Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

We had really looked forward to this trip but wow it took us by surprise. The scenery was just astoundingly beautiful. Between the salt flats, the desert and the volvanic activity the land was so vast and yet so inhospitable! 8 of us were jammed into a toyota land cruiser with our hilarious if a little unhinged driver Cesar. We met 2 american girls Julie and Anna who were great craic and let us take their photos.

Comedy moments of the trip include: Cesar manually moving the windscreen wipers whilst hanging out his open door as he drove at pace. Being told off in a tyrade by our Brazilian friend for communicating in English to each other (reminiscent of many a school trip in my teens.) Our jeep breaking down in the middle of the windy desert. The food.

We were sad to say goodbye to our 2 buddies at the border but Chile here we come!

The pictures really speak for themselves

La Paz - Bolivia

A wise man told me that 50% of travellers in La Paz get sick. Seeing as there are 2 of us, I guess we were buggered from the start. Fiona spent most of the time in La Paz bed-bound and hoping to feel a bit more human asap. On our brief wanders through the city, we noticed that the number of army and police with automatic weapons is either reassuringly or alarmingly high. At least its better that El Salvador where the civilians are the ones packing the heat.

It was Carnaval time, so the civilian weapons of choice were mainly SuperSoakers and waterbombs. Try to imgine a week-long city-wide waterfight where young and old drench each other at every opportunity. I got pick-pocketed while being distracted by a group of teenaged girls spraying me in the eyes and ears with fake snow. Bye bye camera. Also caught another women with her hand in my pocket, in the process of going for my wallet. I shouted in frantic (ie. poor) Spanish... "Are you looking for something there love, get up the yard out of that ye bollix ye".

Colca Canyon - Peru

From Arequipa, Peru, we decided to go for a 3-day trek down to the bottom of the "World's Deepest Canyon" (when in Rome...). As it turns out, the Colca is the deepest because the Grand Canyon is actually a "gorge", and they also measured the depth from the top of some bleedin' he-uge mountain nearby. Despite this technicality, it's always nice to look at something massive and give it a good taming.

The wildlife was diverse... We managed to spot some condors and were followed by a local street mut for the entire 3 days and 25km! The trip included a night with a local family at the bottom of the canyon, which was sweet until Fiona caught the gout and suffered for the whole trek back up. Some nasty buses and borders later, we've set up camp in La Paz (Bolivia) until the gonorrhea passes.

Peru leis Na Googlee

Seeing Mark press the button for the secondary search in Lima airport, knowing full well that he'd be the only one to get a red light gave us all a much-needed laugh. The scene was perfectly set... Early flight from Dublin for the 3 Googlee (Mark, Eoin, Dee), 45min transfer in JFK, another stop in Atlanta, landing at midnight in Lima after 2o hours travelling to find that the bags are gone AWOL. Quote of the Day Award goes to the Delta rep: " Don't worry, we do this all the time".

Red-button McCann was nay impressed, but onward to Miraflores, a few schoops on the table and we're all happy Larries. A bit of culture in Lima (let's have a look in the Centro and hit the road fair-shwifty lads) and an early flight to Cuzco the next day (delayed, obviously). Going to an altitude of 336o m from zero in Lima was a wee shock to the system. To add salt to the wounds, our slick hostel was at the top of a big b@st@rding hill and check-in took 4 hours. Welcome to Peru.

Cuzco is a great city, best I've seen in a long time, and had plenty of stuff to entertain us while we adjusted to the altitude. Great hats and under-sized toilets were the order of the day. White-water rafting in the Sacred Valley with great soup afterwards was a definite highlight.

So, to the main business of the trip... The Inca Trail. Allow me to introduce the cast:
Minister for Foreign Liaison -- Rob Kiely
Minister for Health & Safety -- Fiona Mc Donald
Minister for Digital Imagery -- Eoin O'Carroll
Minister for Culture, Children and the Gaeltacht - Mark McCann
Minister for Finance & Junior Minister for Digital Imagery - Dee Fitzsimons

A mere 45km up and down mountains, through jungle forests, down the "Gringo Killer" (2220 steps) on Day 3, and running up to the Sun Gate for sunrise in the pissing rain on Day 4. I think we'd all agree that we loved every minute. Getting to watch a local 25-a-side football game and understanding the difference between Donkey Kong and Donkey Shlong were my favourite extra-curricular activities.

Myself and Eoin had to leave the group to take care of Wayna Picchu, the big pointy one in the back of the Machu Picchu postcards. Fi, Dee and Marko arrived at the Sun Gate at a moment of perfect clarity, only for the clouds to sweep across while cameras were whipped out. Regardless, its one of those amazing images that you could never imagine forgetting.

After some R&R (schoops and massages) back in Cuzco, we headed for Arequipa. Our tiredness, and the rainy season left us with little to do but play Ludo, watch DVDs, shoot each other out of ancient pots, and have the craic with Santa. Marko and Dee spent most of the time pillow-fighting, but no clear winner seems to have emerged.

A cracking cupla weeks leis Na Googlee.

Photos are here