Andy's Adventures

Pi$$ed in Puno & a Not-So-Healthy Entrance to Bolivia

2008-07-30T18:39:00.003+12:00

One of the great things about travelling in a group is that there is a fair amount of birthday celebrations. Our return from Lake Titicaca coincided with the birthday of Biscuit (her real name is Vicki and its a long-ish story for another day), so our guide Kike arranged a spot at a local bar and we hit it with a vengeance. A spot had been put aside for us in the bar and decorated with streamers and balloons, and there was even a cake for Biscuit. Kike kept feeding us with tequila, and as a result everyone had a good time. Simon, Sam and I all pitched in to give Biscuit a special birthday present from the three of us - a lovely striptease and lapdance for the lucky birthday girl. I can confirm that video footage and photos exist, but they shall remain safely stored away in a vault! In the end it was a particularly big night for me, and I really should have taken the hint from the Jenga blocks cascading over at the bar that maybe I had imbibed too much.

As with all alcoholic overindulgence, the real price is paid the next day. As so often with my drinking timing, it coincided with a travel day and a border crossing. I was in a particularly bad state today, with not only vomiting but also diarrhea. Couple that with the altitude, a bus-driver that wouldn't open the onboard toilet, and some of the roughest roads Bolivia could muster, and I wasn't in a great spot!

So it was in such a state that I crossed into Bolivia, and reached the highest capital city in the world, La Paz, at about 3.6km above sea level. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America. It sits on lots of natural resources but a combination of factors, including being landlocked and a lack of industry to refine those resources, means that Bolivia is in a poor economic state.

La Paz also signalled the end of our current part of the trip, i.e. Lima to La Paz, which meant that we were gaining some additions to our group, and losing one. That one wasn't a group member but our leader Kike who had lead us since Day 1 and had guided us through Ecuador and his native Peru. We were all very sad that Kike was leaving and he had become a big part of our everyday lives that it was going to be weird not having him and his cheekiness around.

I was laid up for a couple of days recovering from my big night in Puno so I didn't go into my usual tourist mode whilst in La Paz. There is also a fair bit of crime in the city so I was a bit dubious about taking my camera out and hence I don't have any snaps of La Paz. You're all not missing much though, although in retrospect I wish I had taken some pictures for my own memories. One unfortunate thing about recovering was that I missed the bike ride down the world's most dangerous road. Well that could be a fortunate thing in the eyes of some of my family members, especially Mum. I understand that the road isn't used now other than for tourists hooning down on their bikes, but in its "heyday" there were many cars, trucks and buses dropping over the side, which I understand was a big drop!

I mostly caught up on admin things whilst in La Paz. I caught up on emails, uploaded photos, got photos put on CDs buying a new diary to replace my already filled 1B5 textbook, and checked out the markets in the local vicinity. One particular market excursion was with a new couple that had joined our group, Amit and Nisha. Amit and Nisha are from Manchester and are both pharmacists. They had just finished a trip through Peru and then dashed down to Rio de Janeiro while they waited for this leg of our tour to start. Some of the markets had some great cheap clothing, electronics, DVDs, and weird items like llama foeti. Random! Probably my best pick up was a portable DVD player that came in handy during my recuperation/lazy phase in La Paz.

Our second night in La Paz was spent farewelling Kike at a place called Mongos, and welcoming our new guide, Hugo from Argentina. As I said it was sad to farewell Senor Munoz, but Hugo had beers for us all so that went some way to making us feel better! Hugo loves Che Guevara, and to be honest he looks like him too! Our other additions were a couple of Canadians (Chris from Toronto, so I had to hit him up about that due to the fact I was heading there after my travels to try and find a job, and Benoit a crazy French-Canadian doctor), and two Poms (Sean from Norwich who had been shouted the trip for his 50th birthday, and Sue who spoke fluent Spanish and had been travelling around on her own steam for a while). Needless to say there was the usual bonding session over a few drinks and they all fit in really well.

Our group was now at full strength, and after another night in La Paz we headed off to Sucre via a place in the middle of nowhere called Cochabamba. This was just a place to stop and really isn't much to talk about. Probably the highlight for most of the group was a chance to have a feed of Burger King, as well as catch up on some sleep. We were into Cochabamba over a weekend so there really wasn't much on. One funny thing to come out of Cochabamba was that we spent about one hour trying to hail three taxis to get to a restaurant on the other side of town. It was ridiculous, then to make matters worse the taxi drivers took us to the wrong address, but somehow we managed to find the right place in the end!

So other than some good new additions to our group, the start to the trek through Bolivia hasn't really started off all that magnificently. Still there's a lot more to go, and plenty of things to see and do ahead which should make up for the lacklustre start.

Personal Grooming

2008-07-30T18:30:00.002+12:00

Some of the more observant among my readers will have noticed that the most unemployed part of my toilet bag would have to be my razor. As a result of laziness and a "just cause I can" attitude, I managed to grow a reasonably bushy beard over the last few weeks of travelling. It has been great not having to shave, but after a while the beard gets a little annoying, especially when it starts to get all messy, food (and vomit on the odd occasion) gets caught in it, it gets itchy, and it's not so good in the warmer climes. Since I was mostly bearded when my tour started, none of my group really knew what I looked like without a beard. I decided to give them a taste of the real Andy and clip most of the beard off to leave a handle-bar moustache. I had last grown one in November 2006 as part of Movember and was quite keen to sport one for a few weeks. So without further adieu, here are some before and after snaps. Enjoy.

Lake Titicaca (giggle, hehehehe) - Part 2

2008-05-25T07:30:00.007+12:00

For some reason I couldn't insert any more pictures in the last post. So here are the remainder of the pictures, in a really weird order cause Blogspot is screwed up and won't let me move them!

Lake Titicaca (giggle, hehehehe) - Part 1

2008-05-18T14:03:00.010+12:00

A bright, sunny day welcomed us today for our trip out onto Lake Titicaca and our overnight homestay at Amantani Island. At 3.8km above sea level it is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world and is also the largest lake in South America. We were picked up by the tour company (who were taking us on our trip out on the Lake) in these little rickshaw-like carts. It was a lot of fun being whisked through the narrow streets of Puno, dodging cars and pedestrians, down to the wharf to catch our boat.

The boat ride out to our first destination, Taquile Island, took around about 3 hours and we spent most of it enjoying the rather fresh breeze over the lake, and taking in some sunshine. Our guide for our trip was a man by the name of Juber, although we nicknamed him "Papa Surf" cause he had a hat like Papa Surf wore in the cartoon. I didn't get any pictures unfortunately. The island itself is rather small but it was nice to see the local village, sample some cuisine, and check out the views from the top of the island. One of the funniest things here was these little girls that looked like nuns, as they have these long black head shawls, with tassles at the end. We called them "Evil Nuns" cause they would just swarm you and try to sell you local crafts and textiles. I am not a craft fan at the best of times, so I was a little short with them and made a dash into the cute little local church for sanctuary. Some locals were replacing statues of the Holy Family that they had taken out for recent Easter parades, as is the custom all over Latin America.

After spending a few hours walking around the island, we hopped back onto our boat for the 1 hour journey to Amantani Island and our overnight homestay. There was just a hint of anxiety amongst the group as to what we would experience and the conditions we might have to endure. We were all split up into groups of two for and were randomly "assigned" to a local family to stay with. Prior to our departure from Puno we had a big shopping expedition where we bought items for the family we were to stay with. Mostly it was things that were difficult to get on the island, like pasta, rice, and fresh fruit and veges. Good healthy stuff too. As was the tradition, Simon and I once again were roommates! We went to stay with a girl called Nancy and her family. I couldn't quite work out the definite relationships of the people that were living in the house we stayed at, but I think there were Nancy, her three sisters, Nancy's nephew and niece, Nancy's mother, and her grandfather. Because there are not many economic activities on the island, most of the men go to Puno or further afield to work. Others leave for more selfish reasons, ie getting a girl pregnant and then skipping off. As a result there was a distinct lack of working age men on the island. Chaco, Nancy's nephew, was this cool little four year old kid. We started to play soccer with him, but the game quickly turned to volleyball as he seemed to prefer this. The people on the island speak some Spanish, but mostly they speak Quechua, so the conversations were a little limited.

The island had electricity and running water, although the home we stayed in didn't have the power hooked up. The house was quaint and traditional. It was multi storey, but with various external doors so that the set up wasn't a normal flow through style we are used to. The house was built on three sides of a small court yard, the "kitchen/dining room" being on the opposite side of our room. I think Simon and I had Nancy's room, cause there were pictures of her on the wall. We felt bad for kicking her out! Almost forgot, the toilet was separate from the house also, and long drop styles, so it was back to basics!

We were all supposed to go for a walk up a nearby hill at the back of the village to see some ruins, but a soccer match against the locals put an end to that idea. The centre of the village has a large concrete area, roughly the size of a basketball court. It is surrounded on one long side by a terraced wall and on the opposite side by a long town hall. One end of the concrete area is bordered by small stores with homes on the top, the other end was open with a bank dropping away. It was in this concreted area that the battle commenced. As you can imagine, there was plenty of fetching of the ball from the end that wasn't closed in. The first game pitted Sam, Mitsi, Kike, Simon, two Canadian ring-ins, and I against some of the locals. We ended up winning 4-2 which was great, although we lost the next game by the same margin. Man those kids have some skils! The altitude was definitely a big factor as I was breathing like a fat man at times. A few other gringo sides challenged the locals but they were all soundly beaten. There must have been about 100 tourits that had descended on the village for the evening. The final game I was back on the pitch. Our random collection of nationalities played well in the very fading light. I had the dubious honour of being the goalie while it was almost pitch black. Needless to say, with my pitch black goalie skills, we lost on golden goal to a ball I had NO idea where it was coming from. It was all heaps of fun though, and a definitely random highlight of the whole trip.

The match had given us a big appetite so we all headed back to our respective "homes" for dinner. Simon and I had a "romantic" candlelight dinner in the small kitchen that consisted of a maize soup, and some vege-type main that I really can't describe. It was all really tasted though and we got waited on hands and feets. I felt a little embarrassed, but I guess they wanted to treat us as welcomed guests. After we were fed and watered, the family dressed us in local garb, complete with the standard beanies and ponchos, and then it was off for beers and a boogie in the village hall with the locals and bucketloads of gringos.

We had so much fun dancing around and drinking some Cusquenas (local beer). The local boys we had played against in the soccer match, had a band and were playing some traditional music that everyone danced to. I managed to get quite warm with the heavy wool poncho, and the hat, so it was a good excuse to have more than one or two beverages. Most of the other gringos stayed for a token dance and drink, but our group were there right to the end, with Simon and I the last ones, cause we were still drinking, at about 10pm. Sounds early I know, but when most houses don't have power/lights it's late. I guesss in NZ we are used to waking and sleeping when we want cause we have electricity, but in places like this the rise and fall of the sun dictates the pattern of life.

That night I had a great sleep, but was still a wee bit tired the next morning. Overnight I had to make a torch-lit trip to the outhouse after filling up on Cusquenas! We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes with Fanny jam (sounds gross, but it's the brand name!) and a few cups of coffee to wash it down. After saying our goodbyes and thanks to Nancy and her family, we got back on our boat to continue our visit around the Lake. Next stop was with at the famous Uros Islands, which are these amazing floating totora reed islands. Way back when, the local population was sick and tired of getting caught up amongst warring neighbours that they permamently upped sticks so to speak, and moved out on to the lake. Isla Tupiri was the particular island we stopped off at. It was funny walking on the reeds, that had some give but we all in all quite sturdy and well put together. The process works by just piling reeds upon reeds on top of each other. Every few years they put new reeds on top to further solidify the pile. Juber gave us a talk on how important the torota reeds were in Uros life, from the "ground" they walk on, to housing, to clothing, and even to food. I tasted one of the reeds and they weren't too bad. A bit like a tastier and sturdier celery! Merryn even got to try on some local garb, luckily I wasn't forced to. I found it hilarious though that the people lived in these reed huts, but had a solar panel that was hooked up to many appliances, including a stereo! Our brief visit was then topped off with a short reed canoe ride out on the lake. The catamaran type structure worried me a little, but it floated fine and got us back to "land" safely. Perhaps it was the Kermit the Frog looking figureheads!

After some initial apprehension from the group, we all ageed that the trip out to the islands, and particularly the homestay, was a lot of fun. Everyone enjoyed themselves, and I am sure we will take a lot out of the experience. I know I will. For a people who don't have much, the Amantanis really give a lot, and it was the least I could do to give them some money for my hat (as you can see in the photo with Nancy and in the other snaps). The whole experience, as with many similar experiences throughout the whole of South America, has made me conscious of how lucky I am to have the things I have.

Post Picchu and Puno

2008-05-18T13:32:00.003+12:00

Now that our Machu Picchu experience was over, it was time to head back to Cusco for a celebratory drink or two or three.... After a train journey from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo, we hopped into a minivan that took us the rest of the way to Cusco. We had managed to buy some Cusquena beer in Aguas Calientes and we began to consume that on the train/minivan journey back. I was so exhausted at one stage that I fell asleep with a newly opened beer in my hands. I was astounded to find that when I woke up, I was still holding the beer and hadn't spilled it! Needless to say, I downed it then and there.

The nap served me well as when we arrived in Cusco we hit the town with a vengeance. To cut a long story short we dressed up in what we called "free spirit pants" and the standard quechua style beanies (as you have seen me wearing in numerous pics) for the evening. The free spirit pants are all garish colours, made out of cotton, and are usually found on European hippies trapsing through Peru on some sort of existential journey. All in all we were taking the piss. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the oufits so I will have to bludge some off my companions and post them sometime.

The night was great fun, heaps of drinks, white-guy dancing and bad Spanish. A 5:30 morning ensued and was inevitably followed up with not waking till 2:30 in the afternoon! Tried to do some further sightseeing at that stage, but most places were shutting up by the time got all organised. It was a shame cause I missed seeing the Santo Domingo church and monastery, which is constructed over an older Incan temple. Our guide Kike said it was one of the must-see spots in Cusco. The Incan temple, the Temple of the Sun (or Koricancha in Quechua), was the holiest shrine in the Incan religion. It was pretty poor organisation from me as the church was right next door to our hotel. Oh well, I guess it's a good excuse to go back to Cusco again someday, as I would love to! Simon & I did manage to catch the Inca Museum which was interesting and gave a nice overall account of the rise (and fall) of the Incan empire and the Quechua people. It was mostly all familar as I had picked it up over my many visits to museums throughout Peru, but it was nice to bring it all together. The rich history of Peru, especially the Incan and Conquista, fascinates me and it is one of the major things I will take out of my time in Peru.

Next stop on the tour was Puno in southern Peru. Puno is on the shore of Lake Titicaca, which is the area from where the Incas originated. Puno is the main stop off point for people heading off to see the famous floating reed islands and spend the night at homestays with native families on some of the normal-earth based islands! Puno itself is a bit of a hole, but not quite at the level of Pisco and Nazca. The first day "in" Puno was spent mostly on bus travel from Cusco, which took 7 hours, and an early night as the next day entailed a 8am start to head out on the Lake.

Magical Machu Picchu

2007-12-30T13:17:00.000+13:00

Not even a 5am wake up could contain the group's excitement about getting back up to explore Machu Picchu with our guide Miguel. After jumping on the "Bus of Shame" we arrived at the ruins to see it clouded in, which gave it a mystical and magical feeling as we walked through the ruins with the clouds enveloping us. Already at about 6:30am there was a large number of tourists already at the site, and we were told that the numbers would keep increasing. The reason for the early start was to get up there and have our tour around before the hordes arrived.

Miguel gave us an initial 30 minute talk at a spot overlooking the ruins. He spoke of the history of the place and the significance in Incan culture (both of which there are many theories on), the fact that the Spanish conquistadores never found it high in the hills, and the "discovery" in 1911 by Hiram Bingham an American academic/explorerer (Think Indiana Jones). An interesting note here is that when Bingham stumbled across the ruins, they were covered in vegetation and a local farmer was grazing stock on the slopes! The locals clearly hadn't forgotten about the place.

Our tour of the ruins took about 2.5 hours, during which the clouds burned off to bathe the site in sunlight. By the end of Miguel's tour I had definitely noticed that the numbers of tourists had increased rapidly. The main points of interest we took in were the Intihuatana ("hitching post of the sun"), the Temple of the Sun (the only round building at Machu Picchu), the Temple of the Condor, the Room of the Three Windows, the Royal Tomb, the king/lord's house (including his toilet) and the Water Fountain. To be fair I heard so much information on the places that we stopped at that it was hard to take it in. Not only were there the major stops, but all around us were residential houses, agricultural terraces, plazas, stairs, along with a few local llamas.

As with a lot of Incan construction they integrated their buildings into the surrounding rock. A prime example at Machu Picchu is the Temple of the Condor. Hopefully the photos below show how this has been achieved with the rock on the floor representing the head and beak of the condor, and the rock at the back representing the wings of the condor.

Without creating too much work for myself and typing out all the facts, details and figures on Machcu Picchu any old Google search will turn up a wealth of knowledge and info on the ruins. So if you want to know more I encourage you to do so. There are many varying theories of why it was built and what is was for so far be it from me to add to those. Personally though, for whatever rhyme or reason for building the place, it was an inspiring site. The journey there was exciting, trudging along the Inca trail with the goal of Machu Picchu at the end, but being there was amazing. It is hard to express in words how impressive the city is, surrounded by hills and clouds. No wonder that it is now one of the new 7 Wonders of the World!

Our tour finished at about 9:30, so we were then free to explore the ruins for as long as we wanted. Simon, Mitzi and Sam decided to climb up Huayna Picchu, which is the hill you see in all the pictures of Huayna Picchu. Apparently it takes about 45 minutes to climb to the top - they blitzed it in 22! After three days of sweatiness, trekking and being surrounded by people, I decided to stay nice and clean, comfy, and headed off for some contemplation and quiet time away from everyone. It was great to wander through the ruins on my own, and I found a nice spot to sit and enjoy my own company while overlooking the site. I also headed off to an old Incan bridge that was about 10 minutes away from the main ruins. You used to be able to walk across the bridge, but due to a fatality a few years ago it's now off limits.

By the time I had wandered back from the bridge and the others had returned from their Huayna Picchu expedition, the amount of tourists had grown to an annoying level, especially the loud and milling about types who are the prime candidates to take the train to Machu Picchu. We decided to jump back on the bus down to Aguas Calientes and unfortunately end our Inca Trail and Machu Picchu experience...

...an experience I will never forget.

The Inca Trail - Day 3

2007-12-23T11:07:00.000+13:00

An 8 hour hiking day beckoned us today as the group decided to take Plan B. Most people who walk the Inca Trail take four days to reach Macchu Picchu, as they camp at Winaywayna on the third night, get up at the crack of dawn (she must be a skanky lady cause she gets a lot of that...sorry bad joke), and stumble around in the dark with torches to get to the Sun Gate ("Intipunku" in Quechua) and watch the sun rise over Macchu Picchu. Miguel, our guide, said that it is normally clouded over so you don't see jack. So in our collective wisdom we ditched Plan A in favour of Plan B. In a nutshell, Plan B was to trek all the way to the Sun Gate from our second night campsite and arrive at Macchu Picchu in early afternoon to a guaranteed view of the ruins. The bonus was that we got to spend the afternoon at Macchu Picchu and as long as we wanted the next day, we could sleep inside (albeit on the second floor of a restaurant!), and hit the hot pools at Aguas Calientes to ease our aching joints.

Although a long day of trekking, the journey wasn't too arduous in an upwards sense. We climbed up to the third and final pass of the trail at Phuyupatamarca and along the way visited the ruins of the same name. Next followed about 4,000 Incan steps (accoring to the experts who I assume have counted them all...) down towards Winaywayna. Trudging downhill got pretty tiring after a while and all I wanted to do was arrive at the next stop. The old knees started to take a pounding and it was again that the sticks we bought on Day 1 came into play. Following the steps was a seemingly neverending downwards zig-zagging path that felt like it went on for hours. Finally we arrived at Winaywayna in time for lunch - a hearty feed of papas fritas (fries) and beef patties. I also splashed out on a bit of civilisation at this stage as I bought a coke and some popcorn which was a delght to the culinary senses.

Following lunch and a brief visit to the nearby ruins (see photo below), we headed off for the leg to the Sun Gate. The morale of the group was pretty high as we wereall excited about finally getting a glimpse of the magical Macchu Picchu (and cause we had full bellies!). Most of the trek to the Sun Gate was flat aside from a brief, and in my case, extremely sweaty, ascent at the end. As a Kiwi and keen for a Hillary-esque moment I was the first one of the group to arrive, and stepping out from behind the Sun Gate I had the first view of Macchu Picchu. I was buzzing out, and when the site came into view I couldn't believe that I was finally here.

The view was amazing as the ruins were bathed in sunshine. Cecile and Merryn were the next to show up and after getting some photos taken by a kind stranger we waited for the remainder of the group to arrive. Needless to say everyone was pretty excited and after a lot more photos (both for us and on behalf of other groups) we picked up our feet and headed down the mountain towards the jewel in the Inca Trail crown.

Upon arrival at the site we hung mostly around the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funeral Rock. I sat there just taking in the ruins and still feeling rather surreal that I was there. It was mid/late afternoon when we arrived so there weren't too many tourists around the ruins which allowed us to breath them in without too much distraction. Our big in depth tour of the city was due to take place the next day so after hanging around the hut for an hour and taking some photos we headed down the hill to Aguas Calientes.

The descent was more stairs, much to our chagrin. At the bottom Cecile, Simon and posed for the compulsory exit shot to balance up the entrance shot. The total trip down took about an hour and a half later when we arrived at Aguas Calientes a little grumpy (cause of the stairs), tired and stinky. Nothing a trip to the hot pools didn't solve (although the stinky part is still debatable). The main pool smelt like urine but we wisely spent our time in some of the smaller hot pools that had sandy/gravelly bottoms. It was a weird feeling and I wondered why the water didn't seep away. Fluid physics has never been my strong point. Our accomodation, as mentioned earlier, was on the second floor of an Italian restaurant (complete with little ginger kitten scrounging for food), although the porters still fired up their cookers out the back and served us a tasty feed. After dinner we said our thanks to the cooks, porters, and assistant guide, Gato (who was really called Sergio), as they were leaving us. We managed to rustle up some cash for tips and they probably headed off to blow it all at the pub. Bedtime clocked in at 10pm as we were due to get up at 5am the next morning to catch the bus back up to Macchu Picchu for our tour and day at the ruins.

The Inca Trail - Day 2

2007-08-20T08:13:00.000+12:00

The sun shone bright and early as we awoke at 6:30am to tackle the toughest day on the Trail, the ascent up to Warmiwanuska or "Dead Woman's Pass". From our campsite it was a 900 metre change in altitude to the Pass, and we set out an hour after rising on a breakfast full of pancakes. Miguel said that it would take about 3 hours to get to the top of the Pass, so no one was really looking forward to the ascent. We could see the Pass from our campsite, it looked little in the distance, and someone made a joke about hiring a helicopter. Before breaking camp we had a group photo, which you can see below was more like a small army.

The ascent up to the Pass was fairly steep and consisted of quite a lot of steps as well as inclines. What made it worse was that the sun decided to shine brighter, and the sweating episode that occurred on the previous day was about a million times worse. But as tough as it sounded the ascent was a lot of fun, with great views, a few strategic stops, heaps of water taken in through the mouth, and promptly lost through the pores, as well as some singing when breath allowed. I can't believe that I voluntarily sung "Mambo No 5" but anything that took the mind off the climb was welcome. The body held up superbly and as the Pass came into sight the adrenalin started to kick in and the pace intensified. No big problems with the altitude, although I put that down to the coca leaves I was putting back at regular intervals.

Just a quick note about Dead Woman's Pass. You can see from the photo below probably why it is called so. It's a dead woman lying down and this picture shows her breast, with the actual Pass just underneath her breast! The Pass is at 4.2 km above sea level and the view from the top is amazing. We managed to prove Miguel wrong by getting up there in 1 hour 40 minutes, and I was so pumped I even ran the last 40 metres or so. Simon and I were first up, closely followed by Sam, then Merryn and Mitzi. Actually we passed some of our porters on the way up, but I suppose they were carrying 40kgs worth of stuff!

The view from the top was amazing. The first two photos below shows the view back down towards our first campsite, where you can make out tents. The third photo looks out across the valley on the other side of the Pass. The fourth shows Merryn, Simon, Mitzi, myself and Sam with well rested lungs.

We rested for an hour before we headed off down the other side. A few others of our group had turned up at that stage, but as Miguel had said at the start of the day, just rest and then keep on going down the other side of the Pass until we reached our lunch spot. In continuing our power walking episode Simon and I charged down the other side of the Pass and reached our lunch stop at Paqaymayo, which for some groups is their second night stop. We arrived way before the porters had even started setting things up, so we gave them a brief helping hand then we sunbathed for a while waiting for the others and lunch. I also had to hang my singlet out as it was drenched in sweat. Yummy!

Following another hearty lunch and self-applied sponge bath, it was back on the Trail and up towards the ruin of Runkuraqay and the high pass above it. The altitude differential was only about 400 metres from where we had lunch so the climb wasn't as tough as the one up Dead Woman's Pass. The clouds began to roll in and it cooled down so I welcomed the relief from the sweat. Runkuraqay was an interesting ruin. It is designed in the shape of a moon and the Inca and his queen(s) would stay there on their journeys to Macchu Picchu apparently. It also housed runners who were part of the Incan message chain that existed along the highways of the empire. The Pass was a little higher than the ruin, and going down the other side consisted of quite a steep downhill leg and stairs.

Just before we hit our second night campsite of Chakiqocha, Miguel, Simon, Sam and I checked out the ruin of the fortress/temple of Sayacmarca. The others headed on to the campsite but we pottered around at the ruin for an hour while Miguel spoke about its significance. The fortress was cool as it sat on a promontory that jutted out into the valley. Clouds hugged the ruin and shrouded it at times from the rest of the valley. I liked the idea of Incan soldiers posted up here and living their lives awaiting prominent visitors and royalty to pass by, while the clouds rolled in and out.

Our second night campsite wasn't too far from Sarcamarca and we arrived there at about 4pm to find tents erected, warm water waiting, and the girls sunning themselves. The view from the campsite was amazing, which wasn't a surprise as the rest of the Trail was superb and I expected nothing less. It was so peaceful to stand and look at the snow covered mountains, and imagine life up here in a much less modern time.

I think I was pretty wasted from the day's efforts, and not to mention that I sweated out heaps of water, as I got a migraine at dinner and hit the hay at 7:30pm! The group joked that I was having coca leaf withdrawals as I hadn't had any since lunchtime - there was probably an element of truth in that!

The Inca Trail - Day 1

2007-08-20T06:38:00.000+12:00

After spending just over a month in South America, the time had arrived to tackle the highlight of the trip - the Inca Trail. Numerous runs and gym sessions prior to my departure had been aimed at helping get me through this part of the journey. I hadn't been on a trek since high school, but with my excellent state of physical fitness I was confident I could handle the rigors of the Trail.

For those of you who are unaware of the existance of the Inca Trail, just a quick summary (and for those who do a refresher). At it's full extent the Inca Empire stretched from roughly Northern Ecuador to Santiago to Chile. Bordered on one side by the mighty Pacific Ocean and the other by the imposing Andes, the Incan empire was spread lengthwise down the continent. An extensive series of highways, along with stops for messagers and all the associated appartus of administering an empire, was the fastest way to get around. At its height, the Incan empire only lastest 100 years. From 1438 - 1532 the Incans were the dominate culture in this area of South America, until they were boldly and ruthlessly conquered by literally a hand full of Spanish conquistadores (an absolutely fascinating story - but more about that later). The fact that the Incan empire only latest for a century is a testament to the prodigious public works that the Incans built. The series of highways being one example, with numerous citadels and religious sites being another. These are often perched high in the mountains and were constructed out of solid stone with bare hands, no wheels, llamas, and definitely no dynamite. Incan architecture is amazing, especially the joins in big slabs of stone, which fit perfectly and look completely natural. Bear in mind too that they didn't have iron or steel tools.

What is traditionally known as The Inca Trail is a stretch of trail running from near Ollantaytambo in the Urubamba Valley, and finishes at Macchu Picchu high in the mountains above the town of present day Aguas Calientes. The majority of the tourist trail follows the original Inca earth and stoneworks, including two llama width "paved" roads, and thousands of stone steps placed on hillsides. According to our guide Miguel, the proper trail should start just outside of Cuzco and run all the way to Macchu Picchu, but that would have added about another 15 days to the trek!

An 8am start to the day and a brief van trip to a place known as Km 82 marked the start of our Inca Trail trek. Not long after getting out of the van we were mugged by a whole lot of old ladies selling walking sticks for 3 soles (about NZ$1.30) - a bit expensive but they were to prove invaluable over the coming few days. The sticks were made of bamboo and had nicely woven handlke covers in traditional Quechua patterns. Just another quick history lession. People use Incas to refer to the people of the Incan Empire. However, this isn't quite correct. The Inca was the ruler of the people, and the common people were mostly Quechua and other cultures that the Incan Empire ruled - just like in the Roman or British Empires.

Once we had all bought sticks and negotiated our way through the old ladies we stopped to have our compulsory group photo at the Inca Trail sign. As you can see by the photo below there is a train track running in fron of us. This track runs to Aguas Calientes, and on the tracks people take the "Train of Shame" as we called it, to the town then take a bus up to the ruins. It was tempting at the start to just jump on the train and not have to trek 4 days! But I resisted and we shouted insults at the lazy people on the trains as they passed. Mostly fat Americans we assumed! You can also see the sticks we had in the photo.

After a walk along the train tracks and a quick rendition of "Stand By Me" (can anyone get the reference?) we arrived at the first of a number of checkpoints along the trail. A few years ago the Trail was a free for all, which inevitably caused heaps of problems with rubbish, overuse and crowding. So, the Peruvian government issued controls that only allowed 500 people to use the Trail each day. Contrast this with at times 2000 people using the Trail as I understand used to happen. As a result, we were allocated passes that allowed us to be on the trail for four days, including time at Maccu Picchu at the end.

After getting my passport checked I posed for the standard Englishman in the wilderness photo by the rope bridge crossing the Urumbamba River. As you can see below I had cultivated a fine beard to keep my face warm in the cold wilds of highest Peru!

Now is probably a good time to explain the magical qualities of coca leaves in the Inca Trail experience as at this point on the Trail our guide Miguel explained the role of coca in the Incan Empire. Coca was used extensively in the Incan Empire for religious and ceremonial reasons, among other functions. Primarily the royal and upper classes only had access to it, but as the Incan Empire and tradition broke down following the Conquest, the usage spread widely among the working and peasant classes. At its basic level it is the leaf of the plant that cocaine is made from. Whereas cocaine is made by refining the plant, coca leaves are simply just natural. The main benefit according to the locals and scientists is that it helps (somehow and I am not too sure of the processes) the body cope with altitude and give strength to carry out physical activity.

We left an offering of coca leaves on a rock just past the bridge, as a tribute to Pachamama, the Incan "Mother Earth". I am sure she appreciated it as the journey over the next few day was an amazing experience. Or maybe that was because of the coca leaves I used! Hahaha. Just to keep the worriers happy it's not hallucenigenic or a drug in the bad sense, or even illegal in Peru. What you do is wrap a few leaves up in a ball with a catalyst (using banana leaf ash) and place it under your tongue. There you leave it for about 20 minutes and then spit the stuff out. The theory goes that all the good stuff will dissolve into your body and give you an increase in energy. I was keen to test the theory over the coming days.

The morning we began the Trail it was overcast and a little rainy, which suited me just fine as it kept the sweating factor down to a minimum. Our porters head begun a we while before us, and up the road, but as they were carrying about 40 kgs each of our stuff it was not surprising we passed some of them on the way, but not for long! Mostly that was on the uphill legs, and even then we had these little dudes with these big backpacks (not like Macpac, but more like flour sacks with ropes around them) and wearing sandals fly past up on uphill legs. Downhill, they were always flying past us. Everyone has to have porters on the trail, and we had about 17 porters and cooks for the fifteen of us. We also had our guide, Miguel, and his assistant guide, Gato (well his real name was Enrique like our GAP guide but his nickname was Gato, which is cat in Espanol).

The porters would generally hoon off ahead and have our lunchsite or campsite all prepared and ready - even with individual bowls of warmed water to wash our hands and faces. Lunch on the first day was a three course meal, including dessert. So much for roughing it! They even set up a tent, with tables and chairs for us to sit out of the elements. From that you can get an idea of what they were carrying in total, plus our two man tents, 6kg of our personal gear allowance, their tents, food, and other equipment. Lunch was spent in a quiet valley with a small river through the middle, and looking up at the mountain in the background, I knew I was in Peru!

The sun eventually came out after lunch on the first day, but even with the overcast skies prior the sweat factor was rising on the back. That was probably the most uncomfortable thing for me throughout the whole trek, was the sweat that came pouring out of my body. Physically the Trail was fine, but I sweated more water out than I thought my body could even contain! Most of the walk on the first day was fairly straight forward, with a couple of calf burning uphill segments. Great for the physique. Along the way we passed by a few Incan ruins, the most notable being Llactapata in the valley below our first climb for the day.

On the way to our first campsite for the night we passed by a spot with a beautiful view of Mt Veronika, one of the major mountains in the vicintity that was one of two revered by the Inca. The campsite was further than the normal first day campsite as we were trying to get through the Trail in three days instead of four. Usually people do it in four days and on the fourth day race to the Sun Gate in the dark to see the sunrise over Macchu Picchu. However our guide said that each time he had done that this year (and he does it every week) it was cloudy and Macchu Picchu couldn't be seen. So we were working on the basis that we would get to Macchu Picchu on the afternoon of the third day, spend the afternoon there, sleep in Aguas Calientes, then come back up to Macchu Picchu again on the fourth day for more time at the ruin and our official guided tour of the citadel.

Campsite was reached at about 5pm as the clouds started to roll in. The location of our camp was at Yunkachimpa and had a beautiful view across the valley to an imposing mountain called Casamientuyoc. After changing out of sweaty clothes, washing the hands, face and upper body with warm water we had hot chocolate and biscuits. Dinner was a three course meal, with a dessert of chocolate pudding. After finishing my dessert everone else was full so I had another 6 or so chocolate puds. Yum. The campsite was at about 3300m above see level and the next day we were heading straight up to 4200m so I needed all the energy I could get. After checking out the beautiful stars following dinner it was time to hit the hay and rest up for our big day coming up.

Slack & Lazy

2007-07-04T08:23:00.000+12:00

Hi All

As you may have noticed its been quite a substantial time since my last post. All I can say is I am slack and lazy! At least I was busy enjoying my South American adventure. Now that I am in one place for an extended period of time (in Toronto, Canada for those who don't know) I can give my blog the attention it deserves again!

So stay tuned and find out about the rest of my travels!

See ya
Andy

Wassup Cuz(co) & The Sacred Valley

2007-05-10T10:11:00.000+12:00

From Colca Canyon we returned to Arequipa for a few days over before flying out in the very early hours of the morning to Cuzco. The flight took about half an hour and was chocca block of gringos heading off to do the Inca Trail and view the delights of Macchu Picchu. Needless to say the early morning start meant a great big appetite so the first thing we did upon arrival in Cuzco was to grab a stunningly delicious full English breakfast. The bacon tasted wonderful and a nice side of mushrooms did wonders.

Our rooms at the hostel weren´t ready as it was so early, about 9am, so I decided to explore the town centre. The Cathedral is the main dominanting feature in the Plaza de Armas. Built in the 1700s it is flanked by the oldest church in Cuzco (from the 1500s) and another from the 18th century. One of the interesting highlights in this beautiful cathedral is a painting of the Last Supper with a cuy (guinea pig) in place of bread. I love it how the South Americans add their little touch. Someone told me later on that the face of Judas was also based on a likeness of Pizarro (of Incan conquest fame)! I spent most of my morning in the Cathedral and the two churches so I was pretty knackered and ready for a brief afternoon kip back at the hotel.

The Cathedral

Plaza de Armas

"Gringo Alley" - where the vendors mob you to buy junk

The next day we headed off from Cuzco to the Sacred Valley. This marks the start of the Inca Trail and Maccu Picchu experience. The first stop in the valley was an Andean farm where I bought myself a stock standard Andean hat. Some of you have probably seen them, they look like beanies and have tassles. After that we arrived at Pisac which is like a mini Macchu Picchu. I really enjoyed this site and felt that if Macchu Picchu was even twice as good as Pisac then the trip would be worthwhile.

A woolly alpaca

The entrance to the Sacred Valley

The walls of Pisac

Some of the agricultural terraces at Pisac

A gate at Pisac which could be locked

Some of the crew climbing stairs at Pisac in prep for the Inca Trail

The crew posing on some ruins at Pisac

The ruins of the plebs' houses at Pisac

Religious ruins at Pisac

Typical Incan architecture, especially the window lintels

Following Pisac we travelled to Ollantaytambo which was to be our stopover for the evening before we started the Inca Trail the next day. Ollantytambo provided a religious function for the Incans as well as being a fortress. It´s the only place that Inca´s defeated the Spanish in a major battle, but eventually the Incans retreated and the rest is history. The fortress is designed in the shape of a llama and it was very interesting to see the big hill across the side of the valley where the stone blocks for the construction of the fortress were quarried out and dragged across to the building side.

After a long day it was early to bed in preparation for our 8am start of the Inca Trail and for many of the group the major reason for coming to Peru, if not South America.

Colca Canyon

2007-05-10T08:21:00.000+12:00

After a big night on the Mojitos the night before it was a tough start to the day for the 4-5 hour drive out to the Colca Canyon, home to the mighty Andean Condor. Along the way, we stopped off at a point that was 4.9km above sea level, so the breath was quite short and it left many of us puffing like fat men. I slept most of the way due to the previous night´s festivities, so it was on the one hand a quick journey but painful on the other hand.

The marker stone at 4900 metres asl:

Colca Canyon is quite high and the spot where we stayed was about 4km above sea level. Being up this high for three days is good acclimatisation for the Inca Trail that was to follow. The main highlights in Colca was the hot pools, which was completely dominated by gringos, and obviously the condors.

The best condor spotting point was near a point in the canyon that has about a 3.5km drop to the bottom, so it was best not to slip off the edge. It only took us about 20 minutes of waiting till we glimpsed our first condor. These birds are massive and also quite beautiful with their white wings with black tips. If my memory serves me correctly the wing span of an average adult male condor is about 3 metres - so they are huge. We saw a wide variety of condors in the hour we were there and I got plenty of photo ops.

"Como se llama?" (haha) - Simon the llama botherer (Actually I think it's an alpaca!)

Looking out over Yanque from our hotel:

A couple of condors in flight:

A stone cross marks the Crux del Condor, from where we viewed these magnificient birds:

An ass-licking (haha):

Watch the edge kiddies, it's a long way down:

All up we had three days in Colca Canyon. I would have preferred to get back to Arequipa for another day, but as mentioned above it was great to acclimatise at a high altitude.

Architectural Arequipa

2007-04-21T05:00:00.000+12:00

Another bloody night bus took us to the second largest city in Peru, named Arequipa. The city is also the hometown of our guide Kike so he was talking the place up big time. Our rooms weren´t ready at the hostel, as we arrived in Arequipa at about 8:30am so we headed in to town to scope out some local sights.

Arequipa is known as the "White City" due to the copious amounts of white volcanic rock used in the construction of the city´s buildings. It also doesn´t have lots of high buildings due to earthquakes, a bit like Napier really. A big difference is that Arequipa is surrounded by three big volcanoes, Picchu Picchu, Misti and Chanchani.

The first tourist site we hit was the museum dedicated to a Incan mummy found on one of the many volcanoes in the Arequipa region (in addition to the three named above). The scientist that found her body named her "Juanita". Unfortunately the lovely dessicated girl wasn´t on show between January and April, so we saw another mummy named "Serita". She was a rare Incan sacrifice (they weren´t really into it, unlike the central American Mayans) to most probably appease Inti (the Incan Sun God) following a big eruption or earthquake. The girl was raised for the express purpose and was probably about 14 or 15 at her death. She followed the shamans up the mountain where she got wasted on chicha, a local maize booze, and then a swift blow to the left temple finished the job. Afterwards the body was placed in a tomb on the mountain and a stone circle placed around the top to mark the grave. It was an honour for her as it meant she was close to the gods and could speak to them on behalf of her people. Incans didn´t practice human sacrifice as a matter of course, although there have been about a dozen of these mummies uncovered on the local volcanoes.

The afternoon in Arequipa was failry chilled out, and after an unfortunately big night on mojitos it meant that the trip to Colca Canyon the next day for our condor spotting excursion was unbearable. But that´s a story for another day.

The Plaza de Armas in the centre of Arequipa:

The front of the Cathedral which is only half finished - this is supposed to be the side entrance:

Pisco & Nazca

2007-04-21T04:35:00.000+12:00

For those of you not familiar with South America (which is probably most of you) these two regions are known for their booze and crazy desert lines respectively. One wonders whether one influenced the other!

We spent a night just south of Pisco on the Paracas Peninsula. Pisco itself is a whole, but the region is famous for making a particular type of brandy wine. Its not all that great by itself, but mixed with egg white and lemon, it tastes okay as a Pisco Sour. Got a bottle but still haven´t touched it yet! From Paracas we took a boat out to the Ballestas Islands, which are a poor man´s Galapagos. The islands produce heaps of guano, which is exported around the globe for fertiliser. We saw lots of sealions, Humboldt penguins, and heaps boobies. Boobies are a type of seabird so don´t be rude! On the edge of the peninsula is a candelabra shaped picture carved into the rock, which no one really knows who created it, why they did, or how they did. Some scientists reckon it has some relation to the lines at Nazca (see below) but I don´t think the Nazcans knew what a candlelabra looked like.

After Pisco, we headed to Nazca to take in the world reknown Nazca Lines. For those who haven´t seen these they can be summed up as a whole heap of pictures carved into the desert. When I post some pictures, you´ll get a better idea. I didn´t think too much about who put them there, why they were there, how they got there, etc and just took them as they were. They were interesting to see from the air and another thing to tick off the South American list. Whether it´s strictly legal or not, I got to fly the plane for a few minutes, which can´t have been a bad thing cause we all made it back alive.

Following the flight over the lines we checked out a local necropolis which housed a whole heap of mummies from a pre-Nazca culture. Archeaologists have uncovered a number of undisturbed mummies that are housed in museum in Lima, but the ones on display in the tombs are mostly those that had been found on the surface as they had been disturbed by the ever present South American graverobber (although in this case not by the greedy Spanish conquistador variety). No photos of the tombed mummies in keeping with my respect for the dead theme, although I did get some snaps of the mummies in the nearby museum. It´s a thin line I know.

Now that I have ticked Pisco and Nazca off my list I don´t think I will need to come back to this part of the world. Nazca is even more of a dustbowl hole than that of Pisco, although the redeeming feature of Nazca was that the restaurant we went to for dinner did a delicious lomo saltado (in beef not yucky alpaca) which is a local speciality. It pretty much looks like beef in black sauce as you would cook Chinese style, with some peppers and onions thrown in for good measure.

Living It Up In Lima

2007-04-21T03:56:00.000+12:00

Another night bus journey (with some obvious trepidation from the group) took us to Lima, the capital of Peru. I had heard from a number of sources, both written and oral, that Lima was particularly dodgy, but at no stage did I feel out of my depth or stalked by crims.

Our hostel was located in Barranco, which is a nice seaside suburb south of the centre of town. When I say seaside I mean on cliffs by the sea, but the view was nice nonetheless and there were plenty of sweet looking apartments that wouldn´t have looked out of place at the Viaduct in Auckland or Oriental Parade in Welly.

As per usual the day after a night bus is a bit of a write off for me and today there was no exception. After a nice nap Simon and I checked out the local neighbourhood and grabbed a bite to eat. The evening we spent at a restaurant in a seaside (read once again cliffside) mall with great views of the Pacific Ocean. Following dinner we headed to a bowling alley decked out in fluro and an alien theme. Good times and a few beverages helped to loosen up the bowling arm!

However, the day didn´t come without cost! Simon and I were taking a few B&W photos of some of the antiques in our hotel when I tried to pull a golf club out of a golf bag with my camera still in my hand, and ther cord not around my wrist. Murphy´s Law dictates that my camera gets dropped, goes smashing to the floor, and the lens is well and truly buggered. So the next day the first port of call was to buy a replacement camera, and an expense I could have done without but hopefully insurance will cover it.

Post camera shopping, our guide Kike took us to a market in central Lima called Polves Azules (literally Blue Dust in Ingles). This place was stocked wityh heaps of electronic goods, DVDs, CDs, etc. We went to this one DVD store and bought a total of 160 DVDs for US$160. Great bargain. Some of my purchases were Blood Diamond, The Departed, 300 (which I then proceeded to go see at the cinema that night - I bought it cause it was cheap), Apocalypto, The Good Shepherd and The Last King of Scotland. Some of the girls bought all the series of Friends, and you could get the same for a whole raft of series (eg The Simpsons, Family Guy, etc). A great place and if ever I am back in Lima I will head along with much more space to spare in my backpack!

Out third day in Lima was spent sightseeing and doing the typical tourist thing. We stopped first at the Plaza de Armas to scope out the changing of the Presidential Palace guard. A nice building, with colourful soldiers (who had terrible marching!) in funny Napoleonic hats, but I couldn´t help thinking it´s a poor imitation of the one at Buckingham Palace. Also of fame in the Plaza is the Cathedral which houses the body of Francisco Pizarro, with his head in another coffin. He was the head honcho Conquistadore until he was murdered in Lima by the son of a rival he had executed. Fair enough I suppose.

After the Plaza we walked around the corner to the Monastery of San Francisco. This Franciscan monastery was built in the 16th century and it was wonderful wandering the cloisters and seeing the beautiful artwork adorning the ceilings. Beneath the monastery is catacombs that housed copious skeletons from those people who died in Lima up until the 18th century. Some of the bones are arrange in neat patterns, eg femurs spread out into a big circle. I didn´t feel right taking photos of people´s graves/bones so no pictures to satisy those of you with morbid curiousity. I really enjoyed the monastery as it fit in nicely with a favourite book of mine called The Name of the Rose, which in summary is a murder mystery novel set in a monastery in the 13th century.

In the afternoon Simon, Mitzi, and I took a taxi a long way out of downtown Lima (as suggested by Kike) to the Museo de Archeaolgica y Anthropoligica. This was a nifty museum that traced Peruvian history from Chavin de Huantar (about 1500 years pre JC) all the way through to contemporary Peru. The Chimbu and Moche (of Chan Chan and Temple of the Moon fame respectively) made an appearance. So too did my favourite period of Peruvian history, the Incas and the Conquest.

That evening after a really disgusting pizza, a further disappointment in Peruvian cuisine, we headed to an all you can drink bar to party it up for our last night in Lima. We all had a great time, and after some dancing with the local ladies (its quite hard to keep up the pace!) you can work up a bit of a sweat. No worries, out comes a big bucket of foam which procedes to dump constant foam on the dancefloor for about 30 minutes. Needless to say I was straight in to cool off!

Apart from the camera experience, I had an enjoyable time in Lima and I think it would be somewhere I would return to to check out a few things I never got around to doing.

Trip To Trujillo & Hanging In Huanchaco

2007-04-14T10:59:00.000+12:00

We were all very sad to leave lovely Mancora, and it was made even worse by the fact that we were catching a night bus to Trujillo. The main benefit is that you can sleep for the majority of the trip and next thing you know you are at your destination. The main downer is that thieves are rampant as our group found out.

Two of our Aussie girls had stuff stolen from their daypacks (makes a change from the convict Aussies stealing stuff), namely a passport, a credit card, a camera and an MP3 player. Needless to say Merryn, who had her passport and credit card stolen, wasn't in a particularly good state after this and I think the rest of the group also felt pretty crappy over the whole incident. Simon found out once we got to Trujillo that his iPod had been knicked from his day pack too. Our guide, Kike, was very helpful over the thefts and police reports were the order of the day when we arrived in Trujillo. I was lucky as my bag was padlocked, but it made me feel pretty bad as I was sitting in the aisle seat next to Merryn when her stuff got nicked.

I didn't have such a great sleep on the bus so a early morning nap and a big rest day was on the cards for me after when arrived at out hotel in Huanchaco, which is a seaside town 15 minutes from Trujillo. The main attractions are the nearby Chan Chan ruins as well as the Temples of the Sun and Moon.

Chan Chan was built by the Chimu people who inhabited the area in the 11th/12th century (from memory). They were eventually conquered by the ubiquitous Incas. In fact Chan Chan is a series of different palaces, nine in total, built by the various Chimu rulers. We visited one particular palace named the Tschudi palace, named after the Swiss dude who discovered it. The ruins were quite interesting and were made out of this sand looking brick. The palace housed the ruler, had a major religious function (as there were heaps of temples), and also at the centre was the tomb of the ruler who had built the palace and he was buried along with two of his concubines. The concubines argued their case about how useful there were to the deceased king, and the two most useful were then drugged up and buried alive. Apparantly it was an honour for them, in my opinion I would have preferred to have been a useless concubine! All in all the ruins were quite impressive and it was interesting to learn about a culture other than the Incas for a change. The Chimu lived near the sea so thir big thing was sea life, especially pelicans and sea otters, and many of the patterns on their architecture were of fish and crab nets. Hopefully you can see some of this in the pictures below.

After Chan Chan a short taxi ride to the other side of Trujillo brought us to the Temples of the Sun and Moon. These were built by the Moche people who predated the Chimu by about four centuries. Due to financial constraints of the project, only the Temple of the Moon has been excavated and conserved and it is this temple that we had the tour of. The temple is in fact about five different temples built on top of each other. Each temple was presided over by three priests, and once the last priest died a new temple was built over the top. The priests were all buried in the temple that they presided over. The result of this is that the whole ruin looks like a step pyramid. The Moche were big into their human sacrifice and at the temple many captured male prisoners were executed and their blood sprinkled over the land to increase fertility. Oh yeah, the priests also had a little sip too. I can see why they were into their fertility rituals because the land around here is pretty dry and barren. I much preferred these ruins as they had been preserved in their original condition as opposed to Chan Chan which was being restored. Check out the nice artwork below, unfortunately my camera battery died so I never got a photo of the Temple of the Moon, but there is a picture of the Temple of the Sun for your viewing pleasure.

Magical Mancora

2007-04-07T05:33:00.000+12:00

From the moment our guide had told us that Mancora was right on the beach and was a top spot in Peru, we had been expecting Heaven on Earth. We weren´t disappointed. We arrived at night so we couldn´t get a good view of the place first up, but it was warm, our hotel was right on the beach, and we could hear the tide lapping the beach.

After a dirty and sweaty trip across from Peru it was straight into the togs and a late night swim to cool down. We were all fairly exhausted from the day of travelling so everyone hit the sack fairly early in anticipation of the day to come.

The morning dawned bright and beautiful, and once I had donned my still wet togs I strolled down to the beach for an early morning dip. The sand was golden and beautiful, the sun was pouring its heat down on the Earth, and the sea looked warm and inviting - plus there were a number of lovely bikini clad women floating around. Like I said, Heaven on Earth!

Our hotel conveniently located by the beach...

A beverage on the beach anyone?

Where the bloody hell are ya?

So began two days of absolute laziness. I spent the whole time moving between the sea, my spot in the shade, the hotel restaurant, and various bouts of beach cricket. We managed to buy a tennis ball in Cuenca and using various bits of driftwood we fashioned some stumps and a bat. No matter where they go in the world, Anglo-Saxons still manage to get in some cricket. Great stuff!

Not much else to report about our activities in Mancora as it was pretty chilled out. When I post photos you´ll get a better idea of the place. It was a great few days of R&R and everyone was pretty sad to get on the night bus to Trujillo.

¡Hola Tortuga!

¡Hola Simon!

Passing Into Peru

2007-04-07T05:25:00.000+12:00

Following a heavy evening spent in Cuenca, it was a tough start to the day on the journey to Peru. We had a five hour bus ride in down to the border town of Huaquillas in southern Ecuador. Needless to say I spent most of the way sleeping and trying to recover from the previous evening. The experience of crossing from Ecuador to Peru wasn´t one I would like to repeat very often. The border was dusty, dodgy, dirty and downright sweltering. Heaps of vendors and other undesirables kept hanging around us trying to persuade us to use their transport service or buy worthless stuff from them. It was probably the most unsafe I have ever felt throughout my South American adventure, but the group managed to get through it unscathed. It was sad to leave Ecaudor behind but nice to get into another country and add another stamp to my passport. So after the border formalities we headed a few hours further south to a beach resort called Mancora for a few days of sun, surf, and sifting about.

Colonial Cuenca

2007-04-02T12:36:00.000+12:00

Following Baños, we packed our bags and headed on a 5 hour bus ride to Cuenca in the south of Ecuador. The city is known for its beautiful architecture and it did not disappoint. It looked just how I expected a Spanish city would look like, and as always, there was a spacious Plaza de Armas (or main square) in the centre of town. We arrived reasonably late in the day so not much was achieved apart from having some dinner at a sports bar (think Sports Cafe in Wellington) and an early night to rest up from our travels.

The only full day in Cuenca was used exploring the city and checking out the architecture. The people here seemed a bit more European looking than those in Quito, and so a number of the women also matched the architectural beauty of the city!

The group had a reasonable night on the booze, and for those of you familiar with the barmaids at Rosie O´Gradys, they had them in Cuenca too - except they are called Jirafas (or giraffes in English) for obvious reasons. As per usual the beers were followed by a couple of Baileys for good measure! All in all a great evening of group bonding was had and needless to say the bus ride the following day (including the infamous Ecuador-Peru border crossing) was a little tough, but that´s a story for another day.

One interesting point about Cuenca is that a number of locals still wash their clothes in the river and lay them out on the riverbank to dry. I didn´t trust this method so I decided to take my laudry to a lavanderia instead. Who knows, they probably use the river anyway and some of the clothes below are probably mine.

Bathing in Baños

2007-03-27T10:41:00.000+12:00

Our trip to the jungle was followed by a bus ride through central Ecuador to a place called Baños. In English, Baños means ´baths´ so you can safely assume hot springs were in plentiful supply. Actually, it´s kind of like the Ecuadorian equivalent to Queenstown, but not as touristy and cheaper. We were only here for one full day so I couldn´t get in everything I wanted to do sightseeing-wise, but it was probably good nonetheless as we were fairly rushed in the end.

Baños is located in the shadow of Mt Tungurahua, which is probably Ecuador´s most active volcano. Only a few weeks before I got there it had been going crazy, so I was pretty keen to see some lava spewing forth. Unfortunately, I only saw big ash plumes spewing forth but it was good to see anyway.

Our big activity whilst we were here was to check out a number of impressive waterfalls along the local river. We biked about 30 km in total and saw about 5 or 6 waterfalls. The most impressive was the final one, named Pailon del Diablo or ´Pot of the Devil´. It´s obvious when you you see the waterfall why its a pot, but the face of a devil in the side of the cliff was a bit more of a stretch. When I have posted photos you can make up your own mind!

Also as part of our bike tour, we did some canyoning. For those of you not familiar with this (like me prior to actually doing it) canyoning is pretty much abseiling down waterfalls. We went down five waterfalls and it was a great sensation having the water cascade over you as you descended. It took us a few hours to do the five waterfalls, with probably the highest being maybe 25 to 30 metres high. A really enjoyable day and one that tired us all out. I think I would like to do a lot more canyoning in the future after this experience.

Baños was a nice quaint town and it´s somewhere I would like to go back to if I return to Ecuador. We were going to go to a lookout at night to check out lava coming out of the mountain, but as we were all too knackered from the biking and canyoning, coupled with the fact we had a long bus ride to Cuenca the next day, we all had an early night. Oh and yes, as indicated by the title, we did get to the hot pools and have a splash around. It was actually like bathing in dirty bath water (colourwise) but it was steaming hot and soothed the joints nicely!

Jungle Fever

2007-03-23T10:39:00.000+12:00

After a few more days in Quito with my tour group (hopefully I will get around to posting a blog about them - sort of a pen portrait blog) we headed out of the city for a taste of the Ecuadorian Amazon. As you may know the Amazon is huge and refers to the greater jungle area that includes the Amazon river. Back in the day a Spaniard, who I understand was mates with Pizarro of pillage Inca gold fame, named Francisco de Orellana set out from Quito and made it to the Rio Napo, which runs from the east of Ecuador and forms the Rio Amazonas (Amazon River) with another river, the name of which escapes me at the moment. He and his mates ended up going all the way across the continent and out of the other side in the Atlantic Ocean. Quite a feat if I do say so myself.

So with the above in mind, I begun my Amazon adventure. We flew from Quito to Puerto Francisco de Orellana (or commonly known as Coca) which took a measly 30 minutes. Normally it would take about 9 hours by bus so I am happy we flew! Pretty much as soon as we got to Coca we jumped on a motorised canoe for a two hour trip down river to a place called (now don´t get confused) Francisco de Orellana where we trekked into our jungle lodge named La Selva (which actually means the jungle in Español). The lodge was situated on the shore of an ox bow lake. These are lakes that are formed by meanders of bigger rivers, in this case the Rio Napa. The lodge had a number of cabins and a big central hut that housed the bar and dining area.

Upon our arrival we were greated with passionfruit and rum cocktails and a lovely spread of fruit and chicken. Mmmmm chicken. I shared a room with the only other guy on our tour, Simon the Pom from Newcastle. Living in the jungle isn´t as bad as it sounds and we had hot running water, beds with mosquito nets, and a hammock on our porch.

Without boring you with too much detail we spent four days exploring the jungle, canoeing on the lake, checking out the wildlife, sweating profusely, taking muchas siestas, and fending off the mossies. A big highlight was our night walk through the jungle where we spied various grasshoppers and stick insects mating (some of our group took a lot of pictures of this for some reason!!!), and the big daddy of the jungle was also sighted, twice. When I say big daddy I mean a tarantula. We saw two different types, both hairy, but one was friendly and the other was poisonous and likes to jump at people.

The lake itself was pretty murky, and was home to piranhas, caimans (a small type of croc), and electric eels among other things. Needless to say I just had to get in for a swim and did so on two occasions. It was actually quite disconcerting being in there with all those other creatures but as I had no gaping wounds I was fine.

Simon and I also being the typical macho sporty guys paddled the canoe for one lake excursion. It was tough going at first as it wasn´t as easy as a small canoe (this one seated 15 people!) but after lots of criticism from the girls (who never offered to paddle mind you) we got the hang of it and finally navigated our way back safely to shore. We never got tipped though funnily enough.

I only managed to get one bite whilst I was in the jungle. To this day I don´t know what it was as I lay down on my hammock one afternoon and felt something bite me. It swelled up a little and after taking a few antihistamines I was right as rain. Some of the girls got eaten alive and had nice lumps developing. Being the only two guys in a bug infested jungle lodge, Simon and I got called out a wee bit to stomp on spiders and other creepy crawlies.

I must admit that in the heat and humity of the jungle you work up a bit of a sweat. You can´t go more than two minutes without the first beads dripping down your head and back, and so it doesn´t make it comfortable at the best of times. Its nice when it rains as it cools you off and the sweat mingles with the water cascading out of the sky. On one trip I was so sweaty that I didn´t even bother putting on my poncho. In terms of looks the jungle is quite similar to some of the forest back home in NZ, and at times I swear I could have been on a cub camp or a Duke of Edinburgh hike somewhere. But I can never remember being so sweaty on any of those expeditions. Maybe I am just getting too old!

Being of true Anglo-Saxon stock and the Cricket World Cup having started the day we left for the jungle, we had to get a game in sometime. A bit of old wood and a fruit resembling an oversized kiwifruit, except much harder, were all we needed for a game. With Poms and Aussies you can imagine the rivalry was intense. But after our third 'ball' distengrated after only two overs we decided to call stumps. That and the fact that the sweat had already begun to appear in bucket loads!

It was a wonderful trip to the jungle, but it was also nice to get back to Quito for a change of climate, some washing, and a nice shower in water that wasn´t from a dirty lake full of creepy crawlies. One of the girls ran out of ciggies in the jungle so she was happy to get back to civilsation and a packet of fags!

Old School Quito

2007-03-23T10:07:00.000+12:00

For those of you that don´t know, Quito is divided into two distinct areas (well for the tourists anyway). Creatively these two areas are known as Old Town and New Town. All the gringos hop it to New Town as this is safer, newer (obviously), closer to the tour operators, and slap bang in the middle of the bars, restaurants and cyber cafes. Old Town is the colonial heart of Quito and contains the most interesting architecture and cultural spots.

I headed down to the Old Town on a Sunday as it is a lot quieter in the city and, as a result, the smaller streets are not as crowded. The architecture of the buildings is how you expect them to be in South America from all those cinematic portrayals of Spanish style buildings. Those of you from Hastings think the Opera House or whatever it´s called.

There are a number of plazas that are the main sort of hubs in Old Town. Generally if you head towards those you find the more interesting churches and buildings, as well as seeing the locals congregating.

My first port of call was Plaza Santo Domingo. There wasn´t much to see there but I took some snaps of Iglesia Santo Domingo and also of the Statue of the Virgin Mary on the hill overlooking Old Town, named El Panecillo.

The next stop was the Museo de la Ciudad (or in English Museum of the City of Quito). The museum was housed in a old hospital which had two lovely internal courtyards with fountains. In one wing was a beautiful old church with a lovely gold altar and surrounds. The museum had a number of displays showing life in Quito from the colonial period of the city right up until the late 19th century.

After this museum I head up towards Plaza San Francisco but on the way my attention was grabbed by a lovely looking church named Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesus. As there was no church service on at the time I had to pay a US$2 fee to get in, but boy oh boy was it worth it. My Lonely Planet guide notes that apparently 7 tonnes of gold was used to guild the interior of the church, and upon stepping into the church you knew it was all that, then some. This has to be the most inspiring church I have ever been in, it was beautifully ornate and the shine from the gold was like sunshine. If St Peter´s in Rome is just as inspiring as this church was then I can´t wait to get there! I have a policy of not taking photos in churches (and they also didn´t allow cameras inside) so unfortunately I don´t have a photo to show you just how beautiful this church was. Building of the church began in 1605 by the Jesuit order and wasn´t completed until about 1765. Just before it was finished the Jesuits got kicked out of South America and they only got the church back in the last century or so.

I finally got to Plaza San Francisco and made a beeline for the church of the same name. This is the oldest church in Quito (if not Ecuador???) and the interior, though not as beautiful as La Compañia was a good example of a baroque church. I got there just after the sermon so I stayed for the Eucharist, so I have managed to get to church one of these Sundays. Next door was the Monastery of San Francisco which holds quite an interesting museum but unfortunately it was closed.

The next stop on my Old Town Old School tour was the Plaza de la Indepencia. This square houses the presidential palace, as well as the Cathedral and another church called El Sagrario. The plaza was full of people just chillin out and I got some nice photos of the exteriors of the abovementioned buildings. The churches were closed but after La Compañia I knew they would be a let down.

By this stage I was full up on colonial architecture and strolled my merry way back to gringo town for some food and a little bit of cable television. Once again, when I sort out some photos it will add to my wonderful descriptions above!

Ecuador Explorations

2007-03-16T12:05:00.000+13:00

Finally I get a chance to write about my trips outside of Quito over the last week. Three major ones deserve any sort of mention.

The first was about a week ago to Cotopaxi National Park. Mt Cotopaxi is the highest active volcano in the world at a little under 6km asl. Its a perfectly shaped mountain in the inverted V style. It took us about two hours to travel to the national park from Quito, and along the way we could see a number of other volcanoes in the area - just think Tongariro National Park with twice as many volcanoes pretty much. We arrived at the carpark on the mountain at about 4,500m asl, and hiked up 300 metres in altitude to the refugio (hut) where we had a nice lunch of bread rolls, guacamole, chocolate, crackers, apples, and some tuna salad. My stomach was still getting used to the altitude so I didn´t really eat much.

The weather was not so good unfortunately and the mountain was clouded in. After lunch we were due to head up the mountain a bit further to check out a glacier, but because of the conditions we didn´t. Apparantly, from the glacier you can see the curvature of the Earth on a sunny day. So we trekked back down to the carpark and then the fun downhill park started. We were all given these dodgy mountain bikes to ride down the mountain. It´s been a while since I have ridden a bike, let alone one downhill so it was interesting at first. Slowly I got my confidence up and it was great fun hurtling down the mountain.

One problem. My gears didn´t work. This was okay while I was going down the mountain as I didn´t need to peddle, but when we got on the flat I got no movement at all and had to be picked up by our trailing bus! At least I wasn´t the first, two Austrians both got punctures. As we descended the mountain on the bikes, the clouds rolled away and the sun came out, so we got some beautiful views of Mt Cotopaxi. When I can sort out my camera I will post some snaps.

The group we headed up the mountain was quite mixed. Americans, Austrians, Germans, a Finn, an Israelis, and a Kiwi (me). I spent most of my time chatting to the American guys (about American Football of course!) and the Israeli guy who had just got out of the army.

After the tour we returned to a hacienda near the National Park. It is called PapaGayo and ís about 150 years old. I had this huge room to myself, and it was quite cold at the altitude we were at, so I donned all my thermals for the night´s sleep. It actually turned out to be a really warm sleep.

At dinner that night I met up with two Americans from Oregon who had returned from a stint teaching in a little village north of Quito. Laura and Kyle are a lovely couple and we had a nice dinner and all around general chat. Laura´s parents have spent a bit of time in NZ so that was cool to hear. They have been back in Quito and we have caught up a few times. They will be heading through South America for the next few months so hopefully I´ll get to catch them throughout my travels.

The day after Cotopaxi I took my second trip of note out to a place called Quilotoa. There is a crater lake there that was formed from an eruption in the 1700s. Its a beautiful blue looking lake and on sunny days (we had another cloudy day with some rain) apparantly you can see the reflection of the sky in the water. The crater rim is at 3,900m asl and the walk down takes you to about 3,600m asl. You could hire a burro to take you back up, but I decided to trek up which was well worth it.

The trip to Quilotoa took quite a while, about four hours, but on the way we stopped at a market in Sasqusili. Economists beleive this is the most important indigenous market in all of Ecuador. It was interesting enough seeing guinea pigs, raw fish sitting out in the open, and a squealing pig being put in a bag, but markets generally aren´t my thing and as always I didn´t buy anything! So much for me helping the local indigenous population.

I tried some Llama at Quilotoa and it was quite tasty. It looks like, has the texture of, and tastes like beef. I am pretty keen to get my hands on some more during my travels, along with the guinea pig or cuy as the locals call it. No doubt they will not be my only strange gastronomic experiences onmy travels through South America.

On my Quilotoa tour were a lovely couple from Paris, Sylvie and Frederic. Sylvie used to be an intrepreter so her English was pretty good, and it was nice to talk to her about France. They were climbing most of the volcanoes in the area, culminating in a climb that begun at midnight and ended about sunrise up Mt Cotopaxi. They gave me their contact details so hopefully I have somewhere to stay when I go to Paris.

My third tour of note was out to Mitad del Mundo, or the Equator. Its actually not only regarded as the Equator but the actual middle of the world. Hence the name. I had no problems getting out there on the bus, it´s about 22km from Quito. So to all of my friends who had trouble getting out there, bah humbug! Just kidding.

The Equator is an interesting place actually. There is a major tourist spot which has a huge monument showing the European calculated position of the Equator and recognising the efforts of the French guys who first calculated the spot. This place was kinda weird though, it was like a Disneyland for the Equator but in a bad way. A better analogy for those of you who have been to Splash Planet/Fantasyland is Noddy Town with bigger buildings and just as few people. It was funny jumping backwards and forwards across the Equator. The first time I had this strange feeling that a laser would shoot out of the monument and vaporise me a la Indiana Jones. I spent a few hours here but as it was only fitting, most of it was taken up by having a few drinks with Simon from my GAP tour who came out to the Equator with me.

Next door is a funny little free museum run by these five guys who say that the Disneyland Equator is incorrect and that the actual one is approximately 200 metres away. They base this on a nearby mountain where there was an ancient temple built and also the position of the sun at the summer and winter equinoxes. It was interesting to get a different perspective. They gave us a talk about how it was calculated by the pre-Inca cultures in Ecuador and it was all very interesting. I should have asked them who shot JFK, they may have had an idea about that too.

It doesn´t end there though. A little further down the road is a third Equator, this one apparantly is calculated by GPS. So you can imagine as I had been shown three Equators I was getting a bit cynical! However, the final spot was the most intersting palce. The museum, called Inti-Nan, has more than just the Equator v3, but has a few interesting indigenous exhibits, including a shrunken head. The guide we had was really friendly and informative so I tipped him a buck. So generous of me eh! They also carried out a few experiments that you can do at the Equator, like balancing an egg on a nail, and the standard water down a plug hole test. It was all good fun, and I don´t know if it´s all strictly for real, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

One thing that cracked me up about the day, was that it rained pretty much as soon as we got to Mitad del Mundo. You hardly expect it to rain at the Ecuador don´t you! All in all though it was a great day out an about. When I sort out some photos I will post some of the more interesting ones for your perusal. Hopefully, they will enlighten my blabber above!

Digs

2007-03-13T10:09:00.000+13:00

Hola

Well the computer I have logged on to today doesn't want to recognise my camera so I don't know if I am going to be able to download some photos for a while. So it's gonna be tough to explain the range of accomodation I have had since being in Quito, but hopefully my descriptive skills will be up to the task. PHOTOS NOW ADDED

The first place I lay my head down was called Hotel Rio Amazonas. This place was pretty sweet, with a nice big bed, a spacious room, a daily clean, free internet, free bottles of water, I could flush toilet paper down the loo, and the clincher, 100 channels of cable! A bit pricey at US$50 but well worth it for the first few days as I acclimatised to the culture, the language, and the altitude. As a friend of my has described it, it's probably a four star!

As you can imagine the US$50 per night rate was starting to eat into my savings, so I had to bail on the Rio Amazonas unfortunately. After consulting my Lonely Planet guide, or 'The Bible' as one person has described it, I settled into a hostel called 'Crossroads'. At US$15 it was considerably cheaper, but there was a reason for this. I only had a smallish double bed, a basic bathroom, a rubbish bin to put my used toilet paper in, the staff were a wee bit grumpy, andthere was no cable!!! The room was pretty dingey too and my bathroom window didn't lock so I had to wrap duct tape around it so it wouldn't flap open. Luckily no one climbed in while I was out and about and stole my gear.

This place was actually quite noisy too. There was a constant humming coming from the wall behind my bed, so I had to put my iPod on to tune out. At one stage I took my headphones off and I could hear the couple in the room next door catching up on some quality time if you get my meaning! Needless to say the headphones were back on in a flash. I stayed at this place two nights, one either side of a trip I had out of Quito to Cotopaxi National Park and Quilotoa (updates to follow). When I returned I resolved to change hostels, and I was tempted to go back to Rio Amazonas - but my good financial sense prevailed. Once an accountant...

Whilst I was out of the city I stayed at a hostel called PapaGayo (which I understand means 'macaw'). This was a lovely 150 year old homestead out in the wops. It is close to Cotopaxi National Park and was arranged through the tour company I used for the two days. I had a huge room all to myself and this dinky little bathroom that I nearly hit my head on the door jam getting in to. As I may have mentioned in some of my emails, Ecuadorians are not a tall race so I feel a wee bit taller over here. It's like Lilliput for me. As the hostel was quite high up (not too sure on the actual altitude) it was pretty cold so I donned my thermals for my night in bed. Actually I had heaps of blankets so I was snug as a bug.

So for the remainder of my time in Quito, well before I join my tour on 14 March, I have booked myself into Hostel Amazonas (not to be confused with Rio Amazonas, the luxurious accomodation). This place is the same price as Crossroads, but more importantly it has cable!!! You may be getting the wrong idea about my time in Ecuador and that all I have done is watch cable TV, but its great to have for those boring evenings and when you feel you just don't want to get out of bed till 1pm! Hey I'm on holiday.

The downside with this place is that I don't have an external window, but I do have a nice skylight. The bed is small and a little hard, but it's not all that bad. The staff are friendly, probably the friendliest of my trip so far.

Sorry this is not an exciting post, but I thought it would be a different thing to focus on for my travels. I think I will make it a bit of a theme. All in all though the accomodation has been okay and I am getting used to putting my used toilet paper in the bin!!! If I could sleep in my old bed from home, it would probably win hands down. Although there's no cable at home...

South America 101 - Ecuador! (insert Sash song here)

2007-03-12T11:59:00.000+13:00

Hi All

Sorry it's been a while in coming but I now have an opportunity to update my blog from South America! I have been in Ecuador for about a week now and it's been great being in a totally different cultural environment.

The flight over went as well as flights do - 16 hours of travelling on planes, 7 hours of waiting in airports, and being awake for a grand total of 46 hours before I got to sleep here in Quito. I managed to order what I wanted on the plane using my limited Spanish! Ordering a plate of food at the airport in Santiago was tough, I told the waitress what I wanted okay enough, but when she started jabbering back to me in Spanish I had no idea! Needless to say all my training deserted me, and I couldn't even remember how to ask her if she spoke English. After a week here though I am getting heaps better at recognising words in spoken Spanish. My confidence in talking to people in Spanish is growing, although it's only simple sentences at the moment.

The first three days I was in Quito I took it easy. To combat the altitude I took I didn't go crazy doing touristy stuff, and drank no booze. I noticed the altitude walking up one flight of stairs at my hotel, as I was a little short of breath and the legs were heavy. It's not too bad and now I am comfy as at 3km above sea level. My appetite has also been affected too, though now it has come back with a vengance! The culinary highlight so far, has been eating llama. It's like beef, in not only texture and colour, but also in taste. I am keen as to try some more of it!

This post is just a little introductory one to my South American adventures, and I hope to portray my time in Quito over the last week in a number of different ways. I think that the first will be the range of accomodation I have had!

Freeeeeedom

2007-02-19T10:35:00.000+13:00

Well I had my last day at work on Friday 16 February 2007, so I am now a free (but unemployed) man. But I suppose in two weeks I will be a professional tourist! I am sad to leave my job as I had a wonderful time there and met some great people. However, I need to get away and see the big wide world and nothing was going stop me from doing that. At least I can sleep in on week days now.

Most of my travel preparation is all finished so now all I have to do is pack my bag, say my good byes and get on that plane.

I had a farewell party on Saturday which was good times. Was great to catch up with a lot of people and to those of you who made it along - a big thanks! Two of my friends made the trip up from Wellington which was special.

My next post will be on the eave of my departure. There will be some interesting feelings come that day I am sure. I have a few nerves and trepidations, but they are more than negated by my huge feeling of excitement.

Roll on 3 March...

Welcome

2007-01-29T19:19:00.000+13:00

Hi all and welcome to my blog. Not too sure how to work these things but I am sure it can't be that hard. Blogs seem to be all the rage at the moment so I thought I would get on the bandwagon.

This blog will chart my upcoming adventures throughout the world. My goal is to leave no stone unturned, leave behind no regrets, and have a great time. I love NZ but I am really looking forward to getting away. There's a big world out there and I wanna see as much as it as possible.

So as of 3 March 2007 I am flying the coup. The initial plan is to take in South America for three months, travelling through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and a little bit of Brazil. After that I am going to visit some Yankee friends for a while, and then off to Canada to find me a job. After that, who knows...

I am really looking forward to the travels but I guess at the same time I am a little nervous and apprehensive - should be fine! I will miss my family and friends but you all understand my need to get away, and of course you can always come and visit me!

So tune in over the coming months/years and I'll endeavour to keep you all reasonably well updated as to what's happening. I'm not such a great photographer, but my camera is fairly idiot proof and I will no doubt chuck some pics on this blog too. So sit back, relax and enjoy Andy's Adventures...