I have just returned from my five-day trek and climb in the Cordillera Blanca, the Peruvian Andes mountain range. This will probably be my last or second last blog as my current journey in South America is coming to its end. Today I intend to share more of my spiritual journey on the trek, because, to share anything other than that would be a distortion of the experience. And for those of you who have so happened to have clicked into this particular blog, I hope it will shed light to some aspect of your life from an angle perhaps slightly not so familiar because maybe you´re not familiar with the sport of mountain climbing, or maybe you are, I do not know. Being in Huaraz is a really interesting time for me because I´m constantly picking up enlightening pieces about climbing in Everest and the Andes and little did I know in the past the depth this extreme sport holds and the distance, both physically and spiritually, many have travelled to come to such high points of the world. To say that climbing one of the easiest peaks in the Andes, plus with the full-on help with an experienced guide brought me much enlightenment may sound like an overstatement to those who have conquered much more, but I will not compare myself with others for don´t we all have our own experiences and journeys?

The trek began with an easy 4-hour walking in a wide beautiful valley. I was accompanied by my guide Marco, and his brother Roger the porter, two young and lighthearted Peruvians who literally made me feel like my backpack was lighter and lighter in their presence on the first day. Marco and Roger successfully captured a skinny lil donkey to help us carry our load on the first day. Donkey didn´t look happy and pooed many times throughout the trek. Naughty lil´ donkey tried many times to escape, but only in vain. The maximum load you can put on a donkey is 70kgs and this lil´ skinny donkey was maxed out.

Second day was much tougher, we trekked about 8 hours with backpacks because the terrain didn´t allow donkeys to trek on, crossed a highpass of high 4,000Ms and descended for about 2 hours to a lower point in the Quebrada Quilcahuanca to arrive at our second night´s campsite. In the 7th hour during the descent, my backpack felt like a tremendous burden and I suddenly felt extremely emotional as my shoulders started to scream in pain after shouldering weight for many hours. At the brink of an intense emotional outbreak, I asked spirit why my shoulders have to hurt. Yes I know this issue has been rubbed and skinned many times throughout my life but yet at that moment, I needed yet another level of understanding from God. My angels said to me, "you have created this pain so that one day, you can know God again, for separation is but the nearest road to remembering who we truly are." Sitting with this insight, I fought hard to hold back my tears as Marco was only about ten steps ahead of me and I continued on the trek while refusing to let Marco take my bag (which he has offered many times as he was sensing my fatigue..). My refusal to let go my backpack was like my refusal to let go my psychological load off my shoulders, perhaps it is guilt, perhaps it is a sense of unworthiness which plagues all of humanity, or perhaps I´ve chosen to hold on to such pain, only so that one day, I can become liberated and remember Light, the eternal Source flame which connects all of reality in a beautiful network of eternal Oneness. But not for long, my tears streamed down like a fountain broke loose, and I felt much lighter afterwards and I finally conceded to let Marco take my bag for the last mile. In no time we arrived at our second night´s campsite and had a nice fulfilling meal before resting for the night.

On the third day, Marco and I packed up for our ascent to Ishinca, a 5,534M glacier peak in the Cordillera Blanca, a beginner peak which required little technical climbing. We left campsite with our equipment and one night´s amenities at around noon and arrived at Ishinca´s Campamiento Moreno (sorta like secondary base camp, which is close to a glacier) at 5,000M in about 4 hours. A lot of very steep uphill which got me quite tired as well, however there was one fun stretch of rock trekking which allowed me to connect with rock spirits that really lightened me up. I´ve always had an apprehension towards rocks, and ironically, every trek I´ve picked so far (including my riverrafting trip believe it or not!) had a lot of rock trekking. The reason I abhored hopping on rocks was because I often slip and hurt myself on them. However my encounter with rock spirits on my way to Camp Moreno quite dramatically altered my sentiments towards them. While I was pulling myself up that last stretch to Camp Moreno that was full of huge sharp rocks, rock spirits suddenly appeared and spoke to me. They introduced themselves very kindly and welcomed me to their territory. First they told me that they´re not here to conquer me, nor allow me to conquer them, in fact, they are here to assist me on my path. They sounded so nice and understanding I suddenly became very happy to be trekking on them. At that point I was feeling again very tired and my shoulders were starting to hurt again. They repeated several times that I must not let my mind trick me and that they´ll assist me in reaching a higher level of consciousness and infuse me with God energy, allowing me to make it to whereever I want to be. Then like a miracle, I felt incredibly energized and started to literally hop on the rocks without fear of falling and in no time, I reached Camp Moreno. At one time I was having so much fun on the rocks that I trekked to the other side of the path and Marco had to come fetch me to guide me back to the right path. Spending the night at Camp Moreno was fun but also a tough experience. I was struck down by altitude sickness for two hours after eating my dinner too rapidly, but luckily I managed to get a few hours of moderate-quality sleep before waking up at 230am feeling quite well-rested to start our ascent to Ishinca.

The word Ishinca is Quechuan, and according to my guide, means "the root". We trekked for almost 3 hours on snowy rocks with glacier trekking shoes which took me about 45 minutes to get used to. (Weather was horrible and was snowing pretty much 80% of my time of my entire 5-day trip.) At about sunrise we arrived at the entry point to the glacier part. Took a few snapshots with my timer because low lighting required long exposure times. Then Marco dressed me in my harness and clamp-ons and we entered the glacier as sunlight seeped through the Andes. Walking with clamp-ons was much tougher than I anticipated, sorta felt like walking in snow with ski boots except it´s all uphill. I was tired within the first 30 minutes. Snow was really thick and Marco was roped to me about 15 steps ahead, making treks for me to follow. In the last 60-minute stretch I felt an infusion of Light through my being and I felt incredibly connected with the Source. I connected with the spirit of Ishinca who told me that she is the Goddess of Compassion, indeed she has a incredible sense of feminine feeling to her, with a very soft-looking summit, that stood in sharp juxtaposition with her neighbouring jugged peak that loomed about another 700M above her (forgot the name of this mountain). I felt a tremendous awe for and a sense of oneness with the surrounding beauty and was feeling like a really clear channel. The surge of energy from such a feeling of connection with Source gave me the inner fuel to keep going, so for about 30 to 45 minutes (I´m not sure) I felt like being on automatic pilot without consciously exerting much physical effort. Then came the last 30 minutes and at that time, my body was in full exhaustion and my mind was starting to take over with thoughts like, maybe I should stop and just forget about the summit. Thanks to Marco who insisted that I keep going, we got to the summit at about 930am. The summit is a small lil´ plateau that barely has enough space for both of us. We took a few silly pictures, rested, and very quickly we had to start our descent because the sun was getting strong and it would be very difficult to walk on melting snow. I had a really tough time with the descent, at one point I thought, it wouldn´t be a big deal to just lie down and die because I was so exhausted. Perhaps death itself isn´t so scary afterall, for death is but a part of being in this paradigm of reality. And yet as much as dying is scary for many, death feels so easy at times, while choosing to keep going can be so much harder...

Went back to Camp Moreno, had lunch, packed up, then another 3 hours down to our second night´s campsite where Roger was stationed so a total of 12 hours of trekking my body was not functioning properly after that. Asked Marco if he was tired at all and he swiftly answered with a blunt no. Enjoyed our last camp dinner meal, had yummy spaghetti, then snugged into my sleeping bag for the last time. As much as my sleeping bag is a full-on mummy bag suitable for high alpine conditions as well as my tent being a tough North Face mountain tent, comfort was the last thing I felt. The snow at night caused my tent to almost collapse on me from two sides, but the cold air deterred me from wanting to get up to fix it, so I continued to hide inside my mummy bag until the sun came out the next morning. Marco cooked yummy breakfast, butter-grilled bread and fried chicken sausages. Then we set off for our exit, which was a relatively short 3-hour flat trek out of the valley.

It´s only been a day since my return and the trek already seems like a blur in my memory. In retrospect there were really only 2 to maybe at max 3 hours of time that I felt was really difficult to endure, so as a part of the whole, 2 to 3 hours of pain relative to getting slightly closer to God, closer to reacquainting with the Truth again, perhaps, it is all worth it. Sometimes I do not understand why I´ve chosen to do certain things, yet I know I´m simply listening to my heart for cues to tred further on this long-winded and very often exhilirating road called life. To me, mountain climbing continues to feel like an impossible endeavour. Yet at the same time, I am cultivating a stronger belief in miracles, in making quantum leaps in life such as how Jesus was able to effect instant healings on others. Right now I do not have any intentions to climb another mountain, yet I trust that, when the the time comes, I´ll be cued again, and God always knows my limits, and, with much compassion and love, He who knows me well never fails to take me closer to Him, never fails to allow me to experience greater joy, to live more in the moment, and to feel a a stronger trust in Him and myself. Always.

Tomorrow I leave Huaraz for Ica, my last destination in Peru.

(Photograph: Vista from the summit of Ishinca, Cordillera Blanca, Andes in Peru)

Hi there. Long time! I´m in Huaraz now, base camp town of the Andes Mountain range of Peru. The past 2 weeks have been very intense in all aspects, physically (hopped from Cusco, to Macchu Picchu, then to Amazon then back to Lima to Huaraz), emotionally (been onion-peeling non-stop) and spiritually (lotsa interesting revelations re my path and learning from the healing incidents etc..). So it has been rather difficult for me to sit still to share in the middle of the roller-coaster without a greater perspective. All in all, I´ll probably be classifying my last 2 weeks as the highlight of my travels, but cross my fingers the next 2 weeks, which will be the last for this trip, won´t be even better! Without dipping too much into the spiritual aspects of the travels (as that wud probably be too heavy for this blog!), let me share the highlights of the fun stuff!

Tracing back to the chapter with the Israelis, the day after we parted, I left for Aguas Calientes, the town from which to visit Macchu Picchu (45 bus ride or you can hike there) via an early 4-hour backpacker train. It was raining in Aguas Calientes when I arrived, so I decided to venture to Mapi (short for Macchu Picchu) first bus next morning at 530am. For those who are unfamiliar with Mapi, let me give you a bit of historical background of this much traveled historical sight. Mapi is an Incan city completely untouched by the Spanish Conquistadores that sits about 50 km from Cusco (the capital of the Incan civilization) in the Sacred Valley. Mapi was claimed to be discovered by Hiram Bingham (an English man studying in Yale) in 1911, who really actually learned of it from a local in Cusco, who heard about it from a farmer in the vicinity of Mapi in about the 1900s after a natural fire that led him to explore another part of the hill. With money, Bingham was able to fund various expeditions which ultimately brought Mapi to its current day glory. Mapi is believed to be a sacred city where many Incans (who are believed to be the descendents of the Sun, namely, the Children of the Sun, as they worshipped the Sun as the Creator) trekked miles to arrive at to become initiated to the Light. The form of Mapi resembles that of a man´s face, where Huayna Picchu (the highest peak on Mapi, and you can easily spot this on a postcard) is the nose of the man, while the river that wraps Mapi on the head is believed to symbolize the sacred stream of light that crosses the crown chakra of a human being, bringing purification and a continual stream of energy source to the being and space.

My initial view of Mapi, as probably wud be for many other tourists, was quite impressive! The weather was nice the day I visited, with a few clouds interlacing in and around Mapi in the early hours. I climbed up Huayna Picchu, which was a nice hike. I was the 42nd person at 721am at the checkpoint to enter Huayna Picchu and leaving checkpoint again at 951am. All in all, I spent only about 5 hours in total inside Mapi. As the sun came on near noon, and more and more tourists flooded in, my interest level rapidly waned. Then my stomach started to feel funny so I literally ran out of Mapi without any wish to go back in. Thinking back, I should have re-entered to spend more time taking more pictures from different angles etc... but anyway. My feelings and thoughts about Mapi are sorta mixed. I really didn´t feel too much when I was at the site, to me, the stones felt so historical even my normally quite active right brain could not conjure any worthwhile images of the people who were once there. What I did feel was how trapped we are in this dimension dominated by time and space, where even such a great civilization like this of the Incans cannot escape being fossiled by time. On the other hand, what intrigued me is how cleverly spirit has revealed the ancient secrets of the Incans one lil´step at a step (first Mapi was discovered, then there was a massive earthquake in the 1950s in Cusco which shook up quite a lot of ruins which were otherwise hidden). And, having been reading up on the Incan beliefs and history, I have come to understand better or at least I have formulated my own views on exactly why our civilization is being urged to remember the Incans. (On this note, I´ll leave this for you to find out if it at all interests you, or perhaps you already have your own idea!)

The second full day at Aguas Calientes, I went up another peak, called Putucusi, which is where Ian White created the Angelic Essence. The name Putucusi, means, in Quechua, increasing happiness, and it is to no coincidence it has such a name. At 4am I started to climb the mountain with a private guide, hoping to reach the top before 6am to be able to see the sunrise. Ian White was not exaggerating too much when he wrote in his White Light Essence booklet that he risked his life to make this essence (he was exaggerating but I can understand..) for the path is really quite steep and rugged, because very few climb it. According to the guide, he only comes here with anybody twice or 3 times in a year! There was also about 200 to 300 ladder steps at 90 degrees steepness, thinking back I could´ve slipped and killed myself given it was pitch dark (almost, i had a headlamp...). But given the spiritualness of this mountain, I trusted that spirit wasn´t planning on having me die here, so I hiked up without feeling any apprehension and at 530am I reached the peak feeling very excited! I was guided the night before to bring my angelite stone for a meditation at the peak the next day where I was told that I will receive specific messages about my spiritual work. So just as I was taking out my stone from my bag, it literaly flew out of my hand about 10 meters into the trees in the slope below (which was impossible to fetch), which I was later told that that was meant to anchor in my intention as an offering to spirit/mountain. I proceeded with my meditation, which was sorta a short vision quest where I heard three specific messages for myself. Then I felt guided to do a prayer/meditation to connect the energy of Putucusi with everybody in my life. I allowed everyone´s higher self to come to me to connect then I sent love, courage, clarity, abundance (whatever came up for the individual) to each person´s higher self. After the meditation, I just stayed at the peak to enjoy the view of Mapi. The view of Mapi from Putucusi is quite a different one, relatively far away but you can still see the whole thing, and with the clouds moving in and out of Mapi constantly, it looked and felt really mystical. And, just when I was about to pack to leave, I saw a really cool natural phenonmenon in the clouds right in front of me - a round rainbow halo that surrounded own shadow that resembled that of a saint because of the rays coming out from the arms and legs!! It was so cool so I took some pictures of it, which are faintly captured but will share when I get a chance. It was as if spirit was trying to show me, that to find God, is to find your own self, your own shadow, for God lives within us all. The next day, I came across Jesus´quote ¨the Kingdom of God is within us all, seek ye not without.. (well, something like that..). What synchronicity!

On my third day in Aguas Calientes (yes, I still haven´t left that boony crappy town...), I decided to book myself into the most beautiful hotel in Peru, the Macchu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, for a day/night of indulgence. The resort is really beautiful, comparable to an Oberoi or even a Four Seasons in Bali, really! And interesting enough, it led me into my next destination, as it offered these brief nature and birdwatching walks in the morning that really sparked my interest in the jungle. So, after I returned to Cusco, I booked my tour to the Amazon Forest. The Amazon Forest spans across Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, with the majority of it in Peru. And in below alone, it spans from North to South of Peru, with Cusco, being near one of the major protected areas called the Parque Nacional Manu. I did a 4-day tour into the reserved zone of Manu, which is the zone labeled as primary forest because it is 100% protected from logging activities for conservation purpose. But I wonder whether that truly means 100% protection because at one of the lodging places I saw a ground drainage thingy (sorry dunno what it´s called...) that has a petro company´s name on it, and later I read an articles in a environmentalist magazine that some other parts of the jungle that says it is protected, still had to be exploited by petro companies. I enjoyed the tour quite alot, it was very peaceful being on a canoe down Rio Manu looking at wildlife and staying in a nice spacious tent by myself, but what sorta disappointed me was the amount of mammals I saw, which was surprisingly little (besides the fact that I did see more than 300 caimans). The truth is, I believe, that those documentaries or publications in Discovery Channel or National Geographics, that talk about how many of our dear neighbours, the animals, are going extinct, may even be an understatement. The threat is as real as it can be, and the rate at which these animals are going extinct is probably very fast. I desperately wanted to see a Jaguar, but apparently there are so little of them nowadays, that even my guide, who´s been working there for 6 years, have only seen 3 in total! So I urge those who want to visit our dear neighbours, to do so fast, not only because yah you won´t be able to see them very soon, but also because by visiting these places, we are directly helping with their conservation by pouring money into ecotourism, which is one the key incentives for governments to implement conservation programs.

I hope I haven´t bored you with all these details about my trip in the past weeks. Perhaps later in person I can share a more personal account of things with some emotional colors. Currently, I´m just recovering from a flu that threw me out for several days, mainly during my traveling from Cusco to Huaraz via Lima. Quickly, Huaraz is the base camp town of Andes, a mountaineer´s paradise, many come here every year for months to conquer the many peaks on the three Andean ranges, which include the Cordillera Blanca, Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Huayhuash. The highest peak in Peru, which lies in Blanca, is about 6,700M. My original plan was to do a long trek in the Cordillera Huayhuash, which is believed to be the prettiest one of all with the wildest mountainscape. (Cordillera simply means mountain range). However, I hv once again been inspired to do some climbing, so intead, I will do a 4-day trek in Blanca (a less popular trek that feels really nice) where I can do an ascent on one of the easier beginner peaks called Ishinca (5,500M) on the 4th night. The reason ascent needs to be done at night is because it is actually safer to climb at night while the ice is hard. I m excited but also a bit fearful, my first time climbing on ice! Please send me positive energy for a beautiful and aspirational experience! Will bring camera because porter is hired to carry my climbing equipment, so one of my missions is to bring back pretty sunrise summit pix! Bye now.

(Photograph: Sunrise in Rio Manu, the Amazon Forest)

Hi, I´m having a great time in Cusco and today I´ve hopped to Aguas Caliente, getting ready to see the much anticipated sight of Macchu Picchu. I did a three day whitewater rafting camp on Rio Apurimac with Mayuc Tours and met 17 Israelis. Basically when I landed at the agency that morning, I looked at the list of participants, and in vain, I found no non-Israeli besides myself. Then a couple of the Israeli guys popped over to greet me in fluent English, so phew...! So 18 of us, three rubber boats, down a river in three days, stayed in lovely campsites with too many mosquitoes. Everything about this trip was pristine, everything really, except the mosquitos who were especially hungry in the morning and so cleverly always attacked me while I was in nature-toilet, which was when I was most defenseless. *Sigh* Literally been itching my butt off since! The river was beautiful, very wide with rapids filled with grand white rocks. The Apurimac canyon, which is third deepest in Peru (trailing Colca and Cotahuasi near Arequipa - where I went trekking earlier) appeared incredibly serene to me in those three days. The second night´s camp is worth a note - basically for hours we laid under the nightsky, smacked in front of us lied the meeting of the canyon (a valley) silhouetted by a huge, and i mean really huge, starlit sky, that made me feel like I was in a very grand space museum. The constellation of Scorpio and the planet Jupiter was especially visible that night. Couldn´t see the Southern Cross because it was hiding behind the mountains. The Israelis were an especially fun bunch. Learned more about Jewish traditions/religions and about the war that I have ever from watching CNN. It was interesting to get a more untainted perspective of what life is like in middle east. Most of these youngsters are fresh out of the military (3.5 years) and are taking time off traveling before they go to college, most of them between 22 and 24. One guy, Dror, who I got to know better, was in the bomb department, however he refused to share much about the makings of bombs. Apparently many many Israelis will spend several months in the US selling random things (from cosmetics to flavoured water cigarettes) in malls, then head down to South America to travel for many months up to a year. Little did I know how powerful their presence in South America is, until this club we went to in Cusco on the day of our return started to play Hebrew songs after Hebrew songs. Now it seems like everywhere I look, there are Jews. Oh and also, all of their names have interesting spiritual meanings, such as Hila, which means aura in Hebrew, Ori, which means my light, and Eyal, which means strength. Incredible.

Back to where I am currently. Aguas Caliente, which is the nearest town to Macchu Picchu, is 4 hours from Cusco via a train or can be reached via various multi-day treks. I opted to travel by train because I couldn´t reserve a spot on the most popular Inca Trail (needed to book 3 months in advance), so thought I will save my breath to just fully enjoy Macchu Picchu by arriving directly on train. The weather is bad here today, was pouring for several hours since I arrived this morning so will go see Macchu Picchu first thing tomorrow morning instead. I plan to stay here for several nights. I´ve been feeling so high since I landed in the train station at 6am this morning, don´t know what´s causing me so excited about this place!! I plan to do a tour of Macchu (without guide) then another tour of Putucusi with a private guide, which is a peak near Macchu where you can get a great view of Macchu. I´m quite excited about going up Putucusi because that is where Ian White made the Angelic Essence (which I´ve started taking last night!! perhaps that is why I´m feeling so high...) Aguas Calientes feels extremely like Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in China of which I really only remember seeing clouds and clouds and clouds and no mountain because of the weather condition while I was there last year. Even the smell of the hostals bear resemblance...

Got this book which discusses Incan wisdoms about Mother Earth and the Sky and have been fascinated to discover that Lake Titicaca, where I have just visited, is the very center of the feminine electromagnetic field of our planet Earth!! For those unfamiliar of energy fields, basically all things in existence are energies with electromagnetic fields, and therefore have positive and negative polarities (including human where our two polarities lie in the head and heart for men, and solar plexus and womb for women). According to this book, the masculine center of Earth lies in Mount Everest, and the feminine in the Andes, of which the very very center is Lake Titicaca! So incredibly cool! It is no coincidence men are so drawn to both destinations! SO! For those of you who wants to get in touch with your feminine side a bit more, to get in touch with that part of yourself that expresses pure unconditional love, that part of yourself which nurtures and creates, that part of yourself which speaks in the language of intuition and emotions, and this applies to both girls and guys, and you cannot quite visit Lake Titicaca in person YET, feel free to visit it in your meditations (in the future I will share my pictures for your pleasure and energy source!), for it is indeed a powerfully healing place, at least from what I´ve experienced. Then for those who feel you need to be a tadbit more assertive, a tadbit more angry sometimes, a lil´ bit more aggressive just so you can pull thru whatever type of sticky situation in your life at the moment, feel free to visit Mount Everest (in your thoughts or even better, in person!), I´m sure it is an amazing place and I want and want to visit, in the NEAR future, at least its base camp in Tibet or Nepal!! Funny I´ve been thinking about it alot these past few weeks... Anyway, too much jibberish from me, will update you again after I visit Macchu. Hasta luego amigos.

After a seven-hour bus from Puno, I arrived in Cusco this afternoon. And after nearly 45 minutes in a taxi fishing for a hostal, I am booked into Amaru Hostal, in which I will only stay one night (because it is full tmr). Luckily I have found a nicer place to stay for tomorrow, hehe. Thanks to Macchu Picchu, which was discovered in the early 1900s, Cusco has become probably the most touristy city of South America, and is often called, the Kathmandu of South America. At first glance, it is just like any other non-modern Peruvian or Bolivian city (dirty and rugged..). Initially I thought it looked a bit like La Paz, being at 3,400M in altitude and also having hills of houses caressing its center. At a closer look, Cusco is a shopping paradise for tourists and a salad of Spanish and Incan cultural attractions. On your feet lies Incan style cobblestones while above your head rise Catholic churches that were built by the Spanish conquistadores since its invasion in the 16th century. Like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, it took me two hours to cross three blocks from my hostal to the Plaza de Armas as every touristy store seemed to be beckoning my visit, and every store, at first glance, seemed to hold so much potential...

Before I ramble on more about Cusco, let me regress slightly to my two-night Isla de Amantani trip on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is one of the three sacred lakes in the world (the other two being Lake Baikal in Russia and Pyramid Lake in Nevada). Legend says it gave birth to the father and mother of the Incan Empire in the 1100s and it is also the cradle of two pre-Incan civilizations with about 3,000 years of history, the Quechans (which I met on Isla de Amantani) and the Aymarans who live on the Uros Reeds Floating Islands, which I also toured.

Basically that morning right when I landed at the pier I was pulled into a tourist boat and was quickly acquainted with a bunch of other travelers. Shortly after we pulled out of the dock, I quickly forgot about the harbour which I found dirty and was mesmerized by the incredible stillness of the lake, which really felt more like a sea. We stopped over at the Uros Reeds Floating Islands, which initially seemed really interesting - they are basically a group of mini-islands made out of woven reeds and you have these Aymaran families selling tourist things on them. 15 minutes of being surrounded by the touristiness of on these islands felt slightly suffocating. What is worse is that I found out from earlier travelers that the families no longer live on the islands anymore, so they merely come here during the day for the tourists. Well, to be more practical-minded, tourism has its merits for bringing in wealth to the poor. Another 3.5 hours on the lake, we landed on Isla de Amantani and four other travelers and I were grouped together to stay with one host family on the first night and had a nice peaceful time enjoying island scenery and food. Shortly after I landed on the island I hit myself really really hard on the top of my head and felt drowsy from it afterwards, so instead of following the group to see the ruins on the top of the hill, I took things slow and went to the harbour to meditate and rest. Second day I pretty much spent the whole day on my own (as the group has left to visit the neighbouring Taquile Island while I opted to stay behind for some quiet time). I spent the morning on the top of the island awing at acres and acres of dry terraces separated by low rise stones and their interplay with exotic clouds (where clouds are so huge and close I can almost touch them), which rendered various great photo moments. After a cleansing meditation on one of the ruins that overlook the beautiful lake, which really resembled more like a sea (Lake Titicaca takes 12 hours to cross on a moderate speed boat), I descended to the other side of the island and met a bunch of local musicians in the plaza who delighted at meeting a Chinese girl. They eagerly showed me their instruments that were made in China! Shortly after they invited me to a wedding ceremony, at which they were playing their music. I followed the group of musicians to retrieve the marrying couple from their home and followed them on a long windy path to the wedding place, which is an open area with two long benches and some local women sitting on the floor in the middle. Many courses of food were served, which started with soup (first course), followed by another soup (second course), then a handful of cereals, then rice dish with different types of potatoes.. which I couldnt quite finish as I was stuffed to the brim already from the previous soups, and a local came over, grabbed my dish and passed it to a local lady who poured my dish into her bag. The courses went on and on, and somewhere in the middle, I sneaked out of the wedding to take a nap at the lakeside. Without enuf sunscreen, my face is now as BBQed as a half-cooked duck. And as I edged my way back up the island passing the wedding, they were still eating... probably onto the tenth course! I made it up to the top of the island again, to the other ruin (there are two in total on the top) to watch sunset. Watching the sunset brought back memories from my previous trip to Taquile Island (the neighbouring island). Thinking that the sun will take a while to fully set, I started to make my way to my family on the other side of the hill. My sense of timing was off and by the time I got near my family on the other side of the island, it was already dark and I did not have my headlamp with me and I was trapped n lost in the rice terraces unable to find my way back to the family. Just as I was really panicking and thinking that I need to just walk to any house with light on, I was saved by a family that kindly conceded to let me stay overnight until I can leave to look for my family in the next morning. And just as I was happily settled into their dark house (all they had was a candle for me in their room), the whole family came in and investigated me on the details of the family I was supposed to be staying with. I could only recall the name of one of little boys in the family... and after much debate among the family members in their native language Quechan, they have managed to narrow down the possibility of my family to two and then kindly launched a search crew, which consisted of the mom and the little son, to locate my family in the dark. Luckily these ppl do use flashlight so very quickly I was able to re-unite with my family and had my warm dinner followed by a restful sleep. Next day I went back to Puno and today I am in Cusco. Overall, the experience was healing, fun, and a bit shocking (the getting lost in the dark was a bit scary for me...).

Have booked myself for a 30-minute Coca tealeaf reading with a local shaman tomorrow morning. Friday I will do a three-day whitewater rafting trip on Rio Apurimac, which has come highly recommended by many. So I will not write until after. No Incan trail for me as it requires 3-month advance booking and I was too late. Instead I plan to do some bus hopping to sandwiched towns with connections via the Incan train, to see the much awaited Macchu Picchu.

Puno is a monet, beautiful from a distance, very dirty from close. Nonetheless it is still the town that tangents (can this be used as a verb?) Lake Titicaca, so a must-come spot. I am happy to be staying in the same hostal I had stayed 5 years ago, the Pukara Hostal, which has incredibly yummy breakfast, vey clean and charming rooms and these Bohemian-feel resting areas on certain floors. Puno is above 4,000M so I am feeling the thin air a bit, especially when i have to walk up 4 flights of stair to my room that is situated on the 5th floor, nevertheless it is a blessing in disguise because breakfast is served on the 6th.

Puno appears very differently to how I have remembered it. We have both changed so it took me a number of hours today to adjust. Today I strolled around town, first to an outpost that allowed me to see the town from a relative height, then thru a rowdy local public market to the harbour where I can see Lake Titicaca. The harbour is very dirty so I didnt really feel anything spiritual about this Lake. Rather, I had great fun strolling through the local markets as I love to check out what merchandise the local people like to sell. Interesting merchandise such as Crema Lechuga y Crema Chirimoya (lettuce cream and chirimoya cream, a type of fruit) intrigued me, of which I bought a small box for 50 centavos. Also enjoyed sifting through the incense sticks (they had archangel incense sticks which I havent seen sold in HK), the snack stands, and the amenities stands (Head & Shoulders, Gillette and Lux are also popular). Had a game of 1943 (airforce game) in the local arcade, which is about the only public video game i ever play. Being in an arcade suddenly brings back memories of being home, the fact that I havent been in a public theater nor a karaoke box for quite a number of months makes me slightly nostalgic.

Tomorrow I will take public ferry early in the morning to cross Lake Titicaca to one of the two popular islands, Isla de Amantani, on which I plan to stay 2 nights with a local family, a common practice for all the tourists. Am feeling like just touring the island on my own. Going with a tour agency feels like work n stress.

Hi there I´m still in Arequipa, am leaving on Friday for Puno to see Lake Titicaca. I just finished climbing my first mountain ever, Mount Misti! It was the most strenuous experience I´ve ever had in my life. Please see above the picture (Simon, me and Matthew from left to right at the crator of Misti at 5,700M). As I was using a disposable camera, which took horrible pictures, please use your imagination a bit to enrich these pictures. Left my digital camera behind as it wud´ve been too much to carry on my lil´ back. In retrospect, I´m ecstatic that I did it, but during those intense hours of gruelling uphill ascension, I´m not sure if I felt ecstacy, perhaps only during glimpses of being in the Now moment (which I´ll shortly explain why I´m describing it as such..), there were indeed some infusion of joy. So let me start with a lil´ background of what this Mount Misti is about.

Mount Misti is a 6,000M volcano very close to Arequipa. It is Arequipa´s signature mountain, pretty much everywhere you go in Arequipa, you´ll be able to see it. It is also probably the most popular mountain to climb, first, because of its proximity, and second because its starting point is lower than the other two also popular mountains, which makes it easier for those who are not acclimatized. Misti is also the only mountain in the vicinity that does not have an Indian name (Misti simply means Mister), because of its associated bad energy. Apparently many people have died from climbing this mountain, not because of its difficulty, but because it´s very easy to get lost on the mountain. And because of this bad record, it has not been bestowed an Indian name, such as Pichu Pichu (the mountain range on its right, or Chachani, behind it..) Basically from afar, Misti looks like a big blob of dark grey thing, not so attractive, but still, a popular target for many amateur and experienced mountaineers.

So my story all started in Bolivia, when I received many signs from above that mountain climbing is gonna become my new much loved hobby. So I let the idea sit, and nothing has come to fruition since... until last Thursday, I think it was, when Ampaco, the lady in my host family, asked me to watch this American movie about mountain climbing (sorry forgot the name and the actors´names..) with her in the living room, albeit her knowing that I can´t understand any of the Spanish without subtitles. At that moment, the thought of climbing Misti popped into my head. And then I started to recall how everyone I met have been saying to me that they want to go to Misti... in retrospect, I took that as being a projection of my own desire. The thought stayed in my head and shortly after I manifested it with Carlos Zarate Tours, which is owned by the son of the 83-year-old guide from Zarate Expeditions. In reality, they´re just one big family running different agencies that charge differently. This time I chose not to be ripped off and went with the cheapest branch - USD50 for 2 day expedition, which was really actually 24 hours.

Day one - picked up at about 830am from the agency and met the other four people in my group: a French couple (Alexi and Mirei) who I barely communicated with cuz´they can´t speak English, I could tell they are extremely fit as they were wearing neon colored gear with all the proper gear, like bright orange Oakley sunglasses with bandanas and those sleek black gloves that I yearn to possess, then two other French Canadian boys from Quebec who are like me, not much prior climbing experience, just here to have fun. On the way, we got our water and snacks, then shortly after, we arrived at the starting point of the climb, 3,400M. I had in my backpack, my bulky mummy bag (suitable for -ve 20 degrees), 3 litres of water, sleeping pad, clothings, snacks and regular amenities. I was ecstatic when my guide Angel (a man) said he wud carry my tent for me after I gave him this face like, ohmigod my bag is already too much! ha! The first 60 minutes was a whiz, then the next 60 minutes, then the next... and.. ar... the terrain keeps getting steeper.. and steeper, then big bulky rocks that I couldn´t just walk up but had to climb with my hands as well. Thinking back, the first day was tough, and quite to my surprise, incredibly enlightening as well. In fact, I was so deeply gratified for those feelings of tremendous groundedness and presentness while I was getting up that mountain on the first day, that I did almost feel ecstatic despite feeling intense exhaustion at the same time. The reason I say the above is that while I was making my way up the hill, all I could think of was the present, how I am breathing, and how I am alive, on this planet, and no other thoughts penetrated, not even the thought of arriving, because arrival was too far away to bother hoping for. I don´t recall that I´ve ever felt so grounded in my life. It is like, I´m here, and it´s all that matters. At moments, I almost felt like I could understand how people with extreme handicap or those people who face death but continue to live on, live. For a short moment, my heart connected with those courageous souls, which I´ve never quite understood in the past, and it was just an amazing moment of grace. And, shortly after those feelings of enlightenment and about 5 hours of trekking, I arrived at base camp, 4,700M. Angel already set up my tent when I arrived, so great! Dinner was ready within an hour. We all watched sunset, which was to our right, really picturesque, view of Pichu Pichu was on our left, also beautiful. Right after the sun left, we crawled into our tents (I had my own) to rest, and at 1am the next day, we got up to start the second day ascension. Temperature of about 0 degrees in nighttime. My mummy bag kept me as warm as a poached egg inside.

Day 2: Had breakfast at 145am, few pieces of toast with marmalade and a hot glass of mate de coca. Great thing, no need to carry backpacks because we could leave our stuff at base camp. You should see my face when I heard our guides told us that. Started to walk at 230am. First hour was bearable, second hour was hell. My first thought of maybe-i-should-quit popped in at about 5,000M. I was just plain tired. My other inner voice quickly shot down that hideous thought. Rationally, I had no excuse to quit, because apparently only those with extreme soroche can ask the guides to take them down. One of the French Canadian boy has asthma and he was fine, so oh well... The majority of the terrain is as steep as a black ski-run, and occasionally you get these maybe 30-minute stretches of nasty double-black run with big slippery rocks that require climbing. Then came the last 2-hours of the ascension, the worst part ever. About 730am now. Sun is up but behind the mountain, so no help. Temperature now below zero, with very strong winds. I was wearing three pairs of pants (two long johns and one cover), two turtlenecks, two fleece (1 vest and a jacket) plus a gortex, AND,I was still feeling cold even when walking. Fingers in pain. Water turned into ice and my yummy chocolate bar has transformed into an inedible piece of rock. Took minimal breaks because no point - body cooled down really quicky for me (if I rest), and took more than 30 minutes to re-warm up, and also much harder to re-warm up because air was thin. French couple nowhere in sight, they´ve zoomed way ahead of us. Then came the last stretch and I got grumpy at those slippery and sharp pink rocks that made me climb them. Cussed at the rocks but was no use. Felt bad afterwards because cussing is no good to their energy nor mine, so calmed down, kept going. Done. Arrived. Me, the two other boys and Angel ended the hike at the crator at 5,700M, which is not the highest point of the mountain (the highest point is 6,000M), but we were satisfied. The ending was a bit anti-climatic, I guess cuz´we were all tired, and also because the weather was bad. I could barely see the crator, only smelled the sulfuric fumes and 5 minutes plus a photo of only mist in the background (see above) was enough. Descension to base camp only took 1.5 hours. The path is a separate one, on very fine volcanic sand where descension felt like skiing (especially with our sticks) and looked like hopping bunnies from behind. Another 1.5 hours to the bottom from base camp and I was back in Arequipa by noon on the second day!

Overall it was a memorable experience. In the future when I become more fit I will bring a better camera to the mountain, the pictures from my disposable camera are really horrible. Bummer. I´m resting and running errands today and tomorrow, and on Friday, starts my journey into the gems of Peru (Lake Titicaca, and Macchu Picchu shortly after). Bus to Puno is 6 hours and 20 Soles (USD6 bucks). Until then, later.

Hola es mi tambien. Just finished six-day intensive Spanish course, learned like 7 or 8 different tenses so my head´s just spinning with too many forms of verb conjugations. Enough classes for now so I dun think I´ll be taking much more for a while. Have decided to stay on past next Tuesday the 15th because it is a big Arequipa festival where lots and lots people with traditional clothings dance on the streets, and Jessica from my host family has promised to take me to her friend´s party so I look forward to staying for the fiesta. In the meantime I´m trying to decide first, whether, then, with which tour group I should go with for a tour to Mount Misti. Mount Misti is a volcano nearby, and one of the three mountains that you can climb close to Arequipa. It´s supposed to be the easiest one because you start at a lower altitude of 3,500M and ascend to its peak of 6,000M on the second day. Will update if i decide to embark on this venture. Worry about soroche (altitude sickness) cuz´ I haven´t been in really high altitude since Bolivia. Continue to eat lots and lots n tummy protests from time to time because i´ve been ignoring its feelings (of bloatedness and stuffiness..) I discovered that Arequipa not only has very yummy Peruvian food, but also very yummy international food, have eaten yummy Turkish, Mexican, French and Italian food for the past week. Arequipa also has the best postres (desserts), chocolate y chocolate cake with dulce y leche (a popular sweet sauce used for sweets, sorta like caramel), n lotsa n lotsa crepes, including crepe with nutella!! Tan rico!

Just had a massage in Arequipa, really won´t recommend it. Have been back from my Colca Canyon trek and has had two days of Spanish class already. Ok, hehe, lotsa to update. First, let me start from last Thursday when I booked my Colca Canyon 3-day trekking tour. I booked with Zarate Expeditions, which is owned by this 83 year-old mountaineer who has been guiding mountain climbing tours to Misti and Chachani (6,000M peaks nearby) for like 50 years and is supposed to be the oldest mountain guide still working on Earth. He charged me USD60 for my 3-day trekking when I consciously knew that the agency across the street was charging 45. Anyhow, this stout lil´ old man (not even 5 foot tall) seemed really nice n sweet so it´s ok I was ripped off. But the truth is it doesn´t matter which agency you book with, you often end up with another one cuz´ all the travelers are pooled and in my group, everybody paid different prices for the same thing. ah well. So I was told I wud be picked up at 5am on Friday, ended up the taxi didn´t come until 6am to take me to the public bus station where I met up with the other group members. There were 5 of us in total, an Australian couple (Sam and Jason) who are traveling Europe and South America after having worked in London for many years, a 20-year old Danish boy (Morten) who has worked night-shift in a furniture factory for 8 months and just saved enuf money for him to travel the whole world for a year, and a French girl from Breast (some town in Brittany of France supposedly) by the name of Claire who´s traveling in Peru for 6 weeks while doing 3 weeks of volunteer work here in Arequipa.

We boarded 630am public bus which took us to Chivay in 4 hours, then hopped onto another bus which took us to Cabanaconde in 2 hours, a small town which was the starting and ending point of our hike. The hike started with wide flat terrain overlooking a lil´ snowy peak called Apple? where the indigenous people apparently go each year to worship God. Then the trail in the canyon started to take form and we descended for about 4 hours on this slippery rocky road which took us to our first night of stay, San Juan de Chucco. Shaky legs and improper shoes (i intelligently didn´t wear my hiking boots!) triggered a minor injury where I slipped and landed on my back - luckily my lovely pink Lafuma backpack was long enough to cushion my lil´ ass while my abs shielded my camera, rendering only an injury of merely 1 mm in diameter in my left palm. In my recollection, San Juan de Chucco is probably the nicest lodge I´ve ever stayed on a trek ever. It felt so serene and clean! Took a cold shower and strolled about barefoot until the sun went home. Next day we got up at 730am and started hiking around 830am. Terrain was fairly mild on the second day, some flat, some uphill, then downhill for the last hour or so because our destination was an Oasis in the middle of the barren mountains, which had a huge swimming pool! It was great! Sunbathed for several hours until again, the sun went away... Since we were at the bottom of the valley on the second day, it meant that we have to make our way back up, and quite a long way.. back to Cabanaconde on the last day. There were several other groups that had to do the ascension hike on the same second day, which is basically a 3-hour non-stop uphill hike of 1,200M (from 2,200 to 3,400M in Cabanaconde). I´m so grateful my group had an alternative itinerary of doing it at 3am the next morning, which, although sounds horrible (having to wake up at 230am), but really was miles better! So we had dinner at 6pm and at 720pm, we were all tucked into bed together in one big round hut thingy (that actually had great comfy warm beds). At 730pm, Jason discovered static electricity by rubbing his hands on the mattress in darkness, and for like 30 minutes, he and his girlfriend would not stop trying to make a video out of him running his legs on his mattress, and of coz, to no avail, since any light (from the v-camera) wud just kill the sight of any electricity. I fell asleep around 9pm, so had a good 5 hour of deep sleep with the sound of running creeks right next to me. And we started hiking at 3am in pitch darkness. We had our headlights so it was fine. In fact it was great, cuz´ we got to stop every now and then to stargaze! The first 45 minutes was grueling, I was panting my lungs out and had to consciously tell my legs to lift like a baby learning to walk. After the first hour or so, my mind sorta stopped spinning futile thoughts and my body just took over my soul and I was marching like a machine. So I got to the top around 6am, just when the sun woke up from its sleep and greeted me with a gentle ray of gold. Sun rays painted the rolling terraces at the top with a sheen of yellowish gold. In awe of the beauty I was surrounded in, I put on my fleece jacket and gloves and took a few shots with my camera. The day then kicked off with a full course breakfast, followed by busing over to La Cruz del Condor (a higher point of the canyon) where we watched huge condors (a kind of big birds) in white and brown colors swirl right over our heads with the backdrop of the Colca Canyon, which is apparently twice as big as the Grand Canyon. To my naked eye, it looked, DEEP. So that was the trek. Highly recommend.

Joined my host family on the night I returned and I have this room in the backyard of their house which renders great sunlight in the morning, so so precious as hostals are rarely bright and lighting makes SO much difference. There was hot shower on the first day but this morning my luck was out, no hot shower because thermal wasn´t on or something so resorted to duching with a bucket of warm water. Spanish class is fun. You can´t believe this! I ran into Rebeka, the girl I met in La Paz!! in the very beginning! It´s so incredible because I tried to write her last week, suspecting with my intuition that I could see her and Jewels again in Peru, but then because I´ve lost my notepad (where I have recorded everyones emails) in Bolivia, I didn´t recall her email off the top of my head properly and the email was bounced back! So there she was, in the Spanish school on Monday! So we´ve been hanging out since and are in the same class together. Our teacher, Alan, is a 21-year old Peruvian university student of literature and an aspiring novelist who loves Edgar Allan Poe. He´s great. Went out drinking last night with some girls I met on the Colca trek - my first time partying/´po-ing´ since my travels in South America. Had multiple glasses of Pisco Sour (a popular Peruvian drink made with Pisco, lemon juice, sugar and egg white), which is incredibly yummy but really actually quite strong..

Will return to host family for dinner (get two free meals per diem with my stay) and catch up on my readings. Finally got a hold of the book, Che Guavarra´s motorcycle journals in South America last week, am enjoying it!

Am in my third full day here in Arequipa. Totally skipped Arica cuz´ it was completely overcast when i landed from San Pedro and therefore, no sign of beach possibility. Hired a driver to go to Tacna in Peru (1.5 hours from Arica), then boarded a local 7-hour bus to Arequipa. Arequipa is real paradise - HOT weather in the day, like I am wearing my tanktops and shorts, and yummy Peruvian food and French crepes abound. Yah there is actually quite a French influence here. The nice part of the city actually resembles Europe in many ways (from the Spanish influence i guess), cobblestone streets, elegant iglesias (churches) and pigeon group gatherings. Arequipa is also close to much natural beauty and several very high mountains (6,000m plus) and the relatively well-known Colca Canyon where you can see condors, of which I will trek from Friday to Sunday.

The past few days have been nice, relaxing and full of interesting signs, i wud say. Strolled around town alot fishing for some Spanish classes, then by accident stumbled on a New Age spiritual talk poster called the Raelian Movement (based out of Japan) that emphasizes UFOs, for apparently, Rael, the founder of this movement, has had direct contact with the ETs back in the 70s and has since been since been spreading spiritual intelligence sourced from them. Well, it´s interesting to know that this movement has spread to Peru as well, but what I´m not sure about, is whether this strong emphasis on UFOs is truly necessary. And out of curiosity, I did go to the talk (albeit for only 10 minutes because I was understanding like 2% of the spanish..) and what caught my eye was its mentioning of the Mayans recordings of intelligence from extra-terrestrials. In particular, they were showing the temple of Palenque, which, to no coincidence, is where the White Light Essence I´m currently taking (Higher Self) was made and also where I´ve wanted to go badly in Mexico. On a separate note, Í´ve also been randomly visiting many churches / cathedrals, one of which has made a particular impression on me, as unlike many old touristic churches, it does not have bloody Jesus on a cross right in the middle with too much gold ornaments on the sides, but rather, two lovely angel statues, a painting of the ascended Jesus and a great hi-fi system that was playing a soft New Age meditation-type celestial music when i entered. I also went white water rafting on the Rio Chile for one morning, very very fun... lotsa Class III rapids and a two-second Class IV rapid which was basically like being on a free-fall ride in the theme parks!

Next week I´m doing a five-day intensive group Spanish class (4 hours a day) and staying with a local family. Been conversing more with the locals and feel it´s time I take my Spanish to another level, whatever that level is...

So that was my week up til´now. More, later.

Photo: La Catedral en la Plaza de Armas at 630pm in Arequipa

In roughly an hour I board an overnight bus to Arica, the northern most city in Chile which is on the coast!! Really hoping for some hot weather. There are beaches there so hopefully it is hot enuf for some beaching. Have just been wandering about mindlessly in San Pedro for the past 3 days. San Pedro is a very small desert town with lotsa cafes and hostals as it is a popular tourist spot for both foreigners and Chileans. Went on two tours, which I both enjoyed! I did the sunset watching in the Moon Valley national park just 12 km from San Pedro, the landscape was gorgeous and exotic, felt like being in the movie Star Trek. The pinnacles of the nearby mountain resemble tips of lemon meringues in the color orange, so really quite cool!

The second tour was a more scientific tour, basically a three hour astronomy class outdoors where we learned to read constellations in the sky (not necessarily zodiacal but I did see the sigs of Scorpio, Sagitarrius, Libra and Capricorn and the planet Jupiter). I learned to read the southern axis so that I can tell about where in the world I am by looking at the sky. Unfortunately this only applies when I´m in the Southern Hemisphere so have to relearn when I return to HK. First I need to buy myself a red flashlight if I wanna do this again, which will allow me to point at the nightsky! I also learned that astronomists nowadays actually use advanced digital cameras to view stars (instead of telescopes) because you can basically record stars from the night sky that no naked eye or telescope can see with a digital camera set on a very long exposure time (like two weeks!) and you´ll be able to see galaxies from 5 billion light years away or something, really incredible!! Another really interesting finding is that apparently all astronomists in the world concur that there have to be lifeforms outside of Earth (apparently some planet was discovered in 1995..) and this is inferred from a very basic rationale which says that if our Sun is a star, then all the stars in the sky must also be somehow serving as the suns of other solar systems, whether like ours or not! So this is all really interesting for me!

Alright, enough for now. Need to run to get some water and snacks before I board my bus. Bye bye.

Hola from Chile! I´m really exhausted at the moment, didn´t actually mean to update my blog, but since I´m waiting for my new friend I met in my tour making me and him CDs from our pix, I thought I´d write. My friend will leave in two hours to Peru, just as everyone I´ve been meeting here so far, hi, then bye the next day! Don´t mean to sound cynical, but it´s actually really fun!! Some of which I´m so sure I´ll c again in the future, the world is small, u never know =)

So, just as everything from my three-day Salar tour from Bolivia to Chile is fresh in my mind, I´ll color it for you with the best of my abilities. I can´t really think of any other word to describe the trip than Magic!! I know this sounds cheesy, but yah, that was how I felt during the tour. Well to take a lil´ detour first, magic was preceded by darkness. I landed in Uyuni, a freezing desert town with no real settlement other than that concocted for tourism, at 8am on Saturday. The bus ride was really bumpy, nonetheless it was still a nice bus with heat, warm meals and even a TV. On the same day of my arrival, I came down with a stomach flu and basically had diarrhea for 24 hours (not continuously of coz but u know what i mean) and some fever. Struggled hard to get rid of it with all kinds of methods, spiritual, emotional, physical/metaphysical, u name it. I was signed up originally for the Salar tour on the next day, which I smartly postponed to the day after, and thanks to myself and the universe, my body was back up functionally at 90% efficiency by the time of the following morning. So that was a short but dark episode. Well, Uyuni was really cold, even in the hotel, not fun to be sick there.

So, the tour started around noon on Monday. Out of tens of agencies, I picked Tunupa Tours, which felt right. We had six people on our tours, which I´ll briefly introduce: Josef and wife (sorry forgot her name) from Spain, who are experienced mountaineers and South America travelers who basically served as our guide on this tour because we didn´t have one in practice (the driver just drove and that was it), Lena from Denmark who´s been traveling in Argentina since January and has changed her flight home twice already, Kristofer from Sweden, an engineer who just finished his six-month work in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) and is traveling in Bolivia, and Dylan, Amderstam boy doing three week in Peru and Bolivia who´s copying my pictures right now cuz´ apparently my camera takes better pictures than his. Ok, the first stop was the much anticipated Salar de Uyuni, which is basically the largest salt flat in the world and pretty much what drew me to the trip in the first place. Much to my disppointment, this was probably the least interesting of the tour. The salt flat was nothing but miles of flat white land with lil´ mounts of white cones that are often not even white because so many jeeps pass by them everyday. (I may not even show u my pix here cuz´ they are sooo bad). Second stop was the Isla de Pescadores, kinda interesting, a lil´ island of chunky cactuses in the middle of these white salt flats. We had lunch there in front of the island, and what was funny was that the entrance ticket of this Isla shows NOT the island itself, but the jeeps that line up in front of the Isla having lunch. The first day was relatively short and we landed in our first overnight stay in San Juan. The room was bare and we slept in our sleeping bags. Dinner was yummy tho, had BBQ chicken and fries. No showers of coz.

I can´t remember exactly all the different sights we saw on the second day, but everything we saw were just gorgeous, from funky mountains in a distance to desolate red lakes with flamingos to huge rocks on deserts etc... they were all so just beautiful. I wish I could describe them better in words but as I try to recall those images, I can´t seem to anymore, it´s like it was an experience and that was it. The third day is even more amazing, cuz´ the landscape really turned more and more unearthly when we approached Chile. Basically you would feel like you´re on Mars. Incredibly high altitudes, I think we almost hit 5,000 m at some points, crazy windchills, and just vasts and vasts of brown land with these exotic alien looking mountains that have lime green and pink colors in them, oh! and we saw Dali rocks (you know those rocks that Dali the painter painted). The geysers (volcanic springs?) that I saw this morning (3rd day) was totally my favourite. Hopefully my pictures will capture at least some of how it really appeared to me, so will share those shortly. Forgot to talk about my second night stay tho, gruelling cold I hated that part. The shack we stayed in used tin or aluminum as the roof in the hang-out eating area which basically conducts heat AWAY from anything, so me and some of the tour friends decided to dance (without music) after dinner to keep ourselves warm. The night sleep was ok, managed to catch a few hours as we had to wake up at 5am in order for the group to finish seeing all the sights and drop Dylan and I to take another bus to cross over to Chile. So I´m exhausted. San Pedro de Atacama seems really boring to me now, but I´ll rest here probably until the day after tomorrow before I take an overnight bus to Arica, the northern most city in Chile, where I can cross over to Peru. I hope to do some trekking near Arica (there´s a really nice national park there) after some good rest.

Tomorrow I´ll chill and maybe take a short half-day tour to see sunset on some valley nearby. Will write again very very soon. Yes, and the pictures.. let´s see how I can effectively share them. Ciao.

Just a short one today. Am leaving for the Salar via 10-hour bus tonight at 9pm, which will arrive at 7am tomorrow morning. Hope to sign up for a tour right away so I can start the four-day jeep journey across the salt flats and various lakes. I plan to end the tour in San Pedro Atacama of Chile, which is couple hours from the Bolivian border. San Pedro is a desert-town which is supposed to be really nice. After which I will slowly work my way up through Northern Chile back to Peru.

Had big fat meals today: scrambled eggs with ham and toast and orange juice at breakfast, then a tempura udon and green tea ice-cream for lunch, followed by a strawberry milkshake which was really yummy, but kinda knocked me over cuz´ too much dairy products can make one really tired in this altitude. Am just hoping that the slightest layer of additional fat can keep me warmer on my trip in the Salar! =) Also went to exchange my book, Coehlo´s ¨The Devil and Miss Prym¨ for one of Nora Roberts´ romance novel. (There are no bookstores here, only places where you can exchange books.) Will see how that goes... Did some last minute shopping plus a snack spree. Going to grab dinner before I leave now. I know, I´m all about food.. hehe. Probably won´t write until I´m in Chile! Hasta luego mis amigos!

Hi I´m alive! I survived biking on the Death Road to Coroico! It was really cool really fun, highly recommend it if you happen to be in La Paz! Ok, I have to share all the details. First we started in this place called Las Cumbres at 4750m, beautiful landscape, put on gears, learned to use my bike (mainly the brakes) and had a lil´sip of this very sweet local alcohol as a blessing to Pachamama (what they call Mother Earth here). My group had about 12 ppl and we had two guides and a bus following the bikers. I was the slowest I believe because of my weight and my skill, so one of the guide spent the first hour biking on my side to make sure I´m ok! Actually the best part of the trip was actually the biking on the paved road which wasn´t the death road itself. I felt like I was a motorcyclist zooming downhill amidst barren hills in thin air. Then about two hours later, the Death Road biking part started and we were given new instructions. Basically we were told to bike on the left side always (which is the side of the cliff because that´s the side of downhill traffic) and we were told ALWAYS to get off our bikes on the right side, because if we get off on the left side, and a car comes by next to us, we will easily slip off the cliff, and... die (which has happened before to some girl in another tour group). Also, guides will whistle whenever there´s traffic coming behind us (downhill) or coming uphill (even tho we´re on the left side) so we´ll have to stop our bikes and wait until the cars have passed, because the roads sometimes can get very narrow where there will not be enuf space for traffic plus bike, it is that narrow. So anyway I was nervous, but actually the biking bit wasn´t really that scary cuz´ the whole time you´re focused on the road itself (you never wanna look at the scenery because you´ll then become a part of it!) and kept a healthy distance with the person in front of you. I was always the last in the pack because I was just so slow.. hehe. I figured that under normal circumstance, you really won´t slid off the edge, just like when driving on a bridge, you are not just suddenly going to fly off the bridge. So anyway, the ride was bumpy and tiring on my thumb cuz´ I had to keep the brakes slightly on most of the time because it´s downhill. The whole biking trip took about 4 hours, I had to stop in the last 30 minutes because I was getting too tired from the bumps so I decided to hop onto the bus to rest.

Coroico is a lil´ boony town, hot and low in altitude so I was able to catch a glimpse of summer weather. The scariest part of the trip was infact the bus ride home (4 hours at night). I thought I´ve seen narrow roads in China, but this one really has earned its name. We would see debris of fallen trucks from looking over certain parts of the road, apparently we were told that 4 days ago a truck went over and 2 weeks ago another one did. There were several moments where I thought the truck coming towards us will roll off! Normally, uphill traffic (which we were on the way back) has right of way and is on the inside of the road, which is much safer, however, there were numerous times where these huge Volvo trucks carrying I-don´t-know-what would force us to take the outside and that was a bit scary, cuz´ i guess they dun wanna risk falling over.. Nonetheless, our driver has had 31 years of experience on this road so that kept our confidence level up.

So that was my interesting one-day fun trip. Went to a bar with the groupie afterwards that served normal American cocktails like Red Bull and Vodka, which cost HKD38 dollars, more than probably alot of what many travelers´ are paying for their hostals here. Then we went to an oxygen bar where we had 10 minute of oxygen intake each, which I didn´t feel anything from at all.

Today is rest day, laundry day and travel arranging day. Hope to leave La Paz in a day or two to see the Salar. Bye now.

Photo: Las Cumbres at 9am

Sorry its been a while since I last wrote. Frankly not too much has happened, have just been chilling in La Paz, enjoying the altitude (panting whenever i walk unhill) and hanging out with some travelers that I met here and there. I have been forced out of my original hostal so I am currently staying in my third room (first forced out of my room to another shared room then to another hostal). All a blessing in disguise, because my current hostal, called La Posada de la Abuela is really really great, like international standard, and only USD20 bucks a night. The weekend that just passed was a national festival (La Paz city day or something) so all the hostals are really full. The reason why this one isnt is I think because it is new and its not on any guidebooks, not even on the yellow page! I learned it from the Aussie girls who were staying here before they left for Lake Titicaca.

So a typical day for me in La Paz is wake up around 10am, have breakfast if I make it before 11am, if not, have lunch, walk around city, shop a bit, eat afternoon tea, walk around a bit more, go to the internet cafe, try to figure out how to go to the Salar (you will be amazed, the information about the transportation is so confusing I took several days to really find out how to go there), then have dinner (had two nights of Japanese food here, one at the best Jap restaurant in town called Wagamama and one night at the second best Japanese restaurant called New Tokyo). Anyway, am booked to do a mountain biking trip on the Worlds Most Dangerous Road (WMDR) tomorrow that takes me to Coroico. The reason it is called WMDR is because statistically there have been the most accidents (like buses rolling off the cliff, about 100 a year). Well I am going with a very established "American" tour group which hasnt had any accidents in 10 years, so I should be alright. Heard the vertical scenery is absolutely breathtaking, will share once I am done with it. I really wanna post pictures on here, i did try but somehow I failed, probably cuz the resolution is too high, then becuase these computers are in spanish, i really cant figure out how to reduce the resolution. Maybe later on, I will email out a group of photos for you to enjoy!

Lotsa love and missing everyone and home, from sunny La Pazzzzzz. This keyboard doesnt have the apostrophe...

Photo: Bolivians on strike. Picture taken under high risk of camera being snatched, so no more of these.

I am currently in La Paz, the de facto capital city of Bolivia. Let me retrace how I got here! I was booked on a 230am Lloyd Aereo Boliviano flight leaving from Lima to Santa Cruz (which is way east of Bolivia while La Paz is much closer to the West side and Peru) to La Paz that was scheduled to arrive at 845am. The flight was delayed til 445am, and what was supposed to be a two-legged flight, ended up being a four-legged flight that flew from Lima to Santa Cruz to Cochabamba to Sucre then to La Paz!! I arrived at about 2pm in the afternoon. The great thing about doing such a flight is that you get to see a lot of Bolivia all in one morning! I was able to take some aerial photos of the Andean mountain (oops, it´s not the Andes, just some mountain range) with interlacing clouds on the way to Cochabamba. On my camera screen they look awesome, hopefully the dirt on the plane windows wont be too much of a distraction! Also met an Australian girl on the flight, her name is Gabi, and she was coming from Buenos Aires. She got two other friends who are backpacking South America for a year who she is here to join and we have been hanging out since yesterday, which is nice!

I am staying at Hostal Republica, a cute cozy and quite place with two courtyards. I really like it! The altitude here is quite high, 3660 m. Basically La Paz is built on hills and valley, so from the center of the town, you can see lotsa houses on very steep hills surrounding the center part, which is really cool! To acclimatize myself to the altitude, I am drinking lotsa water, walking slowly and taking many doses of the Water essence. My sleep was light and I was getting some headaches in the night time, but today is good so far. Yesterday I had dinner with the girls at this place called Dumbo (yes, the Dumbo the elephant) where we had lotsa fried food and chocolate sundae. Today we strolled at the Witches´ market, which is a major tourist attraction. The guidebook makes it sound all spooky and intriguing, but it´s merely a lil´alley with lotsa souvenir shops, and the only relatively spooky thing they got selling there is the llama fetuses, which are supposed to used as gifts to Mother Earth for burial or something. I bought some alpaca clothings which are realy cheaper, most things for less 50 hongkie. Btw, the Boliviano has the same exchange rate to the dollar as Hongkie..

Anyway, the altitude is making me sleepy and my eyes feel really dry at the moment. Later on, I will try to post some of my photographs on the blog as well. But I probably will wait til´I have enough pix to burn on a CD, which is what everyone does here to clear room for their memory cards. This keyboard is horrible. will write again later. Am in La Paz until Sunday.

Photo: Aerial shot on flight from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba, Cordillera Real de Bolivia

I realized last night that I had some fears of moving forward (trapped in my legs), so I had to sit in it for a bit, let it surface, and say bye to it so that I can move on. Isn´t this a classic one! So today I was able to decide on where to go next - Southwest Bolivia where I get to see the famous Salar de Uyuni (salt desserts), the tour there traverses one of the wildest and most dramatic landscapes in the world! Also, the climate there is supposed to be really extreme during this time of the year especially (can swing from negative 30 at night to 30 degrees celsius during the day) because of the altitudes, so I went to get myself a big thick sleeping bag today, just in case the accomodation happens to be shy on heat. Tomorrow I will book my flight to fly into La Paz (Bolivia´s capital city), where I will hang out for couple days and take public transportation (bus and train) to go to Uyuni where I can join some group tours to do the touring.

Besides this, Lima is nice, but not so interesting anymore. Yesterday, I did find a really awesome place for buying handicrafts and jewelry, called Las Pallas. The store is part of the owner's home, who is a Norwegian lady with a trained Peruvian dog. I spent a handsome amount snapping up goodies such as jewelries and a wall tapestry. Can´t resist! Pulled angel card Abundance the night before so I guess the abundance comes from me spending my own money to create more abundance in my life.. hehehe.

Alrighty, write again soon.

Hello from beautiful Peru in Southern Hemisphere!!!! Today is my first full day in this beautiful amazing country. I absolutely love it here. Everything has been great so far, albeit not having done much really on my first day. Let me retrace all the nitty gritty, since I´d like to use this blog as sorta a log of the places or hostals I´m visiting and staying, for future references! So I landed in Lima´s airport last night near midnight. The airport was completely packed, and there were at least 5 more flights going to arrive after mine. The airport was surprisingly nice, I wud say it´s even US standard, as you know how some airports in the US are really not so great anyway. I guess I´m spoiled by HK standard. I had a taxi guy Antonio pick me up which was from the hostal I stayed in, called Posada del Parque in Central Lima. I found this hostal from my travel guide Moon Peru and it is a lil´ cute hostal with adorable wall decor and a very homely ambience to it. I liked my room and my bed quite alot, but unfortunately, it´s booked up after last night so after I checked out at noon today, then had Antonio from last night take me to Miraflores, another part of Lima which is relatively affluent, to look for another place to stay.

The new place is called Hostal Oro Blanco, the name sounds great but the ambience is much worse, albeit more expensive because of the location. I wanted to stay at Hostal el Patio which has lotsa fauna and plants surrounding it and more colonnial style, unfortunately it´s also all booked up. It´s high season so I´m lucky to even find a room this last minute. So after checking in, I grabbed lunch at a lil´restaurant next door and went straight to South American Explorer Club, which is 15 minutes walking distance from my hostal. I signed up to become a member, USD50 dollars per year per person to become a member, not cheap, but very helpful because you get to use their library to access travel information for South America and can store luggages for free there, which is what I most want. I realize only yesterday that my big backpack weighs 43lbs and small one weights 18 lbs. Together they weigh more than half my size. There is no way I´m carrying that around to anywhere rural, so for sure, I need to slash out ideally 30 to 40% weight and store at SAE before I leave Lima. Did some research in SAE, I was really pulled to going to Bolivia to see the salt lakes called Salar dUyuni at the moment, but will see how my research goes in the next few days, as my mind seems to change every few minutes. Then I went to a really nice restaurant for dinner called¨Astrib y Gastron, which was by far the best meal I´ve had since traveling, beating even the great food in LA! Although initialy I was a bit bummed out that I have to eat by myself, very soon after, I became fully engrossed in my guidebook again and my spanish-english dictionary, scrambling for the right Spanish phrases to say to the waiters. I was also in awe with my appetizer Ceviche, a very famous Peruvian dish, which is basically a cold fish dish with very sour sauce.

Ok writing too much. I better return to the hostal before it´s too late. This computer is really bad, the symbol keys are all screwed up...

Today is my last day in the United States as I'm leaving for Lima, Peru tomorrow. I only just confirmed one night of hotel booking in Lima because places are full from high season. It seems that the universe does not stop testing my trust and has already been preparing me with little exercises, like making me lose my car key when I most needed it (yesterday) cuz' I was in a rush to post my stuff to HK before July 4th! Got into a lil' scramble and when I finally had some peace I got a flash and ran straight to the guest bathroom and found my car key lying right next to the sink.

Last few days in San Diego has been relaxing, albeit still feeling that I could've taken life more easily. I practiced a lot of soul memory on Karen and her two dogs, each first session takes approximately 2 to 3 hours. Cindy (Karen's dog, a Weimaraner) was so cute she would sit up each time I had to pull stuff from her aura. The work is quite amazing, my energy field seems to become clearer and clearer as I facilitate the process for others, as issues carried by others are always a mirror of ourselves in some level or another. The other very exciting thing that occurred within these few days is that I started to create my own essence from nature. The idea suddenly popped into my head when I was connecting with the huge papertree in Karen's backyard which had miraculously quadrupled in size over the past decade. The papertree feels so happy and I was so incredibly touched by the joy and peace it emanated. The essence is still under creation so I will wait until the process is finished before sharing its qualities and messages with you. Will go for a walk in the beach nearby and pack up for an early flight tomorrow.

Write again when I am in Peru =)

I'm so happy to be finally in front of a computer. I'm staying at this spiritual retreat in the suburban area of San Diego, so there is absolutely no computer access. The rooms are nice except they have pretty much everything you need and nuthin' more. Then I have no car, and getting everywhere requires a car, so I have to get rides from my classmates everyday. I plan to rent a car after the workshop to go see friend Karen in Coronado Island. Good luck with that given my absolutely poor map reading and direction skills. keke.

Quickly let me gloss over what I've done in the past two weeks. Arrived in LA and stayed with friend Michelle for 4 days - shopped, ate, watched some Sex and the City and saw the play Les Miserables (which we both absolutely abhorred..). I took the amtrak to San Diego last Saturday and the train was delayed for 2 hours because there was a power shortage in Anaheim and loads of sweaty men that just came out of the baseball stadium packed in MY cargo with no airconditioning for a long long time. So when I arrived I was 3 hours late (cuz I also missed the train I was supposed to be on) and thank god the lady who was supposed to pick me up from the train station waited for me!! and took me to Questhaven Lodge (the retreat I'm staying at), which would've been impossible if I haven't had a car. I really dun think there are any taxis here. On a separate note, San Diego is absolutely beautiful, I was surprised to find that it's miles different from LA - rolling hills with masses of green lands that're becoming filled up by low rises, but still, very nice!

So I've done 6 days in my 10 day Soul Memory Discovery course with Ellen. Today is a break, which is much needed. Learning too much to share them all here so will share more when I come home. All in all I'm really enjoying it. On my third day in LA, I received a message from my guides that I need to go to Peru first. So I got my plane ticket to Peru leaving on July 5th and as of now, I'm not sure about Mexico. Am already feeling a bit tired, guess the course is just too intense, so hopefully after my lil' break in Coronado Island I will be recharged to travel more.

More and more later..

(Photograph: Casa de Angeles, Questhaven Retreat, San Diego)

Alright, I'm 85% done with packing as of now, still got a mini-list of things to buy tomorrow, among which is the most important digital camera that for some reason I've put off getting until now! Just another act of procrastination, but I have identified the model and the store from which I'll get, so it should be ok. Many things have occurred in the past few days to give me clarity on what is to come in my trip. Of coz, surprises will always be nice! This will be a journey full of fun discoveries about self and planet earth, my home at the moment. The most difficult thing about leaving is to rise up to the challenge of becoming fully loyal to myself alone, which means letting go of attachments to my family, their expectations, worries, which are like invisbile leashes that tug on my back every now and then. My doggie knows I'm leaving as she's just psychic and is especially sensitive to people leaving given her abandonment patterns. For the past two nights, she's been sleeping next to my backpacks, hoping that by doing so, I will bring her along on my trip. Nice try. So I had a conversation with my beloved Bee Bee, (rarely was she so patient to sit on my lap as she hates to be controlled in any way). I told her I will be back in four full-moons (i think that's about right!) and told her to send me telepathy if she misses me or if anything happens at home that makes her unhappy. Mom has promised to let Bee Bee sleep in her room so she will not feel lonely without me, so sweeeeet. Time to go to bed.

Oops, forgot to share an interesting thing I learned few days ago. I met Eva's husband last Thursday who shared with me his experience traveling alone in Central America and how he successfully dissipated dangers by simply saying out loud from his heart "I'm a light of God". One time he was at a bar and there were gangsters speaking Spanish. Then out loud he yelled "I'm a light of God", from his heart! and everybody just froze in shock. At the end, the man he said it to who was trying to mug him, even helped me. Amazing! Anyway, I don't hope to practice this as it would mean I'm put in a place of danger. But if I am in a place of danger, I believe this will really save my ass. I hope I'm not sending the wrong message to the universe, but anyway, I can see how powerful this can be.

Hello. It is now a lil' less than a week before I take off to my travels. I'm feeling a bit nauseous as I guess a part of me still holds much fear about the changes that will come during my travels. Also I'm feeling anxious about packing as I do not like to pack and I've been procrastinating on it, but today I'm feeling I must get my ass going on it. So after I finish my first blog entry I will grab my brother's big backpack (which I'm borrowing cuz' it's big) and start to put in the winter clothes first, since I expect to tread South America at the latter part of my trip.

My thoughts about the trip are scattered at this moment. It's like the stillness before a storm, yes, that's how I'm feeling. Much will be unfolded in this trip, yet I'm blindfolded at the moment. The only channeled messages I've received so far about my travel is that I will be prepared for what I'm being prepared for - wow, what an insight that brings me no where. At the same time, what fun will there be if I know what is to come!? Great! Anyhow, yesterday I did pick up a book from Ruby's called "The Heart of Cristos" and to no coincidence, it contains many interesting pastlife memories of the writer in Mesoamerica and apparently the Mayans had access to star wisdoms from Pleiades. So I'm looking forward to visiting some Mayan temples in Mexico where I will possibly download for myself these wisdoms while I'm there! So this part makes me very excited!

Ok. All for now. Expect to write every now and then. So pls come back when you think about me while I'm away...