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!!!
