Tuesday, March 21, 2006
La Paz, Bolivia
I did the Inca Trail from 7th - 10th March. Despite the huge amount of hype and the cost ($300), it definitely lived up to expectations. There were 13 of us in our group, plus 2 guides, a chef and an alarming number of porters...about 15 I think. All we tourists had to do was walk: the porters carried our tents, the cooking equipment, the food, the dining table, chairs, etc. Amusingly, we noticed one was carrying a toilet seat, but we didn't use it and I can't imagine why we would've needed it. At lunchtime the porters run ahead to set up the dining tent, so that's all ready when we arrive, they prepare the food and even serve it to us. In the evening they go ahead and set up all our tents for the night. I'd hardly describe it as camping, it was such an easy experience. And the food was brilliant. In addition to the 3 meals a day, we had a 'teatime' which I especially enjoyed: they made us loads of popcorn and there was a selection of teas including coca-leaf tea, which was very nice.
The whole thing was somewhat less wild and remote than I'd imagined. I'd been worried about what to do when I needed a crap, but it turned out there were washblocks at all the campsites. It was also hard to imagine that you were in a remote location when there were hundreds of people on the paths!
The walk itself was great. The first day was a gentle climb along river valleys. We passed some interesting little communities which could only be reached by walking along the trail. The second day started with a long, long climb up to the first pass, "Dead Woman's Pass" - I don't know why it's called that. I ended up with the people at the back who were struggling a bit with the altitude. We adopted a one minute walk, one minute break technique, but it was still hard work. The pass was at 4200 metres, which is the highest point on the trek and must be the highest I'd been in my life, so it felt like quite an achievement.
After that the trail went up and down over 2 more passes. There were beautiful views of mountain scenery along the way, and we also got to look round some Inca ruins. Later on, we were using original Inca paths (which had been partly restored) which were impressive engineering: they wound round the sides of the mountains and were sort of built up away from the mountain on the outside edge, in order that they'd be flat. On day 3, after reaching the third pass there was a long, long walk downhill.
This was hard work, and I was glad I'd bought a walking stick (like the ones you can see in the photo). But we reached the campsite by lunch, so had the afternoon off. We spent some of that time visiting some nearby ruins called Huiñay Huina, which I thought were really impressive.
There were terraces curving round over a huge swathe of mountainside, giving a sort of amphitheatre effect. We got up very early on day 4 to walk to Maccu Picchu. Here's my obligatory photo:
After 3 days of walking it needed to be impressive...and it really was! The setting was incredible: 1. it's perched right on top of a mountain. After the buildings stop, there are terraces sloping down the mountain...then they end and it's a sheer drop to the river gorges below. 2. This whole mountain is surrounded by bigger mountains, so it's totally hidden! The ruins themselves were on a massive scale and we had a great time looking round them in the morning. It was fairly quiet to start with...then later in the morning the tour buses arrived and it became as busy as a modern-day city. A bathe in the hot springs in the nearby town was a nice way to finish off the trip. We then had to endure a hellishly long train ride back to Cuzco...somehow it took about 6 hours...I'm sure I could have walked it faster.
The next day I travelled to Puno, a town in southern Peru on Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the time to stay there. The flights I'd booked gave me just three and a half weeks for Peru and Bolivia, so I didn't do nearly as much stuff as I'd wanted to. So the next day I crossed over into Bolivia, to another town on Lake Titicaca called Copacabana. This was my first overland border crossing. I'd expected some sort of military checkpoint, with officers demanding bribes before I could get across...but actually it was really easy. You just walk across freely, and go into little buildings on either side to get your passport stamped.
I really liked Copacabana - a big factor was probably the fantastic weather. I don't know...I was expecting something colder and bleaker...after all, Lake Titicaca is the biggest high lake, or the highest big lake in the world, or something. Actually, the place felt like a seaside resort. It even brought to mind an old fashioned English seaside resort: there were donkey rides and people floating around on the lake in pedaloes. I stolled up and down the front, and a woman kept pestering me to hire a canoe. She was remarkabley persistant...but it turned out she was right - I did want a go. I felt a bit sad going in a 2-person canoe on my own, but at 5 Bolivianos (about 35p) how could I say no? Yeah, that's the other thing I liked about the place...everywhere I'd been had been cheap by British standards...but this place was exceptional. My accomodation cost 15 Bolivianos per night, which is just over 1 pound.
I had one more full day in Copacabana, which I spent visiting Isle del Sol (Island of the Sun). As I got onto the boat I heard someone call my name. I knew I'd bumped in to someone I'd met, but as it had happened so many times before, it really didn't surprise me. It turned out to be Tim and Sonja, who'd volunteered at Jatun Sacha with me! We went round the island together and had a lovely day. There are (of course) Inca ruins. More specifically, there is the site where the first Inca, the child of the sun, rose from the lake. I'm reading a book about the Incas (it felt like the right thing to do) and the ruling family didn't really beleive they were decended from the sun. But everyone else thought they were: the ruling family were the only ones who knew the truth. This helped them to appear divine to their subjects, so their rule wouldn't be questioned. Um...anyway, after that we walked the length of the island, had a drink and the boat picked us up at the other end. Let's see if I can find a nice photo....
I did the Inca Trail from 7th - 10th March. Despite the huge amount of hype and the cost ($300), it definitely lived up to expectations. There were 13 of us in our group, plus 2 guides, a chef and an alarming number of porters...about 15 I think. All we tourists had to do was walk: the porters carried our tents, the cooking equipment, the food, the dining table, chairs, etc. Amusingly, we noticed one was carrying a toilet seat, but we didn't use it and I can't imagine why we would've needed it. At lunchtime the porters run ahead to set up the dining tent, so that's all ready when we arrive, they prepare the food and even serve it to us. In the evening they go ahead and set up all our tents for the night. I'd hardly describe it as camping, it was such an easy experience. And the food was brilliant. In addition to the 3 meals a day, we had a 'teatime' which I especially enjoyed: they made us loads of popcorn and there was a selection of teas including coca-leaf tea, which was very nice.
The whole thing was somewhat less wild and remote than I'd imagined. I'd been worried about what to do when I needed a crap, but it turned out there were washblocks at all the campsites. It was also hard to imagine that you were in a remote location when there were hundreds of people on the paths!
The walk itself was great. The first day was a gentle climb along river valleys. We passed some interesting little communities which could only be reached by walking along the trail. The second day started with a long, long climb up to the first pass, "Dead Woman's Pass" - I don't know why it's called that. I ended up with the people at the back who were struggling a bit with the altitude. We adopted a one minute walk, one minute break technique, but it was still hard work. The pass was at 4200 metres, which is the highest point on the trek and must be the highest I'd been in my life, so it felt like quite an achievement.
After that the trail went up and down over 2 more passes. There were beautiful views of mountain scenery along the way, and we also got to look round some Inca ruins. Later on, we were using original Inca paths (which had been partly restored) which were impressive engineering: they wound round the sides of the mountains and were sort of built up away from the mountain on the outside edge, in order that they'd be flat. On day 3, after reaching the third pass there was a long, long walk downhill.
This was hard work, and I was glad I'd bought a walking stick (like the ones you can see in the photo). But we reached the campsite by lunch, so had the afternoon off. We spent some of that time visiting some nearby ruins called Huiñay Huina, which I thought were really impressive.
There were terraces curving round over a huge swathe of mountainside, giving a sort of amphitheatre effect. We got up very early on day 4 to walk to Maccu Picchu. Here's my obligatory photo:
After 3 days of walking it needed to be impressive...and it really was! The setting was incredible: 1. it's perched right on top of a mountain. After the buildings stop, there are terraces sloping down the mountain...then they end and it's a sheer drop to the river gorges below. 2. This whole mountain is surrounded by bigger mountains, so it's totally hidden! The ruins themselves were on a massive scale and we had a great time looking round them in the morning. It was fairly quiet to start with...then later in the morning the tour buses arrived and it became as busy as a modern-day city. A bathe in the hot springs in the nearby town was a nice way to finish off the trip. We then had to endure a hellishly long train ride back to Cuzco...somehow it took about 6 hours...I'm sure I could have walked it faster.
The next day I travelled to Puno, a town in southern Peru on Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the time to stay there. The flights I'd booked gave me just three and a half weeks for Peru and Bolivia, so I didn't do nearly as much stuff as I'd wanted to. So the next day I crossed over into Bolivia, to another town on Lake Titicaca called Copacabana. This was my first overland border crossing. I'd expected some sort of military checkpoint, with officers demanding bribes before I could get across...but actually it was really easy. You just walk across freely, and go into little buildings on either side to get your passport stamped.
I really liked Copacabana - a big factor was probably the fantastic weather. I don't know...I was expecting something colder and bleaker...after all, Lake Titicaca is the biggest high lake, or the highest big lake in the world, or something. Actually, the place felt like a seaside resort. It even brought to mind an old fashioned English seaside resort: there were donkey rides and people floating around on the lake in pedaloes. I stolled up and down the front, and a woman kept pestering me to hire a canoe. She was remarkabley persistant...but it turned out she was right - I did want a go. I felt a bit sad going in a 2-person canoe on my own, but at 5 Bolivianos (about 35p) how could I say no? Yeah, that's the other thing I liked about the place...everywhere I'd been had been cheap by British standards...but this place was exceptional. My accomodation cost 15 Bolivianos per night, which is just over 1 pound.
I had one more full day in Copacabana, which I spent visiting Isle del Sol (Island of the Sun). As I got onto the boat I heard someone call my name. I knew I'd bumped in to someone I'd met, but as it had happened so many times before, it really didn't surprise me. It turned out to be Tim and Sonja, who'd volunteered at Jatun Sacha with me! We went round the island together and had a lovely day. There are (of course) Inca ruins. More specifically, there is the site where the first Inca, the child of the sun, rose from the lake. I'm reading a book about the Incas (it felt like the right thing to do) and the ruling family didn't really beleive they were decended from the sun. But everyone else thought they were: the ruling family were the only ones who knew the truth. This helped them to appear divine to their subjects, so their rule wouldn't be questioned. Um...anyway, after that we walked the length of the island, had a drink and the boat picked us up at the other end. Let's see if I can find a nice photo....
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
La Paz, Bolivia
So I finally made it to Peru on Monday 27th February. On the drive to the hostal I caught my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, which was nice. I had a day of admin in Lima. I didn't like it much there: probably partly because I was stressed by all the jobs I had to do, partly because it was a new country and I'd left my comfort zone...but mainly because Lima is so damned big and busy. The highlight of the day was having a local speciality, Cerviche, which is marinated raw chunks of fish. It was absolutely delicious. Also, I was eating at an expensive touristy restaurant, so I got it served in some sort of sea-shell, which was a bonus. I knew it reminded me of something I'd eaten before...then I remembered: the raw fish we'd had at the hotel in Norway!
All the people here seemed very friendly. Later in the day, a random guy struck up a conversation with me. When I told him I was English he said "England: Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United ..." which is quite a common response here. We talked for a while and he invited me for a drink. My first thought was that this was some sort of dodgy scam...but (as I'd read in my gap year book) you shouldn't be so cautious that you miss out on unique experiences. So we had a beer in a cafè by the square (well, I bought one and he drank some of mine). After we left, he asked me for money "for his children". I hesitantly asked "how much?" He said 5 Soles and I sort of bargained it down to 2 (I can't believe I was actually asking him if it was alright to give 2!) What else could I do? If he really was genuine and friendly, how could I refuse giving an amount which is so little for me? I didn't think much of it...then a horrible thought hit me. Two Soles for half an hour's work is actually quite a reasonable salary. He'd probably gone straight off to do the same thing again with someone else. This really depressed me, and made me feel very negative about the Peruvian people: were any of them genuinely friendly?
The next day I took a bus to Nazca, which is about 8 hours down the coast. I enjoyed going through the desert landscape: it was like nothing I'd seen before. I had plenty of time to appreciate it becuase our bus broke down and we were stuck there for about 3 hours...I suppose it had to happen some time. I'm almost certain that I took my fleece onto the replacement bus...but when I looked for it on the luggage rack later in the journey, it had gone. This was the last straw: I now agreed with a German guy I'd talked to in Ecuador who'd been to Peru: "the people are...well...really shit". From then on, I adopted the attitude that anything that wasn't nailed down, no matter how small, would get taken.
The next day I had a flight over the Nazca lines. It was absolutely incredible. These are the huge lines and animal shapes drawn in the desert. I found it amazing that people from so long ago had left a legacy on such a huge scale. Later in the day, a girl in a shop told me I spoke good Spanish, which was bizzare.
I took a night bus to Cuzco. Now, until that point I'd never managed ANY proper sleep on any sort of transport, despite many horrible hours trying. But I had high hopes for this journey: it was quite a luxury bus. Unfortunately it got SO COLD! I did, however, get 5 or 10 minutes of proper sleep - another traveller milestone passed.
Cuzco is fantastic...apart from the people trying to sell you stuff on the street - I'd had it before, but here it reached a new level. And I didn't sense any friendlyness from them...it was as if they thought the tourists should feel obliged to give them money. When you said "no gracias" they often replied with "Why?" And they address you as "my friend"...it may sound right when translated to Spanish, but it really irritated me. At one point a guy hassled me for ages - he wouldn't take no gracias for an answer - and I went into a restaurant. An hour or so later I left the restaurant...a few seconds out of the door he appeared again - said he'd been waiting for me the whole time. Annoying. So, yeah, apart from that, Cuzco is absolutely beautiful. There's Inca walls everywhere with their incredible exact mortarless stonework. A lot of newer buildings are built using the Inca walls as their base. There's been several earthquakes which destroyed the newer buildings, but left the Inca walls intact. On one day I took a bus out, then walked back to Cuzco taking in 4 Inca ruins on the way. That was a really good day. The last of the ruins was Sacsayhuaman: here's a photo:
So I finally made it to Peru on Monday 27th February. On the drive to the hostal I caught my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, which was nice. I had a day of admin in Lima. I didn't like it much there: probably partly because I was stressed by all the jobs I had to do, partly because it was a new country and I'd left my comfort zone...but mainly because Lima is so damned big and busy. The highlight of the day was having a local speciality, Cerviche, which is marinated raw chunks of fish. It was absolutely delicious. Also, I was eating at an expensive touristy restaurant, so I got it served in some sort of sea-shell, which was a bonus. I knew it reminded me of something I'd eaten before...then I remembered: the raw fish we'd had at the hotel in Norway!
All the people here seemed very friendly. Later in the day, a random guy struck up a conversation with me. When I told him I was English he said "England: Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United ..." which is quite a common response here. We talked for a while and he invited me for a drink. My first thought was that this was some sort of dodgy scam...but (as I'd read in my gap year book) you shouldn't be so cautious that you miss out on unique experiences. So we had a beer in a cafè by the square (well, I bought one and he drank some of mine). After we left, he asked me for money "for his children". I hesitantly asked "how much?" He said 5 Soles and I sort of bargained it down to 2 (I can't believe I was actually asking him if it was alright to give 2!) What else could I do? If he really was genuine and friendly, how could I refuse giving an amount which is so little for me? I didn't think much of it...then a horrible thought hit me. Two Soles for half an hour's work is actually quite a reasonable salary. He'd probably gone straight off to do the same thing again with someone else. This really depressed me, and made me feel very negative about the Peruvian people: were any of them genuinely friendly?
The next day I took a bus to Nazca, which is about 8 hours down the coast. I enjoyed going through the desert landscape: it was like nothing I'd seen before. I had plenty of time to appreciate it becuase our bus broke down and we were stuck there for about 3 hours...I suppose it had to happen some time. I'm almost certain that I took my fleece onto the replacement bus...but when I looked for it on the luggage rack later in the journey, it had gone. This was the last straw: I now agreed with a German guy I'd talked to in Ecuador who'd been to Peru: "the people are...well...really shit". From then on, I adopted the attitude that anything that wasn't nailed down, no matter how small, would get taken.
The next day I had a flight over the Nazca lines. It was absolutely incredible. These are the huge lines and animal shapes drawn in the desert. I found it amazing that people from so long ago had left a legacy on such a huge scale. Later in the day, a girl in a shop told me I spoke good Spanish, which was bizzare.
I took a night bus to Cuzco. Now, until that point I'd never managed ANY proper sleep on any sort of transport, despite many horrible hours trying. But I had high hopes for this journey: it was quite a luxury bus. Unfortunately it got SO COLD! I did, however, get 5 or 10 minutes of proper sleep - another traveller milestone passed.
Cuzco is fantastic...apart from the people trying to sell you stuff on the street - I'd had it before, but here it reached a new level. And I didn't sense any friendlyness from them...it was as if they thought the tourists should feel obliged to give them money. When you said "no gracias" they often replied with "Why?" And they address you as "my friend"...it may sound right when translated to Spanish, but it really irritated me. At one point a guy hassled me for ages - he wouldn't take no gracias for an answer - and I went into a restaurant. An hour or so later I left the restaurant...a few seconds out of the door he appeared again - said he'd been waiting for me the whole time. Annoying. So, yeah, apart from that, Cuzco is absolutely beautiful. There's Inca walls everywhere with their incredible exact mortarless stonework. A lot of newer buildings are built using the Inca walls as their base. There's been several earthquakes which destroyed the newer buildings, but left the Inca walls intact. On one day I took a bus out, then walked back to Cuzco taking in 4 Inca ruins on the way. That was a really good day. The last of the ruins was Sacsayhuaman: here's a photo:
Wow! The Inca's had wanted to build Cuzco in the shape of a Puma (fairly adventurous) and this zig-zagging wall was the puma's teeth. The next day I took a trip to another Inca ruin, Pisac. This was also amazing: whereas nowadays we only build stuff in easy places, such as the bottom of valleys, the Incas had colonised this whole stretch along the top of some mountains. They'd covered it in terraces, temples and other buildings.
I paid 2 Soles for this following photo, so I'm going to get my money's worth from it!
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Cuzco, Peru
(This is still in Ecuador, about 2 weeks ago...Monday 20th Feb to be exact). After Cuenca, I went back to Quito. This took 2 days: on the Monday I went from Cuenca to Riobamba. The journey was horrible. Buying a ticket in Ecuador is usually stressful enough. In the bus stations, there isn´t a single place you go to buy a ticket...all the companies have separate windows, so it takes you a while to work out where you should buy your ticket. The stations are always noisy, crowded and scarey. Men walk round shouting out destinations...within a few seconds of entering the building you always get aprehended by one of these men...they find out where you want to go and bring you to their window. So I never know if I'm using the best company.
Anyway, instead of getting a direct ticket to Riobamba which I wanted, I got sold this ridiculous roundabout route. I had to go to some unknown town right over to the west, then change buses. Well, the journey to this town took longer than expected and it was dark by the time I got there. I didn´t know where to catch the next bus from...the conductor had just indicated vaguely accross the road. There certainly wasn´t a map of the town in Lonely Planet - it was well off the tourist trail. It was also raining. Well, I probably waited about 1 1/2 hours in all - I've got no idea how long it took really. During this time I missed one of the buses I should have caught. I had no idea if another one would pass that night. I didn´t know what to do - it was the worst situation I´d been in thus far. I considered my options: spend the night in this place (although I had no idea if there were any hostels there) or try to get to Guyaquil, Ecuador´s largest city, and spend the night there. Guyaquil...if you know Ecuador, you'd know this means I was getting really desperate. Just when I was resigned to going to Quyaquil, a guy pointed at a junction along the road...and...joy of joys, there was a bus for me! In the end I was in bed in Riobamba by midnight, so it could have been worse. The worst thing about the episode was that I didn´t get a chance to buy the paper which, as I mentioned before, I might have been in!
In Riobamba, all I had to do was collect a raincoat that Suzannah, a friend from Jatun Sacha had left behind. I then went to Quito - a lovely, fast, incident-free journey.
I spent 6 nights in Quito (although it should have been 5!) On one of the days I took another walk around Quito's old town, which is really beautiful. I've sent my best Quito photos home, but this one gives some idea of what it's like. The most exciting thing I did was climb up a big cathedral. You know if you climb up any sort of viewpoint in England, you get to a safe and boring platform...you can see the building goes higher, but you´re not allowed up. Well here, I got to that point...then found a ladder which took you further up. Then another one to go further! You could get right to the top. And...2 for the price of 1...then you got to climb up another tower of the cathedral! Great.
Another day was spent visiting the indigenous market at Ottovalo, which is the biggest market in the country and a big tourist attraction. I felt I couldn´t leave without buying something, and hence I bought a load of touristy crap. How could I resist that brightly painted wooden parrot? I was fun haggling - my best achievement was reducing the starting price of $10 to $6. The day turned out to be pretty expensive, though!
The rest of the time I just hung around in Quito...but I was kept busy: I took some more Spanish lessons. This place was great! $4 per hour for good, one-on-one tuition, and I sorted them out with only 1 day´s notice.
I also managed to meet up with people I knew on several nights, which was great. The most fun and drunken night was Saturday, my last night in Ecuador, when I went out with Suzannah and John from Jatun Sacha. Behold these things they had in one of the bars (ignore the bad photo of me)
(This is still in Ecuador, about 2 weeks ago...Monday 20th Feb to be exact). After Cuenca, I went back to Quito. This took 2 days: on the Monday I went from Cuenca to Riobamba. The journey was horrible. Buying a ticket in Ecuador is usually stressful enough. In the bus stations, there isn´t a single place you go to buy a ticket...all the companies have separate windows, so it takes you a while to work out where you should buy your ticket. The stations are always noisy, crowded and scarey. Men walk round shouting out destinations...within a few seconds of entering the building you always get aprehended by one of these men...they find out where you want to go and bring you to their window. So I never know if I'm using the best company.
Anyway, instead of getting a direct ticket to Riobamba which I wanted, I got sold this ridiculous roundabout route. I had to go to some unknown town right over to the west, then change buses. Well, the journey to this town took longer than expected and it was dark by the time I got there. I didn´t know where to catch the next bus from...the conductor had just indicated vaguely accross the road. There certainly wasn´t a map of the town in Lonely Planet - it was well off the tourist trail. It was also raining. Well, I probably waited about 1 1/2 hours in all - I've got no idea how long it took really. During this time I missed one of the buses I should have caught. I had no idea if another one would pass that night. I didn´t know what to do - it was the worst situation I´d been in thus far. I considered my options: spend the night in this place (although I had no idea if there were any hostels there) or try to get to Guyaquil, Ecuador´s largest city, and spend the night there. Guyaquil...if you know Ecuador, you'd know this means I was getting really desperate. Just when I was resigned to going to Quyaquil, a guy pointed at a junction along the road...and...joy of joys, there was a bus for me! In the end I was in bed in Riobamba by midnight, so it could have been worse. The worst thing about the episode was that I didn´t get a chance to buy the paper which, as I mentioned before, I might have been in!
In Riobamba, all I had to do was collect a raincoat that Suzannah, a friend from Jatun Sacha had left behind. I then went to Quito - a lovely, fast, incident-free journey.
I spent 6 nights in Quito (although it should have been 5!) On one of the days I took another walk around Quito's old town, which is really beautiful. I've sent my best Quito photos home, but this one gives some idea of what it's like. The most exciting thing I did was climb up a big cathedral. You know if you climb up any sort of viewpoint in England, you get to a safe and boring platform...you can see the building goes higher, but you´re not allowed up. Well here, I got to that point...then found a ladder which took you further up. Then another one to go further! You could get right to the top. And...2 for the price of 1...then you got to climb up another tower of the cathedral! Great.Another day was spent visiting the indigenous market at Ottovalo, which is the biggest market in the country and a big tourist attraction. I felt I couldn´t leave without buying something, and hence I bought a load of touristy crap. How could I resist that brightly painted wooden parrot? I was fun haggling - my best achievement was reducing the starting price of $10 to $6. The day turned out to be pretty expensive, though!
The rest of the time I just hung around in Quito...but I was kept busy: I took some more Spanish lessons. This place was great! $4 per hour for good, one-on-one tuition, and I sorted them out with only 1 day´s notice.
I also managed to meet up with people I knew on several nights, which was great. The most fun and drunken night was Saturday, my last night in Ecuador, when I went out with Suzannah and John from Jatun Sacha. Behold these things they had in one of the bars (ignore the bad photo of me)
They filed it up with beer and you could vend your own. Brilliant! I can't believe it hasn't caught on in Britain yet...surely only a matter of time. At about 2 or 3am, this crazy guy was inviting us to get in a taxi and go to another party. I had a Spanish lesson at 9 in the morning, so decided it was time for bed for me. I couldn´t believe Suzannah and John actually got into the taxi and went, especially as they had, LITERALLY, no money at all between them. When I got back to my hostel, I felt really guilty about using the buzzer to get in and waking someone up. And it looked so easy to climb in through the gate. The gate is in a door frame, i.e. no room above it, but at the top of the gate there was a person sized hole. It actually proved to be more difficult than it looked...I got to the stage of clinging to the top with one leg through, but then I thought I should come back down and rethink. Eventually some other people came along and rang the buzzer, so I got in the conventinal way.
Although not strictly about me, I´ll mention what happened to John and Suzannah because I think it's funny (although maybe it's only funny if you know the people). They ended up being taken to a strip club, and didn't leave until 6 in the morning. The bill for their drinks came to $50! As they had no money, they slipped out while the guy who brought them was passed out, and let him pay. They then got lost on the way home, and lay down on the pavement to have a nap. To top it all, Suzannah lost her raincoat again. This is the one I'd made a special effort to pick up in Riobamba...she´d been reunited with it for all of 5 hours!
On Sunday I was, of course, late to my Spanish lesson, but the teacher didn't mind. Unrelatedly, I turned up too late to the airport, and the bastards wouldn't let me on to the flight to Lima. I think it was their fault rather than mine, but I won't bore with the details here. So I ended up spending another day in Quito. Luckily, they let me onto the same flight on Monday, without any charge.
Well, I do the Inca Trail the day after tomorrow which I can't wait for! After that, I'll try to drag this blog up to date and write about Peru.
