[Peru] Day 6, Machu Picchu

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Gil Sousa

Peaceful night, at last! Some noise due the trains, but considering that the hostal is IN the train station I think that’s kind of expected, but even that didn’t disturbed me much. For the record, the hostal’s name is El Albergue and I recommend it! Really cool accommodation and certainly the best place to be when you need to wake up early to take a train to Machu Picchu :)

Starting the day really early, I think the train was around 6am, and my belly starting to give unpleasant signs…., first “discharge” of the day… But well, with some extra space, a proper breakfast was the best thing to fill the blank :D And with a special companion, a very cool cat that was all the time begging for fondling :D

And my belly again…, starting with a chemical war…, totally like rotten eggs… TMI? So wait for it… Time to board, a 2 hours long to Machu Picchu while my belly was urging to have full attention, once in a while I had to walk a bit far away from other people… seriously, not funny! The worst was when I had to go, again, to the toilet…, damn!!!!!! WHY IN THIS DAY??? Yeah! That’s right…, diarrhea!!! Machu Picchu day, the highlight of the whole trip, that day that all of us were looking forward…, and the day that my belly and ass decided to betray me!! You can’t imagine how I panic with that! WHY IN THIS DAY???

Train in Ollantaytambo

Train in Ollantaytambo

Ok…, relax…, maybe it was just another discharge, better now than later…, let’s go to the hostal, check in and leave our luggage there! Machu Picchu is waiting for us!!! Ah, wait…, I had to go to the toilet again!!!!! Oh, this was nasty…, and disgusting… I asked where the bathroom is, and they receptionist directed me to a room in the floor above, the bathroom window was to the hostal’s hall, but the floor above… And it started again! Sounds, smelly waves of not-so-fresh air…, and people laughing… What? Wait? What?? Tajana and Ramón could hear me like if they were next to me, even though they were in the hall (floor bellow), and when they talked I really thought they were next to me in the room! Ok, hopefully that won’t be our room… Then I looked to my side and…, no toilet paper! Can it get worst than that???

A few kilos lighter, perfect for a trekking day! We headed to the bus terminal to Machu Picchu Archeological Site! A side note, Machu Picchu Pueblo, former Aguas Callientes, doesn’t have cars, they way to reach the town is by train or trekking…, that’s why the train tickets should be booked months in advance, the buses just do the route Machu Picchu Pueblo <-> Archeological Site.

Road to Machu Picchu, view from Huayna Picchu

Road to Machu Picchu, view from Huayna Picchu

We had two options, walking up-mountain, or bus…, we decided that we didn’t want to get tired before the main highlight, so we went by bus,  a few minutes later we totally regretted it! The view is SOOOOOO amazing! And doing that by bus, so fast, it’s almost a sin! At least that was relaxing, after the moment we boarded into the bus and that I realized that I didn’t know where the Machu Picchu tickets were!!!!!! Seriously, I think I had several heart attacks during that morning! I found them, they were safe, and we did it!

The view from the bus to Machu Picchu

The view from the bus to Machu Picchu

M-A-C-H-U     P-I-C-C-H-U!!!!

I believe I wrote this before in another post, but in Peru they try to sell every single thing! It is really annoying! And guess what? A lot of guides trying to make us hire them for the day, or just a few hours! One of them even offered a “one hour guide tour” since we had the tickets to the Huayna Picchu part, we refused it, obviously.

Getting in to the Archeological Site, running across the ruins to the Huayna Picchu entrance and starting one of the three hardest hours of the whole trip! Another side note, Huayna Picchu is part of Machu Picchu archeological site, but they sell tickets apart to limit the quantity of people per day to the mountain. 400 a day and the last entrance is around 11am. The reason for this is obvious when you get there, it is a hard trekking, dangerous and slippery. Also, people might get lost there, or too tired that they even can’t return, therefore they close it at 1pm.

Part of the trail to the top

Part of the trail to the top

In my personal opinion, that was the highlight of the whole trip. Machu Picchu itself is amazing and worth to visit, but Huayna Picchu…., breathtaking! One of the most amazing views I had ever seen, after we did it we were tired like hell, but happier than ever! If you can, go to Huayna Picchu and prepare yourself for a very challenging trekking and equally rewarding one!

What I am going to write next might contradict what I wrote before, but we saw shoeless people, kids (who bring kids to such slippery place, with amazing scarps??) and even people with already some age, obviously in very good shape as well :) I lost the count of how many photos I took that day (but I’ll get to know the number as soon as I organize my aperture library), but it is really hard not to think about catching every single view and moment of that day!

View of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu

View of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu

We did it to the very top passing through a very small tunnel! And at the very top… BUGS! Damn bugs, I kind of freaked out with them and I really didn’t enjoy any moment there, I didn’t even took time to breath that view, so I run away to a few meters down…, and I was left alone! I waited…, I called them…, and no sign of Tajana and Ramón. Where were they? I had to climb those few meters that I run down again, and there they were! Enjoying their lunch and not caring at all if I was ok or not! Bastards!

Temple at the top of Huayna Picchu

Temple at the top of Huayna Picchu

The trekking has two paths, the “big one” through Wayna Picchu (the big mountain) and the other one smaller which I don’t remember nor I can find the name (after checking the photos, I found it, the name is Huchuy Picchu), Huayna Picchu is the name of both parts, I think. And Wayna Picchu itself also has two ways, the bigger one and the one just to and back from the top. We did the bigger one, to the Gran Caverna, if I can recall, they estimated 40 minutes to the cave from the top, and 1h20 from the cave to the exit…, and yes, it is pretty accurate! We thought not..

But to get there, we had to jump a fence that the security guy put there to avoid more people to go to the long path, he kind of argued with us but he lost all the arguments when we told him that we just saw him let other people pass…, we did it! 40 minutes walking down, and it is hard! Your legs literally start shaking and you barely can control them when you stop. Through that path, we even had to go over wooden stairs, and climb some as well, always down…, and we knew we were going lower than the exit way, which means… we had to climb again….

Entrance to the Gran Caverna

Entrance to the Gran Caverna

We did it to the Gran Caverna and we had to (re)start the climbing again…, we were really exhausted and kind of frustrated, we though we were in better shape…, and actually we were, just not for that altitude, which makes life way harder! We did it to the end, and within the estimated time. It was definitely my biggest challenge (and accomplishment) ever! 3 hours hiking/trekking at 2400m high and with diarrhea! I did it, and I finished it with clean underwear, if you know what I mean :x

Then a 45minute relax, eating cookies as a lunch, Ramón even took a nap! How great is that, on a 7 wonder? :D We walked around the ruins for a while, but both of them quit quite early, I stayed longer and I went to the very top, to take a photo to the most known perspective :) I walked alone for a while, trying to enjoy that 7 wonder…, but after Huayna Picchu it is really hard, I wish I had two days for Machu Picchu, I would enjoy it properly, nowadays it seems that it was just a dream and that I never been there…

Classic view of Machu Picchu

Classic view of Machu Picchu

The day was almost over, or at least our bodies were…, I actually left the site way before than I thought I would, I wished to see the sunset from there…, but yeah, it was really exhausting, one day wasn’t enough for the whole area :( Back to the main entrance to meet with Tajana and Ramón, and back to the town by bus, where Tajana met another american guy with another amazing story…

Llamas in Machu Picchu

Llamas in Machu Picchu

Arriving back to Machu Picchu Pueblo, I had to buy a tshirt, I miscounted the tshirts to take with me to Machu Picchu so I was one tshirt shorter…, well, I didn’t miscounted, I just thought I could reuse one…, like if after a trekking a tshirt would be usable again…, newbie…, after that the hot shower and a dinner out. Around 8pm we went back to sleep, we were all dead…

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[Peru] Day 5, Ollantaytambo

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Gil Sousa

Finally, an almost perfect night! We barely heard noise, which considering the previous days, it tasted like heaven! But…, and everything has a damn but, early americans complaining about the breakfast in a very american way, “A breakfast without eggs?? And who the fuck eats olives on breakfast??” Well.., heathy people eat olives, and healthy people don’t start the day with a colesterol bomb…, just saying…

As agreed with our taxi driver on the second day in Cusco, we had a planned and private tour scheduled for this day, we had to wake up early (actually the day before we decided to reschedule the tour to two hours earlier because we really wanted to enjoy Ollantaytambo) and we had our taxi driver / tour guy waiting for us! He wasn’t our tour guy though, but he organized everything.

Packing everything into the “taxi” luggage (in Peru every car can be a taxi…, how delightful), and heading to our first stop which was Moray. That’s a known place, but I believe it isn’t that touristic yet, it wasn’t an easy way to get there, and not everyone hates their car like our driver…, the guy really didn’t care much about the holes on the street, nor how fast he was driving in a dirt road…, well…

It is starting to be repetitive, but all the landscapes are really breathtaking! Everything is so amazing that it is so hard to capture those moments and views with any camera, even worst when you have a cheap camera like I did… I don’t believe photos can describe what my eyes saw, just being there! Which is also a pity, is that it is already possible to see the destructive effects of tourism :(

Moray

Moray

Moray is a very interesting place, and the best is that very few people were there, and when I say very few I mean to say less than 20! And it is priceless when you can enjoy a site without having to run for the next stop, nor having to wait for other people if you get tired! Excursions like the day before…, please…, don’t… Ah…, wait…, we had more after that :(

After Moray, we went to Maras’ Salt Pounds, yeah the view is always great, yeah you also can see Salt Pounds in Europe…, but not pre-Inka Salt Pounds! Damn, those guys were really advanced! It is such a pity that the Spaniards (and the Portuguese :( ) destroyed part of those wonders :(

Maras

Maras

Just to remind, that the roads to reach these two places are really in bad shape, but I am sooo glad we did that! After that we head straight to Ollantaytambo, and I was really eager for that place! The day before we skip the archeological site, this day was the day!

We left our stuff at the hostal, unfortunately Tajana had to stay there…, the altitude sickness was starting to give the first serious signs…, and I and Ramón went for a late lunch, and what a lunch… I don’t recommend that place to eat! I just asked for some thing light, a salad, and after a lot of time we were served…, and I had the wrong salad. I don’t like to be picky, but it had happend before with me several times and I was not in the mood to get the wrong dish this time. I sent it back, and I asked what I have ordered…, but the guy didn’t trust me and went back to double check with the other waiter if I really had order what I claimed. Seriously??? Guess what? The second salad was similar to what I’ve ordered, but not exactly what was in the menu and that I was paying for. Ok, no more bitchy mode, I just ate. When we were paying, Ramón realized that he also didn’t get what was in the menu!! Nice view, bad service! I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but it in the train station road by the river!

Day of light rain, cloudy sky awful for nice blue-sky photos…, but not that bad that it could end :P We went to the top of the ruins, and again, I was soooo glad we skip that part of the tour the day before! I lost the track of time, but we enjoyed it twice or more the time the tour guide gave to the group to explore that site!

Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo

During the walk, what I thought it was the food taking effect, now that I am writing this I know that was already the altitude sickness. I have a small note book where I write some topics about the day to help me write my blog post, and I wrote that the food was taking effect, needless to say what I am referring to, right? :) During the following days I noticed that it was really the altitude and travel sickness…, this was the first sign :(

It was time for a snack / dinner at the Hearts Café where we met with Tajana again…, but we forgot about the time-detail on women perspective…, we had to WAIT! :P (and she’ll kill me for this one :D ) Yeah, that’s really a cool and cozy place, totally worths the visit :) On what concerns my sunburn…, oh gosh, that hurt a lot! I had to buy suncream for the following days, and a cream for the sunburn. What half an hour can do to one…

This was the 5th day in South America, we had very tiring days and the jetlag forced us to go to bed earlier than normal. Now that we (or at least me) were starting to get into the timezone, we were forced to go to bed way early, the next day was THE day! Waking up isn’t a problem when you know you’ll have the time of your life!

 

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[Peru] Day 4, Cusco and Sacred Valley

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Gil Sousa

Isn’t getting easier…, during the dawn (4am) I had to knock my neighbors door and ask them to shut the fuck up! First in spanish, they didn’t understand which I thought it was due my Portuñol but according to Ramón it was ok, and then in English. Damn Argentinien people! We got rid of the Brazilians, then the Argentiniens… Despite that, I had a better night of sleep. Well, I really recommend that hostal to spend a few nights, but definitely avoid the rooms near the breakfast area! Casa Grande, and read the feedbacks, it’s always important to read them and judge by yourself through them. My personal opinion is that it was good enough for the price we paid for, I would rate a 3 out of 5 stars.

Tranvia de Cusco

Tranvia de Cusco

We had to wake up early due the excursion we had booked for the Sacred Valley, it is impossible to compare this guide with the one we had the day before, this one was just really bad and without facial expression! We had to say it is a joke after his jokes, even when we told them in his native language… How bad is that???

The general feedback about these excursions is that we went to places that otherwise we wouldn’t go, mostly because of lack of knowledge about the places. All of them totally worth the visit, but not running like we did AGAIN. This guy was so terrible that he menaced us, the tourists, that he would leave us behind in case we arrive late. Well, it wasn’t nice, but everyone was on time… Did I already mention how bad the guy is?

The first stop is what I call the total dispensable highlight, it was clearly a stop to get money from the tourists. A market, in the middle of nowhere, and famous for something that I really didn’t care much about. The 15-20 minutes we spend there, we could use way better at any other of the stops. Well, at least I took some photos to llamas and to the landscape, which is always stunning in Peru!

Llama

Llama

Then we went to Pisac, the town, another stop for shopping but interesting one. Apparently that’s the Silver city/town of the Sacred Valley or even Peru, I can’t reckon the details now. The market is pretty cool, as the town itself, again…, a pity that we had very few time to enjoy it. After that was the archeological site, and that’s when I started to be really pissed of! We had half an hour for a site that requires at least 1 hour! We didn’t have even time to go to the ruins itself! As I said before, otherwise we wouldn’t go there anyway, but it was the kind of excursions that I really hate and that I barely can enjoy, having to run to “enjoy” the very few minutes I have is not properly my definition of having fun… Ah, and this was also the place where I and Tajana got the first sun-burn…, only on the left side, since we were hiking in the mountain, and it was just for half an hour! The sun burn was pretty ugly though, the following days I had to put cream on it, I think I never had such a painful sun burn in such short period of time!

Pisac

Pisac

Then time for some lunch, a big self-service feast, where I ate like an animal! Well, here I don’t have much to talk about, just that we ate a lot :D After that was time for one, if not the one, favorite places I have visited in Peru! Ollantaytambo! However…, we skipped it :)  Why? Because the three of us were more than pissed of with the tour, with the guide and with the very short time we had to enjoy the sightseeing places, and since we had to go to Ollantaytambo the day after we decided to postpone the archeological site for the next day as well. We had the Cusco ticket, why waste it on a flash tour when we could enjoy it on our way? What have we done? We booked the hostal for the next night, in Ollantaytambo, and we went to the Hearts Café, more than a café though :) Worth reading the linked page for more information! A very cosy place, good food and good mate de Coca :) I will leave the photo regarding Ollantaytambo site for the next post, now just one of what happens when it rains there :)

Raining in Ollantaytambo

Raining in Ollantaytambo

We thought we got delayed and when we returned to the meeting point…, no one there! Oh gosh, did we just miss the excursion? Now what??? Oh, wait, that guy was in the bus with us…, and that one…! We are safe! We almost called a taxi to take us back to Cusco, but I am glad we didn’t, the next stop was the best of the whole excursion, in my opinion obviously.

Chinchero, 3,732m above the sea level! A very beautiful and cozy town, where we learned how to dye alpaca wool! I sooo regret not filming that, was really amazing to see in a slice of seconds wool to change from white to orange, purple, red and yellow! They use/used (probably they don’t use the artesanal way anymore) cactus bugs to dye wool! From all the photos I took there, the one I choose to post here is from that same workshop he had, imagine how impressed I wasn’t with that! Also, it was there were I bought an alpaca blanket for myself :D

Dyeing alpaca wool

Dyeing alpaca wool

Tired like hell, all of us, and back to Cusco! I think I slept the whole trip back to the city, probably more than one hour :X But still willing to enjoy the few hours left we had in Cusco, therefore after the arrival we went for a walk where I took some time for myself and photo-shooting in Cusco at night. Not much time alone…, but enough for a few photos (which I am looking into them now and check if the time worth anything :P ) And time for a nice dinner at the Plaza de Armas, before going to bed :)

Kid in Cusco

Kid in Cusco

Some kids approached me asking me to take some photos of them, at night and kids moving was a funny challenge, I wasn’t expecting any good result from that and the kid got “blurred”, but I like the effect of it anyway :) Not a good photo, but funny for me :)

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[Peru] Day 3, Cusco and surroundings

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Gil Sousa

Arrrrgggg, it is SOOO annoying when you wake up with other people making noise! What a huge lack of respect towards other people, brazilian people having breakfast and being really loud, the people in the next room with an alarm beeping every 10 minutes, during more than one hour. What an awful way to start a day!

Breakfast, not so loud, and then going straight to buy the Cusco Tourist Ticket, buying some souvenirs and another walk through the city center, mostly around Plaza de Armas, and then a very NOT relaxing lunch before the excursion! Damn, we really had to eat fast because we didn’t go earlier to the restaurant…, I think we ate a pasta dish in around 10 minutes, that was bad :( But worst was gathering the people that joined that excursion, that was disorganization :D Even some people were missing, and waiting some time for the bus, etc…, some waiting time that we could have used for a more relaxing lunch :X

The first stop, was still in Cusco, for the three of us was the Museum of the Temple of the Qoricancha while the rest of the group went to Convent of Santo Domingo which we had to pay a fee to get in…, well, we didn’t care that much about churches so we used our free time for the Museum, which was quite interesting!

The second stop (now it will be harder to say if if was the second or the third, but I’ll try to mention all of them) was the Archaeological Park of Sacsayhuaman, or how some tourists say (according to the guide), Sexy Woman…, this is probably one of the most important archeological site for the peruvians, its history is amazing and shocking, imagine what the conquerors didn’t do there… Despite the high altitude, 3701 meters, I am still in shape to run, due the limited time we had to enjoy the place, and visit the other side of the archeological site :D The same I can’t say about my fellow travelers, cof cof :P Age is catching up with them :D And then…, the first of many choclos…, no more corn…, please…, the put corn in everything, apparently they have around 500 different species of corn just in the Sacred Valley…

Sacsayhuaman

Sacsayhuaman

The stop after that was Tambomachay (the order of my photos is helping to find which were the stops :D ), again we didn’t spend that much time there. We heard an explanation about the place, at least the guide was really fun and clear with his explanations, but we didn’t have enough time to enjoy none of the places where we have been.

Tambomachay

Tambomachay

Then another short stop in Puca Pucara, the Red Fort. We had ticket for this place, but no one was there to control it…

Puca Pucara

Puca Pucara

After Puca Pucara, the stop before the last one, Qenko. This place was quite interesting, if I am not mistaken, there are several theories about that place, one as a mortuary place and another one as a surgery room. Apparently, the Inkas were quite advanced regarding curative technology. This room is placed under a massive rock, with a path in S through that same rock. We went there already at nightfall, therefore the light wasn’t the best and the place at that time seems quite scary.

Qenko

Qenko

And after that, we went to a Alpaca factory,  obviously the main intent was to sell, but there we learn how to differentiate between Alpaca, Alpaca baby and synthetic fiber. The best part was when we left the place, where a kid was selling postcards… with our photo!!! The guy took a photo of us at the first stop, still in Cusco, and he tries to sell us a postcard at the last stop! Damn, they really try to sell everything!

Then back to Cusco, time for dinner at a pizzeria (very tradicional :P ) where we ate Ceviche! This is very tradicional, and can be really delicious! The best ones I had was next to the beach, but that’s a story for another post :D At that restaurant, the best was definitely the dessert! Oh gosh, we really considered going there again just for the dessert! Was really good! After an amazing ending, back to the hostel and sleep, a little bit later than the two days before…, at 10pm :P

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[Peru] Day 2, Cusco

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Gil Sousa

Time for wake up, early according to Peruvian time, normal time according to our brains…, packing the very few stuff we had unpacked, leaving stuff behind that we didn’t need (not my case, but some old trainers were left behind by someone not me :P ).

Arriving in Cusco, the first altitude effects…, seriously, this isn’t bullshit nor a myth, it is something real! The moment I left the plane I felt dizzy, difficulty to breath and I start panic out…, I never felt like that, and the biggest problem was that I knew I couldn’t control it. Panic! Well, but we had to do our stuff, and arriving in Cusco without a hostal booked, nor anything planned we had to do something. We catch the first taxi that seemed to be safe enough, at the airport only official taxis can park so it isn’t that hard to get a safe taxi. And sometimes, that also has its advantages, in our case the taxi driver was a tourist organizer or something alike. Apparently this isn’t that strange, our taxi driver in Lima had also deals for tourists and planned excursions.

Well, according to Tajana’s book, which I totally recommend - Frommer’s -, we asked the taxi driver to go to some hostal, but according to him we had to walk a little bit uphill because cars can’t go to that road, so he recommended another hostal. Obviously… He also helped us with several organized excursions, which we accepted. No plans for Cusco, so now we have several! We won with that, he obviously won with that, a lot… And it was in between talks about tours and excursions that we had our first Mate de Coca! Naturally sweet and tasty! I like it quite a lot :)

Rainy Cusco

Rainy Cusco

According to the taxi driver, the books, the several articles I read, the testimonials on traveler’s websites, etc, we should rest the first day in Cusco to let our body adapt to the altitude, and obviously we did that…, or maybe not…, we really walked a lot to find where we should go in the next day to buy the sightseeing joint ticked for Cusco and surroundings. We had a light lunch, just soup with Pisco Sour as a starter, on a very nice restaurant which we also had dinner in that same day…, mostly because the city was infested of American teenagers and it was harder to find a quiet place. That one was good for lunch, and even better for dinner!

After dinner…, bed time! Such babies, going to bed around 9pm…, and I wish I had a baby-night as well, but the noise during the dawn was fucking unbelievable! Brazilian motards being really loud since 5am or so next to the breakfast area, which was also next to our bedrooms… Also, that night was a little bit cold, at least for me…

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[Peru] Day 0 and 1, Getting there

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Gil Sousa

I take a while to write…, but I do it :) I’ll describe every single day, and to avoid really long posts, I’ll try to avoid to write in the same post the events of more than one day. And starting with exceptions…, Day 0 and Day 1!

Going to Dublin, after the several days I took to pack, I had to unpack hours before boarding…, the train! I was overpacked, a tshirt per day, extra-shorts (????), pants for sleeping (wtf?? why not just underwear??) and probably more stuff that I left behind. I don’t remember how much, but it was a considerable amount of stuff… Then, meeting with Tajana at the train station and heading to Dublin, with a huge anxiety visible not only by my face, but also through my fingers, which I nibbled almost until bleeding…

Arriving in Dublin, the first night, a night in blank with Pedro, a friend of mine living in Dublin. Soft night, obviously I didn’t want to repeat the experience I had in Wroclaw…, then airport!

Oh gosh, not sleeping and having to wait at an airport is pure pain, I was hopping a quiet next 16 hours to Lima, and hopping that the night in blank could be recovered on flight…, not really…, starting with a very slow check-in… Air France is a nice company to flight with, but a not so nice to deal with, the hosters at the check-in area were REALLY slow and annoying! After several minutes, she said she couldn’t check us in for the second flight, that we had to do it in Paris… considering that we only had one hour for flight transfer…, guess what? And I should not forget to mention the tiny aircraft that took us to Paris…

Different terminal, taking a bus, having to do another check-in, another queue, almost boarding, pre-vacations stress! Niceeeee! And the cherry was that due to the check-in problem, we had a 12 hours flight from Paris to Lima totally apart from each others! Isn’t this great? :D Thank you Air France, for the amazing service with transfer flights from partner companies!

Regarding the second flight, my first trans-oceanic flight, I had a great sit! Ramón as well…, Tajana not really. But still, the aircraft was very comfortable and with a lot of entertainment for the 12 hours we spent inside it. The headphones weren’t good, I had to use the Apple ones instead, but we had several movies, games, tvshows, music, etc at the distance of a simple touch, with individual touch-LCDs. I can’t complain about that, nor the food, if I am not mistaken, we had a main meal and two snacks, plus the “self-service” snacks and the huge amount of free Häagen-Dazs I ate during that flight! Yeah, it was an easy 12 hours flight :D

Arriving in Lima, what a difference! Coming from Winter and arriving in Summer, the reddish sky, the heat, the dust, being 5pm but almost night, in Summer? They don’t have a DST timezone…, pity :( And no money! All the ATM machines at the airport were without soles, a not so pleasant experience…, but well, everything can be solved! A side-note, it was the first time I arrived at an airport and I had a taxi driver waiting for us :D Pity it wasn’t my name, but well, it was a funny and snobbish situation. And very handy!

School Bus in Lima

School Bus in Lima

Going to the hostal, and getting “robbed” for the first time. I only realized how expensive was the taxi when we came back to that hostal in the last days…, but I’ll write about that later. Yeah, the taxi was expensive (for Peruvian standards)! We did the check-in, at the hostal, then a short walk through the neighborhood, I was quite afraid about the possibility of being robbed at night that I left the camera at the bedroom, but I totally regret that a few minutes later :(

Not long after we went for that walk, we came back to the hostal, after all it was around “1.30am” on our heads, while in Peru was just 8.30pm…, going to sleep, because the next day we had to fly again…

Regarding the hostal, it was REALLY warm! I slept without sheets and with the window widely open, and that didn’t make me feel unsafe, almost all the houses around have a sharp metallic grid around the yards or the houses themselves for protection. The neighborhood seemed safe, but seeing that everywhere…, I don’t know… Our bathroom was really small, to shit I had to widely open my legs, or sit perpendicularly to the toilet…, and the shower…, that wasn’t a shower, that was a hole through where some drops of water fall. Yeah, it was bad and we returned there…, my stupid idea! I still can’t forgive myself for that, how could I forget how bad that hostal is???

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To my upstairs neighbors!

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Gil Sousa

The ones that woke me up today at 7.30! :)

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Christmas Season

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Gil Sousa

Well, today’s 25th of January, so it seems as a good day to write a post about a week that happened exactly one month ago. I am delayed…, but not that much :)

Nothing much to tell about the Christmas Season as the compulsive spending season, but a little bit about what happend during that period. First, I moved to my new place! Hurray, now I live alone and I have a flat just for myself…, to clean :( I got this flat in beginning of December, and I moved quite slowly, and a lot of junk to carry! Seriously, I really don’t understand how can one gather that much junk in just six month!! Well, my last day at my “old” (not so old) place was the 22th, the next day (and night) was already at the new flat…, no internet (by then), nothing organized…, a strange place that now I call home :)

The 24th, my departure to Portugal. I had this flight booked since August, I wasn’t supposed to stay longer in Ireland, but good things happen and I was invited to renew my contract! But well, the flight was booked in a very erroneous way…, I don’t consider myself as a travel newbie, but sometimes I really do stupid decisions and this was a big pack of stupid decisions!

  • Booked flight to December 24th (probably one of the most chaotic days to travel)
  • Exchanging flight in London (probably one of the most chaotic airport in Europe…)
  • Through British Airways (the guys that like to do strikes during holiday seasons)
  • Returning flight for January 1st (I really don’t know where I had my head on when I booked this one)

Every single variable was enough for something to go wrong…, it didn’t :)

London airport (Heathrow) is HUGE! I heard about it, but it was my first time there…, I even got lost in the lounge, and I believe that wasn’t the biggest one at that airport… After ensuring that all my luggage was properly transfered to the second flight, I board glad that at least the presents would be delivered to the kids :D Santa’s in the house :D

Once in Portugal, after a full day trip and totally exhausted, the Christmas dinner…, well, that was one of the main reasons why I flew to Portugal :D Perfect, warm and loud (kids) :D

The following days were also quite chaotic, in between the new passport that I had to create and the friends that were asking to meet with me, I barely had time for my family…, one week is really short! But I managed to meet with almost everyone, I spend some time with my nephews and other family, I finally have my passport :D And I had 2 dinners with friends! Perfect, short in time but everything went as scheduled :)

The way back wasn’t that smoothly, but still as planned. I never saw Lisbon’s airport SOOOO FULL! When I saw the queue to the securities I thought it was just some pre-checking, that queue couldn’t be the queue to the securities… It just couldn’t! But it was! First of January, the worst day ever to travel! The airport was totally packed, I spend around one hour on that queue (thankfully I arrived quite early at the airport as well)! Damn, I was really surprised! Even passing through the security was a drama, the couple just before me had a baby…, oh damn, the mother had to taste all the baby-food, they had to disassemble the whole baby-trolly…, and I was there…, waiting for my turn! I arrived at the gate just when it open for boarding!

After that, was Dublin! Another post to write :)

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The countdown has started!

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Gil Sousa

Almost there!

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2011 Review and 2012 Goals

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Gil Sousa

Last year I wrote the 2010 review and 2011 goals, which turned out to be surprisingly good therefore I’ll do again this year and see what happens.

Unpacking for 2012

Some highlights about 2010:

I’ll keep this goal, to go abroad, but now with a slight difference I won’t make such a big deal of it.

Considering that I am now working in Ireland, I can tell this goal was successfully achieved! The best part is that I really didn’t make a big deal of it, it was almost by chance. I tried unsuccessfully several times to get a job on another company abroad and at some point it was more important to me just change my job, when I gave up with the “abroad” idea this chance appeared and I didn’t let it go, again :)

Another thing that I want to change is my blog’s name, but for that I need that something changes in my life, something worthy.

Look Left looks like a name’s change :) And I guess I can say that something really changed in my life! :)

I need to do something meaningful with my life such as volunteership and helping those that really need it!

Not yet…, but I was part of the Movember Team, I believe that’s a start :) And I just realized that I never wrote about that…, shame on me! I should do that ASAP!

My goal for this year is getting a way of self-sustain and invest sometime to learn something that I can earn money working at home and anywhere, this doesn’t mean that I will quite my job but that I want to get a Plan B.

I totally failed with this one…, postponing it to 2012!

I will keep writing in English

Mission accomplished! This one was easy, and I believe I improved my English quite a lot this this “joke” :)

My feeling about 2011, before I (re)read the 2010 review and 2011 goals’ post, was that half of my year was again a total disaster…, but now I think that the whole year was a huge success! Every single step I did was in the same direction, even if I didn’t realize it by then, quoting Steve Jobs:

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

And I am already feeling like it!

A more deep review about 2011, despite the pre-set goals, 2011 was really another big year like all my latest years. In January I started actively searching for a new job, and because of that I gave up of some opportunities I had, it took me several months to get it maybe because of the crisis, maybe because of my lack of experience, maybe because of my CV. I don’t really know. Normally this kind of things leads to frustration, and at some point I lowered my goals and I decided  to”just move”.

May was the month that everything changed, and I say quite often that if someone told me in May that I would go to Peru in less than a year I would think that person was crazy or just trying to upset me…, and now I am preparing a trip to Peru in less than two months!

10th June, Portugal’s day and the day I left Portugal again! New country, still in Europe. The fourth country I lived in in less than 5 years! I am still amazed by how much my life changed, and eager to keep doing it! I’m only sorry for not starting this life earlier, because I am really loving being me just right now!

I miss my nephews’ birthdays, but as a present I brought them to Ireland, their first flight trip! Well, both are too young and they might forget about it soon…, but I was with them for at least a few days and that’s the more important thing.

In October one of the most important person of my life passed away, after almost three months it’s still hard for me to accept it…, but life’s goes on.

I am back in Portugal now, for Xmas and NYE, returning to Ireland today! Again, looking back I can say the year was a blast again! Some very bad things, some really good, but in general the good ones were the majority.

About 2012, I still want to learn or do something that pay me the bills, or at least let me travel and pay for my travel addictions. It’s easy to say “freelancing”, but harder to do it. I love my current job, and now that I have more free time I should invest it in other ways rather than pubs :)

About the volunteering, I won’t do it in 2012 for sure, probably small projects or campaigns like the Movember one. Volunteering is still a life goal, but I am sure that I won’t be able to do it properly in 2012, I want to take 4 or 5 months off for that and since I just got a new job that I really like, I’ll postpone it a while. Probably I’ll do it in 2013, who knows?

Learning Spanish! I don’t know why I never did this before in a very serious way! I know some Portuñol, I have the advantage that the Portuguese grammar and vocabulary are really quite similar with the Spanish one, and with a good level of Spanish I’ll have almost half of the world as a easy “target” to conquer!

World Map

Travel! That’s not a goal, it’s rather a lifestyle :) Until now I only have one big trip planned, to Peru, but I am looking forward for bigger days in Ireland because I want to explore deeper that country. I don’t believe I’ll do another big trip in 2012, maybe to Greece with my parents (if I manage to convince them…), but nothing more than that. But well…, already thinking about 2013 :D Planing travels is really addictive :D

Sports, I need to do more sports…, I started with the gym a few months ago, but I’d rather do more outdoors. After March I might apply to kayak lessons, and keep doing hiking. I’ll try to organize one or two hiking trips, Ireland is quite nice for that.

And I think that’s enough for goals, few but possible to achieve! Everything else is bonus :)

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