Dinner for two and a bottle of champagne?

Last year Michael spent our Wedding Anniversary in East Timor, I spent it in West Timor. And this year?

Well, we got up at 6.30am, jumped a mototaxi to the bus station and caught the 7.30am bus from Pacasmayo to Chiclayo, 2 hours later we grabbed the bags from the bus, and threw them onto another bus for the 3 hour ride to Piura. In Piura we pulled them off the bus and dragged them a block to the next bus company where we boarded a bus to Talara - 2 hours. In Talara we headed to the local micro/combi van stop where they loaded boards on the top and we waited for the van to fill before it left for Lobitos. We arrived in Lobitos and spent the night in a room with bunkbeds and a plague of crickets. And when I say a plague of crickets I am not joking. They were everywhere, in everything and on everything. I estimated there were 200, Darrin said 100. If you average our guesses you are still talking about a lot of crickets jumping around you all night. And crickets are too similar to cockroaches for me to feel comfortable when I see them running around on the floor, and hiding under my pillow.

We have moved to alternative cricket free accomodation.

It never rains...

Chan Chan is the largest mud city in the world. It was once the capital of the Chimu Kingdom in Northern Peru. The Chimus believed that the earth was flat, and so they built Chan Chan at the edge of the sea to make travel to the afterlife easier. The site is made up of a series of temples, only one of which can be visited - Tschudi.
Tschudi is filled with images from the sea - fishing nets, sea otters, pelicans, fish all adorn the mud walls. It is these animals who, the Chimu's believed, will lead the dead to the afterlife.
The palace has only one entrance, and is surrounded by walls of mud that reach 12m in places. The weather in this part of Peru is consistent. Consistently dry. According to our guide it never rains here, except in an El Niño year. During the last El Niño it rained so much, and for so long that parts of the mud were washed away. They expect similar rains next year and are working hard to get the site covered, using scaffold and traditional cane roofs.

Huanchaco

After a miserable bus ride in economy (there were no good seats left) we arrived in Huanchaco. Michael and Darrin wasted no time in getting out in the waves in the local craft.

Huanchaco's reed boats (Caballito de Totora) are still used daily by fishermen laying their nets ofshore. It takes some experience to ride the rolling waves in one, it's not as easy as the fishermen make it look!

The town is filled with great seafood restaurants, and I have eaten Ceviche at every meal.

Playing catchup!

These photos are a little delayed, sorry. I've been struggling to upload photos for days - computers keep melting down...
On our last day in Cuzco we took a collectivo out to Tambomachay to visit the Baños del Inka. From there we walked back into town passing the Red Fort (Puka Pukara), Q'enko and finally Sacsayhuamán.
Sacsayhuamán is an impressive Inka site overlooking the City of Cuzco. The scale of the stonework is amazing.

An all-English final

I was happily sitting on the computer minding my own business when Angelo (sitting on his balcony in Holland) pointed out that the Champions League final had started. I told Michael, who quickly grabbed his coat and was out the door before I could say Arsenal.
We found a bar, with a TV and ordered a jarra of cerveza. The whole of the street was filled with people watching the game. One jarra turned into two, and two turned into four.
Thanks Angelo.

Heading to Lima

We're on the overnight bus to Lima today - eighteen and a half hours if all runs smoothly. Darrin flies in on Monday, and after a couple of days in Lima we'll be heading to the beach!

We made it...

After 4 days of walking we made it to our destination, Machu Picchu. We were up early (again) to make it to the top for sunrise and beat the worst of the crowds.
I love the feeling that comes when you have worked hard (and walked hard) to reach a destination. There is something very spiritual about following the paths that people have used for centuries to link villages and cities together.

Salkantay Trek

We were on the bus at 4.30 in the morning headed for the town of Mollepata, and the begining of the trek. In Mollepata we handed over our sleeping bags and other gear to the horsemen, who packed them onto the mules. Mollepata is at 2900m, and our destination for the 1st night was Soraypampa at 3850m. The walking was steady, and the climb gentle in most parts.
As we ate lunch we watched the rain clouds gathering in the valley ahead, behind us was sunshine and blue skies. The first rain came as we pulled into our campground and settled into our tents. We ate dinner all the time watching the weather outside as the temperature gradually decreased.
The next morning we were woken with a cup of mate de coca at 5.30am. In the night the rain had turned to snow. SNOW, on the day that we had to cross the pass. We waited to see if the snow would clear, and when it became aparrant that it was with us for the duration we slipped into our bin liner ponchos and started the climb to the pass.
The initial trail had us gaining elevation quickly, but soon leveled out into a beautiful white valley where we stopped to catch our breath. The trail followed the river and dissapeared ahead of us into the clouds.
The next hour was a constant climb on switchbacks that zig-zaged endlessly. I ended up on my ass as a group of mules came barreling down the trail and tried to take me with them. We took a short break by a lake, a break that involved standing around shovelling biscuits into our faces and trying to stay warm. We built a snowman and talked about making snow angels, but it was too cold to lay in the snow.
After 4 1/2 hours of climbing in constant snow we made it to the pass at 4600m. On the pass our guide lead us in a ceremony to thank the mountain for our safe travels. All of us had carried a stone with us, we held it in our right hand. In our left hand we held a coca leaf. We faced the mountain and (in our best Quechua) said "Thank you Mountain Salkantay". One by one we placed our coca leaves on the ground with the stone on top of them, forming a small cairn. The passes in the Andes are marked by these cairns as travellers bring stones as offerings to the mountains. We had made it to the highest point on our trek. It was time to start heading down.
The trail descended from the pass into Cloud Forest, as we moved further from the pass, the snow turned to rain and the trail turned into a mud bath. The mud was inches deep. The Cloud Forest is beautiful. There are orchids and bromeliads in the trees, the sounds of birds overhead and the squelch of our feet below.
The second camp was in a beautiful valley, the air was warmer and we went to bed feeling warm (if not quite dry) and happy that the hardest day was behind us.
The third day continued through muddy trails in the forest. The rain had ended and given way to bright blue skies. It was a relatively short day (only 14kms) to our camp, and we made it in time for lunch.
In the afternoon I settled into a slow yoga and stretching routine. Michael and the boys decided to play 5 a side with the cooks and our guide. Two hours later Michael returned, cursing himself for getting talked into another game! We slept well.
Our final day of hiking was to take us to our first view of Machu Picchu. The original stones of the Inka trails are impressive and filled us with a sense of purpose. There we were, at an Inka checkpoint looking over the valley at our destination, Machu Picchu.

My legs hurt

We made it! We're back in Cusco after a hike full of fun and plenty of weather. We trekked a total of 70kms, and none of it was flat. If we weren't climbing up snowy passes, we were squelching down muddy jungle trails.
These are Michael's photos. Enjoy!

More to follow soon.....

We're off on another hike....

We've been debating how to get to Machu Pichu, by train or by trek. The trekking option has won.... So, tomorrow we're up with the birds (probably before the birds) to get a bus to the trail head. We're trekking the Salkantay route, it's supposed to have amazing mountain views (there is one pass to climb over at 4600m) and beautiful jungle sections. We shall see!
We'll be back in Cuzco on Friday night...

Isla del Sol

We spent a couple of nights on Isla del Sol, in Lake Titicaca. The weather was perfect, and we spent the time exploring the island and it's communitites.
Isla del Sol is the site of the Inka creation myth. Viracocha, the supreme Inka god, destroyed the area surrounding Lake Titicaca with a Great Flood. After this, his decendants Manco Kapac and Mama Ocllo sprung from the lake to found Cuzco and the Inka dynasty.

La Paz Lady...

Landing in La Paz on our tiny plane fresh out of the jungle is a trippy experience. We flew from jungle through mountain passes, where the mountains looked close enough to touch into El Alto airport. The airport is at 4000m in the town of El Alto that is perched above La Paz. The minute you step off the plane you can tell you are at 4000m simply because the backpack feels so heavy, and walking up stairs is much harder than it needs to be. Fortunately we have spent most of the last month above 2800m (much of it closer to 3800m) - so adjusting didn't take long.
The Ladies in Bolivia all wear hats, and some really great hats. But it was in La Paz that I fell in love with their Bowler hats. They balance them effortlessly on their heads. I tried and failed to pull off the look, so we left the Bowler hat in La Paz where it belongs.

Da Jungle

We just spent a fantastic 3 nights in the Madidi National Park. We decided to stay at the Chalalan lodge, a community owned and operated lodge. The lodge was built with financial aid from Conservation International and the Interamerican Development Bank. It was designed and constructed by the local community (San José de Uchupiamonas) using their traditional materials and techniques.
The lodge situated on the bank of Lago Chalalan, and is reached by a 5 1/2 hour trip up the Beni and Tuíchi rivers, followed by a 20 minute walk through the forest.

Our nights were filled by the sound of nocturnal animals and our days were spent canoing on the lake and walking in the jungle with our guide. The jungle is not the best place for wildlife spotting, as the animals are at home and constantly on the move. If their path and your trail happen to intersect then you are lucky!

On our second day we packed a boxed lunch and set out on a longer walk. We crossed the Rayamayo River (Stingray River), using sticks to prod the river bed and hopefully scare the stingrays away... we arrived for lunch at the Eslabón river where I tried and tried to catch a catfish for my dinner. No luck.

During our trip we were lucky enough to run into an assortment of monkeys (Capuchin, Squirrel, Red Howler and the elusive Black Spider Monkey). We also joined a group of wild Boar eating their way through the forest and an endangered Red Brocket Deer. We saw Toucans, Macaws, Parrots and Parakeets as well as a King Vulture and his friends.

The Madidi National Park is one of the most biologically diverse protected areas on the planet, and is home to over 1000 species of bird (11% of the worlds known avian species). It was created in 1995 and encompasses Amazonian lowlands at 200m, to the mountains of the Apolobamba Range at more than 6000m (19,685ft), including a huge range of wildlife habitats, from torrid rain forests to Andean glaciers.



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