darragh murray

It´s has been a while, eh? It seems that I´m weeks behind in my blogging as well as my journal writing. Currently, I´m working in the Secret Garden Hostel in Quito, Ecuador where work and constant drinking keeps my writing time to a minimum. Anyway, let me tell you about my first impressions of Cusco, Peru, THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD.

After leaving Puno, THE WORST CITY IN THE WORLD, I did not have high hopes for Cusco. Lonely Planet describes it as a gringo invested den of thievery. Lonely Planet is full of crap! This place absolutely rocked and we did not encounter any real shady behavior at all.

The boys and I arrived in Loki Hostel, Cusco, which pretty much has the same setup (and reputation) as the one in La Paz. And that suited us just fine! We arrived on my birthday and I went straight about drinking. Steve and Moss had a beer before sneaking off to have a look around the town. I decided to stay and watch ´Batman Begins´ in the hostel bar, accompanied by my good friend CUSQUENA (the local ale…which in hindsight is pretty terrible). Steve and Moss eventually came back and we smashed back some SANGRE DE DIABLOS (the blood of the devil), a hellish drink that tastes like petrol and I´m pretty sure can power small aircraft. A while later a cake was produced with my name on it – it seems Moss and Steve had conspired and purchased a cake - and we shared the cake amongst the other revelers and continued drinking. My night ended with me jumping through the open window of my dorm, nearly breaking my neck, and damaging a toilet with alcohol induced sputum. At one stage, Steve kicked a door in and screamed obscenities and I don´t think our dorm mates were very impressed, but fortunately for us, they didn´t speak English. This was certainly one of the more mature moments in my life for sure.

Over the next few days, we wandered the plazas of Cusco, checked out some amazing churches, drank real coffee (thank god), and had some excellent meals in ´gringo´ alley. Usually, I would end the night in the Loki bar drinking with the hostel dwellers, and dancing on the tables to Queen´s hit ´Don´t Stop Me Now´. They even had a short-shorts night where everyone donned, well, short-shorts. I finally got my opportunity to wear my Canterbury shorts, complete with rainbow long-johns. They went down a hit (Moss has photos of said outfit, which I´m sure the public will see at some future time). Furthermore, in my drunken state, I was convinced to go clubbing in this outfit, which raised some eyebrows from the native Peruvians.

We ended our first stint in Cusco with a mental all-nighter in local gringo hangout ´Mama Africas´ with our new friends Yianni, Harry and Jamie, and some other random Loki dwellers despite the fact we had to leave to go trekking on the Inca trail at 6 in the morning. Needless to say we were slightly wasted, and I´m not sure what our fellow trekkers were thinking when we boarded the bus.

I have some photos on facebook of my time in Cusco, which you can look at by clicking here.

Anyway, that is another adventure which I will update y´all on in due course. Take care all!

Some terrible local news from my current country of residence. Several people were killed when a lorry collided with a tour bus.

You can read the article by clicking here.

I´ma bit behind on my travel writing.

Post Copa, Bolivia, we crossed the border for a drive to Puno, in Peru.

In short, Puno is a pretty crappy looking town. We had some alpaca for dinner then watched a Harry Potter movie before decided to bust out of the town to go to the more happening Cusco. Perhaps I´m being a bit unfair, as we had a shite day the day we arrived in Puno.

I´ve uploaded some photos from my trip to Copa, Lake Titicacca and the Isla del Sol. You can view them (via facebook) by clicking on this link. Enjoy.

When last I left you, I had just completed a tour of the Salar de Uyani in southern Bolivia. The boys and I had planned to head for Lake Titicaca on the Bolivia / Peru border, and that we would stay in the lake side town of Copacabana. This meant an 11 hours bus ride to La Paz, then a further 3-4 hours on a bus to the lake. The bus ride to Copacabana was interesting, to say the least. Getting out of La Paz was a mission in itself. People would randomly board the bus and try selling random things to you – one guy stood on the bus lecturing the passengers in Spanish about the benefits of knowing a little Bolivian history. He was quite charismatic, and managed to sell all his Bolivian history books before disembarking. When the bus slowed even slightly, people would purchase food off street vendors through the windows. Most of the time, I had no idea what the hell was going on.

After nearly losing Steve along the way, when the bus had to be ferried across an inlet, we arrived at the picturesque town of Copacabana. Lonely Planet describes this town as ‘touristy’ but I’ve since learnt that more often than not, when it comes to South America, Lonely Planet is full of shit. However, one thing that Lonely Planet is correct on was recommending La Cupula for a hotel/hostel. It is one of the best I’ve stayed in, in terms of comfort, position, view, and food. The trout in caper sauce was a revelation. It was a bit quiet on the ‘party atmosphere’, but I’m guessing because it is a slight bit more expensive than many other Bolivian hostel, many backpackers don’t even bother.

We stayed in Copa for about two days, hiking up to the top of Cerro Calvario to look at the stations of the cross, and gaze upon the might of the lake at sunset (Josh, if you are reading this, I now know where you got that picture that I thought was so great….and now I have multiple copies of the same picture!), we also dined in style, and rented a sail boat for a few hours to cruise a small bit of the lake (our captain was hilarious).

We eventually made it to the Isla del Sol, the largest island on the lake, and home to some pre-Inca, and Inca monuments. On the way over, a random Bolivian befriended Steve and regaled the boat passengers with some impromptu charango playing. As we neared the island, it occurred that the random Bolivian just so happened to own a hostel on the island. How convenient. He ended up helping us to a reasonable hostel (we weren’t a fan of his), and demanded a tip. I understand that Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, but I really dislike the idea of being given a service that I hadn’t asked for. We were perfectly capable of finding our own accommodation. In the end, we gave him some form of tip, that he wasn’t exactly happy with. We never saw the guy again.

After dumping our bags at the hostel, we suited up for a full day of trekking. We had arrived in Yumani, and decided to hike the alleged four hours along the mountain path to the north of the island to view the ruins, as well as the Titicaca rock (‘The Rock of the Puma’). With the aid of coca, we managed it in two. We lunched in labyrinth like Chicana ruins, and search in vain for a while for the elusive rock of the puma (again, Lonely Planet’s directions and descriptions were WAY off); however we were eventually successful in finding it.

We decided to take the coast road back to Yumani, which may have been a bit of a mistake, as it was a much harder trek than the mountain way. Along the way, Steve took a dip in the waters of the freezing cold lake, I lost my beloved combination lock, Steve had his ring taken by some 5 year old Bolivian girls who surrounded him (he got it back by bribing them with cough lozenges), and Moss got trapped in the famous Isla Del Sol rush hour traffic – of sheep and llamas. We had a great meal at our hostel of local trout and soup and even bananas for breakfast.

Ok, I know this is a long entry, but one final event of significance. We got up early enough to catch the 10.30 boat back to Copa, but the hostel owner, with pure sincerity, told us that there was a cheaper boat leaving from the other side of Yumani, which would get us back to Copa faster (which is what we wanted). Upon his instructions, we rushed down to the other dock, to see a boat pulling away. Another boat owner was about to leave and demanded 40 bolivianoes per person to get to Copa (it normally costs between 15 and 20 bolivianoes). We eventually bargained him down to one hundred for the three of us with the help of Spanish speaking german. Still, the boat owner complained about a rip in the one hundred dollar note, but we just simply muttered some expletives and wandered off.

Our next stop - Puno, Peru. If you’ve made it this far, I applaud you.

I have uploaded some photos up on to facebook. If you don´t have facebook (or are not my facebook friend), the following links should help you out.

Salar De Uyani, Bolivia

La Paz, Bolivia

Pucon, Valparaiso, Chile

Santiago, Chile

Have fun kids.

Well, this will be a short entry as I am on a limited time scale with this god damned public internet. I´m a bit behind in my writing - I am currently in Puno, Peru. Let me take you back a few days for another tale from the travellers beard.

After some crazy days in La Paz, Steve, Moss and I boarded a bus to Uyuni in the south-west of Bolivia. The bus ride was *interesting*. Bolivia´s infrastructure, in particular their roads, is not exactly western standard. As a result, I now have a new appreciation of bitchimen. The road to Uyuni was OK until we passed through the town of Orouro. From then on in, it was insanely bumpy, and nearly impossible to sleep without the aid of copious amounts of alcohol or sleeping pills (two things I did not have).

Lucky the tour group were kind enough to put on the Rock´s newest masterpeice The Game Plan - possibly the greatest movie ever.

Anyway, we got to Uyani unscathed at about 8am in the morning. We hooked up with two extremely cool individuals, Danielle (from Texas) and Wally (from Canada) who had also stayed at Loki hostel in La Paz, and we went in search of tour operators for the Salar de Uyani, the largest salt plain on this planet. Luis, a local tour operator with gold teeth and a good command of english, suckered us in, and we booked a three day tour of the salt flats and bolivian highlands within minutes of getting off the bus. By 11am, we were off!

There are many many things I could write about the salt flats - it is a magnificent thing to see. To sum up the best about my three days in the south west of bolivia, I best use an UNORDERED LIST!

• Getting my knees destroyed by sitting in the very back of a crowded jeep. Those who sat in the very back got to be part of the A TEAM, while those in the middle of the jeep, the B TEAM. The B TEAM always got more leg room, but less respect (”You know what I´m saying, beeetches?” - Wally)
• The salt plain….miles and miles of salt.
• Water sitting idle on the salt, causing the horizon to disappear so it looked like you were driving through the sky.
• Danielle´s silly jokes (”What does Snoop Dog use on his laundry? Bleeeeeeache!”)
• Smashing bottles of wine at high altitude.
• COCA. It saved my life, and my knees.
• The absolutely amazing scenery.
• Awesome food prepared by our cook, who constantly laughed at our gringo ways.
• Flamingoes!!! Vicunas!! Llamas!! Foxes!!
• Red lakes, green lakes, blue lakes, volcanoes, geysers, sulphur, steam coming out of mountains, rock trees.
• The highlight of the whole three days was on our last day, bathing in hot springs high in the mountains underneath the gaze of a volcano which straddled the Bolivia/Chile border.
• Some great company !!!

Some photos from my time on the Salar are publicly available here - click me!

Anyway, I could continue writing this entry forever. I choose to stop now. Take care all.

La Paz, Bolivia, is one hell of a city, and it’s a royal shame that I could only stay 3 and a bit days. For an Australian, it is a city of constant comedy. If there was one image of La Paz that I will remember forever, it is the sight of kids dressed in Zebra suits directing pedestrian’s across the roads, which are inhabited by insane drivers who care little for traditional road rules. Traffic lights are optional, it seems.

Altitude is a killer here. The city has an elevation of nearly 4000 metres, which means headaches, blue veins, and lots of sleep. I coped alright, getting over the worst by my second day here. For the poor and weary travel, La Paz offers much. I managed to pick up a poncho and fedora hat for as little $22.00 USD (I now have a complete Clint Eastwood costume). Drinks are about one Australian dollar.

I managed to trundle my way into two museums. The Museum of Bolivian Musical Instruments housed some very very strange instruments including countless charangos (an instrument that now possess), harps, horns, drums, and pianos. You were even allowed to play a few. Moss, my travel companion, busted out a version of the Stranglers hit “Golden Brown” on some ancient organ, a tune that seemed to confuse some of the local Bolivian’s that milled about the museum. I have a video of this feat that I will eventually upload on to youtube. I had a go playing some bottles filled with various quanties of water.

The Coca museum, located in the witches’ plaza area of the city was another interesting place to visit. Coca, being very close the hearts of Bolivians, has a bad reputation in the westernized world, mostly due to its derivative, the ‘scourge of society’, cocaine. It seems that during the Spanish conquest, the church outlawed the plant, declaring it ‘evil’. However, once the Spanish figured out that coca increases productivity, and decreases appetite, the Church rescinded the order – so the indigenous and African slaves could work the silver mines for 48 hours straight without food. It also seems that while cocaine is illegal in Bolivia, many western nations are allowed certain quantities of cocaine for presumably scientific purposes. Bolivia is not on this list of countries.

I’m staying at the massive hostel called Loki – one of a chain of Loki hostels across South America. It is located in the remains of an old hotel, and filled with European style décor. It seems to be run by Irish punks! At least, many of the male staff have Mohawks and enjoy listening to copious amounts of punk music (Dead Kennedys, Rancid, Offspring). It’s a pretty nice place (run by a guy by the name of Osgur - what a cool name!), and has it’s own bar, and serves breakfast and dinner. They also have cable television, so I was able to waste yesterday watching Liverpool beat Inter Milan in the Champions league. Many nations are represented here, in terms of fellow travelers – Australians, Canadians, Americans, British and Israelis. Drinks and meals are cheap. Life is good.

I leave for the town on Uyani in south western Bolivia tonight to take a tour of the Salt Flats. Life is mighty fine.

As I write this on these crazy South American keyboards, I sit in a hostel in La Paz, Bolivia, a crazy sort of city. But more on that later, for the moment, let me update you on my last few days in Chile.

Steve, Moss and I headed down to Pucón, in the lakes district of Chile. Pucón is sort of the Byron Bay of Chile, packed full of tour operators, and so close to beaches and adventure sports. In our short time in this town we managed to go white water rafting (which was seriously awesome), get belted by the sun as we lay on the black sand of the local beaches, hike through glorious national parks and swim in pure mountain lakes, bathe in volcanic hot springs, as well as hike up to the top of the active volcano, Villarica, which overlooks Pucón, and constantly billows smoke.

When I say hike up, I am kind of bending the truth. Steve got to hike to the top and look inside the crater, but Moss and I were not able too. We got up there on a Thursday (to the volcano hike base camp), but the conditions were too treacherous for the climb to the crater. So instead we headed to the national park for a day of walking, drinking water from natural springs, and looking at waterfalls. Steve elected to challenge the volcano the following day, but moss and I were so exhausted from hiking (plus we had to check out of our hostel the next day) we decided to pass.

From all reports, it was quite an experience – even if Steve had only 1.5 hours sleep, and a nasty hangover. Many thanks for Herman, our shape-changing hostel owner for many a laugh (long story, I’ll explain it person to y’all if you remind me).

We took an overnight bus back to Santiago (which was hell), and Moss and I took a brief trip out to Valparaiso, the self-proclaimed ‘cultural capital’ of Chile. Imagine lines and lines of houses built on top of each other throughout a valley that overlooks the sea. Walking around the hills, photographing all the strange houses, elevators and graffiti was fun enough. I even had enough time to visit Pablo Neruda’s other house, La Sebastiana (the one in Santiago is better though!). I didn’t enjoy the market area, though this might have had something to do with the limited amount of sleep I had the night before. My friend Steph describes Valparaiso much better than me in one of her blog posts (click here).

All in all, I enjoyed Chile, particularly Pucón as well as my stay in Hostel Forestal, probably the best hostel I have ever stayed in (Pato and Dani were the bomb!). I have many photos which I would upload if any of these damn computers supported USB 2.0!

Anyway, I’m running out of time and steam to write anymore. My next update will more than likely have something to do with Bolivia, so stay tuned.

I have put up some newly recorded tunes on my myspace. Go to here to check them out.. I´d write more but these chilean keyboards are just impossible.