Haircut

You would think there would be huge potential for something to go horribly wrong when going for a haircut in a Peruvian barbers where nobody spoke English, in fact there is probably a joke somewhere that starts that way. However, I managed to get the first haircut of my trip done by a nice guy called José for only 15 soles (£3.50) and I left still looking like me!

It may be a little shorter than I would normally go for and the speed at which José set about my head with sharp instruments put me a little on edge but considering the language barrier I'm pretty pleased/relieved.

In other news, I am back in Lima for a couple of days before Brazil and that means no more altitude-sickness tablets on this trip. Wooo! I am glad they prevented me getting altitude sickness but I will not miss the side-effect of painful pins and needles in my heels that woke me up and wouldn't go away no matter how much I wandered about.

Grim Day In Cusco

It's a pretty wet and miserable day in Cusco today. I think I will spend it mostly in the dry, planning what to do on Sunday (Also known as Brazil: Day One). Not long now until a new country!

One Direction Watch {Peru}

Following up on my promised side project to see if One Direction really have conquered the world I can report 1D have made themselves known in Peru! To be fair, it was on MTV along with lots of other English language songs but it's better than nothing (Depending on your opinion of One Direction).

The McDonalds Rule!

Earlier in my trip I mentioned my 'McDonalds Rule' and I feel I should explain this rule that I made up myself. It has two parts to it and includes any fast-food place found in the UK like Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut etc not just McDonalds;

Part One: I am only allowed to have a maximum of one McDonalds/Burger King/Pizza Hut etc meal in any country I visit, no matter how long I am there.

Part Two: I am not allowed to choose anything that can be found on the menu back in the UK so that means no McChicken Sandwiches, Whoppers etc etc.

I think it´s pretty good rule, even if I do say so myself, so feel free to use it yourself next time you´re abroad. It´ll mean you can still have a yummy, treat but also try something new at the same time!

I used it today because we had a really long day travelling from Puno to Arequipa on the bus yesterday and Nads got really ill so, after not eating very much at all yesterday, we just wanted something cheap and cheerful that would fill us up. I decided to have a chicken pieces meal which felt like I'd smuggled a KFC into a McDonalds! I also had a Milky Way McFlurry that was made with an American Milky Way which is basically a Snickers without the nuts. This McDonalds is also the first place I have seen vinegar on my trip and you could pour some into the little cups like you can with ketchup back home, yum!

Lake Titicaca & The Uros People

Today I visited one of the most famous lakes in the world, Lake Titcaca. It is so famous because it is the largest high-elevation lake on the planet (It is 3,812m above sea level) and it is the place where the Inca people believed the world was created.

After about 30mins on a boat we arrived at some of the many floating islands of Los Uros. These islands are incredible and made by the Uros people with just the reeds that grow in the lake. The Uros people used to live on the land but, centuries ago, they lost a war with the Inca and were forced on to the water and have lived there ever since. People get about by boat and there is even an island with a school and another with a hospital! I travelled across to another island on a traditional reed boat that looked very similar to those used by the Ancient Egyptians and it was great fun.

Did You Know?: The islands are about 2m thick, last for 10-15 years and take a couple of months to build from scratch. Most are about the size of half a full-size football pitch and have 3-5 families living on them.

Did You Know?

Did you know that all my 'Did You Know?'s  (That's a bit of a mouthful) come from facts I learn from official tour guides and teachers or from what I read in books or on information signs at the sites I visit.

I hope that you find them interesting. I know I do...otherwise I wouldn't share them with you!

Rubbish

This is a photo of some of the many bits of litter I saw that had been thrown into the jungle on the way back from Machu Picchu. I also saw lots of tiny bits of plastic washed up on a beach that turtles use to lay their eggs on at Mayan ruins in Mexico (It would have broken off the masses of plastic floating in the sea).

The saddest thing is that these bits of plastic will take longer to break down and disappear than the age of the sites that I have visited!

I am going to make sure that I take more care to recycle my plastics when I get back home. If you want to learn more about recycling so that you can keep the planet cleaner ask your school eco-leader (That's Miss Townsend if you go to Weobley Primary).

The Scariest River I Have Ever Seen

I thought I should just post a photo of Rio Urubamba, the river that runs past the town we're staying in. I have never seen such a scary river in my life, it is so loud and rough!

It is one of few times I have looked at something and thought if it came down to 'Human v Mother Nature' then Mother Nature would win, no question. I made sure I got over the footbridge as quickly as I could!

Machu Picchu

Today was a long day! We travelled up to the top of Machu Picchu which is one of the 7 New Wonders Of The World (Including Chichen Itza, I'll have visited five of them by the time I get back) and there was a lot of walking in both sunshine and pouring rain!

Machu Picchu is a famous city that was lived in by Incas hundreds of years ago in The Sacred Valley and it is unusual because it is built on the top of a mountain in The Andes. There are two parts of it; the bit behind me in the photo is where everyone lived and there is also another part that was used for farming crops and is made of lots of flat levels built into the mountainside (They look like giant steps). I also spotted some wild llamas and chinchillas as I wandered around which was cool.

Did You Know?: All of the houses at Machu Picchu were built in a certain direction so that they got the most amount of sunshine each day. By building them into different levels it also meant that one house never cast a shadow on another!

One Direction Watch

I forgot to tell you all I am keeping an eye out to see if One Direction really have conquered the planet like we hear on the news!

In Mexico there were definite signs with magazines about them and T-shirts with their logo on for sale in shops. So far in Peru...nothing (But I did hear Psy´s ´Gangnam Style´in Lima)

1D need to step it up in Peru! 

Cuy

Tonight, I finally found a restaurant selling guinea pig and tried it. I must point out, before I get banned from all the pet shops at home, that guinea pigs are a lot like wild rabbits in the British countryside and are very common in the wild here. They are a local delicacy in Peru which means lots of local people eat them (Like wild rabbit in some parts of the UK).

I bet you are wondering; How did it taste? I have to say that I wasn't that keen, I probably won't have it again. The taste is hard to describe but the texture was just like dark chicken meat. I also had a piece of alpaca on my plate which is the Peruvian equivalent of eating lamb (They use alpacas for their wool and meat too) and that was delicious. It was less stringy and more steak-like than lamb but tasted quite similar.

Did You Know?: The Peruvian word for guinea pig is 'cuy' pronounced "coo-oy".

Chocolate Making!

Today, we went on a chocolate making course at the Chocolate Museum in Cusco and it was so much fun. A lot of you know how much I like chocolate!

This part of the world is very famous for it's chocolate because it is one of the places on the planet where the cocao tree grows (It can grow over 15m tall in the jungle!) and this is where you get the cocao bean from. In the photo you can see me and Nadia working hard to create a paste from the cocao beans we roasted ourselves. It was hard work but the teacher decided I made the best paste in the whole group and I got a prize! I was given a whole bag of cocao bean husks which you put in boiling water to make chocolate tea, it is really nice but unfortunately I can't bring any back because it is part of a plant and you aren't allowed to take things like that into other countries.

I can't wait to try the chocolate I made later.

Did You Know?: The Mayans invented a hot chocolate drink but did not invent chocolate like most people think. Hard, edible chocolate wasn't invented until the cocao beans arrived back in Europe with the Spanish travellers that explored South America.

It's Raining. We're Up High.

Good evening, today we caught our flight to Cusco. We are now staying in a city amongst Peruvian mountains and it is a fair bit colder and wetter! Today, we had the first day of rain on our trip so we got out the pac-a-macs and went exploring (We are told the weather has been getting worse the last few days and February is normally the wettest month in Cusco so I would be surprised if the weather get's better before then!).

We had an amazing burger for lunch, it was absolutely HUGE! We were recommended the restaurant by friends of ours that were here only a few weeks a go and we weren't disappointed. It was hard to get back to our hostel afterwards, which is pretty far up the hillside. This isn't just to do with our full stomachs though, Cusco is over 3000m above sea-level which makes it very high. That means, for people like us who are used to living much lower, the lower amount of oxygen in the air makes it harder for our bodies to cope. We don't have trouble breathing (Unless you get altitude sickness which we are taking pills to avoid) but it does mean that you get tired out really quickly and walking up just 10 steps can leave you out of breath. The thing is the route back from city centre is about 30+ steps!

Our hostel is really nice and the bed is really comfortable. I'm pretty sure that I'll sleep well tonight!

Lima Lunch

Today we decided to make this little lunch out of different Peruvian foods we've bought.

The drink: Inca Kola. Actually made by Coca-Cola this is incredibly sugary! I can't really describe the flavour in any way other than if you asked Coca-Cola to make a flavour for the colour yellow it would taste like this.

The Crisps: Someone has stolen my business idea from when I was 10 years old and rolled it out in Peru! This one packet of crisps has four different types of crisps inside it (Normal crisps, Doritos, Nik-Nak style cheesy crisps and some called Tor-Tees). Awesome.

On The Plate: Papa Rellena. A traditional snack popular in Chile and Peru. Think of a pasty mixed with a potato croquette and you'll be close. It's fried mashed potato around meat, onion, boiled egg and olives.

Maths Question:
Can work out how much this meal cost in pounds? We paid about 12 nuevo soles and there are 4 neuvo soles to £1.

Arrived In Peru

Have arrived safely in Peru (Our rucksacks were the first bags on the luggage carousel too!). The city seems huge. Certainly the biggest place we've visited yet.

There are lots of cool birds flying about. There are some massive, black eagle-like ones hovering and lurking on buildings, some that look like mini pigeons and sound like frogs and also a flock of parakeets will fly overhead squaking every now and again.

Have spotted signs like the one in the photo along roads near the sea (Including just outside our hostel) which I find interesting. As we are near the Pacific Ocean, and so The Pacific Ring Of Fire too, the area is a lot more likely to have an earthquake (Which is the cause of a tsunami) than when we were on the other side of the continent in Mexico so they need evacuation routes like these planned if an alarm goes off.

Adios Mexico!

Today is our last day in Mexico and brings to an end our time in the first of the thirteen countries we are visiting. I am going to miss Mexico because I have really enjoyed my time here but I am also looking forward to visiting a new country. I thought I might do a little review of each country I visit as I travel through them with a few of my favourite things and not so favourite things mentioned. Here goes my Mexico review...
Favourite Memories;
+ Visiting all the amazing Mayan ruins. I have wanted to do that since I was in primary school so it has been a dream come true.
+ Seeing, and staying in the city of Valladolid. It was exactly what I thought Mexico would be like with the music, people, buildings and food. The attached photo is from my favourite meal in Mexico, eaten in Valladolid. They are called quesadillas.
+ Sending a package home from Merida. This might sound pretty dull but when the people in the Post Office speak no English and we speak very poor Spanish it made for quite an interesting and fun experience. Our box ended up having 30 stamps literally PVA-glued on to it and we have no idea if it will ever make it back!
Not So Favourite Memories;
- Getting ill. Obviously.
- Travelling to a local Mexican Premier League football game and finding out there are no tickets left. Gutted! I still have plans to watch some live football in other countries though that I hope are more successful.
This afternoon we leave for Peru and have a connecting flight. That means we land at another airport before we get to Peru and change planes to get on one going to where we want to go. This obviously increases the chances of our luggage getting lost so fingers crossed that on my next entry I am still in possession of all my belongings!

Being Ill!

Well it's happened, I was hoping my first sick day would come later in the trip but no I spent a Friday night in Mexico being very poorly indeed.
We have traced the source back to a Magnum Ice Cream, of all things, that I had earlier in the day (I'll certainly be steering clear of those for a while)!
Unfortunately sick days are just part of travelling but, luckily, today just consists of our 4 hour bus journey back to Cancun so nothing too tricky. I have just to make sure I drink lots of water and keep plodding on.

Our Latest Hostel

You said before I left you wanted to know some of the more gross news from my travels so here's some for you:
Our hostel in Merida is in a beautiful old building with high ceilings, tall shutters in the room leading to a balcony etc but then...there's the bathroom!
As with most hostels it's a communal bathroom which means all the guests share the same one. Here there are a few toilet cubicles (Which have a curtain instead of a door. Imagine that at school!) and a few shower cubicles in one room. The thing is the toilets smell pretty bad but what's worse is that the showers smell like toilets that smell REALLY bad! Have made a decision to skip showers for a couple of days. Bring back that funny looking shower head in Valladolid any day!

Merida & The Mexican Way Of Life

Arrived in Merida yesterday, the last place we will visit before heading back to Cancun for the weekend and then flying down to Peru on Monday. Merida seems like a wonderful city full of old buildings and we are going to go out and about today.
One of the things I have really noticed about Mexico is the way of life here; In both Valladolid and Merida the central squares of each city have been full of people every night. There are young and old couple, families with little children and groups of friends of all ages that sit around on benches talking to each other for hours. They aren't making lots of noise or getting in each others faces they are just chatting, sharing jokes and everyone seems so happy and relaxed. I'm a little bit jealous because I can't think of many places in England where that would happen every night the weather is nice. The picture on this entry is the central square of Merida which I took this morning. It easily has over 300 places to sit and last night there couldn't have been more than 30 empty seats at any one time!

Regular Updates

Hi guys (I hope I have some readers!), I've just realised I have written on here nearly every day since we arrived. This is because a) We've gone into the trip with loads of energy and done lots and b) because we have been lucky enough to have wi-fi everywhere we have been.

I can't promise to keep this daily update rate up as we will have quiet days and also times where we have no access to the internet but I'm really enjoying typing my experiences up and I hope you're enjoying reading it.

Can You See What I See?

Today we visited Ek Balam. Can you spot the large Mayan construction that has yet to be excavated in amongst the jungle?

Shower

Not quite sure this shower head in our Valladolid hostel would get rave reviews in England (Especially with that electric light precariously above it!). It looks a little bit fluffy and a little bit hard at the same time but it does the job of providing a refreshing shower so no complaints from me!

Chichen Itza

Hola all, I am really geeking out on all the Mayan stuff in Mexico. Today we visited Chichen Itza, the most famous of all the Mayan sites. It was incredible and apart from the famous 'El Castillo' (The Castle) pyramid in the photo the huge site had loads of different ruins including 'The Temple of 1000 Columns', the stone hoops on walls that are early origins of basketball and an important cenota (Large water filled hole in the ground) that people were sacrificed and thrown into.
We have also moved from Cancun for a few days and are currently staying in Valladolid. This place is much more like the Mexico I expected to see with music playing, busy streets and old, plastered colourful buildings. I can't wait to do some more exploring in the next few days and tuck in to traditional burritos, tacos and fajitas etc.
Did You Know?: The steps on 'El Castillo' plus the platform on the top adds up to exactly 365. The same amount of days in a year! This isn't a coincidence as the Mayans had worked out, by mapping the sun, that there were 365 days in a year and this was an important part of their religion. Clever eh?

Tulum

What a day! Today I got to do something I have always wanted to do since I learnt about the Mayans at school...visit REAL Mayan ruins at Tulum.
Tulum means 'Wall' because the site is protected by, you guessed it, a big wall. We queued up for ages in the 30+ degree sunshine before we finally got in and it was absolutely amazing! The site is on the side of a cliff and you can see the ruins standing there in front of the turquoise sea behind. It's rarer than most sites because it is by the sea and lots of the remaining Mayan ruins are deeper into the jungle but it was an important place for trading up and down the coastline. It was also interesting to not only see pelicans flying around and diving into the water for fish but also the dozens of wild iguanas wandering around the site, some were huge!
Unfortunately I can't attach any pictures as we took our camera not my phone and we haven't got a computer we can use to upload the photos. You will have to find pictures of the site on the internet, see if you can find any of the building with huge stone faces carved into its corners.
Did You Know?
In one of Tulum's Temples there is one small window above the doorway that only gets direct sunshine through it one day a year. That day is 21st December which is also the last day of the Mayan year by our calendar and it was built to do this on purpose!

Crocs About

In wildlife news, when I head out I'm going to be on my guard a bit more. Have spotted lots of signs warning people to be aware of crocodiles in the lagoon over the road from our hotel! Got to make sure that when popping out for some food I don't actually become food!

Arrived Safely

We're in Cancun! We finally arrived after a long journey (By the time our heads hit the pillow we has been up for 24hrs straight!) and we have been lucky with our hotel, it's much nicer than we expected for the first stop on our backpacking trip. Their Christmas tree and decorations are still up this morning, an odd sight in 30 degree sunshine!

The only problem we've faced so far is that the SIM-card we brought doesn't work. As you can imagine, when you have been up for an entire day this made us a little grumpy last night but after a good night's sleep and waking up to a view of the Atlantic Ocean (Attached photo is the view from our room) we may have come up with a plan to sort it. The hotel lobby also has free wi-fi which is useful.

Cancun itself seems very tourist-y and there are at least two HUGE malls packed with McDonalds, Starbucks, Gucci, Saltrock etc. but then it is one of the biggest tourist resorts in Mexico. We hope to go some temples and a beautiful island at some point if we can fit it in before leaving for Valladolid.

(I've also got to make sure I eat reasonably healthy meals for the trip, it could be all to easy to eat delicious unhealthy meals every night. I already have a rule about McDonalds but I'll share that at a later date).

All Packed

That's it, I'm packed and ready to go! We leave bright and early tomorrow, we've got to get up at 5:30am, so bags have had to be packed tonight. It is a bit odd to think that pretty much everything I'll need for the next 5 months is inside the rucksack, I just hope I haven't forgotten anything important. When Ed Stafford trekked through the Amazon he had all sorts of high-tech kit like solar power panels and satellite phones. Tech-wise I've just got a charger, a kindle, an old mobile phone,  and my smartphone without it's SIM-card so that I can connect to the web and update my blog, Skype family and look for jobs for when I get back!

I've also said all my goodbyes to my friends and family (Except for my Mum and Dad who are taking us to the airport) which has been pretty hard because I'm going to miss them a lot and, in a funny way, I'm looking forward to getting back so that I can see them again. I suppose that for even the most exciting things there are always some not-so-exciting bits too.

Next time I blog I hope to be doing it from Cancun, Mexico. See you in June, England!