Hello again. We have to explain about last night´s rushed blog. In the hotel you had to knock at the computer room door and the wee mannie connected you to reception for your alloted time. When we chapped at the door last night it was our guide Jorge who opened the door and although we tried to explain that we had to contact reception in order to pay, he said just go ahead. So we were a bit feart about getting caught out!
Thanks to all of you who have commented on our blog: Chris, Jenny, Lisa, the Midds (Julie, will you please show ma what to do?) And the rest of you, get commenting.
Correction from last night before David does today,s fabulous story. When I was writing last night about seeing a wolf, David kept saying that he didn´t remember seeing one, and of course I was insistent. But it was a fox!
David has some quotes from yesterday:
"How many more times will I have to get off this bus?"
At the Condor cross, designated by the Peruvians as the best place to view the birdies,"They´ve picked quite a good place to see them!" and so to today:
We left at 08:00 for Puno on lake Titicaca and the poor driver had to stop fairly soon because a channel had flooded and his codriver had to get out and lay stones to help the big Mercedes bus across. There was ice at the side of the road. It is winter!!!!!!!!!!!
We had a stop at Chivay where we photoed the Midgie motor (dustbin lorry) which played rockabye baby in the capital of the Colca canyon. Ten minutes previously we had come on to tarred road, albeit with holes. it was a relief after the stony rocky road to Dublin.
On the way to the high plateau we were told about "chuño" a freezed dried potato of the highlands, a delicacy. The potatoes are frozen in the rivers for 15 days, removed, peeled and left to freezedry on the ground. The process takes a month.
We got to our highest point of the holiday, 4,800 metres above sealevel where we saw the cairns giving offerings to the gods.
Lunch was at the Reserva Aguda Blanca, a packed lunch which was delicious.
We contiued through the high plateau filled with herds of llama, tails up, and alpaca, tails down.
This blog seems to be taking on the kaleidoscopic nature of the day: mountains, plateaux, rivers, birds, people. The pictures and us will explain more! Honest!
We had our first glimpse of the lake shortly before we arrived in Puno where there were celebrations in full flow for independence day. No more Spaniards! Wait till you see the pictures of the costumes!
Off to see the lake before bed and a tour of the floating islands tomorrow!
8:30 start!!
Saturday, 28 July 2007
Friday, 27 July 2007
Day 8
Hey folks you wouldnt think it could get any better but what a day we have had! It has to be admitted though that we had a siesta this afternoon although surely we can be forgiven as we were up at 5.30 for a 6.30 departure.
We set off back along the rickety, stony single-track road re-doing the journey of last night down to the hotel. It was pretty scary with big drops to one side but we´re here to tell the tale. The views were magnificent - pre-Incan terraces, glaciers,(source of the Amazon), lakes, animals. The bus had a lot of difficulty getting over the raised channels carrying water as it had to rev quite hard.
We went to Condors´Cross where we saw huge condors circling around. We saw an Andean rabbit and a fox, a wolf, a parakeet, a humming bird´s nest, aloe vera plants, wild lupins, vetch and so on and so on.
Most of the terraces are cultivated but there are also squares of land bordered by stone dykes. They grow cactuses on top so that animals cannot get at the harvest.
There are no tarred roads at all in the valley because most of the work is agriculture and the farmers don´t want traffic on the roads where they drive their anumals.
We were in one or two villages. In the church in Maca we saw the statues on the platform ready for the Independance day parade tomorrow.
Off to dinner - see you tomorrow.
We set off back along the rickety, stony single-track road re-doing the journey of last night down to the hotel. It was pretty scary with big drops to one side but we´re here to tell the tale. The views were magnificent - pre-Incan terraces, glaciers,(source of the Amazon), lakes, animals. The bus had a lot of difficulty getting over the raised channels carrying water as it had to rev quite hard.
We went to Condors´Cross where we saw huge condors circling around. We saw an Andean rabbit and a fox, a wolf, a parakeet, a humming bird´s nest, aloe vera plants, wild lupins, vetch and so on and so on.
Most of the terraces are cultivated but there are also squares of land bordered by stone dykes. They grow cactuses on top so that animals cannot get at the harvest.
There are no tarred roads at all in the valley because most of the work is agriculture and the farmers don´t want traffic on the roads where they drive their anumals.
We were in one or two villages. In the church in Maca we saw the statues on the platform ready for the Independance day parade tomorrow.
Off to dinner - see you tomorrow.
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Day 7
And they get better and better but for some 7 poor people the altitude is beginning to tell. They missed the monastery this morning which was fascinating and had spent really bad nights. Even on the bus here some had to be given oxygen and a nurse has been in attendance since we arrived here.
We left Arrequipa around ten and climbed the Chachani extinct volcano. There are 90 altogether in Peru but only half a dozen are active.
What a trip of ice, birds, llamas, alpacas and at one wonderful stretch we saw many beautiful vicuñas: they are so very elegant. Experience of a lifetime.
We had a "comfort" stop late morning and bought granny´s biscuits.
Lunch was very good vegetable soup with maize, trout and pancakes with elderberries.
Some poor souls could not face it.
The cafe was within Colca canyon and not too far from our hotel.
After we were settled in the room we headed for the thermal baths`(that is thermal and not terminal as Margaret read it!) They were at 37 degrees and stupendous. We shared a cool beer and it was good to stand up in the cool and sink back into the warm.
Now off for our evening meal. Watch this space and feel free to comment!
PS we hope Chris and Jenny you are settled down.
We left Arrequipa around ten and climbed the Chachani extinct volcano. There are 90 altogether in Peru but only half a dozen are active.
What a trip of ice, birds, llamas, alpacas and at one wonderful stretch we saw many beautiful vicuñas: they are so very elegant. Experience of a lifetime.
We had a "comfort" stop late morning and bought granny´s biscuits.
Lunch was very good vegetable soup with maize, trout and pancakes with elderberries.
Some poor souls could not face it.
The cafe was within Colca canyon and not too far from our hotel.
After we were settled in the room we headed for the thermal baths`(that is thermal and not terminal as Margaret read it!) They were at 37 degrees and stupendous. We shared a cool beer and it was good to stand up in the cool and sink back into the warm.
Now off for our evening meal. Watch this space and feel free to comment!
PS we hope Chris and Jenny you are settled down.
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Day 6
Today has been quite an easy day - we visited a cathedral, a monastery and a mummy museum. We stopped first of all to look along the valley of the river with twin volcanoes on either side - wonderful - wait till you see the photos!
We had the afternoon to ourselves so we just plittred about the city, looking at shops, people watching, drinking coffee, having a great time.
We are back at the hotel and have looked in again at our wonderful up-graded room - wait till you see the photos!
Tomorrow we are travelling again, but we have yet another wonderful day to look forward to - watch out for the photos!
Chris and Jenny - how was the flitting? We have been thinking about you. Honest!
See you all tomorrow - this is good fun.
We had the afternoon to ourselves so we just plittred about the city, looking at shops, people watching, drinking coffee, having a great time.
We are back at the hotel and have looked in again at our wonderful up-graded room - wait till you see the photos!
Tomorrow we are travelling again, but we have yet another wonderful day to look forward to - watch out for the photos!
Chris and Jenny - how was the flitting? We have been thinking about you. Honest!
See you all tomorrow - this is good fun.
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Day 5
Yous will not believe this! Ten hours on a bus? Short blog? We´ll see! ¡a ver!
The birthdy day start at 6:15 with prezzies! A flahing tee shirt, a reverse clock AND a share of an Oxfordshire vine which was registered online in Nazca! and a birthday card.
Missing form yesterday´s:
The toilets in yesterday´s hotel had an automatic seat protector. Italian! A red button made the plastic protectort slide round!
Quote from fellow traveller, "The thing is, no matter where you are, China, Africa, the scrambled eggs are so much better than at home."
From the same guy, " the Nazca lines were not really very impressive." Pre-christian, with little winter mini tornados to keep them clear and centuries of wonder? Who is he kidding?
By the way there has been no rain in Ica since 1998, the year Maria Reiche died.
Lookimg for the ultimate adrenilin rush? Forget the expense of Alton towers! Just take a coach ride south from Nazca on the Pan American. The constant is that the pacific is on the right. And that ends the constants. The sea changes from blue to green to brilliant white, from being at road level so it has to be swept clean of sand daily to being dizzily below you. And to the left? Desert, knife edge dunes, rocks, pebbels, a*m*z*n* striations, reddish blueish pinkish greenish sandyish.
Where the road had to be swept, we had Pacific paddle! Margaret´s crocs got wet!
Next dtop for coffee where we bought tiny finger length bananas and an old guy asked me if I was cold. It is winter here: like a fair Scottish summer´s day!
We stopped at Riconcito Turjillo for lunch. Lovely lunch which ended, courtesy of Cox and King´s, with an enormous candled birthday cake and locals and tour sang.
And on to El Cabildo hotel in Arequipa. Up and down so many valleys and hills.
Seems to me strange to travel through such scenery and spend your time reading about where you are going next? Takes all sorts!
The check in had a surptise. Because it´s my birthday we were upgraded, thanks C&K, to a penthouse suite with balcony! Can´t wait to see the view tomorrow!
See yous tomorrow!¡Hasta mañana!
The birthdy day start at 6:15 with prezzies! A flahing tee shirt, a reverse clock AND a share of an Oxfordshire vine which was registered online in Nazca! and a birthday card.
Missing form yesterday´s:
The toilets in yesterday´s hotel had an automatic seat protector. Italian! A red button made the plastic protectort slide round!
Quote from fellow traveller, "The thing is, no matter where you are, China, Africa, the scrambled eggs are so much better than at home."
From the same guy, " the Nazca lines were not really very impressive." Pre-christian, with little winter mini tornados to keep them clear and centuries of wonder? Who is he kidding?
By the way there has been no rain in Ica since 1998, the year Maria Reiche died.
Lookimg for the ultimate adrenilin rush? Forget the expense of Alton towers! Just take a coach ride south from Nazca on the Pan American. The constant is that the pacific is on the right. And that ends the constants. The sea changes from blue to green to brilliant white, from being at road level so it has to be swept clean of sand daily to being dizzily below you. And to the left? Desert, knife edge dunes, rocks, pebbels, a*m*z*n* striations, reddish blueish pinkish greenish sandyish.
Where the road had to be swept, we had Pacific paddle! Margaret´s crocs got wet!
Next dtop for coffee where we bought tiny finger length bananas and an old guy asked me if I was cold. It is winter here: like a fair Scottish summer´s day!
We stopped at Riconcito Turjillo for lunch. Lovely lunch which ended, courtesy of Cox and King´s, with an enormous candled birthday cake and locals and tour sang.
And on to El Cabildo hotel in Arequipa. Up and down so many valleys and hills.
Seems to me strange to travel through such scenery and spend your time reading about where you are going next? Takes all sorts!
The check in had a surptise. Because it´s my birthday we were upgraded, thanks C&K, to a penthouse suite with balcony! Can´t wait to see the view tomorrow!
See yous tomorrow!¡Hasta mañana!
Monday, 23 July 2007
¡day4!
This has been, for the most part, a day of sweet, sweet leisure. The morning was spent bird watching. Margaret saw the first: a hummingbird who posed on a branch for her ¡when she did not have her camera! there were vermillion flycathcers who swept from a favourite post, and mocking birds.
And that´s the wild life! In the grounds were chickens and ostriches, cows and horses, peacocks and guinea fowl and later we saw parrots and a white heron.
It was great enjoying the superb clear weather and the peace of having nothing to do but anticipate our helicopter flight over the Nazca lines.
We read and watched the birds and wandered and at 11:30 reported to the heli-pad. There were three seats at the back and one at the front with the pilot. We "lost" the toss and David Taylor was co-pilot. Not the one you are thingking of: acomplete stranger, nice guy! Really it was better in the back.
The ride felt really safe and secure and the views of some of the most famous of the geoglyphs astounding. Teh sheer scale of the plain was breathtaking and we had just read in the Sunday paper of damage being done to these lines by unregistered gold miners who use them like roads to extract the results of their labours with illicit techniques involving mercury.
Recent droughts have forced some poor people to these extremes where they cannot afford the necessary protective gear.
We plittered about again in the afternoon after some food and went to see the aquaducts. Somewhat reluctantly it has to be said because we had seen, after all, these unremarkable holes from the air.
How wrong can you be? Jorge, our guide, explained that these subterranean channels were built by the original Nazcas thousands of years ago. There are 36 such aquducts in Nazca and they still supply sweet water. We tried some. The spiral descent to the channels plays an important part still in ceremonies particularly on may 15, the birthday of Maria Reiche - the German mathematician who spent many years studying the lines.
The group left the hotel at six, now 6:45, to go into Nazca city for a meal and a look around the shops. We were waiting for the bus when Margaret said, " Do we really want to go into the town?"
Nuh! so here we are blogging and enjoying the peace and quiet and thinking of you all.
Two flights were missed today and they will go early tomorrow morning so we have the chance of a longer lie tomorrow. Lewis, C&K guide said we could wait until we heard the second helicopter take off around 7:30.
I asked Lewis, in Spanish, if the second hlicopter had a different sound. He laughed and said that it sounded more tired.
Long trip to Arequipa tomorrow.
¡Watch this space!
And that´s the wild life! In the grounds were chickens and ostriches, cows and horses, peacocks and guinea fowl and later we saw parrots and a white heron.
It was great enjoying the superb clear weather and the peace of having nothing to do but anticipate our helicopter flight over the Nazca lines.
We read and watched the birds and wandered and at 11:30 reported to the heli-pad. There were three seats at the back and one at the front with the pilot. We "lost" the toss and David Taylor was co-pilot. Not the one you are thingking of: acomplete stranger, nice guy! Really it was better in the back.
The ride felt really safe and secure and the views of some of the most famous of the geoglyphs astounding. Teh sheer scale of the plain was breathtaking and we had just read in the Sunday paper of damage being done to these lines by unregistered gold miners who use them like roads to extract the results of their labours with illicit techniques involving mercury.
Recent droughts have forced some poor people to these extremes where they cannot afford the necessary protective gear.
We plittered about again in the afternoon after some food and went to see the aquaducts. Somewhat reluctantly it has to be said because we had seen, after all, these unremarkable holes from the air.
How wrong can you be? Jorge, our guide, explained that these subterranean channels were built by the original Nazcas thousands of years ago. There are 36 such aquducts in Nazca and they still supply sweet water. We tried some. The spiral descent to the channels plays an important part still in ceremonies particularly on may 15, the birthday of Maria Reiche - the German mathematician who spent many years studying the lines.
The group left the hotel at six, now 6:45, to go into Nazca city for a meal and a look around the shops. We were waiting for the bus when Margaret said, " Do we really want to go into the town?"
Nuh! so here we are blogging and enjoying the peace and quiet and thinking of you all.
Two flights were missed today and they will go early tomorrow morning so we have the chance of a longer lie tomorrow. Lewis, C&K guide said we could wait until we heard the second helicopter take off around 7:30.
I asked Lewis, in Spanish, if the second hlicopter had a different sound. He laughed and said that it sounded more tired.
Long trip to Arequipa tomorrow.
¡Watch this space!
Sunday, 22 July 2007
Day 3
We forgot to tell you that we saw vultures in the centre of Lima yesterday - honest. And it was overcast in Lima because it is winter and the fog comes in from the sea.
Anyway Day 3 started with our departure from the hotel at 6am {breakfast at 5!}
we then set off on the Panamerican Highway starting throught the very poorest shanty towns south of Lima and going south with the Pacific rollers on our right.
The fog kept us company as we watched the huge sand dunes roll by.
We stopped for my (David) first Inca Cola at El Piloto and bought a newspaper which told us that today is National Pisco (local brandy) day and that illicit miners are using the Nasca lines as highways to remove gold from their mines, polluting the place with mercury!!!!!!!!!!!!
We stopped at Picaras - quechuan for high winds - to get on the boat trip. Whaow! Half an hour out to the guana covered rocks and an hour round them. There was a family of dolphins in the bay at Picaras - residents apparently. We saw sea lions male and female on the odiferous rocks, boobies, penguins, Inca terns and pelicans . Apart from the smell, only down wind, it was magic. People actually live there every seven years to collect the shit. The first time the guana was thirty metres deep!
When we got back to land about twelve we saw the first of a Peruvian BLUE SKY! And the sun came out and it has stayed with usa ever since from a blue, blue sky.
Along the stupendous sand dunes to Ica, birth place of Ronaldo our guide, and home to a famous winery and of a pisco maker called Picasso in whose grounds we enjoyed a magic self service lunch. I like the raw fish in lime juice - ceviche.
We crossed the sand dunes to the oasis, Huacachina - she who makes you cry - wait for the pictures.
We are now banned from using the word am·z·ng!
At the oasis they were sand boarding and taking buggy rides.
Finally around seven we reached our hotel having crossed the plane where the Nazca lines are.
Internet access is free - for the ONE computer we dashed for.
See you tomorrow when, young man, I hope my grammar may have improved.
Anyway Day 3 started with our departure from the hotel at 6am {breakfast at 5!}
we then set off on the Panamerican Highway starting throught the very poorest shanty towns south of Lima and going south with the Pacific rollers on our right.
The fog kept us company as we watched the huge sand dunes roll by.
We stopped for my (David) first Inca Cola at El Piloto and bought a newspaper which told us that today is National Pisco (local brandy) day and that illicit miners are using the Nasca lines as highways to remove gold from their mines, polluting the place with mercury!!!!!!!!!!!!
We stopped at Picaras - quechuan for high winds - to get on the boat trip. Whaow! Half an hour out to the guana covered rocks and an hour round them. There was a family of dolphins in the bay at Picaras - residents apparently. We saw sea lions male and female on the odiferous rocks, boobies, penguins, Inca terns and pelicans . Apart from the smell, only down wind, it was magic. People actually live there every seven years to collect the shit. The first time the guana was thirty metres deep!
When we got back to land about twelve we saw the first of a Peruvian BLUE SKY! And the sun came out and it has stayed with usa ever since from a blue, blue sky.
Along the stupendous sand dunes to Ica, birth place of Ronaldo our guide, and home to a famous winery and of a pisco maker called Picasso in whose grounds we enjoyed a magic self service lunch. I like the raw fish in lime juice - ceviche.
We crossed the sand dunes to the oasis, Huacachina - she who makes you cry - wait for the pictures.
We are now banned from using the word am·z·ng!
At the oasis they were sand boarding and taking buggy rides.
Finally around seven we reached our hotel having crossed the plane where the Nazca lines are.
Internet access is free - for the ONE computer we dashed for.
See you tomorrow when, young man, I hope my grammar may have improved.
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