I will save you the kiting part as my previous entry bought me up to date to the last time I hit the water and since then it has been action action and action but all inland. From Mancora I took a bus to Lima and then flew to La Paz in Bolivia. La Paz is 3,700m up and didn't i know it. I spent the next 36 hours in bed sweating a fever of 4million degrees despite it being icy cold out and my vision of what i noticed between trying to slow my heart beat was pretty inconsistant. I had to delay my bike ride down the World Most Dangerous Road by 24 hours and even then we had to go up another 1,000m to the start, so I was back to dizzy head and gasps for oxygen. However determined as ever I stayed calm and it was all down hill and after about 45 minutes of descent I felt pretty confident!
The Worlds most dangerous road descended 3,000m over 65km's according to my cheesy 'I survived t shirt' and it certainly was hairy at times as I homing beaconed it towards 1,000m drops. Fortunately all went according to plan and the only injuries I came against was a wasp sting right on my nipple when the little bugger flew into my top and got caught in my bra. The views were spectacular and we went from being freezing cold at 4,700m to pretty dam warm at 1,000m drinking a celebratory ice cold beer.
In La Paz I wondered round witches markets and bought random things from cheap jewellery to llama feotuses and visited spectacular (although a little dull for me) religious museams. I did get my bag slashed though in one of the markets, but fortunately they didn't manage to steel anything and I put it down to South American adventures and kept an extremely close eye on my wallet and camera from there on out.
After La Paz i took a bus to Lake Titicaca. It's also around 3,700m's high. I met a canadian girl and we checked into a hostel together before taking a boat for two hours to the Isle de Sol where the first Inca was supposedly born. We trekked 12km's in blistering sunshine and on low reserves and dumb ass me forgot my wallet but we did come across a local man and women preparing some very fresh guinea pig for the fire! Yuk!!!!
From Copacabana - the bolivian side of lake titicaca we then headed to the peruvian side where we took a boat road across to some floating reed islands where people actually live despite the island being less then 20m square in size. The little kids were fascinated with my blonde hair and very cutely gave me a cudddle passing over their nits! Yum!!! Well - may be i could just do with a shower, but they were pretty grubby!
After lake titicaca my trip developed to one of the best of my lifetime. I took another bus to Cusco in south Peru and booked myself on to a 5 day trip to the second highest mountain in Peru called Salkantay! This trip I actually undertook in 4 days along with some Irish friends and we trekked up over 4,600m. I carried this post all the way there just so people weren't confused with the altitude. It was day 2 we reached this height and it was a really mission. the oxygen is so thin that the guides carry oxygen tanks for emergency. We took it fairly easy as we walked up and we made it in good time with no real dramas.
The only word to describe the trek is 'immense'. We walked over 70km's in 4 days and the views were absolutely stunning. The walk was taxing, we passed mountains, camped in snow, trekked through jungle, crossed huge rivers, combated mosquito frenzies and to top it off climbed Macchu Pittchu and its fellow mountain whynipicchu. I have to be honest I was caught taking a nap during the two hour two, but to be fair we woke up at 4am every morning and trekked until 4pm, so I deserved it.
Macchu Pittchu is one of the 7 wonders of the world and is a fairly recently discovered lost city of the Inca's! Its huge and been rebuilt really well so you can get an idea of how they lived. I've got to be honest - while climbing the hundreds of steps to the top I did have to wonder why they bothered but once on top of whynapicchu over looking the city is was inimaginable why they wouldn't!!!
Now i'm sat at a hostel in Lima waiting for my flight home. A trip inland is unheard of from me for years, but this was really something out of the ordinary. I promise to re-write this in the next few days with some proper information and facts, but for now I'm fairly sleep deprived.
I just have been re-united with my kiting equipment which I actually havent sen for two weeks and tonight my dreams will be of those south westerly autumn storms that will hopefully be battering my home beach of Bigbury! Happy kiting x
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