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wow this is gonna be a long 1! by the way i apologise for all the spellin mistakes evry1. im not that bad just typin very quickly as i cant afford to spend to long on here goin it over all. im not stupid tho i promis hehe, just too quivk for my own brain to catch up when typin!
right public apology over got to the homestay on lake titcaca and met our family. mum- adreana, sisters-rosa, lucy and juana and a brother who we didnt meet! settled into our room, before she turned it into a shop ofgfering us all her hand made hats and gloves etc to buy. felt obliged so bought a couple fo presents! then went for a walk to the highest point of teh siland to watch the sunset. was very spectacualr! after walked abck down and back to teh house for morte free time before dinner. ther house was typical of the area, mud brick very few windows, our room wa sthe only in ther house with windows no running water and minimal electricity. wen it got dark rosa came in and wired a bulb in, it was sparking and evrythin, im sure shes done it a million times but was scared for her life!
at dinner we sat in the very smokey dinner while they prepared it all. soup for starter then rice and potatoes (love ther carbs) and tea. only rosa sat with us to eat. we invited the others but they sat speratly. we trieds to talk to them oh me rosie and peggy wer together but unfotunatkly ther 1st language wasd ketchua whcih non of us spoke and minimal spanish wich rosie did speak! after dinner we got dressed in traditional clothes for dancing in the town hall. (no photos r up as i promised evry1 i wouldnt) had to wear a big pink skirt that made my bum look huge! a pale blue embroided blouse, a waist belt that was brightly coloured and stripey and a black embroiderd shawl! we adnced for an hour and a half then went back and to bed.
left after breakfast of pancakes the next morning. was a really nice experince, very much enjoyed it. was lovley to stay with a local family and live lik them for the day. an intersting day and night. they wer incredibly hospitable and wer all so lovley to us.
after goodbyes we set of on the 3 hour journey back to main land. on teh way we stopped at the floating islands. a guy showed us how they make the islands out of reeds and make them float and anchor them, then we loklked round a few of the houses and set of for puno to spend the night.
had an 8 hour bus journey before arriving at the border had to get off the bus and go to the peru immigration to get our passports stamped. then walked up the hill over the border into bolivia to their immigartion to get new forms and more stamps. back on the bus after we all had done it. edgar couldnt speak to us the whole time as if they new he was a tour leader theyd charge him wen he was really only droppin us off in la paz for the next guide! got to copacabana and had a very rushed lunch there before gettin back on the bus and crossing lake titcaca.
the boat was awful. we had been told we could stay on the bus and go on that boat but 1 had sunk alst yr and killed alot of eople so we all got off and onto the passenger boat! which was just as bad! filled with smoke from the exhaust and looked like it was falling apart!
on the other side we got back on the bus and onto la paz! 2 hours and we wer ther. arrived about 4 so had a quick tour round the city to teh cathedral and through the witches market whcih is really cool. sells very wierd stuff like lama phoetuses and wish stones and love potions but also nice presents like hats n table cloths etc!
got dressed up that ngiht for a nice meal and our last night as a group. had a really nice meal and a proper farewell with the guys. went to a resaturant called mungos very good food!
breakfast the next mornin was asmiang! evrythin u can think of ceral, yoghurt, fruit, taost, pancakes, fried bread, eggs, coffee, tea, juice! ah luxury! so filled up and then spent teh day shopping as it was so so cheap! had lunch at the hotel but was rubbish so tryed to find sumwer else. found a cake shop that looked amasing and had cake and a smoothie but the cake looked alot better than it tasted! rubbsish!
got back to the hotel and watched tv and got ready for the meeting with our new group and dinner. not m,any additions to the group as only nina, ian, peggy and ticka had left. but the newbies are, claire, siobhan, lara and hen. ben now the only guy bles him do feel quite sorry for him! our new guide is called zema. quite the opposite to edgar but seems nice enough!. had the meeting about the next aprt of the trip and dinner at the hotel whcih was nice again an dthen an early night of tv and bed.
next day did nothing again all day well saw the cathedral showed emma the markets, the others went to teh prison had dinner and caught the night bus!
after dinner waited for the group to get the ngith bus, but had a panic because preena, rosie, ben and claire had all gone to do teh death road mountain biking and wernt abck in time! got to teh bus and waited for a hwile zema wen tlokin for them, they arrived then zema wasnt here argh! evry1 got ther eventually after holding the bus up. all with all limbs intacked and alive thank god. aparntly preena had a close fall to the edge!
arrived in uyuni next morning freezing cold and wearing flip flops thought my toes might fall off! got to teh hotel and had showers, packed day bags and smaller rucksacks for our 3 day trip accross the salt flats. left the rest fo our luggage at teh hotel. our 4*4s arrived and we packed them up with our stuff and set off! felt like abit of a mini holiday!
i was in a car with claire, alex, kady and preena. got going about 1030 for the train cemetry. mucked about ther for ages takin lots of photos and climbin all over the trains. aparntly a very important spot as its wer all the trains pass thru to go from chile to bolivia. cool place too lots fo old steam, trains very riusty and old all over the place. got back in the jeeps and off to our next stop. a village wher they process teh salt for eating and sell salt sculptures and like! we then drove out to teh salt flats wer they dig it up and took some photos. aparntly wen it would hav been a lake it would have coverd peru bolivia and chile! crazy tahst thousands of yr ago of course though! drove on again to teh slat palace made entirly of salt. pretty cool, wouldnt wana stay ther though! then on again to lunch on an island in the slat fltas called isla pescado. was really odd to see because all around was miles of flat salta nd tehn a random little island with huge cactuses on. spent quite a fwe hours here atkin lots of percpective photos! awas pretty amsing! like just went on for miles and miles. so so white too. and then the hills and volacnoes in the distnce was pretty spectacular! then on to our hotel. quite cosy, all of us 8 girls in 1 room whcih was nice. limited light utnil 9.30! had dinner and sat chattin for a while then got ready and inm bed waitin for the lights to go out. quite basci accomodation but nice. runnin water and loo that flushed wich was good! good food too.
2nd day we visited various lagoons, some with flamingos, saw volcanoes, the many incluided; ollague volcano, canapa, chiar kota, hedianda, ramaditas. travelled through teh vast desert for most of teh day whvih got quite boring, spent hours in the cars. also with just michael jkackson to listen to drove me insane. we listend to it no word of a lie 20 or more times! after lunch we visited the arbol de piedra or the desert of siloli and saw the famous mushroom or apple core shaped rock. stayed in a hotel on the laguna colorada. went for a wlak with preena and watched teh sunset over the mountains very cool! had dinner and palyed cards with lara, hen, kirsty and claire really funny! read and then bed! this hotel was alot more basic no running water but still comfy!
next day up at 5 to drive to the geisers and hot springs! actually thought i would die of hypothermia! so sos cold me n preena curled up together on the back seat in sleepin bags trying to get warm! saw the geisers but was way way too cold to get out were talking minus 6 but did briefly and then on to teh hot springs! got in straight away was like count down race to be the quickest as it wa too cold to be out the water! leghged it in. i wa sthe only 1 who didnt fall in on entrance lol very funny to watch them all go down in turn even after ebing warned! stayed in for about half an hour which wa senough as i was now slowly boiling to death! got out and agin dressed like ther was no tomorrow and had breakie with hot cups of tea and boiled eggs as it got a few degrees warmer! drove onto a laggon which was suppoosed to be green but was frozen over so wasnt! but saw 3 cpountries at 1. chile, bolivia dn argentina!
drove again all day seeing various desrt rocks and stuff. was pretty ovre the whole desrt and michale jkackson by now! i think for any1 els to do a day tour really is enough i was way bored of it by day 3. spent teh day in the car getting out for lunch and teh occassional lake etc! arrived back at our poriginal hotel in uyuni showered and unpacked and had dinner. was bens bday so had pizza in the hotrel restaurant whcih ws amsing! then had the meetin, over the next couple of days we had avfew problems. ther had been strikes in potosi our next stop and we couldnt get to sucre or ther so we had teh decisoon of whta to do. we decided to the best option was to stay another dya get a ngith bus to la paz and then fly to sucre. after the metin played acrds and went to bed.
spent teh next day doing washingm, reading, writing, and seeing teh town which was quite nice, very small, nothing to do and not very good shopping but cute, pretty and it wa shome to.......the incredible fun pub! went ther for lunch. called taht as its a gfood place to get drunk i hear. it has a challenge on of downing 10 drinks the qucikest and tehse drinks r disgusting 1 is caleld lama sperm, doesnt contain lama sperm but sounded worse than that! but we wer leaving that night so unfortunatly i got out of that 1!
the ngith bus was awful i was freezing cold and couldnt sleep rubbihs!
arrived in la paz and straight to the airport for a 5 hour wait! but we saw a guy ther that was on the kiwi exp wityh us and we had aslo met in chile called will so sat and chatted to him bout his travls for a hwile then checked in and flew at about 11. arrived in sucre at 12 and checked into our rooms which had been over booked but wa fine by us so me, emma, preena and rosie shared a room and so did the other 4. we napped until 4 and then got up and went for dinner used the net and then got dressed up for the meal. ate at a place called joy ride with teh group wasnpretty cool. styayed ther all night.
all went for breakie next mornin sat in the girlsy rooms and chatted for a hwile, checked into our new rooms me n rosie togther. then met the group to got to the orphanage. got dealkyed till 2 though. but went then. we got ther and bought them milk. was really nice to meety all the kids coz they were so adorable and so lovley and loving and really huggy and jus wanted to play and touch our camerias adn watches etc. stayde with them for a hwile and then had a tour round the rooms. after we went down to teh amrket to buy ingredients for a cke and pinyata as it was 3 of ther bdays and there are 50 boys so lots of eggs 200 infact! the other guys took it all back to th orphange fopr them and we went of rdinner at joy ride again. wne tot the cinema that ngiht cost 10bs tahats about 60p!
friday me and emma spent teh whole day trying to find a decent internet. ended up in joy ride for lunch again! got reday that nigh for our last big nihg out with preena nd rosie! got very dressed up and went for dinner at posh restaurant tehn back to joy ride to start oputr night out. had a iwked night dancing and having fun. very very sad to say goodbye to them both teh next morning as we had all become so so close! wierd without them now!
got to the airport next morn at 12, but got dealyed till 2. short plane journey to santa cruz. over the 2 days in sanat cruz didnt really do anything! ther was ntohing to do, it was the weekend so evrythin was closed. didnt really like it there either. left for the pantanal and brazil on sunday on a night train!
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