Day 4: Bag, Banana Skins And Bus Of Death

WARNING: This may not make much sense because i'm so tired I feel like my eyeballs are going to drop out.

We seem to have done loads the past couple of days, so I'll work backwards from today. First of all my backpack finally arrived yesterday. Yay! Apparently it didn't make the connection from T5 to T3 at Heathrow. funny that, seen as though I managed to get there with an hour to spare and the flight was delayed for 40mins! Also, Tesco are currently feeling the rath of Candice's mum about the fake currency situation. But, she seems to have picked up some more fake coins today, too! I think forged currency is a big problem in Peru.

We've just arrived backat the hostel after a very hard trek, which the Lonely Planet lied about being 40 mins! We got the local bus there which was fine but on the way back they squeezed about 60 people onto it (it was a 20 seat minbus) and we had to stand all the way as it sped at 100mph along mountain roads with about 500m sheer drop either side. It also smelled like everyone had been sat on it with extreme bowel problems and the windows shut in scorching heat for about three weeks. I think we were so tired and scared that we were going to plunge to our death or that our lungs would rot that we couldn't stop laughing and all the Peruvians thought we were crazy. Sure.

Yesterday was the big Inti Rami festival. Not too much to report there except that we watched from the hills with the locals (a ticket for a seat was 139 dollars!) and the best bit was joining them in throwing stones and bananna skins at the people in front who wouldn't sit down.

Tuesday we went to Machu Pichu which was awesome. Although, we nealry missed the train there because we got lost in a maze of rabid dogs and drunk Peruvians at 3am when we were trying to find the bus. Anyway, here it is...

Off to Lake Titicaca tomorrow. going to try to do some DIY island hopping...we'll see how that works out.

Right off to bed now.

Buenos noches!

xxx

Day 1: A Typical Jandice Situation

After an emotionl goodbye, I got on the plane in Manchester, met Cand in London and everything seemed to be going well as we touched down in Lima. As we waited for our bags to come around the luggage belt I started to think (as everyone does) "wouldn't it be awful if my bag didn't arrive". A few minutes later and we see Cand's bag coming along. A few minutes later and still no sign of mine, but there was still plenty of people waiting so I'm trying not to panic. Ten minutes later and there's just a crazy woman who doesn't seem to know what's she looking for, an American couple and me waiting for our bags.

So, trying to hold back the tears and not think about the prospect of the next 12 months without any suitable hair products, I head over to the LAN desk where they tell me they have no idea where my bag is and why it hasn't arrived! Great. So, I fill out a form and then we had to go and check into our next flight down to Cusco.

In the airport lounge, Candice goes to get some breakfast while I rifle through my insurance papers and make frantic phone calls home. But, when Cand goes to pay for the food, they tell her that the 20 soles note she has is a fake. And, actually all the 20 soles notes that she got in the UK are fakes! So, there we were in Lima airport minus one backpack but with a fist full of fake currency. Typical!

Will update on the bag situation in the next blog.

Hasta luego!

P.S - I have a mosi bite on my eyelid that has puffed up so it looks like I have been punched in the face. It looks good.