It’s very early to have a certain view on the trip in retrospect, I’m still bewildered from being back, but it’s a trip that has changed my life, and my view upon life, but then, all great changes in your life do exactly that.
Certain people on the trip have made a bigger impact than others, of the most important I can mention: Mike Gasson, Jimmy, Dave, Sarah, Carl, Miguel, Anne Dorte, Stephen, James, Johno, Karin, Flavio, Julian, Magte, Tono, Antonio, Heather, Lisa, Moni, Bob and the star of the show… Gilbert.

I have also had a lot of help from the homefront: Hanne (mother), Jesper (father), Anne Sophie (sister), Bo (stepfather) and Anette (friend). Especially without the help of these individuals, the trip never would have been or it would have failed while I was underway.

With a disregard to all that I have just written, I would like to extend a thank you, to everyone on this list:

Family, friends and everyone who has been reading the blog!

Uruguay: Those 5 Danes

Colonia Del Sacramento: The Brit and the Aussie

Puerto Madryn: Sarah and Kyle

Rio Gallegos: Timo, Jonah and Fred

Ushuaia: Andreas, Uri, Layden and the 4 Israeli girls

Punta Arenas: Carl, Tamar, Adina, Keenan, Irish couple, Jack, Roman, Mike and the two Aussie’s in their 50′s.

Puerto Natales: Bill, Kat, Bo, the guy from Punta Arenas, Monty (the cat), Britney, Jenny, German girl, Vicky and Sophia

Torres Del Paine: Urs, John, John, Susan, Katy, Rafael, Natasha, Albert, Nick, Whitney and the two Irish guys.

Calafate: Edward

Chalten: Mike

Futaleufú: Eyal, Rachel, Dave and Eddie

El Bolsón: Lucia

Bariloche: Patrick, Reut, the Israeli twins and Jimmy

Bariloche -> Valdivia: Lindsay

Pucón: Everyone at hostel Etnico, everyone who went up the volcano with me (in particular Yong)

Santiago: The staff at La Chimba hostel and Mike (of El Chalten fame)

Rapa Nui (Easter Island): Miguel, Chen, Kieran, Melissa, Larry, Jimmy (From Bariloche),John, Emma, Brian, John (Montana), Alejandra

Buenos Aires: Eddie (of Futaleufú fame), Anne Dorte, Jon, Karen, Elena, Jane, Becky, Eric, Madoka, James, Steve, Stefan, Darren, Deborah, Chris

Puerto Iguazu: Two German girls, Canadian girl and the two Danish girls

Ciudad Del Este: Dan and Rommi

Santa Cruz -> La Paz: Lorgio

La Paz: Patrick (from Bariloche) and Danny

La Paz -> Cuzco: Florian

Cuzco: Steve and James (from Buenos Aires), Karin, Anna, Heather, Ley, the 3 Norwegian girls, Ingrid, Johno, Maria, Charlotte, Mike Gasson (from El Chalten and Santiago) and the Kiwi girl.

Inca Trail: Flavio, Julian, the porters and the cook, Rob and Dee Ann

La Paz: Nadja, Yasmin, Heather, Uval, Maud, Jonathan, Ivan and Macro

Potosi: Cameron, Monica, Allan, William, Anaïs, Angela and Aaron

Uyuni: Angela (from Potosi), Declan and Judy

Sucre: Andrew, Tamsyn and Trevor

La Paz: Jimmy

Pampas: Jimmuy, Laia and Tono

Jungle: Jimmy, Antonio and Jesus

La Paz: Jimmy, Heather, Roly and Anita

Copacabana: Jimmy

Habana: Lisa, Amasa and Lily

Santiago de Cuba: Lisa (from above)

Comandancia La Plata: Moni

VIlla Santa Domingo -> Camaguey: Shane and Steve

Cuba: All the family’s I stayed with, ate with and talked with; you showed me the best side of Cuba.

Washington, D.C.: Hiro, Carlos, Rachel & Eyal (from Futaleufu and Bariloche), Bill Colburn, Jackie, Rick and Rav Shmuel.

New York: Tony, Anne Sophie (my sister), Peter & and his son Tony as well as

Chicago: Bob, Amanda and the people on the Wicker park tour

Boston: Amelia

I’m just gonna leave you with a feeling of my trip, I know with this massive list of people above, it doesn’t feel right, and I’m not saying it gives a sense of my entire trip, but you will also notice that few people are mentioned more than once (it won’t work if you are reading this in an email, you have to go to the website):

[See post to listen to audio]

So before I leave you… Beyond the sky and the earth, thank you.

Slow start, I was going to Copacabana with Jimmy, and he didn’t wake up till around 11 or 12, so I spent the early day walking around La Paz. Eventually Jimmy got around, and we took a taxi to the cemetary, where the buses for Copacabana leave. So we bought a ticket each for 20 Bs. (just under 3 dollars) and boarded the bus, which was a 4 hour journey, only split by the river crossing at one point, where everybody gets out, takes a boat, and then rejoin the bus on the other side.

Once in Copacabana, we found a very cheap hostel, which despite that is very highly recommended in both the Lonely Planet and Footprint (Empenador or something similar). We then went out and booked our tour to Isla Del Sol the following day, ate dinner and went back to the hostel and slept early.

14th of May: (Lake Titicaca pictures)

Jimmy and I both woke up early (went early to bed), and went for a wonderful breakfast, a giant ham and cheese omelet with bread, followed by a fantastic meat and egg sandwich. Jimmy and I then went down to the boats, showed our ticket and were shown towards one of them. Onboard I saw Cameron and Monica (from Potosi and Pampas), but they went upstairs to set on the roof, while Jimmy and I sat inside the boat. We sat in front of a Dutch couple, whom Jimmy talked with for most of the two hour trip, while I listened to music.

We arrived on the island, and first saw a very… Modest museum, and were then guided around the first part of the island by a local (for 5 Bs.). The island is beautiful, and beautifully located. The walk from the northern part back to the southern part (where we were to be picked up) is a 3 hour walk, up and down along the mountain-like ridge of the island. Most of the way, we had the company of the Dutch couple, which was very nice.

Eventually we made it to the end, and sat down for a sandwich, the four of us. But time was a bit scarce, and since the Dutch couple were staying on the island for the night, Jimmy and I had to go on to get the boat back, which we managed succesfully. We also survived the 2 hour boatride back (that boat, is INCREDIBLY slow), chilled out for a little while, before we had dinner, where our starter was a cheese and garlic pancake, which numbed out tasteuds to such an extent, that the pizza which was our main course, was completely tasteless.

We had nothing but a very long day ahead of us, lots of pictures to be uploaded and a fresh supply of empanadas, right next to the internet cafe, so what we did on this day, can hardly surprise anyone. We had a nice breakast and lunch in Rurre, but at 16.45, we went to the Amaszonas office, went onto a bus and was taken to the airport, where we checked in, and waited for about an hour before we boarded the plane, waited an additional 45 minutes, and then we were in La Paz.

In La Paz, we (by this time, only Jimmy and I) grabbed a taxi towards Wild Rover hostel, checked in, and went to Mongo’s (famous restaurant amongst backpackers) where we had an amazing meal, where for the main course, I had the most delicious local trout from Lake Titicaca. But it had been a long trip so when we made it back to Wild Rover (after a 3 course meal), I immediately hit the bed, and slept the night away.

12th of May:

Although in La Paz, not much was done. I met Heather whom I met the second time I was in La Paz, just fooled around most of the day, went to a beautiful viewpoint over La Paz, spent a good while of the day uploading even more pictures from the Camina de Muerte, as well as some videos.

For dinner I went to Mongo’s with Jimmy, Heather, Anita and Roly (both Anita and Roly are friends of Heather), as well as some other English girl whose name I never learned, and who left very early. I had a most astonishing lasagna, that I had also had before at Mongo’s and which simply blows me away.

Back at the hostel I watched The Other Boleyn Girl, a very good movie, worth a recommendation and a watch.

Down the Camina De Muerte (Death Road) for the second time, however it was Jimmy’s first trip. This time I went with a company called B-Side, at $55 they are more expensive than Pacha (last time) and a good deal cheaper than Gravity (biggest company). However their bikes are superb, at least the same quality as Gravity, the bikes of both company are priced at $2500.

We got up much earlier than Jimmy liked (he is NOT a morning person), and went to the B-Side office, sat down and wait, met our companions for the day (Susie and Gavin from Ireland), so only four people, a very small group, what luxury. After a few minutes, a van stopped next to us, and Simon, our guide, jumped out, introduced himself and picked us up. So we drove to the top of the road (4800 meters), were given our super deluxe bikes, with a wonderful suspension system. When you see a big rock in your way, you prepare for the jump, brace yourself etc, but with these bikes, nothing happened, the bike would take the entire shock.

We started rolling down, and everything was fine, except for the fact that I couldn’t keep up, I had the disadvantage of being too light, so I never could gain the momentum of the others, so I had to use my brakes a lot less to gain speed, whereas Jimmy had to use his brakes, in order not to go to quick. The ride was exactly the same as the last time, all the way down to the payment area. Now that the road isn’t used for actual traffic, but only for tourists (a professional asphalt road has been built around it), there is now a 24 bolivianos ($3) entrance fee, for maintaining the road. At this point on the last trip, we all got picked up in the van, and taken to the beginning of the Death Road, it should also be mentioned that on this trip, we were the first to make it to the payment checkpoint, meaning we would have the road exclusively to ourselves.

This time we got to bicycle up the hill, a long and arduous trip, which meant that after my initial attempt, I surrendered and climbed into the van. I was the only person to do so, but I didn’t mind much, I just couldn’t get up. After a short break at the flat level we had stopped, I picked up my bike, and managed to last small climb to the top. From here it was mostly downhill, down the fantastically beautiful Camina de Muerte, and this time I had brought my camera, knowing now how dangerous the road actually is, I felt like it wouldn’t be a problem to bring it, and it was a gorgeous day. We got a cloud cover below us from a fantastic point, and our guide who had been doing the tour for years, told us that it was only the second time he had seen it, and for him, it was the most beautiful view he had ever had; the pictures don’t really show exactly how good it was, but at least it was an attempt. (I provided a link at the top for all the Death Road picture, and thus won’t be linking them separately)

We continued down, this trip was also a lot more fun, not just the better company (all 3 others and the guide), but also the guide was a lot better, and was always in front, with the van following behind us. He (the guide) set a good (fast, but not dangerous) pace, and Jimmy and I tried to keep up, Jimmy did a very good job, but he sent a lot of dust into my eyes on the flat pieces, where I would then fall behind, and then try to catch up when it was going downhill. I am writing this with all my limbs intact, so I made the trip down fine, although once (at a very broad point in the road), my rear wheel suddenly flew out, and I almost crashed. I would like to say that my catlike reflexes saved me, but truly, I lucked out.

By and by, we made it down, were loaded into the van, and taken to a luxury hotel, where we each got a room for taking a shower, and changing into some fresh clothes, and then had a most wonderful late lunch, with some extraordinary salted pork. For dinner, Jimmy and I went back to the pizzeria from the previous day, where Jimmy had a gargantuan pizza, which he in ways I can’t comprehend, managed to finish.

This was however also a very bad day, when I returned to my bed from the Death Road trip, the cleaning crew (two witnesses in the room) had stolen my glasses and my Lonely Planet book, something which greatly upsets me, but there is unfortunately nothing I can do.

!Pampas/Jungle pictures!

6th of May:

I woke up at 3.30 (I have no watch and thus no alarm anymore, so I do this by going early to bed), I then spent 30 minutes leaving the hostel, as the nightguards couldn’t figure out that I had already paid. I then woke up Jimmy, and Jimmy not being a morning person, wasn’t happy about it being 4 in the morning, but we had to go and catch our flight to Rurrenabaque, a small 19 seater from the company Amaszonas, a rather bumpy ride.

We made it to Rurrenabaque in one piece, and went to the office of the agency we were going with (Indigena), registered and had breakfast. Went back and were off on a wonderful 3 hour carride that kills any organ you might have inside yourself, kills your eyes and throat with dust and generally just tear you to pieces. I should also mention that the car (Toyota Landcruiser) stopped very frequently to pour water into the engine, it leaked like a broken colander on a rainy day. We stopped for a spot of lunch, and then went into our boat, and had a beautiful sightseeing tour to our lodge, where we saw a lot of different animals, squirrel monkeys, pink dolphins, alligators, cayman crocodiles, a plethora of birds and a huge animal, that I have no idea what is called. We eventually arrived at our ecolodge and had popcorn, crackers and some serious hammock action, those were just… Sublime for the place. For sunset we were sailed to a sunset place, where I at first played some football with Jimmy, but soon after a lot of people arrived, and it didn’t take long before I was involved in a hilarious volleyball game.

After the sunset, we want back for a wonderful dinner, and I then went to bed and read my latest craze, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a book which started out slow, but really has picked up and redeemed itself for a bad beginning.

7th of May:

Got up at 8, picked out a pair of wellies (rubber boots), but since I had slept so late, there were only size 39 left, so trying to force them on, I broke the sole off. When I went back to put them in their place, someone had left a size 43, which I could fit into. Ate breakfast and then we were off on Anaconda/Cobra hunting, where out guide Toño, really showed us what a man from Bolivia can do, when Anthony (an Aussie) found a Cobra, and Toño just came running towards it, dived headfirst in an attempt to grab it (Cobra’s are fast), but missed, jumped up like a frog, and went for it again, catching the tail, coming out of a bush, swinging it everywhere, it then goes for his leg, but hits his boot, digging its fangs so deep into the boot, that he had to wait until it had relaxed enough, before he could pull it out; this all mainly happened while I was trying to swap my lens around, to get the lens for close pictures (I had my telezoom lens on). We later found an anaconda, a small specimen, but an anaconda none the less (somewhere around 2 metres), and a second Cobra, where Toño put up a similar struggle, without being bitten. Of which there are plenty of pictures at the above link, although I will bring the best one here.

Toño then took us (Anthony & Michelle, Gil & Nicky, Laia, Jimmy and I) on a walk through the surrounding area (we had been walking around looking for the snakes, they live in lagoons where the water sinks down in the day, revealing a lot of mud to walk in, hence the wellies), where we walked through some countryside and he explained different things to us about the snakes, alligators and crocodiles, how they live and what to do in case you are attacked. Gil then noticed a crocodile in the water, some 3 or 4 metres from us. Toño threw some sticks towards it, suddenly got up running away screaming (get away, get away, it is coming), which didn’t fool anyone except Michelle.

After lunch at the ecolodge, we sailed out to swim with pink dolphins, which is considered safe, as there are never alligators or crocodiles around in the water, when there are dolphins swimming about. I didn’t go in the water (as I never do), but everyone else except for Laia had a dip, and especially Gil spent a lot of time swimming. Most thrilling time, was when a lot of sardines made an incredible splashing noise, right next to the shore, making everyone (except Toño I expect) think a crocodile or alligator had entered the water, spreading incredible panic, especially for Gil who was by far the closest. Taking a picture didn’t enter my mind, because we all thought it was a real danger, I did however get one picture of Gil, just at the moment he realised it was sardines, and not an alligator. We sailed around to some different locations to find more dolphins, which was partly successful, but taking a picture of one, is next to impossible. They surface for such a short time, that the only one who got anything was Jimmy, who recorded a video, where one by chance surfaced. After the swimming, we went back for a little snack (popcorn and crackers) and then went for a sunset in a different location, and this time the sunset was a lot more gorgeous, it was stunning. There I also met Cameron & Monica from Potosi, Eyal and Amit from Salar de Uyuni and struck up conversation, with a Canadian called Kent. After the sunset, we sailed back in the dark, where the eyes of alligators shine up red, if lighted upon, it was a very beautiful sight. Back at the lodge we ate dinner, and I was back at my book, how does a person write so well? The book is almost as enchanting as the Aubrey-Maturin books I have read 2 of on this trip.

8th of May:

Piranha fishing, after breakfast. However we got up at 5, and sailed around in the complete darkness to listen to howler monkeys primarily, but other animals as well. It was a good experience, and the sunrise we saw out there was stunning. We went back for our breakfast, and then went piranha hunting, we each got a long fishing line, with a hook at the end, and a small pile of meat cut into tiny pieces (bait), and then set about catching. We moved around to different locations, to try and get the best results, fishing both from the boat and from the shore. I managed to catch the biggest piranha, the biggest black salmon and just two more fish, whereas Anthony kept pulling them in, and Jimmy kept loosing them when he tried to pull them in. Just before we want back, Toño held one piranha up to another one, and the first one immediately, started eating the second one, the crunching sound was especially appalling.

We went back for lunch, where we ate the fish we had caught (amongst other things), and then headed back towards Rurrenabaque, which was a long boatride in the opposite direction from which we had come (surprise), and then the 3 hour carride. This time was a lot better however, we didn’t stop once to pour water into the car or anything similar, the only problem that arose, was that Jimmy had forgotten his boots. Something which was really bad, as he and I would go on the jungle tour the following day, but we couldn’t go back for them, as everyone else would miss their flight.

We made it back to Rurrenabaque, just to be told that our jungle tour was cancelled, so we went with 3 Irish girls to another agency, and book it there. We then called our travel agency (Viacha tours), to tell them of the change of plans. About 10 minutes later they called our hostel, and told us that Indigena had not cancelled our tour, and that we had to go with them, or forfeit our 100 dollars, paid for the tour.

So this all arranged we went out for dinner, and then went back and went to sleep. The place we ate was quite nice, although the portions was quite small, the music played was amazingly good.

9th of May:

Our big jungle tour, Jimmy had  borrowed some wellies a size too small (biggest they had), and we met up with the other person going, Stephanie from Montreal, Quebec. We set out on a 3,5 hour boatride (infinitely more comfortable than the carride), after about an hour we made it to the entrance of the Madidi park, and sailed on for 2,5 hours to our lodge for the night (during which I finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and started reading Wild Swans). Once we arrived there, we had some lunch cooked by our chef Jesus (nicknamed Jesusito, meaning Little Jesus), and then Antonio took us on the first jungle excursion, where we saw trees with self defence mechanisms (huge spikes sticking out), and other random assorted things, including lots of insects and ants, including a very interesting tree called “The Devil’s Tree”, called so because the devil dances around it, which is why nothing grows within a metre of it; in reality the fire ants that live on it, spread acid around it, preventing anything from growing.

Back at the lodge we had a popcorn/crackers snack and later dinner, before we went out on a night trip, completely engulfed in darkness, except for our torches (and I don’t have one). On this night trip, I took what might be my best picture of the trip, and scared the living daylights out of Jimmy, when I (intending to scare him, just for fun) touched him gently on the back with a flat hand, making him scream, jump around and curse in Dutch. However we all had the feeling, that at some point Antonio (our amazing guide), would try and scare us all to death, but he never did so.

10th of May:

111 days in South America, what a wonderful number. I didn’t mention it, but my day number 100, was the day I had food poisoning, and tried to make it from Uyuni to Sucre but failed. This was the day of the most extensive jungle tour, so after breakfast we set out around 9 or 9.30, and didn’t come back to the camp until 12.30. We crossed a river twice (going there, and coming back at another place), saw a tree with a diameter of 6 meters, we swung on lians, and saw more amazing trees, insects etc.

We made it out after a very long walk, where the vegetation had grown so thick, that Antonio had to bring out his machete and chop his way through the trail, with us walking behind. Eventually we made it out, and Jesus had amazing food waiting for us, before we began our 3 hour boatride back down to Rurrenabaque, where due to the rain, out flight had been canceled. So we settled into the hostel we had stayed at before, and went out for dinner at a different place, and this time received decent sized pizza’s. We also had our flight rescheduled to 18 o’clock the following day. And thus ended our Death Road/Pampas/Jungle tour.

We had a very good if spartan breakfast, and set out to find travel agencies. The first one was closed, so we went around to the major street, and had some talks at different locations. However we ended up choosing a 3D/2N pampas tour (72 dollars) and a 2D/1N jungle tour, as well as flying to Rurrenebaque (where the tours begin), and a Death Road tour (my second) the following day.
There really wasn’t much more to the day, we had great fun, and for dinner I had chorizo sausages with a small steak and mashed potatoes at the hostel, by some miracle for free.

“I am writing this on the eve before I go to the jungle, and you wont hear from me again until the 11th of may, until then… Best of luck”

Now that my watch has run out of battery, I have no idea when I wake up. But I was feeling much better, so I went out for a big breakfast; and what did I see where I went? The part of breakfast I had been missing for nearly 3,5 month? A hash brown! So I had scrambled egg, with a (giant) hash brown and pancakes. However the hash brown was like a giant soggy roesti, and unfortunately disappointed me.

I spent most of the day trying to sort out flight tickets and similar, which proved something of a hassle. But that’s right, “Tie a yellow ribbon ‘round that old oak tree, because I’m-a coming home”. However, it will be a while, and I have some stops on the way back; but as per usual, I have no intention of revealing my plans.

I went out to the same place as the previous day for dinner, although this time alone, and had a wonderful pasta bolognese. After dinner I went back to the hostel and rented Hercules, a cracking movie with an incredible amount of references to greek mythology, what made the movie even better was that about 3 minutes into it, I was joined by Andrew, Tamsyn and Trevor. After the movie it was late, and I went to bed.

2nd of May:

On this day I went to Cal Orcko, the worlds biggest collection of dinosaur footprints, located just outside La Paz, they were nearly destroyed as the area was used to mine for stuff used in cement, however the area with the footprints had too much of something in them, and thus that area wasn’t mined. The footprints were unfortunately far away, as we had to watch them across a valley, as to make matters worse, recent rain had done damage to the footprints. The trip was a bit too long, with a guide who was much too boring, but it was a spectacular sight, with footprints 80 cm wide (the biggest), and lifelike statues created of the dinosaurs who walked around there.

Back in Sucre there wasn’t much to do, it may be known as a very beautiful city, but it is only so by Bolivian standards, and even that I found Potosi far more attractive. I took a taxi to the busterminal and bought a ticket to La Paz, and on the way back, come across two good sights. Back at the hostel, I caught an early day movie (first part with Andrew) called Bad Boys, a movie I realised for years I had been thinking about. For so many years I had been wondering about (not constantly, but occasionally) where I had seen a four barreled gun, the answer is the end of Bad Boys.

For dinner I went out to a Chinese place with Andre, Tamsyn and Trevor; we each ordered a dish, and then shared everything. It was a great dinner, followed by a great ice cream. When we came back to the hostel, the TV room was occupied, a bit disappointing as we had hoped to watch Aladdin.

3rd of May:

Another full day of nothing, I have pretty much exhausted whatever there is to do in Sucre, so I wasted the day doing nothing much but watch Aladdin, and buy different things for my bus ride, such as bread and a can of tuna (to be mystically combined), different kinds of sweets and some water.

However I had a very strong experience, that really showed me how far I was from home, not in kilometres but in a different world. At the supermarket, there was an escalator, and whenever people stepped on it, they would scream and be lunged forwards or backwards, some would jump off and take the stairs up, while others would hold on for their lives. It was a completely new addition, and a lot of people had never seen them, and looked at them very curiously. Some people just looked at it and refused to step onto it.

At 18.30 my bus set out and I was on my way to La Paz!

You would think that getting to Sucre would be easy, just a nice comfy 10 hour busride… Well after eating at Minuteman last night, I got a bad case of food poisoning, my third. This time was a lot worse than in La Paz, but I managed… Sort of. I began by going out to find breakfast, but returning to my hotel feeling very ill. I knew I had to go on a busride to Sucre, and that even standing still or sitting on my bed, I felt as if I was about to vomit, so a bumpy road, 7 hours long (the 7 hour trip to Potosi is unpaved, the part from Potosi to Sucre is paved) would not be a good idea. However I wanted to go, there is nothing in Uyuni and plenty in Sucre… So I did what I thought I would never do… I shoved two fingers down my throat, forcing myself to vomit, and was done with it.

I went down to the bus stop, just to have a kind lady tell me that my bus was canceled… But luckily I got a free transfer to another bus company, so I loaded my rucksack onto a nice looking bus and went inside, still feeling rather queasy. And of course it wasn’t much more than 45 minutes before I thought to myself “oh… fuck” and vomited down on the floor in front of me, much to the surprise of well… Everybody.

So I spent the remaining 6 hours and 15 minutes with my head hanging down, and just trying to force off the thirst, dehydration, headache and boredom; but of course it didn’t last long till some South American idiot slammed his seat down on top of my head, and greatly worsened my headache. If I thought my 3 day trip from Asunción to Cuzco was bad… I had no idea what it could be like. After hours of pain, we arrived in Potosi, which meant that there would only be 3 hours left, but I called it quits, right then and there.

I took a taxi back to the hostel I had stayed at before, “La Casona”, and went straight to bed. However there was a lot going on in my dorm room, so instead I started talking with a Kiwi (New Zealander) named Andrew, for quite a while, before I finally saw an opportunity to… Go out to the reception, buy a busticket for the next day, do my emails and then go to bed.

30th of April:

Early morning and I was feeling fine, so I went out and had a big hearty breakfast (not eating for more then a day, does make you hungry, and the food poisoning has passed). I then kicked about the entire day, mostly uploading pictures to flickr, before my bus finally left at 13 o’clock, where I was seated just behind Andrew and his two friends he was traveling with, Trevor and Trevor’s girlfriend Tamsyn (don’t ask me). The busride was quite enjoyable, and I got to finish Memoirs of a Geisha (I hadn’t been able to finish it the previous day due to my illness), and immediately began reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

In time I arrived in Sucre, and hailed a taxi to take me to the Amigo Hostel, where I checked in, and set out looking for a net cafe with a working headset, something I never managed. So I found a call centre (they have more of those, than you would ever want to know), and called home, both to my mother and father.
I then walked back to my hostel and uploaded the last of my pictures from Salar De Uyuni, and then felt rather hungry. So I asked for a good place to eat dinner… And I believe it or not I was directed to a pizzeria, where of course I went. At the pizzeria, I was fortunate enough to meet Andrew, Trevor and Tamsyn. So we each had pizza, and then went back to the hostel and watch Chronicles of Narnia together, and I must say that I was quite pleasantly surprised. Afterwards it was late enough to be bedtime, so I went to bed.

26th of April:

There were 10 of us, 4 Israeli’s (Amit, Eyal, Or and Asaf), 1 Colombian (Cesar), 1 Pole (Olga) and me. There was also a driver, a cook and the cooks daughter (Magte).

We set out at 11 o’clock, and drove for several hours, until we came upon a sight, so spectacular, it could easily have been from another world. It was the saltflats of Uyuni, the “Salar de Uyuni”, the largest in the world. When we first saw it, it was but a white line below the horizon, but as you get closer, it just grows. But the most stunning part, is the lack of contours or any kind of variation. It is perfectly level and extremely white; the only variation is the mountains in the distance.

The pictures you can get out there are spectacular, and for once I would include people in my pictures, it really was the only way to get variation. After some more driving, we arrived at the salt hotel, which as the name (and place) implies, is a hotel built exclusively from salt. Further on from that we arrived at the Isla de Pescado (Fish Island), which is named such as the island is fish-shaped (from the air). It is an extraordinarily beautiful island, filled with cacti that grow up to 1 cm every year (although some grow severely less, making one cactus 1200 years old). We also had lunch here (it was around 15 or 16 o’clock).
Around us a bicycle race started, with a person holding the “Olympic” flame. It was of course not the real Olympic flame, but rather a small community event.

Afterwards we drove to our hotel for the night, which was made of salt as well, everything except my mattress and the chair cushions were either made from salt or salt-rock. There we had dinner, and I hit my bed for an early night. But just before eating dinner, I heard some noise from a room, and went to check it out. There in the middle of nowhere in Bolivia, were 3 children playing Duck Hunt,

Magte (pronounced “Maijte”), the daughter of the cook, is a 5 year old girl, who just can’t get enough of Gilbert, constantly playing with him, she is such a sweet girl, and the first place we arrived, she also let another girl play with Gilbert, who tied him to her back, as Bolivian women do with small children.

27th of April:

I overslept a lot, by the time I got up, most everybody else was ready to leave. So I chewed my breakfast very quickly, and we set off. As we were driving I picked out my latest book, The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara; a book which must be read while backpacking around South America, there really is no choice. However it is a rather short book, and it was done in 5 hours. Around 13 o’clock, we arrived at the first lagoon, and near the shore we were parked at, two foxes were circling about, posing for pictures. But the real attraction of the lagoon, were the flamingo’s walking about, finding food.

At 13.40, we stopped at another lagoon, where we had lunch. Unfortunately there were no flamingo’s, but a fox was eating something, and a bird kept circling about us, which for me was the best picture of the Salar De Uyuni trip. At 16 o’clock, we made it to a famous rock (no idea what it is called), although the shape of it, explains the fame. At 16.40, we arrived at the last lagoon of the day, where I got a great shot of our vehicle. At 17.30 we arrived at our accommodation for the night, everything went as expected for the rest of the evening, and knowing I had to get up early, I went early to bed.

28th of April:

Up horribly early, and there was no light. I have no torch, and I haven’t had one for any part of my travels in South America. It was also at this time, I discovered that my watch had run out of battery. So i fumbled in the dark, but was ready quite quickly in any case. When Cesar, Olga and I were ready, we still had 45 minutes of waiting to do, before Amit, Asaf, Eyal and Or were ready. We eventually set out driving, and had to drive for a couple of hours, until we finally reached the geyser. We had to get up so early in the morning, as this particular geyser, is active exclusively around sunrise. It quickly got lighter, and we continued to a nearby area with volcanic activity. We then drove on for some hours, and when it got light enough, I started reading a new book: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, it is 498 pages long, but so good that by the time I went to bed, I lacked 3 chapters. Around 9.30 we arrived at the hot springs, where we had breakfast, and the rest went for a dip in the water.

Afterwards we just drove all day long, stopping only for lunch, then again at some unique rocks and then finally at the train graveyard. After that we all arrived back in Uyuni, where Magte had a heartbreaking goodbye with Gilbert (I really couldn’t give him up). I went to a hotel where I had booked a room (cheaper and better than the hostel I had stayed at previously in Uyuni), and after a while, went back to Minuteman for dinner, and ordered the same pizza (although this time a small one, which still is rather big) and bought their tshirt, and like my tshirt from Erratic Rock (Puerto Natales, ages ago), it is a size small (American tshirts) and it is orange, so when I wear it, some people come up to me and say “alles goes?” (“how are you?” in Dutch). After the pizza, I felt stuffed and walked back to my hotel, and straight to bed.

I booked a 3D/2N tour to the Salar de Uyuni, and walked around town for a while. It is uglier than La Paz (no, really), but in a different way. It is just superbly bland, whereas La Paz is just something that looks like it is about to be torn down.

For dinner, I went to the famous Minuteman pizzeria (highlight of Uyuni), and had a wonderful spicy llama pizza (I am really beginning to like llama), with a diameter of 45 cm, and I of course finished it, but not before adding cinnamon on top of it. But once there, I found that Angela, Declan and Judy were also there, but even though they had already eaten, they stayed and talked while I ate, and even after I was done, we stayed at Minuteman and had a good time until it got late, and we all went back to our respective beds, for a good nights sleep before the trip to the salt desert.

We then had headlights fitted onto our helmets, and went into the darkness of the mine, where we met plenty of miners at work, got shown around an underground museum, saw them come by with wheelbarrows, mining trains, and just generally being at work. The first we came by (who got my dynamite) were about to crawl through the tiniest hole into a mine underneath. But the different presens were coca leaves, cigerattes, dynamite, different coca based drinks and 96% potable alcohol. The mines were completely dark, with no form of ventilation, and at the least, ankle deep in mud. When they went around to the different floors (we didn’t), there were no elevators, so they dug their own shafts, and climbed down there with all their tools.

In the museum we also saw the two gods miners worship, Tio and Pacha Mama. Pacha Mama is worshipped by American Indians everywhere, it means mother earth; but Tio is a go only for the miners, introduced by the Spaniards as El Mal Dio (the evil god), meant to keep the forced labour in order, it changed with the Bolivian independence war, from being an evil Spanish good, to becoming the god of the miners. And on every friday when the miners sell their mineral, they get money, go party and sacrifice alcohol and coca leaves to Tio and Pacha Mama.

I forgot to mention that Potosi is at an altitude of 4090 meters, and the mountains being mined, peaks at 4824 meters.

Back at the hostel I met  Swizz girl named Angela and an American called Aaron. The three of us went to dinner, the same place I had been the previous day. Angela has been traveling for 8 months and is near the end of her trip, whilst Aaron has been traveling for 1,5 years, and has no plans of going home.
Last night I had the fried llama, but this time I had a chicken milanesa, and once again, the restaurant didn’t fail to impress, it was wonderful.

After the dinner, we went back and watched The Devil’s Miner, a very strong and moving documentary, about a 14 year old boy who works in the mines we visited that day.
Afterwards I was very tired and went to bed, feeling sad about the fate of Basilio.

P.s. I am writing this from Uyuni, and tomorrow morning I am going out on the saltflats for 3 days, during this time I will unsurprisingly, not be able to write here, so please be patient and don’t panic, just because there is no sign of life for 3 days.

I arrived at 5 in the morning, something I didn’t quite expect… Why have a night bus if you don’t get to sleep properly? I just happened to think that it was much further away, and my first concern was whether my hostel would be open. I took a taxi in the dark, it luckily drove me straight to my hostel, where the luckily was a night watch, so I took out my sleeping bag and slept in the TV room. Around 8 breakfast was served, and at 10.45 I was allowed to check in.

Having checked in, I walked around Potosi, the worlds highest city, and this place certainly is a lot more beautiful than La Paz, which so far makes it the most beautiful city in Bolivia, although Sucre is notorious for being beautiful, but then again, I haven’t been there yet. Before I left for the city, I booked a trip to the mines (the very reason I’m here) for the following day. So when I set out to see the town, it was 12 o’clock, and all the museums were closing, the only thing I got was a cheap lunch (0,5 US). Other South American countries serve empanadas, but here in Bolivia they serve Saltañas; which is more or less the same thing, except the dough is folded in a different way.

But the museums were closing, so I went back to my hostel, watched CNN, BBC and read a bit more (been a good while). The time came around to museums opening,, and I went to see the magnificent “Casa de la Moneda”, where I got a tour in English guided by an American, and for once, the signs around were correct (the American guide had translated them). I mainly went on the tour because it is required, but I was very happy that I went, the guide was quite clever and very interesting, he was obviously happy about touring tourists around. The museum showcases the results of the incredible amounts of silver in the mountain, as the name of the museum (and building) suggests, this was where all the coins were produced, and everything had been preserved. From the earliest coin making machines from the 16th century, all the way up till the last one used in 1951. And towards the end of the tour, it was possible to buy a coin blank, and mint your own coin, so now I have a brass coin (30 Bs or 40 US cents) which I have minted myself, and which made a great souvenir.

The tour took about 2 hours, and when it was done, it was already getting late (17ish). When I came back to the hostel, I fell in conversation with 2 Kiwi’s (Cameron and Monica), 2 French people (no idea) and a Scot (Allan). It didn’t take all that long before we agreed to go to dinner, and a vegetarian place was suggested, so there we went… Okay, so I didn’t eat vegetarian food, amongst other animals they also server llama, so I had fried llama with French fries for dinner. After talking with Cameron, Monica and Allan, I decided to go for the 3D/2N trip to Salar de Uyuni, instead of the 4D/3N.

Woke in the middle of the night with uncontrollable bowel movements, but after some quality time at the toilet, I could safely go to bed again. I woke up some hours later, but this time it was the normal waking up; but I still felt ill and so didn’t eat any breakfast.

I took a taxi to Eloy Salmon, the electronics market of La Paz, where I bought an unbranded iPod replacement, as those long busrides are pure killers at night when I can’t read. There I also saw an extra battery for my camera which I might return to buy. I also saw a lot of iPod rechargers, something Yasmin had been looking for (her recharger is broken.

Afterwards back at the hostel, I wanted to do the Lonely Planet scenic tour, but oh my, how La Paz isn’t scenic. It is a broken down piece of rubble, with no sense of charm. One big dirty loud market, and where it isn’t one of the three, it is the other two much more. However I did see one beautiful thing, when I walked into a church there was a wedding underway, and inside the church, the couple being married seemed aglow, and the words of the priest were very sincere (his voice), which was the best thing I had to go for, I understood some of what he said, mainly it was about life and death, the beauty of love and the importance of the chuch.

Back at the hostel Nadia asked me if I wanted to go out, but after dinner I was very tired, and Nadia was actually quite ill, so both of us went to sleep.

20th of April:

My 3 month anniversary, I celebrated by calling home (as I always do on the 20th), spoke for nearly 30 minutes with both my mother and my father, it cost roughly $0,5 per minute, so it ran up quite high, but I can afford that once a month. Today I was also supposed to have been on El Camino Del Muerte (The Road Of Death), known in English as the Worlds Most Dangerous Road (WMDR), but two days ago an American had veered over the edge and died, so Gravity (my operator) had cancelled all tours till Thursday.

So I get a refund and a sorry (yesterday). So today I went out and found a different operator; almost all of the operators are located on a street called Sagarnaga, so logically I went there, found a much cheaper operator ($40 instead of $75), all without it seeming dodgy. I also went to the busterminal and bought a busticket to Potosi, and as it is at the other end of the country,

I bought a ticet for a nightbus, a bus cama (cama means bed), and returned to the hostel where I didn’t do much until Yasmin, Uval and Nadia asked me, whether I wanted to come to the cinema. So off we set to the cinema, where the only movie running in English was “There Will Be Blood” with Daniel Day-Lewis. We all first had a small snack in a small eateria upstaitrs, before heading into the world of popcorn.

The movie was simply amazing, it is the story of a Daniel Planview, an oilman who starts by digging for gold in 1898, and his story from the first oil discovery, all the way until his undoing, and while it is a deep movie (we were all looking for something light) I thoroughly enjoyed it, and if I recall correctly from the poster, it was nominated for a good deal of oscars, something that was certainly deserved, a fantastic movie.

21st of April:

I woke up at 6 o’clock, got myself ready and got picked up 10 minutes early (in South America?), went round the town to pick up two other people, Ivan and Marco two brothers from Mexico living in USA (American citizens), before we headed to the office of the operator for breakfast, followed by quite a long tour to the beginning of the road. We all got our gear, our bikes and an information talk.

The first part of the road is paved, and it is a part of the new road that has replaced the WMDR. It is very nice and easy, although it was here that a bus with more than 100 people famously went over the edge (some of the wreck can till be seen). However it wasn’t dangerous, just very cold (4200 meters altitude) and took about an hour to the bottom, where we each paid 24 Bolivianos (roughly $3), loaded the bikes back onto the van, and drove to the beginning of the real WMDR, the road that was built by Paraguyan prisoners of war, during the Chaco war.

The second part is very narrow, sometimes steep, rough gravel with big water puddles and scattered waterfalls over the road. However we had been out very early, either that or been fast, which meant that we had the road to ourself. And I must say that even if it was littered with other bicyclists you would have to be a flailing moron to go over the edge, because it is the WMDR, you pay extra attention, and the awareness level is just extremely high. But truly, all the tons of crosses we saw along the way (quite a good deal were tourists) were from before the replacement road was finished, as back then there had been heavy traffic as well. When the American had gone over the edge, I have no idea what happened, but he didn’t respect the road and paid the price.

At the bottom, we had been riding for some 3-4 hours (it was now 12), so we were taken for a shower (it had been very hot going down the second part) as well as an absolutely humongous lunch. Then we started driving back, and as the point of the road was linking the main country (altiplano) with the jungle part of the country (the pampas), it was a very long road back, and I wasn’t back at my hostel before 17.30, a WMDR tshirt richer.

In the evening Nadia, Sofie (Swedish), Yasmin, Uval, Heather (English) and I, went to Mongo, that fateful restaurant where I got my second food poisoning. And just to rub it in the face of whoever, I had the same dish (meat Lasagne), it was simply that good, I absolutely loved it. Afterwards Nadia, Yasmin, Uval and I headed to the Hard Rock Cafe, which I thought a bit weird, as I had never heard of a Hard Rock bar, but it turned out to be fake, a total rip-off.

We got there, and I hadn’t seen that many Israeli’s since I was on the Carretera Austral in Southern Chile. If someone had told me that I had suddenly warped to Israel, the sheer number of Israeli’s would have convinced me. However on the lighter side, I did see two Israeli’s I hadn’t seen since Ushuaia; funny how after all that time, we still end up in the same place. But I was very tired, and decided to go back to the hostel and sleep.

22nd of April:

It was a fairly early morning, but for some peculiar reason, on this special morning, the Wild Rover hostel didn’t make breakfast, only the free breakfast was available, which consists of two bread rolls with jam (which I still don’t like), so I had the breadrolls without the jam, waited around for 11 o’clock, went to Yasmin’s hostel, as she wanted to go to the electronics market to buy an iPod recharger, and I wanted to buy a second battery. Uval came along as he wanted to buy a battery like the one I wanted to buy (it is used in the Canon G9 as well).

So we all got there, Yasmin bought her iPod recharger and I bought my battery, Uval found the battery too expensive however, and then went back again as I had to check out by 13. So I got back and checke out, and then waited around the hostel most of the day, got my last pistures burned out to DVD and mailed 4 DVD’s to my father, before going out for dinner to an amazing place called Eli’s. It was a family run place turned big, but it retained a wonderful charm, amazing fun and great prices. I had a steak with rice and vegetables and finished it all in no time.

It was then goodbye time, so I went to the busterminal, bordered my bus, fiinished watching No Country For Old Men (another absolutely superb movie, which I believe actually won a couple of oscars, if not four), and fell asleep.

Roused from my sleep at 5:30 in the morning as we have made it to Mariscal Estigarribia, which although far from the Bolivian border is where the exit stamp from Paraguay is given. I also believe that the officials were as sleepy as me and everyone else (except the driver, I hope) as they stamped the wrong day in my passport, so now I left Paraguay on the 4^th instead of the 5^th. Back on the bus I went back to sleep, much like all the other passengers.

I woke up again around 8.30, and started The Odyssey and this time finished it, what an amazing book, truly it has held up the test of time, and is a worthy recommendation for everybody. Back in the real world, I still couldn’t get the Swedes to talk, I don’t know why, but they will rather sit and quietly stare out the window, all 3 of them, so I just let them do so. Instead I start reading a book I have been anxious to read for some time now, when I was in Buenos Aires I picked up the sequel to Master and Commander, called Post-Captain. However it was also around this time I discovered, that my water bottle had broken open and my diary, which had been in water for some time now, had taken heavy water damage, especially the spine, and the pages with writing (my pen was lodged there, giving the water easy access) have been badly damaged, so at a later time I will have to carefully dry it.

Later on the trip, deeply taken in by my book, we had stopped for one of the countless checks you have to endure in Bolivia: I had crossed into Bolivia around 10 or 11 o’clock, a process that was very painless and gave a beautiful blue and green stamp, much like the Chilean, except for green instead of red. Anyway the checkpoint soldiers were waving my rucksack around, calling out in an aggressive tone for the owner, so I pulled out my passport, toughened myself and went to see what was wrong. I was immediately asked why I was carrying questionable substances, which normally means drugs, but in my case meant contact lenses. so after having explained the nature of contact lenses, they let me have my rucksack back, allowed me to repack it (they tore everything out, possibly looking for white powder), and the bus was off again.

After a long and uninteresting drive (after the drug check(, I arrived in Santa Cruz, and instead of crashing on a bed somewhere, I decided to take a second bus, straight to La Paz, and instead get some time there, and then take a a night bus the day after to Cuzco and arrive on the 8^th in the morning, thus getting more or less 1,5 full days in La Paz, although I o intend to return.

But one has to be way in South America, this is also a tale of how I got my money cheated away from me, although I wasn’t aware. I went into the terminal to buy my ticket, and found a nice looking company which would take me straight to La Paz, only 18 hours (on top of my initial 23 hours) and at the meager price of 250 Bolivian peso. Since I was a new arrival I had unfortunately not checked what a Bolivian peso was worth, and since the bus left about 10 minutes later, I thought I might as well just seize the ticket, so to speak.

On board the bus I sat next to a very kind Bolivian named Lorgio, who frequently travels around the country (he is a farmer with 5 different estates, a sort of engineer). The bus left at 20 o’clock, but we talked for a long time into the night, and I really do swear that my discussions become more advanced; not only did we talk about the usual stuff, but also immigration problems in Denmark, caused by the Muhammed cartoons. This would also be a good time to point out, that I do not master Spanish to such a degree, far from. What I do is make up sentences from simpler words, gesticulate or make the other person guess it, and learn the word that way. That being said, I have never set out to say something, and not gotten it across. He lives in a city called Rurrenabaque, which is a place I am going to, as the nearby park holds the worlds greatest biodiversity, including 10% of all known bird species. But sleepiness overcame me, and I eventually said goodnight and tried to get some sleep. However this was a domestic Bolivian trip, which meant screaming babies, horrible seats with knees in your back, and around 1 o’clock, I was woken up as someone was shouting something about a police/military search of the bus. It turned out that the driver had just thought it a great idea, that when everybody in the bus was sleeping, to stop at a roadside place, where there are toilets and food to buy, who wouldn’t want that in their sleep?

One thing I forgot to mention is how to use public toilets, you go up and pay a ridicules sum of 1 Bolivian peso, you then get some toilet paper and a ticket. The toiletpaper I get, but you are right at the entrance, why would I need a ticket, to verify that I purchased my entrance, I’m already there. It is still a funny concept however.

6^th of April:

Around 8 o’clock, the bus arrived in Cochabamba (Kotjavamba), and the driver told everyone to get out, something that hardly reached me as I was going to La Paz, or so I thought. Turns out that the bus company I was driving with doesn’t go further than La Paz, so although I knew it to be futile, I decided to have some free fun, and went into their office to complain. Not only did it in fact say on the ticket that it was only valid till Cochaama, it also said that I only paid 60 Bolivian peso for it… Enraged by this pathetic abuse of my money, I did nothing, there was nothing to do. So I went with Lorgio to buy a new ticket, and we each bought a ticket to La Paz, this time a somewhat shorter trip (7,5 hours) but at a meagre 30 Bolivian peso. Afterwards we had breakfast, a sort of Bolivian empanada, just with a greater diversity of content and the name “saltena”.

We boarded the bus (Lorgio and I), this last part was rather uninteresting, although for once they showed movies, but as to be expected, they were dubbed into Spanish with no subtitles. We arrived in La Paz trouble free, where Lorgio helped me buy a ticket to Cuzco, although I had hoped for a nightbus the following day, only morningbuses were available, which means I will arrive in Cuzco at 1 or 2 in the morning, but such is life. I took a taxi all the way through La Paz to my hostel, which cost me approx. 1 USD, a sum I am ready to pay. Once in my hostel, I signed up for the dinner that was arranged there, and checked out (as I was leaving so early, having to be at the terminal at 8 in the morning). In my room I met Danny from Cambridge, and we talked for lengths about music, in particular the music he could play on his guitar, right up until the moment when one of his strings snapped.

After such a long bus trip, I really wasn’t up for anything, so I didn’t do anything. Just sat around reading in my book, being unhappy with all supermarkets being closed, so I would have absolutely no food on my 16 hour bustrip the following day.

I had signed up for a good dinner at the hostel, which although was a bit small. But afterwards when I walked back to my room, I met Patrick (of Bariloche fame), that wonderful Irish guy, which is why it almost saddened me that I was leaving the next day. However we did recap on what we had done, since last we had met. But that was also around when i discovered that my DVD’s with my pictures on were gone, stolen. I searched high and low for them, all over the hostel, and with the assistance of Patrick, but they were simply nowhere to be found. Luckily I always burn my DVD’s out to two copies, but it is still very annoying, and would steal them? The only DVD which is now lost, is my DVD #2. The major problem being that the copy my father has (I send them home), doesn’t work. I had the DVD #2 on me along with #4 and #5 as I was hoping to send them home by post, but that wasn’t possible as the post service in Paraguay is horrible, and here in Bolivia the postal workers are on strike.

But I was tired and hungry, so instead of prolonging my pain, I went early to bed to get some decent sleep, something I really needed after two horrible nights sleeping on a bus.

7^th of April:

I woke several times during the night, it is a lot colder here (La Paz is at an altitude of 3000m, which gives a lot of new arrivals headaches, but my only problem is the air being too thin to whistle), but the beds are well equipped. I woke several times during the night, as several people came back at different times, causing somewhat of a ruckus. However at 6.15 I had slept for a long time (went to ed at 22), so I got up, packed my bag, confirmed my reservation for Cuzco, the destination of today.

I caught a taxi to the terminal, and sat around for an hour waiting, before I bought some sandwiches and some water for the trip, and just like that I was off for Cuzco. As we came closer to the Paraguay border, we had to endure more and more searches, more and more stops; but nothing happened. And then after some 2,5 hours we arrived at the border. Here we had to leave Bolivia, cross a bridge and officially enter Peru.

Furthermore we also had to change bus, as our own bus was tiny, and a lot more would join us from other buses. Unfortunately for us, they left on later buses, so we had to wait for a very long time. But the time passed and we boarded our second bus, which took us as far as Puno. In Puno we once again had to change bus (by now, only two of us who left La Paz were left).

After a busride which felt unbelievably long, not helped by the Spanish dubbed Chuck Norris film, which was so worn (VHS) that you couldn’t see anything, just hear it; the bus arrived in Cuzco. So Florian (a German I had met on the bus) and I took a taxi to a hospedaje (guesthouse), as the hostel I was gonna stay at was full (my reservation wasn’t till the following day). I went straight to sleep, and just like that… I was in Cuzco.