It´s been a while
Wednesday, June 28th, 2006Yes, I think I slipped into a black hole since arriving in Peru (maybe I should re-phrase that). Well before leaving Bolivia I spent half a day trekking out from Copacabana to Yampupata along the lakeside and around through the woods of the mainland. From Yampupata I had to barter a decent price to get a boat over to the Isla del Sol, which ended up being a row boat. The island has legend of it being the birthplace of the Incas, or certainly their sun god.
I spent a night over on the island, rose the next day to trek about it before catching the ferry back to Copacabana. This town did not endear itself to me when I arrived back at my hotel at midnight to find it locked up and no-one answering the bell. With the prospect of freezing my bollocks off sleeping in the park with the dogs for the night I wandered around town trying to find somewhere else open with no joy until I bumped into the mexican girl who worked in one of the restaurants. She was my life saver as she not only took me round to her mates hotel who had a spare bed, but they also plied me with weed and wine and it turned out to be a better night than if I´d returned to my cheap-ass room
The next day however, I really had to escape this shitty town and caught a bus to Cusco in Peru. Two and a half weeks in Cusco, most of which is unprintable, other than making it up to Machu Picchu for a healthy break, from where I had one of those experiences that you´ll always remember, looking down over the site and the location around it blew me away. No photo* can do it justice, but this was a moment when I realised that the view was what I had in my mind when I´d previously thought of South America. Despite all the hype around it, and my cynical nature, it turned out to be every bit as stunning as it´s made out to be.
After returning to Cusco for one last weekend of debauchery, I caught an overnight bus out of the Peruvian party capital down to the slightly more sedate Arequipa. We visited the Colca Canyon in the first few days, saw a condor (the main attraction), headed back to Arequipa and did some museum stuff. Then I said goodbye to Ruth and Alison who went on ahead while I chose to hang around for a little while longer, partly due to my hangover from the Saturday night, though it may have something to do with the girls of this city! Well I´m currently holding fort running the bar in the hostel for a short while, gives me something to do and cheaper living, meanwhile I get to see many of the people I met in Cusco passing through. While my scheduled plans for Peru have all gone out the window, life´s good and that´s all that counts right now 🙂
*Photos are a sore point as I left my camera on the train to Machu Picchu and lost it. This is what happens when I´m made to get up at 5am! I´ll try to add some from other people in the future.
Wired in La Paz
After catching another dodgy bus out of Cochabamba we finally managed to make it to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. ... 
Valle de La Luna bathed in the light of the setting sun
Myself and the aussie couple, Andrew and Megan, booked ourselves onto a two night/three day 4x4 trip across the ... 
Ed