Hey everyone,
After much procrastination over the past few years I finally packed in my job, sold my car and set off on the road to Central and South America.
Over the past seven months I have been travelling with my girlfriend Liz. We have learned a new language, made many new friends, seen many new cities, sites, towns, mountains, volcanoes, valleys and seas, tasted new food, smelt new aromas and had many strange and wonderful new experiences.
Here I will try my best to give you as much of the experience as possible....
”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” –
Mark Twain
Mexico
After making a short pitstop in London on our way to the Americas we finally arrived into Cancun on February 21st. Cancun is home to the annual migration of American Spring break students so we were keen not to get shipwrecked in that wave of tourists! We walked out of the airport and onto a bus heading for Playa del Carmen.
Getting into the swing of backpacking was tricky as we had set ourselves up in a flash hotel in the resort just south of Cancun called playa del Carmen. In fairness we knew we would long for those fresh 4* sheets further down the road but life in Mexico was very nice. We hit the beach daily and enjoyed the Caribbean. I was getting restless after our first few days so we signed ourselves up for a PADI course to get a diving certificate. Running along the East coast of the Yuchatan peninsula, Belize and Guatemala lies the second largest reef in the world. To get the most out of exploring this terrain we would definitely need our PADI certs! Thanks to our well versed diving instructor Gabriel of Scuba Playa or as Liz called him "Angel Gabriel" and 3 days of reading manuals and getting used to the breathing apparatus, we qualified as PADI certified divers and were set to explore the oceans of Latin America.
 |
| PADI Certs in the bag |
Playa del Carmen is a nice place but its more an American tourist destination with droves of families gracing the main boulevards. Our first trip away from here was a stop off in the city of Merida. It's a very laid back pretty city and is known for holding the seat of government in the Yuchatan region.
Our main reason for a detour west of The Yuchatan peninsula was to explore the ancient Mayan site of Chichen Itza which is close by the city. This was the first major Mayan site I had ever seen. The main pyramid was hugely impressive and either side of the steps on the main facade, during the summer soltace, the sun reflects the shape of a snake crawling up the side of the pyramid. It was an amazing achitectural feat that this ancient civilisation could build such a design. We jumped on the first English tour of the site along with an elderly couple, Jim and Lorna who were from a small city in Canada and had for a long time taken big trips every 5 years. As we trouped around the site jumping between one shade to the next we got a great appreciation for Jim and Lorna's travel appetite. I thought mine was insatiable. Each of their big trips would last for 3 months. It was an interesting travel strategy for a pair of 60 something's and for sure there wasn't too many corners of the earth that they hadn't visited. After the chat I had definitely felt a new sense of travel envigoration for my twilight years!
Chitchen Itza is truly a huge site and we were lucky enough to get in early before the major tour buses arrived. When they did land the streams of tourists seemed to have all drove miles on a bus to get here only to have their photo taken with the bus!
 |
| Chitchen Itza |
At the far end of the site we were told by our guide Carlos about the sacrificial rituals. The Mayans would sacrifice a young member of some of the families by drowning them in one of the huge limestone sinkholes that had been filled with fresh water from springs called cenotes. Between here and Guatemala we would become very used to the cenotes. To this day archaeologists were pulling out troves of artefacts and Mayan treasures from the surrounding cenotes.
Upon our arrival back in Playa del Carmen we started to plan out next jump forward which was down towards the small city of Tulum. Here we stayed in The Weary Traveller hostel where our room was starting to look pretty weary too. Before that though we went in search of one last vaunted Mexican dive site which was off the island of Cozumel.
To get here we boarded a ferry which took us on a trip across for an hour and a half. The duration of the trip was marked by a Mariachi band playing every Latino favourite under the sun. I have to admit I did enjoy a little bit of "Juan del a Mera" and "The Girl from Ipanema" even with this level of cheesiness. Liz on the other hand rued every time I whistled either tune from that day on. She had her stomach sitting sideways by the end of the trip and the reality of being held as a captive audience seemed to only add to her nausea. We discovered later that the nickname for the ferry was "The Vomit Comet".
 |
| Happy out after surviving "The Vomit Comet!" |
Cozumel seemed to be bit of a family holiday spot stuck in a time wharp. It reminded me of Bettystown...a holiday resort lost in its former glory. It definitely had a lively diver's presence and after ditchin our stuff we went out in search of a dive shop. We hadn't to go far but I was determined to stick to our lonely planet recommended dive shop operators considering the look of some of the cowboy operations.
We had noticed the rough seas on the journey across but had hoped for settled weather over the course of the weekend. Each one of the shops had forecasted for a stormy next 3 days. There were dive shops willing to take us out but with the majority giving us a blanket no, I feared for anyone who did take up their offer! It was looking like our Cozumel trip was turning into a complete waste of time but for a stroke of luck that lead us to one of the best restaurants of our trip. Liz had pointed out a little spot called El Chef on a side street but still being a little green on the travels I was sticking to one of the guidebooks that had pegged a decent restaurant further down the street. Thankfully for us the guidebook appeared to be out of date as the place I was hunting down had been shut down. We returned to El Chef and from a tiny kitchen came the most amazing food...deep fried Brie and cranberry sauce and a selection of cheeses was swiftly followed by a prawn and olive pizza and accompanied with a bacon and lobster sandwich. Despite missing out on the famed diving of Cozumel we landed on the luckiest of restaurant chairs and ate like kings in El Chef that ended up making our ferry trip worth while.
 |
| Cheeeeeese pleeeease! |
We left the next day and made our way further south. Tulum was our proximo destination and home to another large set of Mayan ruins which are probably more spectacular than Chitchen Itza. These are situated on a coastal cliff that overhangs some of the nicest beaches I have ever seen. With easy access to fishing ports the Mayan lads in Tulum really knew the way to live! The heat here was touching baking point and I couldn't wait to jump in the sea.
 |
| Tulum Ruins |
I could still feel my head processing Mayan information from the last historical site we had visited so we steamrolled through here and straight for the ocean. The tour around here finished on the shore and most of the crowd were submerged in water before the tour guides could take off their hats for a tip.
Indeed what else would be around the small town of Tulum but another set of Mayan ruins! Thankfully we gave ourselves a few days to get over the Tulum ruins with a visit to a cenote where we went snorkelling in one of the clear water sinkholes.
 |
| Jumping into a pool of ancient holiness |
As I looked down into the water I could almost see for 10 or 15 meters below me. It was unbelievably clear and all the fresh water fish seemed to be well used to people swimming here. I was able to glide through shoals of fish without as much as a blink from these amazingly coloured guys.
Next up were the Coba ruins. The degree of variation in the archaeological sites was a life saver as the Coba ruins were set right in the heart of a forest. We rented bikes at the front and between the shade of the trees and the breeze as we cycled around the ruins....these were definitely a Yuchatan highlight. The main pyramid is about 5km into the site and as we cycled through I grew excited to see this pyramid. Upon arrival the sheer scale of the pyramid is impressive and as we scaled to the top we got to look out across a dead straight jungle horizon. The land was incredibly flat and midst the ruins the forest seemed to stretch for miles.
 |
| Cycling through the Coba ruins |
 |
| The main pyramid at Coba |
In some respects alot of the Mayan ruins are hard to be over enthusiastic about. The restoration effort in Chitchen Itza is remarkable but engaging with history that is thousands of years old can be a tough ask even on the most lively imagination. Most of the time you are left to contemplate life thousands of years ago from a rubble of rocks. I often call it the "colosseum syndrome"...as you go through the gates of the colosseum and rush into the arena you're almost expecting to see a gladiator fighting in the middle and you're left half stumped with the decaying sight of a former glory.
After spending the guts of three weeks in Mexico I felt like we had only dipped our toes into the cenote of this trip. The lack of Spanish had left me with a feeling of being without a compass in the country. Sure enough the Mexican food had left me craving for another taco but I needed something of a culture shock to spark this trip into life, what I got in Belize was more..a lot more.
Unbelizeable
"Go Slow" is the caption to life in Caye Caulker, Belize. It is as if Bob Marley may have created this island as an escape from the hustle and bustle of life in Kingston. The dreads are long and the reggae vibes are loud. Spanish is the spoken language on the mainland but here it is all Jamaican English. This was my first experience of a Caribbean island and it's a spot that I could easily see out my days. Caye Caulker is only a short boat trip from mainland Belize but it seems nothing like anything from where we just came from.
To get here we travelled via a powerboat from a Mexican port and did border patrol on San pedro (the largest of the Belizean Cayes). We settled in a little beach hut called Marins. Having just come from Tulum in Mexico I found it hard to match the quality of the beaches here but what Caye Caulker lacked in sandy beaches (mostly stoney) it made up for in rasta attitude.
The days are long and time spent on the island hangout spot "The Lazy Lizard Split" is as if the clock has melted. The local ice-pop guy comes round to each one of the bathers shouting in the most rasta accent "Cool-pops, melt in your mouth not in your hands!". Some of the local lads are remiss of "lucky lucky" dealers from childhood holidays in Malta and Majorca but have some definite dreadlock charm....I got talking to one of the lads down by the split one of the days.."you're from Ireland!?, my name is Sean from Donegal (in the biggest rasta accent)", our Sean had a good grasp on the political situation in the North aswell..."them IRA men have stopped bombing ya?"...me:"that's true Sean"......"now dey all politicians".
Here we made friends with a nice Swiss couple who imparted all the virtues of travelling further south in central america and a fiery Italian Irene and her Canadian friend Kristin. We later enjoyed a conch stir fry in their company. Travel appeals to all the sense and none more so than the taste.....on Caye Caulker the seafood was plentiful and mightily impressive. If I created a gastro-blog of this trip I imagine the barbecued snapper I had in Rose's would be somewhere at the top.
 |
| The Lazy Lizard Split |
Blue Hole Lagoon
One of the main reasons for coming to the island was to do the Blue Hole Lagoon dive. Its essentially a hole in the ocean that runs 124m deep. After getting our PADI certs in Mexico I was anxious to embark on some of the big diving hotspots along the reef that runs east of Mexico. Its the second biggest reef in the world and has an abundance of divespots. None more so appealing than the Blue Hole Lagoon (or the Great Blue Hole). Its 70km off the mainland is 300m wide and is essentially formed from rifts in the plates that caused this massive hole in the ocean floor.
We kicked off at 5am with fitting and introduction to the crew and the rest of our divers. There was definitely a few nerves in the boat before jumping off the side and the rough 2 hour boat trip from Caye Caulker didnt help to ease them.
 |
| Aerial shot of the Blue Hole stolen from google |
As you arrive the boat brings you to the edge so you can experience the feeling of going over the reef. When we dived, it had been a few weeks since our Mexican dives so it took a while for both of us to get used to the way of the dive. Then as the instructor lead us along the floor we suddenly reached the drop...as he went over the lip of the reef we all followed him and descended into darkness......or into what I can only describe as the deepest crevass I will ever hopefully find myself in! The instructions on the pre dive was to stick to the reef wall. So as we descended there was little or no sea life around the wall, it was quite cold and the only thing you are looking into...is this abyss. It was a little unnerving that the first thing we saw was a large reef shark wading towards us. It was the first time I had seen a shark in the depths and needless to say I nearly inhaled my full tank of oxygen.
 |
| Our boat and diving gear |
We reached 25m before we began our ascent up the reef wall. It isn´t really a spectacular dive, its more the surroundings of being in this massive gap in the ocean that leave you with an unmistakeable awe of nature.
Our second dive the same day was alot more beautiful and we saw eagle rays, more reef sharks and an abundance of sea life. We visited an island after this and went bird watching and saw the amazingly flamboyant frigate birds with their baloooning necks trying to attract a mate and blue footed boobies.
The experience of living on a carribean island was great and having that pace of life reduced to the next trip to the bar for a beer was pretty special. But taking the plunge into one of the deepest spots in the ocean still gives me the chills.
 |
| Sunset down at the Split, Caye Caulker |
Holy Guatemoly!
Our time in Guatemala will live long in my memory. I guess any place where you stop for a longer stay than other places will inevitably run a little deeper than a whistle stop tour of a city or a major sight. We came into the country via Mexico and stopped off at Flores. It is a little quaint island and reminds me of an Italian hamlet. Here we stayed in Los Amigos hostel. It was a fine backpacker haunt and we organised a trip to the Tikal ruins from here. These are the tallest set of ancient Mayan ruins in mesoamerica and are set right in the heart of the jungle.
 |
| Sunrise over Tikal |
We began our trip at 3am as it was a sunrise tour. Upon arriving we were greeted by our guide "Lewis". It was pitch black. It was a little strange walking through a Guatemalan jungle in the midst of night and what made it a little more uneasy was that our group was being accompanied by a guide with a shotgun..."in case we meet are any jaguars on our trip" was what the guide told us! Also to add to the atmosphere, there were a number of howler monkeys screeching into the jungle darkness. These guys really know how to add a soundtrack to a jungle night trek and the most common howler monkey fact quoted on these trips is how their sounds were used in the movie Jurassic Park to replicate a whaling Tyranasaurus Rex. It's shrilling.
We scaled the tallest of the Mayan temples before sunrise and looked out across the jungle where two other Mayan pyramids jut into the landscape over the jungle. This was a real highlight, having walked through the jungle for more than an hour and basically being lead by our guide through pitch black with nothing but a headtorch to light a few yards in front of us. We had reached a spot where we could just sit back and let the sun illuminate this mystical set of temples. The guide hushed everyone from talking and there was a real sense of respect amongst the local guides which was shared by the group. It was brilliant to sit and watch nature take its course on these ancient constructions.
Our guide was top notch and not only showed us around the temples but as the setting of the ruins is right in the heart of the jungle you get to see amazing wildlife here. Lewis made sure everyone got a look. We saw the national bird of Guatemala, the Quetzal. It's also the name of the currency and before the monetary system was introduced locals used to trade the quetzals feathers. We finally got to see howler monkeys which were great to see especially to find out where the jungle enveloping shrill came from. Other animals included spider monkeys, toucans, peacocks and a large tarantula which one of our group volunteered to put in her mouth!
 |
| Main Pyramid at Tikal, Guatemala |
Overall the ruins were very impressive but with a lot of these major sights a lot can depend on your guide and group. Thankfully we had luck on both fronts.
Detour through Mexico
Next up we took a boat back into Mexico to go to the town of Palenque and view more ancient Mayan ruins. At this stage I was getting fairly fed up of the Mayan ruins. We had seen the Mexican Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, Tulum, Coba and now Tikal so needless to say the reimagining of ancient cities and civilisations had become bit of a bore. We ploughed on and settled in a very nice hostel set right beside the park where the ruins were located. The place was called Jungle Palace and was the first time we had stayed in a "Jungle Hostel".
It was a 2km walk to the site when we hit off for it the next day but by chance we caught a bus to the entrance and spent the next few hours walking around it. These ruins were a huge complex and were set in a jungle valley. The next few hours were spent walking around with our mouths wide open. It was very hot and sticky. And after being less than enthusiastic about visiting more ruins this proved to be the most awe inspiring of them all. The Mayan civilisation came to an explainable end but they must have been some powerful people to build complexes this vast and this impressive.
 |
| Ruins of Palenque |
 |
| Saving the best Mayan Ruins till last |
From Palenque we went south to a small Mexican city close to the border called San Cristobal de la Casas. This was the nicest city that we visited in the whole of Mexico. It was a hive of culture and was undergoing preparations for Semana Santa...Holy Week. The celebrations in the big plaza in town were impressive. One of the big parades was the children's parade where they all gathered together in groups from different towns in the typical dress from your region. There was cowboys, dancing china dolls, kids in tuxedos all marching and dancing.
 |
| Beginning of Semana Santa pre celebrations |
Falling for San Cristobal de la Casas was an easy job as the place oozed culture and charm with an interesting historical backdrop. Liz fell ill here having tried some of their sushi and wasn't right for a week. Lesson learned here was only ever have sushi in a capital city or in Japan! This fortunately/unfortunately enough afforded me some time to explore the outter regions around the city and learn more about the spot and give their museum circuit a good belt. San Cris is located in the Chiapas region of South Mexico.
 |
| Hitting "museum fatigue" after the insect, chocolate and amber museum in a few days |
 |
| Santo Domingo Catheral in San Cris´ |
 |
| Main boulevard of San Cristobal |
The Zapatistas
Its easy to see being a small region in the southern highlands, how isolated it feels from the mainstream politicking in Mexico City. As recent as 1994 a local movement called the Zapatistas moved to counteract the Mexican government's signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement effectively meant that local land had to fall under the rules and regulations of what the North American countries agreed and presided over what was necessary to grow and produce for the greater economic demands. This was predicted to cause a greater gap between rich and poorer and thus riled this movement into action. It resulted in the Zapatistas (EZLN army) organising an armed offensive and gaining control over a number of areas in the Chiapas. The Mexican government reacted in the coming days with swift action. Retaking the Zapatista outposts and forcing them back into the surrounding mountains. The struggle created some international support around the world including leftist thinkers such as Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein. The struggle continues to this day but not so much an armed conflict more the spreading of the ideas for which they believe. An armed conflict created out of this inequality, to be fair caught my imagination. And I investigated further in one of the local bookshops. The owner told me of an anniversary of the struggle happening this year. The Zapatistas live in small self sufficient camps in the mountains and would this year open them to the press and public on August. I asked the owner would he be visiting and he explained his home comforts would far exceed any revolutionary spirit he had in his youth!
 |
| Zapatista Graffiti |
The EZLN's influence is evident in and around San Cris. There is much support for the black and red flags, they adorn a particular fund raising Zapatista cafe and there's plenty of graffiti on some of the side street walls. There are no major commercial signs in San Cris, something that the locals are very proud of. It always strikes me in these types of conflict how the greater the hinterland the more disconnected the government is from the local people. The struggle of the Zapatistas is eulogised in the adornment of Che Guevara and Subcommandante Marcos (the leader of the movement) signs, flags, souvenirs and the clothing on sale on the streets. They seem to be quite resilient like the landscape here and will no doubt continue on with their struggle.
Gallopin around San Cris'
The non political side to San Cris is its beautiful mountainous surroundings. One of the days I went for a horse ride down to a picturesque little town called San Juan Chamula. It was a journey I organised though our hostel and it was just myself and Pancho the local Indian cowboy who had as much English as I had Spanish. I think I got more conversation out of my horse Durco on this trip than from auld Pancho.The town itself has a local market in front of the church where you seemed to be able to buy anything from a cows head to pigs feet. Inside the church was like nothing I had seen before. On the floor were melted Candlewax and hundreds of candles still burning surrounded by pine boughs. The local people praying seemed almost tormented with devotion and were dragging themselves on their knees all the way up to the top of the church. It was a sight that stayed with me on the way back.
 |
| Market square in front of San Juan |
 |
| Steady boy! |
Thankfully we bumped into some Scandinavians who were on a similar tour and I could finally break what was turning into an almost religious silence. We all went off-road through a forest and broke into a gallop on the way back which was good fun if a little hard on my undercarriage!
 |
| Learning from a master |
Our visit to San Cris was also made all the more enjoyable by bumping into one character in our hostel Los Camellos called hector. He was a man from Tijuana who came down south for a few months to chill out and play chess. This guy was an absolute gent and a legend and he invited me to play a game. He was a chess master and in the few short days I was there I learned more about chess than I probably did in my whole life. Even though Liz was still fighting the sushi food poisoning, I have to admit my chess game improved to a level where I had a game that went on for hours with Hector. Unfortunately it ended with the same result but I had a right good go at it.
Guat's Up?
After Liz got better, we were ready for the road again and excited to take on Guatemala in its entirety!
Our first stop on the Guatemalan section of the Pan American highway was Quetzaltenango or "Xela" as its more commonly known. There was a hive of activity goin on here as the city had just started its Semana Santa celebrations.
 |
| Semana Santa Processions in Xela |
We got up real close to the ceremonies and both couldn't believe the length and breath of the processions. On Good Friday they went on from day till well past midnight. The brass trumpets played very mellow somber music that was like the soundtrack from the Godfather. It was all very serious and after two days of it I think we were both ready to leave town. Our next spot was into the heart of the Guatemalan highlands called the Quiche district. Here the indigenous people are very proud and all the people wear the native dress.
Life in San Pedro
Our plan at this stage was to stop and learn Spanish in San Pedro de la Laguna. This is a small town on a large lake surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. One of the greatest benefits to settling down here for three weeks was getting to know the people.
Here we also went to a random wedding of a local Guatemalan lady Nancy Gonzalez to an Irish lad...Johnny from Naas. We got invited to the stag, the hen and the wedding and were even included in the wedding speech! Talk about a pair of shysters!
 |
| Squeezing in an Irish-Guatemalan wedding on our way! |
 |
| Basking in the views of Lake Atitlan after climbing the Indian´s Nose |
At Spanish school we met some great people and we got to know Andrea and her family very well. We even went along supporting her basketball team in the mother's leagues on Thursday nights! Just being here for a while we really got the best out of the place. When Spanish had finished at the weekends there was plenty of things to do. With the lake close by we went canoeing, climbed a mountain that looked like an Indian's nose, climbed a volcano and visited a local market in the Quiche region called Chichicastenango or Chichi market. This was a Mecca for the artisan wears and we fairly stocked up on the quality goods at a reasonable price.
Semuc Paradise
After we did Spanish on Lake Atitlan we moved east to the lovely city of Antigua. "Antigua" which means ancient in Spanish. This city's architecture was a joy to look at as it was from an ancient era. The city is surrounded by volcanoes that are infamous as they have played a major part in the country's history and reminded me of the great European Mount Vesuvius. The city is also filled with ancient churches and one massive cathedral that was wrecked by numerous earthquakes. There were a lot of tours being organised here to volcano fuego (which literally means fire). This is an active volcano and I heard from other travellers that you can literally roast marshmallows on the surface of this volcano. Having gotten over the climb up Volcan San Pedro on Lago Atitlan, I wasn't too excited about climbing another volcano. So we headed north to what I can only describe as one of the most beautiful places on earth...Semuc Champey.
 |
| Semuc Champey or more commonly known as "paradise" |
 |
| View of the limestone bridge from the Mirador |
 |
| Enjoying the mineral pools |
The idyllic setting here was created by a natural limestone bridge formed by a river coming down from the mountains. The first day we arrived here we did a cave tour with a group from our hostel "El Retiro". This action packed day was kicked off with a trip into the caves with candels, swimming togs and a sense of adventure. It was 3rd world tourism at its best. No safety measures, plenty of scope for accidents but overall a bloody good thrill!
Basically you swim and scramble through a series of pools in the caves, bats are all around and you jump into various types of sinkholes, hoping that you don't break a limb. Next up was some tubing down the river to chill the bumps and bruises from the caves. At the end of the river you cross one of those "Stand By Me" type bridges. This bridge was about 15m above the river. We all jumped off it, Liz loves the thrill seeking activities and it was no bother to her either.
When I hit the water on my jump I actually touched the bottom! Up next was a hike up to the viewing point. You can see all the lakes from here and it feels like your looking down on paradise ( i'll try and relax on the superlatives but after spending two days here they just come blurting out). Once the hike was done and dusted we were in the mood for chillin in the mineral pools for the rest of the day. Probably one of the best days of the trip and we had a good crew of people with us.
 |
| Our hostel on the Rio Dulce |
From here we went south to make our way to islands north of Honduras. We stopped off in a town called Rio Dulce which is in a very fertile spot where the United Fruit Company pretty much runs the whole country's banana and fruit cultivation. Here we stayed in a hostel run by a Swiss/German duo of lads called Casa Perico that was actually on a river and in a jungle which was very cool. I saw this hostel on a travel blog before I left and hoped to end up there. Once you're on the road you just book stuff on the fly and coincidently we ended up there.
Honduras
After leaving here, we did some more diving on an island off Honduras called Utilla. This was beautiful as our hostel had its own jetty. Life consisted of diving in the morning at 6 am and back for lunch at 11 and chilling for the rest of the day. We really enjoyed the diving and Liz finally hit the comfort zone on the deep dives. If we stayed there any longer I would have definitely done a dive course coz it works out the same price as diving and is probably one of the cheapest places in the world to dive.
 |
| Diving at Parrot´s Dive shop |
 |
| Maxing out enjoyment on our jetty! |
The rest of Honduras wasn´t great and when we reached the capital Tegucigalpa, the recommendations from our hostel owner was don't be on the streets after 7! The people were fairly lackin in the bienvenidos and the best thing about that place was the road out of there! We heard a few stories from other travellers about San Juan de Sula which is another port town on the way to the islands. It has the highest murder rate in the world so overall we were pretty happy to leave Honduras.
Nicaragua
With our flight off the Central Americas looming we went straight onto Nicaragua and gave El Salvador a skip. This place was beautiful, I absolutely loved it and would return in a heartbeat. Our first stop was Leon where we did volcano boarding. There's volcanoes everywhere in Central America and if your not climbing one, you're looking at one, visiting a national park around one, or in Leon...boarding down the side of one! You can even hit speeds of 90kph. This was great craic, you only have one shot at it and when you start off its bit of a slope but there´s a massive drop off on it which is when the real fun starts. They have an organised session after it where you go on a massive army truck around the town. We met up with some of the crew we did spanish with in Guatemala and had a great night that included tasting an infamous drink called mezcal(putrid cactus drink that's a less filtered version of tequila)! Most of the other time in Leon we spent sipping on Fleur de Cana and enjoying the city sights.
.jpg) |
| Volcano Boarding down Cerro Negro |
 |
| Toasting a great day Volcano boarding |
Being the old history buff I went to a revolutionary museum and learned all about the Nicaraguan struggle against the US. You get used to all these Central American countries getting a raw deal by the US but El Salvador and Nicaragua seem to have got the worst of it. The country endured an extension to a civil war courtesy of a Reagan/Thatcher administration backed army invading the country from Honduras in the north and Costa Rica in the south and trying to force through a pro western leader. The Sandinos stood firm but the war resulted in thousands of people being killed and more blood of Latin America being spilt by virtue of US post colonial meddling. It all torpedoes into the mind the continuation of colonial massacres since the arrival of the conquistadores. I'll hold off any more history lessons but more can be sourced in that same book Hugo Chavez handed to Obama at an Americas convention in Trinidad the start of his administration: "The Open Veins of Latin America" by Eduardo Galeano.
 |
| Campanero Franco and another one of his legionnaires |
 |
| Explaining to us about the revolution. Viva Sandino! |
The guy on the tour gave us the 2 fingered history guide to the US, he was loving the fact that we were from Ireland and hated Maggie Thatcher. The tour culminated in a trip up on the roof where he showed us a photo of himself back when he was 21 holding a machine gun and in a safe house outside the city during the Contra Wat. The guy was a serious character, I also gathered from my rough spanish...Campanero Franko had gone to Cuba and trained as a rebel there and fought with Castro and had also been a mate of Che Guevara!
 |
| Granada |
From there we went onto Granada. It's a small colonial city which was nice and chilled and less humid than Leon. Here we met a lad who was gettin paid for lookin after crew of British gap-year backpackers through Central America for 3 months by themselves and parents. It was pretty funny, some of the young travellers were like something out of Kevin and Perry...loosing their wallet and feeling sick....poor auld Alex was a proper babysitter but it didn´t near stop him from havin a great time.
After Nicaragua we upped our pace as we had to be back in Panama city for a flight to Colombia on 21st. You can´t do an overland border hop from Panama to Colombia because the south is like bandit country with Farc rebels overrunning the place so getting down to Panama for the 17th of May was a priority. That meant spending about 2 days in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica
On the bus on the way into the country we bumped into a very sound couple, the fella; Arturo was a local "Tican" student and his girlfriend Amanda who was a texas girl studying in Costa Rica. We ended up stayin close to their place in the city of Liberia and goin out that night with them and travelled with them to the capital San Jose the next day. They showed us all the spots to go and see in the capital city. Although it was the briefiest country visited on the trip it was great to get the run down by this couple. Thanks guys!
Panama
We arrived into Panama badly in need of putting our feet on the ground for a a few days so we stayed on an island called Bocas del Toro off the north coast for about 4 days. Here there was loads to do. I checked out some surf which is a bloody good work out and did some fishing. Liz did some more tanning, me...not so much, I´ve yet to crack the truckers tan on my arms, Liz keeps calling me "top deck".
The fishing was nice to take it down a few gears and I never caught so much in my life. It was just myself and this local fisherman who knew the Bocas de Toro shoreline like the back of his hand.
 |
| Kingfisher for brekkie |
 |
| Bocas del Toro |
After nettin a few sardines we went to a spot and with nothing more than a line and two hooks and these sardines, I couldn´t stop hauling the fish into the boat. A beautiful kingfish and some snapper was gutted and had for breakfast that morning. We met up with Leanne one of our Spanish learnin friends from Guatemala and had the craic one of the nights on the island. We got a boat also out to the famous red frog beach here. Unfortunately we never got to see any red frogs but I did have a go at swimming on a very rough beach. Liz stayed on shore and nearly thought I got lost in a wave but I emerged unscathed from definitely the roughest water we´ve come across on our trip.
 |
| Panama City |
 |
| A big bloody boat going through the Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal |
 |
| Our Lobster hunt finally finished in Panama City |
From there we went on to Panama city. It was bit of a shock to finally be back in a developed city. The place is a happenin spot, you can feel the energy off this place. Liz hit the beautifying hang outs and I went walk about the city. It's a huge expanse of a city and you can get residency here if you throw USD300k into one of the load of condos. We had been on bit of a lobster search workin our way south because it was out of season but plenty of luck in Panama city where we ate gansey load for about 10USD. They also love their ceviche here which is a gorgeous seafood cocktail in limejuice. We also visited the Panama Canal visitor centre at the Mira Flores locks. This was a pretty interesting trip and probably the finest piece of engineering I have ever seen.
Flying out of Panama was a bit weird as it was the first flight since that fateful day back in Feb. But it was good to wave goodbye to Central America and we had made it through in exactly three months. It was time to look forward to South!
South America
Colombia and nearly getting lost in a Jungle!
We flew into Cartagena which is like the Miami of South America. Got some culture into us in the old part of town and saw the largest fortress in South America. Also visited a club where I can only describe as being hypnotized by the salsa dancing. It was also a club that Hilary Clinton had visited while paying a visit to the Southern American shores so we knew we were keeping good company! It was called Club Havanna and we enjoyed the live music no end in this place.
 |
| Standing to attention at an old fort overlooking Cartagena |
We visited, yes another volcano, where you were able to bathe and soak in its mineral mud. This was a very bizarre experience, the volcano turned out to be no more than a tiny hill and trying to navigate through the mud was an extremely strange sensation, there were local guys in the volcano with us who performed massages and parked the bodies in the mud like they were cars in a car park. Afterwards everyone gets washed down by old local ladies beside a lake that borders the volcano, anyone who wouldn't like an invasion of personal space...then this would probably not be for them.....but being seasoned vets of the road, myself and Liz just had to laugh at the whole scene of these auld ones washing us down at the tender age of 29.
 |
| Trying to give local beach vendors the message! |
Cartagena is called the Miami of the South and it´s easy to see why, you have the skyline of Miami on the Caribbean and beaches in the actual city. Having easy access to the beaches from our hostel, we hit one of them one of the days. We didn´t realise that as part of sitting out on the beach you also get an interminable amount of hassle from locals peddaling all sorts; from cigars to crab legs to yoyos. Being able to walk and enjoy a beach right in the city was serious bonus and swimming out and looking back at all the buildings along the strip was a Cartagena highlight, it would also be one of the last times we would bathe in the Carribbean.
From Cartagena we moved north east to Santa Marta which was bit of a base for going to a national park. It was pretty cool, trek a couple of hours through a jungle to get to this heavenly beach. We left our return to our campsite a little late one of the evenings and we were walking through a jungle in the middle of a national park with only the light of an iphone to guide our way. All of a sudden it seemed darkness descended in about 5 minutes. And before we knew it,the situation was developing into a plot for a teenage horror movie "Open Jungle". The light on the phone was the one thing saving us, I had Bear grylls thoughts going through my head.....do we have enough water? do we have any food we can scour from the trees if we get lost? Liz was getting very worried and a little freaked as each time you went into a new plateau of the jungle the light made the shadows jump and you could hear all sorts sifting in the darkness.
 |
| The beautiful beaches of Tayrona National Park |
It was also crab season there which meant all the little and big buggers were in from the ocean and were scurrying all around us and as you moved through each place they would all retreat into their holes. Also all the nice information placards had informed us on the way in of pumas and jaguars operating in the area at night! I just kept saying "keep walking and keeping watching where your foot is going" I knew the way back pretty well in the light but I was thinking how the hell will we get back in the dark.
 |
| Getting late on the beach at Tayrona! |
Once we saw the first light of one campsite I knew the other one wasn't far. It was bit of a hell raiser of a return and when we got back to the camp, with the humidity at about 50% water in the air, my skin was like a sealion's fresh out of water. The one thought we kept sayin was imagine how great that beer will taste when we get back. And sure enough we toasted the Colombian beer pretty high that night!
 |
| Liz making friends in San Gil |
 |
| Abseiling down the Juan Curci Waterfalls |
 |
| Don´t look down! |
After that bit of an adventure we moved further south and onto a city called San Gil. Its pretty much the adventure capital of Colombia, think queenstown except cheaper. We abseiled down an 80m waterfall which was great craic if a little mental. When we got up to the edge you are looking down and Liz was like "we were nicely chilled in our hostel only two hours ago...what the hell are we doing here", I had similar sentiments as the drop looked massive. But once you started rapelling down it was a great buzz. There's loads of other stuff to do here but deciding on spreading out some of the activities on the trip is key to keeping the interest levels up.
Ecuador
When we arrived down here on the 10th June in the airport we were told our flights had gone missing so they rescheduled our flight the next day and put us up in a snazey hotel for the night. It was just what the doctor ordered! Some proper 5* treatment. I ate the local restaurant out of it......had desert with every meal. We fairly devoured the place and the staff probably saw it coming with us strollin around lookin like a pair of proper backpackers!
Galapagos
What can I say...,.its really a once in a lifetime opportunity type place. Most of the people you meet who go there are on the cruise package. Basically alot of the tourism going there is packaged up to the nines with the cruises that cost an absolute fortune especially if you book through domestic western booking agents. "Keep them on the boat and keep them paying"-type attitude permeates. Some of people/backpackers we met after it talked about the enjoyment through clenched teeth after shelling out a fortune.
 |
| These lads have the run of the islands |
 |
| This guy was about 70 and showed every year of it by not moving an inch |
 |
| The Galapagos Crab |
 |
| The amazing Kicker´s Rock |
 |
| Marine Iguana |
 |
| Hold on, I can chill here too! |
 |
| yep and I jumped a seal while I was here |
 |
| After this photo was taken, Liz spent along time thinking of how to kidnap this baby seal. |
 |
| Looking at some of the great conservation work going on |
We stayed on one of the islands, San Cristobal in a pretty nice hostel called Casa Mabel and did a few tours on the islands through the local agents which saved us a fortune. We then shot over to another island Santa Cruz which had a magical beach and a lizard reserve. We saw everything we wanted to see; giant tortoises, marine iguanas, blue footed boobies, Galapogas crabs and a particular highlight was doing a two tank dive around a place called kickers rock. The spot was loaded with fish life and you when you dropped down you could see hammerhead sharks in abundance. It was bit of a magical dive; sea lions, sea turtles, manta rays and hammerheads all in one dive!
 |
| Thumbs up for a great dive at Kickers Rock |
The rest of the days we would head down to the beach and go snorkeling. As you swim around, the sea lions are really playful and come right up to you. Its a bit mental that this is the norm after a couple of days on the islands. We went on a tour to a tortoise reserve one of the other days and they are doing magic work on the conservation side there. Real far reaching stuff and its great to see the Ecuadorian government taking an active interest in preserving what's happening here. They hope to be self sufficient energy wise in a number of years to avoid an oil spill off the coast of an island with oil being transported from the mainland. this is a great project and standing at 60% self sufficiency they are well en route to marking a huge environmental milestone. More than can be said for the Amazon!
They also have a Galapagos University on the island. I was a bit trivial about the idea of a university serving a couple of thousand people on the island but when you think about the wild life on the island....anyone that comes through the system here grows either up or into one of the most unique wildlife spots on earth. A big eye opener for me was upon arriving on the island the main thing I thought about the Galapagos was of Darwin and his theories of evolution with the lizards evolving into marine iguanas and turtles evolving into tortoises.
 |
| Heroes in a half shell, Tortoise Power! |
But the thing about the islands that makes the Galapagos magical is the sea currents. It is blessed by its geo location to be right on the converge of a certain amount of plates that result in currents converging right on it and it being a volcanic piece of rock right in the middle of the ocean......giving it this amazing amount of diverse wildlife. So you can see; lizards, penguins, giant tortoises, flamingos all within an arse's roar of each other. Before I go anymore David Attenborough on ya's, all I'll say its a fantastic spot and you really have to see it all to believe it.
Life in Quito
We arrived back into Quito without any onward flight pressure or schedule so we took this time to relax in Quito and study spanish for three weeks. We had a bit of time to do the research on the best deal of a school and a good place to stay which was great. So we pretty much settled into life in Quito for a month. This was just what was needed. As on the road as ya can imagine you get tired of seeing new stuff...a new country..a new national park....a new beach....it all starts to meld together. But a capital city for a month was just the medicine. A bit of routine was appreciated aswell. Quito itself is right on the equator so it gets great weather during the day but the temperature drops down at night coz it´s the second highest capital city in the world and is about 3000m above sea level. The old part of the city where we based ourselves was pretty nice.
 |
| Quito |
We settled on Quito Antiguo school..which was a great holistic Spanish experience. Liz's teacher was bit lacking on the English so she went into "the sink or swim" overdrive of Spanish learning and my teacher was pretty good at both and a gas lad; Alex.
One of the weekends he invited myself and Liz to his house for dinner....where we washed crabs before stewing them up......and his girlfriend, Mariasol put on a massive spread. We enjoyed a kick around with her son and neices and nephews and then headed to a local festival in his town that celebrates the beginning of the harvest. It was great craic. Local lads battle each other to climb up a pole and claim a prize....one of which was some bed clothes. It was Father Ted type "the fair" stuff and all washed down with some local moonshine made of fermented maize. A real memorable local experience.
 |
| Washing crabs |
 |
| The stew is all set |
 |
| Buen Provecho! |
 |
| Liz on potential kidnap patrol again |
 |
| The local festival with lads climbing up poles |
The school offered some typical local cultural experience like learning how to cook Ecuadorian style so needless to say yours truely is well versed on moulding empanadas. One of the days we ended up cooking a proper Irish/English/Scottish stew with a few of the other students we were friends with for the school. It was like an episode of Dinner Impossible with all shoulders to the wheel to cook for the school. Afterwards everyone was loving the bit of mash and stew. And it felt bloody good to taste a bit of home after five months on the road. We did a bit of salsa and played soccer some of the other nights which was good craic.
 |
| Cooking up an epic Irish/Scottish/English stew |
 |
| Empanada kingpin |
 |
| Enjoying Empanadas |
All the talk was of
Snowden when we there aswell. Its interesting to hear the Ecuadorian take on the situation. They are
being led by a very strong President at at the moment.....Rafael Correa. Not
your typical South American mad yoke. He's an economist and has an American ivy
league college education. But he is left leaning and holds some anti-Us views.
He also loves to piss them off.
 |
| "Asylum for Snowden" |
But the whole
Snowden thing was big news here, Ecuador were one of the countries offering him asylum
and thus marking its card as a bogey state in the US's eyes. Correa has a
fervent support base and one that Alex was telling me is tricked to a certain
amount by his strength of owning some big media outlets here. But the fact that
he's ballsy enough to take on the US and seems to be handling the country's
economy pretty well has given him big kudos from this direction. The quality of
the infrastructure here is great and with the oil money in the east, Ecuador is looking up and up. Now
the oil money comes from a posioned chalice to a certain extent with the amount
of damage its caused to the amazon. Anyways its all very interesting and
further opening the mind up to all sorts of political back drops.
To call it, all
in....living in a city like Quito was pretty magical. Learning and speaking
Spanish from 9-1 each day and then heading out into the city and discovering
all sorts of stuff going on was class and I reckon when the dust settles on
this trip and I'm gettin on with the 9-5 I'll look back pretty fondly of living
in a place like Quito for a month.
 |
Our
final day in school with Alex, Heidi(student),
Freddie (School Head) and
another teacher Cristian
Myself and a few
of the lads from the school went to a local match one of the days, it was a
Quito derby between Liga de Quito who actually won the Copa Libertadores a
couple of years ago against another Quito club..El National. The match was a
fairly dour affair and the quality of the football wasn't great but the
fighting in the stands across from us was very entertaining. Myself, a swiss
lad and another american lad who before hand were going to head to the terrace
for the cheap tickets but opted for the expensive tickets to be as close to the
action as possible. And halfway through the second half we were well glad of
it. A few Baton charges and all the rest. Classic South American football
fanaticism. The jumpin and singin never stopped right the way thru the game.
Hopefully will do a few more football matches further south.
The Amazon - "The Lungs of
the Earth"
As our classes in
Quito came to an end it was time to move on. We had been planning a trip to the
Amazon at some stage and it being a 10 hr bus trip from Quito made it fairly
accessible for us to ditch some luggage in Quito and head out to the "Oriente"
or as the locals call it...."the lungs of the Earth". We did a 5 day
trip to and stayed at Guacamayo Ecolodge in Cuyabeno national reserve and this
was a definite trip highlight. We stayed in a hut which is set right in the
jungle. The first night we arrived, our guide told us to remove all food from
your bags or expect visitors in our huts at night. So we had left some bananas
in a bag we had brought and I legged it up to the hut to throw the bag out,
there were about 5 cockroaches on it. I spared Liz the details and after going
on a killing spree, discovering a tarantula in the bar on someone's jumper and
seein a number of water snakes heading back to our hut that night, you quickly
realise your right in the mix of the amazon. even an industrial sized mosquito
net draped over our bed was a timely reminder that we had now entered the
jungle food chain I'd probably be prey for some mossies later....but all part
of the course of the adventure!
|
 |
| Tarantula
at the bar! |
That first evening
we went for a swim in one of the Amazonian tributaries, there was a big lagoon
there and we had just arrived from that massive trip, the sun was goin down and
there we were doing cartwheels off a boat into the amazon. Classic trip moment.
Our guide, Hairo then brought us 20 ft from where we were swimmin into the
reeds and started makin some crocodile Dundee sounds and next thing this almost
robotic cayman appears out of the water. This thing was about 18ft long. An
absolute monster. And I'm just thinkin to myself he could flip this boat in a
second and we are all brown bread. But thankfully he just sat on the edge of
the water lookin like a big menacing hulk. We skidaddled outta there after that
and the whole boat were in awe of (a) our guide and his mick hogan tendencies
(b) how close we were swimming to cayman (c) how close we were to that 18ft
monster. to be fair to our guide he said as long as your swimming in the middle
of the lagoon your "fine"...slightly unnervingly reassuring!
 |
| Finishing
another evening in the Lagoon |
 |
| Robocayman |
The rest of the
next few days we were zipping around on the Amazonian canoe spotting all sorts
of wildlife from the boat. We were pretty lucky with the abundance of stuff we
saw; anacondas, loads of exotic spiders, monkeys everywhere, fresh water
dolphins and water snakes. The group we were with were all sound bar two
frenchies who were a bit...well, French. We had actually a great group; Mick
and Laura who were both from Sheffield, two Dutch lads and then a whole
Dutch/Lebanese family. Chris, his girlfriend and Roben and their mother. We
also visited a local indigenous village which Liz was lovin on the ole
anthropological side of things. I actually found out she's a natural born
killer with a poisonous dart shooter...she hit the target with her first go!
 |
| Chris
having a go at using rolled up ants as insect repellent |
 |
| The
ruby dart frog; the most poisonous frog in the world |
 |
| Don´t
get stuck in the mud! |
 |
| Our
lodgins |
 |
| Anaconda |
 |
| Just another day on the Amazon |
 |
| Laura
getting her marks after losing a game of Asshole |
On the way here
Hairo took us off up another tributary than the other boats. We stopped to look
at what looked like two termite nests which I thought was no great shakes as
you see termite nests on a daily basis hanging off Amazonian trees. However he
started to explain that one of the nests was actually a beehive and that the
bees had a symbiotic relationship with the termites; the mites would clean the
bee hive and the bees would provide protection for both nests. This
relationship was a current study that was featuring in Nature journals and
papers. What followed next was probably one of the most amazing things that I
saw in the Jungle over the course of the few days. Hairo said that the bees
will protect both hives in a new an innovative way rather than coming out and
stinging and getting killed. He asked us to shout "March" on three in
the direction of the bees. He began the countdown a few times and stopped to build
a bit of tension. Then we gave it our all..."1,2,
3...MARCH!"......next thing the whole hive starts to vibrate and make this
Marching sound. Thumb Thumb Thumb! The sound was so loud and kind of
unbelievable. I thought to myself as we shot on this is definitely going to
feature in a David Attenborough programme in the next few years.
 |
| The match |
|
|
When we arrived in the local indigenous camp we
found out that today they were celebrating the anniversary of the opening of
the Cuyabeno national reserve. Just our luck would have it this was a big event
and they had a number of activities lines up for tourists versus the locals.
The first was a football match. Hairo had explained that the locals would be
playing barefoot and wouldn´t be too competitive, as we arrived out onto the
pitch we realised all them had a kit and some had boots and all. This was not
going to be a kick around. The group was a right cocktail of united nations
with lads from; Portugal, Israel, Holland, Germany, India and England.... I
felt like a right extra out of "Escape to Victory".
 |
| Liz and Laura enjoying post match refreshments |
|
| We kicked off, and the local lads started to kill
us down the flanks. I threw myself up front and grabbed a goal to level up an
early goal we had conceded. But as the game wore on, we started to bake in the
amazonian sun and the locals got another two goals. The lads
finished up beating us 3-1 but we had a bit of craic and for the win they got a
case of cool beers which no doubting they enjoyed. As I gathered my breath in the stand, I sat back and watched Liz play in
her first soccer and to be fair she got stuck in. The ladies followed the lads
with a 2-0 defeat. Aftwerwards we enjoyed some refreshments and the local
Amazonian delicacy; Jungle worms which were surprisingly sweet and tasty! |
 |
| Tasty worms! |
|
Afterwards we chilled and had a barbecue, I had another kick
around with the local lads. It was all a
bit surreal, here we were playing soccer with a group of indigenous amazonian
indians by the banks of the amazon. There had been a rumour going
round that there would be a swim race across the river against a few of the
locals including guides and local police. Later on Hairo came looking for a bit
of representation from Guacamayo Lodge and feeling like I had another bit of
fuel in the tank I volunteered to do the race. We all hopped into the river and
the aim was to make it over to a boat on the other side to claim a set of
flowers and bring them back. The sound went and I got off to a belter, as
I hit halfway across the river the current started to drag me away from the
boat. By the time I got to the other side my whole body was burning and I was
not looking forward to the return. A big Dutch lad lead the charge on the
return, I found out later he was ex-special forces and he was eating every bit
of brown amazonian water in front of him.
 |
| The Swim Race |
|
| Liz was cheering me on from the banks and as she was standing there she
noticed a local auld lad with half his leg missing, she turned to our guide and
asked him what had happened. He said that the guy was out fishing on his boat
when a cayman knocked him out and had his leg for breakfast, his wife was in
the boat with him and she gave the cayman a good leathering and managed to
force it away and let her husband escape: a serious piece of spousal duty! As
Liz looked out onto the race she started to wonder whether some of us would
came back with less than our brusied European pride. |
The amazon is
interesting in so far as coming from the Galapagos you had all the wildlife
right in front of you where as in the amazon you have to go looking for it.
Thankfully we did have Hairo our guide who was a legend. He was a local lad who
used to wrestle anacondas for fun growing up. He was tellin me there's a
YouTube video of him takin down a 4m lad. Needless to say...serious operator
with the shnakes!
 |
| Hairo, our guide....don´t get between this guy and a snake |
|
After this we all sat down to listen to a local shaman offer up an
indigenous blessing and a group of local children perform a native dance for
us. This was a perfect end to what was a quality day. As we all boarded the
boat we noticed Hairo had enjoyed the celebrations plenty aswell with him
looking half rubbered. The plan for later was to go for another swim in the
lagoon and to see if we could see more freshwater dolphins although Hairo said
he´d probably be seeing double. We chilled that night in the main hut and
finished out the evening having a sing song with the masterful musicians of
Chris and Robin on their guitar and tamborine.
|
 |
| Our group bid farewell to Cuyabeno Reserve after a fantastic 5 days |
|
After the jungle we
headed further south and stopped off in the adventure town of Ecuador called Banos. It's famous for their baths and
hikes and white water rafting. We signed up for the white water rafting one of
the first days we arrived and it was an unbelievable buzz. Myself and a big Aussie
lad were told to sit in the front to balance out the instructor in the back. I
don´t know if some of ya's have done it before but if ya get a chance to choose
where to sit, make sure to sit in the front! The pair of us pretty much saw all
the action although I was hearing plenty of "pip-squeaks" from Liz
behind me, the pair of us in the front kept gettin nailed by water at the
front. There were several "oh shiiiiiiiiiiiite" moments. And it was
only category 3/4 so hopefully we'll get a shot of category 5 in Peru coz it
was a deadly thrill! It was about two hrs downstream and took in some beautiful
sights. The surrounding area in banos was lush. It's like a Wicklow with more
spectacular mountains.
|
 |
| Ready to go downstream! |
 |
Its getting choppy!
|
|
|
| We also met up with Dan Arozarena and Elaine
Murphy...a couple we had met in Guatemala doin Spanish there and who I knew
thru a friend from home and had a great session in Banos. Its great to meet
familiar faces on the road and after not meeting up in about 4 months we
toasted the renion that night. They are on our schedule now so we've been
bumping into each other on a few different spots south since. Gonna try and
co-ordinate a big one for the gaa semis in Cuzco towards the end of the month! |
Banos is has beautiful surroundings and the city
kind of lies in a bowl in a valley. Nearly every town in South America has a
statue of the Virgen Mary. Its almost a given in each of these spots. In Banos
it was overlooking the town and after seeing the one in Quito we said we´d keep
up our Vigen run and pay her a visit in Banos. The hike up here was beautiful
with spectacular views of the valley.
 |
| At the Virgin de Banos |
 |
| Banos |
|
We went to another little
culture town further south of Banos called Cuenca, was a grand stop off but we
fairly belted it into Peru as it was time to unfortunately wave goodbye
to Ecuador.
Peru -
The Land of Civilisations
Peru has been completely
different so far. The landscape just dramatically changed as we crossed the
border. It is all desert here which couldn't be further from the lush
countryside we enjoyed before. They have ridiculously sized sand dunes and I
was told you can do sand dune boarding here....after doing volcano
boarding...surely have got to do sand dune boarding!
Again it has the Andes in the
middle of the country but its the first time for us to see desert. The weather
has actually got hotter as we came down from the highlands aswell so we might
get our last stint out of beach town in the next few days before heading further south.
After goin on a day trip to a set of pyramids (The Pyramids of Lambeyeque) I've
been kind of struck by the fact if you thought you'd discover different species
of animals by scratching at the surface of the earth in Ecuador you
could be sure of discovering a whole civilisation here......A looter was
stopped goin out of an airport in Peru and customs found some ancient gold
jewels in his luggage where they traced it back to a village and then to a pyramid
which had previously been thought to be a mountain! Thus uncovering the Moche
civilisation! This all went down in 1986! Absolute mad stuff. I know this is
fresh info off the press so I'm lovin it but the thing about it is there's a
number of these civilisations around here who were well before the Incas.
Anyways I'll leave some of the intrigue in the can for the next while or else
I'll be searching for El Dorado myself!
Our first stop here was a little speedbump of a
town that lies just inside the border of Peru called Piura. Here we picked up a
transfer to Chiclayo. The main reason to stop here was to catch the Dublin
versus Cork game in the All Ireland Semis. Patronage to the county has its
duties! Thankfully the Dubs did the business and dispatched the Rebels fairly
handy in the end. Another reason to stop here was to visit the museum in
Lambeyeque that was recommended to us by a fellow traveller. The museum houses
the excavated tomb of the Lord of Sipan. Here we signed up a very good English
speaking guide who made what would have been walkthrough town into a very
interesting experience. The Lord of Sipan ranks as the South American
equivalent to the discovery of the ancient Egyptian pharoh of Tutankamun. The
discovery of his tomb effectively rewrote Peruvian history to include a whole
civilisation, The Moche. This made me think that history can really be
written any time!
Surf´s up in Huanchaco
Next stop on our route south was in a small town
just outside of Trujillo that sits right on the Peruvian coast called
Huanchaco. It´s bit of a surfer´s paradise. Our friends Dan and Elaine had
arrived ahead of us here and gave us a great heads up on a hostel here called
My Friend hostel. This place really made our stay here as soon as we arrived
the main man here, Randel invited us to a barbecue and then to some 5-a-side
soccer with local lads after. We enjoyed a barbecue on the beach and got
introduced to Randel´s expectant girlfriend. As Liz and herself began to talk
about her pregnancy I was delighted to get the invite for some football.
Randell gave myself and a few other lads from the hostel (An Aussie and a
Chilean) a ride out of town to the pitches. Here the football schedule took on
a similar form to the Ecuadorian experience. We arrived at 9.40 and you
pretty much play till with your team till there´s an outright winner. As it was
reaching 11.30 I asked Randell when does it usually finish up and he said it is
known to go to 1/2am sometimes depending on whether a winner has been decided.
At 11.40 we finished up and I was glad to call it a night. It was great to
enjoy a kick around but to have lads playing till 2am would have been a bit
mad!
 |
| Everybody´s going surfin´ |
|
With the hostel laying on everything necessary for
a day of surfing, ourselves and Elaine and Dan signed up for a lesson the
following day. We hit the boards the next day and had great fun on the waves.
Our teacher, Lorenzo came with us along with his daughter. I asked her was she
any good and she assured me she had won that year´s U14 championship but said
her dad was the business. And sure enough the next day the three of us went out
and Lorenzo tamed everything before him.
|
Just
hearing the water coming and then getting the shove on your board as you try
and jump up on it and then water propels you along is such a rush and I can
easily see why people get addicted to this. Lorenzo gave us ample opportunity
to catch plenty of waves and we all caught a few which was great craic.
Liz perfected her knee stand on the board and Elaine had
the most spectacular wipe out of the day!
 |
| Wiiiiiiiipeout |
 |
The Knee-Stand
|
|
We spent the guts of the day on the boards and had
possibly the biggest burgers imaginable afterwards as My Friend hostel really
catered for the wave enduced titanic hunger. Huanchaco is famed for its 3km
long wave and I reckon we all rode that wave pretty well!
Also around the area here is the Chan Chan ruins
that lie between Huanchaco and Trujillo. This is a massive complex of adobe
ruins of the Chimu civilisation. Being in the area and having a spare day we
felt a duty to give this place a visit. Along the road you pass it and it looks
like a pile of dried mud.....you would never imagine that this place is home to a
UNESCO World Heritage site. The complex is vast and it feels like you are
walking through a desert. They are still excavating ruins here (as in most
places in Peru) and after visiting the main ruins we went on to visit the
museum which is part of the tour. This was definitely, how should I put it, a
Peruvian lowlight!
Treking in the Cordillera Blancas - Huaraz
Peru as I
said is home to the most varied landscape imaginable and after coming from the
desert in the north and the coastal town of Huanchaco we went right up into the
heart of the Andes into the Cordillera Blancas. These are the second highest
mountain range in the world and as you come into the town, it is overshadowed
by these beautiful white snowcapped mountains. The big gig here is the treking
so we signed ourselves up for the most popular day trek of Laguna 69. The
treking is amazing here and we could have easily done a longer Santa Cruz trek
but with Peru, time is of the essence as their are so many things to do. The
altitude here was 3,030 metres and we could feel it the first day we arrived
especially after coming from sea level. We were both fairly groggy after an
overnight bus but the altitude was definitely a drain and we hoped we would be
fit for the trek the following morning.
 |
| Beginning our trek through the Cordillera Blanca |
|
The next
day we hit off at 5am. A four hour bus drive took us up into the mountains. As
we entered the Huascaran national park we stopped off at one of the glacial
lakes that had an absolute magical blue. The trek itself was a good challenge of three hours mostly uphill.
The carrot was reaching the lake 69. During the trek you go through what I can
only describe as three completely different landscapes; rugged countryside to a
lunar landing site to almost like Everest base camp. Its absolutely amazing
stuff and a reminder how different Peru is to my own country that´s highest
mountain stands at over 1,000 metres.
 |
| A temporary stop to progress |
|
This
mountain range was where the two English mountain climbers got into trouble in
the documentary "Touching the Void" and as we rounded one of the
final corners to the lake we were handed a stark reminder of the perils of this
terrain. A group of mountain rescue climbers were wheeling down a one-wheeled
barrow carrying a body bag. I asked our guide what had happened and he said
that an Argentinian guide who was climbing further up the mountain in the snow
had got caught in a landscape a few weeks back and mountain rescue had just
recovered his body in the past few days. It left me with a fairly hollow
feeling and as we reached the lake, I could hear the noise and crack of
avalanches going off all round the valley.
 |
| Standing beside Laguna 69 |
|
We
settled down for lunch at the lake and I really wasn´t planning for staying too
long. It was absolutely freezing and began to snow when we were there. It had
taken about 3 hours to get up and the altitude hadn´t hit us as hard as I would
have imagined after only one day of acclimitisation. We definitely did stop a
few times to gather our breath but with the snow starting to fall I was
determined to make it a fast return to the bus. We got down in an hour and a
half and when we settled back onto the bus I was pretty happy with our day´s
work. That night I arrived back into our hostel and fell into bed. My mind was
quickly turning to getting back to sea level and to a more forgiving landscape: Lima.
Travel Grumbles
Peru is no doubt a massive country, it's apparently
3 times the size of the UK and I calculated recently that we've spent 93 hours on a
bus this month including 4 night buses. For me the night buses turn into a rare
and unedifying experiences. You drift in and out of consciousness and can hear,
smell, breath 42 people's nocturnal norms in close quarters. At the very end of
the experience you come out feeling like you have travelled through the night
like badly packed box of vegetables.
We did get a luxury bus for the last night trip
which was pretty sweet coz the usual night buses don't exactly cater for the
6ft 3 inches lad! This one was like a plane with ample space and ya were able
to chose between some good movies and watch it on ur personal tele. I watched
"Killing them Softly", bit of a slow burner and a little gritty but
not bad, it was only an hr and a half, Liz was watching "Skyfall" and
by the time she had finished I was fast asleep.
On
another night bus from Huanchaco to Huaraz we were on, which needless to say
was as woundy as they come. In the middle of the night a local woman sitting
just opposite Liz started to look very pale in the face, stood up in the middle
of the isle and emptied her stomach. The strangest thing was there was minimum
fuss. Poor Liz got landed with a splash of the Peruvian dinner on her sleeping
bag and sleep was pretty much cancelled after that and preferably replaced with
the head out the window!
There's a lot to see in Peru. We only made about
five stops in Ecuador whereas in Peru we're making nine! Each of them
stops...you have something quite big to see/do; Machu Picchu, Nazca lines, trek
the Cordillera Blanca. So I think we've only managed one night out during the
whole month because you´re so jacked from the activities, ya even notice you don't get
to know a lot of people when ur kind of rushin in and out of a spot or you
couldn't be bothered sittin up tellin some Italian about what the contents of
an Irish stew are!
But I mean what the
hell am I complaining about...I am seeing the world in a massive scale and I am
doin some unreal stuff.
Lima
After
another overnight we arrived into Lima badly in need of rn´r and we settled in
midtown. Liz came down with altitude sickness for two days and I wasn´t much
better myself. I did manage to get out and about the second day. Lima is
massive with some very impressive grand plazas and huge squares. The highlight
of the visit was going to La Choza Nautica restaurant for some beautiful Ceviche. The
Peruvians are suppose to produce the nicest Ceviche and here it didn´t
disappoint.
 |
| Peruvian Ceviche |
|
| We had got fairly fed up of the local
delight - "chicken/egg fried rice". The locals love their Chinese
food or "Chefa" and chinese staples have made a big imprint on some
of the local Peruvian favourites which was especially noticeable in Huaraz. It was high
time to enjoy some western food and with our stomachs in better order after a
few days we got well taken care of in Lima. |
Sandboarding in Huacachina
With our bus journey meter going through the roof we landed in a small
town outside of Ica called Huacachina. We were badly in need of putting the backpack in the
corner and taking out more than the clothes at the top of the bag. Now I´ve
heard of an oasis in the desert but this place was exactly that. We arrived in
late in the evening and didn´t really get a measure of the place. But as I came
out of our room in our hostel the next morning I was greeted by a massive sand
dune that looked like it was about to fall in on top of us.
 |
| Huacachina "the Oasis of Southern Peru" |
|
The hostel we set up in was Carola del Sur and it was top quality. They
had a pool here so needless to say Liz went on the sun worshipping buzz. We
also signed ourselves up for a massive barbecue that night and met David, a big
burly lad from Carlow and a gang of women from the Midlands. We had a great
night that night and exchanged many stories of the road. David definitely had a
bus story to top ours but it did happen in Bolivia which didn´t ignite my
enthusiasm for Bolivian travel. There were all sorts of domesticated animals in
our hostel: rabbits, turtles, sheep and a monster St. Bernard that littered the
area. You could conceivably bump into any 4 of them at the bar in the hostel.
Liz did take a particular shine to the sheep..
|
 |
| I will let you go.....soon |
|
The big kick in Huacachina is the sand boarding, and we duly signed up
the following day. There was a group going in the morning but the sun down
shots in the evening were suppose to be bit of a draw. We were picked up by a
sand dune buggy from our hostel and a right ole crew of people hopped in. The
landscape was amazing here as you can literally see desert for miles. It is as
if you are right in the heart of the Sahara instead of Peru. As we reached the
first dune we all hopped out and grabbed a board. First up were the seasoned
snow boarding Swiss. They meandered down with plenty of grace. I gave it
a shot with varied success and for the rest of the dunes I got down on my front and
with a lot more speed flew down them.
|
 |
Our ride around the desert
|
|
|
From
coming from volcano boarding we were now boarding down dunes and the wipeouts
looked alot more forgiving. We went down several dunes and had great
craic. On the way back our driver gave us a mighty rally around the dunes which
was well appreciated although I think an elderly lady in the back thought she
was gonna be thrown out. Towards the end the driver stopped at a spot
overlooking the town and explained that Huacachina used to be a holiday hang
out for the Peruvian elite. Now the greatest sound around here was the sand
buggies growling up the dunes carrying loads of backpackers.
 |
| Liz´s first go down the dune |
|
Enjoying the sun in Huacachina and not having any altitude stomach
worries was a relief for both our bodies. We knew that this bit of rest here
would be necessary as our next big stop would be taking on the Ancient Lost City of the Incas at Machu Picchu.
|
The Mysterious Lines of Nazca
Before we hit Cusco we headed for only a few hours down the road further
into the desert to see the famous Nazca Lines. These are a set of lines that
were made from the removal of scorched stones in the desert. These revealed a
series of 300 geoglyphs in the sand and 70 animal/plant figures that span 500
squared kilometres! The thing about the lines is no one really knows how they
got there or what they were suppose to represent. And by the way to all
followers of Indiana Jones..they are not the route to a crystal skull. A German
mathematician, Maria Reiche dedicated her life to studying them here and
concluded that they were an ancient astrologicl calendar but no one can be sure
what they are.
 |
| A view of the "Lizard" |
 |
| The "Mirador" (viewing point) that overlooks the Nazca desert and lines |
|
We jumped off a bus heading out of town and climbed the Mirador to see
the lines from here. There were options to rent a flight and get a better view
on the fly over but with time not on our side, we went straight to the Mirador.
There was also a few reports of the flight being a little uneasy on the stomach
and by God we had enough of that at this stage. As we arrived it was just
reaching dusk and to make out the Lizard was a bit sketchy.
Cusco, Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley
We grabbed another overnight bus to get from Nazca to Cusco. It was a 15 hour journey and it certainly wasn't helped by two of the smelliest women I have ever met sitting in front of us. If there was a hose at one of the stops on our way I would have put it on them. After travelling a while you recognise some people who generally keep themselves as clean or as close to they are in their normal lives. Then there are the others who completely let themselves go. These two women were the later.
 |
| On the road again! |
Cusco is by far the nicest cities in Peru. Lima has its moments with its big squares and plazas but Cusco is buzzing as a little cultural mecca. Everyone is there to get a taste of Machu Picchu and you can get the sense of anticipation around the place. We set about organising our Machu Picchu Inca trek and booked with Lorenzo Expeditions. We then enjoyed a quality lunch in Los Perros and spent the rest of the day walking around the square. You can really get the impression Cusco is a timeless spot and that the city had been a very important place in Incan times.
 |
| The main square and cathedral at Cusco |
|
|
 |
| Some hairy and not so hairy locals |
The next day we were off to an early start for our first of four days on the Inca Jungle Trek. We got picked up from the square and convened in Lorenzo's house for a hearty breakfast. After this our two guides introduced themselves; Juan Carlos and Oscar and I could tell straight away these lads were goin to be good. We all did our introductions to the group. We had two Spanish couples who would later be more commonly known as "the conquistadores", a Polish couple, two young gap year students from the UK; Harriet and Eve and a German and a US lad who had been working together; Christian and Joe. All in, they were a good lot. Our first activity for the day was a 55km downhill cycle.
 |
| Our group ready to head down after reaching above 4,000m |
 |
| Ready for a whole lottra downhill |
 |
| On one of the stops overlooking the Sacred Valley |
The bus brought us up to our drop off point of an altitude of 4,350, from here it would be a very non strenuous downhill cycle. At this height we were surrounded by snow capped mountains and were well padded up but as we descended the layers came off until we finally hit 1,430metres. The sights along this route were amazing and cycling on good roads with not much traffic afforded us the time to have a good look around. We did have a fairly hyper active member of the group on the bike, as the polish lad seemed to want to make a name for himself amongst the Tony Hawks of this world. There was a small bit of flat at the end of the slope and it got fairly hot down on the flat land. It was funny as everyone started to work pretty hard in the heat to deal with the first bit of flat on our descent. After lunch we got dropped off at our lodgings and we only had an hour downtime before we had to get back out to go white water rafting....I know its a tough life!
The white water rafting was fairly calm and wasn't as exciting as Banos. But we still enjoyed it, the best part of it was when our guide told us we could hop in the water where there wouldn't be rocks. Everyone jumped out and assumed the "overboard" position and we all bobbed downstream hanging onto the rope off the side of the boat. The water was pretty cold and our guide eventually pulled us all in at which point we raised our blue oars and hollered our call "Up the Blues!" At the end of the day we were treated to a fine 4 course meal that featured a local Peruvian favourite; Lomo Saltado which is like a beef stir fry except with Llama meat. The meals right the way through the trip were top drawer and the only thing extra we needed to carry was a good supply of water. After a very active first day I hit the bed like a sack of spuds that night.
 |
| Travelling Peruvian style |
|
|
Next day we were up and on the march at seven, what was in front of us was a good 23km hike through the Sacred valley and we would eventually end up converging onto the ancient Inca trail. I was pretty happy to get onto the Inca trail as I had been told about some of the spectacular sights. After getting a lift in a hiace van that looked like it had been interior decorated "Peruvian style", we were brought to a point that would begin our hike off road.
 |
| In the coca field |
The first stop here was in a coca (main constituent of cocaine) field, Juan Carlos was reliably informative as we all took spots to hear about the Peruvian coca production. The coca fields littered the valley around here but their purpose was to serve the local people's appetite for coca leaves. Juan Carlos explained that with the outbreak of cocaine use as a recreational drug in the US, the US government pressured the UN to ban its production. The UN went on to introduce a subvention in the 60's that basically prohibited the growing of the coca leaves and effectively wanting to eradicate it being chewed within 25years! This was ridiculous. And completely out of touch with reality in South America. Local Andean people had been chewing on coca leaves for thousands of years. It was a holy leaf in their religion and ancestry. It is as synonymous with Andean culture as eating rice is in China.
The atitude in the South was very well summed up by Avo Morales (Bolivian President who I will get to later), to paraphrase the man; "cocaine isn't our problem, it is the filthy cocaine sniffing gringos problem!".
There are a number of countries south of the border where the growing of coca leaves is illegal. the Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) have outlawed it in Colombia and it is actually only legal in a few countries: Bolivia, Peru, Northern Chile and Argentina and presumably Venezuela too. The field we were currently in was a field for growing leaves that would be dried and sold in the local market to farmers. The apparent effect of chewing the coca leaves is that it gives a heightened level of stimulation but nothing close to the effects of cocaine. It's also a hunger suppressant and rich source of calcium and chewing leaves or drinking coca tea (mate de coca) help altitude acclimatisation. Needless to say myself an Liz had plenty of coca tea and I chewed the leaves a good few times especially on this trek. Here we pretty much got directions for use from Juan Carlos.
 |
| one of the pets stealing one of the group´s bananas |
The coca leaves tend to be everywhere, I had noticed in Ecuador that the local auld lads would be walking around with what looked like a giant gobstoppers but these were indeed rolled up balls of coca leaves protruding through their cheeks.We all grabbed some leaves and sure enough there was a very distinct alkaline taste but no one flew off the handle!
At this stage we had only made a small dent in our progress and the morning seemed to be moving on. Thankfully Juan Carlos (JC) picked up the pace and we headed for a little finca "farm" further up the mountain we were sat down and were informed about the local foods and delicacies. We all gathered around a table and in front of us was a selection of Andean food stuffs. Here JC went into more detail about the Andean diet. In front of us was three types of jungle potatoes; Chuca, yuca and oca. As he mentioned them I was sure I had tasted at least two of them before. Peru is the 17th best producer of potato in the world. Suddenly I started to wonder whether some of the spuds in front of me were gonna end up in the pot back home on our family table in Ireland.
 |
| fancy dress Andean style |
 |
| Giving the local digery doo a shot! |
 |
| Wild Guinea Pig anyone? |
We also got shown some of the 12 different types of corn that exist around the valley. One thing we had plenty of on our travels was corn! There was also the purple corn that was used in making a fermented moonshine drink. The little finca was also home to a rather strange looking creature. It looked like badger but turned out to be a wild guinea pig. Guinea pig is an Andean favourite delicacy had at celebration times. I had some in Quito and to be fair it tasted....well logically enough, like pork. But this guy was huge and seemed to be a family favourite pet. Later I learned that it would most likely end up on the family dinner table.
They also had a load of local Andean dresses and wears that we all tried on for the craic. After picking up some supplies we were on the road again and we finally reached the ancient trail of the Incas. One of the most fascinating things I found was that this trail which had been made thousands of years previous had carried a whole empire from one village to the next. At its height it spanned 40,000 Kms, all the way from Quito in Ecuador to Santiago in Chile. It felt pretty special being able to traverse this old way and the views down the valley were immense.
 |
| Learning about the Incas from Juan Carlos |
By the evening we had reached a crossing of the river that was more akin to something from Walton Hill; as two lads either side of the river pulled ropes that was attached to a bucket that everyone got a turn in. Waiting for us the other side was a thermal bath. We were all fairly dying for this at this point especially after the long trek. The baths were gorgeous. We've hit some hairy places advertised as baths on this trip but this was definitely the best. Not too many people, crystal clear water and water that must have been well over 30. The icing on the cake was being able to lie there and enjoy the view looking out over the sacred valley.
The hotel we stayed in that night was pretty sweet and a major bonus was when we woke up to a thunderstorm the next morning our departure was delayed by two hour so I was able to catch up on some preliminary champions league fixtures from the comfort of my room. This, the third day, we were due to do zip lining, myself and Liz opted out of this and instead I ended up locking horns with Juan Carlos over a game of chess, it was nice to play especially after a break of about 5 months. We got straight back on the route after this to the main railway to Aguascalientes, this is the town closest to Mach Picchu which would be our final resting place before attacking the final 1,700 steps to the lost city on the fourth morning.
 |
| Hiking through the Sacred Valley |
 |
| Traversing that bridge |
Walking down the railway was pretty cool and enjoying the sites along here was very enjoyable. There would only be an 11km hike this day and as we approached Aguascalientes JC pointed out that the side of the terracing on Machu Picchu mountain became visible. Everyone's anticipation was building and seeing the mountain as some of the mist cleared heightened everyone's expectation.
 |
| Lollipop Lollipop Shub Shub Lollipop |
Aguascalientes sole existence is based on Machu Picchu so its as touristy and howky a spot as I had seen on this trip. The quality of the restaurant beguiled the setting and one of the hotels was charging $400 a night, this was not Peru.
 |
| Its poncho time! |
 |
| Little kid drinking water at one of our finca stops |
 |
| Enjoying a moment during a stone throwing competition |
 |
| Beautiful scenery on the final 11km |
 |
| On the railway to Aguascalientes with Oscar, Joe and Christian |
We settled in a fairly nice hotel and it was such a relief to finally lay down my bag as I was carrying about 10kgs at this stage. We toasted our final meal together as a "familia" as Juan Carlos called us and it was top drawer grub. Everyone hit the sack very early that night as our start was at 4.30 to get up to the Casa del Guardia (best viewing point in the ruins) for sunrise. Myself and Liz were like a pair of kids getting ready for bed on Christmas Eve as I must have checked my alarm more than twice that night.
 |
| Our final meal with our "familia" |
 |
| The view of the surrounding mountains from Machu Picchu mountain |
We all gathered in reception that morning at 4.30....and as time shifted on there was no sign of the two young UK girls. Liz went upstairs to see what the story was and both had slept out. We hung on despite some of us getting anxious and one of the Spanish ladies called it, "we are a familia". The trek up to the entrance was tough enough we were without our guides and nothing more to lead us but our lead out head torches, the guides had arranged to meet us at the entrance as they needed to pick up their passes for the entrance that morning at an ungodly hour.
 |
| Treking in the dark |
| We started the climb of steps in the dark but as we approached the top the day began to break. Everyone was feeling it on the way up and Liz looked like she wasn't really enjoying it, she was telling me to go on but I really wanted us to complete it together. When we got up to the top we were greeted by Oscar and Juan Carlos. The crowds were already starting to form so we quickly dispatched our tickets and walked into the site. |
Machu Picchu
 |
| Group Shot just inside the site |
And there it was, I had trekked for three days and suffered a deal to make it here. It was only three days but it seemed like a lot more. In fact I was looking forward to this day for conceivably the first time I thought about this trip. And there it was before me, the absolute splendour of it. A civilisation had come here and built a city out of rock...the same rock from where the city now finally lay. It wasn't just an ordinary city either it was a city for a certain amount of Incas, only a couple of hundred. And only a particular class of Inca as if the city itself was a treasure and in it they had to put treasured people. I had seen a whole slew of historical sights on this trip but nothing compared to this. Not even any Mayan ruins could compare to an isolated city on top of a mountain that never hindered or dented any part of the landscape around it. It was caked in cloud as if the city had ghosted in and landed on top of the mountain.
 |
| The ancient site of Machu Picchu |
There was nothing around the other mountains but foliage and rock, the people had chose this particular mountain because of the position of the sun of where it eventually hit and that's what made it so special. Everything had a positon here. It had left an indelible mark on the landscape for hundreds of years and yet still it would remains undiscovered to the world only untill a 100 years ago to the exact year!
 |
| Llama shot |
I stood back and soaked it all up. It was beautiful but not a gentle beauty a very strong forceful beauty.
We started to take photos...and then we couldn't stop taking photos. The only thing that could stop us around here was nature.....and then it started to rain...and it never stopped for the whole day. We had the run of the place for the first hour but we abandoned the tour around the site and only covered the main buildings in the city. At least the heavy rain was giving us a sense of the intelligence of the whole drainage system. But everyone was getting wet and everything was getting wet. Give me cold any day and I'll beat it off with layer over layer but rain...I loathe. Everything always gets wet and even with our raincoats and ponchos, the rain was soaking us to the skin.
 |
| I think I feel a drop of rain! |
We returned to the front entrance and to a coffee stand to take shelter, I started to sense that every single one of the three thousand daily visitors had gotten the same idea. I grabbed a coffee and tea for myself and Liz. Her teeth were chattering and the two girls from the UK were starting to look fairly numb. The rain pelted down solidly from 7-11. We had enjoyed one uninterrupted hour of the site before it had turned into a wash-out. But I was determined this would not stop me from seeing the site. I had specifically booked the late train back to explore the site at will. I had endured plenty an Irish wash out at a summer festival . I could definitely deal with this. I went downstairs threw my wet socks in the bin, rung out my wet top and returned to the stand. I grabbed a cup of tea, at this stage Liz and the two UK girl's lips looked blue and had already decided that the lure of getting on a bus back to the hot showers in the hotel was too much.
 |
| Nearly there |
I said my goodbyes and went back into the ancient city. Just as I walked in, the rain started to ease off and I could finally take off the sticky poncho. I whipped out my camera and started shooting the entire site, I went across to the Inca bridge and the Sun Gate. I had a ticket for further up Machu Picchu mountain but the admittance had finished at 11. The place was still lathered with that atmospheric mist and different coloured ponchos dotted the site like a crowd of teletubbies had just landed. I stayed on and enjoyed the whole place for the next few hours. On the way out I even got my Machu Picchu stamp on my passport, walked down the same 1700 steps and visited the ruins museum.
After I came back, I jumped in the shower and grabbed a bite to eat. The four of us then hopped on the train back to Cusco. As I sat on the train I stared out the windows and took account of the past four days: the craic we had, the people we met and whose company we enjoyed, the activities we did and the amount of new things we had learned. One thing that stuck out in my mind was essentially what it was all about: the Incas. The Incan Empire had come to an end in 1533. It all seemed so recent. The Spanish had essentially ended the last great ancient civilisation of the world and we had now only places like Machu Picchu to marvel at their splendour.
 |
| Getting the shoes dried out |
But this was still all only a couple of hundred years ago....the empire had been wiped out by a mixture of western diseases like yellow fever and modern weaponry. The Spanish had horses, guns and cannon...the Incas: llamas, spears and blow darts.
They had come in only small numbers, but Francisco Pizzaro and his crew of thieves and savages would eventually cause this empire to fall...an empire that stretched 40,000 Kms from Quito to Santiago. The last great Emperor Atahualpa would only see Spanish rule over his people.
An account of the events that followed told that Pizarro had imprisoned Atahualpa.....and looking through the iron bars he sat there bemused at the sight of the Spanish staring in awe at the Incan gold. He didn't understand, the Incas never had currency or monetary value on anything, the gold was used solely for decoration. The Spanish would go on to plunder the Incan gold for generations. As for Atahulapa he lay in the prison languishing in inconsolable sadness for he had just witnessed the end of his Empire and the beginning of the end of his people.
 |
| Wet but not undeterred |
Back in Cusco
We got back to Cusco and met up with Elaine and Dan who were just about to do the same trek. They were glad to hear of our great experience but I wished them better luck with the weather for their final day trip to Machu Picchu. We visited the "highest Irish owned pub" in Cusco, Paddy Flahery's. I would have dismissed that sign on the front as pure paddy whackery but inside we enjoyed a quality shepard´s pie that tased like home. I also had my first pint of Guinness in 6months. And boy did it taste good!
 |
| MAYO....for second place |
We didn't hang around Cusco too long as another major hiking spot was happening further on down the road...Arequipa's famous Colca Canyon. We did however have enough time to lend Elaine our support for her beloved Mayo. To be fair it did seem to do the trick and being a good sport she ordered nearly everyone in the house a round of shots at 10 in the morning.
Arequipa and Colca Canyon
Arequipa is bit of a surprise as its Peru's second biggest city and in and around the main square it is an altogether very nice city. The first night we arrived we sketched out a tour to go the next day to the Colca Canyon. This was a two day trip to the canyon and you got the opportunity to visit Cruz del Condor on the way. Here we were able to see a whole load of condors sail high up over the valley. We booked this tour through our hostel which is sometimes the most convenient option but not always the best one.
 |
| Arequipa |
 |
| Bird of Prey...Flying High |
On this tour we didn't get off to a good start with the bare minimum of a breakfast, and after getting up at 3.30 to meet outside our hostel at 4, the breakfast seemed like an interminable wait. There was a two hour bus drive over the mountains and through snow. When the breakfast arrived it was the standard Bolivian and Peruvian breakfast; bread and jam and tea.... Hardly sustenance to build a long hike on. Thankfully we had been told to bring snacks so a banana and a cereal bar was very much keeping the engine running for the hike we would do later down the valley.
 |
| Colca Canyon |
 |
| The Andean Condor getting close |
After breakfast, we stopped at Cruz del Condor, this is a carefully manicured lookout point where you can see right across the valley and can get a great look at the Andean Condors. It is however extremely exposed to the elements and the wind here was slicing through the lot of us. The tour guide gave everyone around 25mins here and it was plenty with the chillfactor.
I found the Andean Condors to be mightily impressive. They are massive birds of prey that have a wingspan of over 3 metres, they are the biggest bird in the Western Hemisphere and as they soared above the valley they seemed to only gain respect and leave a big impression on everyone gazing up at them. At one stage two of them just flew over head, it was around this time that we could really get an appreciation for the size of these birds. It was good to finally see the bird in close quarters as we had seen him attached to plenty of official symbolism on our South American leg, In fact I think it is a national emblem for most of the countries down the west coast of South America and Argentina. They are a member of the vulture family so they aren't the greatest looking creature. I've heard that said about people too.
 |
| Cabanaconde |
Onwards again and we stopped off in the town of Cabanaconde. This was right in the heart of the back arse of nowhere of South Peru. From here we would trek down the Colca Canyon and settle in a little finca for the night on the Colca river. This trek took us right down into the valley.
The big deal about Colca Canyon is its size, its the second biggest Canyon in the world. It is twice the size/depth of the Grand Canyon. The deepest canyon actually lies only a few miles away from the Colca canyon. As we trekked down we came across a number of farmers on the track carrying supplies on mules or donkeys for the finca at the bottom of the valley. This was the only means of transport up or down. Coming across these guys was bit of a pain in the ass (pardon the pun!) and they generally slowed progress on the decent. Indeed at one stage we had just passed some out and a mule being the dumb animal it is, randomly bolted towards us and only I grabbed Liz she would have been run off the mountain.
The trip down was fairly swift and it must have taken us about two hours all in. On arrival we were given an unpleasant surprise of finding out that the accomodation was fairly primitive, this is where the unrecommended tour company comes into play....no electricity in our cabin, bamboo walls that were very exposed to the wind at night and "showers" that would deter you from washing yourself. There didnt seem to be a whole lot to do either. Strangely enough they did have a direct tv satellite dish. I chilled at the little common area with an American lad and the soundest French lad I've met travelling. We ended up sitting and watching a Madrid derby until the power went after half time. Like many spots in the back arse of South America they will rank tv access to sports or tv novelas higher than basic sanitary facilities. Speaking of South American norms they also had a whole slew of dogs as pets and randomly a little black sheep who was a tourist favourite.
We had a fairly mellow night here and had to be up early again to trek up the mountain before the sun came out as it got very hot here. We kicked off at 5 on our return leg. This was a tough hike as it was solid uphill for 3 hours. Thankfully we had a good few breaks on the way and took in some epic scenery. The canyon did afford us the luxury of being able to see right across to beautiful snowy mountains that was probably home to several Andean condors. It was also pointed out that one of the mountain tops was home to the apparent source of the Amazon river! On our return to the village of Cabanaconde, we settled in another shack and got a choice of fried eggs/scrambled eggs and a cup of hot coffee. We were all thinking where had this 5 star treatment miraculously appeared from!
 |
| Terrace farming in the valley |
We got on the bus that took us on a different route back, the bus stopped off at a look out point on the valley and all around you could see the same terracing farming that had been evident in Machu Picchu, this had been moulded into the mountains over several hundred generations and looked like steps leading up the mountain. The main farming around here was of quinoa. This was savage expensive at home but here it was an Andean staple and featured in everything from soup to burgers to salads. Looking out at the terracing it looked as if all the farmers had abandoned their farms.Our guide assured us that those farmers had left generations ago to work in the most lucrative industry in Peru...the mines. Just like a number of countries on the western coast such as Chile and Bolivia, all are very mineral rich. In a Steinbeck kind of way, extraction always seems to be the problem.
 |
| Getting a photo op with a llama and a falcon |
The last leg of our journey included a stop in the town of Chivay to the most surprising meal of our two days but before that we hit a hot spring and all of us hopped in here. After not having a shower in the 2days I was dying for the hot springs and they were well up to standard.
 |
| The hot springs |
Our stop in Chivay left us absolutely stuffed....for the first time on our trip we had stumbled across a buffet. Everyone's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, to be strategic we got one of those sneaky tables that requires minimal walk for return visits for 2nds, 3rds, etc. We fairly lived it up here and half the time we didn't really know what we were eating as it was all traditional local food. This was quite a fitting end to the two days.....goin out on a high from Colca Canyon. On the way back to Arequipa, my eyes didn't leave the window as the scenery was pretty spectacular, we stopped at a llama and alpaca reserve which seemed to have no end in sight other than the snowy mountains where we had just come from. We were also shown vacunas. These are a breed of animal from the llama family but a little more slender and moved more like a spingbok. These guys´ hide was apparently a whole lot more finer and richer than the alpaca and llama wool but because they were wild, you could be locked up for years if you hit one with a car.
 |
| Beware of Llama |
 |
| Red mountains on the way back to Arequipa |
 |
| Llama Reserve |
After getting back we had a nice spread of days in front of us before getting back up on the saddle, we also checked back into our old hostel Marlon's rooms and because it was not very busy they had the nicest room in the whole place vacant. This was a serious stroke of luck as the last few days had been rough-neck living that had started to grind the pair of us down. Another major bonus for our hostel was it had a huge breakfast available. We duly obliged and met Daniel, a former Green Beret in the US army. The Green Beret is a nickname for the US Special Forces. As soon as myself and Liz found out his back story we unloaded the questions on him. He had served in Iraq and Afghanistan and had some very interesting perspectives on the wars there.
 |
| On a night out with the US Special Forces |
I couldn't have learned more about the situation in the Middle East in those two days and Daniel proved to be a top notch yank. We had come back to Arequipa the weekend leading up to the Dublin v Kerry game and Daniel was pretty excited to watch it. After doing some recon around the town I sussed out two Irish bars that were both plastic Paddy operations and I had my eggs firmly packed in the basket of the hostel The Wild Rover to watch the match. That same morning the Manchester derby was on and the majority ruled on the tele as there were more soccer heads than expectant all Ireland Dub fans. We ended up watching it in our hostel, and through an absolute stroke of luck our hostel wasn't that busy which left its Internet connection and band width under used. This is a rare thing in Peru.
 |
| Around Aerquipa |
The stream speed on the link I got was very fluid. In fact it was a revelation. I openly roared on my team in the hostel reception for over an hour as the game of the decade unfolded before my eyes. Big Daniel couldn't make head nor tail of the game but was definitely riding the Dubs wave. Especially with absolute blue hysteria reigning in reception. Thankfully the lads did the business and the quest for Sam continues!
 |
| Patronage knows no frontiers! |
Puno and the floating islands of Lake Titicaca
Our final stop in Peru was in Puno. This was a gateway town into Bolivia but also home to Lake Titicaca and its famous floating islands. We saddled up in a fairly swanky hotel here as I had a certain need to follow up the comforts enjoyed in our last place. The floating islands were bit of a let down. We had been well warned that they were very touristy. The actual sight and construction of the islands is pretty amazing: they were created by the original Wari people to escape attacks from the Incas and they are made from bog blocks topped off with hay that are tied together.
 |
| The magical floating Islands of Lake Titicaca |
 |
| One of the floating islands with Puno in the background |
 |
| Learning about the construction of the islands |
 |
| Reed Boats |
As we sat down to be greeted by a bunch of local women, they gathered before us and sang songs in four languages including a strangely pronounced version of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". It was all a bit bizarre and fairly cringey, we both agreed if it had been a group of kids it would have been ok but these were women and in some cases fairly old women. The women then burst into a hard sell of all their local artisanal wears. We did get a shot in the amazing straw boats that they had weaved by hand. I got a go rowin one of these which was a lot smoother than some of the women's singing!
 |
| Life on the floating islands |
We ate fresh trout from the lake that night which proved to be my Puno highlight. Peru had finally come to an end. It was a massive journey and one that I had learned a good deal about their diverse history. The people had been hit and miss. We had been very lucky with most of our tour guides but some on the more remote tourism had been bit of a let down. Next up was Bolivia. This would be a fourth last country and probably the country I knew least about.
 |
| Fresh trout from the lake |
.jpg)
