We got to sleep in a little today before going on a tour to the Sacred Valley of the Incas starting at 8am. Since we are the only 2 people on our tour, we are by ourselves on all of the bits that don’t overlap with other tours. This hasn’t happened yet.

We had the services of Hernan as our guide for the day who first took us to the ruins of Saqsayhuaman (it only sounds like sexy woman), where a very impressive temple sat at the head of the old Incan city, the shape of which was a Puma. One of the stone blocks in the temple weighs 130 tonnes, while another selection of stones gave the outline of a Llama.

Having seen the stone Llama we then went to a Llama and Alpaca Zoo where we saw traditional hand weaving being done with Llama and Alpaca wool dyed with vegetable and mineral dyes made on site. From here we went to Pisac to visit some more ruins high above the valley. The religious buildings were all made with large stones that fitted together perfectly. Below these buildings the hill had been cut into terraces for agricultural purposes, while water was channeled along the contours of the hill from a creek several kilometres away.

Read the rest of this entry »

The hotel is in Calle de Garcilaso and is the second hotel named after the street.

We arrived here are being picked up at the airport by Carla, who bought us to the hotel and then took us on a walking tour of the city. It was only short and taken having some tea made with coca leaves which was meant to help overcome the effects of altitude sickness. I was feeling a little light headed and occasionally short of breath, but this soon passed.

The town is pretty (rather very) crappy on the outskirts, but the centre is rather nice, set around a few squares, it has a number of beautiful churches. the buildings are a mix of Incan foundations with Spanish colonial buildings on top. The cathedral, which is normally closed (or only open for a fee) was open for Good Friday mass at no charge. It was massive inside and had rooms down each side filled with statues and alters dedicated to a variety of saints as well as JC and his mum. One of the Christs was black, and the main statue of Mary looked distinctly like a South American Indian.

Read the rest of this entry »

Another day, another airport. We are at Puerto Maldonado airport waiting for a flight that might leave sometime between 1100 and 1145. Since it is already 1130 and the plane is not here, I don’t think it will leave on time.
Coming back from the Lodge we were going against the flow of the river and it took 2 hours. We had seen enough river and jungle by then.

Being as we were spending two nights in the one place we thought we might get the chance to sleep in. It was not to be. We had been allocated to go on the “Lost Lake” (Cocha Perdida) tour which had a 0600 departure. (0500 wake up call and 0530 breakfast).
We took a boat down the river, were dropped off and walked 5km through varying grades of mud. Along the way we saw a tarantula, (seriously big spiders), possum monkeys, evidence of pigs and a snail the size of both my fists.

At the end of the 5km was a 700m boardwalk out to the Lost Lake. We had a paddle around the lake and saw turtles and another caiman. On the way back along the boardwalk, Sue slipped and fell into the water getting completely soaked and filthy at the same time.
Amongst the trees that Livio (our tour guide), pointed out was the Justice Tree.

This tree had a symbiotic relationship with a species of ants. The tree provides the ants with food and a home and the ants protect the tree from attack by other insects. Livio said in the old days men were tied to the tree(and thus bitten by ants) as punishment if they were caught shitting on their wives. Read the rest of this entry »

I am sitting in a musty little room in our hotel. We were dropped here after a wild ride from the airport through some very depressing suburbs. Many of the building appeared fortified and several of the factories had what seemed to be guard towers on the top of their walls. The city seems much poorer than Santiago, it is very polluted and many of the taxi-bus vehicles are falling apart. The horn works in all of them though.
Our hotel is on a quiet (that is a relative term) back street but has a big iron grill door at the front which is opened by reception. Again it is a first impression, but it doesn’t seem to be a safe or inviting town. Sue says she doesn’t think I am a good traveller and I think she may be right. We were meant to meet our tour guide today for a pre tour meeting but we are the only two on the tour at this stage. We have been given instructions on how to get to the Amazon Jungle and after we are finished there, we will meet our tour guide in Cusco, (4 days into the tour). We must leave soon and go see the changing of the guards at 1200 at the end of the street.

The changing of the guards was a classic exhibition of pomp and ceremony. The military band stood just inside the iron barred fence, facing the palace and played various tunes, one of which was probably the National anthem and one which started the same way of the Rocky theme. The guards marched in a way where one knee was lifted high while the next step saw the leg kicked above the head. At one point they played “el condor pasa” and condors were released from the tower and circled the palace. Very impressive. I am wishing now that I had read a little more on the history and politics of the country before visiting.Everywhere you walk in town there are police, however it doesn’t make me feel safe, it makes it feel like a police state.
Read the rest of this entry »