Andrew and Michelle's Big Adventures

The Trip Home and the Aftermath

2008-05-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

Our first flight from BA to Santiago was running about 15 minutes late, so we literally had to run from the gate to gate at Santiago airport to board our plane to Auckland, and then they confiscated our booze off us! (even though we had been told it would be OK in BA - what a rip!) - so lesson learnt, only buy Duty Free at your final destination (oh well, at least it hadn't cost us much). So then it was on the plane and finally on our way home.

We didn't sleep as well on the way home as what we had on the way there, so we arrived at Auckland at 0400 pretty tired. It was very weird hearing English again, and especially hearing the Kiwi accent - I literally wanted to crack up laughing, thinking to myself (Oh my God, do I sound like that?" We also kept trying to speak Spanish to people (like at Duty Free and at Immigration) and got some very strange looks, before we remembered to speak English (that was pretty funny)!

We hung out at the International Terminal until about 0545, and then walked over to Domestic to check in for our flight back to Napier. It was very fresh outside, only 11 C, so we were freezing. We landed in Napier at 0800, and the pilot announced that it was only 3 C outside (and we thought we were cold in Auckland). Just after we got off the plane Nic turned up to pick us up, and take us home (finally!).

Possum ran under the house when we got home and it took a couple of hours for her to come inside, and then she completely ignored us for a while. But by early afternoon, she was all cuddles again.

It was very weird being home again, and I definitely suffered from culture shock for the first few days (trying to speak Spanish to people, noticing the Kiwi accent, looking the wrong way when crossing the road, etc) and I really noticed the difference between the places we had visited and home. It was kinda like I expected to arrive back and it still be the middle of March, but I've somehow travelled forward in time and now it is nearly the middle of the year.

But all in all, we wouldn't have passed up this trip for anything. We had such a great, eye-opening, exhilarating time. We have seen so many wonderful sights, ticked lots of things off our "Must Do" List, and met some of the most gorgeous, lovely, fun people along the way. We found SA to be incredibly safe (unlike some of the stories we had heard), and we would definitely love to go back some day if and when the opportunity presents itself.

Our Last Day in South America!

2008-05-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 6th May

Today is our final day in South America :-(

So we decided just to wander around the central city, soaking up the atmosphere for the final time. We tried to visit some museums, but they were either closed for renovations (like Teatro Colon for instance - which I was especially gutted about) or just closed for the day. So we did some final souvenir shopping (and picked up a 1kg can of dulce de leche to bring home for me!), and then wandered around taking photos at Plaza de Mayo, the cathedral and some other cool buildings and stuff. By this stage our feet were starting to get quite sore (as we had done a lot of walking over the previous few days) so we decided to go and find some coffee and decent cake (which is harder than you think in this city of pastries and alfajores).

We stumbled on a great little place called "Cafe Florida" on Calle Tucuman (just past Calle Florida), where we found a huge selection of yummy looking cakes - we had dark choc brownie/mud cake and a cake that was a cross between a cake, mousse and cheesecake - very sweet, but oh so good!. I have been craving cake ever since we got back from Iguazu, so mow my craving has been well and truly satisfied.

We walked back to the hostal at 1700 and re-packed and collected all our gear together for the trip home. We got to the airport just after 1800, and then it took 40mins to check in (god knows what was taking them so long, the queue wasn't even that long). We bought six bottles of spirits at duty-free (only cost us about NZ$66!) and then sat around waiting to board.

Colonia, Uruguay

2008-05-24T17:56:00.001-07:00

Monday 5th May

Today's Lesson - Session Two on how to visit a country in 4 hours......

After getting up at 0800, we headed out in search of brekkie and came across a fab little cafe called Madera Seca just behind Galeria Pacifico on Calle Viamonte, where we had cafe con leche, medialunas, and wholemeal toast with jam and some kind of fresh cultured dairy spread (that was like a cross between cream cheese and sour cream, but very yummy) - all for Arg$15!

With our appetites satisfied (at least for a few hours) we began walking towards the river delta area (where the ferry terminal is located) - Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is quite similar to Ahuriri in many ways, as it used to be the main port for BA, and then was neglected for many years before being restored to its former glory and is now home to lots of restaurants, offices and apartments. The old port consisted of 4 docks which were segregated by locks which can be opened and closed to allow the passage of boats. On the city side the docks are lined with fantastic old, red brick buildings which used to be huge grain stores, but have now been restored and house many restaurants and apartments (the ambiance of the area is only let down by the "Hooters" bar in the middle). Across the other side of the river are huge skyscrapers filled with offices and more apartments. The contrast between the two sides of the river was quite striking - old vs new.

We walked back to the ferry terminal at about 1030 and went through check-in and immigration (Argentinian and Uruguayan immigration were both together making it very easy), and then boarded the ferry at 1120. Unfortunately the smog over the delta was pretty bad, so we didn't really get to see much of the view on the trip over which was a shame. We docked at Colonia at 1300 and headed in the direction of the historic neighbourhood to find some lunch and wander around.

Barrio Historico was gorgeous with all the colonial buildings, plane trees lining the streets and colourful wisteria and bougainvilleas climbing all over the place. Uruguay was invaded by both the Portuguese and Spanish, so it was interesting to see the contrast in architectural style between the different eras. We saw the old city gate and boundary wall, several fortifications, a monastery and lots of historic houses.

On the way back to the ferry we had delicious ice cream at a heladeria - dulce de leche with choc chips and vanilla with caramel and biscuit pieces. Uruguay is known for its fabulous dairy products - and this was definitely some of the best ice cream we had in SA. We got back to BA in the dark at about 1900 and walked back to the hostal.

We decided to go back to La Casona del Nonno for our celebratory final dinner in SA, as the food was so good last time we were there. We ordered a paradilla of Patagonaian Lamb with Provencal seasoning and potatoes (and a bottle of red wine). The lamb was so tender, and full of flavour - just delicious. And of course the meal wouldn't be complete without dessert, so we both ordered the Volcan Chocolate (and I ended up finishing off Andrew's too!). All in all a fabulous end to a fabulous day.

Buenos Aires - Day 2 - San Telmo, La Boca, Recoleta

2008-05-22T02:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday 4th May

Today we ventured out to San Telmo and La Boca (in the south of the city), then caught a bus back up to Recoleta later in the afternoon.

We walked from our hostal down Calle Florida towards Plaza de Mayo and then on towards the crafts and antiques markets in San Telmo. San Telmo is known as the artists district, and so there are loads of antique shops and a huge antiques market on the weekends, along with art and craft stalls filling numerous side streets. We spent about two hours wandering around the markets and shops and watching tango dancers strut their stuff.

After a cheap, simple lunch at a small old cafe we continued to walk towards Parque Lezama where we found even more craft stalls. After a quick look around there we caught a bus to La Boca and the old artists district of La Caminito. La Boca is one of the poorer neighbourhoods in BA, and the first thing that hits you is the awful smell coming from the stagnant water in the port. We were walking along beside the river and saw that there were lots of police about, and then noticed a large group of people that had gathered up ahead of us. We still haven't worked out whether it was a protest or whether it was the opposition supporters for the Boca Juniors game - but it was all pretty peaceful anyway.

we continued on another couple of blocks to La Caminito, which is an area of a few blocks where all the buildings have been painted in bright colours. It originally started off as an artists district, but now it is really more of a tourist attraction, but it looked pretty stunning anyway, as you can see from the photos above. We had a pretty fun time wandering around the restaurants and bars and watching more tango dancers and taking lots of photos.

We then caught a bus back up to the north side of central BA to Plaza San Martin (near the main bus and train station - Retiro). We had a bit of a wander around there, and then walked towards Recoleta - one of the most upmarket suburbs in BA and famous for its cemetery (which was what we were going to see). Recoleta was a complete contrast to La Boca with very flash apartment buildings (that looked like 5-star hotels), and lots of embassies and ambassadors residences. The cemetery is surrounded by a large park, which turns into a huge market on the weekends, so we spent a while wandering around and bought a cool mate and bomb (mate = tea cup made out of a dried gourd, and bomb = the straw that is used to drink mate). Mate is very popular in BA and we saw lots of people wandering around with a thermos of hot water under one arm and their mate in their hand, sucking away.

Next stop was Recoleta cemetery, which was absolutely fascinating, but a little weird and creepy at the same time. It is known as the city within a city, which actually is very apt, as most of the crypts are at least 3m high, and do look like mini buildings. Only the elite of BA society are buried here, so everything is very flash, with most of the crypts being made out of marble or onyx. Eva Peron is also buried here in her family crypt. The crypt itself is fairly non-descript, but it is adorned with flowers (the only crypt I saw that actually had flowers on), and was constantly surrounded by people, hence not that hard to find.

Buenos Aires - Day 1 - Tigre Delta

2008-05-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday 3rd May

After brekkie we walked about 30mins over to the river delta side of the city and visited the ferry terminal to book our tickets to Colonia, Uruguay for tomorrow. The ferry cost us Arg$360 (about NZ$160), so pretty expensive - but the trip was so worth it.

On the way back to the central city we stopped off at Galeria Pacifico (an upscale shopping mall) to have a look around and find some lunch. It is a very flash mall, complete with indoor fountain and frescoes on the ceiling, and very up-market, high-end stores - so we felt a little out of place in our traveller's clothes. The main point of our visit was to go to the food court and find some lunch, so we headed down the marble staircase, and into a huge array of yummy lunch options (everything from burgers to gourmet Japanese food was on offer). We ended up sharing a rustic, but good hot beef roll and fries, and then it was time to hot foot it back towards central BA to meet up with our tour guide for our tour of the Tigre Delta.

The Tigre Delta is 35 km north of BA city, and is basically a river delta that used to produce much of the fresh fruit and vegetables for the BA region, but it now a weekend and holiday haven for the BA upper-classes. Our tour guide - Gladys - looked like she was stuck in an 80's time warp (big glasses, old-fashioned pants suit and lovely purple cable-knitted jersey), but was lovely and a wonderful guide and spoke fluent English and Portuguese (as well as Spanish of course). There was about 15 in our group and Andrew and I were the only ones who spoke English (the others spoke Spanish and Portuguese). We started off in a bus which took us north through the city and into the leafy outer suburbs. We then stopped and got on the Tren de la Costa (the Coast Train), for a short trip (all of 20 mins - woohoo!) to the Tigre station. We then re-joined the bus and toured around the Puerto de Frutas (the Port of Fruits), which is famous for its large market selling almost anything from food to household goods to crafts and plants and garden supplies (Tigre is renowned for its plant nurseries). Then we drove around to the Rio Tigre, where we departed on a boat cruise of the Delta.

It was fascinating cruising around the Delta and seeing all the holiday houses (most kinda equivalent to NZ baches), with each house having it's own little jetty, and it was obvious there was a bit of competition to see who could make their jetty look the best. Like wealthy NZer's own a bach at the beach, wealthy Portenos own a house on the Delta where they come on weekends and holidays to escape the city. So, needless to say some of the houses were very flash, while in other areas were the locals still live some of the housing was very basic. There are no roads or bridges around the Delta, so everyone gets around by boat, and there is a supermarket boat, a school bus boat, a hospital boat and taxi boats.

The area is very picturesque, despite the muddy red/brown water, and appeared to be quite laid back and relaxed. Definitely a nice place to chill out for a while. Back in BA city, we went to La Casona del Nonno (just down the road on Calle Lavalle) for dinner and I had fabulous ravioli, and Andrew had spicy "Hellfire Chicken" - and then came the best dessert I've had in SA - Volcan Chocolate - a fudgy choc pud, with liquid choc in the centre with vanilla ice cream and choc sce - yummmm! We'll be coming back here again me thinks.

Iguazu Falls - Day 3 - Foz de Iguacu, Brazil

2008-05-10T21:56:00.001-07:00

Friday 2nd May

Today's Lesson.....How to Visit a Country in Four Hours.

We made a very quick visit to Brazil this morning before flying back to BA this afternoon.

We caught a bus over the border to Foz de Iguacu (the falls town on the Brazillian side), and then another bus out to the falls, and got there at 0900. We then had to catch one of the park buses out to the start of the track. The advantage of coming to Brazil to view the falls is that you get to see them all at once (as you are on the opposite side of the river, looking across at them). We got to the first viewing point after about 5 mins walking, and WOW - what an awesome view, there are just so many waterfalls (about 75 altogether). Unfortunately we didn't have as much time as we would have liked on this side (due to getting delayed on the way to Iguazu), so all we had time for was a few quick photos and videos and then it was back on the bus to Argentina, and out to the airport for our flight back to BA.

We got back to Puerto Iguazu at 1130 - exactly four hours after we had left(!), and headed out to the airport at lunchtime. We discovered yet more flight issues when we got to the airport. Because we had missed our flight to Iguazu, bl**dy LAN had cancelled the rest of our reservations! (although somehow our tickets still existed?? - I have no idea how it all works). So it was lucky that the flight was half-empty, or we wouldn't have got back to BA either. So, back in BA, I spent about 15 mins on the phone sorting out our flights home and ensuring that our reservations were re-confirmed. That done we took a taxi to our new hostal "O'Rei" on Calle Lavalle, which is in Retiro - much closer to the centre of the city and has much more night life. The hostal (again) looks like it is stuck in a bit of a 60's time-warp (our room has a lovely baby blue and tan colour scheme going on - nice!) but other than that the location is great and the service has been fab.

We then set out to book a tour to take us to the Tigre Delta tomorrow (a river plains area north of BA). That done, we wandered around the shops for a while and finally managed to get some money out of an ATM (after a couple rejected our card), and found that we can only withdraw A$500 max (which is like NZ$220) which doesn't go far around here, so it looks like we are going to be racking up the bank fees.

We went to a Paradilla called "El Gaucho" for dinner (who have touts dressed up as Gauchos out on the streets enticing you in) and had a huge plate of grilled baby goat in 'special' sauce. It was so flavoursome and tender, but my goodness it was so much meat! After dinner we walked up the street and stumbled on a bit of a night market with musicians and stalls set up in the middle of the peatonal (pedestrian street) selling all kinds of stuff, from socks to scarves to arts and crafts. We also saw our first tango dancers - the old dude had the moves!

Puerto Iguazu - Day 2 - Iguazu Falls!

2008-05-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

Thursday 1st May

Today we went to see Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian side - they were very impressive, and then the weather turned to crap! It is a national holiday here today, so we were expecting the falls to get pretty busy, hence we decided to get there as early as possible for the best views.

We were at the falls by 0800, when the park opened, so we were among the first in for the day which was cool as it meant we got to see some of the falls with very few people around (by 1100 there were people everywhere, even though the weather was bad). The first trail we walked took us around the top of the falls, so we got great views of all the water going over the edge and looking down into all the spray. It was so quiet at the tops of the falls right up until you got within a couple of meters of the edge. If you had been on the river, you wouldn't even know you were coming up to the falls until it was too late to do anything about it! The power of the falls was absolutely amazing, the spray from some of them rose back up above the tops of the falls.

After the Superior Circuit we walked down to the Inferior Circuit and got our first view of "Gargantan del Diablo" (The Devil's Throat) the largest and most powerful of the falls - it was very, very cool! At the bottom of the path we caught a boat over to Isla San Martin, where we walked to another couple of lookouts. One of the lookouts is in the middle of a vulture roosting area, so that was interesting being surrounded by big, UGLY birds. One of the lookouts is also directly opposite a long line of falls, so we got pretty up close and personal with the water (but not as close as later on.....).

After our visit to the island, we decided to go on a speedboat ride around and up to the falls. We were given a waterproof bag to put all our gear in, and a life jacket, and then we were off with a boat load of other people. The ride started off pretty gently, zooming around the base of the falls to get some good photo opportunities. Then the guide said to put our cameras away, and next thing we know, he has backed the boat up and is heading full tilt into the falls! Needless to say we got absolutely soaked (including very wet arses, as the seats filled up with water), but it was exhilarating to feel the power of all that water.

The weather had been pretty overcast all day, and just as we got back to the dock, we heard thunder and saw lightning, and not long after it started raining. Luckily at this point it was only light, so our clothes had mostly dried out by the time it really started pelting down. After a quick stop for lunch, we caught the little train to the top of Garganta. On the way it really started raining, and so we got soaked on the 2.2km walk on a boardwalk over the river to the tops of the falls. We were gutted that the weather had turned to crap, as it meant we didn't stay as long as we would have liked, and we headed home just after 1500. But it was good to get back to the hostal and have a nice warm shower and get into some dry clothes.

On the way home from dinner we stopped in at the Heladaria (ice cream shop) next door and bought a large tub of ice cream each - equivalent to about 4 or 5 scoops each! But the ice cream headache was worth it, cos it tasted yummy (especially my Dulce de Leche ice cream - can you tell I'm a little bit obsessed with Dulce de Leche yet?)

Puerto Iguazu - Day 1

2008-05-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 30th April

We had to get up at 0600 to be at Aeroparque by 0730 - but here is where things started to go wrong! When we went to check-in, we were told that our flight had been cancelled and we should have been on the flight which had just left! This was even though we had checked our flight times the previous week and were told everything was OK. They also had no seats left on any other flights that day, so could only put us on stand-by. So, really our only option to get there today was to go and try and get a ticket with Aerolineas Argentina (the airline we really didn't want to fly with, you will see why below).

So we managed to get tickets with Aerolineas for US$406(!) for both of us and got put on a flight for 1000. We thought "awesome", we're even gonna get there sooner than we originally planned - ha, ha, ha, what a joke that was. 1000 came and went, and we found that our flight had been delayed until 1030. We started boarding just before 1030, and had to get on a bus to take us out to our plane. The bus got out to the plane, and then one of the air hostesses came out and said we had to go back to the terminal! So, we sat around at the terminal for a bit longer wondering what on earth is going on. But made friends with a gay couple from Hawaii, who we later saw everywhere in Iguazu, who were absolutely hilarious, but so lovely. Finally at 1115, we get yet another boarding call, and get bussed out to a different plane, and actually get on board. We took off at 1145 (only 1 3/4 hours late - which is apparently pretty good for Aerolineas), and we are on our way to Iguazu!

We landed in Iguazu at 1345, after the pilot took a detour directly over Iguazu falls - boy that was a pretty cool experience, a sight-seeing flight over the falls in a big jet! But our bad luck wasn't over yet........we got inside the terminal and went to the baggage collection area, only to find most of the luggage was still in BA! Luckily my bag turned up, but Andrew's didn't. So then we had to queue to fill in a claim form (along with everyone else from the flight). We found out that the luggage was supposed to be coming on the next flight at 1500, and by the time we had filled out the form and everything, it was 1430, so we just decided to hand around and wait for it, rather than trust Aerolineas to deliver it to our hostel. So, by 1530 we had been reunited with all our luggage, and were on the way into Puerto Iguazu.

We stayed at Hosteria San Fernando, which is in a good location right opposite the bus station, but appears to have been stuck in a 60's time-warp (but hey - it was cheap). After dropping off our gear, we spent the next couple of hours wandering around the central part of town. One of the things that surprised me was the abundance of small deli type shops (some with attached cafe) that sold all sorts of imported and locally produced deli food - olive oil, olives, salami, cheese, wine, etc, and all beautifully presented. We even stumbled across a small food market surrounded by stalls selling all this good food (which we haven't seen since we left NZ), where you could pick a selection of nibbles and sit down in the courtyard and munch away while drinking a nice glass of wine. Andrew also found what looks like the South American version of "V", so he was well excited (but we discovered later that it tastes nothing like NZ "V").

We also found a really well-stocked mini-mercado (small supermarket) across the road, with an excellent bakery next door, so we bought a whole lot of yummy stuff for lunch at the falls tomorrow. We went to "Gusto del Litoral" for dinner, which was about 5 mins walk from the hostal, and the food was surprisingly good. Andrew had veal and I had pork with an apple and passion fruit sauce (it was the sauce which made it really good), and a decent bottle of Syrah. Then it was home to bed, ready for an early start in the morning to get to the falls.

Santa Cruz to Buenos Aires

2008-05-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 29th April

Today we spent most of the day trying to get to Buenos Aires. Our flight was supposed to be at 1045, but on the way to the airport at 0900 - it started raining........and then came the thunder and lightning, and before we knew it we were in the midst of a pretty good storm. Oh well, nothing to do but sit and wait it out. Now, airports are not on my list of favourite places to be stuck at the best of times, and unfortunately Santa Cruz airport is fairly small, and thus lacks the distractions of copious amounts of duty free shopping, so we got very bored, very quickly, and basically sat reading our books for the next couple of hours - apart from when we saw Phil Keoghan (of Amazing Race fame) waiting for a plane too - now we are wondering if the Amazing Race was in town - that would be cool!

We finally took off at 1245, during a gap in the storm, and landed in BA at 1715. Flying over Argentina was completely different to many of the other places we have flown - for a start it was pretty flat. The agriculture also looked a lot more organised/westernised. It definitely looks more like a first world country. We are staying tonight at El Hostal de Granados in Sam Telmo (the artists/antiques barrio in BA) before flying to Puerto Iguazu in the morning. We had dinner at El Desnivel which is a Paradilla (Grill) Restaurant, where they serve huge chunks of steak which have been cooked over a wood-fired grill. Paradilla and red wine are the food that Argentina is famous for, so of course we had to partake in both. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pretty cool, very relaxed and laid-back, but still excellent service. The servings were huge, and the whole meal only cost us A$81 = NZ$32.

Santa Cruz

2008-05-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

Monday 28th April

I got up early and went for a walk around town, while Andrew had a bit of a sleep in. I found some great art and handicraft shops (and bought more souvenirs of course) and found out some info on Biocentro Guembe - a reserve outside of Santa Cruz that we want to go to this afternoon. I met Andrew back at the hotel at 1000 and we walked to Los Pozos, the huge general market for Santa Cruz. Again, you can basically buy anything you want here - as long as you know where to look. The things on offer were pretty much the same as all the other big cities we have been in, so after wandering around for a while we decided to head back into the centre of the city to find some lunch.

First we stopped at Alexander's coffee (yes, the same cafe chain as in La Paz - oh yeah, good coffee!) and had coffee, then went to a restaurant called Su Salud for a fantastic local lunch (finally, we found decent "local" food in Bolivia). The restaurant was absolutely packed with locals and we only got a seat because a lovely lady invited us to sit with her. The food was so good, and so cheap (B/35 = NZ$6 got us both soup, mains and juice). We had vegetable soup, maracuya (passion fruit) juice and Garbanzo (chickpea) stew with brown rice and salad.

After lunch we caught a taxi out to Biocentro Guembe, which is a reserve/research facility that also caters for tourists with walking trails, cabins, swimming pools, cafe/restaurants, sports, horse riding, kayaking, fishing etc (so kinda like a resort really I guess). Our taxi driver didn't really seem to know where he was going, but we got there eventually. We went on a tour of the reserve and got to see the lab where they do research on butterflies, ants, termites, birds, spiders, snakes and other random stuff, and then got to meet some tortoises, see the butterfly house (with so many beautiful butterflies), and the huge bird enclosure (with a very cool Toucan), as well as a tour of the walking trails etc. We also came across three red and blue Macaws hanging out in a tree, so got some great shots of those too. We then decided it was time for a nice relaxing swim in the pools to cool off before heading back to town. The swim was so good, it was nice to feel cool again, after being hot and sticky for the last day and a half.

We had a great dinner at a German-run pub - La Casona. We both had Bife de Lomo (a thick cut of loin) which was perfectly cooked med-rare, with lots of fried onions, sauteed potatoes with garlic and herbs, and fresh veges (and of course we had dessert - crepes with dulce de leche and ice cream). Tomorrow we have our flight to Buenos Aires, and then we will be on the countdown to the end of our trip (sob, sob :-( ).

Sucre Day 3 and Flight to Santa Cruz

2008-05-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday 27th April

We spent the morning wandering around Sucre including a stop for yummy breakfast at Joyride cafe, and then we wandered down to Parque Bolivar to check out what was happening - kids buzzing around in cool little motorised cars it turned out, which made Andrew wish he was a little kid again! Again, we noticed the weird phenomenom of the bottoms of all the tree trunks painted white - every tree in all the major parks in all the big cities we have been in have their trunks painted - why, we have no idea, but it sure does look funny!

At 1330 we caught a taxi out to the airport (a VERY small airport for supposedly the second most important city in the country, even smaller than Napier airport), and took a flight to Santa Cruz at 1630. The airport in Santa Cruz is quite a way outside the city so it was about 1830 by the time we got to our hotel in the city centre. Being Sunday night, not much was open, so our options were pretty limited for dinner. We settled for some OK food at a fairly expensive cafe on the corner of the plaza, and then went to Picolo's (across the road from our hotel and like Valentine's Restaurant on drugs) for dessert - ummm, yum choc mud cake!

After dinner we came across an art gallery which had a really good photography exhibition on. There were several photographers with photos from the past year showing flooding (and the results of) in the Amazon Basin demonstrations in Sucre and Santa Cruz, general people photos and even a few rally cars!

It is very muggy and hot here in Santa Cruz (duh - we're in the Amazon Basin now!) so we are constantly slick with sweat - ummmm, yummy (not).

Apologies for the Transmission Delays

2008-05-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we are now home and recovering from jet-lag and culture shock.

We kinda ran out of time during our last week to post on the blog - we were so busy trying to cram as many experiences in as possible. So anyway, here is our last week or so...........

Sucre - Day 2

2008-04-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday 26th April

We had a very cool day. We visited two museums, the first was the Textile and Ethnographic museum run by a foundation called ASUR. The foundation was set up to preserve the ancient methods of weaving in the indigenous communities around the Sucre region. They have set up many workshops in rural communities where women (and some men) make weavings using traditional methods, and then they are sold through ASUR at the museum shop and other outlets, with the profits being used to train more weavers.

Anyway, the museum was absolutely fantastic. It had a combination of ancient (1600-odd years old) to modern day weavings from several different ethnic groups from around the region. They also had english translations for all the explanations (which was really helpful). It was fascinating to learn how the weaving is done and how it has evolved from 1,000´s of years ago to the present day, and to learn about the differences between the weavings of the different ethnic groups. We purchased two weavings so you´ll all be able to see how cool they are when we get home – it´s like each time you look at them you discover something new in them.

In the afternoon we went and visited the Museum Charcas, which has collections of contemporary art (i.e. more religous paintings), and colonial furniture. But the best bit was their achaeological collection, which consisted of a cool collection of tools, household implements and weapons from Pre-Incan cultures and a huge ceramics collection from several different ethnic groups from around the region covering the last 3,500 or so years. It was fascinating to see the progression of design and decoration of the ceramics, and how different they were in each area.

Sucre - Day 1

2008-04-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Friday 25th April

We had a good sleep-in this morning and didn´t get out of bed until 10am! Alter brekkie at a café on the main plaza (Plaza 24 De Mayo). It was 1200 by the time we had finished brekkie, and all the museums and a lot of the shops etc shut between 1200-1230 & 1400-1500, so we went and found an Internet café and update our blog and check emails etc.

We then decided to go and visit the central market, where you can buy pretty much anything under the sun – if you know where to go. The fruit and vege stalls were pretty cool, such a variety, but not a lot that we didn´t recognise - and so cheap. There is also a meat and fish market (minus any form of refrigeration), a household goods market, and a clothing market. We also wandered around the few Artesania shops that there are here (no where near as many as the other cities we have been in). Sucre is known for it´s yummy chocs, so of course we had to sample them. We bought 8 chocs for B/8 (NZ$1.25) - and they were sooooo good, but very rich.

We wandered around the city a bit more, and late afternoon headed back to to hostal for a rest before dinner. We went to a fab cafe for tea, called Biblio Cafe. I had the yummiest crepes with ice cream and choc sauce for dessert!

A day in Potosi

2008-04-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

Thursday 24 April

I was keen to do a tour of the silver mines while in Potosi, which was something Michelle was not at all keen on doing - she´s somewhat claustrophopic. After arriving at our hostel at 2:30am I was having a hard time deciding if I could be bothered getting up early enough to do the tour. I did manage to drag myself out of bed in time to have a quick breakfast and dash off to a tour agency, and I was very glad that I did.

All of the mine tours are guided by ex-miners. Our guide had spent a reletively short five years in the mines before becoming a guide. Fortunately his English was very good, he gave a great idea overview of the different systems the miners work under, and what they prefer. The conditions are pretty harrowing, we only spent a couple of hours in the mines, and that was more than enough. Upon entering the mine, which has been worked for about 500 years, I was thinking it wasn´t too bad, and that Michelle may have found it ok after all. The first level was reasonably cool, the air wasn´t too dusty and the tunnel was plently big enough. As soon as we started to descend to level two I realised I was wrong, the tunnel descending down was a tight awkward passage, leading to tight, hot tunnels thick with dust. Breathing became difficult through the bandana I´d bought to keep the dust out.

The miners used dynamite to blast the ore, shovelled it by hand into trolleys that ran on rails, which they then halled by hand to vertical shafts. They dumped the two tonne loads onto the floor, shovelled into rubber buckets that were winched up the shafts by electric winches. Four miners managed 400 tonnes of ore a day. In the past it took 40 miners to mine 200 tonnes a day without the trolleys and winches, carrying the ore in sacks on their backs. Ironically they see these advances as great progress.

One of the guys in another group asked about the fatality rate in the mines - and apparently it´s about 60 mining related deaths per year, about 40 of which are from lung damage due to the dust. He was told that on a per-person basis they have fewer accidents per year than other mining operations throughout the world. I don´t think that´s particularly relevant as so many people are exposed to the risk, especially compared to the rate of ore the extracted - also their accident reporting´s probably not to the same standard as those of operations in developed nations. (Bolivia is consider "third world" by the way). They also don´t employ mining engineers, they have the attitude that they´ve been mining for more than 500 years, so they know what they´re doing better than anyone else!

Anyway, to demonstrate their dedication to health and safety we had a bit of a play with dynamite at the end of the mine tour, the guides lit the stuff, ran off to a safe distance, dropped the dynamite and ran back. The fuses took about ten minutes to burn, and their ability to judge the timing well was demonstated by the bit of video I captured - their countdown was accurate to a few seconds.

Michelle had a rather frustrating morning trying to sort out bus tickets for us - she spent most of the morning walking around trying to find the bus terminal, hindered in the process by misdirections given by the locals.

I will eventually update this post with a couple of video clips if I can, but that probably won´t happen 'til I get back home, which really is that far off...

Salar de Uyuni - Day 2

2008-04-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 23rd April

We got up early (0545) to go and match the sunrise over the Salar. All was going fine until our guide manager to get the jeep stuck! Goodness knows how he managed to get it stuck, but we turned around and he had the back wheels buried up to the axles. So he spent the next two hours digging it out – major bummer, as we hadn´t had any brekkie and were starving!

We finally got back to the Salt hotel at 0900, and had a very quick brekkie and then packed up the jeep and travelled to Isla Incahuasi (or Fish Island to the tourists). This is basically a small island in the middle of the Salar covered in cactuses. We had a wander around for an hour and then had lunch and travelled to a volcano on the other side of the Salar. This was a pretty cool looking volcano, which still erupts every 3 years or so. There was a village at the bottom with Incan ruins etc, and people still farming the Incan terraces. There was also a salt lake where we saw some Flamingoes – very awesome!

We then travelled a few hours back to Uyuni where we arrived at 1700. We had already bought tickets on a bus to Potosí that night leaving at 1900 (so we didn´t have to spend any more time there than we had to). We dropped our bags off at the bus office and went and had pizza for dinner – one thing Uyuni can do right – bloody good pizza! The bus to Potosí on the other hand was a different story – it was a public bus (no tourist busses run from Uyuni to Potosí), there was very little leg room, and it smelled bad – Andrew said it was one of the worst seven hour periods of his life, as he was very uncomfortable.
We finally got in to Potosí at 0230, and caught a taxi to our hostal (Hotal Felimar) where we collapsed into bed.

Salar de Uyuni - Day 1

2008-04-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 22nd April

Arrived in Uyuni at 0730. The trip from La Paz wasn´t too bad, I slept pretty well, and even Andrew manager some sleep! The whole point of comino to this one horse town was to go on a 2-day tour of the famous Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats of Uyuni).

We wandered around the various tour agencies trying to find a 2-day tour, but most don´t do them. We eventually found a couple of private tours and chose to go with Andes SALT Expeditions for US$200. So basically it was just us and our spanish-only speaking guide – Evid for 2 days.

We left Uyuni at 1030 and stopped just out of town at the train cemetry – basically just a whole lot of rusting locomotives that have had anything of value stripped off them, but a cool place to take photos none the less. Then it was off to Colchani, a salt processing village on the edge of the Salar. When the salt is harvested it is still damp, so they dry it out over a fire, and then grind it up, put it in bags and send it all over South America.

About 10 minutes from Colchani is the Salar itself, which is just amazing – white as far as the eye can see. Here there are people harvesting the salt. They mark out a square in the salt and then shovel a tic layer of salt into a pile in the middle where it is left for a few days for as much water as posible to drain out and then it is shovelled onto the back of a truck and taken to Colchani for processing.

The Salar used to be connected to the sea millions of years ago, and then was blocked off by tetonic plate activity. So all the water dried out, leaving all the salt behind in the soil. Each year during the rainy season (Dec – Feb) the whole Salar (2000 sq km) is covered in 20com of water, and this solubilises some of the salt and when the water dries out the salt is left behind on top of the soil.

From there we visited a Salt Hotel, where everything is made out of salt – even the tables and chairs, where we had lunch. Then we travelled to Atulcha where there is another (much nicer) Salt Hotel where we stayed. We also visite dan area call the Galaxias Caves, and Cactus Corales. Again, these areas were under water many millions of years ago, and algae formed beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites in the caves which then fossilised – the colours were pretty cool. There are also cactuses which have had coral grow on them and then fossilise. We also visited a cave where 90 Chullpa (local indigenous people) mummies where found buried and a museum displaying some of the mummies – a bit weird but very interesting.

I made a couple of new friends with a couple of the young boys at the hotel. I gave them colouring pencils and balloons, and they drew me pictures and wanted me to help them practice their maths. We also taught them how to make squealing sounds with the balloons, and how to rub the balloon on your hair to make it stick up – they thought it was pretty cool!

La Paz - Day 4 and the 10 Hour Bus Trip to Uyuni

2008-04-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

Monday 21st April

As we had planned to go mtbing on Sunday we had arranged our bus ticket to Uyuni for Monday night, so we had a spare day in La Paz. We visited the AeroSur office to try and rearrange our flights so we could come back to La Paz at the weekend to do the mtbing trip, but it was going to cost US$400, so we decided that was a bit too much Money, and the time schedule was really tight – so we were both pretty bummed that we aren´t going to get to do the Death Road L

However, we did finally manage to visit some Museums. We visited the Archaeological Museum which was very interesting and had a good display of pre-Incan ceramics from the islands in Lake Titicaca – which interestingly showed some Asian influence. We also visited the Museum of the Church of San Francisco which was very cool, as we got to see all parts of the church including the choir stalls, and even got to clima the tower to see the view from the roof. We also got to see the cloisters, where there are many religous paintings and some displays of how the monks lived their daily lives (including wine and pisco sour making). We also visited the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore which had an interesting display of textiles from all over the region from various eras. There was also a very cool display of carnaval headresses and costumes, from the last 100 years – they were so elaborate and detailed, quite amazing. Next was a display of headresses and costumes entirely made out of bird feathers. Again, they were very detailed and some of the headresses were HUGE, but I hate to think how many birds were killed to make them all. They also had another good exhibition of ceramics from the different cultures in the region, from ancient history until colonial times.

And of course we had the obligatory coffee and cake at Alexander´s during the day as well.

We met Anna and Dave at Yusseff´s for our Last Supper. It has been so cool to catch up with them, and yet weird too cos we aren´t in NZ. We have spent loads of time with them while we have been here, and they have been fab, taking us lots of cool places and especially knowing the best places to get great food! It was so good to see some familiar faces at this point of our trip, and can´t wait to see them again when they come home.

After dinner we had to go collect our bags from ABH and then match the 9pm bus to Uyuni (10 hrs – oh joy!). We went with a company called Todo Turismo, and they were really good - highly recommended.

Photos:
1) Pottery artifact.
2) A Mummy - burial techniques of the Incan, and pre-Incan cultures resulted in well preserved mummies, and they're quite common in museums throughout South America.
3) A skull - well born people had their skull shape modified by fixing boards to the head from a young age. Such a skull shape was a sign of status.

La Paz - Day 3

2008-04-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday 20th April

Anna and Dave were busy with work stuff in the morning, so Andrew and I again tried to visit museums, but were again thwarted cos they were all shut (as they had been open until 0100 that morning). So again, we explored more of the central city, and I visited the Witches Market and the handicrafts market.

We were back at the hostal in the early afternoon when I heard a bit of commotion outside, so went to investigate (thinking it would be another protest), but found that it was actually a religious parade, with a statue of the Virgin in a decorated car at the front, with dancers and a band following behind, followed by the congregation that had just attended a mass at Inglesia San Francisco.

We met Anna and Dave about 4pm and went for coffee and cake (yes, more coffee and cake!), and then went shopping at a supermarket to stock up on food for Uyuni (as we are expecting the food on the Salar to be edible at best).

we went to a very nice café for dinner, not far from Anna and Dave's place, called Café Mediterraneo. Both Andrew and I had the lamb special – which was absolutely fabulous (as was everyone else´s food). We also had some great Argentinian cabernet sauvignon, and a free antipasto platter – if you are ever in La Paz – I world highly recommend this place!

La Paz - Day 2

2008-04-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday 19th April

We hung out by ourselves in the morning as Anna had to work and Dave had some work to do on his bike. We tried visiting some museums, but found they were all closed because they were having a special opening session at night from 2000-0100, so we just wandered around and had more coffee and cake at Café Alexander´s. We then decided to take a city tour in the afternoon on a double decker bus.

The tour was very interesting and we got to see all the major sights of the central city (statues, churches, city lookout etc), and then we went out to the southern part of the city (called Zona Sur). It is like a different World out there, very upmarket, flash houses and shopping centres and lots of green space. Compared to the city centre which is quite dirty, everything is crammed in, there are throngs of people everywhere, and everything is quite rundown. We also visited Valle de Luna (Valley of the Moon) which is a very interesting landscape where water has eroded the soil away over 1000´s of years to form a lunar like landscape – very cool.

Caught up with Anna and Dave later that afternoon, and found out that our mountain bike ride tomorrow has been cancelled – major bummer!!

Had dinner at a great Lebanese restaurant called Yusseff´s – B/40 (NZ$8) for so much food I had to get Andrew to help me finish it!

La Paz - Day 1

2008-04-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Friday 18th April

Had a bit of a sleep-in and then indulged in the free pancake brekkie on offer at ABH befote meeting Dave at Casa Gravity at 1100. He then took us around the corner to the Gravity workshop and showed us all the cool bikes and gear there, and we manager to pick up a new chain-ring set for my bike and new handle grips for Andrew's.

Then Dave took us to Café Alexander´s (a bit of a chain like Starbucks) for coffee and cake (and we met more Gravity people there) – it was damn good coffee and cake – oh yeah! After stuffing ourselves full, we went on a bit of a walking tour of central La Paz on the way to meet Anna when she finished work at 3pm. We booked in to do a mountain bike ride down “The World´s Most Dangerous Road” with Dave and Anna on Sunday – woohoo, can´t wait!

We went to Dumbo´s Café (yes – the Elephant) for lunch, and then wandered around the markets for a while before heading back to Casa Gravity for a bit of R & R before dinner. We all ended up going to a fab little Indian restaurant for dinner and had some pretty nice curry for the first time on our trip. We then walked back to ABH via the markets around Plaza San Francisco.

Photo: Electrical supply, La Paz style.

Copacabana and La Paz - Here We Come!

2008-04-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

Thursday 17th April

Had a bit more of a look around Copacabana in the morning – saw the Cathedral with the famous Virgen de Copacabana statue and had a nosey around the food and craft markets. Then we jumped on a bus to La Paz in the afternoon, arriving about 1700 at The Adventure Brew Hostel (ABH), which is owned by the same people as Anna and Dave work for at Gravity.

Anna arrived to meet us about 1830 and we walked to their “local” – Oliver´s Travels Pub – which is owned by an Englishman named Ollie, who used to guide for Gravity. So, we hung out there for a while and then headed over to Casa Gravity (where Anna and Dave live, in a very nice part of town called Sopacachi) to meet Dave after he finished work for the day.

We ended up back at Ollie´s for dinner with a few of the other Gravity guides and had great laughs when one of the guides fell asleep at a table full of gringo girls he didn´t know!

Update at Last……..

2008-04-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

Apologies for not updating our blog sooner, but we have been having a fab time catching up with Anna and Dave, and haven´t had time to jump on the Internet!

We are now in Sucre, which is a beautiful city - with yummy chocolates, but painfully slow internet!

Happy very belated birthday to my Bro – hope you had a good one, and are enjoying living in Hamilton.

Read on for an update on what we have been doing over the last week or so……..

Laguna Titicaca and Isla del Sol

2008-04-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 16th April
This morning we caught a boat at 0830 to Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca (which is the island where the Inca god was created) and spent the whole day there, visiting ruins and walking from the Northern to the Southern end.

Our transport was definitely "the slow boat to China" and it took 2hrs to get to Isla del Sol, which really isn't that far from the mainland - but, what can you expect for less than NZ$4 return.

Once we arrived we visited a small museum of artifacts from the island and then walked about 30 mins to see the Incan ruins which represent the birthplace of the Sun. The ruins were not as well constructed as others we have seen in Peru, but were just as special in their own way - they certainly chose a spectacular setting.

The island itself is absolutely beautiful, with new stunning vistas around each corner - it would be a great place to chill out for a few days that's for sure. The walk from the Northern to the Southern end took about 3 hours and we loved every minute of it. We just wish we had a bit more time to spend on the Isla. There are some really nice looking hospedajes (people's houses that they open up for guests) and restaurants on the island as well.

At 3:30pm we caught a boat back to the mainland, and now we are just chilling out at an internet cafe.

In some ways we wish we had more time here, but on the other hand I can't wait to get to La Paz tomorrow evening and catch-up with Anna and Dave! It is going to be so nice to see some familiar faces again.

Arequipa to Copacabana

2008-04-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 15th April
Spent a LOOONG time on buses today travelling from Arequipa to Copacabana (Bolivia).

Booked the bus with Cruz del Sur (the flash company) for S/40 each (about NZ$15) for a six hour bus ride to Puno. The trip was pretty uneventful - I slept a bit and Andrew read and stuff.

We arrived in Puno at 3pm and thought we were going to have to catch about 3 different collectivos (local vans, usually stuffed FULL with people) to get to Copacabana. But, we had a lucky break as the 2:30pm bus to Copacabana hadn't left yet as it didn't have enough people (this is quite common, the bus will hang around until it has enough people to make the journey profitable). So we managed to jump on that bus (and it was a tourist one at that) and left about 3:30pm for the 3.5hr journey to Copacabana.

We crossed our first ever land border between Peru and Bolivia with no problems (it was surprisingly easy in fact, despite some of the stories we had heard). Then continued on for 10km to Copacabana and arrived just after 7pm. On the way through we saw the most spectacular sunset - the sky was such a fab mix of red, pink and orange. I tried to take some photos from the moving bus, but there wasn't enough light, so I have some impressionistic sunset photos.

Once in Copacabana we wandered around for a bit and found a hostal - it is a pretty quite place, and mainly just a tourist town for Lake Titicaca. It was good to stretch the legs a bit after having sat in a bus for close to 10 hours! Even though it was 8pm there were still tour shops open selling tours to Isla del Sol etc, so we sorted out a tour for Wednesday and booked bus tickets to La Paz for Thursday. Then found some dinner and crashed for the night as we had to be up at 0630 to get sorted for our Isla del Sol tour.

Photos:
1) Mountains across Lake Titicaca
2) Michelle's "Artist's impression of the sunset without my glasses on"

Colca Canyon Day Three - Cruz del Condor

2008-04-15T05:34:00.000-07:00

Monday 14th April

This morning we were up at 0630 to catch the 0730 bus to Cruz del Condor - the Condor viewing point. We got there about 0815, and within the first 5 minutes we started seeing Condors. There were lots of people there already, but the Condors didn't seem to be upset by our presence.

As you can see from the photos above, Andrew got some stunning photos (about 120 all together I think)! They are so graceful and beautiful, but boy are their faces UGLY close-up. They came very close to us a couple of times and were swooping right over top of us - very cool.

At 0900 we jumped on another bus to continue to Chivay. Once in Chivay we headed straight for the hot pools outside of the town and had a good soak there for a couple of hours (in a very picturesque setting, with steep mountains all around). Then we travelled back into town to a buffet restaurant for lunch - all you can eat of really yummy food - needless to say I nearly rolled out the door.

We caught the 1430 bus back to Arequipa, which actually arrived 5 minutes before scheduled at 1755 (that is practically unheard of in South America, where you add at least 1 hour to all scheduled times). After getting back to Casa de Avila and dropping off all our stuff, we headed out to the Plaza de Armas to see if we could satisfy Andrew's craving for pizza. We looked all around the square, and were disparing of finding any pizza's with more than two toppings when we decided to walk up Calle San Francisco and came across a Pizzeria called Brunno's, where we had a great Meat Lovers pizza and Sangria for S/38 (less than NZ$15). And of course being our last night in Arequipa we had to stop for cake on the way home - I had some really yummy choc mud cake!

Overall, I loved our trip to the Colca Canyon. The scenery was stunning and very dramatic (especially the rock formations), and it was very interesting learning about local village life along with way and interacting with the locals. And of course, the condors were a highlight at well. We've had so many fabulous experiences on this trip already and we can't wait for more!

Colca Canyon Day Two

2008-04-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday 13th April

Today was a VERY cool day! We had a leisurely lie-in until 0700, and then began our trek at 0830. We walked to the next village - Malata - and stopped to have a chat with a family at a stall selling fruit and got to try two different types of cactus fruit - one of which us called Tuna (like the fish), and was bright pink and tasted kinda like melon, and the other was bright green and full of black seeds and kinda sour, but very refreshing. I gave the kids some solouring pencils and balloons, and the little girl was playing around with her balloon, and then decided she would turn it into a water balloon! We talked to them about life in the village and the state of education at the school etc (much like rural schools in NZ, there were 2 teachers for 25 kids from 5-12 years old, but unlike NZ these schools have literally no resources and get very little money).

Then we visited the village medical centre and Carlos explained that most people still use traditional medicines and will only visit the western trained doctor if it is a matter of life and death. The we continued on to the main square and saw the church in the picture above, and then visited a small museum showing items related to daily life in the valley. It was immensely interesting to interact with the locals and find out how they live etc - very cool.

We then continued on for another 1.5 hours to Sangalle - the Oasis- literally an Oasis at the bottom of the canyon. Here there are three companies which have set up as lodges and have swimming pools etc. The setting was beautiful and a great place to have lunch and a swim before our mega 3 hour climb out of the canyon in the afternoon.

We left at about 1430 and started climbing......and climbing.....and climbing. It was very hot for the first 1.5 hours and the track was very steep. There were three other groups out that day as well, so we had lots of company on the way up. Finally, just before 1730, we made it to the top! Here we had a bit of a rest and some food, and saw another really cool sunset (also in the photos above).

Then we had a quick 20 minute walk through fields of maize in the rapidly fading light to get back to Cabanaconde. Here we stayed in another really nice hostal, with private bathrooms (with great showers - a real luxury over here), and a nice comfy bed. Then it was down to the local pub, for some pretty crap food - the only lowlight of the whole trip, and then back for another well-earned sleep.

Colca Canyon Day 1

2008-04-15T05:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday 12th April

Another early start this morning ready for our guide - Carlos - to pick us up at 0530. There was only one other person in our group - Kirsty from Scotland. We booked the tour with Land Adventures - who actively support the villages in the canyon with education and volunteer programmes (as well as Christmas parties for the kids!).

We caught a bus from the main bus terminal in Arequipa to Cabanaconde, which was the starting point for our trek. The trip was rather interesting as it was a local bus, and the bus driver would stop anywhere along the road to pick people up and drop them off, and people just kept piling in until we literally could not have fit one more person on the bus.

We passed through such varied landscape on the way from fertile valleys to very arid altiplano (high desert) - the contrasts were spectacular. We also passed through an area of National Park and managed to spot some vicuñas, which are rare members of the Alpaca family.

It took 4 hours to get the Chivay where we stopped to grab food and have a loo break. Then it was back on the bus for another 2 hours to Cabanaconde. Once there we had lunch at a simple restaurant and then set off on our trek at 1330.

After walking for about 30mins we reached the edge of the Colca Canyon and got our first view. It was pretty stunning - and also a lot greener than I expected. Then came a 3 hour walk down the steep side of the canyon into the valley at the bottom, on a zig-zag path covered in loose gravel, so very slippery. Then we crossed the river and and walked up to the first village - San Juan de Chucco. Most of the tour companies stay at this village, but we continued on for another hour to Cosñirhua, where Land Adventures have helped build a hostel for trekkers.

The hostel was pretty cool, with adobe mud rooms, but proper beds and even hot water from a solar heated system! So after a lovely warm shower and some decent food, we crashed into bed about 2130, so we would be bright eyed and bushy tailed for another day of walking tomorrow.

Arequipa

2008-04-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

We spent the day checking out Arequipa "the white city". It has some impressive churches, and we went to the local museum that displays frozen mummies that were Incan sacrifices to the volcano gods. These mummies (the museum has six, but displays only one at a time) were recovered in excellent condition, still frozen in the glacial ice at the summit of the local volcanoes some of which are higher than 6000m. The tour provided was excellent and the museum visit is a definite highlight to Arequipa. We also visited the Convent de Santa Catalina which takes up a whole block, has its own internal streets and is also a major highlight. It´s a very beautiful historic site.

We´re off to the Colca Canyon for a three day trip tomorrow, so you won´t hear from us for a few days.

Rainforest - Day 4

2008-04-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 9th April
Today our time in the rainforest came to an end - and so did my runny nose! I am going to miss waking up to the sounds of the birds and howler monkeys each morning and the general peacefulness and relaxed atmosphere out here. But we are headed back to Cuzco and civilisation.

We all boarded the canoe about 0800 for the ride back down river to Puerto Maldonado. We had a LONG wait in the tin shed airport with no a/c, only fans, cue sweaty armpits. Our flight wasn´t until 1240, and we were there at about 1100, as some others had the first flight back to Lima, so we had a while to wait. Well, their flight time came and went, and after a while an announcement came over that the flight had been canceled and they were consolidating their flight with ours. All good. But then our boarding time came and went, and still no sign of a plane. Eventually a plane turned up at about 1300, and we eventually left at just after 1330.

Once back in Cuzco, we came back to Pirwa hostel again to have a nice HOT shower (only cold water in the jungle, but it was OK as it was so hot all the time) and get into some clean clothes before updating you lot on what we have been up to in the last week or so.

So, that´s pretty much it for now really. We are off to Arequipa tomorrow, and from there will visit the Colca canyon and hopefully see some Condors! Will be in touch again soon (yes Mum, Poppa Goat´s comments are soooo funny :-P). Catch ya later!

Photo: Hazy view of the rainforest from the plane.

Rainforest - Day 3

2008-04-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 8th April

Yeah - sleep in this morning! After brekkie we headed out on a walk along one of the trails around the lodge to see a clay lick (where birds and animals come to eat the mineral rich clay) and to see a giant Capoc tree.

The track was quite muddy and even swampy in places - the lodge provides gumboots for everyone to wear - so we eventually got to the hide across from the clay lick and, yep - nothing was happening! Not a bird or animal in sight. So after we waited for a while to see if anything would show up, Rodolfo (our guide), just showed us the types of animals and birds that go there on a chart. Then is was off to find the giant Capoc tree. After walking for about 30mins and through yet more swamp, we got to a part of the track where the swamp was too deep, so we had to head back to the ldge - so all in all a pretty unseccessful morning (all we managed to see was some monkeys, a toucan, and some coati (which are a funny looking mammal that looks like a cross between a monkey and an anteater). One bit of good luck we had, was that we arrived back at the lodge just before a short, but really heavy downpour of rain - at least we didn´t get stuck out in that!

At the lodge we rested a bit more, before and after lunch. It has actually been really nice having a few relaxing days of enforced rest after the exertion of the Inca Trail, it means we have built up our energy reserves for the next leg of the trip.

at 1600, we headed across the river to visit a local farm/orchard - this was very different to anything we would call a farm/orchard in NZ. Bascially the Infierno community have one 10,000 hectare land title from the government, and they have put all the land on one side of the river aside as a reserve (where the lodge is located), and the land on the other side is for subsistence farming. The community get no aid from the govt whatsoever, and the money they get from Eco-tourism has allowed them to build schools, water storage and roads to transport their produce. Each family is allocated a block of land and they can grow whatever they want. THe most common crops are rice and maize, but the farm we visited grew bananas (several types including some pink ones), avocados, pineapples, oranges, mandarins, yucca, rice, papaya, mango etc. There appeared to be very little organisation in the block with jungle constantly encroaching from all sides and fruit trees just planted anywhere, there were no specific blocks or rows of each species of tree, they were just anywhere and everywhere. But it was very interesting to learn about how they live and how their community has developed.

Rainforest - Day 2

2008-04-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

Monday 7th April
The 0400 wake-up was definitely worth it, as it was so cool at that time of the day (the temp has been 28-32 C, and 80-100% humidity). We jumped back in the motorised canoe to head up-river to an ox-bow lake called Tres Chimbas (an ox-bow lake is where the river has changed course and left a lake behind). He we climbed onto a catamaran with a platform and seats on top and then were paddled around the lake for about two hours, just watching birds and animals (and trying our hand at Piranha fishing!).

It was so peaceful and beautiful out there in the early morning (we arrived at about 0600), all you could hear was the sounds of the birds and the monkeys, and we got to see so much wildlife. And the really cool bit, is that there is a family of giant river otters that live in the lake (grow up to 2m long), and we got to see them swimming around and feeding, and we got to see a new baby for the first time - the guides were very excited by that, as there are only 250 left in the wild.

We were back at the lodge by about 1030, and then had free time until lunch at 1300, and then more relaxing time until our next activity at 1530, as it is just too hot to do anything but lie in a hammock in the middle of the day.

While we were lying in our hammock in our room, we heard rustling in the trees just over the balcony, and looked up and saw a whole family of Howler Monkeys staring out at us, eating, and playing around. So we spent 30 mins watching them from the balcony, running up and down and along the trees - very cool.

In the afternoon we went to an Indigenous Botanical Medical Facility, Garden and Research Centre, where we learnt all about the natural medicines that the Infierno community has been using for hundreds of years, and now western medicine is catching on too, and are studying many of the plants to develop into drugs to treat cancer, epilepsy etc.

I also discovered that I am allergic to something out here. My nose is constantly streaming, but I don´t feel sick, so I am guessing I´m having a hayfever like reaction to something.

After dinner we fell into bed, in our room which has one wall open to the jungle for our first long night´s sleep in a while (we didn´t have to be up until 0700!)

Off to the Rainforest

2008-04-09T14:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday 6th April
We were up bright and early as we had to completely re-pack , and be at the airport by 1000, for our short flight to Puerto Maldonado - and from there on a motorised canoe to Posada Amazonas Lodge on the Rio Tambopata.

We were given some yummy snacks on the way to the boat including tropical juice, platano (banana) chips and roasted brazil nuts which were then coated in icing sugar - all made locally. And then on the boat we had a "banana leaf" lunch, which was fried rice wrapped in banana leaves. After a 45 minute journey up-river we reached the port for the lodge. Everything is very rustic here, including the airport - which isn´t much better than a large tin shed.

We had a 20 min walk to get to the lodge, but it was definitely worth it - the lodge and its surroundings were beautiful. The lodge is a co-operative between the local Infierno community and Rainforest Expeditions, with the majority of profits going back to the community. All the buildings are open with thatched roofs and all the buildings are joined by raised wooden walkways and completely surrounded by lush jungle.

We arrived about mid-afternoon, and after a quick rest, headed out to the 37m canopy tower to get a bird´s eye view of the jungle. On the way we saw Howler Monkeys and Dusky Titi Monkeys and several species of birds. From the top of the tower we could see for miles, and saw several more brightly coloured species of birds flying past and in the trees, including red and blue macaws, parakeets etc.

After that it was back to the lodge for dinner, and a good nights sleep, as we again had an early wake up at 0400.

A Day in Aguas Calientes

2008-04-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday 5th April
Our original plan for today, was to return to MP to take another look around, but as they don´t do the deal of half-price entry for the second day now, and we had got all the photos we wanted yesterday, we just decided to hang out in AC and relax.

AC is a pretty small town, so we spent a bit of time exploring and then had a good look around the craft market and bought some more souvenirs. We also thought about going to the hot springs which the town is famous for, but we decided to flag that in the end as well, as we heard they were pretty grubby, only 30 C, and they charge S/10!

So after mucking around most of the day, including a bit of time people watching the the main plaza, which was quite amusing, we walked to the train station at about 1730 to catch our train back to Ollaytatambo, where Llamapath were picking us up and bringing us back to Cusco.

We found we were seated next to the Llamapath group that had just finished the trail that day, so it was cool comparing notes etc on how good our tours were. I am definitely pleased we chose to go with Llamapath, after seeing the way all the other companies treat their porters on the trail - no more that mules basically - with very poor clothing, old rubber tyres for sandals and their loads tied up in tarps and tied to their backs, it was very sad seeing so many people treated this way by fellow human beings. Whereas our army had proper clothing, for both warm and cold, proper footwear and proper backpacks to carry their loads.

Once back in Cusco, about 2200, we booked back into Pirwa Hostal and again collapsed into bed, as we had to be up at 0630 to re-pack and get ready for the JUNGLE!

Inca Trail - Day 4

2008-04-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Friday 4th April
We had a Very early wake up call from our porters at 0340. Then we had a quick breakfast (complete with celebratory cake!) and we were off to the checkpoint. But the early start was worth it as our team was the first to the checkpoint! Then all we had to do was sit and wait for it to open at 0530. There were several other groups right on our tail, so we were half-walking, half-running along the trail in the early morning light, trying to be first to the Sun Gate.

It was still pretty misty, and a little damp all along the trail and yep, you guessed it, we were first to the Sun Gate, but couldn´t see a BL**DY thing! (there are supposed to be fab views of MP from here on a good day). We waited for a while to see if it would clear, but it definitely didn´t so we carried on at a relaxed pace down to MP. We reached MP about 0730, and it was still foggy when we got there, so you couldn´t see the whole site :-(.

Casiano then took us on a two hour tour of the site and the weather gradually cleared as we wandered around. The site was absolutely breath-taking, and it was so interesting learning about how they lived and why they did and built things the way they did. For instance, there were 37 different architects that worked on MP, and 37 different styles of block work, from very rustic for the terraces, to very finely shaped and crafted for the temples. Apparently it took 80 years and 30-40,000 workers to build MP - and it was never finished! It was all absolutely fascinating.

At the end of the tour we had a couple of hours to walk around on our own, so most of us decided to go and climb the small hill behind the site (the big mouintain - Winya Picchu - was covered in cloud at the top, so we decided that was a waste of time). It only took about 15 mins of scrabbling on very tired legs to reach the top, and the view was pretty special. We could see the whole site clearly from up there, and the scale of everything was impressive.

After that we headed down to the small town at the base of MP - Aguas Calientes - for our farewell lunch - Pizza - YUM! After lunch the rest of the group headed off to the train, and Andrew and I went to find a hostel to stay in. We found a pretty decent one for only s/50, which is a bit of a bargain in AC. The funny thing about AC is that one of the main roads is the rail line, so it was pretty odd sitting in the restaurant watching the trains go past right outside the door!

Andrew and I were absolutely knackered by this point, so we found somewhere to get our washing done, had dinner and collapsed into bed for a well earned rest.

On reflection, the Inca trail was an absolutely fabulous experience with amazing views of the steepest mountains towering above, beautiful, lush valleys below and fascinating historical sites along the way. We are definitely glad we decided to walk the trail, rather then just taking the lazy way our and taking the train to AC - it just wouldn´t have been such a special experience.

Inca Trail - Day 3

2008-04-09T13:22:00.000-07:00

Thursday 3rd April
Again we were up at 0600, but at least we only had a short. mostly downhill walk today. It was still pretty misty and drizzly when we left camp and it didn´t improve much until we were nearly at our last campsite.

Casiano - outr tour guide, gave Aaron (the slow dude) a 30 min head start, expecting that we would catch him up by the first camp site. Our group had a slight drama with Sarah (the only other chick) needing some oxygen at the bottom of the first climb, as we think she is probably developing bronchitis and with the cold and damp, she was struggling to breathe. So the rest of us carried on to the camp (expecting to see Aaron, but not finding him) and waited for Casiano under the shelter of the eaves of the caretakers hut. After about 30mins Casiano, Sarah and Kieran finally showed up and we continued on to the first Inca site for the day (again, expecting to see Aaron long the way - but still no sign of him). By this point Casiano was starting to get worried about Aaron, so he ran ahead to find him. He finally caught up with him at the second Inca site. Apparently one of Casiano´s guide buddies saw Aaron waiting and told him what happened with Sarah and told Aaron to tag along with his group, so in the end all was good, but he did have us a bit worried for a while.

The last 40mins into camp was steep switchbacks, so by the time we got there we were well and truly ready for a rest - and the weather had cleared! So we got some great views down and along the valley. MP is tantalising close, but we can´t see it as it is around the other side of the mountain from where we are. So are a nice restful afternoon, watching all the other groups trail in after what had been a LONG walk for most of them, we took a short walk to the most spectacular Inca Site we have seen so far - Wiñay Huayana. Lots of very cool terraces, and a mostly intact village. After that we went to the bar for a quick beer or two (yes - there is a BAR at this camp!), and then back for our final dinner.

After dinner we had a little ceremony with the porters etc and handed over their tips and sang a few songs. Then it was off to bed for an early night as we had to be up at 0340 to begin the last day of our trek.

Inca Trail - Day 2

2008-04-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 2nd April
We got to sleep in until 0600 on Day 2 - Whoopee! Then came the 400m climb to 4200m and Dead Women´s Pass. It actually wasm´t too bad - there were just sooooo many steps, and some very steep and deep. We had a bit of a rest at the top and had photos with the ´Red Army´ - our porters, then started the walk down to 360m for lunch in a lovely valley.

After lunch we had to climb up to 4000m again (our last pass), and then down to 3600m to camp at the end of the day. On the way we got to visit a couple of cool Inca sites - one which was used as a fortress and communication link along the valley. As we reached the top of the second pass it started raining - not really heavy, just enough to be a pain in the rear - so out came the wet weather gear (and we pretty much wore it until the end of the trek).

The second Inca site we visited was quite large and had only one access point - up a very steep set of narrow steps, with a BIG drop off the edge! But it was very cool - basically a whole village on top of a rock - living areas, fortress, altar and purification baths (as we get closer to Machu Picchu, the sites become more elaborate and contain more and larger places of worship, as MP was considered the ultimate holy place).

It was really raining by the time we got to camp, and we hadn´t seen much of the view in the afternoon on the way down as it was so foggy. We were all pretty tired at the end of the day, but tomorrow we only have a short walk (about 7km or so), so we will hopefully arrive about lunchtime and be able to have a lazy afternoon. Again dinner was absolutely fabulous - I definitely don´t htink I´ll be losing any weight on this trip.

Photo: Michelle climbing towards Dead Woman´s Pass, visible in the background.

Inca Trial Here We Come!

2008-04-05T11:28:00.001-07:00

Tuesday - Day 1 on the Inca Trail
We chose Llama Path to do the Inca Trail with, primarily because of their good reputation for sustainability and excellent treatment of their porters - and we were soon to see how all the other companies treated their porters :-(

After our early morning pick-up we were driven to Ollaytatambo for breakfast. There are 8 of us in the group - a couple and another bloke from America, three Aussie lads and us. We arrived in Ollaytatambo just after 7am and had brekkie at a small restaurant. Then it was back on the bus for the 45min drive to KM82 where we start our trek.

The porters (13 of them) loaded their packs, and we got all our gear sorted, then we were off to check into the trail. We had to show our passports at the control point and they had to match the number we had given when we had booked - but Marcus (one of the Aussie lads) had bought his Irish passport, but booked with his Aussie passport - so we had a delay of about 45 mins while he tried to get it sorted. Finally they decided to let him go, and we started on the track.

The track we walked was developed by the Incas to as a pilgrimage to Machu Picchu, and many parts of the track still have the original stone steps and pavers. Day 1 was our hardest day - 8 hours of tramping and a climb to 3,800m. After 1.5hrs we stopped to have a look at our first Inca site which was down in the valley from where we were, but the terraces and living quarters were clearly visible - this site is still being excavated by Archaeologists.

Then it was off to our lunch stop at Camp 1B. When we got to lunch the porters had set up the kitchen and dining tents and had everything ready to go. The food we have had on this trek has been the best we have had in South America so far. For lunch we had three courses and four courses for dinner. For example for lunch we had 1/2 an avocado and salad, vegetable soup, and pasta with tomato and mushroom sauces.

Along the first part of the track there were little villages growing maize and potatoes and they had stalls selling drinks to trampers. After lunch we only passed through one more village and then we left civilisation behind. At this point the track also got really steep, with lots of steps. We finally got into camp at 1750 after having climbed 800m to 3,800m. After everyone had arrived at camp we had "Happy Hour" - which was popcorn, milo, crackers and jam - we had Happy Hour each night when we got into camp before dinner. Again dinner was fabulous food - salad, soup, rice, veges and stuffed rolled trout with sauce and apple and dulche deleche sauce for dessert - YUM!

Our guide´s name is Casiano, and he is a fab bloke. He speaks Quechua (Native Indian - which is used to communicate with all the porters), Spanish and very good English. He is very knowledgeable and proud of Incan culture (as he is part Incan). He was very interested to know more about NZ, so we told him about some of the birds, and showed him where we lived etc.

We headed off to bed about 2145, as we had to be up at 0600 the next morning . I am so glad we made it up to this camp site (1C) on the first day, as it means we only have a steep 400m climb (to Dead Women´s Pass) in the morning instead of having to face an 800m climb first thing. We were one of only 3 groups at this campsite, so that means that at least another 17 groups have a big climb ahead of them on the 2nd day.

So that was Day 1 - you´ll all have to wait until later in the week for further installments!

Photos
1/ Michelle at the start of the trail
2/ Qanabamba ruin
3/ Unfortunate porters from another treking company

Last Day before the Inca Trail!

2008-04-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

Monday - Hanging out in Cusco
Monday was our last day in Cusco before we head off on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu for four days. So we basically just hung out in Cusco, buying a few snacks for the trip (we also tried to find a decent supermarket, but walked for ages into the local part of town and still couldn´t find one) and went to a few museums and churches etc.

At 6pm we had to go to a briefing for our trek, where we met the rest of our group and were told we were being picked up at 5am! And by the time we had dinner, got back to our hostel, and sorted out all the stuff we needed to take we didn´t get to bed until 11:30pm - so needless to say we were a little tired when the alarm went off at 4:30am.

Photos:
1) Church of Santa Domingo which has colonial stone on top of Incan foundations.
2) Hostel hallway, Piwa hostel, Cusco.

Around Cusco

2008-04-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

This week we have been on the Inca Trail and we leave for Puerto Maldonado and the Amazon tomorrow (Sunday) - so it will probably be Wednesday when we next get a chance to blog.

Sunday - Sacred Valley Tour
On Sunday we went on a Sacred Valley tour around Cusco. This was a full day tour visitng markets, and Incan Ruins. First up was the famous Pisac market - I bought a necklace there, but on the whole we have concluded that the textiles and weaving are not as fine here in Peru as what they were in Ecuador.

Then it was on to visit the Pisac Ruins. The Incans were pretty intelligent people, and had a very organised society, and were master architexts, builders and astronomers. For instance, all buildings were built with trapezoidal shaped walls, doors and windows to help them withstand earthquakes (one of the reasons so many of the Incan ruins have survived 500 years in this earthquake prone part of the world). The sun and stars were also very important and almost everything they built is related to them somehow.

Then it was off to a restaurant in Urubamba for lunch before going to Ollaytatambo to see more riuns. Here there is a Temple of Sun built with 6 huge interlocked stones - each weighing between 30-45 tonnes. Also in the mountain opposite there are two "faces" - one is said to be the father of the Incas and the sun rises from his face on the Winter Solstice, and the other is said to be a messenger from the Incan God.

Our last stop was Chinchero, for a touristy demonstration of traditional weaving and a visit to yet another set of ruins. These ruins showed how the Spanish tried to destroy the Incan Culture after the Conquest. Here they destroyed an Incan temple and then built a Catholic Church on the foundations - so you can still see the Incan stonework at the bottom of the church.

As per ususal with tours in South America, we were inevitably running late, and we actually saw the last ruins in the dark! But that is all part of the fun here.

Lima to Cusco

2008-04-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday - Lima to Cusco
Got woken up by the first little earthquake not long after we had gotten to sleep, and then had to get up again at 0600 to head back to the aiport. Once at the airport and waiting at our gate for our flight there was another much stronger earthquake and they evacuated the airport as a precautionary measure. So we had to wait around for ages outside, then when we were finally let back in we were told that our flight had been cancelled and we were being re-booked on the next flight (but we got exit row seats!). So we had to wait around for an extra hour. Then just as we were about to board the bus to take us out onto the tarmac to our plane, one of the other busses hit a fire hydrant out on the tarmac, so there was a huge fountain of water squirting everywhere, so that caused another 15min delay. In the end we took off only one hour later than our original flight and our luggage arrived in Cusco, so it wasn´t too bad all round.

Cusco is a very cute little city, we found a hostel on one of the little plazas and have been walking around exploring a bit this afternoon. Had a great lunch for $10 soles (Peruvian dollars) each (about $NZ5), but have been spoiled a bit by the cheap, cheap prices in Ecuador and it is taking a bit of getting used to paying higher prices (especially as Cusco is so geared towards tourists). We are going to arrange some tours tomorrow, before heading off on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu on Monday.

Photos:
1) Burst fire hydrant at the airport causing further delays
2)Evacuation due to Earthquake!
3)Brass plaque on monument, Cusco
4)View from Cusco square

Our Last Days in Ecuador - and Earthquakes in Peru

2008-03-29T13:48:00.000-07:00

Just in case you hear anything about it in the news there were a couple earthquakes in Peru this morning, which we felt in Lima, but everything is OK and still running normally - we don´t have much more detail than that. There was one small one while we were in bed and another larger one (felt about the same as the Gisborne one before Christmas) while we were waiting for our flight at the airport - more on that later.

Wednesday - Cotopaxi Volcano

On Wednesday and Thursday we went on two tours with a company called Gullivers - service was great - highly recommended.

After an early pick-up in Quito (0700) we headed off South of Quito on the Pan America highway to a small town called Machachi where we visited the market and the guide bought food for lunch etc. Then we continued to Gulliver´s hostel - Papagayo (where we stayed on Wednesday night) to pick up more tourists and a trailer load of mountain bikes. We then headed to Cotopaxi National Park.

The scenery is suprisingly similar to NZ (they even have Toi Toi flax etc), and large pine plantations, so it looked a lot like the Taupo/Rotorua/Ruapehu area. We travelled over a very bumpy dirt road for about 40 mins to 3,800m to the base of the volcano where we got out to stretch our legs and see how we handled the altitude. Then travelled up to the Refugio (Hut) carpark at 4,500m. From there we had to walk up to the Refugio at 4,800m - boy that was hard work at that altitude - and the track was on loose scree slopes as well, so it was a case of one step forward, slide 1/2 step back, take 40 steps and stop for a rest - it took 40mins to walk a distance we estimated would have taken 20mins if we had been at sea level.

Once we got to the Refugio we had a short rest and then continued on to a glacier at 5,000m, then back to the Refugio for a fantastic lunch! After lunch we walked back to the 4WD and jumped on mountain bikes for a skid down the road to the bottom of the volcano. Unfortunately I took a bit of a tumble, and the brake was a bit of a stretch for my hand, and the combination of cramp and a very rutted road meant I ended up with a scraped knee, so not much damage really. Then it was on to look at a pretty lake, then back to Papagayo for hot choc and chocolate cake, and an early night as we were both knackered after all that excercise at altitude.

Thursday - Laguna Quilotoa

We were picked up at 0830 from Papagayo and again headed south to a town called Latacunga, where we turned off the Pan America and headed west. We stopped in a small town called Saquisili and visited the markets - animal, craft and food and household objects/farm implements. It was really interesting getting a glimpse of how rural Ecuador works - but, boy, would the animal rights activists would have a field day here!

Then we travelled through a few small rural towns and then stopped in the middle of nowhere to visit an indigenous indian farming family - this group of people really live a 3rd world existence. They were quite a weathly family by rural standards (because of the income from visiting tourists), but they lived in a very small grass thatched hut, which was shared with all the small aminals they use for food - chickens, ducks, guinea pigs (very popular food over here) etc, with raw meat just hanging up in the hut, and no electricity or other modern convieniences.

We then continued towards Laguna (Lake) Quilotoa, in a small village just before Quilotoa itself there were some lambs grazing on the side of the road and one ran out in front of our mini-bus and it got hit and died - blimey that caused some commotion! The woman who was looking after them starts yelling and soon half the village have turned up and are threatening to beat up our driver and guide unless they hand over $70 for the sheep (which is expensive as the going rate is about $40-50), so after some tense negotiations, the $70 is handed over and the dead lamb is loaded into the back of our bus, and we were on our way - yes, we shared the bus with a dead sheep!

Once we got to Quilotoa, we walked down to the edge of the lake. It was pretty cloudy when we got there (very common), but it cleared enough for us to get a few photos on the way down, then completely closed in when we got to the bottom (cloud at water level). Laguna Quilotoa is a lake at the bottom of a deep, extinct volcano crater (3,800m at the top 3,000m at the bottom). Some of the group decided to ride donkeys back to the top ($5), but we walked as we thought it would be good training for the Inca Trail. It took us 50mins to walk up the track which had taken us 20mins to walk down and it was VERY steep in places. We then had lunch at one of the hostels (Andrew had Llama, which tastes like mutton, but is quite chewy). Then it was time to take the long trip back to Quito.

It took about 4 hrs to get back, so it was about 2030 by the time we got back to the hostel, Amazon Inn (same one as before), and when we arrrived we found we had been given a free room upgrade for our last night - score!

Friday - Hanging out in Quito
We flew to Lima late on Friday night, so we just spent the day hanging out in Quito, visited some malls in New Town (same a everywhere) and went to a cool archaeology museum, with lots of Pre-Incan and Incan pottery and gold and silver artefacts. Then headed back to the hostel to pack up our stuff and head to the airport. Flew out of Quito at 2050, and landed in Lima at 2245 - Lima airport is pretty chaotic! Eventually managed to find our driver to take us to our hostel for a few hours sleep.

Around Quito

2008-03-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

Otavalo

On Tuesday morning we decided to brave the public transport system. This involved going to the rather dodgy bus interchange. It didn't take too long to buy tickets once we actually found the right ticket office (among dozens available). It was nice and cheap, only $2 each for a trip that was supposed to take a couple of hours, and we were soon to find out why...

The bus was actually pretty flash and we were the only two on it to start with, which we found a little amusing. The bus left a little early then drove around the outside of the terminal, and then around town a bit to pick up extra passengers, so the bus was about half full by the time we finally got underway. Three hours later we finally arrived in Otavalo.

The main attraction for this rather out of the way town is it's Indian Market. First up we visited the food market, which was interesting, but didn't offer much that we wanted to buy. We had a quick look round and took a few photos. We then went to the craft market which was pretty quiet and very colourful. We had a quick look around and bought a few souvenirs. We'd decided not to take the guide book with us because all we wanted was the map, and it's pretty big. Michelle got a little stressed cos she wasn't confident she knew exactly where she was all the time. Fortunately we found a map on a wall and after taking a photo of it we then had a portable map. Drama over!

After getting back to Quito later than we'd originally hoped (though it only took two and a half hours to get back) we had a great Mexican meal for less than $20.

Ecuador - Where Do I Start......

2008-03-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hola Everyone,

Well it has been a few days since we have updated you all, so there is LOTS to catch up on - but Ill try and keep it short.

So, on Saturday we flew from Santiago to Quito - all was good. We are staying at the flashest hostel I have ever seen, run by a lovely family. The dude who picked us up at the airport at 2100 even stopped on the way to the hostel to get us dinner!

Sunday

On Sunday we went for a wander around the city. First we caught a taxi up to the Teleferico (gondola) which goes up a really high hill at the edge of the city - with the obligatory fab views from the top. As it was a public holiday the queue was HUGE so we paid $7 (instead of $4) for an express ticket so were at the top within 15 mins (instead of 2 hours). Once at the top we walked up a track to the viewing platform and I was beginning to wonder why I was getting out of breath pretty quick - then we saw a sign that said "Altitude = 4,100m" (Quito city itself is at 2,850m) - no wonder I was struggling!

After that we caught a collectivo (minibus) back down to Old Town, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Area. Had a quick look around there and saw a church called La Basilica, and then it started to pour with rain! (and I mean big thunderstorm) - consequently we got soaking wet (even though we had our jackets). So, after we had found some lunch we hot-footed it back to the hostel in a taxi.

Monday

Today we went and visited a tour agency to sort out some tours for the rest of the week, so on Wednesday we are going mountainin biking down Cotopaxi volcano and on Thursday we are going to Laguna (Lake) Quilotoa. Tomorrow we will be braving the local busses to go to the famous markets at Otavalo (1.5hrs north of Quito).

After that we spent more time in the Old Town, wandering seeing lots of beautiful buildings and churches (LOTS of churches). Many of the old colonial buildings had been "restored", and looked beautiful from a distance, but close up you could see all the imperfections - broken panes of glass, broken stonework etc - but still it was absolutely gorgeous. we both loved Old Town, the atmosphere was really relaxed and the sights and people were interesting. The best churches we saw were The Cathedral and La Merced, there was also the Monastery of San Francisco which would have been absolutely stunning in its day, but its beautiful altar was destroyed by an earthquake and restoration is on-going.

Also managed to order some great food today (we struggled a bit to order lunch, but in the end it was very nice) - we even had VEGES - twice!

I think tomorrow will throw some interesting challenges at us - trying to negotiate public transport and all.

PS - for all you non-computer geeks out there, when you leave us a comment and you are not a member of blogspot - write your name in the message - so we know who we are talking to!

Good Friday in Santiago & We´re Off to Ecuador

2008-03-22T06:33:00.001-07:00

Buenas Manaña,

We are just hanging out at the hostel this morning waiting for a taxi to come and pick us up, to take us to the airport for our flight to Ecuador.

Yesterday was a public holiday here in SA (just like at home), so we thought we would get out and explore the city. Well, compared to the pulsating mass of humanity we encountered on Thursday afternoon, today was like the centre of Hastings on a Sunday afternoon - almost completely deserted! Most of the shops and restaurants were closed, and because it is a religious holiday the museums we wanted to see were closed as well (bugger!).

We went back to Cerro Santa Lucia, and had more of a look around, then wandered around for a bit and finally managed to find the Plaza de Armas. It was only one of two places we went to that were actually full of people. Saw a beautiful cathedral there - the South Americans sure don´t do things by halves, especially when it comes to celebrating religion. We then managed to order some lunch (in Spanish - and we actually got what we wanted :-) ).

We continued our walking tour of the city by heading towards the river (which is actually just a fast running grubby stream), and walked through the green belt that runs alongside the river, then crossed the river into the supposedly "wealthy" suburb of Bellavista. There were a couple of nice apartment blocks, but other than that the buildings were just as rundown as any other areas we have seen. There are some beautiful buildings (museums/cathedrals etc), but most of the place is pretty rundown really.

On the other side of Bellavista was the Metropolitan Park of Santiago, which is a huge park on a huge hill with a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top - this was the only other place that was full of people. It has a cable car (funincular) and a gondola going up to the top, and it houses the national zoo amongst other things. Today there was also market set up at the bottom - nothing very exciting - but we bought yummy icecream - coconut flavour. We walked to the top to see the statue (it was very hot and there was not a lot of shade on the trail), took a few photos at the top, and got some great views of the city - basically sprawling city in every direction as far as the eye could see (well as far as the smog would let you see!). There is a bit of a market at the top also, with food stalls etc, and they were selling a popular drink containing barley kernels, peaches and cold tea! As it was so hot we decided to take the cable car back down (only 800 pesos each which is about $2.50). The queue for the cable car at the bottom was HUGE, but hardly anyone waiting at the top, so we figured that it must be popular to get the cable car up then walk back down.

We then walked back to the hostel via the nicest suburb we have seen so far - Lastarria. By that time it was 1830, so we had been out walking around for 6.5 hours, and walked around 20km, so we were a bit foot sore!

We have discovered a new food which is quite yummy! They are called pepinos and they are tear drop shaped with cream and purple striped skin. When peeled the flesh is pale yellow, and tastes like rockmelon.

Impressions of Santiago - the pollution has not been anywhere near as bad as I thought, you don´t really notice it until you go up high and see the smog. The people are quite nice and quite "European" in their dress and outlook. We haven´t really had any culture shock as such here, as everything looks kinda familiar - just in Spanish!

It is going to be interesting to see how different it is when we get to Ecuador.

We Made It!

2008-03-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we are at the end of our first day in South America, so just thought we would post a quick note to let everyone know that we arrived without any problems.

The flight was pretty good (as good as long flights can be), I managd to sleep for about 6 hours, Andrew on ly managed about 3 hrs. Once we arrived at the hostel and got sorted, we went for a wee walk to the super market and got some food for lunch. We then had a "little" (2 hr) catnap.

Once we awaoke from our slumber, we headed downtown to Cerro Santa Lucia (a hill/park) and went for a wander - little did we know that it appears to be the meeting place for young couples! Hung out there for a bit, then as we were about to leave we went around a corner and saw a beautiful statue/fountain bathed in teh golden evening light. So we quickly took a few photos there, and then came back to the hostel as it was starting to get dark. Then went out to a cheap and unspectacular pizzeria for dinner (where everyone was fascinated by the little white eggplant plant that the owner had been given - people on the street kept stopping to have a look at it, as they are not common over here).

Tomorrow is a national holiday here, so we will explore more of the central city, and do the usual touristy stuff. It is pretty hot here too, it is 2230, and I´m still in t-shirt and shorts.

Mountain bike ride up Takapari Rd

2008-03-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

This is just a little test run for our blog. We went for a
mountain bike ride up Takapari Road. The first kilometre
was yuck because they've decided to resurface it with nasty
loose gravel. But it was cool from then on. And really
hot!
:-)