Geo: -15.84, -70.05We could not decide if we should go to Lake Titicaca or not. We have heard very mixed reviews of it and having been there, I get it. It is a beautiful lake – the highest navigatible lake in the world. And they have created a tourist experience that is downright bizarre. First of all, every tour operator offers the exact same 2 or 3 packages. There are literally hundreds of the exact same boats that pile up with tourists all within an hour of each other and plow out to a series of islands inhabited by indigenous people who have built their islands from reeds. The experience is completely contrived down to the ladies singing a song in Quechua, one in Spanish then singing 'Row Row Your Boat' in a form of English ... read more

Geo: -13.2646, -72.2658The Incas couldn't have had bad knees. They must have been a very mighty people to have built all these structures, worked and lived amongst them and fought to protect them as well as conquer other groups of people. We are in awe. Before we came here we saw pictures and watched some videos and none of those enabled us to understand what we now have experienced. As I write this blog entry I am sitting on a rooftop deck of the hostal in which we are staying. I am surrounded by mountains many of which have people who are as small as ants clamouring around the immaculately laid stone ruins. Jim is one of those ants…able to climb the vertical stairways even after Machu Picchu. Not me. I am saving my knees for ... read more

Geo: -13.52, -71.99The funniest thing happened after our last post when I was whinging…We got up at 4:45am to make a hasty trip to the Piura, Peru airport. The Taca website instructions were to be at the airport 3 hours prior to our domestic flight. Really?! We figured 2.5 hours would be fine so we arrived at 5:30. Much to our chagrin, the gates to the airport complex didn't even open until 6:00 so we had to wait on the street. We boarded our plane late at about 8:30, settled into our executive class seats that we found on the internet at half the price of economy and the only 2 seats to be found at that price, and were served with a lovely glass of orange juice. The captain made an announcement in Spanish only, ... read more

Geo: -1.47201, -78.327This is a quick entry. We spent a couple of days in Banos. Tried out the thermal baths for which the town is named. I have to say it is a bit creepy bathing with a crowd of strangers (we all had bathing suits on)!We are on a constant search for good coffee and mostly, cannot find it. Although in Banos, we not only found decent coffee we also found the best breakfast ever - fruit, yoghurt, pancakes and cane syrup served on a rooftop terrace surrounding by mountains with Volcano Tungarahua (http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/tungurahua/news.html + http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067811/Four-villages-evacuated-volcano-begins-erupt-Ecuador.html) looming in the background. Our main adventure here was taking a local bus up, up, up past the small village of Runtun to a lookout that offered clear views of the volcano which is usually shrouded in clouds but ... read more

Geo: 0.005493, -78.7225Mindo, Mindo, Mindo…wow!Mindo is a haven for birdwatchers. For us, it was a rest stop – some needed down time after 2.5 weeks going non-stop in addition to the craziness of Edmonton (Donna), work (Jim) and packing before we even started our trip! Little did we know what was in store for us here.We began our stay by checking into a hostel called Caskaffesu – an oasis with a garden, great coffee (finally), lovely music playing in the restaurant and the most welcoming hosts in Susan, Luis, their 3 dogs and all their staff. We chilled out for a couple of days catching up on our blog writing, reading, and processing photographs. We also did some hiking to the waterfalls including a hair-raising ride on a tram about 150 feet above the forest canopy. ... read more