Wonder of the world

I'll forgive anyone who has lost interest in where on earth I am; one thing I've realised out here is that it's incredibly easy to get lazy with blogging. I'll do my best to rewind the last three weeks now...

So I finished my last post in Lima having just said goodbye to my little travel group. After Lima I got a bus down to Paracas with Erika, another English girl, to see what had been described to us as the 'poor mans Galapagos'. I think that's putting it kindly because from my experience that man must have been very poor indeed. Basically, you can go on a 1 and a half hour boat ride out to a nearby island where you can see lots of sea lions, various types of birds and you might just be able to see a few Humboldt penguins. You can't get off the boat however and the whole area of Paracas basically smells like seaweed and bird poo. It was cool to see the sea lions and a few penguins but the trip was fairly disappointing overall and certainly hasn't satisfied my aim to one day to go to the real Galapagos. Paracas in general was a bit of a let down- the whole town lost power for a few hours both days we were there and I'm almost ashamed to admit this but on the second day as we entered hour 3 of no internet or power I actually made myself have a nap because there was nothing else to do. 

However, after Paracas we headed a bit further south to another small town called Huacachina which we absolutely loved. To call it a town is probably exagerrating; it is literally an oasis and a couple of streets that have been plonked down in the middle of sand dunes as you can see below (apologies for iPhone photos, I didn't want to get sand in my camera). It was so amazing to see the huge dunes surrounding the town and our hostel was good too (Bananas hostel FYI). We met some really cool people there and after a few drinks at the only bar in town (aptly named 'Huaca-f******-china') we made the decision at midnight to walk up to the highest sand dune we could find. It probably took about an hour to get up there and we were joined by some lovely local dogs who we like to think were protecting us on our journey. The view from the top was amazing and we could see the lights from lots of towns for miles around. Unfortunately nobody had a decent enough camera to get any good photos up there but that night is probably one of my favourite memories from the last month.

The next day we headed out for the main reason anyone heads to Huacachina- a ride in a dune buggy and sandboarding. The dune buggy was so much fun, heading down huge sand dunes is probably more fun than most roller coasters. I also had a young Chinese boy screaming in my ear the whole time which definitely enhanced the experience. Next was the sand boarding which was terrifying. We had a practice run on 3 smaller dunes but even on those I wouldn't even think about standing up, which most other people at least attempted- though there were a fair few painful looking falls on the way down. I resigned myself to sitting down which was still fun but I wish we'd got to spend a bit more time in the buggy to be honest, though that's just because I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to facing my fears of hurtling face first down near 90 degree sand dunes. 

After the sand dunes we had to hurry back to town to get our bus back to Lima as we'd decided to fly from there to Cusco to avoid a nearly 24 hour bus. The amount of sand on my body during that bus ride was ridiculous; I kept finding new patches of skin that needed brushing off and I don't think I got all of the sand out of my hair for a good few days after. 

We spent 2 more days doing not very much in Lima, although I did go for a wander and find the Parque de Amor. The centrepiece of this park was of a couple kissing and it seems that it encourages life to imitate art- the park was full of loved-up couples. Despite this it was a lovely place to stumble across, with love quotations written out in mosaic tiles all over. A little further down from the park also seemed to be a popular launching point for people to go paragliding- there must have been 20 different people flying around at one point. In the end I think I did like Lima, despite the bad reputation it seems to gain from travellers, and I'd recommend a visit there to anyone going through Peru.

The next day Erika & I headed to the airport for our flight to Cusco, feeling very smug at reducing a 24 hour journey to just 1 hour. I had a really good feeling about Cusco as soon as we left the airport. It's a great city with a lovely old town and little streets full of shops selling the usual souvenirs. There are old women in traditional dress holding baby llamas in adorable woollen hats everywhere and a legitimate way for these old women to make money is to charge gringos 2 soles (40p) for a photo with them. Somehow I managed to resist but those baby llamas really were adorable. 

There's a market in Cusco which sells pretty much anything you could wish to buy, though much to my horror there was also one section where I witnessed a man hacking up a whole pig with a saw. There's also a black market where you can buy pretty much anything counterfeit and, luckily for me, you can get your phone screen fixed cheap- moral of the story don't leave your phone unattended while charging in a hostel because other people really don't care if they knock your phone off and leave it smashed on the floor. 

We also went on a walking tour in Cusco, although it wasn't exactly so much about Cusco as it was about the culture of Peru generally, as well as telling the story of the tour guide's life. We found out that when he was younger he had no choice but to help in the production of cocaine in the jungle (something he was not proud of) which I think startled a few of the older members of the tour. 

Of course the other thing people do from Cusco is go to Machu Picchu. I was so indecisive for ages about how to do it, I didn't want to do a 5 day trek and I wasn't feeling the popular jungle trek which included 4 hours of downhill mountain biking. In the end me and Sarah, a Canadian girl I've met along the way, decided to do the cheapest way possible which is to get a 7 hour bus to a hydroelectrico station then walk 2-3 hours down the train tracks to the town next to Machu Picchu. At one point on this walk the train that the richer travellers can afford to take passes you by but the walk isn't too bad if you can handle the flies swarming on you. 

We had a pretty early night in Aguas Calientes and the next morning we were up at 3.30am to get in the queue for the bus up to Machu Picchu. We got there at the perfect time because a few minutes later we saw the queue was getting so long and we managed to get on the second bus of the day. Machu Picchu itself is really amazing. I honestly can't fathom how the Inkas managed to build the town, though it is considered that they were the most intelligent ancient civilisation. We didn't get a tour guide there but we tried to be sneaky and just latch on to various different groups to hear snippets of information. The mountains surrounding the site were amazing too, the looked really mystical with the fog surrounding them. All in all, of course I'd say that Machu Picchu is a must see if you're in Peru- and don't let people make you feel guilty about not doing a proper trek if its not for you!

There's also lots of llamas in Machu Picchu- Sarah was unsuccessful in getting a decent selfie unfortunately.

 

The last few days have been fairly uneventful; we stayed a night in Puno on the way to cross the border into Bolivia but I decided against the floating islands there as I'd heard they were very touristy nowadays. I did however, inexplicably, find life size replicas of the animals in Ice Age so of course I had a photo next to them. 

Then I decided to get the bus all the way to La Paz as I know a few people here at the moment. I've not done too much here so far apart from find a lovely little coffee shop where I got a nutella latté, so clearly I'm being very cultural so far. The city doesn't seem like it'll be my favourite but I'm planning on doing the walking tour today so hopefully I'll see some good parts of the city. 

I'll try not leave it 3 weeks for the next update, but don't hold it against me if I fail!

Chasing waterfalls

Once again I've spent the last few days getting a bit too used to spending all day in a hammock and neglecting this blog in the process. I've been to a few new places and actually crossed another border in the last couple of weeks so this might be a long one. First up: Baños. In the few days I spent there I think I did more 'activities' than I've done since I was in year 7 and we went on one of those adventure weekends.

The bus ride from Quito to Baños was drama-less and we (I'm currently travelling with Beth who I met in Quito:we both understand the importance of dessert after every meal so we get on well) arrived on a night with no trouble. It was dark when we arrived but it seemed like a small, safe town so we walked to our hostel- again no problems. The problems began when we encountered the guy on reception, who I would say is the rudest person that I've had the misfortune to meet so far. He asked if we spoke spanish, to which I replied my standard 'un poquito'. He then said, in spanish, 'why are you in Ecuador then?' and proceeded to tell us everything in very fast spanish, eventually asking in an incredibly patronising manner if we understood or did we need it in english too. I was so shocked by how rude he was that I defiantly said yes we understood (luckily Beth actually had understood it all) and off we went to our rooms. I don't understand this kind of person- why work in a hostel in a very touristy town if you don't want to speak to foreign people who may not speak the language fluently? Long story short, despite the actual hostel being pretty nice I wouldn't recommend staying at Great Backpackers Hostel in Baños purely so you never have to meet this horrible man.
Anyway, I did actually like Baños itself. It's a nice little town surrounded by green mountains and waterfalls and is probably the most touristy place I've been so far. Everything is catered to tourists- restaurants have english menus, more people than anywhere else I've been speak english and every tour operator/massage parlour (they're everywhere)/restaurant has someone outside it trying to get you in there. 

Last Friday Beth & I had a pretty adventurous day; our first activity was zip-lining. I don't think I've ever zip-lined before but for some reason I was pretty drawn to the idea, so we each paid our $20 and off we went. It was a lot of fun and definitely not as scary as I'd imagined, that is until the last line where both of us got stuck just short of the end leaving us dangling over a huge canyon. The woman who was taking us around the lines had to hook herself on and drag me back in, which was around the same time I decided to start wondering if I was covered for zip-lining on my travel insurance...but eventually we made it safely back to the platform. 

We continued our day by renting a quad bike to head up a mountain to 'the swing at the end of the world'; a swing hanging off a tree house which sees you swinging out into a canyon. I'll let you in on a secret though- the photos make it look so much scarier than it is. I mean you probably wouldn't want to fall off the swing, but actually the scariest part of the day came when I attempted to drive the quad bike. I thought I had it and then suddenly Beth was screaming "BRAKE BRAKE" and then we'd crashed into the side of the road. So the important things to take away from this story are 1) I should never drive a quad bike again and 2) so long as you pay up front they'll let you do whatever the hell you want in Ecuador- I think the people in the rental place were genuinely shocked we made it back alive. 

The next day we went a little less life-threatening and rented bikes for the day so that we could go on a waterfall route, ending at a huge one that they call the Devils cauldron. It was such a beautiful trip and I only nearly fell off my bike twice so all in all a much better result than the quad bike. 

The next day we decided to get the night bus to a little town on the coast called Montanita. Every traveller in Ecuador will tell you that Montanita is the place to be if you want to have fun- people liken it to places like Koh Phi Phi with its abundance of cheap cocktails (there's actually a street called Cocktail Alley full of people who will make you anything you want for less than £1) but with a better ratio of locals to gringos. I really liked the vibe of Montanita, and we met a lot of really cool people in our hostel. However I left the town with, no exaggerating, more than 50 mosquito bites. Bug spray was useless, the sandalwood sticks we burnt around the hostel did nothing- everyone was covered. 

We also had a little day trip out to a nearby town called Puerto Lopez to go whale watching which was so cool- they came so close to the boat and at one point I think there were 3 of them all swimming around us. Unfortunately I think I've come to the realisation that boats make me feel incredibly anxious- obviously we had to go pretty far out to find them and the water was so rough. I'm not sure what it is because I don't feel sick but I just feel so uncomfortable and spend the whole time thinking about when I can be on dry land again. Still, I'm really glad I went to see the whales seeing as I couldn't afford to head out to the Galápagos Islands on this trip. Please excuse how rubbish my photos are- I kept turning my camera off just at the wrong time!

I was intending to stay in Montanita all through the weekend but I decided I couldn't cope with the mosquitos anymore and so I decided to tag along with a group from my hostel who were getting a night bus to cross the border into Peru. I actually sleep on the night buses a lot better than I expected I would and so another uneventful bus and a couple more passport stamps later, I woke up in my third country. We're in a little beach town called Mancora being very bad tourists- we're at a hostel which is basically gringo central and encourages a lot of drinking and not much else. I'm currently entering my third hour spent in a hammock today trying to decide whether to go get an alcoholic slushie from the bar- it's a hard life sometimes. 

I'm not sure where I'm heading next- I think I'll just follow the crowd and jump on a bus wherever the group I'm hanging out with are heading. I've been out here just under 2 months now which is just crazy- I can't decide if I think it's going ridiculously fast or if it feels like I've been out here forever. I know one thing: it's been way too long since I last had Bovril. I actually think it's the thing I miss most (friends and family aside of course, you mean more to me than beef) and whenever I next know that I'll be staying somewhere for a while I'll be getting my parents to send me a jar or two. I hope you're allowed to mail Bovril. On that deep note, I'll draw this very long post to a close. 5 points for you if you made it this far!

The tale of a border crossing

So I've got one country ticked off my list: Colombia is over and I'm actually very sad about it. I know I've said before that people have the wrong idea about the country but I'm determined to get the point across that it really isn't the scary place that I can guarantee you think it is.

I was, however, very worried about the border crossing between Colombia and Ecuador. Anyone you speak to has some horror story of a friend of a friend (etc) who has had some sort of trouble, whether it be the bus journey itself (general advice is never do it at night as bandits are known to board to bus and rob passengers, yes that's right I said bandits) or some issue with police on the border. In Popayan I bumped into a couple of guys that I met in Cali who were also wanting to head to Ecuador so I decided to join their plans- safety in numbers, especially when those numbers include two 30 year old men. Unfortunately for me their plans involved doing the first 8 hours in a minibus. Word to the wise: never take a minibus for longer than 2 hours. Perhaps in England where the roads aren't quite so bumpy and windy and the drivers don't have so much of a death wish, but never in South America. Much to my surprise, however, we got to the border exactly when we expected to (incredible seeing as Colombian time is a completely different concept to real time) and my bag hadn't been stolen from the back of the bus on one of the many stops we made in random towns in the mountains. After getting a collectivo (another minibus intended for about 10 people but actually transporting double that) to the border, a quick ten minutes of being stamped out of Colombia, walking across the bridge to Ecuador and gaining another stamp and we were done! No drama, no bandits, ni problema. 

We were feeling pretty good about heading straight to Quito so after getting yet another collectivo to the nearest town and wolfing down some fried chicken (all I'd eaten the rest of the day was a big bag of 'mega queso' Doritos) we jumped on another bus, ready for 6 more hours of travel. One viewing of Sleepless in Seattle (ultimate guilty pleasure film) and a few snoozes later we finally arrived in Quito, and luckily the hostel that I'd booked for the next night had 3 spare beds! At about half 2 I fell into what is definitely the comfiest hostel bed I've ever slept in, exhausted after 18 hours of buses. 

And that concludes my very uneventful tale of the border crossing- not the most interesting post but just to counteract the countless other stories on the internet which will scare you senseless. Now I'm chilling in Quito for the week before I head off to the sister hostel next to Cotopaxi volcano to spend my birthday hopefully not being swallowed by lava!