Peru in a Hurry!

Well as I said our hostel owner, acted as tour agent and organized an amazing action packed week  for us, and he did it all for free.

Firstly this entailed getting up at three in the morning to catch the amazing Cruz de Sur bus to Parracas, (this bus had a hostess, two toilets flat screen TVs, WiFi, as well as a computer pod in the first class section) not to mention pillows and blankets. We arrived in Parracas where the guide he had arranged picked us up and rushed us to the port to catch the boats to Islas Bellezas.

The boats were open top speed boats packed with other tourists that raced around the islands. On the way they passed an ancient symbol carved into the side of a hill called the candelabra. Its origen remains unknown but they think it was used as a navigational tool. Or it could represent a cactus. Or some people think it was done by masons (seriously).

The islands themselves were teeming with birds and sealions and of course guano or bird sh*t which is actually a big money making industry so there are guys whose job it is to live on the islands and protect the guano.

The beach of Sea Lions

A guy in Parracas and his trained Pelican

After visiting the islands, we were met by our guide, who took us out to see the sites of Parracas national reserve.

This turned out to be a private trip in his car, and we got to see many of the isolated beaches and sand dunes of the reserve.

The red beach

There used to be  a rock archway behind here but it was  destroyed by an earth quake

A tiny fishing town inside the reserve.

After a long hot dry day looking at beaches we got on yet another bus and headed into the desert to the oasis town of Huacachina.

Huacacina was once a resort town for locals but has since become a resort town for international tourists. Set around a beautiful oasis lake with it’s old original architecture the rest of the town is hostels all with excellent swimming pools as it is really hot here. Whilst in Huacachina we scaled the enormous sand dune that surround the town and then took an insanely exhillerating and probably pretty dangerous dune buggy ride through the dunes with stops along the way to sand board down these insanely steep, insanely high dunes.

Huacacina from the top of the nearest sand dune- it took us nearly half an hour to scale the damn thing

The dune buggy- did I mention the seatbelts were tied on?

Sam about to sand board on his tummy

PS. I accidentally posted these out of order so there is another new post below this one.

Peru in a Hurry Pt2

After two nights in Huacachina we were off again this time to Nazca where we had a flight booked over the Nazca lines.

I (Amelia) was of course dreading this, not liking planes and especially not light planes. But it was too late to pull out, the whole thing was paid for and before I knew it we were at the airport.

The plane was tiny and bounced around constantly leaving your stomach in your mouth as it twisted and turned over the lines.

The lines themselves were pretty spectacular but not as big as pictures had made them look. The meaning of the lines is still unknown as is there origin.

here are some of our less than spectacular photos

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If you look closely you can see the condor shape in the centre. It is highly stylized of course.

Well Nazca whilst having the lines was one of the ugliest cities we visited, Arequipa the next city on our itinerary was one of the prettiest. Cobbled streets, colourful old colonial  houses and an amazing and vast ancient monastery were why we fell in love with this place, and this love was further fueled by the super cheap room we stayed in in an old terraced house. It’s shuttered windows overlooked the monastery and the rooftop patio had great views.

 

 

The city also had some excellent food, we had the best Mexican food I have ever eaten in this tiny Mexican pub not to mention tequila slammers and pina coladas, and we had some of the excellent local foods (most of which included potato and the giant maize kernels, apart from the ceviche which Sam ate that was made from raw fish marinated heavily in lemon). We meant to only stay a few days in Arequipa but ended up staying a week. However three of the days were spent hiking through the Colca Canyon, we tried to hire a tent and do it ourselves however, the tour operators offered such cheap alternatives that we ended up going with a guide and four English lads on their gap year and a French Canadian.

The hike was spectacular( as the Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world, second only to the neighboring canyon which is much more difficult to reach and therefore more expensive. The hike began at the top of the canyon where condors could be seen gliding on the thermals. We then hiked down to the bottom of the canyon (a 1.2 km drop in altitude) along a narrow and slightly treacherous donkey path that locals that live at the bottom of the canyon use with their mules and donkeys to bring supplies and their produce to neighboring towns that can’t be accessed by roads. We passed several locals with their traditional clothes and animals laden with goods. We spent both nights sleeping in guest houses at the bottom of the canyon. The second night was particularly cool as we stayed in a hut made of bamboo in a oasis where all the guest houses had large pools filled with fresh water (which they drained and refilled every second day, much to our astonishment coming from drought effected Adelaide.)

 

On the second day I (Sam) made the mistake of agreeing to take part in a game of foot-to-ball or soccit or whatever it’s called. The teams were Commonwealth (read four English, one Australian) vs Peru vs a German, two Brazillians and two Fench Canadians. So anyway, as you can probably tell, I was surrounded by people who could actually play sport. Nonetheless, I managed to score the first goal of the game, before we were absolutely creamed by the Peruvians, and I managed to get completely buggered in the process.

The last day’s start was at 5 in the morning before we had to complete an uphill hike of about 3 hours back to the top of the canyon. It was moderately exhausting but we managed to avoid the sunlight and the canyon looked pretty spectacular under the (really) early morning light. We arrived at the small town at the top of the hill via the terraced corn fields and were treated with breakfast, before we caught the bus back to Arequipa. Because we liked the city so much (and because our accommodation was so cheap) we decided to spend some extra time in Arequipa before making our way to Puno.

Whilst Arequipa was one of the prettiest cities we visited, Puno was one of the ugliest, which  seemed in stark contrast to the beautiful lake Titicaca which it was situated next to. The highlight of our stay was a visit we made to the floating islands. These are man made islands made from compacted reed which float on top of the lake. They are covered in small huts, the odd tourist restaurant and even the odd church and each have small communities living on them. They were quite beautiful as they are decorated in structures in the shape of animals and creatures from local folklore- and are connected through amazing reed gondolas that  are two stories high and also shaped like various animals.

One of the more simple gondolas

Me dressed up in the local costume(as you can see it is colourful but the cut doesn’t do much for ones figure)

One of the local island women on the island

A view of Puno from the boat

Whilst we were in Puno we thought we would get our first taste of Inca ruins, so we visited a fertility temple in one of the neighbouring villages, of course it was full of penis statues and somewhat disturbingly was full of children who earned extra money for their families by acting as guides.

So Sorry- we are the worst bloggers in the universe!

Hey guys -so sorry but I have this huge backlog of posts that we wrote ages ago but couldn’t post due to poor internet connections.

Unfortunately I just posted the last two in the the wrong order so please read “Keep on Truckin” first

Keep on Truckin

So where did I leave off last post. Thats right Bariloche CHOCOLATE Capital of the Continent (ironic seeing as the Mayans invented the art. Imagine the world before chocolate – what is the point of living.) So after Bariloche we boarded the bus-truck for our last border crossing of the whole tour- and unfortunately the most rigorous as our driver had managed to piss off the authorities last time he crossed. But prior to the border crossing we had to drive through the stunning lake district which included a brief stop as our driver and ’TOUR LEADER” and one Australian guy still drunk from the previous night jumping of a 5-7 meter high bridge into glacial melt water BRRRRRRRRRR. Finally after making it through the border- (they managed to find two pieces of fruit which they paraded in front of us all victoriously) we headed to the Chilean town of Pucon. This was one of my favourite places as the weather was great, the town was clean and pretty and the scenery AMAZING-all volcanoes and mountains. Even cooler was the fact that the town had a special traffic light pattern that would come on if there needed an emergency evacuation due to one of the volcanoes. Whilst we were there another town in Chile had been evacuated due to a volcano eruption. The coolest thing about Pucon was the huge array of adventure sports it had on offer, ranging from Sky Diving to Hydropeed(going over rapids on a boogie board. Unfortunately we only had two days there so we could only sample a small selection of the activities on offer. On the first day, acompanied by almost all of our tour group we donned backpacks full of climping gear and boarded a bus to the villarica volcano that loomed over the town. The first part of the climb involved getting on a small ski lift that went surprisingly high and made a disconcerting amout of noise as it rattled along its way. This was Sam’s firat time on a ski lift and he was a little disturbed by the absence of safety railings at the front and was really concerned about how one goes about getting off the thing at the other end. Thankfully aided by two burly chilean men we were able to disembark without incidence. We then began our long (at least three hour)  trudge upwards to the smoke filled cone of the volcano. At first this just involved walking on loose stones and rock but as we climbed  we finally reached the snow line and got to don propper climbing gear- crampons (thats right it rhymes with tampons) and full on wind suits, helmets ice picks and gloves. Climbing in the ice was exillerating if not at times a little frightening as we were walking on glaciers with crevasses and it was very easy to slip. I kept envisioning me careering down a windswept valley a la Cliffhanger except without Sylvester Stallone to save me (or not save me as was the case in the movie). The guides led us up the volcano at a turtle’s trudge in a zig zag, which got a bit hairy at times when the slope seemed to exceed 45 degrees, but the view at the top was definitely worth every minute. From the crater the town of Pucon looked like a blip, and other volcanoes in the range could be seen. The crater itself belched sulfur, which made looking into it difficult, but it was so deep anyway that you couldn’t see the bottom, only a steep conical hole that disappeared into nowhere. Unfortunately we forgot to put our memory card into the camera so until we can plug our actual camera into the computer, you’ll just have to take our word for it that it was pretty stunning.

The next day was uneventful…. until we went WHITE WATER RAFTING on LEVEL 4 RAPIDS!!! Amelia managed to organise a rafting trip for 14 of the people on the tour for a cheaper price than Tucan’s recommended company. Apparently Pucon is one of the few places where licensed rafting companies will take novices out on level four (out of 6) rapids, elsewhere the norm is level 3. Which was probably no consolation for the raft which capsized on the second rapid. Our boat, however, worked like a well oiled machine, and managed to assist in the rescue of our friends. In fact I (Sam) was the only one in our boat to fall out. Our guide was excellent, and talked us through each rapid as we approached them (which were called intimidating names such as “hell’s gate” or “the colon mincer”) giving us the commands which we would end up forgetting in the excitement. My favourite part by far was when he took us up the side of a rock in the middle of the river, and then slid us back down the rock so that we completed the rapids backwards! he even let us swim through the lower level rapids, which was fun once you blanked out the icy cold waters. In the middle of the course was a rapid which couldn’t be commercially navigated by raft: read, we had to get out while our guides effortlessly took the rafts down the treacherous falls. Instead we got to traverse the rapid by walking around and jumping down a five meter drop into the icy water. The drop seemed to go on for ever and you could feel your stomach rising into your throat! The rafting was one of the most exhilirating experiences of our lives, needless to say our guide got a pretty decent tip. We finished the day with a trip to the natural hot springs where we soaked in the murky waters for longer than the recommended time and probably got a fatal dose of mercury because of it.

After Pucon, we were one free camp away from Santiago, and leaving our friends on the Tucan tour bus-truck behind. On our way to Chile’s capital, we stopped briefly at a waterfall/tourist trap for lunch. That evening, on easter eve, we stayed for the last time in a service station in our tent, a frankenstein’s monster created from the body of number 14 and the fly of number 4. the next morning our tour leader organised an easter egg hunt, after which we left for the smoggy city of Santiago.

Good Bye everybody!!!!

Pucon was great, but yet again we had to move on Pronto! So we loaded up the truck for what would be the last free camp for Sam and I. We were headed for Santiago where Sam and I would be leaving Tucan and finding our own way again.

Fittingly our last free camp was in an ugly alotment by a very flashy chilean petrol station. 

Love my hideous argentinean track pants,

We reached Santiago on easter sunday, and unsurprisingly not much was open, however we were able to find a cute cafe and sample the first of many Chilean set lunch menus where you could get three or four courses plus a drink for around Australian $8 and wouldn’t need to eat for the rest of the day. We spent our days hanging out in the city with the rest of the tour guys until it was time for them to move on and us to move out of the hotel where we were hiding out and find ourfeet again.

Goodbye drinks

Goodbyes

 

We stayed in a wicked hostel “Sammy’s Hostel” where you got an awesome breakfast and managed to see the sites around Santiago.

These included the amazing gardens in the city   and the other big park

where you would have had a great view of the city if it wasn’t for the smog.

We also visited the beautiful city of valpraiso, on the coast, about an hour and a half our of santigao. However we forgot to bring our camera, and couldn’t photograph the cobbled streets and colourful terraced houses. It was here that Sam fell in love with one of Pablo Nerudas many whimisically deigned and furnished houses. 

After a week in santiago it was time to board one of those cazy gravity defying machines called aeroplanes and head to Lima.

Lima was not the best introduaction to Peru. The city was bustling, but dirty and there didn’t seem to be a whole lot to do there.

Some of the prettier sites around Lima

However out hostel was great and the owner organised an amazing action packed week for us as we made our way to Arequipa.

So much to catch up on – Glaciers, Hiking, Chocolate

Well we officially suck at keeping a blog, so here is a catch up blog to keep our loyal fans up to date. We last left in Ushuaia however as we are now in Peru many thousands of kilometers away we will have to fill you in slowly in parts.

After leaving Ushuaia we headed up to El Calafate- a day and a half drive away. Here we got to stay in a hostel which was terrible exciting after so long in a tent. We also got the opportunity to visit one of the most spectacular glaciers in South America, The Perito Moreno Glacier. Not only was it massive but it is constantly cracking so huge chunks the size of houses would fall off right in front of you although if you blinked you would miss it and would be left staring at some massive ripples. The sound of the glacier was unreal, seeming to sigh and then growl ominously as somewhere deep inside it would crack or break. Check out these wicked pics, it was one photogenic bastard.

When looking at this picture you have to remember that the wall of the glacier is 60 meters high.

So pretty!

So pretty- One of the other Australians (with a serious alcohol problem) got his kit off in the cold

Sam and I re-enact a classic film moment on the boat to the glacier.

I forgot to mention on the way to the glacier we stopped at this small ranch/coffee and cake shop that had all these crazy animals wandering around – inside and out. One of which nearly tried to bite and kick one of our Canadian amigos after she grabbed it by the fur as it tried to walk away from her mid photo.

A guanaco helps out in the kitchen

A ridiculous wooly animal and a sheep-Brilliant!!!!!

Following El calafate we headed to the Fitzroy national park to a tiny very new town called El Chalten nestled in a valley between some seriously picturesque mountains. Here we hung out at this wicked microbrewery that served mean brownies and did some more amazing hiking

Some more amazing views as we hiked

Although we didn’t want to leave El Chalten it was time to keep moving and head north towards Bariloche the Chocolate capital of Argentina. Bariloche is a Swiss style town built on this stunning lake in the incredibly beautiful lake district. As it was colonised by many Swiss and German immigrants much of the architecture is in the Swiss chalet style and it is full of chocolate shops. Here we spent two days indulging our every chocolate fantasy and trying just about all of the many chocolate shops out. Unfortunately we didn’t take any photos, but if we had they would have been of us gorging ourselves with chocolate stains all around our mouths. We actually managed to put ourselves off chocolate for at least a few days, we ate that much chocolate.

More to come later

-Amelia

Sam is a Lazy Sausage

As Sam is a lazy boy he has asked me to continue on from his last post, even though he is supposed to be doing up to our current location. I believe  he left you all at Puerto Madryn. So we left Puerto Madryn another early start and headed across the Patagonian steppe towards the Chilean border and Torres del Paine National Park free camping along the way. The Patagonian Steppe looked like mid-west America, very flat farm land with the occasional small house. We felt very isolated as there were few towns or road houses and subsequently few options to pee along the way as there were no bushes to hide behind so all us girls would get a lot of honks as we all crouched behind the bus and exposed our bottoms to the oncoming traffic.

by the second day of driving the landscape began to change and hills began to appear and finally these amazing snowcapped mountains appeared as if out of nowhere. We then headed across the Chilean border and into the stunning Torres del Paine National Park. By this point the weather had changed considerably and we were very grateful for the blanket we bought in BA as it was Freezing(quite literally )at night. We set up our tents in the rain and wind and attempted to acclimatize and prepare ourselves for the grueling walk up through the mountains to view the granite towers that give the park it’s name.

Amelia has handed back the reigns to me for the last part of the post even though it is clearly her turn to post. Anyway, in order to make the most of the trek to the Torres, we had to get up early in the morning, read 5:30, to meet our transfer to the start of the trek at 8:00. However, not realising there was a time difference between Chile and Argentina, our tour leader forced us up at 4:30! However the walk more than made up for it; the path took us up a mountain valley above the snow line along a fresh mountain stream and up a steep scree-covered slope to a magnificent azure lake surrounded by sharp towers of granite; the inside of a granite intrusion which had forced up the surrounding mountains 12 million years ago. The trek was definitely hard work on the feet but there was a nice hostel at about the half way mark selling cups of tea which was much appreciated. The hostel was so remote that they would bring in supplies by horse and was situated in a valley with amazing views. We decided we would both like to work there for a month or two.  All in all we walked about 20 kms that day which was quite an effort considering over half of it was up mountain sides. We passed many hikers doing the proper hike ie carrying all their stuff doing either the W walk that takes about 5 days or the longer loop walk that takes about 7 days  and have decided we would like to do the whole thing properly one day in the future as the park is incredibly beautiful with lakes surrounded by mountains covered in  snow and glaciers.

The following day we had another early start to make it to the Ferry to take us to the beginning of our next walk the Frances Valley walk. This walk was supposedly much easier than the previous walk despite being 8 kms longer. Supposedly there were less hills.  This was a lie. The walk was amazing but hard work, it took us through a whole variety of landscapes and vegetation from heathland to forests; we had to scramble over boulders underneath a waterfall scramble up rock faces cross raging rivers on suspension bridges that could only hold two people at a time. We had to keep a cracking pace as we were determined to make it there and back  ( we had to make it back in order to catch the last Ferry across the lake to get back to camp). The hard work payed off  as only five of us made it to the top and the view was incredible and it was snowing( and we were all wearing next to nothing having shed layers rapidly as we worked up a sweat climbing and rapidly had to put the layers back on in order not to die of hypothermia.

Next two days we just enjoyed around the campsite due to the fact that getting the transfers to all the walks cost about $50 Australian each. Instead we enjoyed staying in one place and not putting the tent up and down constantly.  We also managed to suss out the nearest 5 star hotel and enjoyed drinking a 5 hour hot chocolate and scabbing free internet and warmth (as it is very cold in Torres) and enjoying the amazing views in comfort.

Four days later we sadly left Torres heading for Ushuaia. We have been staying in the local rugby club which sports great camping grounds and facilities. Camping has been freezing cold at night until we get warm and then it is bearable. Today we just walked around the southernmost city in the world (I (Sam) had to do it in shorts and a t-shirt as it was laundry day, which gave the locals a good laugh at least.) and tomorrow we will visit the Tierra Del Fuego National Park and see the end of the Pan-American Highway. Hopefully we will update the blog on a more regular basis from now on.

-Samelia-

P.S. The time of posting for this post is approx. 1 week after writing.