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