MJO

Today was our last day at the lodge, we were all up at 6:00am and went bird watching in the lagoon behind the lodge the same spot were we went Caiman spotting last night. The Irish girls didn’t turn up this morning as they did the tribal medicine thing (Shamanism) where you hallucinate from this drink that comes from some Jungle tree, it take the evil spirits out let's you see back in your past, see into your future, shows all the good and bad you have done and cleansers your soul. (Look it up in Google and have a read) It was another warm morning and plenty of wildlife around the lagoon with some funny looking birds, frogs and fish jumping. After about 40 minutes of the guide explaining the wildlife in the lagoon area ... read more

We were picked up by Mini Bus and then went and waited and waited for these other two girls who were also going with us to the lodge, the guide said they were just finishing breakfast, Yeh right, know women, they would still be pampering themselves as 2 minutes is 5 and 5 is 10. Sure enough we were right, these couple of girls were Irish around mid twenties and had the lipstick, eyeliner, hair done the works. . Come on girls we are heading to the jungle not the plaza! We introduced ourselves and we were off to have a quick walk around the Plaza De Armos and some other sites before catching the boat at the river. After our 30 minute tour we walked back to the office where there were other people waiting ... read more

This morning we woke at 4.30 to get our train to Agua Caliente which is far as you can go before Machu Picchu and is only accessible by train or by foot. Couldnt have a shower as they turn of all water late at night and not sure what time they turn it back on. We took the back packers carriage up there which fine, just like a normal carriage no ducks or chickens racing up and down the aile like I had thought. We could´nt see much at 5:30am but what I could see it was very good scenic 1:30 hour train trip. We arrived at Agua Caliente at 7:00am and a man was yelling out ORTIZ so we presumed he was our guide which he was. They led about a dozen of us to ... read more

we took one last look around Arequipa this morning before heading back to Annas. Both jeff and myself think Arequipa is great and would like to have maybe spent one more day here and spent a little more time discovering this fine old city. You can walk everywhere and once again felt safe at night. we only got asked twice if we wanted to buy any drugs but we thought nothing of it as you get this back at home. we got back to Annas just in time to catch our Taxi to the airport which is about 15 minutes out of town. At the airport we tried to get through security but they told us we needed to pay the departure tax first, which was about AU$6.00. After we went through customs for a domestic ... read more