-( We went out for a goodbye dinner and for drinks and dancing!!!The hangover wasn´t too good the next day for exzploring, but we managed to head out and look at the witches market...I bought a leather bag for 14 pound that made me feel better, haha...Bolivia was soooooo cheap!
We also met our new tour leader...sadly no new people joined the group but we have a cool tour leader, he is called Esteban from Costa Rica and is Gooooorgeous, hehe, bit of a looker...johnny depp meets Orlando Bloom (Laura´s explanation, so you can get an idea in your head, hehe)!! We have the best part of the trip to come now....from la Paz we headed to Uyuni, stayed ere oine night, not a lot here just where we picked up the jeeps to go to te salt flats of the Salar de Uyuni. We spent three days in the salt flats, which were 7 times the size of London, this used to be water but it drived up around 1000 years ago, the views were amazing! After the salt flats we stayed in a hotel made of salt and continued our three day adventure through desert, into hot springs, lagoons, geizers and valley of the rocks, the views were amazing, breathtaking!!!
We then travelled north to Potosi, one of the highest cities of its size in the world and we visited a silver mine, where we witnessed a dynamite explosion from inside the mine....definitley not claustrophbic anymore, haha!There was not much else in Potosi so we didn´t stay for long here and left to go to Sucre! Sucre was a lovely city with museums and colonial buildings, and it is the official bolivian seat of government. Totally different to La Paz which battles with Sucre to have captial status! Totally different cities! We met up with 2 other tour groups here and visited local day care centres that help support young mums who wantto work but have no where to leave their children. These centres support these women and give them the opportunity to work and for their children to go to pre school and the older cildren get help with their homework, this was definiutley a highlight of Sucre, wanted to take all the children home!!! We went partying in Sucre too with the 2 other GAP groups...got to get used to going out 2 nights in a row again!!!haha!
We left Sucre and headed to Santa Cruz, Bolivia came to an end so quickly!!Santa Cruz is Bolivias second largest city, while we were there we visited a water park with a bird and butterfly sanctuary, it was so nice to cill out for the day and start working on the tan, but ended uo being patchy burn, just cant getthe hang of applying sun cream correctly!! Better get used to it! We didn´t explore the city of Santa Cruz much, but there didn´t appear to be a lot there from what we did see. From Santa Cruz we went to our last stop in Bolivia :-( Chochis, we arrived quite late for our first night here after travelling all dauy from Santa Cruz. We set up camp and had spaghetti bolognese (still not yours mum, hehe) the next day we went or a hike to a waterfall and swam, then in the afternoon headed to a santuary to watch the sunset!! Back at camp after walking down train tracks in the dark we drank and danced around the fire, kind of the theme for this last part of the trip, toasting marshmallows, hehe!
We said goodbye to Bolivia in style, dancing to the rolling stones around the tour bus drinking Capirinas and headed to the Bolivian/Brazilian border and to the Pantanal, where we have just come from....I hoped we would see a jaguar here, but no such luck, just Piranha fishing, Caiman spotting, Giant otters, blue parrots , Toucans, Armadillos and ant eaters....oh and Capybara, the largest rodent, hehe...all I wanted to see really after doing a year 5 project on the amazon and Capybara, hahahaha!! Brazil is definitley more wealthy than Bolivia and a lot hotter, sticky, tropical weather!!!Bring on the sun tan!...tomorrow we head to the Iguassu falls where we spend 2 full days at the waterfalls and can experience the views from Paraguay as well as Brazil......!!!
Bit of a long one....enjoy this and I will be in touch soon!!! Loads of love as always Nik xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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dad
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blog brill
nikki, this blog is brilliant, the way you are describing sights and events makes me feel as if I'm there or want to be there, keep it up. love you Dad.x