I absolutely LOVED every single bit of my trip. I loved all of the countries I visited and also really enjoyed everything I did and all the people I met.
I really enjoyed traveling on my own although once I met up with Mark it was great to have someone to share all the experiences with I still really enjoyed the time I had to think my own thoughts and do my own thing. I think this is really important for me as I don't do this enough so I plan to do lots more traveling on my own (my sister is not going to be happy about this!!!) and I don't include the traveling I do for work in this as that is absolutely not the same - I head to Berlin on next Friday, then to London after that, yes its great to travel and I love Berlin but its work so my brain is in a completely different place to where it was when I was in South America.
So the highlights (this may be a really long blog!)
Santiago, I am totally in love with this City. I had a week here in a wee apartment right in the city centre and loved walking around. It wasn't really a tourist city so not speaking Spanish was a bit of a problem but with lots of hand signals and pointing I had a good laugh with some of the residents whilst shopping for veggie food and getting my way around the city.
There is so much to do around the city I was totally busy for the whole week with 2 lots of horse riding, glacier gazing, wine tasting, walking tours and shopping.
Next time I head to Chile I really would love to go further south and fly over the Easter Island. Its also so close to Argentina which is probably my 2nd favourite country visited although more to come on that later.
After my brilliant week in Chile, I headed to the Jungle - Oh man I so loved the jungle even with its big beasties and its blood sucking mozzies!
I headed to the jungle and had a beautiful two and a half hour journey up river on a boat with my laid back guide Fernando - he was so cool, he didn't do that whole guide thing of talking for no reason so we enjoyed lots of quiet moments and just enjoyed our environment.
Of course I had a life defining experience with my Ayahuasca ceremony, really incredible and the experience still sits with me - occasionally the world I am looking at moving in a very weird way that makes me have to close my eyes and focus again. I learned so much from my 5 hours with the beautiful Master Plant that I am still processing some of that information. For about a week after I kept having bright vibrant visions and also lots of epiphany moments where suddenly moments of this life would confirm the lesson I need to learn. I do plan to write about my experience as a chapter in my book so look out for it.
There is a website that lists a lot of peoples experiences - its so interesting to see what people have written - all coming to the same conclusion that their lives have changed since this experience so if you want to have a read of other peoples experience have a read www.ayahuasca-info.com.
I am very grateful for my lovely Shaman Carlo for helping me through a really difficult ceremony. I feel bad for the moments where he tried to help me and I firmly refused, pushing him away from me more than once! How rude is that! He said afterwards that I had helped teach him that somethings just have to be dealt with on your own and that by keeping his distance it helped me to relax and allow the Ayahuasca to help me. It confirmed my love of the outdoors, the trees, the plants, the animals, the sun and the beasties (and my wee dead spider spirit!) all helped me through and I could feel the energy from all of these things willing me through the ceremony. I understand now why I found The Wadlin and why I will always be here - I am surrounded by the things that will keep me strong in mind and body. The energy that surrounds me at The Wadlin is like having my very own Macchu Piccu. If you haven't been to my lovely home then you must come and feel the energy that comes from this beautiful place.
This is an image I saw on the internet and it reminded me so much of my 5 hours with the master plant. (sorry if I am breaching someone's copyright but I suppose you shouldn't put your pictures on the internet if you don't want someone to use them!!!)
and here it is the beautiful vine - I spent most of my ceremony outside of the hut on the right where I was supposed to be but couldn't cope with being inside and going through what I did so walked around (or marched around as Carlo told me after!) a lot in the medicinal gardens and quite a few times stopped at the spot below and looked at the plant wondering why it was making it so horrible for me, fortunately it was only the first couple of hours that were like that the last half was an amazing and beautiful experience.
After the Jungle I headed to Cusco and my most favourite place in Cusco was Moray and Maras.
The salt mines of Maras were also stunning and had a fantastic energy
Then of course from Cusco to Macchu Piccu....
WOW WOW WOW!!!
and the view you never get to see - the view from Waynu Piccu - the mountain in this pic - looking back is truly stunning
I had three of the most amazing days of my life in this place, I was so lucky to have 3 days here, I would have felt so short changed if I had only had one day.
From Macchu Piccu back to Cusco but then straight onto Puno on the mad bus!
From Puno I did a tour of the floating Islands - they were amazing. The people who live there live with practically nothing but they are happy! Things had changed a bit recently when some of the islands got solar panels so they were able to get television! I told them they shouldn't have bothered if there telly is anything like the telly in the UK - there is never anything on worth watching!
We then headed to Taquile Island, this was on Christmas day so most of the men were in church singing and the girls turned up with their offerings. They were all immaculately dressed.
I had an omelette and chips for my christmas lunch - it was great not to be doing the usual christmas stuff, really enjoyed being out in the sunshine doing something different.
On my birthday I headed over the Peru border and into Bolivia and since no one asked to see my fake yellow fever exemption certificate I didn't have to worry about what Bolivian Jail would be like - phew!! Thank you Universe!!
So into Bolivia and off to watch the blessing of the cars - definitely think we should take this up here in the uk on a sunday - instead of washing your car with soapy bubbles you wash them in fizzy bubbles - although I think my car would always be dirty as I would refuse to waste the fizzy bubbles on my car and of course would be drunk!!
After wandering the wee town of Copacabana we headed off on our Catamaran to the Sun Island - hard to believe that my and a girl from korea were the only passengers - it was great to not be part of a huge crowd and Guido our guide was lovely and quite a spiritual person himself.
The Sun Island - so beautiful and full of amazing energy - I felt so much here, it was a bit like Macchu Piccu in that it was a hard place to leave. I could have stayed here for a week.
From the Sun Island we sailed across Lake Titicaca and headed for La Paz
I was in La Paz for such a short time it was a shame as it looked like a great city with great people living in it.
On 29th december I started my long day travelling to Rio - La Paz to Santa Maria to Sao Paulo then to Rio. I was knackered when I arrived but it was great to meet up with Mark who had arrived the day before me and had already found the beer shacks on the beach so we headed there as soon as I arrived to have a beer and catch up - we hadn't seen each other for nearly four weeks.
The next day we did the city tour which was a bit of a nightmare as the traffic was hell - nothing moved much and we were on the tourist bus anyway we got up to Sugar Loaf Mountain to see the expanse of Rio below us - Copacabana beach is the one to the top left - it stretches for 4 miles.
and here is Jesus - that was mad - there were so many people trying to take his picture by lying on the floor, it was so busy people were getting trampled on. I hate that tourist shite and much prefer to be off the beaten track but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and get on with it.
The next day we took it easy and hired a couple of deck chairs and a brolly and lay on the beach until the sun went down. Perfect way to spend New Years Day!
In the Botanic gardens - have a wee sit down before I got chased by the parky!
It was nice to go to a Botanic gardens and not be inside as you have to be when you do a visit like that in the UK!!
Our trip in rio came to an end and we headed off to Foz Iguaco which is on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. It was the place where we went for dinner and it cost 10 quid each to eat as much as you like pizza and pasta - it beat me after 15 mins but Mark managed to eat a lot more than I did.
The falls were very impressive on the Brazilian side, I love this pic
We then got the local bus over the border to Iguacu and got our big bus to Buenos Aires - 18 hours on the bus - I watched 4 films - 3 of them with Jennifer Aniston in them! There was no veggie food so Mark had my dinner and I had his pudding. Wish I had taken a carry out onboard as I was give a tiny wee bottle of red wine with my dinner and then one wee glass of champagne! It was a long night and then a brat started chattering away at 6am so no sleep really and I had my sick bands on as the roads to BA were rough and I though I was going to chunder a few times.
We arrived in BA and our apartment wasn't ready but our lovely landlord Juan took our bags into his apartment and me and Mark went off to get me something to eat - I was fecking starving by this point having not eaten dinner and breakfast was a croissant that was about 2 inches long!
We had a city tour booked that afternoon so went off to see the city - its an interesting city, I really enjoyed being in BA. Palermo Soho where we stayed was such a lovely area. The metro was so easy to navigate too.
We also both went horse riding here - Mark having never been on a horse in his life within half an hour was trotting and then cantering and then cantering hands free! Miriam was a fantastic teacher. I had such a blast and cantered and cantered and cantered! I look at this photo and wonder why I haven't been riding for 10 years - I look so relaxed and happy. I loved Isobel my horse too - she was the perfect size for me and had such a lovely temperament. One day I will have my own horse, hopefully in the next year or two!
We also had a cooking class and learnt to make Empanadas with Teresita - what a brilliant laugh and also loved Teresita and how she cracked the first bottle of white wine at five past eleven in the morning!! and Mark had a tour of a football stadium while I had a polo lesson - we did so much in BA - can't wait to go back for longer!
We flew from BA to Iguaco - so much better than getting the bus! and had a relaxing afternoon at the pool - I had a lovely massage and then a nice swim and a few beers.
The falls on the Argentinian side were certainly bigger but just as spectacular as the brazilian side - we got wet again but it was roasting this day so it was welcomed!
We also met some cute and furries - I had some peanuts that I shared with them - I will do a separate blog on the cute furries and the not so cute but definitely furry but thought these would cheer you up specially as this is a very very long blog!!!
After the falls we got the bus and crossed the border back to Brazil - I had been told by the hotel to just get a taxi from the border as the hotel was nearby and also near the airport for our stupid o'clock flight the next day but getting a taxi at the border was easier said than done! in the end I had to call the hotel and luckily they had a van just crossing the border so we jumped in that and got to the hotel. While having dinner at the hotel we met a Brazilian lady who is married to a scottish oil worker - she normally lives in Aberdeen but was back home for 6 months working. Its a small world!
We flew to Sao Paulo the next morning and got our transfer to Paraty. The weather was awful on the 5 hour trip and the roads were full of hairpin bends! I wasn't feeling at my best when we arrived even though I had my sick bands on so I went for a lie down in our tiny bedroom at the hotel.
Paraty was a cute little town, it was hard to walk about thought because of the huge cobbles but we had a nice time here and enjoyed our boat trip around the islands and swimming in the beautiful green sea.
and after 4 days in Paraty we headed back to Rio by bus and then got our plane home.
I had 6 amazing weeks, totally loved every minute - as I said at the start its so hard to pick a highlight as it was all amazing.
Look out for my cute and furries blog.
suzxxx
