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Published: December 7th 2006
Everyone's gone to Tena
One of our guides, Livio, with some of the kids who were left in charge of the villageI've been doing so much over the past month or so, that I've not had the chance to update - every day has been different, so make yourself a cup of tea and here goes:
We left Quito for Otavalo with the new group - 4 of us from the previous trip and 6 new people. We had already been to Otavalo with the previous trip, but because it was advertised as part of the next section, we had to go back, although really only ended up spending an afternoon and a night there. From there it was an all day drive to Misahualli, over pretty bumpy roads. We parked the truck by the river and got a boat to where we were staying for our three night jungle trip - the worryingly titled Anaconda Lodge, although we were assured that there were no anacondas around. We were staying in fairly basic cabins, but the hospitality, amazing food and activities that were on offer more than made up for it. On the first day, we went on a walk through the rainforest with a guide who showed us lots of different plantsm insects and other things which I now can't
Ecuadorian rainforest
Proof that the rainforest has hills, we'd scrambled up here. This could be the Rip Napo which we were staying on, or a tributary remember, but it was all really interesting. The only slight problem with the rain forest is that it's not flat - there were lots of hilly paths which we huffed and puffed our way up and then slipped and slid our way back down again. Definitely worth it though to get into the more dense parts of the rainforest. Then we had lunch by the river and passed a house where there was a huge tarantula living in the beams of the roof (didn't get too close) on our way to a pool which had caimans living in it. The guides threw some chicken feet on a long string to attract them up out the water, but one of them must have just eaten, as it just sat with the chicken feet on it's head, not even bothering to eat them.
The second day we went on another rainforest walk, where it - believe it or not - rained. The last half hour of this walk involved walking along a fairly shallow river - it came up to about thigh height at the deepest part - in our swimming gear and wellies. Luckily there was no one about to
Lunch stop
Stopping for lunch after a jungle walk. this was the boat that we travelled everywhere in see us. We then visited a small museum further down the river, where the guides showed us different aspects of Quechuan life, and then we went to an animal rescue place, which had a lot of animals and birds that had been injured or picked up being illegally transported out the country - lots of monkeys, parrots, a couple of ocelots and funny animals that I can't remember the name of. In the evening, a local shaman came out to perform a cleansing ceremony on a couple of people who were up for it, with the rest of us sitting around the fire watching. It was really interesting, and his chanting and whistling was really mesmerising in a way, although it was a bit of a distraction that the smoke he used to blow over people came from a fag, and it didn't really set the scene at the start when we were all sat round apprehensively, not really sure what to expect, and he couldn't get his lighter to work. But it was still really interesting to experience and hear about - it's a big part of Quechuan life, and they're really seen as healers, and are the people
The group
Everyone with their faces painted with achote, just before we went rafting. I'm looking slightly concerned at someone else using my camera! who know the most about the medicinal qualities of the local plant life.
The next morning we went to a school and a house where chicha (a maize beer) was made. But as there was a fiesta in Tena, the nearest big town, the school was closed because all the teachers were at the fiesta and there were no adults at all in the village, only the kids were left. So 'everybody's gone to Tena' has become a bit of an expression with us when there's no one around. We went into a house where there would normally be about 25 people living, and the kids - with the help of the guides - showed us how they made chicha, which we were then offered. (It's made in different strengths, so it's normal for kids to drink the weaker version). Having seen some of the younger kids grab handfuls of the mixture, run about with it, chew it and then put it back before it was offered to us to try, we were ever so slightly tentative, but nobody seemed to come down with anything! We then got Quechuan symbols painted on our faces with achote, a plant kind
of like a lychee, which has red dye inside. There was then a raft trip down the river back to the lodge, which took about an hour, and involved the group travelling on 2 balsa log rafts. I decided to opt out due to my inability to save my life should I fall in the water, so I travelled in the normal boat and took photos of the rafts for everyone, and handed them cans of beer as and when they needed it. I also had a good chat with the boat driver, and amazed myself at how much I could speak and understand in Spanish, so at least I'm getting by a bit better in Spanish now, although still got a long way to go.
That evening, one of the guys who worked at the lodge had recently started up a Quechuan folk band so they played for us, and 3 of his kids danced. We were warned at the start that the music might sound a bit repetitive to our ears - no kidding, it was the same tune all night, although apparently the words were different. This was the first time the kids had 'danced' with
The Pan American Highway
Through most of Peru we're travelling on the road that goes from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, and this is what a lot of the landscape along the Peruvian coastline looks like the band, which basically involved coming over at the start of each song and dragging us up on the dance floor then leaving us to work out what the dance was! Needless to say, everyone started moving further and further back and there was a lot of careful calculation as to when the best time to go to the toilet was. It was all part of the experience, but 2 hours of having to dance to the same tune makes for a long night!
The jungle trip was great though, definitely one of the highlights so far. It was great to travel everywhere by riverboat, and get up in the morning and see beautiful butterflies and a family of capuchin monkeys on the way to breakfast. The guy who ran the lodge, Adonis, was a great story teller, and the 2 Quechuan guides were great, so we learnt a lot about Quechuan life in the jungle as well.
The next day we drove to Banos, where we stayed at a campsite about 10km outside of the town, in a very beautiful spot overlooking a river, although to have a look at the river, you had to climb down
Chan chan
The Royal Palace in the ruined adobe city a steep path and 3 ladders on the canyon face to get on to the viewing platform. Managed to do it once, but didn't feel the need to do it again! The following day a few of us went on a horse ride to a lookout point high above the town. It took about 4 hours in total, although my horse wasn't quite as docile as previous horse rides - it let me know who was boss by bucking when we were still going through the town, and then every so often would take a lunge at another horse to bite it. So my horseriding days have been shelved for the moment, I think I'll take a break for a while! It was a really beautiful route though, and a very steep path down for the last hour which shut the horse up a bit.
We then went to Cuenca where we just had one full day, so had a bit of a wander round - didn't do anything special, but it was a nice town to pass a day, and had a more European feel to it, was a bit more like a Spanish or Portugese town.
Chan chan wall
Sea otter detail on a wall at Chan Chan We then left Ecuador and crossed over into Peru, which is bit of a strange border crossing, because the border itself is right in the middle of a market. We made for Punta Sal on the Peruvian coast, and the difference with Ecuador was obvious almost immediately - everything became very dry and desert like. We camped on the beach at Punta Sal for a couple of nights, and it was just good to be somewhere really hot and sunny, after being in the mountains of Ecuador where the weather was a bit more variable.
We drove from there to Huanchaco, and on the way went to the Sipan museum which has amazing gold artefacts from a number of tombs which have been discovered fairly recently. Huanchaco is famous for the reed boats which the fisherman use - basically a bundle of reeds tied together - and for being near the ruined adobe city of Chan Chan, which covers a 9km sq area. We visited a couple of the temples in the main complex, and then went to the temple of the moon at the base of a mountain, all of which was amazing. It was either the Moche
or Chimu civilisation which was responsible, but I can't remember which, I've got a bit mixed up between them.
We went from Huanchaco to Lima, which I was a bit apprehensive about, as I'd heard from a few people that it wasn't very pleasant, but I like it a lot. Right enough, we just stuck to the touristy areas, as it's fairly risky not to, but we visited Chinatown on the first evening we were there and had a fantastic meal, and then just had a bit of a wander the next day, visited the Cathedral and all that kind of stuff. We stood outside the main Parliament for the changing of the guard, which appeared to start, and some Trumpton-like soldiers came out and marched about a bit but then there was an announcement that it had been cancelled! So don't know what was going on, but there seemed to be a lot of riot police about, so maybe they thought something was about to kick off.
The next day was the best day so far - we drove from Lima to the coast where we went on a boat trip to the Ballestas Islands, about 30
Pelicans
on the Ballestas Islands mins off the coast. These are big rocky outcrop islands where there are pelicans, penguins, some local birds like the Peruvian booby (looked like a gannet to me) and lots of sea lions. The boat was able to get in really close to see everything, and the best part was when we came round a corner to a whole beach covered in sea lions. When we came in closer, they all started moving off the beach into the sea to come closer up tot he boat for a good look. After we'd come back from the boat trip, we went to a Pisco vineyard / distillery for a tour and obviously got to sample all the different types at the end. We could have done without sampling it neat, it's like paintstripper, but Pisco sours, made with lemon, sugar and egg whites are going down very well.
We then went to an oasis in the desert, which wasn't really as nice as it sounds - it was quite developed, and the water was really dirty - but from there we went in dune buggies into the desert to go sandboarding and camp for the night. The dune buggies were driven
Sea lions on beach
They all started moving off the beach as the boat came closer. You can see a couple of males in the photo, the big ones! by crazy drivers, and it really was like being on a roller coaster, we'd drive over the top of dunes where it felt like a sheer drop on the other side! It was definitely a hands in the air experience, but was really good fun. Then we got out to do some sandboarding, which is quite difficult at first, but I was beginning to get the hang of it at the end. It was a good laugh, and everyone really enjoyed it. Then we drove to a lookout point where we watched the sunset, then set up camp in a hollow, had a barbecue and then the dune buggy guys got their guitars out and we had some music and dancing - definitely the best day so far!
The next day we drove to the Nazca lines, where we stopped off at the viewing platform built by the woman who studied them for 52 years. From the platform you can see a couple of the shapes that have been formed by moving the rocks which cover the surface out the way. I had thought they were going to be a lot bigger than they were - I'd thought that
you really had to see from the air because they were so big, stretching out across the desert, but they're not. I hadn't really been that bothered about seeing them anyway, so I decided not to go up in the plane to see them the next morning, as it cost quite a bit and apparently could make you feel sick with all the flipping about the plane did to let everyone in it see.
That day we went to Chaugchilla burial ground (spelling could be way out, don't have the ticket with me to check) where a number of mummified bodies have been found in tombs. They've been preserved because it's so dry there - average rainfall is for 2 hours a year. There are hundreds of tombs in the site, with maybe about 20 that you can look into, but grave robbers often got there before the archaeologists, and as they were looking for textiles and ceramics, they would just throw the body to one side. This has the effect of the surface of the whole area being covered in fragments of human bones, quite creepy, especially when you get a rib bone stuck between your foot and
sandal. We then drove to Puerto Inca on the coast, and arrived there late afternoon, and went for a walk up to the Inca ruins there. This was linked to Macchu Picchu, and was the source of fish and shellfish for the Inca kings, who apparently could put in their fish order, and it would be there a day and a half later, using a system of runners along the trail to deliver it. It was really amazing to look round a site like that which is so untouched - there were lots of shellfish middens, graves with the bones in, and even some hair sat on a ledge in a grave. You could walk about it all freely, and it seemed strange that it had all been sitting there since Inca times without being disturbed. We camped on the beach, although the surf was really noisy, and I kept waking up in the middle of the night convinced that I was about to be swept out to sea.
From there we went to Arequipa, a really nice city, possibly made nicer by the fact that we were staying in a great hotel with a swimming pool and huge
Dune buggies in Peruvian desert
Good fun and great to be out in the desert buffet breakfasts. we visited the Santa Catalina convent, which is a huge convent, most of it open to tourists and only a small part still in use. But it was where all the rich families sent their second daughters to become nuns, and they were allowed to have their own plush apartments. We also pottered about having a look round the town.
From Arequipa we went to Chivay, passing over the highest point in the road at 4900m. Chivay is just a small town, but it's near the Colca canyon, where we went really early in the morning to see some condors. It was a long wait, but about 10am, a couple eventually came out, flying up on the thermals from the canyon. They've got a wingspan of 2-3m, so when one flew directly over us, maybe just a few metres above, it was pretty impressive. I think I managed to get some photos, so hopefully they'll have turned out ok.
From there it was to a village called Raqchi, where we stayed with local families for the night, which was really interesting and good fun, although there was some more enforced folkloric dancing in the courtyard of
Old oasis
This oasis used to be 5 metres deep with water, and the stones in the foreground are an old road that went to it the house I was staying in, after we had all been dressed up in some traditional costumes, which involved having to wear a pancake style hat which wouldn't stay on - don't worry the photos have already been destroyed. The local people were all very friendly though, and it involved some interesting vegetarian meals - 2 boiled potatoes and fried cheese, followed by maiz soup with an apple in it for breakfast anyone?!
So now I am in Cusco, mentally preparing myself for the Inca trail which we start tomorrow. We're not doing the classic Inca trail which is meant to be quite busy, it's other Inca trails which, after 3 days trekking will - hopefully - take us to Ollyantambo, where we stay the night and then get the train the next morning to Macchu Picchu. We're the only tourist group that use these trails, so the only other people we'll meet on them will be other locals. So I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully I'll live to tell the tale.
That's all for now!
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