Back in BA

Well, I arrived back in Buenos Aires on Friday. Just in time for a crazy action packed weekend!

Friday night, I met up with two friends from Ireland, who were staying at the beach house in Uruguay too, for a few pints and the longest happy hour ever. Didn't quite make it past midnight, as I was really tired from my long days travel.

Saturday, it was raining, but I decided to trek it to Recoletta and check out the cemetery. It was pretty cool, but not being a fan of being in cemeteries, I checked out Evita's grave and left. On my walk back home, I found a great little market and had a belt custom made for me!

Saturday night, we went to see the Boca Juniors football game. It was pretty intense. The fans are so passionate, it was a dry event, and Boca lost, so we were stuck inside the stadium until the opposing team fans left so there wouldn't be riots. Great game though.

Saturday night, I met a few people at the hostel and we made our way to one of the most famous nightclubs in town, Pacha. Didn't get home til the sun had come up. Quite an experience. The club was huge, and there must have been at least 8000 people there.

Yesterday, I managed to get a ticket to go see ACDC, which was unbelievable! Also, another dry event. I'm not understanding this concept yet. We were pretty amazing that ACDC would preform a dry event. Anyway, it was pretty awesome and I'm glad I finally got to see them.

Going to do some more touristy things in the next couple of days, including steak dinner and the drum show again...saw it last time I was here and it was pretty good. Then I'm off to Iguazu on Tuesday night...

Ciao

Little post from the Big City

Well, we made it to Buenos Aires.

Last time I posted we were headed to Potosi, Bolivia. We got there and had a great pj party for Bens birthday. Got nice and drunk and almost got kicked out of our hostel...all class.
I ended up doing the mine tour with everyone. I was definitely interesting. First, we went to the miners market and had to buy gifts for the miners, including 96% alcohol, cocoa leaves, dynamite, gloves, etc. Then we got all dressed up in our wares and headed down to the mine. It was pretty easy going down, only a few small holes to climb through. We met a lot of the miners (who start working there as young 14) and shared their alcohol with them (its rude to say no apparently.) The alcohol was essentially just rubbing alcohol and very disgusting. Oh ya, on the way to the mines I managed to work up a HUGE wad of cocoa in my mouth, so I fit right in when I got down there. We also saw Tio, who is the devil that they worship in the mines. What else....oh ya, I almost decided to stay down in the mine when we were leaving because it was so incredibly hard to climb back up. My lungs were full of dust and I couldnt breathe at all! But I made it!!!

After Potosi, we headed to Tupiza and did a 7 hour horse trek, which was absolutely amazing! For my first time on a horse I managed to not fall off! I had the most stubborn horse who only ran when the others did and then proceeded to cut everyone off. It was a lot of fun.

The next day we did a 4 day tour to the salt flats. It was a lot of lagoons, flamingos and sleeping in really really cold accommodation with no showers!! It was fun, but I was pretty tired by the time we got to the salt flats. We took some cool photos (which will go up on Facebook soon).

After we got back from the salt flats, we headed across the border to Salta. Our bus from Tupiza to Villazon (the Bolivian border town) was horrible. The seats werent even bolted to the bottom of the bus. What a way to leave the country!!! We walked into Argentina then got on an awesome bus to Salta. We didnt do too much there, but we did manage to go out until about 5 am, which was fun....

From Salta, we took a 23 hour bus to Buenos Aires....the bus was really nice, which leather seats and everything (compared to Bolivian buses, anything is nice) and we managed to last the entire ride on Valium (which you can just buy over the counter here!)

Last night, we went to a drum show and then partied at our hostel pretty hard...so its been a lazy day.

Im going to just post pics on facebook from now on, its easier then posting on here....

Inti Wara Yassi pics

Machu Picchu pics

Let me know if the links dont work.

More later....

Lost in La Paz

So Niamh and I had arrived in La Paz last Monday. She had already warned me about the amazing ability to get stuck in La Paz, especially staying at the Wild Rover hostel (our intended destination). Naturally, I just laughed it off, and said ¨Not me!¨

Well, it´s been 9 days, and I´m still here. I woke up in a frenzy this morning and ran to book a bus ticket out of here...

La Paz is truly one of the craziest cities I´ve ever seen. The centre is full of cars honking and exhausting fumes that take over your already extended lungs. There are few stop lights, and when there are they aren´t obeyed. There are people EVERYWHERE, trying to sell you EVERYTHING. Anything you could ever think of needing, from pens, to deoderant, to toilet paper, to any item of clothing can be found in the streets of La Paz.

While here, I have checked out the Witches Market, where we may or may not have purchased a colon cleansing potion after about 4 days straight of drinking. I have also attempted to find the black market, which I am still not sure I found. It´s so possible to just get lost in the street vendors. I also have purchased some new glasses (as mine were stolen) for the price of 160 BS ($25) including my eye test. I have checked out a few odd museums including one on the Apollo missions, found some nice neighbourhoods and restaurants and eaten and drank almost everything on my hostel´s menu!

And...I spent 7 days drinking. And I mean DRINKING. The hostel that I am staying at is full of Irish, English and Aussies who love to drink. I got into quite the routine of starting around 5pm, drinking at the hostel bar until 2am then going to one, maybe two clubs until 6am and then sleeping until 3pm and starting all over again. I didn´t leave the hostel for days. But as all good things must come to an end, I lost my voice and smartened up! :)

I´ve been sober for two days now. Yay me! haha It´s funny how easy it is to get sucked into the powers of entertainment. I´m off to Cochabamba next, where the weather is supposed to be nicer and the city a little calmer...phew!!

Still no photos, but I will try to remedy that this weekend!

Cusco

Well, I´ve managed to stay in Cusco for longer than I thought! I ended up taking some Spanish lessons, meeting up with some friends from Pisco, going on a trek to Machu Picchu (separate blog) and having way too much fun!

Let´s see...

I went out to a bar one night with some friends from Pisco, and tried Shisha (a large bong filled with flavoured tobacco) for the first time. It was a lot of fun.

Actually, we have gone to the bars a lot. All of the night clubs around here have people in the streets handing out free drink tickets to get you to go into their clubs. AND every bar has a different happy hour, where you can get two drinks for the price of one!

Cusco is a really pretty town! It has a really nice main square with three cathedrals and there is so much to do here. I have found some awesome (and cheap) restaurants too! One of them serves a vegetarian meal for only 5 soles. ($1.25) and you get tea, soup as a starter and a full entree with rice and some vegetarian meal. I love eating here.

In our cooking class this week, we made papas rellenas (stuffed potatoes). Basically you mash potatoes, roll them into balls, flatten them, then stuff them with veggies, and reform them into potatoes. The best part? You then deep fry them and eat them with spicy aji (a hot pepper sauce). I´m going to miss the food!

The other day, we went to visit Qorikancha, an Inca site in the city. What remains of the Inca walls now surrounds a colonial church. It was the head of the Inca Empire, and was mostly covered in gold!

Oh ya, and this is the one purchase I´m probably going to regret not making!