Death Road, Ping Pong and Ziplining... oh, and Machu Picchu

Hola chicos!!!

It´s been a long time since my last blog so here it is in all its regal finery!!

Samaipata - In between playing darts at the local watering hole I did a trek into the jungle for 5 days with a great guide and a rowdy rabble of travellers. Apart from macheteing my way through the jungle and seeing some amazing insects and plant life my personal highlight was the french hippy girl hugging a tree... literally... what a nob!!

La Paz - The day before my birthday I decided to go down the infamous DEATH ROAD, which was a great day out with some fantastic scenery and a few minor scares, but personally I think cycling round London is far more dangerous. The following day I celebrated in style with some pals, a fancy restaurant followed by a bar crawl, and an impromptu dj set from yours truly and didnt get home until 830 which wouldn´t have been so bad but I had booked a bus to Copacabana leaving at 1pm, needless to say I felt like death warmed up for the entire day!!

Copacabana/Isla Del Sol - Arrived in the not so beautiful town of Copacabana but I left the next day and spent 2 days on the beautiful Isla Del Sol chilling and doing a bit of strolling around and happened to meet some nice people there too.

La Paz (again) - I lost my entry stamp to leave Bolivia so had to go back to La Paz and sort it out, met some dutch guys on the bus and we had a good night out before I left for Sorata the next day. Sorata itself was a really scenic place, I pretty much did nothing there apart from get bitten by sandflies 24/7, annoying buggers! Hitched a ride back to Copacabana on the back of a truck with a few other people which was good fun, then attempted to leave in a boat for Puno in Peru the next day.

Closed borders - Well, the boat to Puno was a no go but luckily met some nice girls from Barcelona, some groovy Dutch guys (who are rubbish at ping pong), and Yukari (a Japanese maniac). We travelled back to La Paz (I don´t even like La Paz but somehow keep going back!), and just managed to get on a bus going to Arica in Chile. Also bumped into Stephen and Romany from my death road/birthday extravaganza and we all went on our merry way to Arica...which is a shit hole... However, we made the most of it - it was Rob´s birthday (one of the Dutch guy´s) and we went out to celebrate until the early hours. We stayed in a hostel, which looked as though at had been built by a drunk, blind man with no building experience whatsoever, so we moved to Arica Surf House, which was very nice indeed, and it had a ping pong table too!! We watched the Champions League final, cheering on Barca. Luckily they won, so the girls were happy!!

POLICIA!! - Next stop was Arequipa, a beautiful city in the South of Peru. We had to wait around for a bit as there was still trouble at the borders so we decided to hire a car, big mistake!!! Bart (the other Dutch guy) jumped a red light, and a cop pulled us over. Luckily, the girls got us out of trouble, but we were told that we were not insured so we headed back to the car hire company to sort it out. Confusion reigned and neither side willing to budge over who was right or wrong (apparently this was the only traffic policeman in Peru who doesnt know anything about insurance.. beard!), we managed to pay half price for the car, and hopped on a bus to Cusco!!

Cusco - Arriving in Cusco in my flip flops, shorts and t shirt and jumping out the bus for a quick ciggie after 11 hours turned out not to be a great idea. The altitude and coldness hit me, luckily they had a nurses station at the bus terminal and "The White Angel" made me down some coca tea and put on some warm clothes and I was as right as rain again, what a plonker! After saying goodbye to the Spanish and the Dutch, who are now addicted to a card gane called Yaniv, it was time to get the hell out of Cusco and haul arse up Machu Picchu!!

The Trek - I went with Steve and Romany on a jungle trek to Machu Picchu. Day 1 - downhill cycling, rafting and a game of football in the evening, Saffer Craig scored a blinder to beat my team, bugger!! Day 2 - Lots of walking, which involved part of the original Inca Trail (very narrow with a sheer drop). Steve and I were clinging on for dear life as our vertigo kicked in. The evenings festivities were hilarious, it turns out I am pretty flexible (email me for further details!) Day 3 - ZIPLINING!!!! The term "shitting myself" applied to both myself and Steve as we flew across canyons on a steel cable, what an experience plus it cut out some walking, bonus!! In the afternoon session we walked to Aguas Calientes along the train tracks, Steve treated our group to a rendition of Stand By me with his guitar, awesome! We all got a good nights kip before heading to Machu Picchu in the morning!

MAC PIC - Awake at 4 to clamber up 1600 steps to the amazing, beautiful, jaw droppingly awesome Machu Picchu to get our stamps for Huayna Picchu on the same day. We arrived in time for sunrise and had a nice tour around before clambering up Huayna Picchu. I took my friend Danny Bent´s book up to the summit of Huayna Picchu and took some photos for his website. We had decided before I came travelling that I would distribute some of his books around South America and this was the last one, so my bag is a bit lighter now, but it was totally worth the effort, love you Danny Boy!!!! You can see the pictures here - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Where-are-Danny-bents-books/192172690804058

Knackered - Arrived back in Cusco extremely knackered from the trek, spent a couple of days recovering and after a very luxurious bus ride to Ica I am now staying in a hostel nestled amongst sand dunes and an oasis, nice! Buggys and sandboarding are all you can do here, so thats exactly what I am doing. Also, the owner of the hostel left me and a few others in charge of the bar last night...big mistake!!!!!!

Next stop, not sure, but heading vaguely north to beaches and sun, had enough of walking and altitude for the time being!!

Hope you haven´t fallen asleep yet, I promise the next instalment will be shorter!!!

Hast pronto chicos!!!!

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