30th April 2005

Everyone (except the toilet paper manufacturers) will be glad to know that the virus has finally cleared. It has taken 5 days of antibiotics, and not very much food (or worse beer) but i´m finally back on my feet and just in time too! As the other Kumuka truck (aptly called Nelly) challenged the mighty Kinda to a 5 aside game at Puerto Inca, yesterday. Half time was 0-0 and looking a very close call but thanks to the Samba Football we ended up stuffing them 6-0 with all of our team getting at least 1. Unfortunately they took bad to losing and half our team (that will be 2.5 players then) got some form of injury - mine was a lovely kick on the shin - now a lovely bruise. They then challanged us to beach volleyball and after 3 games of that they agreed that we was far too superiour for them. On the footballing side i have started to play a lot more with my left foot, trouble is it´s 20 years too late!

Today i have just been on a little Cessna plane to fly over the Nazcar lines. For those who don´t know, the Nazcar lines were created pre inca times and are big pictures of animals drawn on the ground but the only way you can see them is from the sky, which has baffeled historians. Some even say it was done by aliens - prob after they had a few beers that is!

The weather has picked up now we are no longer at altitude and that we are creeping ever so close to the Equator. The only downside is that we seem to be doing a bit more camping recently, this will change on Monday when we reach the capital of Peru, Lima (and yes this is def the capital this time).

I´m off to make up for lost time and catch up with the beer drinking.

24th April 2005

I survived the Inca Trail, all 4 days of it and it was great fun, if hard work. Made even harder by the fact that I caught a virus on the 2nd day and couldn`t eat, not a good thing when you have lots of hard walking to do but there is no escape and not many toilets on the Inca Trail (thank God for Imodium). Machu Picchu was fantastic, so picturesque. No point me trying to put it into words, those who have been here will know what i mean.

Back in Cusco and still got the virus, so I couldn`t get up in the morning to watch both Celtic`s and Millwall`s excellent victories on TV in one of the local pubs.

Today is being spent in the hotel room enjoying the local TV, Luckilly this internet is close to my room!

18th April 2005

Firstly congratulations to the old man for correctly pointing out that La Paz is not the capital of Bolivia, obviously Sucre is. And thanks top Big Bro for his confidence in thinking i can take on the entire Bolivian army single handed and unarmed. Mind you Bolivia has never won a war in it´s recent history and has lost a lot of land because of that.

Yesterday we travelled to Cusco and encountered our 2nd road block by protesters, what joy. This time it was in a more scenic area with mountains and a waterfall to look at. Thankfully there was no dynamite and even better we found a football on our truck, found a nice patch of grass and proceeded to have a game. Started of just us lot playing but soon turned into other travellers joining in (mainly Peruvian but we did have an Argetinian on our team). Unfortunately the road block got cleared so we had to stop. There were several more road blocks a long the road but the riot police turned up and got rid of them, i´ve never clapped the police before and judging by their friendly waves back, don´t think they´ve been clapped much either!

Free day in Cusco to get any last minute things we need for the next few days. Tomorrow we go to the Sacred Valley and then it´s on to the Inca Trail. Get back to civilisation on Saturday evening for a few welcome drinks.

Cusco is a lovely place, been a real surprise. There is even an Irish bar here, so that´s me happy!

16th April 2005

We made it into Peru, crossing probably the worse border i have ever seen, basically you could just walk through if you wanted - i didn´t, i wanted the stamp in my passport!

We travelled to Puno which is on Lake Titicaca (correct spelling this time). Headed out to the restaurant where i had a lovely Elpaca steak (which i can add to the Llama steak i had in La Paz) both were very nice and tender but think Llama wins. Peru is famous for having Guinea Pig on the menu, which 2 people had (braver than me) and i´m glad i didn´t. It came whole and you could still see it´s little teeth showing through.

Yesterday we went to Amantani Island in Lake Titicaca where we stayed with local famalies for the night. Our family lived up at the highest point on the very big hill, good exercise though. Good to see how the locals live and they did look after us very well. Our pathetic Spanish volcabulary was useless on the island as they speek a completely different language! Still we learnt to say hello, thankyou, where is the toilet and one beer please! After lunch we all met up and had a few games of footy (6 aside) against the locals. Trouble is we were nearly 4,000m above sea level. The away team was knackered after 1 minute! Still feel the locals cheated by running all the time. We didn´t do too bad, lost all 3 games though! But they were close! I did ok, set up 1 goal and didn´t let any in while in goal. My lungs were complaining for the rest of the day though - must remember never to do something as stupid as that ever again!

In the evening our famalies dressed us up in local dress and held a fiesta for us. For the girls it meant several layers of dresses pulled tightly, an embroided top and an embroided shrowl. For the guys it was a poncho! Sometimes it is a lot better to be male! Lots of local style dancing to local music (basically pan pipes) with the local girls which was far too energetic for my liking and interupted the beer drinking. Still have learnt a few new moves for the next time i go clubbing.

We said goodbye to our families this morning and headed to another island which wasn´t so good. Lots of walking (up hill again) to the town square which was not very impressive. Our local guide then gave us a talk about local history which apparantly went on for ages, i fell asleep during it! Thankfully i wasn´t the only one. It was good for topping up the tan though.

Back in Puno for one more night then we move to Cusco were the base is for the Inca Trail, which we start on Wednesday. The exercise we ahve just had should be of help to us but think i´m going to collapse at least 3 times over the 4 days.

13th April 2005

Have spent the last 2 days in La Paz, which despite being very busy is turning in to one of my favourite citys so far on this trip. La Paz is the home to the highest golf course in the world but unfortunately also one of the most expensive!

I have put a deliberate mistake in my previous post (of course it was deliberate) the 1st person to post what that mistake is will win a beer on my return. Talking of beers, started to get the hang of drinking at altitude now, should mean when i`m back at sea level i`ll be able to drink you all under the table - well do most of you anyway.

Tomorrow it is off to Peru, home of Paddington Bear originally. We get to stay with local families on Lake Titikaka (bad spelling again - one day i`ll learn how to spell these things before coming on the net). Apparantly they dress you up in local gear, a lot of drink will be needed that night!

Just for my bro - well done to Liverpool, just watched the 2nd leg.

11th April 2005

Well the last 6 days have been a mixed bag and that is a big understatement. Before we left San Pedro, we went on a day tour in the desert to see all the strange formations of cliffs through the time (it hasn´t rained in these parts for over a 100 years) and we got to see the sunset over the rocks, which was nice but not as nice as the sunset in Caye Caulker - nothing could beat that.

On the 6th we left San Pedro to go to the Bolivian border (in the middle of nowhere). Where we left Kinda to split up in small groups to go across the desert and salt flats for 3 days in jeeps. I never realised just how exciting going across a desert for that long could be. We saw some truely amazing sites including Flamingos, rabbit like creatures, Llamas (different varieties - yes there are different varieties of Llamas), the only active volcano in Bolivia (which as volcanos go was pretty boring). We travelled up to over 4000m above sea level and 7 of our group started to suffer from altitude sickness quite badly. Not me of course, not even a little headache - i ended up feeling bad because i was ok though!

The final day of travelling was over the salt flats, which was by far the best day. Miles and miles of nothing but white of salt on the ground, hope my photos do it justice. Then out of nowhere there is an island in the middle with 10 foot high cactus´s on it.

We ended up in the small town of Uyuni and stayed in a eal nice hotel (just what was needed after 3 days crossing the desert in smelly clothes). The place was run by a man from America and he was real friendly and has the best pizza in south America there, well i liked it anyway - don´t expect you to go over and try.

The next day started with a shock. As i was packing the bags on the truck outside the hotel (and also outside an army barracks) the guards were doing there duty and securing the perimeter. Unfortunately one of them ran up and knelt down 5 meters away and pointed his very large machine gun at me! I decided to walk very quickly to the other side of the Truck! Anyway, we got back on Kinda and set off for the town of Potisi and to visit the silver mine there. It was over 200Km to travel in tricky mountain roads and we got to within 40kms of the place when we were stopped by a road block in a small town. They were blocking the road not letting anything pass. We found out that the bus company had put the bus fares up and they were very upset by this (lucky they don´t live in London). They were not going to budge untill the fare was reduced again - rumour was that it was going to be soon, ha! The blokes all got out to try to look like we meant business and that was the 1st time we heard the dynamite being thrown. The blokes quickly decided that they had a very good cause and were sympathetic with their needs!

We stayed one night camping near by hoping they would let us poor tourists through but after plenty more dynamite thrown, doesn´t make good sleeping, they didn´t so we gave up and turned back and went on a long 2 days hard drive to La Paz (capital of Bolivia and highest capital in the world). It included another free camp by the side of the road but these are becoming fun now!

So here we are in La Paz. Hoping for a better few days now, at least it´s a nice hotel with a tv!!!

5th April 2005

La Serena turned out to be a nice little town, nice walk along to beach with some of the new people, found out one of the girls is from Glasgow and is a Tim. On Friday night we went up one of the mountains (by bus i`m glad to say) to the observatry and did a bit of star gazing. Good for me being in the southern hemisphere for the 1st time. Got to see Jupiter with it`s stripes and Saturn with it`s rings. Didn`t see Uranus though!

On Saturday we finally met up with our truck (Kinda) and had 2 long days driving across the Chilean desert including camping by the road overnight, which was extremely cold (would swear to explain how cold it was but don`t want to get this site blocked for those at work). After our 2 long days on Kinda we finally ended up in a small town called San Pedro (think we have been to a San Pedro in every country so far). Very dusty and very hot during the day (well it is the desert). We are camping here which means one of the 3 groups on the truck does the cooking and i prefer that as the food they do is better (and cheaper) than the restaurants! No cooking by me as i`m a packer, which means a lot of hard work but still beats cooking and washing up!!!

Last night we had far too much to drink of some local spirits which means a very sore head this morning.

Tonight it`s out to the desert to watch to see the sights! Tomorrow we move into Bolivia and spend 3 days crossing the salt plans and more camping. We will be at high altitude for a while, hopefully no altitude sickness for me and def no beers.

I`m having trouble getting into hotmail here so hopefully will get to read emails in Bolivia in 4 days.

1st April 2005

Now moved to La Serena, a coastal town in Chile. This place has a lovely beach but it`s too cold!!! This wasn`t part of the plan, i now have to say a terrible joke and i do apologise for this but got to get it out of my system.....it`s chile in Chile (sorry).

Long travel day tomorrow and a bush camp at the end of it, which basically means we park up and pitch our tents where ever we find a suitable place. Sounds like great fun!