thirty-three vehicles a year can't be wrong

the most dangerous road in the world, according to annual death statistics. where a vehicle plops over the edge every other week. death road, complete with 1km drops, narrow passes and messy landslides. after reading such descriptions, how could amy and i pass of the chance to bike on such a road? exactly.

the actual biking part isn't the hard part. we started at about 4700 meters, among the snow and wind, towards our final destination that was about 70 km away, at a mere 1200 meters. most of the journey is downhill, with only a few uphill struggles (being at that altitude certainly doesn't help with the breathing). yeah, so it wasn't really the peddling that needed enduring. it was more all the other parts of biking that were at times, quite literally, painful. the squeezing of the brakes so hard that my palms are bruised. the incessant bumping that left me with either a pain in my butt or tired thighs from sitting off the seat. the huge bruises on both legs that i have no idea where they came from.

sound like fun yet? oh, but it was. the views were spectaular and the changing scenery kept it interesting. the first part of the trip (which is not technically death road) was paved, allowing for a speedy and painless descent. then came the unpaved bumpy curviness that is death road. that was slightly less speedy and a lot less painless... but still fun, with biking over streams and under waterfalls. and the snacks they gave us weren't bad either. i will admit, though, i was quite happy when we arrived at the end.

and of course, no death road experience would be complete without... the journey back. the four hour bus ride back to la paz. back up into the mountains. back on the curvey roads. back past the hug truck making their way in the other direction. i thought it was fun, but i am not sure if amy will agree. actually, i am pretty sure she wouldn't.

perhaps this doesn't seem quite morbid enough... or at least amy tells me. i assure you it was. death was abound. death was there. roadside memorial graves and truck visibly crashed over the side were a constant reminder. great... now this sounds too morbid. i guess better stop here.

It´s getting harder and harder to breathe....

Greetings from La Paz, the highest capital in the world. Yesterday Erica and I left the land of Incan Ruins and Inca Cola for what we thought would be a fairly smooth crossing into Bolivia. Wrong. We arrived at immigration only to discover that we had outstayed out tourist visa, and apparently our welcome, by one day and would be subject to a fine of about $10 each. Okay, fair enough, but we have less than 50 cents between us, so can we pay by credit card? No. Well is there somewhere we can take out money near here? No. Summary of the helpful Peruvians at customs (who would easily get jobs at Cuzco Tourist Info) was that we would have to return to Puno (where we had come from-some 2 hours away by bus). Some begging, a few crocodile tears and a feigned panic attack later, the ticket guy off our bus agreed to lend us the money. We walked over the border to the Bolivian immigration office and when asked what had taken us so long I explained and they laughed in our faces and said we´d been screwed over. And I´m sure it would have been sooooo different had we been coming the other way..... So we arrive in Copacabana on the Bolivian side and head straight for the bank only to be told that not only are there no ATMs in the town but in the whole of Bolivia. Oh and we can only withdraw in dollars by cash advance which will be charged at the rate of the bank teller´s favourite number multiplied by the number of visible clouds in the sky. By now we are pretty fed up and starting to realise what the "Bs" of the Bolivian currency stands for.(The numerous ATMs in La Paz that give money in Bolivianos must surely be a figment of our imagination..)

Anyway, on a brighter note we decided to splash out and stay in the fantastic Cupula hotel, highly recommended (thanks Sarah!) perched on the hillside with great views of Lake Titicaca. The luxuries of this hotel included not only a bath mat and a shower curtain but even complimentary hot water bottles complete with hot water. Oh and probably some of the best food we have had so far, the chocolate fondue nicely fuelled our new-found chocolate cravings!
The bus journey to La Paz this morning wound its way along the shores of Lake Titicaca-fortunately the scenery was beautiful enough to take my mind off the fact that our bags were on top of the bus (a big no-no according to most) and some guy´s smelly armpit in my face for most of the journey.

And then it was dinner time.When I was in Japan, whenever I saw a Carrefour supermarket I would run in hoping to find the extensive selections of (good!)cheese, wine, olives etc that you would find there in France or Spain. I was invariably disappointed. Well today I experienced the reverse of that (grass is always greener?never..) as Erica and I spent a good few hours scouring La Paz to find good Japanese food. Several policeman (who are incapable of distinguishing between Japanese and Chinese-think I´m starting to see how Fujimori got nicknamed "el Chino") later, we found a place called "New Tokyo" with a huge menu covering everything from sashimi to nabe to onigiri. The food was decent although not quite up to Japanese standards. They even played enka music (although I did debate asking them to put on some decent latin music!) However thumbs up for the Bolivian beer Paceña which does in fact taste decidedly Japanese! For those of you who are wondering, Ari decided to stay in Cusco to do a language course and will be rejoining us sometime soon-hopefully more about that from him...

Peru

Incan Image

the titi and the caca

i am not quite sure where i should pick up from since i don't know where the last post left of. ah, the fun of writing posts out of order. but i guess the logical place would be leaving cuzco. maybe i should do a lil summary so things make a bit more sense? kinda like a "last time on naninaninani." so after machu picchu, we returned to cuzco and bummed around. after a day of misc activities (which perhaps someone will write about, but prolly not since it really wasn't all that newsworthy), ari headed down to lake titicaca and amy and i stayed in cuzco for more randomness + sightseeing. then saturday amy and i took the train down to puno to meet up with ari. and this is where i will start.

based on the recommendations of others, amy and i opted for the long, scenic train ride down south instead of one of those night buses that we are so fond of. the ride was quite beautiful... and high up at more than 3000 meters above sea level. we read, looked out the window, napped. we eavesdropped on other gringos conversations. we made our bp+j sandwiches much to the scorn of the train workers who were trying to sell us grossly overpriced food. eventually though they gave up and by the end of the trip no longer even offered us a menu. so after ten hours of repeating these activities, we arrived in puno.

ari was kindly waiting for us at the station and took us to our hostel and to book our two day lake titicaca tour. we went to dinner with some other travelers ari met on his tour, but it was to be a short night for amy and me since the ten hour journey of doing nothing wore us out, so it was back to the hostel for a nice hot shower. sadly what we got was a hot-turned-cold electric shower complete with electric shocks and incompetent hotel workers looking at me standing in the hall in a towel while i waited for them to fix it (or as they preferred, not). amy had her own method of dealing with their incompetence, which namely was to walk back upstairs and leave the cold shower running.

soon enough it was time to say bye again to an overtired ari. he had stayed out late the night before, so only offered quiet grunts to our goodbyes. ari was heading back up to cuzco later that day for his language course, and amy and i were to continue to lake titicaca (and eventually onto bolivia).

as amy and i booked our two day tour with the same company as ari, i am operating under the assumption that our experiences on sunday-monday where quite the same as his on friday-saturday. so you can read this through, enlightening yourselves on what we girls were up to. and then you can read it again, substituting pronouns and imagine that it is ari doing x, y, and z. good? good.

the first stop on this tour de laco titicaca was the famous reed islands. made entirely out of reeds, walking on the islands are kinda like walking on a sponge. we got the run down on the reeds (in addition to island-making, they can also be used to make cookies, houses, or tourist souvenirs) and we got some time to poke about the island... all 10 square meters of it. there are scores of these islands around, the super touristy ones seeming to be just for sightseeing purposes while others are where people actually live.

then it was onto the a-something-or-other island where we would stay with a family. we stood on the side of the path while the different families were assigned their tourists. it was kinda like being picked for teams and happily we were not picked last. our assigned family had two sons and a young daughter... all very sweet. we spent the better part of an hour peeling dime/sized potatoes for lunch (or maybe it was for dinner... or breakfast. we ate a lot of potatoes). after lunch we did some exploring of the island, walking up the large hill in the middle of the island for some great views of the lake (with added bonus of a sunset and a lightning storm(. then it was back home for more potatoes and that's when the rain started. crazy lightning flashing down pouring storminess reminiscent of our near death storm in guatemala. by that point it was cold and we were tired and in no mood to get wet, so amy and i opted out of the dance gathering thingie that was going on that night.

the night morning was an early one. a quick breakfast and goodbye to the family and it was off to t-something-or-other island. there we walked around and heard some about the local traditions. apparently you can tell by the types of clothes someone wears if that person is single or married. for men its the color of the hat, for women the skirts. amy and i saw many an eligible bachelor, but we restrained ourselves. after lunch, it was time for the long boat trip back to puno. like the train journey, the passed with some reading, sleeping, and staring into space.

not much else to say about puno. though we met some lovely irish people on our tour, and went out with them for the longest dinner. ever. the food was great vegetarian stuff, but it took about an hour and a half for it to come. at least the company was good (wait, the food was good too. well at least we got a discount. amy's ability to argue in spanish is very helpful.) after dinner we were left with about 6 soles between us, and we figured that if we happened to need money at the boarder for departure taxes or unforseeable peruvian charges (see amy's next post), that six soles would certainly not be enough so our best course of action would be to blow it all (save .5 soles) on snacks. i like the way our minds work. unfortunately, the peruvian boarder control did not... but more on that next...

machu machu

i guess for those of you who read ari's old post about machu picchu and might just want just a smidge more of details, here we go. amy, ari and erica's story of machu picchu. the story starts long, long ago, in ecuador, when we realized, oh shit, we never got around to booking the inca trail. we called and called and called different tour companies, but they were all booked up. we explored other options, other treks, but none fit our needs. finally, laziness and apathy and a general optimistic viewpoint took over, and we decided to do nothing and just sort it out when we got to cuzco.

and so, after traveling down trough peru, we finally arrived in cuzco. the time had come to answer the age old question, "how the hell are we going to get to machu picchu?" we knew we had to get there somehow. not only is it the biggest tourist attraction in peru, but there is also a picture of it in book three of "total english" (total english. the extraordinary text selected by the kobe city board of education for teaching the youth of kobe to be young international english speakers. or something.)...a pretty, sunshine-filled picture. and if sue gets to go there, than we damn well better too. and after listening to one student teacher in japan repeatedly state that machu picchu is in chile, i just wanted to make sure that millions of tourists were nt mistaken. but i digress.

so we arrived in cuzco. enter the horribly uninformed tourist information center of cuzco. the same tourist information center that told us in no uncertain terms "the train to puno is definitely not running. wait, hold on. it's definitely maybe running. it may run. we don't know when. or from where. but it might exist. you wanted to take the bus to arequipa, right? take a taxi there. here, sign our gguest book" well, we went to tourist info to find out how we might get to machu picchu on our own, but tourist info gave us no info. however, some other tourist did. unfortunately, it was a bit of information we would rather have not been given. the train to machu picchu was not running due to a landslide which may or may not be cleared up in a few days time. thus, to get to the famous incan ruins we would have to take a bus to random place x, hire a guide, hike for 8 hours to place y, and then jump through some hoops, stand on one leg, etc etc etc before arriving in place z.

in typical fashion, we thought about this for an hour or two before deciding that the best course of action would be to ignore the situation until it sorted itself out somehow. this plan worked, as it always seems to do. we went off, did some day trips, visited some ruins, before remembering, oh, what about machu picchu? by this point trains were up and running and we were on our way.

okay, to make this rambling story slightly less long, let me fast -forward. if this where a movie, this is where the montage scene would be. us paying 55 dollars for train tickets. taking the long trip to aguas caliente. seeing poorly translated mmenus(if you are lucky, amy might eelaborateon that one). walking around town. finding human feces down by the river. taking a long nap in the middle of the day. arguing about not one, but two bills with waiters in restaurants. attempting to go to bed early. waking up at 5am.

okay. waking up at 5am. a good place to continue from. so in our minds, we had this wonderful scene. we would suffer, and wake up at five am. we would take the bus up to machu picchu and walk up to the top, being slightly surprised at how we seemed to have the whole mountain to ourselves. we would watch as the sun rose over the mysterious ruins and in that moment of perfection, we would realize the meaning of life, secrets of the universe, or other such iimportantstuff. riiight.

for those of you skimming, that is most definitely not what happened. it went something more like this. we suffered and woke up at 5am. arrived at the top at around 6am. despite the clouds and mist (see ari's post), we were still able to see the scores of other tourists who also deluded themselves into thinking there might be a sunrise. we waited and waited but the mist proved more persistent, so off we went to explore the ruins in the clouds and rain.

eventually the clouds did clear some. and that is when we actually realized, hey, we are at machu picchu. the views were gorgeous. clouds passed above and below us, giving the whole place a very mysterious feel and i could finally understand why these ruins are as famous as they are. i took about a hundred pictures (and if you are lucky i will maybe post one) and if i ever return i am sure i would take at least a hundred more. i realize this entire post builds up to actually getting to the ruins, while the actual description is a few lines, but it is hard to describe what they are like, and i think each of our impressions were different (okay, a cop out, i admit. it's late and i am tired and i got myself in too deep with this stupid long post).

we stayed for about 5 hours until our stomachs protested our lack of food and we had to head back to town to eat.. note to anyone who decides to visit machu picchu. despite the poorly written tickets which state "beverage only on botles not the botle of water. food is not allowed." no one checks and you should bring food. lots of it.

and so we said our good-byes to machu picchu (and took a few more last minute pictures), before heading down into town for yet another cold plate of pasta and a few hours to pass before our train back to cuzco.

and that is the slightly longer tale of our trip to machu picchu.

Hey Sacsayhuaman. How you doin.

So, we arrived in Cusco. The seat of the Incan empire. Home to the sacred valley, the gateway to machu pichu, ancient incan temples, slighly newer spanish cathedrals, and more annoying touts and vendors than i believe is neccesary. but no on listens to me.
i think on the first day we just walked around and looked at stuff, in general. it was a bit of a mess trying to sort out how we were getting to machu pichu. the train was shut due to rock slides so we had some serious option assessment to do. and since we couldnt gt much of a straight answer from anybody, it only made things more confusing. what an adventure! so, we walked tound, relaxed, and then cooked dinner.
day 2 - we bought the tourist museum entrance ticket after a bit of an argument with the ticket sellers because they wouldnt believe we were students. the nerve! but once we got that sorted out, we promptly realized that the cool museums were not actually included on the ticket. but no worries. apparently, in cusco, the they built a cathedral and then about 20 years later decided it wasnt good enough so they built one next to it. and then that one was outdated so they built another one. then, lets say, 100 years on, the city grew so they built one across the square, and while in the middle of that one, they decided maybe one more even bigger would just add a certain churchy appeal. and then, once they finished those, apparently they decided lets turn them all into museums and build another one to use, and then a few in the surrounding blocks just to confuse tourists and make them buy tickets for what they think will allow them in. hahahaha. silly tourists. (but im not bitter) so we got cultured.
and the next day, with 2 new austrlian friends we set off into the hills behind cuzco to see the sacred valled and the surrouding incan ruins. starting at tambo machay (so-so) then puca pucara (slightly more so-so) then we walked a few kilometers to Qenko which was cool. it was used to sacrifice stuff (possibly virgons or llamas or something) and the tunnels and caves and altars carved into the rocks are worth a look. and then on to Sacsayhuaman, also pronounced sexy woman, though i prefer sexy human (its more PC). oll call it SH for short. SH is HUGE. YUGE! it was shaped to look like a jaguar head from above. big amphitheter, long tunnels, long polished rocks for sliding (clearly the incas intention), and massive massive walls. blockas of stone 4x my height all fitting together perfectly. no glue. no duct tape. no cement. really cool. SH is prob one of the coolest incan ruins ive seen, short of Pisac and big pichu. (more on from erica)
then, we continud the walk down the hill and to the hostal.
day 3 - a first for a while, we ventured off to find a market in pisac and see the ruins of the same name. the market was generally succesful as i did not spend a lot of money. the ruins of pisac are 4 sites spread across a mountain. they are all incredible just in the fact that they could be built up on the moutian and built so well. houses, temples, wells, water channels, terraces, fortresess. i went off for a wander nd somehow ended up ontop of one set of ruins at the mountain peak. (as you do) erica and amy had staid to the path, a logical and hypothetically better choice. i meandered at the top for a bit finding old walls carved steps and other ruiny things. finding a trail, i follow it down and reach a set of steps carved into the side of the mountain going to what looks like a sheer cliff. not being able to leave well enough alone, i inch my down to have a peak. at the 2nd form the bottom step, a mear meter from the big drop, on my left opens up a tunnel. SO COOL! they carved steps into the side of the mountain and then dug out a 30 meter tunnel descending through the mountain to the other side of the ridge and not 100 meters from where amy and erica were patiently waiting for me to stop fooling around. a tunnel! it was really cool. you think your going for a cliff and it just appears out of nowhere. and it was doubly cool because i doubt anyone (tourists) know its there. its well hidden. so, i went on about that for a while. we saw some more stuff, and then we went back to the hostal.
and the excitment has yet to begin. next on the list, bus to train to bus to machu pichu.

I'd rather be a hammer then a, something else.

The journey to see the condors.
So, we booked ourselves on a tour leaving Monday morning at 1am, yes, 1 am, to do a 2 day trek down into the 2nd most deep canyon in the world. only 150m shallower than its neighboring canyon which apparently is the deepest, though i have no idea how they measure. i prefer the spit and count until it hits the bottom method, but wind conditions were not favorable.
Seeing a we were to leave at 1am, Erica had the good sense to go to sleep early. Amy and I decided beer and karaoke was the best option. (debatable). After a few songs by us and a new friend, a few request and some shared pisco to us from some Peruvians, and a few requests for Shakira by Amy to the 20 high school girls at the back table, we called it a night and decided that 1 hour of sleepw sa better than none.
So, in flash, up we were driven to the bus terminal and onto a bus by 1.45 bound for a town about 5 hours away which sits on the lip of the canyon. we arrived at Chivay, about the half way point a bit frazzled. the road seemed to have disappeared and been replaced to by a haphazard speed bump factory which we continued to negotiate at full speed. we asked what the rest of the ride would be like and the reply was, um, a little bumpy. right. at one point, i managed to doze off, as i do, we hit one of the big out of yuor seat head to the ceiling kind of bumps, and i noticed amy, who had been sitting beside me disappeared! i was stunned! but i went back to sleep and found that she was ok in the morning.
we arrived early and emt our guide, David. He led us to breakfast and then out of town to the lip and then down into Colca canyon. HUGe. YUGE! Ginormous. beautiful. In some parts the bottom third had been terraced (pehaps hundreds of years ago) and is still being farmed and maintained by the local communities that live in the canyon. We walked all the way down, then up some, then across and stopped for lunch. then up some more nd across through 2 villages past the church and clinic, and down to an at the very bottom that had been turned into a bit of a tourist trap with cabanas and swimming pools and all. but, it was nice. i ventured down to the river on my own for a bit (seems most of the tourists prefer the swimming pool) and enjoyed a bit of climbing boulders and relaxing. incredibly peaceful.
we had dinner there and chatted to the other trekkers before heading off to bed at about 7pm.

THEN, at about 1am, i awoke. the deathly howls of a mountain lion enraged and seeking blood bellowed continuously not 4 meters from my bed. possibly in the cabana already! heart racing, sweat dripping, i reached for my machete, having none, decided to hide under the blankets until it either decided the girls looked more tasty or went away.
about 10 seconds, what felt like an eternity, later, i came to the conclusion that the fierce beast was probably just a wild donkey in heat somewhere outside. (but it sounded like an angry banshee, i swear!) he or he continued on braying for about 2 minutes and then probably trotted off merilly. ( i was still under my blankets, so i have to assume as much).

at 3am, having nearly been refreshed by sleep, we began our 3 hour ascent up the wall of the canyon. pitch black. aided only by our basically useless flashlights. fun, fun. they said it could take up to 4 hours but we made it in 3. felt good. and reaching the lip a bit after unrise and watching the sunshine slowly crawl across the rock faces infront of me, shining off the snow caps was almost as increible as the stars the night before. the stars were bright as bright can be, and Orion was dead center. i like him because wherevere i go, doest matter on the hemisphere, he is always there.

so, at the top, we walk across the terraced fields back into town and have breakfast before getting on the bus back to arequipa. the bus makes 2 stops. the first is a condor viewing point. the condors here are big and majestic and just soar effortlessly through the cool air. they nest in the walls of the canyon, far from any predators. this view point, was ridiculous. perhaps 10 bus loads of tourists, waiting with thier HUGE cameras and video cameras, all jostling for a spot, sat waiting for god knows how long for a bird to fly by. we had already seen condors in our hike down the canyon, one flew right over us, right next to us. so peaceful, they just, well, soar! so we were not impressed when we reached the viewing point. when one poor condor finally did arrive, the hustle and bustle and, i kid you not, clapping, probably scared the poor bird off because he was visible for less than 2 minutes. dumb tourists.
Then, a stop in chivay for lunch and back to arequipa. mexican food for dinner and an early night.
today, we will look into seeing a mummy, volcano views, perhaps a movie, and then board a night bus for Cuaso and the gateway to machu pichu. fingers crossed.

wandering in arequipa

i guess it's time for me to write a bit more about arequipa. okay, one day of our time in arequipa, i can handle that. in an attempt to tire myself for our 1am departure the next day, i woke up early sunday morning. like 6-something-am early. ari and amy took decided another route was preferable to my "early to bed, early to rise" method (see ari's next post for more on that...), so they took advantage of the chance to sleep in. so i set off from the hostel a bit past seven to do a bit more exploring of the city. like any good jew, i popped into some churches to see what this whole sunday mass thing was all about and after crashing various religious ceremonies, went to the plaza for some people watching. and i found a lot of people. for some reason, the powers that be decided that 8.30am on a sunday morning is the perfect time for some military procession / parade / ceremony (complete with guns and marching bands and baton twirling) so after getting my fill of all things uniform, i headed off for some breakfast. then it was time to explore the market... it was a typical market, a bit on the large side, filled with veggies and hats and dead chickens and shoe laces and fresh juice and crafts. after some more wandering and meandering, it was noon and time to head back to the hostel to meet amy and ari.

we headed out to the amazing world heritage site, the santa catalina monastery (yeah, i don't know why they call it a monastery and not a nunnery/convent). my facts may be way off, but from what i can remember, it was establish hundreds of years ago by some rich woman who gave all her money to establish the monastery. many rich families would continue to send their daughters there, but after time it got a bit of a reputation for, uhm, well, let's just say not for religious piety. the women tended to lead their lives as if they weren't in a monastery, so eventually someone came along and imposed an isolation on the nuns that lasted hundreds of years and was finally done away with about 30 years ago. the nuns would only talk to others from the outside would through bars and could only receive items through a turning dumbwaiter type device. and anyone who wanted to visit, had to get special permission from the arch bishop of arequipa. good times.

the monastery was gorgeous. and huge. it is filled with many small winding paths (all named after cities in spain) and when you visit you can wander through the cloisters and in an out of the older rooms and kitchens. the whole place is really peaceful and serene and the atmosphere is a bit like seville in spain. was definitely worth the steep 25 soles admission!

after wandering the monastery for a few hours, we finally got around to getting some lunch... apparently 3pm is not an acceptable time for eating lunch though, cause we had to seek out place after place before settling for some cold mush. oh well, at least it was vegetarian.

the rest of the day was fairly uneventful. some more wandering. some attempts at shopping. some went for internet. others had their cake. there was packing and showering and other such groundbreaking activities. but i guess i will leave that to ari to fill you in on...

Dry Bones

The cemetery was wicked-It was smack bang in the middle of the desert and very windy but it was well laid out and we got to see lots of mummies set in the graves which were a little freaky but it was interesting and the guides (we chose not to commit ourselves to one but kind of flitted between them) were knowledgeable. On the way back we went to see the Nascan aqueducts which was also really cool. A canal comes down from the mountains and another one from the river and they meet and the water is channeled for irrigation. There are loads of aqueducts in the form of pebbled spirals which you can go down and which the locals use to enter the channels and clean them. A young boy from the local village showed us around and he was very sweet-the pebbles in the spirals are not cemented so they can apparently withstand earthquakes more easily. We were later told by a guy on our bus that neither the cemetery nor the aqueducts are real-just tourist gimmicks. The bones were pretty real though and either way, we had a good day.

And so once again we found ourselves waiting for the night-bus, onwards to Arequipa. We used a different bus company, paid twice the price we usually pay for the same distance thinking we were paying for comfort and it was about a quarter of the usual quality-not even a blanket and the so called "semi-beds" were no more than your usual reclining seats. Erica and I had prime seats right next to the toilets which was nice. Time to find a new bus company methinks.

On a happier note, Arequipa is a great city with a very laid back feel. After breakfast we managed to catch the second half of England´s victory against Austria (yay!) and sample the local brew, Ariquipeña which is /well/ nice, coming in only second to the cusqueña-Peru´s best beer. (We have had to resort to drinking beer for breakfast cos its impossible to get a decent cup of tea in this country) Proof of this lies in the fact that we haven´t reached Cusco yet but it is everywhere. The dark beer is also really good although a little sweet. Ari and I decided to sample the Arequipa night scene last night-having been informed that there are no salsa clubs in Arequipa (what?) we settled for some great Machu Picchu cocktails, not sure what´s in them but they look like traffic lights and when you stir them they look like pond water, or worse. Ari taught me a little too late the ancient Incan drinking method of whisking the straw up through the colours-Ill know for next time though. We ended up in some night club where a Jack Daniels and coke cost us $5 and at that point decided to call it a night. Managed to get up eventually the next day but I´ll hand over to Erica who was far more productive...

it's a bird, it's a plane...

the poor man's galapagos. i can't remember the real name off the islands we went to off the coast of pisco, but that's close enough, right? actually, there are a whole lot of places we went to wednesday that i can't remember the names of, but i might as well post now and come back and edit some other time. shoot now, ask questions later. sounds like a plan.

so the day started out in a boat, heading out to the small islands. the islands are situated near warm water currents and because of this, there are a whole lot of animals. on the way we passed a huge candelabra carved into a cliff on the peninsula... they aren't sure who did it, whether it was natives or aliens or whatnot, but in any case, it gave us a good idea what the nazca lines would be like (see below). after passing the peninsula, we got into more open waters and the rolling waves made about a third of the boat sick, but we didn't let the people puking around us ruin our enjoyment. we were accompanied toward the islands by hundreds of birds flying in lines, kinda like a ribbon floating in the wind and it was neat to see them all move up and down with the wind. we got the the islands, and immediately we saw a whole lot of birds, sea lions, and penguins. one of the islands was used by the sea lions as a nursery, and there were scores of them sunbathing on the rocks and swimming around. another one of the islands had literally hundreds of thousands of birds. apparently they collectively leave a meter of poo on the island every year, and every five years people come to, uhm, harvest the five meters of shit for fertilizer. i guess this trip to south america is helping me narrow down future professions, cause that job is certainly something i can cross of the list. professional bird poo collector. gah. the second part of the day was a bus tour. we headed out into the desert that surrounds pisco to see some of the dramatic coastline views and wander around near the coast. and we saw sand. lots and lots of sand. we also got to see some flamingos (off in the distance, beyond the sand).

and because we hadn't had enough sand for the day, that evening we headed down to a small town surrounded by sand dunes. we arrived at night, so the fact that this town was a small oasis in the midst of huge sand dunes escaped me until the next morning. after a, uhm, delightful dinner, we wandered around town before amy and ari went in search of some pisco sours and i went back to get some stuff done. we all had a late night, and after what seems like ages, we all got to sleep in the next day.

thursday afternoon we arrived in nazca, and after giving our money away to anyone who wanted it (the hostel, the bus company, the airplane tour company, the restaurant, and the internet cafe), we tried to have any early night since all had to be up early this morning for our flight. and finally, that brings me to today. we booked an 8 am departure to go and see the nazca lines. i have no idea what the general public knowledge about the lines are, but for simplicity sake, here is erica's highly informative yet probably inaccurate ramble about the lines. the nazca lines are huge animal and geometrical shapes that were carved into the desert plane about a 1000 years ago. they are so big that the designs can only be seen from the air (kinda like crop circles) and so consequently were only discovered about fifty years ago. their origins are a bit of a mystery; some people think they were done by aliens, but most believe they were done by the native people way back when, but there are a number of theories as to why and how they made the shapes. okay. history lesson over. so we three scrunched into a small four person plane, and headed up to see the nazca lines. they were really amazing, especially when you think about how large they are and how long they have been preserved. our 35 minute flight was over almost before it began, and we headed back into town for some lunch and relaxation time.

and that brings me to now. amy and ari went off to see some bones (they really like their skeletons, those two), and i opted to stay in town to wander about and search for a fourth pair of sunglasses. i found them, but i really am not having the best of luck with sunglasses. the first pair (from cambodia) i lost at the ruins of tikal in guatemala. the second broke on a bus in ecuador. the third forgotten in a bathroom in peru. and now i am onto the fourth pair. i guess they are destined to implode in bolivia. we'll see.

down, down, down we go...

once again here i am posting without the guidebook in hand, so i am afraid this post will be filled with interesting details like, i went to that place where they had that thing and after saw that ruin something or other. oh well. i maybe one day i will get around to putting the real names up, but till then, i better post... amy and ari have been putting me to shame and its time i got writing. so lets see. lemme go back a few days to saturday, when, according to ari, amy and i "went off on a guided tour of local towns which ended in a walk on the glacier near immense ice caves." close, but not quite. instead of towns, we got to drink from a "fountain of youth" which tasted a bit like seltzer water and then see a small pond where the water should change to seven different colors depending on the light (sadly, though, we could only see blue, black, and partly cloudy colors)... and then, like ari said, we ended up at the glacier. bravely we fought the elements (ie, thin air and snowy weather) and arrived at the glacier at about 5500 meters. walked a bit on it, but our attire kept us from walking too far up the ice (i had on sneakers and three-quarter length pants, and amy wasn·t much better off in full length trousers). but it was beautiful and well worth the cold (though perhaps amy will say otherwise). the day was made that much more memorable by the scores of school children who continually asked our names and countries and if they could take pictures with us (again and again and again) and the sight of a llama wearing sunglasses and a boa.

the next day i headed off by myself to see the ruins at chavin (full name forgotten), which date back more than two thousand years. along the way i stopped at the lovely querococha lake (memory jolt for the name supplied by a postcard in my bag, thank you very much)... the lake was lovely, but i think i the serenity was somewhat marred by people trying to get to pay for pictures with lambs and other livestock-- though i do admit they were quite cute. after a bit of a walk around the lake, the bus continued through the mountains on winding narrow roads, till a couple hours later we arrived at the town of chavin. wandered around the town for a bit and tried my limited spanish out of a few of the locals (spanish which mainly consists of "do you have rice pudding?" or "can i take a photo?"). then it was on to the ruins. the spanish tour quickly made me a victim to adhd, so i wandered off to explore the labyrinth-like tunnels beneath the temple. very neat. oh, and of course took more pictures with random school kids as i answered more of the "where are you from" questions. at one point about 15 or them cornered by against the wall. it was kinda scary actually. soon enough it was time for the three hour trip back to town where i met up with amy and ari back at the hostel. and since six hours on the bus wasn't enough for one day (perhaps you are are starting to see why amy and ari opted to stay behind), we headed to the bus station for our eight hour bus ride down the lima.

okay. lima. the lovely capital of peru. amy told us that lima is affectionately known as "the city of shit" (or something like that) and that everyone she knows who has been there has had something stolen. so i guess it is fair to say that we didn't have the highest of expectations. after a sleepless night bus ride (complete with a snoring man, a loud annoying movie, and a pushy seatmate), we arrived in lima around 6am. none of us were ready to face anything at that point, much less the city of shit, so we booked it right to a hostel for a few more hours of sleep. around 11 we were ready to go out and see what lima had in store for us. we were all pleasantly surprised. the city is filled with beautiful old colonial buildings and grand churches and plazas. i got to have both lunch *and* dinner at vegetarian restaurants so i was happy and we got to see lots of old bones at the catacombs at the cathedral, so i think ari and amy were happy too. oh! and we found some goma-dango in chinatown so then we were all happy.

and that brings me to today... after a few more last minute errands in the capital, we took the four hour bus trip down to pisco (home of pisco sours, kinda) and tomorrow we are off to see the poor mans galapagos. good times.

Into thin air

Arrived in trujillo mid afternoon and we were well ready to get off the bus. Driving through hot desert in a non-airconditioned bus with broken seats and smelly poeple was just not as fun as i expected.
Took a taxi to Casa de Clara, a hostal in a residential area. Nice place. Cozy. The owners were a bit off thier rockers, but could be worse. Spent a day walking around town, looking at churches, buying candy, and beeing touristy. Also, stopped into a travel agent and sussed out a tour for the next day to visit the ancient pre-incan ruins of Chan-Chan and a few more minor ones. We asked the agent, will the tour be given in english? “Si, Si. Claro. Non es un problema” (clearly we should have picked up on this hint)
The first temples were itneresting and large but really eaten away by time and wind. 1500 years od desert will do that. An interesting architectural note is that, every so often, they got tired of the old building and would build a enw one directly on top and essentially the same. So archeologists have an excellent way of comparing different time periods. But it sucks that they have to destroy one facade to get to the next. (how inconsiderate of the ancients!)
Chan-Chan was a city. Massive. Built from mud bricks, outer walls look like massive sand-dunes, but as you get into the inner-court the walls and halls take shape. 10m high. Massive courtyards with platforms for royalty. Areas for storage, sacrifice, living, celebrating. Even a built in pond. Some of the areas i think would be wicked staging grounds for paintball or other similar wargames. Lots of nooks and crannies. Not exactly culturally sensitive, but...
We were on a tour bus with all spanish speakers aside from a ocuple form dusseldorf. So, the entire tour was given en espanol and then when the guide finished her 10min speech, the turned to us and gave us a 1min synopsis. I think i annoyed her because i asked more than a few clarifying questions. (which were neccesary. Some of her explanations are as follow: “it is very important because it is important” and when i asked something like “how many ..... “ she responded “yes, of course.”)i think she was not feeling well also, so every time she finsihed speaking in spanish she turned to us and her smile fell away. Oh well. It was relly interesting anyway.
Next day, we took it easy. A bit of shoppin, getting bus tix, saw a movie. The theater had english movies with spanish subtitles. (wanted to see charlie and the factory but due to technical blah blah ended up seeing another movie based in scotland. Which to be honest, i could have used english subtitles for. Achh.
Got on a very bus double decker night bus to Huaraz that night. We were served snacks and drinks, provided blankets, and the seats almost went horizontal. 8hrs later, we arrived in a city in the middle of the Cordillera Blanca, the range in the Andes that has Perus highest mountain and other snow capped wonders. Beautiful veiws everywhere. The day we arrived we braved the uncertainty and managed to make our way on our own to a beautiful laguna in a notch between 2 massive granite snowcapped mountains. The laguna was a beautiful blue and it was really pretty though we were gaspin for breth because of the altitutde. The next day, Amy and Erica went off on a guided tour of local towns which ended in a walk on the glacier near immense ice caves. I went for a bike ride. Bus took me way up above the town into the foot hills and dropped me off at the pass. The road, ahem, if we would call it that, might have made a nice japanese rock garden sprinkled with patches of gravel, potholes, farm animals, and pieces of lesser mountain bikers. I survived relativly unscathed. (skinned elbow and knee + 2 near dog bites). Hard core, but fun. Which brings me to today. 10/2. Erica has gone off on a tour to explore some fantastic ancient ruins which i hope she will fill us in on soon, and amy and i are bumming around town taking care of errands and enjoying the slow life.Tonite we are on a bus bound for lima.

Peruvian Shakes

Our last few days in Ecuador were spent in Vilcabamba, a scenic and somewhat hippy town near the Peruvian border. As Ari was still recovering from his concussion, Erica and I did a days horse trekking in the mountains. The scenery was beautiful, it was sunny, the guide was informative, the horse was probably the only thing that bothered me. It was scared of various things including dogs, moving things, red things, oh and Erica´s horse liked to kick mine but that was okay as long as I stayed in front. So we are walking along these fairly narrow mountain tracks when Dwendy (hmm...) catches sight of a mare in the field below that he quite likes the look of. They start flirting with each other and then Dwendy steps backwards into Erica´s horse and then off the path suspended between the rocks and the barbed wire. He was so still and had this glazed look in his eye, I did actually think he was dead. Anyway, the guide pulled me up and somehow managed to get the horse back up onto the path and we both got off lightly with a few cuts and bruises. After that I didn´t really have so much faith in the horse but we all made it back in one piece. The hotel we were staying in was a great little place called “El Jardin Escondido” and we had a little pool so Ari and I went for a dip (or rather a walk) in it after we got back. Ari seemed much better and unfortunately non of his inapropriate Spanish was lost as a result of the concussion.
We took a nightbus down to Peru-always nice to be woken up at 5am for passport control J-and ended up in Chiclayo, a fairly non descript town on the North coast. The first night we were sitting in our room and the whole room started to shake-needless to say we are all missing Japan, but an earthquake we could have done without. The first tremor lasted for about 2 minutes and scared us all to death! The earthquake measured in at just under 7 but fortunately the epicentre was way out in the jungle and we also realised that a lot of the buildings had earthquake secure signs. Good to know. We visited some ruins and tried chicha which is like a wheat beer although it contained no alcohol. I wasn´t a big fan. On the Peruvian beer front there are quite a few to choose from as many regions make there own beer. So far we have only sampled the Trujillan chopp (draft beer) and pilsen which are not bad and certainly an improvement on the Euadorian Pilsner. Next stop Trujillo.