Hola todos! Somehow I lost the notes I did for this one and have had to redo them and not having chance on the road hence the delay.
So after we left off from the last one Totally not Ed Sheeran and myself managed to find a few places where they would still let us have a beer over the dry election weekend which was very good going I have to say, among them was this nice little restaurant where we had a good chat with the lad serving us and then a short ways up the hill from there a cool little bar that looked very old school, the man running that place was cool and let us have a few beers in the back. lovelllyyyy.
That took care of Friday, then for Saturday Ed and his pal went back up to El Alto for some more footage for his video so Valle de la Luna would be a solo mission for me. I had to do laundry in the morning so didn’t head out till the afternoon.
Once the afternoon rolled round it was back on the cable car down to the same station we went the other day when we did the other valley, I am soon able to sort out a taxi up to Valle de La Luna. I get there, pay the £3 entrance fee and I am in.
So what to say about this place? Well for starters it is a much easier walk than the Valle de Las Animas being mostly flst with some hill climbs to get to viewpoints and there were good viewpoints here and it is another interesting landscape that resembles another random star wars planet.
Doing some reading into this place it apparently got it’s name after Neil Armstrong visited here after the Apollo 11 moon landing because it very much resembles what they seen on the moon with these rock formations, before that it was known as the valley of the spirits. True or not it doesn’t look earth like I’ll say that.
The spires here are made up of clay and sandstone rather than actual rocks and because of this the area is subject to erosion, in fact every time it rains in La Paz this place changes slightly. If you dear reader visit you may see something different to what I seen if you look at finer details.
Despite it’s arid look you also get catcus plants growing here, they are apparently a unique Andean cactus not seen in other regions and it is known as the San Pedro ribbed cactus or Achuma in Aimara, unfortunately didn’t get any pics of the cacti but you can look them up if interested.
After this I headed back and the rest of the evening went by pretty uneventfully only Ed was feeling ill so I went to those 2 places mentioned at the start on my own but not much else to say there.
Sunday itself was the election day and for us turistas it was pretty much a lock in as during the day there are no shops, restaurants or other places to go open, there is also no public transport and even international flights are grounded on this day. Any car on the road needs a special permit to be driving during polling hours. I didn’t go out and have a look at the voting I just chilled at my gaff, caught up with my family and just got my stuff together for the next leg.
The plan now is heading south to Oruro, from there I will visit the once great mining boom town of Potosí before heading to the old capital of Sucre before going back towards Uyuni and crossing into Argentina.
Will be dropping the blog for Oruro right after this one.
Hola todos, playing catch up still. Over the next few days we spent in La Paz I did a couple of things together with my new pal, we did go up to El Alto again but I’ll skip over that since I covered that pretty well on the first post for this leg.
Our second big cable car excursion took us on the green line to La Paz to a quite nice neighborhood called Calocoto which was the last stop on linea verde. From there we haggled and sorted out a taxi to go to a valley, specifically El Valle de las Animas. This is quite a spectacular piece of natural geography looking like something out of a fictional planet in any sci fi themed movie or videogame.
It is about half hour out of town from the cable car stop, we took a taxi ride up here for the equivalent of £6.50 which is very decent. Once you get there the area around it isn’t too nice with more makeshift housing and the fact you have an open sewer pipe spewing out water right by where you pay the £1 entrance fee! They really should do something about that. By the by.
We pay and in we go. This is a great place however we didn’t hike all of it, in fact we probably bearly done a third of it. It is all uphill and in altitudes north of 4000 meters you are knackered and struggling to breathe very quickly.
We probably got to about 1/4 of the trail before we decided to turn back after getting some cool photos. Apparently if you hiked the entire thing it would take more than 8 hours! Still it was a picturesque sight for what little of it we seen.
On the walk back down we passed a bunch of guys doing this on an ATV tour – they had the right idea not like us pair of clowns force marching ourselves uphill. Oh well at least we saw it without spending bags of cash! Coming back was fun as we jumped in a random collectivo and managed to get ourselves back to the station without too much issue other than cramped legs from how small those minibuses were – they are not built for Europeans clearly!!
On the way back I got chatting to (not) Ed some more and he recommended another place much easier called the Valle de la Luna, I would make plans to do this over the weekend.
Speaking of the weekend things were about to get very boring around here. It was now Thursday evening and I go out with (not) Ed and his Peruvian BF and have some grub and a few beers. We are aware that this Sunday is the national mayor and provincial governor elections in Bolivia. What does this mean for us? Well the Bolivians take their elections very seriously and in order to get people to go out and vote the entire weekend of the election is a dry event 😳! Yes that’s right from 12am Friday to midday Monday sales of alcohol are banned in shops and officially in bars and restaurants (though we later managed to find 2 places that would serve us over Friday and Saturday). Moreso on the day itself and everything is grounded for election day, no shops bars restaurants open, no public transport, any cars have to have a special permit to be on the road and even international flights are grounded on this day. Sunday was a complete shutdown.
As we were sitting in this bar they suddenly bring us the bill at midnight on the dot saying it’s now in effect we have to pay up and get out as they are closing. Fun stuff. However our pal (not) Ed has lived in Peru a long time and says they do the same there but no worries there is always someone out to make a buck who will sort you out for a beer so not to worry. After this we say our goodbyes and agree to reconvene tomorrow evening to work out the situation.
On the next installment I will cover election weekend and Valle de la Luna. Ciao for now!
Hola todos! Catching up on the blogging, for today’s installment I will talk about the trip across to Tiwanaku, this ruin is about 2 hours away from La Paz and is an old Pre-Columbian ruin that goes back several hundred years before the Inca’s and the Spanish Conquests.
I had booked onto a fairly cheap tour out here and it was quite an uneventful ride out on the minibus from La Paz, save meeting my new best friend who’s not Ed Sheeran on this trip. We arrive and pay the entrance fee and our guide walks us around the different spots of the site.
It is quite a big place though only about half of it has been excavated, what can be seen however is quite an impressive collection of relics to this ancient place.
Not much is known about whatever the precursor civilization that was here was though among what they left behind were some impressive stone structures such as the Puerta del Sol (Sun Gate) and the 7 story pyramid of Akapana, of which only half of it is excavated.
Looking round further we have statues of different sizes of what I think was Pachamama, mother earth, the biggest here is 24 feet tall and named ‘the Bennett monoloth’ named after the archeologist who found it. However it is inside their museum which they wouldn’t let anyone take pictures of.
There are other parts to this site which I don’t think we got to have a proper look round, the guide was sort of rushing our group from place to place, which was a bit of a shame, would have liked to have looked round here for another hour really.
After lunch I have a chat with my new best friend who’s not Ed Sheeran on the way back and we later meet up for a few beers and have a good laugh sharing stories of what we’ve been up to on the road. Been a while since we met a decent geezer to be fair and it’s always a plus.
Next blog we explore some of the valleys around La Paz.
Hola todos! Been a few days hasn’t it? I’ve been chilling in La Paz, Bolivia 🇧🇴 the highest city in the world! Well technically El Alto right next door is at 4100 meters above sea level but it’s all part of the same place.
Getting here was a little chaotic when I got here since when the bus pulled in my internet was crapping out again and in the middle of Friday rush hour it would have taken ages to get a taxi so I ended up walking to my hostel for about 40 minutes. La Paz is a very busy city and in the centre down towards Sopacachi it’s a giant hill, in fact the entire city is practically vertical though luckily it was all downhill walking to the gaff.
After checking in and having a look round the first night was uneventful.
Second day I do the usual thing of booking the obligatory walking tour around the city. This was a very interesting couple of hours as with this tour we went all around the city’s intricate cable car system, which included taking us up to El Alto.
El Alto is a very interesting place, it is a seperate city from La Paz despite being more or less part of it. It is a city of mostly indigenous who migrated to La Paz who couldn’t afford to live in the main city, El Alto was originally a district of La Paz but it grew too fast for the government to handle so now it is it’s own sperate entity. Walking around up there it is very different, it is full of markets with people selling various things. Also there are ‘Religious Markets’ where you if so inclined can go and get a spiritual hearing, I personally skipped on this one; already did mine in Cusco but it is interesting.
During this tour we found out that Bolivia is the country with the largest indigenous population in all of Latin America with their population being around 70% indigenous, especially outside of the large cities. In El Alto you will hear a cacophony of indigenous lingo’s being spoken next to Spanish such as Aimara, the main indigenous language of Bolivia, Quechua from Peru and Cusco and even Guarani which is from Paraguay and the Amazonian regions of Bolivia far to the north and east.
After looking round El Alto we were back on the cable cars down to el centro where we seen the Cathedral and parliament among others, here we had a history lesson on Bolivia’s ex presidente, Evo Morales who was in power from 2006 to 2019, this guy is indigenous and when he came to power passed a load of reforms to empower the Indigenous population, though as the years went on he and his party became more and more corrupt. For a long time Bolivia became practically isolated from the outside world and though they are reopened now they are still feeling the effects of this now, especially in the economy. Because of the isolation they had and still do have a shortage of dollars and as such going to money exchanges here you will get a rate above spot for exchanging physical dollars for Bolivianos (25-40% above the official rate).
Back onto Morales, he was ousted in 2019 after he essentially rigged the election and a big series of protests broke out and eventually he was forced to resign and fled on a private jet to Mexico then Argentina. He actually came back a year later and tried to take back power after the his socialist party was re-elected but the party didn’t want him back. In fact they re opened a case against him for paedophilia which there is evidence in his former penthouse that he is guilty that was left behind when he left. He is still wanted today for this among other things he done but he is protected by an indigenous community out by Cochabamba who are still loyal to him for all the things he did for them despite his crimes, he essentially lives in a guarded compound and is untouchable by the law today.
After this we finished the tour at the Witches Market, this was more or less just another glorified touristy market, I didn’t hang around here too long and went back to my hostel.
The next 2 days after were just a mix of rest and Admin days without much to say.
My fourth day here i visited the pre Incan ruins of Tiwanaku, which was very interesting but we will cover that on another post. During this time I also met a new best friend, who is totally not Ed Sheeran 😂😂 me and this fella did some more exploring up in El Alto yesterday and plan to check out a few trails outside the city over the next few days. That pretty much wraps this one up for now.
I will be staying here until Monday or Tuesday then pushing down the Altiplano towards Potosi and Sucre then heading towards Uyuni and planning to cross into Argentina by mid April at the latest.
So after we left off I crossed over the border into Copacabana, border crossing was by far the easiest of the entire trip so far. Copacabana itself isn’t much to see and is rather basic but enough there for a short 2 night stay. After I arrived and got myself checked into the hostel I went and booked onto a tour of Sun Island – Isla del Sol for the next day. The first night here was uneventful.
Next day Its a midday start for this boat trip and I get up mid morning and take it easy before mozying on down to the docks. I meet up with the rest of the group including some familiar faces who were on the bus with me to Arequipa back on the Peru Hop. After a brief bit of chit chat we are called onto the boat. The boat is pretty decent with a fully enclosed cabin. We board and on we go.
It’s about an hour each way to the Island and back so enough time to nod off while taking in the scenery of Lake Titicaca – it is quite a beautiful landscape. We soon arrive on the island and our guide is there to meet us.
First we climb up some stairs to this old temple. It is an old shrine to Inti, what the Incas refer to aa the sun god. In fact it is believed this island is where the sun first shined on earth, hence it’s name. I also recall him saying that there is also Legend that Manco Capac, the first Sapa Inca who founded Cusco was born here. According to legend he emerged from the lake being sent by the sun god to establish the Inca Civilization. Whether he was actually from here or not it further reinforces the beliefs of the locals here. The culture is called Aimara, and these people descend from the original natives of these lands before the Spanish Conquests of the 1500s.
After this we begin the hike up the hill, now this would have been a very easy hike if we weren’t 3500 meters above sea level. When you hike uphill in this altitude you tire fast and find yourself short of breath. I was and still having flem on your chest hanging round from that cold a few weeks back it doubles up and it really hits you! That said I got up just fine though was very short of breath at the top.
At the top of this hill there is a small village and the local Abuelas come out to say hello. They also offer a mug of maté tea to whoever wants it. Seeing me coughing and short of breath they bring me the first one out. It is quite a nice brew and certainly helps clear the airways. While we all have our brews we admire the views. It is very serene I have to say. Unspoiled Natural beauty right there.
After our brews we walk on down to the main port of this island, Yumani, this place is a small township where you have both locals and tourists staying in the buildings here. Our guide says after 5pm it just becomes total silence here just the lake and nature. I can see the appeal of staying here, but as a solo traveler I would be cracking up as there would be nowhere to really go in the evening.
Anyways we walk down through this nice little town until we come to an aquaduct and coming out of this is fresh water from a natural spring at the top of the mountain on the island. This is apparently the fountain of youth according to the locals however we are assured it is safe to drink so we all have a slurp and refill water bottles out of it. It was very clean and fresh water so I don’t know. Maybe check back in a year or 2 and see if I start having grey hairs pop up or no?!
After this we were back on the boat to Copacabana and was a nice ride back. It is also with mentioning the water was so clear and clean looking though would be a bit cold to swim in this time of the year as we are now well into autumn here in the southern hemisphere.
Much like the last night the evening was uneventful. Now we move onto La Paz, which is one of the highest large cities in the world. Let’s see how the altitude treats us there!
Hola todos! Today’s blog will be about my last destination and excursion in Perú before crossing into Bolivia.
So firstly I will skip over the journey to Puno from Cusco as was largely uneventful with me nodding off quite a lot. Arrival in Puno I had to walk a fair but to my hotel but I got to see a bit of the town.
Puno itself wasn’t much to look at and looked a bit run down though it had all the amenities for a 2 night stay. So I check in, go out for dinner etc not much else to note. The next day however I did my last tour with @peruhop the Uros floating Islands.
I opted for the afternoon slot as I had some admin to take care of for Bolivia but 3pm a taxi comes and we are quickly taken to the docks where we are put on a boat out to the Islands. It is about a half hour ride out and we get a good view of how big Lake Titicaca actually is. It is the 2nd largest in South America after Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. It gets as deep as 300 meters when you way out but we don’t go that far.
We soon arrive on the Floating Islands, yes that is right these Islands are artificial islands floating from ballasts made out of earth and reeds with more reeds piled on top to make a stable enough surface for structures to be built on top. Quite genius really. They also use stones to keep the Islands anchored.
We are given a bit of a talk then the villagers let us come and have a look in their houses then show us their little market stall. I bought another fridge magnet here to do my bit for the community.
After this they take us on a short ride to another floating Island on one of their traditional boats. When we get there we have some coca mate and a light bite before being transferred back to the main boat back to port.
There isn’t much else to say other than it got bloody cold on the way back after sundown and I felt it. Getting back to Puno later a big rain storm came down in the night.
The next day the border crossing into Bolivia was very easy and it was a pretty short journey to Copacabana. Once I arrived I just checked into the hostel and chilled the rest of the day.
Hola todos! Well we never gotten to Macchu Picchu after, however I did get to ‘Poor Man’s Macchu Picchu’! This place is an old Inca settlement known as Saqsaywaman, or more easily pronounced as ‘Sexy Woman’!
After the spirituality session the other day I went out and found a music bar, while I was there I got chatting to an expat geezer who I told about my frustrations with Macchu Picchu and he said if I don’t want to do it, just go take a hike up the mountain past that mirador I went the other day and after a half hour walk you’ll find this site. It costs only 20 bucks to get in but there is everything there that Macchu Picchu would have save the Instagram shot from the viewpoint. Lovely stuff this seems right up my sraße!
So the next morning I so just that. Get my ass up and start walking up the hill towards ‘Sexy Woman’! It is quite a short but intense trek up here with the altitude kicking in and making you short of breath.
Eventually I get there and after a bit of faf queuing up I get my ticket and I’m through and onto the site. It is pretty impressive for what it is with many old stone structures still standing to some degree.
Walking along the outside of it you get a great view of the city before going back and climbing a flight of stairs where you are at the highest point and can get a good view of the entire site. In parts of it they have put straw roofs on to give an impression of what it was like back in the day. All good stuff.
What was it back in the day though? There was very little info at the site but going back and doing some reading it was both a fortress and a religious site. It took 90 years to complete it’s construction which finished around 1438 when the great Inca leader Pachacuti began his conquests of the different tribes around Cusco to form the Incan Empire.
It’s quite the feat of engineering as they wouldn’t have had wheels or oxen to drag these giant stones up the hills, they would have had to have done it by tying the rocks to logs and large groups of people would then drag the logs where they needed them. They would also use logs to lift the stones in place. Another interesting fact is they didn’t have mortar so they would carve the stones using various bronze tools to make them perfectly interlock in place using bronze tools. The process is called Ashlar Masonry if you want to read more into it. It’s quite interesting how they did it and I recall our guide on the walking tour talking about it though my mind was on other things so can’t remember the finer detail.
The place was also one of the last holdouts when Cusco fell to the Spanish in 1536. I’m skipping over a lot of details but the place is still used as a religious site today by the indigenous.
The site has old remains of structures as well as some cool natural rock formations, one of which is popular as a slide. There are also Alpacas wandering about up here.
I think I spent about 5 hours here in total. It was very well worth the $20 and was nice and easy to get to and back from as well. Would highly recommend.
As for now it is the push to Puno. I won’t be staying there too long. A brief stop then on to Bolivia!
Featuring Leela World! A one of a kind Buddhist Board Game!
Hola todos! Well this one was a very chance and very random encounter but one that was most certainly meant to happen and one I feel helped me out, not just out of this travel slump but given me a good bit of mental clarity on both how I want to continue on this journey and my next moves in the aftermath when this comes to an end. All of this from 2 hours of playing this spiritual Buddhist game called Leela World with @nikki_dharma_queen. Was very insightful and enlightening and the results that we rolled were very much aligned with what I was doing or planning to do. Mad but I don’t think so.
Anyways let’s back up a bit. How did this even happen. Well after the burnout episode and having a wander round I go to my new hostel and still have half hour to wait to check in and she comes in 2 minutes after me waiting as well and we get chatting while waiting for our rooms to be ready. This woman has quite a story being originally from Norfolk, selling her house about 6 months ago to go travelling and has been all over the place including to some spiritual retreats and events in Fiji before coming here to South America. It is quite a story and she’s sharing with me things she learned and talking to me about people she met. It was interesting but I admit left me a little skeptical about it all. I tell her about what I’m doing as well then our rooms are ready and we don’t really see each other the rest of Thursday.
Fast forward to Friday afternoon I have been wandering about town then head back to have some rest and I see her sat on that sofa again. We make a bit of chit chat then she gets on about this game they all played at one of these events Called Leela World which apparently shows what is wrong with all your chakras and what you need to do to bring positive energy to them and by extent improve your life, mind, body, health finances and all. We get talking and the cynic in me is thinking this is nonsense but she actually has the game there and just gets it out then my thoughts change from skeptical to curious and she says do I want to play? Well yes let’s give it a go why not? Before I go further I should mention she is one of only 3 people in the UK who knows how to properly facilitate this ritual so goes to show just how pure chance this meeting was!!
So now we get to the main part of this story. She pulls out the board and explains to me the rules. You first have to meditate for 3 minutes then you will get given the dice. You then need to ask a question something that is on your mind and has bothered you for a long period of time and it cannot be binary i.e. yes/no. I made a list of questions then went with one of them. What my question was I am not telling you lot but I will tell you how my game went.
With my question asked (you can say out loud or keep it within by the way) I got to rolling the dice. First you need to roll a 6 to enter the game. If it takes more than 7-10 goes your mind is not ready to open up to this topic and you need to change the question. I rolled my 6 on try 4 so that’s pretty healthy she says your mind is open to proceed. So off we go. You need to go all the way up the board to get to 68 to finish the game and you can go up quicker on the arrows or get sent back down by snakes. Oh you also have to pick an avatar. I used a pack of playing cards I got back in Lima. Seems fitting!
How did my game play out?
If I recall once you roll the 6 you initially start on 6 (moha). If I recall it means delusion, ignorance or confusion pointing to a skewed reality, which would logically be the starting point for this exercise as it’s about undoing that. How my numbers went after this were as follows:
6 roll 5 =>11 (Gandharvas) – Landing here Signifies a lack of purpose and happiness in your life. The takeaway here is I need to get more hobbies and find more activities that bring joy.
11 roll 1 =>12 (Eirsha) – represents an element of envy and comparison in your life. Basically stop trying to force yourself to fit in where you don’t belong. As this also lands on a snake it brings us down to 8 (Matsar). This one is a form of greed stemming from dissatisfaction be it in money, social circle and generally wanting more things quicker. Can relate here.
8 roll 11 (Gandharvas) if you land on the same twice it means you haven’t fully learned the lesson and need to revisit this piece and reflect deeper. After discussing further I believe I need to find myself a community in real life I can be part of. The Spanish group I am part of seems like a a decent start here.
11 roll 6 => 17 (Daya). Landing here means I need to make an effort to be more compassionate with peopke and show empathy/mercy/sensitivity. Yes I can be quick and harsh to Judge things and I have done so many times on the road and back home. This lands on an arrow taking us to 69 (Brahma Loka). This one means I am closed up emotionally and basically need to both set boundaries while believing I can be open about my feelings. This I can also relate to.
We now cannot complete the game as we are over 68 so now we roll until we can go……..
69 roll 3 => 72 (Tamoguna). This represents inertia, which can be indecision, laziness or procrastination, I need to act more decisively is the takeaway here. As this lands on a snake it takes us to 51 (Prithvi). This one represents Mother Earth, which means you need to realise where you are and trust the process, allow the universe to guide you and acknowledge things happen for a reason, be who I need to be for me.
51 roll 4 => 55 (Ahamkara). This one is a about a bad ego and a sense of false identity. In my case I need to stop comparing myself with others and trying to force outcomes. This is also the worst snake you can get takes us back to 3 (Krodh). This is about anger – to quote that one PIL song “Anger is an energy” and it is said so here. There can be bad anger which seems in my case comparing myself to others or there is good anger which you can channel to lead to positive outcomes. Basically my mental and physical and auras are weak and I need to build them up, mentally through community and well being, physically creating better habits.
3 roll 1 => 4 (Lobh). This one is another form of greed but in the form of a scarcity mindset. This is driven largely by environment. I need to create an environment of abundance to remove this one.
4 roll 6 => 10 (Tapah). This one means cleansing. Basically a cue that I am wanting to create healthier habits and routines for myself. This lands on an Arrow and takes us to 23 (Swarga Loka). This one represents willpower, this shows you are slowly becoming more flexible allowing change to be more organic. It also mentions connection to divinity be it God or another higher entity.
23 roll 2 => 25 (Su-Sang Loka). This means Good Company, specifically about being your own good company, it basically says you are telling yourself slowly you don’t need bad habits and to find better ones to swap for what is better for you.
25 roll 6 => 31 (Yaksha Loka). This about connection to divinity. It’s about being kind to yourself and finding what you want to connect to.
31 roll 3 => 34 (Rasa Loka). This means A ‘plain of flavour or taste’. Basically a cue to expand tastes. Routines, eat cleaner and healthier, cleanse your gut via fasting (did this before and yes it works!) also find what puts you into a Peak State. I.e. when you have high energy example: listening to music that gets you pumped.
34 roll 1 => 35 (Narak Loka) This signifies Purgatory, specifically in the mind. I relate to this I often dwell a lot on the past or make plans and assumptions for the future not being fully present. Take away here is to be more present in the here and now and happy where you are at this moment in time. Goes back to habits and routines that raise energy.
35 roll 3 => 38 (Prana Loka) This one means to let energies into your life. It suggests trying mediation and breathwork of which I have done some of the latter on this journey.
38 roll 1 => 39 (Apana Loka). Elimination, this is a cue that you need to eliminate toxins from your life but this goes deeper than simply laying off the booze and junk food. It means I need to create new routines and possibly change my location and environment around me.
39 roll 6 => 45 (Suvidya) This is all about knowledge and astute learning particularly with regard to learning from experience. Well the log for that one is always getting bigger say no more. I think we’re doing okay here. This is an arrow and it takes us to 67 (Rodra Loka). Destruction and rebirth. Sometimes in order to rebuild you need to break down the old. You don’t have to do it all in one go but it needs to be done.
67 roll 3 => 70 (Satoguna) Peace clarity and Divine connection – this means you are ready to begin taking positive actions to move forward.
70 roll 1 => 71 (Rajoguna) This visualation. You must close your eyes take some deep breaths and visualise yourself taking the steps to create the change you desire.We are over 68 and roll until we get a number again.
71 roll 1 => 72 (Tamoguna). Inertia again, lesson not learned here. It lands on a snake takes us back to 51 (Prithvi) Mother Earth and trust the process.
51 roll 6 => 57 (Vayu Loka) This one signifies a gaseous plane which translates to overthinking. What she told me with this one is to draw on feminine energy which basically means pausing and not making hot headed rash decisions. I can relate to getting burned here before.
57 roll 5 => 62 (Sukh) This signifies a sense of happiness. This means to believe in yourself as a creator and to keep moving forward and don’t coast through all areas of life.
62 roll 6 => 68 (Vaikuntha Loka) This means you have achieved cosmic consciousness and the game ends there. You are now to continue the next step of the journey and show up with new behaviours gleaned from what has been learned here.
This was a very trippy experience and we played for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Nikki tells me in larger groups these sessions can go on for several days with some not being able to finish after several days doing 4 hours at a time. All in all I think I did well. It means I am open minded and ready to bring about positive changes to my life once I properly start the next chapter after this trip is over however I can and will start implementing this now.
After that I did meet up with her again on Saturday after taking care of some Admin. Told her I had been reading over the notes since the last night. We have some chit chat then we are both hungry and go out for an early dinner – the place of choice ends up being this vegan restaurant although she tells me she isn’t vegan but prefers to eat vegetables and plant based when she can. Still this all quite eye opening so I go along with it end up ordering this vegan lasagne which was actually very very good and we drink this ginger kombucha which ends up being very good for the breathing and clearing mucous muck off my chest.
We end up chatting for another hour after dinner about various things and just about everything circles back to some thing that related from that game at one point or another. At the end of it my head was hurting although I felt I had learned a lot.
She had a very early one as was doing one of those 4.30 am start excursions I had decided to chin off. We walk back to the gaff. She hits the hay early then after about an hour I go to a music bar and have a quiet one there listening to the band. Was very good.
I have one more blog to do on Cusco that will come later as we head to Puno.
Speaking of Puno I originally planned to leave for there on Friday but made a last minute decision to stay the weekend. None of this would have happened if we left as planned. Wierd how fate works sometimes!
Thank you Nikki for showing us Leela World and all of the enlightenment that came with it. This has given me some excellent clarity on my way forward both as I move to the final stages of this Journey and in whatever comes next. Anything is possible with the right mind shift is the main takeaway from here.
Best of luck with your health retreat plans and let’s stay in touch!
Hola todos! 2nd backdated blog from before burnout kicked in. This one is all about the long Journey from Arequipa to Cusco. Once again I used the hop on hop off services of Peruhop for this one.
It was a very early start for this one getting up at 0430 for a 5:15 pickup from the gaff. I’m up, showered and out and soon the minivan comes by and picks me up and takes us out of town to where the bus waits. By about 0600 we are on way.
Once we begin the ascent into the Andes out of Arequipa you can immediately see just how vast and empty Peru is. We keep climbing up these mountains which plateau out onto vast steppe-like plains with even taller mountains with snowy peaks in the background. It is quite surreal.
Along these plains you can see a mostly disused railway line. Only freight trains pass through there though rumor is there is talk of putting passenger trains back on the line nothing has happened yet. Shame this route would be even more epic done by train!
After a while the steppe land gives way to greenery after we briefly pass a few lakes near to the far western side of Lake Titicaca. After a brief lunch stop we enter the valleys of the Inca Heartland where there is greenery and rivers running through them. It is quite the sight to see.
After a while it gets dark and not much else to see for the last 2/3 hours and is uneventful. We land in Peruhop’s bus terminal and a minivan takes us to our accomodations.
I am last to get dropped at mine at about 19:30 and once I’m checked in having issues not letting me take a proper shower after such a long travel day. I am pissed off but it’s late in the day to argue it. Lo que puta hay!!! This starts the slide that leads to my burnout episode in the heart of Inca Country!!
I have a wander round but among the touting I find nowhere I like so off to the Irish bar for some scran and a few ales. Not a great start.
Despite what came afterwards I would highly recommend this particular bus ride as the views as the land changes are truly epic and made it worth the early start and extremely long travel day.
I won’t eleborate too much further. You already know what came next in the next couple of days!
That said since I posted that burnout episode things have really began to look up after a very spiritual chance encounter. That we will cover on the next one!
Hola todos. Backdated blog For the last one in Arequipa. On my last I went on a short tour of a quarry and canyon – la ruta de Sillar.
This was a short 4 hour tour that first seen us going to mirador Yanahuara, a very cool viewing point on the north side of the city across the river. A brief stop here for some cool photos of the volcanos and architecture before heading up the road out of town to a quarry near the canyon we were visiting.
In this quarry a miner shows us the process by how they cut this white volcanic rock. Basically you use a chisel to make an incision then put some paper in the cut before putting another chisel in there and whacking it with a big hammer to get it to break as evenly as it can. You then use another metal chisel like tool to sort of file it into shape. Interesting stuff although I wasn’t fully paying attention in the heat.
After this we are dropped at the canyon properly. This is a short 1 hour hike through a white canyon that resembles some of the ones seen back in the Grey Tatacoa desert. After a short hike through here we come to the petroglyphs. This was another artwork centuries old by the natives here that resembles animals of their beliefs, such as Snakes, eagles and thier tribal chiefs etc. the pics are difficult to see.
After this we leave and have a brief look around the sculptures that are carved out of this volcanic stone and is quite impressive.
Going back to Arequipa the rest of day and evening was uneventful save having to go out and buy a new pair of hiking boots as my Karrimoors have become the latest casualty of this mission. I pick up a good new pair for £44.
Tomorrow is the big push to Cusco and the heart of the old Incan Empire!
