With everyone safely back from their
holiday in the Galapagos it was time to hit the road again and head
through Ecuador's Volcano Valley though the little town of Banos with
its thermal pools to somewhere called “Pequeno Paraiso” or little
paradise, a camp in the small village of Rio Verde perched on the
side of a green valley. We had a bit of rain due to the El Nino that
had hit and changed around all the weather patterns of the area but
that didn't dampen most people's spirits as they explored the area,
headed off zip lining or confined themselves to the beautiful
campsite to explore the amazing bird life in the area.
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| Camp - Rio Verde |
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| Team zip-line |
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| Roberta |
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| Paul & Roberta at the "catch your own lunch" trout restaurant |
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| No-one went hungry |
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| Exploring the area's waterfalls |
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| Just some of our camp neighbours - Bronzy Inca Hummingbird |
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| Tawny-bellied owl |
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| Cock of the Rock - Peru's national bird, on holiday in Ecuador! |
Waving goodbye to Ecuador we headed
down the coast of Peru and back to a rather lovely camp which we had
visited before on our way North, which no one was too upset to visit
again, being a picture perfect beach paradise, camping on the sand
and drinking tasty cocktails at the beach bar while the sun set over
the Pacific Ocean.
Some of us headed down the coast to
explore, some enjoyed the waves and warm water, some even went
swimming with sea turtles, which was fun, if a little unnerving when
they swam in to your legs and nibbled your knees. An amazing
experience all round.
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| Camping on the beach north of Punta Sal |
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| Exploring the coast |
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| Tuk-tuking down the Pan-American Pacific Highway |
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| Too much fun was had swimming with sea turtles to bother taking any photos, that's what Google is for! Thanks Google! |
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| Pacific sunsets are the best |
Next up was another beach town, this
time the famous surf spot of Huanchaco, just outside the city of
Trujillo. Aside from beaches, excellent ceviche (cured fish) and
surfing our main reason for visiting was to go to the local ruins
left by previous civilisations that called this area home. Our first
stop was the ruins at Chan Chan, a royal palace built by the Chimu
people, not long before the arrival of the Spanish. The coast is
littered with these royal palaces as each King would build his own
which would then be turned in to his tomb when he died and sealed
forever. The last built is the best preserved and has been
reconstructed to give a sense of the vastness of the place in its
heyday and the complexity of the civilisation which was later
subsumed in to the Inca empire, 4 years before the Spanish came and
wiped out the lot of them.
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| Chan Chan main square |
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| Palace walls |
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| The pale mountains in the distance, the only source of water in this desert |
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| Tour of Chan Chan |
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| Offices for diplomatic and clerical workers in the palace |
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| Earthquake-proof walls built like trapezoids |
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| Walking the walls |
After that we visited the Pyramid of
the Moon, or 'Huaca de la Luna,' much older than Chan Chan it was
built by the Moche civilisation between 100 and 800 AD. In a similar
pattern to Chan Chan the pyramid grew as one layer was buried by the
next over many years, which gives an amazing cross section of the
development of the civilisation. The most impressive part is the
painted outside of the pyramid, this is where we were also shown the
mural of mysteries, a beautiful mural with lots of pictures whose
meaning is unknown, most strangely of all it contains a picture of a
Northern European style king wearing a crown, something not seen here
until the Spanish arrived many years later.
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| The painted layers of the Huaca (pyramid) |
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| The face of the creator god |
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| The mural of mysteries - all very Indiana Jones |
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| Paul & Mike |
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| The pier at Huanchaco |
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| Another day, another Pacific sunset |
Leaving the coastal desert behind and
heading briefly in to the mountains we made our way to the town of
Huaraz, nestled in the snow-capped mountains of the Cordillera
Blanca. This was a good chance for some of us to stretch our legs and
prepare for our forthcoming hikes down near Machu Picchu and Cusco by
heading out on a walk to the oddly named Laguna 69. It was a tough
hike, some of the group retired gracefully at “Laguna 68” but the
views for everyone made it all worthwhile.
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| Kaye |
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| Stunning views |
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| Making friends on the hike |
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| Old "tambos" (storage houses) |
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| Steve |
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| Louisa & Kaye at... "Laguna 68" |
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| Mike |
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| Gen & Sarah |
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| Laguna 69 |
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| Celebrating reaching the lake |
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| Paula & John |
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| Gen & Mike |
The drive out of Huaraz is pretty
stunning too. It also gave us a chance to enjoy the local political
campaign paintings, due to high levels of illiteracy in rural Peru
symbols to represent the politicians are used when it comes to
voting. Which means you have the rather exciting choice of voting for
a spade, some corn, a lion in a door or a cat. After some
deliberation and absolutely no research in to politics we have
decided that we are all voting for the cat, because cats are already
in charge anyway.
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| The stunning drive out of Huaraz |
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| A vote for the cat is a vote for the people |
Heading back to the coast we spent the
night at the beautiful Reserva Lachay, a set of remarkable hills
that, during the misty season between May and December, soak up the
moisture in the air and turn bright green, a unique sight in the
otherwise barren desert. We were there as the mist was beginning and
the hills were showing their first signs of greening. It made for a
rather mist-erious bushcamp as the hills disappeared around us in to
the thick white fog.
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| Setting up camp in Lanchay |
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| Steve, Roberta, Gen & Lee |
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| The mist descends |
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| The beginnings of the "greening" |
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| Jesus & Kaye in the mist |
Another day another bushcamp, passing
the chaos of Lima and heading through more stunning desert we stopped
for the night in another nature reserve, this time Reserva Paracas, a
unique coastal area that has been protected from development and
boasts some amazing coastal scenery. We camped for the night on the
beach, whipping up a quick lasagne on the fire, ably abetted by a
good coastal wind to fan the flames and watching the sun go down over
the ocean, again, it's a hard life really!
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| Exploring Reserva Paracas with the vultures |
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| The amazing coast of Peru |
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| The coast of Paracas |
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| Setting up tents |
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| Emma on the beach |
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| Reserva Paracas campsite |
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| Steve, Louisa & Claire at sunset |
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| Sunset |
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| Cook group |
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| The lasagne cooking in the potjie - a South African camp oven |
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| Mmm... potjie lasagne is always a hit! |
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| Ithaca and dinner by the campfire |
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| We love a good bush camp |
In the morning we were lucky enough to
head out to the Ballestas Islands on a boat trip, they are often
called 'Peru's answer to the Galapagos' and whilst not quite so
astounding as their Ecuadorian counterparts they are still home to
some pretty amazing wildlife. They are also one of a string of
locations through Peru which are used for the collection of so called
'White Gold' or guano (or bird poo) which is a fantastic fertiliser
and is has been shipped from Peru around the world for hundreds of
years, and the islands are certainly home to lots of it and the
rather pungent accompanying smell!
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| In Paracas town, waiting for the boat and admiring the local hairless dogs, poor things |
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| Claire, Simon, Kaye & Emma on the boat to the islands |
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| Pelicans |
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| The candelabra, or cactus, put there by Spanish Pirates, or an ancient civilisation, or the Paracas tourism board as suggested by the more cynical members of the group! |
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| Louisa |
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| Peruvian Boobies |
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| The rocks are turned white by the droppings, or guano, arguably the best fertiliser in the world |
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| Humbolt Penguins |
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| Sally Lightfoot Crab |
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| Starfish |
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| Sealion |
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| The Brighton Beach of the sealion world |
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| Baby sealion drinking its mother's milk |
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| Does my breath smell of fish? |
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| The amazing birds of the Ballestas Islands |
Back on dry land we had our shortest
drive of the trip so far to the sand dunes around the town of Ica and
the desert oasis of Huacachina. This was our starting point for a
trip out in to the dunes in buggies which hurled themselves up and
down the dunes, much to our delight, through the amazing landscape,
interspersed with stops for sand-boarding on our bellies down the
enormous dunes at high speed which resulted in a lot of fun,
screaming and sand in places we didn't know sand could get! We then
headed to a lovely spot at the bottom of a sand dune valley to spend
the night, with a BBQ, a big vat of Pisco Sours (Peru's national
drink) and a night sleeping out under the stars and a full moon. So
all in all rather a special day!
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| Huacachina Oasis |
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| Heading into the dunes (at speed) with the oasis of Huacachina disappearing behind us |
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| Sand boarding time |
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| Simon takes the plunge |
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| Re-waxing the boards for another go |
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| Ali heads back up for another go |
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| Beautiful dunes |
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| The clouds sit over the Andes mountains in the distance |
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| Chris |
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| Sunset |
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| Photo-bombing Steve & Louisa's romantic sunset photo |
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| Ali plays in the sand |
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| Our home for the night |
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| Wayne does a mechanical inspection |
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| Simon tucks in to dinner |
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| Dawn on the dunes |
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| Waking up on a sandy bed |
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| David |
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| A great sight to wake up to |
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| Our full-ish moon |
Setting off with a few sore heads on
board (Pisco-related) we made our way down the coast for our final
stop on the Pacific beaches at Puerto Inka, a pretty little campsite
set in a bay which used to be an important fishing village during the
time of the Incas (hence the name!) What used to be a bustling
fishing port is now just ruins scattered with human remains exposed
by grave robbers looking for gold and it serves as a reminder of the
total devastation of an entire civilisation by the Spanish
Conquistadores. We were able to explore the ruins and fall asleep
listening to the sound of the crashing Pacific waves in this
beautiful spot.
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| Puerto Inka campsite |
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| An exposed grave |
Heading inland the next day it was time
for a bit of class and luxury in the beautiful city of Arequipa.
Feeling much more European than most of Peru it was where many of the
wealthy Spanish settled in the South of the country, building a city
so beautiful that it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Arequipa
has survived numerous earthquakes and been restored to its former
glory. One of the best sights in town has to be the Santa Catalina
Convent, a citadel within the city which has been home to thousands
of nuns over the years. It was the convention for the rich families
of the town to send their 2nd daughter there, which was
harsh on the 2nd daughters but in actual fact it was often
a better option than an arranged marriage to often a much older man.
The nuns built for themselves a community of educated women with
servants, private quarters, jobs teaching young girls who they often
raised like their own children and even visitors from outside, most
of which was expressly forbidden by the Vatican, but in this far away
outpost of Catholicism they got away with it for a long time until
the Pope finally put his foot down. It's a beautiful place to explore
and the stories of the nuns are fascinating.
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| Driving to Arequipa, Mt Misti is the cone volcano in the distance, under which sits Arequipa |
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| Mt Misti |
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| Arequipa - the White City |
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| The entrance to the convent - the novices had to spend the first 3 years in complete silence |
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| Nun's private quarters |
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| Views over the citadel |
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| Gen getting in touch with her religious side |
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| One of the Convent's nuns is being considered for sainthood. This is the horrible device she would flagellate herself with! |
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| The nuns now live in a modern wing and make cake for the convent cafe! |
Onwards and upwards it was time to head
to Chivay and over the highest pass that Ithaca will reach on our
journey at 4888m above sea level. We are slowly building our
resistance to altitude in preparation for hiking around Machu Picchu,
even just being at altitude can be tough, let alone hiking, but the
longer you spend up there there better adjusted you get. We stopped
for some high altitude photos and a breathless lunch before
descending to the town of Chivay below at a chilly 3600m.
Chivay is the gateway to the beautiful
Colca Canyon, allegedly bigger than the Grand Canyon in the USA, it
is a huge fertile valley littered with old Inca terraces to make the
steep land farmable and a great place to see the famous Andean
Condors riding the thermals as the land warms in the morning sun,
which is exactly what we did!
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| Top of the pass, with the 6,000m volcano in the background |
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| It's cold up here, Ali's new Peruvian gloves |
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| Kaye in the Colca Canyon |
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| Kaye, Sarah, Emma & Gen |
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| Local kids do traditional dances for tips on the road |
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| A local lady in traditional dress |
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| Beautiful Colca |
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| Emma looks up for condors |
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| What a road! |
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| Condor spotting |
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| The ultimate selfie-stick opportunity - condor selfie! |
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| There's one! |
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| A few too many condor photos follow, they are spectacular creatures with a wingspan up to 3m wide. Irresistably photogenic! |
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| Condor piggyback |
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| Up close and personal |
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| A gringo-condor hybrid, a "Gringor" |
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| Steve & Louisa |
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| Down in the village, local children dance for the tourists |
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| Gen gets to know the locals |
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| Little girl and baby alpaca |
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| A man's best friend is his alpaca |
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| Louisa hanging out with Llama |
Cusco was beckoning, but we had one
last stop before we headed to the 'Navel of the World.' A stunning
drive across the mountains took us to the small village of Raqchi,
which in Quechua means 'ceramic' as this, for generations, has been a
traditional site for pottery making. The villagers welcomed us in to
their village and their homes for the night and we had the chance to
experience their way of life, their food in their beautiful adobe
homes, their beliefs in a traditional evening blessing using coca
leaves, calling on Pachamama, the Earth mother, to bring us good
luck, a ceramic demonstration and the chance to buy some of the
souvenirs made by the families who had hosted us. We also visited the
ruins of old Raqchi, an important site for the Incas for food storage
and a control post on the Inca trail coming from the South, not to
mention the impressive Temple of Wiracocha, the creator God. A fun
time was had by all, especially when we got the chance to dress up in
the traditional handmade clothes of the village for our evening
blessing and dance around the fire.
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| David makes friends at a fuel station on our way to Raqchi |
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| Raqchi village square |
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| Settling into our homes for the night |
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| Ithaca hanging out at the edge of the village |
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| One of the houses is decorated with the traditional trilogy of animals sacred to the Incas, The Puma, Condor and Snake. The traditions of that lost civilisation live on in the indigenous Peruvians today |
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| The Temple of Wiracocha |
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| Wheat growing in the fields |
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| Inca-redible stonework uses no mortar, the stones are shaped to fit |
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| Touching the "stones of duality" for luck by the temple |
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| Emma gets dressed up |
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| Our young host Juri helps us get ready |
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| Gen discovered the twirling powers of the heavy hand-embroidered skirts |
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| Kaye |
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| Our local guide to the evening's party |
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| All dressed up for the evening! |
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| Wayne and David |
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| Helen |
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| Getting the fire going |
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| Wayne |
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| Simon and Emma use some of the Salsa moves they learnt in Colombia, quite difficult in a poncho and large hat! |
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| Skirt wars |
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| Our morning alarm call - time for ceramics! |
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| They are made using local volcanic sand which makes them very strong |
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| Chris has a go |
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| So does Simon |
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| What they should look like |
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| Gen's is less impressive, I think it's a Llama |
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| Shopping time at the market |
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| Incas vs Conquistadores chess |
The last few weeks have been a
whirlwind of amazing sights, hence the number of photos in this blog!
From snow covered mountains to endless sand dunes, Ecuador and Peru
have delighted us over and over and every day has brought a new
surprise and a new landscape to amaze us. Our cameras have had a good
workout, as have our lungs with the increasing altitude! Cusco awaits
and our last few days in Peru before we head on to Bolivia and all
the delights that it holds in store, I don't know if our memory cards
can cope!
