Traumatised

Traumatised I am, completely traumatised. Why you may ask? Well, I thought it was a good idea to get my haircut as it was getting very long and needed a wee trim as I haven't had it cut since I left the shores of Ireland.

Well, frig sake, if anyone ever wants to get a haircut in South America, my advice is to do it yourself! Myself and my friend Grainne got a tip from her host family to get our hair done in a 'salon' in the centre of Cuzco. So off we set. It took us 25 minutes to find the place (from a crappy map drawn by her host parents). Probably should've known it was going to be an experience as we couldn't find it and no-one else had a clue where it was either. 

Eventually found the place, so we went in and sat down - one tiny sink in the corner with a couple of chairs and about 3 long flourescent light bulbs on the ceiling.  My haircut was going to cost 10 Soles (the equivalent of $3 or 2 pounds 50 p - what a bargain!)  Grainne wanted her hair dyed and cut and I wanted a wee trim.

The lady proceeded to hand me a book of hair models (that looked like something from the 1970's) to choose a style, whilst Grainne sat down to get her hair cut and coloured.  Of course I was in stitches laughing at her as the 'hair stylist' or maybe I should say 'butcher' took out a huge pair of scissors (something similar to what a teacher would use for art or to cut cardboard boxes) and cut it dry in the shape of a triangle! Whilst this was going on, some other woman was getting her 'tache waxed in the corner with the wax being in a hot saucepan on a tiny cooker thing on the floor. Another hairstylist was busy trying to open a bottle of some sort of shampoo - she didn't need to open it with much force, as the top blew off with the contents flying all over the salon.  (Salon makes it sound posh here, more like a tiny box room with the most ancient seats, dryers etc).

Still I sat sitting in stitches at Grainne`s experience whilst trying to find a picture so I could show her how I wanted my haircut. I also had my Spanish language book and learned the phrase for "Please could you cut a small bit off my fringe and layer my hair".  On the wall was a picture of a woman with a decent fringe and a nice layering to her hair, so I thought that pointing to that also would be a good idea as she couldn't speak English.

Next it was my turn after Grainne had her hair dyed and covered with plastic clear bin liners.  Explaining what I wanted and then pointing to the picture, she understood what I wanted (or so I thought). No such thing as a wash in this particular place - just a spray with a bit of water and off she went.  First she trimmed the back - happy days I thought, this is going grand and she understands.

Next came the 'layering'...no layering scissors here, oh no, just a kind of razor - the woman was razor happy, shearing away at my hair. Eyes were bulging in my head and panic had set in by this stage. I was saying 'gracias' and making signs that it was enough..nope, she didn't stop - hair (that I'd been growing for months) was falling onto the floor. Next came the fringe - well  you'd think that a child had just been let loose on my head.  Effing fringe is every damn shape with long bits and short bits all over the place.  So did I look like the model on the picture of the wall - eh no, not in the slightest. I look as though I have been butchered. Instead of probably screaming as I should've done, I burst out laughing, with Grainne in stitches too.

My God, it's a mess!  As my hair has been chemically straightened, the short bits are sticking out all over the place. My fringe is a sight and even after washing it and drying it myself today it's awful (from a distance you can't notice it so much, so at least that's a good thing).The funniest moment came after when we met up with the others in the pub later (after they all had a great laugh at our expense, calling my new hairdo 'retro').  I was ordering a drink at the bar and some American dude started speaking to me. He then asked me if I was Irish and of course I said yeah, how did you know..his reply "It was your hairstyle that gave it away".  Of course I nearly died of embarrassment and explained the story to him. He was sitting at the bar with a hat on his head and had his own traumatic experience and hasn't removed his hat for days. Glad someone else went through the same experiences as myself and Grainne.

On a more positive note, I'm so happy that hair grows as I can't wait for mine to. God only knows the state it will be in by the time I hit New Zealand.  Another lesson learned here...never again will I get my haircut in a developing country again!



Grainne getting her wig dyed!



My hair from a distance, in a bar with my friends

Spanglish es muy bueno!

My first week of Spanish has ended and I've loved it! The classes start at 8.30 in the morning and go on for 4 hours.  Obviously I'm in the dopey beginners class with a Belgian friend, due to our failure of our placement exam and only being able to write our names and the date. The classes are so intense and the teacher is so sweet and converses only in Spanish, but slow enough to understand what she's saying. 

It's great being on the other side of the desk again and feel like a big kid. Learnt so much of the basics with lots of verbs (which do my head in with all the endings and tenses), the usual masculine and feminine of things and a swear word or two thrown in for good measure.  Still don't get it why a table has to be feminine and a marker is masculine - was always rubbish at that in French.   Can actually string about one sentence together and am able to ask for things in shops etc.  Decided to first test my new Spanish out by asking for a notebook and a blue and red pen..woopeee! The guy in the shop understood or maybe he just understood me pointing at things.

Enjoying it so much that instead of just having one week of Spanish, I've decided to do it for another extra week to help with my volunteering after that.  The only problem is at the end of the week when students finish their Spanish at the school, they must stand up in front of everyone/teachers during break on Fridays and make a speech.  There must be a way to cheat somehow. There's no way I'm standing up making a tit of myself saying dopey things like: My name is Mary, I'm a teacher,  the sun is yellow, can I have a kilo of green and red apples please and it's good to drink alcohol!!.. (Yo soy Mary, yo soy profesora, le sol es amarillo,  puedo un kilo de manzanas verde y roja y es bueno tomar alcohol!!)..that was my basic Spanish incase you thought that maybe you'd accidentally fallen onto some Spaniard's blog as it was so fluent (not).

I've now moved from my host family's house into a shared apartment with 3 other students at the Spanish school. The place is gorgeous and I've managed to unpack my rucksack for the first time since I got here - hardly know myself. Nice to have a lovely, clean house with a hot shower, TV, kitchen etc. Spent the last week having freezing showers in my host family's house and sleeping in my sleeping bag as the houses here have no central heating.  Effing sleeping bag is crap, so had to put on layers and wear underbody skins one night as it was so cold.

My new apartment/house is about 30 minutes walk from the centre of Cusco city and 20 minutes from the school in a nice area.  There's a smallish park beside the house where I'll be using it to run. Can't really run round the streets in Cusco as no-one seems to do it and they all stare.  Managed to find a gym the other day - equipment is really old and outdated and are probably casts offs from gyms back home. The cross trainers don't have any power and it's funny watching the locals use it. They get on it, go like the clappers and get off it without breaking a sweat.  Managed to also break one of the weights machines and get oil everywhere. They have no running machines either so spent most of my time on a spinning bike which was the only decent thing there.  They have spinning lessons, so hoping to do it next week after Spanish classes.

Really enjoying my time here and would love to stay longer and learn more Spanish. Before my trip started I was more looking forward to getting to New Zealand. Now I don't want to leave - fallen in love with South America, especially Peru and the Peruvian people.

Mi escuela en Cusco - my Spanish school in Cusco



Learning Spanish verbs - no me gusta!

Caroline - Belgain studying Spanish with me

Liz, my Spanish teacher for the first week

At spin class

Grainne & Rachael at spin class

Spanish - my mother tongue

After finding my way into Cusco last night from my new home, I spent a couple of hours in the house on my own, with the wind whistling through the single paned glass windows (with a bit of tape stuck around it to keep them together/or the air out) watching a bit of Spanish TV.  My host mum, Monica is such a wee doll and made me feel so at ease.  Speaking English helped a lot too.  Her husband is in Lima and will be back on Wednesday.  I met the other German guy too..was waiting for a tall, blond, handsome man to enter the building..but was small, still blond, over 50 and married, but still a lovely man!  He's in the same school as me studying also which is great.


Awoke this morning for brekkie and it is the school's policy that the host family converse in Spanish as much as possible so that students are immersed into Peruvian culture at once.  Well, it was fun! Spending 7 weeks travelling it is easy enough to pick up lots of Spanish spoken and written words as you see and hear it all the time, so when she spoke slowly I could understand bits of it, but had no idea how to reply..saying "no lo se" (probably spelt wrong)..which means "I don't know". I was able to translate what she said back into English to her.  Suppose that defeats the purpose, but I like to think this host family business works both ways.. afterall, I'm helping her with her English!


Walked to the school with Ralf for classes at 8.30am.  When we got there we had to sit a placement test.  Holy God, I thought it may have basics in it with Hola, como esta etc in which I could reply to them easily enough, but no, it had all these verbs which had to be conjugated and questions I had no idea what the hell they were asking me.  6 of us started this morning and sat the test.  Thankfully there was another Belgian girl in exactly the same position as myself who knew nothing.  All the both of us managed to get answered was our name, our nationality and today's date.  The director of the place noticed us having bother and took our tests off us, led us to the waiting area, where we had to wait at least 40 minutes for the rest to finish their tests!  So, tomorrow at least there are two of us in the beginners class.  We also get to meet up with the ones who've been studying in the school for the last few weeks/months and they plan nights out and weekends away.


The teachers in the school are lovely and so friendly and have made everyone so welcome. They gave us the usual orientation walk around the school and Cusco - it was in Spanish though, so of course, myself and the Belgian girl were pretending we knew what was going on.


Tonight we have all decided to meet up tonight for a few 'bebidas' or 'cervesas'..very important words to know in Spanish...so much for less of the frequenting of pubs - but needs must and it's a new crowd of people, so you can't be seen to be rude. Hasta luego!

Oh I'm back in Cusco again

Well, I  have officially finished my overland tour around South America and have left all my wee pals and am now back in Cuzco on my tod.  Had a fun last few days with the overland group and will miss the craic and have planned to meet up with some of the Aussies in a few months time. Spent most of the last week camping. Sandboarded in the desert which was both fun and life endangering - flying down massive sanddunes on what can be described as a wooden board - lots of bruises to go with it.  We spent that night camping under the stars (no tents etc). I spent most of the night swearing at my 'junior' sleeping bag as you know from me whinging about it before, that it covers only up until my chest.  The desert was freezing cold and I (in my freezing state) gravitated towards anything that could keep me warm..slept under the trucks, put bags/mats together that were used for the food and then finally slept in a sand dune buggy - didn't do anything for me..near froze to death and got bitten by a spider on my arm (yeah, the one that was not covered due to my short sleeping bag), so I was glad to get away early in the morning.  Still finding sand in the most random of places also.

So now here I am back in Cusco after 22 long hours on a bus.  I spent at least 18 of the 22 hours sleeping.  Now I know how children zonk out when they're sitting in the back of a car. The bus was amazing - like business class seats in a plane. They even called the drivers 'pilots'! So it was nice to feel like a celebrity and live in comfort for a wee while, instead of living like a tramp for the last 7 weeks.  The toilets on these buses were only for urinating in and I nearly had heart failure when I heard that, as before I left Lima at least 5 of us had really dodgy stomachs with a dose of the aul runs going on too. But thank God for Immodium - it saved the day.

Arrived in Cuzco and got a taxi to my place of residence. Basically I'm staying with a host family. Well, I suppose you could say I'm in the poor area of Cusco - the places where the tourists don't usually go to or see, which is about 20 minutes walk from the main plaza (where all the tourists stay & is beautiful). So it's good to see the other side of Cusco as I'll be volunteering in these kinds of areas next week.

My host family is made up of a married couple, the wife being in her 40's and the husband I've yet to meet.  My room is a bed with space to swing a small cat and very basic.  Had a shower with a hose coming out of the wall and the toilet tends to block up.  It's a bit weird just living with these random people but like everything else I'll get used to it. Didn't stay too long to chat as I wanted to get out quickly and find my way into Cusco. There's a German guy staying with my host family also, but he wasn't there when I arrived, so at least that'll be slightly easier to talk my non Spanish to. Got my own key (I feel like I'm 16 again!) and can come and go as I please. 

I start my Spanish language course tomorrow morning and move out of my host family at the weekend into University accommodation, which I think I'll prefer.  I'm guessing that the next few weeks will be a lot quieter than what I've been used to (ie. constant partying/going on tours/trips etc)as I'll have a routine now, but I don't think my liver, body and bank balance will mind that in the slightest.

Inca Jungle Trek

Four long days were spent trekking and biking over 120 kilometres. Day one we  drove over 4500m above the clouds and cycled downhill for around three hours.  The faster ones in the group were able to go on ahead and meet up with everyone at a particular destination every 45 minutes. Off I merrily peddled and forgot to stop at our last checkpoint and managed to cycle an extra 10k more. I did wonder why it was getting really hard as most of it was uphill by this stage with the sweat was lashing off me, thinking.."Downhill my arse!". So after the extra bit, I stopped and waited - two of the others followed me, so we all got a bit lost, but thankfully the  rescue van came and found us wrecked at the side of a road somewhere at the foot of the mountains.

The next two days were spent trekking for hours and hours through the Peruvian jungle in search of the Inca trail and Machu Picchu.  The actual trek is much longer than the Inca trek, but worth it for all the views. At the end of our day, we had the option of jumping into hot springs in the valleys - pure bliss.

Day four was an early start - rising at 4am (after a night of about 2 hours sleep in total, thanks to a bunch of wee shites of school kids making loads of noise coming back to the hostel and banging doors etc).  As we left the hostel, a couple of us decided to 'accidentally' bang a few of their doors, just for pay back. There was around 2500 vertical steps to climb in the dark before reaching Machu Picchu.  In my group there was a fitness instructor and an ex-Olympic Aussie female speed skater (Im being serious), so they were happy enough to go up the steps as fast as they could.  Made it up in the end with lots of staring people at the top as two of us arrived up in our sports bras. Sweating in our t-shirts with a backpack climbing those steps didnt go together, so off came the tops - we couldn't have cared less.

Machu Picchu was exactly like the picture postcards you see - stunning views of the ruins and landscape. The day finished by climbing Waynupicchu mountain - another 400 metres of veritcal steps that wound round the mountain. Again, the view was amazing, but I spent a large amount of my time coming down on my arse as it was high up there.

Have arrived in Arequipa after a 10 hour truck journey and spent the last few hours checking out the town. It's back to camping again, which is a slight shock to the system after being spoilt in nice hostels and hotels. Was dragged kicking and screaming (not really!) to a local convent (what is it with these people thinking that tourists find convents remotely interesting - this is my second one...no more or I'll crack up). From here it's onto the Nazca lines, sandboarding and staying in the desert and then upwards to Lima, where my 7 week tour ends on Friday - can't believe it's gone so quickly - I've had so much fun and met so many lovely new friends; some who I'll definitely meet again as I make my way through Australia.

Then it's back to the brilliant city of Cuzco, this time by myself, for some Spanish language (I'm thinking it wasnt one of my brightest ideas doing this at the end of my trip in South America ) and 3 weeks of volunteering.  The only problem now is the flight that I'd booked and paid for to fly me from Lima to Cuzco has been grounded for 90 days due to safety problems with the planes on this particular route...so the only option now is to get a 23 hour bus journey all the way back again to Cuzco. Doesn't faze me at all - at least I'll recognise all the scenery as I revert to becoming an OAP again, looking out of the window, dozing off and waiting for the toilet stops again. Oh how I have missed the all day travelling on a bus/truck!

Lake Titicaca Homestay

Have arrived in Peru and this country is absolutely stunning - the prettiest yet of the countries I've been in. We went on an overnight homestay with local families on one of the islands on Lake Titicaca.  After 4 hours on a boat (could've probably swam quicker) we landed on the island to be greeted by our families.

Had to trek half an hour up the terraced hills to get to our home. Each family had two guests staying with them, so myself and another girl met our new adopted parents and siblings.  The accommodation was very basic but nice - no bathroom, just a toilet outside that doesn't flush etc.  Our new mum made us lunch. Sitting in the kitchen was sligthly awkward as our Spanish was completely crap, so there was lots of smiling going on between both parties!! 

But they were lovely - we had basic meals, mainly of rice and potatoes and were joined in the dining area by a few furry friends crawling all over the plates and running through holes in the wall.  The food was cooked over the fire and served to us on clay pots and bowls.  They also gave us tea, which was basically a twig of mint cut off some bushes outside in the garden.

We played the locals in a game of soccer - there were about 5 of them versus 11 of us...still we didn't win - got completely hammered.  In the evening we had to dress up in their local costumes and go to a dance. The outfits made the girls look at least 5 times their size and were hideous. The dance consisted of pretty much the same music and the same steps, but the craic was great.


Arrived in Cuzco and I love the atmosphere of this city and am looking forward to coming back here after my tour ends in Lima in two weeks, to volunteer for 4 weeks. Of course, we all went out clubbing last night & the first stop was the Irish bar for an expensive pint of Guinness! Doing the Inca Jungle Trek in a few days time, which is slightly different from the original trek - this one involves more mountain biking,  hiking, zip-wiring and rafting for 4 days and still getting to Macchu Picchu on the final day...bring on the adrenaline rush again!

Surviving 'Death Road'

Getting ready to start our bike ride on `Death Road´

Death Road, Bolivia

Ok, so I take back everything I said about Bolivia after arriving in La Paz. This city is fantastic.  It's the typical South American city that I had imagined in my head, unlike the cities in Argentina and Brazil.  It sits in a type of bowl shape and when you enter the city centre - proper developing city in the Third World. Cars, trucks,lorries etc gridlocked and tooting their horns (apart from trying to run people over), pollution everywhere, women mainly selling the same things on the street, men urinating everywhere (after you walk over it and not realising until it's too late)...it's a bit like Mumbai (except I've never been there, but it's what I imagine it to be like). And yes, the people are much friendlier than previous places and it's so cheap here which is great for backpackers.

Anyway, yesterday was probably the best adrenaline rush and scariest of my trip so far - cycling the 'World´s most dangerous road' or 'Death Road' as it's known here.  Basically it's a 64 km road  from La Paz to Coroico. Sounds fine when you say 'road', but dirt track, with stones and gravel 3 metres wide is a better explanation.  200 - 300 travellers are estimated to be killed yearly, with crosses marking the spots of each victim. 

The road started off well and we had to cycle at least 25km to get to 'Death Road' - we all cycled downhill for a while (flying in our mountain bikes) and stopped to look over the cliffs and to be shown vans and cars that veered over the edge.  Then there was an uphill section through the mountains of about 10km. The fellas in my group thought it would be good to try to have a race (the altitude up here is 4650m above sea level) against each other, seeing who was macho etc (you know the way they get on). They were slightly pissed off as they were eating dust from the eventual winner who was the oldest member of the group and the opposite sex...little old me - ha,ha - that kept them quiet after that..go the girlies!

After a couple of hours cycling and signing our lives away on disclaimers, we reached the actual ´Death Road´. My God, scary as hell - I don't do it any justice here, so you should google it to see what it's like.  Everyone was literally crapping themselves. The wider road now became the dirt track 3 metres wide, with the first drop 4650 metres (over 15 000 feet)at La Cumbre Pass.  We had to cycle on the left (no idea why as they drive on the right here) of this tiny road and the cliffs were to our left.  Before we set off, our guide let us know of how many people skidded off the road and fell to their deaths on mountain bikes or motor vehicles.  The last person to fall off a mountain bike was as recent as last week and he was a 7 year old child - his mother must have loved him sending him on that!  Luckily he only fell 70m and got caught in vegetation and was pulled to safety.

To be honest, for most of us this was a bit of fun when we started out and we were looking forward to the free t-shirt and lunch at the end, but reality gave us all a swift boot up the ass as we cycled down this road.  At times the weather was poor and fog reduced visibility - probably good as there were sections that even the bravest person wouldn't want to look down.  Cycling down or screaming down (in my case as I'm petrified of heights) holding onto the brakes we passed by so many crosses on the edge of the cliff were so many people were killed..absolutely shi*ting ourselves. One stupid move of the bike, then it was weeeeeeee...all the way over the edge and hello God!

The scenery was amazing (apparently) - we didn't get to take in the beautiful views as we were busy looking at how to keep on the road. It was beautiful when we stopped.  Thankfully we all made it down to the bottom mostly unscathed. Well, apart from one girl in our group, she hit a boulder and went flying over the handlebars - luckily for her she fell on a slightly wider section of the road and was bruised and badly cut.  At the beginning of our journey, we all had to give a Bolivian offering to the god of Mother Earth by pouring some sort of alcohol onto our bike tyres, the road and onto our lips to keep us safe...the girl who went over her handlebars was the only one in the group who didn't...creepy.

A brilliant day out - would do it again, only next time, I'd like a t-shirt in red instead of black!

Leaving Bolivia tomorrow and entering Peru, travelling to various places around this country. Cuzco will be my adopted home for a month, until the next leg of my journey begins in New Zealand.

La Paz city,  Bolivia