Chivay / Colca Canyon

During the 4 hour bus ride to Chivay, we stopped several times to get some stunning views of the snow-topped mountains, as well as seeing wild llamas, alpacas, picuñas, and even flamingoes, and we also stopped briefly at the highest point (4900m) on the tour - Patapampa.

Picuña ^
4900m above sea level ^ (Yes, it was snowing.)

After an excellent buffet lunch, including Alpaca steaks and Llama kebabs with satay-ish sauce, we went on a 90 minute walk around the start of the canyon, visiting some Incan remains including an ampitheatre - thought to be a agricultural research centre. After the trek, we were taken to Chivay's thermal baths which were excellent, just at the right temperature, before heading to a local family's house where we helped to prepare our dinner - although I was the only one willing to kill and prepare the guinea pig!

The meal was simple but delicious; vegetable broth with Quinoa, potato and coriander, followed by more alpaca steak and the guinea pig (tasty!).

After dinner everyone was fairly tempted to go straight to bed, but a mention of the highest Irish pub in the world swiftly changed our minds! It wasn't a late night, however, we were back in the hostel before 3am.

Night bus to Arequipa

Arequipa (which means "Yes, stay here" in Quechuan) stands at the foot of the colossal El Misti Volcano, oozing Spanish charm - its a beautiful city. It earnt the name of the "White City" due to the fact that the city's buildings were built from a white volcanic rock called Sillar, but also because so many Spanish settlers came to Arequipa to avoid the humidity in Lima.

After breakfast, most of us headed to the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. Built in the 16th century, the convent only accepted women from wealthy families by charging a substantial dowry, although they were well looked after, with each nun having up to 4 personal servants.

Monasterio de Santa Catalina ^

Immediately after the convent, we headed to the Juanita museum - a 14 year old girl discovered, mummified and sacrificied, at the top of the volcano, 6000m above sea level.

That afternoon, after an essential nap, a few of us wandered around the market before picking up a roast chicken and salad for dinner, after which we played the most stressful card game in the world - great fun though!

Nazca Lines

We took a morning bus out to Nazca Airport, where we waited our turn to fly over the Lines. It might have been better going first, however, since everyone else was coming back looking distinctly green!

However, when it finally came round to our turn, it really wasnt that bad - just some turbulence in the small plane, and the pilot tended to swing from side to side so that we could all get a good look.

The lines themselves are truly fascinating. The size and complexity of them is unimaginable without having seen them for yourself. There are various theories behind their origin, varying from alien drawings to links with the solstice & equinox days (the Incans worshipped the sun), as well as maps relating to the constellations.

Following the flight, we all returned to our hostel in Nazca, lazing the day away awaiting our overnight bus to Arequipa.

Day 17 - Pisco -> Ballestos Islands -> Huacachina -> Nazca

Our first stop was a small tourist/fishing port where we took a speedboat out to the Ballestos Islands, known as the "Galapagos of Peru".

On the uninhabited islands, there are three different kinds of cormorant, pelicans, red-footed boobies, sea lions and even penguins. It was an amazing trip - wierd to see penguins when I was getting sunburnt though!

Back on dry land, my camera decided to die for the first time and I lost all my pictures since Cuenca (Ecuador), but luckily I am on a tour so there's fourteen other people with cameras taking the same pictures as I had.

On the way to Huacachina, we stopped off at a Pisco distillery for lunch, where we tasted all the different types ranging from a sweet sherry-like liquor, through to strong dry pisco. It was one of the few distilleries in the country that still uses traditional methods, including stomping barefoot on the grapes to extract the juice, and fermenting in huge clay pots.

For lunch, I had excellent Sea Bass ceviche, with hot chille and lime, and fantastic fresh lemonade - I gave the Pisco Sours a miss for a change!

Immediately after that, we drove to an oasis in the middle of the desert to go buggying and sandboarding. The buggies were 3-litre, ten seaters - fairly rapid when they got going, and I was sat front and centre - it felt like a sandblaster in your face. Great fun though.

For the sandboarding we were told to slide down on our fronts, faces just inches from the sane. A couple of people had a go standing up but the boards weren't really good enough so they never got anywhere fast.

After a quick shower and swim we were back on the bus to Nazca, where we arrived after dark. We went to a local planetarium, where we were told about all the various theories behind the Nazca lines, as well as looking through a telescope at Saturn and the moon - amazing. We could actually clearly make out the rings on Saturn, and the moon was visible in incredible detail; you could see every crater and shadow.

Dinner was a simple yet satisfying meal of Chicken Milanese Cordon Bleu (Chicken breast, stuffed with ham and cheese, in breadcrumbs), before I went out for a few drinks with Vikki, Julia and Kerry.

Pisco - 11/4/09 - Tour Day 16

After a lie-in we left Lima at 1pm, taking a four hour bus trip to Pisco, home of the Pisco Sour.

Pisco is far from an attractive city. It was hit in 2007 by an earthquake measuring 8.7 and apparently few repairs have been done since. International aid was given to the Peruvian government, but nothing has been passed on to Pisco since there is no specific organised project; as a result, there are hundreds of people still living in tents nearly two years later. As well as the school and the hospital being destroyed in the quake, Pisco prison was badly damaged and numerous prisoners escaped - therefore Pisco is very dangerous and we were told to ensure we remain in the hostel after dark.

Fortunately, the hostel had a small, basic kitchen available for our use but the supermarket in Pisco is tiny with no fresh produce - I ended up making a spaghetti dish in tomato sauce, using tins of lentils, asparagus, olives, mushrooms, palm hearts and tuna, with plenty of oregano thrown in. It was surprisingly good, and Silvana knocked up some more excellent Pisco Sours to wash it down with!

Lima / Good Friday

We began the day with a two-hour walking tour of Lima - the city centre was absolutely packed (South America is very Catholic). At the Cathedral, a massive procession was just coming to an end having visited the 7 most important churches in Lima, and a 3-hour sermon in Latin was about to start... We decided to give it a miss.

As we walked around, we visited various key sites in the city, ending with a walk through the market - where you can find anything from artisanal goods to shark, ray, and pig's heads - until we reached Chinatown (didn't expect to find Chinatown in Lima!) where we stopped for a fantastic buffet lunch,

That evening, I spent several hours online getting my first set of photos up, before having a relaxed supper of cheese and wine in the courtyard outside the hostel.

Luxury bus to Lima

After getting up earlyish, I wandered down the beach with my shirt off - I was so white still that I thought an hour of early morning sun on my back my do me some good! Unfortunately not - I just got burnt. It was a nice walk however, and I caught sight of a few of the surfing fishermen - they use reeds to build shallow canoes that they fish from, before surfing the waves back inshore.

We boarded the 8-hour bus to Lima at 12.30, having just discovered it was a "VIP" bus - Double width seats, loads of leg room, waitress service, fully reclining seats and air con - the lot! On the other hand, the first film they put on was Mamma Mia!, which is absolutely appalling. Pierce Brosnan is possibly a worse singer than I am!

After arriving in Lima, we took a private minibus to the tourist 'Miraflores' district, and almost immediately went out for dinner at a decent restaurant specialising in rotisserie chicken - I tried to be vaguely healthy and got half a chicken with salad instead of chips - then I ordered a double Pisco Sour, before several Black Russians in a nearby bar. Not too late a night though, headed back about 12/1 am.

Huanchaco & the BBQ.

Today, 12 of us spent 65 Soles (about 15 pounds) on a tour of the Chan Chan Pre-Incan remains, but they've been extensively restored - so it all looks a bit fake! The guide was semi-interesting but she was one of the original archeologists on the site, and talked far far too much and went into too much detail to maintain interest. However, it was here that I realised that the Incans only conquered South America in the 14th Century, then the Spanish arrived in the 15th - I'd previously thought it was several thousand years previously that the Incans lived.

We stopped for lunch on the way to some much more impressive ruins, where I had some traditional baby goat (Cabrito), while some of the others had wild duck (Pato), a speciality of the region. The goat was ok;there wasn't a lot of meat but it tasted good, and was so tender.

We continued on to Huaca de la Luna; two pyramids containg impressive carvings and detailed paintings that have been preserved for hundreds of years.

That evening, I made the BBQ for Lia's birthday that we were supposed to have yesterday. Silvana made Peruvian Beef Heart kebabs (excellent, but noone liked them apart from Silvana and I), while we also had corn on the cob, sweet chilli chicken thighs (although I ran out of the homemade sweet chilli), garlic prawns (not garlicky enough!), beef ribs, and fish en papillote (No idea what fish it was, but steamed it with chilli, ginger and lime - not enough chilli, lime or seasoning!)

Everyone seemed happy enough anyway though, despite my low opinion of the food, although when I made chocolate stuffed bananas on the remaining embers, everyone loved it. We were also drinking well, Silvana making delicious Pisco Sour (Pisco is a distilled wine from the region, and is mixed with lime juice, sugar syrup and ice - similar to a Caipirinha.), as well as the girls knocking up three different punches, each to their own "recipe".

Mancora -> Trujillo / Huanchaco

Today, we took a 3 hour bus early in the morning, before changing to a more comfortable long-distance coach for the 6 hour trip to Trujillo, where we were to take a 20 minute taxi to Huanchaco, a beach town renowned for its surfing and its "surfing fishermen".

As we headed South, out of the Andes, the landscape became increasingly arid. Most of the bus ride today was through desert, complete with cracked ground and everything - just like on TV!

I was supposed to be cooking a BBQ this evening, since it was Lia's Birthday (25, Australia), but the buses were running late and we didn't arrive at the hostel until about 7 - we ended up going across the road to an Italian restaurant instead. I had Ravioli di Compa; good fresh pasta but the filling was bland - the tomato sauce it came in was perfect though. Silvana (27, our tour leader from Lima), had a vegetarian lasagne with white asparagus, spinach, artichokes and mushrooms - absolutely incredible.

After that, we picked up a few beers from the supermarket and headed back to the hostel to play cards by the pool.

Mancora & The Beach (Tour day 11)

We were planning on going to the beach for the day and having a lazy day sunbathing, so I got up early to go and see the town - there wasn't much to see, just lots of restaurants and the typical beach-type shops. I stopped off at a cafe on the way back for breakfast though - a massive bowl of fresh Banana, Pineapple, Mango, Papaya and Melon and yoghurt, with a fruit smoothis and a cheese and ham toastie for 10 Soles - thats about 2 quid.

At 10am the sand was already scorching beneath our feet, so I walked along - about 20 minutes - in the waves. We eventually found a nice spot to sit but I've never been a fan of sunbathing and went for a swim before too long.

Later, we went down to a seaside restaurant for lunch, where I had Ceviche de Ostion (according to the phrase book it was scallops - it wasn't!) It was pretty tasty, although it was completely different to Ecuadorian Ceviche, where it was almost a tomato and lime soup, whereas here it's simply seafood cured with loads of chilli and lime juice.

Much of the rest of the afternoon I spent in a hammock, dozing and reading Shantaram (Excellent book, I'd recommend it to anyone.)

That evening, we went to a mexcian restaurant where the colossal owner had a tattoo on his arm saying "Tattoo". Nevertheless, the food was absolutely brilliant. I gorged on homemade nachos with loads of cheese, guacamole, an excellent lime and coriander salsa, followed by amazing Fajitas Langostinos (King Prawn Fajitas), with more guacamole and salse - accompanied by a couple of brilliant Mojitos and 2-for-1.

<-- Mancora "Town Centre"

Update

Sorry I´m being so useless at updating this - I´m about two weeks behind now. Right now I´m in Cuzco, having just done the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and I´m heading into Bolivia in two or three days to end the first leg of the tour.



I will do a comprehensive update soon, maybe even today if the hangover abates.

Into Peru

We left Cuenca early, taking a long bus trip South into Peru. The passport controls were surprisingly easy, no more than a twenty minute wait at each, while the border was a trickle of a river, over which passed a wide bridge, packed with traders flogging everything from livestock to clothing and electronics.

Once over the border, we met our new tour leader, Sylvana (26, Lima) and said goodbye to Belen who had taken us through Ecuador.

We arrived at our hotel in Mancora at about 5.30pm and we were all delighted by our first sights of Peru. The town was a small, typically touristy beach town, and the hotel was complete with bar and an eternity swimming pool - although the ensuite bathrooms were outdoor, without hot water. Another thing that we noticed about Peru though, was the fact that everywhere you looked there were Tuk-Tuks. In Ecuador, we didn´t see a single one, but as soon as you´re over the border they´re everywhere!

That evening we went to Sylvana´s usual restaurant, where I had a massive dinner of medium-rare peppered beef sirloin kebabs, with garlic prawns and salad. We found that Peru is a fair bit more expensive than Ecuador however, as dinner cost me 50 Soles (US$15), including cocktails - still hardly something to complain about!

After dinner, we went next door to a lively cocktail bar, complete with giant jenga, kareoke, and complimentary Pisco shots for whoever lost at jenga.

Cuenca

Day 8 of the tour, we arrived in Cuenca - Ecuador´s third largest city with about 500k inhabitants. It has a distinct colonial feel to it, with dozens of very impressive Churches, built by the Spanish Conquistadors as they sought to (successfully) force Catholicism upon the Ecuadorians.

On the way to Cuenca we stopped off at a farm that has been converted into a tourist spot, where we tried traditionally prepared Cuy (guinea pig), which was slaughtered in front of us before being rubbed with a variety of spices and cooked slowly on top of a furnace.

Here, we also got our first glimpse of llamas and alpacas, although these were farm animals rather than wild; and we had a view of Ecuador´s largest mountain - not overly impressive to be honest, it was just a mountain with clouds round the top.

Had an early night that first night in Cuenca - needed to recover from the previous night´s festivities.

The second day in Cuenca, six of us left the hostel at 8am to take a minibus to Cajas National Park, 35km North of the city, where there were over 230 freshwater lakes, numerous Incan ruins and a huge variety of flora and fauna, including wild llamas.

The scenery there was absolutely stunning, especially after we had made a short climb up to 4200m (13800ft). Needless to say, breathing was very difficult at this altitude; we had to stop three times on the fifteen minute hike - our guide told us there is only 30% of the oxygen at that height compared to sea level.

After the 2 hour walk, a torrential downpour of rain started just as we were climbing back into the bus - perfect timing. We drove a few miles down the road to stop at a local restaurant for lunch, where we were rightly recommended the fresh trout, served with a simple salad, chips and rice (everything in Ecuador comes with potatoes and rice!). The fish was excellent, caught that morning in one of the lakes we had just hiked past.. [Rainbow trout were introduced to the lakes by European settlers, and proceeded to destroy all the other fish and amphibians in the water, but provided an easy food sauce for the Spanish.]

After returning to Cuenca, Kerry (22, Melbourne) and I walked down to see some Incan ruins at the far end of the city but we were fairly unimpressed by it - all you can see there is a simply wall with 16th and 17th century buildings on top.

In the evening, the whole group went to a Pizzeria/Heladeria in the centre for our last group dinner in Ecuador. The food was excellent - I had an enormous ham, chicken, and mushroom calzone for about US$6, but the ice cream for dessert was out of this world. I was fairly full, having finished off Julia´s pepperoni/salami/ham pizza and someone else´s vegetarian pizza, but I went for the Oreo Sundae - Three scoops of oreo icecream, with an oreo biscuit, a mound of whipped cream and hot chocolate sauce. Amazing.

Unfortunately though, I discovered that Angela, who is doing the exact same trip as me, Quito-Rio, is paying almost half what I am since she managed to get it for the 2008 price instead of 2009 - she cried on the phone to the tour operator. Still, I couldn´t be sour since she was the exception rather than me.

After returning to the hotel, we were introduced to a traditional Ecuadorian card game - couldn´t possibly explain how it works, but we were in teams of two and Kerry & I won.

Chuchaqui (Hangover)

We were up at 9, not really feeling 100% to say the least.

We got a tourist bus down to the bridge on the far side on Baños, where Mina, then Julia & Vicky, then I all did a "Swing Jump". It was surprisingly good, although not such a brilliant idea with a hangover.

After thatAfter that, we took the open-sided tourist bus down the valley, where we hiked to a waterfall in the middle of the forest. After crawling through a tight cave, you could get out and stand underneath the waterfall itself - an excellent hangover cure!

That evening after returning to Baños, we watched Ecuador play a critical World Cup Qualifier match - excellent atmosphere and stuff but Paraguay equalised in the last minute.

The following day, we got up at 5am to watch the sunrise from the thermal baths; it was a good experience but the sunrise was fairly non-existent since it rose behind the mountain!

At 8, Richard, Carly, Angela and I climbed the mountain above the town, but a 90 minute walk turned into a 5 hour walk after we took the wrong route! It was nice though, and we got some excellent views of the erupting volcano.

In the evening we went for a few quiet drinks, which turned into a few not so quiet drinks after the bar manager recognised me from the previous night! Thoroughly enjoyable again but we had to be up at 7.30 the following morning to head to Cuenca, Ecuador´s third largest - and richest - city.

To Baños

Baños is famous for it`s thermal baths, as well as its wealth of waterfalls, the active volcano, and various sports and adventure activities, such as rafting, canyoning, bungee jumping, and trekking.

From our jungle lodges, it took us 5 hours on the bus to get to Baños, where I had a relaxed afternoon after having a typical lunch of fried chorizo, egg and potato cakes. In the evening, we went out for a few too many drinks - it started with flaming Bob Marleys on the house, then I started on the Black Russians (Vodka & Kahlua), with a few tequila shots thrown in for good measure. Belen, our tour guide, taught us a few simple salsa moves as well - its surprisingly easy, although you never look as good as you think!

Amazon Jungle Day 2

We started today with a 2 hour jungle trek, where our local guide, Marco, showed us all the different kinds of plants and insects which have medicinal properties etc.

We saw "Congo" ants, about an inch long and very aggresive - their bites can cause serious illness and fever for 2 or 3 days. Further along the walk, we also saw a type of tarantula - it was quite small but apparently much more dangerous than the more common larger tarantula.




Later in the morning, we went tubing down the river for an hour or so... needless to say, I fell out a coupld of times and got fairly well sunburnt on my legs, it was excellent fun though.



We then piled into the boats, and headed further downstream to stop on a small beach for lunch, before continuing to the Amazoonica animal rescue centre. Here, we saw several monkeys, loads of birds, turtles, capybaras, parrots and even ocelots (a type of wildcat).



After a loooong trip back upriver, we finally got back to the lodges at about 5.30, and sat around the fire to chat about the day´s experiences.

Amazon Jungle

This morning, our bus from Quito took 7 hours, to Tena, where we had lunch (Caldo de Pollo - chicken soup, and Spicy Pork Belly), before we got another bus for about 40 minutes to the Cotococha Jungle Lodges.

In the jungle, it was insanely hot, and humid, but the place was amazing. It´s so quiet compared to Quito as well, just in the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest village.

The lodges had no electricity, so any light is by kerosene lamps, with cold showers using river water.



In the afternoon, we went to visit the Quichuan locals, who showed us how to make pottery, Chichua (an alcoholic brew made from Yucca), and how to sift gold from the river.

That evening, we had a few beers around an open fire, getting to know each other a bit more and relaxing to the noises of the jungle.

Otovalo

Today, we took a three hour bus ride to Otovalo, the largest indigenous market in South America, although we kind of misjudged how long it would take to get there, and it turned out we had just an hour there before we had to head back, for the 6pm group meeting.

The market itself was OK, alot of the stalls were selling the same stuff though – alpaca wool, bracelets and jewelery, ponchos, and wood or stone carvings. There was also a food market there though, where we saw one guy selling live baby chickens in paper bags, and several stalls with kilos and kilos of so many different kinds of spices that would cost a fortune in the UK.






That evening, after returning to Quito, we went to Mongo’s Mongolian Barbeque – $5 all you can eat, and it was excellent food as well.

Up early in the morning though to get a bus to the Amazon jungle.

Quito 2

Last night it was Vicky’s Birthday (19, Wandsworth), and we went out with Angela (28, Glasgow) and Barbara (Switzerland). It was a pretty good night all round, just $8 entry and all you can drink! I didn’t actually get too drunk though, a combination of too much food, the high altitude and general knackeredness meant that I stuck to the beers.In the morning, the four of us got the bus to the Equator (Mitad del Mundo), where we saw the monument, established by the European settlers in the 18^th century, although it’s actually about 300m away, where the Incans originally said it was, and GPS proved it.

While we were there, I bought a fairly ridiculous Indiana Jones-style leather hat, but I’ve grown to love it! At the Incan equator, there was a museum/tour, where I succesfully managed to hit a cactus with a blow-dart, but failed to balance an egg on a nail – apparently this is only possible at the Equator.

In the evening, we met the rest of the tour group, I’d say the average age is about 27, and I think half of them are Aussie, plus only about 4 people are doing the full trip to Rio, most people are finishing in La Paz.

After the first group meeting, we all went to the same Ecuadorian restaurant as I did last night, where I tried Ceviche de Concha (‘shell’ ceviche – not really sure what it was exactly but not very tasty), followed by beef tongue, which was so tasty and tender, with a simple cream sauce.