Santiago

Well I must say straight off the bat that Santiago truly is a magnificent city, couldn’t think of enough superlatives to describe the place. Very special place. Had a maniac of a taxi driver from the bus station to the hostel who was quite literally doing 100km/hr through the streets of downtown, it was like Omid Yassaie on crack. Don’t think i’d ever try it on although he seemed to know what he was doing. Dropped our stuff at the hostel and headed straight out the door to explore the place. Set off on foot into the middle of the city to find a nice cafe which you would think should be easy enough. My friend, you’d be very wrong. We walked around for a solid half hour, gave up, and went to burger king. To be fair, there was delicious food in Santiago, just elsewhere. After that meal of epically disgusting proportions we hopped in a taxi and went up the cablecar of San Cristobel to get a super view of Santiago, stretching as far as the eye could see. Really is a very beautiful place, parks dotted all around the city and a very green city all up, plenty of nice old buildings too. Had a good look out from the lookout, as you do, and caught the teleferico back down the hill. Caught a taxi back towards the hostel and had a look around the Miraflores (think that’s what its called, maybe the Miradores?) Not sure of its background but its basically a big, attractive park right next to the downtown area with lots of historic buildings and structures scattered and strewn throughout. A very pleasant place to hangout and to peruse its various appeal s, also seemed to be a popular date spot and romance was thick in the air everywhere you looked. Back to the hostel afterwards to prepare for yet another large night, as more people were leaving the tour. First stop was a top notch restaurant in the San Cristobel area, delectable quesadeas (spelling? The Mexican thing anyway) and some Chilean beers, not half bad at all. We then hit up one of the clubs not too far away, really good dance floor and Anthony Corry in particular had his ‘well-you-can-tell-by-the-way-I-use-my-walk-I’m-a-women’s-man-no-time-to-talk’ strut on. Great looking girls in Chile, unfortunately in Santiago none of them wanted a bar of us (better luck elsewhere). Pretty gold boogie session and we were there until about 4am in the morning cutting shapes when the place shut and we taxied back to the hostel. Wish I could say at this stage that we went to bed but some of us were still on a high so there were some rather disgraceful and reprehensible antics until around 6am. Corry’s arse was on display for much of that time, not a pretty site at all. Next day was an absolute write-off considering the previous night on top of the last several days and nights. Corry didn’t exit his bed until 2pm and then that was only to go to nuclear war with the bathroom, it was like Hiroshima after that spell of fireworks. Sat around feeling about 5 out of 13 on the scale of wellness until we decided we shouldn’t completely waste the day so we taxied out to South Americas biggest mall to have a look around. Went to a TGI Fridays for food and yeah, that’s the last time I go to one of those. Absolute filth, I’d rather lick a toilet bowl I think. Service was also pretty appalling so we only had about 30 minutes to look around the mall before having  to head back to the hostel to farewell a couple of the aussie girls. Not our finest tourist hours, and anyone reading this is probably bored out of their mind, don’t blame them. At least the night was better as the hostel put on a bbq for us that was ambitious in quality and quantity. Massive steaks and sausages, even a decent salad was sighted, and new bottles of red wine kept appearing in front of us; drank far too much again. Farewelled all our Canadians from the tour and basically cut the group in half as we welcomed 9 newcomers (at this stage down to the 5 originals who would see the 83 days through to Rio, myself and Corry, Brogan ‘bogan’ Cooper, Tegan ‘ginga ninja’ Webb and Victoria ‘that’s what she said’ Mear). I should note that the 9 included the prodigiously hilarious and charismatic Mike Matthews from England, who immediately asserted himself as a fine old geezer and provided many suitably comical lines, actions and insults all the way to Buenos Aires. Anyways, after disposing of the bbq and introducing ourselves, we had a quiet night in to be able to make the most of the next day. Was up early and set off for a walk around some of the pretty parks, for a look at the National Theatre building, and to one of the museums where they had some delightful photography and art, mixed in with some rather random and confusing exhibitions. Afterwards, me and Corry set off by ourselves on the subway (fricking sweet, hadn’t ridden one for 20 years and it was a very efficient, clean and cheap system) to the big mall again. Blatantly jumped on the bus without paying on the way also. Once at the mall, we mowed some superb sushi which was a bit of a struggle to order, and somehow the lady got the name ‘Patrick’ out of ‘Anthony’ then window shopped like chicks for the next couple of hours. Actually made some purchases in the end before getting on another bus without paying and riding the subway back towards the hostel. Corry was meeting up with Gab again, who was following us around like a bad smell. Nah but seriously she’s a lovely girl and both her company and her willingness to give me some time away from Corry was much appreciated. Corry was pretty much head over heels also. Anyways, whilst they were on a date, I went paragliding like real men do. Amazing experience, had a drive out to the hills with my instructor who then geared us up and we set off. One failed takeoff attempt where we smashed into the ground but the second time we were sweet and were pretty much 500m up within a matter of seconds. Exhilarating feeling and we were absolutely hooning round the sky for a good half an hour with a great view of Santiago up to perhaps a kilometre in the air. I took the reins for a while which was great fun and was even allowed to do a few spiral turns, which are meant to be a bit dangerous, while the instructor took some awesome photos of us. A much better landing than takeoff and then had to wait for a couple of other people to have their turn, although it was cut a bit short when one of the other guys yakked all over the instructor and they had to make a swift landing. Headed back to the hostel, Corry and Gab had been for a romantic meal so I got a pizza which was systematically obliterated, then we headed to the bus station to catch the overnight bus to Pucon, and when we arrived the next day in the morning, it was new years eve!

Mendoza

There may be expectations a bit of a whinge here but the bus ride was actually a piece of piss, having had two rather large nights in a row each, both me and Corry slept for around 15 hours of it, and listened to music whilst each nursing respective delayed hangovers for the rest of it. Sorry to ruin whatever anticipation there may have been for it being about as much fun as a knob in your bottom but I can’t say much more than that. Although I must say there was no small sense of relief that it passed so quickly as it could have been much, much worse than it was, and we were obviously extremely glad to leave the bus. Had a man hug with Corry when we disembarked as it was Christmas day, although it felt rather surreal and not exactly like the day that the son of God was born, having ridden a bus for the first 9 or 10 hours of it. Perhaps also contributing facts were that we had already done our Christmas celebrations and were having a bit of an orphan Christmas in another country without our own families. Anyway, whilst most things in Mendoza were closed, the taxi service was running and we found our way to our first hostel. As I said, being Christmas day, most things were closed, including our hostel, and despite my efforts to jump the fence and break in, the place was dead. Great start to the day... so we farted around playing street cricket before we found a different hostel to stay at that was open. Pretty glad to have a shit, shower, shave and lie down in the air conditioned room after the bus ride and given the fact that Mendoza was stupidly hot. After a lie down we headed to one of the only restaurants that was open, pretty average food but lots of it. My steak was actually 3 steaks, no complaints. Spent the rest of the day sitting in the central park on the grass spinning yarns, blowing bubbles and avoiding pigeon poo. After a few cheeky lads beers in the hostel foyer, the group headed out to dinner at a nice little place next to the main park. Good food but shitty wine, our bottle of Syrah was only made drinkable after having to place several ice cubes in each glass, pathetic really. Had a walk through the main park again and looked at the market stalls before deciding to set up our own stall selling the contents of our pockets and some of our shoes. No sales were made. Cut our losses and hit the sack. The next day we were up early to catch a bus to a water park about an hour outside of Mendoza. Pretty sweet place, plenty of gorgeous women in next to nothing, and the pools themselves were absolute gold, there was one that went around the whole of the bottom area and another wave pool in the middle. We found a good spot on the grass and caught a lot of rays that day, which was interrupted by various pool and food breaks. Classic catches in the wave pool was memorable with a few screams being taken; the gammy left hand of Anthony ‘Ifeellikeachunderandimightneedapootoo’ Corry was particularly prominent. Was at the pool place until 6ish, enjoying the water, the sun, and the absurdly cheap but somewhat disgusting red wine. As Mendozan holidays were drawing to a close and everyone was heading back to work, our bus was stuck in a few hours of traffic, meaning that we didn’t get back to the hostel till very late. By the time we sat down for dinner, it was about midnight, but the area we were eating was amping as that is generally around the time that most Argentineans eat anyway. Had a delicious bottle of Malbec and the BEST steak i have ever had in my life, big and juicy, cooked to perfection, and soaked in Roquefort sauce. Sensational stuff. Didn’t leave the restaurant until about 230, pretty casual time to dine, and headed back to the hostel. Next day we had a very long and lazy brunch before beginning our winery tour at around 2pm, visited 2 wineries and sampled a few varieties, good reds but rubbishy whites and sparkling wines – purchased one bottle of malbec for the evening. Also visited one place doing olive oils and another doing liqueurs and chocolates, good samples at both, especially the absinthe shot at the second one. I didn’t personally think much of the tour, we were rushed through every place and didn’t really get a chance to enjoy the locations, bicycle tours in the Hawkes Bay of New Zealand come much more recommended. Sank a cheeky hip flask in the van on the way back in preparation for our last night in Mendoza and, more especially, our last night with a couple of our Australian mates from the tour, Tim and Emma, who continue to be held in the highest esteem by both Corry and I. While the girls were busy prettying themselves, Tim, Corry and I worked our way through a couple of bottles of wine before beginning on a bottle of rum. Drank at the hostel for a gooooooood long time and was mucho barracho (very dieseled) by dinner time. Another late dining experience on account of the state of affairs we were all in, another great meal and really enjoying the lateness of the banquet, think Argentineans are definitely onto something with that one. Back to the hostel for some winks before having an early start on our way to the Chilean border and on to Santiago. Emma Fartley was up to give everyone a goodbye hug but less than impressed with the effort of Timothy Gashworth who was still as pissed as a toilet. Very sleepy ride to the border which we got through with a minimum of fuss and effort (bit of contraband snuck through I believe), some very attractive mountain scenery out the window but wasn’t feeling completely on top of things, and the bombs Corry was dropping didn’t exactly help matters, so was pretty glad to arrive in Santiago in the early afternoon.

Salta

Started out pretty early the next day for our tour of Salta on foot. A short distance away was a cablecar (teleferico if you remember your Spanish) which we caught to a lookout spot with some glorious panoramas of the city. Also seemed to have half of Argentina’s stray dog population. Walked back down into the city and visited a shopping mall, which had some of the girls almost in tears as they hadn’t seen anything like it for maybe a couple of laborious and gruelling months. We all shamelessly ate McDonalds too. The lads had a bit of a walk around, using the man radar (or mandar) to locate an ATM machine while the girls tripped over themselves looking at all the pretty clothes, couldn’t stand to be around it really, estragon knocking about everywhere. After the mall we walked through the city, which was a really beautiful place with lots of parks, cobbled streets and old style buildings, raking hot too though. But yes, a very beautiful place, matched only by the beauty of the women there, Argentina is paradise in that respect. Walked through the streets, Corry mostly ogling girls through his reflective sunglasses, until we found our way to the main square, where we enjoyed a cold beer out on the street shaded by umbrellas. Definitely massively the good life. Afterwards we hit some flea markets to look for Christmas gifts, among a large number of soccer jerseys we picked up a spiderman school bag and some womens underwear. Pretty crazy selection of odds and ends in those places, worth a visit. Back to the hostel after a quick haircut to enjoy a number of big delicious beers in the sun, before heading out to a restaurant near one of the main parks. Corry behaving himself disgracefully by chucking food around without a hint of aplomb. First night of Argentinean food was superb and lived up to its large reputation, big juicy steaks and delicious red wine. Farking well happy to say goodbye to Bolivian ‘cuisine’. We then went to the main bar area of Salta where we debuted our long awaited karaoke performances. ‘Land Down Under’ by Men at Work was ably executed by myself and Tim ‘Iglesias’ Ashworth, who seemed more concerned with cutting some absurd shapes and various manoeuvres including the electric boogaloo. Stuck around for a bit waiting for our next turn but when it was patently obvious they were delaying our next go as we were showing up too many locals, we headed back home. The next day was again begun by a quick visit to the mall for another fix of McDonalds and some other purchases before we were collected from the hostel for our horse riding expedition. Really nice setting up in the hills for a trek, very well trained and behaved horses too. Got up to a few gallops which was pretty sweet as well. Some people looked at home on their steed, including Meeeerrrreedddiittthhh and Emma Fartley, although Tegan Webb lost the respect of her equine companion and Anthony ‘Chafe’ Corry looked less than comfortable. Myself, well I was later compared to a young Clint Eastwood. The trek was tops though and enjoyed by all. The ranch even had a Sapo board and some cold beers. After returning to the hostel we started Christmas celebrations (as we were going to be on a bus for part of actual Christmas day). Drank in the sun whilst sitting in the hostel’s pool for a good long time whilst cracking yarns with various members of the group, really a good way to spend Christmas. As the afternoon dragged on into the evening we all sat down for a bbq dinner together. Superb steak, roquefort-infused sausages and red wine. Corry and I even put on shirts for the occasion. Very merry evening with plenty of laughter, couldn’t beat it with a big stick, and the secret santa presents was a classy touch. Back in the pool for a bit before we headed to the playground, as the swings were simply irresistible to us drunkards, and then into town to party. Good times having a wee boogie and there was a lot of unusual moments but I’m pretty hazy on it to be honest, Corry had a late night and wasn’t back till 6 apparently, but I ended having a bit of a mare and was home at about 330. Not my finest hour as I fell out of bed at some stage during the night and woke up on the floor in the morning. Next day was a struggle as we packed up our gear with our heads in an absolute state of affairs, had a quick bite to eat at the hostel and were out the door to catch a 20 hour bus ride to Mendoza. I’d like to add that I found out that morning that my grandmother, my Mum’s mum, had died in England, which was very sad news at that time of year. RIP Granny Block. Next post - the bus ride and Mendoza.

Tupiza and the Argentinean Border Crossing

Been a while...when we last wrote our heroes had finished their adventure in Uyuni and were going to board a 2am train to Tupiza. The train ride wasn’t great. I had a kid behind me who kept putting his feet up next to my ears on top of the seat, despite me continuously pushing them back off and glaring at him. However, I guess me and Corry can’t really complain, we had somewhat reclining seats with a movie and a sandwich at breakfast time, whilst many of the group were in cattle class sitting on a bench with no back, squashed in with locals – 3 people to a 2 person bench, with animals – both domesticated and livestock, and people and bags cluttering every inch of floor space. Some very grumpy individuals when we arrived in Tupiza, and it didn’t help that me and Corry took the opportunity to rub it in. Think one of the girls even had a cheeky cry, can’t have been our fault though. Tupiza, to put it subtly, was a shit hole. Nothing to do and it was a grimy wee town. Went and had a rubbish breakfast, shouldn’t have to pay for the kind of stuff we got, and then wandered through town for a bit. Most of the group slept the day as they hadn’t got a wink on the train, so the rest of us spent the day having long slow lunches, playing on the internet and wandering the streets. Bit of a nothing day so I won’t say much more, apart from that we had a jizzy lasagne for dinner at a good little restaurant before hitting the sack.  Funnily enough, a few of the girls lost their appetites after a little flat bed truck pulled up outside the restaurant and began to unload huge slabs of meat to the place across the road, completely unrefrigerated of course with flies buzzing around, even my lasagne didn’t look the same after that. Not the finest day of the tour but a necessary evil to cross the border and enter Argentina. Had a few hours on the bus the next morning to the border. Bit of a shambles and I strongly anticipate it’ll be the worst of the tour. We got through the first line easily enough to get our passports stamped out of Bolivia and then began an arduous 3 hour wait in the line for Argentina. Of course we were waiting on the road, they wouldn’t think to have a building. About two-thirds of the way down the line we encountered some French wanks trying to jump the line as they said if they didn’t they would miss their bus. After jumping the queue, being very French about the whole thing, we actually found them on our bus later that afternoon, make your own mind up about those dickless bastards. Anyway, we eventually got to the end of the line and got through. Got a very cursory check of our bags, wish I had smuggled those drugs now, mowed a pizza and hopped back on the bus for another 5 hours or so to Salta. Super to be in Argentina and the quality of women was immediately and noticeably improved. But also many other things, such as roads, driving skills, food and drink hygiene and the cleanliness of toilets before they had been visited by Esquire Corry, also were markedly superior. Got into Salta late at night and hit the hay after some quiet beers. More on Salta (and Christmas!) in the next post.

Uyuni and the Salt Flats

Bus ride took up most of the day and about the most interesting site of the ride was the sea of plastic bags on the outskirts of Uyuni. Literally millions of plastic bags that have snagged on the ankle high vegetation giving the place an odd, perhaps even strangely beautiful look. Uyuni was a bit of a hole, dusty old town that people come to for the salt flats only really, but thats a good reason as they are stunning. Pretty sure Uyuni has one pub, which was humourously named ‘The Big Fun Pub’. Not sure about those Bolivians. For dinner though we went to an incredible pizza restaurant which was supposedly started by some Yank way back before he got bored of the place and left. The pizzas were still excellent despite the lack of his presence and was probably the finest Bolivian cuisine, despite it being Italian, that we had there. Few gentle aromas in our room later that night. Had our briefing for the Salt Flats tour then hit the hay. Was only allowed to bring a day pack for the 3 day trip which made things interesting, think Corry even resorted to turning the undies inside out to get a second use out of them, classy manoeuvre. First stop was the train graveyard, which was a pretty sweet spot to get funny photos with a whole lot of dinasourous (word?) trains. Then headed to the salt museum where we saw the various things the Bolivians do with the salt including using it to build things, making ornamental type things, and even using it as actual salt strangely enough. Afterwards we headed to lunch, had our first attempts at taking funny photos whilst waiting for it to be prepared. By funny photos I mean having various items and people at various distances from the camera and giving them distorted sizes. Bit of success, photos soon. Lunch was gold, then headed to some salt water ponds, pretty cool place, extremely salty water bubbling up from 12km down in salt, and took a bunch more photos including the now infamous naked ones of myself, Corry and Timothy Ashworth, bit of a ‘crack’ up. Facebook may get a working over at some stage, see for yourselves. Headed onwards to an ‘island’, which was actually an island as the salt flats used to be part of the ocean so it was made up of fossilised corals and now cactus too. Pretty awesome views of the salt flats, Corry almost cried he was so emotional about them. But in all honesty, its a stunningly beautiful place and I would actually say that it was my favourite stop so far, even above Machu Pichu, which we all know is indescribably describable. After the island we headed off through the salt, stopping at one spot to take more funny photos, build pyramids out of salt bricks, and watch the sunset, which was beautiful. Headed on again to the accomodation which was made out of salt and which also had a salt floor. Salt getting a bit much by this stage. Pretty classic dinner with a lot of laughs whilst reviewing the many photos of the day, it also involved far too much wine for the occasion, and also 12 sky rockets. Was feeling like scum in the morning and we set off early, had a long day driving through the desert looking at various rock formations, mineral lagoons of red, blue and green hues, and volcanic mountains. A really interesting day with some mindblowing sites, but also a very long day in the car, especially when u have Anthony Corry and Timothy ‘Frank and Beans’ Ashworth for company. But yes, a very rich and compelling day also, and even saw a twister. Pretty happy to get to the accomodation that night, bit of backyard cricket until I hit a huge 6 and ended the game, then sat down for lasagna and more wine. Early night after taking Timothy ‘I feel like a chunder and I might need a poo too’ Ashworth apart at cards as we were getting up at 4am the next day. When that time arrived, we headed off towards the geysers and mud pools. All the females were in a foul mood and Anthony ‘Cute’ Corry was also rather grumpy. Not a hindus hope in heaven of getting the famous Corry laugh out of him. Farking cold at that time in the desert so everyone was glad to stand next to the geysers and warm up, or even jump right through them, as well as to walk amongst the mud pools, which were absolutely shitting their pants and throwing mud everywhere. Walking that close would never be allowed in New Zealand so it was a super experience and got some cool photos in amongst the steam. Afterwards we headed to the natural thermal hotpools which were superb, great way to warm up and was mostly very relaxing apart from the bit where this fat japanese girl slipped and fell in, setting off a mini tsunami. But it was mostly very lovely. Bit of brekky then headed to see some more lagoons and mountains, pretty stunning, then the chilean border to drop off a couple of ppl from our car. Casually crossed the border illegally and had a bit of a walk around, interesting wee place. I’ll get rid of this one now, it was rather chilly in chile. Actually. We then headed back to towards Uyuni, long drive which took the whole day. Got a flat tyre in a fortunate position right next to one of the rare cafes in the desert so drank beer while the driver fixed that. Then drove off to the lunch spot, and onwards to Uyuni after that. Got another flat on the way so did what any normal person would do and took photos of us in the nude in the desert. All the time in the world for that sort of carry on. Eventually got back to Uyuni where we had time to freshen up and shower for the first time in 3 days, then back to the same pizza restaurant for more jizztastic pizza. As our train wasnt leaving till 2am, we tried to stay up and a few of us hit up the Big Fun Pub. We were the only people there and our bartender was plainly uninterested so made our own fun. Timothy ‘She likes things beginning with C’ Ashworth drank from a phallic shaped vessel and Anthony ‘There is shit all over the walls’ Corry from a female-body-part shaped cup. Time for a bit of cards and a power nap at the hostel before jumping on the train. Being men, and tall, we were lucky and were in proper seats which reclined etc, so we got sleep. However, many of the women, bless their tiny souls, were stuck in cattle class, people and bags everywhere and many people crammed into fewer seats. Gutted for them. Arrived at Tupiza early in the morning where we copped it from them for our better class of travel, completely not our fault but we didnt help matters by rubbing it in. More on Tupiza and our arrival in Argentina in the next post

Potosi

Arrived in Potosi in the afternoon and had a wee walk around the city after dumping our stuff at the accomodation. Not a huge amount of interest, Potosi used be a very rich city and apparently in its prime it was the most populous city in the world.  However, now the mines aren’t as productive its fallen a bit to ruin. Some signs of what it once was though, grand buildings and crazy little streets. One interesting site was seeing a random tourist have a gigantic yak right in the middle of a pedestrian street, it went everywhere and was like a fire hose on full blast, unfortunately i missed the photo opportunity whilst too busy staring. Cerro Rico was a pretty dominating site sitting right on top of the town and was fairly impressive. Had the novelty of eating dinner ten stories up at a revolving restaurant which was great until the sun went down at it got stupidly cold. Again we experienced the pleasure of waiting an extraidonary length of time for our meals, reasonably certain Jesus didn’t go through the same ordeals we did, and was pretty glad to get the taxi back - although our guy run over a rock on the way down a dirt path and busted up his suspension so we limped home slowly. Went out for some cheeky dessert then hit the sack, although Corry claims to have burst an O-ring on his throne before that. Tour of the mines the next day, we had a fantastic guide, Choco, who picked us up and got us kitted out in gumboots, waterproof pants and jacket, and a helmet with a headlamp. Gee did that helmet save my bacon on a few occasions. First stop was the miners market, where we picked up juice, coca leaves, gloves and dynamite (which they will freely sell to anyone) to give to miners as gifts as we ran into them. Before entering the mines, Choco made us stuff our mouths with coca leaves, pretty ranksauce, but the real killer was having to do a shot of Bolivian 96% alcohol. Was electric blue and im pretty sure it was actually just plain meths. Burnt the throat something chronic – not sure why Choco thought it was a good idea, own entertainment maybe. Anthony Corry asked for a second though, gee that guy can sink his piss. Entering the mines, we immediately ran into a Tio (or devil) which is what the miners worship within the mountain, rather an inaspicious start. Choco used to be a miner himself so he knew all the nooks and crannies, went down to the second level of the mine through a range of tunnels and shafts, was pretty carny times and a great adventure. Casual arsenic all over the rocks and the navigational methods would probably be shut down fairly quickly back home. Towards the end Choco lit a couple of sticks of dynamite and gave them each to us to hold for what seemed in my opinion to be rather a while, pretty loose behaviour that, Corry was loving it though. He then threw them down a tunnel except only one blew up, huuuuuge explosion – again, very loose goose behaviour. Hopefully the other one (detonator failed) didnt blow up later and take someones head off but guess we will never know. Pretty hard work so we took the rest of the day lazily, ate two lunches then sat in bed watching movies for the night, not a lot going on in Potosi as I may have mentioned. Next morning was the public bus to Uyuni. Only 200km away but took 6 hours on account of combo of shitty bus, shitty roads, winding roads and general Bolivian inefficiencies which have all too common place.

Sucre

Pretty comfy bus and slept well until we got a flat tyre half an hour from the city. Sat on the road for a whlle in the baking sun before we eventually arrived. Don’t know what he did to our bathroom but by the time I got in there it was like Cyclone Corry had well and truly grabbed it by the bollocks and torn in to shreds. Absolute bloody chaos and mayhem, the guy is a true larakin. Had the old blocked shower drain again which was also good for a laugh for about 0.5 seconds. Lupe then took us on a walk of the city which was a semi-OK place, markets with raw meat lying around the place in all sorts of unrefrigerated conditions was a highlight and really made you wonder what you’re eating in restaurants. However, they had a very pretty main sqaure and lots of old colonial architecture which was cool. I started to come down with some man flu (hey, its a real disease) so spent most of the arvo chilling at the hostel as there wasn’t a lot else happening. In the late arvo we decided it would be a good idea to get on the cervezas so sat in the sun drinking for quite a while. Basically everything I drank came straight back out my nose in a less fine and more mucusy form. Carried on to dinner which was excellent but again very slow in arriving and stayed afterwards for a few more drinkies. Next day I felt like cats piss, me and Corry were going to go horse riding with a few of the group but when we arrived we found out they had run out of gluestick and dog food horses. I wasnt particularly annoyed, and found a pharmacy with over-the-counter everything, seriously great pharmacies in Bolivia, no need for a prescription for anything at all. Me anc Corry went with Australian Tim to get his hair cut, then wandered around the markets again before walking up to the lookout point to get some splendid views of Sucre. I could barely stay awake over lunch and almost took a swim in my soup so I slept the arvo whilst Corry read and played with himself. Went back to the same place for dinner but this time we ate in the cinema whilst watching a movie on Cerro Ricco (or ‘The Mountain that Eats Men’) in Potosi where we were heading to next. Cerro Rico is where Bolivians mine tin, copper, silver etc, and over a 400 or 500 year history about 8 million people are estimated to have died. The movie focused on a 12 year old boy who provided for his whole family by mining in appalling conditions for many hours a week. Really interesting movie. Pretty happy to get back to the hostel to listen to Australian Tim’s ballad about Corry (entitled ‘Sorry Corry, its not me, its you’) and hit the hay. Next day caught a private bus (yippee) to Potosi which only took a few hours and was quite a nice ride really. Unless you've got the gentle aromas of Anthony Corry's feet and arse wafting up your nasal passages. I have advised him to visit a doctor on his return to New Zealand, those things are most unusual and indeed most unpleasant