Another self-indulgent travel blog

Obligatory Machu Picchu trip evidence

2012-02-27T15:20:00.000-08:00

The second photo down IS mine! its the only decent one, where the bloody clouds parted and the sun came out, but im not in it! Theres are rather patheitc looking me skulking about in the corners of some of these. But hey, its evidence eh? and there were hundreds of others hanging about up there waiting to do the same. Its strange and stupid, the experience should be for you, not for others, but photos tend to end up being for others.

Cusco

2012-02-27T15:07:00.000-08:00

The Sick Note

2012-02-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

While being so far away from home I of course find comfort in music and the like connected to family and friends. Heres a wonderful song, which brings a massive amount of comfort and memory to me. Its called ´The Sick Note´ by The Dubliners and is a song I know word for word having sung it with my dad around many tables of late night wine, whiskies and stories...

http://youtu.be/T_Vfxuk8x_A

Brazil!! (the country not the Terry Gilliam film)

2012-02-17T10:22:00.001-08:00

No sooner had I started to get my head around the Spanish Language and get comfortable with that, I decide to head to Brazil, for probably the rest of my time here in South America, and for that of course, I need to get my head around Portuguese. I never like to make life easy for myself and always in my life continued to make decisions that make everything so much more complicated, instead of sticking to one thing and keeping things familiar. So heres a classic example! I am not only going to travel across this continent over the next few weeks, mostly by bus, I´m going to start learning a whole nother language, when I don´t even have a complete second language under my belt to help. Its also alot more expensive in Brazil, so no more 2 quid dinners like I´ve been finding about here. Maybe they have fresh milk in Brazil though? I bloody hope so, I´ve been taking uht stuff in my tea for too long now. Yep, I´m on a whole other continent, but I can´t leave my tea behind...

Off to Machu Picchu this weekend, then we leave on Tuesday to take a night bus to Copacbana in Bolivia, then to Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, then taking a bus as quickly as possible through Paraguay (because its meant to be shit) to Brazil, reaching the Iguasu Falls first, then onto Sao Paulo. Not sure exactly where to stay, possibly Rio, possibly Salvador... if I don´t get mugged and fed to a Capibara before hand...

Gutted

2012-01-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

The grind...

2012-01-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

Alpaca attack

2012-01-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

So I´m Cusco... Arequipa was rubbish, so I came here and its far better, though of course I pay the price as there are far more stupid tourists. There are nice tourists too, but lots of stupid ones. So far, I´ve seen the new year in, great, but terrifying, you needed to be quick on your feet to dodge the horizontal fireworks.. Got a flat, got into a fight with an alpaca (I´m not joking, had to wrestle her off of me), got altitude sickness and got a cold.
So its all alright.

To Cusco

2011-12-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

So yeh, I'd planned to knock about in Arequipa and do some work while here, but this place has turned out to be a bit rubbish. It's not that there arn't nice things to see, theres another volcano over looking the city and loads of great outdoors type stuff to do, but since I'm not exactly loaded, I can't be doing what ever I fancy just now. So if you cross out the outdoors stuff, there aint alot else kicking off about here. So I'm off! Night bus to Cusco sorted for this evening, so we'll see whats happening there...

Other bits from Chiclayo

2011-12-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

Mercado de Brujos

2011-12-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

So, while I'm facinated with all this, don't make the mistake of thinking I approve of whats going here, in relation to the animal stuff. There are of course, witch doctors here, and people consuming the stuff of witch doctors. Herbs and other such plants being used for medicinal purposes, yep, all good, I get it, most of this stuff above of course, you don't need me to tell you.

Chiclayo

2011-12-27T11:18:00.000-08:00

I was actaully here in chiclayo on the 18th December til the 20th, but I was busy enjoying the place then and now I'm in a less interesting place and its raining outside, I'm catching up...

This city was great. Chiclayo is messy, busy and full of energy. There are hardly any Gringos here, so its great to be a tourist, you feel like your getting your own private slice of culture instead of sharing it constantly with other annoying invasive tourists like us. To sum up:

Mental driving
Fruit and veg lying everywhere
Kids pissing in the street
More taxis than you'll see in a life time
Amazing indigenous faces
A man white a type writer on a stool in the street, he'll type what ever you need typed
Lots of folk staring
Constant energy
Witches
Speckled egg street food
Muddy streets
Great fun

Peru!

2011-12-27T10:53:00.000-08:00

Right. I wrote a few posts, since being in Peru, but none of them have bloody well shown up! Well annoying.
So I'm going to back track a bit...

I left Baños, Ecuador on the 14th December and got a bus to Cuenca, a really beautiful city 7 hours south of Baños, loved it here. Then on to Loja, about 6 hours I think south again from Cuenca. From there I took a bus across the boarder into Peru, to Puira, which took about 14 hours. Had a dodgy experience with border patrol officers there trying to rip us off with our visas, we had to pay them because we wanted 6 month visas, but I'm pretty sure we paid more than we should have. Any other time I would be kicking off, but what can you do when its the police on the other side? not alot if you want your visa.

Its pissing with rain here just now, and generally speaking the weather is disappointing. In Ecuador and Peru its often overcast and never really hot for very long. Naturally I'm about as pale as you'll find and I'm not great in the sun, but I wouldn't mind a bit of extra warmth.

Enough of this rubbish talk... so yeh, I'm in Peru

mujeres de ecuador

2011-12-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

Back track.... Iguanas to Horses to Seahorses

2011-12-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

Bad and equally funny Taxidermy

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

This amazingly dodgy collection was in a small museum which was part of the main church in Banos, equador. I´m going to go back and draw them later on this week...

Volcano!

2011-12-01T09:28:00.001-08:00

This being my first post after a month of traveling, makes this blog a bit of a failure... Although, this first post is something to shout about. I´m in Baños, a small town or ´parroquia´ in Ecuador where I´m working for a charity ´Arte del Mundo´. I´m here for another week or so now, teaching English and working with their after school club. Its an amazing location here in Baños, with the tungurahua volcano right on our doorstep. The thing is, the volcano is going off right now, as I write and has been for the last few days. A bunch of us went up to a mirador to watch it the other night, which was incredible, never thought I would get the chance to see something like that. The volcanos been dumping ash over Baños today, so theres alot people out wearing dust masks, which I might have to start doing soon. At night we´ve been hearing it rumbling away, its so exciting. If it stays clear, we´re off to go see it again tonight, but from a better mirador than before. I couldn´t take photos because my camara is a piece of crap, but take my word for it, it was spectacular.