the last 3 weeks

Okay, so i realise its been a while but..

After biking down Death Road I went to Oruro for Karnival - Bolivian stylee. It was everything i imagined and more - loads of colour, music, eye-kandi, dancing and boozed-up people. My schedule went something like this: hit the streets by 10am and stay out till 7pm. Sleep. Wake up at midnight and stay out till 4am. Sleep. The karnival went on non-stop for three solid days/nights and was fuelled by plenty of water balloons and foam..it was war in the stands and after a while no-one cared to look at the procession - projectiles came from left, right and centre.

I thought that was the end of it when i jumped on a bus to Sucre but i was wrong. Sucre´s fiestas carried on till Tuesday and nearly every shop was closed. I couldnt deal with it and locked myself in a cafe for a whole day - on the door there was a sign written in Spanish that said ´No Drunks, No Wet People´ and somehow all the travellers found this place. Sucre was probably my favourite town in Bolivia and i took a few Spanish lessons there and got my first haircut since leaving home! Also went to my first karoke bar in SOuth America - try to imagine me singing Spanish love songs and you get the idea.

Next was Uyuni and the Salt Flats/Lagunas. One of the best trips i´ve done. Amazing. Full-stop. This is where pics come in handy but you´ll have to wait till i get home..

Uyuni was my last stop in Bolivia and last friday i took a train to the Villazon-La Quiaca border, Argentina. Turns out that all the other Bolivia-Argentina border crossings were closed because of floods in Bolivia so everyone went to the same one. Total anarchy. Took me over 4 hours to officially cross the boundary and then i couldnt get on a bus out simply because there were too many people and not enough buses. Had to stay a night there.

First real stop in Argentina was Iruya - a small hamlet tucked away in the Andes. I think Batchworth Lane has more buildings than this entire community. It must have been the size of the field at the bottom of my hill, opposite the tennis courts. Add: 45degree elevation and about 4000m. DId a 7hour hike, following a river through the valley, to another town that is only accessible by foot, San Isidro. Had lunch with some Argies there and then went back to Iruya. The following morning I was away... Went to another little village called Pumamarca with intentions of staying there a few nights as it was on my way south and i´d heard some good things about it from people i met in Iruya. When i arrived, however, i was not impressed. It was a nice little place but that was it. Nada to do and quite touristy. So, i got on my third bus of the day and arrived to Jujuy where i am currently writing this little number. Just because somewhere is nice, most travellers assume you must spend time there - er, no. After being there two hours I was off, out...goneski! I think my problem is that i´ve been to a lot of ´nice´places and some just seem average now. Wait a minute..thats not my problem.

Another day, another demonstration. All throughout my trip in South America ive seen massive amounts of people walking down main roads with flags, banners, drums beating and horns blowing. Jujuy is no different and in these two days ive seen 2different clans. Yesterday it was a bunch of men, 18-30yr old, invading the bus terminal and shouting some stuff. Today, a bit more civilised with women and children involved.

Tonight im off to Cordoba. Really looking forward to it cause im going to spend time with some Argentinian friends that studied with me at Nottingham. My only issue with Argentinians (so far) is that the Spanish they speak is nothing like ive heard before. Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia were similar and i was doing good but here its a different ball game. My ear is undergoing some serious fine-tuning at the moment.

O yeah, contrary to popular belief, its not all sun sun sun here. Last night after eating, i got drenched in a thunderstorm and ended up running all the way home