Josh Czachur

Adam

czachur — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:28:06 +0000

On Wednesday night, whilst adam was flying over the Atlantic, I went to see two of Brazil’s biggest football teams play at the nearby Maracana stadium, Flamengo vs Corinthians. The team we were rooting for, and the team local to Rio, was the Flamengos, whilst the opposition were from Sao Paulo, and notorious rivals. The atmosphere was great, it felt unsafe at the beginning but we soon got used to it and celebrated a 1-0 victory!
Adams flight arrived at 5:30am so I expected to see his ugly mug around 7am. However I lay awake from 6 until about 10 and there was no sign of him, I was worried, but not worried enough to get out of bed so I spent a while trying to confirm that his flight had landed on my blackberry but couldn’t seem to find anything. At about 10:30am a friend at the hostel told me adam was already here! He’d been sat downstairs waiting for me since 7am and not thought to come up and get me the fool!
Anyways it was good to see such a close friend, especially after 4 months of travelling with strangers, and going through the same old backpackers conversations; where are you from? Where have you travelled? How much didn’t you spend in Bolivia! Etc.
So we had breakfast and headed out into Rio Centro. Had a chilled day seeing some of the sights in Rio but the weather wasn’t good enough for the beach so the next day we arranged heading down the coast to a town called Paraty to catch some sun.
We’ve been in Paraty for 3 days now and the weather has been perfect! We spent the first day on a nearby beach called priar grande, and that night ate at a typical Brazilian place for 7 reales each (about 3 quid). Typical brazilian food consists of rice and chips with beans and salad and you choose a meat to go with it, usually a fillet of fish (peixe) or chicken.
We spent the next day with the family and friends of the hostel were staying at, at a beach 40 mins out of town, really beautiful beach. The hostel family and there friends are from spain, barcelona, and are sort of hippie-ish, but not all out, more alternative types. Really nice and friendly bunch, each with their own story. We paid a local to take us over to one of the 300 islands off the coast and snorkelled with home-made spears! allthough we didnt spear any fish we saw lots of them and adam found a really nice shell
Today was spent up in the rivers in the jungle, we were sliding down rock slides, swimming in natural pools and adam jumped off a huuge boulder into not too deep water!
Were staying the night in Paraty before heading back to Rio via Illha Grande. Illha grande sounds like a paradise island, similar to that of the movie ‘the beach’. Were currently in search of the perfect beach, and I have a feeling its to be found on this island.
We plan to arrive back in Rio for the weekend as the Red Bull air-race is on and free to attend! Grab a few litres of Brahma and find a good place to watch the race from Sugar Loaf mountain I think

BA

czachur — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:24:40 +0000

I ended up skipping out puerto madryn, a) because I didn’t fancy the 32 hour bus trip and b) it saved me a lot of money to just fly straight up to Buenos Aires (BA), which is a city I’ve been dieing to get to for ages!
I spent the first day sorting laundry and emails, I’ve messed up my student loan so had a lot of messing about to do after my adventure in Patagonia with no internet.
Day 2 and I bumped into Ruud and Martyn, two lads I hiked the W with the week before! We went for a steak and went out for “a beer” in true BA fashion, at 6am I crawled back to my hostel and slept a few hours.
During my travels I’ve been recommended a night out in BA over and over. On monday night every week a 20 piece percussion group, called La Bomba de Tiempo (time bomb), take over an old oil factory, which is part outdoor, and hold a rave for a few hours, before retiring to a nearby club(Uni) for the after party until the sun comes up.
Whilst out on the piss with Ruud and Martyn on sunday night, me and Ruud decided we were going to give it a go and see what all the fuss was about.
Needless to say, once I’d risen from my slumber early monday afternoon, the last thing I wanted was more alcohol. I drank more than my fair share the night before.
I decided that as it had received such praise from fellow travellers that I should at least go along, see what it was like and maybe have one beer, but no more than one!
It was without a doubt the best live performance I have ever seen!
There are numerous drummers with bongos, snares and other drums. A few of the drummers are conductors and take it in turns to conduct the drummers through hand and finger movements. Each finger represents 2 drummers and after showing them who he’s selected he’ll show them another movement of his hands which represents the sounds, volume and speed they should play. Its all improvisation and no performance is ever the same, each unique from the last.
When we arrived we had to buy tickets for beer, I bought 2, one for me and one for Ruud, however Ruud bought 5 tickets! So my plan for 1 beer was scrapped.
Once we reached the bar we found out that our tickets didn’t buy us ‘cans’ of beer at all, infact they found it only appropriate to serve 1 litre bottles, of stella artois. This is where the trouble began.
No sooner had we finished 7litres of stella were we stumbling out of the exit and being offered space cakes! oh yeah I forgot to mention, when we were queuing to get in there were hippies wandering around with baskets, full of space cakes, selling them for a reasonable price, but I was still hungover on the way into the rave so didn’t fancy it.
On the way out a french guy I was talking to offered the hippie 5 soles for 2 cakes, that’s about 1 pound, she just wanted to get rid of them by that point and we were both hungry so ate our 50p cakes
We headed to the afterparty and stopped off for cocktails on the way, courtesy of frenchys irish friend. When I finally reached the club Ruud had gone back to the hostel because he was still tired from the night before, but we partied in the club till the sun came up. I think its the city, or maybe the people, but BA is a dangerous place for people who like drinking, its so easy to go out and not stop until stupid o’clock, night after night. Dangerous, but the most fun I’ve ever had!
I left BA having drank disgustring amounts of beer, ‘Quilmes’ to be precise, the national Lager which goes down like water. And having successfully found the best steak I’d ever eaten! I don’t think it’ll be beaten anytime soon. I headed to Iguazu falls, which is bordered by Uraguay, Brazil and Argentina, on the Argentine side you can literally walk under, around and on top of most of the falls its really amazing! I got a photo stood by the bottom and was piss-wet through. Although I felt more sorry for my camera, after being dragged up mountains in peru, through the deserts and saltflats in bolivia, through patagonian mountains on 5 day treks and parties in BA, it was now dripping wet at the bottom of iguazu falls argentina. But its still going strong, 3 weeks to go!
I’m currently in Rio, I met up with some other people I met travelling and enjoying this Amazing city with them, the atmosphere in this city is almost as good as BA and I’m lovin it! Can’t wait for adam to join me in 2 days time!
After finding out I not only have no money left, but infact owe 500 to the bank ill be budgeting hardcore from now on! But there’s allways money for beer and the beach is free

Patagonia

czachur — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:02:27 +0000

I stayed in Melipueco the night after my swim and the next morning I headed into Conguillo national park again. I hitch-hiked with a couple of locals to the park entrance, they were adventure tour guides and organised canopy tours in the forests in and around Conguillo. They tried flogging me a cheap canopy tour but I wasn’t convinced. They dropped me off at the park entrance and I walked about 100 ft before I managed to hitch another ride from a french couple all the way into the middle of the park. These guys were a nice pair and we stopped off at all the sights and trail-heads to take photos until we arrived at Lago Conguillo, bang in the middle of the park. I wandered around the lake and decided to start walking back towards Melipueco through the park as I was miles away! It was a nice walk and I found out the park was the location for the tv series; ‘walking with dinosaurs’, and saw a few black woodpeckers.
After about 5 hours walking in the sun with my bag I was knackered and realised I’d been driven a lot further away than I’d thought, I got back onto the road and walked through lava fields for a couple of hours, it was a very surreal landscape, almost moon-like but with a smoking volcanoe in the distance. After a few cars I managed to thumb a ride back to Melipueco with a latvian girl, she was volunteering in the park and told me that the park had been closed since the earthquakes as the volcano was very active and they thought it was going to erupt, first I’d heard of it.
She was a very friendly, bubbly person, but she smoked more than anybody I’ve ever met, she said she ‘couldn’t do anything without smoking’ and chain smoked 10 cigs all the way back to town. Her breath stank, and so did I after sitting in the car.
After Melipueco I headed south to a town called Pucon, really nice town at the foot of volcano villarica, I just relaxed for a couple of days before getting to puerto montt, the port town where I was getting on the NaviMag ferry south.
I waited around puerto montt and managed to sneak into the docks to take photos of the giant cargo vessels that were moored. I had my fair share of salmon, the local speciality, in a series of small restaurants in ‘Alermo’, on the harbour front. They’re not licensed to sell wine so I had to ask for ‘te blanco’ (white tea), even though they had bottles of wine on display :S
I got on the ferry after about 5 hours of delays and off we went!
I’d heard reviews that the food was bad and crap views due to bad weather, but it was the opposite! One night we had salmon and mash and the weather was perfect the entire trip! I saw dolphins and seals, but no whales
The boat ride was great, it was a 4 day bender and I slept very little
I met a great bunch of travellers, a couple of guys from america, Tony and Chris, Melanie who’s from Paris, Martin from south UK and Connor from ireland.
We decided to find a hostel together after the boat trip in Puerto Natales and organized a 5 day trek in torres del paine national park. We acquired a few more people and went drinking that night at a brewery called ‘Baguales’, great home-brewed beer, we got through nearly 20 pitchers! we decided to do the trek as a group and to rent tents and cooking stoves for the trek. Martin was meant to leave for Al Calafate but we were so hung over from the pitchers that he missed his bus the next morning and decided to come along for the trek instead
We trekked ‘the W’ in 5 days, was a good hike and good fun. I think it was about 80km total, but the terrain was rough and very vertical.
The campsites in the park are infested with mice, even with our bags and food hanging from trees whilst we slept, the fuckers got to my snacks and chewed holes through my bag! On the 3rd night we heard them from the tent and I managed to get one with a stick whilst it was in the food bag!
I looked like a mad man, in my thermals with my knife drawn and headlamp on haha
We saw Glacier grey on day one, my first glacier visit. Day two we trekked to french valley which was beautiful, although not as amazing as its reputation proceeds. Day 3 we trekked out of french valley and started making our way towards the towers. For the final day we woke up at 5am, it was freezing and pitch black. We climbed another 450m in darkness to the mirrador of torres del paine to see the towers during sunrise, it was the highlight of the trip. The ice on the towers make them appear red in the rising sun.
After the sunrise we trekked back out and went and showered and ate some real food, it was heaven!
We’d been on a strict diet of pasta, rice, tuna and more pasta.
I got back in one piece and bus’d it south to Punta Arenas with tony chris and mel.
I just arrived in Buenos Aires, and had my first steak, mmm.
Only two weeks till I meet adam to party in Rio, can’t wait, gonna be messy
J

Southbound

czachur — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:02:32 +0000

We spent a few lazy days in Iquique, it had a nice colonial walkway from back in the day, zak was loving it and so was I for a few days, it was in Iquique that I began longing for the countryside, having spent much of our time in deserts and cities. We visited nearby Humberstone, this place was great, its a town out in the middle of the desert, it housed the employees next to the nitrate mines and factories they worked in, they lived there in a small community with their families, there was a church, shops and even a theatre. Due to the weather they have out in the desert this place has been really well preserved and is a real ghost town! They’ve set up a tourist office and are trying to keep vandals out, you can go and wander around the “safe” area and they’ve cordoned off the rest, but we soon got to the other side which has had no restoration at all and is much more interesting! There was even people living in some of the rooms! I managed to nab an old photo of chile from years ago.
Anyways, we headed south to Antofagasta, this place doesn’t receive any attention from backpackers in general, and we soon found out why, it was expensive and there wasn’t really anything to do, after a couple of days we headed down the coast again to La Serena, north of Santiago.
La Serena was nice, good food, cheap hostel and the highlight was Mamalluca Observatory! The region around la serena is meant to be one of the best places in the world to see stars and houses the best/biggest telescope in the world, from europe its called the VLT (very large telescope)
Zak left for cusco and I carried on south to Santiago, in dire need of getting my lens fixed, AGAIN!
I got to Santiago and found a good hostal for very cheap, managed to get the guy down nearly half due to the earthquakes scaring off all the tourists.
I took my lens to be repaired with a guy I had spoken to via email before I arrived. He led me around the corner to a retro hairdressers that was closed, he knocked and out came a 7ft skinhead, very well built. He snatched my lens and grumbled, “20 minutes”. His name was Franco.
I scurried of and came back 20 minutes later to find it was fixed!
It turns out the con-artists in Peru had replaced the broken part but not put it back together properly!
Anyways I stuffed him about 20 pound and off I went, happily taking photos again
On my way back from plaza brasil, a nice bohemian type area out of town, a man on a bike stopped and shook my hand, I didn’t really understand what he way saying, so told him I didn’t understand, then he spoke more clearly, “yo tengo tu sapatoes!” (I have your shoes!). Thieves in south america are renowned for robbing tourists of everything, even their shoes, as these are usually quite valuable too. I realised immediately he was trying to rob me and smiled, said no and walked towards a crowd of people. As I was turning away he pointed to my new sunglasses so I quickly put them in my pocket.
It was very strange seeing somebody like that robbing people on the street, he was in his late forties, short hair, and seemed sad or embarrassed about what he was doing. Any money he had of stolen would of been to feed his family or help keep a roof over his head. Very different to the UK, where people would try and mug you just because they think they can, or a crack head wielding a knife.
It helped remind me to keep my wits about me, if he had of managed to rob me he would of only got my phone and a small amount of cash, all replaceable, but was nice to walk away still smiling.
I planned on visiting Concepcion, the place that was recently most effected by the recent earthquakes, the death count is over 700 I think and the city has been devastated. I enquired into how safe it would be and found out its still declared a ‘state of catastrophe’ and the millitary have been deployed to keep law and order under ‘martial law’.
Needless to say I decided I didn’t need to visit concepcion and got on the bus to Temuco!
I’m travelling more inland now along the Andes which tower in the background, Temuco is the beginning of the chilean Lake District, which I hope to conquer in the next week, right down to Puerto Montt. On the 2nd of april I’m getting on-board the navimag cargo ferry. They equip a few cabins for travellers, the cheapest of which ill be accommodating, for a 4 day voyage through the canals of Patagonia in the south, its about -5 degrees down there at the moment, a far cry from the sunny beaches I’ve been enjoying in chile so far. Apparently my bunk is among many others and close to the livestock, it’ll be an interesting trip, rough seas too so it’ll really put my sea legs to the test.
After that I only have a few weeks to make a mad dash back up north to greet Adam in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!
I spent the last couple of days in Melipueco, its a small mountain village close to one of the national parks, ‘parque nacional Conguillo’. I decided to try and find the park entrance when I arrived early thursday morning, because Friday I planned on doing a trek.
I asked a couple of locals and got incorrect directions from both, or I misinterpreted, but I like to think it couldn’t of been the latter
Anyways I found the truful-truful waterfall which was amazing and after a good 4 hours walking the dusty roads I had a moment of madness, I think all the sun must have gone to my head, I decided that going for a quick dip in a little pool I found by the side of the river would be cooling and relaxing, so in I went!
This water is ice cold! Literally. Its fresh of the glaciers up in the mountains and I lasted 5 seconds before I lost feeling in my entire body!
I’d set up my camera to take a photo and when I looked it had only captured my splash, so in I went again! second time I got a good pic and cooled myself right down, ready for the walk home. The best part was I ‘washed’ my boxers so I could wear them again the next day!
After a good nights sleep and even better lie-in i got myself back to Temuco and spent the night there feeling very achey. Next morning i re-packed my bag and went for breakfast, after which i went to enquire about a bus to my next destination, Pucon. The next bus left in just under 15 minutes, so i bought the ticket! I ran back to my hostel, paid the man, grabbed my stuff and sprinted back to the bus station, my bag is NOT light. The bus was gone! the little ticket man came running out onto the forecourt and told me it had been and gone, but would stop 5 blocks north to pick up more people, if i ran i might make it! i was allready dieing, i can only begin to imagine what i looked like, but i had no time for those thoughts, of i went again, 5 LONG blocks, i saw the bus! and ran upto the conductor, by now i really was on the brink of complete exhaustion, he couldnt understand what i was saying i was that out of breath, so i waved my ticket in his face. he laughed and told me i looked tired, i grinned and got on the bus, SUCCESS! :]
im in Pucon now and its beatiful, surrounded by volcanoes and right on the lake, my bodys aching and i can get all my laundry done for under 3 pounds! so im staying here over the weekend before i push south for the ferry in Puerto Montt!
Update soon,
J

through Bolivia into Chile

czachur — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:55:00 +0000

After returning to Arequipa and dropping off the police chief, Carlos, we organised the trip to Puno to see the floating islands on lake titicaca!
We took the bus and arrived at stupid o’clock in the morning as per usual and went straight to bed. We booked a tour for that afternoon and spent the day looking around Puno. There’s not really anything to see in Puno, except a boat they have on the lake, which was brought all the way from britain and over the andes in pieces, instead of taking the estimated 6 months it took 6 years to complete!
Its also absolutely freezing and made me look forward to the beaches in Chile even more
The floating islands were amazing and after our sunset return boat journey we returned to Puno to part ways. Erin had to return to Ollanta to carry on her work but me and Zak reserved bus tickets to Copacabana which is a town on lake titicaca but on the Bolivian side! Goodbye Peru.
Next morning we jumped on the bus heading for the border, however, it seemed strange that everything had been going to plan for so long. That soon changed.
When we reached the border for Bolivia we were told there was a transport strike in bolivia, the roads were blocked and no traffic was allowed past the border. The bus dropped us at the border and we had to walk the remaining 8km on foot to Copacabana! Not quite the entrance I’d imagined into Bolivia, but it didn’t surprise me.
Once we got there we found out the strike would last 48 hours, which messed up our plans of leaving for the capital, La Paz the following day.
We relaxed in copacabana which was a nice little town, better than Puno anyway, and booked a tour to isla del sol for the next morning.
We went to bed that night reasonably early as we were so tired and set our alarms for 8am. We wandered down to get the boat just before 9am to go on the tour, or so we thought. We bumped into a girl we’d met on the walk from the border and after hearing our plans for the day reminded us that Bolivia is one hour ahead of Peru!
We missed the boat, quite literally, and had to wait for the next tour at 1.30pm. Oops
While we waited we got hold of some bus tickets for the next morning to La Paz. It set off before the strike officially ended, this didn’t seem to be an issue though.
We were planning to go to La Paz that afternoon, but heard stories from 3 lads that managed to get a taxi driver to bring them from La Paz to Copacabana, they saw countless road blocks and fires along the road aswell as gangs dragging people out of there cars and beating them up for going against the strike, so we decided to take the morning bus instead!
We got to La Paz and sorted out mountain biking Death Road for the following day, it was great! We rode 50km that day! But it was pretty much all downhill and very fast! Since 2006 most of the previous traffic use a new road that is much safer, however, this just made it slightly safer for cyclists to fly down at twice the speed, knowing the chance of cars being around the next corner to be much less.
I had a couple of close shaves with death, after the second time I slowed right down, there was no way I was spending my last dying moments in bolivia!
Once we got back, with everyone accounted for, me and zak went to see San Pedro prison. For those of you who haven’t heard about this place search for it in google and have a read. Its the most crazy prison in the world, and most corrupt.
Inmates have to buy there own cells once in the prison and take on jobs within the community to afford food and survive.
An english man called thomas mcfadden was sent there when he was caught trying to smuggle cocaine out of bolivia. He started tours of the prison and it became the strangest tourist attraction in the world, until last year, when it became national news and was straightened out, unfortunately we didn’t get to do a tour but seeing the prison was still interesting. Its right on a plaza in La Paz, close to our hostel, and could be mistaken for a normal building unless you were told.
We left la paz for a town called Oruru where one of south americas few trains ran from Oruru to Uyuni. From Uyuni we planned a 3 day tour across salar de uyuni (Uyuni salt flats)!
This place was amazing, I’ve never seen anything like it!
At some point, 1000s of years ago, parts of south america were under water, but after tectonic activity large pockets of sea water like lake titcaca were left high in the andes mountains. Aswell as uyuni which dried out, leaving miles and miles of salt flats!
We saw wild flamingos, geysers and miles of moon like landscapes.
We left the rest of the tour group and me and zak jumped out on the Chilean side of the flats. We headed for the border town of Chile called San Pedro Atacama, goodbye Bolivia! Great country.
After making the same mistake of forgetting the time difference we missed our bus out of San Pedro Atacama to Calama
But we got more tickets for that night and the following afternoon managed to get ourselves to the chilean coast! We passed through the atacama desert, which was an interesting landscape, the driest place on earth I’m told!
Were currently in Iquiqe, north chile. The weather here is beautiful and so are the girls, much better looking than the peruvians, there’s long sandy beaches and good food, good times! although its a lot more expensive than peru and bolivia, but its worth it for the meantime.
When we arrived it was a ghost town, there were warnings of tsunamis and everyone had ran for the hills, but the panics over and everything is back to normal now.
Once zak leaves on sunday ill be heading down south, so ill have to keep myself updated with tsunami warnings over the next couple of weeks.
Will update soon!
J

On the road…

czachur — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:58:13 +0000

After a work filled final week in Ollantaytambo, I left the mammoth meals of potato and rice and hit the open road!
Before my departure I spent the extra week I stayed sharing the homestay with Norm and Lulu, two 79 year olds from California with the spirits of 20 year-olds, they were a great laugh! Currently living in mexico but have spent years flying out for their vacation to every corner of the globe, and there still going strong! Norm in particular was a great character, he fought in Vietnam and had a military view of things, especially the organisation of Awamaki finance, and his general view of the environment he was in was described full of swearing and loudly. It was great.
First stop was Arequipa, i now have two travel buddies, Zak, a 22 yo law student from bath, uk, and Erin a 22 yo from boston, usa.
Together we travelled on bus overnight from Cuzco to Arequipa, same old story, impossible to get any decent sleep and crap food, but we made it alive which is good enough for me in this country.
We rolled of the bus at 6am, bright and early, and made our way to Hostal Regis, nice place, warm showers! A welcomed break from the home stay houses. We spent that day (tuesday) staggering around arequipa like zombies as we were so tired. We did manage to get a company to give us a rental car that day however, and planned to drive to Colca canyon, Cobanaconde the next morning. The policy of the rental companys is nobody under 25 can rent a car, but after a quick phone call that rule was soon scrapped, and we were armed with a toyota hillux 4×4 equipped with internal roll cage, fire extinguisher and the works, we were ready for adventure!
Next morning we were up at 7am, ready to get the car and drive to Cobanaconde! It was a really good drive, we got to drive all along the south side, stopping for photos and lunch. Zak doesn’t have a licence so me and erin split the driving and I was loving the off road section
After a couple of wrong turns and stopping to view the canyon we arrived in cabanaconde a couple of hours late and discovered trekking into the canyon that night was a no go, especially after talking to a police man after we left the car in their car park, who told us of an Israeli who had slipped and died a few years back and whose body wasn’t discovered until 2 months after! We agreed that trekking would have to wait until the morning and as we were heading out of the police station we bumped into the comisarao (police chief) and were told to go into his office. Peruvian police are renowned for their corruption and we were a little worried, the door slammed shut and I started looking around for the nearest exit, there was non.
The police chief took out his phone and asked us to sit down.
My spanish is dire so zak and erin were responding to his questions. We thought he was asking if we knew about youtube, we nodded hastily, then U2 started blaring from his phone, “oohhh U2! Not youtube”. He turned out to be an avid U2 fan and wanted us to translate the lyrics so he could listen along! We agreed that the following day we would translate when collecting the car, and went and found a hostal.
The night before we met a guide who took tourists back out of the canyon on his mules, he was heading into the canyon at 5am so we ran down with him, literally. He screamed “huuley huuley huuley” which the mules were shit scared of and reached the bottom of the canyon, the Oasis, in under 2 hours.
We had breakfast then jumped on the mules and were back out after another 2 hours, we even saw some Andean Condors! Massive birds, even against a backdrop of Colca which is deeper than the grand canyon.
We were back out by 12 and headed to the police station with “U2 – new years day” translated into broken spanish, we were hoping to drop the the lyrics off and get going straight away, as we didn’t fancy hanging around in the station for long.
We handed over the lyrics and had a quick chat, it turned out the police chief (Carlos), needed to get to arequipa too (where we were heading back to), so we agreed to take him!
He was full of interesting stories, such as one about a priest who fell in love with a local girl, she was planning to move to Lima which made him really upset, he pleaded with her not to leave, but she wanted to go and wouldn’t stay.
One day they were out driving around the canyon and he drove them both of the edge of the cliff so they’d die together. As Carlos was telling the story we passed the spot where he had driven off, it was a long way down.
He refused to wear a seat belt the whole way back and when we were in a 65km/h zone he assured us that the police wouldn’t bother us for speeding, so off we went.
It was a great adventure and the car made it all the better!
We relaxed the following day in arequipa, saw the cathedral and a convent and on friday got the bus to Camana, the beach!
Camana was a strange place, the rich seem to flock there at weekends and it was a real party place, we found cheap accomodation with a lady just out of town, as the hotels we’re asking in excess of 100 soles!
We spent yesterday relaxing on camana beach and I came back sunburnt as allways, nothing a liberal application of e45 couldn’t fix.
Today were heading to Puno, the jumping off point to Lake Titicaca! Its the highest navigable lake in south america and its inhabitants live on reef islands which they constantly maintain, can’t wait!
After that, into bolivia, la paz and uyuni salt flats, then into earthquake torn chile with zak!
Will have more updates soon.

Update

czachur — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:24:48 +0000

It seems like I’ve not updated in a while, so ill let you know what I’ve been up to during my penultimate week in Ollantaytambo.
A few days ago I went with the Awamaki president – Kennedy to ‘survey flood damage’, kennedy and miguel went around speaking with the families that have lost their homes, belongings and land. Awamaki plan to raise funds to help re-home and re-build with the displaced families, who are currently living in shacks and tents. I wondered round taking photos which featured in the charities newsletter.

The day after I had spanish lessons in the morning, as usual I went and got my ‘pollo & fritas’ (chicken, chips and rice) for lunch which is my new addiction, I can’t get enough of the stuff! And then jumped on board a sharing taxi back to ollantaytambo, or so I thought.
Whilst eating my pollo n fritas I kept hearing manic sheep baa’ing all the way down the road, once I’d finished I payed more attention to the baa’ing and realised a sheep had been put on the roof of the taxi! And with the driving style of the peruvians it was having the time of its life!
We had been heading down the road to ollantaytambo in the correct direction, but after about half an hour on the main road the driver turned off onto a side road leading into the mountains. I presumed we were taking a detour to drop the hysterical sheep of with its owner, who was having just as much fun sticking his head out of the window pointing and laughing at the poor animal.
Anyway, we dropped the sheep and farmer off and then turned around. But instead of heading back to the road to ollanta we carried on up a mountain dirt road pass.
Once at the top I realised we weren’t going to ollanta and explained myself to the driver, who thought a gringo on the wrong taxi was very comical, but took me back to the main road for a whopping 5 soles! Robbing bastard

On thursday I went to a local fete/carnival, by local I mean me and my gringo buddies were the only white people out of about 500 attendees. We even had our photos taken as we were the odd ones out.
We went to see the ‘bull fight’ which was an absolute shambles, I’m surprised no-one was killed. Lots of beer + angry bulls = fun peruvian day out!
I’ve got a couple of videos of the ‘bull fight’ ill load up.
After we’d had enough of watching people torment bulls we headed for the taxi home. Just as we were about to leave a 70 year old man was carried to the taxi by 4 young lads and dumped in the seat next to me. He was so drunk. Too drunk!
He started coughing and dribbling and I knew exactly what was going to happen. I sat praying he would throw up on himself or just away from me.
After about 10 mins of coughing and spitting he was too drunk to even be sick and fell asleep, on my shoulder
I was just so glad he hadn’t been sick on me, we got back to ollata just fine and he rolled out of the door and I got away before he exploded.

That night I accomplished something I thought I’d never be man enough to – since my arrival I’ve been out eaten by the 70 odd yo grandmother who lives with us. No matter how fast I eat, I always catch her looking over to see how far I’ve got, then, if I’m ahead, she’ll demolish a plate of food in seconds! Always eating more food at twice the speed!
That night, however, I was determined, and I won! Haha
Since then she’s learnt who’s boss and I’ve had more victories

Speaking of food I tried Coy (Guinea pig) for the first time yesterday! And it was very good!
I don’t think I could have tried it in a better way either. At 8.30 I went up to Patacancha, the village up in the mountains that Awamaki is working with. I went up with the charity co-ordinators who were going to buy textiles of the weavers in the community, they trade at very fair prices then sell them in the shop in ollantaytambo. The fair prices encourage the village to continue traditional weaving techniques and help sustain the community so they don’t have to move into the cities and sell crap weaving to tourists to survive.
But yeah I went along to take some photos for them, afterwards one of the leaders of the community invited us back to his house and we had coy, trout and potatoes and a really nice mate (tea).
His house was very rustic and it was all very cultural, ill try get some pics up.

Later today I’m going to a ‘super bowl party’ organised by the americans, at a new english sports bar that’s opened. I missed wales in the six nations so I’m hoping it will be a decent alternative, it sounds epic from what I’ve been told!

UPDATE: i wrote this over the weekend, since then i went downhill mountain biking with a local zak teaches english too and 3 french chefs that are staying with him. it was amazing! we saw the slat terraces and the plant terraces too and it was some of the best mountain biking ive ever done! afterwards we went back to the house and ate some very good food!

ive uploaded quite a few photos to make up for the lack of photos ive put up recently! some photos of people for my mum and dad too!

Same old

czachur — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:35:20 +0000

So things are getting back to normal in quiet old Ollanta, the rivers gone down in size and a temporary bridge is in place.
After all the excitement I forgot just how eventless day to day life can be here. Although I’m happy all the dramas over, back to relaxing in the sun and mountains with an easy pace of life. For another 2 weeks anyway.
Yep I’m already 2 weeks through my voluntary work and just 2 weeks to go till I hit the open road! This is what I’ve been looking forward too since i touched down at Lima airport!

I’ve been going to cusco quite a lot in my time here, its the nearest place of any interest, and at two hours each way in the taxi that says a lot!
My lens broke last week, I was not impressed, but managed to find a trustworthy repair shop in cusco. I ended up about £50 poorer, but I was just glad to get it sorted.
After I dropped it off to be repaired I headed to ‘Molino’ market. This place is known to the locals as the black market.
If you ever get robbed in cusco I’d recommend going to Molino, you’ll probably find your belongings for sale, for very cheap!
I saw cameras, ipods, tv’s and car stereos for very cheap and considered buying a brand new lens for around 1/4 of the retail price, but I don’t have the cash to be buying new lenses.
I had a look around and its a pretty dodgy place, I was warned by the little birdy that informed me about it that kids run around with knifes in the market, slashing bags and taking the contents without you even realising!
After realising I was the only foreigner in the whole place I jumped in a taxi and went back to the main square!

On friday night I met Zak and a mate of his, Asus I think his names spelt, or somthing along those lines. We went and got about 18 litres of ‘Pilsnen’ a pretty high strength lager and headed to his mates house, fernando, they’re both about 22/23 yo students in cusco and seasoned drinkers, compared to me and zak anyway, especially at this altitude.
They have an interesting tradition for drinking in peru. They have one small beer glass, and a bowl in the middle of the circle/room, you fill the glass, say “Salude” (cheers) and casually drink the glass, once finished you empty the froth and such into the bowl and pass the glass for the next person to do the same.
At first I thought this was going to get us no-where, and I’d go home feeling mildly drunk.
I was very wrong, the glass passing soon picked up pace and by midnight I was shitfaced!
Our hosts seemed to be having fun and were very interested in the UK. I feel sorry for zak as he turned into my dictionary, my spanish is bad at best, but when drunk I’m clueless! we got by
Saturday was spent trying to recover from the worst hangover I’ve had in some time! I’m curious as to why the altitude has such an effect when drinking, I’m not complaining though I don’t think I’ve ever had a night out as cheap as that! No more than a fiver for 4/5 litres of good beer. Good times.

This morning I went with my little homestay bro (abran) to the plot of land the family own to see the cows
When we got there I asked if you could stroke them, as most livestock here are terrified of humans after the way they’re treated. (No respect)
As I approached the cow Abran grabbed the rope it was tied up with and it jumped away snapping the rope!
We spent the next 15 minutes trying to catch this cow and tie it back up. You can imagine how easy this task was. We failed to tie the cow back up but Abran was trying to tell me it would be fine to just leave it running loose.
I wasn’t convinced, so we fashioned a sling out of rope and began trying to catch it cowboy style! This was much more fun, and kept us entertained for another 15 mins, but still nowhere closer to taming the beast.
I eventually agreed to leave the cow, it was to stupid to realise it was free anyway and continued eating with the other cow once we left.

Since then I’ve been trying to keep myself busy, its sunday so no ones working or doing anything really. A day of rest as it were, similar to every other day of the week here

A recent development is that Adam will be flying out to join me on the last leg of my trip! He’s meeting me in Argentina, Buenos Aires! and will be returning back to the uk with me, after a month of exploring the mountains and partying in Brazil! Will be a very good laugh

Will update soon
J

Urubamba

czachur — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:53:24 +0000

I walked into Urubamba which is where i have my spanish lessons in the morning, they got hit really bad!
the River urubamba seems to have reduced a lot in size now and the panic of further floods has passed.
ill update with some posts non-related to the river as im pretty bored of the whole thing myself.
anyways this post is mostly to to show some pictures so here you go;

STATE OF EMERGENCY

czachur — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:46:49 +0000

well its officially been announched that the cuzco region is in a state of emergency! very exciting.
helicopters have been rescuing people stranded at machu picchu and taking aid to those stranded.
today the bridge connecting the residential area im staying in to the main town of ollantaytambo collapsed so now everyone has to walk around which takes about 30 mins, what a ball ache!
im clear of danger as the house im staying in is on top of a hill and the only way the water would reach us is if there were a tidal wave engulfing the whole of ollantaytambo.

even the bbc are reporting on it now, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8480013.stm

for some reason its deemed appropriate to send in special forces with loaded ak-47´s, madness
heres some pics…
J