Accommodation

Good budget deal in the middle of La Paz, pretty close to all the action. The traffic is a bit noisy and can wake you up in the morning (the traffic is horrible in central La Paz) — and they have a strange habit of cleaning the bathrooms at 8am in the morning — but otherwise, no complaints. Not the most social place I've ever stayed at, but certainly better than Tambo de Oro, where I was last night (doesn't merit a write-up, as it's not worth going to at all). If you want the real party scene, then of course you have to stay at Loki.

Basic, cheap, and friendly place, located a few blocks from the main square and tourist boulevard of Puno. The whole hostel is a bit squashed in, between other establishments; but the rooms aren't too small, and the staff are quite nice. We stayed here before and after our trip to Amantaní — decent enough crash pad.

Quiet, clean, cheap, and central yet out-of-the-way little hostel-slash-guesthouse, situated in Cusco's trendy and eclectic San Blas neighbourhood. I checked in to this place (on the recommendation of Jesus) after leaving my host family today, and I'll be here on-and-off for the rest of my time in Cusco. It seems to be almost empty — I've got a 6-bed dorm all to myself — and this is probably due to its being very basic, and to its location at the top of a big hill, which can only be climbed on foot via a flight of steep steps.

Loki is a massive hostel, accommodating well over 100 people, at the top of a big hill overlooking central Cusco. Everyone stays at Loki, which is good and bad, and which makes it something of an institution. It's great value, it's real friendly, and it requires at least a week just to explore the place.

Basic guest-house kind of place, in the historic centre of Ayacucho. Cath, Gaz, and myself rocked up here at 7am this morning, and we managed to get a room each (one for me, one for them). I think that this is about the closest Ayacucho has to proper youth hostels: it has shared bathrooms, but no dorms.

Also, from now on, I'm adding a new field to accommodation reviews: hot water. Up until now, this is something I've been able to take for granted, wherever I stay. But that's no longer the case. :P

This is quite a nice hostel, with a bunch of very friendly staff, and a crowd that's generally really warm. It's not the most exciting place I've ever stayed at; but I get the feeling that the crowds come and go (there isn't a huge crowd here now), and that it's pretty hip by Lima standards. Because I kinda got stuck in Lima during Semana Santa (Easter), I ended up staying here for a full week.

Tonight I spent the night at what I shall now dub the "San Francisco Airport hotel suites". I was in between flights — I arrived here from Vancouver at about 8pm tonight, and my flight the next morning to Miami boarded at about 6am — so I didn't want to bother finding a place to stay for the night, or even to bother leaving the airport and coming back again so soon. So I found what seems to be the unofficial place to spend the night at SFO.

I've made it to Vancouver, and I'm (probably) going to be spending my whole time in this city sleeping here at Genna's house. Genna's house is in Richmond, which is a very suburban area in the southern part of Vancouver. It's ultra-neat-and-tidy, ultra-spread-out, and ultra-middle-America-of-Canada. Being back in the suburbs — and back in a house with a family — is a big change from the many hostels I've been staying at lately, but it's a nice and a very welcome change.

After Day 1 of DrupalCon finished, we all went down to the Sunnyvale Sheraton for some drinks and mingling, and then we continued on to the Firehouse bar-slash-restaurant for more of the same. By the time we were done drinking and mingling, I'd missed the last Caltrain back to San Francisco. Luckily, the very kind and magnanimous Bill Fitzgerald let me crash on his motel room couch for the night. So I spent one night in Sunnyvale itself!

I found this place from the Rough Guides online accommodation directory, and boy, is it good! Although it's surrounded by strip clubs, it's in a good downtown spot, it's got great people, it's got free dinner 3 nights a week, it's got free Wi-Fi, and it's got bike racks inside! I tell you what: there are some things you can only find in California. Despite it being rainy when I got here, I think this really is the Sunshine State.