Sandboarding in Huacachina, Peru. Amazing

I left Arequipa and went up to Ica, which has nothing really to offer except for the town next door known as Huacachina. This part of Peru is all sand dunes. I had heard people mention this place before and that it was pretty cool, but I have never seen anything like this. Huacachina was a small town plopped right in between these massive dunes... I don't understand why there isn't sand in every crevice of everything there. Anyway, I got to my hostel, Casa de Arena, which my book said I should probably skip because the staff is a little "shifty" and women get harassed, but I figured to give it a go anyway and I didn't have any problems at all, in fact, the staff doesn't even really talk to you. It was nice, has a big pool and bar, but there really isn't anything to do in town but sit around the pool and go sandboarding.

The Hostel

The dunes!

People getting ready to board

One of the smaller beginner runs

So for sandboarding, the pick you up in a buggy thing, there are about 8 people in it, and take you out into the dunes. We got lucky and had Alfredo as our driver who is an absolut maniac! We went so fast and literally flew off so many dunes, that my sunglasses flew right off my face. It was amazing and so much fun. I lef the next day because like I said, there really isn't much else to do there.

Went to Lima for 2 nights where this jackass in my room took the pillow off my bed to cuddle with or whatever. They didn't have extras, but since I really couldn't be bothered to start an argument with a tool over a pillow, I just used my little one. Lima was ok. I was scared to go out cause I didn't want to get robbed again, so I only went to the main plaza, without my camera, so I have no pictures. Haha. The hostel, Loki, was ok too. It was a nice enough place, but there were a lot of losers there. It was all backpackers, obviously, who just came to get really fucked up on any drug they could get their hands on and act like morons. So I didn't hang out in Lima long. Now I am at the beach, surf lessons commence tomorrow and then I am not sure. I am having a change of heart on where I ant to go... stay tuned.

Lake Titicaca and Arequipa's Colca Canyon

After Gary left, I went on to Puno, which is southern Peru right on Lake Titicaca. I met a German girl on the bus and we found a room for $4 a night, good stuff. We just relaxed that night because the next morning we left to do a 2 day tour of the Lake Titicaca Islands. There were about 12 people on the tour, Argentina, England, Australia, Germany, Colombia and the States, it was a big group, but everyone was nice. The first stop was the floating islands of Isla Flotantes, we walked around, went on a little boat ride on the local boats and thats about it. The islands are really cool, cause they are all made of the lake reeds, you walk on them, you sleep on them, the roofs are made of them, its crazy, I just didn't quite understand why people still live like that since they have to rebuild the islands every year or so.

Island

Local little girl on the boat

The Island from the boat

After we left the floating island, we spent three hours on our slow ass motor boat to the next island, Amantani, where we would sleep with a family. When the boat pulls into the dock, there are a bunch of local women and the guide talks to them and sets us, the tourist, up with a local family to sleep for the night. I got placed with my German friend and an older couple from England that smoked like chimneys and not much of the conversationalists. The women who we went home with was probably about 90 and I thought was going to die on the way home. She was wheezing and couldn't speak a lick of spanish, only the local language of Quechua. We got back and she made us lunch of soup, and a main course of cold potatoes, cheese and tomatoes. Not much of a gourmet cook, but that is the snob in me. haha. We walked around the island for the afternoon, which was really pretty, awesome views. That night, the rest of the family came home, and they spoke Spanish, so at least we could talk to them! After dinner they dressed us in the local garb and we went to the main plaza for a ¨party¨, which was basically, all of the gringos on the island dressed up like locals dancing around. It was absolutely hilarious. And their idea of dancing is everyone in a big circle holding hands and sort of skipping in a big circle... it got a little boring after the first three songs, but it was still hilarious.

The lake

Local threads



All the gringos

Our house

I left Puno on Thursday morning for Arequipa because I heard the Colca Canyon was amazing. I wanted to meet someone to do the Canyon with so I didn't have to do it alone, but I didn't meet anyone so I had to join another tour. The canyon is about 5 hours outside of town, so its a little hard to get to, but the tour groups provide transport, meals and huts, so it wasn't a bad deal. I had a good group, a little too big though, 10 people! That's too many to go hiking with. So we got picked up at 3:30am on Friday morning and drove out to canyon area. There we ate ¨lunch¨ and started on the hike. The first day was only three hours of hiking down into the canyon, which was very beautiful, but not my favorite scenery. We stayed in a tiny town with tons of vegetation, there were avocado trees and cactus pears everywhere. We woke up the next morning, hiking up and over to another canyon, for three hours, then stayed at this oasis that was very relaxing! But there were like 4 groups there, so it was just a ton of people hanging out doing nothing. It was nice, but I had finished my book so I was bored out of my mind and we played cards for like 4 hours. The next morning, we woke up at 4:30 and started our hike at 5am to leave the canyon. That also took about 3 hours and then the hike was over. So you could easily do that hike in 2 days, but thats what I get for an organized tour. Whatever, it was nice, nothing special. Not on my ¨must do¨ list by any means.

The Canyon

The Oasis

Big group

Tonight I head out to Ica, which I am a little nervous about since the night buses are not known to be the safest source of transportation, but I forked over the extra money for a higher end bus that will hopefully get me there in one piece.

Machu Picchu!

After we left Uruguay, we arrived in Cusco on January 2, and what an adorable town! Although it is touristy, it is so beautiful and charming, I could have stayed there for weeks. Our first afternoon there, we found a hotel right in one of the central plazas for $25 a night, which is a pretty good deal! We walked around and stumbled upon a little festival where there were a bunch of street food vendors cooking up some local treats. We decided we had a few days to cushion our trek in case we got sick and we saddled up to a women serving "typical plates". This consisted of a piece of dry beef, some sort of sausage, chicken, guinea pig (yes, we ate it... twice. Wouldn't do it again), corn, seaweed, fish eggs, and cheese. And a beer, of course. It was alright, but there were other street meats I enjoyed more.

We walked around some more, went to the office of our Machu Picchu trek and found out that I dont know how to read a calendar and our trek left Sunday and not Monday. Which was fine. We just hung out around Cusco the next day, went to an AMAZING market and ate some more local food. You can get a huge plate of food for $1, and we did, obviously. We left for Machu Picchu on Sunday morning.

Overlookin Cusco

Lady serving up our traditional plate... thats a guinea pig in front

Unfortunately, the day of the trek, I started feeling a little less than fresh, and on the car ride up had to have the driver pull over where I blew chunks on the side of the road. I thought I would be able to walk with the group, but I was so week they drove me to the first camp site where I stayed in my tent the whole day with the chills and a pretty bad fever. The guide told me that if I didn't feel better the next day, which was the hardest and longest day, I could go on horse. The next morning I felt like a new person and didn't need the horse, which was good, cause we had 5 horses but one of them fell off the side of the mountain on the way up so we were down to 4 horses. If you saw those trails you would know, they are narrow and drop off into the steepest valleys I have ever seen... except in Colorado.

From our first Campsite, that was the Salkantay Mountain which our trail was named after

There were 5 of us in the group, with our guide Bandero, which was good, we got lucky with a small group. We hiked through mountains, jungle, towns, waterfalls, everything you can imagine for 4 days until we reached Aquas Calientes which is the town closest to Machu Picchu. On the 5th day, we woke up at 4 am and started the climb to Machu Picchu at 5. It was cloudy and rainy so we didn't get the best pictures, but it was still unbelievable to think that just about 100 years ago, this place was undiscovered and covered in jungle. It was massive and just breathtaking. Highly recommended.

Our Group at 15, 253 ft

Met this woman on the trek, hiked with us for 8 hours... she is 85 years old

Gary looks like the biggest tourist EVER

View of Machu Picchu

Our Machu Picchu shot

We spent about 7 hours at Machu Picchu and then headed back to town, and of course, as soon as we got back it was sunny and beautiful out! We headed back to Cusco that night and did some serious relaxing.

The next day, we walked around again, there is a lot to see in Cusco! We got an hour long full body massage for $6 each, $7 including tip. Can't beat that!

One of my favorite pics, Gary talking to a local kid

On Saturday, we went to the Sacred Valley, which is a series of towns that all have Inca ruins. That was cool too, driving through all the local towns and seeing the landscape. All of which was just breathtaking, I can't say enough about how beautiful this area is.

Sunday was Gary's last day. We ate some delicious breakfast sandwiches for the third day in a row, walked around, I cried, he left, and I cried some more. Now I have to get back in the swing of being alone and meeting new people everyday. Which is fine, its what I am here for, but I miss my travel buddy!

Spent the last few days in Lake Titicaca, pictures and stories to come.

Punta del Diablo, Uruguay... and then some

First of all, Happy New Year!!



Good thing we rented a car because we basically drove the entire Uruguayan coast. From Punta del Este, we drove up to Punta del Diablo, which I mentioned, was amazing. We spent two nights there but could have stayed a week. Its a small town, with just a few bars and restaurants, right on the beach. Only sand roads, surfers everywhere, hippies, and just a really laid back atmosphere. Our first night there we stayed at a little place right on the water. Our balcony opened up to the ocean... we wanted to stay two nights but they didn't have availability :(

Gary on the "Main road"

Downtown

View from one of the places we stayed.

So Happy!

On December 30th, we drove down to Atlantida, which is a town in between Montevideo and Punta del Este. We made a pit stop in Punta del Este to see some of Gary's friends at Bikini Beach, which was awesome! Tons of people hanging out with a DJ on the beach. Too bad I had a little stomach bug and had to lay on a blanket like beached whale while everyone else danced and drank. We got to our hotel in Atlantida pretty late and laid down to rest for a minute, and the next thing we knew it was 2am, so we just stayed put and had a deserved relaxing evening Atlantida was cute, we hung out on the beach on New Years Eve and since I was feeling better, we made a last minute decision to party like rock stars in Punta del Este. We met up with Gary's friends from Chicago, some girls I had met in Buenos Aires and celebrated the new year in style.

We slept for about 3 hours, and headed back to Montevideo to return the car and catch our ferry back to Buenos Aires. We were 12km from the car return when we broke down. We had to wait an hour to get help and then had to book it in time to catch our bus to the ferry. But we made it.

Punta del Este Beach

Dinner New Years Eve

Celebrating with the Ozzie ladies

That night we met up with a guy that Gary had met when he backpacked around the world, so they hadn't seen eachother in 12 years and the guy tracked Gary down on Facebook, turns out he lives in BA, so we met up for dinner, it was really cool, plus he had some good pics of Gary.

Really terrible fires from the New Years fire works

Stupid car

We arrived in Cusco today and are still recovering from our whirlwind last few days!