Getting pissed in Machu Pichu.....

What is it about me and phone calls?? I have been trying for the last 3 days to re-confirm my flight home from Lima, and each time have either been fobbed off with a different number, put on hold indefinitely, or just hung up on completely! And everywhere I read about Lima airport it says to make absolutely sure you reconfirm your flight at least 72 hours in advance! I´m trying god damnit!!! So now I´m in Lima, i figured it can´t be so hard. I finally manage to get through to a woman who says she can reconfirm my flight, I tell her my name, and she tells me she doesn´t have any reservation under that name! Eventually she finds out that my ticket is booked through British Airways, and sounding extremely pissed off that I don´t understand what she says immediately due to my limited spanish, she tells me just to arrive at 6pm tomorrow at the airport. "So is it re-confirmed?" I ask. She gives the spanish equivalent of "Ummm, yeah, whatever" and then hangs up. I can´t believe I have spent 3 days trying to get hold of this woman!

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, machu pichu....

So yeah, we arrived in machu pichu, and I realised that I had forgotten many essential hiking items, such as torch (we were trekking up for sunrise), insect repellant (bastard sandflies!), spare t-shirt (bought new one, lost old one), and errr..condoms (ahem...). So anyway, despite being absolutely knackered, having barely slept on the bus the night before, me and louise managed to go out and buy torches and batteries and eat pizza while sarah crashed out at the hostal. Soon after, having asked the hostal owner to wake us up at 4am, we also crashed out.

At 4am the hostal owner banged on our door. At about 5:30am we started waking up. 20 mins later we were outside, looking disgustedly at our now useless torches in the early morning light. As we trekked down through the town, a policeman shouted at us, "Hey, hurry up, you´ll miss the bus". Huh? what bus? The bus isn´t supposed to leave until... oh yeah, 6. Mmmm. Our cunning plan of hiking up to Machu Pichu before sunrise to see it before it was swarming with tourists was starting to seem like a bit of a mission impossible. It was supposed to be a 2 hour hike, pretty much straight up, climbing 700 metres, and we now had to do it in 20 mins. By the time we reached the bottom of the hill, the first bus went roaring past. By the time we reached the top, poring with sweat and gasping for air, there was already a fair sized contigent of stoop-backed, fanny-packed, cracker-jacked American pensioners being herded into their groups by peruvian tour guides. Damn. Once we got into the site however, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually still pretty empty, and as we arrived, the clouds parted and gave us a picture perfect view of machu pichu. At first I wasn´t so sure that it really deserved all the praise it gets. Then one of the wardens explained to us that it used to be essentially a religious community where rich families would send their virgin daughters, who made up 80% of the population. I was convinced.

After a quick breakfast louise suggested we climb to the top of an obscenely tall looking needle-like rock besdie machu pichu for a better view. Sarah sensibly decided to give it a miss, but I, ignoring my knees´ feeble cries of protest, agreed to go.

A few hours later I was starting to regret walking anywhere at all. My knees were fucked. I could barely walk, but somehow made it back to the bus and joined all the elderly americans getting a ride down the hill. Back in Aqua Calientes, Sarah and I found our way into a bar, and ordered a couple of beers. An hour or so later, after loise had joined us and more beer had been drunk, we found ourselves feeling rather pissed. Then Louise bought a carton of 25% peach rum something or other... after that it all goes a bit blank... I remember not eating... I think that may have been the problem.... apparantly we went out to another bar and drank more... I remember trying to play the guitar and sing to Sarah at what felt like the early hours of the morning but was probably more like 7pm.... I remember some more things which I won´t write here.. and then I remember waking up at 4am to catch the train feeling like a piece of mould growing on a piece of dogshit stuck to the shoe of a tramp who hasn´t washed in 30 years. Yep, it´s that same hangover I was suffering from when writing my last blog entry. Hoooahhhh, that was a bitch!

So anyway, I had to say goodbye to my new bosom buddies and catch my flight this morning to Lima. So here I am. Only 24 hours left as a world traveller, and I´m spending it in an internet cafe! By the way, I sent out a bunch of e-mails and got a bunch of replies, and I suddenly remembered that there is something I love about England after all..... MY FRIENDS!!!!!!! Really looking forward to seeing all my friends that I haven´t seen for bloody ages!

Watch Out England!!!! Here I Come!!!!!!