Rob and Al's Big Ol' Trip

Hello again, and for the last time (by blog anyway). We´re currently in Lima, only hours away from departing for the airport, so, as a way of rounding things up, here's what we've been up to this week...

After returning to Cusco from Machu Picchu, we had a day to mill about and take in a few coffees before taking the night bus to Arequipa. The journey flew by, as we slept through most of it, dropping us off in Peru's second city at the early hour of 5.15. After reaching a hostel and grabbing some more much needed kip, we went for a bit of an explore. Arequipa was a pretty nice place, lost of money floating about and, being nice and sunny, it was good to have a bit of food in the sunshine (and cake... been having a lot of that stuff recently...) After dinner, we booked our 2 day, 1 night tickets for Colca Canyon, the deepest canyon in the world.

The trip to Colca was nice enough, though pretty stop start with lots to see en route. The first day, we didnt actually go to the canyon itself, rather a village nearby, which had some hot springs in to relax. Or for Rob to relax, Al to snooze instead. Oddly, there were a couple of English guys on the tour who knew some people Rob also knew from back home. Small world indeed. It was cool to have a few beers in the bath-like water, before returning to the hostel to pick up a now-awake Al for some beer and dinner. Although very touristy, dinner was pretty good, though it involved yet more Peruvian dancing, which we were expected to partake in. So, we did. Badly. Making our excuses, we eventually ended up in an Irish pub (they get everywhere) for a few more bevvies before hitting the hay, ready for a 5am wake up call.

Which wasn't fun. Still, gamely we struggled on, and eventually arrived at the Canyon. Having both been to the Grand Canyon, it was hard not to compare, but Colca was pretty cool- some nice views, and some good pictures of the Condors (the worlds heaviest bird) which soar high above your heads. The tour now over, we took the 4 hour trip back to Arequipa.

We had another day or so left to mill about, but rather than do anything too strenous, we decided to have another day of bumming about, playing a few games of pool and watching MTV. Perhaps not the most culture-packed day, but decent enough. After yet MORE cake, we rolled our bloated bodies back home to book the tickets to Lima, Peru's capital. This was pretty weird, as throughout our trip, Lima, our final destination, has always been a blip on the horizon. Now, it was finally here...

After stocking up with the essentials (water, crackers, sour skittles) we boarded the 16 hour bus to Lima at 4pm, and sat about trying to get some sleep on the bumpy Peruvian roads. The bus driver was a bit of a joker, but we made it in one piece, albeit a bit annoyed that the driver decided to let on some guy who wanted to sell some junk. Even more surprising, he did, selling some deep-heat smelling stuff to our fellow passengers. Far be it for us to be cynical, but he didnt look the sort of guy who had a license to sell or practise medicine...

We'd heard some pretty unfavourable thnigs about Lima - in fact, no-one has had even a half-kind word to say about it. But to us, it hasnt seemed all that bad. It's really, really smoggy, but there are some really nice, plush parts, like Miraflores, where we went yesterday. On our last full day, we took the bus downtown to go and see... Indiana Jones. Which was fun, although not that fantastic. Still, a lot was based in Peru, although the films geography wasnt exactly precise. Although the area around the seafront was nice enough, it was very Americanised, and not at all like the Peru we'd been travelling in for the last 2 and a half weeks. So we were quite happy to get back to our area near the centre for our last night, a few pitchers and the odd reminisce.

So thats about it, folks. Today, we've bought a few souvenirs, a few donuts (!) and packed up our stuff for the long journey back. Annoyingly, we have a 2 hour stop over in Madrid to deal with too, but we'll be home in less than 24 hours. So, as a way of summing up the past 141 days (142 tomorrow!) here's a brief run down of our trip:

Days: 142
Countries: 11 (though technically 12, as we went through immigration in Singapore)
Number of flights: 10
Buses: 20 ish (long ones) and lots of mini vans
Trains:8
Boats: 11
Magic carpets: none, we didnt go to Turkey!
Kebabs: ibid
Wonders of the world: 4
Jokers: not enough fingers to count....
Rentboys: 1 official, lots of potentials
Scams: loads
Scams to which we were victim: loads more
Arrests: nearly one.... undoubtedly related to....
Drinks: the odd tipple but mainly water, honest
Cows: are farmyard animals
STA travel clowns: 1....cheers Rog!
Russ: everywhere, mostly Beijing
Blood: yep
Sweat: yep
Tears: always

and finally.... blog entries: 24

Rob and Al
and
Al and Rob

Hello again and welcome to what is probably the penultimate entry on our blog (everyone breathes a sigh of relief!)

Having left Puno, the first town on our visit to Peru, we took a seven hour coach ride through the Peruvian mountains to the Incan city of Cusco which would act as our hub for the next week or so as we embarked upon hiking the Inca trail. The bus ride was great as we were sat on the front row upstairs (everyone knows thats the seat you fight for on school trips unless you are too cool, then you sit on the back row) so we had a panoramic view of the scenery. Because of this view we were offered a decent amount of money from another traveller to swap seats with him but after a fair amount of intense deliberation we decided to stay put and enjoy the view. As it turned out the seats were in direct sunlight so we were swealtering as we expanded our geographic horizons. Was it worth it? We never really decided.

Anyway having arrived in Cusco we decided to check out what the Hostelling International Hostel had to offer. On the cab ride there another guy jumped in the passengers seat for the ride. The rumour goes that if this happens this is a bad sign so Al decided to turn the child lock to what he thought was off. As it turned out the guy was a tourist guide just being helpful and the child lock was already set to off so Al was stuck....unhelpful. At the hostel the girl was basically making up the price so we left her and her imagination to it and found a cool little place with spanish style balconies surrounding a central courtyard which was just off the beautiful central Plaza des Armas. We spent the afternoon exploring the centre of the city which was originally constructed by the Incas and subsequently rearranged by the Spanish. Cusco is clearly a tourist haven with many ridiculously expensive boutiques as well as the token backpacker hangouts. The next day was spent doing exactly the same thing. Just walking around taking everything in, taking pictures and staying out of trouble. We also dropped by the Adventure Canyon office, a company offering the 122m high bungy, to casually contemplate their services and the ramifications of paying for them. This was Rob´s chance to get some real thinking done about the value of his life as Al had already decided that it was worth tying his legs to some elastic and jumping out of a cage very high above the ground. Unfortunatley the bungy was closed the following day so the nail biting had to continue for an extra day.

This day eventually came and it was time. After much soul-searching, Rob... decided he'd back out of making any actual decisions until he actually arrived. The previous few days had seen about fifty-four million changes of his mind, so whether or not he'd actually go through with it was anyone's guess. Anyway, after a 15 minute taxi, we arrived at the bungy site... and it truth, it didnt look too bad! Al was first up, and after being strapped in, he managed to wangle it so he could carry his camera on the jump. This was actually against company policy, officially because they couldnt guarentee the safety of said camera, but really so they could try and flog one of the DVD packages. The video's pretty good, more for Al's face as he's pinged about than anything else - it was a long way up! Anyway, after what seemed an eternity, the lift/cage thing was raised to its 122 metre point - which looked MUCH higher than it did from the ground. And, with the minimum of fuss, Al plunged to the ground. Then back again. Then back down again. And so on. By this stage, Rob had decided that, sod it, he'd give it a bash after all. So when Al returned to the ground, still buzzing on the adrenaline rush, Rob was getting strapped in, and proceeded to the top of the bungee. Bizarrely, the gut-wrenching terror that had consumed him for the previous 2 days had all but disappeared, and before knowing it, he was hurtling to the ground... Al took a video of the jump, which is great as it shows the seemless transition of fear to joy in the space of seconds. Great stuff. The jump wasnt cheap - around 40 pounds - but well worth doing. So, when all was said and done, we arrived back in Cusco, smiles on our faces, for a much-needed breakfast.

The 27th May was the date we would start hiking the Inca trail to Machu Picchu but the night before we had to attend a brief at the Llama Path (our cool tour company with a cool name) offices on everything that the hike would entail. This was also our chance to meet the rest of the tour group; a group of seven in total, Brett and Jess from Minnesota, Michelle and David from Arizona, Deborah from Seattle and us. The guide also told Al that his dodgy shoes from Thailand were not exactly up to withstanding the rigours of a four day hike and that he would be best advised to hire some proper boots. So with these sage words in mind he managed to hire some boots in the correct size but was charged extra as he was informed that these boots were bigger and hence would naturally be more expensive....foot discrimination, unbeleivable!

So the next day at 4.30 in the morning we were picked up by bus to commence our hike. After an hour so on the bus we arrived in the village of Ollentaytambo for an early breakfast and the opportunity to stock up on Coca leaves (yep, of cocaine fame) and hiking sticks. Following this brief stop we headed to Km82, the starting point of the inca trail. This is where we discovered that saving cash on not hiring a porter for our big rucksacks may have been an error in our usually faultless judgement. Anyway like the troopers we are we set off for the first days hike. This was a pleasant affair with very few challenging sections and lots of awesome views of the snow capped Mount Veronica and surrounding valleys. The morning saw us take in a spectacular Inca site before heading up a valley for our firt lunch stop. The food was incredible! We were served at a dining table and ate avocado salad, soup, fish, rice, and vegetables, all served and presented as if we were sat in the Savoy. After lunch we had a slightly more challenging hike up a valley to our first overnight camping site. It was such a great feeling being surrounded by spectacular scenery, great people and great food. After we patted ourselves on the back with a semi cold beer we had ´happy hour´ where we were introduced to the porters and also had to introduce ourselves in (let us be modest for a moment) perfect spanish. Following this was another gastronomic gorging session in the dining tent and then bed, where you will be pleased to note we resited the urge to spoon and instead strangely opted to sleep.

The next day was another early start initaiated by the porters offering us tea in bed. Seriously these boys can cater! Breakfast done and smelly toilets negotiated we started the day two hike, the notoriously hard day taking in two steep ascents to two separate passes. The first pass was called Dead Womans pass, so called because it doesnt really resemble a dead woman, rather a bit of mountain that looks like a boob (singular). We (just us, not the group) liked to refer to it as the Witches tit but thats another story....or not, just us being stupid. Once at the pass at a height of over 4000m we had to descend all the way back down the other side for lunch and yes, this was another delightful affair courtesy of Dionisio, the chef, who took pride in wearing his chef whites. Chef whites in the middle of the mountains....breathtaking stuff especially given that he had a proper chefs hat too! Post lunch saw us tackle the second pass which although not as tough as the witches tit was pretty darn tough. On the way we passed another Inca site used as a sort of post office by the Incas, where they would use runners with bits of string with knots tied in them to convey messages (we were told that the Incas could not get hold of roller ball re-fills, that or they were a culture that didnt write stuff down). With the second past lying dead in our wake it was onward to the second campsite. Much to our surprise the food was again scrumptious and the toilet again smelly. Having fended off the hardest day with ease it was time to go to bed again, no spooning....separate sleeping bags you see!

The third day arrived much like the second, tea from the porters and ablutions amidst the stench. Thankfully this day was basically all down hill with visits to some incredible Inca sites. The first was called Intipata which was a huge bank of Inca terracing (those Inca chaps knew how to terrace!) that hugged the side of a steep mountain. The full impact of this place was not apparent until we actually arrived there. It was stunning! Something like 50 terraces running down the side of the hill in a convex (cheers GCSE physics) manner topped off by stone houses all with a backdrop of snow capped peaks and cloud forest covered mountains.

After spending a while wide eyed with amazement we carried on to the last campsite on the hike. This was arguably the best campsite as it had showers and beer but as we are not shallow and for the sake of equality amongst campsites we will say all they were all special. Before dinner we were taken by Alex our guide to see another Inca site, Winaywayna, which is suposedly the most spectacular after Machu Picchu. We should pause here to talk about Alex, a legend amongst men. He is undoubtledly the best guide on the Inca trail. Always patient, informative and happy, he made the hike an absoulte pleasure. In short he was a pro. If you are considering hitting the Inca trail try and get hold of him!

So with that totally heterosexual gushing out of the way back to business. Winaywayna was stunning and this time a set of concave (GCSEs, amazing!) terraces with a large city perched halfway up. Its purpose could have been one of 3 things: to supply the nobility of Machu Picchu with food, religion, and ermmm.... (insert third theory here) - we were listening honest! That night saw the sad affair of saying goodbye to the porters who had been so amazingly efficient in setting up camp and catering to our every need (big shout to Pancho, the security guard complete with hi-vis bib). After diinner it was straight to bed as we had to get up at 3.50 the following morning for the speed hike to Machu Picchu!

Day 4, the big day, rolled round fast and so bleary eyed we dragged ourselves to the breakfast tent for our final meal with Llama Path. Strangely this was breakfast cake with a farewell message in icing on the top (none of you should be in any doubt now that Llama Path is the nuts!). At 4.50 it was ´vamos´ time and so we hot footed it to the control gate for a brief wait in the dark while the guard scratched his balls and thought about letting us through to the final few kms of Inca trail. Scratching done we were off at a much faster pace than on the previous few days and before we knew it we were at the Inca sun gate with a view over the cloud covered city of Machu Picchu! Within mintues the cloud had cleared and we saw it, the place we had worked so hard to get to! It was an incredible sight and was definatley on par with the Great Wall, the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat. Photos taken, we sped off again to actually reach the city and when we did we were all blown away.

Arriving when we did so early in the morning there was cloudy mist swirling all around the buildings and surrounding mountains and with no tourists in sights the views were incredible. After a decent amount of time posing and capturing the post card pictures we headed into the city for a guided tour from Alex. Machu Picchu is rightly a wonder of the world. The buildings are amazing and there are birds flying all around and llamas grazing on the many terraces. We spent a good while taking it all in before the buses bearing your average tourist arrived....having done the trek its hard not to be a bit elitist about things! After Alex explained the major sights to us including the amazingly precise sun temples which told the Incas what time of the day it was, we had free time to explore on our own before heading down to the town of Aguas Calientes for the final group meeting. At the meeting we all had lunch over excited talk about Machu Picchu and the Condors we saw circling on the bus ride down. After lunch we all said our goodbyes and everyone headed their separate ways. All we pretty much did was get some food and crashed for a well deserved 12 hour sleep!

So that was it, Machu Picchu, the last ´big´ thing we had planned done! Now we enter our last week on this adventure of ours.... will we spoon, won´t we spoon, that is the question?

Until the next time,

bye bye,

Al and Rob

Hello! Well, with our last entry promising the low down on La Paz, its only right that we should start from there. The night bus went pretty smoothly, although was largely memorable for a young Bolivian girl being violently ill for pretty much the whole journey. Still, we arrived at around 7 in the morning, and after checking in to our hostel, went for a wander around Bolivia's sort-of capital. With the city being so high up, just walking around is a mission in itself, so we decided to take it easy by exploring the many markets, with Rob revisiting some of the areas he'd been to nearly 6 years previously. La Paz was completely different to Sucre - louder, busier, with much more going on. Still, after a coffee and a wander round the witches market (complete with dead llamas and a variety of foetus') we had dinner, a curry in an Anglo-Indian restaurant, and went to... Oliver's Travels. An English-style pub. What great travellers. Oliver's promised 'the least authentic Bolivian experience in La Paz'. Oliver (incidentally a Wednesday fan) wasn't lying - inside, you could get English food, English music and a plethora of English backpackers. You could also order a pint of tea. It was a funny place. Still, we felt wen deserved a bit of home comfort, and that night we had a few drinks, exchanged stories with other travellers, and returned in the early hours ready for the next day...

...which consisted of a trip to the Coca Museum - the plant from which cocaine originates from, and which most of the locals can be seen (legally) chewing. Although all in Spanish, they had an English read-along guide, which meant we could at least get a grasp of what was going on. Again, we whiled away the day by going to the markets, with Al buying a hoodie which he was assured was Alpaca, but is probably Nylon, having a few coffees, and watching the Bolivian world go by. That night, after buying an unnessecary 5 litres of Vodka, in a container better suited for the storage of petrol, off a market stall for the low-low price of two pounds fifty (it was quality stuff...), with Tom feeling the heat, we decided to up sticks and go to La Paz's main club, Mumbos, where we chatted to a few of the locals, had a few beers and enjoyed a pretty good night out. As you might expect.

On the Saturday morning, with the FA Cup Final supposedly on TV, Rob revisited Oliver´s to watch the big game.. except in their wisdom, ESPN had decided to prioritise a tennis match between Nadal vs Dokovic, and a womens hockey match... So with that plan scuppered, we took to the streets, where a massive, day-long parade was taking place. Although we're still not too sure what the parade was in aid of, it was good to sit in the sun, watching the residents of La Paz drinks their own body weight, and the traditional music and dancing that went with it. That night, we had our last meal as a 3-sum, with Al deciding to stay in La Paz for an extra day, in order to take in La Paz´s famous 'death road' via downhill mountain bike. This consisted of hurtling down a three metre wide and very rocky quasi-road with sheer drops of up to 400m on the left hand side. It is not as dangerous as it sounds despite the fact that beforea new road was built 35 people a month used to die on the road and still toda4 bikers a year skid over the edge attempting to claim their "I survived the Death Road" t-shirts.

As Rob had experienced the wonders and shonky-ness of the death road on his last trip to Bolivia, he went with Tom to Copacabana, the border town between Bolivia and Peru, and also overlooking the 'highest navigable lake in the world', Titicaca. Copacabana was nice enough, but it had become very touristy, and seemed to lack the charm which Sucre and La Paz enjoyed. That said, it didnt have an ATM, so after Rob and Tom had said their tearful goodbyes, when Al arrived from the 4 hour bus (and brief boat) journey, we had very little money with which to play with. That first night, this lack of funds meant that our options with which to pass the evening were pretty limited. Thankfully, our hostel was almost deserted, and they didnt lock the doors to the avaliable rooms, some of which had TVs... So, after a brief discussion, we left our telly-less room to one of the more glamourous ensuite options, where we watched the Bourne Supremacy. And while that could 'technically' be considered stealing from a struggling 3rd world enterprise, we're sure you would have done the same. *cough*

Anyway, our financial situation meant budgeting to the extreme, as we prepared a shoddy packed lunch to take to the Isla del Sol in the morning - supposedly the birthplace of the Incas. We say supposedly, as we werent told that, after scraping together the 20 Bolivianos to go on the tour, it would cost another 10 Bolivianos to actually see the decent Inca stuff. So after the worlds slowest boat ride - 2 hours, which could have taken about 30 minutes) we got off to boat penniless, only to be refused entry. Al´s ten dollar bill was repeatedly refused, as it had a small tear in one of the corners. So for the lack of 66p each, we had to sit and wait for around 4 hours for everyone else to finish the tour before we returned to the mainland. We weren´t best pleased. Still, we were told it was a bit shit anyway...

That evening, still a bit miffed from our island trip, we took the 4 hour bus to Puno, and Peru. It was a shame that our Bolivian experience had ended on a sour note, as the rest of our time there had been fantastic. Still, after arriving in Puno, we finally had some decent food (at a restaurant that proclaimed itself as 'Great') and a decent nights sleep. The following morning, our first in Peru, was spent booking up a trip to the floating islands of Uros and our transport to Cusco on the 23rd. After exploring the town and the markets, we returned to watch the Champions League final. Which was BRILLIANT, if only for the sight of John Terry AND Ronaldo crying. A bit of schadeunfreude, perhaps, but we're only human. That night, we had our first taste of 'Cuy', or Guinea Pig, in a pretty decent Peruvian restaurant. The portions were, not surprisngly, small - Guinea Pigs arnt known for their abundence of meat - but it was pretty good. Whilst we eat, were were entertained by more music and dancing. Unfortunately, this was too much for one of the guys on the table next to us, an old boy from Germany (we think) who, whilst they were playing, actually went up to them and made a ´turn it down´gesture. Even better, he proceeded to put in ear plugs (the wrong way round, Al observed) as if to make a point. In disbelief, we made our hasty exit. Some people...!

So today, we went to the floating islands of Uros, man-made islands consisting of reeds on which around 2000 people live, fish and sell tat to tourists. Although we were wary of another isla del sol experience, it was actually pretty good. For starters, the boat went faster than walkng pace, and it was good to wander around on a surface, the consistency of which felt like sponge, before taking a boat made out of said reads to the other side of the islands, whilst trying to avoid the content of a young Peruvian boy's nose, which he seemed more than happy to share with us. Yum.

We're off to Cusco tomorrow, home of Machu Picchu. This should be one of the highlights of our trip, so we'll keep you posted on how we get on. Until then...

Rob and Al.

So the last time we posted we were a very long way from our current location of La Paz Bolivia and about to head through the desert on a 3 day jeep trek to Uyuni, Bolivia. After an early wake-up we arrived at the meeting point to board the bus which would take us across the Chilean border and up maybe a thousand feet to the Bolivian border post. The border crossing was very easy and quick and before we knew it we were in our jeep speeding over rough tracks into the stunning Bolivian desert landscape. Our driver didn't really speak English so we were very fortunate to have two multilingual Italians in our jeep who were kind enough to translate the 29 words out of 30 that we didn't understand. After stopping for a breakfast of bread, jam, coffee and coca tea by the shimmering White lagoon we were again speeding off over crazy looking terrain. The jeeps was so impressive at negotiating rocks the size of small solar systems and our driver was especially keen on demonstrating his on/off relationship with the foot brake and his healthy commitment to the accelerator. Time passed so quickly and having taken in the stunning Green Lagoon, which only becomes green when the wind kicks up the copper deposits, a dip in a hot spring, and Seven Colour Mountain (its name due, we think, to the fact that it is made up of seven different colours of sand/rock) we arrived at our first overnight stop. The simple but comfortable accomodation was tucked up next to a big hill on the shore of a salt lake and after a late lunch we went out to take some pictures and generally fool around. After night fell and the temperature plummetted we had our dinner and went straight to bed for a pretty chilly nights sleep in the un-heated dorms (although not for Rob who has his super warm sleeping bag made from the furs of a thousand unicorns....or something).

The next day we awoke for our second day of the trip and after breakfast started the longest day of driving. We saw some spectacular sights including the Red Lagoon complete with resident Flamingos and the Tree rock, a strange top heavy rock carved by sand erosion that, you guessed it, resembles a tree. We should mention that all these sights were surrounded by a variety of dormant volcanoes, snow capped mountains, yellow grass lined hills and the ever present Llamas and Alpacas. In the afternoon we went to a geyser field which despite smelling of egg was an awesome sight. We saw grey mud, pink mud and red mud! Our last stop before the second night was a walk down a shallow canyon which looked like the set of both Raiders of the Lost Ark and the bit in Star Wars with the sand men (these facts we assume will only be of interest to men and boys). In this canyon we saw a rabbit type animal not dissimilar to the killer rabbit in Monthy Python's Holy Grail and so another film connection was made....wild times. After another long drive through a deserted rail road town we arrived at our evenings accomodation which was just outside a small village and surrounded by massive cacti. Following a nice hot shower we had dinner whilst watching Rocky 4 followed by Rocky 3, an odd running order we know, but when you cant understand badly dubbed Spanish it doesnt really matter.

The next day we started the drive to the Salar de Unyuni, the worlds largest salt flats. With the previous nights accomodation located very near the salt plain it was not long before we were cruising along with miles and miles of white surrounding us. The salt plains are so impressive in that they go on forever and you get a real sense of infinity on the horizon. Whatsmore this allowed for some very silly, totally cliched pictures of the three of us (Tom is still travelling with us, we cant seem to shake him...) jumping, pulling handstands and standing on each others hands and shoulders.

After flexing our bulging photgraphic muscles we drove to an island in the middle of the salt flat that was home to thousands of cacti. Following a stroll around the island we started the last leg of our journey to the town of Uyuni via the aptly named Salt Hotel (no prizes for guessing why it has this name). Having arrived in Uyuni we stopped off at the train graveyard, the resting place of many huge steam engines which are slowly being eaten by the elements.

Having arrived in Uyuni we settled into a decent hostel and then went to find food. What we found was incredible llama steaks the size of half the plate and the plates there were big! We spent the rest of the day just relaxing in the quaint little town before our departure to Sucre the next day.

The journey to Sucre was eventful due mainly to the fact that there are no 'proper' (as in tarmac) roads connecting it to Uyuni. The journey was about ten hours and saw us clamber out of the bus at one point and walk so as to allow the bus to pass a certain section without sinking into the mud. It was with great relief (some of the roads have no barriers to stop the bus sailing over the edge into stunning but deadly ravenes) that we arrived in Sucre in one piece. Sucre was once the capital but is now only the judicial centre of Bolivia, having lost its status to La Paz. It is however a beatutiful and relaxed city. There are many colonial looking buildings white washed churches and palm tree lined parks. We spent our time there mainly in the pursuit of good food and good beer, and thankfully the food in Bolivia is really good and really cheap! We did manage to drag ourselves away from our gastronomic endeavours for at least 2 hours on a visit to the worlds largest collection of dinosaur tracks by means of the Dino Truck. Despite the cool name, the Dino Truck was little more than a pickup truck a tarp and some badly attached dino claws. Still the tracks were fascinating, located in a disused quarry, and the tour of the museum was entertaing and informative....double whammy!

After a great few days in Sucre we decide it was time to move on and because we couldn't really remember what was in Cochabamba, we decided to head straight to the capital, La Paz, where we are now. Having arrived yesterday we had some time to explore the markets and area around our hostel but with so much to do here, La Paz will have to wait for the next blog entry.

So from high up in the southern hemisphere, bye bye,

Al and Rob

Hello! We last left you about to board a bus to La Serena from Valparaiso. Although we've had longer bus journey this trip, this 7 hour one dropped us off around 1 in the morning, so we were not at our most chirpy as we wandered around the deserted coastal town looking for a place to stay. Finding most hostals shut, we stumbled across a quasi-hostel, quasi-homestay which suited our needs, eg, a bed and a roof. It was a bit odd, as we had to walk through a guys house, out the back door, round an alleyway, before heading into another room (or shed) before going up the staircase to what was essentially a loft. And if that sounds convuluted, it wasnt much easier to negotiate in the early hours with little sleep.

Still, in the morning, we decided to go for a little explore, and after a much needed lunch (we hadnt eaten for nearly 24 hours at this point) we wandered through the shops and markets, before heading down to the sea to remenisce and look out over the water. And nice as it was, it was hard to look at La Serena's coastal offerings without comparing them to the beaches in Thailand (particularly Koh Tao) and Fiji... Still, that night we decided we'd earned a few beers, which turned into a few pitchers... Which is why we're pictured below with a Chilean guy who looked a little bit like (the artist formerly, and currently known as) Prince. It was a good night, with us looking back at our trip so far, as well as our time in Leicester (we've done a lot of this - must be getting old...) whilst looking forward to what the rest of South America had to offer.

The next day, after a bit of a lie in (Bad Boys was on TV, which was nice to wake up to) we decided to book our tickets to San Pedro de Atacama, in the North of Chile. After whiling away the afternoon in the sunshine at the Japanese Gardens, we boarded the 18 hour overnight bus in relative luxery, having wisely decided to pay the extra 5000 Chilean Pesos (just over 5 quid) for fully reclining chairs and a bit of food thrown in for good measure. This made the journey more than bareable. We arrived in good spirits, especially Rob who had discovered the football scores, and Sheff Wed's triumphant 16th place finish, and set about finding another hostal with our new chum Tom from Guildford, who had taken the same bus all the way from Santiago. San Pedro, we discovered, is in the dryest desert in the world (the Atacama), which makes it pretty toasty during the day, but freezing at night. This is also the case when walking about during the day, its often too hot to sit out in the sun, but step into the shade, and you need extra layers. It's also a beautiful place - dry and dusty on the one hand, with snow capped mountains and a mixture of active and dormant volcanos on the other. Whereas Santiago and Valpariaso looked almost European at times, San Pedro is much more of the images that are conjoured up when you think of 'South America'. After acclimatising ourselves with our new surroundings, and getting used to the extra altitude (we're currently at almost 2000m above sea level, which is around half of what La Paz will be in a week or so) we had a few beers and some Chilli (in Chile, which had to be done) before having a few cocktails in the evening.

The next day, we had booked some sandboarding down the nearby dunes. We were told it was easier than snowboarding, and our guide made it look pretty easy. And to our credit, after several collapses and mouths full of sand, we eventually got the hang of it. Well, the going down part, anyway. You could get up to around 80kmph, apparently, and after practising on a smaller dune, we upgraded to one which was around 100m long, and much steeper. Just getting to the bottom of this one without breaking your ankle was deemed a success. After this, we took a trip to Valle de la Luna, or Valley of the Moon. This was a range of caverns and caves, made up of rock and salt, which allowed Al to get out his headtorch, and for us to get some decent pictures of the stunning surroundings. With the time approaching 6 in the evening, we headed up the nearby peaks to watch the sunset over the mountains. The change from red, to orange, to purple, pink and blue was amazing. Sadly, we didnt capture much of this on film, as all three of us ran out of battery power at the same time - what are the odds? We weren't best pleased, anyway. Still, the view was incredible - it looked like a minature Grand Canyon, with the sheer rock faces, and a view for miles. We were told that some of the volcanos in the horizon were the border between Chile and Bolivia. Which, if you can be bothered to root for a map, shows just how far you could see.

Today is our last day in San Pedro before a 3 day jeep trek into the Ayuni Salt plains and Bolivia. This promises to be an awesome experience, as well as the cliched scale-less photos on the plains themselves. Until then...

Rob and Al