A little more sugar!

Well, it's been a while since my last blog...and what has happened since then?

To cap up on it all, I trekked, rafted, lazed and travelled! More specific? Ok!

We hung out in The Point, wandering around the lovely cobbled streets of Cusco, finding ever-cheaper coffee shops to eat huge chunks of chocolate cake in - a worthy quest! We decided to sign up to the Inca trek then - possibly frightened by the sight of our expanding waistlines. The Inca Trail - the main tourist one finishing at the Sun Gate in Machu Pichu - is closed for February, but as the entire country of Peru is dotted with Inca trails meandering all over their fabulous mountains, we signed up for another trek advertised in the hostel...a four day ending in Aguas Calientes, the town below Machu Pichu.

So, all seven of us (our fab Scots included) got our bags ready, packing small backpacks, (as we had to carry them every day on the hike), to cover our few days away from the hostel. We met the guide at 7 and took a local bus to our initial destination - the first day was to be downhill mountain biking, so we had to head to a high point. The bus journey was one of the most terrifying ever - the roads were winding upwards along a mountain, and the drops were inches from the wheels at every turn. The worst part was that there had been landslides in the days preceding, and at one point three quarters of the road was covered in rocks and muck, and the bus had to drive over it, making it tilt towards the drop at the edge of the road. I swear, the bus was INCHES from the edge, and I got thrown against Alan at the window and found myself staring straight downwards at the valley below, with nothing to hold me to the road. Bloody terrifying! Alan thought it was brilliant, but I spent most of the time saying silent prayers in my head that we'd be OK.....

The bus let us off at the top of the mountain, and we took our bikes off the top. Bikes! They didn't deserve to be called 'bikes'! The best of them had crappy brakes, and no gears to speak of. Mine had front brakes, but no gear changes....Bones's, as we were to discover, probably had no brakes at all... Anyway, we set off, all seven of us feeling like pros after our death-road experience - but with an addition to the group, Nada, an Iraqi-Canadian girl who didn't enjoy the cycling, so we had to keep stopping to let her catch up. Our guide was very blase about the whole thing, and stayed with her, while we raced on ahead on rocky roads with cliff drops beside us. Unfortunately, towards the end, Bones came off his bike pretty hard, shredding his jeans and leg, grazing his elbow pretty bad, but the worst was his shoulder, which he pulled a lot of skin off of, but also bruised pretty hard. So, we took it slow for the last while to get Bones to the village. Myself and Gail took a stroll around to find a chemists to patch him up, but found a medical centre instead. The nurse there said to bring him down, so I got Bones and brought him back. The woman cleaned all his wounds with iodine and oxigenated water, using steralized equipment and not touching him with her own hands, and bandaged it up with sterile gauze. We wondered how much this would cost, and on asking discovered it was 3 soles (about 70 cent)! Bones gave her 10 - for a drink for herself too! What a health service...

Next day was the beginning of the hiking. The village we were staying in was a little further away from where the original village had stood until 1995, when a landslide and avalanche from a mountain at the other end of the valley had swept along the river and engulfed the houses, killing about 1000 people. As we hiked from the village we passed destroyed houses and banks, shops and streets, and found parts of the road still hadn't been dug up from under the debris - in fact, at one point of the road, we had to walk while looking upwards, to ensure falling rocks didn't hit us. The first day was pretty tough. We had to hike uphill for basically 4 hours - it was an eight hour hike in total, but the uphill was KILLER! In the full heat of the day, and absolutely feeling every step in our out-of-practice muscles, it was a relief to get the to the top! Halfway up, though, we stopped for a rest at a women's home, where they had a pet monkey. I had great fun playing with him - the photos are on bebo. He was hilarious! When we got around the side of the mountain, looking down on the Urumbamba river below us (which we were following to Machu Pichu), we discovered that the Inca trail we were on crossed along the side of a pretty sheer drop for about 20 minutes of walking, and the path was barely a meter wide. With steps up and down, and straight bits across, it was pretty hairy! I was fine with it, as I'm not too bothered by heights in this situation, where I am the one in control of my life - in the bus it's having the bus driver in charge that makes me so nervous! Alan, on the other hand, discovered a latent fear of heights! Who knew.....! His legs were literally vibrating at every step, and I felt very sorry for him walking behind him - but he soldiered on, and completed the whole thing, so I was very proud of him (at the risk of sounding patronising!).

We had to cross the Urumbamba quite high up, and a fabulous little contraption set up across the river at intervals awaited our adventure-seeking party! Cables were strung across the raging waters (and as it was rainy season, they really did rage!), and a small tray was attached to the cable. A platform was set up on opposing sides of the river, and it was up the the person in the tray to pull themselves across to the other side using the rope and pulley system. This particular tray held two people, crossed the river at a height of about 30 meters, and spanned about 400 meters to the other side. The tray was big enough for two people sitting with their knees up to their chins, squashed together, and Gail and Alan bravely went first! They were pushed across, stopped halfway, and we had to watch as they painfully and slowly dragged themselves over. Myself and Alan went next, and it was bloody terrifying...besides the huge drop, tottering across in a rusty tray barely big enough for us to crouch in, gazing at the frayed ropes above, and listening to the creaking of the joints was really giving us the heebies! Alan and Gail helped pull us in on the other side, though, so it was slightly less tiring than their ordeal! What a bloody adventure!

After we crested the hill, we hiked back down towards the river, and ended the day at hot springs past a bamboo swamp, where we swam in the volcanic heat for a good two hours, loving the views of the massive mountains around us, and the soothing warmth on our aching muscles! We had a choice to walk another hour (it had begun to rain!) uphill to our next stop, or take a collectivo (mini-van thing, like a taxi). So we took the collectivo! And this quickly became the NEW worst road journey of my life! Squashed into the van with the others, with the rain lashing down, and all the windows fogged up - even the drivers windscreen - he proceeded to drive at breakneck speed up the hill, with the road collapsing under him at the edge, and rock falling under us. Jesus Christ! Myself and Gail were seriously terrified!! But we made it up there eventually....after what seemed a very bloody long journey, but was really only about 15 minutes.

This next hostel was a bit grubbier than our last, probably not helped by the rain, and the fact that we couldn't dry our clothes from that day! But we're fine with a little hardship...makes you feel that this is a real experience (if you don't suffer, you don't know the sunshine, and all that!). So, next day, we set off early and hiked back down to the river and took a shorter and less high tray across some cables again, and began the easier days trekking. This time the sun shone, and the road was not as tough or up-and-down as the previous days, so it was an easier slog. We reached the valley behind Machu Pichu by lunchtime, and ate lunch with the faintest glimpse of the ruins visible in the distance. That afternoon was pretty monotonous, as we just followed the train tracks around the mountain to Aguas Calientes - literally followed them, we had to hop from sleeper to sleeper for four hours of straight walking (the initial 'Stand By Me' jokes and laughter soon wore thin....). Bones, who had preformed admirably in the previous two days considering the pain of his new bike injuries, and his old ankle break, took the train to Aguas Calientes. His only concession in two days of flat-out strenuous hikes! What a guy....

Our arrival in Aguas Calientes was greeted with the news that we could have hot showers - what luxury - so we all headed to the hostel rooms and relaxed a lot for the night! Next morning we were due to either get up and hike up the hill to Machu Pichu to catch the sunrise, or else take the bus. The two Alan's, in a fit of competativeness methinks, decided to get up at 4.30 to leave at 5 for the hike - along with Nada, which was very strange as she had displayed no interest (and in fact an aversion) to hiking in general! But, fair play to her, she did it! The rest of us got up at 5.00 and took the bus....

When we arrived, we ate our breakfast snack while watching the mist climb higher and higher, until the sky was obscured completely. So, unfortunately, we did not get to see the sun rise above Machu Pichu, but what we did see was an amazing group of ruins and pathways partially obscured by mist, which gave a mystical feel to things that caused us to whisper as we wandered about. Our guide (Rojan, by the way) gave us the tour of the ruins, explaining each of the temples, and also informing us that he still believes in the Inca Gods. His belief came through quite strongly, actually, and the ancient mysticism of Machu Pichu was definitely more impressed upon me on this trip moreso than the last (probably because by the time I reached Machu Pichu last time I was sick from constant hiking at very high altitude, and also bloody wrecked from 6 days of hardcore trekking).

As the sun rose, so did the level of tourists, and by 8.00 am, we were hard pushed to get a photo minus a bunch of Japanese tourists carrying every conceivable digital recording device. A few of us decided to give Wynu Pichu a go - a tough vertical climb along Inca steps with huge drops next to them ending at a summit overlooking the main ruins. Last time I was at Machu Pichu with Concern, we climbed to the Sun Gate, over the other peak beside Machu Pichu, so I was delighted to have a shot at something a little different this time! The climb was extremely vertical - so much so that there were sometimes ropes hammered into the cliff face on your right side to help drag yourself up to the steps. Alan, considering his new-found heights aversion, did amazingly, and we all felt a little fitter when we finally reached the top - taking the usually 1-hour climb in only 40 minutes (but by God, was I sweating!). It was actually great fun, and the view from the top well worth any exersion! Welly hit the Sun Gate with Nada, as she is afraid of heights so didn't want to do Wynu (and I mean seriously afraid - wheras Alan took the Inca steps with shaky legs and didn't enjoy it, she had to sit down and slowly move herself across them on her bum), and as he will be returning here in April with Jane, when she arrives, and wanted to climb it with her.

We returned to Aguas Calientes for our first meal outside of the group-trek (i.e., the first one we had to pay for, and therefore the first we could choose our food), and we ate all round us!! We had a few hours until our train, so we whiled away some time strolling through the markets, and fooling around on the internet. The train was a special tourist train, as tourists cannot travel on the local trains - to keep the trains from being over-packed in high season and stopping regulars from fitting on, and also to maintain a low price for locals. It was nice, and we travelled further along the river Urumbamba to the Sacred Valley, finishing in Ollantaytambo. We took a bus from there back to our hostel (a tire blew out on the way, and the bus swerved dramatically), arriving safe and sound back in Cusco pretty late at night.

We had a day of rest before we were due to head off on a two-day white water rafting tour, and on the morning of the trip Bones unfortunately discovered that the days since his bike accident had not healed his shoulder, and it had actually seized up rather painfully. The rest of us set off for the river at about 9, discovering as we did so that the river we would be rafting on was the very one we had hiked alongside to Machu Pichu...a scary thought, as that river had flowed powerfully and dangerously next to us on a continuous basis! However, further discussion revealed that day one was to be grade 2-3 rapids. As we had rafted grade 3 in Bariloche, we were a little underwhelmed by the news! But rafting is always fun, no matter what! Ed and Alan took the front this time, as Alan the Scot and Welly had taken the front in Bariloche - myself and Gail had jumped to take the next days positions! The first day was relatively easy - nothing we couldn't handle, despite having a trainee instructor onboard with our guy who kept sending us wrong instructions! The other team, consisting of four people over 60 and a couple of first-timers, capsized on one of the rapids, and while we laughed at them (how mature!), panic ensued...we had not been given proper instructions on what to do in this situation, so while we knew the proper course of action, they did not. We went in to pull a few out of the water, and help the rescue team, and looked on it as a bit of an adventure to liven up the otherwise ho-hum rapids...although having my lip split open from a panicked and large elderly Japanese man was a tad annoying! We got them all out, but there was considerable panic amongst the othe group, with one girl giving a very convincing preformance of someone who has just cheated death, and isn't happy about it!

We had lunch back at the group centre, and ate a hearty lunch with the other group. They departed for the evening, and we spent the afternoon walking into town - where, for one of the few times on the trip, we were genuinely the only gringos in town - and buying cards, playing cards, and then building a fire outside our tent. We were left mainly to our own devices until dinner, and then we retired to our tents for the night. Next morning we were greated to the greatest breakfast I have ever had! A giant steaming pot of porridge and quinea, fresh bread, delicious pancakes and eggs scrambled with onions and spices - not to mention the jams, honey and dulce de leche mixed in! So we ate very heartily, and headed off for our most exciting day - the grade 3-4 and possibly 5 rapids! Myself and Gail were a bit nervous up front, but we steeled ourselves to the challenge of leading the rowing and setting the pace. We set off higher up the mountain this time, and hit some 3's first of all - exciting ones, much better than the day before. But the real thrill of the day was definitely held in those grade 4 (some nearly 5!) doozies! You literally crest the pounding water and drop vertically into holes - where all myself and Gail could see around us was water - then climb another vertical drop so you are looking straight up at the sky, before crashing down again, with waves of water assailing you at every turn. We were soaked and thrilled - screaming in each rapid, and laughing hysterically when we successfully got out the other side! The other team, a new group this time, were also unlucky - they capsized and our rescue mission was called into force again. But the entire day was absolutely amazing, and one of the best yet! I absolutely adore the rafting, and hitting the giant rapids gave such a burst of adrenalin and hilarity that I would happily strap myself in there again!

When we returned to Cusco, to our boy-back-home Bones, we discovered that the tourist agency wouldn't return his money. Having a good track record with getting refunds, I offered my services, and together myself and Bones bypassed the contracted 'no refund' clause, and managed to get half his money back. The best we could do in the circumstances! Our combined diplomacy, charm, and threats to camp out at the tourist desk and tell everyone in the hostel that the company were scam artists, seemed to have done the trick.......

We did absolutely nothing else in Cusco but laze around! And we also said goodbye to our fabulous Scottish friends, Gail and Allan, who were heading back over to Rio for some sun and sand before heading home to Scotland. We've organised visits, though - we're hitting Durness, where they live, for the Highland Games in July, and they're hopefully coming over to Electric Picnic in September, so hopefully we keep in good contact with them. It's weird being without them - they were around for three of our four months travelling! So, we're now back to five people, though hopefully Mac is meeting us in Bogota, and then at least we'll have even numbers for dinners!

We left for Lima on the overnight bus - supposed to be 19 hours, but in reality quite a bit more! We had splashed out for the fully cama seats, which should fold back into beds, but were tricked a little because the seats - though comfortable - didn't go back fully. It was an OK bus journey, but I think I got ten minutes sleep in total! The roads leading out of Cusco were strewn with rocks and fallen branches, making the usual precarious journey up winding roads with cliff drops abounding, even more nerve-racking! We have seen on the news that the rocks and branches are not from landslides, as we thought, but are being placed there by protesters to stop anyone entering or leaving Cusco - I'm not sure yet what the protest is for. The journey went straight across the Andes, so the scenery was beautiful, but because of the extremely high altitudes we were hitting, we were all a little sick and couldn't sleep very well.

We arrived in Lima to sunshine and a lovely hostel in the posh part of Miraflores, where I made the happy discovery that the shopping plaza at the end of our street, overlooking the Pacific, is the very one I had lunch in on my last day in Peru with Concern! It also has a very nice cinema! Oh, what withdrawals I have had!!! Going from the cinema once a week at home to once a MONTH here is shocking to the system..... So, we went to see 'No Country for Old Men' the first night, and 'There Will be Blood' the second. 'No Country' was by far the better movie, with subtle and powerful preformances from all involved, not to mention excellent sound and directing, with no music used in any scene - making those gunshots just that little more frightening! It was a simple and forcefully told story, and we all left the cinema agreeing that it was one of the best movies we'd ever seen. 'There Will be Blood', on the other hand, failed as so many of those sweeping epics do! An OK story, it fell back on Daniel Day Lewis' amazing acting one too many times - he carried the movie with his consistantly tough and skillfull acting. Worth watching for his preformance, but for little else - he raises it from dull and monotonous to stimulating and frightening.

And the Oscar results tonight confirmed things for me, with 'No Country' sweeping the best sections, and Danny Day getting a well deserved statue to add to the collection! It feels so weird not watching it - it's the first time that I have not only not seen practically every movie in every catagory, but that I am not sitting on my couch avidly awaiting the results!

And, between Barnsley beating Liverpool in the FA Cup and Liverpool beating Milan in the Champions League, it's been an interesting while for footie, and I've thankfully caught most of Liverpools matches. With Tottenham beating Chelsea in the Carling Cup final today, it's been nice to keep up with what footie we can - after all, watching Chelsea lose a match is always something to make you smile!

So, that brings us up to date! We're trying to find flights to Bogota at the moment - travelling through Ecuador by bus might be too tricky, as recent extreme floods and volcanic activity has forced the president to declare a state of emergency in the country. So, that's a cost I wasn't expecting, but I'll have to find some way to budget it in. Cuba is still the number one destination, despite being both expensive to visit, and expensive to fly to - it's a pity that Castro has officially stepped down, as seeing the country under his rule was one of my main reasons for hitting it. But I'm sure, as his brother has de facto been in charge these past ten years or so, the country should still tick over nicely!

Here's looking forward to Bogota, then! Another month, another country, as my refrain goes...

A wee rant...just to balance the SUGAR!

Well, I've spent my time going on and on about everything I love about South America, so here's a quick list of things I DON'T like about travelling in this fine continent.....just because I'm in the mood to rant!

1. Cocaine: Jesus, it's unavoidable here! Everyone is doing it, selling it, wrecking my head on it! Every hostel you go to is full of rich westerners off their heads on class A's, and worst of all, acting like it's totally acceptable to shove stuff up their noses in front of you! Nobody thinks of the cost to countries with the level of poverty we have gone through, making a business from drugs, and what that might do to them eventually - no, no...these middle-class kids just want a good time! And you have to love their excuses for doing so much of it over here - that it's so much purer! Cocaine!! Which, even at it's purest, contains such savoury additions as sulfuric acid, kerosene, diethyl ether, and sodium hydroxide. Wow! Straight from nature, eh? Never mind that it's a highly addictive corrosive drug that, with increased usage, requires higher dosage, can dissolve your septum, weaken your organs, and create addiction. And never mind the destruction of families it can cause! No, of course not - it's just a recreational drug! But, for me, the most annoying part is that people who do coke spend the entire night bouncing off the walls, talking shit, wrecking other people's heads, and generally acting arrogantly. Then, once it gets to about ten o' clock the next day, they retire to their beds for 24-48 hours, waking occasionally to complain of how sick they feel. Oh yes, what a drug!!

2. Aussies: I know it's a generalisation, but the majority of Aussies I meet are rich kids off travelling on Daddy's money, and care little about the culture they're here to see, and spend their time holed up in hostel bars drinking through beer-bongs and doing a lot of coke. Oh, they're great fun to be around (note my sarcasm)...so much interesting conversation from those spoilt brats! Example of a comment left on the wall of this hostel from a lovely Aussie? "I ate a whole pineapple, skin and all, for 30 soles and a line of coke"....30 soles is about 7 euro. What a guy! Another comment? "Total meatmarket. Locals are sluts. Enjoy". And, yes, I am in Cusco - the capital of the Incan area, surrounded by historical buildings and wonderful scenery. They really get the scope of cultural feel, don't they! And if I have to listen to one more group of Aussies using the table outside of my room for coke snorting and shit-talking while I'm lying in bed, there's gonna be a massacre!!

3. English People: Is it a cultural thing? I don't know! I've met some lovely English people, but so far, the majority seem to be along the same lines as the Aussies - coke snorting, all drinking, idiots! Example of a couple in the room next to us in La Paz - both from London - the guy told one of our group that his girlfriend was pregnant, but not to tell her, because she didn't know yet...ridiculously paranoid, and brains melted from coke. At night I could hear the most fantastic fights, punctuated by snorting, and one night he spent in the bar, while she passed out on the bathroom floor, and when he came back up she screamed about how she had been there for 6 hours....it was about 40 minutes since he left the room. Both so paranoid, coked up, and noisy! I had the runny tummy in La Paz, and one morning they were being particularily noisy having come in from a club at about 8 in the morning, and proceeded to have a party in their room. I was very sick, very tired, and very cross. Alan went down to the bar to read, but I wanted to sleep. So, when I heard their door open, I slammed open my door to be confronted by Alex - a moronic English dreadlocked fool, also coked up - and told him to "turn the fu*$ing music off", to which he replied (slightly frightened looking) that he would ask them to turn it down. I must have looked a sight in my angry state, and my reply was probably no less scary - "WELL FUCKING ASK HIM THEN....NOW!!!", and stood there waiting for him to scarper inside. I slammed my door, then lay back on the bed. Within one minute, the music was off, and they had all left the hostel for a pub. I didn't have trouble with music from them again. So, my general feeling has been one of disappointment at our friends-from-across-the-sea...though, like I say, there have been exceptions, I don't want to tar everyone with the same brush!

4. Sleep Deprevation: I'm not a big goer-outer, so I have resigned myself to having parties go on around me while I head for sleep - I have an eye-mask and headphones to help! But sometimes the fact that you are in busy dorm, with loud parties all around, sometimes does get a little wearying. Fighting for sleep every night, battling against the noise and your own anger, does take it's toll!!

5. Chocolate: I found an imported Twirl the other day, after four months, and the Cadbury's tasted like the most amazing thing I've ever touched with my lips. Enough said.

6. Homesickness: It is a sickness, simple as that! I miss the kids more than anything, and think about them all the time. I'm having the time of my life, but sometimes the distance between me and my family hits me like a punch in the stomach and physically hurts.

7. Personal Space: Those who know me, know that I spend quite a lot of my time alone - either reading or watching my DVD's. It's hard not to have your own time, or the ability to just leave everyone - much as you love them all - and retreat into your personal time.

8. My Car: The freedom to pick and choose when you stay, or when you go.

9. Singing: Just singing along to my MP3 player in the car! I love it, what can I say?!?!?

10. Ireland: You're never so patriotic as when you're away! Meeting other Irish people - and there are a lot of them travelling! - helps, but nothing compares to the green green grass of home!!

OK, so that's my rant over with! Other than that, South America is the most amazing place I've ever travelled, and I'm loving every minute!

But it's good to rant....let's out those bad vibes, eh??!! And I'm sure everyone was sick of how brilliant a time I was having, and glad that there are some things I don't like...ha ha!

Carnaval, Puno, floating islands, and now Cusco.....

Well, it´s been a hectic few days, I have to say! We left Copacabana to cross into Peru, and drove the full way around the lake. The border crossing was ridiculously easy - having an Irish passport is a ticket to smiles and welcomes, I´m telling you! Me and Alan met a lovely little chap, named Edbar, of about ten years old at the border, and he asked us for some Irish coins when we were passing. We didn´t have any, but I gave him all my Bolivian coins, and he sat chatting with us while we waited for the rest of our friends - turns out he learned English from passing tourists...and his English was fantastic! He told us all about the area, and showed us his shoe-shine box - but he seemed more interested in talking than hustling for money, as with some shoe-shiners. Also, at the end of the day, even though these kids are earning money for families, they are just kids, at the bottom line, and what kid doesn´t enjoy attention?? So, we chatted to him, and gave him some more money as we were leaving - the equivalent of about three euro, but his face lit up like it was Christmas. A great intro to Peru!

When we arrived in Puno, we were hustled to bits by our bus driver, who kept trying to get us to sign up to his boat tour to the islands, or buy tickets for the trip to Cusco off of him. He wouldn´t take no for an answer, and we ended up having to agree to meet him in our hotel the next night just to get him to leave us alone! Our hotel was fantastic - which it would want to be at $20 a night! But there was nothing else free in Puno, so we had to take it. We had two nights booked there, and we spent an awful lot of that time lolling in the bath and watching our cable television! We are very lazy at heart.....

The town itself was pretty nice, though, and our hotel overlooked the main square. The nights were punctuated with the beautiful sounds of the central cathederal´s bells ringing out the celebrations for Carnaval, the night sky dotted with fireworks, and our ears assailed with the sounds of marching and singing through the streets. However, nothing compared to the Sunday, when we moved to our new hotel - owned by our hustling friend, and with the special price of $10 per night - and we discovered that the town´s inhabitants took Carnaval very seriously, and the streets were filled with parades of colourfully dressed groups, who took turns marching to the main square, and preforming in front of the cathederal for the gathered crowds. We stood for hours in the sunshine, watching drum shows, and wonderful dances involving farming tools and women and men doing elaborate exchanges, which must surely mean something - but which we were woefully ignorant of! Kids in full traditional costume, women and men in multicoloured masks and clothes, flags waving, drums banging, pan-pipes tooting - it was everything I though Carnaval would be! And all that night, as the groups obviously began drinking, the street party continued! Our hotel was in the centre of it all, and by leaning out the window you could drink in the music and dancing without fear of attack - a favourite passtime of the Carnaval goers is the throwing of water balloons at gringos, and some cans of spray-foam were making appearances also! All in good fun, of course....

We set off Monday morning on the early boat (7.00!) to the islands, and our first stop was the floating islands, made of reeds. There are 37 in all, and each house about five families. We stopped at the first, and it was unbelievable! The reeds were visible metres down into the water, stacked on top of each other, and on top of turf, to keep the island stable, and the ground was springy beneath your feet as you strolled around. The families were most welcoming - as we sat listening to the description of our guide on how the islands were constructed, the women rushed forward with blankets to protect us from the rain! They welcomed us into our homes, speaking Ururu (I think that´s what it´s called!) - an ancient language from the ´people of the sun´. The kids freely wandered among us, asking us for chocolate, and happily played amongst the tourists! The houses, the ground, the roofs, their furniture - all made from the thick reeds that grow so abundantly on the lake. To top off our visit to the islands, we were taken in a reed boat to the next floating island - crowded together on the base, with the lake around us, and a cheeky girl of about six from the previous island who wandered amongst us, touching clothes and hair and hats with wonderment! She, as with all the women, were dressed in the many-layered dresses of various colours typical to the area. We bought some crafts from the locals - the least we could do! - and hopped back on our motor-boat. As we pulled away from this mass of floating islands, I notice a solar panel on the reed roof of one of the houses....and a t.v. inside! Ha ha......

Next stop was the larger island of Amantaní, where the islanders speak Quechuan. Here, we were treated to a smaller Carnaval, as the islanders marched across their small sun-drenched patch of land banging drums, playing pipes, and singing heartily! We walked across the hills from our harbour to the main village, where the islanders were all gathered. All in traditional wear, we were told that the coloured skirts on women meant that they were single, and black skirts signify marriage (in mourning for their freedom? ha ha!), unless they are young children - then it is the school uniform! The men, on the other hand, wear large woollen hats. Fully red hats signify marriage, and half red, half white signify single. Amazing!

The people of the island all weave, knit and sew - even the men. We entered their craft area, and I watched as women from the island and delivered their wares, and were all marked into a book. Each item you buy has the name of the maker on it, and I bought a scarf. 10% of the profit goes to the island at large, and the rest to the maker, so it was a great feeling knowing that some of the women who gathered around were benifiting directly! We ate lunch in one of the many communally owned restaurants, where for 12 soles - about 3 euro - we had vegetable soup (with vegetables all grown on the island) followed by grilled trout (caught in the lake) with rice and chips (all grown there). We walked back across the island in the sun, surrounded by the beautiful blue lake, and down the Incan steps to the harbour. There, we met the bands on their return journey, having traversed the majority of the island singing and playing their instruments. While we panted in the high altitude, they stolled upwards with ease - though their abilities were somewhat explained when one of the men zealously wished me a happy Carnaval and introduced himself, smelling strongly of alcohol.....ha ha! They would like St. Patrick´s day, I think.....

So, this morning we caught the early bus to Cusco. The journey should have taken about 7 hours, but the driver was a lunatic, so we got here in six. On the way, he narrowly avoided the legs of a motorcycle driver who came off his bike ahead of us...we were all thrown to one side as he swerved the bus! Scary stuff....

Cusco is as beautiful as I remember it! We´re staying in The Point hostel, which is owned by Davey - our fabulous Tipp man who owned The Wild Rover in La Paz (he´s getting here Sunday), so I´m currently sitting with a cold, bubbly, Brahma, and am about to settle in for a hectic evening of doing sweet fuck all!

And best of all today? I got an imported Twirl - REAL cadbury´s chocolate! And then when I got to the hostel? A bacon and egg toastie....

Life is good..........

Machu Pichu, here I come!

The hottest spot north of Havana....

Yes, it´s the Copa...Copacabana, and it´s gorgeous here! Lake Titicaca is absolutely fabulous. Myself, Alan and Bones left La Paz for here on Sunday, taking the early bus, and part of the journey included getting onto a boat and our bus getting onto barge to take us out to the area Copacabana is in. Very cool! So, we got an alright hostel with a telly in our room, which is always nice, and there were huge thunder and lightening storms over the lakes our first few days, but we didn´t mind. We spent a lot of time strolling around this lovely little town, and exploring the gorgeous cathederals and markets. On Wednesday, myself and Alan took the two-hour boat journey to Isla del Sol, and explored the ruins an hours walk from the harbour. The ruins of the sun temple are visible - since the Incas believed that the sun began on this island - and we also explored a labyrinth overlooking the bay. Afterwards, we walked the three-hour length of the island - which was pretty tough, with the high altitude and the sun burning down, but well worth it for the beautiful views and the lovely conversation with Al! At the end of the island, we walked down the Inca steps to the harbour and sat on the roof of the boat on the way home, so we got great views of Copacabana coming closer. We also hiked a hill next to the town with Bones, it has stations of the cross all the way up, and at the very top a big group of religous statues and enclaves where people were grouped around lighting candles and saying prayers. That, coupled with the beautiful lake all around us, was definitely a religious experience!

We´re of to Puno today, on the other side of the lake - the Peruvian side, and we´re hoping that the Carnaval celebrations are up to scratch over there. Should be fun!

Anyway, here´s a little something I wrote while in La Paz, looking at the most amazing lightening storm I´ve ever seen...

Thunder Storm, La Paz

So high into the clouds
and a storm is upon us
before we have time to see it.
Thunder rolls overhead,
with the unerring sense of control
only such acts of God
can hold.
Power to shake you,
still you,
but most of all remind you
of our tenuous hold
on these hills,
valleys,
streams and lakes.
Bass booms, walls shake,
and the sky thunders its power,
its control,
showing that sometimes-latent expression
of natures constant standing.

And we?
We fear the sound!
The rumble in our stomach
that bangs across the night sky.
And then the light!
The forks of piercing light
(white? blue?)
jagged against the dull roar,
fading our city to nothing.

What brightness
do we call these,
bulbs and neon and falsehood!
Here is colour!
Here is sound!
Here is light!
25 January 2008

Well, onwards to Peru it is then.....

A wee catch up on Bolivia...

I haven't travel-blogged in quite a while - for obvious reasons - but thought I'd better catch back up on things before it all gets away from me...

I'm in La Paz at the moment, and have been for about two weeks - we're staying in a brilliant Irish hostel called The Wild Rover, run by Davey - who is a prince amongst (Tipp) men!! Incidentally, he also owns a hostel in Cusco, which we'll be staying in, and has allowed me to use his name and address there to send some books from Amazon.......there was only so much longer I could hang on without stimulating reading! I've done well out of the book exchanges in most hostels, but it's still an uphill battle to find something that lasts me longer than two days reading! Also, I'm learning guitar (more on that later), and got a huge book of songs sent there too. Davey's sourcing a hostel in Colombia in April, so we're gonna meet up with him in Colombia too. You really do meet some fantastic people while travelling....

Anyway, I have to dig into the past a bit now to remember our first views of Bolivia! When I last wrote, we'd just finished New Year's in Salta, and said goodbye to the fantastic visit of EJ from Canada (he's safely back in Canada now, and his brother had a baby boy, so he's an uncle too!). We set off for the Bolivian border on the midnight bus from Salta, arriving in the Argentinian border town of La Quiaca at about 6 in the morning, when it was still dark. The bus station was unreal - like nothing I'd ever seen before, and a bit of a 'eek' introduction to Bolivia. Argentina is so western and modern, that this was our first real view of indigenous life in South America. The station was small, filthy, smelly, and the floors filled with bodies sleeping in the colourful, but dirty, clothes of the Andean Indians. Children were barefooted, and the whole place had an air of hopelessness and poverty - very frightening! As the sun started to come up, we set off towards the border, where we would cross into the Bolivian town of Villazón. It took us quite a while to find the border, as there were no signposts, and nobody to talk to at this hour of the morning! When we got there, we joined the large line of backpackers at the exit post to Argentina, where uniformed officials slowly stamped us out of Argentina, and crossed the bridge to the Bolivian entry point, where an un-uniformed man stamped our entry into Bolivia with friendly ease, and a ready smile. Maybe Bolivia would be OK!

Unfortunately, Bones was a bit sick, and his first action in Bolivia was to vomit into the gutter. Nice! The last thing he needed was a bus journey, but that's where we were heading - to the bus station! We changed our Argentinian pesos into bolivianos - the exchange is about 11 bolivianos for 1 euro - and walked uphill towards where our bible (Lonely Planet) had aimed us. If we thought the bus station on the Argentinian side was bad! This place was a small, dingy, crowded place, with tiny stalls for each bus 'company', where they wrote your name onto a piece of paper as a bus ticket. Well, so bed it! We had planned on heading to Uyuni, where the salt flats were, to take our tour of the flats, but on talking to some other travellers - a guy named Keith from (you've guessed it) IRELAND - we decided on Tupiza as a better starting-off point for the flats. That, and the fact that the next bus to Uyuni was 7 hours away, and the next one to Tupiza was in half an hour! The bus arrived in style - slamming itself into the sidewalk, with no announcement of it's destination, as crowds of people (surely not everyone would have a seat!) surged forwards. Using instincts bred from many a fight at the number 65 in Blessington, I made my way to the front, ascertained that this was our bus, got my bags onto the undercarraige, and boarded my seat in record time! The bus was, as envisioned, packed, and there was no toilet for poor Bones - what a journey that must have been for him! There were kids everywhere, and it had the haphazard feel of a tottering festival bus, so friendly were the Bolivian people aboard! A couple and their three kids sat across from us, and I passed some of the journey making faces at the kids, who evidently thought that my pale skin was reason enough for staring, and the 'making of faces' superfulous to requirement!! The mother could only have been 19, and the father looked perhaps 30, but such is the way of the world....

The bus journey was unreal! The rainy season had wreaked havoc on the roadways, so for much of the journey the bus slid and bumped across landslides and partial-roads....the most frightening of which was when we rounded the valley on our way into Tupiza, and felt the bus dip alarmingly to the side on a regular basis as we traversed the eaten-away road along the edge of a 500m drop! Even the locals screamed at some points, which was hardly heartening! And hardly a day goes by in Bolivia in rainy season without a bus crashing, so you can understand my clenched hands and sweaty palms.....

We arrived in Tupiza and booked into the first hostel on the road - Valle Hermosa, which turned out to be a grand little place but, most importantly, had a tourist office inside through which you booked jeep treks to the salt flats. We signed up for the next day, for the four-day tour, and seeing as it was only 10 in the morning (due to the time difference in Bolivia), we headed out to explore our first Bolivian town. What a place! I would have definitely have spent a few days exploring the beautiful town, and the gorgeous surroundings, but we were on a bit of a deadline with Mac, who had to be back in Buenos Aires to meet his girlfriend off the plane on a certain date. So, we ate some good food (served by an industrious ten-year old!), and wandered the streets a little, preparing ourselves for the jeep trek the next day.

Early next morning we were all packed and ready in the sunshine, in shorts and tshirts, ready for the off. Our jeeps arrived, and myself, Alan, Mac and Bones were in one jeep, with our driver Alberto, and our cook Elisa (Elisabeth). Gail, Alan, Welly and Ed were in the other jeep with Javier, their driver, and their cook, whose name I can't remember. We had paid a little extra (130 dollars instead of 110) to have four in each jeep instead of six, for reasons of our numbers (eight people) and also comfort - which turned out to be a very wise decision! Eight people would have been hellish for four days!! Our first hurdle was heading up out of Tupiza into the mountains, where we drove in sunshine along dirt tracks barely wider than the jeep, with drops down the side of dizzying proportions! What would happen if we met something else coming down the mountain? Banish that thought.....

We stopped at a high point for some photos of our gorgeous surroundings - wow! It was unbelievable! We drove onwards into the deep Andes, where we could see no sign of life for ages. Our guides spoke only Spanish, but our language skills are definitely good enough now for comprehension, so he filled us in on the Llama farming of the area, and of the ore mines nearby. One thing that strikes you in Bolivia is the ethnicity - in Argentina it is so mixed with European that we never felt like we stood out. Here, in a country that 87% of people claim Indian blood, it is impossible to be anything but a gringo. So be it! We are tourists, but unlike Chile - where a tourist is there to be robbed, or Brazil - where they just don't seem to want you around, here you are welcomed and treated to the height of hospitality.

We stopped for lunch during the day, in a field of llamas. Myself and Gail, being the only girls, had to walk for a while to find some ground not visible from the other guys to heed the call of nature that becomes very strong in a bumpy jeep! The lunch was amazing! They dropped the tailgate of the jeep, and layed out a spread of breads, cheese, ham, tomatoes, and llama fritter things, cooked in corn paste. I ate one, without much gusto. The llama meet is stringy, but luckily very heavily spiced! Memories of the 'beef stew' in Peru came to mind.........

Later that day, after much driving across mountains, we came to a village where we were to spend the night. Wow, the cold was unreal!! My shorts were suddenly seeming a very bad idea.... We were set up in one hut, and our friends in another, further up the road. The altitude was really hitting us all at this point, as our village for the night was at 4600 meters, which is higher than the highest point I reached in Peru hiking. But, luckily, I was not suffering as I did in Peru - obviously HIKING to that level and DRIVING to that level are different things! However, Bones and Alan were both a bit sick with it. Our hut was very rustic, and the beds made of stone (but with plenty of blankets!), and Elisa brought us in some hot water and coca leaves - for the altitude - and crackers, so we soon warmed up. Well, that and the fact that as soon as our backpacks were unstrapped from the roof of our jeep, I got on my thermals, jeans, hoodie, jacket, hat and runners!

As darkness began to fall, children began to wander into our hut. There was no question of locking the door - and why would you? So they just wandered in, selling hats and gloves made from llama wool, and bracelets they coyly said they had made themselves (but their giggles said otherwise!!). Mac was pretty amazing with the kids - it probably comes from the profession he is in, but he has endless patience! While the rest of us looked on, he made funny faces and made them laugh. The three lads went for a walk, and I stayed in the hut for a bit - disturbed only by a pudgy little two year old, who staggered into the room and gawked at me for a while. All bundled up in colourful clothes, and embroidered hat, she was just beautiful! She chatted for a little while - luckily, my 'gobble-de-gook' toddler talk is well practised! No language required at that age - the just touch everything, grab at things, point, and gabble at you. Her Mam came in after a while and apologised - as if that was necessary! Later, as darkness fell, she brought in a gas cylinder with a light thing attached at the top, which flamed enough to light our little table. I strolled up through the mud streets - breath coming short due to the lack of oxygen at this altitude - to find the boys, as dinner was nearly ready. There was a game of football going on in the streets, and kids were running everywhere. It was only then that I noticed that they were all barefoot - and there was me wrapped in every layer I had, and still cold. I felt even worse when I got back to the hut, and Elisa had prepared the most beautiful vegetable soup for us! We wolfed it down, thinking this was dinner, when she came with our 'main course'. Unfortunately, for my 'princess' mentalities, it was 'Smash' potatoes and llama steaks. My God I hate llama!! I bravely attempted to eat some, before deciding that my memory from Peru was sound, and llama really was the most disgusting meat.... Mac, on the other hand, ate every morsel of his! Alberto came in as we were settling down to a game of cards and informed us that we were leaving at 5 the next morning, and he would call us at 4.30am. Hmmm.... Even though it was only 9.30, we decided we might just hit the old stone bed.......

I slept like a baby on the beds, though! Not too shabby at all.... At 4.30 the next morning, as promised, we strapped our bags onto the roof of the jeep and, dressed in our warmest clothes, climbed into the backseats for day two. The sun was just rising as we set off, and we could hear the small town waking up to a new day - after all, with no electricity in the place, you really have to just go by the hours of daylight you have. We drove downwards and upwards across wet, muddy, high mountains, until flecks of snow began to appear in the grass next to us. We came across an abandoned town nestled below a snow-covered mountain, which had been wiped out suddenly. He said that it had been a rich town, mining the silver from the nearby mountain, but the Spanish had invaded and sacked the place, killing and looting. Those who were left died from the smallpox the Spanish brought with them (a new disease that desecrated a lot of South America, as they had no immunity to this foreign illness). The town had a very eerie feel to it, something similiar to a Marie Celeste type thing - that everything had been abandoned with great hurry. It was no surprise to me when Alberto told us that at night, the miners of the town can still be seen hiking up the hills to mine the silver - it felt every inch the ghost town.

As we left the village, we began to climb through some serious mud. All went well until we got to a particularily slippy bit, and our jeep began sliding towards the edge with such force, that Alberto twisted the wheel with all his might to no avail - the jeep had no grip. Elisa grabbed Alberto's arm in fear, and we were no less terrified behind, but Alberto was a brilliant driver, and he managed to get us back on track (the jeep behind us told us that they were terrified when they saw our jeep doing that - they thought we were going off the mountain!). After another hour of this, we hit a particularily deep spot, where the jeep got imbedded. Alberto struggled on, before shouting at us to get out of the jeep! We jumped out with Elisa and, following her lead, jumped into the mud and began pushing the jeep. We got covered in muck spinning up from the wheels, while Elisa bravely slotted rocks under the wheels to gain grip, but eventually we got the jeep through. Alberto parked up ahead, and came back to help the other jeeps coming through, and after about an hour of pushing, we got everyone up the hill. Phew!! As we got higher, the snow got worse, until eventually we parked on a hill overlooking an immense valley, with snow thick on the ground around us. We took photos, and threw snowballs, before realising that at this altitude we could do little more than stand without losing breath!! We drove on to some volcanic area, where we could bathe in hot springs if we liked. I didn't like! I was so cold and dirty at that stage, that that thoughts of getting into lovely warm water sounded great, but getting out into the freezing cold and trying to dry off sounded like the least appealing thing in the world! Mac, Bones, and Allan (Gail's one, not mine!) bathed, while the rest of us strolled over the sulpher lake surrounding it, marvelling at the 'gooey' white ground.

We headed to the Dali desert, next, where strange rock formations inspired the name. We decided to walk to some of the rocks which looked close to where we had parked. After an hours walking in high altitude across a freezing desert, we finally got there, knackered tired and completely underappreciating the beauty of the rocks. I had forgotten my inhaler in the jeep, and was feeling particularily rotten. Nothing comparted to poor Ed, though, who we had seen dropping away from the walking group, and lying down in the distance. We all thought that he was joking, but when we got to him, we realised that he was extremely sick. The jeeps drove across to meet us, and Ed had gotten sick and was feeling diabolical by the time we got him into a jeep. Due to the rainy season, the road was blocked to the Laguna Verde, so we got to our next night's stay a little earlier than thought. Ed went straight to bed looking, it has to be said, pretty sick. Again, due to the high altitude, everyone was a bit sick, but a footie game kicked off and a few of our boys joined in. The rest of us played cards, drank coca tea, and shivered. Later, dinner came out, and it was chicken and chips. What joy for us all!! We tried to get Ed to have some coca tea, or soup, but he just wanted to sleep. Welly's laptop had a bit of power left in it, so we watched a couple of episodes of the Simpsons before all falling asleep - at the late hour of 10.00.

Next morning Ed felt a little better, but still wanted to get out of altitude as quick as possible. However, today was to be our highest day - 5000meters, but we were just driving it, so hopefully he'd be OK. We drove to the Laguna Roja - a lake which appears red due to the algae living in it. The strange volcanic countryside spread out before us, as strange lakes seemed to have 'grown' from the valleys. Flamingos and llamas roamed everywhere, so we were busy taking snaps of everything we saw. Unfortunately, we couldn't drive across a small salt flat that day, as the rains had come in too heavy, and it was too dangerous. Neither could we see the promised volcano, as it was hidden in the low-lying clouds. That night we had been promised a shower, but unfortunately that was not to be the case! We arrived in Uyuni, which looked a dismal, dirty town - but then again, it was lashing rain, so who are we to judge? We drove about half an hour outside the town to the 'Salt Hostel' we were to stay in. And Salt it was! EVERYTHING was made from salt! From the bricks of the walls, to the beds, to the tables, to the chairs - it was all salt!! But no showers! Day four minus anything but a baby wipe, and no change of clothes....eeek! It was great fun staying there, mostly due to the low altitude, but we were all miserably cold and damp....it's hard to fully enjoy things when you feel that way! Dinner that night was spaggetti bolognaise (kinda), so we had some card games afterwards again, and some wine was drunk.

Next morning we were supposed to get up at 5.30 to see the sun rise on the salt flats, unless it rained. And, of course, it rained! So, instead, we awoke at 9 and headed up to the flats. Due to the rainy season, there was about an inch of rain on the flats, which looked amazing, as you could see the sky perfectly reflected all around you. We drove into the centre, where there is a Salt Hotel, and jumped out into the water to take our photos. You'll have to just look at the photos on my bebo, because there's no describing the absolute weirdness of the place!! We all splashed around, not caring about the mess, in our five-day old clothes, having great fun! Then we hopped back into the jeeps and headed off to the train graveyard for lunch - our final lunch with our guides!! It was great fun. We climbed all over the rusted old locamotives, before stuffing ourselves and chatting to our wonderful guides. After that, they dropped us back into town and tried to help us find a way to Potosi (the highest city in the world, where you can visit the mines and blow up dynamite - the lads were all keen on that!). Unfortunately, there was no buses, and we couldn't even hire a taxi or minibus to take us (Bolivian prices allow what would otherwise be an extravagant cost!), so we decided to just head to La Paz. We got tickets on a bus leaving at 8.30 that night, so resigned ourselves to 8 hours in a dingy town. After saying goodbye to our wonderful guides, and tipping them loads, we headed off to discover that Uyuni was actually quite pleasant! I bought my longed-for Bolivian hat in the markets, and we strolled through the sunshine in our filthy clothes, before landing in an internet cafe for a couple of hours time-wasting. Here, we all discovered that the four-star Radisson Hotel in La Paz was having a special - 99 dollars for a room! Oh, we sat there in our dirty clothes, having not had a shower for five days, thinking of the luxury of sinking into a BATH, of having a shower without queues of people outside waiting to use it, of warm beds, of a swimming pool and sauna, of room service.......and made our decision!! We had decided to spoil ourselves once on this holiday, and nowhere could we do it as cheaply! So, myself and Alan got a double room, as did Gail and Allan, and Bones and Ed got a twin room for our first night in La Paz! Welly and Mac went on to the hostel, The Wild Rover, where we would join them the next day.

Well, we took the night bus to La Paz - dangerous in rainy season not just because of the roads, but of the likelihood of a drunken driver! Which turned out to be OK. As with most of Bolivia, it was dirt road, but I slept like a baby (not so poor Alan, who tossed and turned all night!). We had a couple of toilet stops in fields and one in a restaurant during the night, so the lack of a toilet wasn't a huge issue. On arrival to the bus station we headed off to the Radisson, while the others went to the hostel. We had asked for an early check-in - 10.00 am - and were hoping it was still OK! We got to the hotel in a crumby taxi, with our clothes still covered in salt and mud, stinking from five days without a shower, with our filthy backpacks, to be met by a doorman who took our luggage from us, and opened the door! The shame!! We checked into our rooms, and were treated perfectly, despite us feeling like ruffians in the luxurious lobby! Our rooms were fabulous, and we all had baths and watched cable TV, and ordered roomservice! Wow!! Mac and Welly came over that evening and we all had dinner in the Radisson, on the fourteenth floor, with a beautiful view of La Paz all around. What a night! Next day we had the buffet breakfast downstairs, and asked for a late check-out - 6pm - and headed to the pool. Mac and Welly had booked the Death Road for the next day, but we decided to let fate decide whethar we'd join them, and went back to the sauna.

We left, unwillingly, at 6, and headed to The Wild Rover, which turned out to be a beautiful hostel, with the most comfortable beds I've ever been in, and a great bar, with dinners every night! So not too hard to stay here..... We went up to the Witches Market (so called because it's streets and streets of stalls selling everything you could possible imagine, from dried llama foetuses (buried in the foundations of new houses for good luck) to powdered frog (to bring money to the bearer) to cushion covers to handmade jumpers to cameras to DVD's), and tried to book ourselves onto the Death Road with the lads the next day. We couldn't do it, so were forced to go the day after. Which turned out to be really lucky, because the guys got rain all day, and therefore a bit more dangerous, as well as the fact that they wouldn't get any good views!

OK, I'll quickly give a run-down of the Road of Death, because I'm rattling on for ages here! We headed up the hills to the starting point of the road early in the morning, and were given our bikes and gear - goggles, helmet, kneepads for me! The bikes were really impressive - disc brakes and everything! Worth about 2000 euro at home. Anyway, our guides - two guys - were really good fun, and it was six of us, plus an Aussie bloke, so that's why the photo's on bebo look so good - it was all our group! The first 31km of the road is paved, and it's dirt track after that (some parts only 3.2 meters wide!) for the last 34km. You go from 4633m down to 1700m, which is quite a drop in altitude, and should give you an idea of the steepness! There are drops up to 1000m next to you as you cycle, and it really is terrifying to look to your left and see nothing but a cliff - there are no barriers to stop you going over the edge! And this was MAIN ROAD up until two years ago! An interesting point we noticed was just before the Devil's Tail part of the road, where the ruins of a stall stand. Apparantly a man used to live in the town at the bottom of the road, and his family were travelling from La Paz, and the bus crashed off the road killing everyone on board - including his wife, four children, and mother and father. He went crazy for a couple of years, then began standing at that point of the road - the most dangerous - with red and green flags to try help the traffic going by. He survived on food or gifts of money that passing travellers would give him, and he is said to have saved many hundreds of lives by doing this - and others copied him at other points along the road, thereby cutting the accident rate on this dangerous road. Since this road is no longer a main road, he moved back to the village, but our guide tells us that if you see him now, he has the most serene face, and is perfectly at peace with himself. Quite a beautiful story!

Not so beautiful a story is how many crashes had happened quite recently - buses still travel the road, and two days before we cycled it, a bus fell off the edge, killing all 23 on board. Unbelievable! The first part of the road is paved, so was quite easy, despite some drops along the edge, but for some reason, tarmac gives you a sense of safety. Once we hit the dirt road it was a different story! Flying along at breakneck speeds, looking (or trying not to look) at the drops on your left, and feeling your back wheels slip on gravel, and your heart stop with the fear of tipping over the edge! What an adrenalin rush!! The guides told us about a guy who had foolishly taken out his camera to film himself cycling, and had cycled straight off the edge only a few months before, dying of course. And the place is full of stories like that! Our tour company had never had anyone die - one of our reasons for choosing them!! They were also only 55 dollars (B-Side is their name), much cheaper than the others, but highly recommended to us by other travellers. Incidentally, there are only three companies in La Paz who can boast the 'nobody has died with us' tag for Death Road!

Anyway, the whole thing was amazing! We stopped for snacks at high points and admired the view, and cycled under waterfalls and through rivers. It was the scariest, and most amazing thing, I've ever done, and I'd tell anyone to try it!! At the end of the road, we had a free beer in the local village, then on to another beautiful town nearby, where the group had organised hotel rooms for us to shower in, and a pool to swim in, plus a delicious lunch. All in all a fabulous day!!

Well, that's about up to date on me. The photos on bebo really give a good impression of things - especially the jeep trek and Road of Death - but hopefully I've caught up on things a little too! We've pretty much just hung about La Paz, wandering through the fabulous Witches Market buying wonderful handcrafts. Oh - I nearly forgot! I bought a 3/4 size guitar!! It's so beautiful, and was the most expensive guitar of it's size in the place, but was worth it because it won't warp in heat or cold, and has the warmest sound! It's so beautiful! So, I got the guitar, a padded case handmade red and embroidered, spare strings, a capo, and a plek for 50 euro. Wow!! Unbelievable pricing! So, Alan's been teaching me chords, and it's going really well! One of the books I'm sending to Davey's hostel in Cusco is a bumper guitar book of songs, so that'll be wicked, because I'm copying stuff down from the internet at the moment, which is very time consuming.

Gail, Allan, Welly, Ed and Mac went to the jungle for a few days, while me, Alan and Bones chilled out here, and they had a fantastic time - got to feed an alligator and all! We were quite happy to wait for Peru or Colombia for our jungle trek, and just wandered La Paz a little more! Gail's Allan, Mac, Ed and Bones are gone to Potosi now to the mines, but that didn't appeal to me - climbing into working mines, where men are still working in inhumane conditions, to take photos of them? I know you're helping them by giving them money and all, but still, I don't think I can do it. And I'm not bothered about blowing things up! (you can buy dynamite in the market, and they'll let you blow it up in a field after the mines). So, myself, Alan, Gail and Welly have stayed in La Paz for another few days of relaxation!

We're heading to Lake Titicaca probably on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I look forward to that, and from there back to Peru for me. I'm really looking forward to it!!

Phew...what a long blog! But, at least it's all caught up now. I had been homesick, obviously with everything that was going on, but on talking with my family, I feel a good bit better. I guess when I get back in June I can mourn things proparly. It's very hard to know how to feel when you're this far away. So, ever onward, I'll continue with my travels. We had to say goodbye to Mac yesterday, which was very sad. I've really enjoyed getting to know him probarly while travelling - he is definitely one of the nicest people I know! So we were sorry to see him go....but hopefully he'll come back down to meet us in Colombia, which is kinda his plan.

Best get back to my guitar.......I've been sadly neglecting it this past hour typing this!! Until next time, hasta luego muchachos!

Patrick Whelan, Rest in Peace

My cousin Patrick, who has been so sick this past year with a lung cancer that insidiously worked it's way into other parts of his body, passed on yesterday. Thankfully for him, the heart-attack that ended him took him peacefully, and quickly. Family were around him - my mother and father, who were so good to him all his life, and his mother Nora and sister Rosie, both of whom live in Ireland. His other family - Anna, Joseph and Bernie - live in London and couldn't be with him, but Anna and Joseph are now home. At least they got to see him recently, when he was well enough to say some words. So, Patrick didn't die alone, which I am happy for, despite all my sadness - he disliked being alone in life, and it comforts me that he didn't have to be alone, especially in death.

And he wasn't alone in life. He had a huge family who cared about him deeply. I will always remember him in our kitchen - for that's where he spent such a large amount of his time. Oblivious to certain things - like my Mam and Dad raging a row together in front of him - it would all just wash over him. And I'll always remember him with my Gran. When she was at her worst, and unable to recognise any of us (before she had the operation that gave her one perfect year of knowing us all, and enjoying a pain-free life, before she died), and Patrick would just sit with her in the kitchen, drinking his tea.

Before he moved back to Ireland - always his home, I think, despite being born in London - I will always remember his constant generosity to us as children. Coming home for visits, and never forgetting the big bag of Toblerones and Smarties (before my anti-Nestle crusade) from Dublin Airport. Or Christmas time, when he always remembered that I was the bookworm, and always got me a book of poetry or a novel. And not one of our birthdays ever went unnoticed.

Having kids around him always seemed to make Patrick happiest. When we were smaller, he was always there - sometimes impatient, but mostly happily involved in our lives. Then we grew up, and he got nieces and nephews, but we were still never forgotten in our grown-up (well, we thought we were grown up!) lives - Christmas and birthdays still brought a card and notice from Patrick. Then my brother and sister had kids, and they flocked to him too - sensing his innocence and patience as only children really can. So, some of my new memories involve Patrick in the back room of our house, with Ben, David and Kyle in front of him, intent in their own little world of a game, and handing him things to hold as they bustled around him, making him a part of their game. And Patrick serious and focused, taking their world seriously, and they knew it. Or Abby, dribbling and unable to walk yet, pulling herself into a wobbly standing position against his knees, and slamming a fat, filthy hand onto his leg - and Patrick never worried about the dirt.

So, despite times when I got frustrated at Patrick (as we do with everyone in life at some stage), my overriding feeling is that he knew we loved him, and we did. And I saw him happy in life, as I hope he continues to be. He died with his family around him, and I hope he knew that. I'm sure he did.

To Patrick

Always there. Always.
When I was too young to know it,
apart from those airport sweets
(duty free bag big enough
to hold a seperate gift
for every one of us,
with your always-ready smile,
as we welcomed you home).

Then, when I was too old
to appreciate it.
The constant attention -
birthdays, Christmas -
we were never forgotten,
and I promise you won't be either.
Your love and care for us
a replacement for children,
if you could have had them.

Now, I am older.
I have become as adult as you.
I walked with you
(no longer the annoying
constant-chatter
ten-year-old
who used to sit in the front seat
as you drove across the Wicklow mountains)
Talked with you.
And knew your worries far more than ever
(indirectly, of course. To you,
I'm sure,
I was forever the snotty-nosed
know-it-all.
But I think you liked me, all the same)

And I saw you get sick.
I saw you get sicker.
But I never saw you now,
when I can't be there.
Lying in hospital, and I?
Far away.
I regret so much my bouts of frustration
- frustration at you, as I promised
I'd never do again.

You were always there.
And you came to Ireland,
settled here far better
than you ever did in that land,
that seemed so foreign to you
(was foreign to you).
So, I saw you happy, too.
Saw you happy at family dinners,
happy when your nieces and nephews
crowded round you
- sensing your kindness and patience
as much as we all had
(now we're grown, and it's harder
to remember
why it is you have always been there)
Happy when you walked the hills,
rain, sleet and snow,
and happy when you sat with friends.

So, goodbye.
I'm so far away,
I hope you can hear it.
And I hope that, someday,
I see you happy again.

12 January 2008

Rest in Peace, Patrick. I will really miss you in my life.

So, this is Christmas......

Well, it´s not really. I guess the prevailing feeling amongst us all was that we were missing Christmas this year, and would get it proparly next year back home - it was all of our first Christmas away from home (apart from Gail and Alan, who have spent many travelling), so we were all a little homesick.

Anyway, we arrived in Mendoza to a lovely apartment - well, lovely for me and Alan (we had a spacious double room with telly)....the rest of the lads were in a three bed room, with two more beds in the sitting room. Not ideal! But for 10 euro a day, I guess we couldn´t complain! Gail and Alan were upstairs in their own apartment. Also, at 10.00 every morning, a lovely man came with a tray of food for brekkie.....cereal, yoghurt, milk, tea, coffee, pastries and sambos.....all included in the price. As were the fresh towels every day, and the changing of our bedsheets and cleaning of the apartment which happened every second day! So really, it wasn´t that bad! All that was killer was the bloody heat, with no swimming pool! So we spent a lot of time in the nearby Mendoza Plaza shopping mall....which was air conditioned!

Back in La Serena we had exchanged names for the Secret Santa, and had set a limit of 50 pesos on the pressie (about 12 euro), so in the days leading to Christmas - actually, mostly on Christmas Eve - everyone was busy in the shopping centre avoiding each other so that nobody guessed who had who for the Secret Santa! Myself and Gail collected money from everyone and the day before Christmas Eve went to the supermarket and got a big Christmas food shop, for the dinner. We had to steal the trolley from the supermarket, there was so much food in it!!

Then, as a little Christmas surprise, Matthew - the lovely young Derry guy we had met in Florinopolis - decided to come up from Chile to spend Christmas with us! So, Christmas Eve saw all ten of us sitting in the apartment having drinks and playing poker, and blowing up balloons to stick on the wall in place of decorations. Lots of festive cheer! And then, the piece de resistance, at midnight we heard loud noises outside, and on running onto the streets discovered that the whole of Mendoza was alight with fireworks! Aparrently, this was a Christmas tradition - at midnight, everyone in the city seemed to be letting off huge fireworks! And as we stood listening to the cheers of families from their gardens, watching colours explode in the sky, the most amazing thing happened - in the hottest place we´ve ever been, it started to RAIN! We all laughed in the rain watching the fireworks - talk about a little bit of Irishness to cheer us up!

Next morning we all Skyped home from Welly´s laptop, as we had internet in the apartment, and Ed had bought a Skype headset for the travels - thank the Lord. I was talking to all the kids, and obviously welled up a little hearing their voices. Especially David, who is now talking as much as BEN...he´s really come on! And then when he brought the phone upstairs to Sorcha, and she was in her room listening to music! So grown up..... Poor Rose sounded sick (she has tonsilitis), and Ben just sounded thrilled with yet another toolbox. Cammy was enthusing about how Santa must really love him (due to all the pressies), and Kyle was too busy to speak to me (ha ha). Ruth andAbby are as yet too young to come to the phone - but I´m sure they were busy with pressies too! And all my family sounded so great, and all sounded like they were having so much fun - so that was a little upsetting!

We then got our presents together in a pile, and swapped for Secret Santa! I had gotten Gail, Gail had gotten Daragh, Alan had gotten Welly, Bones had gotten Alan, Alan Mac had gotten Ed, Ed had gotten me, Welly had gotten EJ, EJ had gotten Bones, and Daragh had gotten Alan Mac. Is that everyone? Anyway, everyone had gotten lovely pressies for everyone, so we were all thrilled! Such variations as a Boca Juniors hat, a coffee maker, chocolates, shorts, a Boca jersey, flags, and other sundries. It really made us all feel very Christmassy, so we opened a bottle of wine, and turned on the Christmas music. Which did make me a little homesick, but in a good way, I think.

Anyway, I threw myself into dinner preparations to get my mind off of it, hanging out in the hot kitchen singing Good King Wenceslas, for some reason! Myself and Gail had divided things a little, using her cooker upstairs and mine downstairs. She´s a vegetarian, so there was a little manouvering to be had! I made my own stuffing from scratch (thanks to a little help from google.ie, woo hoo!) and stuffed our two chickens, stuck them in the oven, then set about preparing the veg and first course (ha ha). We had prawn cocktail for starters, and corn on the cob for the few of us who didn´t eat prawns - myself, Scottish Alan and EJ. Ed made the prawn cocktail sauce, and layed it out in plates. The rest of the lads cleaned up the sitting room, brought in the two tables together and set them, then carried in all the chairs we´d need for a ten-person dinner! They also got stuck in peeling spuds and chopping veg, so it was a definite group effort. The ovens only had two settings - low and high - so I had to guess things a little with the cooking! I had the two chickens in a tray together, with a little seperate bit of stuffing in tinfoil for Gail on the side, then a pile of frozen sweetcorn in tinfoil with butter and pepper (just like my Mam taught me!), then a tray of roasting veg in the bottom of the oven (carrots, sweet potatoes, garlic and onions). On the four hobs above I had the corn on the cob for starters, two pots of brocolli, and one of carrots. Upstairs, Gail made roast potatoes, mashed potatoes (although that´s her boyfriends speciality, so he took over on that one! Very proud of his mash, he is!), cabbage, and a Scottish tradition, pigs in blankets - sausages wrapped in rashers roasted in the oven. So, we all sat down and had our starters - lovely corn on the cob with butter melted all over it for me and the two others, and prawn cocktail for everyone else. Then we brought out the dinner! You should have seen everyone´s faces! I don´t think that they were expecting such a feed! I´ll put up the photos on bebo soon, as everyone actually took a photo of their dinner plate too! Ha ha. We ate for ages, stuffing ourselves on all the food before us! Bones and Alan carved the chicken, and we all toasted Christmas and good friends - which, after all, is what Christmas is all about....sharing the time with people you care about. So, in that sense, we really had the best Christmas we could have asked for!

After dinner we broke out the ice cream and chocolates, and even a box of danish butter cookies myself and Gail had found in the supermarket, and watched movies on telly. Everyone was so tired and full of food that we couldn´t do anything else! Then we had some more drinks, and played a game of charades, which was great fun. At about 2 in the morning, I made my way to bed - a thousand times more grateful for all the work my Mam puts into Christmas every year for us! Wow! What an effort!!

In the midst of the chicken sandwiches and picking at leftovers the next day, we were all too tired to do much, so we went to the cinema - woo hoo!! I had resigned myself to not getting to movies while I was in South America, but now the light has been rekindled! The next day we were leaving for Salta later in the evening, and with nothing else to do in the heat, we went to the cinema again - it´s so cheap, and it´s air conditioned! So we saw Beowulf, and then The Heartbreak Kid. And now I´m bugging Alan about going to see I Am Legend as soon as possible!! Ha ha.... The others went to a winery tour, but I stayed put - not feeling to well! - and Skyped friends and family instead!

We headed on for Salta on a long trip, with a five hour stopover in Tucuman. It was Alan´s birthday, and when we arrived in Tucaman bus station, all the lads sang Happy Birthday to Alan, and had gotten him a travel chess set in Mendoza. Just what he wanted!! Myself and Alan had exchanged Christmas pressies - I got him a Levis jumper, and he got me a pair of Puma shorts - so he said I wasn´t allowed buy him a birthday pressie, coz I had spent too much on the jumper, so instead I bought him dinner that night in Salta. Anyway, what a lovely pressie for the lads to get Alan - and what a nice surprise!! We headed into Tucuman and visited a few pubs and restaurants, seeking air conditioning and sustanance! I had my usual Christmas flu - yes, even over here! - so was feeling a bit rotten. When we arrived in Salta we headed for our hostel, and then out for a big steak dinner to celebrate Al´s birthday. We didn´t sit down to eat until 12.30! How strange....

Salta is beautiful! A really lovely city nestled in the mountains. Roasting hot, of course, but the mountains give a lovely breeze! They have cable cars going up into the mountain, where you get a lovely view of the city, so myself, Alan, Ed, Bones, Alan Mac and Gail went up on them to see the city. It was a bit scary! As Alan says, cable car accidents are the biggest killer of tourists after drowning! Eeek... But the views were lovely, and we had some icecream at the summit, looking down across Salta. Very nice! The city has a lovely festive feel to it, and all the parks are filled with fairground rides, and families having picnics, and general festivities. Very cool! Then we came back to the hostel and fooled about in the pool. The lads created a game called ´Score´. It´s very physical - to the point of drowning each other - but a lot of fun!

For New Years Eve, we basically hung out in the hostel - there was a bit of a party, with fireworks, food and drink. I´m never a big fan of the night - too much pressure - but it was good fun! We just drank and danced until daylight, so nothing too out of the ordinary! The fireworks were amazing - put ´Skyfest´ to shame. They have these big paper lanterns - practically up to your waist - and they light the bottom of it, it fills with hot air and floats up, then gets caught by the wind and floats across the sky. Soon the whole sky was filled with them! I think the tradition is that you put your hopes for the New Year into the lantern, and then set it free! Beautiful! So, amidst all the banging, exploding and colour of the fireworks, the stately beauty of the lanterns floating across the night sky was really a fabulous sight! Mam tells me that Elizabeth Bishop has written a poem about it, so I´ll have to check it out. All in all, a good New Year! We head for Bolivia at midnight tonight - 7 hours to the border, and you have to walk across it, so we thought it best to arrive in daylight! Another year, another country.........

Of course, it is a New Year, and most people do the whole ´resolution´ thing. I don´t really do that, but I do like to look forward into the next 12 months and have some hopes for myself. I hope that my family is happy and healthy. I hope that the world moves forward instead of backwards. I hope that I have the strength to make the decisions I need to make to change my life. And I hope that we all (myself included) have the strength to strive to be content with our lives.

Feliz Año Nueva, everyone!

Important P.S. to La Serena!!

Talk about forgetting the most important thing we did in La Serena!

We took a trip up to the Mamalluca Observatory in the mountains below the Atacama desert. There are observatories all over Chile, including ones from Europe, NASA and US universities, but this is the only one open to tourists. It has a 35 cm lens - compared to the 8 metre lenses on some of the surrounding telescopes. Chile is famous for observatories, as they have the clearest air in the world - a fact that we discovered after getting scorched alive from an hour in the sun!!

Anyway, a bus collected us and brought us an hour and a half from La Serena up into the mountains to the observatory.
We watched the sun set across the desert mountains, then went inside the observatory, where our English speaking guide turned the telescope to the sky, and we took turns gazing at craters on the moon - it was fantastic looking! He showed us other parts of the night sky, and told us interesting facts about stars and planets. But the moon was the fantastic sight! It was so close you could see someone walking on the moon....should that happen.

We then went downstairs, and he gave us a slideshow presentation on the birth of the universe, including a wonderful shot of where we are in the universe, and how bloody small and insignificant we are. Cool.

Then we went outside, where it was completely dark, and he took a powerful laser and began pointing out constellations in the sky. Orion was the most amazing, and then he pointed a smaller telescope at the sky, and we all took turns looking at the nebula in Orions knife...the birth of a star. He showed us many constellations, then again we looked in the telescope and saw a beautiful star cluster.

I have always been so intersted in astronomy, so this was just fantastic. He said the smaller telescopes - through which you could see star clusters and nebulae - was about 1000 dollars, so myself and Alan think we´d like to buy one!

After that we looked back at the moon with the less powerful telescope - which meant we could see the entire moon, curve and all. We were able to put our cameras up to the telescope and get pictures of it all. What a night! And all for 15 euro.....expensive, huh?!?!

So that´s my little ´P.S.´ for La Serena.....how could I have forgotten a night like that?

See you in Mendoza....!

Not so chilly in Chile!

Well, here I am in another country (nice to tick it off on the list!)....Chile. Since I last spoke to you, we left the lovely calm surroundings of El Bolson for the picturesque and exciting splendour of Bariloche!


Myself, Alan, and the Scottish two (Alan and Gail) stayed on an extra day in El Bolson, as we found it hard to quit our lovely solitary log cabins. Talk about a peaceful break in the holidays - all we did was lie in hammocks reading our books, or playing chess inside at the window seats, pausing every now and again to look out the window at the Andes all around us. What a time it was! I´ll definitely be hitting El Bolson again on my travels. Bariloche was pretty much everything I expected it to be - a bigger town, with bigger pubs, and bigger prices - nothing near as nice as El Bolson, but we weren´t there for the beauty...we were there for the adventure!


So, first things first, we signed up for the canopy sliding. This is a fantastic little day trip where you are collected on mini bus and driven up into the mountains around the lakes of Bariloche. On arrival we were given a little demo on the proper use of the zip-lining equipment, then strapped into our harnesses and squashed into a Landrover - yes, all eight of us. Then we headed straight up the mountain, bumping and shaking up the dirt track through the trees on an almost vertical dirt track, to our first platform, at ground level. Here we were given helmets, gloves and a leather strap thingy to use as a brake, when needed (eek!). Up we climbed onto the platform - really a pallet of wood hung with wires from the branches of the tree, but that didn´t matter, as we were only a few feet off the ground. So, we stood around and then were hooked on one by one to the zip line. The instructer told us to cross our legs, put our braking hand above our head on the wire, and hold the harness with the other hand, and away we went - zipped through the trees (with the greatest of ease). All fun and laughter, until we got to the other platform which, due to the steep incline of the mountain, was about 30 foot above the ground. Suddenly the pallet of wood didn´t seem so secure this high up......and with 9 of us on it!! I was very nervous getting in line for the next zip, because the pallet was shaking beneath me, and this next zip line was so long you couldn´t see the other platform at the end of it - you could just hear the zip as the person ahead of you soared through the canopy of trees, and see their bright red helmet disappear into the leaves. So, this time, my body betrayed me slightly - when the instructer told me to cross my legs (always the last thing you do, as your legs are holding you to the platform), my body wouldn´t obey! It just said ´no´! Stubborn thing.....it took a few seconds to shake it out of it´s fear, and jump into the zip line! I was probably helped by the fact that an eight year old kid had joined our group, and didn´t seem afraid at all! Anyway, we got to a maximum height of 60ft above the ground, and did 8 zips in total, so it was great fun, and I´d do it again in a heartbeat! Being up that high in the trees was beautiful, and when you remembered to look ahead of you, you could see the lakes of Bariloche spread out below you in a beautiful tableau. A little bit scary, but definitely great fun!


The next day was the white river rafting day. We were told that the river we would be taking is a level 3 to 3.5 (as the glaciers are melting higher up in the mountains, feeding the river a bit more as the summer goes on). We took a minibus far into the mountains from Bariloche (practically back to El Bolson), and were handed our fabulously flattering wetsuits! We were all in our swimwear, so I had to put it on over my bikini, in a lovely little communal area with all the other girls. It was bloody horrible! Like trying to get the fig into a fig roll! I had to be POURED into the wetsuit! But, I got it on eventually....and headed outside to be confronted by the ballerina-esque boys in suits! If I thought I looked dodgy!!! Just kidding - I had never seen such fine displays of manliness in my life! They were hilarious.....even had a kickabout with a football, just in case we couldn´t see enough how the wetsuit hugged every curve! Then we got our lifejackets, helmets and wetsuit socks. We were assigned six to a boat, so Mac and Bones headed off to another boat with some girls, and myself, Welly, Alan, Alan Mac, Gail and Ed took our positions next to the big inflatable raft beside us. We got our safety briefing from the main instructer, then we were introduced to our man, Santiago - or, as he preferred to be called, Santi. We carried our boat onto the beautiful water (glacial water - coming from the melting glaciers - has such a fantastic blue colour, and is potable, so you can drink it anytime you like) - which was, unfortunately, also fantastically freezing! Santi went through his instructions, and we practised with our paddles. Since Welly and Alan Mac were up front, we had to take our paddling lead from them, and they had to match each other, that way we all paddled as one. We also had instructions like ´right side back´, which meant the right side paddled backwards and left side forwards to turn the boat around, or ´left side back´, which was the same thing vice-versa. We had others like ´high side right´, which meant we were flipping, and the right side people had to jump against the left side to steady the raft, or my personal favourite ´rock and roll´, which meant drop inside the raft (we sat perched on the edge for paddling) and hang on to the ´oh shit´ rope which rings the raft - that instruction was for heavy rapids that we would just have to ride out, and couldn´t paddle our way through. All these intructions came as we were meandering slowly down the river, looking up at waterfalls pouring down the mountains around us into the little canyon we were sailing through. Absolutely beautiful! Santi was also great fun - everytime another raft came close, he started splash fights with our oards, so we were soaking by the time we got half way down.


And then the rapids were upon us! We had 8 in total, and they were just unbelievable! The boat rises practically vertically, and then drops just as much - you´re leaning back in the boat looking straight down into the churning water as it throws the raft high in the air, and crashing back down again. It was so weird - you feel actual waves in the river, because it´s moving so fast and crashing against rocks. The rapids were just brilliant! The instructers messed about, jumping on the raft to give it extra bounce - and Bones and Macs instructer jumped too high on the first rapids, and fell in, and their boat had to go to the rescue! Our instructer was very happy with our response to his orders, and our paddling ability, so he said he would take us in the most difficult - and fun - angles on the rapids, so it was just brilliant. I have never felt such a rush of adrenalin in my life, it was just fantastic, and I hesitate to even begin to describe how it felt to be thrown around the blue-green waves, with water crashing around you and into you, and trying to paddle and listen to instructions on what to do - it was one of the most amazing things I´ve ever done, and I´m delighted I did it!


At the end of the rapids, Santi stood up on the edge and shouted ´high side right´, and we all jumped against the left side - and saw what he was doing...he was tipping us! Ed spotted it, and tried to jump back, but it was too late, the raft overturned, and we were all thrown into the fast moving FREEZING water! I lost my paddle straight away, of course, and was looking around for Alan - then lost myself in the feeling of the water, and just floated downstream until the raft pulled up close by, and I swam back and Alan pulled me on board. We were all just crying laughing, and shaking with the fun and coldness of it all. Brilliant!

We climbed up out of the river, to discover that we were in Chile! Just over the border.... And then we changed out of our wetsuits - again in a lovely communal shed - and into warm clothes, then back in the minibus and onwards to base-camp, where a delicious barbeque awaited us! The woman who was dishing things up had her little girl with her - a lovely niña of about 3 or 4 - who took a shine to me, and babbled away in Spanish to me for about an hour. She loved my nose ring, and kept touching it, then got a sticker and stuck it on her so she could look the same! Funny onion.

We were bloody knackered after that! We just spent a couple of days hanging out in Bariloche, then myself, Alan, and Alan Mac and Gail went on ahead to Santiago to meet EJ - the other lads took a bus the next day after. We had the unfortunate luck of arriving in Santiago and immediately meeting with an unscrupulous taxi driver, who drove us to our hostel via every street in Santiago, charging 7600 pesos instead of the 3000 it should have come to, and then when Alan Mac tried to pay with a 10000 note said he had no change, and handed Alan back his money, then took the 7600 off of me. When he left, we discovered that he had swapped Alan´s 10000 note for a 1000 note. What a bastard!! So that left a sour taste in our mouth about Santiago from the get go! Then we arrived in our hostel, which had communal showers - for men AND women! After our trip across the Andes from Bariloche - taking 28 hours - I needed a shower, so managed to get in an out quick enough to avoid meeting anyone else! And the heat in Santiago was unreal! We went out for a lovely meal that night, and that made things a little easier!!

Next morning myself and Alan got up early and caught a bus to the airport to collect EJ. All went well, and we had the exciting Arrivals reunion! Love airports... Then we went back to the hostel and collected our gear, and moved on to the next hostel, Casa Roja - which had a pool! We were too early to check in, so had to start drinking at 11.30 in the day. The rest of the lads arrived at about 5, so at that stage we were well oiled! We all swam in the pool, and drank some more, and pretty much had a great reunion in Santiago! Met some skater dudes in a park close by, and practised our Spanish. All good! And that´s how it continued for a week - we rarely left the hostel, except for food, and spent our time lounging by the pool in the 35 degree heat, and drinking beers by night. We met some lovely Irish lads - Stretch and Fuzz, from Tipp and Clare - and hung out with them, and had basically a bloody right laugh in the hostel! Even felt the earth move - our first earthquake! Turned out to be a 4.6 quake 500 miles away, so we only felt the tremor, but by God it was weird! Dunno if I´d want to feel anything stronger!!

We finally tore ourselves away from the party hostel, and headed north to La Serena, where I am just finishing up today before heading to Mendoza for Christmas. It´s a small enough town, overlooking the Pacific, with not much to do. We have a lovely hostel - Casa Maria - which is literally someone´s house, with some rooms out back for guests. Maria, a child of the 60´s who is about 60 now, treats you like you are her personal guests in her home....fussing over you, making sure you have coffee and tea, and stewing apricots with cinnamon from her back garden too cool you down on the hot days. It´s lovely! We´ve just been relaxing here after the mentalness of Santiago - taking my first swim in the Pacific, and strolling around town, and basically lounging in Maria´s back garden listening to the birds. Nice!

The lads headed off yesterday to Mendoza, and myself, Alan, Alan Mac and Gail, and EJ and Welly are going on today on the overnight bus. Our apartment better be nice!

Doesn´t feel like Christmas at all......it´s just too damn sunny. Also, there´s no real decorations up, so it really doesn´t come across as a Christmassy type place. We´ll decorate the apartment, though, and Gail and Alan have booked the apartment next to us, so we´re planning a monster Christmas dinner for 9 people - and we´ll have two cookers to get everything ready, so hope it´s good.

Really missing the kids! Can´t get my head around not seeing them Christmas morning, and hearing what Santa got them! It kinda feels like we´re just missing Christmas this year, and we´ll have it again next year. Strange. So, onwards again, and back to Argentina we go....just another few hours here. Maria is fussing again, and trying to make me drink some tea, so I´d better go oblige her!!