Bolivia!!

HI its me Kean Andrew Silvester Esquire!!
First things first ive heard that a fair few people are reading this blog (nearly 10 whole people!!!)for which i thank you all i feel TRES popular! Anyway just thought id write a few words about Bolivia and what we did there.
Well we arrived in La Paz struggled to breath for a bit and generally felt like poo for a day or so. I consoled myself by buying a Double Whopper meal from one of the TWO expensive Burger Kings there are there i decided that i am a fat western tourist i may as well act like one. Yer so once i felt better james and i and this belgian dude we met on the bus booked ourselves on this death pass mountain bike downhill ride (4200 metres down to 1700 metres) that everyone does. TO be fair it was tres scarey and had awesome views. It deserves its name i reckon. Two of our group fell off, this dutch girl fell right on her face and got concussed. Poor girl. Apparently 12 lorry drivers die a year on this road ( i saw one wreck down the cliff) but they have built a new safer road that most use now. I took it easy at the back didnt fancy falling 500 metres to my doom. It was cool and the group was a good laugh. Yer so then a couple of nights out on the lash in la paz with people from the hostel and got bus to these inca ruins and then guess what happened next???? i won the bolivian lottery!!!! no not really we decided then to go down to Uyuni ( a nothing place) and book a jeep tour to chile over the alti plano. We saw the high Salt lake which was unreal and weird looked like snow) loads of geysers and hot spring baths and the mountains are amazing. Oh and some lagoons with flamingos in it was cold up there (5000 metres at one point) but great ill post some pictures soon when i get round to it. Yer so now we´re in chile in a place called San Pedro near the bolivan border. Its a weird place just here to serve tourists passing through hence full of expensive restaurants (we have found a cheap one though by bus station tres cant afford the usual tourist places this internet cafe is expensive too) Chile is TRES expensive i think we will go to argentina ASAP 6 weeks there then were off to india. Time is a ticking.
Anyway my friends take care of yourselves

kind regards!!!

kean

ps ok here are a few pix from BOVILIA etc..etc.. i realise looking at other peoples photos is boring so ill only put a few up ya get me? james got a bit trigger happy with his camera so im trawling through them ooo aar yer tick tock. need to get meself a new one since the other one was nicked.



me looking ripped at a hot springs jam packed full of ecuadorians in banos. thats the cold pool the hot one was yellow which apparently was due to the sulphur and not the piss.





La Paz high in the mountains. Good night out, the altitude means it only takes 2 pints to get wasted rather than the usual 3.






me in hired cycling gear i look a bit weird huh?










a portion of the death road. most of it is like this some a bit worse.










this is about halfway down i think. oo aar yer tick tock.







A pic of a jeep we were following on the highest salt lake in the world near Uyuni. This is probably the best photo i have ever taken. No great shakes really since lets face it most of them are rubbish. At least most people in my pix now have heads.








Us in front of a lagoone with flamingoes at about 5000 metres.











me and a few bods in a jeep for 3 days...it was compact ooo aar yer.






flat tyre luckily philipe had a spare on the roof. I supervised.

2006!!!

Well happy new year and hope you had a great xmas. Probabaly about time i updated this sucker since i know how you worry about me (like anyone reads it anyway :o) ). Ok since our last meeting we went to the galapagos which was awesome, saw penguins, blue footed boobies, giant tortoises, sea turtles and sea lions etc. etc., the highlight was snorkeling with the sea lions they are tres inquisitive and friendly, it was fun snorkelling made me think about diving i would like to give it a go i rek. The excursion was a bit pricey even for the cheapest boats and its only going to go up in price but im glad i went and i hope the ecuadorian government makes sure these islands are not going to get over developed which to be fair they probably wont bother when they can charge 100 dollars for park entrance hey?. I will deffo post some pix when i remember the CD next.
After that we went back to quito for xmas day got hammered and ate a 4 course dinner and had fun threw a few shapes in the hostel bar etc... Then Boxing day we headed to banos with these two american girls the first day there we were walking round waterfalls when we strayed from the path and this pack of dogs chased us and bit james and i! (we were being manly and protecting the girls ya get me?). So that meant rabies boosters and a week in banos so i took the opportunity to take some spanish lessons ive covered the basics but now keep getting french and spanish mixed up plus my pronounciation is awful but i get by maybe it was better when i stuck to my stock Lonely planet phrase book phrases who knows?. New years eve was tres fun. Then this year so far we have travelled through peru only to stop off at LIma cos i got mega food poisening chucking up all night on the bus and diareah i felt terrible plus it was a "solo urinano" so they werent happy. Still im better now. We're trying to get to le paz in boliva asap kind of skipping peru because we´ve seen machu pichu and wotnot and have no time for the northen beaches which would have been nice. SO anyway im now at 3800 metres in Puno waiting for a bus tomorrow hoping that i dont get a headache.
thats about it.
i will update with pix asap.

kind regards

kean

ps just ate a spaghetti bolognaise it was shit.

pps ok here are some pix from the galapagos islands

Its a little penguin swimming!!! i want to be one.














me and a load of sea lions. (im not sure what sort of pose it was)











one of the many nice views you can see on the galapagos.














james next to a giant tortoise. (it was scared hence its head is not there)










Me pretending to be a sea lion. i think ive got it down dont you? (note confused sea lion (a real one))












willmott and some sea lions.












some slightly out of focus penguins standing on a rock. they didnt mind being out of focus.













me doing the obligatory taking a pic of yourself thing.