Che
Boludo/Boluda!
(Argentinian
expression meaning literally “hey big balls”... The funny thing
is the importance of saying “boluda” for a girl, even though they
don't have balls!).
Because
we had a couple of weeks free before starting our job at Go Bananas,
we decided to carry on travelling while staying around Cusco's area.
I didn't take my computer, that's why you got no news for a while.
Now we're just back in Cusco, and have some free time to keep you all
in touch and share our adventurous story =)
Arequipa
– Mollendo – Mejia, 2-10/1/13
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| The Picchu Picchu, one of the 3 Volcanos in Arequipa |
First we
went to Arequipa with the idea in mind to spend some time at the
beach in Molliendo, 2h far from the city. There, with such a
surprise, we found...a Scottish hostel!! At least what they pretend,
because there was not much Scottish about them but the name of their
bar, the William Wallace bar. Only one night there before heading to
Mollendo, where we again were at the right place at the right moment,
for it was Mollendo city's anniversary.
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| Mollendo beach |
First thing when we arrived
was to swim for the first time in our life in Pacific ocean! The
waves were 3 times a human size, the temperature was more than
warm... a real paradise!!! Loads of travellers as well, making the
most of the sun while most of Peru was in rainy season. At night was
set the tent on the beach (I naively insisted for the tent not to be
right under the lights of the town but a bit further away, in spite
of Tom's warnings that beach robbery are common and easy, but “Don't
worry, it's fiiiiiine!”...), go share a joint with a group of
people travelling on motorbikes, come back to the tent... to find it
cut wide open!! Stupid me! Fortunately, only my guitar was missing
(Tom decided not to take his for the trip to see what else life had
to offer). But “cha fue” - Argentinian expression to say “fuck
it”! I'll just buy a new one when the opportunity shows... which happened actually only a couple of days later in Arequipa.
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| New guitar, yepee! |
After
another night on the beach we headed to Mejia, another beach some
15km away... As adventurers, we undertook the journey on feet,
following the beach the whole day. Another paradise! We arrived at
down on the poshest place we've ever seen! You even had to pay in
order to just STAY on the beach! Apart from that, the place was
really cool, very relax and nice to stay in.
A small
incident was when we met the director of the local school (closed for
summer holidays... yes I remind you that it's summer here hehe!), who
lovingly offered us to use the toilets, shower, and even help
ourselves in drinking water at the tap in the back of the school
yard. Drinking water? Really? Yes, yes I swear! Mmmm OK, let's try,
we wont die anyway... Big mistake! I got sick for the 2 weeks of our
trip until we got back to Cusco!
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| Arequipa |
So back
in Arequipa, were we stayed 2 nights more in our Scottish hostel the
time I was back on feet again. It left us the time to do some busking
and meet a really nice crew from Argentinia (Magui, Santi, Paula,
along with 5 other girls they met on their way, peace and love to all
of them), jugglers and musicians, with who we shared some crepes,
meal and good wibes.
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| The Argentinian crew, around delicious crèpes |
Copacabana
– Yampupata – Isla del Sol, 10-16/1/13
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| Peruvian / Bolivian border |
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| One of Copacabana's fancy restaurant |
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| Official symbol of Peru |
After a
couple of days we headed to Bolivia. We decided not to stay in Puno
because of unpleasant feedbacks, but rather take a bus directly to
Copacabana, next to lago Titicaca, where we were to meet again with
Magui, Santi and Paula. After an afternoon of chilled music on the
main square, our lovely fellows took us to the restaurant for amazing
nachos! A gastronomical paradise, once more!
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| Copacabana's main square |
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| Yum yum tacos !!! |
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| At the tacos restaurant |
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| Copacabana by night |
Another
couple of days and we started our walk to Yampupata. The boats to
Isla del Sol usually leave from Copacabana, but our crazy mind led us
to a 17km walk on the shores of the lake to this tiny village way
closer to the island. The journey went easy in spite of the rain: the
wonderful landscapes made us forget about tiredness! Once in
Yampupata we set up the tent on the small harbour, lighted a fire and
soon got visited by curious local people. One woman, Modesta, offered
us to take us in her small bark early in the morning in direction of
Isla del Sol.
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| Our camp in Yampupata |
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| Along Lago Titicaca... |
So at
6am we were on our way on the lake; halfway to the island, the rain
catching up, Modesta's brother, on his way too, offered to attach the
bark to his motor boat to avoid us the tempest (rainy season is quite
violent in the heights of the Andes, lago Titicaca is 3800m high!).
On Isla
del Sol the rain was pissing, and I was still feeling quite sick, so
we found an hostel quickly and chilled all day. The following day we
started walking to the North of the island but again the rain was
sooo strong! And we also found out that you had to pay in order just
to walk to the North, so after only 15min we stopped in another
hostel and chilled again. Later, as the sky was clearing up, we
walked to the Inca ruins “El Templo del Sol”. At the end of the
day, a 50-years-old fantastic German couple arrived in the room next
to us and suggested going swimming in the lake... the water was is
hot, they said... MY BUM! It was freezing cold! But still, WE DID IT!
Such a nice feeling!
Because
there is no cars on the island and everything has to be brought by
boat, gas included, life there was quite expensive, so the next day
we decided to leave.
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| In the Templo del Sol |
La Paz,
16-19/1/13
Back in
Copacabana we took a bus directly for La Paz. I have to say that we
didn't enjooy it very much. First thing when we arrived, I realised I
had lost my bank card, and Tom that his one was not working (we found
out later that he just entered the wrong PIN code!!). We had now 300
Bolivianos (= £25!!!) left between the both of us for 2 days in La
Paz! Very fortunately and surprisingly, we bumped into our Dutch
friends from IncaTek and New Year after 30min, who gave us 100
Bolivianos (Come on man, it's only 10€!!). Such nice crew!! Anyway,
we start looking for the cheapest hostel, we find one for 35BS/night.
The next day Tom shared his doubts “You know, there is loads of
posters in the hostel for sex prevention and stuffs like that, I
think this hostel is not very clean...”. Indeed, I got the
confirmation very soon: I go for a cigarette at night and a very fat
Bolivian woman enters the room next to us, followed soon by the
holder of the hostel... I saw his pants moving and didn't ask for
more. I went back quickly in the room and maybe 1min later heard them
leaving the room. They obviously made it on the bed and were not
bother changing the sheets!!! Apart from that, got offered cocaine at
every corner of street, bumped into drunk people at any time of the
day; I even got followed by a drunk guy for some 20min until I had to
hail the next policeman for rescue! And also because we were running
out of money we decided to spend the last night in the bus station to
wait for our bus to Cusco at 8am... Until we realised the bus station
was closing from 11.30pm to 3am! Fortunately again, we asked in a
backpackers hostel if we could stay in their lounge for a couple of
hours and they accepted without hesitation. Bless us to come across
so nice people one more time!
Back in
Cusco
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| Cusco |
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| Cusco |
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Cusco
|
So now
we're back in Cusco, Connie & Chris prepared a lovely room for us
to stay during our stay there, we felt welcome like at home, it feels
so good! They are leaving on the 24th so we only have a
couple of days to get trained and get use to how to run Go Bananas
hostel and juice bar. We went together shopping to the big market,
one day Tom and Chris are working while Connie and me are doing a
fantastic free tour of Cusco, the next day we change roles. We are
having so much fun here, and it's only the start of it!!!
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| Our room lovely prepared for our return |
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| Our jugeria (juice bar)... |
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| ...and home for the next month =) |
Now
we'll probably be quite busy running the place, so probably no news
until Chris & Connie are back beginning of March. Lots of love to
you all until then =)
