About Gabrielle Armstrong

After being told that the roads down from La Paz to Uyuni were unsafe due to flooding and landslides, I decided to take a detour and head down to the official Capital City, Sucre. The city itself is very colonial with elaborate white buildings and some very welcome warm weather.
Sucre is all very pretty, but it lacks any real tourist activities and after facing the death road, I was in search of a new adventure! The most I found was a Dinosaur Park, that housed the world’s oldest collection of dinosaur footprints. The wall and footprints themselves were impressive, it [...]

After a hideously long bus ride, I finally reached Copacabana at night. As I hadn’t bothered to book a hostel before hand, I wandered around the so called ‘quiet’ fishing town with my massive backpack, getting turned away from hostels because apparently it was carnival and everywhere was full. Grrr!
Eventually, I bumped into an English couple who were in the same situation. We headed to La Cupula Hostel where, to my surprise, we all managed to get rooms and I even secured a discount, by saying I was a volunteer with little money
As were on the shores of Lake [...]

My last few days in Cusco seemed to fly by! I had promised 2 of my students (Julio and Lincol) I would let them take me on a tour of their University, which turns out has a Zoo! It was no London Zoo and most animal rights activists would probably be up in arms as its not the kindest looking place and they apparently keep the animals there for ‘research’. Nevertheless it was full with animals from the Peruvian Jungle and I finally got to see a Condor!
After, they took me to lunch in the University Comedor. Basically, it is [...]

On Saturday I left Cusco behind to embark on the epic Inca trail! Unfortunately the traditional Inca route is closed during February for maintenance. So I decided to try out the hardcore jungle version….
For 4 days, we biked and walked our way closer to the almighty wonder that is Machu Picchu! The first day we began on bikes, cycling down through the jungle region situated to the South of Machu. We began on the road firstly (Where I was informed a girl had been killed 2 weeks b4 when she was hit by a bus!! just to put me at [...]

Valentine´s Day 2009: Woke up at 5am with a broken back on a bus to Arequipa, which at the time was screening a Peruvian version of the karate kid. 
Arequipa is a mere 10 hour night bus ride away from Cusco and me and 2 housemates decided to go for the weekend! We arrived at 6am, wandering around the Plaza de Armas like zombies with only a few tramps for company, until we eventually found an available hostel!
After a well needed kip, we hit Arequipa hard…First stop the Monastery!
The Monasterio de Santa Catalina is described as a ‘City within a City’ and after spending 2 hours in [...]

I can´t believe I have been in Cusco for only 1 week! I seem to have crammed so much into the last few days!
On Thursday I went on a sight seeing tour around Cusco with one of my housemates John from Salt Lake City. We decided to take the short walk up into the mountains to see the Sacsayhuaman ruins. Its pronounced ’sexy woman’ and every time you say it, people giggle! Even taxi drivers! It sounds hilarious in a Cusqueñan accent. Unfortunately, it doesn’t translate as such in Quechua! (The Andean language which is also spoke in Cusco) 
It was [...]

Having made it to Cusco on Sunday, my jet-lagged self has been acclimatizing to the local conditions. At 3000 metres above sea level, it can take some getting used to. So, I have been sleeping and drinking coca tea (a local herbal remedy) to ward off altitude sickness or ‘Soroche’ as its know locally and it seems to have worked.
I´m staying in the Family House which is home to about 15 other volunteers, most of which are American and so they were Superbowl mad the first day I arrived. The house is lovely, the food is great and all meals are [...]