My Last Week In Peru

Hola!

The last week has been my last in Peru. Honestly, I had had high expectations of this country and in reality it has managed to exceed them in every way. I had been expecting awesome views during my Salkantay trek but not only was this trip way more beautiful than I imagined but I have been lucky enough to visit many other landscapes that have been difficult to capture fully on camera. One of these places was Colca Canyon, which I explored the day after I arrived in Arequipa. At my first breakfast at my hostel I met Martina, a Dutch solo female traveller who was travelling while working on her own leather bag brand as well as designing for another brand. She said that her and another Dutch girls she had met were booking to do the two day, one night trip to the canyon and I asked to tag along. I met the other Dutch girl, Pleuni, that day and we all went on a free walking tour of beautiful Arequipa. 

Our guide was pretty quirky, giving us very random and hilarious ‘facts’ including, at one point at the end of the tour, showing us a photo of a friend because he thought his friend looked like a pit bull. The next day I woke up at 2:45 for a 3am pick up for the canyon tour. We travelled to the area in an extremely cramped minibus and after breakfast went to visit the condos viewpoint, where we saw around 9 of these impressive birds. After this we started our steep walk down into the canyon. 

The walk was beautiful with lots of interesting rock formations and cacti but I was happy to get to the bottom as I don’t think my knees could cope with any more downward steps. In the valley we walked along the river until we got to out stop for the night, a green oasis in the middle of the dusty canyon. Our accommodation was basic but did have a  pool which, although it was cold, was soothing for our aching legs. After dinner we got an early night. The next morning we started walking before the sun rose, and as we had spent the previous day walking downhill, it was time to walk back up. We walked up non-stop for around 2 hours, which was tough but allowed us to see the sunrise in the canyon which was stunning and as always, the experience of reaching the end of a difficult trek makes you feel a bit like a superhero. 

After the trek we went to our guides village to eat a much needed breakfast and then took a minivan to some natural hot springs to relax. These springs were much better than the ones I had visited near Machu Picchu and we sitting in the 38 degree water drinking beer we could almost forget the gruelling hike we had completed that morning. 

After the hot springs we had lunch and head back to Arequipa, stopping at a lookout point for the huge active volcanoes in the area and to take some photos of grazing alpacas and llamas.

That evening Martina, Pleuni and I went out for some dinner and a couple of beers and stayed chatting about life for a few hours. I was sad that both of them would be leaving Arequipa the next day. It’s amazing how quickly you get close to people when you travel and I hope to visit them in Holland soon (and for them to come to London). The next morning I tried to do some life admin, which turned out to be quite stressful when my iPad decides to crash every 10 minutes. I was able to book something exciting for when I get to Bolivia though, but I’ll leave that as a bit of a cliffhanger! As I was eating breakfast an American girl came and sat with me and it wasn’t long until we realised that her parents were from them same town that I went to college in! Kim (her name) and I then decided to visit a museum in the afternoon after grabbing a crepe for lunch. The museum was famous for being the home of the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who was sacrificed by the Incas at the top of one of the local mountains. She had been discovered by complete coincidence when the smoke of a nearby volcano had melted the peak of the mountain causing her tomb to collapse and her remains to roll downwards. A few days later, an American mountaineer was happening to hike past where she was lying. The museum starts with a film explaining the history of Incan human sacrifices (all beautiful young children from noble families), the process of bringing the remains to the museum and the other remains that had been found in the wake of this discovery. We then walked through and saw many artefacts from the tombs and finally the remains themselves. What struck me the most was that her hair was exactly the same as a living persons, also, the skin on her elbows was eerily life like. That evening we had some delicious pasta for dinner and a couple of drinks at the hostel bar.

The next day I relaxed at the hostel in the morning. Kim and I checked out a vegetarian restaurant for lunch, which was delicious and super cheap and then that afternoon we booked onto a chocolate workshop at ChaqChao chocolate factory. It was AMAZING. The instructor was a chocolate expert and taught us all about the history of chocolate from how the Incas used to drink the cocoa beans in a hot drink with chilli for courage before battle and as an aphrodisiac to which companies he believes are making good chocolate nowadays.

 We started by peeling the cocoa beans, roasting them and then trying the Incan drink. Then we learnt about how to split the beans into cocoa mass and cocoa butter. The process of then mixing both of these back together with some sugar is what makes chocolate. We then moved downstairs to see how the chocolate is tempered and then got to make our own chocolates using flavours of our choice. After the workshop Kim and I tried a Peruvian beer tasting board at the cafe and then had some pizza (including one with berries and cheese as toppings) and some Peruvian gin and tonics at a cool restaurant below the chocolate cafe called La Gringas. A truly perfect (and indulgent) day to end my time in Arequipa. 

The following day I travelled by coach to Puno, a town on the banks of Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. When Kim arrived on a later coach we walked to a viewpoint to get our first real glimpse of the lake and decided, as Puno itself is pretty quiet and uninspiring, that we would book onto a two day tour of some islands for the following day. 

The tour started early and we hopped on board a small boat to travel to our first stop, the Uros floating islands. I have never been anywhere quite like it. 

They are a group of small man-made floating islands made of reeds and buoyant earth, each with a few reed houses which people live, work and go to school in. We spent some time here learning about how they make the island, what life is like for the local people and why the islands exist before heading off  to our next destination, Amantani Island. After three hours of travelling through beautiful blue waters we reached the island and were introduced to our local host families, who we would be spending the night with. Everyone of this island wears the traditional clothing, and the colours of the women’s skirts relate to which of the 10 island communities they belong to. 

The island is also completely vegetarian and has very limited electricity, which makes it a very calm and peaceful place. Our host was an old lady called Francesca who lead us up impossibly steep paths to her home, right next to the quaint main square. She prepared us a lunch of three types of potato, rice and Andean cheese (a bit like halloumi) before we went to join the other tourists and hike up to the temples at the highest point of the island (4,000m above sea level) to watch a glorious sunset.

 When we returned to the house we sat and admired the Milky Way. Thanks to the lack of electricity we got an absolutely stunning view of it from our balcony. We had dinner of more potato and rice (it was more tasty than it sounds) before getting the very exciting opportunity to dress in the islands traditional clothes and go to a party with local musicians. I loved wearing the layered skirt and beautifully embroidered shawl and blouse and didn’t want to take it off after the music and dancing was finished! 

The next morning we woke up early (again) and left the island after breakfast to travel to our final stop Taquile island. Here we spent some time in the main square visiting the local market and seeing some of the UNESCO recognised textiles that the men on the island knit together. We then took a lovely walk around the perimeter of the island with views of the sparkling blue lake and distant islands around us. We stopped for lunch and our guide told us all about the specific clothing traditions of this island, where all the men wear different hats and belts depending on their age/ marital status. The people on this island were certainly not scared of colour or the use of huge rainbow Pom Poms, which I greatly appreciated. We were also shown how the local people make their natural shampoo from a plant and were assured that even the 95 year old people on the island did not get grey hair thanks to this recipe.

After lunch we jumped onboard our boat again and head back to Puno, feeling like we’d been away from the mainland for much longer than just one night! Kim and I grabbed a pizza and watched a film before saying our farewells and going to bed. I hope to see Kim after her travels, as she is thinking of moving to London! 

Now I am on a coach heading to the Peru/Bolivia border and onto my next adventure! 

Can’t wait to see what Bolivia has in store for me! 

Thanks for reading,

Emma

Machu Picchu.... Isn't the only amazing thing Cusco has to offer.

Hola! 

I am currently writing this post from the most comfy night bus I have ever taken on the way to Arequipa. It was really sad to say goodbye to Cusco and the wonderful people I have met there but I'm excited to be on the move again and ready to explore another beautiful place. 

Since I last wrote a post I have had my final week volunteering at Aldea Yanapay. The kids were crazy and adorable in equal measures and we created the end of week show all about water pollution in Peru. It's been such an amazing experience to be part of and it was really great to be involved in a project with children again to remind me how much I enjoy working with people. 

In the mornings we mostly relaxed or walked around the city as the afternoons were so tiring. One day AK and I walked to the San Blas district which is an area full of cute coffee shops, boutiques, hotels and restaurants. We stumbled across a French run creperie and how could I resist? Afterwards we went to a market and had a huge fresh juice for 5 soles (about £1).

On Saturday I had a day trip booked to see the Rainbow Mountain. The site was only opened as a tourist destination recently but now sees hundreds of people visit every day. I was really excited and prepared for the difficult high altitude trek it would take to get there and set off with the minivan at 4am. We got to our breakfast stop and the guide received some phone calls telling him that the roads to rainbow mountains had been blocked off by local farmers who were protesting the high levels of traffic and the effect it was having on their crops. Our guide told us that there was an alternative site we could go to instead and, feeling disappointed, we set off again. Saturday also happened to be the day my dad and Sally were celebrating their wedding in the UK and so I forked out for some data and face timed the family in the bus while they were eating a delicious three course meal in Ascot which was quite surreal. 

As we drove the landscape got more and more alien, with red terraced mountains and alpacas grazing where ever you looked. When we arrived at the site I couldn't believe my eyes. This place had not just one rainbow coloured mountain but at least three dotted around this almost martian valley. We were free to walk around the site for 2 and a half hours and I had to pick my jaw off the floor on multiple occasions. I climbed to the highest point from which you can see the snow capped Andes all around and a panorama of the rainbow valley. I facetimed my family again trying to show them how beautiful the place was but I think bad signal meant they probably just saw a blur and heard a very excited Emma trying to explain what she was seeing. We left just as it began to snow and stopped at a couple of lakes on the way back to Cusco. 

Sunday was my day to relax and get ready for my four day trek to Machu Picchu. I went to a briefing that evening and met my group, 9 French doctors in training. On Monday morning I was picked up at 5am and we drove via some breakfast to our starting point. The first day we walked along an Incan Canal and then up to our canpsite for some lunch and a siesta before ascending up the steep slope to reach Humantay Lake, a vast turquoise glacial lake. 

After spending a while exploring we returned to the camp and played cards until dinner was ready, which was absolutely delicious.

The following day we got up 5am to begin our climb to the tallest point of the trek, Salkantay Pass. The walk was difficult but offered gorgeous views of the surrounding valleys and mountains. We reached the pass after a few hours of walking and celebrated before going off the beaten track a bit to visit another glacial lake where our guide Ricardo explained the Incan traditional beliefs about mother earth (Pacha Mama). 

We walked for a few more hours down to a lower altitude and our second campsite where we treated ourselves to a beer and a hot shower and got to play with some cute dogs. That evening we played a drinking game with the whole group and ate another delicious dinner before bed. It rained really heavily that night and I was very grateful our tents had been set up under a roofed structure, another reason I loved the travel agent I chose. 

The next morning was another 5am start to walk into the jungle. The landscape was completely different to the previous days and much hotter. We saw a lot of colourful flowers and medicinal plants which Ricardo pointed out.  After about 5 hours of walking we had ceviche for lunch and then were picked up by a minivan and taken to a place near Machu Picchu called Hydroelectrica where we started a three hour walk through jungle along a train track which seemed to go on forever. 

When we arrived to our final accommodation in Aguas Callientes we had a quick rest then visited the hot springs which were a bit of a disappointment but nice to be able to soak our aching muscles before our final ascent to Machu Picchu the next day. 

For our final day we left our accommodation at 3:45am (!) and walked to the entrance gate of Machu Picchu national park. We waited in a queue until 5am and when we got to the front the French guys realised that Ricardo had not given them their tickets. I already had mine so I set off alone up the steep steps for 50 minutes watching the sun start to rise through the misty mountains, until the entrance to Machu Picchu itself where I was one of the first in the queue. The French group were not far behind and we all entered together. When we got to the area where you can take the typical postcard photo the whole area was covered in a thick fog, although we were in high spirits despite this as we had finally made it!! 

We sat with Ricardo as he gave us the history of the site, which was built by the Incans before being abandoned when the Spanish arrived. It was then not 'discovered' again until 1911 when a historian from Yale university set about trying to find the mythical lost Incan city. On one expedition he asked a young boy if he had ever seen anything matching the description of Machu Picchu and the kids said 'oh yeah, my family live there'. Turns out that a couple of farming families had been living in the ruins but soon the historian and his team had visited and taken many of the precious artefacts found there back to Yale with them (classic) and were locking horns with the Peruvian government over ownership of the site. The site itself is magical, with many stone structures still standing despite multiple earthquakes. The skies cleared throughout the day and finally we got to see that infamous view. 

We said goodbye to Ricardo and then I separated from the French group who had an earlier bus to catch back in Hydroelectrica. I however had one final challenge to overcome. Yes after four days of nearly none-stop walking I had decided it was a good idea to climb Machu Picchu Mountain, another 652 metres up from Machu Picchu. The climb was really difficult, especially in the increasing temperature, and the steps were unbelievably steep at some points but, thanks to a great playlist of Spotify and a bit of determination, I reached the top and was treated to an incredible view of the whole mountain range including Machu Picchu which looked tiny from up there. 

The walk down was actually harder than going up because by that point my knees were really sore and every step was more and more diffcult. 

When I got back to aguas callientes I hobbled through town and found a restaurant where I treated myself to a coke and a cheesy quesadilla. I caught the train most of the way back to Cusco, which was really luxurious and gave me the chance to see some more beautiful landscapes. We had to catch a taxi back to cusco for the last hour and a half of the journey which I found pretty terrifying as the taxi driver was chewing coca leaves the whole journey and got progressively faster and faster going round the endless corners. I was very happy to arrive back in Cusco in one piece and understandably slept a LOT that night. 

The next day I decided to go and get a massage, which turned out to be the best decision and I felt amazing afterwards. The next couple of days I relaxed more, went to watch the sunset over the city and drank some pisco sours with the other volunteers who were leaving. 

So that's my time in Cusco finished! Going to book my trip to see the Colca Canyon near Arequipa and see what else there is to discover now :) 

Thanks for reading! 

Busy week in Cusco

Hey there! Woah a lot has happened since I last posted and it's only been a week! I' m going try and keep this concise and not ramble too much so bear with (or is it bare with?) I promise that the stuff I've been up to in the last seven days are enough to keep you interested!

So for starters my last night in Lima was a LOT of fun. The hostel organised a beer pong evening and then a big group of us went to one of the nightclubs nearby. You hear about how latin americans are amazing dancers, but seriously I felt soooo inadequate, and inadequacy that was added to by the fact I was wearing the backpacker clothes I had been wearing that day including hiking socks and a bum bag. 

The next day, still with a ringing in my eyes from the blaring latino music the night before, I flew to Cusco. At the airport the budget airline I had chosen was trying to squeeze every last penny out of it's customers and ruthlessly measuring hand luggage. I managed to wear half of the contents of my bag and squeeze it into the correct propotions. Sweaty and hungover I got to the check in desk only to have to pay £15 to have my boarding pass printed. The flight itself was both amazing and absolutely terrifying. To get to Cusco you have to fly right over the Andes, which makes for incredible plane window viewing!

However to come in to land the plane has to do what feel like a 360 turn right over the city as you are decending. I swear as I saw the roofs of the houses getting closer and closer and felt no sign that the pilot was going to straighten up any time soon I was thinking 'well, at least I get to die doing what I love. And with any luck I'll be on the news!'. Thankfully we did land (you know its been a sketchy ride when the passengers cheer and clap upon landing) and as soon as I got off the plane I could feel the altitude other travellers had been speaking about. The air felt very thin and I quickly had to adjust my London walking pace for a much slower one. A woman from my hostel was waiting for me and we jumped in a taxi and head for the city. 

The hostel is situated really close to the main square in Cusco and is a beautiful Spanish style building with a lovely courtyard and views of the mountains which twinkle with the lights from houses at night. 

When I arrived I met Ann-Katherine (or AK for short) a German girl who is volunteering through a German organisation for three and a half months. I decided to take a wander around the local area and found a sprawling market called Sam Pedro which sold everything from the famous alpaca jumpers to fruit and veg. 

The altitude was making me light headed so I opted for an early night. The following day AK and I went on a walking tour of Cusco, exploring the street filled with Incan and colonial history. Turns out that when the Spanish got here they just build on top of the mighty stone walls the Incans had so masterfully built. Even the churches and cathedrals are build on Incan foundations! 

After the tour we stumbled across an amazing parade in the main square, Plaza De Armas, where there were hundreds of groups dressed in various ceremonial and traditional outfits performing dances for the crowds. We sat and watched for ages unable to take in all the sights and colours. Eventually we tore ourselves away and got an early night for our first day of volunteering.

 

 

On Monday morning I woke up with a huge knot in my stomach, I was so nervous to be starting a project at a Spanish speaking school with other volunteers who all spoke Spanish. Honestly I was thinking about quitting even before I had begun. But my experience with travelling has always been that when it is tough, something amazing will come of it, so with some Whatsapp encouragement from home, I sucked it up and jumped on in. Just before our briefing a group of Americans and an Australian joined our team, settling my nerves of being the only English speaker. We were told all about the philosophy of the project and what our roles would be. The project is called Aldea Yanapay and is a youth centre for local children which offers art, games, music and a vital support network as a lot of the children come from troubled backgrounds. I am working in the afternoons from 3-7pm starting with an art class, then play time then an hour called circle time which can be anything from watching a movie, singing songs or speaking about issues the group has. The day then ends with family time where the children are split into age groups and spend time with volunteers speaking about the theme of the week. This weeks theme was Woman's Rights, which is a pretty cool but very complex theme especially as I know nothing about women's rights in Peru. 

My nerves were completely abolished when I met the children! They were so welcoming and did not judge you even if you couldn't understand them or they couldn't understand you. I had so much fun but was absolutely knackered by the end! 

The next day I spent the morning exploring a bit more of Cusco, recreating a photo my parents had taken when they were here in the 80's and dropping in on some travel agencies to get an idea of prices for my trek to Machu Picchu. 

In the afternoon we made masks in art class and I facilitated a couple of games during circle time, with the help of a translator of course. Luckily for me a lot of the Spanish and French volunteers speak some level of English, which has been super useful for when I need to speak to the kids.  

On Wednesday I spent the morning visiting more travel agencies, especially the ones which I had seen had good reviews online. Of course the ones with the most outstanding reviews were WAY over my budget but I found one with great reviews and a decent price eventually. I met AK for some lunch before heading Aldea Yanapay again. This time Yuri, the guy who started the project and who generally looks like a Peruvian Jesus was visiting. He spoke during the circle, and amazingly with my slowly improving Spanish, I managed to understand the gist of what he was speaking about. He was telling the group that it's important that we embrace all of our emotions and that it is ok not to be happy all the time. He also spoke about Yanapay being a place where we respect each other and are free to have our own thoughts and opinions. 

He then asked the group if anyone had anything they wanted to get off their chest and a teenage girl got up in front of the group and spoke about how she is always feeling sad at the moment and that she doesn't feel like she can speak to her family about it. As she was talking she was getting choked up and you could tell that this had been really weighing on her. Then a younger girl volunteered to stand up and told the group she wished her dad would stop drinking so much. It was a really emotional and amazing thing to see children speak so openly about their feelings in front of each other and made me realise what an amazing service this project provides. At the end of the circle we all had a few minutes to sit and meditate, which the children did amazingly well, and by the end there were a group of teenagers weeping. As we all left for family time Yuri kept the older group behind and ran another circle just for them as it was clear a lot of feelings had been brought up that needed to be aired out. 

After the children left we had a meeting with Yuri who told us why he had started the project and what he hoped the children got out of it. He also discussed how spirituality underpins a lot of his work and how this is a space for the kids to explore that too, especially with the rich spiritual history that Peru has. That evening, back at the hostel, it was quiz night and all the volunteers were split into teams. The entire quiz was done in Spanish but with some help with translation and a great deal of guess work I managed to follow what was going on. This quiz was a quiz with a difference though, every other round was a group challenge (come up with a dance routine, guess the food while blindfolded etc) and each person was given an individual challenge at the beginning of the quiz. Mine was to do a rolly-polly after every group challenge, which I managed to do without embarrassing myself too much. 

The next day was pretty incredible. I went with AK to help with a project that the organisation she is here with is working on. We met with a super friendly Peruvian guy (who can also speak english and german) called Alexis who worked for the organisation and picked up some building equipment in Cusco and then drove out the a village in the acred valley. The drive itself was absolutely gorgeous, through jaw-dropping valleys and beautiful landscapes. When we arrived we visited the small village school and gave out cake and jelly to the very enthusiastic and terribly cute students. 

We then visited the local adults to give them the building equipment to help the build an irrigation system for their farms. It was really amazing seeing the difference an organisation can make to a community first hand. As a thank you two of the women from the village came and bought us freshly cooked lunch. I was sooo hungry by this point and couldn't wait to eat. It was only until the plate was laid down in front of me that I realised this village would not offer a vegetarian option. In Peru, there is a certain dish that is considered a delicacy. A dish that you definitely can't find back home. To say that I ate a guinea pig that day would be a lie.... I only ate half. As the first piece of meat I have eaten in three years (yes, apart from that bit of chicken at Christmas Bonnie!) it actually tasted pretty darn good and I only thought about my childhood pet guinea pigs a couple of times. 

When we returned to the car I was full of such a warm rewarding feeling (and guinea pig). Really nothing beats the feeling you get from helping others. This is a feeling I have been missing since working in the rat race and something I definitely needed reminding of. That afternoon we returned to the wonderful kids of Aldea Yanapay and I took part in a bit of karaoke back at the hostel that evening.

Today has been a successful day. This morning I booked my trek to Machu Picchu with Oki Doki travel and will be setting off on the 17th for 4 days and 3 nights. I've decided to do the slightly less famous Salkantay trek rather than the Incan Trail as it is significantly cheaper, just as beautiful and does not require you to book 6 months in advance. At 11am we had a volunteer group meeting where we discussed volunteering best practices and learned more about that difficult situations that a lot of the children have at home. In the afternoon, after I had managed to smash the screen of my phone by playing skip rope with some of the girls, we spent the whole time getting our end of week performances ready in our family groups. This is when I really wish I could speak Spanish as I have so much experience from University which is soooo relevant to this work but I cant communicate it to the kids. Our performance went well in the end but was by no means a broadway production, which made it even more endearing. 

Today was a group of French volunteers last day so are going to go and play beer pong somewhere and see what the Cusco nightlife has to offer!

I have had such a challenging, rewarding and inspiring week in Cusco and cant wait to see what I will learn from next week! 

Thanks for reading!!

Emma

Into The Unknown..... again

Hello! Welcome back to my blog, it's been a while! It's actually been almost three years since my last post, during which time I have been having a blast in London but have also been living that rat race life. Well you know what? Enough of that! Due to some unforeseen, and in hindsight greatly appreciated circumstances, I have found myself out of a job and have decided to take a break from adulting for a while and explore South America! I now have until late November to try and see as much of this amazing continent as I can and there is a LOT to see. (my vague planned route below)

The last couple of months have been crazy! I went on a month long trip to the USA with my family where we travelled from Seattle to San Diego with a detour to Las Vegas for my dad and Sally's amazing wedding. I then flew back to London for a few days before jetting off with Grant to Ireland for another wedding and a mini road trip along the beautiful Irish west coast. Then, the day after I returned from Ireland, I caught a flight from London to Lima in Peru, which is where I am currently writing this post from. It's fair to say my body has no idea what time or day it is, but I am so happy to be here! 

My time in Lima started with a very early arrival into Lima airport and a taxi ride through the crazy streets of the city during rush hour (or maybe thats what every hour looks like on the roas of Lima). I arrived at my hostel, Puriwasi Lima, before my room was ready and so decided to take advantage of the free breakfast. During brekkie I met Katie, a British girl who had just arrived herself and was due to be in Lima for the same amount if time as me. We both signed up to the free walking tour the hostel offered and by 10:15 we were making our way to the centre of the city with Andres our guide (and the hostel's barman). The centre of Lima is gorgeous, filled with colourful and sometimes crumbling colonial buildings, huge churches, and imposing government buildings. We walked around learning the history of the streets, which played a huge part in the fight for independance, and some of the famous figures immortalised with statues around the city. For lunch we found ourselves in a surreal part of town, and somewhere I did not expect to see in Peru, China Town. We ate wantan soup and noodles, made even more surreal by the jet lag that was certainly kicking in by this point. Back at the hostel I put my feet up for a well needed rest and that evening we ate tacos at the hostel and got an early night.

The following day Katie and I decided to visit Huaca Pucllana, a pre-Incan ruin which is found right in the middle of the suburb we were staying in. The site had originally been used for spiritual practices such as human sacrifices and burials and was constructed out of millions of clay bricks, laid vertically so that they would be able to withstand the earthquakes that Peru often experiences. It was here where I learnt that Peru has over 3,000 different species of potato (you could eat a different type of potato every day for nearly 10 years!) and, a fact which traumatised me way more than hearing about the human sacrifices, guinea pigs are a local delicacy! 

After our tour Katie and I made our way, using our very rusty Spanish skills, in a taxi to the fisherman's wharf, where the fish caught that morning are brought and sold. We tried a Peruvian classic, fresh ceviche and shared a huge bottle of Inca Cola, Peru's favourite soft drink (imagine Iron Bru but bright yellow instead of orange).  That evening we visited the local evening market in Kennedy Park and had some pisco sours at the hostel bar before some over enthusiastic karaoke and a trip to a local (awful) club ensued.

Today got off to a relaxed start with a lie in and leisurely stroll around Kennedy Park. In the afternoon I joined a group of Americans from the hostel on a free walking tour of the Barranco district of Lima. This area has kept many of the colonial architecture and is the home of the art and music scene of Lima, which is made very clear by the abundance of street art that covers most of the walls. The tour was brilliant and finished off with a quick guide of how to make the best pisco sour. I loved this area and would love to have spent more time exploring it.

Lima as a whole has definitely outdone my expectations and has been a great start to my Peruvian journey! Tomorrow I fly to Cusco to start my two week volunteering project and explore more of what Peru has to offer, including of course, Machu Picchu! I can't wait!

Thanks for reading!

Emma

 

Hampi and Goa. The End Is Nigh.

And suddenly, I only had a handful of destinations left. How it happened I'll never know but it was the final very few weeks of my trip and, like with water going down the drain, the end seemed to be moving faster than the rest. My emotions about moving home were slowly turning from fear and sadness to optimism and excitement, I was becoming more generous with my money knowing that, surprisingly, my bank balance was looking better than expected, and I was really freely enjoying myself with the end date moving closer. 

No one could have prepared me for my next stop, Hampi, a truly mind-boggling place. Victoria and I caught our overnight train from Mysore and arrived in the early morning, hopped on a bus and found ourselves driving past ancient temples after ancient temple and an extremely peculiar landscape with piles of huge boulders stretching as far as the eye could see. When we arrived in Hampi we walked through the bazaar to the river and, just like countless travellers I had met along the way had told me to do, got a small boat across the tiny river to the other side to find our guesthouse, Sunny's, straight away. We had booked to stay in a beautiful little yellow bamboo shack and the guesthouse seemed perfect.

I bumped into Jack again (surprise surprise) and also Rachel from Rishikesh and their two new travel companions Rob from Blackpool and Jess from Auckland. That day Victoria and I walked around the temples on the other side of the river and climbed next to the winding river to find so many ruins hidden in the piles of boulders and loads of carvings in the rocks themselves, finding these discoveries making us feel like real explorers. 

After thoroughly exhausting ourselves we walked lazily back to our guesthouse and went out for some dinner with the others before an early night. The explorations continued the next day when I rented a bike along with Jack, Rachel, Rob, Jess and another Jack from Manchester and we all set off as a biker gang. I have done quite a bit of riding during my trip but this journey may be my favourite. My mouth was constantly open with amazement at the landscape around me as we glided past fields, temples, boulders and lakes. We stopped at Hampi Lake where there was a sheltered area fit for paddling and we relaxed there with some music before we started to get hungry and jumped back on our bikes to find the nearest chai stop. We found a nice little guesthouse not far away where we drank chai and decided to put lots of glitter on our faces, because thats what biker gangs do right!? Well, that's what the Jack Star Five + Jack Crew, our David Bowie inspired gang does. Well, why not right? 

Needless to say we left the guesthouse looking fabulous, but just as we were leaving I got a flat tyre and we had to stop in a nearby village to get it looked at. The villagers looked at us strangely (could it be the glitter?) but we were soon entertaining the kids and on our way. We had spent all day out on the bikes and got back as it was getting dark for some dinner and a beer before removing the glitter and hitting the hay.

The following morning Jess, Jack and I went out for a spot of shopping and Jess and I bought some poi (two colourful balls on the end of strings that you spin around and do tricks with) because they were super cheap and we felt like learning something new. In the early afternoon we head out on the bikes to visit and nearby town where there were some more ruins by the river. Down by the river lots of women and children were playing and washing their laundry so we sat and people watched for a while until lunch time, delighted by the laughter and the amazingly bright clothes.

After lunch (and re-glittering our faces of course) we drove back to the lake and relaxed there for the evening where the guy who sells food at the lake had organised a meal and a bonfire for us. It was so great to be sat under the stars in such a gorgeous place with brilliant people and I had a bit of a moment, appreciated the beauty of the situation. We all drove back together in a convoy in the dark, which was pretty cool, and decided to continue the night by finding a bar to have some rum and beer in. That evening I moved into a hut with Jess and we stayed up chatting into the night.

I spent the next day being lazy in the heat. Jess and I took a short ride to the nearest ATM and in the evening Rachel, Jack, Jess and I climbed up to the top of a big mountain of boulders to watch the sunset and listen to a big group of Israelis (there are a lot of Israeli backpackers) make some music accompanied by some local children who were up on the hill trying to sell chai and lemonade.

On our last day in Hampi we were determined to be cultured so after checking out Jess, Rachel, Jack and I hired a rickshaw on the other side of the river and spent the day visiting some of the endless ruins that scatter the area. We visited huge temples, ancient marketplaces, the queens bath, and the elephant stables each of which had their own unique beauty and story. I especially enjoyed the queens palace which was the ideal romantic Indian design.

I also really liked the water hole in the ancient bazaar area where you could just picture the hustle and bustle that must have gone on there when it was in its prime.

Its amazing how seeing so much in such heat can tire you out so quickly but by the time we had seen the final temple, we were all shattered. We retired to a cafe and had some food before it was time to say farewell to Hampi, a place I really think I will see again some day, and also to Rachel and Jack (again). Jess and I had realised that we were heading in the same directions so we caught a bus from the main bus station near Hampi overnight to Goa. I didn't think I would miss the beach as much as I did but the idea of returning to one filled me with excitement, So much of my time has been spent by the sea and what better way to end the trip than by relaxing on the sand in the sun for a few days (and having one last desperate attempt to catch a tan). We got off the bus after a bumpy nights ride and caught a tuk tuk to Vagator beach, in the North of Goa next to the more famous Anjuna Beach. We found a hostel called Jungle Hostel and checked into a dorm room there before walking the short distance down to the beach and spending the day lying in the sun and eating food. The beach there was more beautiful than I was expecting. Maybe it was because I had heard that the north of Goa had gotten too touristy or tacky but I had low expectations for the beaches. However, my expectations were exceeded, like with so many places in India. The water was clean and warm and the sand was soft and relatively litter-free. The one thing I had heard that was true was the amount of Russian tourists there, so many that some stall owners would start a conversation with us in Russian before English. That evening we got an early night, even though there was a party going on in hostel as the lack of sleep we'd had on the bus had rendered us pretty unsociable. When we had re-energised the next day we caught a lift to Anjuna, where the weekly flea market is held. Originally this was a market where the local gypsies and some old time Goan hippies would come to sell their goods, now it is a huge market with many stalls where you can find great stuff if you are willing to wade through the rest. Our first purchase was a giant coconut. Brilliant find number one.

Next we found a beautiful little vintage boutique shop where I fell head over heels in love with a floor length green, sequined gown which I attempted to justify but in the end realised how much of a ridiculous thing it would be to buy and sadly returned it to its hanger. Here's a photo to show how great it was. I bought another lovely top from here. Brilliant find number two.

Brilliant find number three was a bronze, turquoise and red bracelet that we bought from a Tibetan stall owner and brilliant find number four was the creme de la creme. Emma bought a chair. Yep. Who doesn't go to Goa and buy a hanging chair they have literally nowhere to put when they get home? But I have no regrets, it's a beauty, and one day I will give it a home where it will be my reading chair, surrounded by books and fairy lights and carrying it around for the last week of my trip will have all been worth it.

After we shopped, we dropped onto the beach at Anjuna, where we stayed until sunset. It was here that I took some time to go away on my own. I had been carrying, in my backpack, some of my Mum's ashes in an old mint tin waiting for a time when it would be right to let them go. 30-something years ago my parents had visited the very same beach together when they were not much older than me so it made sense to do it here. I walked along the beach to a quiet rock-pool area and leant over the water, tipping the ashes into the sea. Of course I was sad, and I cried wishing that I could share all I have done with her, but it was also a beautiful moment to let go and know that she would have been very proud of me. I sat on the rocks looking out to sea for a while and watched the ashes that had landed on the rock being lapped up by the soft waves. I felt an unexpected wave of pride for myself at this point too, wow, I'd done it!

That evening we had some drinks with people at the hostel and went out for a boogie at a club in the jungle and the following morning I really paid for the amount of Old Monk rum I drank. I felt rough. Luckily so did Jess so we both felt rough together. We managed, eventually, to drag ourselves out of bed and to the closest restaurant where we had a life-saving mango juice and sat feeling sorry for ourselves before going to nap on the beach. As we were walking back to the hostel I recognised a guy on the back of a moped and it turned out to be Ben, who I had met in Colombo! Small world! We caught up and relaxed at the hostel and then played some Jenga with Ben and a guy from Germany before heading out for some late night food, nothing like a midnight snack!

On mine and Jess' last day in Vagator we, you guessed it, went to the beach and lazed around, stopping briefly to buy a couple of very nice very cheap dresses. That afternoon we set of on two crowded, sweaty, horrible buses to another beach destination further north called Arambol. We arrived after dark but managed to find a beach shack at a place called Laughing Buddha for a very reasonable price. We took a stroll around the many stalls that were set back from the beach, uh oh, more shopping, then sat with a beer listening to some live music which started off being good, but headed up being just awful, great memories. 

Another day on the beach awaited us when we woke up, YAY! It really did feel good to be able to relax and do very little after such a whirlwind over the past couple of months in India. We practiced a lot of poi and learnt some new tricks and bought a couple of cool things at the shops. That evening we splashed out further and got some cocktails and wandered down the beach to find a bar that was open. We met three British guys, two of which were in their early twenties and had actually grown up in Spain and Dave, an older old-school Goan visitor, we sat on the beach and talked over some rum and when Jess' speaker died it was time to call it a night. Check out was the following morning, and we managed to squeeze in some last minute lying on the beach, poi and pottering around before my last exotic beach sunset of the trip, I have been blessed to see so many of them this year and luckily it was a beauty to send me off.

We got a taxi to the bus stop and got our overnight bus to Mumbai, which felt like it was travelling at 100mph and didn't make me feel rested at all, and arrived bright and early in my FINAL destination and a place that already holds a lot of great memories, Mumbai.

So, I fly home on the 9th and so my next post will be written when I am back in Brighton after exactly a year of being abroad. It has been the most exhilarating year of my life and so much has changed for me now. I have enjoyed sharing my journey with you and thank you again for taking the time to read it. I am likely to get all soppy in the next post but I will end this one with a quote I wrote down in my little brown notebook before I left Brighton in 2014 (without fully realising how true it is).

'Once the travel bug bites, there is no known antidote, and I know I will be happily infected until the end of my life'

- Michael Palin

Thanks for reading,

Emma x