Epic Bus Journey

It's been about 2 weeks I'd say. I've been on the road with Tracey the Kiwi ;) We've traveled 109 hours to get to Cusco, Peru were we stayed in the Loki Hostel. Our bus trips were nothing short of amusing. We tried to play Bingo I guess without knowing proper rules. Once Tracey had a whole row I thought she'd won, so immediately I ran the buzzer to let the staff know. A guy came on the intercom and I guess he was asking if it was a false alarm, if someone had won or if someone just wanted service. He repeated himself a few times (in spanish) but in all of the excitment I just couldn't make out exactly what he was saying. The door to our lower section opened up and I showed him the card and asked if it meant she won. The WHOLE GAME was stopped because of us...He looked at us not surprised..of course it would be the gringas to fuck up. He asked me to turn off the notification I had pressed earlier to get his attention. Me and Tracey just looked at each other and burst into laughter. We usually call out "cabin fever" when we're feeling crazy. It was a good long time since we had a whole nights rest. You never fully fall asleep on those buses. We did what we could but that was a more difficult time to survive such a long, uncomfortable journey. Thank god for such wicked company.

Buses
1. Monday night 11:15pm- Tuesday 2pm Medellin to Bogota total 15 hours
2. Friday noon-Saturday 8:30pm Bogota-Impales total 32 hours
3. Sat night Border machines crashed so we waited 3 hours to cross the border into Ecuador. Grabbed a crazy party bus from 12:30pm til 5:30 am total 5 hours. Along the way picking up drunken locals, disco lights flashing the entire time, people falling on each other and into you on your lap, music, laughter, screaming it was just insane.
4. 6am-9am Sunday morning
9am-7pm total 10 hours to the bottom of Ecuador
2 hours to the border crossing Sunday night

Almost got robbed by Police and Taxi officials
slept in a shitty 3$ per night run down place

Monday 330pm -Tuesday 1230 total 21 hours Tumbes-Lima
Tuesday 2:30- Wednesday 1230 total 22 hours
Thursday 1.5 hour taxi
train 1.5 hours

Now in Aguas Calientes almost at MACHU PICCHU

Best quote from Tracey- "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." Oscar Wilde

80's style crew, on our first 2 days of bus life. 

Along the way..

through Peru

All those little lego looking bits are houses

 We ended up getting to Machu Picchu the day after the Full moon on 11/11/11. It was crazy the coincidence and the fact that it wasn't planned at all we didn't ever keep track of the dates.

Bolivia -Traditional women.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

After our day trip to Machu Picchu, we got on an earlier train back to Cusco to catch an overnight but to La Paz Bolivia. That bus ride was about 13 hours followed by...

La Paz to Santa Cruz 18 hours
Santa Cruz to Villazon 20 hours
Villazon to Buenos Aires 27 hours

I have countless pictures and videos from Machu Picchu but none of them do it justice. None. The moments passes so quickly. The best part was after a little hike to the top view of the mountain, we picked a spot in the grass and laid out staring at the whole village, mountains and sky view. Tears came to my eyes and I felt so empowered. This is the reality I am creating for myself..this is my life I thought to myself.

So many people have helped me, whether from character building and life lessons preparing me for all of this, financially, or a combination of both, It's all support, it's all a part of why I'm here, because I took the risk.

By the end of our bus journey together we were restless, hungry, exhausted and just in general messed up. Tango Backpackers in Buenos Aires was a pit stop. We met up with another loved Kiwi.. Virginia aka Gins..there was no room for rest once we caught up with that beauty. All three of us were running short on cash and just tired out. We did exactly what we all needed, went out for a party night. We went out for dinner had some cheap wine for I think it was 1.5 for a litre. We went into town but it was too expensive for us to get in anywhere. We saw a party train passing us and it looked awesome. I quickly convinced them to hop in a cab and told him to cut in front of the train to stop it..and he did. We ran out and there were girls piling out of the front yelling at us "no no no" they were locals, we quickly ignored they're rejections and ran to the back of the train where a group of guys were waving us down. They helped us on and it was go time hahaha. The night didn't get too crazy but we ended up being asked to leave in a rather aggressive way by the girls a few hours later :S so we headed back to the hostel and passed out.

We said bye to Tracey one afternoon, she was headed back to Australia and then to New Zealand for the holidays. I know i'll see her again, maybe i'll end up living on the gold coast who knows but I have a feeling South America round 2 is going to be even more epic than our bus journey haha...let's hope so!! Thanks for everything Trace and Gins had an awesome time with you little ladies. You too Grant great laughing fits it's good to smile.

Tracey, Gins and me on the party train

Me Trace and Gins

Buenos Aires market

One picture from the water park in Medellin

La Bomba, Buenos Aires, Argentina Palermo. best street party. Me and Gins

Some keys to happiness for me:
Laugh and smile as much as possible
Be yourself
Confidence mentally and physically...do what you need to.
Able to adapt to any changes at any given time.
No expectations.
Accept fears but challenge them.
KEEP AN OPEN HEART AND OPEN MIND!