Looooonnngg Blooooggggg

Hola¡ Excuse the strange/lack of punctuation.....

Love Cuzco¡ But not the altitude. We are about 3500 metres above sea level which basically means walking down the road leaves us out of breath. Theres so much culture here and the buildings are amazing. Today was the first real day we went out and saw Cuzco, I have been a bit ill since the TREK TO MACCHU PICHU¡¡¡¡ Here goes...

So the first day we are driven up to about 4500 metres and are given some dodgy looking mountain bikes and are told we will be cycling down about 3000 metres. At this point we are in the clouds, surrounded by mountain tops. The first 15 minutes of cycling pretty much involved me screaming the whole way and not being able to see because of the clouds whilst moaning about how freeeezing it was¡ But once we were below the clouds and i had got used to cycling on a cliff edge, I absolutely loved it. I still screamed the whole way though. We cycled through the seven springs, got absolutely soaked, and then it dawned on me that i didnt have a change of clothes, yay¡ After we reached a little village called Santa Maria, the group got to know eachother and the boys played football with some locals. After a scrummy dinner we all headed to bed.

The second day of the trek was possibly the hardest, worst, and best day of my life. 8 hours of solid trekking through the jungle in the sun with a rucksack on getting eaten alive by mosquitos-one on my face which is always lovely-was not my idea of fun. By the 6th hour I was ready to give up, basically cried but kept on going¡ Hitting the 8th hour, I hitched a ride in the back of a Peruvians truck and enjoyed the view¡ I met the rest of the group at the next village, Santa Teresa. Looking back, the walk was actually amazing. We walked along cliff edges, ate loads of random fruits that our guide took from the trees, saw a little old lady making coffee halfway up a mountain¿¡ It had become pretty clear that another girl and I did not have the trekking abilities of the rest of the group¡ After checking into a pretty gross hostel that looked like something out of a psychological thriller, we all went our for another scrummy dinner and I tried Alpacha, which is like a llama. It was goooood. Then we all went to the ´discoteque´¡ It was sooo random but everyone came out of their shells and I witnessed some pretty crazy dancing from the rest of the group. Id say that was one of the funniest moments of the trìp.

The next day we had the option to walk for 2 hours OR go on the biggest zip line in South America¡¡¡¡ Hmmmm hard decision. There were 6 zip lines going from one mountain to the other, it was soooo much fun¡ It was pretty scary knowing that the only thing stopping you from falling 1000 metres or so was a small clip¡¿ That was my favourite part of the trip, maybe because I didnt have to use my legs. Then we walked AGAIN along the river through a valley but i actually really enjoyed it. The scenery was ridiculous. You get immune to it after you see it all day every day, and no pictures can quite capture it which is a shame. So then we arrived at Aguas Calientes, a strange touristy, theme parky feeling town at the base of Machu Pichu mountain. It was early to bed that night as we had to get up at 3am¡¡¡

We were climbing the mountain by 4.30am and i have never been more determined and more sweaty in my entire life¡ it was over 1000 steep and wobbly steps to the top, but we couldnt believe it when we arrived¡ I felt so relieved and so proud that I had made it and that the last 4 days had all been worth it. Machu Picchu was just like you see in the pictures, it was absolutely insane. And so interesting. So we spent the day wandering around chasing llamas and taking in the views. I cant really describe it so take a look at my pics.

It was quite sad to say goodbye to our trekking group, it had been a tough and fun few days, and I will never experience anything like that again in my life. Coming back to Cuzco felt like home, although the last few days I havent really been able to get out of bed, I suspect I ate and drank some dodgy stuff on the trek. Anyways, I hope this isnt too long to read so I will stop now. Adios amigos xxxx

Traveller tip....take a watch

Its a bit soon to be typing up another blog post, but since i have a three hour wait at a bus station i cannot think of anything better to do! I panicked Ross into thinking it was 1pm and our bus was leaving at 2, so after a quick brekkie and a tense and pretty erratic taxi ride, we arrived at the bus station only to realise we are still on Brazil time, and are in fact, not in Brazil anymore.

It was a sad goodbye to Brazil, we spent our last 4 nights in Rio with some Aussies and English people we had met before. We didnt want to leave, but it was good to end it on a high. Ross decided to do a favela tour on the last day, which he said was interesting. I decided to accidentally fall asleep on the beach and burn my face. So we flew to Lima at 6 in the morning and arrived in the best hostel I have seen by far. Right in the centre of town, rooftop games area and bar, really nice beds and rooms etc etc. Lima itself is ok, we were told by some travellers before that Cuzco is where to go, and that Lima is a bit of a stopover city. I actually quite like it, but couldn´t spend a lot of time here. Its so cheap here compared to Brazil! We went to China town last night for dinner and had wonton soup and a main course with rice with a drink for around 2 pounds! We only stayed the one night because we need to head to Cuzco in good time for the JUNGLE TRAIL TO MACCHU PICCHU!!! Its a 22 hour bus ride yaaaaay. We are actually strangely excited about it.

My hair is a lost cause.

My next blog will be after we have done the trek!! Very excited but also kind of nervous. I am not a trekker. Wish us luck! xxx

A lot can happen in 10 days....

I´ve had to change blogs because the other one stopped working....

So, the week started with TORRENTIAL rain in Paraty, so Ross and I decided it would be fun to go for a walk into town and get absolutely soaked. Needless to say we weren´t talking by the end of the walk. Our clothes were soaked all the way through and when we returned to our room it was flooded!! The rain was relentless for the rest of the day and night, so we watched some films, cooked and went to bed! The next day I woke up like an excited child on Christmas day....sun! So ross and I ran out to the beach and got some canoes. Then it rained again.

The next day we headed to Ilha Grande (´Big Island` to you and me) which would have looked like paradise if it wasnt for the torrential rain. We dragged our stuff a kilometre across the beach, got soaked again, but found a great hostel looking over the bay. We met so many people there and the bbqs were a-maz-ing! The first day there the weather wasnt too bad so we decided to do a trek across the island to Lopes Mendes beach. It was a good chance to test out my rather lovely mens trekking boots. We went with 3 other guys, and I was flagging and bit at first, was tough! But it was a good excuse for Ross and this other guy to stay behind to ´keep me company´ - truth is Ross needed more breaks than I did. Anyway, we saw mahousive spiders and things and it turned out to be a pretty good walk through the jungle and the mountains. The next day a few of us hired kayaks and went out in choppy water - I have never crammed in so much exercise in 2 days! Although I did end up just sitting enjoying the view whilst Ross did most of the paddling. The next day the weather was absolutely amazing, so we all went to the beach and did some well deserved sunbathing.

Leaving Ilha Grande in the sun the next day was quite sad. We had met some amazing people, and it literally was a tropical paradise (when not raining). So we got the boat back to Rio only to find our hostel had messed up our reservation, so using Ross` ridiculously flukey directional skills we found a hostel that we knew some Aussie guys we had met in Ilha Grande were staying in. So glad we chose it, great location, 2 blocks from the beach and sooo much cheaper than the other place. We were only due to stay one night as we were catching a flight to Salvador the next day.....

So we arrive in Salvador and I was already a bit unsure about the area when we pulled up in the taxi outside the hostel. The lonely planet had pre-warned us that Salvador was pretty rough and that if you were going to get mugged in Brazil then this would be the place. We had also heard from some travellers some pretty crazy stories. So Ross dragged me out to look at the city.... It was a bit sketchy and it was clear that everyone was on something, but i wasnt carrying anything of value so it was fine. The buildings were beautiful there, and we saw a live samba concert in the street. After a while we head back to the hostel where we met some english guys who said they hardly left the hostel whilst they were there. So we watched a film in the tv room which had a balcony overlooking the street and heard screaming coming from downstairs. We all ran to the window and a woman was being attacked and mugged. She was on the floor, and the attacker started stabbing her boyfriend. It was pretty horrific to watch and it shocked me a lot to see it that close up. The boys went to see if the couple were ok but they were in so much shock and the guy was bleeding so much they hardly spoke. Ross and I had a chat and decided that we didnt want to spend our time here, so we caught the first flight back this morning to our favourite place... RIO!!

Anyway, its been a crazy 10 days, had so many different experiences and met so many people. I absolutely love love love Brazil, it is just such a shame that somewhere like Salvador is ruined by crime and drugs. But for now, I am going to enjoy Rio - the amazing beaches, the great nightlife, the people, staring out of bus windows at the favelas (Rios version of city slums usually run by drug lords) and the grafitti, and being amazed by the view of the Christ statue every single time I pass it. Off to buy some din dins (Ross and I are cooking a lot now to save some dinero due to the unexpected cost of a flight!) Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee xx