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.

Day 6 - Iguassu Falls to Rio

Iguassu Falls to Rio - Day 6 - Thursday 31.3.11
Up early to catch the 9.30 flight from Iguassu Falls to Rio. We crossed the border from Argentina into Brazil by bus to catch the plane, from a company called TAM which their inflight magazine claims is the biggest airline in the Southern Hemisphere. It took just under 2 hours to get here, and we were met at the airport by the next Peregrine guide. Each country supplies their own tour guide for the time you are in their country, so you get good local information. The guide today is from Germany originally and is a bit hard to understand, but we will be on a bus with her tomorrow so I am sure it will get easier.

Brazil seems to be much livelier and better organised than Argentina. Surprisingly for us though, apart from the beach and its long line of expensive hotels and apartments, Copacabana is not as we had imagined. It is definitely not ritzy, and the shopping area appears quite dingy with many small downbeat shops. Our hotel is also in need of a refurb, for example upgrading the 1982 tv set. The aircon works though, needed even though it was only around 26 degrees today, but with some humdity. Hopefully sunny tomorrow for our city tour in the morning.

After checking in at the hotel which is located in Copacabana we went for a walk to get acquainted with the area. We are 5 streets from the beach, which is like Australian beaches, wide expanses of white sand and stretching for a long way.





We managed to get caught in a sudden tropical downpour, luckily being near an outdoor cafe with large umbrellas we didn't get wet.