May 30 2007 The Inca Trail - Machu Picchu and Guinea Pig to Celebrate

We got up early at 4am to begin the short 2 hour hike to the Sun Gate which over looks Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, the mist was so thick we could not see Machu Picchu from the sun gate. We headed down to another vantage point and sure enough there it was in all its glory the mystical Machu Picchu. As the mist rose and more of the metropolis was revealed you couldnt help but feel electricity up your spine, it was truly an unforgettable moment. After a tour of the ruins, we decided to climb Waynu Picchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu which has claimed the lives of a few tourists who have stumbled off on its sheer cliffs.
The exhausting, near vertical climb to the top of Wayna Picchu was rewarded with panoramic views of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains. The picture of my foot is taken from near the summit of Wayna Picchu.
After a long train-bus ride back to Cusco, we went out for dinner. We ordered Guinea Pig. My stomach turned upside down when the guinea pig was presented. After much procrastination I tucked into a leg (if you zoom in on the picture you can see the claws). Guinea pig tastes unique, kinda like a hybrid of chicken, duck and rabbit. It was nice. After that we went to a night club to complete the 24 hour Machu piccu challenge set by Ernesto our tour guide, it basically involved much alcohol and dancing until 4am.

May 29 Inca Trail - Downhill from here

Today was pretty easy considering yesterday. Our guide Ernesto is pictured here, he was a really funny bastard and knew his stuff inside out. The Quechuan porters do an amazing job carrying large loads through slippery and steep terrain. Some more great views followed by a hot shower and cold beers at the campsite. The ruins at Winay wanah (5 minutes from the campsite) were really impressive.

May 28 2007 The Inca Trail - Dead Womans Pass

This is known as being the toughest day on the trail, we climb over 2 peaks the first 4200m (aka dead womans pass) and 3800m (almost more difficult as it is nearly vertical). Needless to say this day was exhausting, however the views and the ruins were well worth the effort.

May 27 2007 The Inca Trail begins

We got up at 5am and got on a bus headed for the start of the Inca trail.
The trail is 49 km long in total and gets to altitudes of 4200m above sea level, make sure you carry some coca leaves to help with the altitude.
We met our guide Ernesto and set out in a group of 14. The porters carried the tents and cooking gear and raced off ahead of us to setup camp.
The trail is specatular, each view more amazing than the next, there are even a few Inca ruins along the way (Llactapata is pictured here)

25 May 2007 In the Amazon

We arrived in the jungle yesterday and after a 3 hour boat ride up the river we arrived at our accomodation which strongly resembled an ewok village from star wars. I got up at 4am to the low guttural sounds of the howler monkeys. We walked through the jungle in darkness for awhile then got on a boat and headed up river to a lake where we would do some bird watching and pirana fishing. Unfortunately I didnt catch any piranas but the tour guide did.
At about 9 am we walked further through the jungle and saw some monkeys and waited to see some macaw´s. After lunch we headed to a shamans (pictured) medicine garden and saw heaps of jungle remedies which was pretty interesting. After a long day in the jungle we had a few beers in the ewok village.

23 May 2007 Dodgy flight to the Peruvian Jungle

Today we were supposed to fly to the Amazon, unfortunately the weather had other ideas. We boarded a flight from Lima bound for Puerto Maldonado deep in the Peruvian Amazon. We flew through the Andes and began our decent into dark clouds. The captain announced we would be landing in 30 minutes. As the thick clouds obscured our view the turbulence began. This was possibly the worst turbulence I have ever been in, it lasted for about 15 minutes before the sound of the plane engines roared to life and we began to climb. The captain later said a few words in spanish of which i only captured ¨tormentas¨and ¨cuzco¨I assumed this meant that the stormy weather above the jungle had made it too dangerous to land. I was right.

We arrived in Cuzco which is approximately 3400 meters above sea level. Big change considering we came straight from sea level. Cuzco is an interesting city, it is toursity but still retains its unique character. The people of Cuzco are mainly Quechuan (decendants of the Incas).

The plan was to stay in Cuzco for a night and then try again for the jungle the next day. We had Alpaca for lunch and looked around town. Scratcher and I ended up wondering into a local market where they had all sorts of animal parts for sale (check out the pics).

22 May 2007 Lima, Peru

Got into Lima this morning after about a 3 hour flight from Santiago. Lima is a big coastal city, with dirty gravel surf beaches lying at the bottom of large cliffs on which the city sits. Its quite smoggy and polluted here but the people seem happy and you can even see some people surfing.

After checking into the hotel, I went for a walk around town and along the cliffs. Check out the photo.

Tonight we meet the rest of our Inca trail group, in all there will be 7 of us. The Inca trail to Macu Picu is a 9 day tour which includes a tour of the Amazon river by foot and boat and a 40km high altitude trek to Machu Picchu. We leave for the Amazon tomorrow, cant wait!

Ill blog again when i get back from Machu Picchu.

Hasta Luego Amigo/a´s

Ed

MAY 21 2 day stopover in Santiago Chile

Flew into Satiago yesterday morning after a brief stopover last night in Havana Cuba. Santiago is a big change from the tropical heat and tourist feel of Cancun. Santiago has a very eastern European feel to it. Upon arrival we went for a walk downtown, lucky for us we had arrived on a sunday so a visit to the Museum of National History was free, even though all the information was in spanish, the old photos, paintings and relics were very interesting. After that we headed back to our apartment to cook some pasta and drink some Chiliean wine we picked up for $5 called Casillero del Diablo (it wasnt too bad, we also got some chilean beers called escudo which were very disappointing. Unfortunately when I got back to the apartment I also realised I had lost my ATM card (im gonna try and sort it out today).

19 May 2007 Scratcher and Pils robbed, plane tickets and camera stolen! and coco bongos.

While I was relaxing in Playa Del Carmen, mi amigos, Scratcher and Pils were going through the worst couple of days of their holidays so far.
Turns out that shortly after we separated, they got on a second class bus for Tulum. During the bus ride Pils put his bag onto the luggage rack and stood nearby as the bus was very crowded. The bus stopped to pick up 2 passengers who had large duffle bags. The 2 new passengers pushed their way in between Pils and his bag and held their duffle bags over Pils' bag. Pils thought he heard the sounds of zips being opened but wasnt sure if he was being paranoid or not so let it slide. At the next stop, the 2 suspicious passengers disembarked and the bus continued on. When Pils and Scratcher got of the bus in Tulum Pils realised what had happened. Both their plane tickets and Pils camera had been stolen. After much running around and chasing up of airlines they were finally able to get their tickets replaced yesterday, for $1320 USD (lucky they have travel insurance).
We all met up again in Cancun on Thursday, and headed into Coco Bongos (another open bar) for a big night of entertainment (its kind of like a cross between a nightclub and a theatre restaurant). It was heaps of fun but I really paid for it the next morning.

The next night we went out to an aussie themed steakhouse called Outback. Thats where Pils met the hot Kangaroo.

16 May Today! Back in Playa del Carmen

Today!

Hey all, finally we are in the present. I have finally had some time and a good net connection to get this stuff organised. Yesterday we caught a ferry back from Cozumel, I opted to stay in Playa del Carmen for a couple of days and rest my foot in preparation for the Inca trail, whilst Pils and Scratcher head further south to explore Tulum. Not much to report, at the moment, just eating lots of Tacos and drinking Coronas by the beach. I´ll blog again when there is something interesting to report.

Hasta Luego

Ed

13 May 2007 Cozumel snorkelling, scooters and lobster

13 May 2007 Cozumel

Yesterday we caught a ferry from Playa del Carmen to the carribean island of Cozumel. Supposedly the snorkelling and scuba diving is world class here. Unfortunately when we went snorkelling off a boat yesterday we were very dissappointed, we saw very little coral but quite a few fish. Apparently much of the coral was destroyed during Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

Today we decided to check out the rest of the island via scooter which was a lot of fun. We found many great beaches and found a remote restaurant where all the locals were having their sunday lunch. I got lobster while Pils and scratcher opted for the Snapper (turns out I may have made a wise decision, that night the two were vomiting non-stop) after lunch we played football on the rocky/sandy beach. Unfortunately during the game I managed to sprain my left foot. On our way back into town a tropical storm started to build, then just as we hit the outskirt of town the storm hit. It was kind of like having buckets of water thrown at you while riding through a wind tunnel. We rode through the storm for about 10 minutes until we
got back to the scooter shop.

The mighty Chichen Itza and cool cenotes

11 MAY 2007

Today we got up early for a 4 hour mini van ride to Chichen Itza, arguably the best Mayan Ruins in the world. I slept most of the way there and was surprised at how hot it was inland. I think it was about around 35 degrees with a relative humidity of 80%. Anyway we got a guided tour of the ruins and learnt alot, I´m not going to give you a history lesson about Chichen Itza but if your interested here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichen_Itza . But I do want to tell you about the sacrifices, according to our guide the Toltecs used to play a ball game on a massive stone court (possibly an early version of basketball) and the losers were sacrificed. Sacrifice involved decapitation then splitting the body down the chest and removing the heart, kinda like Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom. I gotta tell you, it´s hard to believe this sort of stuff actually happened in such a peaceful place. Around the ruins were hundreds of the Mayans decendants selling jewellery and wooden carvings. The carvings were extremely intricate and were being sold for the ridiculous price of $1 USD.

After that, we had all worked up a massive sweat so on the way home we were taken to a Cenote or underground river system for a swim to cool off. The Cenote we visited was stunning, we entered via a small cave which opened into a massive cavern with a hole in the top where a trees roots had dropped from the roof all the way to the water. The cool fresh water of the underground Cenote was just what the doctor ordered, I highly recommend a visit to the Cenotes if you get a chance when you are in the Yucatan.

On the way back we also visited a Mexican Catholic Church. Kinda reminded me of something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie for some reason.