On The Move...

2 Months Later...

coogie86 — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:03:00 GMT

Firstly, yes... You´re not imagining it. It has been over 2 months since I last updated. There have been many reasons... Lack of internet connection in some places, hangovers in other, doing tours which took days, etc, etc. Apologies... But I´m here know so I may as well fill you in on the last 2 months.

So we went from Cusco down to Lake Titiçicaca.. Puno to be precise. We did a 2 day tour of the Lake which was really enjoyable. The highlights of the trip included introducing Rupert (our furry little mascot) to the world, staying with a local family on Amantani and having a fiesta whilst there, going to the floating reed islands and the beautiful scenery in general.

From Puno we went direct to La Paz in time for St Patricks Day. And my God was it worth it... Plenty of pints sunk during our stay there! We also did the must-do bike ride down death road... Absolutely unbelievable! One of the best adrenaline buzzes I´ve had in a long time. Everyone I´ve met who´s done it says that it´s a must do and I 100% agree... An amaziung experience. The scenery and the danger make for a perfect combo! While in La Paz we also went and explored the witches market, San Pedro prison (unfortunately not the inside though) and few other spots.

Recommendation....Star of Inida restaurant in La Paz. Lovely food, slightly expensive by Bolivian standards ($5 mains) but well worth it.

From La Paz we made the much talked about 22 hour bus trip to Rurrenabaque in the Amazon jungle. While I was of the opinion that the journey was nowhere near as bad as I had been made believe it would be I would also stress that it is not one for the fainted hearted... The lack of tarmac and humidity make it one to remember, that´s for sure! So when we eventually arrived in Rurre we went to find as hotel which had been recommended to us... Lobo´s. And it was well worth the trek with our bags... On the banks of the Rio Beni this place was perfect. The windows are non-existent which givbes the place a nice ´at one with nature´ feel. We booked a 3 day Pampas tour through Mogli agency... Highly recommended, again. The Pampas tour was one of the highlights of my tour so far.... We saw plenty of wildlife (monkeys, tucans, capybaras, snakes, lots of bird life, pink dolphins, alligators, piranhas, sloths... and a whole lot more). One morning we even woke up to find a 5 foot alligator having a rest under our hut! If I honestly think that the Pampas tour is something would consider as essential when in Bolivia, especially considering the price compared to similar tours in Brazil and Peru!

After the Pampas we went back to La Paz for a few days, then went to Uyuni to see the world famous Salt Flats. What can I say... A great experience. Have the obligatory funny photos and what not (to be uploaded!). Also ate one of the best pizzas I´ve ever had in my life at the Minuteman in Uyuni... Absolutely unbeliveable! After Uyuni we went to Potosi and did the tours of the mines. Jesus... Having seen the conditions which these guys work in I can never complain about going to work again. At the end of the tour I found out the true meaning of the expression "there´s light at the end of the tunnel"!!! Again, the mine tour is something I would highly recommend but only for those who are not afraid of small spaces, physical excerise and lack of oxygen!

From Potosi we went to Tupiza for some relaxation. Lovely town, very much a locals place. Not many tourists but enough accomodation to ctaer for them when they do come. Did some galloping through the canyons on rented horse... Very enjoyable. Basically we chilled out for a few days which was nice having been on the go for the previous 2 or 3 weeks non-stop. From Tupiza we headed in Argentina...

First stop in Argentina was Salta which is a beautiful city. The odd thing is that despite being a fully fledged city the entire place takes an afternoon siesta so it feels like a small town when it´s the compete opposite! Spent a few days enjoying the new-ness of Argentina having come from Bolivia. Managed to aquire a taste for vino tinto which was completely unexpected! That taste was continue developing when we hit up Mendoza, the home of Argentinian wine making! Did the obligatory vineyard tour on our bikes... Courtesy of Mr Hugo, probably the most famous Argentian since Maradona himself! Again, a great day and a muct do in my opinion.

After the wine tour and Mendoza we headed to Buenos Aires which is where I am updating from now... Done lots of stuff here and have become accustomed to the early morning style of wining and dining which the Argentinians are famous for! But I won´t spoill it all and I´ll save the BA stuff for my next update, which I promise will be in a hell of lot less that 2 months!

Until then folks...

I know... Ive been lazy!

coogie86 — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:53:00 GMT

I know, I know... It´s been a while since I last posted something and that´s due to a couple of things. Mainly my laziness but also a few other bits and bobs... i.e Being on the road and having a lack of internet. But yes, laziness was the over-riding factor! :)

Anyway... Last time I posted I was in Santiago & namely Casa Roja. Place was quality... plenty of sessions, swimming pool, 30+ degree heat, cheap drink. What more could one want, eh?

After that we went to Lima for a couple of days... We arrived in the airport at midnight only to find that the feckin idiots in Loki had not only forgot to send their airport collection for us but had also managed to over-book the hostel so that they didn´t actually have the room which had received the confirmation for. Wankers. Anyway... After a bit of a tussle with the manager (who didn´t speak a bloody word of English) we managed to sort a room in another hostel in Miraflores... Che Lagarto. The night we arrived the place was dead... We were nearly sure that we were the only people in the place! Next morning we met a few heada at breakfast and it was grand. Wasn´t much of a party hostel but after the few days in Casa Roja it was a bit of a welcome break.

We actually managed to get up early and do some sightseeing... incredible, I know! We saw the Presidential Palace, Plaza De Armas and the Cathedral. The Cathedral was pretty cool... Loads of history about the place. It had some fairly funky catacombs underneath and some of Pope JP II´s belongings have been kept there from his visits in the 80´s. The detail on some of the altars and the pictures was fairly amazing too... I´ll put up pictures when I get a bout of non-laziness! One thing which struck us walking around Lima was the amount of police and army on the streets. Fellas with riot shields, AK47´s and Armoured Trucks on practically every corner in the centre... T´was a bit mad alright! We went for a nice meal in Miraflores that night but one thing we both noticed was that the streets were practically deserted after 11... And for the part of Lima which is meant to be the ´safe´ area I didn´t find that particularly re-assuring! We did´nt encounter any trouble ourselves but the general vibe of the place was a wee bit un-nerving... Wouldn´t have wanted to spend too long there!

Next day we ahd the pleasure of a 29 hour bus journey to Cusco... And a climb of 12000 odd feet! Head was a bit fucked up on the bus but I was airly grand when we got here. The family we´re staying with plyed us with coca tea which actually helped the old altitude sickness a lot. The first day or two G was pretty messed up but she was fine after that. The son of the family we´re staying with (Ronald... Top bloke!) brought us on a couple of tours around the place. Showing us the markets and the squares and some of the historical sights around the place. Went up the hills on Monday to Saqsaywaman (read: Sexy Women) and Cristo Blanco which were pretty cool. Sexy woman is an old Inca temple with some huge ruins still left standing... The stone work is ridiculous. Can´t imagine how they did it all purely by hand! There´s also plenty of ruins randomly dotted around the city... Notable the 12 angle stone, again... Have photos which I will upload, I promise!

Went for a few beers on Saturday to watch the Villa match... A fairly poor affair by all accounts. Went home for lunch after that and then headed back into town that night for a couple more. Place certainly has a different feel at night! Plenty of shady characters knocking around the place... Some prick even managed to knick the equivalent of about 10 euro out of my inside jeans pocket. Sneaky prick. Didn´t go on a mad one or anything... We were still getting used to the climate. We´ll probably get on it this weeken and see what the nightlife is like!

The 2 of us spent Sunday just knocking around town... Went to Jack´s Cafe for grub. Which was aboslutely amazing! Up there with anything you´d get at home! Also found this funky little cafe which we sat in and played some cards.

Started volunteering in the kindergarten on Monday... Whatever feckin eejit said looking after kids would be easy is a bloody liar! I was wrecked by the end of the day... and that was at 1! We seem to have been charged with looking after the 0 to 3 year olds... Not an easy task at all. On the first day we had about 7 but on the second we only had 3 which was grand. Except of this one little fella who took a mad shining to me and balled his eyes out if anyone went near him expect for me. I ended up carrying him around for about 3 hours... any time I put him down he´d just

On Monday our Peruvian host... Mama Bertha as we´´ve come to call her... made us trout for lunch. Now, I am NOT a fan of fish... but, considering I was in her house, eating at her table I didn´t think it´d be fair to say anything so I did like a good lad and ate the thing. I drowned him in picante, chilli and lemon so it actually tased more like a spicy lemon than anything else but sure what else was I meant to do??? When we were in the kindergarten on Tuesday G started to feel mad itchy... I thought that maybe one of the Niños might have had mites or fleas or something but when we got home for lunch she started coming up in a mad rash and swelling and shit. We decided that it was bad enought to warrant a trip to the Clinic. Ronald kindly brought us and acted as semi-translator. Turns out that she had a mad reaction to the fish from Monday´s lunch and ended up being admitted for the night and stuck on an IV drip! They let me stay in the clinic with her which was handy seeing as nobody spoke much English and she needed some else to help communicate! Have to admit... T´was a nice room. Absolutely massive! Nurses and staff were very nice... Though the insurance compant were kind of acting the bollocks at first. We eventually got it sorted! She got discharged today and all was good. Has a few tablets to take and she´s not allowed eat certina things for a week or 2 but at least she´s better... that´s the main thing!

The funniest thing of it all is that she was the one to get a reaction... I never eat fish at home and she eats it all the time. One would have thought that I´d be struck down with something if one of us was but no... It was her who got it! Just the luck of the draw I suppose!

Anyway... Back into kindrgarten in the morning which should be interesting. Wonder if the little guys will have noticed our absence yesterday?!

Watched Villa-United today... We were fucking robbed by that ref. Only dcision he got right was sending Nani off. Wanker. Anyway... At least United only managed ot get 1 point out of us this season while we got 4 from them! Bring on the Carling Cup final I say! ;)

The old Spanish is coming along nicely... It´s not really a matter of choice to be honest. Hardly anyone speaks any English in SA so you either learn to communicate or else you struggle to do anything! It´s Espanyol or hunger and we all know how I roll on that front! ;) G´s amazed at how much Í can understand people saying... Think it´s just because I´m more relaxed about it to be honest. Because she´s studied a bit of Spanishs he probably thinks that bit more about what their saying where as I just kind of pick up the general vibe of the conversation... Gimme another 5 months and I´ll be flying!

We have Ireland-France this weekend in the 6 nations... Should be a good match. Looking forward to going on the beer for that! :)

Also... We have Jenni & JP from Casa Roja coming up to Cusco in a week or 2... As well as Lynch and Anna. Should have some decent craic with them! Looking forward to it!

Anyway... Until next time amigos! Adios!

15 days down... 150ish to go!!!

Passport? Emmmmmmm.....

coogie86 — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:21:00 GMT

Well... What a start to the trip.

I realized as we entered the Port Tunnel that my passport was sitting in the scanner in G's house. Thankfully, due to some quick thinking and some fast driving {Thanks T!} we somehow managed to get back out to Blackrock and back to airport just in time to catch the flight. T'was quite the stressful start but sure we made it so all was well.

Just in Santiago at the minute.. staying in La Casa Roja, which I would highly recommend! We were fairly goosed after the 24 hour journey so we took it handy the first night. We found this savage grill restaurant, Las Vacas Gordas, where meat was about the only thing on the menu... not that I was complaining! HUGE steaks for less than 10 Euro... {Shanahan's eat your heart out, eh?!} Flavour was delicious... Probably the best steak I've ever had. But I'm being told to wait for Argentina... that's when the steaks get really serious apparently!

Went out last night with a crew from the hostel... Was great craic. Went to a local Salsa club... I'd say we were the only Gringo's for about 10 miles! Had a good laugh there... Learned a few steps, drank some Pisco... what more could you ask for in Chile, eh? After that we headed into the bar district... A good old session was had. Plenty of cheap beer was drank... It's about 2 Euro for a litre of beer, less in some places!

Having a big BBQ in the hostel tonight... Looking forward to it. More meat and more cheap beer... should be good!

Heading to Lima on Monday... Not really sure what the craic is with our volunteering because of the floods in Cuzco. Might have to move to Lima instead... which we're not too mad on. We've been told mixed stories about the place.... We'll just have to see what happens I suppose.

Anyway...I'll keep you updated on everything as we go along...

Adios Amigos!

3 days down... 160 to go!