I have put some more images up on irrka.buzznet.com lest the boredom strike you and since apparently the daily upload limit is 10 images i have also put some images in photos.yahoo.com/ig17 under Peru album. These are unsorted, and the most I can say is that they are from mostly from the Inca Trail.

Last morning I arrived in Arica, a city in the very north of chile, and i must say, NOT IMPRESSED. I was thinking of spending the day at the beach, so i dropped my crap at some hostel and headed off to the beach. And now the tehnazified version of the event.... I waited forever and ever in the restaurant at night to get some food in me before the bus from San Pedro to Arica, and when it finally came it tasted like cardboard, so i wasnt even sorry i had to run off without finishing it. Unfortunately while in the overnight bus, the other defects of the meal caught up with me and I had to keep scrambling over an innocent Dutchman sleeping in the seat next to me so that i could go and toss cookies without everyone around me participating in the event. By the time i got to Arica I was just exhausted from having to wake up and run around the whole night. otherwise it was a lovely bus ride. In any case, since i couldnt make up my mind about whether i shoudl move on the same day or spend the night, I decided to take my stuff and leave it in the hostel a bunch of guys i was travelling with were planning to stay. We then wandered about for a bit in their attempt to find food (the idea of food made my own insides cringe) but apparently the town doesnt wake up until about 11am, and the only people out on the streets were either cleaning the streets or 'hitting' them after having an early-morning-start at the booze. We did make a couple dog friends though. Having given up on food, we figured we should just go to the beach, maybe something will be open there, plus it will be later by that point.
The beach was not exactly all that and a bag of chips. It was supposed to be the "best" one around there, and let's just say it made the Mentor Beach look fricken amazing. The waves did look pretty, and there were some people with boards (though i didnt see them going in). A couple guys ran into the water (which was pretty frigid, and that is not just by MY cold standards, so you can almost trust that description) and came out thinking that their skin is bound to break out into a festering mess within the next 24 hours, to say nothing of their stomachs--apparently the water not only looked like ass, it also tasted crappy.
So then we had to go back and since i was the only one with any sort of spanish skills i had to deal with telling the lady running the hostel that we were leaving. Which turned into a whole drama since she wanted to charge us full price, and the guys that had NO english skills wouldnt budge on not wanting to pay anything. Finally I got fed up and said that i was planning on paying half (about three bucks) just 'cause i didnt want to spoil my nerves and ddint care and just wanted to leave and the rest of them could do whatever. So pretty much i guess that settled it. After which we chugged back to the bus station only to find out that the bus we wanted to get on was full. We then ran aroud the different terminals trying to find the next bus leaving for Arequipa that would have a bathroom (after the night before, i refused to get on the bus without one, and i suppose since i was holding the other guys hostage 'cause of lack of spanish, they had to go along with it). In any case, we ended up having to wait until like 5pm to leave and didnt get to Arequipa until maybe around 11:30pm. All in all a long and and exhausting and frustrating day. But it will all be better today. and the day after and the day after that.

Unfortunately it seems i typed these two blog entries yesterday at a coffeeshop where the computer seems to have eaten them. To recap--I am now in a town in the middle of the Atacama desert in Chile called San Pedro. The border crossing was a bitch, but at least the road from the chilean border was paved. As opposed to the streets in the town, which are sandy and people walk around barefoot. Another great discovery was flush toilets with running water AAAAND toilet paper actually there. A less enthusiastic discovery was the fact that everything was bizillion times more expensive. Sandboarding fell through yesterday since apparently not enough people signed up and I have not checked whether today´s trip is a go or not. For now I am planning on renting bikes with a bunch of people, rediscovering how the pedals turn, and biking 'round for some cool scenery.

I suppose i should talk about the Bolivian trip some, huh? Well, the bus from La Paz in the north of bolivia to Uyuni in the southwest was interesting to say the least. From about 4 in the afternoon until about 6 in the morning, my insides were shaken enough to make numerous organ-shakes. I can only assume it was to ascertain the integrity of attachment of the abovementioned organs. No seriously it was incredible. Not only was the road not paved, but it must have also been super-pot-holed. I dont think anyone caught more than a snooze on that one. We got off the bus around 6 and immediately got assaulted by the usual slew of travel agencies (what a job!! to wake up in the wee hours to greet incoming buses... eeeek!!) which had to be wafted off (i was too tired to even try to say anything, i just took business cards and kept moving, saying 'un cafe primero' or something to that effect). Having heard that there was an open cafe around the corner (nothing opens that early normally) we chugged over there, dumped our packs..... and nothing happened. I mean people at the table next to us got food and all. Although I dont know how long it took for them to get it. In the end we ended up spending about 2 hours in that establishment. Of which at least an hour was waiting for the guy to bring us a menu and take our order. No the place was not crowded. We were pretty much the only ones there. But whatever. bygones.
We ended up booking a three day tour that left later that morning, around 10:30, taking us to the salt flats, volcanos, colored lagunes, geysers and hot springs. I took loads upon loads of pictures and now need to burn them on a CD so that i can take more, but this place doesnt have a burner. Now that I started describing the trip i dont think i can much without the pictures! So i guess I will just have to wait until i post those up. sorry.

I suppose i should talk about the Bolivian trip some, huh? Well, the bus from La Paz in the north of bolivia to Uyuni in the southwest was interesting to say the least. From about 4 in the afternoon until about 6 in the morning, my insides were shaken enough to make numerous organ-shakes. I can only assume it was to ascertain the integrity of attachment of the abovementioned organs. No seriously it was incredible. Not only was the road not paved, but it must have also been super-pot-holed. I dont think anyone caught more than a snooze on that one. We got off the bus around 6 and immediately got assaulted by the usual slew of travel agencies (what a job!! to wake up in the wee hours to greet incoming buses... eeeek!!) which had to be wafted off (i was too tired to even try to say anything, i just took business cards and kept moving, saying 'un cafe primero' or something to that effect). Having heard that there was an open cafe around the corner (nothing opens that early normally) we chugged over there, dumped our packs..... and nothing happened. I mean people at the table next to us got food and all. Although I dont know how long it took for them to get it. In the end we ended up spending about 2 hours in that establishment. Of which at least an hour was waiting for the guy to bring us a menu and take our order. No the place was not crowded. We were pretty much the only ones there. But whatever. bygones.
We ended up booking a three day tour that left later that morning, around 10:30, taking us to the salt flats, volcanos, colored lagunes, geysers and hot springs. I took loads upon loads of pictures and now need to burn them on a CD so that i can take more, but this place doesnt have a burner. Now that I started describing the trip i dont think i can much without the pictures! So i guess I will just have to wait until i post those up. sorry.

Well, I just got to Chile. More specifically, I am at a little town in the Atacama desert in the north of Chile, where apparently a lot of chileans go to treck. So far what I know about the town: 1. It´s fricken hot. But it's dry heat. The lp book says it never rains around here. Which I suppose explains the noteable absence of running water in a lot of places (it cant explain lack of running water in the places in bolivia though!). At least there are flush toilets and i think i actually saw toilet paper actually present in a public restroom for the first time. All in all this is supposed to be the return-to-civilization type deal. Indeed, while getting to the bolivian passport control, the road was unpaved, and from the chilean border were were cruising on asphalt. But the moment we got to border control we wanted to go right back, since it took sooooo fricken long and was soooo ineffective. And the searched all the bags. All of them. They also disinfected my shoes. Thank you chilean border control for propagating sanitation in my clothing.
2. (you forgot i was numbering didnt you?) The town of San Pedro de Atacama seems to be made out of sand, sand, dust, mud looking houses and a maximum of like four streets. Most of the streets are of course lined with tourist agencies offering trips to the mountains (where i just came from but on the chilean side) for three or more times the price you would pay across the border. 3. The streets are not paved. In fact they are pretty much sand. People are prancing around barefoot. But at least I can wear shorts and not be terrified that the moment the sun goes down i will need to dash to my pack to pull out thermal underwear, pants, and sweaters. 3. Although to some degree you do see people who appear to be ethnically more indian, i was almost weirded out by the fact that i kept walking into tour agencies to face perfectly tanned caucasians (for the past three weeks, wherever i had gone, anyone appearing in any way lighter than normal was considered a foreigner. my chilean pen pal kept having english talked at him. his spanish is much better than his english, but what can you do when you´re blond?) 4. Can you say sticker shock?

I had received comments from sources which shall remain anonymous saying that i should be uh... less verbose. Since I dont know how to make a survey, just comment back whether you're sick of them being too long or what. Whether I decide to do anything about the length of my tirades depending on feedback or not has not been decided yet.
Sincerely
Administration

Happy birthday to me (khe khe)! Happy birthday to me (khe khe)!
I woke up to a blazingly fiery noze and came down feeling all groggy and ready to soak it in some cold water to chill it from its burning pain--only to run into the friends from the Inca trail that I was hoping to meet in La Paz. Turns out everyone is staying at the same hostel and were planning to go to Salar de Uyuni tomorrow night. Considering the concierge told me last night there was no one i asked about staying here and only some italians or what not (there is not a n italian in the group) it was a very pleasant surprise! now i dont have to spend my birthday by myself!! Plus i was thinking of tagging along so we all do the Salar trip together, should be more fun. So today and tomorrow i am planning to run around like a chicken with its head cut off, soaking in the smelly La Paz. Speaking of smelly, there seems to be so much pollution, i think if i smoke a cigarette it might actually prevent the crap from settling in my lungs. All this against the super dramatic backdrop of snow-capped peaks when you look down to the ends of the streets.

I have just seen the most laid back border EVER. Crossing between Peru and Bolivia, the only reason you would know if you changed countries at all is because of all the tricycle drivers assaulting you to drive you to the frontera. Originally i was told by someone in my collectivo van that the border is only a couple blocks up, so i started off walking, but then got laughed at by another collectivo that was going to the border town. After I'd turned varied shades of carefully hidden pink (since i had been so generously sun kissed on the lake earlier) I was very happy i didnt plod through like 2 km of nothingness all the while having to watch my backpack against it being cut or what not.
You get to the other side and the biggest sign you see is: GO BATHROOM HERE. or maybe it was NEED GO BATHROOM HERE. around the sign are much the same spreads of blankets covered with trinkets and knit hats etc. The only way you know you already crossed is a condensation of money changing tables on the street. Only after careful looking around did i spot the immigration office where i needed to go get my stamps, cards etc. The only people going through the process were two swiss girls i had seen earlier on the trip to the titicaca islands (ooh, i stopped giggling at that one) and myself. The locals just seemed to be walking back and forth with the look of inpenetrability, covered by a bowler hat and supported by a huge colorful sack on their backs. well, at least in the case with women. men had no sacks. you know what i mean?

I'd been sick for the past few days so nothing much has happened. I did move my snotty self to Puno, which is located on the peruvian side of lake Titicaca (giggle giggle). I did finally end up meeting up with my ever-elusive chilean pen pal who was also here for the same day i was. I also went on a two day island hopping thingamagig on Titicaca (giggle). Basically the first day the take you to these fake islands, well, not fake, but artificial, they're made of straw by the people that live on them. Mostly nowadays they are for tourists, but apparently they first emerged because the Uros (the people living on these floats) wanted to get away from the Incas and the such. Which gives me an idea... If i ever get sick of a whole bunch of people i should just make a float and... who am i kidding? There really isnt much to do on these islands. Basically the three and a half people there keep trying to get you to buy souvenirs made of that straw... They also eat the straw (tastes a bit like a cucumber but sweet... dont know if that made any sense).
Then the boat at the full 15mph or whatever it was able to pull took us to an actual land island (Amantayni or something like that) which ended up being about 3 hours or so away. At that point we were distributed equally and impartially to the dressed up local women who then took us to their houses: (with much huffing and puffing awaiting an oil painting to capture them), (apparently this happens every day with every tour, which takes on a surreal air when you try to imagine it... or at least when i do). I dont know what anyone else did, but i was feeling pretty nauseous at that point and i crashed, to be awakened for lunch, then for being asked twenty times or so if i was sure i didnt want to go up to the top to see the view with the rest of the group (yes!!! yes i DO want to go!! i just dont want to be turning inside out on the way!) and then for dinner... and then to go to the nightly feria.

It turns out that the feria consists of the locals dressing us up in native dress (was that un-pc? sue me) and then we all went and danced for a bit to the andean music, and looked like something out of a David Lynch movie... or something that belonged in one anyhow. The best thing though was the sky. On the way down to the party, you see SO many stars!! There is no electricity on the island or anywhere nearby for that matter so the sky is almost fuzzy with stars. Oh, and i saw the longest shooting star EVER!! It flew for so long i started doubting it was a real shoting star until it finally went out. It did go a lot faster than a satellite normally would. I wonder if i should've made more than one wish. At the horizon, where the sky and the water are broken a bit by the mountains there would be these incredibly orange flashes of lightling, that looked even more strange for the absolutely clear sky above the island and as far as i could see.
The next day it turned out that a whole bunch of us had returned the food that was fed to us either during the night or in the morning. I still dont know if it was the altitude sickness or the peculiarity of the local cuisine. Eg: soup with potatoes and pasta followed by rice and potatoes. Oh and the silly part came when we started comparing breakfasts and it turned out everyone had something cool, and i was the only one that got a couple pieces of bread. Am i getting fat and was that family trying to tell me something? Or maybe they figured it was the best way to fight against another bout of potential projectile vomiting. I will never know. And I must say, i dont even care now.
Today, on the second day, we visited another island but there is really not much of anything to say here except that the views of the lake were lovely. On the way back (yeiii!!! we go super fast!! i think we made it up to 15mph!!! oh wait.... that's the same as before) it turned out that half the boat was somehow educated in bio. A bioboat. Sort of sickening when you think of it. Or when i think of it. And then i was asked to go into the whole story of what i was doing school-wise. So that didnt really help. Thankfully the nausea gets abated by my anti cold pills!!

At this point i must say i cant remember much about the third day. Oh wait, right, it rained more, and at night there was a parte with all the groups who were on the trail where two incredibly tall and incredibly stinky brits put on a show that would've landed them at an asylum had they performed in the midst of civilization. Speaking of civilization, on the third day most of us were more than happy to part with 5 soles for a hot shower. a hot loooong shower. mmmmmmmmm.... droool. Then our cooks showed us all the food that some of the other fancier groups were getting throughout their trip, by whipping up this amazingly enormous feast, and forcing us to leave uneaten tons upon tons of good food. Also on the third day I was bitten by some tiny insect. I remember brushing it off my eyebrow when it stung me. Several hours later my eye was the size of a small apple, hanging over and mostly obstructing my vision. I had tried hiding it under my sunglasses for the rest of the day and opted for looking like one of those people who think it's cool to wear sunglasses at night and inside. Not like i could even spend much time inside, since i was completely unable to move my feet in any semblance of a rhythm. In fact, mostly my feet behaved like stubborn donkeys that have to be convinced into moving by the sheer force of will. In addition in the middle of the night i realized that the cold and wet of the second day of the trail had not gone by without leaving its vicious mark on me, since i was trying to breathe and failing miserably, plus sneezing and coughing to such an extent, i was surprised to learn that the person i was sharing the tent with was able to sleep at all.
The next day we were woken up super early, at like 4am. No tea. Nada. Just annoyed yells: "matra, amigo, matra!"--apparently they were collecting the sleeping pads. I am generally slow in the morning. I am also generally cranky in the morning. I am generally better not approached in the morning and all i have to say is that i probably would've been beaten up if those guys heard what i was replying to them under my breath or in languages i hoped they wouldnt understand. Plus I lost my glasses and was extra pissed at having to deal with scared children asking mommies if i was a gringa bruja or something like that. When i got to breakfast, someone was literally standing over me, waiting for me to finish my coffee from like the moment they poured it. Apparently it's because the porters wanted to catch the 6am train back to cusco. Which i can understand, but come ON!!! no need to act like complete assholes! urghgh...
And then we walked for a couple hours to machu pichu and couldnt see anything because everything was covered in clouds, and all the vistas were pretty much nonexistent. In fact, when we got to the site itself we werent even sure that was it because so much of it was under the white milky mess. It also started raining. At some point it cleared up a bit, but only as a tease, so most of us decided to go down to the entrance and leave our packs there and then come back for the guided version and hope that the weather clears up by then. The weather did clear up, but when the guide started talking i realized i was really hungry. And taking after some people i know, i couldnt think of anything else much. Hungry hungry. Equinoxes were very important to the Incas. Hungry. Very very hungry incas. Incas had an agricultural zone. There was nothing edible there now. Arrrrgh.
When you finally get to Machu Pichu, there's an actual Machu Pichu mountain that you can climb. First I was too hungry to climb. After i ate i was too tired. It was supposed to be only about 45 slow minutes up. And i didnt. I guess I'll just live with that. For a couple days after I got back from the trail different parts of my legs would scream at going up or down the smallest number of steps, so i really will get over not climbing the last part. Plus everything was covered in clouds anyway, so you couldnt get a good view. Sour grapes anyone?

When you go down a million steps from Machu Pichu to the town of Aguas Calientes below, and after your ears pop about twenty times, trying to equilibrate to the changes in pressure, you arrive to a town that looks to be one street centered around a railroad track. It's actually a couple of streets and it does branch out away from the railroad a bit, if only to include the hot srpings which give the town its name. I'd never been to hot springs before, so i didnt quite know what to expect. In any case, i figured it couldnt be too clean and was happy to find that i could rent a towel there (they also rented bathing suits, which just doesnt seem particularly hygienic at all...). Anyway, I was pretty tired and sore from the four days' worth ofwalking and was pretty happy to jump into what looked like a regular swimming pool size-pool of greenish water that promised to be oh-so-nice-and-warm...
Well, the water was warm, but not as warm as i wanted. Which I thought was likely compensated by the fact that you could order all sorts of drinks directly from the pool and have them brought to you and then pay later. I opted not to go for this option, since i figured i might just fall asleep right there if i have alcohol. After a little bit, it became apparent even to my super-stuffed nose that some sort of a funk hung about the pool. I tried to relate it to sulfur, but unfortunately the only thing I could identify in the smell was... well.... a public urinal. The guys from my group that had used the changing rooms said that the changing rooms smelled exactly like that but even more intense. Ewwwwwww. Then of course my super slow brain turns on, or more like turns around and realizes there are at least 40 kids at the other end of the pool. I hope it was only the kids. At this point everyone was pretty much as grossed out as could be, and almost ran back to the hostel for showers.
I had planned on partying it up, to celebrate the machu pichu and the end of the trek and all that but instead i ended up feeling really ill and crashed around 7pm. And the next morning on the backpacker express (that's the actual name of the train, no lie!!) a couple of italian kids (maybe 2 and 5) got plopped down across from me, and i am convinced that they are the reason that i have not only superbruised shins, since i actually felt them kicking me over and over, but also some sort of a conjuctivitis. kids! why couldnt they sit across from their MOM or DAD!!!

6am or so. 2nd day of the Inca Trail. I am aroused by the slowly approaching yells: Mate amigo? Mate amiga? has nothing to do with killing. They´re just waking us up by loudly brining hot coca leaf brew. (If i decline the brew, can i sleep longer?) the brew is good and warm and makes getting out of my semi-damp and semi-freezing sleeping bag much easier. (by the way, the second night i had been told the temperatures drop to a few degrees below freezing, and i am terrified of how this bag will hold up if it performed so poorly in the mild weather of the first night)
I am generally pretty retarded in the morning and it takes me a while to wash my face (with my drinking water--i was cursing myself for bringing 3.5 liters on the first day) brush my teeth repack the pack and get out to breakfast, so by the time i make it to the mess tent everyone is already there AND on like the third course as it appears. Did you know there were COURSES to BREAKFAST??????? I know i didnt!! So I quickly get a bowl of oatmeal, a boal of fruit salad and a pancake shoved onto my lap in different plates. Mind you my lap is not big enough for three plates. And the table is one of those foldeable thingers so whenever you put a plate or a cup on there it leans towards the middle threatening to spill whatever it contains into the middle of the table. Aside from the acrobatics of managing my three plates and attempting to eat at the same time and downing a cup of coffee and another one of something or other, hot chocolate, mate de coca, whatever, i really must say i was amazed about the huge quantities of food i was capable of shoving into myself. Oh and there was also bread and butter and jam. lest i forget.
Also in the morning we were told that for about 10 bucks we can hire a porter to carry our packs for the moslty upward trail today. Yes, yes i am a wimp. Yes my tent and food and stove etc are already being carried. And yes i fell for the porter. Best decision EVER!!!!! I was in such pain by the time I got to the second camp site, I couldnt even think of what it would´ve been like with the extra weight of the pack on me. Fine, call me a wimp. I´ll live.
Our guide described the meeting point at which our group is supposed to re-collect and get a "snack". Well, having ditched my backpack I decided that I would be warm enough walking so all i really need with me is my raincoat and some snacks (just in case) and the water obviously. And how happy was i that i didnt take anything else when i was scrambling to lift my weight from one stair that was at knee-height to the next.... and the next. and the next... and there was no end.... and then when i thought i was going to sit and cry for a bit before moving on i finally got to the snack site. A couple people from my group were there already (well, the ecuadorian stopped at the same time as me, without a pack, and a sweizerdeutcher had arrived earlier... WITH a pack). There was no sign of porters but a couple people who looked like they were organizing stuff for our group looked like they were boiling water. Which was a good thing for a while since i started shivering pretty much immediately after getting to the site, and for a while i tried to not get away from the boiling water for more than a couple of centimeters. Then of course the rain started. I looked around and noticed that other groups had gone into tents. We had no tent. We had no porters. We had no guide, who was doing the sweep at the back of the group apparently. Basically, it came down to us, sitting in our waterproofs, slowly getting wet wherever the waterproof didnt reach (in my case my pants) and freezing our respective rears off. I got desperate enough to start asking for clothes from the people that carried their packs, which helped a bit. Afterwards, when my pack arrived, along with a billion pounds of other stuff that porter was carrying, I was able to get my own clothes out, but the pants were still cold and wet. At least they didnt smell like wet dog.
About an hour or so of such sitting around and our porters made it to the site and set up a tent, into which we huddled to refill our cups with hot water over and over and over and over and... oh damn, where´s the bathroom?? Thankfully there was one on the site. God knows there wasnt anywhere to stop on the endless stairs that we had to cover before the end of the day, what with a sharply rising cliff on one side and a sharply falling cliff on the other. Not your prime bathroom territory you know.
When I finally got to the end of the climb, my hips were screaming curses in languages known and unknown to man, and had declared an ultimatum and then fulfilled it before i even had a chance to think about it. The view at the top was.... nonexistent. Everything around was covered in clouds so you couldnt see anything. I hung around for a long time, waiting for the weather to clear up, since it´s supposed to be rather finicky in the mountains anyway. But wait as i may, i only got colder, and only got closer to running out of cigarettes.
Thankfully the rest of the way was all down, although a bit of a scary down with really steep stone steps, some of which were very slippery but as far as i am concerned going down beats the crap out of going up, and i dont know what the hell those people who knock going down are complaining about. How many breathing stops do they take on the way down versus the way up? huh? huh? exaaactly!!!!
The downward trail went past a bunch of waterfalls, so i whipped out my trusty camera and kept shooting away up until i got to the campsite and realized i needed to shoot that too. The next morning the camera didnt work. The rain. stupid stupid rain.
I thought i was the first person to hit camp for a while, and was pretty bored, but then it turned out the guy with the backpack who showed up the first at the snack site also showed up first and was too occupied taking a nap to socialize with the likes of me.
Socializing came later, around 8, after everyone had eaten dinner (yes, multicourse) and the couples had rolled off to bed, and there were about 5 of us left looking for a party. No party for us though, everything around was quiet and dark. What a gip. We tried making our own party by gathering around the kerosine lamp and expecting it to generate heat. i think somebody took pictures so i expect to be eventually able to show how pathetic and sad we looked. There was no heat at ALL generated by that thing, but we figured if we waited long enough maybe.....
Finally everyone got cold enough to go and try to sleep. Have you ever tried to sleep in a bag that leaves you shivering in warm weather when it´s below freezing outside? Well, i didnt have to. One of the guys had been the best or worst packer ever, depending on your perspective. From mine, he was the best packer ever. He had two sleeping bags. one that he rented and one that he owned. He tried them both the night before and said they were too hot, so he let me borrow one to use with the one i had already. I was warm and cozy and had the best sleep ever. I was probably the only one in our camp to make such a claim the next day, so for the fear of having wet donkey poop thrown at me i just kept quiet.
By the way, INCREDIBLE amounts of horse-and-or-donkey poop on the trail. The most memorable encounter with one of the poop producers for me occured when i had accidentally bumped into a pig that was being carried by a horse that made such a squeal i thought i must be a criminal. The indian woman accompanying the animals just laughed, but apparently when a similar thing happened to Will, who had hit the pig with his pack, the humans of the party were nowhere near as amused and cursed at him (or at least that´s what i assume they did) in quechua.

On thursday (last thursday that is) I was told that I would be picked up at the hostel to go to machu pichu between 7:30 and 8am. And such was my drive to go to machu pichu, that i was even out in the lobby having breakfast around 7. As it happened nobody came to pick me up until about 8:30, at which point an animated if not violent discussion ensued between the consierge and the picker upper: apparently the consierge had told the picker upper at 7:30 am that there was no one out and about... which is rather strange considering the only separation is glass and i was clearly visible. maybe he was just tired. In any case, hoping that the people who had been sitting in the bus for the past hour are not going to chew my head off i finally got to head off, leaving a bunch of my stuff in hostel storage.
The drive was interrupted after a couple of hours, when we were allowed to go get some coffee or food or bathroomate or whatnot. At that point we were accosted by about 5 women all of them selling a) bags of coca leaves, which are supposed to help with altitude sickness, and help you with the hard parts of the trail--you´re supposed to make a ball of them and chew them i think. another version involves dumping a bunch of leaves into hot water to make te (or ma-te), the effects of which are dubious but which does not taste nearly as nasty as the leaves; b) walking sticks of bamboo with embroidered handles--since i still haven´t figured out how to use a walking stick to make me walk better from the previous hikes, i´d definitely passed on this one, but a lot of people did invest in one and some in two. i kept waiting for starwars-type fights to break out, but that never happened. maybe i should´ve got one just for that purpose, to induce starwars type fights that is. c) water bottle holders--pretty much everyone except i think for me invested in those only to find out that the lock holding the adjustable strap held nothing at all, so they had to improvise the whole way through. I just used the side pockets of my pack. am i smart or what. d) hats--for the sun that is. i dont think i saw anyone wear one after the first day though. The ladies selling these marvelous goods moved around about 1 m of space, repeatedly offering the same stuff to the same people. Hope IS the last thing to die isnt it...
After another hour or two of exhausting travel on the bus (or something) we were introduced to what was to be the trend for the rest of the trip... the multicourse camping meal. And we´re talking soup, main course, desert, tea coffee etc etc. and that was lunch of day one before we even STARTED hiking.
And did i mention how incredibly cushy this trip is? There are porters to carry your tent and the mess tent, the cookware and the food and the plates and silverware and cups and such and gas canisters since fires are not allowed on the trail. Oh, yeah, and of course they COOK for you too. The biggest worry remains not to break a nail on the zipper of your own sleeping bag (or in my case on the zipper of my rented sleeping bag).
The first day we hiked for maybe 3 hours, which was not bad at ALL. The weather was lovely, the road was mostly even, it was not too hot or too cold... it was PERFECT as far as i was concerned so i was pretty surprised to hear a brit who looked like he could probably bend a car in two complain about how hard that was. By the time he complained at dinner at receiving fried fish with veggies and rice about the quality of food (uhm.. ·i· have never had such a spread campin... ever!) i figured he just liked complaining. When we first hit the camp site and whipped out our chocolatey snacks to restore some decent level of sugar we were accosted by a few locals, in whose apparently backyard we were camping--and by we i dont mean just my group. there were at least 15 groups stretched out along several houses worth of backyards. The locals consisted of 1 (one) cow (or perhaps a bull, i didnt check), 3 (three) at least that is chickens, 2 (two) sad and scared looking dogs that would walk up to you to look miserably up at you with their tail between their legs and 2 (two) disinterested donkeys.... and last but not least by the kids. The kids would walk up to you and literally stare you in the mouth while you chewed whatever chocolatey snack you stashed. Pretty much everyone ended up handing out some snacks. On the second round however just staring proved an insufficient technique, and kids had to insist on their right to sugar over your exhausted self by pressing¨"regalame tu chocolate!!" (give me your chocolate). As far as i was concerned that was the best phrase of the trip right there. Regalame tu chocolate.
Oh and while i´m describing the beginning of the trip, the make up of my group: a rather loud british couple who procured two large bottles of beer on the first night (and which included that strongman i had already mentioned), a less flamboyant british couple from sidney, two sweizerdeutchers, an ecuadorian, an israeli guy whose name no one could remember until i literally asked the guide to look it up in the roster, myself, and my travelmate will. I managed to avoid the latter pretty well during the trip since there was such close association with so many other people. I even got into a tent with someone else. Mental health gallore.
Regalame tu chocolate.

Well, i feel like i have been off this thing for so long i will never be able to catch up. Let´s see... Last wednesday I went rafting down the river under the strange name Urubamba, just like the town out of which i had gone hiking previously. I had always thought that if the water was high, that meant the rapids were better, right? Well, obviously i have no clue, but apparently i have even less of a clue than i had previously suspected. In any case, many of the presumed rapids never had a chance (we were supposed to hit class III-IV), but aside from wishing for more bigger and better, the rest was great. We started off with changing into outfits worthy of versace. well, not quite, but once i finally get to a computer with xp or millienium windows on it you´ll judge for yourself. First you drag yourself into a 6-7mm wetsuit, which is already a rather difficult task, since those suckers dont bend or stretch without much grunting on your behalf. On top of that you add a "poet shirt" of a fluorescent yellow, to be offset in the future by a bright red floatie-jacket and a sky-blue skull protection gear. Far be it from me to knock skull protection but this sucker slid back, forth, sideways and in circles around my head (one size fits all... apparently some more than others). In any case, decked out in such outfits we then all climbed into the rafts--about 7-8 people per raft. i never knew you could fit so many people in. Then of course i also didnt know that 11 grown people could fit into a toyota corolla (i counted today!)... but i digress.
The rapids did turn out to be fun, although i dont think they got past a III. Afterwards, when I was taking the bus to 82nd km to start trekking to machu pichu, i think we drove past grade bizillion. Well, next time. or something. As my raft was mostly floating we could check out the amazing scenery with the snow capped and not snowcapped mountains, lots of random little shacks along the river and partake in the smells of the river, the greenery and of course the manure which took on an almost pleasant quality. did i just type that manure smelled nice?????????
As we went past the last rapid and were told we were done and were feeling so good about keeping shivering to a minimum, we were told that there was a bridge we were about to near where we could jump into the river. Sounds like fun? Well, sounded like fun to me!! Scared as i was i ended up closing my eyes, so i was surprised that it was such a long time before i hit water. And then i wished that i was still in the air because the water was so cold. The current was pretty strong and I got carried past the first raft before i even noticed what was going on, then, when i tried for my raft, i realized i was going to miss it too: did you ever try swimming with a lifejacket on in a current? Plus i was having problems breathing, probably from the freezing water. I did manage to catch the line and got pulled into the raft. Unfortunately the girl that jumped in immediately before me, missed the line by a couple of millimeters and ended up getting picked up from shore much later on. well sort of from shore. She had to swim to the raft, in the process freaking me out because i thought she had gone hypothermic for sure, she was so out of it by the time she was dragged into the boat. She recovered pretty quickly though. So all good.
Have any idea how good dry clothes can feel after that? Well, just imagine. The tour operators took a bunch of pictures and I did spend about a buck to buy a couple of them. though you mostly have no idea who is in the raft, and so there is pretty much no evidence i was ever there. Maybe it was brainwashing?
Well, that was all last wednesday.

In case anyone was wondering, yes yes it´s hard to drink at high altitude but somebody has to do it. Being an avid subscriber to the theory that the highest effectiveness is achieved through regularity, i of course wanted to drink and try all this local stuff. A drink with dinner went alright, but going to a club afterwards and downing a free cuba libre (and no pun intended here) gave me the biggest headache. I guess it´s not the quantity that counts. We´ll see what happens today.
Speaking of free drinks--the moment you hit entrance to the main plaza at night, you get accosted with twenty thousand people shoving flyers into your hands that allow you and your friends to get free drinks. How they get anyone to pay is beyond me, but if one were to make a circuit of the bars before getting to the place they were originally intending to go, just for the free drinks, i doubt they would know where they were going in the end. That was the most convoluted sentence ever, but it makes sense to me, so it stays.

Anyway, it has been a lazy day today if i do say so myself. As i was trying to wake up with some hostel breakfast and insufficient quantity of coffee I got approached by an argentinian dude (and NO! not approached THAT way!) who explained that he was working on a flyer for this touchy-feely thing, something about self therapy, la dee da. So of course, i am just about to say no thank you, i already have one, he says that what he was actually asking was if he could take pictures of my face for the self therapy page. apparently i look self therapeutic. and so my mug will now bless some poor unknowing sucker who will be talked into looking at the brochure (ha! they wont know what hit them!) while i am getting a free shiatsu massage for it. i am not sure what a shiatsu massage is, but seeing as i have never had a massage in my entire life, i´m still psyched. One of the hollander girls (of which there are about a bizillion here) said that she was disappointed with hers when she got one, but hey, whatever--i am not even paying for mine.

And on the subject of paying for anything, did i MENTION how incredibly cheap stuff is in this country? And to make things even cheaper, the hollanders and i went to the market today, to explore. It was a unique experience i must say. I was tempted to take pictures, but having been warned about people getting their cameras and wallets stolen, i refrained from even pulling it out of the backpack. Aside from the numerous llama sweaters and hats and gloves and multicolored belts of all shapes and sizes and other stuff geared towards tourists, there were many rubber shoes being fixed, bras and underwear and all sorts of clothes being sold (who tries bras on in the open market is what i want to know), some old dude was trying to push toilet paper rolls. (speaking of toilet paper rolls, this country has an abhorrence about putting t.p. in public restrooms for some reason. in yesterdays bar the t.p was being kept in a cupboard and probably reserved for the VIPs) There were also sheep or cow or some other cattle´s heads being cut open (and i mean HEADS. there were no bodies on that table)... many strange and disgusting looking cuts of meet some of them blue some purple and very few red. There were live birds of all kinds, most of which i couldnt tell, I figured out the ducklings and the chicks but the rest eluded me. They were fuzzy and didnt have a clue they were soon to be dinner. or lunch. And here i get back to the cheap thing--$3 for a three course lunch with alcoholic or nonalcoholic drinks. Say whaaa? And then of course i ran rampant on the fruit market, since there were all these fruits i had never seen before and needed to ask about and forget their names immediately and see if i could stuff them in my bag for later. I tried cactus. I never knew cactus was a fruit. It´s yummy. Who knew and didnt tell me?!
Also i got to stock up on woolens for the inka trail to machu pichu--apparently on the second night it gets down to freezing. Weeee!!! going to machu pichu on thursday!!!!

This one is going to be short, sorry. I figured out how to post pictures, which will now be at irrka.buzznet.com.

I went on a 3 hour hike in Pisac today--that is around an hour away from cuzco and was a settlement of sorts, up until the spaniards failed to take it, at which point it became known as a fortress. nuff said.
sights are spectacular and as soon as i can i will post the pics up

After a loooooong long long loooooooong journey i am finally in Cuzco. Just so you have an idea: all the locals in Nazca recommended this one bus company called Molino, so that is what i went with. 55 soles for a 16 hour trip, them saying what a great bus it was. There was no A-C on the bus. Had to keep the windows open or closed depending on weather. There were kids all over screaming and throwing up and messing up my breathing are in very very very near proximity in other ways. Fortunately the scenery was enough to compensate for it, and the bus did leave late enough that by we ended up in Cuzco around 10am, giving me about 5 hours of awesome scenery-watching. well, ok, so i didnt watch the scenery the whole time, i did fall asleep a bunch of times but as it was rather uncomfortable that usually didnt last long. How lucky am i that i can curl up in a tiny seat--at least that way i could be sort of comfy. Oh, and for most of the trip i was afraid of drinking water since it didnt look like there were facilities on the bus. Despite the assurances from the person selling me the ticket. As it turned out, the facilities were indeed there but for their conditions they might as well not have.
An interesting bit of local color here--around 3 o'clock in the morning i woke up to the stopped bus to find that this was a bathroom stop. we were stopped in the middle of nowhere and you hit mud the minute you stepped of the bus. not only that, everyone was running off into the field to squat. i just went back for my cigarettes to get the smell of the bus children air out of my nostrils. yes i know that sounds mean, but trust me, the air was pretty vile, even though i WAS by the window.
Well, Cuzco turned out to be a much bigger place than i had thought and definitely many many degrees bigger than Nazca. And it is so incredibly cute!!! Yes, yes, it is very touristy and i think there may be more tourists here than peruvians, but that is almost small enough not to detract from the place. I had been wandering around the place for a bit and there are a bizillion travel agencies willing to take you whichever way wherever you want. I am still considering how and when to do what. For the Inca trail to Machu Pichu apparently you now have to make a reservation 3-4 days in advance, and i'm going to try and catch up with my student ID card before i go, so that i can get a hefty discount. yippie. well, off to dinner with me. Oh, and for anyone wanting to lose weight--appetite dies a sudden death syndrome at altitude for some reason. just a thought. maybe hit 99th floor somewhere or something. well that's all i have for now. And hey, now i have figured out how go get comments so you can actually make fun of me right here!!! woo hoo!!!
p.s. i am contemplating swiping a golden llama statue from some company's yard, i think it will look good in my apartment!!

You cant really see me since i'm short AND in the back of another raft altogether

Looking so cool.... or something. Rafting Ollantatamba river outside of Cuzco

PURRTY
I am now in the desert. There is nothing growing. It literally is a flatness of dark stone surrounded by mountains of the same stone. Sounds depressing but it really looks rather beautiful. Since I apparently can now upload pictures i shall try to post tomorrow or the day after.

HOW I LEARNED TO SANDBOARD
Today i made the heroic effort of waking up about ¨4-45am to hike up the tallest dune in the world--Cerro Blanco--and to sandboard down that same dune. After much huffing and puffing and stopping and rationing of water we got to the top. Well, almost... Our guide ran ahead, seeing as he has already done this climb twenty thousand times, and we were left about 100m from the top or at least close to the top figuring out where to go for ourselves. As it also happens, the thin layer of loose sand that we were trying to climb was just covering a compacted'sand base, off which there was no way to push off yourself. after trying for a bit to climb up gollum-style on all fours, i had given up since i kept sliding down to no end. So then, brilliant thought hits me, must dig footholds. Unfortunately most´stones´´that happen to be in the area are also made of sand. so that didnt work so well. I did find a tiny rock that didnt fall apart and for a while tried to dig foot holds with that, but at some point i ended up slipping furter down than when i started. Then it dawned on someone that we had to dig a bizillion more of these little footholds that kept getting filled up with sand. Meanwhile, our guide has been gone for all this time we´re flopping around on our bellies. Having been defeated by the dune we figured we´ll try to make our way down and either do the less steep and less dense 4 hour ascent or go to another side of the mountain to go down the boards there and then just hitch back. As we were sliding on our butts trying to use sandboards as a break and getting underwear full of sand, our guide resurfaced and couldnt come up with anything better than to start throwing rocks at us. brilliant. anyway, we all ended up sliding-walking-slipping down another side of the dune, which turned out to be too densely packed to try to slide. you literally would go 10 feet and stop. Whimpering from the enormous blisters from the sandburn on my heels, I made it down only to be told that pretty much all other tourists with like one exception normally make it to the top. I dont think we were the most whimpy bunch, and dammit, i´m going to do that thing with clamp-ons one day!!

PENPALS
Well my pen pal has gone missing again. We´d been considering doing the circuit through northern Chile, Bolivia and some of Peru together. Oh well, off to Cusco i go then!

PICTURES
I am trying to upload pictures to irrka.buzznet.com