Hola gringo´s!!!

So, since i last blogged i was just about to do the Nazca lines - didn´t end up doing the flights but did have a tour of some of the more famous ones which were viewed from natural viewpoints and 50m towers you had to climb up, so i did get some great pics and views of them.....this tour also involved going to the Maria Reich museum, a dedicated place to the lady who first fought to preserve the land the lines were on from being developed as farmland or for housing etc etc. Needless to say the museum was s***, but worth a quick look :-).

From Nazca took an overnight bus to Cuzco. Bouyed on by a story from some girls who went a day or 2 before (there bus was the subject of an attempeted hijack in the middle of the night!) i was thouroughly prepared for all eventualities (i purchased a 12" machete and an AK47)..... As it so happens the driver only fell asleep once, careered of the road and left down a little slope (it was the middle of the night, everyone woke up screaming-except me!), twatted the coach into a rock wall, woke up then got us back onto the road and stopped a mile up the road to assess the damage. So quite boring really :-)

Cuzco was quite lovely, stayed just off the main square, the Plaza des Armas. The hostel i was in was up around 120 big steps, which at 3,400m altitude was never a walk in the park!! Lots of colonial era buildings, lovely local people and most importantly, a damned fine Irish bar that had Old Speckled Hen on tap!! Met loads of cool people there who´d been travelling and stuff. Main reason to stay a few days in Cuzco was to use it as a base for visiting Macchu Picchu...

So what else can i say other then AMAZING PLACE!!!! Spent a night in Aguas Calientes - getting there by a posh PeruRail train - a tiny village with a river running through it, surrounded by 3,000m cloud topped peaks, a lovely market, but unfortunately no Irish pub :-(. Did a fair amount of walking around here, most of it being hilly trekking type walking, wasn,t too bad as was at 2,100 - 2,600m altitude.

Up super early to get the train up to MP, so we could get tickets to go to the restricted peak of Huaynapicchu (only 400 people a day allowed up there). Started the climb with a German chap called Patrick and we hammered it - was meant to take 1 1/2 hrs but we did it in 50 minutes. Was seriously hard work as it was sheer climbing up steep steps with massive drops everywhere, but the view from the top was fantasticalness itself - the blog pic is of me at the top of the peak. Getting back down was actually quite hairy aswell, as we were wobbly legged, thirsty could see too easily the drops off the path!!! The rest of that day was taken up with another peak, several other viewpoints and generally exploring the most beautiful ruins site i´ve ever seen!! Trekking around here was the best thing ever!

Had a couple of party nights in the Irish Pub in Cuzco and have now worked my way into Copacabana, Bolivia. Am staying right on the lake and have just done another climb up to 4,100m for another great viewpoint of the bay of Copacabana. Going to go to the Isla Del Sol tomorrow (2 1/2hr by boat) to explore the island steeped in the history of the Incas. After another few days here will be off to La Paz for a few days, to do the Death Road (google/youtube it) and the Salt Flats . . . . . . .

I hear you¨ve had good weather back home?

I bought a 660ml bottle of lager in a bar the other day. It cost 80p. Nuff said.

Tobster :-)