Valparaiso

Today R & M had a day tour to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, on the coast, West of Santiago.

The weather has improved, no rain, is still a little grey, and because it is winter the place didn't have the buzz we expect it must have in summer.

Our driver was excited about the area but we found it hard to match his excitement.

Our driver also told us about the limited number of dangerous animals and insects of the area, concluding that the most dangerous animal he knew of was his mother in law!

You can see who has the power in this area: the Navy! They dominate all the best areas and buildings, even more than Catholic Churches, for the first time.


It is also a very busy commercial port, which is good to see. We hoped that some of this economic growth would eventually lead to more upgrades for some of the excellent, but tatty, architecture in the area.


We had another $30,000 meal, which was worth about $300, and then headed to the airport, where we are now.



Observe R's beer (cheers to K & B), and my orange juice!

See you all soon.

R & M

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Santiago day one

Ron and Mike were collected at 10am for their city tour. The constant, moderately heavy rain made sight seeing a little difficult, however, we wanted to get out for a look all the same.

During the driving we spoke to our driver about Chile and he generally gave us an optimistic reply about economics. He became a little more sensitive when I asked about the Pinochet era, but he remembered the black markets well, from the day, and claimed to have found his wife on such a black market! 'Bery expensive' (they have difficulty pronouncing V) he said; we advised him that wives were no cheaper elsewhere! :)

I also asked him about racism, or minorities that may be disliked in Chile. He replied that they do not have many black people, and have no problem with their presence, 'it's the Spanish we do not like!'. Mmm, we have heard this before.

Along the way we also observed a lot of graffiti, often on historic buildings which deserved more respect in our opinion. It is a worldwide problem, but sad to see, especially on certain structures. Next we passed a street demonstration, at the Plaza de Armas (most cities, town and villages seem to have one of these, plus several Catholic churches), by workers demanding more pay; 'just like NZ' we told him.




First stop, we went up to the top of the highest hill in the city, Cerro San Cristobal, where we were told that Pope John Paul II had once held a service for locals. Our driver told us there was virgin at the top of the hill, but he planned to stay in the car.

There is a Virgin Mary at the peak of this 'hill for tourists', which, with great care I note that Ron agreed to 'approach' her, so I could capture a photo (all for the purpose of good holiday records, of course).




With the virgin hunt over, and the rain still falling, we dashed back to the car, observing how slippery the rocks become with a little rain. We wondered how slow our descent may have been on the Inca Trail if we had encountered any rain.

Next on our list, before the driver ditched us, was a wine tasting visit to Concha y Toro, a vineyard that is clearly one of Chile's larger wine makers. We got to taste two wines and visit the cellar (Casillero del Diablo - named after the devil to scare away wine thieves it seems to us).

It was interesting, and the wine was nice, but the tour was a wee bit like a message and process delivered by recording and we only got our guide off the subject a couple of times as we tried to make it more personal. It seemed that he was on a '15 minute' precise schedule to me, but he got the job done.

We didn't want to carry any wine home, or our gift glasses, so we may take a look in local wine stores when we get home.

Our driver then dropped us back to the Mercado Central de Santiago (the market) which has many eating spots around what looks to be mostly a fish market. The lunch we had was excellent, although it is the first time either of us had spent in excess of $28,000 (Pesos) on a meal.








After lunch, we put on our experienced underground users hats and took on the Metro to be back to our hotel, reasoning that it would be both cheaper and faster than using a taxi (the traffic is dense and mostly operates in a confused state, a little like the rest of central and southern America.

Our 'Espanol for being polite' was insufficient to convince the lady behind the ticket window to sell us a ticket. So a quick trip to the service office yielded help. Habla Ingles por favour? Everyone pointed at the girl in the corner. She kindly helped us back at the ticket office, and away we went. The Santiago metro is almost exactly the same as others around the world, save two aspects: the ticket machine had no English or image based process and the Metro runs on tyres, not rails.

We are back at the hotel now, may yet go out for a meal, but then seek more sleep before visiting Valparaiso tomorrow, then catching a late flight out, bound for home.

We may not encounter wifi again tomorrow as we return directly from the coast to the airport. Maybe at the lounge? We will see.

If not, we hope you are all warm, and well. Look forward to seeing you soon.
R&M

Santiago, Chile

The weather guy, AKA, our guide/driver, was correct with his forecast.

It is raining!

Jackets out for the first time since they provided seating at one shady area of Machu Picchu. We are not going to let a little water stop us.




Ron has grabbed a local map and Ainsley will be pleased to learn that his first question was 'where is the nearest shopping district' (por favor, of course).

Donder estar las tiendas del diamondos? (I'm sure that's what I heard him say).

I'll make sure he finds the expensive shops!

R also received a text from Katie, safely in Paris, albeit a little behind schedule, and then one to confirm she was almost home.

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On our way home

We have had a great time together, especially, for me, the Inca Trail which was a combination of the hardest effort and the best highs, if you'll excuse the 14,000 foot pun. But now we are all looking forward to getting home.

Yesterday was one of doing as little as possible, moving from our rooms, to breakfast, to our books, to lunch, a brief kayak across the bay, back to our books, a little drink, then dinner, then back to bed again. It was nice not to be rushing around.

We each commented that as nice as the island had been, our chef on the Inca Trail, operating out of a tent, had delivered better meals. Mind you, his meals had been better than many during our trip, even if we discounted it a little for being starving and hugely grateful for food during a hard days walking.

The place we stayed at is at the top of the hill in this photo (the beach front place can be hired too). The blue skies tell a nice tale about warmth in the direct sun, but the climate was quite cool as soon as you move to the shade. This island is at 12,500 feet above sea level so walking up the stairs from the beach to the bar was still hard work!

Today was a day of travel, leaving Isla Suasi on our own private launch to return to the 'mainland' which you can see in the background.

With life jackets branded 'Titanic'!

After crossing the small channel between the island and the mainland Lucho drove us, by bus, the two hours up to Juliaca airport. I think the distance was probably only 80-100km but by the time you slow for sheep, alpacas, locals, and what Katie described as a perpetual state of road repair and realignment our average speed would barely have been 50kph.

Another very interesting behaviour that you notice travelling through rural Peru is the communities strong desire to paint the sides of the houses with the brands, colours, logos and names of the politicians they support. 'Lucho a presidente' (not our bus driver), even Elvis was back kand standing for election in the region near the beginning of the Inca Trail (free peanut butter and deep fried banana sandwiches for all? - Ed). Can you imagine painting the side of your house with 'John Key or David Shearer for PM?

There was so much of it visible I doubt that political pollsters could set up business here. There would be no need for such 'discovery'.

We flew to Lima together but from there we had to issue final hugs as Katie headed North to Paris and Ron and Mike headed South to Santiago, with two days to kill before their connecting flights home.

Whilst waiting at the airport Mike visited Starbucks for a coffee, and a name change:

As I write we are in Santiago, with respectable wifi speed at the hotel. 

Tomorrow and the next day are filled with local tours to fill the daylight hours and then we fly out late on Thursday local time, getting home early on Saturday NZ time. The local guide said to expect rain tomorrow, something we have not seen since we arrived about 18 days ago, which has made for easy progress for us, especially on the Inca Trail which would have even more demanding, if wet.

We look forward to seeing you all at our various homes and then displaying many of our photos, which may one day include some that our Inca Trail 'friends' proposed to share over the weeks ahead.

Isla Suasi and lake Titicaca

It transpires that Isla Suasi does have wifi, but only around the couches near reception and it is not fast enough to upload photos (without remarkable patience), so I am pleased I put a few up from my phone yesterday.

We awoke this morning, yet again at a silly hour (5.30am), to hastily scoff some of the Buffett breakfast at the Casa Andina hotel in Puno, then rushed out on to their private jetty to board a moderate sized boat which would take across lake Titicaca to Isla Suasi.

Lake Titicaca is very large so the journey across takes several hours, but included two tourist stops during which we met a President and a Mayor.

Firstly, we stopped at Isla Uros, a floating island made of reeds, we were introduced to the President who kindly explained how they made their island, their homes, their utilities and how to stop their island simply floating away (or being stolen). No, we didn't ask for photos with the president because with a total population to govern of only 35, and annual recycling of the role, we wonder if he had just been the slowest to keep his head down at the last elections.

The ladies wore very bright colours, all looked better fed than the surroundings implied, but were most hospitable to us and minimised the feeling I had of imposing ourselves on their tiny village, all in the aid of tourism dollars. We were pleased to learn that our tour paid them 5 soles per guest to reduce the pressure to buy things from the range of items available.

We then moved on the a larger, solid, island call Taquile where the local inhabitants described their lifestyle, danced for us, displayed some of the products they make and were generally very hospitable again. I did buy an item here because it was nice to see them being made in front of you, unlike many of the markets that we have visited west in Peru.

I think the photos of these colourfully dressed people will need to be displayed once we get home with our cameras because I do not expect to be in range of high speed wifi over the next few days, before getting home in the weekend.

Today we have a full day on Isla Suasi, and will for the first time sleep in (done), and fill our day at a slow rate, possibly including some kayaking, before packing our backs to head toward home tomorrow morning.

We are all looking forward to getting back home to family and partners.

  

MP to Cusco and on to Puno

After our second night in Machu Picchu Pueblo (sometimes called Aguas Calientes in material) we boarded the same train that Becky used to return to Cusco, or in our case to Ollantaytambo where a bus connection took us back to the city.

It is a longer trip than you expect, around 3 hours, and it wasn't made any more enjoyable by the fact that Peru Rail turns the train ride into a fashion show with music to try and convince us to buy more Alpaca clothing! This was a bizarre situation where they tried to convince passengers to get up and dance and parade the clothes too. Best to just look out the window at the view and not catch their attention.

We got back to Cusco at 7.30pm, back to the same hotel, and immediately went back to the Museo del Pisco on the corner near us to try one or two more of their cocktails and their tapas menu. Both were excellent and continued the high quality food experience we have had when eating in Cusco.

Our waitress was both bilingual and witty when she explained that the more cocktails a customer has, the better their Spanish gets!

However, we didn't need too many as we were again up before the sun to catch our 10 hour bus ride from Cusco to Puno. None of us relished this thought, but it turned out to be OK because they stopped several times for scenic spots and lunch and this combined well with the opportunity to claim a couple of missing hours of sleep.

Rural housing is modest, but usually complete and well maintained, which I say because most housing in the cities and large towns look awful, usually in an unfinished state. We speculated that this ridiculous situation must relate to a tax incentive and our bus tour guide confirmed this for us. The problem is chronic in my view and displays very weak government policy behaviour along with very poor town planning, if they have local government structures too.

You can easily spot the tax free organisations by their completed buildings, witness churches, government buildings, sports structures and possibly the rural business sector. This tax distortion is a mad situation for Peru in my view.

We have arrived in Puno, which, like Juliaca city that we travelled through, looks 'interesting' to review, but wouldn't appeal to most of you as places to stay long. We are staying one night (done) and now head out to Isla Suasi (on lake Titicaca) for two sleeps before beginning our journeys home.

Katie travels on from Lima, once we get there, but Ron and I must wait in Santiago two more days for our connecting flights to NZ. I would be surprised if we have wifi on the island, so if not I'll load any new images or comments in the days ahead.

Bus Ride

Here are a few photos from our 10 hour(!) bus ride from Cusco to Puno.







I remember once my parents saying there are only so many churches one can visit, during a trip to Europe. I understand the point now, in this land of conquering Catholics.


More inca ruins South of Cusco.



Back above 4,000 metres on the pass between Cusco and Puno.



A carving from a civilisation said to date from 400BC in Pukara, still on our way to Puno.

As I write we are now in Puno, which is not the flashest town we have seen, and get up, yet again, at 5.30am to go out to Isla Suasi on Lake Titicaca.

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Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

The Inca Trail (we will try to integrate photos later when confident about wifi etc)

On some rare occasions, regardless of ones language of choice, the words simply don't exist to accurately match the emotions that one feels.

The day, hour and minute that we stepped through Inti Punku (the sun gate, entry to Machu Picchu) was such an occasion.

Our group of 13, plus guides, now good friends, from NZ, Canada and the US (and Peru in the case of the guides) hugged in satisfaction at completing a difficult four day 'hike' and simultaneously searching for adjectives and cameras. The cameras were found, and used, but no single word, or short combination of words seemed to accurately summarise the emotions combined with the initial view of Machu Picchu.

The group was definitely not speechless, especially not 'Doc', our most colourful character,  but the conversation of awe was lengthy, repetitive and for me a pleasure to listen to because it represented the combined excitement and relief of those who walked the trail and enjoyed each others company over the past week.

When we looked at some of the hills, on approach, anxiety always rose about our potential to reach each summit, so you can imagine the multiple points of relief and cumulative joy as each was ticked off, and then the finish line crossed.

Many people seem to have walking the Inca Trail on a bucket list. I am here because I enjoy participating in the great outdoors with friends and family. Regardless of the motivation the Inca Trail is indeed a very special 'journey' and we all feel very pleased that we have completed it.

The walk, or hike as our new friends like to describe it, is undoubtedly hard work, and it is extra-ordinary that any civilisation would choose to base significant parts of their society amongst such steep country, but with some training (or not? - Ed) a wide range of people can complete the Inca trail.

At times modest fitness and or the altitude (13,775 feet at the high point and mostly above 10,000), combined with climbs so steep only stairs enable passage, many of us progressed with no surplus of oxygen to participate in conversations with fellow walkers!

We often commented that for two days we walked and slept at an altitude above the peak of Mt Cook. As it happens, our days in Cusco had prepared us well and R, M & K all felt pretty good during the week.

Our guides, and the porters, were quite outstanding in their leadership, assistance, cooking and accommodation. Indeed, 'Benny's' cooking on the trail was better than our restaurant meals once we got back to the local township of Machu Picchu Pueblo, and he achieved all this from a modest green nylon tent!

Speaking of tents, travellers of the world will have experienced many different toilets. Those who complete the Inca Trail can add the 'micro tent bano's' to the list! 

Ron was confident the porters' got a better deal with respect to the loos, assuming they got the 'porta-loos', while we got the tents!

The guides are clearly very proud of their Inca history, and almost never mention the Spanish history, other than to describe their destructive approach. The don't say this just for tourism sake, history is what it is; they clearly feel more attached to the pre Spanish history of Peru (and other Countries on the West side of South America).

The many ancient ruins are impressive and do leave viewers contemplating the achievements of the people who built them and asking many questions of the guides. Our photos will lead to many more conversations when we get home, but we all felt a need to read more also, to fill in many of the gaps of knowledge, having now seen and touched these ancient structures.

By day 4 we all thought that uphill was all behind us, until the guides asked, 'have we told you about the 'Oh My God' stair case? You could see the colour drain from many cheerful faces.

Peruvians have a sense of humour, a little like our own, teasing us for the next few kilometres, because the OMG steps were indeed steep, but there were only 57 of them and we could see the top, from the bottom, which hadn't always been the case over previous days.

So happy were we to see this achievable, final, rise, that we all climbed them in one push and 'Doc' decided to run. We timed him at 23 seconds. Unsatisfied he went back down without his pack and ran again; 16.8seconds! Our guide, who by now thought we were mad tourists accepted the challenge and ran up also; 16.7 seconds, honour retained (Doc was gutted and insisted on a third run, but we assured him no further challenge was required to gain respect).

Unlike some walkers who faded a bit over the week, I think 'the Kiwi's' actually got stronger each day and we finished the walk confidently, and more than a little satisfied with our effort.

We had a good group of walkers who were a pleasure to be with, including three Jim's (James'). One prefers to go by Jamie, so that was easy. Jim suited another quite well, so it was his call sign. The third is a Doctor (radiology), hence 'Doc'.

Doc is a hyperactive, talkative guy who would always be interacting with the person, or persons within his range. Our group seemed to sub-consciously shuffle forward and back as if to share to load of listening along the trail. For such a vibrant, intelligent person, Doc made some unusual decisions - leaving wet sweaty gear out on top of his tent to dry overnight in minus 2 degrees Celsius!, running down steep descents to try and match the speed of the porters, taking high risks with his own ankles - but I like him on the basis that he was very generous with his medical assistance when people were unwell, carried other people's gear when they were struggling and was always a conversation starter (even if he then remained at the centre of each conversation!)

We will all get to tell you more about the members of our group when we get home, but we enjoyed each others company all week which made the trip very enjoyable when combined with the achievement of the walk itself.

Marie will be pleased to hear that Barry (from Sausalito, San Francisco) recommends the North end of Kauai, Hawaii, for the next holiday! For now we have climbed enough mountains and I think he is right.

There is so much more to say, later, but my attempt at a few highlight words for our week on the Inca Trail are: achievement, people and location, all preceded by the word 'special'.

Now we move on to Puno, via Cusco.

MP III more photos

This seems to work so here are a few more photos.






















This last shot is our 'more than satisfactory hotel' in AG.

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MP II photos

So, it transpires that wifi at the bar is much faster than the hotel. So, we had a vote and decided to stay at the bar a little longer, to upload more photos, for you, of course, being at the front of our thoughts!

























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Machu Picchu

Hi

Test upload from phone, in cafe, at Aguascalientes, post completion of the Inca Trail!




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Cusco part II

Today we headed off at 8am for our half day tour of some historic sites around Cusco, which we learnt was called Qosqo by the Inca, but the Spanish had trouble pronouncing this so they started writing is phonetically and came up with its current spelling. 

Actually, for those who are riveted by history, or imagining it from your no doubt comfortable homes, we also learnt that the term Inca is for the 'king' or 'leader' of the people (which follows blood lines like the monarchy). The people were known as Tahuantinsuyo's. Our guide pointed out that people of the Roman Empire were not all called Caesars (or perhaps he found it hard to pronounce caesarians? - Ed)

For all of that, I shall take the easy option and continue to use the term Inca when describing them to you, which may seem disrespectful, but it is also a lot less typing.

After boarding the bus Mike and Ron fell for what must be the oldest joke in modern Cusco. The guide asked; 'who wants to see the sexy woman'?

Naturally enthusiastic, but ever so diplomatic with daughters in tow, Ron and Mike confirmed that this would be an acceptable way to start the tour!

This next photo shows us arriving at SAQSAYWAMAN. Clearly the guide had mispronounced the name of the Temple of the Sun slightly, or perhaps he read it out too fast? Or just maybe, that smile on his face was telling a different story.

We spent about one hour walking around this temple, with more very impressive foundations, but the top side had again be raided by those dastardly Catholics to build more churches and monasteries at the bottom of the hill in town. Built, we were always told, by the Inca people, which is hardly surprising given that the Spanish had taken control.

It remains a shame that the Spanish destroyed so many excellent pieces of ancient architecture which have clearly stood the test of time from natural disasters etc, just not the test of mankind's behaviour! 

By the way, our guide is of the view that the Spanish found it easy to take control of Ecuador, Peru and then Bolivia and parts of Chile (Inca territory) because after the last Inca died his two sons fought over which should be the next Inca. Franciso Pissaro (from Spain) took advantage of this civil battle, probably played them off against each other while plotting to kill both, which he did. This is how they explain that only hundreds of Spaniards took control of a population of perhaps 12 million.

Looking back down on Cusco from the temple where you enjoy a complete view of the Cusco valley, with the main city centre in the foreground.

Next, we returned to town to see the Basillica and then another ancient Inca site (Koricancha), described as the centre of Cusco, which you may recall is their centre of the universe, so very important to them (but again, not to the Spanish who tore much of it down and gave the the fingers by build both a church and a monastery on top of the ruins!) 

This was taken inside Koricancha.

Some of the Inca foundations remain, presumably recognised as being excellent engineering by the Spanish, so we could see more of the incredible quality stone masonry, with consistent gaps that even Toyota would be impressed by, noting also that the Inca did not use mortar to hold stones in place. There has been little or no movement in the Inca foundations even though the area has suffered three very large earthquakes since they were mostly built (very slowly; decades).

The Basillica (cathedral), which is not in the photos on my phone sorry as none were allowed, was very impressive inside and much bigger than you expect based on impressions from the square. (this next image shows yet another church across the square with the cathedral behind me).

Religious orders typically spend enormous sums of money on their church's etc, and the Catholics seem to be the biggest spenders based on my travel experiences. Lots of gold and silver used, very detailed carvings, plenty of art works etc.

After lunch we went to the tour company ITTA who were organising our trek along the Inca trail. They lectured us, nicely, about what to expect on the trail and how to prepare (no mention of cerveza - Ed). They gave us a pack which the kind porters are willing to carry up to 10kg on our behalf, which is most of our gear. We will carry items to deal with cold or rain, photos, drinks etc.

There was a mixture of excitement and anxiety in the room with several people concerned about being tail enders. The guides said we should not worry about sore lungs, it is the whip which hits the slowest person that will hurt the most. More importantly he said 'we already have altitude, what you must bring is attitude'. So we will.

We have been out for another lovely meal, there is no shortage of good restaurants, and we are now back for final packing and sleep, until 5am! 

You will know we made it when we next reach wifi.

PS: I changed the photo to a better one from our lunch spot yesterday.

Cusco, the centre of the Inca universe

We arrived in Cusco yesterday afternoon which gave a pleasant, relaxed approach to day one, as encouraged by the guides after such a rapid change in altitude. We are now at around 11,000 feet.

The guides encouraged us to lie down for a couple of hours, but we knew better. Two friends had encouraged us to go to Jack's Cafe for great food, so we dropped our bags and headed out for what was indeed one of the better toasted sandwiches one would hope to enjoy (chicken, avocado and mushroom). Becky also had a very impressive hot chocolate, which I wouldn't mind going back for sometime.

After a little rest at the hotel, which by the way is a very impressive place, using an old monastery structure but updated fittings, bathrooms etc to deliver a very nice place to stay (even if the wifi is ridiculously slow), and then we head out to find a local bar and then search for one of the other restaurants that were recommended by our American friends from the jungle. We duly found both of them and chose one for a nice, light meal.

None of the good food spots that we have recognised so far have sales people at the door, so this will become our barometer for future choices. One can get very tired of the repetitive asking by street sales people to consider their offering. We wondered at what point is it rude to test their colloquial English by suggesting that they.... Well you get the point.

Today, as I write, is Friday and we joined a full day tour to the Sacred Valley of the Inca. The first stop felt a little too familiar initially, being a farm, with some alpacas and llamas to feed, but it became more interesting as they showed as local people dying wool solely from natural products and weaving. There wasn't a computer designing patterns nor a machine loom in sight, these ladies weave regional stories and information purely from memory of where the colours are required to be added.

I may be best to replace some photos as they slowly upload, but these ones are helpful.

Valley below us.

You could purchase such items, with notes about the weaver, the region, the wool source etc, so I did, preferring this to the more commercially produced offerings.

Speaking of which, our next stop was a market place at the bottom of the hill. If you have travelled the world it was 'Same Same, but different'. It includes some very nice items and helpful people who deserve sales, plus some uninspiring items and salespeople who are barely interested in anything more than your cash without doing more than rambling at you as you pass.

Back in the bus, then half way along the valley floor, where a very nice river runs (with a name that already escapes me) on its way to join the Amazon river, we stopped at a very pleasant spot for lunch. We have been told it is wise to eat light as low oxygen levels slow the digestive system, so we had soup, mostly vegetables.... And three pieces of light weight looking cakes for dessert!

By the way, the sun is out in Cusco, as is common we are told, and it is ideal for shorts or light trousers plus a T shirt, until the sun goes down when it falls quickly below 10 degrees Celsius.

The final stop along the valley if the most impressive and may well be worth spying on via Google Earth; Ollantaytambo, where three important valleys met and some very impressive architecture was built. 

A scene at street level, below the temple area.

Climbing toward Temple of Sun and Moon. We call it inca trail training. It seems that the good photos, looking up the terraces etc are not on my phone, so you will see them upon our return.

Some of it was built by civilisations prior to the Inca, who ruled from 900-1532, but we were told that the Inca were good at retaining good engineering and trying to improve on it.  Most of what you see is, as I said, very impressive, given how clever we think we are today 500 years later.

Many of the water races that deliver this life resource to various parts of the community still operate today.(photo to follow when it finally uploads!)

Sitting on the the temple, broken by those Catholics. 

Sadly,  what you then learn is that the dastardly Catholic Christians (Spanish origin) came along and started destroying things as part of their process of trying to wipe our previous ruling civilisations! I must apologise to Nigel (Katie's partner) at this point because Katie confirmed that you are from the Catholic side of the road. I am sure your family tree doesn't reach back to these destructive people, but I do hope you never kicked over your siblings' sand castles at the beach?

Walking our first connecting inca trail.

Actually, I owe Nigel two apologies. Whilst at the Inca site an American chap asked 'would you two like your photo together with the Temple of the Sun as a backdrop?'. Spotting an opportunity to further remove myself from being Ron's partner, or some other guy, I said 'sure, thanks' and grabbed Katie around the waist for 'our' photo! (Not on iPhone to upload, sorry).

The one hour journey back to Cusco allowed some to drift in and out of consciousness but it also showed us several rural communities and small villages, all of which show signs of eking out a living, simple structures, but nothing more. 

Regular readers will no longer be surprised to learn that Ron and I were dragged off kicking and screaming to yet another bar before dinner. This time it was Museo de Pisco (think cocktails). Pisco is a little like a white grape based rum, and thus can be mixed with almost anything according to the menu! Seen cocktails and one cerveza made for an agreeable entre and then we head to INKAZUELA for dinner, as recommended, and the recommendation was a good one, where the ladies kindly paid for dinner.

Tomorrow we have a half day tour around Cusco, which are already becoming familiar with, but I am sure they will take us to some highlights of the city's history to saving us hunting them out.

Time in the Jungle

By now readers will know that there is no junglewifi.com and almost no cellphone signal. This must be the first time since the Internet began, that I haven't been able to reach it. Marie would be pleased and, in a strange way, I am too. (We now find that Cusco wifi is of poor speed!)

As I write, offline, we are in the tropical rain forest of Peru (aka 'The Jungle' as the locals call it, removing some of the glamour. I'll bet the travel marketing folk would be disappointed). We are located in Puerto Maldonado, for those who actually have WiFi and would like a look. After searching this name, take your mouse, place it over then Madre de Dios (mother of god.... But fortunately not 'holy mother of god') river and head down stream a little. A little depends a lot on the scale of zoom on your web browser, but we are on the same side of the river as Puerto Maldonado (or we were at the time of writing), with Lago Salvado 'down river and inland' from us.

For the second, or maybe third time, in Peru, we observed half finished buildings where the lower levels were clearly finished but concrete pillars or reinforcing rods protruded above the roofline of the structures, looking rough and unfinished. we speculate that this is the objective, perhaps in response to lower taxes for incomplete properties? If so, it is a silly policy because it leaves much of the community, often second world in appearance, looking worse than it needs to. It was another example of those moments when I think; 'if I was president for a day...'

Prior to our arrival here we were well prepared with shorts, T-shirts, sunscreen and rain jackets. 'Expect 32 degrees Celsius, and rain (being a rainforest, and all). The main accommodation block plays out this rumour well with mosquito net walls and plenty of cooling fans on the ceiling. (And beer in the fridge - Ed). In reality we have had 12 DegC, plenty of wind, and no rain. Go figure.

Becky has taken to bringing an extra blanket to pre dinner drinks, Katie is often wearing all the clothes from her bag (Mum would be proud to know she alternates the layers to look like a changed wardrobe) and the wool that Ron and I thought was excess in our bags is in permanent use.

There are plenty of friendly, chatty, guests from various parts of the world who we have walked and talked with since our arrival, but several had struggled to pigeon-hole our group, generally offending me as they tried. 'So, you nice young ladies have two fathers?' (Nice!). 'So Ron is your father, and Mike is... Your Uncle?'. I am still waiting for someone to offer 'brother', or I would even accept cousin, but so far the ageing process must be more obvious than I realised.

The one good outcome is that the skin dissolving volume of DEET that we brought along, to frustrate the Mosquitos, is barely being used because the Mosquitos are tucked up in their own warm sleeping bags and aren't interested in biting humans. I wonder whether I should have visited a meteorologist before leaving rather than a travel doctor?

This lack of Mosquitos has made it very difficult for K, B and M to make fun of R's 'jungle suit' of matching trousers and shirt, let alone get photos for you all.

So what does one do in 'the jungle'?

Our guides make a real effort, through a programme of adventures, to show us the local environment. On the first night we boarded a river boat (the type many of you may have been on, so skinny that floating looks impossible, with an outboard motor) to go hunting for Caiman. We also used river boats to reach our other walks, except for the night walk around the accommodation. 

The caiman hunt was fun, but you didn't need Steve Irwin along for protection because most that we found would fit nicely in my back pack, but wildlife is always better than zoo life.

The next morning (day 2), at the highly irregular hour of 5am we were up to head to Lago (lake) Sandoval, for more wildlife hunting,seeing many bird species, a larger black caiman, a 3 toed sloth and many happy monkeys, but no otters or anaconda. We did get a good anaconda story though, involving the survival of a dog and his owner. I don't think our guide was making unreasonable excuses when he described the difficulty imposed by the low temperatures.

By midday we were back, to eat and fall asleep, before donning our walking gear again to head of to see the rainforest canopy via a sequence of swing bridges between two towers 32m high. As you might expect we all thought this was rather cool, and debated whether or not Ainsley or Marie would have happily tackled the bridges or not; do you think they wish they were here right now? We will show them the photos and ask later.

Again the volume of wildlife was low, probably as a function of the cold. Our guide tried to call them out with his cell phone by playing their bird calls from the phone. Kate whispered to me the birds are probably laughing at him, declaring that this iTune is so 2012!

However, excitingly (?) after our guide failed to coax Tarantula's out of their nests we were all pleased to find one using the accommodation at the 'hut in the trees' for those people wishing to sleep a night in the canopy (with a Tarantula - Ed). They are indeed big spiders, probably measured in kilograms rather than grams!

Our night walk was predominantly uneventful, save a few insects, and a troll that grabbed Katie's leg from a deep hole, but as with other expeditions it was good to be out in the wild.

Day 3 saw us head off on a visit to a local riverside farm. This was a great way to spend the morning and our guide got us very involved in their lifestyle, farming and trying the various products (various fruits, sugar cane, herbs and coconut). I hope this family is paid a little cash for having us traipse through their lives.

in the afternoon we went piraña fishing in a local pond, advised to just cut our finger and just stick your arm in the water! After and hour with rod, line, hook and bait we had all experienced bites but would have been quite comfortable leaping out of the boat to swim home (if the water hadn't been clay brown in colour). Late in the game our guide caught both a catfish and a piraña, which whilst it has a damaging set of teeth is more like a large goldfish than a Hollywood movie star.

As the temperatures improved, a little, we have seen more monkeys playing in the trees outside our accommodation. No walk required.

The accommodation has been very good. The food has been very good too. Well organised, helpful staff and good rooms. Electricity use is limited, loo paper is not to be flushed! (culture) the showers don't knock you over and the bar man could easily sell a few more drinks if he 'tried', but these are not criticisms, just observations, because we have had a very pleasant experience at Hacienda Concepcion (Inkaterra facility).

Speaking of a few drinks, which we have spent a reasonable period of time researching, the girls have tried two different 'Pisco' (local) drinks, Pisco Sour (the more famous, including egg white) and another with ginger ale (preferred) and we have all sampled Caiparina, Cerveza Casquena and South American red wine, all of which are happily consumed.

Our local guide, Ivan ('Evaan'), has been very good and reminds me how valuable being multi lingual is, and how important tourism is to many of the world's communities. Peru may well look like a desert from the air but we were pleased to hear that Ivan describes Peru as doing reasonably well and that the young were finding jobs.

We are now in Cusco and subject to wifi signals we will update again later.