Blogger Dougo So, I am sitting on the couch, trying to ignore the pile of homework books that need marking before tomorrow and I pick up my laptop to read the write-up on the AFL prelim final between St Kilda and Hawthorn. Having just watched the game at a mate's place next door, I thought it might be nice to hear what the critics have to say about a very one-sided game of football. Next thing I feel is the sofa shake. Not a huge shake, just a wobble. It went on for about three or four seconds and then [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo The day had finally arrived. Since running out of cash last year and having to head home straight after the Cricket World Cup, bypassing Peru, we have been building up to this moment. The day we start to trek the Inca Trail. We had an early start this morning, our bus picking us up at 6 am. It was freezing cold and the bus had never known heating. We drove for an hour through what is known as the Sacred Valley for its abundance of Inca sites. Most of us snuggled into our fleeces and tried to catch [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec and Dougo Has there ever been a bigger tribute to the manufactors of outdoor gear than the streets of Cusco?? North Face, Quecha, Kathmandu, Mountain Designs, Macpac, Berger, Doite, Deuter, Osprey: scruffy backpackers cheek by jowl with popcorn eaters (luxury tourists), Cusco is a heaving mass of outdoor consumerism. And it ain´t in the shops folks, it´s on the back/feet/scalp/chest/pocket of every gringo that you pass on the overcrowded streets. Jungle - check. Mountain - check. Ancient Incan ruins - check. Spanish cathedrals - check. You want it, Cusco has it and it [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec Early this morning we waved goodbye to Esteban and journeyed back to Puno for a day of touring and checking out the local sights. In actuality, we slept in a lovely warm bed and watched cable TV all afternoon! Sad but true. Sometimes you just need a bit of comfort and a rest! At 7pm, we all assembled in the hotel foyer and headed out to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Gasper (our leader) had booked us a big table at a lovely restaurant and we ordered a couple of bottles of Peruvian wine to share with everyone. Once [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec We´ve survived one year of marriage! Yay for us!! So, how did we celebrate making it through 365 days of each other? We went to stay on an isolated island in the middle of the world´s highest lake with a family who spoke no English, slept in a creaky old bed in freezing cold temperatures and it was SENSATIONAL! We started our two day journey with a charted boat trip to the Uros islands in the middle of Lake Titikaka. These islands are constructed from reeds and are completely free standing (floating). About 3 families live on each [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec Early, crack of dawn, sparrow´s start this morning for a long bus ride to the depths of Colca Canyon to see the famed Andean condors - filthy ugly yet majestic creatures found only in the Canyon. The ride to the condor lookout was spectacular. Incan terraces lined the cliffs and tiny villages dotted the countryside. The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky. Many of us were still a little shaky from the very high altitude but we were compos mentus enough to take in the scenery. I think the photos speak for themselves but suffice [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec This morning we drove from Arequipa to the amazing Colca Canyon - a beautiful drive spoiled a little by our REAL dose of altitude sickness. About 15 minutes into our 6 hour journey, we stopped at a shop to buy some coca leaves - a natural remedy to alievate the symptoms of altitude sickness. They taste horrible (like a wheatgrass shot only stronger and without the OJ chaser!) and you have to bundle them up with a piece of soft ash in order to digest the juices properly. The leaves kickstart your saliva glands, making your mouth water. [View Full Entry]

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Arequipa is a lovely town in the middle of Peru at a fairly high altitude (about 2,500m above sea level) which meant we had our first taste of travel at high altitute. At that point, we just felt a little more tired than usual and had a wee headache, fixed by drinking lots of water. Unless we had read up on it, we would have just put the symptoms down to general travel tiredness. We had two major sights on our itinerary for Arequipa - the Santa Catalina monastery and the mummified remains of adolescent girl, Juanita - a sacrificial offering [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo Today we awoke in our hotel in Nazca early to be ready for the transfer to the airport to view the Nazca lines. Unfortunately, we walked out our hotel room to be greated by a thick blanket of fog covering the town (and surrounding area). So we waited. We played cards, taught a few of our group members our new found passion, Shithead. We waited. The bloody fog hung around until 12 noon when it cleared to be an absolutely perfect blue sky day. At 12:30pm we finally got our bus transfer to the small, light plane airport [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec Day 2 of our trip saw us visit the amazing Ballestas Islands, off the coast of Paracas, about 4 hours south of Lima. (Normally, tourists stay in Pisco, a major town, but due to the major earthquake there late last year, it was not possible. Pisco is still being rebuilt, a very slow process, but one helped immeasureably by NGO´s and the local government.) After an early start, we walked about 1km to the boat dock where once suitably life jacketed up alongside about 25 other cameraweilding tourists, we set off in a speed boat. About 10 minutes [View Full Entry]

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