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| Peru conjures up images of the Inca civilisations, particularly Machu Picchu, but also the food is top-class and we can stay in a hostel here (with hot water) for 5pounds a night. The Incas and the Nazca Lines inspire wonderful jewellery and art and the scenery is breathtaking......... |
| Blog pages (Click on the country to find out the latest) * Argentina * Chile * Bolivia * Peru * Equador |
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| End March to Middle April |
| The Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca Imagine living on an island that is built totally out of reeds matted together. On this you would sleep, eat, cook (no health and safety officer with a clipboard here), play volleyball, and of course, greet tourists and try and sell them your nicknacks.... all of this on a few inches of matted reeds......... There are dozens of floating islands on this area of Lake Titicaca and usually around 3 or 4 families live on any one island. All the islands have names which we can`t pronounce because they are in the local Q"uechuan language, but we were lucky enough to visit two of them. Tentatively stepping off the boat onto a weird patch of matting which really did not feel stable underfoot, you got the impression you were walking on a wet boggy marsh, only you knew that the only thing stopping you falling through were a few bits of matted reeds....we only stayed for half an hour, but these families go about their daily life on these islands, even cooking with open flames on top of the reeds. It was probably about the most simplistic way of life we have ever come across, with each family living in a basic reed hut with a reed mattress on the floor and a few cooking pots around and really not much else. I thought I was going to lose John, not falling down a glacier crevasse this time, but just sticking his foot through the reeds, but fortunately they had clearly perfected the skill of laying the matting, which they build up every few days to replace those which might have rotted underneath, and despite feeling that we could put our foot through it at any moment, it actually stayed solid and held up. And in case you were wondering, at certain times of the year, these islands just float away, so the inhabitants could go to sleep one night in their usual spot, and wake up the next morning in a totally different part of the lake............weird, eh!! |
| Like Peruvian gauchos, we horse-rode to the ruins...............and it rained (again),............. One of our gifts was riding in the Argentinian outback....this was one of the things we did not manage to do when we were in Argentina, but we promised ourselves that we would go horseriding at the next available opportunity...and this was it..........visiting some Inca ruins in Peru, trekking across beautiful mountainous scenery to visit the ruins of Q`enqo near historic Cusco......... My horse was called Volcano and John`s was called Inka (Sun). Fortunately mine did not live up to its name, and was actually rather tranquil, which I am most pleased about, as i did not want a repeat of my rather unfortunate incident on "Tartan" at Wittering when I was 13. Sadly, John`s horse "Sun" did not bring the nice weather either and about 10 minutes after mounting our Peruvian horses, the rains came.....something that we are getting used to since or wedding day....! Ok, so these might not have been the steeds you would have hoped to have been on if you were fighting in Henry V`s army, but then John and I are self-confessed horse novices, so we were quite happy that, in John`s words, these horses were "one step away from the glue factory" and they just followed nose to tail our guide`s horse. It meant that we did not have to worry about falling off, and instead we could just enjoy the ride and stunning scenery. We passed running streams, rode up rocky mountain-sides and we passed houses which proudly displayed two 20cm high stone bulls on the roof which are mounted on top of the houses over here to bring good luck and ward off evil spirits. We have talked about doing a 2 day ride when we get to Ecuador (and we still might) to make up for losing out in Argentina. However, we felt we had to have a serious discussion following this ride about whether we thought this was practical, bearing in mind that this was just a 2 hour ride and we could not actually walk for 3 days after.........where have those thigh muscles that I did not know I had suddenly come from! ...........Respect for Harvey Smith......... |
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| Boca...well not so mighty Boca, we finally see them play.... Just when....well actually way after thinking that it was all over and our chances of seeing Boca Play were long gone...... they appear in Cusco Peru on the lastest in their group games on their way to become the champions of South America.... Its like watching Barcelona or Real Madrid come all the way to the UK to play Spurs ..... but then we´ll see if Spurs can claw it back from Seville!!, You´d want to go and watch them but it really would take a miracle to see Spurs win the European Championship... Even i think that and I support Spurs.... We queued up for an hour or two and then i gave in and went to chat to the touts as it looked like we would be in the queue for another few hours....... I´m not proud but hey, when it costs four pounds for the ticket, 20% on the asking price still doesn´t add up to much....and they were the best seats in the house..... We found out that actually you don`t get a seat, just an area of the stadium..... you turn up when you want, first come first served for the actual location of the seat!! So we were heading there, just about to pop into somewhere for some lunch when we get chatting to an Aussie Girl about Machu Picchu (Well Mel really.......) and so instead of being there 3 hours early as I would have liked we were only about one...... little did we know that although the kick off was at 5.30pm, people had been filling the Stadium from 10am!!! now that is dedication considering that you can`t take food or drink in with you....... So by 4.30 it was packed... litterally. We tried to sit on the stairs but the Police moved us on, we tried to sit on the walkways but the other fans shouted and threw things....we were blocking their view......So in the end we sat perched between a rock and a hard place just below the seats half way up the terraces....Actually not too bad a view until the police moved a group of 18 foot tall 6 foot wide Germans on from where they were sitting to infront of us.... But time ticked down and the game was about to start.... A Boca fan (one of the 50 or so out of 50,000) climbed onto the roof of the stadium looking down onto the Cusco fans, Full Argentinian Strip plus flag and wow.......the crowd went wild...I thought the stadiom was going to be torn down brick by brick to get him down..... but then along came the police and all was calm....well less hectic again..... So, the game was about to begin, the police came out ...about 100 of them, 50 each side of the Boca tunnel with shields to protect the players from the till rolls, coins, flares etc being thrown........Next the players..... and the boo´s and hisses came rolling down from the top of the stadium...... But what a match, not too long before the Boca players were lodging a complaint as one of their players was send off...... and to be fair to them coming from a costal city to this altitude where i get out of breath tying my shoe lace, let alone walking or running arroung a pitch, i wouldn´t want to be a man down..... the game went on, one goal, then break for half time, meat on a stick (with optional boiled potato on top) and a cup of gruel if you wanted it for 20p......then they´re off again, the second goal and the crowd are going wild........ I´m sure the Spanish equivalent of "The referee´s a w........." echoed the stadium as a Cusco player was sent off and then all was forgotten a few minutes later when the third goal went in for Cusco and the match was well and truly won.....The Mighty Boca, the arrogant Boca were finally beaten...... I tell you New Years eve 2000 in London had nothing on the party that followed in Cusco that night,.... Even the fat Camp controller let me have a beer.... I might have been two but you know me - I lose count after the first sniff..... |
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| Ladders of Death...... So, a ladder is a ldder right? How high can a ladder go..... I guess the answer is really, how high do you want it to go...Strap a whole bunch of them to a chliff face all the way up a mountain and its a pretty long way.... The cries of "Muuuuuuuummmmmmmmyyyyy" have rerely been heard in a grown man with such conviction... Yet, there are many motivation factors, knowing that when my dad gets on the first rung of a three run stepladder, he feels queezy...that Jack-and-the-beanstalk feeling when you can`t see the top..."Oh, what`s up there?", and knowing that others have done it and talked of the amazing vistas looking across the valley to Machu Picchu.... So, here we go, one foot up, then the next, oh well its quite easy really......Ooooooohhhh.. MMMyyyyyy GGGoooooodddddd, how far down...and that was only after the first rung!! Let`s have some realism here... The ladders didn`t really go all the way up the mountain. And they weren`t at 90 degrees.. You could just see the bottom from the top.. From there it was a combination of ladders, ropes and stone steps for the next 1000 + metres. 2 hours it took. 2 hours up, straight up, some parts less steep than the others but most of it eyeball to eyeball with the rocks. And for a lump like me, that`s tough and the Fat Camp Controller wasn`t even there to give me a gold star...(Mel was sweet allowing me a beer the next evening though, though for me technically Easter Monday in the UK is a bank holiday, does that count.....?) And after two hours straight up, ever pushing myself on, ever wanting to stay infront of those I could hear and see below, I wasn`t going to let them pass and give that first view to someone else...funny how that diehard British spirit kicks in when someone is below you... Each lung has inflated to the size of a football and is ready to collapse, you`re so hot your face is as red as a cartoon figure with steam coming out of your ears, you feel like if you were on terra ferma proper, you would be crawling on all fours...but no, I will get to the top first ...(And it wasn`t even the Loud Nation)! After 2 hours the pain was over. This was it...the top. Turn the corner and WOW! Machu Picchu stares at you across the valley. Absolutely amazing. After 3 minutes or so there were 5 or 6 of us on the rocks looking over to the valley below to the ruins. As the sun rolled out and the clouds rolled in they all left one by one and I sat waiting for the perfect photographic shot, and I waited, and waited, after an hour or so more the clouds changed from pretty white fluffy ones to those of a darker blacker nature and thoughts of Peter Kay`s "It`s spitting" sketch came to mind. Accepting that the nice sunny sky was not about to materialize, I headed down. Within 5 minutes the drizzle had turned into a downpour and within 10 minutes it was a total monsoon!! Like Indiana Jones, I made my way back acros the makeshift bridges and down the stick ladders closer and closer to the ground below. With every step down in the rain my fingernails dug into the slippery wooden rungs and I thanked mother nature I wasn`t ready to join her yet. This was my honeymoon afterall! Nearly there, the last 200m ladder to go and I`d be on the final gentle stroll back. Strange then to meet a man sat in the foetal position curled up with effectively a dustbin bag on staring down.... "Hi, I`m Rob", came the weary American accent, "I`ve got diorreah really bad and I`m getting the cramps". Now, I`m not quite sure what the official reply to this should be, but "right" seemed to suffice. "Yeah, anyway, I tried to go on further but feel an episode coming on, I`m worried something will happen when I try to climb down this one". Again, "Right", seemed the best response. "Wondering if I could follow you down, so you could catch me or something if some thing happens"? To be honest, I think I would prefer to follow a person in his condition, but to make him feel better, I agreed and to make me feel better, he assured me he would should if the worst should happen...... So, down we went, me leading, Rob following and we both lived to tell the tale, no blood or anything.... Where is this...Oh Wow, so that`s Machu Picchu..... |
| Machu Picchu So, the rains from the previous day`s climb up Putukusi hadn`t relented, in fact if anything they were worse. It was 4.30 in the morning and we were meeting our guide at 5am for brekfast so that we could be on the first bus up to the entrance and see the sunrise over Machu Picchu before the hoardes arrived. He started breakfast at about 5.45am and by 6am, the reason why no buses were leaving became clear. A landslide We wouldn`t be getting there anytime soon. By the time 50% of the way up had been cleared, 6 buses were packed with people and our dreams of a quiet first glimpse had been shattered. We jumped on board and made our way as far as the bus would take us to where the road has disappeared over the edge of a precipice. From there we walked and within 5 minutes the best defence that Gortex (R) had to offer was soaked through and the chills set in. Our guide did his best. He made some attempts to explain things to us, but you could see it in his eyes. He wanted off the mountain, out of the rain, and back to his office. His warm, dry office. The tour started on the long path but as the rains hardened I`m sure we slipped onto the medium and then onto the short trail. To be honest, by this time, I don`t think we cared too much. You could see the stones infront of you, but the total cloud coverage blocked the amazing vistas that we`d seen on the posters in the restaurants in the town below.... Our tour was over, about 3 hours in the rain and we decided that refuge needed to be sought. So, off we went passing the local cafeteria, instead making our way to the $600 a night hotel and to the bar. Bravado goes a long way. A few coffees, hot chocolate, a glass of red (for Mel) and a long chat with a great older lady later and we were just about warm and dry and ready to face it again. Resisting the temptation to say "Room 24, Smith", we payed the bill (twice the price of our previous evening meal) and we were exploring again. Luckily the afternoon was a different story and the rain had stopped. We made the climb up the adjoining mountain of Wyanapichhu and whilst sitiing at the top having our avocado sandwich, the sky cleared and the sun shone. All was well with the world. We climbed down to a virtually deserted site and spent the last hour before it closed revisiting the areas previously shown to us by our guide and some of those slightly out of the way areas normally left undiscovered. Amongst the last to leave, (in fact, we were practically escorted off the site) we left happy with warm memories of one of the most amazing ancient cities. |
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| Nazca Lines There are so many wonderful things in this world, and I`ve been lucky to see some amazing sights. Some are ancient temples, some whole cities, some cover whole areas and some are built on high for all to see. But one thing they all have in common is that they can be seen. They could be seen by those who constructed them and they could be seen by the generations which followed. But, the Nazca Lines are beyond my comprehension (not hard many who know me might well say!!) But imagine, you go to the beach and you draw a monkey in the sand with a stick. And now you want to scale it up to 180 metres in length, to the same scale as the small drawing. Suddenly, the stick is not big enough so you drag one of your feet to make a mark. You move stones out of the way, you have ropes and markers to keep it all in scale, and finally uou`ve completed enlarging the drawing. But how can you see it. It is 180metres by 120metres and you are standing on flat ground........Generations pass and they get forgotten about. More generations pass until the invention of the aeroplane and one day in the 1920`s a pilot looks down and sees a giant monkey in the desert below, then a whale, a pair of hands, a humming bird, a dog, a tree, triangles and stars........all drawn in the desert, all gigantic in proportions!! Then come more planes and people, anthropologists, scientists and UFO spotters all with their theories. Who builds something that can only be seen from teh air? Surely it must be for the little green men..... There are other theories but none as interesting! So, off we went in our little plane, twisting this way and that, turning from side to side to get the best view. And honestly, it is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life (to be honest, I didn´t look down for every available moment, as I had to stay focussed on the horizon and keeping my face sealed to the sick bag provided=. Yet, the time I spent head out of sick bag and looking down, was full of wonder and awe. A memory that will last a lifetime and will forever be a highlight of my life! |
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| Hotel upgrade I believe that things happen for a reason. I met Mel as the girl next door, nothing planned, it just happened. That is the way life works sometimes. We had been looking for a hotel upgrade worthy of our gift list ever since we saw that our original planned hotel was...well, let´s just say, far from worthy!! So, we had a 6 hour bus journey on a local, and possibly the worst journey we have taken, the worst bus on the worst roads. I forget how many times we were thrown out of our seats. It was impossible to read a book and if you wanted a swig of water, you have to resolve yourself that the majority of it would end up on your lap. We had read that the only hostels in the village of our destination were really budget local ones and had rooms for less than 1pound 50p. Cheap, even for Peru. But, we saw another option. For about 40pounds a night, there was another way, a "third way" as T.Blair would say, under new Swiss management, the flash website proclaimed. And that is a lot, a real lot of money for a room in the middle of the countryside in Peru. The honeymoon suite came with a jacuzzi...perfect for relaxing after a bus journey from hell. Perfect for relaxing from a walk down and back up into a canyon deeper than the grand canyon....we booked it for 3 nights. We arrived and were greeted by the usual teenage scouts offering rooms........ "no gracias, tememos un otro hotel" and thankfully they pointed us in the right direction. Nobody at check-in, but hey, we don`t mind waiting a little while. Looks kind of rustic. Someone arrives, A-ha, we`ve only got a double for tonight but the honeymoon suite will be available tomorrow...ok, we`ll see the double. This is where Mel and I are still learning and being nice to eachother. I think she wants a nice hotel to relax in and even though I think it is overpriced, I say it`s ok. Mel, on the other hand thinks well, it`s got a bath and John loves baths and it has been over 3 months since he had one, so even though Mel thinks it is overpriced, she says ok too. It then goes from bad to worse...We can`t actually have a bath or shower, they tell us. It is 8pm, after a 6 hour sweaty stinky bus ride...but no, they have gone "green" and although the town has electricity, they have solar power and hot water drains the batteries. We can have a shower mid-day tomorrow when the sun in shining and there is plenty of hot water then!! But, we are getting up at 6am to go to see the condors.....we are used to this information by now from 5pound a night hostels, but not from 40 pound a night hotels!! John: "Maybe we should go to one of the cheaper hotels then as they are on the electricity grid". Them: "Ok, you can have a shower then, but make it a quick one" John: "But I want a bath".. ..Panic sets in. The have doctored all the baths and plug holes so you can only shower. Solution: a plastic bag was found and filled with mud that they wedged into the doctored plug hole... We wouldn`t have minded if this was a funky eco lodge or the rooms were fantastic. But it was no better, worse in fact than the 5 pound room we had stayed in the night before. We weren`t paying for the service, the decor of the amount of batteries they had been charging, as after half a bath of water, the water went cold and the lights went out in the whole hotel. They used the light from the street lights outside whilst they searched for candles and we can just imagine all the other guests cursing Mr & Mrs Brenchley in room 15 who had a bath and used all the power..... Possibly the saving grace would have been the American breakfast we were promised before our hike out to see the condors...a note obvioulsy missed by the chef. We knocked on the kitchen door at 5.45am to be handed some bread and jam. We asked on reception if this was a regular "american breakfast" as we handed in our key at reception. Them: "Oh, how about a free bottle of water to make up for it?" (worth about 20p) Us: "No, thanks" We, well actually Mell as she is good at this, haggled them down to 12pounds for the room and we checked out after our walk into the 5pound room, which, yes, had hot water ALL day!!. Hotel upgrades...........tut!! |
| Condor Spotting So, there we were in the depths of deepest, darkest Peru and at 5am we caught the bus out to the Condor viewing platform to try our luck at spotting some Condors. Without becoming a walking encyclopedia and boring you senseless, I will just rattle off some of the amazing facts about Condors. Andean Condors are one of the largest flying birds in the world, weighing 20 to 26 pounds with a wing span of approximately 3 metres. So, we are not talking blue-tits, robins and wrens. The valley itself was beautiful, deeper than the Grand Canyon, and we waited with baited breath to see one of these creatures arise from the depths. We had read that it was "off-season" and so sightings were not guaranteed, as they would be in high season. So were we blessed? Yes, we were. Not just once, but we saw 3 or 4 condors gliding effortlessly through the canyon and gliding over our heads in graceful silence. The sheer enormity of these birds literally took our breath away. And the bonus was, that we had endured a hideous 6-hour public bus ride the day before in order to avoid having to go on a guided tour (which we try and avoid unless we have to). It paid off as all the tourists left the viewpoint and we just sat on our own, having our own "condor flying display". We left when we wanted to, not when our guided tour told us to, and we walked the 4 hour route back to the village across beautiful scenery edging the side of the canyon. Yet another amazing experience! |
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| 27 Hour Bus Ride from Hell and General ramblings... Now, normally the buses aren`t too bad when you pay that little extra dn go "cama / bed" class. But then this was planned to be across country, cross border bus ride to make up time, skipping North Peru and giving us more days in Ecuador now that we`ve got the Galapagos in our sights.... We contemplated flying and to be honest, we probably should have done it, it wasn`t even that much money...But we had the thought that we wanted to do our whole journey across country (well, not the to and from the UK or Galapagos, that would just be silly)... We had taken this company before, Ormeno, and they broke down and we were a few hours late, but we couldn`t find info on other companies leaving when we wanted to go, so we went with them. We were about 3 hours late leaving as there did`t seem to be a bus! Hopefully, it was being fixed and serviced before we set off! Normally it is pot luck whether the films are modern or old, in English or Spanish and with or without subtitles. But, for the duration so far, no movies. (Relatively good food, though - curry and rice should be the norm for all flights, bus rides, etc - hard to go wrong). But what a dull blog just describing the bus...instead I write this which Mel will type up later in order to stop myself....The man in the next seat needs to be slapped in the face with a space...or at the very least a wet fish, though a frozen tuna would be preferential. I know compared to many, I have bad manners, and my mother would cringe at some of the things I do. However, if the man on the next seat was a countyside indiginous person I would be less judgemental as I have smelt them, I have seen them devour chicken and simply spit the bones out onto their clothes as the bus moves along....and worse, but we won`t go into that. On a 27 hour bus journey, things build up... ...Eating with your mouth open (unless you have no nose, are asthmatic and having a fit or any weird medical condition) is a no-no in my books. On the second violation, your lips should be sewn shut for a month at a time. -....Shovelling food into your mouth like you haven`t eaten in month, otherwise, easy tiger..... ......Slurping coffee, fine if you are Japanese and this is how your mother taught you to cool hot liquids, or it`s a cultural thing. Otherwise, blow like the rest of the world.... There are other things , some a lot worse, some trivial. And as I said I do some bad things, sometimes I sniff, talk loudly, fart, scratch and other things that I`m sure Mel will add to, but on a 27 hour bus journey, I try to fit in... I don`t keep quiet sweet English boys awake by grunting and slurping all evening. I don`t (thankfully) snore in the olympics and stop said nice English boy sleeping all night. And I don`t suck air through my teeth every 5 minutes through a 27 hour bus journey as the driver does or doesn`t overtake.. Now I have got it off my chest, I`m officially a grumpy old man (though I could blame lack of sleep), I have decided to add a second law. 1. Children should be beaten and not heard (ok, this one take with a pinch of salt, I don`t really mean it...or do I)?! 2. People who eat with their mouth open or have conversations with food in their mouth should have their mouths sewn up for a month and live only on blended foods. Still, I thought I had a bad journey. Mel, who had found another seat nearer to the toilets (sadly, she really needed to) had a chappy sitting opposite her who not only sniffed every 5 minutes, but spat the slime that had accumulated in his mouth from his sniffing into the bus aisles at regular intervals.....nice! Don`t you just love it!! |