Lima

Hi guys,

We're home now, but I realise we haven't written a blog for a while so thought I would catch you up on the last week or so. Now that we have access to our pictures I have also added a few more to old posts!

So, from Cusco we flew to Lima and spent 3 nights there. When we first arrived we didn't really think a lot of the city, it was really foggy and the airport is by the docks so doesn't smell great and you can't really tell how much of the fog is fog and how much is smog. The first afternoon we didn't really do a great deal except work out what there was to do in Lima.

Me in the 'Love park'

The next day we went to Huaca Pucllana closeish to where we were staying which was a sacred pyramid of the Lima culture (one of the many and confusing pre-Inca cultures of South America) which we had an interesting mandatory tour of, it was made of mud bricks put together in a way to withstand earthquakes. We also met a very nice, but very strange Peruvian hairless dog!

Huaca Pullana pyramid

Peruvian hairless dog

In the afternoon we caught a minibus into the historic centre of Lima which turned out to be quite a long way and went to the Cathedral and the Museo del convento de San Francisco de Asis de Lima which again had a mandatory tour. We made a slight mistake in agreeing to do the Spanish tour rather than wait 30mins for the English version as the lady spoke very fast and it turned out our ability to understand about Catholic churches, Saint Francis of Assisi and catacombs in Spanish is fairly limited!

In the evening we had arranged to go to a dinner show with performances of traditional Peruvian dances which was impressive.

Us with some of the dancers from the dinner show

The next day we went on a gastranomic tour which involved a visit to the local market where we were told all about the fish, fruits and vegetables of Peru. Peruvian food was certainly the best we had of the countries we went to. We then went to a very smart restaurant where we learnt to make Pisco sours (the national drink of both Chile and Peru) and Cerviche (a raw fish dish which is very typical of Lima) and had a very nice but very smart 3 course meal.

Me in the fruit market

After a little siesta to recover from our huge lunch we went to the Parque del Agua which was a really impressive park full of illuminated fountains. So all in all a bit of a whirlwind trip to Lima! I will do another post for Iguassu.

The fountain park

So, by the end Lima had grown on us and we quite like it! I will do another post on Iguazu shortly.
Bye for now,

xKathryn and Ben

Inca Trail to Machu Pichu

Hello all!

We are currently in Cuzco having completed the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu on Sunday. We fly out to Lima later on this morning. Not quite sure what we are going to do in Lima yet as from the guide books it doesn´t sound that enthralling a place. We shall see!

The Inca Trail was absolutely brilliant; we had a fantastic group, a great guide, awesome porters (12 of them) who carried everything, amazing views and we were really lucky with the weather.

We went along to the Quechas Expeditions office a couple of days before the trek and were a bit nervous to start with as the office had moved and we didn´t have a new address for it. Luckily we were able to locate it and Wistman (the owner) put all our concerns to rest and told us all about the trek.

The following day (T - 1) we went back to the office to meet our group (who would later become known as Team Condor!) and have a pre-trek briefing by our guide, Efrain (Efra), and to meet our cook, Dimitrius. Our team consisted of the two of us and five Americans (four of whom are doctors): Mary, Patrick, Libby, Sarah and Xing.

The first day of the trek had a pretty slow start as unfortunately Sarah had been really ill overnight and was feeling awful and then it took ages for the porters to get all the equipment and our bags packed up into massive backpacks and thn to get through the control point. I still can´t believe how much those guys carry! And they pretty much jog the trail to make sure that the lunch and camping spots are completely set up by the time us tourists arrive! We stopped a few times before lunch for Efra to tell us about the origins of the trail and about plants and fauna that the Quecha people (only the kings/rulers were called Incas) used including: woodlice for dyes, black mint to flavour guinee pig and wild mint for making tea. Unfortunately it was raining a  bit over lunch but when we reached our afternoon stopping point on a ridge overlooking the first Inca archeological site, the clouds cleared and we were treated to one of the clearest rainbows I have ever seen. Really spectacular.

We made it to our camp site just as it got dark and after tea (which was accompanied by popcorn!) and dinner we headed to our tents weary and hoping that Sarah, who had been feeling poorly all day, would feel better in the morning.

Sadly, Sarah had an awful night and she, accompanied by Xing, had to head back to Cuzco the next day for some recuperation so our numbers were cut to 5. The second day was the most challenging in terms of the route with us climbing 1200m (up alot of steps) to dead woman´s pass (at 4100m), the highest point on the trail. We climbed through alot of cloud that day but were treated to glimpses of the surrounding landscape everyso often as we went. After reaching the highest point we had a long and tricky descent (due to the slippery stones underfoot) to our campsite where we arrived for lunch just after 2pm. With our days hiking completed, we had a siesta after another very tasty lunch. We were then introduced to our porters who told us a bit about themselves and became noticably more cheery once they knew our names and were keen to see photos of places that we had been on our travels. We played cards that evening with Efra and by the time we had had tea and dinner we were ready for our beds. Mary, Kathryn and I did a bit of star gazing before heading to our tents and saw a shooting star as we were scanning the heavens for the Southern Cross.

The third day there were a few aches in the group but the hiking was fairly gentle in the morning and we spurred on by calls of "Fly, condors, fly!" from Patrick and Efra. We saw three archeological sites that day, two of which seemed to magically appear out of the clouds as we approached. The afternoon proved harder work with about 2 hours of downhill, mostly steps, which the porters bounded down like mountain goats with their heavy packs. Needless to say, we took it a fair bit slower! We took a diversion at the end of the days hike to see the terraces that were used in Inca times for agriculture, and some impressive views of the river valley below. We also had our first sighting of Aguas Calliente and Machu Pichu mountain. Happily, we learnt that Sarah and Xing had caught the train to Aguas Calliente and would join us the following day at Machu Pichu if all went well. Another amazing day, ending with a goodbye ceremony for the porters who would leave us in the morning and a game of "Spoons" before an early night (we were to get up at 3.30 on the final day!)

After breakfast in the dark and a 10 minute walk, we arrived at the control point for Machu Pichu where we waited for it to grow light and for us to be allowed through. We then had an hour hike to the sun gate from where we would watch the sun rise over Machu Pichu. In March, the route to the sun gate had been closed because parts of the path had been destroyed by landslides but this had been cleared and we had no issues. The sun rise over Machu Pichu was spctacular. The Incas had designed the shape of the city to mimic the shapes illuminated by the sun as it rose through the mountain passses so we got some fantastic photos.

We then met up with Sarah (who was feeling well again) and Xing, and Efra took us all on a tour of the Machu Pichu ruins. With the exception of Mary, we climbed Wanipichu, which overlooks the archeological site, for some awesome views. It was a tough climb with very narrow steps to the top which you practically crawled up.

After meeting up with Mary at the entrance we went into Aguas Calliente for some much needed lunch and a well deserved soak in the hot spring pools.

Altogether an unforgettable experience and hopefully Team Condor will regroup in the future for another hiking adventure!

Coroico and Copacabana

Hello all,

We are currently in Copacabana on the banks of Lake Titicaca but we leave this evening on an overnight bus journey to Cuzco from where we start our Inca Trail Trek on the 12th.

Anyway, so what have we been up to over the last few days and over Easter?

Well, we caught a bus, more of a minibus really, down from La Paz (at 3600m) to Coroico (at 1525m). The road down is relatively new and runs parallel to the "death road" that used to be dubbed the most dangerous road in the world. People still mountain bike down the old road but we didn´t fancy it on this trip as we were both feeling a bit ropey. The views from the new road are still spectacular and our destination was perched on the side of a mountain. The hotel we stayed in was a massive place with swimming pool etc. overlooking the amazing views of the valley below.

View of the mountains towards La Paz and the Altiplano from Coroico

Our second day in Coroico we did a walk along the sides of the mountains to 3 waterfalls, the 3rd of which had a pool at the bottom in which you could swim - very refreshing after our hot 3 hour walk (the temperature in Curoico is much higher than La Paz due to the lower altitude). The scenery was spectacular as the mountains that form the Altiplano tower above you meaning that there is no real horizon.

On Saturady we got an early bus from La Paz to Copacabana where Easter celebrations were in full swing. The beach had been converted into a sort of oversized village fete with lots of little games and stalls selling food and drinks. We had some tasty sandwiches (Choripan, with sausage, and Pork) and then caught a boat to Isla del Sol which is a lovely island with no roads or cars. Very serene indeed after the hustle and bustle of La Paz. It is a very sacred island where the Incas believed that the Sun and Moon were created. Hence there are quite a few Inca ruins to look around. When we arrived on the Island a little boy took us up a vast staircase to a nice little hospedaje called "Las Cabanas" which had an amazing view over the bay. From our deck you could see numerous Llamas and thoughout the evening we could hear the sound of donkeys braying.

View from our accomodation on the Isla del Sol

Our second day on the island we walked from the South to the North along a path along the top of the mountains.From the highest point you could almost see the shores of Lake Titicaca in every direction - the rest of the tmie it doesn´t feel like a lake, and it is easy to forget that you are over 3500m above sea level! We got the boat back to Copacabana from the North which stopped off at some floating platforms that the locals use to breed fish in net pens.

Ben and Kathryn at an Inca temple on the Isla del Sol

Today we have been up the hills that overlook Copacabana and will shortly be getting a late lunch / early dinner before we catch our overnight bus to Cuzco.

Hope that all is well in the UK. Won´t be long until we are back! Only 15days of our travels remaining. Looking forward to catching up with everyone.

Will let you know how the Inca trail goes - hopefully we have done enough to aclimatise to the high altitude by now!

Love Ben and Kathryn

Salt flat fun and games!

Hi All,

Hope everyone is well. We are now in La Paz. We arrived after an overnight bus trip from Uyuni, which unbelivably (and slightly inconvienently) arrived 2 hours early at 5.30am. I have to say the buses in Bolivia are a slight let down after the Argentinian really posh ones, but they got us here so can´t really complain! Luckily our hotel were really nice and let us have the room at 6am without charging us for an extra night, and they would even have given us breakfast if we hadn´t slept through it! We were completely exhausted and a little worse for wear after our adventure in Uyuni. But all recovered now after a good deal of sleep.

So, our trip to Uyuni: We did a 3 day tour including the Salar de Uyuni (the biggest salt flat in the world), a number of lagoons, a volcano, a train graveyard, lots of desert, lots of flamingoes etc. All the sites were great and our little group was really nice. A German couple (Ralph and Merriam) and a guy from Mexico (Luis) and one from Venezula (Jose) who work together in Mexico city. The source of the fun and games was our driver and car!

The first day was great, the salt flats are like nothing I have seen before, and we spent ages doing fun pictures as you don´t really get a sense of perpective. (Still having trouble finding computers with SD cardslots so will have to add pictures later). The driver was a little impatient, but seemed ok, the words ´Vamos chicos, vamos´ will be ingrained forever I think!

Piles of salt drying before processing by the locals

Day 2 we were supposed to leave our lodgings (a very cold room with 6 beds and poor Luis snores like an elephant!) at 7.30am, but once ready were told we were leaving at 9.30! Having arrived at the first sight (some interesting rock formations) it became apparent our driver was drunk! After a bit of shouting he stopped the car and Luis drove for a significant amount of the day. It was fairly scary, but he had sobered up by the afternoon and things went ok until the car overheated due to a large hole in the radiator and the distintegration of the fan! After a lot of ignored advice and pouring a copious amount of drinking water (we were in a desert!) and Coke into the radiator which just came out of the bottom, we hobbled on to the ´Stone Tree´and were picked up by the other driver from the same company who had dropped off his group. This was not the saving grace it sounds as he had also been drunk earlier in the day and had almost driven his group off the road! Anyway, we made it to our even more basic lodgings (candle powered with concrete beds!) in the hope that the car would be fixed for the morning and we could get back to Uyuni.

Our tour group of the entrance gate to the village where we stayed the 1st night

The next day the car gave in again, but luckily by this time (about 10am having got up at 4.30am to fit in the day´s sights) after half the people had been dropped at the Chilean border so there was space for us in the car of another company for the rest of the trip. Soooo much better! We did have a lovely day though having seen geisers and swum in a pool heated by a hot spring.

A familiar sight on the trip!

So, it was quite an adventure, but we got back in 1 piece and in time to catch our overnight bus to La Paz!

So far in La Paz we have had a look around the city and been the main museums, which didn´t really take long! The coca museum was a highlight though - I´d not heard of it. It is the coca leaf that is used to make cocaine. In Bolivia it is chewed, or made into tea for altitude sickness and to help you work harder etc. no wonder really given the traces of cocaine! Also apparently originally used in Coca Cola (the museum claimed they still use the leaves for flavouring, but coke no longer contains any cocaine!)

Today we went to Tiawanaku, the capital of the pre-Inca Tiawanaku people, which had some cool monoliths and partly reconstucted ruined temples etc. It was a good trip and we had a chance to try llama meat at lunch (a lot like pork!).

Tomorrow we are going to Coroico as it is supposed to be a beautiful little town in the Yungas with an impressive bus journey to get there (the new road that replaces ´the most dangerous road in the world´), then back the La Paz for a night before heading to Copacobana and Lake Titicaca.

Only 3 weeks left, doesn´t time fly!

Love to everyone,

Kathryn and Ben

Salta road trip and journey to Bolivia

Hello all, following our last posting we flew to Salta which is quite a nice little city. We hired a car for three days to see the main attractions of the area which are generally amazing rock formations (some of which were used in the filming of The Empire Strikes back - will definitely be watching that again when we get back!).

More details on that when we have the chance to update this!

Having dropped the hire car bakc in Salta, we caught an overnight bus to La Quiaca on the Bolivian border. We got there at about 5am and had to wait a couple of hours for the border into Bolivia to open but we got acoss without any trouble. We then managed to book a bus to get us from Villazon (on the Bolivian side of the border) to Uyuni. After a bit of waiting around, we realized that Bolivian time is an hour behind so even had time for some breakfast before we departed on one of the oldest and most rickety buses I have ever seen! It did however get us here although there were a few worrying moments when we stopped for 30 minutes and the driver spent most of the time underneath!

Anyway, we are just about to head off on a three day tour of the salt flats and the national parks where we should see Flamingos, Geisers and Lagoons. Anyway, we have to dash so will update this when we get to La Paz on Tuesday morning.

Bye for now!

Ben and Kathryn x

Muchos Vino!

Following our trekking activities in Torres del Paine we flew up to Santiago de Chile. To help us recover from our trek we stayed in the Crowne Plaza for the first night and made use of the swimming pool and sauna facilities the next morning. We had an empanada brunch in a park called Santa Lucia which is a small hill in the midst of the city with impressive fountains, park squares and stairways built to a viewpoint at the top. We did a free city tour with a company called Spicy Chile which had good reviews but unfortunately it was the tour guide's first solo attempt and he was a bit rubbish. We saw some nice parts of the city and a couple of impressive buildings though - including one entirely clad in copper (Chile's main export product) - what a waste given the price at the moment!

We met up with one of my Atkins colleagues, Chris, in the evening for dinner and a couple of drinks. It was good to catch up and it sounds like he's had an amazing time travelling in Asia and New Zealand. For dinner we tried some authentic Argentinian cuisine, a pie composed of minced beef, sweetcorn and spices, and topped with mashed corn - very tasty but we felt very corned out by the end of the meal!

The following day we climbed Cerro San Cristobal to see the statue of the virgin Mary and for some good views of the city.

Santiago seems like a lovely city in which to live but after a couple of days we had exhausted the most accessible tourist areas and were glad to be moving on to Mendoza for a more relaxed period.

Our first day in Mendoza we hired some bikes in the Maipu district and visited three vineyards: Trapiche, La Rural and Bodega Lopez. We also had a tour of a Family olive farm where they also grew peaches, almonds, quimces and a few grapes from which they made a variety of chutneys and jams. It was a really good tour and as the family didn't speak any English we were able to practice our Spanish listening a bit.

Today, our second day, we have been on an organised wine tour in a different district of Mendoza called Lujan de Cuyo. Here we visited Septima, Norton and Bonfanti wineries. At the first two, we were able to watch them preparing the grapes for the fermentation process as it is currently harvest time. All very impressive and of course we got to try quite a few wines - 12 in all I think...!

We have just booked ourselves onto a high mountain tour for tomorrow (our last day in Mendoza) which will take us into Aconcagua National Park and partway up Cerro Aconcagua which is the highest mountain in the Americas at 6,959 metres. Now, we are going to get some dinner and enjoy our free glass of wine!

Will report back again soon.

Lots of love,

Ben and Kathryn

¡Adios Chile!

Hi All,

We are currently at the holiday inn at Santiago airport as we decided to use some of Ben's points and take it easy in the morning before our flight to Mendoza. It's not that early, 10.30, but by the time you've taken the bus and got there an hour before etc then its a fairly early start. We have just been trekking in the south of chile for 4 days and had a couple of days wandering the city here, so an easy start is good. And also a good start to a few chilled out days in Mendoza, wine country back in Argentina!

Our trek in Torres del Paine was really good. It unfortunately ended up a W with a short middle bit as the 3rd day it rained all day. The rest of the time the weather was good (although very windy) and I think just one bad day is lucky for the end of the summer down there. I will try and add some pictures at our next stop. We stayed in refugios (kind of hostels) along the way that serve breakfast and dinner and give you a pack lunch (if you pay of course) we decided to go for full board as we didn't really fancy carrying food for 4 days and a tent and pots and pans etc. Not bad food, simple, and lots of tinned fruit etc. but pretty good (I'd forgotten how much I like tinned peaches!) We met lots of lovely people along the way, all doing the W trek in some shape or form.

The trek (our way anyway) starts at a refugio called Las Torres where the 1st bus for the nearest town, Puerto Natales, and a transfer get you there frustratingly late at 11.15 having picked you up at the hostel at 7.30! Frustrating because it goes round the hostels in a small town and then stop for coffee for 1/2 an hour on the way.

Anyway, you first walk up to see the Torres (towers) and then back to stay at the refugio at the bottom (19km)

The second day was fairly easy, only a 4.5 hour walk (~11km) to Los Cuernos a bit before the middle of the W. That day was beautiful, a little windy by the lake, but really hot and sunny.

Although the sun was out and the weather was generally fantastic, it was pretty windy. The white line on the lake is spray being lifted by a gust of wind as it passed over the lake.

The third day was going to be our hard core day going up French valley (the middle of the W) and then down again and along to the bottom left hand corner (a total of about 26km which was likely to take about 8hours). Unfortunately it rained all day and most of the valley was in cloud. We got up to the 1st look out point and saw some of the hanging glaciers when the cloud blew clear a bit but were pretty soaked and cold so decided not to continue, all you could see up the valley was cloud anyway.

Ben looking extremely wet in front of glacier Frances in French Valley.

We then stayed at Paine Grande before our final day from there up to Grey Refugio at the top of the W. We had booked a boat ride from there down the hotel on the other side of the lake via the front of the Grey glacier which was a lovely end to the trip (and saved walking back to Paine Grande!)

An iceburg on the beach with Glacier Grey in the background.

Right, bed time! I will tell you all about Santiago etc when we get to Mendoza.

Lovely to hear everyones news, thanks for all the e-mails!

Love to everyone,

Kathryn and Ben