On the road again... medellin!!

Hey Guys,

Finally i have left popayan!! no one here can believe i stayed there in that ´rinky dink town´ for 3 and a bit months. hahha, but seriously it was awesome!

Ok so ive been in Medellin (home of pablo escobar, the most awesome parks in colombia, the metro cable, and sexy paisas) for about a week now.. Its been good fun, i was staying for the most part in El Poblado, the rich, hip district next to zona rosa, where all the restaurants and clubs are. I was in a cool little hostel called casa mayde, named after one of the coolest hostel owners in south america. Oh i should point out, the Paisas (people from medellin) have the coolest and funnyest spanish accent, i cant explain it, just trust me, its awesome. Ave maria Pues!!! Ok so that out of the way, i met up with martin, who i had met in Popayan, and he has been showing me around medellin a bit. We went out a few times, kinda just ended in a haze of Guaro, actually we once got kicked out of the Metro coz martin was too drunk... NOT ME i should point out. i was sobre as a nail who hasnt been drinking. Also after we had used our tickets which was a little dissapointing.

Um so also, medellin in xmas--- has these lights called Alumbrados, basically they light up the river with crazy lights and stuff, and thousands and thousands of people flock there every night of december, its like the ekka, but every night... crazy but good crazy. Um so ill stick some photos up there.. What more, OOOHH- 1) you can drink in the streets 2) They have Aguardiente in boxes! (JACK I BELIEVE YOU!!) So ill stick up a photo of the little popper (juicebox for those americans reading along) filled with toxic Guaro (antioqueño).

Ok so we also went to the Deportiva Independiente Medellin futball match here last wednesday!! it was friking awesome. It was the last round match, and DIM had already made the finals (they play the final on sunday), so the stadium was full, people singing the whole time, they had a proper big salsa band there in the north where all the hooligans go. Jumping up and down and stuff. really cooL!! Oh and they smuggle fireworks into the stadium, which i believe to be qwuite dangerous, but sounds cool i guess.. Photos again are awesome!

Um So after that, i tried couchsurfing for the first time, and ended up here staying with Ana maria and her family, amazingly nice, taking me in and showing me around medellin.


Ok here are some Photos::


Jardin Botanico, Obviously!















Ana and I at the top of Pueblito Paisa, looking down on Medellin.











This is just some cool building in centro, at night they light everything up.










ROOOJOOOO; TE AMMOOOO ROOOJOOO












Obviously the game, for the record DIM beat Periera 2-1 i think.












Los Alumbrados













Again, if you can see, they serve beer in 1L glasses. Tops!












More Alumbrados










Parque De Pies Descalzes (park of feet without shoes) You can walk in sand and do some other stuff, then relax in the nice refreshing Espejo de Agua, mirror of water.












A reminder that medellin is still slightly dangerous. A big ass barrel of knifes in parque Bolivar!










Ok So for now thats all.. Im heading back into central then going to cartagena tonight. SOOON CENTRAL AMERICA!!!! WOOHOOO!!

CHAO!

Popayan, The Pictorial Guide to:

Ok... So here is- The Pictorial Guide to Popayan.








La Bomba in Cuidad Jardin. Just near where i was working.. The Sunsets in Colombia are frikin awesome.












Ok. Again with the Sunsets. This time in central taken from Empanadas de Javier.. AMAZING EMPANADAS!












Mi Primas. Melany and Isabella finally in the one place at the one time.











La Ermita with ____ in the background. This is part of the lighting they do for Xmas.







}






More Xmas Stuff. This time an angel outside the main government building in Town.













After weeks of trying to get a game of futball. Matz and i finally hit the pitch, win gloriously and celebrate, never to win again.












Two of my favourite students from my class.
In suka for those playing along. Cheapest beers in town.











Yeh, i finally turned colombian. This was Halloween btw.














Sunday night Aussie BBQS!!! OOHhhh risoles, salchichas, pan de ajo... todo












Ok, Matz and my favourite outing. 10 beers for 15.000 Thursdays. thats 10 beeers for $7... This is the result. And christian!!









Learning some salsa moves in the House. feat Cindy and Matz.














Kareoke at Xamba. and Just one of the many caucano induced hangovers.


















My beautiful Cousin isa.














Popayan at nightime. Still havnt finished the renovations. One and half years later. Colombian time.











Not technically popayan. Its Silvia, but still nice and colonial.














This was part of the Gastronomic Festival. Classic Cars in Parque Caldas.











ALMOJABANAS!!!! Lo Maximo. and a kookaburra in a gum tree. YUM YUM!!!









OK so thats popayan in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed it and i will update from costa rica perhaps!!

CHAO!!!

Random no news

Long time no talking...

How is everyone???

Im still in Popayan, much to the in credulousness and consternation of everyone who lives in cali, but in my defence its cool!

OK So yeh i dont have a huge amount of new things to say. I cannot mention what i was doing for money, coz DAS might come after me and deport me and i really dont need that do i??

Old maties Matz and Elaine are still here, but leave this weekend. It will be sad to finally say goodbye, i dont think i will catch them again before i head back to the land down under... Maybe next year if i return to this end of the world??

In other news, Matz and i have just about finished recording some music in a studio here in Popayan. 8 songs in 4 hours is a pretty good achievement Matz..... I only did two.. (some might call that lazy but yeh i am).. ill bang them up on myspace when im finished mixing them.

In other news, we had halloween here last weekend. A vastly bigger affair than in aust... Lots of people dressing up, lots of free booze and dubious Mos... (speaking of... its now MOvember, so all of you start growing them MOs).

What else. I actually only have about another month and a half here before i head north, maybe ill start writing in this again when im travelling...

CYAAA

Lo Que Tu Quieres

Hola Muchachos,

How is everyone.. hopefully living exciting lives, and not too busy studying or working... its overrated..

So what am i up to you may ask??

Well right now im killing time on the computer looking up australian music that i so desperately miss. Since i no longer have a certain ipod to listen to, im having to make do with youtube, and learning the songs on guitar... Not a suitable substitute...

So what else. As some of you may know, i have started working here in Popayan. I now teach english at Vancouver college, with a class of 8 students. good fun, i love that i am qualified to teach purely because i speak english... what a world.. But in all seriousness its been fun, and i havnt fucked up too much, and all my students are really nice, and enjoy learning australian colloquialisms. i think ill be getting another class this week as well which is good.

Also my ever reappearing friends, Matz and Elaine have arrived here in Popayan, and i have co-orced them into staying for a month, and teaching english as well. So we have been having a grand old time here, trying to learn salsa and drinking Caucano.

Que mas???

Ive been pretty busy in the last week or so, and trying to adapt to working again, i even had to get up at 7am for a few days there. Luckily my boss has only given me night classes now, so thats lucky.

But a quick review of things i have done.
-Food festival in popayan. inc classic cars in the central plaza, and amazing italian food, courtesy of the loverly owners of L'italiano.
-Kareoke in Xamba cafe (an unexplainably popular place with younguns) with some cute Patojas(girls from popayan).
-Learning salsa with Matz and Elaine and realising that the best gringo dancer is still the worst dancer in colombia.
-Realising last night, that the above statement is not entirely true, sorry juan jose.....
-Enjoying beer goggles, and avoiding young stalkers.
-And the best- Seeing a classic 80s heavy metal band in a live concert last friday. Complete with iron maiden covers, marshall stacks, big mullets, leather jackets, and a rousing 'i was made for loving you' encore.
-Oh and eating the worlds supply of Almajabanas, The best snack in the world.

Ok, i will leave you now.. and get back to trying to find the drones and an horse songs on the net.

Hasta Luego

Feelin´ Retrospective

Hola friends and family (and potential fans from all over the world),

Today is exactly 5 months since i left Brisbane, and seems a suitable day that i finalise the plans for the rest of my trip. Which leads to the fact that it is also exactly 5 months to the day that i will return to Brisbane... Oh the symmetry is amazing.

More news for the day. I got a job! I start work on monday at the Vancouver English College here in Popayan.. So i will be here for another 3 months working dilligently so i can afford to travel a bit more, and of course to fund some more partying here in popayan.

So its been a crazy 5 months, and an even crazier past month or so, but also so amazing. And im mega glad i could do this, and stay away an extra 4 months and not estrange any family members in the process. So i guess thanks to everyone for being so awesome, lending me money when i was desperately poor in Peru, and letting me cruise around here for so long.

Plans for me for the next 5 months-
Im obviously staying in popayan for another 3 months, which will bring me to early December. From there im planning on flying to Mexico, seeing a bit of the country, visiting people etc. Then i will head south and meet the loverly calley (of brisbane fame) in or near costa rica for Christmas time. From there we will travel (or party) northwards for 6 weeks until the end of January and hopefully make it back to Aus for early Feb.

So until then or the next blog, See ya in Feb!!

Yo estraño ustedes todo, pero quiero viajar mas, quando puedo!

Ciao!

This is the Journey to date, 5 months after leaving brisbane.
Some long bus trips there.
























Enjoy!

Colombia

Hey Guys,

Its been a while, but ive been a bit busy here in colombia so i apologise.

I arrived safely from Quito, and had already met a bunch of freindly colombians before i even arrived in Popayan. People here are super freindly, so much more so than everywhere else i have been.

So i spent a week or so in Popayan which was great. Staying with my Aunt Fanny, in the giant house with a restaurant attached. Its been great, being able to eat awesome food again, and having a house to live in rather than dorms. Nice change. Popayan is a nice little city, but not a huge amount to do if you dont know some people. So to that end, last week, i went to some of the english colleges with expats i met to help teach some english. That was really cool, you just go in, have a chat to the students, then everyone invites you out for beers and to play soccer and everything. It doesnt hurt that all the female students are incredibly attractive either. Ive had a few offers to teach me salsa, but so far its a steep learning curve. I keep forgetting what ive learnt (may or may not be the result of innebriation at the time of learning...)

Ok so ive also been to cali for both weekends ive been in Colombia. The first i stayed with an old family freind by the name of Douglas Lang. Who has the best house and garden in colombia, and were so good to have me there for a few days. And of course, Isabella (my cousin) took me out a few times to celebrate, caleño style. Then i returned this weekend to hang out again with Isa and her freinds. I got taken out to see a band called Superlitio, who were actually really good, and have since found out are quite famous. They play a kind of funky, latino, rock thing. Good stuff...

Did some more stuff.....

Then last night i finally went out to the proper salsa district here in Cali, (the capital of salsa in south america). It was crazy, we met some locals who invited us in a taxi with them, took us to a club, and partied with us. And we only knew them for about 20 min before that. Anyway we ended up at a club called VIP, and i finally picked up a few moves. hahaha... yeh its still not pretty.

Ok so im off now, some freinds arrive in Popayan in a few days, so im excited to see them.

OH AND NEWS!!!

Im most likely staying in South and central America for another 5 months!!!! At the moment, im planning to arrive home lat January, early february. Which is awesome!!!

ok cya all in the not too distant future!

PART 2

Hola Todos!

As most of you probably already know, cami and i have split up, and will be travelling seperately from now on.

But all is well and i will keep you updated on my happenings for the next few months, or until i eventually make it home.

So i left peru a few days ago after spending a week with some freinds, Matz and Elaine, in Mancora. If you guys ever read this- Thankyou, you are amazing.

Anyway so i headed pretty much straight to Quito, in the north of Ecuador to stay with some more freinds we had met in Bolivia. Quito is amazing, it´s surrounded by mountains and is really clean and generally awesome. And they also have some semblance of road rules, which is a plesent change. So, Quito; i was given the city tour by Fer and her friend Sol around the old centre of Quito, which was awesome. Had some sweet empandas, found the secret passageway to a network of tunnels built by some crazy priests and nuns, and did some other stuff which i cant really remember. But all in all a good day.

Yesterday, Fer and i went up to Teleferico, a chairlift up to 4100m, on the highest active volcano in the world (dont quote me on that, but it has awesome views). Ill stick some photos up here later.

Telefonico. Dont you just love the pain of 4100m.

Later Fer, Rodrigo and i drove about an hour west to Papallacta. The most magic place in the world. They are hot springs with healing properties, in case you didnt already know... But seriously there were about 10 pools, a river, and a pool filled from the glacier up on the closest mountain. Anyway, feeling much better, we drove back home with beers in our hands ready for the best hot dogs in the world (according to Rodrigo).

Apparently this place was built from the ground up by some dude who used to sell hot dogs from a street cart on the side of the road. And now he has a bunch of franchises and is really rich. Good on him. But they were awesome Hot Dogs.

Los Hot Dogs de la Gonzalez Suarez.

Anyway ill update again when i hit Colombia, the salsa capital of the world or so i am told.

Cya later!

Part 2 da historia de Esteve.

Alrighty Then.

So since our first few nights in arequipa, post hot tub party, we have both been relatively busy working. I was on the bar every night until it closed and cami was doing some reception and lazing around and some shopping i think.. Not too stressful, i think she wasenjoying spending other peoples money.

So we did that for a week and a half, i got fairly sick of it pretty quickly, Cami is still loving it. But anyway we decided that i would leave and go to Lima for a week or so until after independance (another big party for cam to plan) and then cam would meet me in Lima. But first: Huacachina.

Huacachina is a crazy little oasis in the middle of the desert, mostly populated by backpackers and restaurants. But its the place for sandboarding and dune buggys and all that stuff. Its actually a really cool place, the desert is pretty amazing. Anyway so we splashed out and took the sandboarding buggy tour thing that everyone does. You basically scream around the dunes for a few hours doing dangerous things in a giant buggy, then hop out at the biggest dunes you can find and slide down them on a piece of wood. Usually face first lying down, the dunes were a little too big to surf down (about 200m up mas or menos) and freaking steep. Anyway that was awesome except i fell off the board when i was trying to surf it down and almost broke my thumb. The guide didnt seem too worried, so i must assume worse stuff happens all the time. Anyway so we finished and i went to the doctor, did all the x ray stuff, and im all AOK.. Just have a large thumb for a while and a big sandburn on my back. Good fun really.

So i left after that and headed North for Lima, Peru`s Capital. Cam is still in Arequipa, but she might have to let you know how she is herself. Lima is alright,big and polluted and rich (comparitively). It even has a shopping mall and a maccas and Kfc and everything. And its meant to be a beach city, but from what i understand it is constantly grey (worse than london atm) and the water is polluted, so not too much laying on the Beach. Ive met some freinds from Sucre here and should be able to kill another 6 days or so before we can finally head north and get to the nice beaches and hot weather again...

So until then Cya

Steve.

Arequipa Pt 1

Hey All,

How's everyone going?? I do want to know, but obviously i wont find out for a while, so here is what we have been doing.

We left Cusco the night after our Machu Picchu trail, because it was our only chance to make it through the road blocks surrounding Cusco. Even though we left early our bus was still forced to stop outside the city of Arequipa when we arrived the next morning and we had to walk for around an hour to get past all of the road blocks so we could jump in the back of a ute and get a lift into the actual city.

The first thing we did when we arrived was find a hostel which we could work at so we could stay for free. We rocked up at The Point hostel and were welcomed immiediately so we decided to stay. Steve is working in the bar every night and I am (supposed to be) working in reception. Steve works realy hard every night, whereas I have done only a bit of actual reception work and plenty of shopping (for the hostel though, not me...).
Carolina is a Peruvian girl the same age as us who is working here as well. She and I had the awesome job of planning a tropical party a couple of days ago for the hostel to celebrate the re-opening of their hot tub (it wasnt actually warm at all on the night but the party was still good).

Steve here now. We half wrote this a week or soago and forgot about it. So ill update you all in a sec..

cya

We Survived the Inca Trail!

Hola Amigos,
Steve and I got back to Cusco last night after finishing 4 days of the extremely tiring, but extremely rewarding Inca Trail.
On the 3rd we were picked up at an hour we hadnt experienced for a very long time and took the tour bus to a town where we ate breakfast and mettwo Australian girls on the trip with us, Sophie and Katherine.
On the bus we met our 2 guides, Freddie and Amateo. Freddie tured out to be the best possible guide we could have asked for. He was half Quechuan (which is the actual Incan culture and language) and he was really passionate about the culture and knew a lot about the Inca. Amateo was the assistant guide whose english was not quite as good as Freddies but he made up for by being hilarious.
Apart from Sophie and Katherine there was 11 other people in our group - 5 californian girls, 2 teachers from the US, another Aussie couple and 2 older guys from NZ (who eventually put many of us to shame).
The first day of the trek wasnt too bad, we saw the first of many Incan terraces and learnt about Inca time (when Freddie says it is 15 more minutes it means it is really 30) and Inca flat (the rest of the trail is flat until the campsite, means that there is steps up and down and flat in between them at some point).
Our first meal was one of the most surprising things that happened on our trip. When we sat down we were given an entre of avocado salad, followed by 3 more courses. No one in our group could believe their luck. I am not kidding when I say that apart from some outstanding meals every now and again, the food we ate on this trek was the best we have had in the entire 3 months we have been in South America, easily the best in Peru. Later on we met the cook, Jesus, who was an adorably shy Peruvian and I think most of us were ready to take him home with us by the end.

At the end of the first day we arrived at our camp where the 22 porters had already set up our tents and started getting ready for dinner. These guys are amazing. Every day they left after our group and arrived hours in advance to set up our campsite. While most of us were puffing up steps they would run past, making us feel very stupid when we arrived at the campsite hours later and they would applaude our efforts. But if you are thinking that it sounds like a terrible job where they are treated like slaves, you are getting the wrong idea. The job of a porter is one of the most sought after jobs in Peru, especially for the company that we travelled with who provide the porters with propper backpacks, sleepingbags and mattereses. Many of the porters for the other comapnies are just carrying their loads in sacks. The other good thing is that the weight they are allowed to carry has been limited to 25kg now, wheras they used to carry around 60kg!
Plus they were the nicest group of guys, always so friendly and ready to help you if you needed it. They did an amazing job even though the youngest was only 18 and the oldest was 65.

The second day was so much harder than the first, we spent 5 hours climbing extremely steep steps to reach Dead Womans Pass which is at an altitude of 4200m. Once at the top we made an offering to PachaMama (mother earth) so that she would help us on our trip and give us good weather. Then we made the painful 2hour walk downhill to our campsite.

The third day was my personal favourite. We all woke up a bit hesitant after the second day but it was a really beautiful walk where we moved from the mountain highlands into the amazon in only a few hours. The scenery was amazing and the walk itself was a lot easier which we were all very grateful for. In the afternoon we saw quite a few Incan ruins which were really interesting. Some of them were houses and others were temples. Freddie talked to us about how the Incas chose where to build things based on the sun and the acoustics of the mountains which was really interesting. The last part of the 3rd day was a walk down 2000 steps before we reached our last campsite. We said goodbye to all of the porters and thanked Jesus (the cook) one last time and went to bed early.

The last day we woke up much longer than the others because we wanted to be one of the first groups to get to Machu Picchu. In the end we were all on time and managed to be the second group on the trail. We started walking at 5:30am with the aim of seeing the sunrise from the Sun Gate. Our group half jogged the 7km to the Sun Gate where we got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu city. Thankfully it was a beautiful day with almost no clouds. I was especially pleased because Freddie had told us the day before that if it was a cloudy day we would have to sacrifice the youngest female in our group to please Pacha Mama (that would be me).

We made it down to Machu Picchu by 7am but unfortunately there were already people inside the side and taking photots all around it. This is because lazy people come on the train the day before, stay in the nearby town of Aguas Callientes overnight and then get up early and CATCH A BUS to Machu Picchu. We passed heaps of these people while we were walking down and got some funny looks since none of us had showered in 4 days and we were all red and puffed. One of them had the foolish idea of asking where we had come from and got some interesting remarks back from all of us since we all hated them on principle already.

The city of Machu Picchu was absolutely beautiful. Freddie gave us a tour of some of the most important parts and then we spent a few more hours looking around on our own (or resting and observing the view...). When we got hungry we took a bus into Aguas Callientes where we all ate together for the last time and then went and swam in the hot springs.

At 6pm we took a traina nd then a bus back to Cusco. Steve and I quickly grabbed some takeaway and rtan back to our hostel with the aim of crawling into bed and watching some trashy TV only to be told we had no reservation (even though we had stayed there for 5 nights and left our luggage there while we were away). Eventually they arranged with another hostel for us to stay in a wayyyy nicer room so alls well that ends well.

Today my claves arecomplaining a little everytime i wlak up or down stairs but Steve is feeling fine. We are spending one more night in Cusco and then we are going to Arequipa where we have 2 offers from hostels to volunteer for 2 weeks. We are not sure which one we will be heaidng to but we will let you know. We are hoping by getting accomodation for free for awhile we will be able to save some money. As usual donations are always welcome :)

Lots of love from both of us
xx

Machu Pichu & Cusco

Photos:





Cami and i just chilling at Machu Pichu for Sunrise.











Machu Pichu, with a cloud climbing over the back there. We were so lucky with the weather, not a cloud in the sky (except for that little cool one)











Our two expert guides, Freddie (left) and Amateo (right)














Us at the top of Dead Womans peak (4200m). We climbed like 1200m that day. What fun!












Our group on the first day at the beggining of the trail.











Before the inka trail. We took a day trip to the ruins surrounding Cusco. Euegene (far left) and cami and i on our faithful steeds near Q´enqo.













The trail approaching Dead Womans Peak. It is steeper than it looks. Plus we came from the second valley down that you can see.










Cami and Kathrine at MP.









Cami has the story.

CYA

Hello from cusco

Hey guys, we finally made it to Cusco!
We ended up having no problems getting here, thanks to the fact that Peruvians dont seem to like striking on the weekend. So the road into Cusoc was opened up just for two days and we got a bus here straight away. A really nice bus too might I add, especially compared to what we had gotten used to in Bolivia (it actually had a toilet!!).
Cusco is a really beautiful city, the buildings are all lovely and there is a gorgeous main plaza which has two huge churches on it. There is a fairly massive downside to it all though - there are sooooo many tourists it is risiculous. And not just backpacker tourists - the kind we have become used to who wear the same shirt for 3 days and kind of smell a bit funny - tourist tourists. The kind with sunglasses with names on the side, who had enough room in their bag to pack heels, a couple of dresses and have enough money to stay somewhere that costs about the same per night as steve and I brought away with us in the first place.
Not that these people arent perfectly nice but it is definitely a massive shock after Bolivia.

The first day we arrived we mostly just wanderd around and marvelled at the prices of things. The second day we managed to meet up with Eugene, one of the people we met on our Uyuni trek and who we hung out with in La Paz (i dont know if steve has mentioned him before i loading a new page to check would take too long). We spontaneously decided to take a horseback riding tour of some Incan ruins which turned out to be great. Steve was in pain for a little while but i think he secretly loved it. Our guide was really good, he only spoke Spanish but between the 3 of us we emanaged ot get everything he was saying.
One of the things we went to see was a huge temple that the Incas built to worship the sun and use for other religious purposes. Eventually they also had to use it as a fort when the Spanish came. I cant spell the name but essentially it sounded like "sexy woman" with a funny accent.

That was 3 days ago now. Yesterday we went and looked at the Incan Museum which Eugene and Steve didnt like that much but I thought it wasnt too bad. Museums are great ways to practice spanish since they rarely have english explanations.
Today Eugene left early for his Machu Picchu trek so Steve and I decided to go check out some hot springs because steve has been wanting to seem some for the last 3 months just about. It was an interesting trip out, squashed in the back of a taxi with about 9 people (i am talking a 5 seater car here) and when we arrived the pools werent exactly what we had in mind. Im not entirely convinced they were hot springs for a start, i think they were just communal baths, but they werent too bad ad it was nice to have a bath instead of a lukewarm shower for a change.

Not sure what our plans are for the next few days but we our setting off to Machu Picchu in 2 days so our next post will probably be after that with some great pictures as well hopefully. Cusco is a bit exxy for our tastes so we are thinking of heading off straight away when we get back ond going back South to Arequipa (if the road isnt closed).

Love Cami (and steve in spirit even though he isnt here right now)

Stuck in Puno

Hola Chicos y Chicitas.

We´re stuck in Puno (near lake titikaka) for a few days because of some road blocks, so we´re back on the net... We were a bit worried about getting to machu pichu in time, but we have options (albeit lengthy and exxy ones) to get to cusco if the roads dont free up. (the gov is trying to sell off the jungle to US oil companies and the locals are understandably upset)







Cami and Tara battling out the twister in la paz. They each won one match if you were interested.




















Lake Titikaka, as seen from one of the islas of Uros. The floating islands.












One of their traditional boats, made entirely from the reeds.



















A Floating Island.














A cute little kid from the uros isla pescado.












Two handsome Uros-ians















Our transport getting to copacobana. we took the little water taxi.







Until next time..

Steve and Cami

¿Como Te Llama Llama?

Hola amigos,

We finally have some more photos for you, so see below or where ever they end up appearing.

So since our last update we have finally left Sucre. It was a bit sad to go as we had such a sweet set up, good friends, and the city was awesome. Plus we were able to cook for ourselves with fresh food from the markets, so we ate quite well (Thai curry anyone).
So we ended up getting a nice early bus to Uyuni, about 12 hours from Sucre. We have now learnt that the night buses in Bolivia, apart from being usually pretty shit, are the coldest places on earth. So the day bus was appreciated, especially since the scenery was so awesome. Uyuni was cold and kinda crap. Clearly a town built purely on the one street of tour offices and bus stations. Running out of both time and money we decided to do the quick and painless one day salt flat tour, following the hordes of other tourists around the various checkpoints in the tour. Nevertheless it was amazing. The salt flats literally go for miles etc etc, and it was seriously cool. Plus our tour group was particularly awesome. We did our obligatory photos (see photos) and all that, but being the only group left on the flats and hearing the eerie quietness of the salt lake was freaking awesome. Oh and we ate Llama for lunch. Was quite tasty!!

We bailed that night for La Paz, mostly due to the said state of Uyuni, and that bus trip would have to rate as one of the worst in the world. Despite having a sleeping bag and two massive blankets it was still so cold and the road was so bad it was like 4wding. You couldn’t read because the bus was shaking so badly (also there was no light) and you couldn’t sleep cause the bus was shaking so badly… fun fun fun.

LA PAZ- The tourist capital of Bolivia.
La Paz is actually pretty cool, but being surrounded by 1000s of wanker Australians and that backpacker party scene isn’t cool after being somewhere so nice for 2 weeks. Having said that, the city is crazy. It is absolutely massive, surrounded by kilometers of (insert PC word for slums), and everyone is constantly yelling for something or another.
We went to THE PRISON. (The one I have been constantly talking about for about 2 yrs) But unfortunately the story goes as such. In April there were massive riots for some reason in the prison, and the press got word of the tours. More riots followed, people were tear gassed, and tourists were held in the prison for a bunch of hours etc etc. Anyway they ended up stopping the tours, sacking the head of the prison as well as heaps of guards and now you cant get in there. Nevertheless there is a photo of me outside the prison, to prove I went there hahaha.
Having been not let into the prison we figured we would go to Cholita Wresting. (Cholita is the name for the the female street vendors in big dresses and bowler hats) That was possible the weirdest thing either of us have ever seen. Picture WWF or whatever, crap acting and all, but with big Bolivian women fighting men… WHATTTT. After the first incredibly awkward fights, not knowing whether to laugh or be outraged, it kinda got better, but still soo so weird.
So its our last night here, and I assume we will next talk to you all in Cuzco or after the big MP.

Hasta Luego.

PS: Sorry about the long and boring blog. Photos make up for it.

photos galore of salt flats and more (i am rhyme!)

Steve outside San pedro prison. The mmost famous prisonin South America. We didnt get to tour it though unfortunately

Cholita Wrestling. Very disturbing. and weird.

Our group at the Salt Flats. My (cami) foot looks like i have mangled it but i havent

Steve and I loving toyota on the salt flats

Cami Hard at work studying with Lourdes, our lovely teacher.

Cami in a pringles can. Nuff said.

Giant Me and tiny Cami.

Cami kissing her new Novio.

Us standing on Isla de Pescado.

The whole island was covered in Giant catuses. In the middle of Salar De Uyuni by the way.

Cami and Eugene trying Coca leaves.

Eugene and I in my water bottle. Sigg make em big.

Cami standing on part of the Train Cemetary. Why the trains are there, nobody knows. I think aliens.