Bueno Estente from La Paz

Instead of a blow by blow account of what I´ve been up to, here are some of the interesting things that have happened me over the last week or so.

Where I´ve been since last time: Puno to Cusco (taxi and plane instead of bus), Inca Trail to Machu Piccu (foot), Aquas Calientes to Cusco (train and taxit), Cusco to La Paz (plane).

• Food poisoning is rarely fun, much less so when you are trapped at altitude in a cold hotel room in Puno. We blamed the freshly made soup from the vegetarian restaurant which obviously hadn´t been boiled enough - we could hear them blending it just before serving. Not good.
• Altitude can be a real bitch. I had a four day headache when we ascended to Puno (3800 metres up). I had nausea and breathing difficulties and a high heart rate. I´ve been at altitude for about 10 days now and I´m still quite short of breath if I exert myself. The altituded sickness tablets they sell over the counter seems to help, as does chewing coca leaves.
• Peruvian drivers are obviously instructed that the other side of the road should be used as often as possible. Particularly on the blind corners of small mountain roads that have massive drops to the side. While driving a massive bus. At night time. The horn is also to be used liberally. I´m sure there´s a linguisitcs PhD waiting to be written about the subtle use of the horn in South American driving.
• As mentioned we needed to change our plans to get from Puno to Cusco due to the strikes. We got a taxi at 3am - the roadblocks were cleared in the middle of the night so folk could get by them. We arrived at Juliaca airport at 4.30am, whereupon the driver announced that we were all going to sleep in the car until 6am when the airport opened! Thankfully he´d brought blankets. This was perhaps the most amusing location I´ve ever had for an impromptu nap.
• Cusco is a cool town but we didn´t really make the most of it due to still feeing shitty from the food poisoning and the altitude. Due to the strikes the taxi driver had to drop us a few blocks from our hotel, which was located at the top of a massive hill that got steeper and steeper the further up you went. Nice practice for the Inca Trail, particularly with full backpacks.
• The Inca Trail is pretty special. The scenery is breathtaking, stunning Andean valley after stunning Andean valley. I´ve put some photos on Facebook. It´s hard enough work but I was expecting worse to be honest. Everyone says that the second day is the toughest, what with climbing 1000 metres up over the course of the day, and they are right. Day three is tough as well - it´s mostly downhill which means different sets of muscles. The weather was good on the first day but overcast and a bit wet for the remainder of the treck, but I don´t think that this detracted from the experience - in fact I can imagine it being a hell of a lot tougher in the heat.
• You can see the stars properly at nighttime when you are in the middle of the Andes. It´s unbelievable how much we miss out on when in our light-polluted cities. I´ve not seen a sky like that since I was a child. Amazing.
• Macchu Picchu is one of the most amazing things I´ve ever seen. Words and pictures can´t do it justice. The Incas were a pretty clever lot to manage to build a city of this size in such an efficient manner right up a big mountain.
• Aquas Calientes is a town near Macchu Pichu that consists entirely of restaurants and hotels. It´s like being in a bad part of the Costa del Sol.
  
• I´m in La Paz in Bolivia now. It´s pretty cool, it´s built in the caldera (crater) of an extinct volcano. The suburbs are built up the side of the crater and the city centre is along the deepest part. I´m in my first backpacker type hostel - rooms for six pounds a night. I´m across the road from the Wild Rover hostel where I went for a few drinks and games of pool with some Aussie folks last night. It´s about 1.40 for a rum and coke or a beer. Nice! Quite a young crowd, lots of folks on gap years and the like. I´m not sure how much of that I can take! Although there are folk of all ages around. I´m enjoying being on my own though, it´s nice to be able to set my own schedule and do what I like. I´m going to chill here for a day or two and figure out how best to spend my time in Bolivia. I think I´m going to go up north to Coroico for a few days, then come back to La Paz and figure out how to see the Salar de Uyuni. No plan is the best plan!

That´s all for now, questions and comments to the usual address please! Still missing you all tons, let me know all the Edinburgh/Ireland gossip!! Catch you soon, D x