Puerto Varas to Bariloche to Buenos Aires

Our last blog! On Friday 22nd we took the marathon trip from Puerto Varas in Chile via boats on 3 lakes and 4 buses, leaving at 8.30am and arriving in Bariloche at 9.15pm. The weather was unseasonably cold for mid-Autumn but gave the unexpected bonus of driving through snow and showing lots of snow covered mountains, at least what we could see through the low cloud. The highlight of a stay in Puerto Varas is supposed to be the view of the beautiful snow capped dormant volcano of Mt Osorno, but this is all we could see of it:

The guide said this was the usual view of it and you have to be very lucky to see it on a sunny day. We stopped for lunch after one long bus ride, and one extremely slow boat trip along a lake which would do Switzerland justice. Lunch was in a hotel at Peulla, close to the Chilean/Argentinian border. It caused angst amongst some of us Aussies who had to wait 90 minutes, for cold meals, but we were more fortunate. Through the wearisome process of crossing the Chilean border, then climbed 800 metres up by bus to the Argentinian side of things to find snow. And here we are about to go into the Argentinian national park:

More queuing to do the Argie border bumf, plus welcome hot chocolate, and on to a very cold boat for a 20 minute trip past snow covered mountains to a short bus ride to the next boat at Puerto Blest. This was a quicker boat through the gathering dark to Puerto Panuelo, where we boarded our last bus in the dark to Bariloche. Slept well that night albeit in a very overheated hotel room. The best miracle was that all luggage arrived at the correct hotel, after all these transfers, and we didn't have to worry about it at all.

Woke the next day to very cold blustery winds and took a 3 hour bus tour of Bariloche and surrounds. Snow everywhere, which is very unusual for this region at this time (Bariloche is only 750 metres high). Mal was expecting Thredbo, but the town is very large and the district has 130,000 inhabitants. The views of many lakes and snow covered mountains are sensational - rivalling Switzerland. We took a chairlift to a lookout in freezing NW winds - we can only imagine what southerly winds would have been like.

Back to Bariloche for our farewell lunch in a nice BBQ place where Mal and Greg from Melbourne presented the tour awards for all the things we had noticed on the trip. For example, Julie won the Donna Hay Award for Pursuit of Excellence in South American Desserts, and Mal won the Alexander Downer Award for Diplomacy. Farewelled 2 of the party who left us to go to Llao Llao (pr "Jou Jou") a very swanky golf resort surrounded by lake and mountain views to die for.

Llao Llao

Then into town to buy chocolate which Bariloche is famed for apparently, and stroll around in hurricane like winds, to airport at 6pm for 8pm flight back to Buenos Aires. The smallish airport near the BA town centre was chaotic with apparently half of Argentina in town for Easter Sunday the next day, but we finally got our bags, and then a transfer car quite quickly.
Spent our last day here walking around BA in brilliant sunshine and 24 degree temps - back into the shorts after an extended cool spell since Puno in the high Andes.

Last view of our BA Hotel, the one with the Merc sign on top.

Plane leaves early afternoon Monday. Scheduled to arrive in Sydney at 6pm Tuesday.
　
　

Santiago to Puerto Varas

Well we were up early again for our flight from Santiago
 (- this photo is from the plane)
to Puerto Montt and then a bus to Puerto Varas in the south of Chile, and the signs say that it is Patagonia, so we can add that to the list of places we have been. We had a quick tour around the city of Puerto Montt which is located on the Pacific, but is in an inlet and behind a large island, so you can't see out to sea. We stopped at the local fish market and some of the group including Mal went in to see the fish being prepared. we drove a little bit further to Puerto Varas which is located on Lago Llanquihue, the 5th largest fresh water lake in Chile.

The town is very cute with lots of houses that are made of wooden shingles as this area has a German influence. When we were walking around there were cakes that also make you think that you are in Germany, including the signs that say "kuchen" for the cakes. It reminded us of Lake Constance, the lake between Germany and Switzerland, and when we mentioned this to our tour guide she agreed. The hotel is on the side of the hill looking over the lake at the Volcano Osorno, but the weather has been overcast and raining so we haven't seen it, and it looks unlikely that we will. Nevertheless we did a 3 hour tour around our side of the Lake and it reminded us of the Mornington Peninsular - beautifully kept houses and gardens and interesting small farms.

It is currently raining heavily, but it is nice to be able to sit and type this while looking out of the window at the lake that our hotel is located on. The lake is very rough at the moment and the boats are rocking up and down. It is also quite cool, maybe 12C, with a strong wind blowing that makes it feel cooler than that. Everyone is making the most of relaxing after the last few days that have been so busy.


We leave tomorrow for a 4 bus, 3 catamaran trip through the Lake District from Chile to Bariloche in Argentina. We have our fingers crossed for better weather.

Santiago Chile

La Paz to Santiago
Well yesterday was certainly a long day. We were up at 6.30 am for a 7.30 am start due to the possible issues with the strikers, but there wasn't any problems so we didn't have to leave until 9.30 am - so just enough time for a quick walk and a cup of coffee.

We arrived at the airport at 10.15 am with no hassles, and then hung around looking at snow covered mountains and duty free shopping until our flight left at 2.35 pm.

We flew from La Paz to Santa Cruz, both cities are in Bolivia. We had to refuel at Santa Cruz as the plane is unable to carry much fuel from La Paz as it is at 4,100 metres, and it has a runway which is twice the length so the planes can lift off due to the high altitude. Then we flew from Santa Cruz, which looked like the Darwin airport from the plane, to Lima (Peru). There we had about 2 hours before our flight to Santiago in Chile. We arrived at the local time of 2.00 am as they are still on daylight saving. We finally switched the lights out at 3.55 am only to have the phone ring saying it was our wake up call. Mals answer was "not for us, we have only just gone to bed".

Around Santiago
We had a late start on our tour today due to the late night. We visited a winery -Concha y Toro - which was to the south of the city. Tenth largest winery in the world.  It is very like Australia as there are gum trees everywhere, but it is much drier here. There was tour of the winery and then a quick tasting. One of the wines they sold at the winery is one that has been purchased a few times by the group so far, Casillero del Diablo, and there are intentions to look for it on our return to Australia.

Then we had lunch at an authentic Chilean restaurant which was really nice, and included people playing the guitar, singing and dancing, but some annoying European Wasps - the first we have seen in South America.




The rest of the day was spent looking at various areas of Santiago including the downtown area, the Cathedral, the main square and the fish and fruit markets. We bought a punnet of raspberries for $A2 and it is twice the size of the ones in Australia. Then our last trip was up the mountain in the middle of Santiago on the Funicular Railway. The views are unfortunately spoiled by the smog which hangs over the whole city during autumn and winter. You could just make out the mountains, but we couldn't see the ocean.

Then it is home to the hotel for a break before we have an early night before a 6.15 am start tomorrow to Puerto Montt.

Around La Paz

Regular readers will recall (are there any, apart from Laura and Brother Ian?) that we said yesterday we would keep an open mind about La Paz until our city tour today.  This was wise.  The night was interesting with lots of explosions that we could only assume were dynamite (coz that's what our tour guide had suggested was happening) but this morning we were informed they were mostly fireworks celebrating something or other, with the miners in town for the strikes chucking a few sticks of dynamite.
The day has been very sunny and warm, and the tour took us to fascinating places, chiefly the Valley of the Moon at the southern end of the city with much eroded landscape in interesting shapes. 

Insane Bolivian cavorting on the moon, flying like a condor, the guide said.

At the moon, with pepper trees and cacti
View from a high point in the middle of the bowl that the city occupies afforded 360 degree views of the valley/bowl, including the soccer stadium and a forest of gum trees to the north which the guide called "the lungs of the city".  There are more gum trees in Peru and Bolivia than  Oz it seems.  There are also lots of wattles and pepper trees, so we felt at home. 

I asked the guide how the visiting soccer teams prepare to play at 3,600metres, and he said the Brazillians fly in 2 hours before the game, then get out asap.  This makes sense.  We all felt fine when we first got to the high altitude in Cusco, but we have been increasingly aware of its effects the longer we have stayed.  So much for acclimitisation.
Drive back to the hotel took us through the upper crust part of town, with mansions costing upwards of $US1 million.  The district reminded Julie and I of the Springfield area of Adelaide, particularly with all the Oz flora, green hedges etc.

After the tour we walked down to the main avenue in blazing sunshine and joined lots of happy families in the long green area running down its middle.  Slow stroll down, found a lazy coffee then slow stroll back, to relax in the room.

Tea at a  neighbouring hotel where Mal presented Elvis with the tour tip ($US620 - he was worth every cent) and we celebrated one of the party's birthday.

Question on everyone's lips: will we get out of here tomorrow it a strike closes down the city? We are due to leave at 9.30am for the 45 min drive to the airport to catch a flight to Lima via Santa Cruz leaving at 2.25pm, then wait to catch another flight to Santiago arriving at 2am!!!  We will be tired chicks.

Puno to La Paz

Out of the hotel at 7am for the 2 hour drive along the shores of Lake Titicaca to the Bolivian border. Apparently they shut down the strikes in La Paz for the weekend ("even strikers need a break") so we are continuing the adventure.
Checkpoint Charlie between Peru and Bolivia was organised chaos which was a pleasant surprise. Lots of people milling around but we got through the respective immigration points without incident. Onto our Bolivian bus for a drive to more ruins at Tiwanaku. Long tour through a museum which featured a piece of pottery clearly modelled on Dave on our tour. Mal mentioned this to Elvis our Peruvian guide and he cracked up. Dave's comment on this was "I manufacture them in the thousands".  Then a loooong tour through outside ruins which was vaguely interesting but people were more interested in when lunch was, I suspect.
Tiwanaku

When the guide said "now it is time for lunch" Mal found himself hoping "lunch" was not Spanish for"more ruins". (Happily it wasn't). Lunch cost us 40 Bolivianos each for vege soup and omelette and veges and canned fruit juice syrup garnished with a quarter of a tinned peach. This came to $A6each,so prices are even more ridiculously low in Bolivia than Peru.

Arrrived in La Paz at 4pm, and drove down a pretty impressive road view-wise, with towering snow-capped mountains all around - 6,000 metres high (the snow line is at 5,000 metres in the tropics we were informed) and the city sprawling over the whole valley far below.

Got caught in a traffic jam near the hotel thanks to streets being blocked by police because of protests. Lots of honking, and this continues as this is being typed.
We checked in finally then ventured forth onto the less than friendly streets of downtown La Paz. We have agreed to reserve judgement on this place until our city tour tomorrow, but this was tested as we walked down from the hotel. We were desperately looking for a coffee shop and finally found one in the local church! We had steered clear of streets blocked off with riot police with perspex shields everywhere, but they all seemed pretty relaxed and smiling so we figured there wasn't too much protesting happening there.
The church coffee shop was clean and provided sanctuary from the noise and milling confusion on the tiny streets, with honking cars and street hawkers outside. Debated whether to just stay there, but then plucked up courage to walk up to a pedestrian bridge and over the freeway into the upper part of the city. This had a better feel, but featured streetside market booth things all over the footpaths forcing you to cheat death amongst the cars, but at least there were some pedestrian malls as well. This area has a better feel and made us a little happier to be here.

Back to the hotel over the footbridge for a rest before meeting the group again at 7pm for tea. City tour planned for tomorrow.  The night lights are quite impressive - took a snap of them from our hotel:

Around Puno

Our bus left at 8am for a tour of an Inca burial site north of Puno. There was quite a stir on board because our tour guide had said there was some sort of unrest in Bolivia where we are due to go tomorrow. Strikes, protests on the streets, army in control of the airport etc. We also had to turn back to drop off a member of the party who seemed to be suddenly taken ill with altitude sickness.
The Inca ruins are at 3,900 metres in the middle of rolling hills, with mountains in the distance. It is surreal to think this land is 400 metres higher than the Jungfrau mountain in Switzerland, which had seemed pretty high to us then. The ruins comprised burial towers and the local guide gave an interesting explanation of the religious beliefs (similar to Egyptian beliefs of reverence of the Sun God).
There was a good view of a large blue lake which the guide said was higher than Lake Titicaca. Mal enquired whether this meant this lake must be the highest lake in the world, and the guide replied not so: the present lake was just a "pond". He also said there is a higher lake in Chile, so we're confused.
  The "pond"
Back on the bus to go to Lake Titicaca for a boat trip to the floating reed islands where about 800 people live. It was a bit disconcerting to see cows, pigs, dogs and cats floating in the middle of a lake.

The floating villages are 30 mins by boat and cannot be seen from the shore. It was interesting sitting on masses of dried reed straw out on the lake with straw huts, straw boats, straw towers and of course the obligatory native artifacts and handicrafts (made of straw). Mal for one is a little over all this stuff being thrust at us constantly. But we bought a straw mobile. Nice picnic lunch there, and back on the boat to return to our hotel by 4pm.

We are in a different hotel tonight due to some mix-up in bookings, for which we have been given a free dinner in the hotel tonight. We are doubly pleased because our room is far superior, and twice the size.
Assuming Bolivia is not in flames tomorrow, the intention is for us to still go there, and hope a massive general strike is not called for Monday morning, stranding us. If it was possible, the tour group would rather skip Bolivia and go to Chile where we are not scheduled to spend much time. However, this would be too difficult to organise at short notice, so we shall see what happens. One must retain one's sense of humour in South America, learn to roll with whatever happens and stay cool!

Cusco to Puno

Travel day today, 9.5 hr bus trip from Cusco to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We stopped first at a hideously gaudy Catholic church which was having all its totally overblown 24 carat gold restored, while just up the road there was a large tent city of victims of the February 2010 floods. This made the blood of a few blokes boil, Mal's included you may be surprised to learn. Next stop was at some impressive Inca ruins at a place called Raqchi, the halfway point of the Inca Trail from Colombia to Argentina. This featured ruins of 156 granaries which covered a very impressive acreage. Must have been a very busy transport hub in its time, with llamas everywhere, the main goods transport.
Next stops were for buffet lunch at Sicuani, then at the highest point on the trip, 4,335 metres (14,222 feet) at La Raya, where yet again we faced the gauntlet of hawkers and stall holders and old women dressed in colourful Peruvian getup, holding exceptionally cute llamas, alpacas and lambs, who charge you one Peruvian Sole (30 Aus cents) for a photo and a pat.

Last stop was at a pre-Inca museum at Pucara which wasn't exactly gripping, but the toilets were clean, and free! There was a 5 year old boy trying to flog little ceramic pigs for 5 soles who tried to cajole Greg on our tour into buying some. When Greg refused, the boy said "why won't you buy my pigs?", so Greg just gave him the money, to which he said "no pig?". This stunt of sending out tiny little kids to elicit guilt buying is not one of Peru's best features.

We drove around a town called Juliaca, which featured another of Peru's less than endearing qualities - half-finished buildings. Apparently there is a tax placed on all buildings when completed, so no-one completes them, (as in Cairo, someone commented). A whole city featuring buildings with reinforcing wire sticking out the top looks very ordinary.
Everyone was a little flat due to the altitude during the day. We arrived at Puno at 5.00pm as the sun was setting. 3,845 metres here (12,614 feet for those slow to adjust to metrics), but we are slowly adjusting to the altitude.
The group went out for tea to a nice little place recommended by Elvis our tour leader in Peru, who has an Australian sense of humour and is very well organised and connected. We get a local guide in each country which is very useful - a good feature of Peregrine Tours.
More touring tomorrow around Puno, including a trip on Lake Titicaca to visit the floating islands. Until then.

Rest day in Cusco: Some reflections on Peru

Easy day today.  Julie has gone off for a morning massage somewhere in Cusco with 2 other ladies, so I'm reflecting on this country in the hotel. 

The food: high quality, well presented and cheap.  Not trying the guinea pig though.

If you're planning on coming back as a guinea pig, make sure it's not in Peru.  They are well and truly stuffed.









The traffic lights are great.  They tell both drivers and pedestrians how much longer they have to wait at a red, and how much time they have left on green.  Our lights should do the same.

We should not copy their method of selecting a President.  The elections were held last Sunday.  First past the post system, whereby a candidate has to get 50%+ of the vote to be elected.  If no-one does, the whole country comes back a month or so later to choose between the 2 candidates with the highest percentage from the first round.  With 11 candidates standing there was always going to have to be a second round.  The candidate coming first got 30% of the vote.  As our tour guide explained: assuming this bloke wins the play-off, he will proudly attend his inauguration with a disapproval rating of 70%, which will rise during his incumbency. Voting is compulsory and there are no postal or absentee votes and no excuses for not voting.  If you are away from home, you travel back to vote.  If you are in hospital, they come in and find you. No vote, you get fined.  So because we were in Machu Picchu for the Sunday vote, our tour guide gets fined because he lives in Lima.

The worst part of the process is the election slogans graffitied all over buildings and posters and billboards blighting everything else.  Even on native huts in the middle of theAmazonian jungle. Insane

The people are very friendly, and the whole place feels very safe.  We are all glad we're spending 2 weeks here.  The kids are gorgeous. Laura, note the monkey!

And of course the animals are very cute.

Llama checking out Machu Picchu

Until next time.

Photos of Machu Picchu

7 hours in Machu Picchu yesterday.  Pictures do not do justice to how fantastic this place is.  Foggy start, then it lifted progressively through the morning so everything was slowly revealed.  Best way to see it we were informed.  Full sun by afternoon.  Lots of walking up steps and not too many tourists. 

A little tired today.  We were supposed to do a tour out of Cusco to a couple of places, but the bus got bogged, so we sat in a beautiful sunny farming valley for 2 hours enjoying the floor show of everyone trying to get the bus out.  the impressive thing was how many of the locals and some Colombian tourists came to help.  This wouldn't happen in Australia.  Visited alpaca textile shops this arvo and a silver jewellery workshop.  Early night as all the walking/climbing yesterday is having an effect.  Rest day looking around Cusco tomorrow.  Then off to Lake Titicaca the next day.

Until then.

Cusco 8 & 9 April

Cusco - Days 1 & 2, Fri and Sat

On Friday 8 April we flew from Lima to Cusco.  We have no more flights now for about 10 days which will be nice.  Cusco is at 3399 metres, so we were told what to expect before we came here, and how to deal with it by resting, taking it easy when walking around, eating sweets and drinking lots of water.  Most of us have coped so far with only some light heads and the odd headache.  One guy had already been suffering with sinus and he is really suffering.  We have an ex-pharmicist on the trip and he gave him something for the sinus problem, but if that doesn't work they will have to call in a doctor, and that may mean evacuation to a lower altitude.  It seems about 30% of people are affected by the altitude.

 Mal unfortunately got a gastro bug  with diahorrea at 6am, somehow got to the airport and through the flight with the aid of drugs, but stayed in the hotel to sleep it off while Julie went on a city tour.  Julie had a dose of gastro in the Amazon so hopefully that is all for us.

The town of Cusco has 500,000 people and is spread over a valley.  The airport is in the bottom of the valley and the planes get cancelled (like yesterday) as the winds are too strong for them to land.  On the other hand Lima is in constant fog and mist for 3-4 months of the year, so we assume that there are cancellations there to - such an interesting place.  The streets of Cusco are very narrow in the old city and it reminded several of us of Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic with very narrow cobbled streets which do not even allow a small bus to go down. 
Cusco

We visited a couple of archeological sites on the tour and these showed Inca ruins and walls built above the town, as well as an ancient sacrifical site where they sacrificed virgins, llamas and guinea pigs 500 years ago.  They are slowly excavating and restoring the Inca walls in these sites, but it is likely that in the next few years you will no longer be able to climb up and down on the walls, but will have to view it from afar.

Lastly we went to a Monastry where the Spanish had built over the Inca buildings and they have uncovered these old walls.  Some of this came about because of a 7.4 earthquake in the 1950's which collapsed the spanish buildings.  They seem to have a fairly large earthquake about every 300 years, so we should  be OK. 

Then  it was lunchtime at about 3.45pm so we went to a very nice restaurant where for $15 aussie dollars you got salmon, alpaca, pork, and local fish and seafood which was really delicious.  There were also great views across the main square to the hills around the valley - really spectacular.  Back to the hotel for an early night.

Saturday 9 April

Both woke up feeling good fortunately, and there seem to be no issues with altitude with any of the party.  We spent the day on a bus tour around the Sacred Valley of the Incas, visiting llama farms, weaving shops, Inca ruins, and Inca temples.  The highest altitude was 3,800 metres, but it didn't feel any different from normal.

The people in Peru are very friendly, even the little kids who pester you selling postcards and kitsch textiles at every stop.  It was fun watching our driver manoevre through incredibly tight streets.  Julie bought a scarf for $A5 at a place where they breed guinea pigs inside a room.  There was even a pot of guinea pig stew bubbling away in there.  We are not going to eat this.  Back to the hotel at 6pm to find our laundry all done - 4.5 kg of clothes for $A9.  Prices are so low here.

We are up early tomorrow for the bus/train trip to Machu Pichu, but it appears we will stay at the Machu Pichu town at the base of the Inca site tomorrow and not go up to it until the next day.  Until then.

The Amazon Jungle

Hello. Over the last 3 days we have travelled from Lima by air to Iquitos. This is a city in the middle of the jungle with 800,00 people, but is not accessible by road. Lots of tuk tuks as shown in the photo.

We then went on the Amazon River to our lodgings which were 45 minutes north along the river. The river is really amazing. It is quite fast flowing with some strong currents, very wide (up to 4 kms in some parts), has islands in it, and is littered with water lillies and logs. It is the beginning of the wet season now and the river is quite high, but some parts are actually dry during the dry season. 

                                                Julie on the Amazon

Our accommodation was basic, but nice. The roof of the hut covered 4 bedrooms, and the walls were half wood and half fly netting, as was the roof. It made for very close neighbours. There was no electricity, so no hot water for showers and no lights. We had 2 kerosene lamps for our room, and lamps on the dining tables. It was very early to bed on both nights - 9pm and 8.30pm, but breakfast was at 7am so not too bad.  The photo below shows a rare fine moment at our lodge.  The rest of the time was cloudy or rainy.


Went to see an indigenous village where they gave us a demonstration of dancing and singing. We also visited the Shaman (medicine man) to hear about the natural remedies, then walked through the mud to another village where we tasted sugar cane juice in its various stages. As it is just squeezed it has a flavour which is cross between pineapple and citrus, and nice but not sweet. The end product is like rum but very strong.

On the second day we saw pink dolphins. They are much larger than regular dolphins so do not jump out of the water, so are much harder to see. Then there was some piranha fishing, but no luck, and then a walk through the jungle, but the water was too deep even with gumboots on. We visited a animale sanctuary which had a boa constrictor, anacondas, tucans, monkeys, sloths and a weird looking shovel-faced turtle.

Mal with friendly toucan -honestly he IS smiling!

Back to Lima today and welcome showers.  Nice restaurant trip overlookiong the pacific and sunset and off to Cusco tomorrow to see how we fare with the altitude.  Will update when we can.  Thanks to those brave few who have posted comments.  Others welcome!

Beautiful Lima

After a day of travel from Rio via a very wet Sao Paulo, we arrived an hour late in Lima, and got to our hotel in the very nice beachside suburb of Miraflores at 12.30am.  We were warned not to put toilet paper down the toilet lest it bung up the plumbing, but apart from that the hotel is very nice.
In the morning today we did a city tour and it is fair to say that everyone on the tour was quite surprised at the beauty of this city. 

Nobody had much idea what to expect, but we did not anticipate the cleanliness of the buildings and streets and the array of beautiful gardens, in a city that averages 9mm of rain per year.  That's right - just 9mm; a third of one inch on the old scale.   Our tour guide said he had never seen any more rain than just a few drops on the ground.  The 9mm comes from mist and fog which shroud the city continuously for 4 months in the winter.  Today we had half fog and half blue sky -  when the fog came in the temperature was quite cool.   Lima is at the same latitude as Darwin, yet because of the cold Humboldt sea current coming up from below Chile, and the influence of the Andes, the temperature rarely gets above 27, and the ocean temperature never gets above 15 degrees!

All the trees and flowers are watered by hand, and the lawns by sprinklers, with water that comes from large dams in the Andes,  The tour guide said there had only been one period of water restrictions, when it stopped raining in the Andes for a few months. 

 We had a delicious lunch,  then walked around the expensive looking shops where everything seems cheaper than in Oz:clothes, tv's, cameras etc.  We then walked down to the beachfront with 4 others from the tour at night and felt completely safe, eating in an upmarket shopping centre overlooking the Pacific.  The food in South America we have found to be excellent and the variety is streets ahead of Europe.  

We only have the one day in Lima, which everyone has agreed is too short.  We could have spent one less day in Rio instead.
We leave for the Peruvian Amazon tomorrow which promises to be very hot and sticky, in a jungle lodge with no electricity.  We have started taking our anti-malaria tablets.  So no blogs for a couple of days.  Until then.
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Rio Saturday 2 April

We had a very sunny warm (30 degree) day to ourselves today. Together with another lady Jean from the tour, we hired bikes for 2 hours and rode along Copacobana Beach to Ipanema Beach (this sounds tough, and it was) then down to a large laguna (or lake to those unfamiliar with Portuguese).


The girl from Ipanema


Bike paths all the way so very civilised. Pedestrians on these bike paths are as dopey as those in Canberra, ignorantly straddling the path in groups of 2 or 3. We're glad we didn't know the Portuguese for "move over" because it probably would have translated as "you are a bunch of fat pigs" or something. Julie and Jean were quite overdressed I have to say, mind you the combination of g-string with extreme cellulite probably could be phased out. 

Gave the bike hire people a gold kangaroo stick pin and their faces lit up with a genuine heartfelt "obrigido!" (thankyou). Mal bought 20 of these at Sydney airport and they are proving a hit.
Back to the hotel for a swim in the pool on the hotel roof, with Christ the Redeemer giving blessings down on us from his lofty height, then lunch.  This was a delicious sandwich which came with a choice of breads - brown, white, croissant, bagel etc, plus "Australian".  Naturally we were fascinated about what "Australian" bread is, and here it is in the photo:  dark brown and a bit sweet.  The photo makes it look a little disgusting but it actually was quite nice, and we wished we could get sandwiches as tasty as this back home.  Quite unlike Europe where you get sick of ham and cheese.  In fact we have both been eating a lot on this trip - the food so far has been excellent.

We then caught up with 10 of the tour group for an impromptu trip back to Ipanema for Brazilian cocktails on the beach as the sun started to set. This was even tougher than it sounds. Even Julie had one of these alcoholic beverages - and the picture below proves it as well as showing how much we didn't enjoy the experience. Dinner with the group and back to the hotel via exciting honking taxi ride for an early night. Now channel surfing through the 53 stations on offer, and we may have found a movie to watch that hasn't been dubbed.

To Peru tomorrow afternoon. Long flight. Hopefully the internet access will be ok from our hotel there. Until then.

Day 7 - Rio

Rio - Day 7

Well we were liucky with the weather today - about 27 C - as we had an organised tour of the city.  This started with a visit to a lookout overlooking the harbour and Sugar Loaf mountain.  From there you could see one of the domestic airports that services Sao Paulo, and the planes land about every 10 minutes.

From there we went to see the Corcovado - the Christ the Redeemer statue at the top of the mountain.  We were very lucky that it wasn't shrouded in cloud, and we got some good photos.  It was quite hot at the top standing in the sun.  There were a lot of people up there but it was very organised, and you had to get on mini buses to go to the top up a very winding road with lots of switchbacks.

Then we went to see a Catheral in downtown Rio, but it is very modern, but inside it has 4 very impressive stained glass windows.  We went for a quick walk through downtown to a very old and impressive cafe with lots of mirrors and a beautiful ceiling.  The lunch was really nice as we were able to have sandwiches and salad, and nice china cups for the tea and coffee.

Then we were off again for a drive past thru the suburbs and beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana and then to Sugar Loaf mountain. 

We were caught the first cable car up to the half way point and looked at more of Rio and the harbour from a different angle.  We watched several planes land and take off from the airport before catching the second cable car to the top of the mountain.  Unfortunately we were not so lucky at the top and the clouds rolled in and we couldn't see anything.  Once we returned the bottom the clouds cleared and we could see it again.  Not too worry, at least we did see it.

Then it was back to the hotel for a well earned rest before dinner.