Nothing to see here...

...quite literally. I´ve hardly taken any photos recently. Not because there´s nothing to take photos of, but because I´ve got in to the habit of leaving my camera in the hostel. Because of the huge festivities here this weekend pick pockets are out in force.

Okay, so been in Cusco now for a few days. It´s party central. I don´t think I´ve partied this much ever. It´s like one night on it, the entire next day in bed. And then it starts over again. Ran in to Helen Anglim who I worked with at Hachette in a club too. She´s a bad influence. But a fun one.

Yesterday was the BIG one. The festival of the sun, which we came here for. We walked up hill for about an hour. I nearly collapsed. Okay, so I´m not the fittest person in the world but the altitude here is enough to finish anyone off. So yeah, up the hill to an ancient Inca site where they used to sacrafice children and animals to the sun god. There were thousands of people there, all sat on the hillside watching the ceremony, which was quite something. They slaughtered a llama, which I wasn´t too impressed with, but at least it wasn´t a child I guess. Then it started to hail, so I guess the sun god wasn´t that impressed either.

The afternoon was spent frantically buying a costume for the Fallen Angel party at this amazing gay club. Wings were compulsory, and only glamourous people were allowed in. I got an outrageous slip, wings and a tiarra and got shunted to the front of the queue by the owner. What can I say? It´s worldwide - the gays love me.

Met so many amazing people here and we´ve all become firm friends. Still with Australian Suzy and Australian Chris. But there´s now Dan (a very posh 20 year old who´s studying medicine), Charlotte (who is just beautiful. End of) and the Irish guys - Ronan, Nora and stunning Joe (who I end up following around everytime we go out - although he didn´t seem to mind last night.) And then DAVE´S BACK! So yeah. It´s like Grease. And I love it.

White lines

Man, okay. I´ve had a right royal couple of days. I left off about to go and get my sand buggy ride (see added pictures in the blog below.) Oh my. Right...

I was petrified. They go so fast, right up the side of HUGE (and I mean, huge) dunes. They bomb towards the top of the sand cliffs and then just take off. It was like being on the scariest rollercoaster, but without the knowledge that you´re actually attached to something. But, it was so, so amazing. Amazing. All you can see is sand dunes. Massive, amazing sand dunes. And all you can hear are the screams from other people on buggies, thinking they´re also about to die. The driver stopped 3 times so we could sandboard (just like snowboarding) down the steep dunes, although I could only just manage to stand up outside of the buggy, I was shaking so much. Watched the sunset over the desert from the top of a dune. Just amazing. I loved it.

The buggy



Tracks in the sand



The view



That small spot is a buggy...



Waiting to board



Duncan and Suzy boarding



The sun setting



Sunday morning - Duncan, Suzie and I hired boards and went sandboarding on our own and then spent the afternoon in the pool. Got a 2 hour bus in the evening to Nasca and checked in to a ropey motel. Dodge. Ment.

Me and my board



Right, so if I wasn´t scared enough on that open top train ride a few weeks back - and then the dune ride of death, this was the morning to take the adrenalin biscuit. I sat in a three man plane and flew over the Nasca lines. I hate flying at the best of times. HATE it. So having the pilot sat practically on my lap was really something. I was mute for about 2 hours before the flight, white with fear, but then as soon as I was up there I loved it (course I did.) The ancient lines were amazing (although not as big as we´d thought) but the whole size of the area they´ve been drawn on, and the mystery surrounding them, totally blows you away. Duncan and I then checked out some ancient graveyard with dead people, a ceramic place and then some workshop where they make gold that they mine from the area. A lecture at the planetarium about the lines (which was amazing, plus we got to see Saturn and Jupiter through the telescope - I´m practically an astronomer these days) and then we hit the crammed, stinking, sleepless 20 hour bus journey to Cusco. Thank the Lord for over-the-counter Valium...

The lines











Some ancient dead people



Me after the 20 hour bus journey of hell

Midnight at the oasis

You guys are going to wish you were me. So badly. I´m in the desert. But like a proper, kick-ass desert. You know like in The Cell, when Jennifer Lopez goes into the mind of that weirdo and she´s stood on the top of those MASSIVE, sculpted desert sand dunes? The type that that´s all you can see for miles? That´s where I am. I know. Me. I just don´t get it.

So, we arrived in Lima fine (with bites, as already discussed) and stayed at The Point for a couple of days (really lively, party hostel.) Checked out the town with Duncan and Canadian Mark. Then that night I certainly didn´t drink a lot of Cuba Libres with Mark in the hostel bar, I certainly didn´t go out with him and a group of others to a club and drink quite a bit more - and that certainly wasn´t me rocking back up at the hostel at 6.30am (fond - slightly sketchy - memories of walking back accompanied by `Ribs and Ears´ the stray dog who befriended us.) Watched the football, hung at the hostel, ran in to a girl who did work experience for me at Sugar 3 years ago (she´s still got the glowing reference I gave her - nuts) and then yesterday (Friday) we headed off with Australian Suzie to Ica, in the desert.

We´re staying at a small oasis 4k outside of the town. There´s nothing here but a couple of bright hostels around the oasis (all with swimming pools - get in. I haven´t yet. Got in. But I´ve been sat with my legs in it all morning in the ROASTING sun) and the backdrop for everything is the huge dunes. It´s the most incredible thing I´ve seen yet. Ever.

In an hour we´re taking a dune buggy tour. They whizz. And they look SO scary. I´m literally wetting myself with fear. It´s been compared to a rollercoaster too many times for my liking. I hate rollercoasters. I always hold the bags, you know that. Then when you get to the top of the dunes you can sandboard (just like snowboarding) which I´m looking forward to as I´m practically a surfer and stuff these days (eh, Cai?) but am again pretty freaked about. We saw some poor girl return on a stretcher yesterday. You just know who that´s going to be in a couple of hours...

As much as I´m having a great time here, my thoughts are with you Paula. I´m so sorry I can´t be there with you right now, my darling, and the shock news about your dad (lovely Uncle Brian) has been really awful. I can´t believe I´m so far away right now, when I should be there. All my love to you.

It must have been love...but it´s (so) over now...

I think one of those two cute forest puppies that I fell in love with put a flea in my sock. Got to Peru with my feet bitten to shreds. Shreds. Plus the mosquito bites. It´s not good. Anyways, in Lima all safe and spent the day wandering around the centre of town (the buildings are amazing, they look like something my mum would make out of icing) with a very cute Canadian guy called Mark. I hope he doesn´t put a flea in my sock.

Cloud busting

We´ve just got back from a few days in cloud forest, Mindo. It was A. Mazing. My eyes got stung with unbelievable, tropical beauty (not even Spielberg could make this stuff up) and my legs got stung by a million mosquitos (of course they did.) Sonia and Marcin joined us (they´d headed off to the coast on Thursday, but returned a few hours later after being mugged for the second time in a week) and within 20 minutes of our arrival we´d checked in to this hostel...



chatted some Spanish to Leonardo...



and fallen in love...



Days: wandering around the sleepy town, spotting massive butterflies, hummingbirds and lizards and cooling off in the river before the thick cloud and tropical rain set in. Evenings: watching the fire flies, making BBQ´s (thanks boys) and drinking Rum (of course.) And getting bitten. Badly. Did I mention that? Still it´s a (very) constant, itchy reminder of the great time we had.

The days before were less tranquil. Friday was Ecuador versus Poland in the World Cup. I hate football, but boys like it - and I like boys - so, naturally, we decided to head in to town. It was actually REALLY exciting. Quito was buzzing. Everyone had the day off work, kids were excused from school, taxis all had flags and everyone, even dogs, were wearing football shirts. Started watching it at a bar outside with Dunc, Sonia, Marcin, Dan and Ruth (we even got snapped and appeared in the local newspaper the following day) but as Ecuador scored it started to POUR.



Ran to the local English pub, where we watched the rest of the game soaked.



Bumped in to James, Si and the English guys from Cuenca and ended up drinking a fair amount. Thanks to Duncan for getting me back to the hostel.



An early rise (7am) for (what I could focus on of) the England game at the same pub - urgh - and the rest of the day was spent in a daze, eating, resting and playing with Rosie at Maria´s flat. A good time was had by all. Amen.

Journey to the centre of the earth...

Today I stood with one foot on one half of the world, the other foot on the other half. It was quite cool. Headed off to the equator line this morning - about an hour from Quito - with Marcin, Sonia and Duncan. We went to the fake one first, where there´s a big monument and a long line. They calculated wrong. Then went round the corner to the real deal. It was skill. You get to do all these experiments, like pour water one side of the line (it swirls to the right), pour it the other side of the line (it swirls to the left) and pour it actually on the line (it falls straight down.) Then there´s the whole balancing an egg on the top of a nail (easy on the equator line) and losing all your strength whilst stood on the line (not that I had much to begin with, but it was weird. Weird science.) And then there was my personal favourite. You weigh less. For that short amount of time I was practically Nicole Richie.

The fake line



Water tests



Egg balancing



Strength loss



Me



Then there was loads of other stuff to do. Shrunken heads to see. Ancient houses to look around. Dart blowing to be done. Ridiculous hats to be purchased (Duncan.)

Shrunken heads



Darts



Hats



Yesterday was spent recovering (again) from 4 bottles of rum. Here we all are. It was fun. But really messy. And the night ended in tears. And being bent over a toilet. And the morning began with being ashamed. All good...

Tell me you´d be happy sharing your bed with this...

...I know you can´t.

Today´s been a bit horrible. Sadly lovely Uncle Tony passed away this morning, and being on the other side of the world has been a bit difficult. He was such an amazing, godly, gentle man.

So, haven´t done much today. Been a bit mute really. Trailed around town trying to find birthday cards for Davey P and Angelica (they´re on their way guys, so if they don´t make it it´s not because the thought wasn´t there.) Met up with Polish Marcin who we first met in Latacunga. He´s at our hostel. Sadly him and his friend got robbed at gunpoint and they´ve had to come to Quito to wait for their passports (they had EVERYTHING taken - even their shoes) so I think Duncan is lending them some cash, in return for some rum tonight.

Spent the whole day yesterday recovering from a wild night on the tiles with Maria. We went to her flat for dinner and then she took us around Gringolandia where we stopped at pretty much every bar and club. It was messy. But good.

I haven´t anything to show from the last couple of days, but here´s a couple from the days before.

The boys...



The bites...



The bedroom...

P to the Lo

After another day of sun and another large bottle of rum (goaded by Dave) we decided to head on up the coast to Puerto Lopez (clearly Duncan and I called it P-Lo, which we found highly amusing each time, simple things...) Said a teary goodbye to Dave at the bus stop (he was off to Guayaquil to see the "regeneration of the city") but the two of us wanted more beach action. Rocked up in P-Lo and instantly wished we hadn´t. It was cold, completely dead and pretty grim. A complete contrast to the sunny beauty of Montanita. I think we both suddenly felt really far away from home and pretty lonely.



Our hostel (Sol Inn) would have been wicked, had we not been the only people in it, so we bought some crackers and cheese, befriended the ratty hostel cat and set up a GSOT Leagureboard. In the Grand Scheme Of Things, I´m currently winning (cards, people.)





Thursday - up early to get the hell out of there. Duncan shaved his beard off which was the highlight of the stay... An hour bus to Xipijapa (after some local guy helped us catch the bus in his motorised tuk-tuk). Four hours to Guayaquil where we stayed for one night to see the "regeneration of the city" (sorry Dave, you were right, pretty impressive.) Caught a film at the Imax cinema (Adrenaline, documentary about sky and cliff divers) which was incredible. Won 10 games of Uno in a row. Got attacked by more crickets. Taxi to the bus station where we took an over-night bus to Quito. Didn´t sleep a wink despite knocking back a few sleeping tablets, and arrived in the city tired and grumpy at 6.30am this morning...

Checked in to hostel Bamboo (Dave had said it was great) although we had to crash out on the lounge sofas as there was no room available at that time. Slept until mid-day and have spent the rest of the day in the scorching sun, eating food and wandering the city, waiting to meet Maria who is going to look after us for the next week.

Generally feeling a bit lonely and blue. Not really homesick but really far away. Having an amazing, amazing time but not sure yet whether if given the choice again I would give up the job, flat and friends I adored for it. I seem to spend most of my time scared. Scared of the mental bus and taxi journies, scared of the streets and the shady people, scared of the crickets. It´s not such a nice feeling. But I´m managing it better than I thought, and I guess I´m only 3 weeks in. Plus I have PMT. No wonder Dave and Joubin left when they did...