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?Monday, 28 January 2008
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?
Thursday, 24 January 2008
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
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
Saturday, 19 January 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, 17 January 2008
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!
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!
Monday, 14 January 2008
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
A fun day ahead!
Laters
Sunday, 13 January 2008
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
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
Thursday, 10 January 2008
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
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
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
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
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
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Friday, 4 January 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, 3 January 2008
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!
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!
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