A brace of Fez

Well, this one final entry and that'll be it!
After a wild and windy walk in the Scottish hills and a daring coastal traverse on chains above a wild sea we bade farewell to Sarahs bro and his young family. Then, following a smelly train ride from Edinburgh to Manchester, we found ourselves hooked into the huge British package holiday industry, where the masses franticly clamour to get away to some warm sea and sunshine. It was quite a smooth cattle herding experience that was actually very efficient.
SW Turkey was good and we enjoyed the scenery and local people but especially a trip to Ephasus with its remains of a huge Roman city. The local area was also the site of 2 of the original 7 Wonders of the World which have sadly been reduced to ruble. Oddly there seemed to be a lack of kebab and falafel shops (and Cranberry sauce for the Turkey!) but I was thrilled to finally purchase a fez each for my brother and I ....which we proudly wore while supermarket shopping back in his home town in the UK.So, so funny!
Some very good quality time was spent back in the UK working our way south staying with relatives and friends. We even got to pick some of the apples from the tree in our old garden. Very nice.
A final goodbye to my brother and family, and to my step mother, saw us spend the last few days with Katie & Shay at their new flat in London, where they are well established with good jobs and living in a pleasant location. Sarah and Simon had organised the placing of their parents' headstone, and so we all made a visit to the old home in Exmouth which helped give some closure to that chapter of life.
After spending so much time with them it seemed particularly sad to leave all our folk back in the UK, but we now know what they're up to and can imagine what they might be doing on a daily basis which provides some comfort.
The final flights went quickly and it felt great to get home - the house had been left in imaculate condition after our French tenants had moved out and it seemed much nicer than we remembered, and, oh my goodness, Nelson is such a wonderful place to live! It was just excellent to see our great bunch of friends - 18 of whom turned out at our place the next night to eat takeaways and watch the fireworks over the harbour that was put on for our return, (Actually it was the fishing fleet having a celebration, but very timely!)
So what have we made of it all?
Gains:
3 or 4 extra kilos of flab - per person!
An improved appreciation of the important things in life
2800 photos
More knowledge and understanding of a variey of cultures
A basic grasp of Spanish
A strikingly improved confidence to give things a go - esp. Sarah who is starting all sorts of new challenges
Verification that material assets dont matter that much
Basic mule handling skills (Sarah)
The awesome experience of sleeping in 70 different beds

Losses:
One cellphone, a sock, a T-shirt and some undies (not bad for 6 months)
A large amount of physical fitness
2 pieces of tooth (Mark)
2 X 6 months wages - ie the money for a new car or kitchen?
Missing the best snow and skiing conditions around Nelson for years
A toenail (Sarah)

And what next? - well, settle in here, get fit and enjoy life while other adventure travel ideas hatch slowly. Perhaps we'll even look at moving house locally...and yes, we still have plenty of unfinished business in South America and would love to go back again.
Fabulous!

A wander through the Motherland

Pretty villages, busy roads, strong accents, occasional rain, green countryside, warm beer & wasps - yes, we're in England!
After a few days in the south of England spending some good quality time with my brother's family we worked our way through the midlands visting old friends and relatives and based ourselves in the Yorkshire Dales to stay with my cousin's family near Kirby Lonsdale.
Sunday was a big day which I had been nervously anticipating for quite some time - the Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross Race, reputed to be the worlds toughest! 61km with over 1500m of ascent over rugged hills that definitely do not lend themselves to cycling. I feel hugely indebted to my 2 cousins who set me up with all the required gear (even the bike!), so together with my brother riding, it was a real family affair. Was it tough? ...you bet ya! No suspension and drop handlebars shakes the body almost to submission but I was delighted to come out unscathed and with no brake-downs. Sarah joined other friends and relies to man the check points in order to provide vital support of water and food in the morning rain which soon turned into delicate sunshine which illuminated the lovely dales into the afternoon.
Following a visit to my home village of Silverdale and my old Aunt we moved north up into Scotland and to Cupar north of Edinburgh to stay with Sarahs brother and his young family. We enjoyed a late heatwave intitially which was nice, and a cheeky surprise visit from Katie for the weekend was great (she just happened to organise some work nearby in Edinbugh).
On Wednesday we have a change of plan....rather than visiting some of the cities in Eastern Europe we have decided to wind down our independent travel and have booked a cheap package holiday to Turkey!
Months of independant travel does take it out of you (greying hair, wrinkled skin and broken teeth) and we certainly feel like it is time to get home to wonderful Nelson and to once more try to engage our spongy brains while there is still a little of something there to spark into life!
We have moved forward our return date a couple of weeks to the end of October and look forward to catching up with you all sometime soon afterwards.
So Turkey, friends in the midlands and Katie and Shay in London and thats about it
Yippee!

Hurricane Dodgers!

Well, it's been very frustrating trying to access a pc while in the USA....even wifi is rather hard to come by and often has a dollar cost. So here I am in the Mac store in New York sneakily updating this!
All in all we've had a great and varied 3 weeks in the NE. New York city is simply fabulous - so vibrant and livable. We stayed a few nights in the 'worst' hotel in NY (just fine after some S America!) just a hop away from Times Square which was a great location.
The first thing we did was to hire a bike each for the day in Central Park...we had a gentle cruise around this truly huge and natural feeling space before hitting the coast of ManhattenIsland and opening up on the wonderful cycle tracks which run almost all around the spectacular island...we even cycled over the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. One highlight was a spectacular crash while we were stationary...we ended up in a heap on a traffic island (much to onlookers delight) with me entwined in 2 bikes with sarah ontop. My fault entirely and the flesh wounds are healing nicely now!
Sticking to the plan, we hired a small car and set off for a tour around New England which was most enlightening...vast and very rural with thick tree cover. We headed to Cape Cod along the coast where picture perfect bays and inlets went on and on with idyllic manicured houses with their boats tied up alongside. Cape Cod was fun - especially when we hired a tandem to tour the beaches.....poor Sarah was squealing with fear as she was totally unable to see past me on the front.
A quick dash around Boston was good - very historic and chilled out. We even popped in to see Harvard Uni when it was Freshers day...and got lost on the 4 lane underground motorway system when Gloria (out GPS navigation device) lost her signal and spat a dummy!
Trundling north we drove (sorry) to the summit of Mt Washington in New Hampshire which plays host to the wildest weather on earth...hurricane force winds on 100 days a year!
Speaking of hurricanes, Irene was all the news and heading straight for us so we headed west for 4 hours into Vermont, only for Irene to follow us and hit us head on. Luckily we had grabbed a hotel with a gym and pool so felt little of the happenings outside, even though all roads to the west east and south of us were now blocked!
Luckily the plan was to head north to Montreal in Canada which again was a really nice city and soooo French!.Having to switch from struggling Spanish to school French was a cobblers with many a 'gracias' and 'por favor' slipping out.
(Just a quick glance around to see if the staff in this shop haven't twigged me here...all good)
Onwards down the St Lawrence Seaway past huge locks and to the 1000 Islands which lie near to Lake Ontario. Now this really is a gorgeous area with castles, mansions and boats of all types around the place....somewhat like NZs Marlboruogh Sounds without the hills. It's also where 1000 Island dressing was invented.
We really enjoyed our brief look into Canada and felt more at one with the people there than the Americans...and we finally learned the difference between a buffalo and a bison!
Onward back to New Jersey and into New York where we went on the Staten island ferry yesterday and are digging deep to put in a final effort to see as many of the sights as we can. Quite a task!...and have just bought a flash new camera for work as prices are so low her for that sort of thing.
I would like to dedicate this entry to the wonderful staff and management at Mac Stores, West 14th Street, Manhatten.
Off to see all the folks in the UK on Wednesday - can't wait!
...oh, and the difference between a buffalo and a bison - you can't wash you hands in a buffalo, but you can in a bison!
Ho ho

Chao America del Sur

Well that was it - South America on a Shoestring! Totally magnificent with the richest mix of memories and surprises.
Here's a few intersting observations from the 7 countries we borrowed time from:
- A full spectrum of cultures from the very wealthy through to the impoverished...with no clear impression of who is happiest!
- Highs and Lows both in our own progress...and in height above sea level
- Coping with sudden switches from hot to cold weather extremes
- Only 4 days with any rain over the 3 months
- language difficulties certainly curtailed some of the enjoyment - we went for a spell of 14 days without speaking to anyone else in English
- on the whole trip we met only 18 kiwis
- one pair of good shoes (Keens) worn out
Yes - we would love to return to explore more - particularly more of Brazil and to visit Patagonia in southern Argentina and Chile. We also hear that Equador and Colombia are wonderful. Maybe we'll make it and maybe we won't.
For now we are coping with exploring the NE USA...more to come soon...

Chile

Being physically crammed onto the early morning rush hour tube train for half an hour is not how you might imagine the start to a glorious days skiing, but in Santiago, Chile, that seems to be quite normal. Once at the edge of the city it was a quick bus ride up to the 3000m high base village of Valle Nevado, the largest ski area in the southern hemisphere. Spectacular vistas of the high Andes and long, well groomed runs made the skiing experience super pleaseant - and even the black runs felt easy, which is not like me at all! Sarah whiled away the day enjoying the sun terraces and cafes as not feeling able to justify the rather spectacular lift and ski hire costs!
Santiago altogether exceeded our expectations. It is very well organised and livable with several rugged mini mountains sticking out amongst the tower blocks with the snow capped Andes formimg a splendid backdrop, and some very lovley old buildings, monuments and squares.....and the most wonderful shopping mall ever!
Prior to Santiago we had worked north from Valparaiso up the cloudy and foggy coast, until we learnt that sunny skies lay inland. For the first time we hired a car and sure enough, some 15 minutes inland sparkling blue skies and dry mountain ranges appeared from nowhere. We explored fantastic valleys enclosing wonderful cactai and harsh dry vineyards, visited a Pisco distillery and had a meal cooked on solar cookers. Here are some of the clearest skies on earth and it is a favoured spot for astronomical observatories. We visted an older one, but huge projets are underway with the European funded VLT (Very Large Telescope) nearing completion. The ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) will be starting construction soon!
From what we have seen Chile has a modern and sophisticated society that seems to be going places, but laterly learned of Chile's dark political and social problems which it makes a good job of hiding from visitors and investors! However they certainly have a huge variety of stunning and beautiful landscapes that have amazed us...rather like New Zealand on steroids!
Certainly not an anti climax to the end of our South Ameican experience.

Argy-Bargy

The fast super ferry across the River Plate takes just over an hour to reach Buenos Aires from Uraguay and we entered a different world of some 13 million in a truely grand and spacious city. We stayed at a lovely old hostel amidst cobbled, tree lined streets with classic pavement cafes and occasional tango dancers. A couple of days were spent dashing around this Paris of the South, including visiting Evitas grave and the worlds widest street - we counted 22 lanes running through the middle of town. Our (mainly my!) tolerance for city life was wearing thin and, after dragging Sarah away from a sudden fight in the underground in which she caught a glancing blow to her wrist, it was a relief to escape the argy-bargy (sorry!) and board the night bus for Mendoza in the west.
15 hrs later, once again sporting a light beard (me, not Sarah) we arrived not in the picturesque alpine wine region we had in mind, but a sprawling drab city of a million people. Rats! The weather turned v cold with snow down to the city limits so it was time to hunker down for a couple of days. We did enjoy a very informative winery tour but it was rather like coals to Newcastle and the famous wines weren´t nearly as good as our locals ones at home. Maybe it was the bitter weather that didnt help the Malbec?
Again it was a relief to leave the big city and head west again into the Andes to stay in an isolated hostel near Uspallata just a couple of hours away. Immediately the scenery exploded into spectacular life - blue skies with white snowy mountains surrounding a monochrome bowl of golden hues...golden trees, leaves, grasses, rocks and soils. Even the hostals 3 labradores were golden! (This area was the setting for the film Seven Years in Tibet as it so resembles Central Asia.)
This was indeed food for the soul and we both recharged our batteries and breathed in fresh life again.
The next stage of our journey was to cross the pass over the Andes to reach Santiago in Chile, but as the winter weather can close the pass for weeks we had to move on to be ready for a likely chance to get through.
We opted to move further into the mountains to stay at a large ski resort and hopefully get a few turns in, but on hopping out of the bus we hopped straight back in again with the lean, icey slopes looking most uninviting.
The road to Chile was currently closed, but was rumoured to open next morning so the bus dropped us at icy cold Punte del Inca which is used as the start point to climb Aconcagua, which, at 6959m is the highest point outside the Himalaya. Exciting!
Next morning, standing by the snowy road watching the backlog of 100s of big trucks grind past, doubts grew about the arrival of our bus, so jumped at the chance of a lift with a Texan family in camper van who we had talked with the night before.
What an awesome ride! With an outstanding nerve Michael overtook some 10km or so of stationary trucks backed up at the border post....all over the double yellow line and at speed with me in the front acting as spotter on the blind corners. Oh my God ...epic stuff in epic scenery. (We would still be in that queue which must last for a couple of days if he hadn´t nailed it so decisevely!)
After the semi-chaotic queues at the crossing we stopped and all went snow tubing with the 3 kids.
They were not heading to our destination of Santiago but to the Pacific coast, so we stuck with them and greatly enjoyed their company for several hours until Vena del Mar. We hope they take up our invitation to visit us in Nelson sometime as we thoroughly enjoyed their company.
And as for Chile - it´s different again and so spectacular!....and with the magnolias just coming out it offers up memories of home.

The Giant´s Cupboard

Arriving in Montevideo, Uraguay, was something of a reverse culture shock with a feel of Europe about it, but not quite. In fact it was all a little odd really!
The country has just over 3 million people, and is somewhat smaller than New Zealand. It has a great soccer team who won the Copa America once again only yesterday. The population is predominantly white, they speak Spanish and have a layed back attitude amply demonstarted by the way they sip a ´mate´tea mash through a silver straw from a hollowed out gourd which young and old alike typically carry around the streets with them. They build roads like the Romans - dead straight.
Montevideo is a large cosmopolitan city with a great bus network, little traffic and amazing architecture - there are plenty of amazing eclectic and pre neo-classical monsters mixed up with aweful 1960s concrete and glass - a bit like Gotham City meets Croydon! Occaionally a horse and cart clip-clops down the main street.
While in a cafe having chicken curry (a hunk of roast chicken with 2 pots of spices on the side) Sarah learnt that there was a choir and concert in the amazing recently renovated Teatro Solis that night and the tickets were nearly sold out. Being starved of classical culture for so long, she dashed across to the box office and came back with 2 tickets for a private box! The theatre was grand with 5 high rows of boxes and plush red velvet everywhere. Our little box was simply amazing. We were treated to a great concert from the Montevideo Philharmionic and a 70 strong choir from the USA. Sarah then told me how much the tickets were - 7 dollars each!
We stayed in an ancient hotel with our tiny bedroom having an enormously tall doorway and incredibly high ceiling with a distant fan in the middle. It was just like sleeping in a giants cupoard, as Sarah put it, and felt most odd.
One afternoon, starving, we opted for the famed Parrilla (a super juicy BBQ cooking method) in a huge warehouse full of dozens of smoking grills near the port. We had The Works and slogged through endless meat, then through the black puddings but gave the ´guts´and ´artery´ a miss. They certainly like to use every bit of the beast. The hide is used for handbags, purses, footballs and shoes but is chiefly used to hold the cow together. (as they say!)
Feeling a little exhausted we bused west and rested up in Colonia for a few days - a lovely old Portuguse fortified settlement where we enjoyed the company of a fair share of nutters in the hostel. There was an American guy, Osiris, who was gathering seed and exploring the coast by kayak to find land to establish the New Jerusalem colony, and there was an older couple who´d quit good jobs for 6 months to travel the world. After a few days rest the older couple were ready to board the ferry to cross the River Plate and face big, brash Buenos Aires. Eeek!

Ronnie Biggs

Full of trepidation we dropped into Paraguay´s capital city, Asuncion, and wish we´d arranged to stay longer! Although it cost us a staggering 290,000 Guranis (eek) for the night at a mid range hotel (okay, it´s only about $40NZ) the place seemed very civilised and refreshing after the last 2 months in the poverty and thin air of the altiplano. The place had many obvious German influences - surprise-surprise. It supposedly also has alot of Mennonites. Some sort of cave formation we think!

Next day, arriving in Rio de Janeiro airport we were gutted to be met by thick cloud and drizzle...the first rain we´d seen since leaving NZ ....and it continued for the next 3 days or so. We waited patiently, riding the ricketty trams in Santa Teressa through crumbling mansions and overgrown gardens, and had a quick look at Ronnies old place. Rather nice, and more than ample reward for a darring train robber.

Eventually the hot sun burnt through the cloud and we could see what we´d come for. Rio de Janeiro is a fantastic city with amazing scenery and relaxed locals - but what a terrible language to get your head around - Portuguese is very hard to learn with strange vowels and different enough from Spanish to leave us totally adrift. Attempts to arrange a guided rock climb for the day, or to find out about hang gliding came to nought....we struggled to even buy a bun in a bakery the ´correct way´.
All the sites, Christ the Redeeemer, the Sugar Loaf and the beaches are amazing and exceeded expectations - and the width of those thong bikinis has to be seen to be believed! We also dined in the cafe where Jobim wrote ´The Girl from Ipanma´ and swam and surfed in the cool waters. (The ´girl´still lives in Rio and has 4 children!)

An unexpected highlight was in escaping the glitz & glamour and visiting a ´Favela´or slum. Stuated almost adjacent to Copacabana Beach it houses 300,000 and is entirely lawless - a total police no-go area. The guide and 4 of us walked past guys touting machine guns and rifles and spent 4 hours amongst wonderfully friendly people who are ruled only by drug-lords and the gun. (One ´big´lady woudln´t stop kissing me and I daren´t fight her off for fear of upsetting someone.) All quite a deep experience to say the least! 2 days later we read the world headline that 60,000 unsolved murders remain in Rio over the last 10 years. What a place - and what problems under the surface for a country that now has the 8th largest economy in the world!

After a week in Rio we bused east along the stunning coast where we swam and sailed and then spent the night in Sao Paulo. This city is a monster - 19 million people and, to be frank, I would rather have put my head in a lions mouth than lug our packs through hot streets and the underground to our hostel near the centre....but it had to be done to make a bus connection. Sarah was a such a star slogging through the busy hot streets! It ended up being a remarkably slick, clean and sophisticated place that was of course to be expected of the largest financial centre in the S hemishere. But it was great to finally fight our way out onto the 15hr bus trip to Foz de Iguazu on the Argentinian border.

At Iguazu we have just spent 3 days looking around what are said to be the most spectacular waterfalls on earth...and the biggest hydro dam down river, so are feeling a bit loose-jawed after all the bombardment of superlatives and ready to move on. It´ll be good to leave Brazil with our aweful language problems and high prices, but we have enjoyed it hugely...and met the most pleasant, polite and honest people so far. Not quite what we expected....and we´d love to explore it more.

Uruguay tomorrow - on the early flight to Montevideo....we are running short on time and having to pick up the pace to get to the other places on our list!

So what´s it really like?

Well after nearly 2 months ¨on holiday¨ we are well into uncharted waters in so many respects. Certainly it is not all easy going with many aspects being quite demanding.....arriving at a seedy bus station at 5am, or accidentally heading down a dark street to get cash from an ATM instantly switch the survival instinct onto full alert! It is a real rollercoaster I suppose, with great highlights and amazing experiences mixed up with occasional hardship and near exhaustion! We try to stay at least 2 nights in any one place so as to pace ourselves, but it doesnt always work out....last week we stayed at 6 different places in a row. Am so glad we didn´t leave all this for another 10 years!
Keeping fit and getting enough exercise is a challenge - going for a jog around the city streets means gulping in hideous diesel fumes and negotiating crowded pavements, while when in the rural areas I have found that as soon as I break into a trot all the local dogs are are onto me like a shot. Sarah and I will generally find a local hill or some place to walk around but there hasn´t been much to go at recently.  In fact the most exercise I have had in the last couple of weeks has probabaly been tearing pieces from the un-perforated toilet paper once a day! ( and once a day is a good sign in these parts!)
We seem to have done pretty well with the stuff we have brought in each of our single backpacks with only a couple of small extras that we could have done with, but particularly regret not having any spare space to buy some of the loveley local crafts and sweaters etc which are so nice and sooo cheap. We are, needless to say, getting totally fed up with wearing the same old clothes week in week out, but minimalism is good... isn´t it??
We are certainly missing all our friends and idyllic life back in Nelson and think about it often ( you really appreciate how wonderful it is when you haven´t got it ) but we still have so much to look forward to on our mad schedule!
We are currently in Sucre in southern Bolivia which is a beautiful old world heritage city and our favourite so far.Last week we had 5 full days on a bus and 4X4 jeep as we explored the worlds largest salt flats in the SW of Bolivia aswell as skirting the Chilean border at 5200m (17,000 feet , 1033 perches or 614,173 barleycorns) amid towering volcanoes, snow and red lakes with rare flamingos feeding on the micro-organisms....all quite overwheling but bloody cold at night in some very basic accomodation, with one place made entirely from salt....even the tables and chairs. We also stopped off at the worlds highest town, Potosi (815 perches - you work it out!) where some 8 million people are said to have perished in the local silver mine over the past 200 years.
Needless to say we were well and truely knackered after all that so have been blobbing out here for several days in a lovely hostal and over-eating at the rather splendid restaurants...the best being run by a local couple who discovered the fine olive oils in Blenheim (NZ) which influences their great food.
Tommorrow we are on the move again and will work our way into Paraguay and should arrive in Rio on Monday. Yahoo!

Goodbye Peru

Well, after nearly 5 weeks in Peru, we have now managed to cross the troublesome border into Bolivia. We have enjoyed Peru immensely and certainly finished on a high note with a spectacular trip to the Lost Inca city of Machu Picchu.....with the a highlight being summitting the amazing tooth like peak sitting behind the city. Sarah climbed up superbly, overtaking young backpackers and romping up the steep Inca stairways, through tunnels and up ropes to the pointed summit, all with no safety rails or barriers. Stepping off the summit to descend was heart stopping with nothing to hold onto and a huge drop into the valley below. It was a lifetime highlight for us both.
After some housekeeping back in Cusco - a US marine style haircut and a visit to a dentist for me (great when the batteries ran out in the light gun!) we grabbed a place on the night bus to get into Bolivia and to Copacabana on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. At 3800m (12,500´ or 757 perches) it is a sublime and beautiful location. We took the boat across to Sun Island, the legendary origin of the sun and got swept up in a mad and energetic fiesta....fabulous costumes & dancing but awful music and drunkeness a plenty. After a daywalk across the top of the island at over 4000m at times (puff, puff) and another lovely night in a village we returned to shore for a well earned shower.
Bolivia is wonderfully cheap`...$1.80 for the 1.5 hour boat trip, $7.50 for fillet steak with roquefort sauce and all the trimmings and around $25 a night for B&B in a nice hostel.
Now in crazy La Paz - hundreds of thousands of tatty brick buildings lining a gorge in the high ´altiplano´ full of diesel fumes and people. Not pleasent but interesting!
Following in Katie and Shay´s footsteps I cycled down the famous Death Road yesterday while Sarah and travelling friends watched Bolovias biggest carnival pass by our hostel. The road descends 3500m through 21 climatic zones, from iced up waterfalls down to the jungle with monkeys and butterflies. I had to use the brakes quite a lot! I caught the end of the spectacular 12hr carnival procession ....I think Sarah had a great day and eventually managed to find her in a posh hotel with some friends finishing a bottle of Bolivian red and a meal of llama steak !
Today will try to pick our way through the urine stained streets to watch the all-female wrestling held every Sunday afternoon - and we thought they were all God fearing Catholics here!

Walking trees ...!

Well, there´s certainly something wrong with my shoes! After wadding through an Amazonian swamp in my running shoes they have a smell that can clear a room in seconds - must be some sort of tropical bacteria living in there I reckon. I´ll give you all a sniff when we get back if you like - just like rotting meat and certainly not just my sweaty feet!
Apart from that we largely had an idylic trip 1.5hrs up river from Puerto Maldonado in a narrow boat. Just like on the telly, apart from the monkey pee all down my T-shirt. Why me?
Hot and humid with tarantulas and crocigattors a plenty as well as spectacular butterflies and birds....oh yes, and we actually saw walking palm trees in the jungle. They weren´t actually in motion but they can walk on their roots to an area with better light!
Also spotted a huge new suspension bridge under construction in the town as part of the inter-ocean highway through the Amazon Basin. What is the world coming too?
Yesterday we arrived via plane and taxi to the Shangri-la location of the Sacred Valley, back close to Cusco in the high Andes. So nice to be in the mountain air again. Inca temples and ruins all around and the village has been virtually unchanged since Inca times so is very characterful with streams running down open channels in the narrow cobbled streets.
A lovely hostel and lovely people. Jumping on the train to Machu Picchu tomorrow....
Currently working on a solution to getting to Bolivia in a few days time. The Peru/Bolivia border at Lake Titicaca is closed by violent protesters who don´t want mining in the area. Maybe an expensive flight is the only solution??

Cut loose

What a strange feeling saying good bye to Katie and Shay last week as they headed off to Chile and London, leaving us alone together! They have been great parents to us as newbies in South America; but it was time for us to leave the nest! The phrase book is being used much more now and we seem to be lapsing into school French.
We have been in Cusco since last Thursday. Its a big city of terracota buildings - very old, extremely narrow streets which are cobbled with a deep drain in the centre. Lots of steps everywhere and we keep discovering new streets. It is the old Inca capital with lots of historical sites, walls etc and right in the middle of the Andes.
Tourism is huge here and we are continually hounded by locals trying to sell us massages, inca pots, woven belts, paintings or take photos of them with their babies tied to their back and clutching a cute lamb or alpaca wearing a colourful head band.
Spent the last few days relaxing and getting used to the altitude of 3400 metres. Haven't had any problems with it, though we do gasp for air when walking up the steep hills. Mark even went for a short run up to a viewpoint before breakfast today and didn't do too badly.
Lst night we weakened and ate a lovely classic roast followed by PG tips tea at an English cafe. They even had copies of some UK newspapers.(The Sun!) Also watched the Barcelona v Manchester united game in a pub with some very enthusastic spanish supporters.
We have been surprised that there are not many Kiwis in Peru. Most backpackers seem to be French. The Peruvians are lovely people and very interested in NZ, though you have to watch you back pocket due to some light fingered folk!
We're heading into the jungle tomorrow, 4 days in an eco-lodge surrounded by a huge range of wild animals and insects - even Tarantulas and snakes -  I'm not sure quite why we are going?????
Then onto the Sacred Valley of the Incas and onto the famed Machu Picchu by bus and train - in July it is the centenary of the American discovery of the site.
One surpise about Peru is the food - its is very varied and good quality. A drink of lemonade is freshly squeezed lemons with a topping of egg white on top. The cereals and varieties of corn are very tasty.
We learnt about the local 'Coca' leaf which we often drink as a tea or chew on at breakfast time.. It tastes very pleasant and is very high in vitamins and minerals, helps digestion and wards off altitude sickness plus is one of the original ingredients of Coca Cola. Once treated with various chemicals it becomes cocaine !

Thanks for your emails and messages. Great to be able to keep in touch.

Canyons, Condors and a Mule

Characterised by old colonial buildings, plazas and courtyards all built in white stone, Arequipa is Peru´s second city. Situated beneath several huge snowcapped volcanoes the city is surrounded by poor slums and the streets are packed full of tooting smelly taxis all day long.
We are still enjoying being with Katie and Shay, and have based ourselves here for quite a few days. Amongst other things we all visited the rather macabre museum display of the frozen body of a 12 year old Inca girl who was sacrificed on the summit of a nearby volcano over 500 years ago and discovered in 1995!
Yesterday (Sat) we completed a 3 day trek into the Colca Canyon some distance north of here - at over twice the depth of the Grand Canyon it is reputed to be the worlds deepest. We travelled by mini van over a high pass at a breathless 4900m and arrived at the canyons edge in a place where Condors nest, and were lucky enough to see half a dozen or more at close quarters as they rode the morning thermals. This was real Peru, with pre-Inca field terracing and the locals working the land in their traditional dress...and only traditional food available comprising of vegetable soup followed by diced vegetables with a few scraps of Alpaca amongst it if you were lucky. Anyway, this seemed sufficient to power us down the horribly loose and rocky paths into the base of the canyon and then onwards to travel between basic huts blessed with wonderful comfy beds.
Sarah did brilliantly well but the huge haul out back to the village on day 3 would have been very demanding so once we saw a mule was on offer she recognised this as a good option. At first light she joined a few others in setting off up the hill behind the rest of us who were on foot. It was a fantastic moment when she caught up with us and then tore ahead up the steep, rocky and exposed path ahead compltely at the mercy of this powerful beast! We weren´t sure who was more shattered when we reached the canyon rim!
Now having a few easy days and will head down the Cuzco Coffee Company (a Starbucks rip-off) for a coffee and a cake....

Culture shock in Peru

We are now in a lovely old city, Arequipa, at 2300 m altitude at the foot of some huge mountains and 5800m high volcano. Feels like we are on holiday at last and were grateful to have our first proper 8 hr sleep.
Lima was a shock -after our city of 45 000, a city of 9 million, most of them taxi drivers  tooting their horns. Food was excellent and fortuneately avoided eating the great delicacy of guinea pig as they had run out !!
We were keen to leave Lima but had to stay an extra day as the bus was cancelled due to a labour protest on the main road south.
Eventually arrived in an oasis in the middle of a real desert with massive sand dunes, no camels but two giant tortoises in the garden of our hostel. We did a sand buggy tour which was very exciting, being driven at high speed up and down the dunes and then stopping to sand board down the dunes. Katie and i came a cropper and were covered in sand but fortuntely not injured.
Its great having Katie and Shay with us - they are both able to communicate well in Spanish which has been most helpful as everyone is so friendly and it is frustrating not being able to say more then gracias and hola.
We re heading to a big canyon tomorrow to do a 3 day trek involving a 1000 m ascent to altitude of around 5000m.
We are now feeling more like backpackers  as we survived an overnight bus ride, did our washing in a bucket and are typing on a keyboard with most of the letters rubbed off!
Still can t believe we{re in Peru!
Keeping in touch by Mark s phone when we can get free internet at hostels.
Lve from us in Peru ; ))

Inspiration for the final week

"To dare is to lose foothold for a while
Not to dare is to lose oneself"
Soren Kierkegaard