Prague

Having discussed at length the options for a long weekend away, Simon and I ended up in Prague. We took some stereotypical elements of the traditional romantic breaks and stag tours and ended with something resembling neither.

Arriving quite late and getting a taxi to Hotel Metamorph(os?)is we were just in time for last orders in the Irish bar over the road. After a very nice first pint of proper Czech beer we took a short stroll to the main square of the old town. It was lovely and peaceful being late on a Thurs night, only slightly marred by a bloke trying to sell us 'Bunga Bunga' in one of Prague's many many strip clubs.

 

On our first day we wandered around the old quarter, over the impressive mediaeval Charles bridge and to the castle. We then booked ourselves onto a guided tour covering communist Czechoslovakia and the emergence of the democratic Czech Republic, ending with a tour of a communist era nuclear bunker built to house Prague's citizens in time of nuclear fallout. Really fascinating and included a chance to dress up with gas masks and Kalashnikov's.

On the way back from the tour we were looking for somewhere to relieve ourselves and possibly grab a drink. We stopped at the same Irish bar we'd been to the night before. Bad move. By 5pm the place was packed with meat heads on stag do's who'd been drinking all day. Probably the most traumatic piss I've ever taken. The guy next to me at the urinals could barely stand and was clearly looking forward to the days first fight. How I wished I hadn't been holding it in for so long. It should have been one of those monumentally satisfying wee's but instead those minutes of bliss felt like hours of fear.

Escaping rapidly never to return to Ireland we found a fantastic Czech bar, had some tasty goulash and enjoyed the beer and the nightlife probably a little bit too much.

Saturday morning was a bit of a write off. Actually, so was much of the afternoon. After nursing the hangover we got locked in a nondescript flat and had to follow a bunch of clues and solve a load of puzzles to escape. It was a weird game called Trap Prague set in the flat of a secret service dude from the 50's. Very quirky and very good fun.

Trapped

Clueless

That evening we took it easy and had a fairly quiet one. Recharged for the last day where I went for a wander in the morning to the main square of the city. There was a nice show of support for the people of Ukraine at the statue of King Wenceslas.

Simon and I met up again around lunchtime and headed for the Karel Zeman Museum where we learned how this Czech dude made early film special effects. Good little distraction with some pretty fun things to play with.

We also invested some time to dicking about with our cameras panoramic mode. We named the results Panoragic's.

The final night was spent enjoying amazing beer in the beer museum, having traditional Czech food (and beer) at Lokál and ending it all in a jazz club with an amazingly funky band. I'm pretty sure their closing number was the theme from The Golden Girls.

All in a great weekend away. Great company, lovely city, nice beer. Bliss.

More photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/101454232293966616010/albums/5984082190130092833?authkey=CIm-oeXYwNjO_wE

Cusco to London

View RotR: Cusco to London in a larger map

Buying all the bits necessary to get to Machu Picchu at the last minute is a right palava. The sensible option is to have booked something like the Inca trail well in advance, however right from the start we'd decided not to be tied down by The Man and had been winging it. So on arrival in Cusco we got straight onto the job of getting ourselves to Machu Picchu. We didn't have enough time left (nor the energy and inclination) to try and get a last minute spot on a trek so we went for the train option. This is where it gets pretty complicated as we had to go buy our ridiculously expensive entry tickets to Machu Picchu itself, buy ridiculously expensive train tickets, buy transfers to/from the train (which goes from another town an hours drive from Cusco) and arrange a night in a hostel at Aguas Calientes which is kind of like base camp for Machu Picchu. Despite the effort and the huge expense, doing it this way saved us a fortune so it was probably worth it.

The massively over priced train to Aguas Calientes

After all the planning bits we got down to enjoying ourselves in Cusco which is a really nice place. We wandered up the steep sided hills to some other Incan ruins just on the edge of town. We celebrated St Patricks day in an Irish bar. We made the most of the fact our hotel room had an en-suite bathroom with an actual full size bath with hot water! And I made a secret little trip to a trinket shop to buy a stand in engagement ring for Lucy (a bargain at <£2).

Looking down onto Cusco

Breakfast :-)

The cool little bull statues on all the buildings around here - they bring good luck

From Cusco we then made the trip to Aguas Calientes and stayed in a quiet little hostel right next to the river and really close to the hot springs. Aguas Calientes is a hugely touristy spot as it's the closest habited place to Macchu Piccu. When we went it wasn't too busy so we were spoilt for choice of dismal looking places to eat. Despite everything it has quite a lot of charm, particularly with such an impressive setting and with such an angry river, and we had a nice evening going for a dip in the hot springs and getting an early night to prepare for an early start the next day.

The hot springs at Aguas Calientes - pretty skanky to be honest but nice and warm

We got up before dawn to catch one of the first (really expensive) buses up to Machu Picchu and to be able to sit and watch the sun rise up there. This was well worth the early start as the place is breathtaking and it's made even more so by the light caused by the rising sun. It also meant the place was pretty quiet so I could wait until we were on our own for my cheesy proposal to Lucy. Fortunately she said yes!

We then had a really nice day exploring Machu Picchu with the aid of an audio guide I'd downloaded onto my phone. It was really interesting, if a bit weird that because of the Incans lack of writing skills nobody really has a clue what the place is about. So you're listening to all these facts when actually it's mostly speculation.

Post-engagement

Sun rising

Cute baby alpaca at Machu Picchu

When we got back to Cusco we were pretty tired and kind of unsure of what to do next. We were left with about a week before we had to be in Lima to fly home and had to choose our route carefully so we didn't have to rush at all. On reflection we picked well in heading for Arequipa and joining a 2 day organised tour of the Colca Canyon. Basically we didn't have to think too much and we got to see a canyon that is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.

The Colca valley just before it turns into a canyon

A Condor - pretty ugly and massive

The Colca canyon

One of many weird statues in Chivay where we stayed overnight on our Colca canyon tour

From Arequipa we got our last overnight bus to Lima (which this time included in-bus entertainment in the form of bingo) from where we got a transfer to the small beach resort of Punta Hermosa. This is a great surfers paradise with a really nice laid back feel and it was really appreciated to be able to spend the last few days of our South American trip surfing and sun bathing on the beach.

A good (bad) nights sleep on an overnighter

Pretty good waves at Punta Hermosa

With our flight back to the UK not leaving Lima until 21:00 it meant we got to spend a full day exploring this city too. Despite hearing largely poor reviews of the place (mostly relating to the very clear gaping divide between rich and poor here) we enjoyed exploring the downtown area and ate some great food.

Guinea pig - an undeserving delicacy

Downtown Lima

So then we headed back to the UK to continue the journey. We stayed with family in the Midlands whilst looking for work. It was pretty awesome to experience the retired lifestyle whereby popping to Morrisons forms the most stressful task of the day. It was also great to pop to see everyone in between trips to the job centre, filling in application forms and going to interviews. Thanks to all for your hospitality.

We'd decided not to go back to Plymouth as we wanted to be closer to our families, we fancied a change of scenery and we'd come to conclusion that we both love big cities. So we started looking for work in Bristol, Birmingham and London. Luckily before too long I'd found a job with Expedia and so we had to quickly rent and move into a flat in London which is where we are now. Poppa large, big shot on the east coast.

I hope to see you soon, we have a spare room in the flat so please feel free to pop by any time. Looking forward to the next part of the journey - getting married in August!

Lucy's actual real engagement ring made to order by Nicola Hurst

Love from,

Ralph x

Notes:

• Two of my favourite named places were in Lima: Norky's (a fried chicken chain) and Topitop (a clothes store, presumably specialising in tops).
• In Peru there are loads of statues of a chap called Ekeko who is the god of abundance. He's this moustachioed dude who chain smokes and to which the locals attach offerings. I'm not sure why but I love this little guy.
  
  
  
• Ever lain awake at night troubled by what would happen to the colour of your jet black surfboard bag if you'd left it out in the elements on top of a campervan for 7-8 months? Well here you go:
  
  

  

  Sun bleached to fuck

San Pedro de Atacama to Cusco

We'd been mildly shitting ourselves about the next leg of our trip along the Altiplano from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile to Uyuni in Bolivia. The only way to cross the vast barren landscape is by placing trust in a guide and their 4x4. The risks are still surprisingly high with altitude sickness, weather, rogue guides, crashes, breakdowns, blah, blah. A simple read of TripAdvisor shows how often travelers have a negative experience in this wilderness. We'd met travelers along the line who'd done the tour with horror stories of their drivers being drunk or falling asleep. One couple we'd met in Argentina said that two of their group had to take over the driving because their driver couldn't stay awake.

Luckily for us we had nothing to fear, our tour operator Cordillera Traveler were exemplary and our allotted guide Juan was a dude. We did the tour in a convoy of three jeeps with five passengers in each jeep. The accommodation and food were certainly basic but a lot better than I'd expected. Juan knew a lot about the area and pointed things out for us and answered our questions (albeit with a slightly frustrating language barrier). And for those of the group unfortunate enough to be struck by altitude sickness they had a stash of some mystery pills which sorted them out.

I don't think there can be that many places left on the planet where as a tourist you can feel so vulnerable and isolated. For the three days spent crossing to Uyuni we would occasionally bump into other tours at key milestones but were otherwise basically alone in the most spectacular of settings. I'd go as far to say that this has been the highlight of the trip.

The Chile-Bolivia border and the start of the tour

To start the tour we climbed up from San Pedro de Atacama (2500m) to the Chile/Bolivian border (4000m), a pretty lonely place manned by a pair of exceptionally humourless officials. After the long long wait to have our passports stamped we boarded our jeeps and set off climbing ever upwards to a dizzying 5000m above sea level. Other than a bit of dizziness and shortness of breath we were otherwise unaffected. Unlike a girl in one of the other jeeps who we subsequently found out had passed out and stopped breathing. Scary stuff.

Fortunately up there on the altiplano it's virtually impossible to take a poor photo. As such it'll be much better to tell the story of those most spectacular three days in storyboard form:

The first of MANY lakes - this is Lagoa Verde and those little piles of rocks are made by tourists.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere

Chilling out in a natural hot spring at 4500m

Flamingos on Lagoa Colorada late in the first day

Home for the first night in a very basic hostel at nearly 5000m

Bubbling volcanic mud pools with some geysers too

Rocks

Reflective

Bloody love this photo. Neeeee-yyy-aaaawwwmmmm.

Nice spot for a picnic lunch

Home for the second night, still basic but at least there's mains electricity

Train graveyard at Uyuni

Messing about with the crew (Pauline, Joe, Eliza, Lucy and moi) on the huge salt flat: Salar de Uyuni

It's quite something that even those people who shared near death experiences desperately trying to keep their drunk guide awake come away from the Uyuni tour blown away by it.

From Uyuni we caught the train to Oruro which departs at an unforgiving 1:45am. It's either that or take an overnight bus on unpaved roads - not much sleep to be had there. The train was pretty good fun in the end and we got to experience another mode of transport. Arriving in Oruro we went to the bus station to catch a connection to La Paz, Bolivia's capital city. As an added bonus whilst having a coffee, waiting for the bus, we got to witness and confront the most unlikely of thieves try to steal Lucy's handbag. This pair of old blokes sat on the table next to us and out of the corner of my eye I saw this bit of coat hanger inching towards our bags. The end of the wire had been cunningly bent into a hook and was being used like a fishing line. Cheeky old git. Kind of like being robbed by your dad.

Poop poop - all aboard the Wara Wara express

The arrival to La Paz is quite unique as the road descends into a steep sided valley surrounded by snow capped mountains. Every available inch of land, even up the near vertical walls of the valley, has been built upon.

The view on the drive into La Paz

We stayed in La Paz in quite a nice hotel for a few nights to recover from the long distances we'd covered. It's a good thing we did as on the last day whilst waiting for our lift to the wrestling we got to see the strangest of processions. Apparently in the build up to the main carnival at Easter time, every Sunday locals get shit faced whilst marching around. Note in the videos that everybody has a beer in hand.

Once the procession passed we were at last able to be picked up and taken to the Cholita's wrestling in the outskirts of La Paz. I'd heard about this from another traveler we'd met along the road and to say I was pretty excited about it would be an understatement. It was definitely an experience. If you've seen Louis Theroux's weird weekends where he accompanies some US amateur wrestlers then you're on the right tracks. Just lower the budget, make the local crowd more enthusiastic (screaming old ladies in bowler hats) and remove all safety precautions and you're there. The highlight match was Batman and Robin versus Evil Spiderman and Miscellaneous Green Clad Character (MGCD), particularly when MGCD threw Batman over the barrier into the front row of the audience (us). Lucy got a bat boot to the forehead. Luckily she came away with no lasting injuries.

I think this was taking place in the local school gym

Our next destination was Lake Titicaca where we stayed in Copacabana, the Isla del Sol and Puno. These were a really peaceful few days where we did a lot of relaxing and a bit of walking. We also did a hugely cheesy trip to the floating islands of Uros where in the past locals fled abuse from Incans on the mainland to build islands from reeds on the lake. Now it's pretty evident they mostly live back on the mainland and just dress up and pop out to the islands to milk the tourists.

ALL TOURISTS VISITING LAKE TITICACA WILL BURRRRRNNNNN

Lucy returning from the rather basic toilet facilities on the floating islands of Uros

From Puno we caught a touristy bus to Cusco which stopped at a load of sites en-route. A good warm up for Machu Pichu.

Early colonial church near Puno. Love its setting.

I f**king love mummies. These ones are pre-Incan sacrificial mummies.

A big Incan site called Raqchi

So we've now been through Bolivia and have entered Peru. Only two weeks to pack in A LOT before we fly out from Lima.

Bolivia: Bodacious

Love to all,

Ralph xx


Some notes:

• I'm not sure if one of the side effects of high altitude affected just me as I'm not sure how best to phrase the question to other men and I've not read about it in the guide books. Anyway, during my acclimatisation phase I found it difficult to go for a number one. Perhaps it's because my body had prioritised blood flow and therefore oxygen. But let's just say there wasn't much purchase.
• I have a theory the new Argentine pope has infiltrated the church to inflict revenge for the appalling abuse suffered by the South Americans at the hands of colonizing Europeans in the name of Catholicism. Or maybe I'm being carried away by all this Incan stuff.

More photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/101454232293966616010/albums/5861948749120377649?authkey=CNPg7O2_iMjGIw