Escape... South America

Lima

2009-02-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

Lima, the Capital City lies on the west coast of Peru, roughly half way up the country. It’s a large, sprawling metropolis, and unfortunately like many large cities in South America it is known as a place to avoid exploring alone or by night. Saying that, we actually found it a very pleasant city to wander around by day, and had no problems at all with criminals… save using our usual avoidance techniques for pickpockets of course.

The historic centre of Lima is based around a few Spanish Colonial Squares – pretty, colourful buildings with lots of wooden balconies, nice fountains, green parks, and the usual elegant churches. The ‘historic’ buildings are very much mixed in with the functional commercial centre of Lima, giving the pleasant impression of a bustling hub rather than a tourist attraction. Admittedly, the ‘historic’ buildings aren’t exactly that ‘historic’ by our standards in the UK – every 50 years or so a cracker of an earthquake seems to come along and demolish half the city, meaning each beautiful church or hall has been reconstructed a number of times!

We actually stayed quite a long way from the old town centre, in the very pleasant cliff-side district of Miraflores. This affluent suburb with lively streets, parks and shopping centres had the advantage of being safe to wander around in the evenings which we thought would lead to a more relaxed stay. The central triangular park of Miraflores is a particularly nice place for an evening stroll on the weekend as a lively mobile market is set up. It was great on Valentines Day, when crowds of couples (and plenty of girl or boy groups hoping to couple up) bustled in all directions, fending off hordes of flower sellers and balloonists!

Our Valentines Day wasn’t particularly romantic – my fault I admit (although Gary’s not exactly romantic at the best of times!). The 14th of February this year marked the 6 Nations clash between Wales and England… and despite being in Peru we managed to find an English Pub in Miraflores that showed the match! Being a Welsh girl of course, I always enjoy it when Wales beat England at rugby! After the match we did have a pleasant meal out on the cliff-top complex of Larco Mar – a new development full of swish shops and restaurants with great views down over the beaches of Lima – before a nice stroll back along the cliffs to our hotel at sunset via the Parque Del Amor. Perhaps it wasn’t such an unromantic day after all!

Anyway, we are now leaving the Southern Hemisphere for Mexico and the last stage of our trip. We’ll arrive in Mexico City and then travel westwards for a month to the coastal town of Cancun and our flight back to the UK. And of course en route we plan to visit a few Aztec and Maya pyramids – apparently their appetites for human sacrifice was far greater than the Incas, and as a result the temples often have carvings of beheadings and the like all over the walls! Great!

Lima Pictures

2009-02-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

The coastal cliffs of Miraflores, Lima, taken at dusk just as the lights started to glow! Very pretty for the most part - we weren't so sure about the giant luminous cross you can see on the headland at the right side of the picture...

Gary in a pretty Avenue in Miraflores, very clean, lots of trees, oodles of security guards everywhere...

Sunset on Valentines Day after Wales beat England. Nice evening!
This busy street was in the middle of the Historic Centre of Lima - every buildingin this area seems to be painted some bright coour or other, making the region very festive.

Our last glimpse of the Pacific ocean for the trip (not including the views from the airoplane of course). Lima does have some very pretty sunsets.

Paracas

2009-02-10T09:30:00.001-08:00

Despite being reasonably adventurous and genuinely enjoying exploring the world, I’ve never really imagined myself as the sort of person to be found wandering through an isolated desert with vultures circling overhead. It’s too clichéd – the sort of scene you see in films but not real life. Well…

Our first few weeks in Peru were all spent high in the Andean mountain ranges, mostly greater than 2800m above sea level. But similar to neighbouring Chile, as you move to the west coast of Peru you rapidly descend towards the Pacific Ocean, where the country becomes increasingly barren and dry. Actually it takes a reasonable amount of time to descend from the Andes – we caught the night bus from Cusco down to Nazca, and spent the entire 14 hour trip being hurled from one side to another as the (very comfy) coach sped around a never-ending series of hairpin bends in the mountains. This didn’t exactly make it very easy to sleep (and if you did drop off for a few moments you’d be in danger of waking up with severe car-sickness!).

Anyway, we stopped off briefly at Nazca to recover, but soon fled the little desert town due to its incredibly high number of pestering tourist touts. And here we hit a snag. We had planned to make our way to Lima via Pisco, a small coastal town with access to incredibly diverse wildlife in the neighbouring Paracas Peninsular and Ballestas Islands. We even got as far as buying bus tickets to Pisco – except that when we were actually handed the tickets the destination typed on the front was Paracas, not Pisco. The bus ticket lady assured us that the major buses only stopped in Paracas, which was a short way from Pisco. Slightly perturbed we wandered to an internet café to do some research, and found that Pisco had been devastated by an earthquake measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale in 2007 – a year after our Rough Guide to Peru was published! The town was now more or less rubble, with variable reports as to whether any hotels were left standing, and numerous rumours of a dramatic increase in crime. Great.

Luckily with a bit more digging around we managed to find some reports that a small port called El Chaco just south of Pisco and right next to the Paracas reserve was now the best place to stay in the area. So we shrugged, found the telephone number of a the small Hostal Santa Maria and booked a room. This turned out to be one of the best make-shift choices we’ve made in South America. We were met in El Chaco when the bus arrived by a man from the Hostal, who gave us a fun lift in a dune buggy! And the actual Hostal itself was one of the nicest we’ve seen in this part of the world – very clean, constant hot water, and it even had a restaurant attached serving delicious fish or chicken dishes. Better still, El Chaco (or Paracas as it is now sometimes called) turned out to be a lovely lively little coastal town with a pretty beach and good access to the Paracas Peninsular, although I suspect it will be a much bigger place in a few years time looking at the amount of construction work underway just inland or along the coast.

We were pretty pleased with finding an El Chaco that had recovered well from the earthquake, but we felt even luckier when we discovered that we had arrived on the day of the Annual Pisco Sour Festival! This effectively meant that a large hotel / apartment complex was given over to festivities for the entire afternoon… so you were welcome to wander in free of charge to listen to local music, watch weird dances, and sample the delicious national drink of Peru free of charge. As Gary and I both like Pisco Sours a lot, and the ones available were the best we’ve had in Peru, it was a very pleasant afternoon!

The next day we visited the Ballestas Islands by catching a small boat from the El Chaco harbour. This was truly amazing. These islands are hyped as being second only to the Galapagos in terms of density of wildlife in South America. As you approached the dramatically arched and cave-ridden lumps of white rock the entire surface seemed to be crawling with insects. Move a little closer and you realise there are no insects – just hundreds of thousands of birds! Pelicans, turns, vultures, gulls, and even sweet penguins! The perch everywhere, no ledge or outcrop is left unoccupied… unless a sealion has taken it for a resting place of course. The small beaches and caves of the islands were absolutely teaming with South American sealions, some of which swam out to meet the boat! One beach was particularly fascinating, as the mother sealions used it as a nursery. In between the adult monsters were hundreds of tiny sweet pups, many obviously trying to avoid having swimming lessons with Mum!

Our last day was spent exploring the Paracas reserve. We hired bicycles from another Hostal in El Chico and cycled 6km to the edge of the desert peninsula reserve where we took a brief break to watch a flock of flamingos in the bay before heading on into the desert. It took a reasonably energetic ride through the dramatic landscape to reach the tiny fishing village of Lagunallas on the far side of the peninsula. Here we rewarded ourselves with cold drinks and lunch (very fresh fish of course) before wandering along the coastline, gazing a flocks of pelicans and gulls, sealions playing around the boats, and at the vultures circling overhead! It is a magical place.

Anyway, now we must move on to our last stop in Peru, the capital city of Lima. From there we fly to Mexico, where we hope to swap Inca ruins for Maya pyramids for our last month of our trip around the world.

Paracas Photographs

2009-02-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

Our limousine! This dune buggy gave us the most fun transportation we´ve had in a long time – and the best hotel transfer ever. You sit really low in the vehicle, and so it feels really fast...

At the Pisco Sour festival in Paracas (the nearest functional place to Pisco town after the 2007 earthquake) the afternoon was celebrated with a number of curious songs and dances. This particular dance that we photographed seemed to involve a flamenco-like girl constantly circled by a man on a horse... strange! Nice drinks available though!

Feeding time for the pelicans near the jetty in El Chico. This man attracted quite a crowd, all clacking their beaks viciously at him as he wandered around the sand with his bag of fish.

The pelicans weren´t exactly phased by humans – they let you come right up to them as they beg for fish. But thern again, their beaks are nearly as long as my arm...

The wonderful arches of one of the Ballestas Islands – lots of birds in the air, sealions in the water, and of course the rocks were black with aminal life of one sort or another.

This bold sealion came all the way out to our boat to greet us (or to fight us off more likely). They make a very loud impressive barking noise – and with thousands of the creatures near the boat at times the din was amazing!

A cave full of sealions – Mums and pups. Not very many Dads were in this area – apparently they believe their job is over after conception, and that looking after little ones is a job for girls! Sounds a little like humans really, don´t you think?

This rock was typically heaving with birds – in this case some very hyperactive pelicans and slightly quieter penguins below. The whole series of islands was literally crawling with avian life just like this (meaning the rock was white with bird droppings of course – harvested every few years for a lucrative fertillser industary!)

Penguins! These lovely little birds were actually quite common here, although admittedly not as common as the gulls, pelicans or sealions. I never realised that penguins lived this far from the South Pole.

The beautiful Paracas peninsula seen from the water en route to the fascinating Ballastas islands. It a pretty bleak place!

Cycling into the middle of nowhere? Gary tackes the desert on his mountain bike (probably stalked by hopeful vultures in the clouds above). The cliffs and ocean behind set off the peninsula pretty well.

This dramatic red beach was only one of the many small coves lying on the south shore of the Paracas Peninsula, constantly battered by waves and the occasional sealion!

And finally, we couldn´t resist including this beautiful sunset scene from the beach at El Chico towards the Paracas Peninsula – wonderful colours as the sun goes down over the Pacific.

Machu Picchu

2009-02-05T16:23:00.001-08:00

Hyped as one of the modern ’Seven Wonders of the World’ and the ‘Premier Attraction in South America’, Machu Picchu has a lot to live up to! The most famous Inca Citadel of all is situated in the midst of the Andes north of Cusco, at the lower end of the Sacred Valley. Due to all the hype we deliberately left visiting until the end of our time in the area… it seemed only appropriate to keep the most spectacular Inca structure for the grand finale.

Getting to Machu Picchu is interesting - below Ollantaytambo the Sacred Valley becomes too narrow for a road to be built, meaning that you can only arrive on foot (by hiking the Inca Trail) or by train along the narrow track squeezed in by the side of the turbulent River Urambamba. We opted to visit by train as we wouldn’t have had the time to see all the interesting places in the Sacred Valley otherwise - and as the Inca trail is closed in February we didn’t have much choice anyway! We were pleased to find that booking tickets a few days in advance at the main Cusco train station was simple (all staff even spoke perfect English), if a tad expensive $92 US return for the basic ‘backpacker ticket’. Booking everything was so easy that when we turned up at a painfully early 6.30 am to board the train from Cusco’s San Pedro Station, we were slightly taken aback to find that most people were being guided aboard the rickety old train in Tour Groups. Groan.

Fortunately, we soon forgot about the groups as the train left Cusco. The line was obviously built a long time ago on a tight budget which didn’t stretch to simple things like bridges and tunnels! In order to ascend the mountain on the north edge of Cusco the train had to wind back and forth upwards in a series of zigzags. The slope was too steep for hair-pin bends in the track, so instead every few hundred yards the track would stop and reverse on itself in a switch-back, meaning the train would have to change direction for every zig and zag... After meandering back and forth upwards for nearly an hour we finally left Cusco, and the train picked up slightly more speed. Well, not much more speed – it was just as well that the scenery en route was stunning as the trip lasted 4 hours and 20 minutes!

Once we finally jumped off at Machu Picchu Pueblo (the small town that has sprung up to cater for the Inca Complex), we had to run the gauntlet past a hoard of guides and touts brandishing signs for Tour Groups and on right through a huge craft market that forms the only exit to the train station! After deftly dodging numerous sellers of woolly jumpers, shawls, woven things, silver jewellery, paintings and pan-pipes we dashed over the raging River Urambamba and swiftly caught a bus up to the Temple Complex… where of course the lovely sunny weather we had watched with delight all morning through the train windows vanished, and it started to pour down!

We weren’t exactly surprised – every picture of Machu Picchu we’ve ever seen has either had fierce clouds outlining the mountains or has been digitally manipulated to show blue sky! This Inca Temple may have been a place of Sun Worship, but it seems much more effective at summoning clouds! To be honest, the rain wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – the clouds and drizzle certainly gave a bleak sinister edge to the incredibly dramatic and beautiful Complex. And the rain brought another bonus - when we first started to wander around with our umbrellas out there were lots of Tour Groups around the place forming very obvious colourful clusters of mostly middle aged people in bright waterproof jackets or plastic ponchos. The site of the Machu Picchu is so extensive that it could easily cater for the numbers of people, but every now and then you’d get caught behind one of these very slow moving groups, and have to put up with the loud voice of the Guide ruining the tranquil beauty… until you finally escaped past! Fortunately the rain seemed to scare most of these away, so that by early afternoon when the sun emerged from the clouds we more or less had the stunning place to ourselves.

Why is Machu Picchu so beautiful? As an estate agent might tell you – it’s all about location. To be brutally honest, the buildings and temples littered throughout the site may form an extensive and well preserved town, thankfully free of the ravishings of Colonial Spain, but they really aren’t that wonderfully constructed. The Temple of the Sun at Pisac and the fabulous fortifications of Sachsayhumuam actually have far better stone-work. The extensive network of agricultural terraces that flank the sides of Machu Picchu cling to the mountain spectacularly, but no more so than in many of the other sites we’ve seen in the Sacred Valley. No, what makes Machu Picchu stand out as one of the most spectacular places we’ve ever seen is it’s positioning on a dramatic saddle of a high sheer-sided mountain surrounded by a U-turn in the raging River Urambamba hundreds of meters below, only just visible through the drifting clouds. Add into the mix the impressively steep mountain of Huayna Picchu towering vertically behind the hillock of the Sun Temple and you have one of the most memorable scenes you’ll find anywhere on Earth. You have to admire the Incas for building here – very beautiful, but completely impractical! They must have been mad (or at least hyperactive)! Just think of all the climbing they had to do to get up out of the river valley, or even worse, to scale the peak of Huayna Picchu.

We didn’t realise before we arrived at the site that you could climb Huayna Picchu, the almost vertical mount immediately behind Machu Picchu. Once we discovered this we made a bee-line for the entrance, and were very lucky to be one of the last few people let through that day. Of course it rained heavily during the entire exhausting climb up hundreds of large stone steps hewn from the sheer rock cliff face – which were made nicely slippery by all the water! It did make you think about the vertical drop down to the river hundreds of meters below… But when we eventually reached the Inca Citadel at the top we were very pleased to have persisted, if only for the spectacular views down over Machu Picchu. We were also rewarded by the chance to explore a wonderful vertical maze-like town where you had to climb sheer walls of rock and crawl through tight caves to reach the summit. As we arrived at the very top the rain magically stopped, and we were even treated to a few rays of sunshine! It couldn’t last – Machu Picchu generated more clouds over the course of the afternoon and only let the sun show the Temple’s full glory for the occasional moment. But those moments were beautiful!

So does Machu Picchu deserve all the hype? It is a nice well preserved Inca Complex in possibly the most dramatic site we’ve ever seen anywhere. The buildings can’t compare with Angkor Wat or the Taj Mahal, but on the other hand neither of these were dangled off the top of a narrow, vertically sided mountain! Machu Picchu is truly spectacular – and well worth a trip to Peru. Try and see it before the Peruvian Government starts taking things like ‘Health and Safety’ seriously, or I doubt you’ll be able to climb the rock cliff of Huayna Picchu, whose crazy citadel and views down over Machu Picchu are possibly the highlight of the whole place – if you don’t mind heights and slippery steps above long cliff drops that is…

Machu Picchu Pictures

2009-02-05T15:57:00.000-08:00

The magnificent Machu Picchu - vertical-cliff-sided mountains, sheer stone agricultural terraces, simple elevated temples... and the inevitable looming clouds. Spectacular place! And below you can see the rain that came from those gloomy clouds. Climbing up Huayna Picchu (the steep mount in the background of the first photo) with an umbrella in hand wasn´t the eastist thing - it made you very aware of the long drop over the edge of the cliff should you miss your footing.

The view from Huayna Picchu down towards the main Machu Piccu Complex, far, far below! As you can see, the whispy clouds were pierced by the odd ray of sunshine, making the view truly spectacular. You can appreciate the extent of the terracing in the site fro this angle too. Below you can see Machu Picchu´s circular terraces in the foreground, with Huayna Picchu towering in the background against the clouds.

Sunshine! When the ancient temple was lit up the terraces looked beautiful, but it was a rare event. Huayna Picchu behind is still dark and gloomy however.

A classic view of Machu Picchu, with a very small Vicki perched on a terrace at the right of the photo. More gloomy clouds above, but a few rays of sunshine escape to brighten up the complex below.

Ollantaytambo and the Sacred Valley

2009-02-04T09:19:00.000-08:00

We’ve spent a reasonable amount of time travelling up and down the dramatic Sacred Valley over the last few days. After first visiting Pisac and spending ages admiring the upper end of the valley from the great height of the mountain-perched Inca complex, we thought we’d have a go at venturing a little further. Pisac was very easy to get to – just hop on one of the small rickety local busses that leave every 15 minutes or so from Avenida Tullumayo in central Cusco and it’s an extremely cheap 30 minute trip. Our next target, Ollantaytambo, as well as proving much more difficult to pronounce, was much trickier to reach.

The main problem is that direct busses to and from Ollantaytambo are few and far between – leaving only once or twice a day at inconvenient times. So, to get there in ‘local style’ you have to first catch one of the incredibly popular busses that leave Avenida Grau to go to another town in the Sacred valley called Urubamba every half an hour. This was sort of OK –we weren’t lucky enough to get seats and so had to stand in the isle with 15 odd other poor devils in the packed bus. We were getting the hang of keeping our balance around the tight hair-pin bends as the road wound up out of Cusco when unfortunately the bus started to warm up. This is one thing that we really can’t understand about the locals here – they wear layer upon layer upon layer of clothing ALL of the time. Yes, the evenings and nights are bitterly cold, but the days are often sunny and warm. This was a warm day and we were in a packed, overcrowded bus – so the temperature rose rapidly until Gary and I were boiling! But even though the locals seemed to be wearing more than 4 times as many clothes compared to either of us they closed all the windows and wrapped themselves up in more coats to make it even warmer! We just don’t get it, they must have been roasting, but they all kept their coats on!

Anyway, the trip to Urubamba wasn’t the most comfortable, but it did offer some wonderful vistas as we descended into the Sacred Valley. Then we had a relatively easy transfer onto a Collectivo bound for Ollantaytambo. A Collectivo is a sort of clapped-out mini bus that only leaves a bus terminal when it can’t possibly fit any more passengers on board – but of course it will stop every now and then along the way to squeeze in anyone else who hails it down! Still, out reward for successfully traversing the Sacred Valley was to have a few hours exploring the very pretty little town of Ollantaytambo with its impressive Inca Fort.

The ruins here aren’t anywhere near as impressively located as those in Pisac. The main Inca Citadel is only 200m or so up the mountain above town, and so as you climb you do get nice views back over the Sacred Valley and Ollantaytambo itself, but they don’t compare to the vistas from the Pisac Temple. On the other hand it only takes a gentle 10 minute climb to reach the top rather than nearly 2 hours of hard hiking! It is for this reason we suspect that Ollantaytambo is particularly popular with tour groups. We were fortunate – we had just enough time to make a leisurely ascent to the citadel, quickly explore the small ruined Temple of the Sun, and then stroll along the top of the beautifully geometric agricultural terraces before the tours descended upon the place. As we made our way down the far side of the Inca Complex to our horror we saw hoards of tourists making their way (very very slowly) up to the Citadel we had explored only half an hour earlier. There were loads of them! At least five groups, each with 10 to 30 people… it looked like the stone terraces had sprouted a particularly virulent and colourful fungal infection! We actually felt sorry for each of the poor sods struggling upwards. Whereas we’d enjoyed the stunning temple and scenery in peace, they would be herded around the place with billions of others, never really getting the chance to appreciate it properly. And I dread to think how much more a guided tour would have cost compared to the pittance we paid for our local transport adventure!

This made us think of a conversation we’d overheard a day earlier while having a pizza for dinner in a restaurant overlooking the Plaza De Armas in Cusco. We don’t usually listen to other people’s conversations… but here we had no choice. Two couples in their late middle age sitting at adjacent tables began to chat – one from Denmark, the other from the USA. And trust me, if we’d been sitting in the restaurant next door we’d probably have still heard the North Americans clearly! They started off by saying ‘You know, we had a real adventure today – we were picked up by our guide at 8.00am and didn’t come back until 5.00! We visited the Sacred Valley’. At this point the Danish couple politely asked where in the Sacred Valley they had visited. ‘Ugh, I don’t think it has a name other than the Sacred Valley. There were some salt mines…But our Guide was really good – he’s written a book! I bought it…’ As you can imagine, this went on for some time! Eventually the Danish couple explained that they had used local buses to see the valley a few days earlier – and that they had been travelling up to Cusco from Lima by bus. The couple from the USA could barely disguise their horror: ‘Local buses? That must have been, err, interesting. Have you been to the Airport here? No? It’s really unusual…’ It was clear that the Danes had completely fallen in their estimation for not spending more money to travel in luxury – and for becoming somehow contaminated by ‘mixing’ with locals.

We listened to all this (we had no choice given the volume the North Americans shouted) with utter horror. I really hope that most people who travel have a genuine interest in the places they visit – and are willing to explore them rather than wanting bits and pieces handed to them on a 5 star platter. Having the opportunity to explore and get a real feel for a place is so much more fun than simply being bussed from point to point with crowds of other tourists. And on a practical note – independent travel is much cheaper too!

Ollantaytambo Photographs

2009-02-04T08:06:00.001-08:00

This is one of the spectacular views from the windows of the dodgy local bus on the way to Ollantaytambo... you can see some of the dramatic mountains of the Sacred Valley in the distance, with very lush agricultural areas closer to us. Below is the Inca Citadel at Ollantaytambo... more steps to climb, more terraces to explore - we think the Incas were totally mad for positioning all their complexes on slopes!

This view from the Inca Citadel shows the lively little town of Ollantaytambo in the Valley below. If you look at the mountain slopes in the distance you can see even more Inca Citadels - they never seemed to tire of their stonework! Below are pictures of some lovely terraces, and the mountain they ´hang´ from. In one of these photos is a very small Gary to give a sense of scale. We´ll award a prize to anyone who can spot him!

A slightly larger Gary in the Inca Citadel. With another lovely view over another lovely valley. Scenic area!

Pisac

2009-02-02T15:18:00.001-08:00

The Sacred Valley of the Incas is an astonishingly beautiful place, perched high up in the midst of the Andes. It is a dramatic steep sided river valley running from the small town of Pisac down past Ollantaytambo to eventually reach Machu Picchu. This area is completely saturated by Inca remains – from glorious fortress-temples clinging to the vertical rock of mountain peaks, to extensive, meticulously organised agricultural terraces carved from the steep valley sides.

Pisac lies just 30km north west of Cusco and the fabulous Sachsayhumuan. The town is small and pretty, situated in the centre of the narrow, perfectly flat plain at the head of the Sacred Valley. Apparently the market here is one of the best in the region – but apart from briefly wandering past we weren’t too interested (by this point in our Peruvian travels we’ve been pestered to buy far too many alopecia jumpers, woolly hats, silver jewellery, colourful blankets and pan-pipes!). The main reason we spent the day here was to explore the Inca ruins that lie on the mountainside just above the town.

Perhaps saying the ancient temple lies ‘just’ above the town isn’t entirely accurate. To be honest, we didn’t expect that climbing to the Inca remains would be anything like as absolutely exhausting or rewarding as it was! The misleading thing was that mountain north of Pisac is absolutely teeming with superb stone terracing – as soon as you climb the first few steep steps from the warden’s hut at the base of the mountain you start to ascend past these wonderful terraces and several pretty waterfalls. And from here if you gaze upwards you can see a number of circular stone ruins perched only a few hundred meters above at the top of the cliff. They must be your target, no? Erm, no. The wonderful Inca site at Pisac is very extensive, meaning that there are terraces and fortifications all over the mountain, on every false summit. The actual Temple of the Sun which forms the most impressive cluster of buildings takes at least an hour and a half of hard climbing up steep stone steps to reach – and even this fails to mark the top of the complex! Climb higher up the increasingly craggy mountain and you’ll reach further stone Inca structures, and receive increasingly spectacular views down over the stunning terraces and the wonderful Sacred valley

So far of the Inca sites we’ve seen Pisac has to be the most dramatic. It was hard work to get to the top of the mountain, but with each steep step upwards you were rewarded with fantastic views, making you want to continue all the way to the top! The Temple of the Sun was particularly impressive, constructed of those perfectly fitting stone blocks that the Incas carved so well. But the most wonderful structures in the complex were without doubt the stone agricultural terraces. There were areas of impressive terracing all over the mountain, but one section on the eastern side was particularly amazing. The name ‘Pisac’ apparently means ‘partridge’, and it’s theorised that this particularly extensive terrace is supposed to represent a partridge’s wing. It certainly looked a lot like a birds’ wing stretching down the mountain… but on a truly magnificent scale. I hope the photographs we’ve included below give you some sort of an idea!

Anyway, the next town in the Sacred Valley we hope to visit is Ollantaytambo, which apparently has its own impressive temple-fortress to guard the centre of the Inca Empire. And all of these are just a warm up to visiting Machu Picchu!

Pisac pictures

2009-02-01T15:25:00.000-08:00

The Sacred Valley stretches from here at Pisac all the way down to Machu Picchu. The steep sides, dramatic terraces and mystical Inca ruins make it a great place to spend an (energetic) afternoon! Below you can see a very small Gary in front of the Temple De Sol on one of the many false summits of the mountain above Pisac town where the Incas built their impressively extensive complex.

This is the Temple de Sol from another angle - we climbed well above this citadel to explore the burial sites at the top of the mountain (where you can see Gary at the bottom of a craggy cliff), and to get the most impressive views down onto the stunning stone terraces hundreds of meters below us!

Cusco

2009-02-01T15:12:00.000-08:00

Cusco is one of the most famous cities in Peru – mainly due to it’s proximity to the magnificent Inca Citadel Machu Picchu. It is a vibrant colonial town, perched high in the Andes (meaning the evenings are cold, but thankfully not quite as evilly freezing as nights in Puno!). Of course the main reason we chose to visit here was to see Machu Picchu, along with every other traveller in Peru, but as we found there were actually a huge number of other reasons to visit Cusco we ended up staying for ages – and decided the place deserved a blog entry of it’s own (I’ll put up separate posts on Machu Picchu and other Inca ruins in the area after we visit them).

We stayed in a tiny hotel just above a small plaza in San Blas on the north side of Cusco. It turned out to be a particularly pretty and lively area, which was great – the only drawback was that San Blas is a good, steep climb from the city centre. So when we first arrived in Cusco after a long, cramped bus ride from Puno we struggled uphill for over an hour, fully laden with all our worldly goods of course! The distance from the bus station wasn’t more than 4km, which would normally be fine by us, but it was all uphill. The last section, from the elegant central Plaza de Armas to San Blas was particularly steep and evil – especially given the thin air up here at high altitude!

Even after we had recovered from our travelling we found the gradient of Cusco challenging at times. But in a way the fact that the town is built on such a steep slope is one of the nicest things about the place – there are lots of pretty winding alleyways, twisting stone staircases and narrow near vertical streets squeezed in between the old Spanish colonial houses. Many of these streets have Inca stone work too… the Spanish simply built on top of the original Inca town when they colonised Peru, leading to a weird but attractive mishmash of architectural styles throughout Cusco.

You don’t have to go far from Cusco to get to really impressive Inca stone-work either. Situated on a hilltop overlooking the city is Sacsayhuaman, a hugely impressive fortress. Sadly much of the structure was plundered by the Spanish to rebuild Cusco town, but fortunately large sections of the complex remain – including the immense zigzag stone walls that formed the perimeter of the fort. Apparently the largest block of rock in the walls weighs over 70 tonnes… yet it and all the other huge ‘bricks’ were cut with elegant precision to fit perfectly together. Really impressive stonemasonry - the entire wall structure looks so perfectly preserved that it could have been made last year rather than centuries ago!

We struggled up hundreds of steps from Cusco to explore Sacsayhuaman (or ‘Sexy Woman’ as Gary nicknamed the place after mispronouncing the name all day!), and after catching our breath decided to explore some other Inca sites nearby. We were a bit ambitious – our Rough Guide to Peru informed us that there was an important but rarely visited complex called Chacan only 5km north-west, and so we set out to look for it. What the lovely Rough Guide didn’t tell us was that the way to Chacan was all uphill (beautifully steep Andean mountain-hills), nor did it give us any remotely useful directions. But after climbing for well over an hour in what we hoped was the right direction (aided by Gary’s Spanish, a very helpful Peruvian family and a friendly llama shepherdess) we actually found the place! And it was lovely – there were no roads, only dirt paths, so no buses full of tourists venture anywhere nearby, leaving us to admire the huge stone ruins of an Imperial Inca bathing ritual site in perfect peace. The whole complex teetered on the edge of a particularly beautiful gorge with colourful striped rock walls, and stunning views back down the valley of Cusco several hundred meters below.

On our way back down to town we got a bit sidetracked playing on the Inca slides at Rodadero. Here weirdly rounded volcanic rock has been polished over hundreds of years by people sliding down it! The rock is truly slippery on the ‘slides’ – you pick up quite a lot of speed as you get towards the bottom – where you have to stop immediately or end up face down in a muddy puddle... And finally we made a brief diversion on our way home to yet another Inca complex above Cusco called Qenko (we nicknamed it ‘Kenko’ in desperate mispronunciation…). This one was based around a huge carved outcrop of rock, complete with underground caves carved into a fun labyrinth. Lots of huge rock formations to scramble around. And these were only the nearest Inca sites to Cusco!

Only a little further a field are two other Inca sites, both easily reachable by local bus from Cusco. So we were very surprised and horrified when we hopped off our 20 year old clapped-out minibus packed with locals to see that most people turned up with tour groups and guides… The local transport here is so good that we really wonder why people sign up for tours only to be stuck with an irritating guide and 40 or so other tourists all day. Anyway, after dodging the hordes we spent a nice evening wandering around the small Inca sites of Tambo Machay and Puka Pukara. Tambo Machay is really just an over-large bath, complete with nice waterfalls, fit for the Royal Incas to bathe! Puka Pukara is a little more impressive – it consists of a fortified mound overlooking a beautiful valley above Cusco, and is apparently the Inca version of a hunting lodge. Both sites are only 11km from town, so after exploring the ruins we wandered back downhill, watching the sun set above Cusco before descending into the city centre for a well-earned pizza.

Anyway, over the next few days we plan to venture out from Cusco by bus and train to see Inca ruins at Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and of course, Machu Picchu – and we’ll put up some posts and pictures on the blog afterwards!

Cusco Photos

2009-02-01T14:47:00.000-08:00

As we walk out of our hotel each morning this is the view over Cusco we see - the lively area of San Blas formed by this sweet square and the twisting alleys you see below.

Here you can see Gary standing in front of the impressive zigzag fortifications at ´Sexy Woman´. As always clouds loom over Cusco in the distance but fortunately the weather stayed clear for our Inca explorations.

More zigzags at Sachsayhumuan... and a very small gary near them to give a sense of scale!

This gorge was near the Inca site of Chacan - we followed it back down towards Cusco, getting fabulous views of the city on the way.

Rock sildes! The volcanic rock near Sachsayhumuan has been used for sliding for hundreds of years - making it very smooth! By the time you reach the bottom you´re going pretty swiftly towards that muddy puddle... Below you can see Gary in Qenko, standng in one of the labrynthine caves.

Puka Pukara looks like any ruined castle you might find in Europe, but by Inca standards it´s only a tiny hunting lodge. It does have a wonderful view over the valley to the right of this photo though, and just off to the left are some sacred bathing pools.

Cusco´s Plaza de Armas at night - very lively, nice churches and cathedrals - and of course the obligatory silly fountain in the middle.

Puno

2009-01-29T10:23:00.001-08:00

Puno is a relatively large town on the west bank of Lake Titicaca. It is high in the Andean mountain range – the lake itself is 3827m above sea level, and parts of Puno rise above 4000m. Puno has a pleasant enough town centre, with a few nice bustling streets, but Lake Titicaca was the main reason we came to this part of Peru.

The high altitude may lead to impressively blue skies and clear (i.e. thin!) air, but there are a few definite disadvantages to venturing this far above sea level. The most obvious is the risk of Altitude Sickness (or Mountain Sickness) – physiological changes in the body in response to the low oxygen concentration in the air can cause severe problems for some people. Gary and I were both fine with the altitude, especially as we’ve been popping up and down to the Altiplano in Chile and Bolivia for weeks now! But we still felt a bit short changed of air sometimes if we exerted ourselves. It’s a strange feeling to get out of breath when climbing a few steps – makes you feel really unfit! Actually we spent one afternoon climbing up one of the mountains overlooking Puno to a 4000m Mirador (view point), so there were a few hundred steps to make us feel unfit… the spectacular views over the town and lake were worth the effort though!

The second major drawback to the high altitude was the temperature. In the day the strong sun beats down over Puno, leaving you feeling warm – and frizzled if you don’t use enough sun tan lotion! But as soon as the sun drops behind the encircling mountains the air becomes icy. We were visiting in the summer, and within 20 minutes of sun-down the temperature would fall way below zero. The locals respond to these contrasting temperatures very oddly – they seem to wear 20 odd layers of clothing all the time! We found this barmy – they must absolutely roast in the heat of the day, and probably still feel chilly at night as there is one thing they certainly don’t do – heat the buildings. No fires (unless for cooking), no radiators. Basically Puno seems to have no heating of any kind in its buildings. Which leads to some freezing nights shivering under the 5 layers of blankets supplied by the hotels!

Three nights of shivering was enough for us (well, me really – Gary seems impervious to the cold!). But at least as a reward we managed to see a truly remarkable part of the world. Lake Titicaca is vast, with a surface area of more than 8500 square km it is over 15 times the size of lake Geneva in Switzerland. And although the views from the hills around Puno are impressive, most of the main body of the lake lies out of sight around the headlands from here! it is only really possible to appreciate the size of the lake by going on a boat to visit some of the islands. During the hours needed for the small boats to chug across the water it feels like you’re venturing out onto an ocean… well, the distant shores are certainly too far away to see with the naked eye!

We wanted to visit Isla Taquile, a large inhabited island near the centre of Lake Titicaca. Unfortunately the only way to get there without arranging to stay with locals on the island was to go in a boat with a tour group – which meant we had to use our ingenuity to get away from the guide! Actually this wasn’t possible at first as the boat stopped at the Uros floating islands on the way to Taquile. These tiny man-made reed islands literally float on the surface of the lake, anchored in place to form small communities. There are over 50 floating islands, each with its own group of houses and fish farms, and some with schools and communal buildings. The people who live on the Uros islands must spend all of their time rebuilding them - the reeds rot away pretty swiftly. Well, the locals probably devote all of the time they have left after ‘putting on a show for visitors’ to rebuilding islands. Although seeing the floating islands was remarkable, and stepping onto the decidedly squidgy reed-ground was weird, we actually found this part of the trip pretty painful.

Gary and I hate being headed around or lectured to – we like exploring strange places! So if we are forced to use a tour for transport we get away from the group as soon as we can (usually within seconds of leaving the bus) and wander around as usual. But in Uros this was impossible – the reed islands are tiny! As a result we were forced to hear the excruciatingly long lecture of a guide who a) thought far too much of himself, b) had really bad English, and c) talked really slowly, often repeating himself, for a long, long time… Not good! This bloke really liked the sound of his own voice. Eventually he stopped, and then we escaped to wander around the tiny island, and capture nice photos from the roof of the boat. Luckily from here on we were able to escape the package – when the obnoxious guide tried to heard everyone onto a ‘traditional reed boat’ we just refused to move from the roof of the transportation boat (meaning we didn’t have to pay for a ride in a small boat packed with people, and so we got far better views of the floating islands when our transportation boat moved off to pick everyone else up!). And then by staying on the roof of the boat as it moved towards Isla Taquile we avoided the commentary we’d have had to endure inside, and had stunning views of the vast Titicaca Lake. Much better!

Our escape from the evil self satisfied guide continued on Taquile. After the boat docked we made our way up the steep side of the island to the main square of the tiny village (dodging plenty of kids trying to sell braided bracelets en route). Here we swiftly made our escape from the controlling guide who really wasn’t happy about it. He told us to ‘stay near here’ – to which my smiling sarcastic response was ‘No! That would be boring! Much better to explore!’ (I was annoyed with him by this point). He clearly wanted to earn commission by making us spend money in gift shops and restaurants! Instead we spent a lovely few hours walking along an isolated path at the north side of the island, past hundreds of agricultural terraces cut into the side of the steep slopes. The green of the cultivated terraces with the deep blue lake and vivid sky behind were particularly pretty. It was almost a shame to have to return to the boat for the long trip back to Puno – but then if it was cold by night at the edge of the lake I dread to think what it would be like after dusk on Isla Taquile!

Puno Pictures

2009-01-29T09:43:00.001-08:00

This is a wonderful lagoon complete with a flock of flamingoes that we passed on the bus trip from Arequipa to Puno. We were really lucky - we were seated at the front row on the second floor of a panoramic-view double decker bus, so we had wonderful views of mountains, lagoons, lakes...

This is the wondefully reflective Lake Titicaca seen from the nice new waterfront esplanade at Puno. This photo really makes the lake look much smaller than it is though!

You get a slightly better idea of the lake´s size if you climb one of the nearby hills in Puno. But the section of lake you can see behind me is less than a twentieth of the whole!

At the same mirador (viewpoint) there was a small tower with a giant Condor on top. You could climb the tower - you can see Gary looking diminutive beneath the Condor´s claws!

This is Uros - fifty or so reed-based man-made floating islands are all anchored here, huts, fish farms, and all. What a weird way to live.

These are the beautiful Inca style terraces that adorn the slopes of Isla Taquile. The lake was a particularly nice shade of blue during our visit and the sky (as always at high altitude) was astoundingly clear - meaning the air felt particularly thin when climbing all the steps to get up to the terraces!

Arequipa

2009-01-26T09:12:00.001-08:00

Our first few nights in Peru were spent in the highly photogenic colonial city of Arequipa, one of the major centres in the southern part of the country. We were quite surprised to find that Arequipa was by far the most attractive city we’ve come across so far in South America – but then again, the most attractive features of Chile were definitely natural wonders. We were lucky enough to check into a hotel right on the beautiful Plaza Armas, the focal point of the town centre. So each morning we could have coffee on a wide communal stone balcony at the front of the building, overlooking the Plaza, Cathedral, and the towering El Misti volcano in the distance.

We were very lazy for the our few days in Arequipa – but it was such a nice place to wander around, stopping every now and then for coffee you can hardly blame us! The old town centre seems to consist almost exclusively of white stone buildings, evidently built during the years of Spanish colonisation. The Plaza Armas was particularly nice with its stylish twin towered Cathedral on one side and elegantly arched buildings completing a perfect quadrangle. The Plaza really came alive in the evenings when the buildings were brightly lit and swarms of people came to wander around the central gardens and fountains. The only drawback to this was the pickpockets – we had no problems, but that was mainly because we were very aware of the numerous thieves eyeing up everyone’s bags and pockets. Arequipa may be a very pleasant city, but to enjoy it you do have to remain alert!

I know we’ve only been in Peru for a few days, but already we’ve noticed distinct differences with Chile. The atmosphere is more frantic somehow – reflected particularly by the traffic! Arequipa is besieged by thousands of tiny cars whizzing here there and everywhere, most of them mini yellow tin-can cabs! You really have to dash across the street if you want to cross, as the cabbies will accelerate towards you as fast as they possibly can – and they close even big gaps in traffic remarkably quickly. Perhaps they prize running over grannies, kids and (of course) tourists as a national sport! But the slightly frantic feeling isn’t restricted to when you try to dodge taxis (or avoid pick-pockets). Even the crowds of people in the streets seem more active here somehow, which is a pleasantly lively but less relaxing environment.

Anyway, our next stop is the smaller town of Puno, which is on the bank of the massive Lake Titicaca, near the border with Bolivia. We thought it would be fun to explore the lake and its numerous islands for a few days, and Puno breaks up the journey to Cusco nicely… from where we look forward to seeing lots of impressive Inca ruins!

Arequipa Photos

2009-01-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

This is the beautiful Cathedral at the northern edge of the Plaza de Armas of Arequipa by night. It looks great all lit up and sparkling - not surprisingly it is a favourite spot with locals as well as visitors. Below you can see the view of the plaza we had over breakfast from our hotel´s balcony... El Misti, the volcano in the distance, is very pretty! The other images show some lovely colonial buildings, mostly white and elegant, but some very colourfully painted in a Mediterranean style.

Another elegent archway - this was our favourite street in the centre of town for catching a quick coffee and watching the world go by!

Another view of the Plaza at night - this time from behind the grand central fountain (which was always covered with hundreds of pigeons!).

Arica

2009-01-23T20:34:00.001-08:00

Arica is the most northerly town in Chile – it’s only 25km from the Peruvian border. Actually it used to belong to Peru, until Chile confiscated it in a war in the 19th Century. Now it’s a lively little coastal town, again overlooked by the impressive mountainous cliffs and sand-dunes of the Atacama desert.

Our stop in Arica was for a brief 2 nights, as we now have to press on to Peru. But at least we had a chance to look around! Actually we were more or less forced to look over a reasonable section of town as the bus terminal is a good 3km from the centre – giving us a few long walks back and forth as we tried to work out exactly how to get across the border to Peru. Not the easiest thing! But look at the ‘Leaving Chile’ entry on the main Blog page for details on that…

One of the nicest things about Arica is its main thoroughfare – lots of cafes and small shops on a bustling tree-lined street leading down to the waterfront. It’s a lovely place to relax and people-watch over dinner. And from here it’s only a short walk through a few Plazas complete with fountains (and even an old black steam locomotive engine for some reason) to Arica’s most dramatic feature: a 150 odd meter cliff rising abruptly to tower over the town. It’s only a short climb to the top, but the views back over the town are great – complete with circling ravens (at least I think they were ravens!).

Anyway, now we have worked out how to cross the Peruvian Border we will give it a go tomorrow, and then let you know how we get on!

Arica Photographs

2009-01-23T20:19:00.001-08:00

This is the very lovely view over the town and harbour of Arica from the top of a 150m cliff nearby. Behind me is (typically for this part of the world) a huge statue of Jesus and an archelogical museaum. Nice combination? But we prefered the view back over the water as the sun set! Below you can see the nice town centre with Gary standing under a tree looking sheepish!

Another lovely view over Arica (my turn to pose sheepishly for the camera). This was all made even more appealing by the huge numbers of large black birds that constantly circled around the cliff. I think they were ravens - they looked pretty large and sinister at any rate!

Iquique

2009-01-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

Our few days in Bolivia were stunning, highly memorable, but utterly shattering! In order to see the Salar De Uyuni and then get back across the border to San Pedro we had to get up at 3.30am two days in a row… painful. And then of course we wanted to move swiftly northwards through Chile towards the Peruvian border. So, unfortunately we had a brief stop-over in the small town of Calama and get up at the crack of dawn AGAIN to catch the bus to Iquique. By this time we were more than a bit exhausted, and so it was just as well that Iquique turned out to be a very pleasant place to have a break! After all, we are meant to be on holiday…

Iquique is a coastal town, perched on a narrow sliver of land between the sea and some dramatic volcanic slopes. I think most people come here for the beaches, but to be honest we preferred the lively town centre. But then again we have seen a number of beautiful beaches this year (particularly in Australia, Thailand and Malaysia), and Iquiuqe’s wasn’t quite amongst the best. And even on the prettiest beach in the world we’d probably play in the sea and then go off for a walk! We don’t make good beach bums!

As it happened the centre of Iquique was particularly nice during our stay. There was some sort of ‘International’ festival going on, which seemed to mostly consist of lots of stalls and booths in the main Plaza, each with it’s own National theme. OK, most of the countries represented were South American, and practically all of these were trying to make money by selling stuff… but even so it gave the place a very colourful lively atmosphere! My only complaint would be the noise – imagine about 7 getoblasters competing tenaciously with a huge PA system to see who could blast their Latino-pop the loudest… Not so good. Especially as by now we have developed a profound dread of some types of South American pop music – see the ‘leaving Chile’ post I’ll put on the main site in a few days for a good rant about that!

Anyway, now that we’ve recovered from our Bolivian exhaustion in Iquique we’ll move further north to Arica. And from there it will be a short hop to the border with Peru!

Iquique Pictures

2009-01-21T17:32:00.000-08:00

This is the graceful arc of sand that makes up Iquique´s main beach - pertty enough, but not as interesting as the square at the centre of town! The pictures of Gary below give a good impression of the place, nice and lively, and with the beautiful blue sky typical of Chile.

Lots of nice Cafes overlook the Plaza - perfect to while away a lazy afternoon over a coffee, beer or Pisco Sour...

Bolivia and the Salar De Uyuni

2009-01-19T06:40:00.000-08:00

Bolivia is a land-locked country. Thanks to Chile – they took Bolivia’s coastal region away in the Pacific wars last century. Consequently there are no diplomatic relations between Chile and Bolivia, and the border between the countries lies at altitudes of 4500m plus in the middle of the Andes! So we were surprised to say the least that this border crossing was arguably the friendliest we’d ever seen. OK, the air was a bit thin and cold, but the border guards were frankly pleasant – which we know by this point is not normal!

So after being dropped at the edge of Bolivia by minibus and passing the pleasant immigration, we were picked up by a large shiny sliver 4 by 4 jeep. The Bolivian Altiplano is a spectacular place – beautiful and remote. So remote that I can honestly say we didn’t see a single tarmacked road in our 4 days in Bolivia, and that most of the time we travelled by dirt tracks. Luckily we and the four other blokes who shared our jeep were driven around by a very friendly Bolivian guy called Valerio who knew his way through the twisted tracks perfectly. Three of us were from the UK (Gary, myself and Nick, an English tour guide), there were two Aussies (Ben and James), and one Spanish bloke (Nachos – who with his good English became the perfect translator!).

We spent the first day high up in the Altiplano, reaching nearly 5000m above sea level at one point. The Bolivian side of the Andes is a vibrant place, even the barren volcanic mountains are every shade from black through purple, green, blue, red and yellow. Better still were the colourful lagoons. We passed the Lagoona Blanca with its white water, stunning mountain reflections and flocks of flamingos, but this was soon eclipsed by our next stop, the Lagoona Verde. The ‘Green Lagoon’ doesn’t have any flamingos – not surprising as the colour of the water is apparently due to a high concentration of arsenic… But the most fascinating thing about this lagoon was its colour, or rather its colours. When we arrived the still deep green water reflected the surrounding volcanoes beautifully, but 10 minutes later a pale opaque matt green had spread from one side of the lagoon to the other, completely stopping all reflections. It was incredible – we’ve no idea what caused the water to change but we have never seen anything like it.

Then it was onwards past twisted rock formations to a lagoon with patches of salt floating on the water and yet more flamingos, to bathe in a geothermally heated hot-pool on the shore. A warm bath with a wonderful view! Next we stopped briefly at the colourful Geyser Sol De Manana geothermal field (no true geysers here – but plenty of vigorously boiling mud pools and fumaroles… and a good whiff of sulphur!), before stopping for the night at the Lagoona Colorada (Red Lagoon). Here we hit the first snag of the trip – the hostel we were meant to stay in n the banks of the Lagoon was full, and none of us really fancied a night in the jeep in freezing cold… Fortunately the resourceful Valerio managed to negotiate us a bed in another hostel a little further on, but it did make us wonder why the company we booked the trip with hadn’t made reservations!

In a way we were lucky – we actually preferred the second hostel. OK, it was pretty basic accommodation. With no running water the toilets weren‘t somewhere to linger, and some heating would have been nice as the temperature at night was well below zero at 4500m! But on the plus side the location of the place on the banks of the red-pink boron-tinted Lagoona Colorada was incredible – just a short walk away from hundreds of flamingos, herds of llamas, salt deposits like icebergs… We spent the evening shivering along with a cluster of other backpackers, eating cookies and watching the brilliant moon rise over the volcanoes into a sky filled with the brightest stars we’ve ever seen.

The next day we passed the stone tree (a weird rock that looks, strangely enough, exactly like a tree…) to drive on past more beautiful lagoons in shades of white, blue, and even yellow! Complete with even more flocks of flamingos, brilliant white surrounding salt flats and overlooked by active volcanoes of course. This region of Bolivia is truly incredible. We spent the second night in a basic hotel in a small village with little more comfort – i.e. we had running water this time so managed a (freezing) shower! But although the lagoons and volcanoes we had so far seen were truly beautiful, they were completely eclipsed by the sights of our third morning.

The Salar De Uyuni is the largest Salt flat in the world. It is a massive expanse of perfectly flat brilliant white salt precipitate – so that as you drive across it you barely seem to be moving. We got up at 4am to watch the sun rise from the centre of the salt flat. It was spectacular – as the sky changed colour with the approaching dawn the true expanse of the salt flat was slowly revealed to us. It is huge! Snow-white salt forming a complex mosaic expanse stretching for over 25km into the distance in each direction. I hope the pictures below give some sort of idea of the scale and beauty of the place, but this is really somewhere everyone should visit if they get the chance. The salt flat (salar) is so perfectly flat and vast that virtually all sense of distance is distorted, leading to some very interesting perspective photographic opportunities! Have a look at me balancing on the apple or Gary climbing out of the rucksack below…

The Salar De Uyuni isn’t a perfect stretch of salt however – it has a few small rocky islands in its midst which only serve to enhance it. We visited the Isla De Los Pescadores (Fisherman’s Island), a rocky outcrop covered with hundreds of giant cacti! These monster spiky plants only grow a couple of millimetres a year, but the tallest were over 4m high. Then it was on to the exact centre of the salt flat to play with more perspective photographs (jumping over the jeep for instance…) before passing a hotel made entirely of salt on the way to the edge of the Salar and the small town of Uyuni. It was an amazing few days – OK, the long return slog back to the Chilean border near San Pedro De Atacama wasn’t so much fun, but our venture into Bolivia was certainly one of the highlights of our year so far. And that is saying something after climbing the Great Wall of China, swimming with sharks, wandering around the Taj Mahal, winning £2 in Macau, cycling to the Easter Island Maoi, driving to Milford Sound, being interviewed for Japanese TV at Toyako Onsen, and so on... Not a bad year!

Bolivia Photographs

2009-01-18T08:39:00.000-08:00

This was our first stop only 10 minutes from the Bolivian-Chilean border: Lagoona Blanca (the White Lagoon). The surrounding mountains were reflected particularly nicely in its still waters. The pink flamingos were very elegant as they wandered around feeding – even if they did run away swiftly as we tried to get closer for a photo! Cautious things.

Gary and me in the middle of the high mountainous desert region that stretches from Chile to Bolivia – and even northwards to Peru apparently. You get a good sense from this photo of exactly how remote we were during this trip.

The Lagoona Verde (another Green Lagoon) also reflected the surrounding volcanic peaks clearly as we arrived on its shores. The impressive thing about this arsenic-tinted lagoon was that as watched the reflective deep green waters turned a pale green, almost opaque shade. This spread from the far side of the lagoon towards us as you can see if you look at the two pictures of Gary and myself which were taken during the change. By the time the colour change was complete, the lagoon was a very startling shade of white-green, and there wasn’t a single reflection on its surface. Really weird!

You see… the pale green has definitely spread by the time this second photo was taken…

The high altitude ´Geyser field´. Not that there were any geysers here, but there we lots of nice bubbling muck pools, fumaroles, and pretty colourful mineral deposits. And no fencing or health and safety restrictions so you could wander where you liked!

These stunning flamingos lived by the hundreds on the Lagoona Colarada – a lagoon with strips of water shaded a vivid pink-red colour. This was apparently due to boron in the water… whatever it was I’ve never seen water anything like it. There were big chunks of salt deposited around the surface too…

… and plenty of llama grazing near the shores! This is where we spent our first, highly cold, but very scenic, night in Bolivia!

This rock is called the ´Stone Tree´. You can easily see why – it is rock, not petrified tree, but with the ´trunk´ and branching structures above it does look remarkably like a tree! There were lots of other weird rock formations nearby which were great fun to climb for an hour or so.

This is Villa Martin, the remote village on the edge of the salt flat where we spent our second night. Our accommodation wasn’t quite so basic this time… we had running water, yippeee! The small village itself had some fascinating terraces as you can see, complete with traditionally dressed women with long platted bunches dressed in bowler hats, colourful tops and unflatteringly bunched skirts.

This was the spectacular Salar De Uyuni (Salt Flat of Uyuni) at dawn. It was vast – we’ve never seen the sun truly rise on the horizon except over the sea. Beautiful morning sky, don’t you think?

As the sun rose the details on the salt became even more apparent. This section had a polygonal pattern repeated over and over, we’ve no idea why. The mountains in the distance looked wonderful too, and emphasised the size of the flat by being so tiny! Also, you can see in the foreground the wonderful cactus filled Fisherman’s island which we later visited (see below).

Perspective! I bet you didn’t realise I could balance on a giant apple so gracefully!

Or that Gary would encounter a giant rucksack on our trip – his escape wasn’t bad!

And below is Fisherman’s Island which had amazing views of the vast surrounding Salar De Uyuni, and terrific giant cacti! They completely dwarfed us!

And more perspective action – this time my jump ´over the jeep´ looks as if it’s about to result in the squishing of most of our travelling companions when I land!

San Pedro De Atacama

2009-01-17T12:01:00.000-08:00

As you travel northwards Chile you really start to appreciate the vast extent of the Atacama desert. OK, there are no rolling sand dunes like you would see in the Sahara, just miles and miles of barren, rocky mountains rising up from the sea to the high Altiplano of the Andean mountain range. It's pretty remarkable to think that although Chile is only 180km wide at most, in this distance the country rises from sea-level on the west coast to the 4000 odd meter Altiplano on the east boarder, with several volcanic Andean peaks exceeding 6000m! No wonder altitude sickness is something to be very aware of in Chile - ascending 4000m this quickly can cause real problems.

But fortunately neither of us had any trouble with altitude! OK, we did feel very unfit when we first ascended to the Altiplano - just walking briskly for 30 seconds left us quite out of breath! And climbing 5 stairs left us panting! It's a pretty weird feeling coping with the low levels of oxygen up there. Although the first time we ascended to the Altiplano was to see the wonderful Tres Cruces National Park from Copiapo, our main base for exploring this vast high plane was San Pedro De Atacama. San Pedro is a effectively a large oasis village situated in the middle of some of the most fascinating natural wonders in Chile. Consequently it has become something of a tourist haven... seeing loads of western visitors wandering around the dusty streets was a bit of a culture shock after visiting typical Chilean towns like Copiapo and La Serena. A little like when we visited Chang Mai in Thailand after spending months in China and Japan! But although San Pedro may have oodles of craft stalls, restaurants and hotels to cater for the tourists, it actually manages to retain it's own personality - it's full of adobe-walled thatched-roof buildings, cobbled streets, and a lot of life! Perhaps best of all, each small street offers tantalising glimpses of the surrounding desert and volcanoes, tempting you to explore this incredible region.

Which brings us to a slight problem. If you've read this blog for a while you'll probably realise that Gary and I enjoy travelling independently. We want to make our own way around the countries we visit, to get a better feel for the places. We avoid tours like the plague - we'll even happily walk several kilometres laden with all our luggage to avoid having to take a taxi! So up until now we've managed to get to all the wonderful things we've visited by walking, local transport, or hiring a car or bike. Unfortunately this wasn't really an option here. Chile may be well developed by South American standards, but up in the Altiplano the roads are barely tracks for 4x4 wheel drive vehicles, the distances are vast, and there are no signposts or reasonable maps! So the only way to explore the place is to go with a group... groan.

Although we really wanted to see the area, we dreaded lectures by guides, being forced to walk around in a group, shepherded from place to place - that would ruin everything. Fortunately we very quickly worked out ingenious ways to avoid all this - and saw all the amazing things around San Pedro using the tour for transport from place to place. It was easy - all we had to do was briefly say to the guide '...we've seen several salt flats / geysers / lagoons / etc before and just want to wander around' to be polite, and then we'd just walk off while everyone else in the group got a lecture! It was wonderful - we saw far more of the stunning region, avoided being shepherded around, and even corrupted some of the other travellers (they started to follow us on our walks at some points rather than being bussed around from point to point!).

Anyway, one day we wandered around part of the wonderful Atacama Salt flat, where salt with a high lithium content has precipitated to form beige/brown coral-like structures around a series of beautiful flamingo-filled lagoons. After this we visited two stunning blue-green lagoons high in the Andes, home to flocks of flamingos and herds of vicunas (wild llama-like creatures). The next morning we had a painfully early start to see the Taito Geysers. This was perhaps the highlight of our stay in San Pedro - the highest geyser field in the world contains over 200 holes that spurt water in to the air spectacularly... but only at dawn! Soooooo, to see them you have to leave San Pedro at 4am and travel for over 2 hours up into the mountains to the Geyser field - a slightly surreal experience of waiting outside your hotel in the pitch dark with a crowd of other sleepy travellers watching fleets of jeeps and minibuses drive around town picking people up!

Once we got to the geysers it was worth the effort, despite the sub-zero temperatures and the early start. We immediately dashed away from the rest of the group and our minibus to explore. I don't think any of the others in our group moved more than 10m from the bus and guide, which was such a waste as it was a wonderful geothermal field. Although the geysers themselves were not as spectacular as those we saw in New Zealand, they were far more numerous, and the lack of health and safety regulations here meant that we could wander ANYWHERE - right between spurting geysers and hotpools! Wonderful sense of freedom, so much so that we didn't know where to look first! We dashed about gaping at the geysers, taking loads of snaps and trying to keep warm as the sky changed colour with the approaching dawn. And when the sun actually emerged over the mountain side the transformation was spectacular: the clouds of steam created by the geysers and fumaroles were lit up, and the valley floor became a mosaic of different colours of silica deposits. Stunning! And to finish off our visit we stripped down to our swimwear (quickly as it was still freezing even after the sun had emerged) to bathe in a geothermally heated pool in the midst of the geysers. The warm water was great to play in... but getting out back into the subzero air wasn't so much fun!

Our last trip to the area around San Pedro was to the 'Valle De La Luna' - the Lunar Valley. This is a wonderful region where the red-golden rock has been sculpted by wind and water erosion over the eons to create a landscape like the surface of the moon. Wandering along the valleys was incredible - the weird, twisted, colourful rock structures and total desolation of the place were stunning. This was especially true at sunset, when we first climbed a rocky spur to get a great view over the valley, and then ran and slid our way down the back of a giant sand-dune formed down the back of the rocky outcrop! Great fun!

Anyway, now we will be leaving Chile for a few days to go to Bolivia. We've decided to visit the lagoons and Salt flats on the Bolivian side of the Altiplano, which are allegedly even more stunning than the things we've seen here. The only way to get there is by 4x4 jeeps, so we've signed up for one - and some very basic accommodation at high altitude in the middle of nowhere... it will probably be a sensationally cold, uncomfortable and beautiful trip! Can't wait!

San Pedro Photographs

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The central Plaza of San Pedro De Atacama - a beautiful view of a conical volcano in the background behind Gary!

This is a photo of me by one of the lagoons in the centre of the Salar de Atacama (Slat Flat of Atacama) - in the distance you can see a beautifully coloured volcano and some tiny flamingos! And the photos below show some slightly larger flamingos (with great reflections in the water), and the salt itself. The salt crystals were incredible - they formed coral-like structures about 30cm in height!

A beautiful blue lagoon - volcanos, flamingos, vicunias... the Alitiplato is stunning! This lagoon is at about 4300m above sea level, making the sky a particularly nice shade of deep blue too.

In the valleys just blow the Altiplano you´ll find a number of llama. The locals here still farm them for meat and wool (and make some very strange garments from the fabrics!)

The Tatio Geysers just before dawn. These antisocial spurters are only active from 6am to 8am... maning we had to leave San Pedro at 4am to see them. It was worth the early start though - look at the colours of the sky.

As the sun came over the mountains the clouds of steam issuing from the geysers were transformed! And the reflections in the pools of water were stunning.

Impressively high trails of steam issued from the geysers - so mush so that it was actually quite difficult to see the water squirted up! But then the temperature was about -5 degrees Centigrade so you´d expect a bit of water condencation. Gary is dwarfed by the clouds in this photo...

After seeing the Geysers we passed by yet more beautiful Altiplano scenary. This stunning shallow lagoon was homw to a flock of flamingos too. Below you can see the desolate landscape of the Lunar Valley... complete with giant sand due and wind twisted rock formations.

Copiapo

2009-01-11T08:40:00.001-08:00

Copiapo is a small town nestled in the midst of the barren Andean foothills in the south region of the Atacama desert. The town itself is quiet and sleepy, but very pleasant. It’s odd to wander down the tree-lined streets – as you glance up to the surrounding mountains all the greenery vanishes, replaced by rocky desert. Quite a contrast! But the perhaps it’s surprising that the town has trees and plants at all as apparently it only rains once a year!

Although Copiapo is nice enough in its own right, the main reason we decided to stay here for a few days was to visit the surrounding area. This is the best point to reach the south part of the Altiplano – the high-altitude plane formed by a divide along the centre of the Andes mountain range that reaches all the way north to Bolivia. The Altiplano may be incredibly dry and barren for the most part, but any waters trapped here between the volcanic peaks form colourful mineral-tinted lagoons or evaporate to create eerie salt flats. And of course as it’s in the middle of the Andes the Altiplano is seriously high – most parts are in excess of 4000m above sea level and the some of the surrounding mountains top 6000m!

We decided to visit the Parque National Nevado De Tres Cruces, a newly created national park only accessible by four wheel drive vehicles. This place is completely out in the middle of nowhere (close to the Argentinean border which of course is only on the far side of the Andes), has dirt tracks rather than roads, and reaches altitudes over 4400m (where you have to start watching out for altitude sickness). So, along with three Swedes on a short holiday in Chile, we hired a pleasant diver and a huge four wheel drive truck, and promptly whizzed up into the mountains! Copiapo is only 300m above sea level, so we had to ascend a very long way, passing barren hills, creepy abandoned mining towns, and even the occasional oasis where plants and trees would cluster thickly around a tiny water-source, surrounded by completely inhospitable desert mountains.

It took a while to get up to the Altiplano, but it was worth the wait. It’s an incredible place – we’ve never seen anything like it before. The mountains may be barren, but the high concentrations of minerals they contain give them multi-coloured hues. The slopes of each mountain ranged in colour from black and grey shades through purple-blues and greens, to red and yellow hues. And even at 4000m with virtually no water, freezing temperatures and a very low air oxygen level some plants still managed to grow! OK, only clumps of dry golden grass, but impressive none-the-less. But perhaps one of the most striking things about reaching the high altitude was the beautiful deep rich-blue colour of the sky.

While driving though the spectacular Altiplano we visited two lagoons. The first, Lagoona Santa Rosa, was the home to flocks of flamingos! They had a stunning home – the crystal blue lagoon lay next to a pure white salt flat, surrounded by red-brown hills and nestling under the snowy peaks of several volcanoes. We wandered around the waters edge (trying not to scare the flamingos away) before having lunch at a small hut on the side of a mountain, greedily watched by a mountain fox. Afterwards it was back into the truck to bump up and down hills along twisting dirt tracks towards the Argentinean border and the second lagoon. Lagoona Verde true to its name was a beautifully rich green-blue colour, again surrounded by spectacular mountains. The high salt concentration of the water gave the shore of the lagoon a white crust, which contrasted brilliantly with the deep hues of the water. But best of all, several volcanic hot-springs bubbled up near the waters edge, forming steaming pools before trickling down to feed the icy cold lagoon. A nice place for a quick foot bath while enjoying the scenery!

It was a shame to leave the Tres Cruces National Park – even if on the way back we saw some picunias (strange quadruped things related to llamas) and crossed a customs post designed for people coming from Argentina. Here our driver skipped the queue by tossing a bag of chocolates to an official he knew, and then opening a side track and driving the truck around the complex! And then it was back down, down, down to Copiapo. As I said, we were really very sad to leave, but at least our next stop will be in San Pedro De Atacama, a northern oasis village with easy access to further parts of the Altiplano! Apparently there is even a geyser field nearby!

Copiapo Pictures

2009-01-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

This is one of the small streets of Copiapo. As you can see, although Gary is right by a nice green tree, look just out of town and the hills are spectacularly barren! And there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of this desolate, mountanous Atacama desert. Below you can see both of us in a ghost town on the way to the Tres Curces National Park... an old mining town abandoned over 100 years ago. Spooky place!

Lagoona Santa Rosa! Snowy volacanos with a sparkling white salt flat below them - and of course the pale blue lagoon and red hills. Very colourful place! Especially if you see the flamingos feeding in the shallow water.

This is also Lagoona Santa Rosa - this time with some clumps of marsh grass at the edge of the lake. We wandered around here for ages - lovely place.

Here Gary is standing on the salt-encrusted shore of Lagona Verde. This lagoon is almost blue-green in colour.

And although Lagoona Verde doesn´t have any resident flamingos, it does have several hot springs along its shores. The geothermal pool in this picture has water about 30 degrees warm - and the minerals stain the underlying rock shades of orange and yellow. Beautiful contrast to the surrounding white salt or the blue lagoon!

Another picture of both Gary and me - thanks to the very friendly trio of Swedes we visited Tres Cruses with!

La Serena

2009-01-08T11:07:00.001-08:00

As you travel north from Santiago you see some truly parched countryside. This isn’t surprising as there are some areas of northern Chile where no rain has EVER been recorded – the Atacama Desert. We’ll be travelling right through the length of the driest desert on the planet as we gradually make our way to Peru. But despite seeing loads of barren rocky mountains and spiky cacti en route to La Serena, the town is well south of the Atacama Desert. The town actually has a few nice gardens to prove this.

Weirdly enough, our favourite garden here was Japanese! We visited it on New Years Day, when La Serena turned into a ghost town – shuttered buildings, deserted streets - totally dead. The Japanese garden we stumbled across as we walked towards the (incredibly deserted) sea-side area was practically the only place open. And whoever designed the place had clearly gone to a reasonable amount of trouble to make it as authentic as possible – including stone pagodas, water features, coi carp, and even a quaint little Japanese bridge. Very pretty!

La Serena itself is a very pretty little town. Cobbled streets, shady tree-filled squares, loads of dainty churches… a reasonably slow pace of life. The main town centre is about 2km from the coast: the ‘Aveneda del Mar’. Here a long stretch of sandy beach reaches around a wide bay to the neighbouring town of Coquimbo. It’s probably very pretty on a fine day, but unfortunately when we wandered over on New Years Day the coast was enveloped in a hazy fog, and most people seemed to have stayed home to eat their family lunch. Considering it’s the height of summer here the beach really was scarily empty.
Anyway, we’ve had a quiet time here but are now moving on to the dry, desolate north. Where we hopefully won’t frizzle too much in the desert, but hope to see salt planes, volcanoes, lagoons, and flocks of flamingos. Assuming we can muster enough Spanish to get by that is!

La Serena Photographs

2009-01-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

This pretty tree-lined avenue was one of the first things we saw on entering La Serena - we walked up it to our hotel near the top laden with rucksacks and feeling a bit overheated! It's very european - lots of white Greek style statues all down the sides - a nice place to spend a hot afternoon in the shade.

The Japanese garden on New Year's Day. We were slightly shocked to see a nice arched Japanese bridge in the remote parts of South America!

The central Plaza in La Serena. Again, lots of trees, a central fountain - very pretty!

Santiago

2009-01-02T09:17:00.001-08:00

Chile is a curiously shaped country. It’s essentially a long, thin back-to-front-comma-shaped land, stretching along the south west coast of South America nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes. Very long and very thin – while Chile’s coast extends nearly 4000 km, the country is only 180km wide on average! Santiago, the capital city, is located almost in the exact centre of the country. From here we plan to move north over the next month or so towards the border with Peru. Giving us about 2000 km of coach travel to look forward to – yay! Something to be taken in stages, no? With a few stops en route.

Anyway, our first stop on the South American continent was Santiago. After all, Easter Island although politically under the umbrella of Chile and South America, was 3878 km off the coast… and understandably had a very different feel to it. Santiago was in some places alarmingly familiar. We stayed in a district just south of the historic town centre where the streets looked alarmingly similar to some of those in Cambridge! The avenues were actually named ‘Paris’ and ‘Londres’ (London) in recognition of their similarity to places in Europe. Which to us was a bit weird. Drifting away from this region, the rest of Santiago wasn’t so spookily familiar to us, but its European colonial origins are very evident. Wandering through the pleasant squares of the historic centre past churches and tiered fountains you could easily convince yourself that you were in Spain!

But of course there are some pronounced differences too, making it fun to explore. As Santiago is right on the foothills of the Andes, several fingers of mountain jut in to the city. The best known of these is Cerro San Cristobal, which rises steeply from the Bella Vista region of town. It’s a popular spot for locals as it’s covered in parks and crowned by a giant statue of the Virgin Mary – and so even has a friendly funicular to take you up the step climb from downtown. Or at least we have to assume that the funicular is usually helpful… when we visited the place they had just stopped selling tickets for it – even though it was the middle of a Sunday afternoon, well within the opening hours. Our Spanish wasn’t good enough to interpret the ticket girl’s explanation, so we assumed the thing was broken and decided to walk up (along with several groups of disgruntled locals who were also turned away). And so we trudged up the steep, hot, slopes in the blistering sun, occasionally resting for 5 minutes on a rare bench in the shade of a tree. And passing a lot of Chileans as we went up!

It was really nice at the top though – worth the trek (although irritatingly we passed the top of the funicular later and it WAS working… grr). There were stunning panoramic views over the city far below, with other jutting parts of the Andes in the background. And the parks on top of Cerro San Cristobal were lovely – shady, pretty – nice places to relax with a cold drink after a long climb! We wandered right along the top of the mountain spur and descended back to a different part of town (where we gave up with walking and jumped on the tube).

Spending Christmas in Santiago was a bit spooky. Of course Chile, along with the bulk of South America, is Catholic, and so Christmas (Navidad) is a big thing here. And as it’s a family-orientated festival, everyone stays at home. Santiago was a ghost town! It was really weird – the usually bustling streets of the town centre were deserted, dead, quiet. All shops closed, 99% of people staying at home. Fortunately for us a couple of restaurants stayed open for lunch, so we did manage to get something to eat! And the silent streets were fun to wander around too.

Anyway, onwards to the North, to spend New Year in La Serena. Hope you all have a lovely Christmas holiday!

Santiago Photos

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The view over Santiago from Cerro San Cristabal - if you look at the horizon you can just about see some of the near reaches of the Andes! And Below you can see gary poseing near a very European fountain and folly in one of the parks dwon town.

Gary in Paris Street on Christmas day. Isolated. deserted. Erie. And creepily like somewhere you´d see in Cambridge. Wierd! And below you can see a typically lovely Chilean Sunset along one of the busy streets of Central Santiago. Never a cloud in the sky here.

Easter Island

2008-12-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

Easter Island has to be one of the most remote places in the world. Put it like this – it’s a volcanic isle stranded alone in the middle of the Pacific who’s nearest island neighbour is 1400 miles away! As you wander along the coast here you see a hell of a lot of sea stretching away into the distance. Definitely no land on the horizon! Despite this remoteness, Easter Island has been inhabited for some time by people of Polynesian descent. Their name for the island is ‘Rapa Nui’, which apparently refers to the place being the ‘navel of the world’! And it is of course these people were historically responsible for the most notable features of Easter Island, the Maoi.

What is a Maoi (and how is it pronounced because we never found out!?)? Well, they come in various shapes as sizes, but all are stone statues, carved in a very stylised fashion. They can range from 2 to 20 m high, and are scattered all over the island. How they were moved around and erected, or even carved out of the volcanic rock is largely unknown. But there are over 800 of them scattered around the island, and most are pretty impressive! Have a look at the photos below and you’ll get some sort of an idea we hope. Sadly the people who constructed the Maoi seem to have fallen into warring factions at some point, and so all of the statues that had been lovingly carved, transported around the island and then erected on their platforms were later toppled to the ground. Fortunately many have now been restored to their very impressive erect state!

Anyway, we reached the world’s belly button by a 5 hour flight from Tahiti – on the only plane in or out of the island that day. As you can imagine, the airport was the size of a small garage, and as we exited very sleepily we were swiftly greeted by the owner of our hotel with necklaces of bright yellow flowers. I wish I’d taken a photo of Gary in his fetching traditional necklace, but I was just too tired after missing a night’s sleep to think of it!

After some time to recover we started to explore the island. As we had nine nights here we thought we could see much of the place on foot… or by mountain bike to get to the further bits. And yes, with a bit of effort we managed it! Easter Island is a triangle with its longest side only measuring 15 miles or so. Our guest house was situated on the northern edge of Hanga Roa, the island’s main village, only a few hundred yards from some very impressive Maoi at the Tahai complex. These statues looked particularly nice at sunset, which was unfailingly beautifully colourful each night! So we visited them once or twice…

To see the other features of Easter Island we had to venture a little further a field. One day we wandered in a loop of the northern area of the island to see Ahu Akivi, where seven impressive Maoi stand gazing out towards the sea (unusual – all the other statues look inland to ‘look after the people and island’ apparently). Near here were some caves formed by hot lava draining through holes in the rock. One of these, Ana Kakenga, was great fun, if a bit scary to explore. First you had to squeeze through a small hole in the ground, only about half a meter wide and high. Then you had to scramble along a short stretch of pitch black, uneven tunnel, where the roof was always lower than a meter from the floor – Georg’s torch was really useful here! Fortunately if you survived this cramped section the cave then turned a corner and opened up, giving you a bit more room to breathe. You even had light to navigate the rocky floor and uneven ceiling from openings in the far walls - but we both still managed to bang our heads a few times! Wandering over to the cave openings was well worth it though, as they were situated half way down a shear cliff face, with waves from the Pacific Ocean crashing at its base below!

Another day we decided to walk to Orongo, an ancient village perched on the edge of a huge volcanic crater, Rano Kau. It didn’t seem too far on the map – a 5 mile or so round trip – but unfortunately the map didn’t show gradient! After traipsing to the top of the volcanic crater in the tropical heat we were shattered. Oddly enough we had a friend for the trip. The island is littered with hundreds of stray dogs and wild horses, and for some reason a friendly black mutt decided to come for a walk with us. She literally dogged our trail all the way to the top of the exhausting climb, at which point she dumped us to wander off with another couple!

Despite our tiredness and abandoned state we were glad we had made the climb – Rano Kau crater is stunning. Almost a perfectly circular crater, with the side facing the sea eroded away in a graceful arc. The floor of the crater was weird too – pools of rainwater reflecting the light between clumps of strange raft-like plants. At the far end of the crater rim trail, facing the sea was the ancient village of Orongo, whose 2 foot high stone houses overlook the sea. This place was fascinating too – traditionally it wasn’t lived in for most of the year, but only during the festival of the ‘Bird Man’. This frankly bizarre event occurred each year to select the sacred ‘Bird Man’ from the leaders of the tribes around the island. Each leader had to choose a man from his tribe to find the first egg of the year laid by a specific migratory bird (the Sooty Tern). Not too difficult? Erm, well, unfortunately the birds only nested on an islet several hundred meters north of the coast by Orongo, so the poor egg-finders had to first scale the sheer hundred meter volcanic cliffs, swim the rough, shark-infested Pacific waters, and then camp on the teeny weenie islet for weeks waiting for the terns to fly in, nest, and (hopefully) lay their precious eggs! Not a hot job. While these poor sods risked their necks the leaders of the various tribes would wait in Orongo, in their nice cosy houses, probably feasting and having a great time. But the winning tribe leader wouldn’t be in for a fun year. Once the first egg was found and the leader of that tribe anointed ‘Bird Man’, that poor sod had to have all his hair shaved off (including eyelashes and eyebrows) before being whisked away to live in complete isolation for one year – during which time he wouldn’t be allowed to bathe or cut his hair or nails! For this year his family would enjoy several privileges however… why do I get the feeling this crazy thing was invented by the wives of particularly irritating tribal leaders…?! Pity the men who went along with it!

But perhaps our best day on Easter Island was the day we decided to tackle the South East Circuit of the island by mountain bike. After thoroughly misreading the Rough Guide, we thought that the best Maoi sites on the island would be easily reachable by bike in a day. After all, there was even a convenient set of roads to follow on a loop along the south coast, then back north-west to Hanga Roa. No problem. Erm, yes.

Well, in practice we did see some amazing things. And most of the cycling was fun – neither of us had been on a bike since we were students! The only slight problem was the distance. We ended up cycling nearly 50 km (over 30 miles)! And not all the roads were particularly friendly – there were long sections of dirt tracks with big stones all over the place. And very big hills, especially on the way back home when we were tired and could have done without them! Ah well, as I said we saw some truly amazing things, and on the whole enjoyed it. We just passed out pretty quickly when we got home, and slept like the dead after a well deserved Mexican meal and margarita!

If you travel from west to east along the south coast of Easter Island, you first come across many Maoi and platforms. Unfortunately all were toppled at the time of war on the island, and have not yet been restored. The giant statues look very sad and forlorn as they rest along side their platforms, some with their red top-hats near by. It is a truly mournful sight! Fortunately further along the route at the eastern side of the island is Tongariki, where fifteen huge and beautifully restored Maoi stand side by side on their 200 m long platform. They are a truly magnificent sight with the sea and some volcanic cliffs as a backdrop.

But Tongariki is actually a good deal less fascinating than the adjacent volcanic crater, Rano Raraku. This would be beautiful in it natural state: a sheer lava cliff forms one side of the crater, while the remainder of the graceful curve consists of red-yellow soil, and a reed-lined lake fills the circular floor. But the fascinating thing about Rano Raraku is that it was the site of the Maoi quarry. The monolithic statues were carved here in all their glory, and then transported to other parts of the island. And over 400 of them still remain! Actually, the most impressive Maoi we saw were here - huge ones - the largest about 20 m long! Presumably work ceased when war broke out amongst the various Easter Island tribes, leaving the Maoi in various stages of progress. Some were still actually attached to the rock-faces they were sculpted from, whereas others had been moved into pits around the base of the volcano, where their huge faces seem to leer at visitors. It is impossible to describe the scale of the place – we were astonished and wandered around for hours.

Anyway, tomorrow we leave for Chile mainland, where we will spend Christmas in Santiago. So if we don’t speak to you all before then have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Easter Island Photos

2008-12-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

Sunset over the vast Pacific Ocean, with a few beautiful Maoi in the foreground! These ones were a mere 5 minute walk from our Residencial.

Ahu Akivi - seven beautifully restored Maoi which unusually rested inland and faced out to the sea. They were very impressive all lined up and vertical - it´s such a shame that most are sadly unrestored and lie toppled near their podiums.

Gary in a lava tube! This dramatic cave was formed when the lava running through it drained away, as the rock above had already solidified. There were loads around this island - this one opened spectacularly (behind me as I took the photo) half way down a cliff over the crashing waves of the Pacific. And below you´ll see Gary again - this time on the outside by the rugged volcanic coastline!

This is the Mirador Crater at the South West corner of the island. On it´s far rim stands the village of Orongo (where they held the weird Bird Man contest... read the main text above for details!). The floor of the crater was stunning: loads of pools of water reflecting the light, separated by strange matt-like plantation. Bleak but beautiful!

The islets off Orongo... where the poor men who were nominated to find the egg of the sooty tern had to climb down to, swim to (avoiding sharks) and then somehow survive on for weeks! They don´t look too appealing eh? Crazy!

A fantastic view of the impressive 15 Maoi at Tongariki, with yet more volcanic cliffs in the background. The Moai here really were stunning - they were in great condition and of course there were lots of them!

A closer view of the Tongakiki Maoi. They looked even better from here!

This is the volcanic crater from which the Maoi were carved. It was lovely in it´s own right as you can see - red-yellow earth lining a reed-filled lake. But the special bit was behind me as I took this photo... have a look at the next few photos to see what I mean.

This huge Maoi unfortunately never made it past the carving stage. This is how they were made: carved in detail from the mountian, and then moved (somehow) about the island.

This Maoi was high above the crater floor, and must have been nearly completed when the work stopped as he had really detailed features! Sad that he never got to stand on the coast line somewhere, although he was so big that I haven´t a clue how they would have moved him there! Below you can see some Maoi that made it a little bit futher. There were hundreds of these heads dotted around the volcanic mountain, probably waiting to be moved to their platforms. But these were the most impressive Maoi we saw anywhere on the island. They were huge (the ones in the photo were well over 10 m tall) and beautifully carved. But you have to wonder WHY they put so much effort into all this!

And finally, a collection of five Maoi standing on the coast just after sunset. The sky would turn beautiful shades of yellow, red, and even purple every night. Easter Island is a truly unique place!