pics update

hey folks,

click here for party and parachute pics of Lima. Have had a great weekend in Bogota and am on my way down south for a couple of days tonite... Will update soon with more drivel.

ciao

On the road again...

just a quickie to update you.

Lima is over, finito, terminado... I got my visa yesterday, went straight to book a flight and arrived into Bogota this morning at 10am. So here I am, in Colombia´s capital, absolutely thrilled to be here.

First impressions of Colombia: green... very green compared to Lima´s grey and it´s surrounding desert... A lush kind of dark green which permeates even throughout Bogota - not jungle growth, but just thick healthy lush trees and shrubs... So far, Bogota appears to be a nice place, with lots of open space and parks and plazas etc, although I am in the more touristy and influential north of the city. The dark green is contrasted by roads and plazas paved with terracotta bricks.

All the Colombians I have met so far have been open and chatty and interested. The immigration officer told me about their different entry regulations and the reasons for them. He apologised for my delay in getting a visa and welcomed we heartfeltly into Colombia.

The taxi driver gave me a little guided tour of the city on our way to the hostel and the girls in the hostel made sure that I got the best (double) bed in the best room as compensation for my visa troubles.

I must also point out at this stage is that what has catched my eye most has been the local talent... lets just say that the colombians are an attractive nation... to say the least!

I really need to throw up some photos of my last days in Lima and a couple of images of Bogota. I went parapunting in Lima the other day. It was fantastic. Its like parachuting except you start from the ground and float up and around the cliffs and cityscape of Lima´s beachfront. I came about three metres from the top of a Marriott hotel, it was an absolute rush!

Anyway, promise will update with more colombian detail and a few pics in a day or two...

Keep it real muchachos...

Two turtle doves

it was brown with streaks of white and it smelt nasty... but it would I suppose... being bird shit. Until yesterday I was able to stand up and say with pride that I had never been shat on by a bird... and then what happened: in one day I was shat on twice! TWICE IN ONE DAY... what are the chances... I go my whole life blissfully spared from avian air-raids and then the little fuckers gang up on me and bombard my hair and shoulder in the same day.

Anyway, according to some heads in the hostel, being shat on is good luck and being shat on twice in one day should be considered a sign of something big and good coming my way... So I´ve got my eyes peeled for bundles of cash lying on the pavement although I don´t really adhere to all that black-cat-under-ladder sh1te.

Sooooo, guess what... I´m still waiting for my frickin´ visa... These Colombians are treating me with the utmost suspicion. You´d think they´d be used to Paddy and Swiss backpackers coming in for Visa´s (the only two backpackers that actually need one) but apparently not: they still think that we´re out to train the FARCs (the Paddies, I think they just don´t like the Swiss cos of their neutrality, banking and toblerone of course).

I do have something remotely interesting to report though. I went down to Pisco for a couple of days: a coastal town about four hours away from here surrounded by desert on the land side. It was interesting to see how the desert meets the sea in this part of the world... It makes for interesting formations such as pillars, sea stacks, arches and a plethora of caves. There´s also a group of islands down there called Las Islas Ballestas a.k.a. the Galapagos for poor people. (The Galapagos is far off the Ecuadorean coast and costs a small fortune to get to and do anything there, however its supposed to be a fairly unique habitat).

Aaaaaaanyway, we went on this boat trip around the islands and saw dolphins, sea lions, penguins and a piss-pot full of birds. Twas good craic. The highlight was that night though. My two travelling companions who had come from Lima with me split down south and as I was heading back to Lima, I decided to stay another night or two on my tod.

That night there was a bit of a fiesta going on in the main Plaza (de Armas). There was a parade with floats and salsa dancers and fireworks and brass bands and lots of other stuff. I met some cool Peruvians and we went to their bar afterwards (they owned it) and drank Pisco Sours (a common cocktail made from Pisco - the national spirit of Peru - although Chile claims it as its national spirit as well). Had a frickin´ great night and even managed long, political discussions with my Spanish... was v. proud!

So I´m still in Pisco and I´m just about to make my way back to Lima. I am hoping that I can start making my way to Bogota any day now.

In other news, I had my first experience of crime in South America the other day. I went to the beach here with some people from the hostel and we were lying there soaking in the rays, when these two punters sat down very close to us (too close for comfort on such a big empty beach). I stood up and was walking around our spot when another guy came over and started rabbiting horseshit to me about the beach being dangerous and that we should take care not to stand on broken glass. Everyone was looking at him while he rambled on and on. In the meantime the two muchachos who were sitting close to us took the opportunity to go through the pockets of my jeans which were beside my towel. Luckily enough, I hadn´t brought anything to the beach with me except for about 50 cents worth of small change, and he didn´t seem to think that that was worth his effort so they got away with nothing.

None of us had noticed this but as soon as they were gone some locals came over to us and told us that he had gone through my jeans while we weren´t looking. They appeared quite embarrassed by the antics of their compatriots so they invited us to play raquetball with them on the beach to show us that not all Peruvians were thieves. So in the end, we lost nothing and it helped us meet some locals who we had good craic with.

That was my first experience of crime here in South America, which isn´t too bad for six months of travel here in this "dangerous" part of the world. I felt a bit silly for not having noticed the weird combination of two lads sitting close to us and an obvious distraction, but because I had nothing of any value, i wasn´t really on my guard... I´ll know better for the next time.

Right, that's it for this edition of Conor´s (currently quite stationary)travels. Tune in soon for a Colombian special.

Pics of Pisco can be found here by the way and there are some pics of Lima here.

L8r amigos.

ok, so its been a while since my last post, but in utter and complete honesty, I haven´t done anything in the past week worthy of your attention... so my fingers have remained still and the keyboard has gathered dust...

I applied for my Colombian visa on Monday... I did not make it to Quito, I´m still in Lima... I decided to stay in Lima and apply for my visa from here because:

• I like Lima, its good fun !
• I have not heard anything too positive about Quito, or indeed Ecuador, so I´m gonna give it the ol´ slip
• I can fly directly from here to Bogota... its cheap and its quick!!!
• I like Lima....its good FUN!

I feel kinda bad that of all the time I´m spending in Peru, I´m not seeing more of the country... but do you what, je ne care pas (as they say in France)... cos I´m spending a lot of time with Peruvians here and surely thats good for my cultural development too... and for mi espagnol as well.

I´m recharging my batteries here (and running them down again and recharging them again and running them down again)... and I´m mentally preparing myself for Colombia and its cultural richesse.

So throw me a frickin´ bone here... I´m meeting all these people who fly into Lima and have three weeks in Peru and whose days are filled with museums and other "wholesome" stuff... When I tell them that I´ve been in Lima for the past two weeks and I haven´t seen the inside of a museum here, they draw back in horror and gasp at my sloth.

Fook it NEway... Todays friday so its time again for our weekly pub-crawl (the official one)... Will update when I have my visa or anything exiting happens...

parrrrrr-tyyyyyyyyyyy

yaaaaahuuuu, it´s Fridah naht out thar in Lima and it´s tahm ta rock n´ roll...

Not like any other night has been much different but tonite already promises to be good craic. I´ve just had my little siesta and I´m in the bar in the hostel beboppin' and a-rocksteadyin´...

There´s a bar crawl on the cards tonite and I´m about the oldest resident of this hostel by this stage, so I am more or less leading the frickin´ thing... the usual banter... a couple a´ screwdrivers, a daquiri or two and a partridge in a pear tree!

Found out today that I can´t fly to Quito for less than 400 dollaroos (which means that I can´t fly to Quito full stop) so I have a nice and easy 30 hour bus ride to look forward to on Sunday. Don´t matter tho´ cos Conor´s got himself a Valium prescription (after sweettalkin´ one of those fine-lookin´ pharmicists) and I´m gonna tranquilise mahsilf to the max...P

Please excuse the Texan accent (that´s what it sounds lahk whin I write it, I darnit don´t know what it sounds like whin you read it)...

Good naht all and enjoy yor gawd-darn weekends whatever it is that you good folk maght be doin´.... yeehaw!

pics update

right punters... click here for pictures of Cusco (Qusqo) and the Sacred andhere for pictures of Macchu Picchu...

I can´t think of anything long-winded and interesting to say about Macchu Picchu... have a look at the photos, it was pretty awe-inspiring. When I saw it first in the morning when the sun was just coming up, I thought about the American explorer Haram Bingham, who discovered it in 1911, and I got a shiver down my back. I mean 1911 isn´t that long ago and I find it quite amazing that until then it was actually a lost Inca city (of fairly impressive proportions).

I was speaking to a local women and she reckons that there are a couple of other "lost" ruin sites, some of which haven´t been discovered yet and some of which are being kept quiet... I suppose we´ll see if she was right but either way, it´s all this "secret-lost-city-of-bygone-generations" shite that gives me the willies...!

In other news, I´ve been on the piss in Lima almost every night for the past week and body is pretty fu(&$d up. Am staying here until Sunday or so when I´ll make a beeline for Quito in Ecuador to get this shaggin´ Colombia visa.

I also got treated myself to a haircut and shave today, obliterating the longest beard that I´ve ever had... it had been growing since before Rurrenebaque in Bolivia and was getting pretty itchy and increasingly challenging to keep food out of. My mug is back to its clean shaven self again.

And my final piece of good news for all of you who thought that the loss of my recharger might impede on my ability to capture my voyage (I´m sure that lots of you were really worried about that)... I have managed to dig up a new recharger... of all places that I managed to get it in Pollos Azules, Lima´s big electronic black market (I bought more DVDs as well)... me is very happy!

Later dudes...

bang-bang-bang

...my head hurts... I feel like there´s an angry little man in my brain pounding at the back of my cranium with a pickaxe trying to escape from my skull.

Got to lima yesterday. Its nice to be back at sealevel and by the sea as well... Lima obviously isn`t a highlight of south america but its a big city and has a couple of big-city comforts... Went on the tear last night with some locals and had the biggest night I`ve had for a long-time... (I`m being surprisingly well behaved down here... d`ya hear that mum). Hence the little man with the pickaxe. (who appears to be getting angrier)

I know I owe you a Macchu Picchu post, but I`m not even going to attempt it now.... jesus, I think I`m gonna hurl... must go and lie down!