Natural Disaster strikes again

So it seems that natural disasters are trying to halt our plans once again. I suppose you´ve heard about the earthquake in Santiago, well we are meant to travel there in a couple of weeks. Not sure what will happen to our travel plans, will have to wait until we know the extent of the damage.
In the last post I forgot to say that while in Arequipa we had dinner with a local family. Amanda and myself helped prepare the guinea pig for dinner! And yes I did eat some because it would have been offensive not to. Guinea pig is used in celebration meals like birthdays and weddings and is very expensive. Ironic as it has no meat on it and they use it to feed lots of poeple. It tastes like pork, but a bit tougher.
Sorry if this blog is boring but im trying to waste some time before our group meeting and dinner. Plus im also starving because we didnt eat lunch as it started pissing down so we ran for the cover of our hotel when we were out and about today.
Before the rain we manged a walk around the town square in Cusco, found an Irish pub (go figure), visited another Cathedral and also a museum. I am very much churched out.
Off to the sacred valley tomorrow, then Lare´s trek for 4 days. Wont be updating for a while. Lets hope I complete the Trek and dont have to hire a horse!! Im not a fan of horses. Waiting to hear on a definate price for a helicopter ride to Machu Picchu, so maybe our next update will include pics of the Incan ruin. Fingers crossed.
Big shout out to Zane and Romana on the arrival of Lena. She is so cute.
Adios Amigos.

Arequipa

Since our last blog we took an overnight bus to Arequipa, the 2nd largest city in Peru. We had a free day to explor the city - so we visited Santa Catalina Nunnery (which is like a city within the city) and Juanita Museum. Juanita is an Incan mummy discovered in the 90s and dates back to 15th century. She was a 13 yr old girl sacrificed to appease the gods. There were also 3 other mummy children discovered in the same area (on the side of a volcano).
We then had a tour within a tour as we got a minivan to the Colca Canyon and stayed overnight in Chivay. ((Mel this will get your geo juices flowing). It is the deepest canyon in the world and lays at the foot of the Andes Mt range. The Andes are totally incrediable, very jagged and steep. We went for a hike and saw some Condors - which are the largest flying birds, and stil they manage to look graceful! We did have to get up at 5:30 to see them but it was worth it. Had a soak in the thermal baths and returned to Arequipa.
The last of our long bus trips is today, 12hrs to Cuzco. Luckily for the 1st 7hrs we have our own mini van. Should arrive about 10:30 tonight.
Praying that a miracle will happen and somehow the train line to Machu Picchu will be open. We will get to hike the Larre´s Track but no Machu Picchu at the end :(
Gotta go get some supplies for the bus trip.
Go the Nix.

Lima, Pisco and Nazca

Hi Team,

We have been very busy since our last update.

We stayed in Lima, the capital of Peru, and did a city tour and visited the zoo. We were only in Lima for the day so didnt do a whole lot.

We arrived in Pisco which is home to the local drink the Pisco Sour. Naturally we had to go to a distillery to try it :) We had a boat trip to Ballestas Island to see lots of seals, sea lions, pelicans, penguins and other birds. That afternoon we went dune buggying and sand boarding in Huacachina Oasis. Very cool, had heaps of fun.

Today we are in Nazca. This morning we took flight over the famous Nazca lines. It is the smallest aeroplane I have been on in my life and I wasnt keen on it. I could reach out and touch the pilot! Anyway, the lines were amazing and are over 2000 yrs old.

Tonight we have a night bus to Arequipa. From there we will visit the Colca Canyon (bigger than the Grand Canyon) and hopefully see some Condors.

The weather is still baking hot, almost not loving it. Don´t think I needed to bring my down jacket.

Sian - congrats on your new baby girl :) Hope all is going well.

Mich & Nath

Machu Picchu

Feeling a tad ripped off at the moment. We read on the internet that Machu Picchu wont be open til April so we told our tour leader and she seemed to already know, even tho the info we were getting from Intrepid travel said it would be likely we would get to hike the trail.
So trying not to get too gutted, but it was the main reason for coming to South America. We are seriously thinking of paying $ to get a helicopter ride to the ruins as this would be a cheaper than paying for flights back to Peru to hike it at a later time.
Got another bus trip today to Pisco (famous for its drink - Pisco sour) then another bus trip tomorrow to Nazca to see the famous Nazca lines. Will be very cool. Yes I will take the flight up to see the Nazca lines from the air (cause im getting tough with flying).
Have been watching some snippets of the winter olympics but the commentary is in Spanish. It is very amusing making up our own commentary. I still have hope that NZ will get one medal.
Adios.

Photos from Chan Chan and about

We are in Lima, a city of 9mil people. Poor little NZ fits twice into Lima.¨Our hostel has free internet access yay. Not that it has been too expensive, we have not piad more than $1 for an hr.

The 1st picture is of the main st in Mancora. As you can se there are a lot of road works happening. Amanda and I heading down to the surf.

2nd picture is a group shot at Chan Chan mud ruin city. The site of a pre ican community, dating 11-1500AD.

3rd pic is of a temple for the moon (dont know the south american spelling). dating 1-9C AD.

4th pic is of Jenny and her Fanny. We had a lot of fun with fanny jokes all afternoon. Jenny went to the supermarket and came back with a can of tuna labelled fanny. So some of the better calls of the day were ¨jenny get your fanny off the table¨ and jenny your fanny smells fishy. Feel free to come up your own ideas and add them via a comment below.

The pictures are uploaded in a snall size, if you want to see them bigger just click on the photo and it makes it bigger for those with eye sight probs.

Tomorrow we are going to explore the heart of Lima and have a free arvo (for shopping?)

Trujillo - PERU

Hi everyone,
This will be a very quick update, we have a bus to catch in 30min, not enough time to upload photos!
We have arrived in Peru. The boarder crossing from Ecuador to Peru went without problems. There wasnt even any guns on the gaurds.
On arrival in Peru we went to a beach side town called Mancora. It was very hot but luckily our hotel had a pool :)
We only spent one full day in Mancora then we travelled to Trujillo where we are now. Our bus broke down along the way so instead of being a four hour bus ride it was more like 8. Wan't the most fun day we've had.
In Trujillo we have visited some pre-Inca ruins at Chan Chan and saw the local fisherman in their kayaks going fishing. Trujillo is another beach side town, the last one we visit on our trip. Nath and Paul entertained themselves yesterday arvo by drinking a bottle of vodka and swimming in the pool. After dinner the swimming became skinny dipping.
Today we have a long bus ride (8hrs) to Lima. The weather should start to cool down as we head inland.
Better go,
Hope everyone is well.
Michelle.

More Photos

Sugar cane being made into lollies. It is boiled to make it more flexible.

Trying on Panama Hats

Nath practicing hunting with the blow dart back when we visited a family community living along the Napa River.

St in Quito

On our city tour of Cuenca this morning we stopped at a local food market selling fruit, veges and

meat. It was very crowded. We tried some local fruits that looked tropical. When I say we I mean Nath and the rest of the group. I still think fruit is yuck.

The local flower market is stunning. It takes place every day and you can get a bunch of 12 red roses for $4 (handy that valentines day is tomorrow!). All the flowers are cheap compared to NZ. I saw a blue rose and many other colourful flowers.
Hope you enjoyed the photos.
Happy Valentines Day,
Love Mich and Nath

Cuenca

Ola,

After many hours on buses (8) we arrived in Cuenca yesterday arvo. It appears to be the most modern of the cities we have visited so far. We have seen shops selling beds, computers, tables which is something we haven´t seen in other cities.

Today we took a guided walk around Cuenca, stopping at a big Cathedral and a Panama hat shop and museum. It is very hot here, we have our frisbee which we´re going to have a play with in the square.

Tomorrow we bus to PERU. Exciting. We are going to a beach resort town for 3 days then off to Lima.

Currently there is a party like atmosphere with carnival celebrations taking place. You have to keep a watchful look walking down the sreet for a water bomb being hurled at you. We have been bombed but we have bought our own water bombs so we can now retaliate. I think we will try to involve ourselves in a water fight in the square later this arvo.

The first picture is of Baños - where we spent the last few days. Nath took this on his hike up the hill. The next pictures are of me with Lucas the monkey and the boa constrictor!

Baños

Hello out there,
We are excited to have feedback that people are reading our blog. Awesome. I'm feeling the pressure now to make it exciting to keep you glued to the blog.
Yesterday Nathan and I had an action packed day Mt biking then white water rafting. It was fricken awesome. I loved the rafting, totally up for doing some more. We were on a grade 3 river (grade 5 is the highest) so it was a little tame but we both managed to fall out at some stage!!! Heaps of fun. I want to try a grade 4 river next time (there´s an opportunity in Peru).
Last night we took a van ride up the hill to get a vantage point of the active volcano - it is spewing out lava and very much alive! The locals are always on evacuation alert. It erupted several times while we were there, very cool seeing the lava explode up then run down the Mt side. Much better than the Ruapehu eruption of '95.
Today we are cruising around town. Watched some girls in our group do a bridge swing this morning. We are meeting for lunch at a sandwich bar, thank god, I'm over the soup for lunch and dinner!! We hope to explore the town square and church this arvo before hitting the markets. I haven´t done any shopping yet.
Tessa - ring Mum for Bhav´s address I left my address book back in the hostel.
Candace - I like mushrooms (Nath doesn't). I'm severely allergic to tomatoes!!!

The radio stations here crack me up they play a combination of English and Spanish songs, but really old English songs. A lot of cranberries as they are playing a concert here next month. It is only the 2nd big band that has come to Ecuador!

Hopefully I will figure out how to upload some pics so you can see for yourselves all the action.

Tomorrow we have a bus ride to Cuenco, our last stop in Ecuador.

Adios amigos.

Amazon & Baños

Hi Team,

We´re out of the jungle and back to civilization with power and internet access.
Our jungle experience was totally amazing. Our trip is about eco tourism and getting an understanding of the local community. We had two outings to local families, one which makes there own pottery - we got a demo. We were also shown traditional cooking methods and hunting using blow darts - then we got to try for ourselves. Lots of fun.
The other family/community we visited ran a wild life shelter. They had lots of animals and we got to interact with them. A blue tucan followed us around the shelter as did various other animals. The highlight for me was playing with Lucas - a monkey (not sure what breed, he was little tho). anyway he was thrying to grab my camera and play with it. When he realised i was stronger he bit me, more like a nibble/pinch - several times. Then he tried to get in my top and kept pulling it down, very embarassing but very funny. He also pissed on me to mark his teritory. The tour leader had to help get him off me. Also at the shelter I held a boa constrictor!!!!! yuck. i was too scared to hold it by myself because it was so big so the tour leader held its head and i ad the rest of him. dont think im into doing that again.

We have arrived in Baños today. A lot more touristy than other places we have been so far. I think this place is NZs equivalent of queenstown. It is nestled in between mts and an active volcanoe. We have 2 full days here. Tomorrow we are going to go mt biking down the valley which takes us to the place where we will go rafting in the afternoon. On thursday we are going for a horse trek in the morning then I would like to wander around town and look in the shops.
Tonight we are going out for dinner then taking a taxi ride to the volcanoe because you can see lava at night!!
Finding things to be ridiculously cheap. Internet cafe for 1hr = $1. At lunch times if you order the lunch special you get 2 courses a soup, a main consisting of rice, meat, and salad, and a juice for $2!! Today we paid a little more ($3) and got a dessert. Amazing. We are told by Joanna (tour leader) that food is cheaper in Peru. Crazy.

Hope i havent bored you with all the writing, i would upload some photos but nathan is out exploring a volcanoe with Paul (the only other guy in our group). I am sick, better now, but pretty dreadful yesterday with a dodgy stomach, lots of trips to the bathroom. At one stage I didnt make it back to my room in time and spewed in the tropical garden - im worried i may kill off some preciuos plants. Feeling heaps better today although still not on solids. Dont have much energy, hence not exploring volcanoes and sitting in internet cafe updating all you people.

Here´s hoping I find my way back to the hostel ok.

until next time,

adios

will try to upload some photos in the next day or two.

Exploration of Quito (day 2)

Today we explored Quito. Took a gondola ride (teleferico) to 4100m to look out over the city. Unfortunately the weather is poor and visibility was limited. Definately noticing the O2 deficit at altitude! Even walking up stair cases is difficult, lots of puffing (Not just us thankfully!).
Saw many sites in the old town including la basilica, plaza grande and el panecilio. Lots to see, many side streets, road stalls, crazy driving. Roads are brick cobble stones, no tar seal.
Picking up a few words of spanish.
1s and 2s paper must not be flushed, has to be put in a bin beside the toilet. very weird. sewer system not designed to handle paper.
Tomorrow we are heading to the Amazon, cant wait. May not be able to update for a few days at least. Currently we have free net access in our hostel.
Taxi drivers are crazy. Swerve all over the place, very impatient!
WIll try to upload phots, this comp is a dinosaur so may take too long.
Gave up on the phots. 5mins to not even upload 1 photo. use your imagination (or search google images)
Adios.

Quito

After many hours of flying and being stuck in transit in LA we have made it to Quito. Very cool city.
Met our tour group and had dinner with them tonight. 4 Aussies and us 2 kiwis makes for a small and intimate group. From the sounds of our briefing we will be able to hike Macchu Piccu after all.
Dinner tonight was awesome - very cheap $5USD for a main and that was a middle of the road restaurant. Nath and I ordered a beer for $1.48 and it was a 750ml bottle. SCORE.
Bed time for us. Going to ride the cable car and exlpore the old part of town tomorrow, and maybe watch a ballet in the evening.
xxxmichxxx

15 hours till we take off to South America and beyond

Well here we are 12:45am bags are packed, blog has been created and I think its time for bed.
You can follow our travels online and we will try to update it every few days.
enjoy,

Nath and Mich