Metallica Review

So I'm back in England now after 10 months living it up in Arizona and soon I'll post up something of a review of the year but in the mean time, a quick summary of the Metallica concert in Tucson on May 16th. In one word... awesome!

This was my second time seeing Metallica live (the last at Wembley Stadium in July 2007) so the gig had a lot to live up to. Whilst the arena was nothing compared to Wembley stadium (it was essentially just a field with rubbish parking arrangements), the band delivered another brilliant performance resulting in mass anticipation for their new album to be released in September. You can pretty much work out a Metallica concert set list but they threw in a few slightly unexpected surprises with Fuel and Where-ever I may Roam after opening with the classic and atmospheric Ecstasy of Gold and Creeping Death. All the classics followed including Bells, Memory Remains, Unforgiven, Master, Fade to Black and One before the usual awesome ending on Seek and Destroy. Photos will be up somewhere sometime but not exactly sure when.

One more post on this Arizona blog probably at the weekend - a summary and then thats it. Perhaps I'll open another one now I'm back in the UK, we'll see!

Glorious Metallica Send Off

I haven't got time for a full Metallica report right now (probably not until Mon/Tues) but it was an awesome day/night in general and the concert was amazing. Now its time to come home to the mother-land; airport chao's and crying babies on aeroplanes awaits and with not a lot of sleep these last 3 nights, I'm sure a 4th in a Boeing 777 won't make much difference. I land in Heathrow at 10:45am on Sunday UK time (02:45 Arizona) so see you all soon!

Laters!

Crazy Golf, Mild Vinderloo and grades

It's been a funny old week this far. Saturday we went crazy golfing and decided to tackle both the 18 hole and 12 hole course resulting in 30 holes of crazy fun. One of the holes involved hitting the ball steeply uphill but gently enough to get under a wooden barrier at the top. I thought this sounded too much like hard work so decided to chip over the wooden barrier from about 20ft away, in hindsight, probably not a great idea. The resulting shock was as fluky and lucky as they get. The ball flew miles over the barrier, hit something well behind the wooden pergola surrounding the whole, bounced back, flew around the pergola narrowly missing Russ with the camera and landed just off the fairway.

Last night we went out to an Indian and ordered the classic curry's - Korma (Abi), Tikka Masala and Vindaloo (Me and Russ shared). Despite specifically asking for a hot Vindaloo, it didn't really have much of a kick, almost as if my mouth was lined with candle wax beforehand. It tasted nice though!

An finally, grades are coming in thick and fast here in Arizona. I have 4 of my 5 modules back thus far, all of which were A's including Plateaus which I was unsure about. Prof Davis, my active tectonics lecturer, was particularly pleased with how I did in his class. Just one more to go, Structural Geology, which is pretty much a guaranteed A! All is good!

Laters!

Final week

So it's my final week in Arizona, 40 down, 1 to go before flying back to the UK. Jeez, how time has flown!

Last weekend was the first laid-back succession of days in a long time - beers and food round a friends house friday night, crazy golf saturday and tidying/packing on sunday all punctuated by playing guitar to Green Day's live DVD, Bullet in a Bible rather loudly. This week should be equally fun. I have one exam on tuesday in structural geology which should be a breeze and then thats it. Wednesday we may be heading down to Nogales in Mexico for a day just to grab some photos, souvenirs and a legal drink of beer for the first time in 9 1/2 months! Thursday is party day/night and friday is Metallica, all should be good!

As normal, the grades come in from Arizona loads faster than they do in the UK - I already have one module back (A) and should get the rest this week. Kind of puts Leicester to shame really, it takes months there!

In the news today, a M7.8 earthquake hits the South-western Chinese province of Sichuan killing atleast 8500 but the death toll is expected to rise sharply. China has a long history of earthquake activity owing, on a broader scale, to it's unfortunate position between the gravitationally collapsing Tibetan Plateau and the subduction zones of the western Pacific. Some of the largest and deadliest earthquakes ever recorded have been known to strike China killing in excess of 500,000 people. The largest recorded earthquake, however, was a M9.5 shock to hit central Chile in 1960, closely followed by the M9.2 Andaman Islands Earthquake which triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

S'all for now folks! Laters!

Weird things happen in this town

I thought I was going nuts the other day, well I probably am but this is absurd! Walking towards downtown from my apartment, a motorbike went by with something colourful on the rider's arm. It warrented a second look and indeed the guy was travelling 30-40mph along the road with a parrot on his left arm! So that was weird!

What's more, the weird stories don't stop there! Many of my devoted readers (who-ever you are) may recall me talking about Professor George Davis at some point in the past. Well he had another cracker of a story today. At graduation ceremonies at the UofA, they serve the usual beverages and food since some of them take most of the day. By the time the afternoon arrives, half the audience is drunk and the other half probably bored with the formal speeches etc. Hence, it degrades into chaos. Tortilla's start to enjoy the wonders of flight across the room aimed not only at fellow students but the professors and speakers! And worse of all, no one really seems to care! I'd love for my graduation ceremony to end up in a mass drunken food fight.

This is the last week of classes here in Tucson, infact tomorrow (wednesday) is my last class before dead day (thursday) when i'll probably be working on Utah stuff and exams start friday of which I only have one (next tuesday) before flying back a week Saturday!

In other news, I've finally got some dates and information about my internship this summer with BG group - one of the leading international natural gas production companies. More information soon.

Laters!

T - 2 weeks

Two weeks to go in Arizona and rather than creeping up, the last few weeks are flying by. My knee is now much better after meeting the cacti bush last weekend and even the pool looks tempting for another visit sometime soon. It's now also under 2 weeks until Metallica come to Tucson the day before I fly out. Also lower on the bill for that night is a band called Apocalyptica who, bizarrely, cover most Metallica songs on the Chello! I kid you not and it sounds amazingly good, definately recommend checking them out.

This weeks been busy but pretty decent. My presentation in Structural Geology went well (I got 100%) and amongst the few comments from the instructor was "nice shirt" (a reference to my new "Do something with your life, get me a beer" t-shirt.

On Thursday, speaking to Jon, it struck me that the choice of modules for my 4th year back at Leicester University is, frankly, shocking. The 4th year should be about choosing modules similar to what you want to do as a career or PhD but theres no structural geology/tectonics modules but rather too many palaeontology, palaeobiology and climatic study (so called soft geology) modules for my liking. Infact, the choice is abysmal... so I sent an email to my tutor to see what he recommends.

And finally, some interesting news from Texas. A 21 year old walked into a bank and tried to pay in a fake cheque from his girlfriends mother. Ok, nothing suspicious provoked yet except he decided to write the check for $360,000,000, 000 ($360 billion!!!). He told the police he needed to pay off student debts - that's a lot of student debts! Also from Texas, a thief manage to talk himself out of a jail sentance for forgery by agreeing to pay a $4500 fine. The not-so-intelligent guy paid the fine with a fake cheque and subsequently got sent down for 8 years!

Laters!

Grand Canyon Weekend

Friday afternoon we travelled up to the GC for a weekend of hiking and relaxing combined with camping and drinking around an awesome camp fire. It was dark when we arrived but never mind, a short walk into the woods and I came back with a 12ft dead tree trunk and started a fire (primitive I know!). Alcohol came in the way of American beer, Nick's home brew, cheap wine and the optional rum and coke. Saturday we went on a leisurely hike into the canyon down the Kaibab Trail, about 4 miles and 2000ft ascent to a nice lunch spot half-way to the river. Nice except for the singular cacti bush which, of course, I had to have a disagreement with. Unfortunately the bush won and I end up with several 2 inch cacti needles about 3/4in into my knee. One hit the bone and the other went under the knee cap and pricked a tendant, the latter being the most painful. Still, in my usual enduring way, I got up and hiked back out of the canyon, and everything the following day with little fuss but did have some problems performing simple tasks like bending it to get in the car! As Andy said, "It's going to take more than a couple of little pricks to stop him (me)". Well, he's probably right but man, what an annoying little prick!

Saturday night we out-did ourselves with the fire, this time a 14ft tree trunk (broken into bits of course!) that really pumped out some heat. The beer was finished and a good laugh had by all. Sunday we went hiking around the rim to different vantage points and got some awesome photos, some from slightly dangerous but not completely reckless locations (like one with a 1000ft drop on 3 sides around me and Andy). Travelling back wasn't particularly boring either (except for that drab music just south of Flagstaff when I fell asleep!). I discovered Andy likes Sum 41 which suits me nicely and combined with the awesome stereo in our university Chevrolet Suburban (all of 12.9mpg!) made for an interesting journey. Amongst some random things we saw was a helicopter on a lorry on I10, 3 kids in the open back of a pickup travelling 75mph on I17 and 'that sign' at a service station in Flagstaff. All in all, great weekend, great scenery, great company!

Now its under 3 weeks til home time and things are getting interesting and keeping reasonably busy. In that time I need to fathom some cross-sections through our Utah map - made harder by the lack of knowledge of bed thickness, fault displacement and strike/dips - 3 somewhat crucial components.

S'all for now folks!
Laters

Living for the Weekend

Boy it's been a busy week. It all started Sunday night when I was up til 5am working and trying to sort things out for the F1 in Primary Schools competition. Everyday since has been busy with work but it's paying off and starting to ease up. I got an A in the second of my Active Tectonics papers, this one entitled "A structural and seismological study into the 2003 Bam boxing day earthquake and implications for Tehran". It was more interesting that the title lets on! I also got back my structural geology paper with a 100% best-in-class grade - which with no disrespects, it should be since I know most of the material and like tectonics/structural geology. Tomorrow is my big plateaus presentation - "Collision to Collapse in the Caledonides - Can we see orogenic plateaus in the geological record?". A 1 hour presentation/lecture to a group of talented and very knowledgeable individuals in what is essentially a graduate level class. Hence a lot of prep work has gone into that and I'm confident it will go well.

After a busy week which followed a busy semester and a busy life in general, I'm off to the Grand Canyon this weekend for one last hurrah before flying home in 3 weeks. It promises abit of hiking, relaxing, eating by the campfire and of course, one of the biggest hole-in-the-ground in the world. They'll be plenty of photos which i'll upload when I'm back. Hopefully someone will bring some beer for me!

I also realised this week that I have sub-conciously learned to touch-type, and damn'd quickly too! Reality is I've probably been doing it for ages but noticed it today when I was typing one thing and reading another at the same time.

S'all for now folks, Laters!

"Just fiddling around with rocks"

An article in the Daily Telegraph a few weeks ago caught the eye of my family back home and subsequently got posted out. It's only a small piece and goes as follows:

"Is it a bird, is it a crane... no, but it's possibly a geologist. The students who used to be teased at my school for 'just fidding around with rocks' are the new superheroes of the American job market. It's no longer just oil - soaring prices for copper, silver and gold have made geologists as valuable as, well, gold dust. Geology graduates in the United States are now receiving higher average starting salaries than people with Harvard MBA's. And immigration experts report that is there is any other occupation more guaranteed to speed your entry into America, they have yet to hear of it!"

We are clearly a worthwhile and highly regarded breed. The article didn't elaborate on which occupation's are least likely to guarantee entry in the the US but rumours suggest it may be dietrition or environmental studies.

Lots of work and great ideas

Such are the times when you have quite a lot of work to do but the ideas for new projects and developments are flowing thus adding to the work load. This is one of those times! 4 weeks from home and I thought this would be a nice wind-down time but there's only a few times I can recall being this busy during the course of the last year. However, that's not a bad thing! This week I have a 1 hr lecture to deliver on the Caledonian Orogeny and a orogenic plateau that doesn't really exist any more (that's Friday), I have a presentation on the Hurricane Fault to finalise, Seismic Data Processing hmwk to finish/start along with the class project. Then there's F1 in Primary Schools! Something's invigorated me this week to start thinking seriously about that again after my 8 month sabatical with very little news. During those months, the challenge pops into my head and I note down a few ideas - the list and possibilities have now become quite extensive - least of all rejuvenating the website with Tim, producing a proper demo CD and organising the race-day this June. These are exciting times for the competition and it's encouraging to have the enthusiastic support of a select group of friends back in the UK to carry on developing our brain-child. I'll be setting up this week, guys, an informal email network between us all so we can communicate efficiently as a group.

So indeed it is only 4 weeks 'til i arrive back in the UK. It's corny but there's a countdown timer at the top of my blog. Meh, why not!

And finally, some news from Austria. A thief broke into the headquaters of a leading political party and stole a number of laptops by crawling through a mail-flap! In reporting to the police, a spokesman said the thief must have been pretty small to fit through the 35cm x 35cm hole. That certainly rules out most Americans then! Ha ha, perhaps that's a little unfair - it was quite a small hole! Also briefly some news from Japan. A inter-school baseball match turned into a cricket score farce as one team concede 66 runs in 2 innings! For all those not familiar with baseball, conceeding more than 2 per-innings is considered pretty bad professionally. The coach of the losing team pleaded for the game to be abandoned and eventually the winners were awarded a more respectable 9-0 scoreline.

Laters!

Black out Tucson

Today most of western Tucson suffered a series of power cuts spanning much of the morning and early afternoon. 25,000 homes were cut off (including ours) aswell as the university, frying computer servers, networks and delicate connection nodes across the campus. IT technicians we're literally in tears watching their beloved systems being abused in this way. And the culprit? The usual incompetent digger operator working on the nearby freeway! He'll be sure to get a tongue lashing from his boss!

In other news, scientists in Florida have reconstructed voices of Neanderthal humans from the fossil records! It's true! Aparently they spoke differently to us without some of the basic vowels sounds that make up modern language allowing us, for example, to tell the difference between "beat" and "bit". And from South Africa, 2 19th century Rhino horns stolen from a museum have been deemed "life threateningly dangerous". Museum workers say they thieves have put themselves in a greater danger than that of arrest since the horns are coated in poison! I like this sort of counter-productive assault on criminals. "I've got your Rhino horn!", "You've got arsenic poisoning!"

Now Tucson has seemingly recovered from the black-outs, it's back to working. It's amazing how much you rely on your computer for work and internet for communication, especially when you haven't got it. It was a chance to chill by the pool and read a book though - getting a sun tan at the same time in this glorious weather us Arizonan's are enjoying. Anyway, it's back to work.
Laters!

Poll

Ok, it's been ages since i've put a poll up on my blog - not since I was trying to decide where to go during the Christmas vacation when I completely ignored the overwhelming 2 person vote and went to Peru instead of Alaska. This time it's a very non-serious question about where I should study for my PhD after i graduate next year. Answer honestly but equally, you don't seriously think I'm going to make the choice merely on what you lot think do you?!?!?
You can vote more than once so if you think you've really got a great piece of rock in your back garden then keep voting for it!

Laters!

35 Celsius in April

Not that it's cold now but, next week it's going to warm up abit! Mid 30's all week down here in Tucson hopefully.

Some interesting news came out of London this week. The new sport of Chessboxing - alternating rounds of chess and boxing - is attracting quite a crowd. I guess if you can't beat someone at chess you can just, well, beat them!

Not too much news this end this week. The internet is finally working back in the apartment (someone had just bluntly disconnected us!), the pool is tempting as ever and it's really just countdown time 'til home in 5 weeks. I'm starting to prepare myself for the higher prices back in the UK after 9 months of cheapness. Especially annoying is the fuel prices - over £1 a litre takes the micky. Hence my new car (hopefully a Ford Focus) will probably be converted to LPG or at the very least a diesel. We shall see.

In the mean time, hiking idea's for the summer - I need some! Of course it depends on how much time i've got but trans-Pyrenee's way would be awesome or LEJOG but both are quite long to say the least. Idea's are welcome.

What a boring blog this week! Laters!

Highs and Lows

It's been a funny few days. Yesterday I found out that my GSA research proposal wasn't going to be granted for my work on Mars (although they commented that the project was of interest and the chances of success were high). Such is the process of applying for research money. On the up side, I brought tickets to see Metallica play in Tucson on Friday 16th May, the day before I leave to go home. A chance for some mindless violence that is 'moshing' along with awesome music from one of the greatest live bands.

Speaking of coming home, I've also booked my flight back home since it is only 5 1/2 weeks away. Tucson to London Heathrow via Dallas leaving May 17th arriving May 18th so if your at any of those airports on that weekend, be sure to say hi and help me carry all of my luggage.

Today I've got my fault paper to hand in for structural geology - 7 slightly tedious pages on the Hurricane Fault of south-west Utah. It really is as interesting as it sounds! Any how, it should be a good week. Laters everyone!

Geodaze

So thursday, friday, saturday of last week was the annual Geodaze symposium here at the UofA. The event is organised and ran by graduate students and is seen as a change for all geology students to present their research to win prizes (up to $1000 for best talk!). There's also a party and fieldtrip for good gesture and best of all, its free! So i was there watching the talks, eating and drinking the free refreshments at the party and rocking on the fieldtrip (excuse the pun). This weekend infact has been all in the field. Saturday was the geodaze trip up in the Catalina Mountains with George Davis - good trip, interesting rock, very hot weather. Sunday was the last structural geology fieldtrip towards the Tanque Verde area in a canyon. The scenery was great, great rocks, plenty of climbing to do - all in all a good couple of trips. This week, however, is back to work at uni! 6 weeks til home!

And finally, a story from the US state of Georgia. A classroom full of 9 yr olds are being investigated by police for plotting to tie up and hurt their teacher. The children had brough in a steak knife, handcuffs and electrical tape with a plot to tie up and repeatedly hit the teacher over the head with a paperweight. Aparently the knife was just their to cut the tape!

Laters!

My Chemical Romance in Tucson

So last night MCR came to Tucson on the first night of their sell-out current tour. I'm not a huge fan but Black Parade is such a great album i thought i'd go to check them out. The support acts were kinda rubbish as always but MCR played well, sounding less of an emo band and more punk-rock which was good to hear. I was surprised at the mix of people present aswell - ok, yes there was some emo-skinny kids but also older adults (what the???), normal uni people like me just up for a show and the occasional fat guy just there for the moshing.

They performed all the usual songs from the Black Parade album - Welcome to the Black Parade, Cancer and Famous Last Words were my favourites, and also some older songs, ending with Helena during which the crowd went mental and ended the night nicely. But now its back to work and another busy week at university. However, something a little different this week.

The UofA holds an annual student run symposium in the geoscience department allowing students to present and view other peoples work accompanied by a guest speaker, party and fieldtrip. That runs from Thursday to Saturday so ill be sure to be there.

And finally some quick news from Texas. A woman travelling through Lubbock regional airport was stopped by TSA (the American airport security branch) and ordered to remove her nipple ring before going through the scanner. She's kicked up a big fuss about it and described her emotions as... "I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated, scared and angry". Wow!

Running in Motion

Time is flying by! And I'm definately the first to admit it. I'm thinking this week about flights to the UK and trying to work my way through the minefield that is airline pricing. Its only 7 1/2 weeks away and i really need to book something before they go through the roof.
With that in mind, the next 7 weeks or so are going to be busy but fun - the works not particularly hard theres just plenty of it.

Just a short post today unfortunately. I'm off to a post-fieldtrip meeting shortly and will hopefully get a pile of photos from our lecturer so i'll load a few more up in due course. However, a bit of news from India just to brighten everyone's day. A farmer is reporting this week that one of his cows can milk itself! I kid you not, everytime it eats food (morning and evening) it releases up to 8lts of milk. Reuters picked up on the story and described it as "Udderly Amazing"!

Utah Spring Break Fieldtrip

Some people go to Cancun, some to the Bahamas, some to Colorado, most don't remember much about it (Huon know's what i mean!), yes its the spring break time of the year - the infamous week of alcohol, partying and more alcohol for all of America's college students. Instead i was in Utah with 3 other students and Professor George Davis, one of the greatest structural geology and tectonics professors of our time...... and it was awesome!

We travelled up on Saturday last weekend, the journey taking pretty much all day with the usual traffic delays over the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas. The campsite was basic but nice especially when complimented with the amount of food George brought in coolers. Over the following days we took in the stratigraphy and mapped a transition zone in the Hurricane Fault. It's essentially a disperse zone of faulting inbetween 2 big segments of the Hurricane Fault. We must have mapped 50+ faults and the map looks really good. Aside from the mapping we also got a guided tour of the Springdale Landslide (a consequence of the 1992 St George Earthquake), a 3hr tour of the St George Dinosaur tracks with the founding Palaeontologist and visited Zion National Park. A brief selection of photos are in my online albums so check them out.

So now its back to work at the University of Arizona for the final 8 week run to home time in mid-May. There's a heck of a lot to do aswell. A tectonics paper, a plateaus presentation (again!), a fault paper, structural geology labs, possible mid-term exam, final exams, Mars work, Utah fieldtrip write up. The list is long! However, things are looking good. We've (me and Dr Byrne) have hopefully cracked the issue with the Mars radar data so that looks good to be get going soon. We're aiming to write up the Utah work and present it at this years Geological Society of America (GSA) conference in October so all is good. Despite all the work, theres some interesting stuff coming up aswell. My Chemical Romance are playing in Tucson next weekend and the following weekend is the Geodaze symposium and fieldtrip - its all go!
S'all for now guys, laters!

Back from Utah

Yep, back from a great trip to Utah for the last week. Great people, great professor, great scenery, great photos and great geology! Now tired so will post this weekend sometime.

Laters!

The Last Laugh

It's been ages since i've posted one of these so here goes:


• Abi - "GPS (global positioning system) is getting so accurate now that they reckon airplanes will eventually be able to fly themselves. Takeoff and landing included!" Paul - "I'd be careful about that. It'll probably be a Microsoft computer in which case it'll crash! Excuse the pun!" Russ - "Haha, you'll get an box flash up in the cockpit 'Do you want to send an error report?'. Yes i want to send a f*****g error report!"
• "Tie-bet" A fellow Structural Geology student adds yet another reason to think American's are illerate and poor at geography.
• "I like working with people who are more intelligent than me so i can steel their ideas!" Paul Kapp reveals the key to success.
• "Have you ever watched Ave Ventura with that slinky going down the steps in Tie-bet?" A fellow student asks a completely random and pointless question - as it the norm with some of these sophomores and juniors.
• "We've got no labels to tell us where it is - its abit of a mystery geology settling." Our Tectonics lecturer questions the location of a students structural diagram he sketched on the board. The student then wrote "Asia" in a large land mass. "Ah, that solves it!"
• "Let's call our Promax process 'Fred'", "That means when we click this button we'll be doing Fred!!!" Russ points out a somewhat tricky scenario when we name our seismic data processing data set. We ended up calling it Lucy!

Dead Man Rolling

Bizarre news from New York emerged a while ago (credit to my housemate Russ for bringing this excellent story to my attention). Two men were arrested after pushing a dead body around the streets of Manhatten on a wheel'ed office chair. When Mr Cintron, 66, died of natural causes, the polite thing to do is report the it to the authorities and arrange a funeral. Well, not before cashing in his social security check first! The duo wheeled the guy down the street, one of them holding his head upright, (why they didnt drive i dont know!) and took him into a cheque casher place. The went to the clerk and presented the check but she said Mr Cintron needs to cash it himself. "He's outside!" came the reply, in the chair! A crowd gathered round and the police were called. Exactly what the suspects will be charged with remains unclear. Grevious dead-bodily harm perhaps?



And back in Arizona: - at last i have a relatively quiet period of university work. The last few weeks have been mad but its easing now. Saturday i went out hiking pretty much all day - 6am - 6pm. Photos will follow. This coming weekend i'm off to Utah with George Davis and some other guys to do some fault mapping. Word has it we could be able to publish something as a result of our work so should be a really interesting trip.

And finally, i saw the most surreal thing walking into uni yesterday. A big chav'd up pickup truck drove by with jacked up suspension, big exhausts etc - all the pointless crap to make you ego that little bit bigger. Anyway, there were 4 guys inside and blasting out of the stereo was the Barbie Girl song! I have to say i never thought i'd see the day! It left a smile on my face for a while.
Anyways, got to go. Will post again before i go to Utah.

Much to talk about this fine March day

March 1st in Tucson, Arizona hit 28 celcius with clear blue skies - perfect short 'n' t-shirt weather. The day for me was spent on a fieldtrip to Posta-Quemada wash in the nearby Rincon Mountains, mapping some overturned folds and generally getting confused by some very messed up geology. It was fun though!

The end to february was something of a milestone aswell - in terms of work, it got a lot out of the way and means i fly home to the UK in about 11 weeks time. The UK was hit by its biggest Earthquake in 25 years with the epicentre just 60 miles or so from my house and i wasn't there to feel it! That annoyed me for a few days!

Liverpool play the return leg of their champions league tie with Inter Milan this week - at the San Siro. Inter will do well to overturn Liverpool's remarkable 2:0 victory at Anfield - i shall be watching with interest.

In some more interesting news this week, a baby girl was literally born in the toilet in a train in India. The heavily pregnant mother went to use the toilet and (as the news agency put it) "The baby just popped out into the bowl!"

Laters all!

The Last Laugh

Ok, so this is the re-generated, made-over quotes post with some fresh material. What was wrong with the first title? It was rubbish! Here goes:

• "Your life span is only finite. I hate to tell you this but someday your going to die!" My Structural Geology lecturer, Paul Kapp reveals the haunting truth to us all.


• "I did gymnastics last night......with my son!" We all think the lecturer's abit weird until he clarifies he took his 2yr old to gym club. I think he just wanted to play on the trampolene though!


• "Is it ok if i bring powdered rock candy?" A member of the geology society wants to bring a bag of sugar as his contribution to the mass rock candy making ahead of the group running the junior stall at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show this weekend.


• "The sign's are different in engineering and geology so i'm like 'screw them'!"Paul Kapp once again shows little regard for detail. He also went on to say that gravitational acceleration (9.81ms) is ~10 for geologist!


• "I wouldn't worry, he never listen's to me!"; "Yeah, but your a woman!" Me and Abi discuss Russ' selective habits.
• "The UK has a rich and diverse geological history, its just doing sod all at the moment - its benign!" I pretty much sum up why i can't do a paper on the active tectonics of the British Isles.

Sigma Alpha Lambda

WARNING THIS POST HAS AN AGE RESTRICTION RECOMMENDATION OF 12+

Whether you've seen the American Pie films or not, you probably have some idea of what fraternities are at American Universities. If you have seen American Pie (including the incredibly awful 6th film, 'Beta House'), you probably have a view they're full of drunk's getting stoned on weed and coke and doing stupid stuff with themselves and various attachments. Since this is a 'PG' level blog, i'd better not elaborate too much more. It was therefore with some confusion and trepidation i received today a rather posh invite to join the "Sigma Alpha Lambda" fraternity.

This is a strictly by invitation only frat house for high achievers (yeah, it's full of geeks) which makes it even worse. If you've seen American Pie, the geek house gets mocked, bashed up and is full of arrogant, two-faced work-a-holics who can write pi to 3 million digits but can't cook beans on toast. Were assuming that American Pie is accurate - a fair assumption. What's worse is the $59 "initiation fee". Its not the fee i would be worried about but the initiation process. If American Pie is anything to go by, i'd need to get half of Tucson pregnant within 7 days to become a member. That's atleast double the reccommended daily allowance! Needless to say, i won't be joining! I wonder if my lecturer back in Leicester (a former graduate of the U of A) was a member???

In other news, i went in the pool today! Yes, this is an outdoor, non-heated swimming pool in February! And it was bloody freezing! Seriously, it was cold!

And finally, since ive had to suffer, a nice little football injury story for you. Saturday's Premiership encounter between Arsenal and Birmingham produced possibly the worse injury ive seen in football from the worse tackle ive ever seen. An Arsenal player was brought down just 2 minutes into the game by some Birmingham brickie. The tackle broke the Arsenal player's leg with bone visibly sticking out of the skin (through the sock!). Match of the Day kindly showed the highlights without any prior warning. Photos can bee seen on my friends blog (http://timnutt.blogspot.com/) but only for the non-squemish. I don't mind blood and gore but even i think this is nasty.

Laters.

28 weeks later

Yep, 28 weeks in Arizona and another 12 or so to go. 28 fast weeks!

This week has been insanely busy with uni work. So much so that on wednesday night i went into uni to do work and didnt get back to the apartment til around 5:30am. A hours sleep later, i got up, showered and headed back in. Hopefully wont be quite as extreme this week but still much to do. Aside from that, it was a relatively interesting week in the news. Indeed Liverpool won in the Champions league, the US shot down a satellite and some stupid Aussie raced a race horse half naked!

I had someone knock on my door yesterday again trying to sell me something. There quite inventive around here, always a cover story first but this one really was an interesting story. Standing before me was an 18yr old highschool senior wanting to raise some money to go to college since he was from a poorish background (you have to ignore his Levi jeans!). As part of his deal in getting into college was overcoming his fear of public speaking. I think he was doing one of these crappy degree courses but anyway. If he overcame his fear, he got to go to europe and visit London, Paris and Rome. He managed to deliver that to me without letting me get a word in - so much for public speaking phobia! He then asked were i was from and if i was "the man of the house" (you might get a feel for where this is going). England and yes were my somewhat puzzled answers. We got round to discussing which city i like the best (London, obviously!) and then how "cool" my accent was. He then showed me the leaftlet for extortionately prices porn magazines he was holding and asked "do i read magazines?". Well in all fairness mate, you don't really 'read' those sort of magazines and no, im not interested. He was persistent and i was patient (i never buy anything from the door so i just waste people's time since they bothered to disturb me). When he started commenting that my accent was "hot", i gave him a funny look and started closing the door. He managed to squeeze in "do you know your neighbours?" No, but hey, you might be lucky!

So the moral of the story is, dont buy anything from people at the door especially if they try to come on to you!

In other news, a competition in London has been set up for the "oddest book title". Its an official prize awarded annually etc. He's some of the titles on the shortlist:

• "How to Write an How to Write Book"
• "Cheese Problems Solved"
• "Are Woman Human?"

an my personal favourite:

• "If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs!"

S'all for now folks. laters!

Liverpool beat Inter!

Liverpool have done it again and produced a remarkable second half display to beat a Milan team in the Champions League. This time it was Inter Milan as opposed to AC whom they beat in the legendary 2005 final. One big question remains - how dear god can Liverpool beat Inter 2:0 yet lose to Barnsley in the FA cup??? All in the space of 3 days!
Meh, its a funny old game!

TGMS

So this weekend was the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show (TGMS), a big international geology exhibition held at the Tucson convention centre every year. As part of the geology society at the U of A, i helped in the junior section all weekend and had a great time although i'd had enough of the kids by the end. Some kids were really smart aswell, they could recognise rocks etc that i didnt know at their age, others just wanted to see the volcano explode (which was fine by me) and others didn't give a toss but a good time was had all the same. I was working with an American friend of mine, Nick - the traditional nutty professor but very knowledgable, he wants to teach, need i say any more.

The show itself was pretty good aswell, lots of rocks, fossils and minerals on show and sale and really cheap too. I brought a fossil sharks tooth for $1 (make into a chain), 3in polished ammonite for $2 and a cool geode for $8. I could have spent thousands though. It was great, even the stone carved bathroom sink was tempting!

Lots of funny stuff to report, most of which i can't recall right now but below are a few highlights.

• Part of the junior section was giving out free minerals to children. Kids would pick up an egg carton and go around and pick up rocks from trays. However, we made one kid cry when he opened his egg carton to find a dead lizard inside! Me and Nick couldn't stop laughing and Derek, the resident reptile guy, picked it up and, just to prove it was dead, started squeezing it.
• Everyone in the geology club is on a geology degree so they know atleast some geology. On saturday afternoon we had one helper who walked over to our table and ask me: "What's this then?". "Granite" i reply, slightly bemused. "Oh ok, what's this then?". "Granite". "There both granite? Cool, whats this one?". "Take a guess!"
• I managed to put a kid off McDonalds milkshakes when i revealed that they contain a sizable portion of Kaolinite (clay). It's true aswell, it thickens the 'solution'!
• One lady came over to me and i showed her the crystals you can grow at home. Despite going through the whole instructions and repeatedly saying these happen over night, she asks: "So how long does this take?" Jesus!
• When we blow up the volcano, i normally try to play the trick with pumice and pretend its really heavy by passing it to someone. This kid cottoned on to what i was doing and when i suggested he passed it to his sister he said: "Nah, i won't bother. She's not strong enough!" Cheeky little sod!

So now, this next week is going to be mega busy with work. By the end of the month ive got a lecture to give on the Tibetan Plateau, paper on the active tectonics of the Kamchatka pennisular, reading for active tect and plateaus, field trip write up to finish, grant proposal to write, Duke of Edinburgh's award ambassador presentation to record and still working Mars and my 4th year project. Busy busy busy...

Laters!

Cottonwood Wash Fieldtrip

So saturday was my first proper fieldtrip of the semester - Structural Geology trip to Cottonwood Wash on the north side of the Catalina Mountains (about 1 hr from Tucson). We went there with the anticipation of a relatively easy day surrounded by some "learning" geologists. And for the most part, we were right. The geology was a little more challenging than our meagre anticipations suggested but still only consisted of 3 units, 2 contacts and 2 faults and we were told to ignore the basalt dyke! You also couldn't ask for better examples of the geology either. The Granite basement was a classic - the clearest ive ever seen (but someone still thought it was a metamorphic rock! How the???) and the fault's even had gauge and an amazing polished surface in one place with great slickenlines.

Other than that, we were completely right. There were people who just drew straight lines on the map, the colouring would give Branney a heart attack and some people were so poorly equiped it was laughable. All in all though it was a great day out in the desert. We had to scramble up some steep rocky hills with loads of loose rock/gravel. It was hairy in places but fun especially sliding/running down.

Today was spent relaxing and doing uni - pretty much a typical Sunday. I improvised the solo to Nothing Else Matters by Metallica really quite well this morning, not sure i can repeat it but it sounded good. Speaking of which, im trying to learn Plug in Baby by Muse the opening rift of which is incredible and quite hard. Any tips anyone?

In the news this week, someone is suing their lawyer (yeah, odd one i know) for an "overly vigorous" handshake! I kid you not, apparently it constitutes assault so be careful all of you office bound pen pushers! Theres more news about a crazy Australian (whats new i hear you scream!) well nothing frankly! This one was trying to blow up Brisbane with a TV remote!

And finally, a reminder of the date - 10th February 2008. Its still 4 1/2 months til my birthday, dont ask me what i want yet!

Laters all!

Quotes Worth Hearing

Ok, so here's a new blog theme ripped quite blatently from one of my friends. Since none of my lecturers this semester are quite as productive as Mihai Ducea in delivering one line quotes, ive decided none of them deserve their own box but instead ill publish a weekly/fortnightly/whenever accumulation of liners as a normal blog. So here goes,

• "This is Giant's Causeway....in Scotland!" Our stand in lecturer gets his UK geography embarrassingly wrong much to Paul and Russ' dispair. Its worse that no-one else in the class realised. It seems that Ireland (North and Eire) is just part of the UK massif.


• "Some nebulus of time we'll call 'Past'" My Plateaus Seminar instructor innocently groups the last 4.5 billion years in one meaningless word".


• "My Philosophy is...'who cares'?" Paul Kapp, Structural Geology, sums up what we all feel.


• "Hz - it really hurts!" Roy Johnson, Seismic Data Processing, with one of his poorer jokes. (Hz is units of frequency)


• "I'm just sampling the turkey! That piece was ok, ill just try the next." I take on the role of food quality control when cooking last nights dinner. We brought a 11lb turkey for $4! It needed testing!


• "That's not real blonde surely?" I finish the structural practical very early so start looking around the room when my eye is caught to this young lady who blatently spends too much money on bleach!
• "Explain why Mary was wrong to propose...". "Because she's a woman!" A funny science exam answer i found on the net. Theres some classics out there!

That's all for now folks

Laters!

Day hike in the Catalina's

Ok, quite a weekend. Saturday i decided to get back out hiking abit and went to the Catalina Mountains just north of Tucson for the day. Seemed like a good idea - get out in some nice February sun and enjoy the scenery. And for the most part, it was. The scenery was amazing (kinda reminded me of the Grand Canyon on a smaller scale) and theres plenty of photos, some of which ill load up in due course. However, the lack of public transport kind of annoyed me. I was prepared to walk the 11 miles to the trailhead but anticipated catching a bus back. So much for that. I ended up walking to the mountains, ~15 miles in the mountains and about 9-10 miles back before just grabbing a taxi the last 3 miles. All in all, it was about 35-38 miles and pretty hard work. To make it more interesting, the path literally disappears at the top of the ridge so, with time constraints in mind, i cut down through the valley back to the path i came up on (it would have been fun if i wasnt so tired). Scrambling over rocks, through scrub bushes and up/down mini cliff faces.
When i eventually made it back to the road, the fun wasnt over yet. It was getting towards sunset and i some how trod on a rattlesnake before it spat some venom onto the back of my trouser leg. There was this weird squeching sound followed by a sharpish jab hitting the back of my calfs. I should clarify that the snake definately didn't bite me but the venom came at some force and i certainly felt it (probably not as much as the snake under my size 12 walking boot though!).

Sunday was a decidedly more relaxed affair. Mostly taken up by chatting to people back home and watching the superbowl. Only a brief comment there but the Patriots didn't win following the biggest upset in American Football history. The New York Giants won by 3 points to deny Tom Brady and New England the legendary perfect season.

On a side note, it seems that the popularity of beating sense into an Aussie teenager is still growing (www.slapcorey.com). I refer to the story a week or 2 back when some people who set up that website where you can "slap corey" down the street. (He's not particular popular in Australia following a series of parties and chav like stuff. The current hit count is 927311!

So now its back to uni and the usual busy reading and working regime. Fun fun fun!
Laters!

RockamRing 2008

The biggest music festival in Germany, one of the best rock festivals in the world (since woodstock atleast!) takes place this year over the weekend of the 6th, 7th and 8th of June at the Nurburgring racetrack, North West Germany. Entrance is 125 euros (about £90) for the whole 3 days including camping (this compares to £140+ for Glastonbury or Reading/Leeds). Metallica are headlining on Saturday and other performers include Bullet for my Valentine and Rage Against the Machine. More to be confirmed soon. Website - www.rockamring.co.uk. Anyone fancy it?

Quantum of Solace

Thats the newly confirmed title of Bond's 22nd outing due to be released in November 2008. Daniel Craig returns as bond follows on from loosing all the money at Casino Royale. The producers promise twice as much action as the last film which is good really because Royale was probably my least favourite of the modern (since Goldeneye) bond films. It was still a good watch but the plot was abit hollow (essentially evolved around winning money at a casino) and the ending (what ending???) was frankly terrible!

In other news this week, the BBC website reported that a modern depiction of "The Three Little Pigs" could be offensive and racist! The story evolves around 3 "cowboy builder" pigs who build there own houses - you know what happens. Aparently, it could offend the muslim/asian community as the idea of "pigs building houses is a slap in the face". I'm sorry but if your going to be so politically correct, we may aswell live in a communist global regime where everyone eats carrots, wears bright orange jail suits with no individualism what so ever and boycott that Hush Puppies toilet roll incase it offends the Cantonese! Thanks to Matt for pointing this story out.

And another fairly typically aussie story. A teenager from Melbourne recently got arrested for causing criminal damage at his parents home after inviting 500 people via myspace to a party at his house. It caused some £15000 worth of damage and his parents are predictably, not best impressed. Well, he didn't stop there. The 16 year old is now organising a "party tour" of western Australia with dates in Sydney and Brisbane, this time the parties are legal (although im not sure about the drinking). The kid has been idolised by some youths in Australia but condemned as an "arrogant brat" by everyone else. He's billed as Australia's Paris Hilton which, i think for a 16 year old lad, is the most embarrasing synonym possible. He even has a "slap correy down the street" website set up by some people who dont like him. 714,993 people have slapped him! Heres the website, try yourself - www.slapcorey.com. My record is 245m so far! Its silly but addictive and could be the answer to come of our chav problems in the UK. The creators are promising a new version where you can upload your own photos and slap whoever you want.

Anyway, ive got to get reading. My Active Tectonics lecturer is the world famous George Davis (no, honestly, he is world renown!). He's a great guy but had this wonderful idea that our reading list should be 170 papers long which works out at ~12 a week.
Laters

Peru Photos

Theres loads more Peru photos in my online albums:

Some from the 2 days i spent in Puno and on Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian Altiplano
And quite a few from Arequipa and the highlight of the trip, El Misit Volcano Trek.
Enjoy!

Arizona, Arizona. Whats going on Arizona?

So its back to the bustle of everyday university life for my second and final semester at the University of Arizona. I can't believe how fast the first semester pasted by and the second will surely follow suit. There's plenty of fun and interesting things lined up and the modules im taking look great. One's a structural geology module which is quite frankly taking the p**s - the lecturer introducing the module today referred to some faults as "these lines". Frankly, it should be an easy mark without too much hassle. Other modules are more challenging but not in a bad way. In one of them, im actually the only undergrad student. Then theres the weekly SESS meetings with free pizza lunch, Geodaze symposium in April, Spring Break (possibly fieldtrip to Utah), Structural Geology fieldtrips around Tucson, Mars research and of course homecoming in May.

I think ive just about fully recovered from Peru and the complete lack on sleep on monday and tuesday. I have indeed got something of an entertaining travel diary but it needs typing up. All in due course and hopefully itll be online within a week or so. Theres plenty of photos aswell, ill load them up shortly - of special note are some of the shots from the El Misti Volcano trek. Spectacular! Next Monday is Martin Luther King Day so we have a long weekend off uni. If only. I'll spend most of it sorting work out and trying to get somewhere with my 4th year research project in addition to the Mars work.

It seems about time to return to some odd news, its been lacking in the last few weeks since ive been travelling. Near Moscow, Russia, the military is having to pay compensation to a local resident after one of its rockets went AWOL and destroyed part of his house. Neighbours reported seeing a unidentified object drop 2 bombs during a military exercise. Fortunately no-one was in the house at the time. I think Russian adversaries should be a little concerned of potential future invasions. They seem to be having no problems hitting there own property!

More pointless research was published from Chicago this week. Scientists have discovered that Columbus was probably responsible for the european spread of syphilis. What is it with stereotypical sailors? Enough said really!

And finally, a 20 year old from Australia almostly completely severed his left arm by waving at a group of women on the pavement as he was a passenger in a passing vehicle. His arm was subsequently hit by a passing vehicle and almost ripped off. Doctors say its likely they will have to remove it. I guess some girls literally cost you an arm (and a leg).

Laters!

Back to the USA

today! My flight leaves Arequipa at 16:30pm then transfering to an American Airlines plane from Lima to Miami then on to Phoenix. Hopefully ill get an earlier flight to Miami else ive got a 13hr wait at Lima airport which isnt the most interesting place in the world.

A fun day ahead!
Laters

Volcan El Misti Trek

Last full day in Peru today before fighting with the global transport network from tomorrow afternoon to get back to Arizona.
Yesterday i came back to Arequipa after a 2 day trek up the El Misit Volcano just to the north of the city. Its not the tallest mountain around here or, aparently, the hardest. But at 5825m, its still bloody high and hard work! Friday morning we travelled in 4x4 to 3415m and then trekked quite slowly for about 6hrs to base camp at 4500m. I was in a group of 5 with mixed abilities and 2 guides. By the time we reached base camp, atleast 3 people were really feeling the effects of altitude and we still had 1300m to go! I fortunately acclimatised abit in Cusco and Puno so felt ok. At 1am the next morning we were up for breakfast (cheese and jam on bread! mmmm!) and left just before 2am. 2 people got hit badly with sickness overnight so stayed at base. 3 of us and 2 guides started the long trek up. 1300m vertical ascent doesnt sound much but at this altitude, its a big summit day. We hit about 5100m just before sunrise at 4:30am where a 3rd person dropped out and went back to base with one of the guides. Now it was just me, a dutch guy and a guide left.

Our first aim was the crater rim of the volcano at about 5750m. The last 400m to get here was excruitating. We were both beginning to suffer with the altitude by this point, me a little less i think. We were trekking in 3-4ft of snow with strong winds pounding our faces with snow and ice. Worst of all, i didnt have any gloves but had to have one of my hands out to hold the ice axe. It was cold! We eventually made it to the rim, just. There was a number of times we both thought of calling it a day but we got there. After a 15-20min break, we left our bags there and tried for the summit. The snow here was loose and not easy to walk on. Every step forward you sank a foot into the snow. Although it was only another 75m of ascent, it must have taken us 45 mins or so. We were taking a dozen steps then having a quick breather. I cannot describe how hard it is. Physically, i was ok. My legs weren´t feeling too bad or anything but the altitude made my head throb and less oxygen gets into your lungs. Its like the worst hangover ever, and i mean several-bottles-of-sambuca hangover!

At the top is a 15ft cross, covered in snow and ice when we got there. The views when the clouds broke were incredible. I have lots of photos but will load them up back in Arizona later this week. Getting down was fun though! We walked a short distance to the crater edge which formed an almost perfect bowl. Then just layed down with the ice axe on hand as a brake and slide all the way. You have to be careful to avoid the odd rock sticking out (it can hit some painful places!) but we slide really quickly into the centre and back to our bags. It took us ages to get up and 5 minutes to get back to our bags and another well deserved break.

Getting back down the rest of the mountain was pretty easy aswell. The top 800m was all snowed up so the same technique was applied. After that, until about 3600m it was all volcanic ash and scree. We stopped at basecamp to rest, collect the others and pick up the tents but essentially it was the biggest and best scree running jaunt ever! We lost about 2000m in total and with speed and ease. It was awesome!

Anyway, this is probably my last post from Peru unless i get time to write something tomorrow. Have a good week y´all.
Laters

Arequipa

Well this is my second day in Arequipa and ive gotta say, i love this city. Its the second largest in Peru (behind Lima) and is essentially a Spanish colonial city with a very strong British and American affluence. Overall, it balances really nicely. Its abit classier than the rest of Peru but still cheap to stay, eat and do. The hostel here is great aswell. The Point Arequipa is in an old mansion with plenty of space, a pool table, table tennis, free breakfast and free internet. Theres also hammocks in the garden to lounge around in and a cheap bar. What more could you want???

I had to buy a new pair of sunglasses today - i finally lost my old ones after leaving them in one too many places. I was asking for it really! The new ones cost me 30 soles equiv of $11 so not too bad. It still seemed like a lot - i cant adjust easily to the different exchange rates. Im converting soles to dollars to pounds and getting confused. Today was pretty good except for one crucial thing. I think ive lost my USB pen drive. The one with a lot of photos and uni work on. Ive got copies of my uni work on my laptop but not the photos. Thankfully i loaded a few up onto facebook but im still missing some great shots from the Sacred Valley and the Pisac Inka Ruins. Hopefully ill find it!

On an up note, im on a 2 day tour to hike El Misti starting tomorrow. The dormant volcano towers up to 5825m above Arequipa with supposedly great views of the surrounding area and Andean Mountains. Thats if the fog lifts! Its been hanging at about 3500m the last few days. It should be a good trip and by no means trivial. As with anything in that sort of altitude, sickness can become a problem and thats probably the major factor on this hike. I havent suffered too much so far - just a mild headache and lethagia at times so far. I feel good now and got plenty of chocolate/sweets to get me to the top, providing the weather allows! Ive learnt from some guys at the hostel that 2 things can help altitude sickness - coca/cocaine or ibruprofen. Ive got the latter, obviously! Although coca leaves are really common around here - kind of a unpure derivative of cocaine and certain not as harmful (more of a sedative). Ive tried a couple of leaves (u just chew them like mint) and they taste really bitter - didnt do it for me!

Have a good weekend everyone.
Laters

Puno

Unfortunately my hostel in Puno didnt have the internet so ive only been able to write something now im in Arequipa. Puno was interesting, a certain change from Cusco and overall ive gotta say i dont particularly like the city. Its just a little too dirty and scrubby for my liking. However, i was only there for 2 nights and one purpose - to see Lake Titicaca. In anything less than a sober mood, the name is hilarious!

Titicaca (im tempted to abbrieviate it to titi) is the highest navigable lake in the world which im sure ive mentioned often enough. Its something like 170km x 60km at the extremes and you really get the feeling of being on top of the world. Your around 4000m up and this vast flat ocean lies before you on the Peruvian Altiplano. The altiplano itself is a bizarre feature. Both geologically and historically. Im not going to rattle on about the relevent geology (ive got a whole module in that next semester) but its weird how something so big, so high and so flat exists in the middle of the worlds largest mountain belt!

The tour around the lake was long and excruiciatingly slow. It took about 3 1/2 hours to travel the 35km to Taquille Island but was overall worth it. It wasnt the best thing ive done in Peru but certainly an experience. On the way we visited the floating islands about 5km outside of Puno´s harbour. Theses are remarkable. Everything is made out of reeds. The islands, the houses, the boats - everything. You can also eat the reeds (they dont really taste of much) which makes me wonder what they do in a food shortage? Eat the island their living on???

The bus to Puno from Cusco was amazingly confortable, its a shame the same couldnt be said for the one to Arequipa this morning. Cruz del sur, my bus agency, has an annoying habit of cancelling buses without telling anyone so i ended up travelling on a cheaper tourist bus. Although it saved me money, the driver was nuts and the bus was a really old and crappy school bus like we had in the UK. The driver was overtaking lorries on the outside of corners with massive drops either side all on roads considered amongst the worst in the world. (The actual worst is just across the border in Bolivia near La Paz but these are pretty bad.)

Anyway, best be off. More on Arequipa soon.
Laters

Peru Photos

More photos in the online album!

Pisac Hike

Ok, this will be a quick blog. I´m tired and hungry, both of which take priority over keep you adoring readers informed! :)

Today i pushed it. Pisac is a large village some 34km´s NE of Cusco over a 3900m pass and surrounded by some simply stunning scenery. So naturally i decided to hike there on something of a whim. I was prepared to go somewhere today just perhaps not quite so extreme but im glad i did. Ive got loads of awesome photos (speaking of which, ive loaded a few from previous days onto my online album - see links to the top right) including some of me standing on a mountain ridge with a 1000ft drop behind me - come on, surely you must be slightly impressed! lol. They´ll go up as soon as possible over the next few days. It was definately one of the hardest and longest day walks ive ever done (25 miles in total) then i decided it would be a good idea to hike up a mountain to the Inka Ruins some 4km away. It was incredulously hard work, i cant tell you - and thats coming from me, a seasoned walked if i may say so myself. The Inka´s all thought it was a good idea to put steps everywhere and trust me, climbing steps at over 3000m altitude is not easy! Still, the sight was unbelievable. I personally put the Pisac ruins about Machu Picchu! Less people visit them and you really get a feeling of awe.

Coming back i jumped on a collectivo (mini-bus type thing) for 1hr of near hell. It was the single worse bus ride ive ever been on. I´ll moan more about it when my travel blog gets up but over the course of 33km, we nearly crashed once, nearly rolled it and red lined the engine more than i care to imagine. And we were still only going 20mph up the hill! It was an experience, ill leave it there!

Anyway, food is calling then bed. Catch you all later, drop me a message or comment if you can spare a sec.

Laters!

Cusco, Peru Part 1

Well i made it. Im here in Peru and even the internet works, even if i did just crash the computer! ah well.

I probably wont be able to write much, the internet´s abit tempermental and theres only 2 PC´s for a lot of people. Im writing something of a travel blog but on scrappy bits of paper (hi-tech i know). I´ll write them up and post them when i get back to the states. For those who remember my DofE expedition diaries, well hopefully they´ll turn out something a long those lines. I´m not promising anything though!

Anyway, for the last 3 days and the next 4, ive been in Cusco in the Andes. Its one of the highest major cities in the world at 3325m above sea level and the center of the former Inka empire. Ive visited some of the ruins around here yesterday - Sacsaywaman (yes, it is pronounced just like Sexy-woman), Quenco and Tambomachay. Still not entirely sure if i want to go to Machu Picchu but we shall see. Sacsaywaman is incredible purely because of the shear scale of the place. There´s more great ruins at Pisac just across the ridge in the Sacred Valley. I might go there today or tomorrow. Cusco´s a great place to acclimatise and get some much need altitude training in before going to Puno on monday (at 4000m) and possibly climbing one of the volcano´s near Arequipa (5800 - 6100m) before i fly back to the states.

Ive got loads of photos just waiting to be loaded up but that will have to wait until later today or tomorrow. It rained quite a lot yesterday and i pushed my luck abit by using the camera lots but fortunately it still works. Anyway, breakfast is calling and hopefully the weather will be decent enough to do jump over to Pisac today.

Laters everyone!