Tequila

Mexico City. 17th July.
Teresa made it through all her flights from Brisbane to Mexico but was extremely tired when she got here. So we spent a few days checking out the city and some nearby ruins built by the Zapotecs the photo shows the view from the top of the Temple of the Moon (50m high) to the Temple of the Sun (70m high) taken on my birthday (happy birthday to meeeeee).
Have been trying to plan the rest of our trip, having trouble trying to fit everything in - there`s a lot of travelling to bedone in the next few weeks!! Need to be in Costa Rica 11th August.

Miraflores

Everyone was right when they said to stay in Miraflores in Lima. It`s a really nice area near a beach, lots of nice shops and a great veggie place called Come with awesome veggie burgers and large amounts of fresh juice. Stayed at Samay Wasi Hostel in a 4 bed dorm for US$9 and free breakfast, was ok. Went into the city one afternoon by bus, an afternoon is definitely long enough to see everything, which is kind of sad for such a large city (8-10mil). Caught my flight ok to Mexico.

Oasis

Not that Ica itself is an oasis, there is still desert everywhere, butI went out to Huacachina, and that is an oasis, a lagoon in the desert a few kilometres from town with restaurants and hostels around it and trips out into the sand dunes in these great buggies where we did some sandboarding in the very loosest terms of the word, we just lay on our stomachs on the boards but the dunes were so steep this was quite scary enough for me and the children! (what a wuss)

Desert . . . Again

in Nasca.
Painful day of waiting around and being lied to about how long things would take etc. We had to rush to the airport to get on a flight over the lines - where I waited for 3 hours. The flight was great, I got to sit in the co-pilot seat in a four seater plane, we were about 500m above ground level, so got a really good view (the larger planes fly at 1500m (or feet?)). Nasca town wasn`t flash, (again with the dust) but ate some good street food (the locals use a rag on the table to wipe their hands on but the gringo got a napkin! some really do try). If I had known that soon I wouldn`t have the little stalls to buy snacks and water from on every corner I might have bought more stuff.

Astronaut

Hummingbird

Inca Trail Photos

Looking down on the track to Dead Woman`s pass. Day two.

Our group - pretty tired on day three

Sunrise over Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate, (the shadow effect is probably not an accident).

Machu Picchu with Huayna Picchu in the background.

Me!

Camino Inca

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu has been conquered!! ha!!
Well I made it, it was rough, and very hot and hard but not nearly as painful as I thought it would be and it turns out my group `maybe very good walkers`, so we made good time (some even went so far as to carry all their own gear and beat most of the porters!!).
I had a great group of people, mostly around my age, mostly single, mostly female. And a Swedish couple in their 50s. The rest were American or Canadian except for 2 swedish girls and an aussie girl, so they managed to remind me that not all americans are loud and offensive, though they do tend to have a different travelling style when they are on vacation for only a few weeks. I do have more people to visit while in North America though which will be nice after leaving Teresa behind. Overall, the food was amazing, the porters spectacular, and the toilets the nastiest on earth. My hand sanitiser was a blessing to the entire group, and note to all those who think they might like to try it - take more toilet paper than you think you could ever, ever need. Watching the sunrise onto Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate on the last morning was great with perfect weather, but we were probably too tired to appreciate it properly! Then a short walk down allowed us to see what all the fuss was about, unfortunately it was so hot and still and we didn`t have enough water for the 2.5hour tour so everyone was glad to get the hell out of there!!! Though that meant a bus trip down to Aguas Calientes (I don`t recommend staying there or the hot pools) then a 4 hour train ride back to Cusco, though a few of us bailed with an hour to go to catch a bus that took 20min.

Bug bites

Rafting the Apurimac River - 3 days/2 nights
This has got to be the highlight of my trip so far . . .
Had an absolute blast!! I thought I would enjoy it (hence why I paid US$150) but never thought it would be that much fun. The first day was a 4 hour bus trip to the river, an adventure in itself due to the size of the valley, then lunch and a few hours on the river to learn the ropes and practise flipping. The water was pretty cold but we were supplied with wetsuits, spray jackets and lifejackets.
That night the guides cooked up a great feast and we slept in tents on a small beach next to the river. The next morning we were up before the sun for brekkie so we could put in by 8am. We rafted for about 4 hours straight in class II through V and walked around some big scary ones (class VI). The views were amazing the only downer being the fact that the rest of my boat was speaking in Hebrew the entire time (and I mean the entire time). I did learn a lot about Israel on my trip though! Aside from me and the boy from Holand learning how to be a raft guide the other 15 in the group were from Israel.
After lunch on a large beach we were off again for another few hours of fun rafting before arriving at our camp. We managed not to flip though we did get stuck on a rock (we had just swapped sides of the raft to use our other muscles - needless to say we swapped back!), and we lost a man overboard when we were too slow to get down in the boat, but he was ok.
Another great mountain of food (and good to!) then we sat around our beach fire until bed. The next morning we were up even earlier, then 4 hours rafting til the put out where we packed up the boats and all the gear and had an enourmous lunch of meat meat and more meat and potatoes. Only a few hours from here back to Cusco and everyone slept most of the way! I am now required to return to New Zealand and raft some of our rivers!

Pansies and Marigolds

Qusqo originally, Cusco is a really nice town with loads to do, lots of gringos but that`s to be expected.
My first few days were spent checking out the town, a few museums and the nearby ruins of Sachsayhuaman (saxy-woaman), Qènko and Tambomachay.
There are tours daily that go up to the ruins, but with the Inca Trail looming I thought I could do with the walk. I couldn`t tell you how many km I walked cos the signs never added up but it was quite a way and boy was it hot!! Hired a guide at S who was doing his thesis on the site so as well as knowing quite a bit about it he had excavated some as well so was very enthusiastic.

Inca Express to Cusco

Made it to Cusco!! The bus was good, a long day starting at 7am and going till 5pm but we stopped and saw some ruins, churches, had a great buffet lunch, stopped at the highest point for photos and ¨shopping¨ (anywhere the tourists stop you will find women selling alpaca hats, blankets etc etc.)
Stayed the first night in a dodgy hostel, met an aussie couple on the bus (among others) so we went looking for a hostal together but lots full so just went with this yuck one (they were only staying one night anyway). So second mission the next day (the first was breakfast) was to find a nice hostal, found a few ok ones and a really nice, really expensive one but finally found El Andariego. Only a few blocks from the main Plaza but well back off the street and I have my own room with private bathroom and free breakfast, with fruit! and the hot water is so hot and fullon it was great! Caught the local bus over to Pisac to see their Sunday market, some good quality weaving etc for good prices even before the bargaining. Climbed up to the ruins - what an absolute mission!! i didn`t have a very good view when we drove down to the city cos the bus was so full so i didn`t see just how high the temples were. When I started to climb I was underneath the mountain so didn´t realise it would be that much of a challenge, the amount of work that went in to building the terraces, houses and temples puts my pathetic effort to climb it all to shame! Some bad news though, lost my wallet on the way back to the hostal, lucky bugger that finds it cos I had just that morning gotten out 500soles (the max I can get out) so have had to cancel my visa card - should get a new one Thursday.

Lake Titicaca

Titicaca = Grey Puma or Stone Puma.
Did a 2 day 1 night trip out on the lake. Visited 2 of the Uros Floating Islands (there are 40) then Amantani a farming Island where we stayed the night with different families and dressed up in the traditional clothes to go dancing in the hall. The next day to Taquile island, much more touristy (working with tour companies for 30+ years compared to Amantani`s 6) where we had Kingfish for lunch and then 3hours by boat back to Puno. Booked a tour bus to Cusco with Inca Express.

Puno

Made it to Puno, certainly not a city to put on the ¨pretty¨list, maybe the ¨pretty poor¨list. My hostel was ok, private bathroom which was nice, and the girl was lovely - kept getting me tea for my cough. After arriving in the evening I found a simple diner and spent some time in front of the tv, which I haven´t done in over a week so that was a nice change.
Went for a walk the next morning to test the altitude, wasn´t too bad so climbed up a nearby Mirador (Lookout) to get a view of the city. Took me a while stopping often to let my heart rate slow down and get my breath back but was a good view of Lake Titicaca.
Puno is trying to be a tourist town at least near the centre with quite a few restaurants and pubs etc, but the rest of Puno is crazy busy with locals selling everything from market stalls. I don`t think they have a full on super market in Puno, I didn´t see one, everything from soap to kitchen sinks to cordless drills can be found in stalls. Some really good fruit here, had my first Kiwifruit for a while.