Machu Picchu - Because 2 posts aren't enough

So as Stu says yeah I had a feeling that this would be the place (7 bloody countries) I think I had waited my time very well. Before we came away a friend of a friend had a very impromptu wedding where she invited people 2 weeks before and had a great little wedding. I thought this was an amazing idea and was considering the pros and con's of getting married before we came away. I spoke to Stu about this and he said that it would be lovely to have this trip as our honeymoon but wouldn't it be better to be able to say that we got engaged in some far flung beauty spot not Staly Vegas?!!!!!

Point taken, I also discussed this with my mum (who had to go and make her already pristine bed so she could steady her nerves) and my older sister Ali who gave me the very good advice that all a boy really has to do for a wedding is the proposal and if Stu wanted it to be somewhere different I shouldn't take that away from him. (Great advice sis).
So I dropped the idea of going on an 18 month honeymoon and just went on a great holiday.

While we were in Antic I happened to stumble into the many jewellery shops 'just to look'. One of them had the perfect ring unfortunately it was being sold as the wedding ring with an absolutely hideous engagement ring. It was taking away a little of the surprise element but Stu thought it much better to be able to present a ring that not only fitted but one I would like too. So we spoke with the girl and just bought the one. So that was Guatemala, CENTRAL AMERICA. I knew it was there, I knew where it was but I had to forget it. Easier said then done.

Fast forward to Machu Picchu, we went the wrong way, I was happy to keep going and look at the site from the other side and you know just look around but Stu was adamant we had to go back and up to the top straight away. Not old did he know he was asking at Machu Picchu but he knew exactly where abouts too. So back we went to the Gate House unfortunately by the time we had gone and come back there were a few people there so further up we went. I was knackered and probably protesting just a little at the extra height, but up we went.

We took our obligatory photos with Stu standing behind me. He spoke about how it had taken us a while to get here but we made it in the end and that while we were here he wanted to ask me something. Cue the butterflies, and the nerves, I turned around Stu was on his knee with a ring box in his hand. Yes there was 3 pleases as every girl should have and yes there was a "Yeah Ok", and yes there was a boob hug and yes there were tears. So there are your 3 yes' to the 3 pleases.

We stood there for a while beaming, yes it was better than Stalybridge, no it wasn't in a posh restaurant with nice clothes on, (I was in short trousers socks and hiking boots!!! not very me) but it was perfect and very us. I did have to scrape the chipped red nail varnish off so I could take photos of my hand and show it off without the classy nails.

The rest of the day was in a bit of a bubble, we petted llamas, of which Stu took 54 photos of (I think he may have had a thing for them). We decided that we had to celebrate. Down to the cafe just outside the site, I decided that if they had champagnes that we would partake, even if we don't really like it but it situations like this one must sacrifice!!!!! They did and I had a small bottle which I saved and will be placed on a shelf in every home that we live in. Stu had a beer. It was about 9am but we had been up since 4.15am so it was aloud.

When we came back to Aguas Caliante I rang my mum, who was being allusive and unreachable. Sometimes she can't hear her phone and she doesn't answer calls from private numbers so i sent a text message saying that i had some good news and that she had to answer.
I rang again and Grace (little sister, I say little she is about a foot taller than me and going to be 20 soon but she will always be my little sister) answered asking what my good news was. I asked here why she was reading mums text messages and that I couldn't tell her till I told mum. She pushed and I told her, at which point she screamed for
 Mum, who may have been up straightening imagined wrinkles from her bed.

When I told mum that we had gotten engaged she told me that she had been watching Momma Mia all day and crying and that she knew that something was going on. Mothers intuition eh? She asked to speak to her future Son-in-Law, who when he came on the phone after the obligatory "yes I will take care of your daughter" told her that my family was mad but that it was ok that so was his!!! (Before he took the phone from me he asked if she could just email him!!!)

We stayed in our little bubble for the rest of the day wondering round. We met people that we had been hanging round with in Cusco who asked how the day was going, I answered
"oh yea ok, just got engaged". There were a few girlie squeals (exactly what you need when you are newly engaged and away from your real friends) and Stu thrusting forward my hand to show people.

So I am now an engaged lady, I changed my relationship status on facebook, told all the friends, and we called each other fiancee. No longer can Stu say "wait till you are asked" when I discuss our wedding, and when I go home I will be aloud to not only touch but try on the dresses in Ali's wedding dress shop. Wooo hooo.

Machu Picchu - Because 1 post isn't enough

So we were here at last Machu picchu.

Not only was this pretty much the only place I had even heard of in South America I had known for a long time this was where I was going to ask Gini to marry me.

I let the cat out of the bag to a couple of friends, others I stated I was waiting for the most appropriate mountain, lets face it they don't really get much better ( without actually climbing a mountain, which was soooo out of the question!)

I knew she was going to say yes. She knew I was going to ask her (she's not stupid and knew I had been carrying a ring around for 7 countries!)

But I was kind of excited, butterflies n stuff, brickin it a bit.

We had to get up at 4.15am in order to take the first bus up the mountain.

Without re-reading many posts that I've put on here I can't remember if I've said much about the route to Machu Picchu.

Let me digress a little as some people may not be aware that there is an alternative to the "Inca Trail"

The "Inca Trail" is a 4 day trek from Cuzco to Machu Picchu, it stops at some nice places, there is camping and staying in lodges but there's nothing you can do to change the fact it's a 4 day walk.

It's been the cause of some contention between a drunken me and many other travellers - namely the pretentious fecks with think, "you know, Oh My GOD the Inca Trail is the ONLY legitimate way to see Machu Picchu! You just HAVE to do it!"

Now when I say the cause of contention what I mean is I drunkenly and quite accidental called a couple of Irish girls pretentious twats to their face when they voiced their pretentious views of the Inca Trail and what they thought of anyone who chose an alternative route. I was going to apologise the next day but they had left the hostel.

One alternative to the trail is to take the train to a town called Aguas Caliante (Hot Water?) and then a minibus the next day up to the entrance of MP. Seriously, how is that even a choice? Although the train is quite expensive at $31 dollars each way (like 20quid) and some tight arsed backpackers - of which I am actually one but not to this extent- choose to take a 3rd option. Rather than go on a tour/trek OR take the train they will take a bus that they have to get off in the middle of the night, like 2am, then walk 2 hours over fields. Cross a river near a power station, walk another 3 hours or so ac cross fields n stuff, climb over a landslide and then if they are lucky they get to the town, if not they are lost and die in a field. (no I don't think anyone has been reported as dieing in a field, I made that up. But who would report em...)

Anyway I will fuckin lay my life down now and guarantee that if the Inca's had invented trains and minibuses do you think theres any chance in hell that they would be walking for 4 days to get to what is essentially a bit of a town on a hill!?? (I take that back, it's one of the most beautiful things I've seen in my life)

So the plan is, up at 4.15am in order to get the 5.30am minibus, we got their early to make sure we get there! We wanted to be there for sunrise which is supposedly spectacular. I'm a bit gutted really as it was overcast and just got light as we were driving from side to side up the mountain at 5.45 - The place doesn't even open till 6am!

When we did arrive I took exceptionally smug pleasure in seeing the hikers and walkers, just after they had climbed several hundred steps over the course of the last couple of hours to get the the gate to Machu Picchu - Not a single one of them had a breath in their bodies, copious amounts of sweat dripping from the wheezing puffing heads of the fit and healthy, yes it was a well spent 3pounds 50 to take the minibus!!!

I can't really put into words how spectacular it was once we were there. I just wanted to get to the bit where the postcards are taken from and pop the question but we ended up going the wrong way first and found ourselves amidst loads of folks heading at a hefty pace to the ticket office at the other side of the ruins. The reason that most people go this early is so they can be one of the chosen few, there are 400 tickets a day for people to be able to climb up Wanapicchu. This is the mountain in the background that you can see in all the photo's of Machu Picchu. Ha, not even crossed my mind, there's a few hundred huge steps to walk up. My justification of not going up there was that we'd be higher yes but also further away from the ruins we came to see so surely it would be better to be lower down and closer for a better look? I actually didn't come up with this till after we left but I think it can hold quite well up to argument!

Also can you imagine me on one knee, panting and gasping for breath as I proposed? Gini would just think I was having a seizure or heart attack!!

So we backtracked, we still had to climb a big hill and quite a few steps so it was a while after we got to the top on this side of the ruins ( I had to wait a while to catch my breath before asking). I led Gini by the hand to a more secluded spot over to the right, the breathtaking view behind us, misty clouds swirling around possibly the most fantastic ruins in the world, built in the decade between 1460 and 1470 it really is a sight, you can see very spot I asked in the pictures.

Like I mentioned I had the old butterflies in my stomach, I was nervous despite never being more sure of anything in my life. I think I started by saying something about us being together for a long time and who would have thought we would finally be here, then I drop to one knee and whip the ring out of the pocket it has been hiding in, Gini's face is a picture as I say;

"Gini, will you please, please, please marry me?"

yeah, I think saying please 3 times is actually classed as begging but hey it was a spur of the moment thing (despite I'd been trying to think of the best way to word it all day) and it was still only about 7am, I wasn't taking any chances.

You know what she said?

Now at this juncture I hadn't even considered what her words might be.

You know, following the rest of our relationship - meeting in Australia, a long term telephone relationship, seeing each other for a total of about 12 days over 12 months before she moved to Manchester to be with me and then having a fantastic relationship and all reaching to this pinnacle in time where I am on one knee pretty much asking her to be with me for the rest of her life, she says

"yeah, ok"

Yeah OK???? Well at least it was a yes!

Then she got embarrasses and grabbed my head to her bosom (ha, bosom.. I'm like so too childish to get married!!) in what can only be described as a bear hug. She cried a bit too, score!

In all honesty since I turned 30 I have become an emotional wreck, I seriously thought I'd be the one crying. Gonna be fecked at the actual wedding.....big, gay, man tears!

Then we spent the day walking around taking lots of photo's, strangely enough I think we got more of the Llamas that were wandering around than of the ruins, calling each other fiancee and just being a happy couple who had just got engaged.

It was a good day.

Machu Picchu - How it all started

This whole trip was thought up as an off the cuff remark.
The way I like to do stuff. I didn't know if I was serious at the time or not. When I came home from Australia at the age of 27 I knew I had to get away from England again. I had the travel bug that so many people are affected by. Seeing the world is fantastic and once you realise that there is a hell of a lot more of it than the boundaries of the country you live in, in fact there are many folk out there ( and this is a conversation Gini and I had the other day) who are happy in the country they live. Australians may be the worst for this, they feel theirs is the best country in the world and many don't feel the need to go anywhere else. Now after staying there for a year I can see there point of view to a degree, it is a fuckin gorgeous place, why the hell we decided to send the convicts there I'll never know, surely it would have been better to let the criminals stay in England whilst the rest of us fecked of to sunny climes and fantastic beaches?! Right?
I suppose it doesn't change, scallys and the little shites of today's adolescent criminal underworld get sent off to foreign countries to go canoeing and stuff don't they? Is that the governments attempt at trying to rehabilitate? shit I'm thinking of armed robbery to fund my next trip, even when I get caught I get the holiday! Oh wait, think I'm a bit old for that now, I'd just get Strangeways probably with my luck with a roomy called Janice who looks like a small building.
The point I was getting at about a paragraph ago is that you really need to see the world to appreciate what you have or haven't got. Don't get me wrong I like the fact in England I don't have to chuck toilet paper into a bin after I use it, and if I want a burger in the middle of the night I can probably find somewhere to get it and I only work about 40 or so hours a week (which compared to some places I've been is nowt really) and get paid a healthy amount of cash to live on.
What I don't like is the majority of the rest of the people I have to share the country with. Cunts mostly who will stab you for a cigarette, kick ya to death if you ask them not to climb on your car or beat your brains in if you object to them throwing things at you, your girlfriend, mum or sister. Really, it takes the piss.

Sometimes one needs to utilise fundamental expletives to highlight ones feelings to the highest degree. And I haven't sworn as much as I like to on this blog so have decided to go all out on this bit of the entry!

So yeah, I returned from 7 months in South East Asia and a year in Australia and I knew I had to go again. Like most freshly home travellers the plan was to pay the debt, save some cash and get away as quick as possible. Now I wasn't too naive at this, I thought I could pay off the 2grand debt in like 5 months and then would spend a couple of years saving so I could make it in time to apply for a 12 month New Zealand visa before I hit 30 (the cut off age). This was the big 2 year plan. How could it possibly go wrong?

I'm a bit shit at saving money. It helps when I have a girl to help and encourage me otherwise it tends to go on booze.......I was hoping for a list of stuff but in reality I have no idea where it goes, it just goes. I spend month after month watching my account balance disappear slowly.

4 and a half years. That's how long it took to save enough for another trip. New Zealand was a pipe dream, I had asked one day if Gini wanted to come to South America instead. I know for a fact the only reason I chose it as a destination was because I knew it was another of the cheapest places in the world and had heard some people say they had been, and who doesn't want to check out Brazilian chicks on the beach? (Fact is we are now pretty much at the end of the trip, still catching up on the blog but haven't made it to Brazil anyway, it's irony or something). I don't even remember if Gini had moved in with me yet or not at the time.

"Whats in South America?"
Probably a question I should have asked a little earlier, like before we had decided we would go but hey spontaneity baby!

Funny actually, the original plan was devised as a 3 year expedition! We were to spend a year in Canada with our friend Meg, working in a bar and just hanging out in Vancouver, like good old times in Darwin where we met and worked and lived together. Then would follow 6 to 12 months in South America, finishing off with a flight to China where we would teach little kids English, how to say dog and cat, that type of stuff.

There are a number of reasons why this didn't pan out.
ONE, CANADA - Meg got pregnant a year before we were due to arrive and therefore had a 3 month old baby when we were there. This puts a right kibosh on the planned year of partying with her. We stayed 2 weeks, when the options are 3 month old babies or backpacking around South America there's not much choice.
Don't take that wrong, Meg has a fabulous little girl, Isabella. The 2 weeks there actually gave me an invaluably insight to babies as it was pretty much 24/7. I don't want my own just yet but I loved that 2 weeks to bits and fell in love with little Bella.  I think Meg really appreciated the help too, so it was good all round. Got hell drunk when the kid was in bed each night though.

TWO, CHINA - Gini was listening to some news or other that was saying something about the Internet being blocked or something because of the communists. Also we had heard lots of stuff about the thousands of unwanted babies pretty much just littering the streets. The whole place sounds pretty sketchy and we decided we didn't want to contribute to their communist ways (or not be able to facebook when we want!) - The decision was made to teach in Chile instead, still 12 months so the trip would be 18 months now, no worries.

THREE, BEING SKINT - So working as a teacher in Chile or pretty much anywhere in South America means that you earn just enough money to get by with nothing left over. Well we came to the realisation, I don't know if it was Gini or me, that living somewhere with no money would be a bit crap, we wouldn't be able to afford to see anything or do anything. And we would have to be working all the time. Well we may as well just go home when the money runs out and get real jobs again that pay a decent wage, right?

Also the flight from Canada to South America went through Mexico and I wanted to eat hot Mexican chilli in Mexico.
That's how the 3 year trip to 3 continents became a 7 month jaunt through Central and South America, because if we were going to Mexico we may as well go overland to South America!

I think I started this post out trying to make you understand the significance of Machu Picchu in this trip. I realise I haven't done that yet and have banged on about lots of other stuff instead but you know in a roundabout way it all gets back on track in the end.

"Whats in South America?" I asked myself. And I swear until even after we were well half way through Central America the only answer I had come up with was "Machu Picchu"