Cusco, Chivay, Colca Canyon & Arequipa

Hi!

We've been busy and moving around the last few days. After our trek we had a full day in Cusco, which we took fairly relaxedly. Nik wasn't feeling so crash-hot with a funny tummy, so that was another reason to take it slow. After lunch on the balcony of a nice little restaurant we both had an hour long full-body massage, at a cost of 15 soles ($A6) each - very enjoyable. Mexican for dinner, then I left Nik at the hotel and joined the rest of the tour group at an English pub celebrating a couple of birthdays' of people on our tour.

We spent the next day nearly entirely on the road, stopping only to pick up some groceries and for lunch. We had our first "bush camp" experience, we pulled over on the side of the road in a huge stone quarry for the night. Big dinner, then marshmallows around the campfire. Nik was up sick lots in the night which left her feeling completely exhausted for the next day as we travelled to Chivay.

Chivay's in the Colca valley, and is the gateway to the Colca canyon, which until recently was thought to be the deepest canyon in the world (they discovered another one close-by that's slightly deeper :-P). After stopping in the snow at the top of the pass (which itself is 50m higher than Mont Blanc - the highest point in Europe) we had amazing views of the valley as we decended down into it.

The following morning I left Nik to catch up on some sleep while I went on a tour to the canyon. Not exactly what I expected, it's really just a big, deep, steep valley. All the same, amazing views, and I did manage to see a Condor or two. The pictures tell a better story, see below or Facebook! Also sampled some cactus fruit, some of which was quite tasty.

After returning to Chivay we climbed back out of the valley on our way to Arequipa. Arequipa is Peru's second largest city with a population of a million. The terrain as we drew closer to the city changed again (it's a diverse landscape here!) - harsh and arid, almost looking like hard sand dunes. The outskirts gave me a bad first impression, I couldn't imagine what would posses anyone to live in such a barren place. However, as we drew closer to the city centre it's beauty and charm grew, and now after spending a few days here we've come to quite like the place. The main square definitely has a colonial, almost European feel to it.

Yesterday morning we had went on a "reality tour" of Arequipa. We visited a quarry, a cemetery in the shanty suburbs, an orphanage, a community restaurant and the markets. Each family leases a 50m section of the quarry for S/50 per year, which they are then entitled to mine. They work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, hand carving stone bricks out of the side of the quarry, using 2nd hand car axles as tools. At 1.5 Soles per brick, that's about S/450 per month (A$182), when it's estimated to cost about S/700 per month to live. Yet it's necessary to provide building materials at such a cheap price because otherwise the poorest class (60% of the population) couldn't afford to build. What a cycle...

The cemetery was equally as depressing to me, although I think I was mostly saddened by the emphasis people put on ensuring "blessings by the gods" by building elaborate gravesites and offering food, drink and music, basically as a sacrifice once a year. There are seperate sections for "religious" people, those who are "unbaptised", and those that committed suicide. Part of me felt like it's so sad that even in death people are discriminated against, another part of me felt like none of it matters anyway so it's a shame that people care about it so much.

The next stops were more encouraging; children always seem hopeful and bright :-) The "orphanage" was basically a family day-care centre set up and run by single mums for single mums. Each mum takes a turn of a year of looking after 10 kids, 6 days a week in her home. This is in order for the other mums to seek daily employment. It's partially government funded, and our tour also supports the program, as it does all the projects we visited. The community restaurant is based a similar idea; efficiently providing low cost meals to a community. Kids whose parents are working can get a cheap feed at lunch and dinner, it also provides discounted or free meals to pregnant women, the elderly and disabled. Again it was run by a roster of women who take it in turns to cook for a week at a time.

The market was amazing, again pictures speak louder than words (see below). All in all, the reality tour proved to be a thought provoking experience. During the tour we also discussed why democracy isn't always good, how corruption is a bigger problem than lack of education, why it would be economic suicide for Peru to get serious about cracking down on the cocaine industry, marriage, divorce, illegal workers... three and half hours full of thoughts.

Today we went out for brunch to a little cafe overlooking the Plaza de Armas, where we spent several hours journaling, eating and people watching. Then we wandered the city, found some ice-cream and lazed at our hotel. Also said goodbye to Becky & Ed as they left for home today. This was after a final crazed hour of Puno, which everyone seems to have taken a great liking to :-)

Tomorrow we're driving 11.5 hours (yuk!) to Nazca, and then on to an overnight desert adventure before Lima. More adventures await!

Blessings,

Alex

Cusco main square

Colca valley

Condor (in the clouds below us)

Colca Canyon

A dad climbing up to get the next big slab of rock to make bricks from

A kid at the orphanage - wearing an Incredible Hulk T-shirt :-)

Arequipa markets, from top left: Pig's head, cheese, veges, fish, processed meat, dried frogs (for making soup!), potatoes, kittens (for pets, not eating - at least I think :-P), grains, bull's testicle and penis, bread, fruit, llama fetuses (superstitious charms), herbs and potions, fresh flowers, hats.

Trade wasn't going so well for this fellow :-P

Plenty more on Facebook.

Choquequiraw

Hi all!

We left Puno about a week ago and travelled all day to get to Cusco. We spent a full day just wandering around Cusco and getting everything ready for our 5 day trek to see the Inca ruins at Choquequiraw. We found a lovely little restaurant not far from the main square for lunch and for 8 Soles (about 3 Aussie dollars) each, we had a starter of bruschetta followed by a big bowl of lovely creamy soup and a main of pasta with a glass of wine... Amazing value!

Day 1. Then at 3.30am the next morning our big trekking adventure started! We got up and met the bus and our guides (Ricardo, Jimmy and Maguell) at 4am and had a 5 hour bus ride to the start of our trek. We had breakfast (massive, as were all our meals) and headed off for 7 hours of walking. The first 5 or so hours were quite flat, with a bit of "up and down" and the last part went down quite steep. We had a late lunch (which every day was a soup and a main) and made it to our campsite around 5.30pm. The tents were up and all we had to do was turn up for dinner. Every night before dinner we had "Happy Hour"... Not the traditional sort with beer and peanuts, rather with hot chocolate, popcorn and bikkies. Dinner each night consisted of soup (we didn't eat the same soup twice) a main and dessert. We were impressed to say the least at the amazing meals they whipped up in a tent with only what their horses could carry up the mountain.

Day 2. We were woken at 5.30am to "Hello. Good morning. Cocoa tea?" coming from outside our tent. And yes they did deliver (every morning even in the rain) tea to our tents to help get us going. After breakfast we set off, leaving the washing up and tent packing up to the lovely porters. Today was downhill for a half hour and then after crossing a raging river uphill for what seemed like forever (about 6 hours). It was a rainy day so everything was wet and muddy. But dinner was again warm and delicious and we had the ruins to look forward to the next day...

Day 3. We weren't travelling today, just walking to different Inca sights. We we're granted a sleep in (7am) and then walked up for a good half hour to visit the sight where the royal Inca family lived before the Spanish killed them off. It was surreal. The Incas were very sophisticated and great at building things. Their walls still standing are built better that a lot of houses today and the thought that went into where they positioned everything is brilliant. We saw a religious site (literally a mountain that they had cut the top off) and almost got lost in what was left of the royal family's palace. Back down to the campsite for lunch and after a siesta we wandered down to the terraces. Little ledges built into the steep mountain and beautiful stone steps. Pictures will give better pictures than words :-)

Day 4. Very steep downhill for a few hours and then very steep uphill for an hour to get to lunch. Quite flat for the next few hours to get to our campsite (no toilet at this one, real bush camping). I might pause to mention that "Take 2" and "Puno" are big hits and we play most nights.

Day 5. Last day and very happy about it. The plan was to walk for 3 hours, get to luch and at about 1pm leave on the bus for a 6 hour bus ride home. Walk was alright lunch was great, but the bus didn't turn up at 1. So we got some soccer games going with the locals. The local women won the girls game( I was on their team:-)) but our boys beat the local men. We found out that there had been a landslide so the bus couldn't get through and it finally arrived at about 4.30pm and we were off by 5, to the sadness of the local children. Got back to Cusco at about 11pm. warm shower and shampoo were gladly welcomed as was a yummy Hamburger from a street vendor for 2 Soles (less than 1 dollar!)

Before I go on I just have to say that the things we saw we're indescibable. The mountains and waterfalls and views... I've never seen anything like it in my life. The only problem was that you have to make an effort to enjoy it when your so exhausted from walking :-)

We woke up quite early this morning to get our very dirty clothes to the laundry and had a lovely breakfast at a little old lady's restaurant. Very home made and delicious. This afternoons plan is lunch and a massage (15 Soles for an hour) and a few drinks tonight with the whole group.

We're loving South America so very much and recommend it to anyone. Everything is so cheap (We got a litre bottle of rum today for 18 Soles... Like A$6.50) and the food is divine!

Sorry this has been so long... I hope the pictures do a better job at explaining than I have.

Much love.



Our view on the first day



Som of the kids we played soccer with.




Our trekking group.




Dinner tent.



Our corn we picked from the sacred Inca sight for dinner!



Big strong men carrying big pumpkins for dinner.



An Inca wall with a Llama



Us overlooking the ruins.



Terraces from afar.




This one is especially for Brent Weightman!

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca!

2 blogs in one day I know, but we've been busy and the internet is free here! We're heading to Cuzco and hiking to an ancient Inca city over the next 8 days, so we probably won't be blogging any time soon.

About a 20 minute boat ride from Puno there's a community of people who have built practically whole villages on man-made islands made from reeds. They harvest the reeds for everything; eating, building islands, building houses, ropes, burning, it's amazing! We stopped there on our way to an overnight adventure on an island in the middle of the lake (Amantani). Our guide explained some of their customs and traditions, we explored the tiny little island that we were on and even rode in a reed boat! They farm fish and grow vegges all on their islands which are layers and layers of reeds (a new layer each month) supported by a porous floating root stock. Very cool.

Two and half hours on a very slow boat took us to a port on Amantani, where pairs of us were matched up to a local family to be hosted. Nik and I were with an older couple – Felix and his wife, who's name was complicated and not easily remember (how slack of us!). The language barrier was fun, they spoke a local language and only “picca espanol”, which ended up being just enough to match our little Spanish :-) Their little house is fairly humble, but bigger and more sturdy than places we saw in Nicaragua. Their kitchen/dining room is a separate mud brick building with a dirt floor. They fed us amazing veggie soup and potatoes and rice for lunch, so much food! They let us help do their dishes (cold water, squatting on the floor), and we made friends with their cat, but not their donkey. Then we headed up to the village soccer field, maybe half way up the island. Locals v Tourists... eventually the tourists won, but I think we had lots more subs than they did :-P Nik & I trekked up to the island's highest point, which is at about 4100m, 300m above the lake level. A pretty steep climb, certainly proving that we aren't fully used to the altitude yet! The view from the top was well worth it, and we caught sunset on the way down. Dinner with the family (soup, potatoes, rice & pasta... carb central!), then we dressed up in the traditional dress of the island natives and headed up to a hall for a traditional dance with all the others on our tour. Lots of energetic stomping and twisting, not a whole lot of structure, but a fun experience.

This morning we traveled to another island (Taquile) and hiked 35 minutes to the plaza. Same people group, different traditions (dress, customs etc). Here the guys knit long hats that have special meanings depending on the way you wear it, and when you decide to get married, you have to then live together for a year as a test... that's new! Amazing trout for lunch, accompanied by a not-so-crash-hot pipe musician.

Adios!

A little reed island village

Two Peruvian guys, the one on the left turned out to be our host "Papa"

View from the top of the island

Nik & I in traditional dress with our Mumma

This lady was herding sheep

Harry (one of our tour mates) was teaching this guy gangster handshakes :-)

Walking down to the dock on the way back to Puno

La Paz

After Nicaragua we flew back to Miami and had a 6 hour wait until our flight to La Paz in Bolivia. The flight landed just on sunrise, so we had a great view of the city as we arrived. La Paz sprawls out over the plateau where the airport is, down into the steep valley with houses packed onto the sides. We were staying in a hotel fairly close to the centre of the city, which we were delivered to by taxi.

We checked in and then walked up the 3 flights of stairs to our room... at which point it hit us that we were now at 3600m above sea level. Breathing was remarkably difficult! We'd be warned, and I guess we expected it, but to experience it is a weird feeling. Even walking up a small rise left us breathless. Consequently, we crashed for most of that day, except to duck out for some super cheap food: 2 bread rolls, packet of crackers, and 2 hot pastry things for 8.5 Bolianos (A$1.20) for dinner. Bolivia wins the prize for cheapest country so far.

Friday, feeling mostly over the altitude, we spent wandering the city – wow! So many markets, with everything South American you can imagine. Each little stall sells one specific style of things, like stationary, shoes, fruit etc. Some of the small stalls might just sell one thing; zippers, door bolts, rubber gaskets. It's hard to appreciate this whole different way of shopping, I have no idea how you'd know where to go for what you wanted! The people are really gentle and friendly, although we're getting pretty good at saying “no, gracias” to everyone that offers you something. Lots of felt hats to be seen! We walked around and saw few sites, but mostly just enjoyed the atmosphere.

Saturday was our first day as a part of our 37 day Peru & Ecuador tour. Primarily we spent the day travelling from La Paz to Puno (yes, Puno all you Armidale folk!) in Peru. There are 23 of us, and we all sit in the back of a custom built truck/bus when we're driving. Still getting names down, but so far really enjoying everyone's company. Mostly Brits, 2 Kiwis (our Southern Hemisphere buddies!), a Finn, South African and Dutch. Most of them have been on the tour for either 2 or 10 weeks, there were 4 others that joined it with us in La Paz. Ages are from 18 to 60, so there's some diversity :-)

We crossed the border into Peru, and stopped for lunch on the side of the road. The roads are pretty good, better than in Southern Bolivia apparently. We followed lake Titicaca around the Southern side until we arrived in Puno, which is where we are now. It's a smallish city, it doesn't talk long to walk the main strip. Our hotel is great, hot water (not always guaranteed), good included breakfast, free wifi, and a TV with a remote and a channel list (a first for anywhere we've stayed). We've just spent 2 days out on the lake, but more of that to come later.

Coming into La Paz

Lady at a stall in the street

Government building in the old city square

This gives a bit of an idea of how hilly La Paz is, and that it's surrounded by mountains

Our tour truck on the way to Peru

\

Kids coming home from school in Puno

Yep, Puno :-)

Sandy/Andy

Whilst in Nicaragua we visited one of our beautiful sponsor children, Sandy. We found out from her mother during the day that in fact her name is Andy and Compassion had got it wrong. Oh well, she said she laughed every time she got a letter from us saying "Dear Sandy..."

We got picked up by our translator at about 1.30, and then she took us shopping to get some groceries for Andy's family (rice, oil, oats, bikkies, sugar etc) and then we went to the Compassion Project where Andy attends three afternoons a week. No one spoke english so the translater had a big job. We met the teachers and classes. They were celebrating women that day and all the boys had made gifts for the girls which was nice.

We then went to Andy's house... Wow! It was amazing and humbling to see how she lives and made us sponsoring her seem so important! The previous week they had been kicked out of Andy's grandmothers house (which was one room really with 12 kids plus adults living in it) and are now renting *a* room to live in. 2 adults and three kids in a room the size of my living room. No bathroom, a small barbeque for cooking, a double bed and a double bunk was pretty much all it had. But she was lovely and apologised that her house was so messy. It was the most amazing experience (even though it only lasted a little over an hour and a half) and made me glad that we could help this little family out!

The next day we went to a town about an hour away from Managua named Granada. Got a bus there for a dollar each. It was more "touristy" than where we'd been staying. We climbed a bell tower in a church and got some great views, sat in "central park" (a big cemented area), had lunch and a beer each for 10 dollars ($1 beers, yhes!) and just had a nice relaxing day.

So thats about it for our Nicaragua travels. Will update soon on La Paz.




At the Markets in Granada.


Gross dead frogs and turtles for sale.




Hammock making




Cute man in Granada!




Alex's new thongs!




From the Bell tower





Us with Andy



Andy with her mum and little sister in their home.

Nicaragua

Managua... our first venture into something quite a bit different. We had a quick flight straight from Miami to Managua. A taxi driver accosted us as we exited the terminal and once he worked out where we were going, quoted us US$20 for the trip, about what we expected... except that he already had 2 other customers in the cab :-) Made for a slightly fuller car, but all was well.

Managua's set inland on a large lake surrounded by lots of volcanic mountains. It's really hazy, I'm not sure if it's pollution or smoke or both, although we could smell smoke in the air when we arrived. We saw lots of little ramshackle building on our way from the airport to our hotel, and not much in the way of infrastructure. Indicators seem to be optional, and lanes on the road (when they're painted) are more of a guide that actually important :-P Horns are used when you're cutting in on someone, or overtaking in a narrow two way street. It's dusty, poor, hot and busy.

I read a few travel blogs on the internet talking about Managua which generally spend as little time here as possible, or that it's not the most exciting place to visit as a tourist. That said, we're here to experience the real culture and visit one of our Compassion sponsor kids, Sandy (on Monday) which we're pretty excited about.

Our hotel is kinda a cross between a hostel and a caravan park; lots of single story bungalows surrounded by rain-forest. We've had some communication issues (there's far less English spoken here than in Mexico), such as the restaurant that was advertised as being open until 10:30 at night not really being a restaurant at all. There are a whole stack of people staying here from a college in Virgina who are visiting an orphanage all week, so the restaurant is being run more like a camp kitchen, which is fine, except when we arrive and there's *no one* else there! No menus, no self service, no guest kitchen (which was also advertised), so for the first night we ducked down to the supermarket 500m down the road and bought a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter :-) It's been better since then, although each meal seems like a bit of a battle!

Today we asked if we could tag along with the group from the US to go to church. They were more than happy, so we caught the hired bus with them to the little orphanage. The church service was great, (albeit in Spanish except for the sermon which was translated), it was exciting to spend time being a part of another group of Christians. A little surreal when as background music at one point was a midi sort of version of A Whole New World from Aladin... bizarre! After the service we stayed for lunch (hotdogs :-P) and then a few hours hanging out with the kids. They're the most cute kids, so many smiles. It's beautiful to seem them without inhibition attaching themselves to all the US crowd (who they met the day before), they just revel in the attention. They had some board games - Twister transcends language and culture... one of the US students was trying to find the word to explain what it was, but as soon as she pulled it out of the bag some kid said "ah, Twister!" - and I played 6 a side soccer with some of the bigger boys (they're too good!). The girls enjoyed nail painting and beading, such simple things keeping them happy, it was a joy to see.

Here are some photos, as usual there are more on Nik's Facebook.

Our unit is the left half of this building

This is actually in the middle of the city, it's a big water reservoir.

Church service

Chalk sticks were simple pleasures

One of the US students with orphan attached

Our departure was delayed by an hour, so we all got off the bus, but half the kids were content just play on it :-)

Miami

Hi from Miami!
Getting here was one big (and not so fun) adventure. We left our resort at 9.30am last Sunday to catch our 11.30am flight. We landed in Mexico City at about 1.00pm and waited around until our 4.30 flight to New York. We landed there at around 10.30pm (after maybe one too many Bacardi and Cokes on the flight) and spent the night in the airport. We tried to get some sleep on some stretchers (or the floor which may have been more comfortable) but gave up not long after we started. We left the airport at 7.30am for our flight to Miami and arrived at our hostel at about 11am.

The hostel is small but "trendy", situated about 200m from Miami beach. We're staying in a 10 bed mixed dorm and have come across some very nice and sometimes a little strange people. This area used to be the "Art Deco" area of Miami in the 20's (where all the rich people came to have fun) and lots of the hotels have been built to look like the area did back then. (photo's below) It's very fun!

Now to what we have been doing. Lots of walking around taking in the beautiful buildings and scenery. The beach (although the sand and waves have nothing on Australia) is a beautiful colour and although a bit too cold to swim, lots of reading has been done on its shores.
Yesterday we ventured over the bridge on a bus to the city (where we accidently put a $20 note in the bus machine and it didn't give change... oops) and walked around not really knowing where we were going. After a long and unfruitful search for anything that resembled a shopping centre we (well me to be exact) asked for directions and found the hustle and bustle!
Last night we walked up "Espenola Way" and found a lovely little restaurant with some great live spanish music (piano, classical guitar and a lovely female singer and for a few songs an old man who was an absolute character with a deep rich voice). Prices for drinks weren't displayed and after tax and the awful gratuity the Americans put on everything we ended up paying $17 for two not so large, not so divine glasses of house red. Yes it was a scandal!

On that note we are being very careful with money and are cooking all dinners at the hostel. We went out to one of the fancy restaurants for lunch today which was nice.

So a pretty cruisy few days, with lots of reading and games (the score in chess is one to me and one to Alex... We'll see the ultimate winner tonight) and tonight we are going to see Alice in Wonderland 3D at 12.01am. We leave the hostel at about 8am tomorrow and catch a bus to the airport (a lot longer but a whole lot cheaper than a taxi) and fly to Nicaragua where we will visit one of our sponsor children which I cannot wait for!

Hope your all doing well.
Lots of love!
Al and Nik
xx


A cool building on our city adventure!


The little restaurant.





Miami beach.




Our street at night.


Original Hotel from the 20's, also where we had lunch


We think the car was parked there for effect.



Lifesavers shack.




An all American Diner!