The Galapagos Islands

We touched down on San Cristobal the next day, after a an almost flawless flight - bouncing when we landed was an experience we'd rather forget. We quickly found our way into Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, administrative capital of the islands, although just a small town. We quickly set about finding an 8 day cruise around the islands - a harder task than we imagined.

To cut a long story short, there was not the availability we were expecting, and we ended up paying a little over the odds for an 8 day cruise on a boat that theoretically sounded good but that we had heard bad things about. The good ship Free Enterprise was a 110 foot motor-sailor, tourist superior class boat - we were promised an air conditioned cabin with private bath and hot water. Further research in town (after we had paid) brought up some interesting views; from the web review - "This boat is a deathtrap, stay away", to the guys in all the dive shops - "oh dear", to the owner of our accommodation - "Well, it's an economy class boat...."; we struggled to find a good word said about it. Still, beggars can't be choosers and it was our only option.... and the travel agent wasn't in the refund business.


The fair ship.....

So we settled down to spend a couple of days waiting for our cruise, buying t-shirts, playing with the husky puppy who lived in our accommodation, and tentatively trying snorkelling. The weather was unexpectedly cool (relatively speaking) and the water was pretty cold too - we opted to hire wetsuits for our cruise. We found delicious chocolate brownies, loads of sea lions (they're everywhere) and possibly the best selection of souvenir t-shirts in South America. Amongst all this we found plenty of time to bite fingernails and worry in general about our forthcoming trip aboard a dodgey boat.

The Galapagos Islands lie a thousand kilometres off the shore of Ecuador, just about on the equator, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They are (relatively) young - a piffling 5 million years or so, and volcanic activity continues to produce new islands and land as the archipelago drift slowly (2cm a year) eastwards on the Nasca tectonic plate. They also sit at the confluence of several ocean currents - the warm Panama current coming from Central America, the cold Humbolt current coming from Antarctica, and another cold upwelling from the central Pacific.


Sunset on the boat

So what does this mean? There is a huge variety of marine life due to the temperature variations in the sea - there are huge marine turtles, lots of sharks, hoards of colourful fish and thousands of sea lions. On land there are many endemic plant, bird, reptile and animal species; this is after all, where Charles Darwin cut his teeth. We could go into great detail about the endemic species and adaptation to individual islands - as exemplified by Darwin's finches or the giant tortoises - but we'd rather show you the photos.


Santa Fe land iguana - an endemic sub-species

So we started our cruise on Tuesday morning, arriving early to be told to come back later as the boat was still being cleaned. We eventually got on board about 11.30 before most of the guests who had flown that morning arrived; we quickly bagged the best cabin - the air conditioning didn't look operational so we opted for a cabin mid ships (away from the noise of the anchor and away from the noise and fumes of the engine) with windows that opened - what luxury! The rest of out fellow passengers arrived and to our relief they were a nice mix of Australians, Swiss, Swedish, Canadian and English, all around our age. After a good lunch we set off on our first trip to Isla de Lobos for snorkeling with sea lions. These are really the dogs of the sea; they just wanted to play with us and can be incredibly bold. That said, if the dominant Bull takes a disliking to you swimming with his cows then you're in trouble as they can weigh up to 250 Kg and swim an awful lot faster than the average be-flippered human! After 45 minutes in the water we were cold but exhilarated - up to 5 or 6 sea lions didn't want to stop the fun as hypothermia set in.


Spot the sea lions!

We then went ashore and literally had to step over the dozing sea lions to get on dry land. There were lots of cute fluffly pups (Pete didn't think I could have one as a pet though); being in such close proximity with large wild animals was an experience we would repeat often and always treasure - the occasions were usually marked by Pete taking several close up shots of sea lion pups.


How can you not take a photo of this?

We returned to the Free Enterprise and motored back to port for dinner and refuelling, departing in the middle of the night for the 6 hour crossing across open seas to Española island. Coming from sea fairing stock I thought that I'd have my sea legs in no time and laughed when Pete offered me the sea sickness tablets that he had had the good foresight to purchase. I awoke at some silly time in the night feeling decidely not right and lay awake thinking about how really ill I felt and decided to awake Pete and ask how he was feeling. Ten minutes later I sprang from my bunk in a manner which would impress an Olympic gymnastic judge and got to the heads (that's the toilets for you landlubbers) just in time; this aerobatic display impressed Pete so much that he did the same thing 5 minutes later. Those of you who have witnessed Pete's vomiting in the past will realise that it is the loudest, inhuman, growling noise imaginable, and several passengers thought that there must be a huge distressed sea lion bull following our boat all night. And so that was it for the rest of the night - we took turns with each other for "conversations with the big white telephone" until we hit rock bottom and both had to go at once. It wasn't pretty. Eventually at some point the boat stopped rocking in every conceivable direction and anchored; we surfaced for breakfast looking particularly peaky and to our disappointment none of our fellow passengers had seemed to feel the slightest bit queasy. Suddenly those seasickness tablets seemed a lot more appealing.

Relieved to get onto terrafirma we went ashore at Gardners Bay and walked along the beach, again trying to avoid stepping on sea lions. After a pleasant doze in the sun we got back onboard the Free Enterprise tenders and snorkeled in the cold water around Turtle Rock; but despite it's name we didn't see any turtles and there was poor visibility in general - but lots of very colourful fish. After lunch, feeling refreshed after our chilly dip, we called into Punta Suarez and made a shore landing and saw our first Boobies (no, not a nudest beach, but the Blue Footed- and Masked -, bird kind). Other wildlife included the Waved Albatross, Red Billed Tropical Bird, Galapagos hawk (endemic to the islands) and marine iguanas - the only seagoing iguanas in the world that are an endemic species. They have a habit of sneezing all the time, either because they have a nasty allergy to gringos, or because it is how they remove the excess salt they receive from their diet (of seaweed) through special glands in their noses (you decide!).


Marine iguanas

Waved Albatross

Fortunately we got to our next stop of Floreana that night and had a good nights sleep anchored in a relatively sheltered bay. Awaking refreshed that morning we made our first shore landing at Post Office Bay, apparently one of the world's first post office as in 1792 a barrel was erected by whalers who left post there; if any ships call in on their way past they would pick up any relevant mail and deliver it when they arrived in their home country. This tradition continues today, but despite Pete and I going through all the postcards we couldn't find any for the UK so left a couple there instead. We walked on up a hill to a lava cave, a geological phemonenom. We then sailed (motored) onto Punta Cormorant to find a flamingo lagoon, (more) sea lions and, on the beach on the other side of the headland, we saw sharks and stingrays in the surf. We returned onboard to get our snorkeling gear and swim around Devils Crown; despite my lack of enthusiasm - "Didn't we just see sharks?!" - and the rather strong current Pete convinced me to plunge in and we were lucky enough to see lots of fish, turtles!! and stingrays. We then set off for the tourist capital of the archipelo, Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz island.

Blue Footed Boobie

The following day we went ashore to the Charles Darwin Research Station, home to the giant tortoise breeding programe and the world famous Lonesome George - the only giant tortoise of his sub species left. Despite the scientists' best efforts George didn't seem attracted to the charms of the 2 females of a closely related sub-species with whom he shared his enclosure, so it seems his genetic line will end unless someone out there has a Geochelone elephantophus abingdoni female as a pet. (Theres a $10,000 reward for anyone who can find George a date!) After lunch we headed into the highlands of Santa Cruz to my favourite ecosystem - cloud forest - which was characterised by the Scalesia genus of trees - this genus only occurs in the Galapagos, needless to say I found this very exciting! On the way back to the boat we stopped off at a ranch where wild giant tortoises seem to hang out. We all got our photos with them while discussing the merits of Pete's entrepreneurial idea of "Galapagos eco-hunting" holidays; the plan is to get tourists to help rid the islands of feral goats which are the main threat to the tortoises survival, as they destroy the tortoises' habitat and out-compete them for food. The marketing slogan is "If it's Feral, it's in Peril"... venture capitalists please post a comment!


This is a giant tortoise, honest

Overnight we set off for Isla Rabida and either the sea sickness tablets were working or we were turning into salty sea dogs; whichever, we managed to sleep the whole night. Rabida has a red coloured beach due to the high iron in the rocks that make up this small island. Again there were lots of sea lions including the cute fluffy baby variety (by this stage we had at least 400 photos of sea lions) and we also had an impressive dive bombing display from blue footed boobies fish from a great height and with great precision. We snorkelled along the cliffs and saw lots more colourful fish - we missed out seeing some sharks as the strong current and cold turned us back. We then cruised on to the island of Chinese Hat and yes, thats because the volcanic island looks like an chinese hat. On the way we had a possible sighting of whales in the distance, a postive sighting of dolphins and a huge sting ray (we can say this with absolute certainty as one of our fellow passengers had been a marine biologist). We walked along the unforgiving laval shore taking in more marine iguanas, sea lions, lava lizards and the other usual suspects. We then had an excellent snorkelling session from the beach; in the space of 10 minutes we saw white tipped reef sharks (harmless to humans, I was assured), a sting ray, a moray eel, a friendly turtle, and of course Pete's favourite - the ever playful sea lions. To cap it all, the water was warm and we saw some Galapagos penguins on the way back to the boat. That evening we motored over to Isla Bartolomeo; by this point it was clear that our "sailing ship" had a grand total of 2 sails - a jib and a genoa - both of which were ripped.


Cute fluffy baby sea lion on Rabida beach

Galapagos penguin - another endemic species

We got up early and went ashore, walking up a set of steps to the top of the island which gave us fantastic views over the bay and of Pinnacle Rock. The island is at best 170 years old - it wasn't featured on the first charts of the archipelago. We then walked over to the northern beach and watched the white tipped sharks cruising in the shallows amongst stingrays; a short walk back and we were snorkeling off the south beach and around Pinnacle Rock; the water was freezing and we were disappointed that there were no sharks on this side of the island. After lunch we cruised to Isla Seymour and made a dry landing. Here we saw Magnificent and Great Frigate birds, the males' distinctive red goular pouches inflated on their nests, land iguanas and the usual others; all set against the stunning backdrop of pounding Pacific surf in the evening light. Yep, it was great.


The view from Bartolomeo


Male Magnificent (I think) Frigate Bird

The next morning we awoke at South Plaza and made a dry landing - lots of land iguanas, very colourful carpet weed and an array of birds, plus the odd Galapagos scorpion hiding under rocks. After lunch we motored to Santa Fe and went for a snorkel in Barrington Bay; in the cold we swam with white spot eagle rays and turtles. After drying off and warming up on board we made a shore landing and saw more land iguanas (an endemic sub-species on this island), and in the shallows of the beach hoards of white tipped reef sharks and rays - sadly we weren't allowed back in for another snorkel. Instead we set off back to San Cristobal, arriving just in time to make it to the pub.


Carpet weed on Chinese Hat

Shark!

The next day was the last of our cruise, and we finished off in the Interpretation Centre, which informed us of the history and unique flora and fauna of the Islands. Most of our fellow passengers departed for the airport and were returning to the mainland; we were staying another night so that evening met up with the few remaining passengers and had a celebratory meal. The fair ship Free Enterprise had got us everywhere we wanted to see and didn't sink - much to the disbelief of the locals - which is more that can be said for one of the more upmarket boats who made an unfortunate mooring at Santa Cruz a few days ago and managed to sink within 3 minutes (don't worry, no casualties).

The following day we said our sad goodbyes to our cruise companions and Rex, the trusty husky from our apartment, and boarded a plane back to Quito, capital of Ecuador. We have 5 weeks left.

North into Ecuador

You can quote as many statistics as you like, but there's always something a little unnerving about flying with an airline that had a plane crash only last week. OK, so it was a windshear and not a wing dropping off, but all the same.... We got to Piura, in coastal northern Peru, via Lima and Tumbes, with some fairly second-rate airlines; arriving in once piece was a relief but we were full of the junk food that only airlines know how to serve.

Northern Peru remains, to us, a mystery of pre-Incan cultures, big mountains and much fewer tourists - however, you can't do everything and some things (in Ecuador) we don't want to miss. We stayed for a night in Piura; it was warm, pretty friendly and distinctly quiet after the gringo-infested streets of Cusco. It was much cheaper (relief!) and the taxis tried not to rip you off (too much). The following morning we boarded a bus to Loja in Ecuador, and started the day long journey up to the border and back into the Andes cordillera.

Having heard bad things about the costal border crossing to Ecuador, we were pleasantly surprised by the speed and ease of it all at La Tina. In no time we were in a new country (quick check on the time and currency required) and winding our way around the mountain roads to Loja - usually regarded as the gateway between the Amazon and the mountains.

It was dusk when we arrived in Loja, and after a brief trip to the bank caught another bus to our intended destination of the day, Vilcabamba. This little Andean town has become a focus on the gringo trail - small, friendly, great climate.... and did I mention the hallucinogenic cactus juice? Hannah and I settled in an upmarket hostel, wanting a couple of days R&R before moving on. And so a couple of days disappeared in no time, lazing by the pool, relaxing in the jacuzzi, trying the different cafes, and catching up on lost sleep.

Vilcabamba seemed to have a high resident gringo population, but was a little short on tourists passing through. We saw plenty of dreadlock-bedecked twentysomethings plus not a few middle-aged hippies; all, we suspected, were stuck in the loop of cheap living and easily available mescalin (the active ingredient in the San Pedro cactus) and marijuana. This not being our thing (there's a whole syndrome named after sufferers of cactus/mescalin-induced flashbacks) we booked a 3 day horse ride with a New Zealander, described as "an good horseman, lots of experience".

On the trail

Our ride didn't start promisingly - 2 hours late, our guide reeking of alcohol - but off we galloped (yes, really) down the main road out of town. It was great fun, but murder on the horses' legs. We rode quickly, leaving the road then starting on a narrow trail that made it's way slowly up the mountain. Agriculture in the valley bottom gave way to scrub as we began climbing up to the cabin at the head of the valley, a short walk from the Podocarpus National Park. We arrived in time for a late lunch - I think we were faster than most groups - and relaxed in the sunshine.

Cowboy Pete

We had booked the trip on the promise of doing some "work" for our guide on the second day of the trip - it was half price, after all. So that afternoon we took off with his sidekick, Oscar, a nice lad who took us to the edge of the National Park on a series of barely cut trails. It felt like proper jungle exploring - just a bit - a we returned, damp and muddy, to the cabin to be greeted with tortilla chips, freshly squeezed juice, guacamole and.... vodka. It was from this point that the evening started to go downhill.

It was at this point, the evening deteriorated....

As Oscar was inside cooking, our guide gradually began to lose the plot. Drinking (amongst other things) was fair enough, but to excess was unprofessional, to say the least; sadly our host became rather the worse for wear and 4 hours later, by dinner time, we had had enough. Listening to the paranoid delusional rantings of a die-hard conspiracy theorist became boring, then a little disturbing. Keeping our guide happy with the required answers ("Yes, the world is clearly ending", "No, I don't think it was created in a laboratory in Nevada" and "Yes, it must have been aliens" in varying order) and then listening to the "There's someone in town who wants to kill me, he's going to come and kill me" speech was not our idea of fun and we didn't feel totally safe as we made a sharp exit after dinner. Never believe people when they tell you that they have been unaffected by the copious quantities of drugs consumed over a lifetime of hedonism - "I've only taken San Pedro cactus 17 times and look at me" just didn't cut the mustard.

The following morning we announced that we wanted to return toVilcabamba that afternoon, and that we would do a morning's hard work beforehand - which is what we did. Hannah saw a red mist descend and fortunately was nowhere near a machete when our guide said "This isn't really women's work", but after plenty of blisters and a small dose of sunburn, we returned to the cabin for lunch then departed. Oscar accompanied us, our guide wanting to stay and work with the remaining supply of vodka (honest...), and we were back down 3 hours later after more galloping (lots of fun) and with rather sore legs and buttocks.

Hannah bonding

We took a taxi back to Loja that evening, too tired to face the bus, and settled in a hostel in the middle of town with paper thin walls and noisy neighbours (it was only the TV....). Despite this, after an appalling Chinese (no spring rolls - would you believe it?) we slept well, and rose early the following day to get to the bus station to buy tickets for Guayaquil, Ecuador's second largest city and biggest port. The plan was to visit the botanic garden of Loja before leaving - the Podocarpus is endemic in the area and the only conifer present naturally in Ecuador - but sadly it was closed. We returned to the town centre for a wander around the lively, award winning Saturday market before our bus departed.

In the bus station I realised I had lost my Footprint travel guide - after a fruitless trip back to the hostel I pictured it, lonely and misunderstood, on the back seat of our botanic gardens taxi. Both Hannah and I had a bond with the dirty, well thumbed rages and I raged at my stupidity for losing it.

The bus journey to Guayaquil was long and hot, made better when we got the front seat with extra legroom, a breeze and a view (although seeing some of the overtaking made even me cringe). We pulled into the huge terminal in Guayaquil well after dark and with a certain, guidebook-less trepidation, asked for a hotel that I remembered the name of. Our taxi driver was friendly enough, and when the one place I remembered proved to be full, we moved a couple of blocks down the road and checked in to a cheap, well equipped, air-con hotel.

The centre of Guayaquil is working hard to become safe and tourist friendly; outside of this are regions that are not so salubrious. After venturing across the road for dinner (fast food chicken) we realised the reason behind our cheap hotel - it served "short stay" customers for the most part (a breathless, luggage-less couple checked in next to us). It suited us fine however, and the following morning we had a walk around the district (nicer by day) and a picnic breakfast in a park. Remembering the name of another hostel, we looked it up online and moved out to a suburb, where the air was cleaner, there were other gringos (with guidebooks!).

The new hostel was good- friendly, big rooms, great breakfast, and a menagerie of exotic pets including parrots, a macaw, and a couple of types of little monkey-things (technical term). That afternoon we headed back into the city centre, via the airport - we had been reliably (mis)informed that there were English guidebooks available there. In the centre, we strolled along the newly developed riverfront boulevard, and visited a small, central park that was full of iguanas- it was excellent. Dinner that night was another awful Chinese- there's a definite pattern forming here.

"OK, so I'll steer and you guys do the pedals....."...monkey things

The next day we devoted to botany and then shopping. First of all we visited the Guayaquil Botanic Garden - there was large orchid collection - sadly few were in flower- and many plant and tree species from all over Ecuador. Hannah was frustrated by the lack of labelling. We then went in search of a new guidebook; having found an English language bookshop (useless) we eventually made our way to a huge shopping mall where we found a bigger and better bookshop where, with much relief and Hannah's overwhelming joy, a pristine copy of the Footprint guide lay, a snip at $64 (s#@?!!). We treated ourselves to a film and fast food dinner (good and bad, respectively).

Iguanas in the park!

The morning after saw us catching a bus to Puerto Lopez, further north on the coast, from where we intended to go whale watching. Despite pushy taxi drivers and tour operators doing their best to take us places we did not want to go, we later found ourselves in a nice ("Surely not", I hear you cry!) Italian restaurant, looking forward to ourwhale watching trip the next day.

There she blows! (Humpback whale)

The whale-watching was great. After a slow start, we hit whale-watching gold when we saw two humpbacks performing a series of breaches (jumps) out of the water, only 30 minutes out of Puerto Lopez. There was a calf present too, also practicing it's jumps, and for a hour we followed and watched the whales as they grazed on plankton - they stopped jumping when we got close. It was a wonderful sunny day and we headed back inshore for some snorkelling. Hannah and I chose to sunbathe, albeit very briefly..... All I can say is, I KNOW I should have put suncream on, but it was 20 minutes, that's all.

Introducing.... Lobster Man!

The next day we had booked a walk in the nearby dry tropical forest, close to the national park in the area. Our guide was pretty knowledgeable (although the Latin-labelled plants pleased Hannah a lot more) but spoke only in fast Spanish. By the end of the walk, through pretty, scrubby forest then along a surf-punded beach, I was tired, feeling burnt (from yesterday), and just about run out of Spanish.

On the coast, near Puerto Lopez

We returned to Guayaquil today - guidebook carefully included -and back to our friendly hostel in the suburbs. The bus journey was long and hot (again), and so was walking around the streets of our suburb as we searched for sea-sickness tablets, ATMs and fast food (more! uuurgh.) Tomorrow we leave for the Galapagos- we have 10 days there, and are hoping to book a tour when we get there. The only challenge left is getting dinner tonight. Our fingers are crossed.....

Orchid in the Botanic Garden

The Sacred Valley

We arrived in Cusco 2 days before we were due to start our the Inca Trail, and checked into a hostel in a nice part of town. Cusco is very definitely the gringo capital of South America, and you can not escape the souvenir sellers, Irish bars and llamas wanting photos for more than a few minutes. Despite this, it retains a huge amount of charm, mainly due to the Incan foundations and colonial architecture that dominate the city centre's streets.


"The stone of 12 angles"

Cusco Plaza

We spent a couple of days wandering around the streets, visiting various museums, galleries and the odd church. Many buildings are built on Incan foundations - still standing strong today, and I developed a fascination with the Inca stonework that Hannah found pretty unhealthy! Many of the churches are built on old Inca temples - par for the course. We also sorted out a week long tour to the Peruvia jungle for when we returned from the Trail - a lot more pricey than the Bolivian equivalent, but we hoped it would be worth it.


Santo Domingo church, built on top of the Incan Temple of the Sun

Our Inca Trail day did not start well - we were delayed by a few hours leaving Cusco, and finally left having collected the Italians who made up half of our group and were, we thought, the cause of our delay. We started the drive to Ollantaytambo and Km82, where the Inca Trail starts. We arrived late enough that we had lunch before we started, and then had an hour of hanging around before our guide finally reappeared - it was 4pm and we hadn't even started. There was worse.

Our guide informed us that, despite having booked up to 5 months ago (in the Italians case), our agency had not got the required permits to do the Trail (strictly limited to 200 gringos a day), none of our 12 strong group could do it. Everyone was surprisingly calm - there wasn't anything we could do about it after all, and the places are full up until October now. So we got back on the bus and headed back to Cusco - nobody wanted to do the "alternative" that the agency (Liz's Explorers, black mark it in your guidebooks!) was offering. Back in Cusco there was a full refund waiting for us, and lots of apologies - although that couldn't fix the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that it was for the Italians, there for only 2 weeks.

Pretty philosophical, we retired to bed and the following morning set about sorting out alternative plans - we had 4 days before we left on our week long trip to Manu National Park. So after lodging a complaint with the Tourist Office, we booked 3 days of activities to explore the Sacred Valley of the Incas, plus a visit to Macchu Picchu (by train) for when we returned from Manu, and a 3 day whitewater rafing trip at the end of August. The sting in the Inca Trail tail came when we paid for various trips - the 4 $100 notes we had been given were from a batch that had had a lot of forgeries - every business in Cusco know this and were unwilling to take them, even if genuine. Whilst we accepted the error on the Trail booking, we struggle to believe that our Liz's Explorers had been unaware of currency issue, and are now giving the agency all the bad press we possibly can.


The Temple of Water, Ollantaytambo

We managed to palm off the notes eventually (they did appear to be genuine) and started looking forward to our next few days. We started out early the next morning on a tour of the Sacred Valley. We left Cusco with our friendly guide, Firmez, who was very helpful and tried to encourage us to ask questions, to the point where he finished every sentence with a 'Do you have any questions?'. On the way to our first Inca site, Pisac, Firmez pointed out several formations in the terraces; apparently one was a condor, another was Pacha Mama's (the Earth Mother) breasts - Pete and I struggled to believe any of them. Pisac was a large site with lots of terracing, apparently the Incas knew quite a lot about plant genetics, and used the terraces as a form of cultivating different varieties of plants at different atltitudes which could then be cultivated in all the different climates of the Inca empire. The stone work was certainly impressive and Pete was in his element, counting each angle, and photographing the best blocks!
Unfortunately, all the different tour agencies do the same tour around the Sacred Valley, the result being that 1000s of tourists arrive at each site at the same time so it was somewhat busy. After lunch we went to our second site, Ollantaytambo; here they had some really big blocks which Pete loved! But there also a great fountain water feature, soI got Pete to take lots of photos of it!


Terraces at Pisac

We then set off for our final site for the day, Chincheros, and got there just before dark to see where a church had been built on top of an old sacred Incan site - it was the least impressive of the day and the most depressing as it had been mostly destroyed.

The following day, in need of exercise, we went on a moutain bike tour to the Incan site of Moray, and the salt terraces at Maras. Pete, our guide Wilhelm and I loaded our bikes onto a bus and drove out into the countryside for an hour and then set off. We arrived at about midday to Moray; the site is an impressive set of concentric circular terraces, and there are several theories of why the Incas built it - the favourite being that it was used for plant breeding. According to some experts there is a noticeable temperature difference between each terrace, which meant the Incas could breed plants that would survive in the different climates across the Incan empire. So perhaps, Mendel, wasn't the first person to discover F1 hybrids.


Moray

We weren't completely convinced by this theory but the site was very impressive. After a packed lunch we carried on to the salt terraces at Maras; this involved a lot of steep rutty downhills, which I found not so pleasurable on my bike which seemed to have a dodgey back brake. The salt terraces were dazzling; are a series of thousand year old terraced pools which were filled with the mineral rich waters from the surrounding mountains - the water then evaporates leaving salt. The salt is harvested by a co-op of local people.


Maras salt terraces

The following day was a relaxing horse back tour of some of the Incan sites closer to Cusco - we were accompanied by a nice English couple, a bored looking guide and several brain dead ponies. After visiting smaller Inca sites at Tambomanchay, Pukapukara and Q'enqo, we ended up at Sacsayhuaman (pronounced "sexy woman") . This vast site that sits on the hill overlooking Cusco, and was a stronghold of the Inca empire. The Spainsh conquistadores were nearly defeated there when one Inca emperor rose up and retook the site, from where he beseiged the Spanish in Cusco. It was only a desperate last gasp attack by 50 Spanish cavalry that saved their day and kept South American history on course. The amazing thing (this is Pete writing now, in case you hadn't guessed) about Sacsayhuaman is the size of the blocks used for the three tiers of ramparts - the largest block is estimated at 300 tonnes; when the largest mobile crane in the world today can't shift more than 200 tonnes, that makes it pretty impressive (to me, anyway...)! Having had our Inca ruins fill for a while we decided it was time for a change of scenery and the following day departed on our trip into the rainforest in search of the elusive Jaguar.


Sacsayhuaman

Sunday morning we arrived early at the office of Manu Ecological Adventures, the company which were organising our 8 day trip to the Manu National Reserve. We set off on the bus and drove for several hours before eventually the ecology of the area began to change, instead of dry looking pasture land with lots of Eucalptus trees we were enshrouded with mist as we entered the Elfin forests - these were characterised by low growing gnarled shrubs with lots of moss and lichen. As we started to decend in altitude the elfin forest gave way to cloud forest and Pete patiently humoured me as we insisted on stopping the bus to get out and look at some of the orchids that were precariously hanging on the trees from which they grew from. Many photographs later we returned to the bus and carried on to our first ecolodge (the definition of an ecolodge to me is a hut of wood, usually raised off the ground with a grass, or palm leaf roof). We had a comfortable first night in the relatively cool temperatures of the cloud forest.


Cloud forest

The following day we got up early and walked a short distance to a bird hide to watch the infamous mating dance of the national bird of Peru, 'The-Cock-of-the-Rock'. Primitive mating rituals seem not to have changed much from birds to humans, as basically the males prance about looking a bit stupid to try and catch the attention of a female (who usually seem unimpressed and a bit above it all, no change there then). After breakfast we set off downhill on mountain bikes eventually arriving at the bottom out of the cloud forest and into the tropical "Cultural Zone" of the reserve. After a short bus ride down the road we reached a small town where we left the bus and boarded rafts to paddle down the Alto Madre de Dios (or the 'Mother of God' River) for an hour and a half or so to the point where we were to meet our trasport for the rest of the trip, motorised canoe. We loaded our bags onto the canoes and set off down stream. We arrived at our second ecolodge, 'Erika Lodge', at about lunchtime where we had a large lunch, relaxed and then went for a walk with our guide Beto - he certainly knew his birds. After a satsifying walk we saw toucans, oropendulas, parrots, woodpeckers etc. we returned back to the lodge for dinner and then set off on a night walk.


Sunset at Erika Lodge

The following day was another early start, with a walk through the surrounding forrest and jungle and then we set off once again down river in the canoes. Being the dry season occasionally the canoe would ground requiring us to jump out and give it a push. We travelled down river for several hours, eating lunch onboard, and spotting various birds en route such as neotropical cormorants, tiger herons, little blue herons, egrets, turkey vultures, red headed vulture, road side hawkes, sand coloured nighthawks, kingfishers, cowbirds, etc. We eventually arrived at Boca Manu Fitzgerald, the nerest small village to the Reserved Zone of the park. I felt it was ironic that they had named the village after Fitzgerald, who was the guy who first made a trail to the area, and then enslaved and killed half the indigneous population. After a short ride down river we reached the third ecolodge where after dinner we went for a night walk.


Nighttime in the jungle = big spiders

The third morning we set off early and started up the Manu river; shortly into the river we saw a flock of blue headed green parrots eating clay from the banks for the river - the ionic charges of the clay particles neutralises the high toxins the parrots receive from their diet of seeds. We travelled a bit further up river to the Limonal ranger station on the edge of the Reserved Zone where we all signed in. Back in the canoe we carried on for another 6 hours to reach our fourth ecolodge, where we were to stay for two nights. We went for a short walk to some viewing platforms which looked over an oxbow lake, spotting lots more birds, Spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys and Red howler monkeys but not the rare giant otters that live in the oxbow lakes in this part of the Amazon.


Rainforest

Our jungle lodge
The following day we walked for 2 hours or so to another ecolodge site, run by a local tribe who also sold bows and arrows and handicrafts to tourists. On the way we were passed by a herd of smelly white lipped peccaries (wild pigs), you can smell the herd of a hundred or so long before you see them. After a brief archery competition between the gringos and the locals, (shooting a papya), the gringos gave up as we were pretty rubbish, except for Pete who was so good, he was almost made an honorary tribal member.


Big trees!

There are still many indigenous tribal people within the bounds of Manu National Park, which has a very strict access policy. The furthest in tourist can get is the Reserved Zone; within the main Park (almost 2 million hectares) are only allowed authorised biologists and anthropologists. After the rubber boom, the enslavement of many Indians and introduction of Western diseases, several tribes withdrew from their normal ranges and now live in "Isolation" - although they have been contacted in the past, contact is now forbidden and these people are rarely seen. Elsewhere in the Peruvian Amazon remain probably the last uncontacted tribal group in the world - an estimated 1500 people are being slowly forced from their traditional ranges in the face of illegal logging.


Spot the (black spider) monkeys!

Carrying on with the competitions we had a football match, the gringos this time were a bit more evenly matched. We returned back to the Ecolodge by canoe and after lunch set off back to the oxbow lake where we got on a catamaran and paddled about in search of giant otters - fortunately they weren't too far a way and we spent a couple of hours watching them playing from a distance (as they are an endangered species we could not get any closer than 50metres to them, but even from that distance they looked pretty big).


The oxbow lake

The following day we started the long trip back to Cusco, leaving our ecolodge after a morning walk and setting off down river back to Boca Manu Fitzgerald. Shortly after the leaving the Reserved Zone Pete spotted a giant ant eater (apparently they're more endangered than jaguars) and immediately after that we saw a group of capybara on the river bank having a drink. After another stay overnight in the lodge site we had stayed in previously, we got up very early to make the slow journey all the way up river back to Erika lodge. As we were going up stream, we had to get out several times a push the canoe over some of the more shallower parts of the river quite tiring when you're working agains a strong current on slippery rocks.


Canopying

The morning afterwards we got up at the more sensible time of 7am in order to go canopying - basically sliding on zip wires between trees at 40m up in the air. After my intial reservations of being so high, and after many assurances that it was safe from the guides and Pete, I had a go and enjoyed the view of being up in the forest canopy. We then returned to Erika lodge where we awaited the other canoe of guests to return before crossing the river to reach our bus. It was a very long drive back to Cusco, and we arrived at 3am in the morning, more than relieved to be let into our hostel at that unearthly hour.

The following morning we were up early again, doing the chores that need to be doen all the time - CD burning, laundry, ordering shoes and the like. By 4pm we were on a direct bus to Ollantaytambo, in order to get the late evening train to Aguas Calientes at the foot of Macchu Picchu. Ollantaytambo was empty when were arrived, and after buying supplies for the next day and getting dinner we got on the train with the hundred other backpackers who were doing the same. The scenery is meant to be great, but in the dark.... we arrived in Aguas Calientes and checked in to a cheap hostel, and crashed out.

The next morning we were up early again to catch the break of dawn over Macchu Picchu. We baled at the $6 bus ride so walked up, and 1 hour later and 400m higher found ourselves queueing with the hoardes of otheres who had taken the bus. By 7am we were installed at the spot from where the picture postcard view was, and eating a packed breakfast. Macchu Picchu is one of the rare places that lives up to it's hype, and despite the crowds the magnificent setting - surrounded by steep sided jungle valleys - the site had an awe-inspiring beauty.



After a rest we descended to the main site and started looking around - Macchu Picchu is one of the few places where most aspects of Inca life can be found in the same place - there are temples and terraces, barns and houses. After a short time exploring we headed over to Waynapicchu, the hill that overlooks Macchu Picchu from the other direction. There is a limit of 400 tourists per day allowed up - the Peruvians are becoming concerned that the site will lose it's World Heritage status soon due to excessive numbers of tourists and lack of perservation of the site.

It was a 30 minute, hot and gruelling climb to the top - exposed narrow paths and high step, coupled with lots of tourists made it hard work. By the time we reached the top, knees aching, we were ready for a rest and took in the view back over the site, and the surrounding river valleys. We continued on to see the Temple of the Moon and the Great Cave - a much less travelled route down some precisely cut Incan steps and involving way too much downhill for Hannah's liking. We reached the site - it was not as good as had been raved about - and started back to Macchu Picchu itself. Hannah was, by this point, suffering a sense of humour failure and was in need of bilateral knee replacements and lots of lemon meringue pie. I had (kind of) mislead her into the 3 hour round trip - "it's just 10 minutes down here" only works for so long. After way too much up and downs, we emerged back on the level at the main site and I was promising loads of treats as penance.


On top of Waynapicchu

However, after an hour long snooze on a quiet terrace and lunch, good humour was restored, and we spent another hour looking at the main temple areas and "industrial" areas of the site. I won't bore you with the details... just a few photos of the blocks. We left to walk back down to the bottom - we considered the bus but there was a small botanic garden at the bottom that Hannah wanted to visit, which we duly did. It was excellent - a real undiscovered gem - if you want to see more, have a look at Hannah's Plant Blog.

We returned to Aguas Calientes pretty tired and were amazed to find that, after the oodles of lemon meringue pie in Cusco, there was a total dearthof it in Aguas Calientes. So we settled for pnacakes and chocolate cakes, plus a late afternoon snooze then an early dinner and bed.
The following morning was another silly-o'clock awakening, this time for the train back to Ollantaytambo. It was light this time for the scenery, but this was lost on me as I slept most of the way back. In Ollantaytambo we had a great breakfast before winding our way slowly back to Cusco on a collection of local buses. Back in Cusco we managed a round of whirlwind shopping, emerging poorer but with several t-shirts, a pair of boots (custom made) and a bag. We confirmed our rafting trip and then met up with Gidi and Karin (the Israeli couple I travelled with in Venezuela), who had just arrived in Cusco. It was another early night, in preparation for our rafting trip.

Our 3 days down the canyons of the Apurimac River started well - a nice group (7 English, 1 Israeli), friendly guides, departed on time..... it was only at mid-day that, in the middle of nowhere in the mountains, did a suspension arm thing break on our bus. Further investigation revealed that all 6 bolts had sheared on the back part of the arm. Quicky enough our driver borrowed 6 bolts from other "non-essential" parts of the chassis, and using a pitifully small jack, lots of large rocks, a crowbar, brute force and body weight did we eventually fix the problem. Fixed it enough, that is (the arm was bent as well), to return to the last town where we hijacked a bus full of locals and got back on the road - 3 hours later.

We reached our start point in the canyon and quickly unloaded the bus and pumped up the rafts. The first afternoon was meant to be one of safety briefing, paddling practice and rescue techniques. However, due to the time and lack of serious rapids before the first campsite, in no time we were on the water and paddling down the cold river in the falling dusk, to our first camp of the trip.

Our camp was right by the river and as soon as we had the rafts our, we started putting up tents whilst the guides started on dinner. A short while later we were out of wetsuits and into long-sleeved everything, and being attacked by the voracious sand flies that live in the canyon. We cracked open the beer we had bought and had a nice, DEET perfumed evening and dinner.

The following morning we went some way to correcting what we missed out on the previous day – a safety briefing to start (tourists have died rafting this river, "although never with our company" - heard that before?) before more on the water instruction and paddle strokes. We still had to portage the first major rapid we came to – a Class V (on a scale of I-VI) that was too dangerous to allow us through – watching the guides come through was good enough.


Going down some rapid....

Three hours later and we had run several Grade IV and IV+ rapids, plus surfed in a few play waves and swum down one set of rapids. We had also portaged a further 2 sets of rapids – the last being at the end of a rapid called Purgatory and the river narrowing to a gap of about 2 feet; it was a challenge to get the boats through.

As we cruised down on the raft, chatting to our guide Claudio, we nearly stopped paying attention to the river and only at the last minute did we avoid an embarrassing capsize on an easy rapid. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to our cargo boat – we were suddenly aware of someone swimming, and before we knew it the cargo boat was floating towards us upside down. Along with Primo, the guide from the other raft of tourists, Claudio hopped onto the upturned cargo raft to help Pedro, the cargo boat guide, right it. This was a bit harder than planned – all that baggage weighing quite a lot – and by the time they righted it we were on our way down an easy rapid without our guide.

The fallout from the capsize was not too bad except that both oars (that had been tied on) were lost, so the cargo boat was going to have a lot harder time for the next day and a half (there was one spare), and most of the “dry bags” with gear in were not what they claimed to be.

After a great lunch and some much needed sunbathing (the river is glacial, after all) we were back in the rafts, and had a great afternoon running more rapids and surfing in playwaves. I got washed out the boat once whilst on of these waves – as the kayakers out there will know, surfing standing waves is great fun but in a raft requires lots of commitment – and hence the bath. The other boat fared less well – Primo was keen to flip his boat, and with enough paddling on a play wave that’s pretty easy to do.


Our raft, on a play wave

That night we reached our camp a little earlier than planned, which was lucky as most of us had things to dry out. In the warm afternoon wind it did quickly, and we settled down to a nice night by a huge fire, with a tasty dinner and more beer (crucially not lost during the capsize).

The following morning we were up early and were soon on the water, looking forward to further IV+ rapids and play waves for surfing - the guides had fashioned a pretty Heath Robinson second oar for the cargo boat. Usually there are Grade V rapids that can be run but in the dry season the water level drops and so do the Grades. We didn’t mind this so much – that morning Hannah and I plus one other girl got washed out of our raft, and the other raft fared worse (or better, depending on your way of thinking). It was all good fun though – often retrospectively that is though, because when you’re stuck in a stopper for a few seconds and are swallowing river water, there are a lot of places you’d rather be.

All too soon we reached the end of the line – the road suddenly appeared back in the canyon and so did people – we had been alone for the past 77km. We got off the water and back onto the bus – with a leisurely break for another superb meal – and returned to Cusco for the early evening.

After that, it was all action - bags to pack, showers needed (desperately), t-shirts (more) to collect, Gidi and Karin to meet for dinner, then off to a bar to view the video footage of our rafting (hopefully available soon). We turned in late, ready for our flight to northern Peru. We had decided to bypass the entire of northern Peru in favour of longer in Ecuador – longer in this case being relative, because there’s so much left to see and so little time to do it in.