Huacaflippinchina BABY

The last 5 days or so were spent in Huacachina, a little oasis town with the population of around 115 people about 4 hours away from Lima (unless you travel with Flores, then it's more like 6 and a half. Lying so and sos.) It was AMAZING, such a good way to spend the end of our trip. Not that we did much like :P

We spent 23 hours (mas o menos) on a bus to get there when it was supposed to be 16. I am NOT going to miss peruvian buses even a little bit. To be honest its quite comforting to know that my journey back to Preston won't even take that long. It was pretty horrendous but arriving in Huacachina was so awesome, its such a beautiful place!

Most of the time was just spent chilling out and eating (I know this is quite the running theme for this trip!) The hostel we stayed at does the most amazing BBQ Chicken Wings, so if you're heading to Huacachina stay at Desert Nights Hostel and try them out. Also its only 15/s a night and if your a HI member its even cheaper, but to be honest the chicken wings should be enough of a pull.

Of course we had to test out the night life once or twice and it was EPIC. In fact we decided it was best to leave a day early before we all got stuck in the paradise of Huacachina in a permantantly hungover state achieving very little and never seeing the day light.. Ok so that's a bit of an exaggeration but you get the idea!

A week in La Paz

I don't know how we did it but we managed to spend a whole week in La Paz and do very little. But that's not to say we didn't have a good time.

After a whole day in bed recovering from our hectic journey from Sucre, we spent a large portion of the second day making jewellery on the street with a brazilian guy called Denny, who was allegedly 25 but has been travelling for over 10 years... However he was pretty cool and taught us how to make bracelets and anklets, tying Georgia up in a rather amusing fashion in the process. We also had to put a good thought into every knot and make a wish as he burned the ends in order to ensure the item held 'good energy'. I love travelling hippies.

Evie and Georgia both got tattoos at Pepe's tattoo parlour during our stay.

Evie's:

(If you can't see it, it's an arrow on her foot. OUCH.)

Georgia's:

Georgia designed both, pretty impressive eh? So that just leaves me now, any suggestions on what I should get?? :p

Watching the Champions League Final at an english pub called Oliver's travels was quite a highlight. The pub was FULL of Bayern Munich supporters, Germans, Israelis and English alike, so Evie, Steve and I decided to support Chelsea, just to add some diversity. It was SUCH a good game, though I'm not sure how Chelsea did it, I was sure it was all over multiple times. Unfortunately it did ruin the mood in the bar a little as the Germans didn't exactly take the defeat well, but our band of about 6 Chelsea supporters were loving it :D

On our last day we made a trip to the witches market which was rather interesting. You could buy all sorts of bottled potions and there were llama foetus' hanging everywhere (something about warning off evil spirits). Evie and Georgia also got their tarot cards read which was MEGA CREEPY because the lady was REALLY good. It freaked me out far too much so I whimped out.

The rest of our time was spent mainly partying at the Wild Rover (we got to go to our second UV party, whoop whoop!) or eating at Cafe Banais. The Wild Rover was really great fun and we met some proper cool people there. But probably spent a little too much time there instead of exploring the cultural side of Bolivia's capital city. Ah dear. But I did get a few pics of around the city...

Sugar Daddy, G-Meister General, Eve-ster and The Cow at the caf. (It would seem I got the short straw on the nickname front)

'Leave the bags!!'

When I was 14 I wrote a bucket list and one of the things on that list is: to get in a taxi, point and shout 'follow that car!' Last night we pretty much did just that.

Our bus to Sucre was due to leave at 8.30, so we arrived at just gone 8 to check our bags in. We were surprised to be told to 'CORRE/RUN!' Because the bus was setting off. TWENTY FIVE MINUTES EARLY. Now I don't know if that's the norm in other countries but in England it is completely unheard of, the bus just being on time is a miracle.

So we ran, ridiculous backpacks and all and attempted to flag down the bus turning out of the station with the help of a by-standing bolivian family. The driver decided to ignore us. BIG MISTAKE. This then turned into some epic movie style chase through the streets of Sucre.

Evie shouts at me 'leave your bag!!' and I throw it down behind me and run (as fast as I can) with the bus operator lady after the bus through the very busy market streets that surround the terminal. Meanwhile Evie is wondering why on earth she offered to carry the two bags and shouts 'Ayudame!/Help me!' Until a bolivian couple come to the rescue. The couple are outraged at what's happened and the husband flings my bag over his shoulder, takes Evie's up in arm and chases after me.
And the bus STILL didn't stop, despite the girl from the company, me AND the angry bolivian man signalling and calling for the bus to pull over.

Well by this point Evie and I were all ready to give up. However apparently in Bolivia it is at this point custom to throw the bags into the back of a taxi and shout 'Follow that bus!!!' So that's what we did.

The taxi drove at 90mph, weaving in and out of cars through the extremely hectic night time traffic of Bolivia's capital city, until we eventually caught up with the bus. The taxi driver then waved like a mad man at the bus until it followed us to a nearby side street and pulled over. What a legend.

To our horror the bus still tried one last escape attempt as we began to get out of the car and get our luggage, but the drivers had an exchange of extremely stern glances indicating that our driver wasn't going to give up the chase that easily.
Exhausted and struggling the breathe from all the excitement, we hurried onto the bus after profusely thanking our taxi driver and giving him double the amount he asked for. And the bus driver had THE CHEEK to tap his wrist and shake his head at us.
Idiot.

We spent the next 12 hours fearing for our lives under the knowledge that we were at some point going to venture over South America's most dangerous road in a bus that cost us £9 each and who's driver drove like a mental person. Proof of which can be found in the journey time, which was supposed to be 14-16 hours. Also he stopped more than once during the night to let random people on in the middle of the countryside and I bet he didn't sigh and tap his wrist at them.
On the plus side the stars were stunning and I woke up in time to watch the sunrise over the desert. Which was rather beautiful.

By some stroke of crazy luck, we are now safe and sound in Bolivia's administrative capital, La Paz. Which also happens to be the world's highest capital city so I am struggling a little with the altitude, but it's nothing that some good food and more sleep won't solve. I still can't believe we made it.

So special thanks to all those awesome bolivians who helped us last night, thanks to you we are still on time with our travel plans and haven't lost out on 90 bol. To the driver of the bus who nearly left two young girls stranded in Sucre's more questionable end of town in the dark... Cheers mate.

Drugs Raid

One tip for anyone travelling on peruvian buses: all the sales people, attendants, drivers and well ANYONE involved are a complete liars. If they tell you it's a direct bus, it's not. If they tell you it'll take 10 hours, it won't. And if they tell you it's safe, it's definitely not.

We stopped off at every single one of the most dangerous cities along the way, which of course meant the bus took a lot longer than we were originally told AND when the bus got raided for drugs and stolen goods by the police, some little old peruvian lady tried to trick us into hiding a bag for her. Luckily Evie figured out what she said just in time and the police weren't stupid enough to believe what the lady was trying to say.

On top of that when we finally arrived at our hostel, it wasn't there. Unfortunately the cards with all the addresses of 'The Point' hostels in Peru haven't been updated, so we had to walk for around 45 minutes to find the new location, because apparently peruvians aren't the best at giving directions.

However I can't complain about the price of the bus s/25 or the hostel s/19 per night and I have to say I didn't sleep too badly either. Plus we've arrived safely in Arequipa with all our belongings and now I've showered and had a drink I feel a million times better.

Hopefully when we have a little more energy we're going to head out and explore. The city so far looks beautiful and from the roof top terrace at the hostel you can see the two huge volcanoes at either side of the city, it's incredible.