Terry.. Terry .. Give Us A Wave!!!

Photos: Sexy Muchachas

frasarah — Fri, 9 Apr 2010 04:11:00 GMT

Night out in Barquisimeto

To Cusco...But no Macchu Picchu :-(

frasarah — Wed, 7 Apr 2010 09:45:00 GMT

Another night bus from Puno to Cusco. The bus itself wasnt that bad, but the journey was horrible. We nearly had our first set of tears but at least the 3am arrival at the bus station was not as bad as we had first anticipated. We bundled into our twelve dorm room in the hostel, im sure they all loved us, but not as much as we loved the smell in that room. It stunk, if i remember correctly the room was called The Funk. This is apparently because there is a lost sock in the room which creates a funky smell! Between that and 10 sweaty bodies, the stench was not fresh!

Cusco was the prettiest place we have visited so far. There were lots of churches and side cobbled streets. We met two really nice English girls in the lobby of our hostel,they wanted to go and grab some lunch, so We headed straight to cescas favourite coffe shop Jacks!!well it would be Cameron Diaz dined there! the food was amazing!!Salad...like we have never seen, one portion could have fed all four of us. After lunch we wondered around looking for the girls friends....Sofia and James from Saffff London...we got hassled by a guy selling moody sunnies...of course Sarah enjoyed the bartering, got him down to a good price and purchased a pair of ´Raybans´, to add to her collection. off we went to one of the inca temples....yes cesca got bumped again...everyone else got a discount with their student cards and Sarah managed to flash her driving license...damn it!there wasnt much to see, once you´ve seen one ruin, you´ve seen them all. it happened to be Paddys day...we were very bad influences on the crew we had jus met, it was about 2 in the afternoon and we all headed off to an irish pub...a good start! Sarah had a clover painted on her face in true paddy style. we bumped into Silvia and Chantelle and arranged to go out for dinner together...the food was vile, not a scratch on Jacks. Then off we went to Mama Africa a club/bar. Cesca managed to wangle a free salsa lesson from a very gay looking guy, and performed a little show for Sarah as she was having a good old goss with Fit lad!whos girlfriend was floating around. Actually she was happily sipping on cescas cocktail after being sick....Cesca very unimpressed...it was time to wander back to the hostel.

off we went back to Jacks for breakfast..it definitely did the trick...followed by a his and hers massage...very amussing watching sarahs blob of a therapist hovering over her with sarahs head between her legs and grunting funny noises, and Cesca trying to ask for a firmer massage, we then descided to have a pedicure done...big mistake as the they took cheese graters to our feet. What a hang over cure!we were ready for our 22hour bus journey to Lima. we did it in style though ´calma style´....we got a good deal, what can we say!Sarah managed sleep the whole way, while cesca layed there feeling very sorry for herself trying to ignore her temperature and howling cough. we arrived in Lima and off we went in a Taxi to our hostel.

At the Copa, Copacabana..............

frasarah — Wed, 7 Apr 2010 08:23:00 GMT

Not quite the exoctic beach at Rio, but this Copacabana is a sight to be seen at Lake Titicaca, the Bolivian side. After we arrived it took a while for us to get our sore heads together and figure out whether we were coming or going (much to the amusment of others). We opted to get on a boat and head to the island of the sun, quite happily wandering off down to the water leaving all of our worldly possessions in a shack on the side of a road with a cholita who had more gold teeth that Britains got talent, DJ talent.

On the island we were bomarded with more cholitas shoving paper in our faces looking for money,stray donkeys and an array of children tugging at our knees asking us if we needed somewhere to stay. Thinking we knew better, we marched off and after a bit of wandering (and getting nowhere) we were ready to just strip off and plonk ourselves down in the middle of the island. Then Cesca spied Slyvia and Chantelle aimlessly sitting on a bit of wood, turns out we were all in the same boat. So after a bit more ummmming and arrrring we agreed to follow this young boy to accommodation that he said the lonely planet recommended. Well there was no lonely planet to be seen between the four of us and the boy wouldnt lie..........would he?????????

20 minute walk there, my backside! about an hours hike up a mountain with no path just a few crooked steps here and there in the blistering heat was not fun to say the least. Not to mention we had to dodge cholitas with more twigs strapped to their backs than what you would need to build a hut for a family of 5, their donkeys and the not so small presents the donkeys had left behind them. When we arrived at the ´hostel´ he directed us to our room. The four of us stood looking at three single beds that looked like they had been dressed in the 70s and i´d say the matresses were out of the victorian era. Sarah had the genius money saving idea, ´oh we´ll take one for the team and share´, cesca didnt have much say on the matter, the deal was done! All in all it wasnt the worst idea, as yet again we hadn´t come prepared for the Siberian nights so a bit of spooning didnt go down too badly.

Bed was well deserved after we spent the day hiking up, down and across the mountain in search of the ´must see´ ruins. If you ask me, there is more to see at high barnet tube station, but the views of the lake and the sunset were nice. The walk back was cold, so so cold, but the stars managed to distract us as they looked close enough to touch and there were so many. Also may i add this is the one day out of the whole trip so far that sarah stupidly brought the detachable day sack with her and she is not as good as old monkey feet cesca at hiking in flip flops with a monster of a hangover, so lets just say it wasnt smiles all around all day!

The next day we took a private boat to the northside of the island, not intentally, we know we´re backpacking,but we were bumped, and it wasnt really even worth it. There wasnt anything to do other than eat some truncha and watch two pigs have a fight. So rather than stay another night in squaler we decided to head back to Copacobana, but oh no, we weren´t going to be mugged off again so we bartered the price of what we thought was a direct boat back to copacabana. We boarded the boat feeling very pleased with getting a good deal and FIVE HOURS later we finally arrived at Copacobana. It was the slowest boat ever and what we didnt realise was that is not only stopped back at the south side of the island but it took a trip to a ´FAKE´set of floating islands. All i can say is thank god we came down from the top deck and got ourselves downstair seats otherwise we would have been burnt to a cinder!

The next day we got the bus to Puno, ha, bus, there was 15 of us crammed into the back of a VW van and what we didnt realise was that Puno was in Peru. It was a fun root around for passports at the border!

Puno was a small town and there wasnt much to do at night other than try guinea pig which we both chickened out of seen as it was presented splattered on a plate like a piece of road kill. It is however known for its floating islands, the real floating islands, not the fake ones that the Bolivians made out of a few bottles and put a bit of straw on top of because it was a way of making money. Puno had 49 floating islands made out of reeds and a different family lived on each one to prevent incest or something, but im not to sure about this. The island was fun, we were able to dress up as cholitas, take a trip on a boat made out of reeds, eat reeds and catch fish. Cesca also received an extra special slap from a cholita child who obviously just had an issue with cesca taking her photo as she was quite happy to pose for everyone else.

That night we jumped into a tuc tuc to take us up the colossal hill where our hostel was, there was no way it was taking 20 odd stone all the way. The tuc tuc was having none of it and even after an attempt of going up diagonally we were politely asked to get off and walk! charming! at least we didnt pay, for once!

Chipolatas

frasarah — Tue, 6 Apr 2010 03:07:00 GMT

We headed on the 20hour bus journey back to La Paz. Sarah woke up to find herself kicking a Cholita women (the traditonal looking women with the big skirts and platts) who was flat out asleep on the aisle next to her, wedged as she was wider than wide, but she soon shot up and gave daggers of death for rudely awakening her from her beauty sleep.....and by the look of her she had a lot of sleep to catch up on.

We had another ramble around La Paz, visited the prison. You could look inside the gates and see the prisioners inside, it looked like a cattle mart and we decided not to try and get an 'unofficial' tour inside.

We spent a lot of time in Olivers Travels which was an english bar, typical tourists, but the food was sooo good and cheap and the drink wasn't bad either. We did alot of partying in la Paz, and quad biking around the valley of the moon wasn't exactly the best idea we had ever had on a very bad hangover, but it was fun all the same.

We then foolishly went out again on the friday night and strolled in at 7am, well we say strolled, it was more like dancing, singing and chanting arsenal songs, just in time to catch our 7.30 bus to Copacabana (lake titicaka that is, not the beach in Brazil). Boy we smelt good on that bus!

Girls.................breakfast!!!

frasarah — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:58:00 GMT

We arrived at Santa Cruz airport to be greeted by Mamma Mechi, Ingrid and the Hulk. We felt very overwelmed as they kindly welcomed us with flowers and the hulk aka Luis Manuel, picked up a suitcase, 20kg plus in each hand and marched off to the car, we did mention they had wheels, but he was all over it... are you understanding now why we called him the hulk. We arrived at the house to meet the rest of the family, and have ENGLISH TEA!!!

Our stay in Santa Cruz was fantastic, the weather was BOILING, but we were also sweating the entire time, and got bitten alive, despite this, we loved lit. Every morning mama mechi would wake us...........girls...... breakfast... she would have banana milkshakes for us, ´very natural´ the bananas came straight from her garden and the milk straight from the cow! Eat, sunbathe, and swing in the hammock sums up the majority of our stay here. They took us to two different resorts that had pools, lagoons, and a natural park with beautiful flowers and animals, it was like paradise, we could have stayed there forever. We had one night out drinking and dancing, which was so so so sweaty we cannot even attempt to describe! But we have become attached to a lot of the music. Again we did lots of traditional things, ate lots of the foods, attended a salsa dancing class, played a few serious rounds of cacho, we were champions! Beginners luck im sure. The market we visited was insane, it was massive, again women knee deep in fruit and onions. They took us on a tour of the city, but this was a bit of a disaster as sarah fell asleep.

Altogether we had a fab time here and were sad to leave, perhaps our spanish has slightly improved also. Back to la paz for us. I think Ingrid would have sat on the bus with us to ensure we got there safely if she could... they couldnt have done more to help us.

The Family

frasarah — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:35:00 GMT

The day after death road, Sarah´s extended/in-law family came to pick us up and we went to stay with them in La Paz. They lived in the nicer part of la paz which was a breath of fresh air away from the city, sight for sore eyes, Sarah with here arm in a sling, the pair us so so so tired, a fantastic first impression! Our stay with them was nice, we got to chill out for a few days, experiance some typical Bolivian food, dancing, traditions. We went to something i can only describe as a school race night/pta meeting for the daughters school, an experiance to say the least!

We didn¨t realise Los Pinos was the posher part of the city until after we went shopping, i guess the hint should have been that the shops all had security alarm devices when you walked in. Cesca foolishly got ever so excited in this shop about how nice the clothes were, thinking the prices were in Bolivianos, erm... bit a shock when she got to the check out to find out the prices were in fact in dollars!!!

I think they must have thought we were very lazy as we were happy to stay in bed watching the old version of beverly hills 90210, us thinking, it will be fine, we will get up and get ready for lunch and they wont know any different... only the maid grassed us up!!!

We then moved on to the other family in Santa Cruz..........

Boliva

frasarah — Tue, 2 Mar 2010 07:09:00 GMT

We left Chilie last week so we were no where near the earthquake, we´re both fine. Although there was apparently a minor quake when we were in chilie, but we never felt it.

At the Bolivian/chilean border we met our Bolivian 4x4 jeep drivers for the next three days. We thought 17 year old Moses in his Hollister jumper was a good choice, but as it turned out he hated the music on our ipod and wasn´t overly impressed at our spanish speaking, even though we told him he now had ´quatro novias´four girlfriends, we obviously weren´t his type. He did pull through for us though when it was raining and we were heading across the desert/salt flats and the jeep lost control, did 360 turn and ended up on two wheels, we are still alive to tell the tale.

The drive across the desert and salt flats were amazing, we visited lots of different lagoons, volcanos and geysers, saw lots of flamingos.The only down side to all these amazing sights is the accommodation, in that there is hardly anything, its like no mans land. The last night of sarah being 21 was spent in what can only be described as a concrete bunker, 6 of us in a room, no water, -5 degrees at night, llamas running up and down the hallway, the generator for the lights were only on between 7 and 10. it was definatley a goodnight jimbob, goodnight mary ellen situation. The second nights accommdation, wasn´t so bad, it was the salt hotel, everything was made from salt. There was a shower here, it wasn´t as cold and the beds were nicer. The lights still cut out at 10, but we had candles, flash lights, wine, a cake and ipods. All this was worth it for the day on the salt flats, which were amazing. We took so many photos, and they will speak for themselves once we figure out how to get them up.

When we stayed in Uyuni,there was monsoon rain. Getting home one night the water was nearly up to our knees and so we had to get a taxi, only in the taxi was the taxi driver, his wife and two children up front, and 5 of us in the back, very interesting journey! Due to all the rain, many of the roads in Bolivia had collapsed so buses were running about 16hours behind schedule, but we made the decision, as a group, to plough on through with our journey to Potosi................disaster! We were sat in the very back row, everything in the bus was broken, the seats were in a permanent reclining position, this meant when we hit the biggest pothole Cesca was catapaulted from her seat over the one in front, im talking nose practically touching the seat in front. Sarahs (brand nerw) sunglasses flew half way down the bus along with our bags and she was knocked out by a two litre bottle of water that flew down from the top. This was a very long journey, between all the stops and the window next to cesca that wouldnt stay shut, so all the rain was coming in. Therefore upon our arrival in Potosi we headed straight for beer, wine and llama steaks!

Potosi is famous for the silver mines, we got ready to go in, you know collecting our attire from a shed, via a butchers, very strange! Again in a bus that was about to fall apart we travelled like miners up a very rocky and steep hill to the mines, chomping on coca leaves, but staying away from the 96% alcohol, it was only 10am. On our way into the mine that was pitch black and very low, Cesca had a panic attack and ran out, she stayed outside and was chatted up by a miner who had the remains of chewed coca leaves stuck in between the few teeth he had in his head... nice! Sarah continued, it was really hard to breathe and there was a lot of climbing and ducking involved, needless to say she survived even after blowing up dynamite.

Next stop, La Paz, visited the witches market, lots of al paca and dead llamas, and women knee deep in fruit. Then our turn on death road came... it was amazing, the views were spectacular including the view of our tour guide paul from galway. We were both doing really well, its mainly about brake control, riding downhill singing rod stewart, wake up maggie, at the top of our voices. It gets more difficult and rocky as you go further down, and much narrower. You have to concentrate really hard on not hitting a boulder! But it all got a bit much for Sarah as she hit a rock and flew over the handle bars. Cesca completed the 64km by bike, Sarah had to finish it in the back of the bus, the bus that was the same width as the road... i shall say no more.

We´ve come to the end of our tour...

frasarah — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:35:00 GMT

So we got back on the bus back to Buenos Aires after Iguazu to meet our tour group. The journey was LONG to say the least and unfortunatley old Pablo wasnt working! We wandered around Buenos Aires a bit more before realising our luck was in when we checked into the 4 star hotel to meet our group. Our group leader is an american guy called paul who is everso nice, but we are not overly keen on the long hair and goatie. We had dinner and got on really well with yet again more auzzis, carly and lisa. Our group is very diverse, from 60 year old leslie, or lee as she insists on being called, who is very sweet but dont ask us how she ended up here because its like she took the wrong turn on the way to the loony bin and ended up here, to the most annoying selfish, self obessed american Ginger!

Salta, Northern Argentina was a bit dull and boring. There was nothing spectacular to see. We spent a whole day in a mini bus doing the tour of the train into the clouds and if it wasnt for the tour guide, i think we would have been slitting wrists. Our spanish is also still useless as in one of the villages we stopped in we tried to order 4 empanadas and received 4 beef salads.

The Atacama desert was so much fun. We stayed in a small town called San Pedro. The only downside was that the bars had to shut at 1. We did horseriding across the desert which was nice, but it didnt half hurt the next day when it came to sitting down. Sandboarding was also good, once you got the nack of it, we´ll paint you a picture, a vertical sand dune, burning hot sand, 30 degree heat, 3500ft above sea level, carrying a sandboard. Cesca of course took to it like a fish to water after her practise and when the pictures go up you can see for youselves how good sarah was. We´ve had sand coming out of us left right and centre for the past week. The sand boarding was exhausting but we still had what we thought was a relaxing evening watching the sunset to do. Only it was in fact a hike up and down sun dunes and mountains, how francesca managed to do all this in flip flop was beyond everyone!

Our trip to Boliva then commenced...............tbc

Photos: South America

frasarah — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:31:00 GMT

A little glimpse so far

Photos: South America

frasarah — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:31:00 GMT

A little glimpse so far

Week 1!!

frasarah — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:53:00 GMT

HOLA CHICOS Y CHICAS!!!!!!

So we arrived in Buenos Aires, after hours of turbulance that francesca quite happily slept the whole way through! Met a guy, Alex, from Guilford who Sarah responded, oh yea i know, in Essex! Promising start me thinks. He proceeded to help us not only locate our hostel on the map but buy our tickets and put us on the right bus.. nice fella!

Our hostel, the Millhouse was a great starting point. Full of friendly people, mostly auzzis and Maz-amillius from shephards bush. The three days spent in Buenos Aires were great fun. Met a lovely girl called jamie. We did lots of sight seeing with her including; Evitas tomb, the famous Maradonna stadium (apparently hes NOT dead) La Boca; famous for tango,(it originated for sailors to hook up with prostitutes in case you didnt know!) and definatley not its food. Also attended a corrupt argentina vs brazil football game. The cities buildings and statues are also spectacular, there are hundreds! Although crossing the widest avenue proved quite difficult, well until we were stumbling across it at 7am. Had a fab time and met loads of fun people.

We were dreading the 20hour bus journey up to iguazu falls but in fact we were pleasently surprised at our reclining seats and whats more PAUBLO. Poor little mite, he worked his socks off serving us champagne, breakfast, lunch, dinner and ensuring we were either watching a film or listening to music.

The marcopolo hostel is very different to millhouse, it is a lot bigger, less people, but has a swimming pool. We spent our first day relaxing by the pool and of course cesca is as brown as a berry and sarah looks like a lobster who has been run over by a train with white paint on its wheels! We´re even on ´dealing with bugs´.... wait for it...... cesca picked up and threw away the dead cockroach who wanted to share our room and sarah emptied a bottle of shampoo and caught the ghekko who fancied a cheeky glimpse of us in the shower.. clever work!

Our first day at the falls was spent at the Argentinian side. Despite being slightly overcharged for our tickets, the falls were magnificent! We also got to ride in a boat into one the falls, erm.. a wee bit wet you could say! Tonight we are going to a bbq up the road and tomorrow we´re ´just popping off to Brazil´ to see the falls from the Brazilian side and of course cant wait to see if our old friend Pablo is on the bus of luxury on the way back to Buenos Aires.

Oh and the reason why the blog is called terry terry give us a wave is thanks to a certain o´donoghue who got this in our heads last friday night AND WE CANNOT GET IT OUT!! song of the holiday ... i´m sure terry will love it.