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Goooosh, where to start! We have done so much every single day since we last wrote (won{t leave it this long next time, we{re just lazy/busy a lot... depends how you look at it!)
So... from the beginning of our GAP trip, which is pretty much where we left you. Met the group, everyone ace - great range of people from U.S, Canada, Norway, Taiwan, Australia, Lebanon... everyone got on fantastically and the banter and catchphrases will always be remembered!
Day one of the trip, Flew to Puerto Maldonado (town by the jungle). Greeted by big van and commenced a bumpy ride through the town, stopping to look in a market, then on to the {port{, or rather the side of the river where we got on our motorised boat. Amazing views of the brownish river and tasty fried rice eaten from a leaf kept us entertained for the 2 hour boat journey leading us to our lodge. Had a 10 min walk through the jungle in the dark, which was f***ing scary, nobody said anything though , maybe it was just ellen! The amazing thing aboutthe jungle at night were the noises, and the stars!!! Looking up there were more stars than sky, it was fantastic. First impressions of our ungle lodge were hard to form in the dark (no electricty while we were there at all), but th cabins were superb... one wall open to the jungle and a room with everything you{d expect from a good hotel. Good food too! Only the news of the wake up call at 4am caused a disturbance that night.
Next morning, we fumbled around in the dark trying to find wellies that weren{t 10 sizes too big, although this wasn{t achieved we were at least wearing wellies and set off on the boat down the amazon. An hours sweaty walk lead us to a {catamaran{, or rather a raft type thing, where we spent hours bird watching, piranha fishing (Sair caught one!!! See pics...) and being educated on Flora and Fauna. In the afternoon we went to see the medicine man, but he was away on vacation (haha), his helper took us round, and the boys still managed to get their pics next to the viagra type plant etc.
Our visit to the amazon really was short lived, could{ve done witha lot longer there, just to take it all in! That morning we waved goodbye to Geraldine ans Tilman (our rainforest guides) and headed back to Cusco on the plane.
Arrived in Cusco with a dizzy head (the altitude) and went for a big meal at {Jacks{ with the group, who were now beautifully bonded.We wandered around Cusco, a city with lovely buildings and a real peruvian feel about it. We bought some {alpaca{ hats and got accosted by peruvian children selling finger puppets and trying to charge us 1 sol for looking at his paintings (haha).
That night me, sair, amy, melissa and sean all had massages in our hotel room. Me and sair felt like we were doing something well seedy while waiting for them too arrive! Good massage though. That night we met our tour leader (soon to be our new best friend) Jose, the crazy americans went out to party and us tired brits went to bed like real {party poopers{.
Next morning jose took us to see some peruvian women weaving clothes in a village, around some ruins and we went for a good buffet lunch, witha fantastic andean band to entertain us. Saw some more ruins in Ollantaytambo, wandered round, taking in the little town.
This was the day that I (Ellen) got f***in ill (day before Inca trail), back to hotel and was sick all night and worrying about wether or not i could do the inca. it was really f***in great, or not.
Next day we took a bus journey to where we were to start the Inca trail. I tried to pull out at evry possible point, but smehow i managed to begin it (with great encouragement from everyone- thanks guys! Particularly amy and melissa (the american med students who were my actual saviours throughout the trip...) We bought our walking sticks for the equivalent of 50p, which served us well. That day entailed about 6 hours of walking, not too bad! The Porters were absolutely amazing, carrying our bags, tents, food , everything! they arrived at lunch places and campsites hours before us (they literally run the trail in sandals), set up our tents, make us three course meals, a bowl of hot water and thena man comes round with kitchen roll so u can dry your hands. We{d never seen anything like it, and it had the potential to be weird,b ut it wasn{t somehow.
Was awoken on day 2 of the trail with a cup of coca tea from the porters. Bloody hard walking that day... never seen so many damn steps, walking up to dead womans pass was killer. Sair excelled at the front of the group, whereas ellen and melissa became new best friends, usually being at the back of the group with Greco (another one of our ace guides...hot too.) The afternoon entailed steep steps down to our campsite, where we eventually arrived, people at the back a lot slower than expected, haha! That day I (ellen) got stupidly burnt, cried a bit, but the american saviours, bandaged me up in the tent in the dark, which sorted me out a bit.
 Third day, not so bad, more f***ing walking... but we could see the light! Sair started off at the back of the group, due to a late start (the group leaving without us), but couldnt handle it at the back and soon got back to her rightful place with the people at the front. Sair and amy got to the campsite hours before everyone else (although we did stop at some sort of inca ruin, that was my excuse anyway). That night after dinner we made up a cheer for the porters and said thankyou to them. We heard their jobs, names and shook there hands, it was pretty nice to actually acknowledge them , rather than a quick {hola{ which it usually was as they rushed passed us on the trail.
We got up a t 3.45am the next day and waited in queue in the dark for traul up to the sungate and machu picchu to open. Walk up to singate was pretty easy, and it was great to feel we had almost made it. First views of Machu Picchu from afar, and we were told we were lucky to see it, we had excellent weather the whole time we were doing the trail (bar a bit of rain on day one!). Machu PIcchu impressive in sunshine, took lots of funny group pictures. It was fantastic to go to a normal toilet!!! The tour round machu picchu was interesting, although we all found it hard as the muscle fatigue was setting in on pretty much everyone. Was ace to take it all in and we all felt a great sense of achievement. That afternoon was spent in aguas calientes, stuffing our faces and wandering around. Got the train back to Cusco, was very slow, but we were all knackered and pretty much everyone slept.
Got to our hotel that evening, where the doctors (amy and melissa) popped the blisters on my arms from the sunburn, never been happier! Sooo tired, went to bed.
Next day, slept in, got clean and went out for dinner in cusco with amy and melissa. That evening Sean mentioned Zisha from our group had spent the day with Greco (one of our guides )... { i knew you werent that slow of a walker, zisha!{, we went to bohemia, a restaraunt and everyone tried to grill zisha, but she wasnt having any of it... go zisha! Later we had salsa lessons (if you could call it that) at mythology, one of the few clubs in cusco, the first song after that was by The Cure, {get innnn!{. Dancing, then on to Mama Africa for more dancing. Fun.
Sair was sick the next day... we{re a right pair! Actually, the whole of our group was ill at some point, it was coz it was erica (our guides) 13th trip, there were 13 of us in the group and we started the inca on fri 13th. thats what we put it down to anyway.We took a busride that day (super cama) and amy and melissa gave sair some good drugs which prtty much knowcked her out for the ful 7 hour journey. Ate an Alpaca kebab that day, wandered round puno (a little sketchy, but quite busy for a smalish town), and went to bed pretty early!
That next morning we got picked up in tuck-tucks, which was so fun!!! our driver arced with the others down the street, not stopping for cars or anything else.We then took a boat from the port of the algae infested lake titicaca to the reed islands, which were pretty f{n cool. A 2 hour boat journey took us to taquile island, we went for lunch, then walked back to the boat for another two hour journey (filled with games and games of Spades). { so today we basically took a boat, had lunch and came back?[ (sair) haha.
That eve, me, sair , amy and melissa went for a 15 soles meal, in a turkish looking restaraunt, which played bob marley the whole time. Later me, amy and sean went out to {rock and reggae{, we saw THAT girl (a girl who we saw at every stage of the inca trail and pretty much every single f***in day, but never actually spoek to her). We had cervezas, wrote our names on the ceiling and took a motorised tuck-tuck (akan the batmobile)back to our hotel.
We travelled the next day for hours on a coach from Puno to La Paz, stopping at Copacabana to have nachos for lunch in a hippy-ish town.That evening we went to Mongos for dinner and saw THAT girl again. Ellen, Charbel,and the americans went to a bar then on to a karaoke bar. Where straight away the ushered us to a private room, it was f***ing hilarious. they had about 10 american/english songs. Charbel entertained us with {my way{, Sean with {california dreaming{ and any other song with the word california in for that matter. and we sang beat it, and material girl amongst others. Hotelia some sort of bolivian celebration that we walked in on.
Day after, Sair went on a trip to see tiahuanaco ruins, whereas me and the americans stayed in La paz centre, relaxed and did some shopping. As our guide, erica, said , {once you{ve seen machu picchu...{ That afternoon we walked around a lunar landscape which was cool and had lollies.
The evening consisted of good food, an oxygen bar and dancing at Ram Jams (a pretty good club with decent music) and saying drunken goodbyes as it was our last night as a group.
The next day, more wandering around, lunch and more games of spades with amy and melissa in our hotel room. Said sad goodbyes to the U.s gals and the Aussies, and tried to sort out where we would go on the next part of our journey. Went to the same lovely little restaraunt for dinner with the remainders of the Gap group! Impressions of La Paz - a bit dirty and sketchy (someone spat on melissa and tried to rob her bag, rubbish on the streets, pollution), but good nights out and cheapppp!
Next day we{re back to being a twosome, got up at 5.30am and got on Pullman coach (semi cama) for about8 hours to Arica (in the north of Chile, where we are now!) Arica seems v modern and to quote the rough guide { the best thing about chile is that you dont have to walk around gripped with paranoia[ this is very true, and you can definitely tell that chile is one of the ricker countires in s.a.
Arrived at our hostel, to find we were one of two sets of people stayin there, and there was writing all over the walls, we thought we were at a gay hostel, still not sure if we are or not! Really cool place to stay though... the owners really friendly and its all pretty chilled out. That evening we go out to eat, bar for wine then to {chillout for more booze{ with john, the american guy staying at our hosetl. somehow it gets to 3am and we get ataxi hpome.
Yesterday we went in to the town centre and looked at shops and products as if we haven{t seen them in 10 years. Spent the afternoon lying on the beach - good to be out of the smog of Lapaz and get some fresh air at sea level! There{s pretty much just us on the beach, we go to a restaraunt have beers and pizza and watch the sunset, lovely! That evening we chill at the hostel, watch good will hunting outside in the courtyard and go to bed.
Today we{ve done more of the same- lunch in the town then the beach! Tonight we are going to enjoy a bbq and bevvies with people in our hostel (more have arrived, wahhoo!).
Couple more days in Arica, then on Friday we{re embarking on a 30 hour bus journey down to Snatiago.
We can{t believe s.a is nearly over, it{s been ace!
Sair{s whooping cough is finally cured and my sunburn is nearly gone, ace.
Keep in touch everyone!
Till the next time(promise it wont be as long!)
Lots of love from Chile.
Melly and Sair.
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