desiree's Journals

Monday 20th March// So, first day of our jungle tour today! Got up early and had breakfast then headed to the tour office. There were only three of us on the tour Me, Tom and Martyn from the pampas tour. We were all first escorted to reconfirm our flights (aparently the people we are flying wth arent so reliable hmm yay!). After that we headed down to the estuary of the Rio Beni to get a small boat like the one we took in the Pampas up the river to where we would start our tour. Thought it was really funny because this tiny old lady was on the boat and she not only pushed off the boat for us at our starting point she did when she got off the boat too hehe. She got off at a really random spot as well didnt look like there was anything there! Anyways the ride was long because we couldnt just go straigh tup the river because of the current so we went up in a zig zag hehe. Very nice and relaxing though, definitely enjoyed it. The boat looked a bit worse for wear tho and looked like it could split at any point hehe:) A couple of hours in we stopped off at a small bay where we met our tour guide Walter. He looked strange as he has a bit missing in his upper lip and his big toe is strangely about an inch away from the rest of his toes.. he has a bit of a funny smell to him too hehe:) He's nice tho! Embarrassed myself getting out of the boat as I got stuck up to my knees in mud hehe:) cause Walter warned us to walk quickly over the groudn cause it was kind of like quicksand and I obviously didnt go fast enough hehe. Of course Tom and Martyn and the two lady cooks were fine..:) So yes anyways after a bit of waiting Walter lead us into the jungle! Very exciting:) As we had taken off our shoes to cross the mud when we arrived and Walter just randomly starte dont he walk Martyn and I started the walk in our bare feet! DIdnt hurt too much surprisingly. In fact only really hurt once we headed over some rocks in a stream. At that point we both wussed out and put on our cheap rubber shoes hehe:) Kind of annoying tho cause it was only 5minutes more from there until we got to our campsite. The campsite was surprisingly nice. We had a sheltered bamboo type hut to sleep in, well didnt have walls or anything was just a raised platform with a roof on top. To sleep on we had the mattresses we were carrying layed out onto the raised platform and then covered with mosquito nets. For eating we had a ridiculously high table or just ridiculously low chairs to sit at.. flet like children as the table came up to just under our chins hehe:) well a bit lower for the guys. Just next to the eating area there was a gorgeous little pool we could dip into at any time:) mostly whilst we were waiting for food hehe:) So yes had lunch once we arrived at camp. There was plenty of food you'd think they cooked for twice as many people!! After that Walter took us out on a long walk for about 2 hours. He showed us lots of cool trees and such. The coolest one had to be this walking tree. Its roots ar ridiculously high out of the ground as it moves them slowly towards sources of water!!:) There were loads of other trees too that had medicinal qualities to them unfortunately couldnt remember what each one did to save my life.. so yes if you get stuck in a jungle with me I will be no help hehe. Having said that I was quite useful on our walks with Walter as I acted as a kind of translator hehe as he couldnt speak any English really. Another fun thing on our walk was this vine that we came to that had a stick attached to it at the bottom:) yep we were able to swing on it!! Very fun!! After our walk we were very very sweaty so much so that I walked into the pool with all my clothes on hehe:) The lovely cooks that were with us prepared us loads of fried platanos (i.e. banana chips but with salt!), popcorn and cookies as well as hot water for tea:) had my lovely mate de coca hehe.. yep coca tea! Kind of bad cause aparently if they test you for drugs after you've had it you'll test positive for cocaine up to a week after!! Anyways, dinner followed a bit too son after for any of our likings as we stuffed ourselves with snacks hehe. After that Martyn decided to try and start a fire so we could stand in the smoke as aparently mosquitoes hate the smell of it. After a while we kind of wondered where Walter had gotten to as he was meant to be taking us on a night walk and we had been waiting for aaages! Was kind of scared cause Tom started talking about how it was like in films where people are left out by themselves with out a guide then are picked off one by one.. hmm good timing tom. Anyways discovered him sleeping in his hut hehe. He got up really quickly and asked us if we wanted to go on our night walk.. was a bit weird and kind of freaked me out how random it all was but anyways... So yes we finally went on our long awaited jungle walk! Very cool as we saw a huge rodent type animal and a massive ass frog!:) A bit annoyed tho as it wasn't exactly a 'jungle' 'jungle' walk as he only took us up right next to the stream.. and on top of that he only took us out for 20minutes when we thought we were supposed to have an hour one.. hmm.. he clearly fell sleep an forgot about us.. Never mind!! Tuesday 21st March// Second and thankfully the last day of the jungle!:) hehe Loved the experience but was definitely happy waking up thinking that I would be able to have a proper shower and get out of my very skanky off white (cause of the dirt..) sweaty clothes.. eww.. Anyways, yes slept well overall but did have an interesting night.. hehe:) Was amazing falling asleep to the sounds of the jungle! Was like an orchestra of insects, funny sounding birds and who know what else! And yea was very very loud hehe:) if the sounds were anything else I definitely would not have been able to fall asleep. Anyways in the middle of the night I unfortunately had to go the loo.. was kind of scared to come out of my mosquito net and step into the wild.. I know sounds stupid cause what protection does a mosquito net give? but yea was nice to have that barrier hehe. So I went in the dark as I had to a bit too close to camp but I didnt want to stray too far hehe.. Back in bed got a bit scared as I could hear something waing around.. argh!!! Never worked out what it was but sounded big and convinced myself if was a jaguar or something hehe:) In the morning foudn out that Martin had heard it too and convinced himself of the same thing hehe.. found out from Walter who actualy checked around our camp cause he heard something that it was only an armadillo hehe. Martin likes to continue believe it was a jaguar tho so as not to sound like a lamo I assume hehe:) jk Apart from that could get to sleep once I went back to bed cause BOTH Tom AND Martin were snoring!!! argh!! So funny cause I could sleep through the jungle noises but I couldnt handle their erratic snoring hehe:) If they had snored in time now that would have been a different matter.. but anyways basically I ended up sleeping the other way around to their heads it was so bad hehe:) So yes anyways enough about snoring etc.. today we got up and had breakfast quite early as Walter was taking us on our long walk. I was a bit worried before we went on it cuase people from our other pampas trip told us it was horrible and hard.. hmm.. So we set off with Walter soon after brekkie. Walk ended up only taking about 3 hours and wasnt actually that physically tiring hehe:) Again a bit annoying tho because I think it was meant to take about 6 hours or something like that anyways and we were meant to go to this amazing viewpoint but we didnt cause we had to get back early cause Martin was supposed to catch his flight back to La Paz later that afternoon. Nonetheless the walk was fun:) And although we didnt make it to the viewpoint we did have some gorgeous views along the way looking over the Rio Beni and the surrounding mountains. Saw some cool trees along the way as well.. one was a garlic tree whose bark smelt just like garlic, another cool one had gross blackish red jelly at its base.. yea was sick as Walter jiggled the jelly for us as he tapped it with his machete ugh! gross!! Another tree had a huge opening at the bottm hwich we could walk through hehe and there was a scary tree that aparently strangles any trees around it to kill them so it gets all the nutrients from the soil etc. Back at camp we all went in for another dip in the pool as we waited for our luncheon. As we did that we saw Walter cutting up this huge coco palm or something that he picked up near the end of our walk. It looked like a huge black durian just so you can imagine it. Yea he was making us jewelry! Was reallly sweet:) He made me a necklace which consisted of one of the seeds in the coco cut in half so you could see the cool cross section (a cool pattern of holes) and a kind of skanky piece of string he pulled out from one of the plastic rice bag type things we had with us hehe:) Was lovely except it smelt really bad hehe.. for those of you familiar with filipino cuisine.. smelt like bagoong ugh!! so disgusting.. basiclaly like fish paste but grosser. Anywasy Tom got a cool browny black ring and Martin kind of got the short end of the stick as he had a kind of funny white ring which was too chunky for his fingers and looked a bit like some weird plastic hehe.. oh well! After luncheon we all packed up our bags and headed back the way we came originally back to the river. The ride back to Rurrenabaque was really lovely would have loved it to have been longer but as we were riding with the current it took half the time it took for us to get up it hehe. Randomly on the way we stopped and turned around.. was wondering what was going on when we started approaching a nearby boat and the dude in it threw a huge fish into our boat hehe guess that was gonna be our boat drivers dinner! Back at Rurrenabaque we all said our thanks, headed back to the hotel and fell asleep hehe:) Were relaxing when we got a knock on the door from Caroline the girl travelling with Martin. Turns out Martin didnt catch ihs flight as the very unreliable airline bumped him off to the next day because of supposed 'delays' or something.. Anyways ended up having dinner with them two and some of their friends that they met from before. Was really childish but thought it was funny cause one of the lady's names was Fanny hehe:) and her boyfriend had a very interesting name: Nimrod. Dinner was lovely and before bed we had a quick game of 'shithead' obviously hehe:) then headed to bed! Wednesday 22nd March// Woke up mega early today to catch out 8am flight back to La Paz.. Unfortunately as Tom predicted we did not get the flight because every flight was bumped forward because of a cancelled flight the day before. Overall was not a very interesting day as we basically went back and forth from the restaurant across the road from the Airlines office (never fly amazonas by the way:)). The guys in there were sooo annoying though because they told us we would get on the 2pm flight so we didnt get a room as we would have if we had to wait for 7 hours.. and arrived back at the office to find that they had moved us to a flight at 5 in the afternoon!!! argh!!! Oh well.. after a bit of panic that we might not get on the plane cause it started raining just before 4 we finally made it on our 5pm flight back to La Paz. The plane was even smaller this time could believe it hehe. The view from the plane was amazing though as we could see over all the pampas, rainforest everything! Beautiful:)Tom and I were both alarmed at one point during the flight though as we both felt really tired and fell asleep because of what felt like a lack of oxygen.. it was then that the pilots put on their oxygen masks.. hm.. hehe we thought hello where are ours?!!! hehe:) At La Paz we shared a taxi to town with this lovely Canadian couple who we recognised from the pampas tour.. little did I know that they remmebered me from the bus ride when I lost my bag!! hehe:) so funny:) I'm famous for losing my bag:) Thursday 23rd March// Left early on a tourist bus today to Copacabana! Not the one in the song hehe:) The one on lake titicaca. Its a really cute little town, quite sleepy with quite a few tourists and obviously locals. Anyways, once we were checked into our nice Hotel Utama with FREE COCA TEA!! Hehe:) sorry very exciting for me:) We went for a walk starting along the lake.. gorgeous as we looked out onto the shimmering lake:) ALong the way there were mainly restaurants selling seafood and such. We then headed up further into the town itself and had a look at the huge cathedral. Was awesome as it was really big and white with as I remember a greenish reddish tiled roof. All the way around it was a huge wall. Was very interesting. Did a bit of shopping after that buying a gorgeous necklace with a bright circular stone which starts off orange at the top and then fades into a darker black colour very cool supposed to keep me strong or osmething:) yea I'm sure.. hehe Bought a nice Bolivia t-shirt as well with llamas on the front:) as well as another pair of thse clown like trousers (cooler tho!!) all striped in pink very cool:) After that we headed back towards our hotel as it was on the way to the gorgeous hill which lies behind the whole town. Decided to climb up, aparently many people come here to make pilgrimages and put stones on marked spots as they ascend the hill which represent the different signs on the cross. Anyways yes I huffed and puffed all the way up hehe:) we actually stopped mid way and had a bit of a nap hehe.. yes very lazy but we were really worn from all our early mornings!! The view was gorgeous from the top as we looked out over lake titicaca and the islands peppered around it. Having spent ages taking in the gorgeous view of lake titicaca, we headed down and went out for some dinner. Had this really yummy local specialty called 'trucha criolla' sooo good! Basically huge ass tasty trout cooked with tomatoes and onion. Friday 24th March// Had a massive breakfast at our hotel today. Soo good with eggs, pancakes, cereal, coffee etc etc the list goes on hehe:) Sorry going on about food again!! Anyways, so yes headed out to the Isla Del Sol today.. unfortunately we boarded the slowest boat I have ever ridden in my life!! Seriously.. what should have been a 45 minute boat ride took about 2 hours! Probably because it was a medium sized boat completely full of people and only being driven by a single small ass motor which would usually be used on a tiny fishing boat or something.. hmm yes.. Unfortunately Tom wasnt feeling too good on the ride either so didnt help that it took so long! Finally at the North end of the island we headed out to the Chincana Ruins. Took us a while as what we initially thought was sea sickness was clearly something else for Tom.. argh! The walk was nice though, according to Tom the place looked very mediterranean.. I wouldn't know as I have not been there hehe:) But yes was lovely walking along seeing all the cute tiny donkeys along the way:) At the ruins site, I checked it out by myself as Tom sat trying to feel better. The ruins were cool, medium sized with lots of rooms so felt like a maze hehe:) It was set in a gorgeous spot as it faced Lake Titicaca. From there I could see the Puma rock nearby which did look like a huge puma but only from the angle I was at. Very impressive! Tom unfortunately was not feeling any better once I got back to him so.. instead of doing the 3 hour walk down to the south end of the island we had to race back to the ferry pier as the boats last departure is at 1:30 argh! and it was 1.. and we took about an hour or so to get to the ruins.. I ran ahead cause Tom felt sick, the idea was to stop the boat and get them to wait for him. Luckily made it on time.. well they didnt leave for ages after but never mind! Managed to explain in crappy spanish that my friend was ill and asked all the passengers if it was ok to wait hehe. Tom arrived soon after but stayed on the bottom part of the boat whilst I stayed on the top. Got talking to this nice Finnish couple.. I think thats what they were suddenly cant remember!! Argh! Anyways yea exchanged emails and they migh tbe coming to HK this summer! so may see them hehe:) very cool:) Was a short boat ride down to the south part of the island (yea no boats went direct back to copacabana) stayed there for an hour or so. Had a look at the Escalera del Incas i.e. Inca Stairway:) was beautiful like something from a fairytale book with water splashing down either side of it and tiers of flowered sections all the way up! Just before heading back had a bit of a mix up as I hadnt actually paid the boat we came on yet and somehow ended up buying a ticket from another boat.. oops! Nearly started a full on fight as the guy I bought the ticket from thought the other guys were tryign to steal his passengers!! oopsees!! hehe:) In the end wish we had gone with the other boat as they left almost straight away on time.. our boat on the other hand didnt move until a good half hour after they said we would leave!! argh!! So gross too cause there was this drunk man on board and at one point nearly freaked out as he stumbled up the middle of the boat and looked like he was going ot come and puke on me or tom!! eww! Luckily he turned around.. dont know why he was in such a state at 3:30 in the after noon.. hmm Anyways! So as Tom felt very very sick I left him back at the hotel to rest up whilst I had a bit of a wander around to find take out food for dinner and general just walking around. Bought some very lovely artesanal earrings love them:) Got asked if I wanted to go out for drinks with the earring seller and my friend hehe but told him my friend was sick oh well! So to end the day ended up just having a set lunch thing for dinner which I got from a nearby hotel cause obvioulsy Tom could get out of bed. That was funny as the chefs all waved goodbye and blew me kisses as I left!! hehe:) Dont know what I did to deserve that but very humorous:) Saturday 25th March// Tom still felt bad so basically spent most of the day on the bus as we did not get off at Puno as originally planned. Headed onwards to Cuszco as it is a bit lower than Puno and well thought it would help him feel better being at a lower altitude. On our second bus up to Cuszco from Puno was hilarious as this boy came on our bus before it left kind of smiling... then he started singing! Yes.. he was absolutely horrendous! To make things worse he was banging two random pieces of shells together as percussion or whatever hehe.. felt so rude as I couldnt stop myself from laughing hehe:) Tom was in a similar state hehe:) Decided we were fed up of having to give money to people who just randomly came on buses and well expected money for whatever they were doing.. this time we thought yea.. he really doesnt deserve anything.. so we both pretended to be asleep until he left hehe.. I actually had my jacket over my head to hide the fact I was laughing hysterically with tears and everything hehe:) Ended up arriving really late in Cuszco but luckily when we bought our bus tickets onwards they included a hotel service and yea someone met us at the bus station and booked us into a nice and quite cheap place. Sunday 26th March// Changed hotels today! Decided to move into the HOstal Recoleta that Danielle recommended us. Unfortunately was fully booked and they hadnt received my email so they asked if just for that night we could stay at one of their affiliated hostels. Not bad! So were happy. Ended up spending waay too much time in the room. Then finally we headed out for some munchies. Tom had this gorgeous wood oven baked pizza! Lokoed so good. Wandered around a bit but didnt do much. Tom headed back to the hotel earlier than I did, just hung around and waited to see a movie at this kind of bar/cinema place in town there are quite a few of them in Cuszco. Tom didnt really wanna go cuase it was all dark and looked dodgy inside hehe. Was fine tho! Ended up watching 'City Of God' the brazilian movie about the slums in Rio. Soooo cool!! Was amazing and I would recommend it to everybody! Quite heavy going tho so make sure you're in the right mood for it!:) Made a friend at the cinema place this really nice South African girl called Daniella. She was really pretty and cool:) By herself too which is why we got talking. Was funny cause she accidentally asked me if I loved this movie set in Japan.. hehe then she realised she got the country wrong.. oh well!

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