Lago Titicaca (The Peruvian side)

Its been a long 5 months but here I am, back on the blog. It's good to finish things you start no?

OK, what can I say about Puno? Still at altitude and still pretty cold. So at first glance, pretty average. But actually Puno ended up delivering in the end! On our first night we were just happy to have lukewarm showers and a relatively comfy bed. Free internet in the lobby was just a bonus. Dinner was of course the Peruvian/Bolivian staple of fried chicken, chips and rice. All on the same plate. Things start to look up when we book our tour to the islands on Lake Titicaca.

We leave early the next morning and find ourselves on a speeding boat to our first destination Uros (floating island made of reeds). Yep its just floating. So weird. Jumping off the boat onto 'island' was initially intimidating but when you land its surprisingly springy! We get a introductory talk about how the island goes about its business and meet some of the locals. The kids are super cute. I buy one of their overpriced postcards in exchange for a photo. Such a gringo. We also get to eat some of the reeds that the island is made of. Very... fibrous and looks like an over-sized shallot. Probably good for digestion. Amit doesn't mind it, but I look for an inconspicuous way to spit it out.

Next stop is Amantani Island which is an actual island this time. By this point we have made friends with some of the people on our tour, including a lovely Brazilian dude, who you will meet later in our entry about Sao Paulo (don't hold your breath on that one, its 8 weeks away from here). We get allocated a host family on the island and go with them to their house where we meet the rest of the family and have lunch with them. Here we get to eat real traditional cuisine including something that tastes just like BBQ'd haloumi cheese. Grosses everyone else out so I get seconds :). We eat in a separate room to the family which is kinda weird. It's like a tiny stone dining room without enough space to stand up straight. They serve us traditional soup first (quinoa I think its called) and then a plate of steamed veggies, mostly mountain potatoes in various colours.

After lunch we get to hike in the heat up a mountain. I'm starving after about five minutes. Also dizzy from the altitude. Kit Kat and coca tea break near the top is well received by me. We take a few photos at the top and then somehow after sunset it is freezing on the way down! We have dinner with our family in much the same awkward manner making small talk with 3 other ladies who are staying with the family. We are the only ones who don't speak more than one language. In fact they all speak at least 4. We suck.

Shortly after dinner we dress up in local outfits and traipse up to the community hall at the top of a hill in the pitch black. I repeatedly trip over my traditional dress and my hat is itchy. I am suddenly 5 years old. All the other host families bring their guests and we dance around like fools for an hour. I'm puffed after half an hour and yes I'm going to blame the altitude again. So there. No one can buy a beer because the bartender has no change but somehow no one can justify spending the equivalent of 3 AUD on a beer when we should be paying only 1 AUD. The audacity!

After an average night (including a freaky visit to the outhouse in the middle of the night) Amit spends the morning playing soccer in the tiny courtyard with the 2 sons from our family. They had to improvise with a styrofoam ball the size of a tennis ball which eventually broke. We were so sad we couldn't give them a real soccer ball but nowhere to buy it on the island. Instead we bought some basic grocery items and gave them to the mum.

We were soon on our way to the last island Tequile, where we had to climb up a ridiculous cliff in the heat again. At the top we hung out in a courtyard which felt like a playground with lots of social cliques but the locals were...well...locals. The cool kids seemed to be hanging out near the church and knitting. Strangely, on this island the men do the knitting. They also wear Noddy hats and depending on the colour you can tell if the guy is single, engaged or married. We get to eat some pretty tasty trout overlooking a spectacular view and then climb down the cliff on the other side of the island to our waiting boat.

The 6 or 7 of us that became friendly on the tour met up for a final dinner in Puno which was probably the best meal we ate there with very nice company. We swapped details and managed to run into some of these folk again on our travels which is pretty impressive when you consider how big South America is.

Next stop - Copacabana. No not the Brazilian beach. The religious pilgrimage site in Bolivia. Don't look at me like that. Its actually pretty exciting.

Flight of the Condors

We were so pumped to arrive in Arequipa, it was supposed to be another Cusco but with more street cred, less tourists maybe? Either way, when we arrived we were told by our taxi driver that it was a good thing we'd pre-booked our accommodation, as some international conference had come to town and the place was packed with tourists! not a room free in the city. So we were dismayed to discover we couldn't move when we arrived at our hostel Misty house. Dirty bathroom and dirty dirty beds. ick. First time we had to bust out the silk sleep sheets. The view was nice though.

Luckily we were planning on doing the overnight tour to Colca Canyon the next day so stayed only one night at the crappy Misty house (trip advisor review to come!) We quickly booked another couple of nights at a better hostel for our return and packed our day packs for the overnight trip.

Still kinda exhausted from the Inca Trail, we opted for the bus tour instead of the hike with 3am wake up call. Probably should have done the hike. Essentially we got in a mini van and was herded from look out to look out for photo ops. Given the Mit's propensity to instantly fall asleep on transport (I call it transport narcolepsy) we didn't really see a whole lot out of the bus.

One of the coolest bits was waking up and discovering we'd arrived at the highest point on the way to the canyon, 5000m, the highest we'd ever been. I got up too quickly, ate some marshmallows and got pretty woozy outside. Took some photos of a cute cabin which turned out to be the banos. oh well. Back in the bus and off to lunch for Peruvian buffet. Yay inca kola!

When we arrived in Chivay (a little town at the bottom of the canyon) we headed to the hot springs which were freaking awesome considering our hotel had no hot water. We had pina juice and beers while lounging in the springs. nice. Dinner was pizza, no surprices there, but with a side of sangria which really makes any meal awesome.

The relatively early start got us to the canyon in time to catch the condor action which was suprisingly frequent. I had thought we'd be waiting for an hour with binoculars, but geez those things are huge and they swoop down prettty low. Its a spectacular view. We took a short hike along the canyon where I re-discovered the macro and went nuts over the cactus.

Back on the mini bus for the 2 hour bus ride back to arequipa and our new hostel! We went in search of something different for dinner and got kinda excited by the possibility of kebab, unfortunately I was sorely disappointed by the result. We got a role with dry chicken and lettuce. No hummous, no onion, no cheese, shall I go on? Its too depressing. Amit liked it though, he claims it was the best part of Arequipa.

Shortly after we headed to local bar with offers just too good to be true. 3 vodka oranges for the price of one. The right price of 12 soles. Oh boy did I regret that 3 hours later. My final day in Arequipa was spent in and out of the bathroom. Excessive fasting makes Mel a very grumpy traveller.

The desert oasis

We took our first South American bus from Lima to Ica and then a short rickshaw (sp?) ride from the bus station to arrive at our hotel in Huacachina. The town is a tiny oasis in the middle of the desert... basically a lake with few hotels and restaurants on the banks all surrounded by huge sand dunes that span the whole perimiter.

Being in the desert it was warm and a good opportunity to laze by the pool, read and relax. I had a quick dip in the pool, despite the questionable water even if Mel wasnt game.

The second morning there was a power AND water outage in the whole town.. typical Peru. We took a sand buggy and sand boarding tour and went cruising into the desert with our crazy driver. Every time he saw a bump or dip he would gun the buggy and laugh as we bounced around in the back! We stopped at a few big hills to do sand baording or tobogganing.. i learned that sand boarding is quite different to snow boarding.. especially if you dont use a full candle stick of wax on the board each run. Needless to say there were plently of falls but at least the sand doesnt hurt as much as ice. Our final run was a tobaggan only... supposedly too steep to board and there had been broken collar bones and other assorted injuries in the past. No worries. We each had two runs, the first went smoothly but I had a big stack and my second run. Luckily Mel was on hand to catch it on video and upload it to facebook.

That night we climbed to the top of the sand dunes... very slowly. Walking uphill on sand is extremely tiring. The view at sunset was spectacular and very worth it.

The following day we went on a wine tour of Ica... this consisted of paying a cab driver a few dollars to drive us to the wineries and ask the staff to give us some free samples. The local speciality is pisco, which is very nice when made into pisco sour but more like paint thinner when drank by itself. Awful, awful stuff. We ended up buying one bottle of wine from a strange winery where the owner kept relics of stuffed animals, old clocks and war time guns and memorabilia with his wine barrels. After purchasing the wine the owner informed us that by drinking it we would definately have twins. We gave the wine away two weeks later to unsuspecting victims. (Hope you enjoyed it Ben and Clare!)

That afternoon we hired a paddle boat and cruised around the lake for a while following the ducks. It was really warm and almost tempting to go for a swim in the lake, but the murky brown colour convinced us it might be a bad idea.

The town was deprived of tourists during our stay so we had another relatively quiet night on the pisco sours and then headed to the bus station towards Arequipa.

Freezing in the Amazon...basin

We spent one glorious day of rest in Cusco before jetting off to the jungle. Truly the worst turbulence I have experienced to date. One unfortunate member of the extended geckos group spent the whole flight and bus ride to the lodge throwing up into a paper bag. It's times like this one misses the smooth travel of the M4.

Upon arrival to Puerto Maldonado we were handed a banana and informed that no we were not actually visiting the amazon, but the amazon basin. Meh, same same. Either way it was stinking hot and nice to be back at sea level after the breathlessness of Cusco. So we chilled in our room for a couple hours before the first nature walk. if you can call it a 'room'. Well it had 3 walls. The other 'wall' was floor to ceiling - nothing! We were at one with nature and using the hand fans to keep cool.

The group re-convened that afternoon for our first amazon experience: a short jungle walk and climb to a lookout post. We are warned to tuck our pants into our socks. Our group consisted of James, Denny, Tom, Susan and myself. The mit was taking a breather, recovering from a bit of a cold. Really, we are hilarious. First, the killer bees attack Tom, who does the "aaarrgh they're biting me dance". After which Susan and I start squealing at anything that moves. I send james ahead to break spiderwebs and ward off evil. There were army ants, leaf carrying ants and other miscellaneous ants. The whole time I can feel stuff crawling on me. Ick. The monkeys and birds were an afterthought. We arrive at the lookout and look up. Its a rickety contraption but still we climb. I wonder why there is a constant stream of wasps that hover around us and am told that previous tourists have sweated all over the 'lookout' which is honey for wasps. Denny spends the next 20 mins fending off the wasps while I quietly freak out. Oh yeah, and the view is pretty nice. I am such a city chick.

Dinner was interesting, well it was bananas. Banana mains and banana dessert, and just in case we were hungry later, bananas in the snack bowl. We went to bed sweating and woke up shivering. A cold front came through in the middle of the night which we were all unprepared for, with all our warm clothes in luggage storage at the geckos office. So cold. That 4th wall would have been so handy! No more showers were had past this point, hot water being non-existent in the lodge.

Piranha fishing was next, with hopes that the rain would hold off for the morning. Alas no. It rained but we caught piranhas so it was ok. The macho need to catch one prevailed amongst the extended gecko group with the girls giving up pretty easily but the guys perservereing after the first one was caught. Check out the Mit's glory moment. We continued to do the bird watching from the catamaran. Please don't picture anything fancy, we were cowering in our ponchos on what looked like an oversized raft from huck finn.

When we got back, I felt a cold coming on and stayed in the hammock with a book for the rest of the afternoon but the rest of the gang visited the witch doctor. As far as I know, no one purchased the herbal viagra but we did enjoy a nip of the herbal red bull while playing cards a little later in the evening.

Our bizarre amazon experience was capped off with Denny shaving off the Mit's hair in the middle of the lodge dining room. We all held our breath (me more so than others) when battery ran out on the electric razor, but all was well when we found a power point and the number 1 was completed all over. Hot! All photos of the head shave appear to be lost....

The next morning we were up early for a flight back to Lima and a teary goodbye to the geckos group. Sigh.

Inca Trail: The Gringo Killer

We sat down with our guide Washington (aka Benjamin) the day before the Inca Trail for a briefing on what to expect for the next 4 days. There may have been a brief hint that day 2 was going to be tough, but nothing really prepared us for what lay ahead.

We packed our duffel bags and backpacks and awoke early the next morning to get the bus to Wayabamba (sp?) and pick up some last minute supplies. The Geckos group was split for the trail and so Mel, James and Den met up with our two other hikers Matt and Regan who completed our Inca Trail family for the next few days. We picked up some last minute supplies... gatorade, skittles and ponchos which we really hoped wouldn't be needed given our wise/stupid decision to ignore hiking boots and opt for runners. One last meal before we started off, and my simple order of ¨tostada...no mas¨ which was meant to be toast with no butter, but was taken as ¨nothing for you¨. Not a good start considering i had an upset stomach.

We took a few photos and began on our way. The first day was up and down, not too difficult and we got to see a few ruins along the way to break up the walking. The biggest highlight/surprise was the food. Wow!! For a group of 7 of us including the guide, we had 7 porters carrying our bagg, tents and food. The food was gourmet throughout the four days, with each meal being three courses of soup, chioce of mains with vegetables and dessert. Even more amazing was the fact that the guys carried eggs while running the trail in sandals for 3 days before serving them.

I am coming back to writing this after almost 6 weeks and have have learnt that less is definately more...

So Inca Trail... after dinner on day 1 we were presented with an alternate plan.. instead of having to wake up at 3am on day 3, we could combine days 3 & 4 and walk all the way to Machu Picchu, stay in Machu Picchu town. Sounded reasonable at the time but we had yet to walk the hardest day so we would discuss again the following night.

Day 2 was unbelievably tough. 6 hours of uphill to dead womens pass followed by 2 hours of downhill to the campsite. The feeling at the top of the pass after 6 hours of climbing was incredible. At lunch rain clouds were ominous and we were worried as we decided not to get hiking boots and brave the trail in our runners. But it held out and we ended the day catching a glimpse of a deer in the wild. At dinner, we all breathed a sigh of relief thinking the worst was behind us and agreed to walk all the way to Machu Picchu the next day.

Day 3 was long. 13 hours of trekking, only a few quick stops including a rushed lunch which we had to digest while back on the trail. About 11 hours in, just before we reached the Sun Gate, our leader Washington informed us he had a present for us. Unfortunately his present turned out to be the ¨gringo killer¨, a set of steep, almost vertical steps that we needed to climb with hands and knees. Lame. We all made it eventually and it was definately worth it when we arrived at the sun gate to see Machu Picchu for the first time. The view was unforgettable. We didnt have long to rest as the last bus down to our accommodation left in 40 minutes and the walk down to the bottom was... 40 minutes. We ran down to the buses only to see the last bus leave before our eyes. The group sat in silence, with a despondent look on everyones faces at the prospect of having to walk even more to the town before we could rest. Luckily Washington spoke to the operators and another bus was sent.

In Machu Picchu town, we were offered space to pitch our tents and sleep inside a restaurant which would have been stange enough if not for the fact that when we got there it was a BLACKOUT!!3 days, 50+ kms, everyone super tired and there's no power, hot water or anything open/to do when we get there. Super lame. We celebrated completing the trek with some warm beers, tipped the porters for their great efforts and enjoyed the mariachi band playing in front of the restaurant before getting a reasonably early night.

The next day we awoke at 330am, had cake for breakfast which was half sweet, half savoury, and then started the trek up to Macchu Pichu at 430am in order to get tickets to climb Wayna Pichu. Mel and Den decided the bus was the better option because they didnt want to do the extra climb. In retrospect, they chose the better option. Still tired from the last three days, the climb at 430am, still dark, was probably the hardest 90mins of the entire trek. We were almost jogging parts in order to get there early, but by the time we reached the top we were so buggered the concensus was that no one was up for doing any more walking. Ever. So we got our tickets and they ended up going waste but at least we tried.

At the top we took our postcard photos from ¨the rock¨and then washington took us on a tour of the city. Such an amazing experience walking through the town, once the supposed capital of a quadrant of the Incan empire. Lots of great photo ops and some acrobatic llamas to keep us amused. In the end we probably didnt spend as much time there as we thought we might, due to everyone being exhausted and preoccupied with McDonalds back in Cusco! We bussed back down to Machu Picchu town, had a nice lunch at a hotel with a generator because the power was sitll out but it conveniently came on just as we were leaving back to Cusco. The train ride back was pretty quiet, we caught up with Jeff, Tom and Susan and looked forward to a hot shower and festivities back in Cusco the next few days.

Inca Kola: liquid gold in Cusco

Our Geckos group arrived together, brains slightly scrambed after aerobatic landing into Cusco. First order of business was to eat Cuy/guinea pig. If you´re going to do it, do it right: deep fried with a look of terror on its face. It was surprisingly tasty though, once you break through the mental barrier. Think Cuy KFC.

Check out Team Geckos: Clockwise from left Susan, Tom, Den, Jeff (with a J), Belji, The Mit and the Mel. Missing from this photo is James the Great. We shall meet him again in a later chapter entitled, Inca Trail: The Gringo Killer. He will be carrying all our packs.

With only 48 hours in Cusco to acclimatise to the altitude before the Inca Trail, we quickly jumped on the coca tea/diamox/Inca Kola diet. it worked marvellously well. dizzy spells gone, headaches a thing of the past! unfortunately pins and needle plagued me for most of the time at altitude. its no laughing matter folks. Imagine your extremities with permanent pins and needles. not cool. Anyways I now have a healthy addicton to coca tea. If only I can find a way to import in large quantities to Australia.

Team Geckos hit the sacred valley trail as a small contingent in Nico´s Group. Our most horrifying experience involved 2 school age girls and their high pitched shrill voices which cut through ear drums and destroyed our will to live. Jeff took care of them... In other news, quite a few people struggled the next day after a highly regarded buffet lunch turned bad. Not a good start to the Inca trail. The Mit, James and myself chased the buffet with a Maccas dinner, the memory of which pushed us through day 2 on the trail. What I wouldn´t give for just one QP. Maybe even the elusive Mc Pollo.

Lima on my mind

So we have 5 days in Lima, seriously what can you do for 5 days in Lima? Apparently sleep. So much sleep. struggling to wake up in the morning, and have no idea why. Slight altitude sickness maybe? No probably just laziness.

Thanks to ¨when holidays go bad¨I have a healthy paranoia for pick pockets and muggings and cholera. I can´t express the fear in the taxi from the airport. At any given moment we would pull into a darkened garage and never see the light of day again. But the weary travellers have started to loosen up. Tonight we hit the casinos and maybe the sports bar if I´m in a generous mood. Since we have every sports channel known to mankind on in our hostel room (!!) I´m a little over the soccer. Still, if there´s an appletini in it for me, I don´t mind so much.

Completely shocked and appalled to discover pedestrians do not have right of way here, after the dreamy days of downtown Toronto. Loving Miraflores which is the touristy part of Lima, it has it´s own harbourside location, Larco Mar and some funny restaurant guys spruiking for our business. I like it.

The Good
# eating and sleeping
# prices
# exhilerating feeling of discovering new foreign/slightly scary city

The Bad
# being a lame tourist with a below average knowledge of Spanish
# empanadas cold and disappointing so far
# trying to remember not to open mouth in shower

Toronto

Our two weeks in Toronto flew by quite fast and culminated in an amazing night at Sabrina & Jeff´s wedding.

Before that we enjoyed a big night on the town for Mel´s and Charlene´s combined birthday at the Biermarkt. The cover band made the night for me, bringing out all the classics in their socks and sandals.

Mel and I went on a day tour to Niagara Falls including a brief pit stop at one of the wineries in the region. It doesn´t get much better than a few ice wines before midday and then a boat ride into the falls.

That night we saw the Toronto Blue Jays play Boston Red Sox at Rogers Centre which was walking distance from our hotel. We (the blue jays) lost but the combination of hot dogs, cheesey nachos and beer made the night pretty sweet. We also just missed a foul ball that was hit to our seats! Next time..

Post wedding we spent time with relaxing with family inMississauga getting ready for South America!!

Jet lag

We have just recovered from the jetlag. It turns out that a stopover in LA only prolongs the recovery process, but we're all good now. weather was beautiful in LA, 28 degrees and we spent it at the beach in Orange County. Very nice. Interestingly, roller blades did not become extinct in the 90s.

So far the food has been spectacular, home cooked stuff in LA and cafes and cocktails in Toronto. So much eating. Briefly flirted with the idea of attending a bikram yoga class to work off aforementioned food. Idea was vetoed after second lunch and sangria.

Upcoming plans include Canada's wonderland, Jays/red sox baseball game, wine tour of niagra and plenty more eating. swiss chalet is next on the list.

In other news, I'm aiming to have a daily nap in preparation for the latin american siesta. Go hard until 3pm, nap and then gear up for the evening. Birthday dinner and drinks tomorrow plus the arrival of Julian and Mel. We plan to give it a good nudge. Have spotted KFC for next day recovery. Stay tuned: next blog post by the Mit.

Home Sweet Home

Who says you can't go home? We just did. As of yesterday we both now reside in the burbs for 3 days until we skip the country completely. Now the frantic last minute sorting out of one's life begins. Wish us luck.

The Countdown Begins...

With only 2 weeks to go the travel blog has been created. Packing starts tonight and seems like a massively impossible feat. V Australia calls and cancels our direct flight to LA. We contemplate flying a whole day earlier. Freaking out about leaving Sydney enough as it is, can't imagine doing it earlier than planned. Although the whole point of this trip is to roll with the punches...

Hmm need more practice writing in full sentences. These days my brain works only in facebook status updates and Twitter marketing. How's this for a first post?