Auckland again and Christmas Number 2!

Back in Auckland, Kate & I did some Christmas shopping and had lunch at the Viaduct. That night we went to see Casino Royale at the cinema which was a good film. We helped Huw get ready for our second Christmas, which was at his daughter Ruth (& husband Chris)'s place. We also made another Yule Log!

On Christmas morning, we picked up Kate's boyfriend Rod from the airport at 5am! Rod bought Christmas presents from home so Kate & I sat and opened them. Huw gave us both lottery tickets but neither of us won!!

By mid morning, we were off to Ruth & Chris's and had a really enjoyable day (despite that fact that it was warm!) The men tried to show their macho sides and put up the new climbing frame for Reagan (Ruth & Chris's son). You couldn't get Reagan off it!

Missed having Christmas at home, in the cold, but could get used to having a hot Christmas!

Bay of Islands - Paihia, Cape Reinga & 90 Mile Beach

We did a 4 day trip with Stray to the Bay of Islands before Christmas. We stopped off at the Parry Kauri Park in Warkworth to see 200 year old Kauri trees. We did a 'hunga' to the tree (rubbed our noses against it) for good luck! We then went to the Native Bird Recovery Centre in Whangarei and saw a talking Tui called Woof Woof and got to stroke a Kiwi called Sparky. We also got to stroke a small baby Blue Penguin. We headed up the coast to see Hundertwasser's Kawakawa Toilets which were very funky! That evening we arrived in Paihia and got chatting to some of our fellow travellers - Jules, Louise & Bridgit - over a pint or two!

The next day we took a trip up to Cape Reinga, stopping along the way at some of the smaller towns. The weather today had decided to be very British and it was blowing a gale! We walked to the lighthouse at the end of the Cape and nearly got blown into the sea! We headed to a nearby beah for lunch and Kate, Jules, Louise & Bridgit decided to go and stand in the sea (I wasn't that mad!!!)

Next we headed to the Te Poki stream for some sandboarding. As it was raining quite a lot (and I'd already sand boarded in Peru), I decided to pass and take photos of people instead. They looked very funny when the arrived at the bottom of the hill covered head to toe in sand!

We then took a drive down the 90 mile beach (that isn't actually 90 miles long!) and drove over sand dunes. On the way home, we stopped for fish & chips in Mangunga.

The next day we (me, Kate, Jules & Louise) took a trip on the R Tucker Thompson, a pirate ship! We sailed out through the Bay of Islands and used the sails to drive us. Kate & I climbed out to the front of the ship. We stopped for lunch and went onto one of the islands for a little walk. Back on board the ship, we saw Bridgit (who was on a catamaran). She told us that her boat was better than ours - that was until we got out our little cannon and fired at her ship! Her face was a picture!! On the way back the boat broke down and we had to take the small spped boat to the harbour (it was amusing trying to clamber up when the dock was meant for a larger ship!)

We spent an afternoon at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where the treaty was signed between the British and the many Maori tribes. We watched a documentary and took a guided tour around the place which was fascintating.

That afternoon, we took the Stray bus to Whangarei and then Graham (Kate's dad's cousin) took us to Whananaki North where he & Jo were camping for Christmas. Their tents were basically on the beach! The next day we took a short walk around the area and went to a deserted beach where I made a sandcastle (very surreal considering that it was the 22nd December!) That night we took the Stray bus back to Auckland.

Auckland - the City of Sails & Christmas Number 1!

We spent a couple of weeks in Auckland staying with my dad's cousin Huw (we needed to spend some time relaxing after the hectic schedule we had in South America).

We caught up with Susan, Martin, Karen & Kayto from our trip in Peru and had dinner in Occidental, a Belgian bar, before heading to the Viaduct and to one of the many pubs there!

We got on the Auckland Explorer bus and did a tour of the city. We went up to Bastion Point and got some great views of the city. We walked along the bay and saw why Auckland is called the City of Sails - there are so many sailing boats here! The road here is lined with Pohutakawa trees - the NZ Christmas tree. They have bright red flowers which are in bloom over Christmas.

We headed up to the Cathedral and saw the smaller St Mary's Church, which they had moved from the other side of the road (on rollers!) We then went to the museum. That night we met up with Kate's dad's cousin Graham and his wife Jo and went for dinner with them.

The next day we did the Coast to Coast walk - a 16km walk across the width of the city. We walked through Auckland Domain (a massive park), up Mount Eden and One Tree Hill and finally to Manukau harbour.

We also went to Rangitoto Island, which lies in the harbour. We climbed to the crater (it is an extinct volcano) and took the coastal track back. The views of the city were great.

At the weekend, we had an early Christmas celebration as Huw's son Gareth and his girlfriend Denise were leaving for the states. Kate and I had made (or rather decorated!) a yule log and put up the Christmas tree and decorations. There were about 10 of us for dinner and it was strange celebrating Christmas when the sky is blue and there is no need for jumpers!!!

Santiago

We had a busy couple of days as we stopped in Santiago on the way to New Zealand. Due to the delay in stopping en route at Sao Paolo, we arrived late in the evening so got a taxi to the hostel. We told the driver our Spanish joke about the duck and the bar (thanks Jimmy!!) and ended up getting a Spanish lesson from the driver to assist us. Althougth I don't think I'll have much use for 'traffic lights' or 'motorway' whilst walking around the city!!!

We did a mini tour of the city on our first day including Palacio de la Moneda, with its two courtyards - Plaza de la Constitution and Plaza de la Liberatad, Cerro Santa Lucia (formally a giant dirt mould until they made it into a lookout point of the city), the main square (Plaza de Armas), the Cathedral, Mercado Central (a giant fish market) and to Pio Nono to see the statue of the Virgin Mary on the top of the hill.

The next day we did a vineyards tour - they took us to see Vina Aquitania and Vina Undurraga. We were taken around the fields and shown how they make their wine. We also got to taste some as well (the best part of the day!)

The final day we flew to Auckland and lost the 8th December due to crossing the date line!

Rio de Janeiro

We arrived in Rio and went straight up to Sugar Loaf Mountain. We took the cable car to the very top, sat down with our beers and watched the sun set over the Big JC and Copacabana beach. It was a great sight!

The next morning, Kate & I went off to Ipanema Beach where someone had made a giant Santa statue from sand. It was very surreal! We alsowent to the Hippie Market which was a massive craft sale. We then did a tour of the Favela's - Rocinha & vila Canoas, which was fasciating to see. We met some of the locals who had done art work and made jewellry. We also saw a local school where children go until their parents are home - its an initiative to try and prevent the kids roaming the streets and getting caught up in the drug industry.
That afternoon, we caught the bus and went to the Big JC. We took the little train up the hillside and then walked around taking tonnes of photos of the views of Rio, as well as of the Big JC. We caught the little train back and headed into the city for dinner.

The next day we spent the morning shopping before flying out to Santiago. The flight was the most interesting that I've been on - we had to stop in Sao Paolo but when we got there, there was a massive storm overhead and we couldn't land. As we were running out of fuel, we flew back to Rio. After re-fuelling, we flew back to Sao Paolo, landed and then carried onto Santiago!!! The map on the plane showed us circling Sao Paolo several times!

Curitiba & Ilhe Grande

We arrived in Curitiba at 5pm after a pretty comfortable bus ride that showed films in English. We explored the city en route to trying to find an open restaurant (as it is Monday most of them were closed!) We managed to find an open restaurant in a shopping centre (which was open until 11pm). They even had a guy with a guitar to serenade us!

The next day, the girls decided to make full use of the shopping centre and go and buy some clothes. As Kate & I are on a limited budget, we mainly window shopped but I did treat myself to a going out top (as I would like to wear something other than a vest top when we got out in the evenings!!).

We´ve got another bus ride tonight - 10 hours to Rio de Janeiro before taking a 2 hour bus journey and 3 hour boat ride to Ilhe Grande - a tropical island paradise, where we´ll be staying for 3 days!

The weather at Ilhe Grande was not the best - in fact it was bucketing down for all 3 days but it was still an island paradise! We met up with another GAP Adventures group (Darren, Andrea & Elaine) and went for a hike across the island. We climbed up a steep hill to find a waterfall - we'd almost given up finding it but then noticed the giant arrows on the floor pointing us to the falls! The way back down was a little more treterous as it was a steep hill and the rain had made the mud very slippery! After a few people slipped and got covered in mud, we made it down! We then found a small beach and decided to go swimming. Since we hadn't got any swim wear (and were already soaked to the bone), we went in fully clothed - which was very bizarre!


The next day, we went on a Caipirinha Boat Tour (Caipirinha is a popular drink there which is made from Cachaca, limes and ice and is practically all alcohol!) It was not raining when we set off and there was even a hint of sun! We sailed around a couple of islands and stopped off to do some snorkelling. There were tonnes of fish there (especially when we kept feeding them next to the boat) and we even saw some starfish!

That night we all went out for our last night on the island. Ben (the other GAP Adventure leader) and I had played a couple of games of chess the previous night and we were tied 1-1 so we had the decider game in the restaurant. After a tense hour and a half (or so it seemed!), I'd managed to clear most of his pieces so he resigned!!! We then headed down to the waterfront and sat at a bar where some guys were playing samba music so we had a quick dance. I was given a samba lesson by a Brazilian called William Wallace (!) who got annoyed that I wasn't doing it properly!! It was a very funny night.

The next day we took the boat back to the mainland and headed off to Rio de Janeiro!

Foz do Iguaçu - Brazil, Argentina & Paraguay!!

We took the night bus from Douradas (3 hours from Bonito) to Cascavel. At 7:45 am we had to change buses to take us to Foz do Iguaçu (Portugese for Iguassu Falls). We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and headed straight out.

Kate and I decided to do a helicopter ride over the falls. It was only 10 minutes long but the views were amazing! They are bigger than Niagara Falls but they are not a complete falls - there are lots of smaller falls. We then headed towards the falls so that we could see them from the ground. We walked along a trail that ended up on a bridge across the river lookig straight at the falls. The power of them was amazing!!!

That afternoon, we crossed the border into Paraguay for some tax free shopping! Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in South America and the difference was very noticable compared to Brazil! We went into a shopping centre, where the majority of shops sold electronic equipment. They don´t pay tax on their goods so they are so cheap! Kate & I bought a set of Ipod speakers (for £20!!).

It took us a couple of hours to cross back into Brazil - we had lots of sellers coming to the mini bus selling almost anything you could think of - soft drinks, beer, socks, umbrella hats, mini seats, blood pressure monitors, CD´s and DVD´s. Some of them were quite funny to watch and it made the time pass quickly!

The next day we headed into Argentina to see the falls from that side. Inside the national park, we took a short walk through a forest to the train station and caught the train to the edge of the falls. The view is far superior from this side as you stand on the edge of the falls an watch the water go over! We stayed there for about 20 minutes just taking in the view (and getting a little wet from the spray)!

After lunch, we took a trip through the jungle en route to the river. Here we got a boat for a close up of the falls, which involved the boat going into the falls and giving us a shower! We looked like drowned rats when the boat ride was over but it was worth it (especially since it cooled us down). It didn´t take long for us to dry off (in the 40 degree heat!)

We headed back to the hotel (to finish drying properly) and to rest as we were leaving at 6:20am the next morning for a 10 hour bus trip to Curitiba!

Bonito & Snorkeling!

We arrived in Bonito after travelling for about an hour along a dirt track. It was strange to see a Christmas Tree in the hotel lobby as we were in the middle of a heatwave! We explored the little town (which seems to have just one main road)!

The next day we went snorkelling at Rio de Prata. We got into our wetsuits and shoes (only for me to discover that there was a frog living in my wet shoe!) We got into crystal clear water that was very refreshing. We practised around a small lake to get used to the breathing before heading downstream!

We saw so many kinds of fish, some of them swimming alongside us and even right in front of us - there were big blue fish that were sucking the gravel, some piraputanga fish with yellow and red tails and some big black fish along with lots of smaller fish.

We went through some rapids and under fallen trees and at times the rocks were only inches from our bodies! We then went into cooler, deeper water that had more of the larger fish in it. There was even an otter on the shoreline (but most of us didn´t see it as our heads were underwater!)

Back in Bonito, Kate and I got caught in a massive thunder storm where the roads were transformed into fast flowing rivers. We were only 10 minutes walk from our hotel but managed to get soaked through. It was a good thing it was so hot as we didn´t mind the rain!

It was still humid the next day so we took things easy during the day as we have to get a night bus to Iguassu Falls at 11pm!

The Night Train to Brazil & The Pantanal!

We got the night train from Santa Cruz to the Bolivian-Brazilian border. They gave us dinner and showed Big Mamma´s House 2 before we tried to sleep! We were given breakfast when we woke and they showed another film but it was all in Spanish!

We got to border control, got our passports stamped as we left and then trekked over the border and entered Brazil! After lunch, we drove for 3 hours to the Pantanal. We kept stopping en route as our driver kept pointing out various animals - deer, racoons and eagles. We even saw caimen (a type of aligator) and managed to stand a few feet away for a photo! We were taken for a 2 hour trek through the forest by our guide, Paulo, who cut down anything that stood in our way. We saw lots of monkeys and parrots. It was very humid and the mosquitos keep buzzing around! We drove to our base camp for the next 2 nights - we´ll be sleeping in hammocks!

The next day we got woken by a dawn chorus of birds (we were virtually outdoors except a roof and a mosquito net surrounding us!) Paulo took us for another walk and we saw giant otters , more monkeys, toucans, paraqueets and capivara (water pigs).

Then we stopped at a river and fished for our lunch - piranahs! It took a while to get used to fishing but in the end, Kate & I managed to catch 4 piranahs each and I also caught another fish that was thrown back in! We had to use cow heart as bate! Kate managed to swing one of her piranah´s and it hit me in the back - good thing that it had a hook in its mouth or it might have tried to eat me!

We stopped at a camp in the middle of the forest for lunch. We rested on hammocks while the piranahs were cooked - they looked very ugly then they were served up! We rested a bit more (it was too hot to do anything else) and Paulo made everyone a necklace made from either coconut trees or aligator teeth. We then went horseriding and spent about 2 hours trekking across the open plains.

The next day we headed off to the Miranda River and took a boat trip. We were taken to a spot where we could swim in the river but decided against it as we´d only just seen some caimen in the river and didn´t fancy being their lunch!

We then headed off to Bonito - a 4 hour drive away.

Sucre - Dinosaurs and Horseriding!

We took the 3 hour bus journey from Potosi to the Bolivian capital, Sucre. We are due to stay here for a couple of days so we had some time to explore the city and go to the many shops selling goods for the tourists!

We did a city tour with a guide - the colonial section of Sucre is known as the White City as all the buildings have to be white. We went to the dinosaur walk. It is a huge outdoor museum with lifesize dinosaur models. They also had a wall where they have found dinosaur footprints on. They were slightly too far away to get a decent picture (we had to view them through binoculars!!)We carried on with the city tour and went to the main park in Sucre. It was desgined to look like a mini Paris - complete with Eiffel Tower! We also went around a massive food market.

On our final day in Sucre me, Kate, Jimmy, Yvonne & Fionnuala went horseriding. It was the first time that Jimmy & Fionnuala had been on a horse and they looked petrified when they first got on! It didn´t take long before they were both looking a little less scared! We rode for about 3 hours before stopping for lunch and a swim in one of the waterfalls, which was bliss after riding in the heat! We spent another 2 hours riding back to the city. Yvonne´s horse decided to eat some hay that a women was drying on the side of the road - the horse looked so funny that it had us in hysterics!!!

As it was Jimmy, Fionnuala & Yvonnes´ last night with us, we went out to the local nightclub - Mitos and partied the night away (well til 4am when the place shut!!) It was a great way to say goodbye to the guys, who left the following morning at 9am!

Later that day, we left to go to the airport to take the short (20 minute flight) to Santa Cruz. We arrived there on a sunny, very humid day! We didn´t do much in Santa Cruz (mainly due to the fact that we were there over the weekend and things were closed and that it was very hot)!

Potosi and the Miners

We then travelled along an extremely bumpy road to Potosi. It took about 6 hours on a bus!

We had a tour of the Mint Factory that documented the history of making coins in Bolivia, using the silver from the local mountain. We had an annoying tour guide who didn´t like tourists and constantly told us off for being late! It was an interesting tour though!

In the afternoon, we travelled to the Silver Mine. We stopped en route to get into our ´miner´clothes - mine consisted of yellow trousers with a red jacket, orange helmet and wellies! We then arrived at the mine and bought some supplies for the miners that we´d come across - mainly biscuits, cocoa leaves, ciagarettes and the all important dynamite! We then entered the mines and walke around for a bit (avoiding the large holes on the floors and ducking as the route became quite small).

We then walked down to the next level and met some miners - one of them was 17 and had been working in the mines since he was 12! We carried on walking along some very narrow ledges and had to climb up steep holes in the roof. It was quite scary at times, when there was a massive hole next to you! It also showed how bad the conditions are for the miners!

Salar de Uyuni

We spent a day travelling from La Paz to Uyuni so that we could go to the Salt Flats. It was a good thing that we were doing nothing as I had a stomach bug and couldn´t move!

On Saturday, we got into our 4x4´s and headed off out into huge plains surrounded by mountains. The road soon deteriorated into a dirt track and we put our 4x4´s to good use, especially when we crossed rivers in them!

We went to the Valley of the Rocks - an area that has large stacks of rocks all over the place. Jimmy and Robert decided to climb all over them!

We then arrived at our hostel for the night - its very basic and all the women are in a small room which should keep us warm!!

On Sunday, we got up at 4am so that we could see the Geysers at sunrise. There were numerous geysers and mud pools in this area and the smell of sulphur was very strong!!! We then headed to the thermal baths and Kate and Jimmy had a morning swim!

Our next stop was Laguna Verde, a blue-green lagoon that reflects perfectly the mountains behind it. Then we went to Laguna Colorado, a red lagoon that is home to lots of flamingoes. We then drove past the Tree Rock - as the name suggests, its a rock in the shape of a tree!

On Monday, we were up at 3:40am so that we could get to the Salt Flats for sunrise. Due to the oversleeping of our tired drivers and a flat tyre, we left about 40 minutes late. We stopped in the middle of the Salt Flats to see the sunrise thought! The flats are an area of 12,000 km which used to be a lake 8000 years ago. Now all you can see is pure white salt. The view at sunrise was amazing and the place was very quiet!

We then headed to Isla Pescado - fish island - that is full of cacti! Here we had breakfast and then spent ages having fun with the perspective on our cameras and taking silly photos! As there is nothing all around us, you can have fun playing with the perspectives! We did photos such as Melissa stamping on us, and me pushing Jimmy into a sugar bowl! We managed to amuse ourselves for ages!!

We then went and saw the Salt Hotel, where (as you can probably guess), everything is made of salt!!! It was closed down as it was too unhygenic!

We headed back to Uyuni and went to the Train Graveyard where they leave all the old engines. Jimmy and Robert decided to re-enact scenes from films involving the good guy (Jimmy) being chased by the baddie (Robert). It was great fun!

Border Crossing to Bolivia and La Paz!

We had a long day of travel ahead of us as we travelled around the edge of Lake Titicaca to the Peru-Bolivia border. Here were exchanged our Pervuian Soles for Bolivian Bolivianos at street vendors, got our passports stamped with an exit stamp for Peru and walked across no-mans land into Bolivia. After filling our our paperwork and getting a Bolivian entry stamp in our passports, we got onto our bus. We had wheeled our luggage across the border and it wasn´t even checked!!

We headed to Tiwanaku, the site of a pre-incan civilisation. We stayed around here, having a tour for a few hours and we saw many similarities to what we had learnt about the Inca Civilisation.

We then headed to La Paz, which is the highest capital in the world (even though it is not really Bolivia´s capital!!) We all met up for dinner, since it is our last night with the group (only Jimmy, Fionnuala and Yvonne are continuing on). Jimmy was late for dinner as he hadn´t changed the time on his watch (we´re lost an hour when we crossed the border)!! Ended up in Mongo´s bar for a few last drinks together. Its really sad having to say goodbye to the group as it was a good group to be travelling with!

The next day, we met our new group, that consisted of Robert from Sweeden, Martha from Manchester, Ros & Terry from Gerrards Cross and Mary-Ann and Andy from Oregon. Our tour guide is Melissa.

That night we went out for dinner at Oliver´s Travels - a 100% fake English pub!! We met up with Karen, Karyo, Susan & Martin who, although they have finished our tour, are staying in La Paz for a few days. Headed back to the hotel in the middle of a downpour - the roads had become rivers!!

Lake Titicaca - our new Family!

We spent most of Sunday on a bus heading to Puno, which is on the egde of Lake Titicaca. The town was buzzing since they had been celebrating the anniversary of Puno. We are only really here for the night as we are using the place as a base to go to the Lake.

We set off early on Monday as we headed out onto Lake Titicaca. It took us about 2 hours to get to Taquille Island and we stoppped on the non-touristy side! We walked around the island with our guide, Henry, explaining what life was like here. Nicolas and Kate had brought little gifts for the local children (consisting of pencils and paper) and gave them our en route - the kids faces were a picture!

We then headed to Amantani Island, which is where we will stay the night with a local family. They don't speak Spanish, but Quechua, which was the native language before the Spanish invaded. We learnt a few basic expressions on the boat.

Kate and I were staying with Maruja and Ruben. They have 2 boys - Wilber (15) and Joel (13). The place is very simple, with the kitchen and dining area in one. The bedrooms are upstairs but in a separate building and the bathroom is the other side of the kitchen. Nicolas is also staying with us. We met the grandfather, also called Ruben, who asked Nicolas which one of us was his wife so he said both of us - that got Ruben laughing for ages!!

We were then taken to a football match - the locals play the tourists and it was the first team to 6 goals. It was one game all (the tourists had won their game 6-0) so it went to golden goal! The tourists won, which was the first time that the locals had been beaten!!!

Back at our 'home', Kate and I helped prepare dinner, which consisted of us podding the green beans (although we did it wrong as we later found out).

After dinner, Maruja dressed Kate and I in traditional dress, which consisted of a blouse with intricate embroidery on it, several brightly coloured skirts and a tight waistband that held it all together. We also had a black shawl, which we could use to flirt with the men by concealing our faces, except one eye!! We then went to a local dance (just for the tourists and their familes). They had a band there who played rousing songs and we danced with our 'families'. The last dance seemed to go on for about 20 minutes before we decided that we were too tired to continue dancing!

The next day we boarded the boat and headed to the Reed Islands that are close to Puno. Everything here is made of reed, even the houses. The reeds on the floor are about 2m thick and are floating on 15m of water. It was a surreal feeling!! We were given a boat trip across to another reed island and then headed back to Puno.

That night we went out for dinner to celebrate our last night in Peru as we are crossing into Bolivia tomorrow.

The Return to Cuzco and White Water Rafting!

We returned to Cuzco and allowed ourselves a lazy day to recover from all the walking! We caught up with Milly and went for dinner in Jacks Cafe Bar which was full of tourists - the food was great!

The following day, Kate, Nicolas and I went white water rafting! We were driven to a river about an hour away, got into our wetsuits, given a brief lesson and got into the water. We were on a class 3+ river, which has medium sized rapids. We had a great time (and spent about 2 hours in the river). One of the guys in our raft fell out so I had to jump into the front of th raft, which was rather tricky considering that we were still moving! I also got the chance to steer the raft through a class 2 rapid, but ended up almost crashing with a rock! Couldn't think of the commands quick enough!!

The next day we wandered through a local market, which was ok until we got to the meat section - they sell almost everything including a cow's mouth, complete with teeth! Wasn't the most pleasant place I've walked through. We then headed to the cathedral and had a guided tour. There they have the Peruvian version of the Last Supper - complete with guinea pig rather than bread!!

That night we caught up with the rest of the group (most of them had gone to the jungle) and ended up in the Cross Keys pub after dinner for some drinks!

Inca Trail Day 4 and Machu Picchu!

We were woken at 4am today (without tea as we were in a rush)! We had breakfast while it was still dark outside the dining tent - pancakes with mango filling and toast. We then walked to the checkpoint and had to wait there til it opened at 5:30am. We were the 2nd group there (which was important as we'd get to see Machu Picchu without too many tourists there!)

To pass the time, Kate & Jimmy made up new lyrics to "Is this the way to Amarillo", which was sang quite loudly to the other waiting groups!

As the checkpoint gates opened, we set off at almost running pace (despite being told that it was not a race, the other groups were overly competitive and we wanted to overtake them!) We managed to pass most of the first group until we hit the 75 steps up - initially its ok, but the last 50 are very steep that we used our hands to help us climb them. At the top, we still had to do more climbing and more steps (!) until we reached the Sun Gate. The walk to the Sun Gate should have taken an hour and a half but we managed it in 40 minutes!! From here we could see Machu Picchu. It was in the distance but still looked very grand!

We walked down to the site and posed for the 'postcard' photos in front of it before Mauro gave us a tour of the place. It was discovered by American, Hiram Bingham in 1911. Machu Picchu was not mentioned in any of the chronicals by the Spanish (and wasn't destroyed), suggesting that they never discovered its existance. Because of that, the purpose of the place is still being debated!

A few of us (Jimmy, Chris, Katyo, Kate & I) decided to climb Waynapicchu, the mountain at the back of Machu Picchu (just for fun - to see the view!!) It was a long journey up along massive steps that required the use of the rope on the wall to pull yourself up. It was worth it though as the views were spectatular!

We left Machu Picchu and got the bus to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes to have lunch and to get the train back to Ollantaytambo and then a bus back to Cusco.

We were all shattered but really glad that we'd managed to complete the trail and see Machu Picchu. Got the stamp in the passport to prove it!

Inca Trail Day 3

Had another 6am wake up with tea! Breakfast was porridge, spring onion & ham omlette and toast! At 7:15, we headed uphill along some very steep steps (the Inca's had a thing about steps!!). We were in the Cloud Forest and there was a white blanket covering the valley. It was quite humid here but because of the altitude, it was cold.

We walked through some Inca tunnels, cut into the rock. They were quite small (as the Incans were 1.3 to 1.6m tall) and we had to duck! This part of Peru has over 350 types of orchid so Mauro was pointing them out to us!

We passed the ruins of Phuyupatamarca (the 'town above the clouds'). The Incan's used to stop here and wash to clense themselves before they would arrive at Machu Picchu and meet their gods. We then spent the next hour and a half climbing down. I was glad of my stick as the rocks were slippery. To pass the time, Mauro kept giving us riddles to answer, which was good fun! We also had a lesson on orchids (we managed to find 9 types on our walk)!

We arrived at our campsite at 11am (we only had to walk 10km today!) We headed to the main building and had the luxury of a hot shower!! We got back and had lunch - ham & mushroom pizza, minestrone soup and chicken curry, pasta and rice!

That afteroon, we took a stroll to the nearby ruins of Wiñaywayna or 'The Temple of the Rainbow' - an Incan Temple with a settlement below it. Mauro explained to use the several meanings behind the Incan Cross and how numerology is important for them.

Back at the campsite, we were called for dinner. It is Diane's birthday tomorrow so Carlos appeared with a massive birthday cake that he'd made that afternoon (with no proper cooker)!! We were very impressed! We then had dinner - corn soup, chinese rice, potaotes, lamb with mint, beef with vegetables in a wine sauce and sweet & sour bread! Desert was a purple corn desert with caramel and apple. They followed it up with sangria!

As it was our last night, we had a ceremony with the porters. They re-introduced themselves and said that it had been a pleasure being porters for us. We also thanked them for their amazing efforts and wonderful food. We told them that they were the best porters because they managed to get to the campsites before other porters and get us the best place in the campsite! They sang a song and danced with some of us. We then sang them a song - a 4 part harmony of In The Jungle, that we'd practised early at the Temple of the Rainbow! We also gave them a tip as they'd done such a wonderful job of looking after us! We all shock hands then went to bed!

Inca Trail Day 2

We were woken at 6am by the porters who brought us tea in bed! They also left a bowl of hot water outside the tents so that we could have a wash! Breakfast consisted of cereal and yoghurt, toast and pancakes.

We began walking at 7:30. Its not an easy start - we're only walking 3km but going from 3800m to 4250m to a place called Dead Woman's Pass (Warmiwañusca). Its pretty much straight up so Carolyn, Fionnuala, Katyo and I formed a group at the back to pace ourselves! We arrived at Dead Woman's Pass to clapping from the rest of the group. The views here were amazing (and there are no more pylons!)

As we were at the top of the mountain, the only way to go was down! But it was a long way down - to 3600m to Paqaymayo, which took us an hour and a half. The porters had been overtaking us since packing up the campsite and were running down big, wet steps. We were surprised that none of the slipped!

We had lunch at 11am, which consisted of potato and tuna starters, mushroom soup and beef and rice. It began to rain so we donned raincoats and ponchos and began walking the next bit - to an Incan message tower (called a Runkuraquy). Young boys used to carry messages across the Incan Empire by running to the next Runkuraquy and passing the message to another boy who'd run to the next tower. They used to be able to get a message from Quito to Lima in 5 days!

The original purpose of the Inca Trail was a pilgrimage so, following the traditions of the Incas, we each took a small stone from the Runkuraquy and were going to place it at our next stopping point - the Second Pass (which happened to be at the top of the mountain at 4000m!!!) We placed our rocks in a pile, wished for good weather (as it was still raining) and continued on our journey.

We walked down throught the Cloud Forest to 3880m and were on the edge of the Amazon. We passed the ruins of Sayaqmarka, that used to be used by the medicine men. We arrived at the campsite and played scrabble until tea (popcorn and biscuits). Dinner was polenta soup, spaghetti with ham & egg with a beef stew topping and desert was liquid chocolate!

Today was a very tiring day - we've done 30 of the 45 km and most of it has been uphill. I'm glad that from here on it's generally downhill!!

Inca Trail Day 1

We met our guides, Mauro and Diane, at 6:30am and drove to Km 82, the start of the Inca Trail. We are at 2750 metres above sealevel. As we got our gear together, our porters were carrying our duffel bags. We were amazed as they had between 20-25 kilos on their backs and were running to the checkpoint. One guy even had a gas cyclinder on his shoulders!

We had our photo taken at the start with big smiles!! We walked to the first check point and got a stamp in our passports to say that we'd begun the Inca Trail (we will also get one at the end to prove we've done it!!) We crossed over the bridge and were ready to begin!

We walked gently uphill, taking the route along the river. The views were amazing (spoilt only by the fact that we could see pylons along the valley!) We climbed some steps and stopped at our first resting point. We had bananas to re-charge the batteries and fed the skins to the waste-disposal unit - the local pig, who also tried to eat Karen's bag as well!

We continued on until we overlooked Llactapata, an Inca ruin that used to the the place where they mayor lived. Mauro gave us a brief history of the Incas: They were around from the 12th til the 16th century and were eventually conquered by the Spanish. They believed in inter-breeding and eventually had a mad Inca (or king). The people of Cuzco overthrew him and replaced him with a sane person! Cuzco was seen as the centre of the Incan Empire (which covered 5 countries). They did a lot of rituals, including human sacrifice!

We carried on (mainly uphill) and Kate, Jimmy & I played the name game to pass the time. We arrived at our lunch spot - Wayllabamba (at 3000 m) - after walking 11km! The porters had set up an dining tent for us and we soon tucked in to an impressive lunch of ravoli pasta (starters), asparagus soup, trout with lemon sauce, carrots, beans and rice. We couldn't believe it! We'd been told that we'd get the best food on the Inca Trail but didn't expect this!

I was not looking forward to the last 4 km of the day - for most groups this is usually done at the start of the 2nd day but we wanted to stay one step ahead of the rest! We have to climb 800 metres in 4km (to 3800m). We began slowly (especially as the altitude was now starting to have an effect on us, despite eating cocoa sweets)! Katyo and I took the leisurely walk up with Diane admiring the view and the many waterfalls around. It took an hour and a half to arrive at the campsite at Lluchapampa (we were the last but only by about 10 minutes!)

We were given tea, which consisted of hot chocolate (with rum in it!), animal biscuits and popcorn. We then met our team of porters - there are 15 of them ranging from 18 to 50 years old! We even had a chef (Carlos) who was dressed in chef whites! They introduced themselves and then sang a Peruvian song. We then had to introduce ourselves and say where we were from. They wanted a song from us so we did the hokey kokey (including the actions), which was very funny!

Dinner managed to be even better than lunch - vegetable soup, chicken in pineapple sauce, vegetable, potatoe cake and rice, with banana flambert for desert! It began to rain so we headed to our tents and got into bed (at 8pm!) .

Pisac and Ollyantaytambo!

We headed to Pisac and Ollyantaytambo, which are Incan Ruins in the Sacred Valley.

At Pisac, we saw the biggest Incan cemetry - they used to bury them in holes in the mountains so that they would be close to their gods. We walked around the mountain above the Inca terraces (used for preventing erosion, farming and decoration) and arrived at the settlement, which was impressive. They worshipped the Sun and the Moon and had temples for both of these in the middle of the settlement (althought the Sun Temple was the bigger as it was more important).

We carried onto Ollyantaytambo, which is where we'll be staying the night. The buildings here were not finished by the time the Spanish invaded and there are large rocks lying around. Their engineering was brilliant - they did not use any form of cement to join the bricks together of any religious buildings - they just cut them to the correct size.

That afternoon, we bought our supplies for the Inca Trail - walking sticks, drinks, sweets & chocolates!

Cuzco and the Guinea Pig!!

We were up at 5am this morning! We took a 30 minute flight to Cuzco, which is 3400 metres above sea level. It is good practise to get acclimatised before we hit the Inca Trail in a couple of days time.

We didn't do much today as it is best to take things easy when adjusting to altitutde but we visited the main square and walked up and down some hills. It is difficult to breath at times and we were often pausing to get our breaths back!

This place is beautiful! We're returning here for a few days after the Inca Trail to really explore the place!

We went out to dinner and Kate & Jimmy decided to go halves on the local speciality - guinea pig! As you can see from the photo, it was cooked whole (including the head and paws!!) The chef then cut it into smaller pieces (but it still had the paws and some fur on it!!) I did try a small piece (you can´t get large bits of meat off it!). It was ok but wouldn´t want to eat it again! Glad I tried it though!

The Condors of the Colca Canyon

We took a four hour bus journey to Chivay, which is on the outskirts of the Colca Canyon. The journey was fine, except for the last 40 minutes which was on an un-tarmac'd road and was very bumpy! We headed up to the highest point so far - the Pata Pampa volcano which is 4910 metres. We felt very light headed here and it was hard to breathe! We saw some Vicuñas (part of the camel family) and a very friendly Alpaca (which would eat anything it could!)

To help with altitude sickness, we were told that the leaves of the Coca Tree are good. They have made it into tea and to sweets but we had it en natural on the bus - chewing the leaves. It made our mouths go numb and turned into goo! It is also the plant that they make cocaine from!!!

We had lunch in Chivay. Here the people dress in their native dress - the women looked so colourful! We looked around their market which sold handmade garments that are ridiculously cheap!

We then headed to our hotel in nearby Coporaque. After a brief rest, we did an hour hike up the mountains. Here we stopped at an ancient buriel site and admired the views! The land has been landscaped to form large steps - some of these pre-date the Inca Empire.

We headed back and went to the local hot thermal baths which were at 40˚c!! We lounged about and were brought drinks by the waiters! We didn't want to leave!

The next day we were up at 5am as we were off to the Colca Canyon to see the Condors!! They use the early morning hot air currents to soar (to conserve energy). We stopped a few times en route to view the Colca Valley & Canyon (we were 1200 metres above the Canyon floor). We eventually saw about 5 condors (which is pretty good this time of year as it is mating season). One of them was sitting on a rock near us for ages before decided to fly around and allow us to get some great shots!

We arrived back in Arequipa mid afternoon so Kate, Jimmy & I went to the Juanita Museum. Juanita was a 12 year old girl that was sacrificed by the Incas to the gods on the Ampato volcano. They used to walk from Cuzco to the top of the volcano (at 19000 feet). It was a 160 mile walk and Juanita had been prepared from the age of 3 to be a sacrifice. They performed a ceremony at the top of the volcano before hitting her over her head to kill her and then buried her on the volcano.

Her body was fully preserved (due to the fact that the top of the volcano is covered with snow). In 1995, when the nearby volcano of Sabancaya erupted, the snow melted. Part of the volcano collapsed and Juanita's remains were discovered. They have her body in the museum - you can even see her finger nails in clear detail! It was a little strange looking at a 500 year old body in near perfect condition!

We had a BBQ in the hotel for dinner, which was really good (despite the beef so raw that it was still running around my plate!!) We're flying to Cuzco tomorrow morning so its an early start!!