There and Back Again

Day 84 - 87

The Inca Trail.

Let's just say that it's tough. A basic level of fitness does help of course, but altitude is a great leveller. Most of the walk is at 3,000 - 4,000 metres or about 10,000 to 13,000 feet in the old scale.

Even more humbling are the porters who carry your ENTIRE campsite for the four days. This includes and oven, tables and chairs, tents, etc. They leave each camp site after you, put on a 25 kilo pack, run past you, set up camp and then clap your later arrival. Better still, most are over 40 years of age (one was even 58!). Here's a few of them.

The landscape is magnificent if you get to see it while catching your breath.

It's a bit hard to make out, but that's the trail on the right looking down from the highest point of the trek - about 4,200 metres. The guys in red are another team of porters. We called them the red caterpillar.

Me at one of the Inca ruins doing the usual and one of our campsites.

The food was amazing. A full banquet every night which was better or equal to any restaurant food we had in all of Peru. The culmination came when they cooked me a birthday cake to have with breakfast. It was delicious and prepared fresh for a 6.30am start.

Another highlight was that we were able to take a deviation from the normal route and take in another Inca city discovered only in 1990. It has not yet been restored - it's essentially still jungle and rarely seen by tourists (our guide had only been once before in the two years he had been doing the trek).

The other benefit of the deviation was that we were able to see Machu Picchu a day early and from a high vantage point. You might be able to just make it out nestled in between the two montain tops.

The various ruins passed were magnificent.

As part of a thank you for the porters, we waited on them for an afternoon tea. I was in charge of making the pop corn. Seeing what they had to use to cook made me even more impressed with the food they managed to churn out.

Our leaders were also pretty cool: that's 'Rambo' and 'Tiger' below.

Machu Picchu itself was worth every bit of the effort. Amazing.

Day 88

Another day in Cuzco and we checked out some more of the Inca ruins. They'd be a hell of a lot more impressive if the stones weren't used as a quarry by the Spainish to help them build various churches and other public buildings and residences.

Days 89 - 90

The Amazon jungle.

It was certainly an experience getting there. A cold front moved in from the antarctic. This meant instead of balmy 30' plus weather we ended up with rainy 10' weather. It also meant instead of a pleasant 3 hour canoe ride we ended up with a mud ridden, cold, wet and thoroughly depressing 6 hour journey finishing in the dark. It was worth it when we got there. This is the place.

Unfortunately because of the cold weather we were unable to see as much wildlife as normal. We did, however, get to see a large number of birds and butterflies, do some walking and check out the children's playground.

We were also able to do a night canoe ride in search of some large caymans (a crocodile). We managed to see some babies also saw a herd of what is the world's largest rodent - I forget what they are called.

Days 91 and 92

We were back in Lima and said goodbye to our little group. That's us in matching "Inca Cola" shirts - it's popular local soft drink which smells like bubble gum and is reminiscent of golden creaming soda.

Day 93 and 94

La Paz, Bolivia

The world's highest capital city. It's located in a stunning canyon position but is otherwise a bit boring as far as south american cities go. It was pleasant enough though and the local witches market was interesting: they like to stock dried alpaca foetus which is sold to people who bury them outside the front of their house. It's meant to bring good luck. I'm lost on the link between the two...

Day 95 and 96

Santiago, Chile

A nice enough city but a little unexciting. Some good food though due to the strong Italian influence.

Days 97 - 99

Mendoza, Argentina

We took a bus over the Andes into Argentina. It was spectacular. The border crossing, on the other hand, was spectacularly inefficient.

Mendoza is a pretty little city on the foothills of the eastern chain of the Andes. It's main claim to fame is red wine and it's good.

We spent a day cycling among the vineyards doing varying wine tastings and generally enjoying ourselves. We spent another day horseriding among the foothills where I was mistaken for a gaucho by a number of English girls we rode with.

Days 100 -101

Buenos Aires

We had just the one full day in the city. It was very wet and very windy and so we saw only a quarter of what we wanted to see. In any case, what we saw was beautiful, in particular the Recoletta cemetary, below.

Day 102

Buenos Aires airport...

The dust storm in Sydney caused our flight to be delayed by 6 hours. It also meant we missed our connecting flight to Brisbane the next night. After about 4 hours sleep in a Sydney hotel we arrived back safe and sound with our bags full and our memories even more so.

We're relatively sure we've gotten the day count wrong in some places. But anyway, that's the gist of our adventure.

Ciao

Adrian and Nikki

Day 74 and 75

Peru: Lima and Pisco

Lima is rather ho-hum as far as cities go. The reason for this are the violent earthquakes that
shake the city every few years; most of the colonial architecture has long been turned to rubble and in place stand homogenous concrete buildings. It does, however, have a wonderful beachfront location and a multitude of old 'american schoolbuses' painted in an assortment of bright primary colours escorting locals about the place. Forget looking out for bus numbers and designated routes - a conductor simply yells from the open door the destination and stops at anyone walking the curbside pavement.

We did a short orientation tour and, at about 10am, indulged in some Pisco sours at the very hotel where they were invented. They consist of eggwhites, limes, sugar and a very sour distilled wine. The trick is get them down before the egg whites separate to the top.

We then headed to Pisco for an overnight stop. It's a sad place. About 3 years ago an earthquake flattened the place - absolutely flattened it. The city, of about 300,000 people, still looks much the same due to entrenched government corruption (a lot of foreign aid money came in and disappeared) and general poverty of the country. As a consequence crime is rife and city is rather dangerous hence no photos - you don't flash about an expensive camera. We limited our interaction to the hotel and a 50 metre walk for dinner.

Day 76

We left for the port and took an early speed boat to the Ballestas Islands. We were both unfamiliar with them but they were amazing.

This is the port.

And this is the peninsular on the way out to the islands. The giant cactus looking shape is the subject of some debate. No one really knows who made it or why. They guess it was made anytime between 600 - 2000 years ago.

The islands themselves were amazing. There were birds aplenty. In fact, that darkness you can see on the island in the picture below is in fact a seething mass of birds. They would have numbered the hundreds of thousands. The V shape of birds was also repeated into the distance as far as your eyes could see.

There were also plenty of seals...

We then headed to a winery where they grow, ferment and distill Pisco grapes. It was an interesting tour and amazing to think that grapes could grow in what is effectively desert. Their ability to make do with the little that is available is shown by the terrific press is the photo below.

We then headed off for some buggying in the sand dunes as well as a spot of sand-boarding. A clip of Adrian taking off down a dune at speed will be shown in a separate post.

Day 77

We took a small plane and flew over the Nazca lines. They are amazing. These photos don't really show their majesty. Look carefull though.

We also took in a cemetary of the Nazca people (below), before visiting a small goldsmith whose mind had obviously been affected by the mercury process.

Day 78

An overnight bus delivered us to Arequipa. It's a very pretty place and is known as the white city. This is due to the fact that the local stone taken from the surrounding volcanoes, from which most buildings are constructed, is a marvellous ivory white in colour.

We went through an old monastry complete with catacombes and also saw 'Juanita' the frozen Inca mummy found a few years ago.

Does this Alpaca look angry to you?

The answer is yes. He spat at Adrian seconds later.

This is one of the three volcanoes overlooking the city. It's still active...

Days 79 - 80

Chivay, Sibayo and Colca Canyon

The drive to Chivay was amazing. It's located in the central Andes highlands and the scenery is amazing. We stopped at a few stalls on the side of the road as well as some kids herding alpaca and llama. The first picture is of our tour leader Cynthia who, seconds later, discovered that the lamb was busy taking a toilet break.

Chivay is located amongst the Colca Canyon, which is the second biggest canyon in the world (it dwarfs the Grand Canyon in the US).

It also has a multitude of hot springs which were most relaxing after long day of travel. What wasn't relaxing was the massage Adrian had. Ambitious but rubbish was the description.

We also enjoyed a show dinner with traditional Peruvian song and dancing. Audience participation was required. This is one of Andrew taking one for the team.

The Colca Canyon is also home of one of the last refuges of the great American Condor. We were particularly lucky and had a number of close fly-bys.

The canyon itself is also amazing. It's basically a desert but the locals scrape a living from the land by making best use of the abundant small springs and snow run off.

We were very fortunate to do a homestay in the remote village of Sibayo. We were treated to a home cooked meal and dressed up in the local custom. Note: the locals don't dress up in the outfits just for the tourists and then put on a pair of jeans afterwards. This is what they actually wear.

Dora, our host 'Mama', showing us her amazing sewing skills. It's a pedal power machine too.

One of Dora's creations modelled by Nikki.

And this is the little fella who ran around while we prepared dinner. Very cute.

Another one we spotted at one of the towns on the way back to Chivay.

Day 81 and 82

Lake Titicaca

This is a view of the magnificent lake and Puno from overlooking hills.

We spent a day on the lake in a locally made boat and ending up consuming a lifetime's amount of carbon dioxide. The engine didn't have an exhaust and was conveniently located in the galley. The alternative was a not so pleasant chilling wind on the top deck (the lake is located more than 10,000 feet above sea level).

We visit Taquile Island where we lunch and dance with some locals. The island is the home a unique tribe where the men knit to prove their manhood and where people have a test run of 2 years living together before they decide whether or not to get married.

We then spent the night in another homestay off a peninsular that juts into the lake and is, for most purposes, considered an island. Again we got into the local clothes.

This is the wonderful little room we stayed in. It's built completely from mud brick covered in a mud render and dressed up with some reeds. Simple but beautiful.

This is our 'mama' who was extremely shy and her grandaughter who wasn't.

The next morning we jumped back into our polluting pontoon and visited some of the Uros islands. These are islands made from reed and are the home to yet another unique indian culture.