Today is my last full day on the Island, so I elected to srive back to some of the sites I visited during the full day tour, in the hope of having those sites to myself or at least, without a horde of tourists like myself taking dozens and dozens of photos. My first stop was back at Rano Raraku, the Moai "nursery". This time, I just enjoyed walking alone amongst the Moai and taking a closer look, just absorbing more details that I had missed the first time round. After a while of just wandering aimlessly, I was approached by [View Full Entry]

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Today, I became a proud hiree of a Suzuki Vitara 4-wheel drive car. Never mind that I had no idea how to engage the 4-wheel drive bit, I was determined to explore the Island! After a tentaive test drive to the local supermarket to stock up for a picnic lunch (bread, cooked meat, cheese, soft drinks and chocolate) I headed out of town. It didn´t take long. Before I knew it, I had run out of paved road and was climbing up an extict volcano (at least I hoped it was extinct) and the "road" was becoming rougher with each passing [View Full Entry]

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Today, I elected to take an orientation tour around Easter Island, which was fabulous. It was great to have a guide explaining the sights and she was excellent in making sure I understood what was being said. The group was pretty small at 10 tourists and two guides. We split into two smaller groups of 5 at each site. The tour kicked off at Vinapu, very close to the airport for a single Moai, then we moved along the east coast, to Vaihu and Akahanga, both sites had Moai to admire, both unrestored. One had fallen. afterwards, we moved to the [View Full Entry]

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It is strange feeling, after travelling 2500 miles over nothing but the sea. Absolutely nothing below the plane except blue, both ground and air. 5 and a half hours later of nothingness, a tiny speck of volcanic rock appears. The Boeing descends so low over the sea I was warming up my arms for swimming. Luckily, the pilot was a more confident person than I and we landed on solid surface, a bare 5 metres from the sea. Welcome to Hanga Roa. The airport is nothing more than a tin shack with two rooms - arrivals and departures. A bare few [View Full Entry]

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Tomorrow, I leave for Easter Island, but thought you might like a quick overview of Santiago before hearing all about the mysteries of Rapa Nui. Santiago is a great city, completely surrounded by mountains, many of them snow-capped. The city centre is very easy for even a map-illiterate like me to find my way round. Have not got lost once and am secretly rather proud of that! Plaza D´Armas is the noisiest place I think I´ve ever been in. There are loudspeakers attched to every street lamp, and there a rather a lot of those, blaring out PA notices and dodgy [View Full Entry]

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After a great soak in sulphuric-scented hot baths at the top end of Aguas Calientes, I slept extremely well. Perhaps the nice, strong G&T I knocked back whilst soaking in hot water at the baths helped... The only problem with the baths was the colour of the water - a particularly unattractive shade of vomit-green with a nice scent of eau dé sulphur thrown in, it was hard to feel clean afterwards, so had a hot shower back at the hotel. I will say one thing, my skin has not felt so soft in a long time! This morning, we rushed [View Full Entry]

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Today we moved from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, a four-hour train journey through a canyon with the Urubamba river flowing. This time, we went backpacker class although the train went past the Hiram Bingham, a sort of Peruvian vresion of the Orient Express. Costs a cool 500 US Dollars to ride on that train. Upon arrival at Aguas Calientes, we dashed to our hotel, dumped everything and reported promptly for the first trip to Machu Picchu, armed with cameras and spare batteries. The fleet of buses were surprisingly efficient and we had not long to wait before we were tearing round [View Full Entry]

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Naturally, we had to have a good base in Cusco, and we found one in the Cross Keys Pub, owned by a certain Mr Barry Walker MBE. Now, this place is very special for no reason other than it served some lovely, home brews such as Abbot Ale, Greene King´s IPA and Old Speckled Hen. The place was only marginally more classy than a certain other Cross Keys Pub near Hull in the UK, but nonetheless an excellent watering hole for UK beers. I savoured every drop of my pints of Speckled Hen and Abbot Ale! The walls are adorned with [View Full Entry]

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We spent the next two days exploring Cusco, a fascinating city, at 3400 metres, a whole 200metres lower than La Paz. First day, we visited Saqsaywaman, a fascinating fort above the city with the usual accroutments of local beliefs in the Sun & Moon, an astronomy tower. It would have been a large complex housing several thousands of people. On the same hill was a Statute of Christ the Redeemer overlooking the city. He had a stunning view of Cusco as did we all. The bus then took us down to Sacred Valley and a market in Pisac. It´s extremely colourful. [View Full Entry]

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Today, we had an obscenely early wake-up call to visit the Funeral Towers of Sillustani before catching the 8am "express" to Cusco. While we grumbled about it, the Funeral Towers proved to be well worth a look. Perched on the banks of the Lake, the 15th Century Funeral Towers are in relatively poor condition - not only destroyed by the Spanish Conquestors but also Mother Nature by lightning storms. The part we visited was strictly for the high-borns and priests. Soldiers and other props of the State were buried on a nearby hill - in the dawn light, we could (just) [View Full Entry]

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