desiree's Journals

Monday 27th March// Moved into Hostel Recoleta today! Very nice room! Wooden floors, three beds hehe:) Huge generally and with a very big bathroom too! PLUS cable TV!! So exciting!:) hehe:) So sad! Went into town today to get our tourist ticket for Cuszco. Basically a huge ticket (I mean that literally) which allows you access to loads of sites in Cuszco for 10 days. Needed it for our city tour starting in the afternoon. Had lunch at an Irish Pub called Rosies hehe:) Was really nice as I had a lovely mango juice! Sorry got very excited about that:) Rushed back to the hostel soon after for our city tour! The tour was good. The most touristy thing we have done this whole holiday though hehe:) Basically in a huge ass tour bus with a guide who ran us from place to place. Our guide was pretty hilarious, this tiny lady called Sylvia hehe:) She was short and pudgy with kind of Harry Potter glasses. She was good cause she was really knowledgeable.. but she kept on going off on a tangent! Hehe:) like talking about Macchu Picchu and how if you go up there you should take a 'poncho plastic' and stuff.. funny lady. She named our group the 'condors' hehe so if she shouted that out we were supposed to gather round her. Saw loads of cool stuff on the tour... first thing was the Cathedral in Cuszco.. sooo amazing! Was huge and had loads of paintings inside almost as many as an art gallery! They were gorgeous European style paintings as well but painted by local indians at the time aparently! They had an art school where they learnt the European style of painting. After that we headed out to quite a few different Inca ruin sites. The coolest and most worth mentioning being Saqsaywaman hehe.. yes when you read it it sounds like 'Sexy Woman':) Funny:) Was a huge site split into 3 main tiers I think.. or was it 4. Anyways, some of the rocks were amazingly huge its amazing that they were able to move them to the site! Overall the sites were very interetsting with their various tables and caves for religious sacrifices and such. One amazing place we went to is called Qu'oricancha (not sure about spelling) or the Sun Temple in town where the ruin foundations showed how amazing the incas were at building as the rocks werent held together by anything but stayed in place perfectly aligned next to each other. Dont know how they did it soo cool! There was also a water temple that we saw where Inca Pricesses aparently wne tot bathe to keep themselves looking youthful thought that was interesting. Tuesday 28th March// Another day in Cuzco!:) Today got up early for our tour of the nearby Sacred Valley or the Valle Sagrado as they call it. Was with the same company as the other tour we took but this time we had a guide completely opposite in nature to Sylvia hehe. This time we has Ronald this sleepy dopey kind of dude who was great cause he could speak both Quechua AND Spanish! Quechua is what the local indians speak. (More about that later) The tour was a full day one this time. First major stop was at the Pisaq market. Ronald took us first around the vegetable and fruits section where he showed us some of the local goods. Peru has a ridiculous variety of potatoes! My name is one of the varieties of potatoes:) hehe red desiree potatoes! Love that hehe:) After he took us through there very quickly we were left ot our own devices and I went on a search for my mummios birthday present and some other small goodies. I got myself a gorgeous red necklace:) Its mega long and made of seeds! Very artesanal love it:) Wearing it right now in fact hehe. After Pisaq we headed to Ollantaytambo yet another Inca ruin site hehe:) It was really good actually as it was very different to the others we had seen. THis one was a fort at one time so basically if you just imagine inca ruins tiered up the side of a hill very cool. Quite high up though so struggled a tiny bit hehe:) Great view at the top. Have to say that the best thing about getting up there was not the site itself but the locals who were up there ready to try sell stuff to the tourists hehe:) These two lovely indian ladies started talking to our guide in QUechua. Was great cause we got to ask them questions and at the end of our interview they offered to sing some songs for us! Very cool! They had almost childlike voices and they sang really cute kind of like nursery rhyme sounding songs hehe:) loved it:) Gave them tips after of course after one of the very shy ladies threw her hat out for us to put money in hehe:) Following the ruins we had a lovely buffet lunch with lots of local delicacies aparently.. unfortunately nothing was labelled so couldnt tell what anything was!! oh well! Was still good! Tom and I ended up having lunch with only 2 of the many people on our tour because for some reason they split us all up between 3 restaurants... strange! Thought we would have the choice of 3 restaurants but that was not the case. Back in the tour bus we were headed back to Cuzco. On the way back it started raining majorly. THought it was hilarious because there was a fat about 30 year old Canadian lady with her mum on the bus and when it started raining she got mega excited because we could see mudslides down the hills.. she literally jumped up and down like a 5 year old shouting 'mom, mom!! look!! mom mom!! Mudslides!!'.. Yes.. we did not all quite share her enthusiasm for the mudslides.. but anyways.. Back in Cuzco we got dropped off at our hostel. Being lazy asses however we did not go out and have a proper dinner hehe:) ordered a pizza instead hehe.. was kind of skanky tho but oh well serves us right for eating badly! Wednesday 29th March// After many days of waking up early TOm and I decided we deserved a very long sleep in today hehe:) Unfortunately followed by our sleep in we stayed in waaay too long watching TV too.. argh! Having waste dmuch time we finally got ourselves together and I went off to send my postcards then was gonna meet up with Tom after cause surprise surprise he wasnt ready.. hehe:) On the way to the post office saw a demostration going on which was cool. All these indigenous people were sitting the middle of this street shouting about something. After that met up with Tom. Unfortunately didnt do much as we spent most of our time looking for flights to Mexico.. were kind of annoyed because we cancelled our flight with STA cause the guy there told us we could easily get a cheaper flight locally. hmm.. yea if by cheaper he meant we would be spending abotu 200 pounds more!! Aiya! Oh well.. needless to say we didnt get a flight and decided to wait. As we finished looking so late we only got to go to the Modern Art museum which was pretty crap really.. well was ok but mega small and what we really wanted to see was the Inca museum with inca gold.. oh well! Later in the evening finally found an english book store!! Bought loads of books hehe:) as obviously almost all the ones we had to exchange were lost cause they were in my bag that fell off the bus ages ago.. argh! Bough thte Gringo Trail, The Dim Sum of All Things and um.. Tom got something else. Thursday 30th March// Got up mega early today for our trip up to Macchu Picchu!!!!!:) So exciting!! Were driven to the train station by a mini bus with 4 other American dudes on their Spring break (pretty cool place to go for their spring break if you ask me:)). Got on the train and took about 4 hours to get up to Aguas Calientes, the town at the bottom of the mountain to get up to Macchu Picchu. The train ride was interesting as we thought at first that we would never get up the mountain face and over to the other side to start our descent to Aguas Calientes as the train kept stopping once it had started and went back along what we thought was the same way we had just come hehe:) After a while we realised that we were actually just slowly going up the hill by going back and forth on different tracks leading upwards.. if that makes sense. Anyways! hehe:) At Aguas Calientes we were gathered up by our tour guide and put on a bus up to Macchu Picchu! As we entered the site I was so excited but not completely impressed at first as we could barely see anything! hehe:) Was really cloudly and misty and could barely see the ruins. Soon though all the mist cleared for a bit and the magnificent Macchu Picchu showed itself to us:) It was truly amazing, they hype about it is all true!! It was just gorgeous with the huge mountain Waynapicchu rising up in the background. Amazing:) Had a 2 hour tour to start off with which was great. Saw llamas along the way hehe:) aparently they keep them there as lawnmowers:) THey were so funny as they just pranced about as if it was (well I guess it is) their home. Was shocked and appalled to hear that a fair bit of dammage has been caused to some of the major sections of the site because of stupid advertising companies etc.. coming in and accidentally damaging things during filming.. argh!! Anyways, after the tour was the best as we were given the chance to wander about by ourselves. Wanted to climb Waynapicchu but was close dfo rhte day!:( So headed to the Inca Bridge instead! Was very cool:) All we could see was kind of steps protruding out of this huge ass rock face which suddenly stopped and lead to nothing! Dont know how they built them but I can imagine many people accidentally fell when they did!! aiya! After that we went back to see if we could try and make our way to the sun gate which you pass on the inca trail. Tried but couldnt be bothered and decided to have a lovely relaxing time sitting on one of the tiers over looking the site:) Sadly we had to leave the site as it got late. On the way out had a very cloe look at the llamas hehe:) was funny as they didnt flinch or anything as I put my head right in their faces.. think I was more scared of them spitting at me or something hehe:) Anyhoo, made our way back onto the bus and headed back down to Aguas Calientes. Later in the evening we had a bit of dinner.. love the amazing tourist deals here where you have 3 or 4 courses for like 10 sols so.. um..about 3 usd!! so good! Had some Alpaca meat this time:) hehe:) Was interesting kind of tough but tasted nice enough. Friday 31st March// Yes.. today we got up an hour earlier than we needed to hehe:) cause I set my alarm on my phone which I had not changed the time on since bolivia hehe:) Tom wasnt best pleased with me:)Oh well! Just meant we had an extra hour at the hot springs hehe. yea spent the morning at the hot springs. Not bad but majorly man made. Having said that the setting for it is really nice as it is in a kind of small valley. After that we had a bite to eat (yet another tourist deal!!) and then headed down to the train station to catch our train back to Cuzco. On the way there we both bought llama finger puppets hehe:) very funny! People kind of stared at us as if we were mad playign with them hehe:) I have a whit eone called Francis (first name that popped into my head) and Tom's is black and called Paca as in Alpaca hehe.. The train ride back seemed so much longer than the one over. Did take a bit longer actually but kind of sucked as it was full up so we had to sit the wrong way facing two ladies who for some reason would not smile at all!! They just kind of looked back bitchily at us.. hmm.. nice travellers. Finally back at Cuzco we were picked up by the same guy who dropped us off last time and we then headed for some dinner nearby. Had a weird ass pizza that only had garlic and chilli sauce on it. Yea.. Andy you would have loved my garlic breath after that! hehe:) Kin dof sick woke up with garlic breath.. eww.. Saturday 1st April// Got up to catch our bus to Puno on lake titicaca today. Yea wasnt so great as firstly our bust left at 10:30 am when we were meant to leave at 8:30 but cause of tire problems the bus didnt arrive till late. All was fine until later when the bus pulled up into a garage and the engine was opened up.. hmm.. yea turns out it wasnt tire trouble but engine trouble great!! The best thing about it all was that neither the bus driver nor the conductor even thought about coming up to tell us what was going on!!! AND we were waiting for quite a few hours!! Argh!! Soo annoying! Luckily there were loads of movies on so didnt feel tooo long but yea had to rewatch Chronicles of Narnia, The Day After Tommorrow AND Harry Potter (the latest one) hehe. At one point though think that these nuns that were on the bus tookk over control of the TV as there was this random show about how the world will end and how the bible tells us how it will happen or something.. Was crappy and yea luckily the nuns didn't get anymore control over the TV hehe:) Finally at Puno instead of a nice long after noon to rest etc.. we went and had dinner and then bed. We didnt so much choose the restaurant we went to as we were harrassed into going into it hehe:) THis guy would leave us alone offering us free pisco sours so we just gae in because he was so persistent hehe. Sunday 2nd April// Got up mega early today! Had a bit of interaction with some French dudes in the morning which I thought was cool:) Yes I spoke in French! Not much but yea.. hehe Anyhoo! So today we went off on our tour of the islands Uros and Taquile. The Uros islands are also known as the Isla Flotantes.. because as the name suggests they literally float! Was sooo cool:) Took a boat out to the islands to find when we got out of the boat that the ground was really soft and bouncy hehe:) Basically, the islands are made up of water reeds. The people of the islands called the Uros replenish the ground as the reeds begin to disintegrate or whatever and yea they use like anchor type thing sto keep the islands in place. So if they wanna move away from an annoying neighbour or something they just have to move the weights and away they float to a different spot hehe:) so funny!! The people on the island were really nice.. well they kind of had to be I guess cause they were selling us stuff but they seemed genuinely nic eis what I mean hehe:) Visited a couple of these types of islands one of which had a 'hotel'.. hmm.. yes basically teepee like contructions made of reeds with a mattress and a candle inside hehe:) and a reed block to place in front of the hole for you to get in. Some of the little kids on the islands were trying to sell us pictures they had drawn themselves bless them.. felt kind of bad not getting one but oh well! After those islands we took a long boat ride onwards to the island called Taquile. Yea.. there was a little boy on the boat that actually took control of it for a bit! Was a bit worried at first but he did well:) Anyhoo! The island was very interesante:) The boat dropped us off and we were instructed by our tour guide to walk up this path that would lead us to the center of the island where we would be meeting in an hour or so. So off we went up this path.. relatively slowly at first getting to grips with the altitude hehe:) well I like to think so at least.. hope it wasnt just cause I'm an unfit laydee! Had some lovely views of the lake along the way. A lovely little island overall.. kind of what we expected Chiloe to be like i.e. enchanting. There were these lovely little girls all along the way to the center of the island trying to sell us these well made friendship bracelets that they had made themselves. Some of them spoke really quietly, like whispering hehe:) aparently they are taught to speak like this as it is more lady like! I ended up buying a bracelet off one girl after having turned down loads of little girls as she was just sooooo persistent! Figured she needed the money bless her, she just perched herself on my knee for ages once we got to the center continually offering me her bracelets! Tom actually bought it for me:) So I didnt actually help much but anyways.. All the locals on the island looked very interesting with their intricately woven garments. The guys had black trousers with a white spanish style top with kind of puffy sleeves and a black vest like a bolero vest and an intricately woven cummerbund type of thing and hat which they aparently made themselves! Yea weaving is the main industry on the island and well basically its tradition. Quite funny because if a guy cant weave well, and for them well = mega complicated stuff hehe then the ladies wont like them that much! Hehe a lady in our tour group commented on the fact that it was probably because it means that they will be good with their hands hehe:) The ladies dress on the other hand consisted of a big skirt that was puffed up majorly by many layers of petticoats a top and a black piece of material with pom pom type things on the ends. Aparently if a lady is single her pom poms are colourful and so is her skirt but once she gets married they have to be more subdued hehe.. maybe cause marriage aint all its cut out to be? hehe jk:) Yea other than that our tour guide told us loads about the people on the island, the most interesting thing being that although they are very conservative they believe in people being able to live together before they get married! If they have a baby then they are urged to get married obviously. But if things dont go well and they dont have babies or anything then they are free to separate.. aparently you cant do this too many times tho or they'll think your a bit of a hoe.. hehe:) So yes.. once in the center of the island we headed to a restaurant where I had the most gorgeous quinoa soup ever! Following that we headed off to the otherside of the island form where we had gotten off to catch the boat again. There were loads of little stalls along the way with ladies selling gorgeous jewelry..:) couldnt help myself and got this cool woven necklace:) Got some stuff for other people but wont reveal that hehe:) After Taquile we were shipped back to Puno. On the way back got chatting to this Dutch dude on the boat, was really nice and got some very good info about New Zealand yay! Back at Puno didnt do much really, had dinner then picked up our bags so we could head to the bus terminal to catch our bus to Arequipa. The bus ride was an absolute nightmare!!!! Firstly, because it was a local bus it stopped about a million times to pick up passengers and what not. Was just so annoying stopping in loads of random places and sometimes we didnt even seem to be doing anything where we stopped!! argh! On top of that this drunken dude boarded the bus... yea unfortunately for some reason he decided that he wanted to stand right next to me and Tom... hmm... was a bit worried that he was going to vommit on me! argh! At one point he lunged forward at us freaking us out hehe but luckily he was just tryign to get his balance whilst making his way back to his chair.. I kind of signalled him to sit down many times cause I was really freaked out but anyways!! Unfortunately the bus ride of hell did not end there.. couldnt believe it but the bus broke down!!! argh!! Not again!!! But yes.. had to wait for aaaages to get it fixed.. at least it gave me good time for a loo break.. kind of had some truck drivers see my bottom as there wasnt really anywhere to hide.. very nice hehe. Finally the bus was moving anyways.. not without much noise (did not sound good!) and a funny burning smell.. hmm.. was fine again until this local lady decided that she wanted to move herself down the floor of the bus right next to me!! Would have been fine if she didnt have her head practically in my lap.. and on top of that I swear that she drank from my water bottle cause it tasted like her smell.. i.e. skanky fish! Maybe she didnt drink from it but she definitely put her head on it or something! eww!! So yes.. finally made it to Arequipa at 3am! Yay! NOT! hehe:) Were meant to get there at 1.. but anyways. Got a taxi to our hotel. Was a bit scary actually as on the way I saw these two guys running with this bloodied up man running after then clearly having been attacked and punched in the nose!! argh! At last we had a bit of luck as our hotel guy was up thank god hehe:) and the hotel was amazing! With lovely beds a huge room. such nice sheets... aww!! Monday 3rd April// Slept in majorly today as you can imagine hehe:) After we finally managed to get ourselves out of bed we had a bit of a wander around Arequipa. Much nicer than I had expected having seen a beaten up man the night before hehe:) Paid a visit to the main museum in town that has housed three of the most important ice mummies found in peru. The most famous being that of the Inca Princess Juanita:) Unfortunately she was somewhere else when we paid a visit but we did have a good look at another one of the first mummies discovered of a little girl, they call her Juliaca. So weird seeing mummies with their hair still intact... kind of gross actually hehe. The mummy had loads of other inca artifacts which were really cool to see. Most of them being things found with the mummies i.e. offerings to the gods. After that we headed towards the Cathedral which is absolutely huge. Very impressive and very white like much of the rest of Arequipa. Funny thing happened next as Tom and I went into it to have a look and there we found Thomas and Louisa these two dudes we were travelling with before in Chile!!:) We were mega surprised to see them there because they were told us they were heading to Argentina and that they had no plans to go up into Peru or Bolivia hehe:) Was lovely anyways as we went for some hot drinks and had a long chat. Was even ebtter because they paid as they remembered that they owed us for the taxi that we paid for to get into town in Bariloche in Argentina where we last saw them over a month ago:( hehe Later in the evening Tom and I met up with Vicky the lady who runs the Hostel Recoleta in Cusco back at our hotel. Tuesday 4th April// Left early for our tour for the Colque Canyon today! Vicky came with us hehe so funny cause she's taking her holiday. SO funny:) She's so random and goes off on one alot but otherwise she's lovely. We were loaded into a small van with a lovely french canadian couple Karen and Luke, an Oz/English couple Amanda and Colum, our driver and our tour guide called Erica. To start off with we made a quick stop to a little shop to get supplies of coca leaves and other coca based products that would help us combat the symptoms of altitude sickeness. Vicky suggested a less natural form of relief in the form of these huge chewable tablets. We didn't buy any leaves ourselves, but to my delight Erica our tour guide let us all have a bit of hers. We put the leaves in our mouths and chewed them a bit then added a bit of bicarbonate of soda if I remember correctly which acts as a catalyst to get the chemicals in the Coca leaves to actually work or something or other... hehe sorry really bad explanation. But yea wasn't the nicest sensation or taste in my mouth.. left one side of my mouth feeling kind of numb wouldn't really wanna use it again. Plus your breath kind of stinks after chewing the leaves. I instead took a liking to the coca sweets hehe:) Oh yea quite funny because when we made that stop, Amanda the Oz lady said she recognized me from the bus in Bolivia! i.e. the one where I lost my bag hehe:)Yea actually Tom and I both thought we recognised them from somewhere hehe:) I rememebr her being the lady who told me not to say sorry because it was the bus drivers fault or whatever. Anyhoo the rest of the ay was pretty uneventful really. We made a couple of stops to have a look at vicuna and other local animals but we weren't that interested as we had seen them all before in better environments anyways. On top of that the scenery which was nice wasn't quite as impressive as any of the other places we had already been to. Nevermind! There was a nice mirador that we stopped at where we had a good view of the Andes. Finally we arrived around lunch time in a place called Chivay (pronounced Chibay) Wednesday 5th April// Thursday 6th April// Friday 7th April//

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