Right if this thing doesnt work again i´m going to look for another blog! Where have we been since macchu pichu...well from there we headed on an overnight bus to nazca. The journey was all twists and turns and a few people felt a bit queasy. When we arrived at nazca we were asked to sign up for a flight, so half an hour later we were at the airport....and guess what,....it was there that i realised that i had left my beloved cap on the bus!!! That the 2nd one i lost!! So as i´m writing this i am wearing a cheap chilean replacement!!! Anyway went on the flight but it didnt sink in that we were actually seeing the famous nazca lines! They were pretty amazing, there was a monkey and a spaceman!! And they could only be seen from the air! So bizarre!
Anyway later that morning we were asked to go to a nazca cemetary with two english girls. We were apparently getting a VIP tour and the guide was great until he crashed his car into the side of a 4x4! So after getting out all okay, we pushed the car to the side of the road and a taxi took us on our ´vip´tour!! The cemetary was pretty wierd, loads of mummies and skeletons but there were 1500 year old fabrics and bones scattered everywhere!! It was like seeing anglo saxons with thier clothes really well preserved because theres no rain!
Anyway later that day and night suze got delhi belly and the next day all we wanted to do was get the heck out of nazca. so we got the bus at 3pm and saw the pacific for the first time! Arrived at arrequipa in peru. We were met by the girl from the hostel at midnight, then taken to the hostel and given supper before being shown our room with ipod speakers!!! It was amazing!! A well deserved break from nazca, delhi belly and the inca trail!
On our first day there we visited juanica, an inca princess who was sacrificed on top of one of the local snow capped mountains to appease the gods. She was really well preserved and apparently walked from cusco before being given alchohol, coca leaves and hit over the head. she was dressed in the finest alpaca and was found a few years ago.
The next day (who says theres no history in s america) we visited a 16th century nunnery that has been opened to the public. It was fascinating, a whole citadel within the city completly closed off! All the nuns had cloisters and their own cells with a room, kitchen and bit of open space. The whole area even had streets named after the cities in spain!
Then as it got dark they lit all the candles and you could wander round at night!!!
Anyway amazing place. After that we moved to Tacna on the peru chile border. I ate some wierd steak and was ill the day after...typical...but we eventually got to chile! First stop arica where we paddled in the PACIFIC!!! then we got another bus to iquique on the pacific coast. Really cool town with a long promenade and good surf. The centre also had a great street that was like something from the wild west!!! really cool buildings from the ealry 20th century!

Anyway next stop was humberstone a ghost town left over from the 1940s. it was set up by a british firm in 18 something, then abandoned in the 1960s. Its just been left now and is like an old industrial site in the uk except they HAVE KEPT IT and not demolished everything! Its now a UNESCO world heritage site!

After that we went to paranal, the european space agency observatory in chile! That was cool, saw the boffins and everything..will put pic up when thi stupid thing works...

Now we´re in San pedro de atacama! Just come back from the famous uyuni salt flats on an extreme 4 day trip!! Was crazy, minus 25 apparently on the first night and no heating. We were 4300m above sea level and had to wear about 6 or 7 layers all night and day! But it was worth it. Heading to argentina tomorrow......woohoo! Will update again soon....will try get these pics on flickr....

La Paz to Peru

http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanglow/

Okay, this blogger thing is v slow so iñve posted some more pics on flickr...theres the link. also theres a great dan cruickshank video about some of the places we´ve been on here.... http://www.viddler.com/explore/enperu/videos/76/?secreturl=73081834

Anyway where were....bolivia i think. i´m trying to put up some pics of the witches market and tiwanaku. Anyway left la paz, really cool place actually and headed to the largest navigable lake in the world which is Lake Tititcaca. Stayed in a place called copacabana but it was a bit chilly and decided to book a bus straight to cusco. The bus journey was a day one for once and we passed through more of the altiplano desert with andean mountains and small farming communities. On the way there were some amazing adobe buildings aswell as proper hovels! people living in little hovels...thats the only word for them but they were in amazing surroundings near the beginning of the sacred valley to cusco. Anyway Cusco was great, so old and so well planned and so well preserved, better than any other city i had seen so far! The inca stonework is still visible perfectly jointed and there is a great combination of grand and modest squares and spaces with not a hude amount of traffic. The place is ofcourse a tourist centre but there are some amazing buildings here. Reminded me of the gothic qtr in barcelona, lotsd of little alleyways to get lost in etc. Anyway the main reason people come here is for macchu picchu....(i still cant spell it)...so we decided to book a trip there. Becasue it was waaay too expensive to book the inca trail and becasue it has a 3 month waiting list we took a tour that went away for 4 days and 3 nights. the first day we got taken up to the top of a mountain and cyhcled down. We didnt know it at the time though but our driver was hungover and keptfalling asleep when we pulled over. But we got down on our bikes for a well earned rest. We were with loads of crazy isrealis and a cool dutch girl called....something de vreies....he he....can never remember her name but we all becamed buddies straight off. The second day was spent on a seemingly endless walk. We apparently took up a bit of the inca trail and that was cool with a great footpath hugging the mountains. Then it was back on a long road. We walked from 7am to about 5pm...now thats a long way...But at the end we got to some cool hot water natural spas and spent a couple of hours there.
The next day ended up being another crazy day of walking, except mainly on a railway line that ran toi agua calientis at the foot of machu picchu mountain. The city of macchu picchu is incredible. perched realy really high on a mountain top. its amazing!!! Anyway the photos show it, wow, what a place. By this time we had little confidence in our guide so i left the group before sunrise in order to see the sun from the classic viewpoint! After three days of walking the walk to the top from one end of the city to the other nearly killed me but when i got there i simply watched the sun rise....wow, the beams were shooting down from the surrounding mountains and eventually the whole city was alighted....amazing!!! spent most of the day there before getting the train back to cusco for must have sleep. But now, after the trip we were all feeling a bit unsettled in the stomachs and the tour operator wanted even more cash off us...so is you go to peru never go with peru tours.....they´re rubbish...but macchu picchu is so worth it!!!
Annnnnyway heading to nasca next, overnight bus tonight to see the mysterious lines in the sand...
Oh and if you´re wondering, macchu pitchu was found b an american hiram bingham in 1911. Apparently the spanish only got 1% of the inca gold and the rest was sent to another place deep in the amazon, a 60 day walk directly to the east where the sun rises on the winter solstice.....i heard that from another guide....anyway hope the pics upload, if not chekc them out on flickr....