Well, it is now almost a million years since Peru and I still haven't actually managed to finish this bloody blog. The last section took so long to format I have been permanently traumatised.
So where were we? Oh yes, we had just arrived back in Cusco after a trek of epic proportions to Machu Picchu. Remember? No? Read the blog below, catch up, and then come back to me.
So after, as mentioned, walking for many days, Katie and I had finally arrived back in Cusco where we settled down to happily spend a long, long time recovering and nursing our sore limbs. The first day back we slept until roughly 1.30pm which, all things considered, was not a disgusting lie-in. I can't exactly remember what we did during that afternoon but I imagine it involved toasties, much Facebooking and general lying around feeling a sense of achievement. I forgot to mention in the previous blog that as we were walking up the hill to our hostel at 3am, we suddenly realised that whilst before we had been dying just walking up it normally, we were positively bounding up this time, even though we were laden down with our packs. This 'being slightly fitter than I was before' has actually not left me yet, despite not doing much (any) exercise; there is a hill near my house that used to slay me which I barely even notice now. Totally worth it.
At around 5pm, Tabea came to our hostel having ditched her parents, the dirty teenager, and we did some more lying around and eating toasties. It was, we realised, Peruvian Independence Day, and everyone who was planning to go out was wearing something red or something white (the colours of the Peruvian flag). Katie and I scoured our dirty, dirty packs to find something red/white to wear, and I found a white top which I would live to regret wearing since it was freezing that night. Katie's clothes were all too dirty to be worn, and I actively refused to let her go out in her only white top, so she just chose 'stunning' as a look and decided people would have to be content with it! I realised, worryingly slowly, that actually my hair works as a 'red thing', though by that time it was pretty light red because of the sun. My sunburn added to the delightful 'red' effect on my face too. We went to the bar where we got chatting to the bartender who was from London, and who bought us all drinks called 'bloodbombs' - Red Bull, vodka and the Peruvian equivalent of grenadine. I just had Red Bull and grenadine, and spent the next four hours being unable to keep still or stop talking. Turns out I can't handle caffeine very well!
Bloodbombs in Loki
We went down to the Plaza del Armas at about 8pm, where we hung around for ages, feeling distinctly uncool, because the boys were late to meet us. Eventually two of them (Fer and Santi) sauntered up and we went to buy tickets to a party they had found for later. Then we went back to the guys' hostel - Pariwana - and hung out in their bar for a while. Katie and some of the boys had toasties and everybody set on their way to getting drunk, while I found a hat that made me look like I had a halo and spent my time alternating between forgetting about my sunburn and seeing pictures of it and being horrified. People ended up dancing on tables and stuff in the bar - I suspect after the Pisco Sour-making competition had ended - and Katie got taught how to dance by Barcelona.
Afterwards, we set off on a taxi drive to try and find this party we had tickets too, except no-one was sure where it was, so we spent a while driving around, eventually turning up outside a small concrete building on top of a hill. To be honest, I can think of more entertaining things to write about other than a rave, but in summary: it was cold, there was a guy with fire poi, there was a bonfire and the music was pretty good. We got back at some hideous hour in the morning - the sun was already coming up - and had a small altercation with Fer outside Tabea's hotel, which involved me shouting at him and Katie trying to pacify him. Good cop, bad cop! Neither worked, and we ended up failing to persuade him to take Gasti's hoody back with him.
Consequently, the next day we had to make serious tracks down to the boys' hostel to give the hoody back because we knew Gasti was leaving that day but we didn't know when. Luckily it wasn't until the evening, so we spent the day hanging out with the boys, most of which was spent wandering round Cusco trying to find a restaurant they were convinced existed. In the evening, we went to their hostel, which was lovely and much calmer than ours, and hung out there until about 7pm. Santi and Fer were flying to Lima the day after us and were booking into the Lima branch of their hostel, so Katie and I decided to book into it aswell. In the evening, Katie, Fer and Santi went out, but I was feeling seriously tired so I just went to bed - consequently no interesting anecdotes from that evening.
Four of the boys with Paddington Bear!
Hanging out at the hostel
The next morning at about 9am, we woke up to get to Cusco airport and fly to Lima. Our flight was at 12h10, but it was severely delayed on the runway (due to the wind going in the wrong direction, I think!) so I had a nap. For some bizarre reason, Katie and I were not sitting next to each other, so it was quite a boring flight. We arrived in Lima to freezing weather - it had been so lovely in Cusco we'd completely forgotten it was actually winter in Peru, and I was wearing shorts. We immediately wanted to go back! We took a taxi from the airport to our hostel which was about an hour away in a district of Lima called Miraflores, which is meant to be the 'cool' area, where all the backpackers go! Naturally we fitted in straight away. Our hostel wasn't anywhere near as nice as either of the ones we had seen in Cusco, but it was satisfactory and the cheese toasties were excellent. We spent most of the day sorting out our Bags of Death or, as it is more commonly known, doing laundry. Barcelona (aka Jose-Luis) had got there the night before us, so we hung out with him, and went down to the sea front, where we had cake from the Cookie Factory. Civilisation! There was Dunkin' Donuts and a cinema and Starbucks and Burger King. It was amazing. Anyway, I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life which was quite exciting, and Katie thought she did, then remembered how much she'd been to the west coast of America and revised her opinion.
There was a seriously strange guy in our hostel room whose name escapes me - Jonathan, possibly - who spent the whole time talking about how much he didn't really like Lima, despite having been there for about three months. We were like 'so, why don't you leave?' and he just kept saying 'well, it's not that easy...' which of course, it is. He was Canadian. He also asked this guy called Hans, who was Dutch, whether he was going to kill him due to some terrorist group in Holland in the 90s or something. Veeeery weird.
That night, while we didn't get murdered by Jonathan - a serious possibility - I did get pretty sick, and spend much of the night, and the next three days, rushing to the toilet. I felt pretty rubbish the next day, but my mood was improved by Fer and Santi waking us up (well, waking Katie up by staring at her creepily) in our hostel room. We hung out with them on the hostel terrace, and then Santi and I went down to the sea front again, which was nice, but still freezing and seriously foggy and gross. After we got back, Santi, Fer, Barcelona and Katie decided they wanted to go back down, but I was feeling pretty sick, so I stayed at the hostel and commiserated with Hans who was also sick.
Everyone except me at the seaside.
That night we went for pizza with everyone and then went out to a club which was fun, although I am incapable of dancing to Latin music without feeling like a pillock. Katie discovered she doesn't mind drinking while I am there as much as she thought, which was a nice breakthrough.
Early the next day, Santi and Fer left to go back to Buenos Aires, and Katie and I checked out of our hostel room by 10am. The original plan was to go down to Pisco and to go to the Ballestas Islands, but unfortunately we hadn't planned very well, and by 'very well' I mean 'at all', so we discovered we couldn't get there that day, and upon reading about Pisco, discovered it had been largely destroyed by an earthquake a few years earlier so wasn't actually a very nice town. After a couple of hours of research on the computer, we decided we couldn't be bothered, and checked back into the hostel, though into a different room, without creepy boy. We spent the rest of the day at the hostel with Hans, and in the evening met a Scottish guy called Pierrick who we immediately adopted and terrified for the rest of the evening. I can't even imagine what meeting me and Katie must be like. We are mental when we are together!
The next morning we met Pierrick's friend Stuart, who has some of the most excellent hair I have ever seen, and they failed to get us to go surfing with them. Instead, we went into Lima and did some sightseeing - we saw the Plaza del Armas, where we reenacted everything my guide book informed us had happened there: the first bullfight; the execution of those condemned by the Spanish Inquisition; and the declaration of Peru's Independence in 1821. You can imagine the hilarity, I'm sure. Unfortunately, the photos were all lost when my camera got stolen. We also saw a really nice church and various outsides of buildings, such as the cathedral and the Archbishop's palace. We bought some souvenirs, from the brilliant souvenir shops of which Lima has an abundance. Anything you want llama shaped, you can get. That evening we hung out with Pierrick and Stuart at the hostel, and terrified them some more.
Me in Plaza del Armas.
Katie, Stuart, Pierrick and me.
The next day we decided we deserved a lie-in, and a lie-in was duly had. We went down to the coast again, and did a bit of shopping, mainly in an awesome shop called Topi Topi which sold some of the most excellent t-shirts I have ever been fortunate enough to see. Katie and I purchased one each, as they were only £10. Mine said 'Lover memory of my ex-woman is a pretty' and Katie's said 'Enter a world of boundless sensual enjoyment'. Classic. I do appear to be wearing mine in the above photo, so I suspect that was not taken the evening I said it was, but whatever, there's all four of us! We met up with Tabea, who was also in Lima seeing her sister, by the coast and had a drink. Seeing her was so nice, but it was sad to say goodbye again! We have failed singularly to keep in touch since then, which is just typical. Katie and I decided to go to the cinema that evening, to see Eclipse (embarrassing, but there you go), which was just your typical vampire/werewolf/annoying girl movie. We definitely hung out with Pierrick and Stuart that evening too, obviously, though I am beginning to suspect my days have become a bit muddled.
Tabea y yo.
The next day was my final day in Lima, and my final day in Peru. Very sad, but my plane wasn't until midnight, so sadness was delayed. I packed up, checked out and put my bag in storage (thank GOD for that, is all I'm going to say). We knew that Isaac, Gasti, Rami and Gonzo were in Lima but we didn't know where, so we messaged them, and Isaac messaged back saying they were going into the centre during the day but we could meet for dinner, which I was sad about because I was going to the airport around dinner time.
Katie and I decided to go into the centre anyway, to finish off our sightseeing from the day before, and we were glad we did because we got to go into the Catacombs below the convent which had been shut the previous day and we also got a tour of the convent. The catacombs were excellent and seriously creepy. Katie took an illicit photo (they were banned, but she's such a rebel). We also saw a version of The Last Supper but where everyone is eating guinea pigs which pretty much made our lives. After we left the convent, the sun had come out too, which made everything even prettier, and we wandered round the square feeling content and trying to pluck up the courage to ask someone to take a picture of us, since we were both wearing our excellent t-shirts. Eventually we did; evidence below (thank goodness we used Katie's camera!), and shortly after this we were accosted by a guy who was doing a survey about tourists. While we were talking to him, we were ambushed by the boys which caused us to shriek loudly and them to have hysterics. We went into the cathedral with them, and got a tour in English (which we appreciated, since Rami and Gonzo didn't really speak English, so there were equal numbers of English/Spanish speakers). The cathedral was interesting and massive. Those Catholics don't hold back!
Plaza del Armas and amazing t-shirts
After that, the boys decided they wanted to go into the catacombs which obviously we had just done, so we went shopping and arranged to meet them in the Plaza del Armas at 6pm. Katie bought some new boots, which I notice she is still wearing in Australia, so job well done! We got to the Plaza nicely on time, but the boys were late and eventually we set off to try and find them, only they got there when we had left, so that was a fail. Eventually we bumped into Isaac, but I can't remember where - probably in the square. We hung out with them for a bit, but it was about 7pm by that point and I was getting kind of keen to get back to the hostel and get my stuff and go to the airport - I did not want to miss my flight!
Saying goodbye to the boys!
I said bye to the boys, which was sad, with many promises of meeting up whenever we were in the same place (which will not be anytime soon, I suspect!), then Katie and I returned to the hostel where we said bye, considerably more sadly, and I took a taxi to the airport. The taxi driver insisted on talking to me throughout the journey, despite my Spanish being negligible (though admittedly noticeably improved since being in Peru). He then stole my camera while I was looking for the money to give him, so I am fully unimpressed by his existence in the world. I didn't notice the loss of camera until I was in New York unfortunately. My flight to New York was nice because I was sitting next to a woman who was Peruvian but who had lived in Queens for about thirty years. She spent the whole trip telling me what I should have done in Peru, which was largely unhelpful since, as you can see, I barely did anything, but interesting nonetheless!
I had a long layover in New York so I went into the centre, where I discovered the loss of my camera. This instantly put me in a bad mood, so I ignored the Empire State Building pointedly, and went to get a smoothie in Borders (bankrupt in England!), and used the wifi, hoping that Katie had found it in the hostel. She hadn't, obviously. After a while I stomped back out into New York, where it was crazy hot - in the high thirties, which didn't exactly improve my mood. I noticed Macy's which intrigued me since I've heard of that, then spotted an Old Navy store across the road, which I have always wanted to go in. It was beautifully airconditioned inside, so I spent a while in there and bought some jeans, some pyjama bottoms and a top, and instantly felt better. I also changed into my shorts which helped considerably. I made my way up 7th Avenue to Times Square which was pretty cool - though all the while feeling the loss of my camera - and then started making my way towards Central Park. Halfway there, the idea of disposable cameras came into my head, and I made my way back to Times Square, where I knew there was a supermarket. I bought one and went round taking lots of pictures of what turned out to be identical views. It all looked different at the time! After about three hours, I got tired and overheated, so made my way back to the airport.
The plane back was good because I was sitting next to a cute, funny Australian guy, and also because I got a bit of sleep! I got in at like, 7am - early, I think - and then got a coach back to Hitchin from Heathrow which was excellent because getting the tube at 7am with my rucksack possibly would have finished me off. Bit of an anti-climax coming home because, naturally, my brother was still asleep, but I just went to bed and slept for most of the day.
Well, bit of a crap ending, but it was a bit of a crap end to be honest - in that it had to end at all. I did some speech therapy work experience in the week after that, and then went to Angers in France to stay with the kids' grandparents for two weeks after that. Since then I have been in Paris and have made some excellent friends and am having a wonderful time! I shall start updating this on a fairly regular basis now I do not have the guilt of this entry hanging over me.
