Jakey Jake

We setup shop at hotel banderantes in copocabana right near the main street, that was to be home for the next week. The first night we all went to the bar on the corner for a few drinks before we decided where we would go out to. After a lot of toing and froing I decided just to jump a cab and see where the night would take us. Lo and behold there were 2 HOT girls in the cab and they didn’t mind the 3 of us jumping in with them. They were very friendly and we thought that Rio was going to be awesome… we arrived at a club called shakra or something and it was then that the cab driver told us that the girls were actually prostitutes, so we got away from them ASAP. The club was rocking too and the girls were also very friendly, the reason???? That’s right they were hookers…. CRAP, aren’t there any normal girls in this town????? So we went home tired and sorry…. The next day we went on an excursion around rio. We took the cable car up to sugarloaf which had an incredible view over copocabana beach and ipanema beach. Though I hate heights I was gald to have made the trip up there. We couldn’t see Christ the redeemer because it was covered with clouds. That was our next stop, so we headed over to the redeemer and caught the train up the mountain. The statue was still covered in cloud and we could only make out his feet from 10m away. But occasionally the cloud cover broke and we had an even better view of rio than from sugarloaf. It was awesome. That night I decided to have a quiet one, which escalated to a big one (as usual) and we ended up at a little disco around the corner where I met up with some of the gang from the other group. I ended up staying there all night as luke and I met some really nice locals, although we couldn’t speak a word of each others language. The next day we hung out at the beach, copocabana is quite a dirty beach, and I couldn’t manage to get that stupid song out of my head!!!! There are all these locals traipsing up and down the beach saying “agua, coca, cerveja” and selling all kinds of things from rings, henna tats, sarongs and even hammocks???? The girls really liked to show off their butts, g string bikinis were the norm although there wasn’t any topless bathing as it is against the law. Anyway the next night we went to an all you can eat place before going to see a salsa show in ipanema which was awesome, the dancers were unbelievable and the capoera dancers were the best, they were so athletic. We had the sad news that Graham was leaving to go to Antarctica the next day and he wasn’t going to be around for carnival So we went out, and I don’t really recall much other than jumping the counter of a mc donalds and trying to show the workers how to make a burger and almost getting in a fight with a bunch of people there because someone was trying to have a go at graham….. pretty crazy night!!! Adam was arriving from Sydney so we weren’t going to do much. I went to pick him up from the airport. It was great to see him again, although there wasn’t much time for niceties as the others were waiting for us to go out. Anyway we went to some classy bar and danced for a while, the Doc was showing his moves and talking up a storm with the ladies, as usual. Somehow we ended up at a nightclub called help. There is absolutely no other club in the world like it (and ive been to my fair share) Think of a nightclub full of hookers dressed in next to nothing…. If that’s what youre into then this is your place. The next night was Carnaval night!!!! We chilled out the whole day. Anyway Ange, Tanya, Bec, John, Adam, The, Annie and I all went. It started off slowly, nothing was happening until the sun went down. Suddenly the fireworks went off and the strobe lights were going crazy. The locals were going mad and suddenly thousands of people in incredible costumes and a massive intricate float turned the corner and started to samba all the way down the sambadrome (which looked like a glorified version of a drag strip. It was an incredible experience, the music, the dancing, the people…. I haven’t been to anything like it!!!! You have to go once!!!! I can’t really write about it, you can have a look at the pictures J The next few nights we went in search of the street parties, and we found them!!! Luke had been raving about them and I have to say they were pretty kewl. Spontaneous break outs of partying on the streets. It was awesome fun, especially the ones around ipanema beach which was soooooo much nicer than copocabana beach. We spent the next few days partying and sunning it up on the beach. It was great. Then everyone had to leave and adam and I decided to head up to Salvador as we heard it was supposed to be great up there.

Next stop was honey island where we caught a 3 hour boat to a little island where I tried my hand at net fishing, and I actually managed to catch a few J thanks to the help of a cute local J We arrived at honey island in the afternoon, it’s a small island where there are no roads, a lot of brasilians choose to holiday here, though im not sure why. The surf was crappy and the parties were pretty abysmal. Though the announcement of the engagement of garth and ?? (sorry im writing this about 4 months later and im terrible at remembering names) was a good excuse for some drinks. After waking up with the hangover from hell we hopped the boat again and headed for the mainland, this time we were off to Rio de Janeiro . That’s where things went wild!!! TIME FOR CARNAVAL!!!!!!!

After the overnight bus it was pouring down rain and we had to walk out a long way to reach the hotel absolutely soaked but we arrived at the hotel and stuffed around for a while. All the activities that were planned we were unable to do so we ended up at a little bar where we ate and drank. We didn’t do a heck of a lot there the first day but we were told that there was going to be a party that night after dinner.. I decided to have an easy night and went to bed early that was working fine John and Graham at about 7:00 AM after they had a big night at and they said there was a barbecue around the corner with all these really cool people and made me get up and go with them . The party was awesome and the people were really cool and there were lots of pretty girls so I stayed til late afternoon. We were walking around late at night looking for something to do and some of the dodgy locals started to follow us. We were at the bar for an hour or two trying to get rid of about 4 of them and we thought we had shaken them but on our walk home about 10 of them came from nowhere and followed us back to the hotel, where they ran amok and created havoc going into peoples rooms and breaking things. In the morning our tour leader came in and told us off for bringing them back, so I went ballistic and let her have it.

Next stop Iquacu falls. The other main touristy thing in south America. 13 hours on the small bus and we were all ready to kill each other. Some of us decided to go out, even though we were buggered. We hit the best club in Foz under a hotel which had swipe cards for buying drinks, which is a very dangerous thing. Anyway the Doc managed to get the 8 of us in before the 200 odd lined up locals, sometimes its good being a gringo J We danced the night away and had a great time, met a bunch of locals, and didn’t manage to sleep before we went to Iguacu . I took a helicopter ride over the falls which was awesome as I had never been in a helicopter. The view was amazing. Then we walked around the brazilian side of the falls which was utterly spectacular, I have to say that theyre more awesome than vic falls in Zimbabwe . The others wanted to go to the argentinian side but I was utterly exhausted and decided to go back to the hotel for a sleep. Next stop was the atlantic rainforest.

After a relaxing night of swimming in the pool, feasting and singing karaoke we were off to our little resort in pantanal. It was also full of those god damn mosquitos, and im prime mozzie food which sucks. So we caught a boat and went for a cruise around the pantanal and saw some alligators and some other wildlife. Graham managed to step on an alligator!!!! The next day I decided to take it easy and do some work while the others went on a walking tour. The morning we left we went pirahana fishing which was pretty fun and I managed to bag myself a little one J should see the teeth on those things. After a long drive on a dirt road in a tiny bus we made it to Bonito. A little town with lots of adventure sports, like white water rafting, sky diving, ra ra. Anyway it was hot so we went to a little river where everyone goes to swim, it was sort of like a natural calypso beach(at sea world in queensland ) except that this one was full of massive fish which was gross to swim with, although they made good hamburgers there. That night we went out for dinner and went to a little bar where you could write your name on the wall, which we all did. The next day I did a fair amount of coding while the others went doing EXTREEM sports

It was quite nice in sucre, although there wasn’t all that much to see so I basically spent the time in our hotel room watching FTV (which is captivating even if you cant understand Spanish). I also had to help adam out as our hed used up all the bandwidth for his new site and it was taken down, which was a real pain. Anyway time came for us to leave, we were to fly by plane to santa cruz , but there were protests at the airport, and as usual the first people they would attack would be tourists, so we delayed the flight until everything was ok. We were hanging around the hotel watching FTV when suddenly all these hot girls started walking up and down outside our room, they were preparing for a modeling gig at the hotel…. What a bonus. Anyway we got the OK for the flight to santa cruz and off we went. We arrived in santa cruz late in the afternnon and caught a small bus to the city via a back dirt road so as to avoid the protesters. We made it to our hotel safe and sound, santa cruz , from what I saw of it, seemed like a pretty kewl town, although we weren’t there long enough to have a good look around. We all went out for dinner at a nice little restaurant and from there we went to a little salsa bar which was great fun, especially as I had had enough courage drinks to bust a move or two on the dance floor. Suddenly this African guy came out with some rhythm sticks and everyone lined up behind him and for about 6 songs we all followed his moves, it was awesome. After that some crazy stuff happened and I decided it was time to go home. The next morning we caught a plane to the pantanal, supposedly the most rich ecosystem in south America, even more than the amazon. Before we went to the pantanal we stopped at a little place on the border of Bolivia and Brazil and stayed in a nice little 5 star hotel, which was great with nice big king size beds, unfortunately there was also a hell of a lot of mosquitos, damn pesky things!!!!

Next stop was portosi where the silver mines that the Spaniards wanted so much to conquer and did. It was this main mine that bought so much wealth to both Bolivia and spain . We did a tour of their old minting branch which was pretty damn interesting. It was still in use until the mid 20 th century, some of those that made the coins used to throw some of them out the window so those in the streets could have some money. After Portosi we were off to Sucre , which was our guides home town.

I was eager to get to Bolivia the next day. This journey was by bus from Puno to La Paz , and we managed to get a flat. A lot of the people decided to walk, but me being the lazy person I am decided to sit in the sun and wait, good move on my part as we arrived about 10 minutes before the others got to the boat crossing. We arrived in La Paz at about 6pm, a good 2 hours behind schedule, from the mountain looking down onto the valley where the city was located was fairly spectacular. We checked into a relatively nice hotel, and the first thing on telly was secret life of us, slight pangs of homesickness were quickly offset by the first beer. The following day we went for a walk around, did a few sightseeing things and went to the san pedro prison, made famous by a Melbourne uni law undergrad who spent some time in there living with a family. He never committed any crimes but was intrigued by the way the prison was run. Inmates would have to buy or rent their cells, often having their entire families coming to live in the cell with them. The tour was led by a sweedish guy named jonas who was in for trying to smuggle out a kilo of coke, a deal went down between two guys who were standing on the roof. One threw a bag of coke that was almost a big fist in size, and we were informed that we could buy a kilo for 100usd and it would be here in half an hour. Wasn’t really feeling like making a drug deal inside prison Another highlight of La Paz was the witches market in which things like llama fetuses, snake skins, dead frogs etc. Were up for grabs, going at very cheap rates too, you just needed to buy a spell book which was also for sale. La Paz for me was relatively dull.

 We spent another 2 nights in Cusco and it was a bit of a party, and a relief that it was all over. After our time there we were off to puno which is where lake Titicaca is. Puno itself had little to offer although we had a pretty good time going out. We set out for our overnight stay with a local family so we could get an authentic taste for the Peruvian way of life. Im one of those people that doesn’t like to live without my luxuries such as lights and electricity. It was a three hour boat ride, listening to Roxette in Spanish and playing arsehole, needless to say I was bored out of my brains. The rest of our stay there was spent smiling at the locals, although we played a game of soccer it was freezing and all I could think about was getting the hell off the island. I tried sleeping all afternoon which was mildly successful but I was woken by our friendly host dad with ponchos and an invitation to a party, when I declined, he stared at me like I had just raped his wife and killed his children, needless to say I went. Problem 1) my poncho smelt like it was soaked in urine and then left out in the sun. Problem 2) I refused to do stupid dancing with my host mum. I don’t think I left the most amiable impression, but who cares, I was so happy to leave the next morning. Another 3 hour boat cruise with Spanish roxette, broken by a 2 hour stop on the floating reed villages, we emerged on the mainland.

Anyway after a few days of just bumming around on my own, not feeling all that social, I decided to mingle a bit, on the plane I started getting a bit more chatty and spoke to Kelly from the other group (the other group had younger people in it and was doing exactly the same trip) Anyway we got to Cusco and the first night we decided to go out, mamma Africa’s was the bar and boy oh boy did we have a big night. Johnny, Ange and I were up all night dancing and drinking, it was great. We all got home at 6am and I didn’t get to sleep as we had the Cusco city tour. I have no idea how I made it through the day but somehow I made it. And it was off to bed early that night as we were doing the 4 day Machu Picchu trek. The first day was fairly easy, although the altitude meant it was more difficult to breathe, anyway we got to about 3200m and setup camp. We had a pretty quiet evening, however sometime in the middle of the night we were all woken by the sound of 5 people vomiting very noisily from altitude sickness. poor buggers. so after a fairly sleepless night we awoke at 6 to get going early…. 3 from the group turned back. Day 2 is by far the hardest of the days. It certainly didn’t help that I had a stomach bug and i had to stop every 20 minutes or so. i think day 2 was about 30km long with a 1km vertical rise. Once i finally made it to the top of dead woman’s pass I wanted to die. in all seriousness, i felt like death and i had about 2 more hours to reach camp. It was downhill… sounds good right??? WRONG… the incline was very steep and the steps were tiny so the going was a bit tricky. but eventually i made it to the campsite. I slept from 4pm until 6am…. i was roooted. thankfully though the next day I was feeling much better and i bounded up the second ascent and flew to the lunch stop, the next person after me was 45 mins behind me. good old Andy, who had also suffered the day before. Tania and Annie were following from behind, and poor Tania had really really bad altitude sickness and had to be carried up the path on the 2nd day. but she made it…… anyway on the third night we were promised hot showers… if you call a warm trickle a shower then you’ll love this shower… probably on covered 1 square cm of skin at any time. There was a bar though, well sort of a bar and that made it worth it although i didn’t really drink much i did meet a pretty kewl bunch of guys. There were also some spectacular Inca ruins just around the corner that also made it worth the effort. Anyway the big day had finally arrived and we were up at 4am to get to machu picchu, I would really love to say that the effort was worth it, and although the Incas themselves had an easier trail, the trail we took is supposed to be a pilgrimage, but for me, I would definitely catch the train next time, although once we actually reached the sun gate I was very happy to have completed the walk. Machu Picchu wasn’t really what I was expecting and I have to say that it was actually more spectacular than I had imagined. The beautiful valley below with its red/brown river and the massive range surrounding it dwarfing the size of the settlement itself. With the mist rolling all over the mountainside making the settlement and whole mountainside vanish in seconds, it was pretty incredible. After a tour around Machu Picchu I figured I hadn’t come all this way not to climb up the extremely steep cliff adjacent to the settlement. So I did, and I didn’t regret it although the going was pretty tough the view was spectacular. Then it started to pour down so I left for the town in the valley below where we would catch the train back to Cusco . The way down was on a bus that leered precariously over a very steep descent, zig zagging down the hill. There was a pedestrian path going straight down, and as we left the top a young boy dressed in a customary Peruvian poncho shouted to us, and as we descended, where the path intersected the road we could see him running past, at the very bottom just before we reached the bridge he managed to meet us. It was pretty amazing that all day this kid would run down the hill trying to beat the bus so he could get spare change from the passengers. Anyway we stuck around Aquas Calientes for a little while before getting on the 4 hour train back. I was soooooo happy it was all over.