Volenteers

31st December Cusco
Today I walked back up to Saqsaywaman again because it is just that good and has great views over the city. I took a few photos to show just how big those rocks are.

30th December Cusco
Most of the "international" people that I have been socialising with for the last while in Cusco have been taking volenteering for a project aimed at helping street children here in Cusco.
I guess it is really kind of like a school.
Today I went allong to help out in their Christmas party for the kids.
It was great fun, though a bit tiring.
We danced to childrens songs all afternoon.
Oh and don't forget the paneton (half bread, half cake Christmas food here) and hot chocolate.

Christmas

So Christmas passed of quite plesently.
The tradition here is to have a big meal at midnight of the 24th so a group of us Gringos (anyone not local) decided to do something similar. We went to an appartment that was being rented by two of the party. Quite luxurious when you have become used to grotty hostels where you start to really value things like toilet seats, couches and an oven.
Everyone cooked something different. I did roast chicken and spuds, my favorite dish as it requires no work and tastes yummy. This was the first time I cooked since going away. There resteraunts are so cheap there really isn´t much point. There was also spicy meat ball (I forget the name), and Jamacan chicken, mmmmm, along with yummy spud bake and tasty salad. Deserts were Rum balls and cake. So basicly it was like an all you can eat buffay.
On the 25th I rang home and was invited to a party in the afternoon by a Cusqueñan friend.
It was actually a birthday party that seemed to have run straight from the Christmas festivities.
The house was up on a hill with a great view of Cusco and the party was a big famaily affair with all generations represented. There was lots of dancing in the kitchen. Alot of Huayno music which is typical from around here. There was also chicha, home brew, which is a corn (maize) based fermented drink which can be alcoholic. Tastes as good as it sounds (not very).

Music and busses.
In the discos you tend to get, among other types, Reggaeton music which has a distinctive beat present in every song and was made famous in much of the world by the "Gasolina" song. Has this hit Ireland yet? They really like Reggaeton in Equador, particularly on the busses where it seem to suit the crazy overtaking manuvours that they do arround blind corners with near vertical drops off the side. Even when there isn´t a car to be overtaken they swing over to the wrong side to get arround these bends (virages) at a higher speed. Crazy.

Christmas eve

24th December
Well it took a while to get Christmassy here but now Christmas has arrived in some style.
Yesterday they closed the main square and started marking off number for stalls.
It was also the day for giving out presents collected for the poor.
Flash queues were forming all around the square as people ran to the next generous offer.
Then the people started arriving from all the surrounding areas to be ready to set up their stall in the morning. So by night time the square was covered with people sleeping out in their little squares.
By this morning the market what in full flow.
They love their nativity scenes here, they are huge taking a bigger footprint then the tree, propper order.
They also love cuy which is guinney pig.
You can see them at the markets alive (so cute) and cooked (kind of grusome).
I took some stealthy shoot from the hip photos.
Yesterday I went to a resertaunt which specialises in them to see what they are like at last.
Tasty, a bit like the wet stuff in turkey, mmmm.

Merry Christmass everybody.

Outside Cusco

22nd December
Today I went for a trip to see some of the Inka ruins outside of Cusco.
I got the bus as far as Tambomachay which has some cool water fountains.
Then I walked back to Cusco stopping at the ruins of Pukapukara Q'enqo and Saqsaywaman.
Saqsaywaman was the most impresive. It is a huge fortress just outside of Cusco, up a big hill.
The rocks used for the base of are enormous.
It was used for the last big stand against the Spanish by Manu inka and the Spanish then spent centuries tearing it appart for building materials for among other things the big cathedral.
It is still very impresive though.

PHOTOS

Lake Titicaca

20th December Puno
We spent the day in Puno a bit tired.
There is quite a big market here with loads of interesting looking food. The town is always buisy and bustleing.
We got the night bus back.

19th December Taquile
We got picked up in the morning a dropped on the island of Taquile where we walked for a couple of hours before getting the boat back to Puno.

18th December Uros and Amantani
Today we got a boat out onto the lake (altitude 3820m). Not too far out there are a load of floading reed islands. We stopped to have a look around. These people moved out here to isolate themselves and are now a big tourist attraction.
The boat then continued on to the island of Amantani where we stayed the night with a local family. The people here are all where traditional clothes and often go around with a spinning where or knitting. Some seemed a bit wary of us gringos. We played sliding down a hill on plastic bottles with some of the local kids and took a walk to the top where there were some ruins.

17th December Puno
We got the bus down to Puno today.
The busses here can be quite entertaining in themselves.
There are always an endless procession of people to sell you food or sing a song looking for money or give a lengthy "shopping channel" style presentation of why you should buy their sweet or toothpaste. On this bus we bought a selection of the food which was quite tasty. At one stage a lady walked in with a large package wraped in a blanket. She propped it up on the my armrest and the one on the other side of the asile so that it was resting on my shoulder. She unwrapped it revealing it to be a cooked hot lamb. So out with the clever and she started hacking it to bits and selling with a few spuds to the pasangers. Mmmmmm, lamb.

Photos

More Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47568897@N00/

Cusco

So what is so great about Cusco?
Well it was the center of the inka empire, so they called it the belly button of the world.
When the Spanish were wrecking it they built their building ontop of the original ones. So lots of the original inka buildings survive up to first floor (or half way up) with a colonial or even modern building on top. It is quite small and manageable so it is also a nice place to spend some time. It is now the belly button of the tourism world which has plusses and minuses. The people here are quite friendly when you get to know them. There are a good few Irish here running a hostel and an Irish pub.
The hostel they run is really popular (Loki) but I am staying in a cheaper more central hostel with my own room at a lower price than a dorm at the other one (Felix),
Yesterday I went to a birthday party of one of these Irish guys which happened to be in my hostel where there a good few locals staying long term who were his friends. Afterwards we went out and I met people who were in my hostel in Quito and a guy from home who was in my class in school. It really is a small world.

Inka Trail

11th November Cusco
I am just back from a 4 day hike allong the famous inka trail to see the inka city of Machu Piccu.
The first day wasn´t too difficult with a bus to the start in the morning and the hike too the first camping relativly easy. The second day involved walking uphill for 5 hours or so to the highest pass on the treck at 4200 meters. On the third day we got completely soaked just before camping. On the fourth day we had a 3am start (why oh why) and we got to Machu Piccu by arround 8am or so. this meant going down loads of inka steps in the dark with a flashlight. Overall it was a challenging and worthwhile experiance. The food was great, hauled up there by an army of porters who run up the trail in sandals with a huge weight on their backs. We had 2 guides and saw many interesting inka sights on the way to the awe inspiring Machu Piccu.
The views were amazing peeping out regularly from the mist and clouds.
The scenery changed from high andian grasses to forest on the last day which is a bit lower.
Today will be a day to relax.

Arequipa to Cusco

3rd December Arequipa
We went to see Juanita who is an ice mummy. This young girl was sacraficed on the top of nearby Mount Ampato (which is over 6000 meters high) by the incas . She was found when the volcano next door started errupting and melted the ice on Mount Ampato.

4th December Cusco
Got night bus to Cusco. It took the long road so 12 hours with no toilet, toilet breaks or leg room. The road was quite bumpy so no sleep.
Arrived in Cusco and got a bus to Pisac which was having its famous market today.
After seeing the market we got a taxi up to the inca ruins which overlooks the village. We wandered arround the ruins and walked back to Pisac, it was raining so we got a bit wet.

5th to 7th December
Took some time to relax in Cusco, plenty to do here hanging arround for a few days.
If you sit out in the main square you get approached by peruvian tourists who want to take your photo and want you to sing a song. Great fun, beat the endless procession of people selling postcard, cigarets and finger pupets.

PHOTOS

Photos

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Arequipa

Arequipa has really nice architecure. We went to see a giant monestary which was like a small town.

We went on a 3 day treck down the Cañon del Colca. This is nearly the deepest canyon in the world, at 3191meters (they recently measured one next door to be 163 meters deeper). The bus goes as high as 4800 meters above sea level before dropping to the first town of Chivay. Then a tyre change and on to Cabanaconde making a 5 hour bus on unpaved roads from Arequipa. Then a 2 or 3 hour treck down to the villages at the bottom which don´t have road or electricity. Their major crop is a parcite that lives on the cactus and is used as a red colouring agent. We stayed overnight down at the bottom in really rustic accomadation, mud bick and floor and one candle. We picked up the dinner from the river on the way, (fish). The next day after a nice swim at an oasis the 3 hour hike out of the bottom part of the canyon climbing over 1100 meter back to Cabanaconde where we stayed the next night. Then to the Cruz del Condor lookout point to see the wild andean condor, one dutifully showed up, we had seen some flying just after the hike. Some hot springs to relax and back to Arequipa. A great tour.

Bus to Arequipa

I thought Lima was quite nice,
I went to see Miraflores which is the posh suburb on the coast and got my first view of the Pacific and got splashed by a freak wave, really wasn't my fault at all.
It's really western a bit like Mote Carlo with Casinos and cinema built into the cliff and plenty of modern sky scrapers.
I got a 17 hour bus to Arequipa. That was fun, there was no toilet and the middle aged Peruvian lady next to me insited on placing half of here more than ample posterior on half of my seat. Arequipa is lovely.

Equador photos

I am currently experimenting with putting the photos on a better site for resolution etc,

some equador photos

oh yeah and the old blog entrys can be reached by clicking on the archive links at the side.