This morning when I woke up (actually ridiculously early) the hostel was empty, no music from the bar, no one in the pool and no one on the sunbeds and it was absolutely beautiful and so peaceful… I’m really going to miss this place when we leave tomorrow.

At 2pm, after a morning on sunbathing, it was time for the England v Uruguay game. With our hostel being mostly English staff and mostly English guests, the atmosphere was always going to be great.

That with the fact that our hostel has the biggest screen in the town so people from all over come to watch the game, and the big screen is right above a huge open plan bar with loads of seats… AND happy hour happened to be right while the game was on. Safe to say there were a lot of drunk English men ready to see England win.
The funny thing about South Americans is that even though there are feuds and have been rivalries between countries, the support each other massively. This means that the handful of Uruguay supporters watching the match earlier, screaming and shouting, head to toe in paint and Uruguay outfits, might not have actually been from Uruguay. They could have been from any other South American country but the fact is that they’re South American, and they want South America to win. So when Suarez scored his first goal, they went crazy, banging their fists on the tables, screaming, running around and shouting in whatever language they could at the screen. (Which to our delight, had English commentary today so we actually knew what was going on).
When Rooney then scored making it one all, I literally thought the bar was going to explode, obviously our English celebration had to be bigger than the Uruguayan but it was ridiculous! The English avid football fans were ridiculously drunk by this point and had spent the most part of the game swearing and shouting curses at the screen but now they were ecstatic. One of them (the most drunk by far) even jumped up onto the table, started pouring all of his three massive beer bottles of beer all over everyone and himself, screaming and chanting, until he slipped (idiot) and fell onto the floor, smash onto the concrete on top of his three beer bottles which subsequently smashed everywhere too (it’s surprisingly that he wasn’t actually injured after it… Bloody English).

Just before the game finished (a quick reminder for those who didn’t see the game) Suarez scored again and I don’t know who I was more scared of, the Uruguayan fans who now went crazy slamming their fists and bodies and heads on the tables (honestly I thought the table was going to break), OR the English fans who we’re fuming, swearing about the ref, the other team, the fact that someone somewhere was off side, kicking things. Anyways Juliet and I found if absolutely hilarious, and scuttered away back to our sunbeds before anyone noticed we were actually laughing hysterically about how terrible England were and how much everyone seemed to be over reacting. All I can say is GO CHILE (incase anyone doesn’t know I’m a newly converted Chilean fan and I’m backing them to win the World Cup).

This evening Juliet and I went out for pizza before enjoying our last night in Loki hostel, and in Mancora for that matter. The next two nights are going to be spent on busses and so tonight (as usual) we’re having an early night and making the most of a nice place to sleep!

When we do absolutely nothing all day (except relaxing) the vast majority of my blogs end up being about food… Well that and the fact that Juliet and I were doing our 7 minute indoor workouts (trying to slightly prepare for the inca trail) when our new roommate walked in and actually laughed at us… (Obviously in envy at how impressive and athletic we looked doing press ups in our pajamas.)
Today I spent most of the day on FaceTime, catching up with friends and family from home, which actually gave my sunburn a chance to relax and I’m now ready for a full day of hard core tanning tomorrow.
Now for the food blog…
This evening Juliet and I decided to try our luck at the local sushi restaurant. It was delicious and we were so happy with our choice, I had California rolls with tempura shrimp instead of normal shrimp, and then tuna maki with cream cheese, avocado and Japanese spicy mayonnaise… So good!

Being our usual selves when we saw a sushi desert on the menu, we just had to have it and this time it was Choco Maki.

The chocolate fudge sauce with pecans and prunes would be enough but it was combined with sushi rice and seaweed to make a proper sushi roll and it was… Dreadful. Absolutely disgusting. We actually had trouble keeping it down but forced ourselves to eat it so as not to offend the sushi chef.

The pictures actually do it a lot more justice than it deserves but oh well… It was hilariously undelicious, a weirdly interesting end to the night and who else can say they’ve tried chocolate sushi ay?!

Today Julie and I were first out on the sunbeds, they were all lined up ready to be used but no one was on them so we decided someone had to be first, and today it would be us. We picked the only two in the sunshine but within an hour they had all filled up and we were so happy we’d made claims to ours early on. Being first in the sun also meant that we were in the sun for a very long time today, it was an absolutely beautiful day, about thirty degrees, not a cloud in the sky and of course I got burnt. If I was any one else in my family (especially my sister) I would be an amazing bronzed golden colour right now, but instead I am lobster red… It’s quite a good look, especially when a random American man comes up to you in the street shouting OH MY GAAAAD, you are SO red, yes thank you I already knew that.
Apart from the slight suncream mishap (it’s also just my chest and tummy that are burnt so with a high neck top it’s really not so bad) it’s been a lovely, relaxing day by the pool, enjoying the beautiful Peruvian sunshine.

This evening we decided to try our luck in a vegetarian restaurant, it was the only one on the street with actual customers and the menu did look quite appetising. The food, just as the menu suggested, was actually really yummy, especially considering I was eating food mostly consisting of lentils, however everything else was vegetables which, ofcourse, I was extremely happy about and Juliet and I have both decided we will be going back there. (Plus it was super cheap and healthy which is always a bonus for backpackers).

It’s 8.20pm and once again, at this amazingly early hour, Julie and I are ready for bed. Lying in the sun all day really is exhausting and after being on the go, none stop for three months already, and having the next month filled with exploring, hiking and volunteer working, we really do need these five days to just chill and do nothing… And that’s exactly what we’re going to do!

Yesterday Juliet and I went to the bus station at 11.30am ready to buy our tickets and get on the 1pm bus to Mancora. Unfortunately when we arrived we found out that this bus was cancelled and the next one to our destination was at 3.45. Let’s just say it was a long and very boring wait at the bus station until we finally got to board the bus and basically switch from one quite uncomfortable seat to another, except this one would be our seat for the next 18 hours (it actually turned out to be 19 as of course our bus was delayed). At 11am this morning we FINALLY arrived in Mancora. After driving through practically nothing, just desert land and a lot of fog, it was such a nice relief to arrive in a cute little beach town with bright blue sky and a shining sun.
This is what it looked like practically our whole journey…

And this is what we saw when we arrived at our hostel…

Safe to say it felt like we’d entered into paradise. Our hostel room wasn’t actually ready for us for another couple of hours so we wondered into the town to explore and grab some early lunch. Mancora is an open, clean, quite pretty town full of crazy tuck tuck drivers, surfer tourists and local market sellers. One side of the road is filled with the market sellers stalls where they sell everything hand made and everything has ‘Mancora’ written beneath it, even bracelets!
The other side of the road is filled with banks, drug stores and hundreds of cute, locally owned restaurants, one of which Juliet and I decided on for lunch. Firstly because it was two courses and a drink for 10pesos (£2), secondly because all the decorations, including table decorations and lamp shades, were made out of shells, and thirdly… Because the food actually seemed quite nice. (We definitely have our priorities set in backpacker mode)

We then spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and dumping all of our warm clothes and jackets (that we definitely will not be needed) in our hostel room and then sunbathing by the massive pool that the hostel has to offer. This evening, after a solid afternoon in the sun of course, Juliet and I headed back into town and browse the markets once again and find something for dinner that we really fancied. We came across a cute little Italian restaurant, lowly lit with red flowery table clothes and we’re sold. The food was delicious, we both had vegetarian pasta and it was so huge we couldn’t finish it!!

It’s now 8pm and Juliet and I are both in bed in our room, nether of us slept at all well on the bus last night and it’s safe to say we are both looking forward to a very early night followed by a hard core sunbathing session tomorrow. We are in a party hostel however and the music is blaring, serves us right for being such grannies… Hehe (sorry grandparents! Love you all lots).

After recommendation (and the fact that Juliet and I are seriously missing the sunshine) today we are off to Mancora, a beach town on the west coast of Peru.
Lonely planet says…

Peru’s worst-kept secret, Máncora is the place to see and be seen along the Peruvian coast – in the summer months foreigners flock here to rub sunburned shoulders with the frothy cream of the Peruvian jet set. It’s not hard to see why – Peru’s best sandy beach stretches for several kilometers in the sunniest region of the country, while dozens of plush resorts and their budget-conscious brethren offer up rooms within meters of the lapping waves. On shore, a plethora of restaurants provides fresh seafood straight off the boat as fuel for the long, lazy days. The consistently good surf draws a sun-bleached, board-toting bunch and raucous nightlife keeps visitors busy after the sun dips into the sea in a ball of fiery flames. However, even though it has seen recent explosive growth, Máncora has somehow managed to cling to its fishing community roots.

So it’s easy to see why Juliet and I want to go there!
With a 1pm bus arriving in tomorrow morning, let’s hope our 18 hour bus journey is worth it. I expect to see beautiful beaches and bright blue sky!

Today when we woke up we decided to spend the day as true Peruvians. We took our laundry down to the local laundrette and set about exploring the city… Without appearing like tourists of course. We first passed huge inca ruins, situated right in the middle of Miraflores (the area in Lima that we are staying it) with a huge fence around it, enclosing amazing sand steps up to huge inca buildings and also lots of lamas.
Our plan of the day was to head for the best Ceviche restaurant in town and on our way we had to walk through the ‘Park of love’ (yes that is actually it’s name) a heart shaped park, full of emotional and soppy quotes and the most bizarre statue ever.

The town itself was heaving and so was the park due to the bright sunny sky, beautiful weather and obscene amount of para gliders coming in and out of the beautiful cliffs below us.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called “La Mar”, famous for it’s Ceviche. Ceviche is raw fish (or seafood in our case) that is covered in onions and lime juice and then left to basically cook in the juices… and we had the most delicious meal. It almost went terribly wrong when I put a whole chile in my mouth thinking it was pepper, but it was soon fine after that.

We also had the opportunity to then try a Suspiro a la Limeña (literally translated as the sigh of Lima) a delicious caramel type desert that Juliet and I both secretly wish we hadn’t shared… But had all to ourselves.

Our last port of call after lunch was another lovely stroll through the town until we arrived at the street of markets, ready to shop!

However in true Juliet and Steph fashion we actually got very bored of market shopping quite quickly and so we swiftly moved on and headed to the supermarket to buy dinner and then back to Miraflores, to the hostel to watch England’s first game in the World Cup, against Italy. Of course England lost but we did feel patriotic for a bit at least, while watching it.
It really was a very Peruvian day, with ceviche, Peruvian wine and local dessert, we did feel like we had accomplished something and came back to the hostel exhausted!

After finding out, on day two of the Salar de Uyuni tour that the whole of Uyuni had road block and we wouldn’t be able to get there or finish our tour, we discovered the next morning that the riots and road block had moved up in Bolivia and Uyuni was now accessible – obviously when we arrived it was absolutely full of military and police. This morning when we arrived ay Uyuni airport, although there were less, the airport was the same with military and police force throughout. It was a funny check in as well, as the airport used to be solely for military use and then also because it is Bolivia it is not very high tech. There was a man checking people in, another one writing out the luggage tags by hand and another one who brought out some scales (meant for personal use) that we could put our suitcases on to weigh them. We then had to pay tax as it wasn’t included in the ticket price, before getting on a 25minute long flight to La Paz. Here this airport was filled even higher to the brim by patrolling police force in camo clothing who marched backwards and forwards through the center of the airport. One even came over while I was on FaceTime to my mum, to see what I was doing and ended up saying hi himself!
As we had hours and hours to kill in the airport, we looked back through our salt flats photos, remembering when our tour guide said that he has lots of ideas for salt flats photos, he said he’s been doing this for four years and although he’s not a professional photographer, he is an expert!
He also said chicas (girls) every other word in every single sentence of his – something I found hilarious.

vamos chicas, que tal chicas, chicas chicas estamos llegando chicas

Our flight to Lima was a little more western than the previous one, as this time we actually got drinks, a sandwich… AND there was duty free. (Oh we do travel in style!) On arriving in Peru’s capital city we were greeted by flashing lights on billboards, huge posters with pictures of red phone boxes telling everyone to go to London, football scores left, right and center, AND a man holding up a sign with my name on it (at least we assumed it was me), ready to take us to the hostel.

There’s been a mix up with our bookings and so Juliet and I have ended up with our own room and we’re just about to do some indoor exercises to help prepare us for the inca trail… (If even by the teeniest fraction).