Cruising to Colombia

ok everyone dont freak out..... but yes thats where we are headed, but no not by car, it was better to fly there and back to Santiago, Chile than get a one way flight Lima to Chile!!! AND we get to hang out with Steveo and I get to dive and Jodes gets to chill! TTFN acey and Jodes

Ive been writing poems of sorts.....

Feeling insignificant
as the mountains arise

Feeling helpless
as the mud slides

Peaceful feelings
as my eyes search the skies

Clarity fills
as my mind is satisfied

Passionate feelings
as the condors fly

Feeling amazed
as the Inca time goes by

Feeling loved
as the messages arrive

Chaos in Cusco

Hey there peeps,

By now most of you are aware of the natural disaster in this area. According to the local paper I just picked up 19 people have died, 9 of which are at the Macchu Picchu site. Many families have been displaced from their homes. Across the road from our hotel are now temporary houses- tents were set up for the families who´s homes were covered under mud. We moved out of our hotel that next day as it was under direct threat of more sliding mud and buildings from above! We decided that as we really couldnt help in any way that we would do something nice for the kids near our hotel. Teagan, Jodes and I went and found a newsagent (for lack of a better word!) bought coloring books, pencils and sharpners then found a bakery and bought yummy pastries. Jumped into a taxi and gave them out to the kids in the tents, those kids were loving us!

They have had such bad weather it has been really hard for them to get helicopters in there to get people out. They only had 1 heli for 2500 people taking 25 people at a time. I did notice today that there was 3 choppers in the sky and the weather today has been greatly improved.

So within this we are obviously NOT going to get to Macchu Picchu, Boo Hiss. But what you gonna do? Everything happens for a reason and that is the perfect excuse for me to have my plan of coming back and buying a punch buggy to cruise around in, see stuff, go trekking, climbing, diving the list goes on....
Celebrated Aussie day for the last 2 days, we started in Aussie time then when it really was the 26th here......... UUUUUUGGGGGGGG alcohol free day today....

Yes things are bad here, but we are ok! Flying out of Cusco tomorrow back to Lima, where there has been a minor Tsunami! Oh and the day after we left Peurto Inca there was an earthquake 5.3 on the scale! and everyone was worried about us getting kidnapped! HA!!!! WHATS NEXT!!!!!! Def considering getting punch buggy and driving to Colombia to see Steveo and go diving........ surely the wave of destruction wont follow us there!

Mudslide maddness, and no im not talking about the cocktail

Just letting everyone know that we are ok, I made a bit of a joke out of the mudslide last night, but come the light of day I have been able to see the real damage.
There are probably 60 people whos homes are partially covered in mud, I dont beleive anyone has died. Our hotel sits at the base of a large cliff which is continuing to slide away as the morning wakes up. Atop this large cliff are many other homes on the very edge......
So I believe we are moving to another hotel. This is serious shit for the locals.
peace out.

watch out I've got a bad altitude..... he he hee

Hey there peeps! Well it is absolutely pouring down here in Cusco, and the hotel we stay in is leaking....awesome! lucky Jodes and I are on the 2nd floor and there is 3 floors!!

Cant remember where I was at with last post, but know that we have all been suffering altitude sickness. NO that does not mean we have been spewing up!!!! Its more like waking up after a massive night on the piss.... and then you go "Hang on I only had 3 beers.... Surely I cant feel this bad... Oh yes I can..."
So given that feeling, I have just been loving it up on the alt sick and continuing to drink. Well i figure if if im gunna wake up with a hangover there may as well be a reason.

Its like old times.... hehehee... may as well enjoy it... the brain swells or someting like that.... unsure that it makes me smarter.....

P.S. Dad and all relatives Don't read that last bit...... you may get dissillusioned... maybe thats happened already... OK .... grumpy... or disappointed, uuuummmmmm, just be happy for me.??? I am having fun YES!



So today I'm gonna go backwards.... maybe... depends on how much i can remember! Well we-our group- has left the breakfast room looking like a Chinese laundry, because of the rain, we all got soaked coming back to hotel this afternoon. Raul did tell us to get a taxi, but we didn't....... We figured it wasn't that far to walk, we didn't consider how hard it was raining... OR THE FACT I ONLY BROUGHT ONE PAIR OF JEANS AND SHOES WITH ME!!!! So much for being ruthless in my packing!!!!
Hence Margaret and I got the dude- waiter- to light the fire.... we figured he was going to use paper... huh aha no.... a polystyrene cup filled with kero!!!! Nice SOOOOOO environmentally friendly yes sarcasm is a friend of mine!!..... But it got it going I suppose, no different to back home! So we sat around said fire and drank wine, ate pizza, hung our clothes and shoes out to dry and the toasted marshmallows, how Aussie of us! and its not even Australia day yet!

Previously to arriving in Cusco we had a 6 hr bus trip which took us to 4335m above sea level! Some privileged few may have received a photo or 2 although I think only one got more than one photo...

I wouldn't say that it was hard to breath, but I noticed I was doing a bit of sucking in as much air as I could every hour or so.

Before that we were in Puno. Ummm what did we do there??? Yeah the brain has not been working properly with Altitude. Previously to altitude, I was learning a new Spanish sentence per day... now nothing.... hoping it comes back soon.
Oh yeah that's right- LAKE TITICACA, wow this is amazing how vast is this lake??? .... nothing I've ever seen before or maybe will again! we only saw part of it and it was HUGE!!!!!
walked 500 steps on Taquille Island and had lunch there. Bizarre there were loads of gum trees!!! Introduced at some stage but it made Jodes and I miss home...

ugg warm beer, not conducive to Acey writing a decent blog.
ug ugg.....

Then we went to the floating Islands of Eros, I realize this is a complete scam, but hey they gotta make money somehow huh!? Basically, Its reeds joined together then anchored down for people to live on with huts made out of reeds. Its all very well played out and they get us suckas to buy stuff that ultimately we don't want. Personally, I reckon they all get on a boat at 5 pm and go back to the mainland to the pub and their houses, then get back on another one at 6 am, but hey live the dream.... its a "cultural experience" ......eyes rolling in back of head.......

Then we had boat trip back to mainland where we managed to drink 2 bottles of red wine in a very short amount of time..... Gheezus this altitude stuff you can blame for heaps hey! its great!

A meal out with the crew and to some sort of sleep after this... I'm finding I'm not sleeping the night through, but then again I didn't really do this in OZ either...
Till then my lovelies, we are off to Macchu Picchu in a day and will so be contacto con - non contactable....
Te Amo amigos, amigas
Acey and the Jodes
Oh and trust me Video and photos coming soon, very funny...... xoxoxoxoxo

I predict a riot!

Hola amigas, amigos, 

La Vida es buena!!!!!! Life is good!!!!!!

Not sure where to start as so much has gone on over the past 3 days! 

Our tour consists of Margeret and Alana (Mum and Daughter) from Alberta, Canada, Tegan from WA. Jodie´s theory is Everyone is Corruptible....... hehehee

Firstly we went out to the Ballestas Islands. A natural reserve, this area was amazing there were so many birds, Pelicans, condors, VULTURES, penguins, cormorants and with that lots and lots of pooh...... Lucky no one got shat on! They collect it for fertilizer! Also out there were sea lions, hundreds of them, and oh man they stink!!!! I saw heaps of crabs too, not sure that I was able to get close enough for a good shot but I tried without falling out of the boat.

From here we went onto Paracas which was a little oasis in the middle of beautiful white sand dunes with a pool etc. So what else did we do here..... Cruised around in a hard core dune buggy! It was sic! Jodes and I sat up the back and screamed and yelled our heads off. Its like being in a roller-coaster on sand. Then while we were out in the dunes we went sand boarding! Tegan was the champion at this as she went the furthest every time! Go Girl! The last ride I took my camera hehehee with me and made a video, lucky I didn't crash to hard! This day the sun actually came out from behind the clouds and man it was hot!
Went back to the oasis and went for a swim and lunch, it was awesome.

Onto Nazca where the hotel we stayed at was great and had a great view of the surrounding mountains. The next morning we awoke semi early to go in a 6 seater plane flight over the Nazca Lines, Sorry Adey no hot air balloons! It was really interesting to see the lines from above but I think all four of us - Jodes, Tegan and Alana we were all struggling to keep our breakys down with the G forces that were going on, bank left then bank hard right, phhheewwweeeeee! 

In the early afternoon we went to an open air cemetery, which was very interesting some of the bodies still in the graves.

The contrast in the landscape of Peru have been amazing so far from green seas, red and dark mountains and earth to white sand dunes, some black sand beaches and then valleys of green fertile land which seem to pop out from nowhere. Jodes has been happy snappy with the camera, while I´ve been the video chicka.

From here we went to Puerto Inca a little hotel in a cove with Inca ruins. We got set up in our rooms that overlooked the bay - Lindo! beautiful! Went for a walk along the beach, Jodes and Tegan drank vodka and red bulls I had cerveza of course! Tegan and I decided to climb some rocks that looked OK but were really dodgey as!!! Every time I went for a hand hold the whole rock gave way! But we both made it up without injury, Tegan may have dodged a few falling rocks though. Then Jodes and Tegan decided to to backflips on the sand, I choose to take video of them, and yes they were both sore the next day! 

That evening we made a campfire Jodes got stuck into the tequila............ I got stuck into the grande cerveza......... We sat around singing and watching the flames and lazing in hammocks then off to bed. But then I woke at 4am, woke Jodes up, (like that was hard!!) and we went for a skinny dip in the pool! We did have our bathers on at the start and we did try to be quiet...... My laugh gets us in trouble every time!! I dont think it has anything to do with how loud I am, or Jodes chattering.... nup, definitely my laugh....

The next morning we awoke at 8am and went for our walk to the ruins along the coast line. The ruins were once used as a factory for producing salted fish as the bay was quite deep for boats to come in. Was interesting.

So that day after the walk was a massive drive of 8 hrs to Arequipa. But before I tell you about that beautiful city I have to tell what happened along the way........

There are check points everywhere in Peru, there are also lots of dodgey coppers too! So we get pulled over, I have the Kaiser Cheifs - ¨I predict a riot¨ blaring in my head phones on my ipod. The copper starts giving the driver Juan, grief about the fact he should have a permit to drive tourists and he doesn't, You need to come down to the station shlalalala (blahblahblah) Raul gives the copper our itinerary etc, eventually they get Juan out of the car so Raul says to us we may as well get out have a stretch and make some fun..........

So I start making a video, of the cop car and of the coppers talking to Juan. One of the coppers starts to get nervous looking at the other copper looking at Juan looking at me....... So I say hola Amigo! Video!!! Wave!!! and I make him wave to the camera, then the other copper waves! I finish my video then turn back to said first copper and go ¨Amigo photografia? por favor? 

Cmon tell me how could he resist! Then Jodes and I decide to get our photos taken with the other copper. Then the others get their photos with them too!! By this stage the coppers have finally realised they have absolutely no control over this situation anymore and tell Juan and us to go on our merry way!!!!!

Puerta Cariko ....... i may not have spelt that correctly but it means - Damn this is good!

and they will know us by the path we leave behind us..... Raul says we should leave the photos on our camera in case we ever get pulled up again- see we are friends of the police!

So anyway now we are in Arequipa it is 2400m above sea level. We arrived last night and I felt like I was a little drunk.... Altitude Sickness... Yay! Walked around this beautiful white city with majestic cathedrals and 3 volcanos in the distance, mmm I love a volcano! Went to a great resturant that overlooked the main square where the catherdral is. Jodes had Alpaca, she reckons it tasted like kidneys, I tried it but wasnt that impressed. But what I was impressed with was my dinner...... GUINEA PIG!!!!!!! Yes that right a whole guniea pig, he looked like he was sky diving! all i needed was a little parachute for him! it was like pork but just little and it was the best!!!! his skin was the best bit just like pork crackling mmmmmmmmmmmmmm and of course when I had eaten all I could Jodes and I made a video of the guniea pig... He was mexican of course what else would he be!?!?! And I reckon very soon I might be able to get said video on here, as well as the copper one!

So today we woke up very early which was lucky because at 6am the bells started ringing right beside our room...... and I thought I was loud! Then we realized we def had altitude sickness cause I felt like I´d had a massive night on the grog (we´d only had 2 beers each!) and Jodes felt like she did the day before!! HA! Got a panadol into us and then went out for our tour of the city we saw some beautiful buildings including the inside of the cathedral and a convent that parts of are still in use! It was like a city within a city.

Then this afternoon we have had free time just so we dont do too much and climatise. 

So what do I do....... well dont freak out cause its all good, now....

Well first thing is that we went to the local market, Jodes was checking out guitars, Tegan was checking out pan flutes. On our way out of the market I saw the frogs, live ones. Then I remembered FROG IN A BLENDER!!!!!! I wasnt going to have one as I´d do it at another time but then Raul said this was probably the only place to get it, SO I DID......

The girls we all freaking (Alana´s a vegetarian) even 4 Chilean travellers stopped to watch it being made and waited for me to drink Jugo de Rama. Ugghhh gross, but a quick death- bashed on head, skun, insides out, boiled then blended hehehee....  Lots of stuff goes into it as well as 2 frogs, sorry froggies but it was all in the name of a cultural experience! It really wasnt that bad, it tasted like a caramel, coffee milkshake! I drank the majoritory of it, and Tegan the star had a taste, Jodes was still feeling seedy so she passed.

And of course Yes there is another video of me doing something tonto - silly!

Ok so the other crazy thing I did was after eating said guniea (yummy) pig last night one of my caps fell off my tooth..... Probably the crunchy skin of the delicious little G-piggy. GREAT just what i needed a Peruvian dentist...... why me???? Anyhoo went to dentist this afternoon with frog breath LMAO no, really I came home and brushed my teeth first...... and she fixed it temporarily, no needles, cause nerve in tooth already dead, gotta get it fixed proper like when i get back to OZ. It looks heaps better now and I feel better about it too. 

ahh the Antics of the Acey and Jodes, I´m sure they will continue and keep you entertained as we have been keeping everyone on tour entertained. 

Punch buggy continues, but we have given up punching cause it was starting to hurt..... now its just whoever spies them first, I knew I should have kept a tally. But Im def in front hehehee

And we move on to Puno tomorrow.

Pisco sours make you Pisco..........

Hola!
Its officially PUNCH BUGGY LAND! Im loving it! Jodes sêems to be making up her own rules.... like punching me when she sees a volvo???? HUH?! anyhoo, I will teach her the ways of the punch buggy, there is enough of them here to be going along with! Wait for photos of one I saw today, hilarious!
Jodes and I went out for lunch today and it seems we were out too early this morning everyone was at church..... So it was lunch at 3pm...... and we had what the waiter refered to as a regular Pisco Sour was... more like a 4 shot!!!!!! on our ear!

So that made us late for the meeting of the tour! only by 15 mins.... Hehehee....
5 chickas on tour with our guide Raul, I think he has been calling for back up....... hehehee....

Then we went for food and drinks by the sea side, well they ate, we had drinks!!!!
We have prepared ourselves via snacks for tomorrows 3am departure for Pisco.... eeeww..... Jodes says she is not going to bed, I am!!!

Hola Amigos & Amigas!

¿Que hubo? Buenos Dias, hows it going? Good morning,

Yes I wish I had gone to more than one spanish class now.
BUT, I have picked up heaps from studying on the plane, typical of me last-minute-study.com!!!

Well we made it! 36 hrs of travelling.... 5 planes, 6 capital cities WOW! OMGoddess what a mission, it was way awesome to be horozontal after that time.

Jodes & I have already had our first Pisco Sours, in Santiago. We meet up with our Intrepid tour in an hour and will be in Pisco tomorrow. For us its Sunday today so there is not much open, but Jodes and I went for a walk and hung out in Parque Central where there was lots of funky cow sculptures, anyone who remembers my blog from Europe will remember my watermelon cow! If you dont, go check it out it will be in my other blog: Return to Eden. We will probably go to Central Lima later today and check things out.

Well not much else has happened.... YET.... so this is just a taste of things to come, I will send emails and facebook status updates of when I have a new post on here!
loves ya all Acey & Jodes

Hasta Luego, see ya later