Lican Ray felt like a place that was holding its breath.. in late November the new seasons tourists have not yet arrived and the previous season is just a distant memory amongst the footprints in the black sand beach. Just 30km south from Villarrica this was my way of testing my legs and dealing with the frustration of being sick. Lican Ray turned out to be a very pretty little one-street lakeside pueblo boasting an …
South America Archive
Monday. Sunshine
Monday, sunshine.. the faded, melancholic town of yesterday springs to life with a colour and vibrancy that could not have been guessed at a day earlier. Wish I could say the same of me, about as much vibrancy as a bread roll dropped in a puddle… still not strong enough to ride.. Still, mustn’t grumble, hehe.. could be worse, could be at work.. or something :-)
Beerography..?
Villarricas faded Sunday evening streets, out on the hunt for food I note that Funerales Corona is open, always good to know that one can pop one’s clogs on a sunday evening without having to worry about one’s corpse kicking around until 9am on Monday. Finding something to eat on the other hand…. I do eventually find a bar happy to put a lomito sandwich together but I can’t help laughing to myself about the …
Villarrica…
Despite my words of a couple of days ago I do have reason to remember Santiago… not because I have come down with a dose of bronchitis, no doubt contracted courtesy of Iberia recycled cabin air but rather because of the fantastic hospitality shown me by my hosts yesterday as I was invited to share in a lazy afternoon of fried fish and beer before giving me a ride to the bus station with my …
Santiago de Chile…
Some cities have a character that I pick up on instantly, other cities have a character that takes a day or two to become apparent… and some just fail to make an impression. Mendoza was in that latter category and so it seems is Santiago. That is not to say they are not nice places they just failed to strike a chord within me. Santiago is pleasant enough but really is just a big city …
la última entrada de América del Sur ….
I fly out of here tomorrow so this will be my last post from South America… for the time being ;-) I’m feeling a bit crap today, haven’t had a lot of sleep this week for various reasons…. so I think I had better go and buy an alarm clock for tomorrow morning as I have a feeling I may sleep in if I’m not careful. My bike is all packed now got hold of …
Chinchero, fake Soles etc
…a breakfast of oats & quinoa with a mug of coffee in the plaza at Ollantaytambo sorted me out well for the climb back up out of the Sacred Valley… 20km gentle climb back up-river by way of a warm-up to the scruffy little cross-roads town of Urabamba and then a further 30km of steep switchbacks that took me all the way back up to 3900m ASL. My plan was to go only as far …
Pisac, Ollantaytambo y un gato bizco…
as I write I’m in the pretty little pueblo of Ollantaytambo nestled among steep mountainsides at the northern end of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.. Most of the time it is a tranquil little place but later in the day it gets busy as the tour buses make their stop off. It’s an interesting little place, aside from the almost obligatory Inca fortress on the mountainside above this pueblo retains much of the original …
Ice cold ‘n nice rocks in Cuzco .. :-)
…despite the title the weather here is perfect.. clear days around 25 degs C with cool evenings and chilly nights… when a title sprung to mind I was thinking more of a bottle of Peru’s finest… served ice cold :-) The last couple of days since parking my bike in the corner of my room have been wonderfully lazy, the lower altitude (3400m) and good food mean I’m feeling really good again and happy as… …
los últimos días: Puno a Cuzco
… in the words of Jim Morrison… This is the end Beautiful friend This is the end My only friend, the end Of our elaborate plans, the end Of everything that stands, the end….. …ahh but I’m getting ahead of myself, last time I wrote I was still in Puno, this is another long one by the way so you might want to get a mug of tea, or a beer or something before reading …
floating on a bed of reeds…
Well I stayed in Puno an extra day, due in part to a chance chat with a local chap last night who knew someone who ran a tour boat out to the Uros Islands.. so this morning I was down on the dock at about 7.45am watching various tour groups depart on boats for the various islands scattered around the lake. My new friend showed up and I was given a ride by one of …
a rock in the face… Juli to Puno
… my plan to make the most of an extra hour in bed in Juli with the change to Peru-time failed miserably.. the sun was streaming in my window at 5.30am. I felt pretty rubbish despite the sunshine.. overnight eczema around my eyes swelled them right up almost to the point of closure… pretty sore and weary. I think that happened thanks to being generally shagged out and not eating enough on arrival in Juli.. …
via Titicaca… La Paz to Peru
right then, this morning I arrived in Puno, it was 90km from where I spent the night last night in Juli, not that far but I’m exhausted so what follows is my day by day for the last few days as far as Juli… hope you’re sitting comfortably, I’ll catch up with Puno tomorrow ;-) 21 April, La Paz to Huatajata…. Ok so I finally managed to get the energy together to leave La Paz. …
on the road again
… I did get back on my bike on Wednesday for the beautiful ride up to Lake Titicaca.. the shores of which I am sat on now in Copacabana some 150km from La Paz… the connection here is really quite shite so I am going to make you wait until I get to Puno (Peru) in a couple of days time and do a decent blog update from there. Copacabana is very touristy.. possibly the …
looking up in La Paz (thro a pint glass…)
… the horse medicine is definitely working, all I’m left with now is an annoying fatigue… but still enjoying myself, the danger is the proverbial wind is rapidly leaving my sails as I settle into a comfortably lazy routine here… Sunday being a case in point… first in Olivers pub at 9.30 for a reassuringly homely breakfast and couple of coffees I could not refuse the free pint offered at 10.30am.. bit early but still. …