My Weekend in Pictures

Hello! I hope that everyone had a great weekend and gave their dads lots of love. Here are a couple of photos from my weekend. Sadly, I don't have a camera at the moment so I'm using my old school IPhone 3 and my IPad to take pictures for now, so they're not the best quality. It's taking a lot of time for me to get back into the swing of being a proper grown up in England and sorting out a new phone contract!

The weekend started off with a bit of a bang as a house on my road caught fire thanks to some faulty solar panels on the roof. The firemen were hard at work trying to put the fire out and I wasn't allowed to get to my house, so I spent the sunny afternoon in the park. Luckily I'd just been shopping so had some cherries and wine to keep me company! Everyone in the house got out safely but there house is not in a good condition.

Friday I saw the Coppards and Sheena and we went for a few drinks in Sheffield town centre. We tried the new Bamboo Door Bar in Leopold Square. This is a cute tiki themed cocktail bar and I had the most amazing cocktail called Eats, Shoots and Leaves which was a piña colada-esque cocktail with a toasted marshmallow on top. Yum.

Saturday was lost to sensible things like getting my eyes tested and looking at phones. There are so many fancy ones nowadays it all felt a bit bewildering. When I got home I tried to find a new home for the lovely gifts Tasha bought me from her trips around Asia. I finished the day trying to watch the England vs. Italy World Cup game but had to go to bed after half time because of my eyes involuntarily drooping!

Sunday I celebrated Father's Day by mowing the lawn. It was a lot harder than it looked and not what I was expecting my dad to want so I wasn't really dressed appropriately. Under the lovely green fleece is my new charity shop find.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Cusco, Inca Heaven or Hell?

I was really excited about Cusco. We'd beat our illness, we'd conquered the deepest canyon in the world and now we had Cusco to look forward to. Everyone we met who was travelling in the opposite direction to us told us how fantastic it was. It is the old Incan Capital city and the gateway to Machu Picchu. It sounded amazing.


We arrived early one drizzly morning, and went looking for accommodation. Luckily we found La Boheme, a French owned hostel with a creperie next door. This meant we got delicious lemon and sugar pancakes for breakfast included in the price of our room. The staff were really friendly and the layout really encouraged guests to talk to each other. The only down side to this hostel was that it was a little on the chilly side, and as Cusco was wet and wintery when we got there, I found it quite hard to get warm.

Feeling hungry and planning a busy day on our feet, we first headed to the infamous chicarron street. Chicharron is a deep fried pork dish. Nick had a cut of deep fried pork, while I opted to have the soup. It was really tasty and filling.

Feeling full, it was time to join the free walking tour carried out by the company imaginatively called Free Walking Tour to find out what the city was all about. The city turned out to be really beautiful, big white buildings built on huge Incan walls, lots of craft shops and little coffee shops tucked away. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Unfortunately, after a short time, I grew really tired of the guide. I felt like the stories and tales were more speculative, and he wasn't bringing the history back to life for me. I think several other people felt this as the group number dwindled as the afternoon wore on. The tour ended at the Chocolate Museum, where a lady let us have a taste of some of the chocolate, even she commented on how bored and lethargic the group seemed oh dear! So, if you have a limited time in Cusco, I'd recommend trying to find another company who runs a similar tour, or grab a guide book and teach yourself as you walk around!





The following day we spent arranging our Cusco tour and planned a little special something for our dinner that night. We planned to eat Guinea Pig, or Cuy as it is called in Spanish. I was a little shocked when the poor thing was presented to us on a plate. The man asked if we would like it served with the head on or off, then took it away to prepare it to eat! I don't mean to sound so negative today but the meat wasn't all that good. The guinea pig was really expensive, left us hungry, was really chewy, meat was hard to find and the skin was like chewing a tyre. I've heard a stew is better, but I wouldn't try it like this again.
One place I really did love in Cusco was the bakery called Qosqo Maki. It serves cakes, breads and pastries and really nice coffee and the proceeds go towards children who live on the street. Here's one time you can eat a pan de chocolat or 3 without feeling guilty!

Leaving Cusco turned out to be very hard as there was a strike on public transport. The strikes went late into the night, which meant that lots of buses were cancelled and taxis were not running. Earlier in the day when we had gone to the market, we saw lots of the strikers throwing stones and spray painting cars that were still travelling around the city. We spent the afternoon playing scrabble and waiting to hear whether our bus would leave or not. It was quite tense as we went to get our night bus, but we got out safe and sound.

In general, Cusco is a really lovely city. It's easy on the eye and it's very accessible to tourists, however, I think there are other places that are equally as beautiful, without the barrage of street sellers who are desperately trying to make money and approach you every couple of minutes. We did it, we tried the food and saw the sights, but I was very happy to leave again.

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Back For Good

Well the sun is shining, and then it's raining, and then it's shining again, and then it's thundery, which can only mean I'm back in England in the summer time!

We had a safe flight back from Mexico and landed on Thursday morning. Still not quite got used to being able to throw toilet roll down the toilet and not in a bin, or bring able to communicate anything I want to anyone without tripping over another language.

It does mean however that our travels are over for now. I've packed away the plugs and the travel hairdryer and don't know when I'll be seeing them again! Eeeek!

So far, I've had a lovely time at home. I spent a few days in Nick's home town, Southend-On-Sea. We celebrated his sister's birthday by eating all the food we'd missed. We took a couple of walks along the sea front with the neighbour's dog, and we had a nice meal when my dad came to pick me up.






Home has been a busy mish mash of seeing people, I had a night out on Saturday in Sheffield. I've eaten roast dinners and even been lucky enough to have a tea party thrown for me by my mum.


Yesterday Tasha came to Sheffield and we spent the day looking around the shops, I'm not used to seeing so many clothes that would actually fit me! Then we went to meet Preeya, Liz, Laura and Sarah for some food at the lovely Thyme Cafe in Broomhill. <3



Phew! Now I intend to spend today sorting out all the clothes that I forgot I own, doing some blog planning and generally trying to get things in order.

I'll be back in a day or two!

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Rolling in the Deep in Colca Canyon

Only 1 day until we fly home to England. I have mixed feelings really. I can't wait to go home and see my family and friends and be around all things familiar, but at the same time I'm trying to make the most of our last few days of freedom in a strange and exotic place. We've done so many amazing things in our 6 months away, and it's going to be a long time before we can afford to indulge like this again!

With real life to face on the horizon, it's hard not to start seeing everything as a 'last'. Our last night bus, our last city, our last meal, our last ancient ruins...it could go on forever!

Not only have I done lots of lasts in our few days in Mexico, but in the last few months I've checked off a lot of superlatives. The best, the biggest, the highest and today I'm going to share our experience of the deepest. Colca Canyon in Peru is the deepest canyon in the world.

We left the sickness behind us (for a while) in Puno, and caught a mini bus to Chivay. I would highly recommend the bus company we took from Puno to Chivay. It was called 4M Express, turned out to be cheaper than other bus services from the station, will pick you up from your hotel and throws in a packed lunch for you too! Not bad. There were some amazing views through the national park on the way and the driver kindly stopped to let us grab some pictures.




We had a few minutes in Chivay to grab a cup of coffee before we had to take the most hectic bus we've EVER taken to Cabanaconde, a tiny town on the edge of the canyon. The only advice I can give about the bus between Chivay and Cabanaconde is to be there early, we waited 2 hours in the pouring rain. If you start a queue, don't expect the locals to take any heed of it as soon as the bus actually pulls up and be prepared to RUN for the door! Old, decrepid doesn't give you a free ticket to a seat either. In hindsight it was actually a very funny experience.





When we got to Cabanaconde we settled into the hostel Pachamama for the night. This was a really nice hostel, decently priced and the restaurant did AMAZING pizzas. Got to carb load for the hike the next day!



As we were on a tight schedule we decided to take the short route, the 2 hour descent to the Oasis, spend the night there and then take the same path up the next day. I am in no way an experienced hiker, and I would say my level of fitness is average, so this was perfect for me. The walk down actually turned out to be physically harder as I have terrible knees thanks to my Roller Derby days and constantly walking down hill was quite hard. The way up was more of a mental challenge, which Nick helped by using chocolate to motivate me! Cañonazo to the rescue. If you ever find yourself in Bolivia or Peru I really think you should treat yourself to one of these chocolate bars!

The views on the way down were absolutely stunning from the beginning. We had to walk through farmers' fields to get to the start of the trek. They were so green and completely contrasted with the dry rock we had to climb down. The sun was shining, the river was gushing below us and every now and then we would catch a glimpse of the Oasis sat right at the bottom. It's green palms blowing in the breeze and the blue water of the pools kept sparkling, and sometimes this was the only thing that would keep me going!











The Oasis at the bottom was such a nice reward. We stayed at the hostel called Paradise. We pre paid before at Pachamama, but we found out we paid a substantial amount more by doing this, so it is better just to turn up. We had a lovely cabin to ourselves, the owner, Gladdis cooked us lunch when we arrived and we spent the afternoon swimming and sunning ourselves. There is no electricity down there so it's important to take a torch, as the sun sets on the canyon around 7pm, and after that there is no light. It was fun to sit around the dining room with everyone making their own entertainment by candlelight. Followed by a nice early night to rest ready for the morning's climb!






The way back to the top was hot and sweaty but we were blessed with cloudy weather and a light shower to cool us down. It felt like we were never making any progress, as I had markers that I remembered on the way down, then all of a sudden we were on a flat and the ranger was welcoming us back to the top. I have to admit I did feel pretty smug with myself!


If you decide to trek the canyon too, here are some little bits of advice I would give:
- Definitely do it! It was one of my favourite things that we did in Peru.
- Leave early to beat the hot sun, I would have really struggled on the way back if the sun had been beating down on us.
- Take a torch if you're going to stay in the Oasis as there is no electricity after sun down.
- If you're travelling from Chivay to Cabanaconde, get to the bus station early and be prepared to get jostled a little!



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