Apparently the server that hosts these travel blogs crashed in August 2007 and their backup system is not perfect so I lost the text to my Inca Trail hike, one of the hightlights of this trip. Thanks to my own stupidity I neglected to back up my travel blog. I am so choked! !@$*($(@#$ Anyway, expletives won't bring back my blog so I am going to do my best to recall; however, it's going to be incomplete at best. (#&($&#@&, yes that feels good :-) and yes, I'll back up my stuff from now on. I woke up this morning refreshed, [View Full Entry]

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Day 2 in Cusco started again, of course, with a cup of cocoa tea. I felt a bit tired and a very mild headache, which I hoped was from my lack of sleep rather than the onset of altitude sickness. We started our ´city tour´with a driveby of the Cathedral, followed by the ruins at Sacsaywaman, aka sexywoman, Q´enqo and Tambomachay. Sacsaywaman must have been an impressive structure before it was dismembered to build the cathedral in Cusco. To this date people are amazed by how the Incas were able to shape and fit the giant rocks, some weighing tonnes, [View Full Entry]

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I was woken up before 0600hr this morning by a symphony of sounds from a variety of birds, some of which sound electronic, as well as the gutteral and throat-clearing sounds of nearby howler monkeys. Shortly after breakfast we made the long canoe+bus ride back to Puerto Maldonado. On the one hand I was happy to get out of the stiffling jungle heat, but on the other hand I think I would miss the tranquility and serenity (even though many things happen behind the scenes in the jungle). A short flight later we were back in Cusco. Many, if not [View Full Entry]

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We had to get up extra early (0400hr) so that we could get to a nearby lake in time to see the wildlife, including the resident river otters. Our wooden catamaran went along the edge of the lake. Despite the fact that it was still early morning and not very hot, mosquitos were already everywhere and feasting on us. I wore a long-sleeved shirt most of the time in the jungle and applied 30% DEET everywhere else that is exposed except my face, but still got bitten all over my neck and hands. We saw a number of birds, including [View Full Entry]

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We headed out early by flight to Puerto Maldonado, a frontier town in the southern Peruvian Amazon, via Cusco. The journey continued with a one-hour bus ride and a two-hour motorized canoe ride to our jungle lodge, Posadas Amazonas. As we are still in the tail ends of the rainy season, the muddy dirt road has many potholes, some of which made for very bumpy rides, to put it mildly. We had to help pull out a 4WD car stuck on the side of the road. We met our guides for the jungle excursion, Sally and Geraldine, and they offered [View Full Entry]

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This was a rather uneventful travelling day. I was scheduled to fly Edmonton->Vancouver->Toronto->Lima with around 1hr stopovers. I was quite surprised that there were no major problems with Air Canada, but I didn´t check my bags just in case. I arrived in Lima´s Jorge Chavez International Airport around 0100hr but didn´t actually get to the hotel until closer to 0200hr. Along the way the driver pointed out multiple times in broken English a fried chicken place called Norky´s, apparently better than KFC. At the hotel reception I was told that my room was occupied by someone wh [View Full Entry]

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