Glorious Galapagos

As you can see the wildlife here is not as understated as it is at home. Frigate birds (or friggin' birds as we called them) come in two varieties - great and magnificent - and you can see that they really make an effort to impress. We first saw frigate birds in Brazil but here they nest and you can walk really close to them.  That's the theme of the wildlife - everything is so tame you have to watch your step to save standing on something. 

It's not so difficult to tell which of the boobies this is - we saw the two sorts of red footed, the Nazca and yes you guessed it - the blue footed boobies (they usually come in pairs - Ha Ha).

We flew up to Guayaquil from Lima but did not really see anything apart from the hotel because of a big demonstration in town which meant we couldn't go to the malecon but I don't think we missed much. Next morning we flew out to Baltra - the airport sits on a small island just off the top of Santa Cruz Island and we took the bumpity bus down to Puerto Ayora.  

Top Tip -If you had the time the cheapest way to get a cruise is to turn up here and just enquire if there are last minute berths - two people on our cruise did that and got a real bargain.  We walked along to Tortuga bay and swam in the mangrove lagoon and watched the birds before returning for a lobster dinner. The next morning I took the last opportunity for a run before being confined on board. Then back to meet up with the others on the boat - 2 Canadians and 8 Germans. 

There followed 8 days of island hopping and roughly 2,500 photos of spectacular scenery and amazing wildlife.  Each island is good for seeing different things and we were pretty lucky to spot the things we were supposed to. If you wanted to know what particular kind of beast it was (as above ) it is a pretty good bet just to say it is a Galapagos ........ or a Darwin's ........ Hence a Galapagos penguin or  Galapagos hawk.

 Below is one of the loveliest birds but difficult to photograph - the red billed tropic bird with its beautiful  dangling tail ......

Landings tended to be for a morning walk and an afternoon walk with a chance to snorkel on 4 days. It certainly is a slower pace and you got into the habit of just standing, ambling and gawking. Despite the slow pace you also feel the need to sleep a lot - although that may have something ot do with the large amounts of (very good) food we had. After each trip ashore there were snacks such as banana fritters or pancakes with various juices just to make sure we put on lots of weight.

One of the exemplars of this lifestyle is the sea lion.  There were hundreds of these and their life seems to consist of sunning themselves on the beach, feeding and playing in the surf.  The only stressed looking ones were the big males who constantly patrolled in the water and honked to keep other males away.  The babies were really cute and it was just the right season to see them tiny - the hawk above was hanging around to enjoy the rest of the placenta on the ground.

There were two itineraries our boat follows - the first one mainly around Isabella on the West side which is the largest island and involved more time on land - and the one we did visiting more islands to teh East and South. We ended up in a few long overnight sails which on two occasions were VERY rough, therefore:

Top Tip 2 - take along scopolamine patches which you stick behind your ear for 72 hours and prevent sea sickness.  They worked for us.  

This ugly looking bugger is a waved albatross chick and we saw the parents doing a groovy courtship dance - they apparently mate for life. I took along the DVD of Master and Commander and when they got to the Galapagos islands in the film I realised the shots were of the very place we'd been that day. Spooky. 

This was taken on the last morning - turtles coupling in a mangrove lagoon - making use of every last minute we were off at 6am to visit the lagoon and saw turtles, sharks and two types of ray- then back to the boat for a last breakfast.  

Swimming with sea lions was great as well - such a contrast to see them swoop and glide in the water instead of galloomphing around on the land.  The Giant Tortoises versus turtles are even more contrasting. Turtles in the water look like they are flying whereas tortoises move with almost glacial serenity chewing as they go.

So if you can visit the Galapagos then do so - you won't regret it. 

Last Days in Peru

After so long in the group the end of the tour suddenly loomed large. Linda, one of the Canadians said that "life is like a roll of toilet paper - as you get near the end it runs out very quickly". Everyone take heed.  With that in mind we spent our last full day in Cusco white water rafting and and zip wiring across the river. New experiences for both of us and we can't wait to go again.

We then headed off to Lima and immediately felt the oxygen fizzing in our veins (sats readings went from 91% oxygen to 99% once off the plane). Our guide Arturo took us on a whirlwind tour of Lima, his own city and we visited the main down town squares and took in the new park where a lights and fountain show is on every night- definitely worth a visit. Near our hotel was Parque Kennedy where hundreds of cats live. Verity got her feline fix.

We had a good farewell dinner and a drink afterwards. I got in from the club (apparently) at 2am. 

Next day we headed off to Goddaughter's Jo and Dave's for welcome cups of Earl Grey tea and Gin and tonics and laundry facilities - bliss.

They live near the cliffs and we could run in the mornings and watch the Paragliders and the surfers dodging the Pelicans. We arrived with nice sunshine but it soon reverted to the overcast and dull and smoggy sky that they live with year round. 

Highlights were a visit to Rafael's - a lovely restaurant, a lunchtime ceviche session and a visit to Museo Larco - by far the best museum we found in the whole of South America.  The erotic ceramics section was particularly striking. 

And now we've flown North to Guaquil in Ecuador for the ante penultimate stage of our odyssey. Tomorrow we follow in Darwin's wake and fly out to the Galapagos. Looking forward to seeing birds and all kinds of wildlife, snorkelling and making friends with another set of people. 

Hasta Luego

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

Most people have heard of MP the lost city of the Incas never found by the Spanish. Most visitors (2500 per day) take the train along the sacred valley from Cusco to the end of the line at Aguas Calientes and bus up via the hairpins to the site. 

Hardier souls like us hike and camp for 4 days on the trail high over the mountains and arrive high above the site at the Sun Gate where at the solstice the sun pokes through.

We were allowed 6 kg to be portered including sleeping bags and inflatable mattresses (a must have) and the porters were checked to make sure that they did not carry more than 25kg. This Durham pit pony can confirm that a porter's pack is a step too far. 

We started off travelling into the Sacred Valley visiting other Inca sites and weaving and restaurant co-operatives. The weaving was fascinating because they did everything from scratch including scouring, spinning and dying the llama and alpaca wool. I couldn't help thinking about Titus Salt who sussed out how to use alpaca and cornered the market.

Lovely eyelashes don't you think?

The question is - did Titus get it right? The houses in Saltaire are much "nicer "than here in the village but thy don't have the constant din of the looms or have to clock in and out. How much is enough?

Answers on a postcard please. 

The other sites made it apparent that civilisation depends on being able to produce enough potatoes and quinoa to support the guys writing poetry or taking gall bladders out without them being distracted by hunger. Agricultural terraces are the way to go. 

Day 1 of the inca trail is a gentle introduction, reaching halfway for a 3 course lunch. 

Wildflowers and humming birds slowed us down. 

Day 2 is the hard one - climbing over 4200 meters without a lunch stop but rewarded by fantastic views.

 The full team - porters, guides and all.

Day 3 involved walking over the real inca trails hewn out of the rock with dizzying drops down the mountain side. 

We had an early night to prepare for our 3.30 am start on Day 4. The porters had to catch a special train back from the valley floor and so we had to let them get off early and we hung around for an hour and a half before we could start. Time to finish Nicholas Nickleby.

Then along the narrow undulating path interspersed with steep steps with a rising sense of anticipation as we approached the Sun Gate.  And then the rain started........

So what did we glimpse from the long awaited gate?  The inside of a cloud.  We were very disappointed and hung around for a while hoping that it would clear before starting to descend towards the ruins.  But wait!  I think it's clearing!

And it gradually did clear to a blistering hot day with stupendous views of the surrounding precipitous mountains. It's no wonder the Spanish didn't find the place. The Incas knew it was all down to Location,Location and Location. 

The place seems to have been a mixture of administrative centre, palace, religious centre, agricultural site and military post. A lot must be conjecture and of course the mystery is how they managed to physically build the place. One theory is that they had a magic potion that they rubbed on the rocks to make them malleable and they could then fit them together easily. Sounds plausible.

You can see what the houses would have looked like when they were thatched. 

So a wonderful day but we were shattered by the time we had got down the hill to Aguas Calientes, had lunch and taken the train along the valley ( there is no road) to where we could get the coach back to Cusco and our final couple of days in Peru. 

Cusco - Capital of the Incas - and an educational update

Cusco is lovely.  High enough to be a good climate but not so high at 3400 meters that you can't run. Everywhere there are traces of the ancient civilisations that the Spanish destroyed although they sensibly used the massive foundations to rebuild their own cathedrals and colonial houses.  The Inca stonework is mind-boggling with huge stones carved to fit precisely against each other with no need for mortar.  So when the earth quakes came the foundations held firm and the Spanish bits all fell down. Ha Ha.

We looked round Qoriqancha (above) which has a Spanish cathedral rebuilt on top of the foundations of a temple originally sheathed in gold. You need imagination to picture what it might have been like but the remains are still pretty impressive. 

From the centre you can see green hills and woods rather than sprawling favelas but it might not be long before the countryside goes the same way as the other cities we have seen. It  was here we saw a french family with pannier laden bikes - Mum and Dad and three kids - the youngest on a tag-along. Respect. 

We  were there for the celebrations of All saints and had delicious food from stalls in the plazas. Guinea pig has never tasted so good.  

Verity was keen to buy some jewellery and it was fascinating to see this workshop - I'm sure it was a lot better quality than the stuff on the street but it needed to be to justify the price!

Peru is definitely richer than Bolivia so the people in costume may be there mainly for the tourists but they are still picturesque.

My self appointed tasks while taking a sabbatical have been coming along:

Learning Spanish - definitely been worth it but it's easy not to work on it when you're in a group of English speakers. I did manage to introduce myself in Spanish and struggle along at the homestay.

Keeping fit.  We have both been running and doing anything strenuous that presented itself and plans laid for Half Marathon and Marathon when we get back to grey and cold winter in England.

Learning poems by heart.  I've managed 8 so far - and one of them - the road less travelled - helped one of our group who was contemplating a big life change.  So who says poetry is useless.

Blogging.  At least I know how to write and add pictures and post - trouble is you need something useful to say............

Titicaca - a VERY big Lake

Lake Titicaca is massive - make no bones about it. It's all about the 3,800 meter mark so no running for a few days.  We visited the  pre Incan site of Tihuanacu on the way and found out that the Incas  were merely the last in a long line of civilisations and they pinched everyone elses good ideas. It seemed difficult to imagine a rich and complex society when it looks so poor and windswept and desolate now.  They think that there was a 60 year drought which caused all the people to drift away and allowed the Incas to walk in and benefit. Like a lot of what we saw in Bolivia it was poorly curated and seemed very sad and not a patch on what we saw in Peru later.

A big bonus throughout the high country was discovering just how accommodating the Llamas were. 

 We  had a tortuous journey across the plateau and across the Lake to eventually reach Peru and immediately could tell it was a richer society.  Puno was a nice town on the shores of the Lake and we celebrated Ifrah's birthday with a show of wild and wonderful dancing at a dinner show. Then off the next day we took cycle rickshaws to the port to board our boats to take us to the islands and to a remote community where we were to stay with a family in a homestay.

Aine and Linn were the two girls from Norway with us from Rio to Lima - unsuccessfully correcting my Norwegian as we went. I got pretty good at "otter" "whore" and "having a good time", so I'm all set for the fleshpots of Bergen where I will be understood. 

The floating islands really were floating and moored just off Puno where massive reed beds sheltered the port and the islands. They do seem to suffer being close to so many tourists and it was all a bit tacky. 

It was much nicer far out in the lake on Taquile island where the men do all the knitting. The climb up to the top of the island for lunch was pretty lung bursting and made us think about what was to come on the Inca Trail. Here Verity (on the left) is chatting to one of the knitters.

Lunch was great and we had a chance to see how the boys knit and the women weave. Amazingly complicated.

It was a long day before we finally reached the peninsula where we were billetted. The band came out to welcome us but before we could get dressed up in local costumes and show our dancing we had a crunch local football match. In the end we had to play the weight advantage (I am a veritable giant compared with Peruvians) because after running for the ball I couldn't breathe for 5 minutes. Thankfully I pulled a hanstring and Verity came on and sorted them out.

 

It was a bit odd staying with the family but I struggled on in limited Spanish and Lourdes and her Mum and Dad and Granny were very friendly (as were their sheep and pigs and cows).

Mum cooked simple vegetarian food on a clay stove and we were packed off to bed straight after dinner because everyone gets up very early.

Next morning we had to work for our keep, taking the sheep out to tether them on the salt marsh and peeling potatoes. I'm afraid we weren't very good subsistence farmers. 

Then off back to Puno to prepare for the bus to Cusco.

(Lourdes in the sheep pen)

Surviving Death Road

Travelling from the Salt Flats to La Paz involves a complicated change from buses to trains OR one long bus ride which turned out to be incredibly bumpy and freezing, plonking us down in the bus station in La Paz at 6am on a Sunday morning. Fortunately we had all decided to do Death Road by bike - so we had breakfast and set off to get kitted out for the dangerous ride down the dirt road which hugs the mountain side with the cliff plunging hundreds of meters below us. Crosses litter the side of the road. You can imagine what the crosses commemorate, bearing in mind it was until a few years ago a main road for buses, cars and lorries until a new highway was built. 

First of all you drive up above La Paz and get kitted out with knee and elbow pads, full suit and helmet (and padded insert if you have one) and then set off down the tarmac.  The mountains that morning were fantastic with snow all around and plunging waterfalls. Effortlessly swooping down was really exhilirating. Next it was back in the van to go uphill a bit (remember we were over 4000m so not really enough air to breathe) then start on the dirt road. 

We kept stopping to take pictures and peer over the edge and remove layers of clothing as we lost altitude and got hotter. To be honest it is hyped up a bit and isn't really dangerous but it's certainly more exciting than the tow path at Bingley.

Finally at the bottom all the bikes went on the van again but I opted to cycle to the hotel with the guide along 6km of undulating road. Without air even undulting looks mountainous. 

We could then have lunch, relax round the pool and get the nice tee shirts - a grand day out.

All in all La Paz is noisy and crowded and pretty modern.  Like a lot of cities it seems to be expanding upwards at the fringes of the city without there seeming to be any planning.

We visited the old Franciscan church and monastery in the centre and had a guide to ourselves. We were shown into the crypt where the ashes of the "heroes" are and most poignantly is some sand from the coast which once belonged to Bolivia but which was appropriated by Chile.  There is still a great deal of bad feeling about the Chileans and apparently there are still negotiations going on but since Chile is rich and Bolivia is very poor it doesn't sound like a good prospect. Bolivia's president Evo is a marmite figure beloved of the indigenous coca farmers and disliked by the rich elite - he seriously upsets the US resulting in McDonalds leaving the country so it's not all bad.

Everywhere are the bowler hatted Cholitas selling whatever they can but thanks to Evo they now hold better positions in society and are seen on TV and in politics. Wait til you see Verity's hat....

That was about it for La Paz and we were happy to leave for Lake Titicaca and Puno.

Bordering Chile - Flamingoes, Thermal Springs and Geysers

Up in the highlands the wild descendants of llamas still graze the dry bush seemingly devoid of any nutrition. These are vicuña and are more graceful and slender than the llamas.  Personally, I go with what the Argentine gaucho preferred ( you know the Limerick). 

We visited some real Wild West Country interspersed with very isolated villages where the Adobe houses could have been hundreds of years old.

Here is the llama - much cuddlier don't you think? And very tasty too especially in pizza.

We finally rolled into a small desolate village where we had accommodation after the quinoa soup and llama steaks.  Bizarrely there was a school brass band practising - Bolivians seemed to be very big on marching bands - and a disused military establishment. This was a reminder that we were close to the "C" word in the title of this post.  Cxxxx stole Bolivias coastline leaving their navy with only Lake Titicaca to sail on. There is no love lost there.

Next day we set off in convoy again with a first stop at the hot springs.

Even though the sun burns brightly it's cold in the shade at altitude and thes hot springs were gorgeous and as hot as a bath at home.

Further on we came to more evidence of the volcanic activity in this part of the world. As you can see from Verity's expression she feels that being close to one smelly old geyser in her life is enough.

Not far away was another photographer's delight and a highlight of the trip so far. We are the nerdy birders of the group so seeing hundreds of flamingoes so close was fantastic. 

Another spot where we could have stayed for hours trying to catch them in flight. We thought it a pretty inhospitable place but on the way down (and back) we saw two cyclists pushing their bikes with trailers  up from the lake.  We supposed they had been camping by the lake. All respect due.

The long trip ended with us rolling back into Uyuni in the early evening to a welcome shower, cold beer and llama pizza ready to take the night bus to La Paz and and an early start for "Death Road".

If only we had known the bus would be colder than the salt flats and bumpier than a sleeping policemen's convention. Imagine trying to pee accurately in the dark while riding a bucking bronco.  That was the bus toilet. But hey! We are travellers not tourists...