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As some of you may have noticed, I have actually now returned from the trip, giving an indication of how far I fell behind with this. However I am determined to finish it so that I can get things down before I forget them. Besides, Ben's blog only lasted for 2 weeks way back in Thailand at the start of the trip before he gave up so I think I've done well. Anyway so after the exerts of the Inca Trail and appropriate celebrations in Cusco, we flew to Lima for our final day of the tour.
Naturally that evening we had our final dinner together and went out again for another night of unyielding colourful cocktails, trying and failing to reproduce the salsa we had learned in Cusco and of course, more of Manuel's drunken rantings of how we were the best group he's ever had. A fitting end to a great trip. The following day we said goodbye to most of the group before Manuel took the remaining few of us to a famous hotel in Lima where the pisco sour was invented (the staple cocktail of Peru thrown back a fair few times by everyone during the tour). Of course this was the last thing we wanted to do at the time with effects of the previous night still lurking, but Manuel was adamant that he take us so we reluctantly obliged. Not only that, these particular pisco sours would put some hairs on your chest I tell you, they were disgracefully strong. Somehow Manuel also convinced me to have some mussels that the restaurant was also famous for. So there I was in the middle of the day with a motherf***er of a hangover drinking a pisco sour that tasted like nail varnish remover and eating slimy raw shellfish. Nice. So after forcing down as much of that monstrosity of a combination that I could and somehow holding onto the contents of my stomach, we sadly finally parted ways with Manuel before hopping next door to KFC to get some comfort food. That was in fact to be the first step towards the big 4 that day, that I was finally going to fulfil my ambition of achieving once in my life (KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut and McDonald's all in the same day). Yes it was gross but you see after the KFC and the MacDonald's, when it was time for dinner, everyone went to Pizza Hut, and Burger King happened to be in the same place, so there wasn't going to a better opportunity to do it. So anyway I did it and never have to do it again.
That day we had in fact checked out of the hotel from the last day of the tour and into another Loki hostel (like in La Paz) along with Kia and her sister who were sticking around and Georgie and Lara who were actually off on a jungle tour on the following day for 2 days before coming back to Loki. Also that day amidst the relocating, the pisco sours and shellfish and the grotesque big 4, we found time to all go to the cinema together to watch Terminator Salvation which turned out to be mildly entertaining yet ultimately disappointing, much to Ben's dismay having practically creamed himself every time he watched the trailer.
So we spent the next few days mooching about, mainly trying to change or flights to go straight from Lima to LA, bypassing Mexico all together because of the swine flu. Ben was naturally disappointed as ironically when I planned the whole trip (emphasis on I) I gave him the opportunity to make suggestions and all he put forward was Mexico. So I freed up a couple of weeks to squeeze it in which ultimately didn't matter as my dastardly plan of creating swine flu and releasing it in Mexico worked so we didn't have to go mwuahahaha. Nah it would have been cool to go but my parents were having s*** about it and in hindsight we really needed that extra time in LA looking for a car. So we eventually managed to change the flights and spent the remaining few days in Lima not doing much. I mean it's a big industrious city but there's not actually much to do. So we made some token efforts sight seeing which wasn't all that great and went to a museum of gods know what, but mainly spent our time eating some amazing seafood and cruising around the markets buying more souvenirs, as well as some knock off merch from this massive indoor market in town. Also, one night Ben and I (and some creepy Italian guy from the hostel) had a dabble at one of the many casinos there in preparation for Vegas. I didn't do too badly, turning 20 dollars into 75 at the roulette before losing 20 at the black jack table where Ben contrived to lose 100 bucks typically not knowing when to quit. Anyway the final night we went out on the lash one last time with a big crew we had accumulated at the hostel as well the girls who had returned from the jungle, and although it was a good night and a fitting send off for South America, some f***er stole my North Face hoody from the club. That hoody was kickass and not cheap mind you, so I was pretty annoyed, accusing pretty much every person in the club in drunken paranoia before departing with my tail between my legs and no top. Great. Anyway the next day we said our sad goodbyes to the crew still trooping from the GAP tour before heading to the Airport for the last yet longest leg of the trip, 3 months in the ol US and A.
Now this changes every day in my head looking back on it all, but more often than not I find myself concluding that South America was the best part of the trip. From the magnificent glaciers down in freezing Patagonia, the beaches in Brazil and the heights of Macchu Picchu, South America is definitely top of my list of places I want to go back to. Un viaje phenomenal!!
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