Mar 2006

Back to Quito

After the GI's we went back to Quito and to the hostel with the TV for one more night. We decided to get some wine, popcorn and watched some shit movies. J The next day we got a crazy breakfast – we asked for a menu and instead we got the menu of the day… i.e.. soup (meat soup!!), followed by rice (n pea) and lentils and chicken, and some type of custard desert. Holy Moly. That’s some breakfast. It cost us one dollar fifty cent each.

Then off to the net café again, where we downloaded a few tracks & whittled away the hours til the airport. Our taxi driver to the airport was simultaneously driving along in rush hour traffic, and watching Platoon on a dvd player hanging from the car ceiling. I was a lil worried… to say the least! But we got there in one piece. Me & Jim had to sit separately on the plane! L Boo. We must remember to check in online for our other flights!

The Galapagos Islands!

Well seeing as I’m only getting round to typing this yonks after we were actually there, I’ll keep it short and sweet (like Lisa lol).
We arrived from Quito with the Swedish couple (we bumped into again in the airport) to Isla Santa Cruz in the Galapagos, to sweltering heat and not a cloud in the sky.
The Swedish couple had a cruise booked on The Rumba “yacht” starting the day they arrived. Unlike me & Kenny who spent four days bumming around the Island, searching for a cruise on a nice boat, whilst also lording it up on one of the most gorgeous unspoilt beaches I’ve ever seen, which was a bit of a trek to get to each day, but well worth the effort. We had little lava lizards escorting us along the pathway to the beach.
Oops I should have mentioned a bit about the animals. We read before we left for the GI’s that all the animals are big and fearless, but it doesn’t sink in until you actually come face to face with a few. Our first encounter was with a MASSIVE pelican! The thing was huge and you think to yourself,
“As I move closer to this small aircraft-sized bird, it’s going to take off scared”…
But they don’t. They just kind of look at you as if to say, “Yeah? Can I help you? Out of my beakin way, I’m fishing here!”
Everywhere we went we saw Land and/or Sea Iguanas that could and would spit at you. There were also lots of Land and Sea turtles on the islands that were so big, it was amazing, the land ones especially were absolutely HUGE (see pics below). We stumbled upon a couple giant ones bonking in the forest one day, which was pretty funny coz the guy lets out a big moan with each bonk.
Oh and Sea lions are everywhere!! They are very playful and inquisitive, but they are also smelly bastards pooing and peeing all over the place. Also there was a whole host of birds like blue/red footed boobies, lava herons, pelicans, albatrosses (he he), and lots more that I can’t remember.
Emm what else we see.. There were Sally light foot crabs, which were aptly named, as they could jump about two feat from side to side. On the last day we saw small Galapagos penguins, which were so cool and jumped into the water beside us. I should mention that every day we were woken up at half six, fed a ginormous brekfast and then put into snorkel gear. We were then led off on snorkel expeditions by our 68 year old guide! Whilst on our many many snorkeling trips, we saw and swam beside sharks, big rays and many colourful, massive fish, that looked like they had all been at the steroids.

We ended up saving a fortune by going directly to the islands and booking a boat from a tour guy there, rather than booking in Quito. Plus we got a lovely yacht with a great crew and air conditioning. Unlike the Swedes, who we bumped into a couple of days after we first got there. They SHOULD have still been on their boat, but lol the crappy boat they were booked on had no air conditioning in the cabins.
Their boat had a small fire in the engine room on the first night and they all had to abandon ship at about 5am in their underwear! They spent the next few days hassling the owner for their money back, and trying to book another boat for the remainder of their holiday! Bummer!
So anyway we got the Darwin Yacht, which had air con, a great crew and guide and a nice bunch of other passengers. One of the first girls we were talking to was a nurse from Newcastle but living in Bermuda. She asked if we knew any Irish living in Bermuda. But I couldn’t think of any.. Then we thought hold on…. lol Triggers brother lives there so we asked did she know any Bacons! Surprise surprise, she knew the Bacon in question! She referred to him as Andrew “ theatrical” Bacon. It had to be him… all the Bacons I know like a bit of drama ;o)

So the rest of the crew were mostly all geeks and a few our own age that were sound, like a Dutch guy called Uri who spoke like an American until he said words like “coool” or “smoke an a bagel” or (for Trigg) “You like your bagels REEAALLLY HAWT”

The cruise went really well. We were traveling at night and exploring islands by day seeing all these amazing animals and crazy volcanic landscapes with lots of snorkeling in between, which I have to say was the highlight of the trip. Coming face to face with a two meter long shark and watching him swim beneath your legs is pants soiling fantastic, or swimming / playing with sea loins and penguins so their little legs are flapping away right in front your mask. Lisa was a little apprehensive about the snorkeling at first as was I but after a few times out she took to it well like a fish to water :op she even went out and seen some sharks J

Lisa says - (Let me add that the first time I put on the mask, it leaked, the water went down my breathing tube and I couldn’t control my flippers. I did not like snorkellling one bit. However , everything revolved around the fecking snorkeling so I had to just get on with it. There would have been no point being on the boat without going snorkeling. I went on all the snorkeling trips (except the bug day) and gradually began to enjoy it. I even jumped in when I knew there were sharks there – my ultimate fear. And I’m really glad I did, I was so proud of myself and it was tres scary and exciting. J - LISA )

Everything was going swimmingly (pardon the pun) until the seasickness kicked in. A d then a bug went around the ship as everyone was sick at some stage throughout the 8-day cruise. I did my Exorcist impression, with an impressive display of projectile vomiting one evening in our cabin, where my lunch made its second appearance of the day. Not wanting to feel outdone, the following day Lisa did her own exorcist impression which was equally impressive as mine. Perhaps a little more impressive as it came with a strong stench of lunch – CAULIFLOWER soup!!! Now think of that nights sleep.. rocking back and forth in a tiny cabin then rocking side to side with the slight smell of diesel from the engine and STRONG smell of cauliflower from the bathroom… cozy!

We were happy to get back on dry land after the cruise and during the next few nights sleep, it still felt like we were back in the rocky cabins of the Darwin. It was such an amazing trip and we saw some fantastic things. I’d defo recommend it to everyone, but maybe just the five day cruise and make sure u stock up on sea sick tablets. J

Jimbob Seapants.

Well finally we put a bit of proper order on this yoke. The next bit is about our trip to the jungle! WOOHOO! Well what´s the point of hitting SA without releasing our alter egos Jungle Jim & Safari Susan (aka me). Be prepared for some nasty pics however. (And unfortunatley a bit of a longwinded spiel (however it will defo keep ye going til Jim gets around to writing Galapagos) and it´s drenched in endless enthusiasism & corniness! Sorry)

Quito – Day 3 (A bit of background info)

In order to get to the jungle, we first have to get to a town called Lago Agrio. The part of the jungle we’re heading to is called the Cuyabeno Reserve in the north eastern part of Ecuador – in the Amazon Basin. It’s one of 27 areas of Ecuador that is under protection but the government has still turned a blind eye to the various oil companies that are drilling for oil in this area, so really the area is still in serious danger from oil spills. There is at least one big one a year. booo. Anywho, first to Lago Agrio, where we stay the night and then go meet our Jungle guide the next morning. The bus journey to Lago Agrio is 8 hours normally - but our driver was a crazy loon and we got there in nearly 7 hehe.

The Jungle

We met our chongle guide called Lenin at 10am - he was a small smiley Ecuadorian who knew lots about the chongle and lots about brids and animals. I’d say he was a bit of a loner whilst young and would prefer to be a miniature doctor doolittle! (He was wearing a parrot t shirt for a few days). But he was very nice and his knowledge and personality were great.

We bundled into a small yellow collectivo, and only drove around the corner where we had to get a punctured tyre repaired. Then we started off on our way to Quito airport, where we picked up another Swedish couple. I chatted in the front with the driver & Lenin and made chit chat about Ecuador and whether or not the alligators in the river in the chongle would eat me. He said no. :/ Then we got another puncture.

At the entrance to the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve we hopped into a motorized dugout canoe (pilotted by two native Syona tribespeople) and we started off on our three hour canoe journey down the Cuyabeno River.
The journey was amazing. The river at the start was narrow enough and lots of palm trees, spaghetti trees, and tonnes of other rich greenery trees overhung the river on the way. We spotted Snake birds, woolly monkeys, parrots, yellow-handed titty monkeys, toucans and other stuff along the way. The river got wider the further we went into the jungle, the water got less brown, and the animals got more exotic. At the risk of sounding very cheesy - It was amazing and we loved every minute of it.

We got to our rainforesturs campsite just as it was getting dark. This made our first night in the chongle all the more scary imo. Our "beds" were mattresses surrounded by net which were perched on an open wooden area on stilts. There were no doors or anything but it had a roof. We had to try manouvre ourselves into them in the dark with the krappest torches in the land. It was scary and hilarious. Hiscarious in fact.

So we headed to the ‘kitchen’ area for dinner. All the areas are just wooden floors on stilts with roofs (rooves?)
We were fed a feast (I´ve never been fed better!!!! wink wink)and then there was nothing else to do but go to bed! Meself & Jimbob then headed to our ‘love shack’, covered ourselves in anti mosquito juice and jumped between the zipped areas and scowered the inner area with the torches. When the coast seemed clear of woogies, we sat in the dark listening to the sounds of the chongle. I was scared out of my head. Everything in the jungle squeaks, slithers, glows, clicks, rattles, squawks, forages around, walks underneath the house, and generally acts all schoochily and scary. James fell asleep straight away but I couldn’t for yohnkers and had to stick some tissue in my ears to block out the crazy loud sounds of the chongle. In the middle of the night, it started to rain and it started to drip onto my head while I was half asleep. :P

THE CHONGLE – Day 2 – AKA MY BIRTHDAY

I woke up mega early and just hung around listening to the sounds of the chongle again. It was amazing. Then James gave me a cool original one-of-a-kind jungle birthday card!!
We had a huge breakfast of fruit, yoghurt and granola for our first course at breakfast. Then we had yummy bread things and then fired eggs.
Then into the canoe. We picked up a lady from the Syona tribe who was going to be our guide during our three hour walk in the chongle. We saw a big tarantula, crickets, a small snake, a frog/toad, the trees with medicine stuff. There was schoochies a plenty too. Lots of Application of mosquito stuff, whacking back mosquitoes, tasting tree bark (James tasted citrus ants from a tree and then we tasted grubs – which tasted like nothing). After a while more trek a dekk decking we headed back to the campsite for a bit of a wash. (To wash the ticks, sweat & scoochies off). Jimbob & co went swimming in the brown river but I decided to have an auld shower in jungle rainwater. It was one of the best showers I have had since leaving home – (see picture) (ofthe shower only not me in it). :p

After lunch it was off out in the canoe again to do a small spot of piranha fishing. This was only for a few minutes. I didn’t even get a baited rod. He he. The tribeswoman caught a piranha, we spotted some more birds and animals, (take it for granted that we spot birds and monkeys every time we’re out in the canoe) and then headed to the tribeswoman’s village/house to ultimately see her make some bread out of the yucca plant (like a potatoe).

When we got there though, she told us that they had a baby jaguar in their house. Her son had found him in the jungle in Peru (without his mawm) and had brought him home (by canoe – no customs – mental note people). The little thing was so cute (*see picture) and was still a bit of an animal, as he was stalking the chickens around the garden. Then we were herded into the ‘kitchen’ to see the woman ( I say the woman – but we did all the hard grating work ).
a few knuckles were grated into the mixture (mine & Rolys’).

It was pitch dark when we got into the canoe and we were wondering how the hell the canoe’ists were going to get us home. Lenin got out his ultra powerful torch and started to scan the water and surrounding trees/plants/green stuff like a lighthouse and we chugged our way home.

Before dinner, we donned our scoochie protection suits and our torches. Me & James had the same rainjackets on, the same torches and the sameish caps on. We looked like spas. Couple that with the fact that our torches were purchased in Peru, cost 3 dollars each and were powered by DUVVACELL Batteries and you may begin to understand why I couldn’t stop laughing. That is until a moth flew into my mouth, and bats started to whip by us in the dark.. EEEK. I wasn’t too much of a fan of the night walk –and I’ll tell ye that for F*ck all. Particularly when Lenin brought us down to where we were sleeping and showed us all the tarantulas that come out at night. Cries of “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAR|RRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGH – I’m not f*ckin sleepin here” echoed throughout the jungle, as he showed us one giant tarantula 3 feet from our bed, and various others scattered up on the roof.

After the walk (thankfully it was short enough), we cracked open the 6 beers I had brought for my birthday celebration. Unfortunately nobody wanted to have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet so not much of the beer was drank!! Lol. We had another mammoth dinner of tuna spaghetti and then Lenin brought out some bread rolls covered in warm chocolate sauce for the birthday girl. YeEhaa – it was delicious. Then the group cringely attempted to sing me happy birthday in a variety of different languages. It was gas, I made them stop pretty soon. Bedtime – Terry the Tarantula didn’t bother us, thank god, and it didn’t rain on my face so bedtime was slightly better than last night.

THE CHONGLE – Day 3

Up and atom. It was time for another walk in the jungle. We all reluctantly piled into the canoe and much to our surprise (and delight) we were brought piranha fishing instead. Woohooo. The Swedes caught lots of piranhas and me & jimbob got none. Stefan caught a massive yoke – I think as big as piranhas get tbh. All was lost for the Irish - that is until Jimbob saved the day at the last minute with a gnashing fine catch. We took some pictures of the win (aka me & jim looking like farmers again) below.

Afterwards we chugged along into the flooded forest – which looked like a scene out of Lemony Snicketts imo. The water was black, very still and the tops of trees were creeping out of the water. It was eerie and beautiful. (see pics). This is where the anacondas hang out apparently, but we didn’t see any.

Lunch was a picnic of kidney beans, rice & tuna along with some fizzy pop and huge chunks of watermelon. Then we all had to wee in the forest and get back into the canoe.

We were chaperoned to a different type of forest and off we trekked on our jungle walk again for another 3 hours. The tribeswoman showed us more medicinal trees/herbs/plants and we saw a few more monkeys. We walked and walked and then finally got back to where we bloody started. Our canoeist then brought us back to the lake where we were able to jump into the lake if we liked. Howanever I had only the top of my bikini on and in order to put the bottoms on I would have had to stand up in the rocky canoe, put on the poncho and swap the pants in front of evferyone. So I decided to give it a miss, plus I’m always slightly slow to jump into water that I cannot see through. The Swedish dude jumped in and when he was on his way out of the boat, the jungle guide said “oh is that a tick on him”.. WEHEHHEHELLLLLL am I glad I didn’t jump in, to say the least! :0 ticks!!! What the !!! 

So anywhooooo, we canooed back from the lake slowly and on the way back it became pitchy mcpitch black. So once we hit the river jungle Lenin put the hunmoungous torch on and we went a alligator spottin’. We could see the red eyes of the caiman alligators and when we zoomed up a bit close to one of them, he popped into the river.. EEEEKKK. Get the boat out of here capn’!! I was afraid he might try and climb in! eek.

After dinner we we had some agua oriente – which is juice from the sugar cane plant (pure alcohol) mixed with cinnamon, lemon and hot water, had a chit chat and went off to bed. I fell straight asleep as I was pooped, but I did wake up at about 3 or so when the rain was spitting on my head again and I needed to go to the toilet. Sooooo I had to wake up jimbob and ask him to come to the toilet with me and he was noooootttt happy. He was grumpy bear jim and I was a lil scared. But in truth more scared of the woogies and scoochies and animals outside of the tent if I went to the toilet on my own, than grumpy jim´s mood. So we donned ourjackets and our runners and off we went but when we got back to the tent we had zip trouble doing up our sleeping quarters again and I thought jim´s head was going to explode with the anger! He he

The Chongle – Day 4

Well today we were due to get up at 5am and listen to the sounds of the jungle waking up, but it was pissing rain! So we had a bit of a lie in (6.30am) and then went off in our ponchos in the canoe to spot some birds. It was all a bit half hearted imo, but many birds were spotted. Then back for breakfast (minus huevos – uh oh) and it was time for the smelly foursome to have a rain-shower.

We packed our stuff, bought some trinkets from the chongle people and all piled into the canoe for the 3 hour journey back down the river that leads out of the Reserve. Then we had our last supper of spaghetti tuna and piled onto a local bus for the journey back to Lago Agrio.

In Lago Agrio, we ate and then piled onto the night bus for Quito. Not a comfy bus and there was mucho passport checks, but we finally arrived in Quito about 5am.

The jungle was the best experience ever (cheesy American sentamentalism alert). I’m now off to buy an “I survived the jungle” t shirt.
Rosy & Jim.

parrot

cuyabeno river

sun

river

wooly monkeys

another monkey

me & jim

jungle jim

safari susan

a tarantula

a big tree

centipede

jim

syona tribeswoman

snake

the shower

the bedroom

the kitchen

jim in the river

the path more travelled

me & jim

jim

me

reflection of the sun in the river

jim piranha fishing

a piranha

lenin & the jaguar

lenin, jim & the jaguar

a toucan

what the toucan looks like in the book

me & jim

jim

stefan the swede

jim´s piranha

me trying me best

jim eating a sardine

another big tree

jim being a melon, i mean eating.. eating a melon

the tribeswoman makingme a backpack out of reeds

me wearing said backpack

In the words of an old pantsy trancer – ECUADOR! (pfftt)
Up and atom for our VERY EXPENSIVE FREE Breakfast then off to the airport – where we were mega early (thanks to me ). We bought some trinkets, ate some donuts, and it wasn’t long before we were landing in Quito, Ecuador. Ecuador has incurred dollarization, which means it’s a lil more expensive than Peru.
Our taxi driver from the airport was blind we reckon as he nearly killed us once and barely avoided tonnes of other small collisions. It was lashing rain all day here in Quito, so we hunkered down in our crusty hostel room (which has a poster of Mickey mouse on one wall and a barely comprehensible message for “Mr & Mrs User” on the other wall – see pic) for a couple of hours and did our laundry. Then headed out onto the streets for some Thai Food. There was trunty loads of people out there, just hanging around on street corners. We unwittingly had our backs turned on an open off licence and off we trotted down the road in the other direction in search of some cheap hooch. He he. We stumbled across some cheap hoochies alright on the way back for the cheap hooch. Then we wrote this. wowzers – the excitement of the day has no end!

Quito – Day 2
After a humoungous breakfast of milkshakes, coffees, eggs, toast, chips, and whatever the hell else we got for 2 dollars each, we bungled off in the rain to book our jungle tour with rainforest turs. It was 160 dollars each and afterwards we spend the rest of the day in Papaya.net doing our blog – putting up pictures and writing enough info to bore the socks off a monk. Later we got cheap pizzas and some wine and watched some wine and watched some Family Guy on our laptop.

Lima
Up at 6 and off to Cuzco Airport for our flight to Lima, which was eventless and comfortable and quick.  We had yummy eggs on toast for brekkie in the airport so we stashed our ‘inflight snacks’ for later. (Feckin Gringos). We shared a shuttle bus into Miraflores and were able to get a good little free tour of Lima into the bargain. We knocked into the Inka Lodge (35 dollars!!!) and pottered about a bit, then headed out for some lunch and to get Jimbob some new flip flops.
We had some lunch in a lil restaurant in the Larcomar shopping center - it was yum! We had some odd eggs & pepper and bruschetta as well as some burgers and salad. Then as we got up to leave, I pulled my chair out a little too far and it seemed like it may have gotten in the way of some guy behind me. I said ‘oops sorry, very sorry’ and he looked around and said ‘it’s ok’ or something, and when I looked again at him, wasn’t it only feckin Sean Skelly!! I couldn’t believe it – feckin gas! All the way to Peru to meet Seanyboy from down the road. So we had an auld beer with Sean before he went off to the airport. He was on his way home to get his apartment stuff sorted.
So we bid him adieau and headed off on a hunt for a back pack for me and some malaria tablets and some other bits and bobs in the supermarket.
We headed back to the hostel and hung out, showered with a lovely hot hot hot shower!
Ah the small thrills of life on the road – cheetos, clean warm socks, hot showers, Inka Kola & cheap wine. 

Oh My God! I hope never to have to go up stairs again. The journey up ze mountain to Macchu Picchu was about 20,000 steps - all big, all higgledy piggledy and all painful. The first 15 mins wasn’t too bad, (yeah right!) after that it was just horrible!
We left our rooms about 5.15am (what the %*ck!!) and wandered up to the start of the steps in the dark. Then we climbed up about 3 sets of ‘the stairs’ and my head was nearly about to pop off! The Swiss lads were bombing along but it was a ‘smidgeon’ too fast for me, so we sent them on ahead. Trudge Trudge Trudge – how can I emphasise how painful it was!
We got to Macchu Picchu about 6.45am. It was amazing. The view was out of this world! We were so high up! The stonework itself was cool! It’s unbelievable how they built it on top of such a high mountain. Apparently if you look at Macchu Picchu sideways, it looks like an indian’s head! It was hella cool. Then I lost the others and went a hiking up another two million miles up into the blue! Eek! Eventually I copped that I had gone too high and made my way back down again to the exit, where I found ze others at ze bar.
We had lunch and then went for a dip in the stinky brown backpacker waters of the Aguas Calientes Thermal baths.
Then back on the train to Cuzco and back to the Gringos shack for some yummy food, then said goodbye to the lads and headed to the sack!

lol

Got up mucho early today to get the ridiculously overpriced Peru Rail train (officially one of the slowest trains in the world) to Aguas Calientes. Starting off, the train had to go back and forth, back and forth to maneouvre itself onto tracks higher up the mountain. On the way the train also bumped off a cow! boo.

We got there early and checked into a hostel for the bargain price of 25 soles per room. Then we went for a long lingering lunch of salad, beer, sandwiches & wine.

After lunch we went for a little exploration, then probably went out for more food & beer. We met two Canadians who had been to Galapagos Islands, so we asked them a few questions. They said get the trip from Puerto Ayora and don’t sail on the Gabby and the something else...
Off to bed early as we are getting up at 4.30 am to climb the millions of steps up to Macchu Picchu.

Puno – Day 1
Our bus ride to Puno wasn’t too bad. There was more crazy Spanish films on TV and me & Jim were sitting apart. The guy beside me’s breath stank and every time he yawned or let out a big sigh, I had to turn away.. PEEYEW.
Anywho, the weather was lovely and the scenery was fandabbydozey. I started to read a little of Jim’s book – Sideways. (It’s actually written by a guy called Rex - not Jim)
We arrived in Puno about 3pm and went about ignoring everyone at the bus station but to no avail. Some loon trying to promote his hostel, actually jumped in the boot of the car with our bags and kept waving his hostel brochure in our faces. I was trying not to laugh. We decided even after all his effort that we were going to go to our own one anyway. Hostel Europa. It was big and had private bathrooms. It was grand and dandy. We went for lunch & a couple of beers. I had yummy creamy poetaytoe curry soup. Yum. The streets were filled with colourful bands and kids throwing water balloons and spraying shaving foam on each other. This was because it was Carnival time (again – it’s always carnival). We escaped their foamy gringo wrath and went back to our hostel to chill for a while.
Later we went out for some Chinese food and then a few drinks in this rather cool bar with cheesy music. I was knackered despite sitting on my arse all day.

Puno – Day 2
Me & Jim got up early and headed out of the hostel to go to see the Isles Flotantes on Lake Titicaca. Upon meeting us, our hostel owner told us we couldn’t go to the islands, that we would have to make a reservation with him and then we could go at 9 am tomorrow. At this stage we’re used to everyone having their own agenda so we tried to tell him to feck off in Spanish and wandered off. Jim said Goat friend was behind yer man listening to all we were saying. LOL. (Goat friend being this guy with a goaty beard who seems to be everywhere we are – he is one of those gringos intent on immersing himself in the culture and he has a llama hat, jumper & llama socks).
We hopped in a little bicycle type taxi and got an auld lazy lift down to the port, where once again we were hopped on by people selling grapes/water/sweets & tours. We paid some little man at the pier box and jumped onto one of the local’s boats. There was no one else on it! (cue tumbleweed). The Captain said we would hang around and wait until there were ten people on the boat. This is at 7.30am on a cold & bleak morning in low season. He He
But lo and behold along came a tankload of Peruvians, obviously on a daytrip, and off we went on the world’s slowest boat. It was gas. And freezing. The boat started to leak in beside me for a few minutes, until some young fella, with no shoes and a snotty nose, came along and stuck a hose in through the wooden hull. (or whatever part I mean).
We pulled in at the first floating island. These islands are made entirely of reeds. The ground is reeds, the houses are reeds, the boats are reeds, the well you get the picture. It felt really weird walking on the island as everytime a boat sailed closeby, the ripples would hit the island and it felt a bit like being on a bouncing castle. The Uros women of the Island were out selling their wares. I wanted to buy an Uros Jumper but Jim put the spending reigns on again!
Then back into the boat and off to the next island where a Uros woman was cooking fillets of trout and selling them for 6 soles. 2 auld dears bought them and sat down to have a nibble. Jim & I took a few pics of the gaffs, the church, the giant swan shaped lookout point and a duck/bird. The islands themselves are amazing. I dunno if the Uros sleep on the islands really, as the chance of getting arthritis from the damp is quite high. Then on to the 3rd island where we watched some Uros chicks play a lil volleyball.  Then it was back into the leaky boat and we lolled about on the way home as the engine of the boat kept conking out! Tee hee hee. We jumped back on the front seat of a taxi slash cyclist for the short journey home. However Jim didn’t know the way, we were going for ages and the tricycclist was getting a bit puffed out on the way uphill! He He. We jumped off our poor chauffeur and headed back to the hostel where we met the resident hotel promoter/looney/amigo, who informed us that our friends (Priska & Manwell) had booked their bus to Cuzco with him and we should do the same. Apparently he promised them a direct two tier bus with toilet and lots of other great stuff. Yeah Right! The bus took yonkers, it picked up every Tom Dick & Petula on the way. Then the bus had to stop again to let them all get off and pee on the side of the road! Then a smelly woman came on board the bus with a hachet and a big bag of meat & poetaytoes, whereupon she proceeded to hack up some portions of meat, stuff them into a bag with a potatoe, using her grubby hands and pass the much appreciated delicacy’s down the bus to the hungry crowd. Jim was tempted til he felt the meat splatter him on the face. There was also a million krap films on the bus – all really loud and distorted! Thank god for Ipods!
When we arrived in Cuzco, we ditched our bags in the Hostel Rojas (not bad), then went into the local gringo haunt to tucker up with some delicious olives, bread and other yummy stuff! Then off to try have a krappy shower in the hostel, but abandoned the idea due to the lack of hot water.
Beddy Byes.

Colca Canyon
We got a wake up call at about 5.30 – bleugh. We had about a two-hour bus journey to get to Colca Canyon. We stopped a few times along the way – which was a bit silly imo, as if the condors were flying in the morning – we would more than likely miss them.
Anywho, we stopped in a few villages along the way for more pictures. We also stopped at some hillside tombs – caves that the Colca Valley indigenous people had built on the side of the nearby mountains, in order for their dead to be nearer to their god – the Sun. I really wanted more trinkets but unfortunately we had no change – as per usual.*sigh*
So on to the area where the Condors usually hang aboot – Cruc del Condor. We were above some of the clouds and it was very beautiful, but alas there was no sign of any Condors. It is not the season to see them. It is the season for seal lion reproduction and the condors fly to the coast to eat gross alert Sea Lion placentas.
Then someone spotted one miles away and we all rushed over to try to get a glimpse, including this elderly Spanish woman. She was in such a rush that she tripped over a stone and fell and started to roll down the edge of the cliff! Us onlookers on the wall were like “EEK” and “Watch Yourself”. (Obviously in Spanish) There was a young French guy who was near where she was falling and he made a grab for her. I reckon if he hadn’t have been there, she would have been errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooouuuuuuuuu
SPLAT!!
So after this we spotted the Condor, who was a small white/black speck about 2km below us. I was disappointed as I had been expecting him to at least come over and tussle my hair, but the other lads were pleased to have seen one.. (Weirdos…).. )
Then it was back to Chivoy for some lunch. The guide brought us to a buffet, (SHOCK) but we escaped and went back to the other restaurant, where I had some spaghetti and tomato ketchup. Bleugh..he he
Then off back to Arequipa to Mawm’s place. We went to a pretty posh Italian place for some grub, where some guy soothed our ears with ANOTHER version of El Condor Pasa on the violin. He he. I had some seafood spaghetti, (more spaghetti) which was basically all squid – but the sauce and the spaghetti bit was delicious. 
We’re off to Puno tomorrow – just for a day I think, as we do not have much time. The others are coming with us so it’s all good.  Ciao Ciao

Leeeee

(Pics to come soon)

Arequipa – Day 1
We arrived in Arequipa about 7.30 am after a slightly nauseas (Sp?) early morning bus ride into higher altitudes. (I asked the lovely bus attendant for a sick bag just in case – Well I thought I did, but what I actually said was – “ I am feeling nauseaus, have you a suitcase?”
Tee Hee Hee
We hopped in a taxi and asked the taxi driver to bring us to a certain hostel we had noted from the Bible, but he brought us to the second one in the dodgier area of town (we didn’t know this at the time though). El Caminante del Class Inn 2. The hostel owner was a very small smiley lady who babbled on at us in Spanish. Me & Jim nodded profusely while Manuel & Priska did all the talking. (It’s becoming the norm). She showed us to our quite nice rooms and we set about throwing all our stuff all over the beds and floors.

I then went on a search for a new camera – and we compared a few prices. It’s a Nikon coolpix and it takes very nice pictures.
After a bit of a rest and a brisk cold shower, we went out for some tasty pizza and a few drinks. I had to buy a new memory card for the camera (55 dollars – holy sheet batman).
Then we all hit the sack. (Together) he he

Arequipa – Day 2
Today we headed to Chivoy to ultimately see Colca Canyon and hopefully some Condors.
We were collected at about 8 by our tour guide and the bus driver (Senor Elvis). On our way to Chivoy, we stopped a few times - to take pictures of llamas and alpacas, have cocoa tea, take some pictures of some cute kids in Peruvian attire, wee, chew the coca leaves along with some volcanic ash which acts like a catilizer apparently (pffft!!), buy some trinkets, take pictures of volcano’s, buy some bananas and wee again.

We had a very interesting tour guide though who explained a lot about the area we were driving through and a little bit of history. The bus journey itself was uphill again and I popped some altitude sickness pills, which are great. The only downside being the drowsiness – zzzzzzzzzz!
We arrived in Chivoy for lunch, the lads had Alpaca steak (eek) and Jim & I had some trout. Then we had to get back on the bus (it was ridiculous as our hostel was literally next door) while we were all driven to our hostels (100 metres at the most). Crazy.
We were in Hostel Anita – really cute little rooms all surrounding a gorgeous courtyard. We had a tree stump as our bedside table and we had HOT SHOWERS YAY!

We got our stuff together and we all headed up to the Thermal Springs – outdoor pools of very hot volcanic water – stuffed with minerals. The weather was freezing but the pool was roasting and very clean. We sat in the pool, sipping on pisco sours as cool rain dropped on our heads. It was bliss!