Immigration by candlelight (entering Bolivia Che Guevara style)

We were supposed to stay in Puno last night, but we needed to get into Bolivia before the strikes started. So we were on a bus by 4.30pm and were racing towards the border before it closed. Well, we I´m pretty sure the buses are affected by altitude too because they go very slow up hills and and the roads aren´t much to speak of anyway, so ´racing´ may be stretching it a little.

Anyway, so we were driving at 80kph towards the border and were treated with a moonrise that puts many sunrises I´ve seen to shame. The moon looked huge (maybe because we´re closer to it!) There was some really lovely pastoral scenery along the way as well.

About 10 minutes before the border, we´re told that we have to pretend that we don´t know our guide (no working permit for Bolivia) and are given instructions for the border crossing. Get off the bus, go to Peru border control, walk 300 metres and then you are at Bolivian immigration. Oh, and the Bolivian border closes in 20 minutes so get a move on.

Peru was fairly simple and then we head towards the other side. I walk straight into the rope much to everyone´s amusement. Then we cross a dark bridge and start looking for immigration. The entire place in darkness and once we´d been walking for about five minutes, the road came to a dead end. Debbie asked someone confidently in spanish where the customs were (thanks Debbie´s cussie Chris) and we went back the way we came and finally found the immigration office (the clock is ticking, they closed 20 minutes, but that was 10 minutes ago).

The immigration office was also entirely in darkness and we stood in a queue before being given a form in spanisht to fill out. We filled the forms out by candlelight and Nicky´s wind up torch. I was winding like mad while everyone else filled in their forms. Another woman had a candle but she was determined not to share it and positioned herself so that she blocked the light. Then someone held their mobile phone for me while I filled in my form.

Another queue to see one of two customs officials who were operating by candlelight. They stamped my passport and form with no fuss (Despoina had a bit of trouble because the guy didn´t know where Greece was).

Finally, we were all through and back on the bus. Some other tourist had tried to get on our bus, but luckily our guide had words with the bus driver and said that there was no way he could stay (he had a stash of wacky backy which she´d spotted).

And then...da dint, da dint, da dint (that´s the Jaws music by the way) when we´d been driving for 20 minutes we got stopped again by an army road block. One of them boarded the bus and wanted to see all of our passports to check that we had the appropriate stamps. I very nearly pulled out my wad of US dollars from the money belt at the same time as my passport. Luckily I was able to manouevre so that the money stayed in.

You´d think that was enough excitement for the night and that perhaps we´d have just arrive at the hotel and have a nice long sleep. It was not to be. We arrived at the bus terminal, collected our bags and headed off to catch the bus to the hotel. It never turned up. Luckily we were with another Gap group so there was 14 of us, including a couple of blokes. We huddled together in two circles on the side of the street, talked in broken spanish to the policeman who came to check on us (and warn us that this wasn´t a good spot to wait).

Ten minutes later, our guide turns up with a bus. She had commandeered one of the local buses and we all piled on. Quite a few people tried to catch the bus (it still had it´s destination on it´s window so you can´t blame them really) as we wended our way through La Paz to our hotel and a very welcome shower and bed.

The islands of Lake Titicaca

Our second day in Puno started bright and early with our own personal limousines arriving to pick us up at 8am. By limousines, I mean bicycles with two seats on the front (kind of like tuktuks but more open). Luckily, it was mostly downhill so I didn´t have to feel bad about some poor bloke huffing and puffing to get us up a hill. We went in convoy and the lead bike (the one in front of us) navigated the traffic by ringing his bell (it sounded just like those bells you had on bikes when you were a kid). We were in the second bike but one of the other blokes pushed in when we went round a corner. Our driver/cyclist was having none of that and with a burst of energy passed and cut off the other bloke. All was right with the world again.

Having had some history and legends from the guide (Lucho) and some time sitting up on top in the sun, we arrived at Taquile Island. A short walk up the hill still made we out of breath as we are still quite high (c.3900 metres) and had a fabulous al fresco lunch of quinoa soup followed by freshly caught trout. The view was better than any restuarant I have ever been to. We could see across the really blue lake to the snow capped mountains of Bolivia (where I´m now writing from).

After lunch we walked further up the hill to the market. Taquile Island is known for it´s weaving. Only the men do the weaving which is quite unusual. I spent a bit of money on woolly things - everything is so cheap (except the woven things which were expensive so I just admired them). Back down the hill (more bloody steps) and onto the boat again as we made our way to Amatani Island.

There were a bunch of women in tradtional dress waiting our arrival and, once we had been allocated we handed off our gifts - food and toys for the kids - and made our way to our allotted house. Handing off the gifts first was a really good idea as that meant we didn´t have to carry them up the hill! We were with Elsie and her two children Janet (16) and Rannie (10). Not sure if I´ve got the boy´s name right - it may have been Ronnie. We had quite a nice room with pink walls, a blue tarpaulin roof and a view to die for across the lake to the mountains.

Next, we were off up the hill (again) to watch a football match (really a rest stop) and then up to the top of the hill where there were ruins and a sunset/moonrise. I´ve dipped my face in freezing cold water in Scotland for eternal youth (hasn´t it worked well?) and kissed the blarney stone for the gift of the gab so walking three times round the ruin anticlockwise for a wise was an easy task. I stopped to take photos of the sunset and the moon on the lake along the way. They´re not nearly as good as the real thing.

It was dark by the time we went down the hill (my head torch came in use) for a hot chocoate (with Baileys) at the local bar/cafe/dairy and then back to our homestay for dinner. Elsie and her kids speak spanish so we were able to talk a bit but I think they were quite shy. We ate dinner in their kitchen at the table while they sat on stools or on the floor. It felt very awkward. Dinner was potato soup followed by potato stew and rice. Quite nice, but far too much.

To top off the night we were dressed in local costumes (they were so tight around the waist it was like wearing a corset) and down to the community hall for a dance. Quite hilarious, but we were shattered from the long day so were back home in bed by 10pm.

After breakfast (pancakes) we were back on the boat again. Nicky helped us pass the three hour trip with an impromptu Spanish lesson from her book and then we were at the Uros floating islands. Nowadays, they are just a tourist attraction. There main form of income (fish) was wiped out due to the introduction of trout to the lake (I think that´s what the story was anyway). The construction of the islands themselves was really interesting - they really do float and you can feel them move. We went for a short trip on one of their reed boats and I had a go at rowing it for a while.

The road to Puno

At last, I´ve caught up! And it will be a brief post about today as we spent most of in on a bus - seven hours in fact. But the buses are really comfortable, there is a place to put your legs and the seats go back really far. I even slept for a while. The scenery was lovely. Kind of like the drive through that station in the middle of the South Island only greener.
We got up to 4338metres before coming down to Puno at about 3900 metres. Puno is on the edge of Lake Titicaca.

We went through quite a few villages and towns along the way. It´s like going back hundreds of years. The buildings are made of brown clay bricks and have thatched roofs. There are shepherds along the sides of the road grazing their sheep on the grass verge. And the occasional run away donkey. Most of the women are in traditional dress. But our guide on the Inca trail told us that the government has passed a law that the people in some villages have to wear traditional dress so it may be for that reason.

We haven´t really seen much of Puno yet. We went out for a late lunch/early dinner and I had a traditional lamb dish which I can´t remember the name of but it was quite nice. But I think I prefer lamb from home. It came with baked potatoes (papa al horno) which given Peru´s large number of potato varieties isn´t surprising. They were really nice when mixed in with the lamb sauce (but otherwise too dry).

We´ve out to check out the town shortly so maybe will see some more.

Cusco - the final day

[Thanks for all of your comments - it´s really nice to feel like people are reading my ramblings.]

We returned from the Inca trail and Aguas Calientes by train and then bus and then had a nice long sleep before our last day in Cusco. Despite having been there for several days already we didn´t really feel like we´d seen anything, so planned a day of tourist activities.

First stop was the Pre-Columbian Art Museum. I was a bit annoyed to start off with as there was all of these artifacts and the descriptions was all about their artistic value and there wasn´t any information about what they were used for. Then I saw a quote on the wall from Claude Levi-Strauss (he was an anthropologist, not a jean maker) that basically said that we need appreciate the art of ancient civilisations and not just view them as artifacts. And some of the art was amazing. There were ceramic bottles made shapes of animals and mythology, ´cubist´ art which apparently inspired Picasso and some really nice jewelry. I´m not convinced that a plain silver bowl is art and I still would have like to know what the objects were used for, but I could appreciate the curators obstinate refusal to provide this information.

Our other major tourist stop for the day was Saint Domingo church. This was originally an Inca temple and after the Spanish conquest was given to some important blokes brother who bequeathed it to the church on his death. A church now stands there, but much of the Inca temple has been incorporated into the construction. I figure that they started to pull it down (the spanish destroyed most of the Inca constructions) but it got to hard so they figured, bugger it, we'll us this as the cloisters (or some such thing).

There is also a contemporary art exhibition in the church. As one person in our group said, the art could have been done anywhere in the world. But I think some of the art very much spoke of Peru. There was a sculpture of a body in a foetal postion which is how the Incas buried their dead - preparing them for birth again (they also buried them with the tools they would need in their next life, such as building tools if that was their profession). There were also a number of political statements in the pictures.

Last up was a night out on the town including Salso lessons. It looked a little like line dancing some of the time when they were teaching us. It was quite fun, but I like watching the professionals dance - really amazing, would probably take me forever to learn so I was content to just watch most of the time.

Odds and sods on in the sacred valley

Ok, so there weren´t any sods, but there were lots of other things that we saw.

The sacred valley is THE place for corn. They grow a gazillion different varieties in the valley (Cusco is the place for potatoes - most of the varieties in the world are grown in this region). They make a couple of drinks from the corn. One is chicha morada - which is red and I think it is about 4% alcohol. It´s quite nice.

We stopped at a weaving community on the way to Ollantaytambo where they make various things from llama wool. Llamas are shaved only 3-4 times during their lifetime - which is why it is so expensive. The first shave is called the baby wool - even though the llama isn´t a baby at the time - and this is the softest wool. The women in the village (whose husbands are porters on the Inca trail) spin and dye the wool themselves. They use natural dyes such as some worm thing that lives on the prickly pear. They dry them, crush them and then add lime juice or salt to change the colour so that get ranges of reds to orange. The also use the crushed worms as lipstick. Mmmm, yuck.

They keep a couple of llamas in the village, mostly for the tourists I think and they mostly buy in the raw product. I wanted to get a photo of Debbie with one of them and kept telling her to get closer. But then one spat on her. Some nice green stuff. Needless to say, she wasn´t very happy with me.

We also stopped at a number of Inca ruins.

Ollantaytambo is the place where we stayed before we started the Inca trail. The town and the temple of the sun located there are amazing. There are water channels through the town that are a remnant from Inca times.

The Incas had some amazing technology. Temples and palaces were made from the interlocking rocks that most people associate with the Inca civilisation. These were incredibly complex to make as they didn´t have any tools, only harder stones for shaping the rocks. Some of the temples took 50-70 years to complete, and some - such as Ollantaytambo - were never finished. The Inca civilisation (in its expansion phase) was from 1438-1532 and building on many of the temples didn´t start until well into that period. They had aquaducts that carried water quite some distance and you can still see it running in many of the places including Machu Picchu.

After we´d been to Machu Picchu, we went down to Aguas Calientes (water hot). They have some hot spring pools there that I´d been looking forward to the whole tramp. But they were a bit of a disappointment really. They were tepid rather than hot and I think they were quite dirty.

Sorry, I forgot to introduce you

to the people I´m travelling with. There were supposed to be 14 on our trip but we started with six and then two more joined us at Machu Picchu. Our tour leader, Shirly, calls us `las chicas` as we´re all women. So apart from Debbie and I, there´s Despoina from Greece, Nicky from the England (who says, `I´m not being funny like` quite a bit), Jeannie from the England (who says f#&k like she´s the Queen), Poneh who is Canadian Iranian, Christine from Denmark and Mathea from the Faro Islands (population 50,000, major industry fishing, ten points to anyone who actually knows where it is).

Only Jeannie did the Inca trail with us. But we also had Atilla the hungarian australian and his wife Melissa (who were on their honeymoon) and Andrew, also from Australia. You wouldn´t believe how small the world is - Andrew used to be the Registrar at VUW (last name Neeson for any of those of you university folk with long memories). Nice chap, long winded stories (many of which were quite interesting).

I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more

This was my chant on the last day as we were climbing to the sungate. Others included: I am Edmund Hillary, I am Edmund Hillary´s sherpa (both courtesy of Debbie), I will have buns of steel (going up a million steps). The Inca trail is magnificent. It´s also hard work. The two days chilling out in Cusco and getting used to the altitude were so worth it. Even then, I think the altitude made it harder.

The first day is a gently walk from 2600 metres to 3000 metres over about 9km. There are a couple of Inca ruins along the way which we stopped at and our guide Humberto gave us some of the history about. He has been a guide for 23 years and gives you some of the various interpretations of the ruins and then what he thinks they were used for and why. As a former history student, I loved his way of presenting the information. He was very proud of his Inca heritage and all the things that the Inca nation achieved. And very rightly so. Some of the feats of engineering are amazing.

The second day we climbed from 3000 metres to 4215 metres (dead woman pass) over a very short distance. And mostly in steps. Over the last stretch I´d manage about about five steps, have a brief stop and then do another five steps. I´d get my breath back really quickly but be out of breath again just as quickly. I´d like to blame the altitude but I think it was also to do with my level of fitness. But I felt such a sense of achievement and the view from the top was spectacular.

Then we dropped 600 metres to the campsite for the night. At times the drop felt vertical. Again, there were lots of steps and I was incredibly grateful for my two walking poles and for nurofen. My knees felt a few twinges but they were fine for the whole trip (yay! I was really dreading having bung knees).

We climbed another pass on the second day (Runkuraqay) which I think is 4000 metres. This day was hard as well, but I´d got into a rhythm with a certain level of puff and I felt much more comfortable walking. Fantastic views from the pass again and all along the may. A couple more stops at ruins and down to the camp site at a fairly brisk pace(this is the day that they clapped when we arrived).

The next day started a 3.45am so that we could get down to the control gate for the walk up to the sungate (intipunku) so that we could see the sun rise over Machu Picchu. The gate opens at 5.30am and we were there at about 4.30am - second group there. We then practicallly ran up the hill (I kept up most of the way but the nearly vertical 50 steps took the stuffing out of me so I was a bit behind the others). Didn´t matter though because all we saw was clouds - I have a lovely photo of nothing). It also started to rain to it was ponchos all round for the 30 minute walk down to Machu Picchu. It was a shame not to see the sunrise, but if any day was going to rain, this was the day. It would have been miserable to walk in the rain on any of the other days. We had beautiful weather on the first three days which made the walk so much more enjoyable.

five star service

So I knew that there were going to be porters on the trail who would carry most of our gear and provide meals for us. I´d expected very basic kind of stuff. Camp cookup, a sandwich for lunch and maybe porridge for breakfast if we were lucky. Man was I wrong. The porters include a cook (Miguel) and an assistant cook (Julio) and eleven small strong men led by Ypoleta (not sure how to spell his name). They´re all from the same village. On the third day they clapped when we arrived - which is kind of embarrasing really seeing as they left after us, carried 20kg as opposed to our about 3kg and still got there a long time before us.

On the first day, we had a gentle(ish) walk to the lunch stop. One of the eleven porters meets us on the track and guides us to where a tent is set up with a fully set table (including nicely arranged napkins) with a stool each. There is a divider in the tent and half is the kitchen and half is the dining room. Our waiter Ricardo (yes, that´s right, our waiter) pours us a glass of freshly made lemonade on arrival and there is a nice plastic sheet laid out where we can put our bags so they don´t get wet from the grass. There is a basin of water and soap for each of us so that we can wash our hands before lunch. Lunch starts with soup and then some nice boneless chicken in a sauce, rice and vegetables. Mint tea (made from mint plants along the trail) completes the meal. Then camping mattresses are laid out so we can have a wee rest before heading off on the next part of the trail.

While we´re walking, they pack up the tent and everything, load up their bags (c.20kg each) and then run past us so that they can set up camp for the night before we arrive. On arrival we´re provided with a warm basin of water and soap so that we can rinse of the grime from the day. Our tents are already set up and when I pull out my camping mattress a porter is there to blow it up for me.

Afternoon tea is at 5pm with a selection of teas, including cacao leaves, coffee, hot chocolate and some nibbles. We usually played cards until dinner at 7pm which was a three course affair - soup, a main meal with meat, and then dessert. On the last night, dessert was cake. How they managed to make cake in a tent kitchen is beyond me.

We were usually in bed around 8pm and the wake up call was about 6am. Freshly made cacao tea and a basin on warmish water to start the day. Then breakfast, which again is a two course meal. Porridge, pancakes, omelette all featured on various days.

On the really hard day (dead woman´s pass) it wasn´t possible to set up tent for lunch along the way so we were given a snack bag each with chocolate, biscuits, lollipop and a cheese sandwich. To use Debbie´s words, best stale cheese sandwich I´ve ever tasted. Lunch was then served at 2.30pm when we arrived at camp.

If it weren´t for dead woman´s pass, I´d do the whole thing again just for the food.

11pm

I`ve had a fantastic five days since my last post. But it´s 11pm and I´ve just had a long bus ride back to Cusco so I´ll just touch on the highlights and then make a nice long post tomorrow (or it might require several). First, have brand new SOFT pillow in hotel so am a happy chappy.

The Inca trail and all the ruins are fantastic. We had spectacular weather on all except the last day and had breathtaking views. Hang on, that might have been the climb to dead woman´s pass at 4215 metres. The ruins at either end of the walk - Ollantaytambo and Macchu Picchu - were definitely the best of the lot that we saw, but the one´s on the track were interesting too. Fabulous guide, fabulous service. Sore calves, sore thighs, filthy clothes, slightly sunburned arms, great people to do the walk with, ready for nice long sleep before exploring Cusco tomorrow now that we´re much more used to the altitude.

throwing a (very polite) wobbly

So I mentioned in the last post that our hotel room was a wee bit cold. I finally decided that being curled up in bed wearing my warmest clothes and hat and gloves was not okay. On complaining, our tour guide turned up (in a towel and not a lot else) and told me that we would need to hire a heater. I firmly and politely told her that a freezing room was completely and her two options were to provide heating in the room or find us another hotel. A heater arrived shortly after. So the room is now very warm. Pity about the lumpy bed and plank of wood for a pillow.

Then we went to dinner. There is supposed to be 14 people in the group, but the volcano in Europe has completely screwed everyone´s plans and there are six of us. Two more arrive after the Inca trail, but the rest of postponed or cancelled. Nice small group. So five of us and the tour leader (Shirdy) went to dinner and I had Alpaca saltado for dinner. Basically like a beef stirfry with red peppers and onions on rice. It was very nice. There were lovely views across Cusco from the hotel roof - Debbie got some nice photos but mine were crappy. The hillside looked a bit like a christmas tree.

I didn´t sleep well at all last night so was a bit of a slow start to the day. Went for a nice wander around the town with one of the other girls from the tour. Some of the buildings have some of their walls that date back to a 6th century (?) Inca palace. There was a lovely square (pazleta san blas) where there was a chap playing his guitar. I bought a nice painting from a chap (Efraine?). He says he painted it himself - it´s probably all part of the sales pitch, but I´d like to think he did.

We thought we´d go back to the hotel a different way and I promptly got us lost. But it was a lovely walk. I´ve taken far too many photos of windows, doors, balconies, streets, steps, dogs (they lie around on the streets everywhere and people just walk around them), hillsides (writing on hillsides seems to be the done thing over here - viva el peru glorioso is one example in Cusco), old churches/cathedrals (there are a lot of them in a very small area) and a row of policeman with their riot thingys. I did ask first - in spanish no less.

Debbie and I made our way down to the artisan´s market after lunch. The guidebook says that 50% of the price goes to the artist themselves from this particular market. I bought a few things which are apparently llama wool, but they were very cheap so I´m a bit dubious.

My phone is useless - it´s not picking up a signal anywhere. Not sure if this if vodafone´s fault or my phone is playing up. Also can´t log into gmail on very many of my computers. So the blog it is. There is internet access in most of the hotels we are staying at so will try to post something everyday. Won´t on the inca trail obviously or the homestay on lake titicaca.

Have had a lovely day but am feeling a little sorry for myself af the moment. It´s cold and I´ve had an upset stomach late this afternoon (read, mad dash to hotel to use own toilet). I think lunch might have been dodgy. But we had a nice conversation with the waiter in spanish - I even used past tense!

dizzy blonde - today is rest day

Have arrived in Cusco after a 5.15am start. We're currently more than 3000 metres above sea level and boy am I feeling it. Went for a brief walk this morning when we arrived and felt quite dizzy. Had a long nap and went for a late lunch and am feeling a lot more human. Still very little energy though (is gonna make for a slow walk on the Inca trail if I don`t improve).

The hotel we are staying at is built from an old stone palace. It`s $#%&en freezing.

So far the highlight of the day has been discovering that Debbie has been given a fake coin. Who would have thought they`d counterfeit the coins?

Thanks for your messages. You`ll see I´ve obliged with the pisco sour recipe mum.

pisco sour recipe: so those of you at home can join in the fun

Pisco Sour

Ingredients:

7 ½ oz (or 3 parts) Peruvian Pisco
2 ½ oz (1 part) key lime juice
2 ½ oz (1 part) sugar syrup
1 egg white
Angostura bitter

Preparation:

Pour the Pisco, key lime juice and syrup on a jar blender with enough ice to double the volume.

Blend on high. Add one egg white and blend again.

Serve. Pour a drop of Angostura bitter on each glass.

Tip: to make the sugar syrup just put ½ cup of sugar in a pot with 3 tbs of water, bring to a slow boil (always stirring), and cook until all the sugar has dissolved. Let the syrup cool before mixing with the Pisco and lime juice.

mmm pisco sours

If I was in Edinburgh right now, I'd be ringing Grandma. Have been partaking of the local cocktail. It's fabulous. Very much made for our family - has that nice sour bite to it.

The food here is very, very good. Have just been out to Osaka, a japanese restaurant here. Prawns to start - mmmm- followed by Thai ceviche - omg good, better than mudbrick food - and a taste of Debbie's tuna.

But have a five oclock start tomorrow and need to be sober by then, so off to bed.

I like Lima

Sounds like there´s been a stuff up with our hotel, but I´ve had such a good day I don´t care. I´ll let the tour people sort it out.

After a bit of a walk around Miraflores and a chat to a nice man in the park (in spanish!, okay so we didn´t understand everything he said), we caught a taxi into town ($NZ10). We had a wee chat in spanish to the driver. When I say ´we´, I mean mostly Debbie who speaks spanish really well. She´s had an extra week to practive. The city is full of lovely buildings so we took lots of photos, walked the pedestrian mall, and took more photos.

The Plaza de Armas is where the palace (surrounded by guards with guns) and the cathredal are. We got stopped by some school kids who were doing a project where they interviewed me in English and videoed it. They wanted to know if I had eaten ceviche (not yet) and if Peru was similar to my home (yes, lots of traffic and bad drivers).

We had lunch at what we have decided is the Peruvian equivalent of KFC. Huge plate of chips and 1\4 chicken for $NZ 3.50. Also had our first taste of Inca Cola. It´s yellow and looks like mellow yellow. Quite nice.

After lunch we took a bus up to the Cerro del Cristobel which is on a hill (400metres) looking over the city. We drove though the shanty town on the way. All of the houses that you can see from the city are brightly coloured, but most on the other side of the hill are plain brick to I think they paint them for the tourists.

Then a taxi back to the hotel ($NZ5, so we must have got ripped off on the ride in, but I don´t care).

Debbie has just told me that we have to change hotels. So off to the origninal one.

I thought it would be bigger...

Buenos Aires airport I mean (what were you thinking?)

So the flight started with the song "I will go down with the ship" playing over the sound system which did not inspire confidence. I got a seat by the emergency exit so plenty of leg room, and a nice brazilian man sitting next to me. He´s been working in construction in Australia for the past two years. Nice biceps. Other than that, the flight was pretty dull. Not enough sleep, teenage vampire movie.

I did the full circuit of BA airport a couple of times. It´s about the size of Auckland airport. I´d expected it to be much bigger.

Met up with Debbie and a five hour flight to Lima. No movie at all. Just a snack to eat. A very nice snack but was starving by the time we arrived. Lima is a fabulous airport.

We´re actuallly staying in a different hotel than the one we booked. Seems to have been a mix up with the travel agent.

Off to explore markets of Miraflores and then into the city proper.

flooding and landslides

Some of you may have seen that Rio de Janeiro has recently had torrential rain resulting in flooding, landslides and, sadly, quite a few deaths.  

This is the reply to my email to MFAT (thanks Anna from the Consular Division):

Thank you for your enquiry.  MFAT is not issuing any specific advice for travellers on the recent flooding and landslides in Rio de Janeiro.  It is always advisable, however, to follow any instructions and restrictions that may be issued by the local authorities - i.e restrictions on travel to certain neighbourhoods affected by the flooding.  Our travel advisory for Brazil can be read through the following link: www.safetravel.govt.nz/destinations/brazil.shtml  We do recommend you have comprehensive travel insurance and register your details with us prior to any overseas travel.


I have also looked on Google maps (the terrain view) and ascertained that there aren't any hills near where we are staying.  

And we won't be there for another 5 weeks so the sun should be out by then. 

A big continent (but we're going to see as much as we can)

South America is a big continent so I long ago abandoned plans to hire a ute and do a road trip (I don't think Debbie was ever keen on that idea anyway).  I'm also not keen on spending 30 hours on a bus so we're taking quite few flights.  There will still be some long hours spent on the road.  But not in the first week.


Kick off is in Lima and then we head to Cuzco (by airplane) for a few days taking in the sights and getting used to the altitude.  Then we walk the Inca trail (via the Ollantaytambo Sacred Valley).  The walk is about 40km over four days.  Which doesn't sound too bad until you realise we get up to nearly 14,000 feet which will take our breadth away.


Next stop is Lake Titicaca (via a long bus ride) where we have a homestay on one of the islands.  That's where we go from Peru to Bolivia and spend some time in La Paz and Potosi before making our way to the Uyuni Salt Plains (I'm hoping by train, but I think there's another long bus trip in there).


At some stage we must cross the border to Chile because we have a look at the Atacama desert before taking a van ride across the Andes to Salta and then we avoid a long bus ride by flying to Buenos Aires. That's where the tour ends and Debbie and I are left to our own devices (somebody should warn them).


We'll spend a few days in BA and maybe take a day trip to Uruguay before flying to Iguassu Falls.  A few days in Iguassu including a day trip to Paraguay - cheap leather.  Then its off to Rio and then home.


So, half a continent in four short paragraphs.