Hola Amigos,
Well, I've arrived in South America for the first time, and am currently writing from Lima, Peru.
It was a rather harrowing journey too, but nothing i cant handle.
Briefly:
Sept 18th - fly to Sydney, spend the weekend there.
Sept 21st 4am - wake up and head to airport for a 6.15am flight to Auckland. I dont sleep.
3hr flight, Arrive Auckland 11am-ish local time. 5ish hr layover at Auckland airport. No sleep.
Sept 21st 4.40pm local time - depart Auckland, 11hr flight, heating on full blast, too hot to sleep, watch 3movies straight, no sleep.
Sept 21st 11.30am local time....arrive SAntiago, Chile...i have travelled backwards in time!!. i arrived here 5 hrs earlier than i left Auckland!...how cool is that!
RANDOM AWESOME MOMENT #1
Make my way by Public Transport to the city. Meet up with random Irish backpacker, James, whose birthday is the day before mine (ie: today). still no sleep. i dont want to sleep in the middle of the day and keep the body clock in ruins.
we walk around the city for a few hours, beautiful, but not so good in the rain.
3pm - Return to hostel...plans are to hit the town tonight for James and my birthday with some other backpackers...decide to finally get some sleep - a 3hr power nap should do it....
it has been about 28hrs since i last slept, i have time travelled backwards and covered some 11000 Km's.
6pm - wake up, contemplate, but never actually get to dinner. all i have eaten since Sydney is airline food and a Burger King at Auckland airport.
10pm - FREE BEER!!! - the hostel puts out a slab every night at 10 for the guests. AWESOME!!!
Midnight of 22nd Sept, my birthday - time to hit the town: a coupla bars and a nightclub.
5am - return to the hostel, hammered drunk, no time for sleep. need to get to the airport for a 7.30am flight to Lima. Taxi is ordered.
7.30am - on board the plane, pass out, dont remember take-off, wake up mid flight for brekky, back to sleep. In "real time" i have had the sum total of 3hrs sleep out of 36hrs.
10.30am - arrive Lima, thankfully i had pre-arranged an airport pick-up from my hostel....there was no way I was gonna be able to deal with Peruvian public transport or taxis, suffering from mass sleep deprivation and a raging hangover.
11am - arrive at my hostel, crash out, remainder of daylight hours a write-off.
RANDOM AWESOME MOMENT #2
6PM - wake up, get chatting to Aussie girl in bunk next to mine...Amelia lives in a neighbouring suburb to me, Northcote, in the same street that once lived in back at Uni, Clarke Street...she also has the exact same backpack as me and also has a penchant for sewing flag patches on to it.
We go out to dinner with a friend of hers....my first real meal since Sydney 48hrs ago.
Back at the hostel...crash out, soooo super tired now...i think jet-lag still has a hold on me
Sept 23rd *today*
Light brekky at the hostel...have to check out and move across town to another hotel where my Macchu Picchu Inca Trail group is meeting
Midday: arrive at new hotel...decide to have a quick kip before having a wander around Miraflores, the suburb i am in......6hrs later i wake up from my comatose state, light-headed and woozy...
....maybe i should slow down???...nah, its the evening, gotta check out this place before i leave tomorrow morn for one last flight to Cuzco..wake up call will be at 6.30am.
phew!
Later,
Tony
