Bolivia

Last week I told you all about my time in Peru! After Peru (Cusco) we all took a 25 hr bus ride to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, lake Titi is in Peru and Bolivia but we heard from travellers that the best bit to go to is called Punto which is on the Bolivian side.
The Bus ride was hell as usual, comfy seats, but the only toilet on board was absolutely disgusting and at one stage we had to swap buses and had to wait for it for about 6 hrs....FML. Crossing the Peruvian border in Bolivia was a little scary! There were so many different areas you had to go to and I had lost a tiny piece of paper at the start of the trip that apparently I was supposed to hold on to which then cost me $40 for loosing it, mother f*****s...they really know how to rip you off in these countries if you are not careful!!

When we arrived at Lake Titicaca it was so beautiful! It is the highest lake being 3,811 m above sea level and the largest lake in South America.

We found a little hotel to stay in and went exploring! There really is not much in Punto.. very very small and there are no ATM's!! The bank is only open 1 day a week there and none of us had money so we had to wait two days before we could get some!! Lucky the people in Punto were very trusting as we had many IOU's!!
Our nights were typically all the same, drink, go out and be naughty...I won't get into too much or I would get in trouble..but you know how South America is! We loved the way the Peruvian and Bolivian women dressed, it was very cute with their little bowler hats!

After a few days in Punto we got a little bored so we decided to head to Isle Del Sol, This is a little Island in Lake Titicaca that we heard was really beautiful and something different. We caught a boat there and we really didn't have a clue what we were getting ourselves into! This View from the boat is pretty amazing!

When we got to Isle Del Sole, someone who lived on the Island greeted us at the bottom...then he started walking up this steep hill and we thought oh maybe he is grabbing the car to put our packs on and we are getting a lift up....oh no...we had to walk with our heavy packs on up the steepest mountain ever for about an hr...it was hell!!! 

We finally got to the top where everyone lives and in everyone i mean about 10 families!! It was the tiniest little town ever, we found a place to stay which was $3 a night and went exploring...there were a few animals, one restaurant, many steps leading back down to the bottom and amazing views.

 We had a nice time here but it could have got pretty boring if we were there for more than one night!
After getting back on the boat to Punto we then caught another long ass bus ride to La Paz.. Party Town!!

We were all pretty excited about getting to La Paz, we had heard amazing things about it and couldn't wait to have some fun. If you have ever read Marching Powder then you would have wanted to go to the La Paz jail like we did...we set off one day to go there and were so excited about going inside but when we got there, there were guards out the front with big guns telling people to go away...you want to know why? because a stupid American had taken a video while inside the jail and put in on YouTube and ruined it for all of us...I was so annoyed.
The way La Paz is set out is pretty cool, its in a big round bowl so when you are at the bottom you can see all the sides around you and just millions of homes

Now for people going to La Paz anytime in the near future make sure you go to Route 36...I can't tell you anything about it and people in La Paz will pretend not to know about it...either ask the people that work at the hostel or ask your taxi drivers...some may say they don't know what Route 36 is but you will find one that does and you must go!
The fun that I had in La Paz is indescribable...everyone needs to go there and check out the history, the people are gorgeous and the food is pretty damn good! They have excellent hostels that will take care of you and you can go on great day trips.

Peace x

Peru

In 2009 my friend Sammy d and I travelled around Europe (my second time), Lived in London (also my second time) and went to South America! We only had 6 weeks in SA as it was coming up to the end of the year and we wanted to be home for Christmas.

One of the countries we ended up in was Peru! We went to Lima first to check out the Capital city and were mildly disappointed.... There really isn't much there and although it is on the coast...it really is not a very nice coast!

We stayed in Lima for a few days and stayed at a pretty cool hostel - We had the most awesomness supermarket right near where we stayed...food food everywhere and it was amazing food! Peru does have great food mmmmmmmm I could eat the ceviche now! We had never tried ceviche before (it is small bits of raw fish cut up with spices and lime juice) and we fell inlove it was GREAT!

There wasn't much to do in Lima, we walked around a lot, actually went to see the second Twlight film...we thought we were going to have to read subtitles but it was actually in English with Spanish subtitles! win!

One day Sammy d said she wanted to get her ear pierced all down the outside of the ear so about 6 piercings...she wasn't too sure if she should do it or not so stupid me said if she did it I would get a tatoo.... so we did, I got a tatoo that lasts forever and she got 6 piercings that she took out after a few weeks because they kept on getting caught on things.. aren't I silly!

We left Lima to go to Cusco but not before we had a 30 hr bus ride there! We were lucky to be on a first class bus with reclining seats, blankets, food and of course over the counter valium!

We arrived in cusco and it was the custest little town of all time, so old, with so many people roaming the streets, markets everywhere and cute little restaurants.

We stayed at the party hostel The Point and met wonderful people, we had such a good time in Cusco, it really was one of the highlights. To make it even better, two of our friends from back home were travelling SA and we met up here! We hadn't seen them all year as we had been travelling and it was just so good to see your best friends in an amazing city!

The main reason why people go to Cusco is for Machu Pichu. It is the closest main town to the amazing wonder so you start here and end here. Machu Pichu was on my definitely list and I was so pumped to see it, you see so many photo's in magazines and just hope one day that you can go explore it.
When we reached the top on Machu Pichu, you look out over the whole wonder and it is breath taking!

It looks like we are superimposed in the photo but we are totes not! It is so amazing up there I can't really describe it to you, the views, the workmanship, how long it has been up there, how on earth did they get everything up here and how on earth do they get lamas and rabbits up there!
We had a tour around the whole place which was nice but it wasn't that great so i would recommend just walking around by yourself. It was mighty hot up there as well, it felt like the sun was on top of us! Tip: If you plan on going to Machu Pichu, make sure your legs are covered completely, mine weren't and there are little pesky insects that draw blood and are mighty itchy! buggers. I had red dots on my legs for nearly 2 weeks...so not a good look!

This was one magical experience for me and I think everyone should get to Peru and check out this amazing wonder. I'll leave you with more pics and next week we go from Peru to Bolivia! Oh my Bolivia is amazing! Lake Titicaca is also a place people need to get to!

Peace xx

Road Trip - London to Valencia (La Tomatina)

Last year I lived in London for the 3rd time since 2007.... I love it soooo much! It is such an amazing city and I miss it every day.
It was Summer time and a few of us were sitting outside in a friends back garden and we all thought 'yeah, let's go to La Tomatina!'. I was the research guru so i looked at flights and because we left it a bit late they were too expensive for our little pockets and catching the train was just as much so we thought why don't we drive!

We hired a huge mammoth car that could fit 7 people...unfortunately I was going with 5 big guys so that limited our space even more! On the day we were leaving we left quite late in the afternoon as we wanted to drive through the night and set off to Dover where we were getting on the Ferry to take us across to Calais. This drive from London to Valencia was going to take us 18 hrs which we thought was pretty good! As most of us were from Australia 18 hrs isn't too long - It's not like we drive 18hrs often but to go from London to Valencia is pretty good!

These are the big idiots I had to be stuck in a car with! All in all it was very funny but being in a car for hours and hours with so many guys...jesus....smells, language, beer burps.

We arrived at dover to get the Ferry accross to Calais, It was so exciting! The Ferry was huge!

Driving through the night in France was so funny! As it is on the other side of the road and none of us had driven on the other side of the road before we made so many wrong turns and mistakes! We drove the whole night and watching the sun rise was so nice - the countryside in France is so beautiful and there are so many little places you can stop off at and check out. We saw a sign for a lake so we took the turn off and it was a huge lake that looked like a holiday destination for people and it was just so nice!

We never had too much time in one place as we had to get to the South of France for a night so all of us could sleep! We got down to the south and looked on the map to decide where to stay and we chose this place called Port La Nouvelle - We drove in to the town and we fell in love with it instantly! It was so pretty but so busy! There were quiet a few people on the beach front and we new it was going to be so hard to find a nice play to stay...and we were right...we stayed in a shit hole. All in all it doesn't matter where you sleep tho..we were hardly in our rooms, we hit the beach straight away then went out for an amazing all you can eat buffet for 21 euro and we seriously ate all we could!

After we said our goodbye's to Port La Nouvelle we were on our way to Valencia to meet up with my friends and go to La Tomatina! woo woo woo woo!! We only had 6 hrs to go until Valencia so we were all getting excited! A few of the boys fell asleep in the car so we decided to put make-up on them which was fun!
We arrived in Valencia and had to drive through the city.....omg, NEVER again! Spanish people are crazy drivers! Got to our hotel...sooo beautiful, I found it on the net for half price and it was a 4 star hotel so it was just gorgeous! I met up with my two girlfriends who had been travelling around Europe and I hadn't seen them in ages, It was so great to catch up with them!

Tomato throwing time! unfortunately we do not have any photo's of us covered in mushy, smelly tomatoes as we didn't want to ruin our cameras and a couple of the boys bought water proof cameras but they didn't turn out! But this is exactly what we looked like

The taste was so disgusting...it was like eating off napolitana sauce and because it was such a hot day the tomato would stick to you like glue...I even found a piece of tomato in my hair a week later....ya, gross. I highly recommend going to this festival, It was great fun and make sure after the fight has finished that you get to one of the locals who has a hose and just stand there infront of them!

Peace xx

Byron Bay

Last weekend (Grand Final weekend) I was up in Byron Bay with some of my girls. Best. Fun. Ever! omg we laughed so much, it was the best 4 days I have had in a while!

We arrived quite late Thursday night so didn't get up to much just chilled at the house, we wanted to get up early to get as much beach time possible! We were all up quite early and we hit the beach straight away, it was so delicious, 24 degrees with no clouds in sight!

Byron Bay beach is so amazeballs, I love lying there for hours just listening to the sea and squeaky sand. We all went into the water after heating up a bit on the sand....it was so frikkin cold!!! it was like Melbourne cold! but we just did it...ran in without thinking and it was divine once your private parts are used to the cold! haha!

As we all hadn't been in the sun for a few months we were pretty keen to stay there for a while, we had a break to go get on of the amazing Bay Kebabs...ohh I could eat one right now. We were on the beach for a good 5 hrs before we realised some of us were getting pretty burnt...very burnt, red raw skin so we decided to go start drinking! yeah! drinking!

We didn't have a big one that night as the Grand Final day was the next day and we knew that we would be drinking allllll day and night so we made lasagna and watched a movie.

We thought getting to the Beach Hotel at 12 would mean great table and enough seats for us all to sit on.....no way were we correct, it look like people had been there for hours and they had the best spots, it was so annoying! We found a little round table and moved it into the big tv area and searched for chairs..we finally all squeezed around and started on our first cider.

When the game started we all got so into it! My one friend Maddy is the biggest Geelong fan (you can tell by her outfit!) and it was so much fun being in that atmosphere, surrounded by drunken fools and being one yourself!

After the game finished we went out for a quick dinner as we all needed to eat. We had Thai and it was delicious, it was BYO too which was dangerous...we basically got a bottle of wine each!! After dinner we went to a club called La La Land, we got there at like 8.30 and it had just opened so we were the first ones there...i've never been first in a club but it is sooo much fun! you have to d floor to yourself and you don't have to wait for drinks!! The Best!!
In our crazy state we decided we were not allowed a drink without a shot, haha! so that is what we did all night, a vodka drink with either tequila or agwa!

Myself and some of the girls were out that night until 4.30am....jesus it was a long day of drinking! We woke up feeling so gross, our heads were hurting and our mouths tasted like a rat had died inside them but we were in that delusional state were everything was the funniest thing we had ever heard! ah so funny! That night we had a really nice restaurant booked for dinner so after lazing around all day we all dressed up and went out for dinner, some of us got our going out feeling back and we were ready for round 2 baby! We had a delicious dinner with delicious wine and amazing cocktails and after we had finished with dinner we moved on to La La Land again......YEAH!

Round 2 we were out very late as well..oh my it was a big one..same went down, 1 drink, 1 shot...why do we do it to ourselves!

Byron Bay was so much fun, each time I go it just gets better and better and there is nothing like a good little holiday here and there!

Going on a Holiday is the best! woo!

Peace xx