So Im sitting here writing this blog whilst everyone in the hostal is asleep as I have drunk too much Yerba Mate this evening and found out after a good 6 cups of it that it contains caffeine looool, so what better time to write a blog till now?
Travelling is such an amazing experiance and I am enjoying more or less every single minute of it, I am writing this blog from Cordoba, Argentina which is a place I have absolutely fallen in love with and Rach has as well, for what reason? I couldnt tell you, but we just love it here. We´re staying at a hostal called Baluch hostal and its the best hostal we´ve stayed at all year and is not the most expensive one either. Im not going to bore you with a day to day account of what Ive done since my last blog as you´ll get bored sh*t less lol. So I´ll write the main things which Ive done so far.....
DEATH ROAD
Death Road is one of my favourite things Ive done travelling, its in La Paz, Bolivia and was absolutely AWESOME!!!! Basically its called death road as it is or should I say WAS THE worlds most dangerous road when it was inuse due to the amount of deaths etc due to the seriously bad conditions of the road which was literally dirt and the huge drops and sharp turns. In 2006 the bolivian goverment built a new road so the death road is now out of use for cars and is just a place for travellers on the search of an Adrenaline rush which summed up me and Rach. We went with a really proffesional company called Xtreme Downhill and were kitted up in this black and orange biking gear, gloves, elbow pads, knee pads and full face helmet, I felt immensly cool in that get up and could totally imagine myself walking around Edgware station in it haha. You start off at 4,300 something meters high up the mountain on the in use road, before switching on the dirt road which we rode for around 40 kilometeres if Im right, we ended up at 1000 something meteres high and in the jungle. The bike ride is NOT a joke, you seriously have to keep every ounce of concentration in your body on the road, one wrong turn and your off the side of the road into the deep depths of the bolivian jungle. There were a few times when I lost slight control of my bike due to riding over a huge rock or something but thankfully got my control back again. I spent the whole ride f´ing and blinding and praying to God not to let me die and I made it down safely but not only safely, first... YHHHH BUDDY haha. Me and Rach have a really cool t-shirt for completing the ride which is now my bed time t-shirt.
POTOSI MINES
The Potosi mine tour was a very random yet interesting tour, which yet again is not one to be taken lightly. We went with a company called Real Deal (which I strongly recommend if your planning to do the mine tours) which is run by ex potosi miners who can all speak very good english incase you don´t know any spanish. We literally had to sign a declaration signing away any responsabilty to the company incase we get injured or die in the mines, that was a very reassuring thing to do just before we done it. Anyways the tour starts off going to a miners market where you can buy gifts for the miners which we´ll pass who´ll be working whilst we are inside the mines. Do you want to guess what I bought for 15 bolivianos (1 pound 50)? DYNAMITE!!! Potosi is probably the only place in the whole of south america where you can buy dynamite not only very cheaply but also so easily. We also bought some home made fags and coca leaves which the miners chew day in day out whilst working (many of them refuse to work without it) as it stops hunger pains and keeps you energized whilst working. We then headed off to a factory where they seperate all the minerals which are mined, and we saw pure gold!! I was so tempted to just shove it in the pockets of my gringa trousers haha. Then it was off to the mines, the mines were no joke, we had to climb on hands and knees, bend our backs at angles they should never be bent at and climb down extremely dangerous ladders as we passed through the levels of the mines. The most crazy thing was that the mines are all still in use and it is a source of income for the majority of the men of Potosi, we even saw a 17 year old boy working within the mines but heard stories from our Guide that he started working in the mines at the age of 7!!!!!!!!!! It is apparently illegal to work in the mines until the age of 18 but there has never been anyone to impose these laws there. The miners worship a weird devil like statue within the mines which we saw, they drink to this statue which actually has devil horns and leave offereings to it like coca leaves, fags and alcohol. Every week in June they sacrifice a llama at the beginning of the mining tunnel and spread its blood around it and bury its organs at the beginning as its meant to keep them safe in the mines apparently. I didnt quite understand it but the tradition has been going on for years so wasn´t about to question it. The mining tour was seriously interesting but a huge eye opener as to how much risk the miners take to put food on their table and to essentially keep their children in education as many wouldn´t even dream of having their children work in the mines like them.
SALAR DE UYUNI, UYUNI, BOLVIA
The Salt flats of Uyuni are normally done on a 3 day tour but due to the most random fall of snow a week or 2 before much of the normal route was closed off as there were still 2 jeeps lost in the snow somewhere, its the most snow that had fallen in decades and had even covered the desert of chile! Instead we done a day tour of the Salar and it was beautiful, we randomly bumped into 5 of the other Project Trust Peru girls whilst we were there so got a lot of pictures together, even more randomley two of the girls on our tour were Project Trust volunteers from Chile! Project trust really is taking over the world!!! The salt flats are the biggest in the world stretching for god knows how many killometres, it was very cool and yes I did lick the floor to test it all wasn´t a big white lie and it was extremely salty. I got some really cool photos that day which I will upload at some point when I can be bothered. The actual town of Uyuni I hated, it was just horrible and I got food poisening which meant I was throwing up the whole 10 hour train journey to Villazon (Bolivian border town to Argentina).
SALTA
Salta was a pretty town but our time spent there was made what it is by the fact we spent it with the 5 other Peru Project Trust girls who we met up with in Uyuni, we all stayed at the same hostal so it was a very fun time, we didnt actually do an awful lot there, we had a taste of argentinian night life which wasnt all that great as the busiest club started playing rock music and the bar man mixed our beer with some mint liqour which felt like a chore to drink as it was such a horrible concoxtion. We got a cable car up this mountain and got a really nice view of Salta but the absolute most immense thing we done in Salta was go out for STEEEEEEAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!! Ive never eaten so much meat in my life and I swear to god I was suffering from meat sweats by the end of the meal haha. We ordered shoulder meat, stomach meat and rib meat which each came with a huge serving and we were all stuffed by the end with enough meat to take home in a doggy bag for a breakfast sandwhich! The whole time I was eating the steak I was thinking about my Dad and how much he would have absolutely loved this, don´t worry dear father I ate enough for the both of us lol.
CORDOBA
Cordoba as I have said there isn´t a huge amount to do here but the vibe of the city is really nice, I would be happy enough to spend my whole time here in Argentina in this exact hostal. We went to the Che Guaverea museum here which is basically his old family vacation house which has been converted into a museum. If you don´t know who he is, bow your head in shame and type him into google, I´m not going to leave a huge paragraph explaining his life to you guys, sorry.
THE REST OF TRAVELLING
Tomorrow or really I should say today in about 2 hours, me and rach will be taking a 6 hour bus to Rosario which funnily enough counts as a short bus journey for us, from there we will stay 4 days or something before heading off to Buenos Aires to explore there. From Buenos Aires we are taking a crazy 3 day bus back to Lima, that will be fun.. NART! When we bought the bus ticket in Lima the ticket seemed unbelievably expensive but after seeing how expensive buses are here in Argentina it looks like we may have even potentially SAVED money going with Cruz del Sur.
I honestly do love travelling, I dont like living out of a suitcase but I enjoy the fact we see something new everyday and meet some really amazing people. I hate how expensive travelling is, travelling on a budget is very hard in Argentina as everything is so expensive, me and Rach have literally succumbed to spending around $2 on a meal MAX, so general just spend our time eating sandwhiches or pasta as luckily enough the hostals in Argentina have kitchens so we dont have to spend our money in expensive resteraunts. We have also had to change our original plans of going to Iguazu falls as to go there would cost $200 just for a bus itself not including enterance fees or hostal stays whilst we are there, and seeing as though we were only planning on spending 3 days there and my depleating bank balance we decided not to go there and try and stretch our money further elsewhere which seems like a very good idea, We´ve seen so much already we would just be spoiling ourselves going to see Iguazu falls.
Travelling has made me into a Rasta man, with my jamaica flag gringa trousers and my newly bought Mate cup which I will now be proudly taking with me everywhere like a typical argentinian. I must tell you all when I return to the UK I will be doing the same thing but it is NOT drugs, it looks like a bong but its only tea which you drink with a metal straw loool.
Im gonna end this long blog now and the next one I write should be in Buenos Aires. 25 days till Im home eeeek, thats just another whole blog in itself my thoughts and feelings on that, so I´ll give it a rest there haha.
Take care, god bless, peace love and harmony and all that jazz
Simply signed, simply compas
Tan xxxxxxxxxx
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Thursday, 21 July 2011
Monday, 4 July 2011
Brazil, last month of work and first few days of travel!
I'm getting really lazy with the blog writing at the moment, I can blame around 85% of it on lack of time but the other 15% of it is just plain old laziness. It's been a while since I have written a blog almost a month to be exact and this will most probably be the last one for another month as in 2 days I will be leaving to start my travelling with Ms.Rachel C Young for 7 weeks around South America eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.
I should most definitely start with rounding up my trip of Brazil, I will try and summarise the majority but knowing me I will blab on a bit but here it goes. I left for Brazil on May 31st via Panama with COPA airlines and it all in all took I think around 10 hours mas o menos. I had stomach butterflies the WHOLE time I was flying due to my high levels of anxiety at the thought of seeing my dad after practically 10 months. Just my luck I arrived in Brazil and my bag along with another 30 peoples bags were 'lost' which means I was an hour late for leaving the arrivals, stressed due to my lack of a bag and anxious at the thought of seeing my dad, not a great combination. As I was taking my very nervous walk down the arrivals walk way I was looking around and there I saw him, my dad!!! I didn't know how I would react to this but it ended up being one of those soppy film moments. I ran and jumped on my dad in tears, it was so strange seeing him again but such a great feeling. My great Auntie Celita also met me at the airport and I haven't seen her for I think 15 years maybe less maybe more but long enough for me to forget what she looked like. And she is soooooo cute, so small but still with her pertruding latina bum (I can see where my little sister lisa gets hers from now lol).
I spent 9 days in total in Brazil, we stayed at my aunts house in Caju, Rio de Janeiro. It was a very working class area which meant everything was generally pretty cheap around there. My aunt has a small apartment but with two bedrooms so me and my dad got a bed which was nice, there was no hot water ( which I am now accustomed to thanks to Oropesa) and very very tasty coffee throughout the day as my aunt seems to have a bit of an obsession but who wouldn't when its Brazillian coffee? Whilst in Brazil we visited the Suger loaf mountains, the statue of christ, markets, a zoo and me and my dad went off to a small beach town called Paraty a 4 hour bus journey from rio. I have absolutely fallen in love with Brazil, the people, the climate, the culture, the language (which i think sounds like spanish meerkats on drugs) and the music. I think that Brazil will have to be one of the destinations of my study abroad year in univeristy. I especially loved Brazil because it was so family orientated, I got to know my auntie quite well even with the language barriers - she can't speak english/spanish only french/portuguese so she spoke to me in french/portuguese which I understood thank god- and It was so nice being with my Dad. I got to know so many things about my Dad which I don't think I would've had the opportunity to find out would it have not been for this holiday.
Here's some pictures for you to have a look at from my trip ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I came back from Brazil and went straight back to work and got right back into the routine so it felt like I had never had a break at all lol. The time from Brazil passed unbelievably quickly, filled with fathers day celebrations, enjoying the last few weeks with my boys and just making the most out of my last few weeks at ciudad de los ninos. I had spent the last month teaching around 14 of my boys a dance routine for a performance on the 17th July which im so sad I wont be there to watch but after training them hard for a month solidly dancing every day Im they will do amazingly!!!!
Leaving ciudad de los ninos was incredibly hard and I left in tears. If I thought I would be crying this time last year I would probably have laughed at myself but Peru has just made me into an emotional wreck!!! I seriously hated saying goodbye to the boys, giving them all hugs and kisses goodbye left me in tears and I was suprised (But somewhat happy in a weird way) that 3 of the boys were crying at me leaving, it was Jhamyr, Luis and Jesus who are all my Sonrisa dancers and boys who I spend the most time with. Jesus has just became my hijito, the love of my life and his cheeky nature literally reminded him so much of myself, Jhamyr is one of the dancers who just came so much more confident through dance and I sat next to him on my table at lunch so always had some funny conversations, Luis is one of the boys who I helped through grieving for his grandfather who passed away, he started to call me tia (aunty) and I was just really sad to say goodbye to everyone. Rachel and I were suprised with a huge party the day before we left and it was SO lovely. We had some crazy dancing, pinatas and everything, It´s really nice to know how appreciated we were at CIudad de los ninos.
We left Ciudad on July 1st and caught a 17 hour bus to Arequipa in the south of peru, we spent the first day just looking around the plaza, seeing all the sites like the museum which holds Juanita the ice mummy, a girl who was sacrificed to the inca goods around 500 years ago and was found perfectley preserved in ice in an arequipan mountain and is now in a arequipan museum for a few months a year and the rest of the year is being probed by scientists all over the world. We also booked the Colca Canyon trek for the next day at 3am so had an earlyish night to prepare ourself for the 2 day trek ahead of us.
Colca Canyon was actually amazing, it reminded me so much of the beauty of oropesa but was so untouched, natural and just immense. Anyone who knows me would know that treking isn´t really my idea of fun, i mean put on a dance beat and I´ll be dancing for hours but walking doesnt scream my attention in any way or form, Rachel on the other hand is a born treker, camper and just everything outdoorsey so I sucked up my hate of treking and done it with Rach. To be honest the walk DOWN wasn´t too bad, we had a really cool and knowledgable guide called chiqui so we had some really good conversations which made the time past quicker, but it was just anything and everything up hill which KILLED me, I literally wished for an elevator to just get me to where we needed to be at times. We walked for a total of just under 8 hours the first day and walked through all these small towns where the only mode of transport was donkeys or walking, and then finished the day in the oasis at the bottom of the Canyon which was amazing. It had swimming pools and everything, all be it freezing but after 8 hours walking it was just what we needed. The stars were so bright as there was no electricity and it was just so perfect.. I took the smart option after my suffering of going up hill the day before and got a Mule up the mountain as the walk in the morning was purely up hill, it was usually s/60 but I got it for s/30 due to my charm and the fact I gave him my headtorch LOL. It was really fun going up on the mule, I thought I would fall off the mule at times as it took tight turns around the mountains and my butt now seriously hurts but it was fun. I met all the other guys including rach who had trekked up the mountain in the plaza where we had breakfast. Today we went to the hotsprings which were amazinggggg after the walking, i wsa basically a swimming pool with the heat of 39 degrees and ooooooo it was heaven!!!!
Okay so I need to go and shower now as Rachel and I are getting a bus to Puno tonight to see Lake titicaca. We are slowly but surely learning how to budget a bit better as our first few days haven´t exactly been what I would call cheap but its all a learning curve, we are keeping our budgeting books which includes writing down something as small as a s/1 inca cola to the s/105 colca canyon trek.
I´m not sure how well I will keep up with my blog whilst travelling but I will ATTEMPT to keep up with it, but not keeping any promises.
Only a few weeks till Im home now and Im shitting myself, there are so many things going through my mind that I wont dare to bore you with but I can´t wait to be with my family again but at the same time can´t imagine saying goodbye to Peru :( .
Goodbye for now and until I can be bothered to write another blog. see you all soon!!!!!
Tanya xxxxx
has passed scarily quickly and now I am left with 2 days left of work and 7 weeks of travelling to look forward to. Im not looking forward to leaving here at all, I already know that the tears are going to be streaming heavily from my eyes for hours on end, leaving some of these boys who I have became so close to is going to be SO hard. I'm welling up even thinking about it now.
I should most definitely start with rounding up my trip of Brazil, I will try and summarise the majority but knowing me I will blab on a bit but here it goes. I left for Brazil on May 31st via Panama with COPA airlines and it all in all took I think around 10 hours mas o menos. I had stomach butterflies the WHOLE time I was flying due to my high levels of anxiety at the thought of seeing my dad after practically 10 months. Just my luck I arrived in Brazil and my bag along with another 30 peoples bags were 'lost' which means I was an hour late for leaving the arrivals, stressed due to my lack of a bag and anxious at the thought of seeing my dad, not a great combination. As I was taking my very nervous walk down the arrivals walk way I was looking around and there I saw him, my dad!!! I didn't know how I would react to this but it ended up being one of those soppy film moments. I ran and jumped on my dad in tears, it was so strange seeing him again but such a great feeling. My great Auntie Celita also met me at the airport and I haven't seen her for I think 15 years maybe less maybe more but long enough for me to forget what she looked like. And she is soooooo cute, so small but still with her pertruding latina bum (I can see where my little sister lisa gets hers from now lol).
I spent 9 days in total in Brazil, we stayed at my aunts house in Caju, Rio de Janeiro. It was a very working class area which meant everything was generally pretty cheap around there. My aunt has a small apartment but with two bedrooms so me and my dad got a bed which was nice, there was no hot water ( which I am now accustomed to thanks to Oropesa) and very very tasty coffee throughout the day as my aunt seems to have a bit of an obsession but who wouldn't when its Brazillian coffee? Whilst in Brazil we visited the Suger loaf mountains, the statue of christ, markets, a zoo and me and my dad went off to a small beach town called Paraty a 4 hour bus journey from rio. I have absolutely fallen in love with Brazil, the people, the climate, the culture, the language (which i think sounds like spanish meerkats on drugs) and the music. I think that Brazil will have to be one of the destinations of my study abroad year in univeristy. I especially loved Brazil because it was so family orientated, I got to know my auntie quite well even with the language barriers - she can't speak english/spanish only french/portuguese so she spoke to me in french/portuguese which I understood thank god- and It was so nice being with my Dad. I got to know so many things about my Dad which I don't think I would've had the opportunity to find out would it have not been for this holiday.
I came back from Brazil and went straight back to work and got right back into the routine so it felt like I had never had a break at all lol. The time from Brazil passed unbelievably quickly, filled with fathers day celebrations, enjoying the last few weeks with my boys and just making the most out of my last few weeks at ciudad de los ninos. I had spent the last month teaching around 14 of my boys a dance routine for a performance on the 17th July which im so sad I wont be there to watch but after training them hard for a month solidly dancing every day Im they will do amazingly!!!!
Leaving ciudad de los ninos was incredibly hard and I left in tears. If I thought I would be crying this time last year I would probably have laughed at myself but Peru has just made me into an emotional wreck!!! I seriously hated saying goodbye to the boys, giving them all hugs and kisses goodbye left me in tears and I was suprised (But somewhat happy in a weird way) that 3 of the boys were crying at me leaving, it was Jhamyr, Luis and Jesus who are all my Sonrisa dancers and boys who I spend the most time with. Jesus has just became my hijito, the love of my life and his cheeky nature literally reminded him so much of myself, Jhamyr is one of the dancers who just came so much more confident through dance and I sat next to him on my table at lunch so always had some funny conversations, Luis is one of the boys who I helped through grieving for his grandfather who passed away, he started to call me tia (aunty) and I was just really sad to say goodbye to everyone. Rachel and I were suprised with a huge party the day before we left and it was SO lovely. We had some crazy dancing, pinatas and everything, It´s really nice to know how appreciated we were at CIudad de los ninos.
We left Ciudad on July 1st and caught a 17 hour bus to Arequipa in the south of peru, we spent the first day just looking around the plaza, seeing all the sites like the museum which holds Juanita the ice mummy, a girl who was sacrificed to the inca goods around 500 years ago and was found perfectley preserved in ice in an arequipan mountain and is now in a arequipan museum for a few months a year and the rest of the year is being probed by scientists all over the world. We also booked the Colca Canyon trek for the next day at 3am so had an earlyish night to prepare ourself for the 2 day trek ahead of us.
Colca Canyon was actually amazing, it reminded me so much of the beauty of oropesa but was so untouched, natural and just immense. Anyone who knows me would know that treking isn´t really my idea of fun, i mean put on a dance beat and I´ll be dancing for hours but walking doesnt scream my attention in any way or form, Rachel on the other hand is a born treker, camper and just everything outdoorsey so I sucked up my hate of treking and done it with Rach. To be honest the walk DOWN wasn´t too bad, we had a really cool and knowledgable guide called chiqui so we had some really good conversations which made the time past quicker, but it was just anything and everything up hill which KILLED me, I literally wished for an elevator to just get me to where we needed to be at times. We walked for a total of just under 8 hours the first day and walked through all these small towns where the only mode of transport was donkeys or walking, and then finished the day in the oasis at the bottom of the Canyon which was amazing. It had swimming pools and everything, all be it freezing but after 8 hours walking it was just what we needed. The stars were so bright as there was no electricity and it was just so perfect.. I took the smart option after my suffering of going up hill the day before and got a Mule up the mountain as the walk in the morning was purely up hill, it was usually s/60 but I got it for s/30 due to my charm and the fact I gave him my headtorch LOL. It was really fun going up on the mule, I thought I would fall off the mule at times as it took tight turns around the mountains and my butt now seriously hurts but it was fun. I met all the other guys including rach who had trekked up the mountain in the plaza where we had breakfast. Today we went to the hotsprings which were amazinggggg after the walking, i wsa basically a swimming pool with the heat of 39 degrees and ooooooo it was heaven!!!!
Okay so I need to go and shower now as Rachel and I are getting a bus to Puno tonight to see Lake titicaca. We are slowly but surely learning how to budget a bit better as our first few days haven´t exactly been what I would call cheap but its all a learning curve, we are keeping our budgeting books which includes writing down something as small as a s/1 inca cola to the s/105 colca canyon trek.
I´m not sure how well I will keep up with my blog whilst travelling but I will ATTEMPT to keep up with it, but not keeping any promises.
Only a few weeks till Im home now and Im shitting myself, there are so many things going through my mind that I wont dare to bore you with but I can´t wait to be with my family again but at the same time can´t imagine saying goodbye to Peru :( .
Goodbye for now and until I can be bothered to write another blog. see you all soon!!!!!
Tanya xxxxx
has passed scarily quickly and now I am left with 2 days left of work and 7 weeks of travelling to look forward to. Im not looking forward to leaving here at all, I already know that the tears are going to be streaming heavily from my eyes for hours on end, leaving some of these boys who I have became so close to is going to be SO hard. I'm welling up even thinking about it now.
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