Good things, bad things.

First I'll start with the good...

Overall the last 5 days have been fantastic. Last Wednesday I travelled to Kuélap, which is a pre-Incan walled fortress. It was amazing and very beautiful. It's situated in cloud forest so you can see bromeliads, humming birds and other lovely stuff there. We actually saw a baby hummingbird in it's nest which was really very cute indeed!

On the way to Kuélap we stopped at a restaurant to order our lunch, whilst there I got chatting to a really nice Canadian couple who were on a tour just behind mine. I talked to them more at lunch time and found out they were planning to travel to Cajamarca the next day. They also told me about the vegetarian restaurant below their hostel and said they would probably be there that evening. I then made my decisions as had been umming about whether to go to Cajamarca or Huanchaco and decided on Cajamarca. I was also ridiculously pleased to eat lots of vegetable at a vegetarian restaurant as my diet has been quite carbohydrate based in Peru.

The next day I was up before dawn to get the bus to Cajamarca at 6am, Vanessa and Remi rolled in just before the bus left. The journey to Cajamarca was beautiful and terrifying in fairly equal parts. We crossed mountain passes at an altitude of about 4000m first - I actually had to shut my eyes at this point as I was sitting on the wrong side of the bus relative to the side of the road. There wasn't much road and there were sheer drops from the road down to the valley, far, far below! 

Later we came into a really lush valley around a river; away from the river it was more like desert. We climbed higher, snaking around mountains, back to an altitude of about 3000m. Beautiful green countryside - thankfully not quite as scary as the ones earlier in the day. I managed to take some photos from the bus window which made me happy. We stopped in Celendin for an hour and found some lunch. Stephanie, who I was sitting next to (German), seemed unimpressed by the inefficiency of the bus and the number of stops - hahaha! I, however, didn't mind so much.

We eventually arrived in Cajamarca 12 hours after our journey had begun, by which time we had all decided to get a hostel together. Thursday night was very chilled, and Vanessa and I decided that a day relaxing at El Baños de la Inca would be perfect.

Friday came around and we headed for girly relaxation. Hour long massages followed by a soak in our own personal bath. Unfortunately the massage did not last for an hour - I complained and got some extra time. I think the guy may have been pissed off but he certainly found the crunchy bits in my back second time around. He also told me that I have problems with my sciatic nerve - this was when I was yelping somewhat. The long hot soak afterwards was most welcome.

On Friday evening, after some delicious pasta at Om Gri (promised the owner I'd mention him), we watched some crazy street performers. Afterwards we got talking to them and Vanessa and I went dancing with them. Who says white girls can't salsa? I certainly proved that they can, although it was helped by the fact that I had an amazingly good dance partner in Alex, one of the performers.

Hilariously, the music in the bar we were in was provided by a guy on a casio keyboard!

Our next location for dancing turned out to be on the streets! There are pre-carnival things going on here in Cajamarca and we found ourselves dancing on the streets with the locals - it was incredible. Such energy from so many people, and live music. I was so very happy, in fact Alex seemed amazed by how happy I am just from dancing! The only downside were the riot police at the end of the street - why is it that in most countries the police don't like to see a large group of people enjoying themselves?

When it looked like the mood could change we escaped to another club and stayed dancing there until about 5am. All in all a fantastic night and certainly my best in Peru so far.

Saturday was a very lazy day. Sunday however turned into yet another great day, chilling in the plaza with Vanessa whilst Remi played Chess against Alex. An old local guy also came to join the chess tournament! In the evening Vanessa and I met up with Alex, Liam, Liam's dad, Carlos and Su. We ended up chilling with them at their hotel which was really nice and there was a lot of laughter.

Many good things, now on to the bad things...

• I have been overcharged on my credit card by two airline companies - this amounts to over £500. It will get sorted, but I'm still waiting for a promised phone call to be returned.
• I am being charged for $300 that never came out of a cash machine in Cumbáya. Again I will get this back, but it's going to take time. I also need to find somewhere with a scanner so I can email the form. (Hoping my hostel in Rio will let me do this.)
• My ipod is dead.

I know that all of these things can be fixed, but it's annoying and takes time and thought. However at the moment, I'm fed up of waiting for the return call and am going to find some lunch.

PS Promise to post some photos soon.