Part A – Tahiti
We were up before all the sparrows farted, 3.30 am on the 29th Aug to drive up to Brisbane airport. Our first leg was New Zealand, with three hours between our next flight to Tahiti.
The flights were great, all bar getting evicted from the window seats, Matt is King after all. Checked out the movies on the New Zealand leg and Rocketman was on. Awesome. Unfortunately by the time I started watching it, then pausing to have breakfast, and with a strong tail wind behind us, the pilot wiped 1/2 hour off the flight, I missed the last 45 mins. NOT HAPPY JAN.
Our second leg went just as smoothly. We had a great flight steward, who, when I asked for an orange juice when drinks were being served, came out with “I’m presuming your having Vodka with that!” He twisted my arm to have a “real” drink but I opted for a Merlo.
We landed in Tahiti at 10.30 pm on the 28th of Aug, so I’m a time traveller. Which does my head in a little, as what happens in Australia, as I’m writing this, happens on the 30th, but happens on the 29th in Tahiti… How do the papers here report it if theres a major catastrophe? If they said the 30th they’d be reporting on the future. Its funny the things that go through your brain when your a bit jet lagged and trying to have a nanny nap.
Day 1 Tahiti
First impressions so far on Tahiti. To be totally honest a little underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, the island is beautiful, with its lush green mountains, crystal clear blue water and black sand beaches, but the main town, Papeete, is looking very “tired” and the houses in the small villages are almost like shacks. The outskirts remind me of Papua New Guinea. The majority of the houses, including the poorer areas (which is the majority) are like compounds, with high fences and security gates. Where we are staying, which is like a housing estate, you have to enter a security gate, then drive a kilometer or so, then enter the house’s security gate. Some of the shops have security “mesh” around them. What you see in the travel brochures certainly doesn’t depict the real Tahiti, but I guess all travel brochures are glossy. Our hosts were adamant that we make sure we lock up if we go out, including shutting all windows.
We jumped in the car to go down to the main centre of Papeete to check out a few things to do, but somehow ended up driving right around the island, which only takes about 3 hours. It was very entertaining with Matt trying to drive on the wrong side of the road and using his right hand to change gears. But it was also frustrating as every time we wanted to pull over and check out the beaches, it was hard to find a park. Probably why there’s so many scooters over here, and ATGATT is something they have never heard of, thongs, a pair of shorts and a singlet seems to be about it, I guess with the temperatures, and the fact you’d look ridiculous with full protection gear on, it’s not practical. You have to be a bit vigilant where your going as they zip in and around traffic.
We were a bit surprised that there wasnt a lot of cafe’s dotted around the island, where you can sit and enjoy the beaches. When the road is not right beside the beach the houses and fences block your view. We did find a beach that is popular with the surfers that had a little coffee shop.
I guess we are not use to just “slowing down” and my impression may change once we get out and start doing some exploring. Tomorrow is a trip to Teahupoo, sadly we have just missed the Billabong Pro as it finished the day we landed and we had a water taxi booked to sit out at the surf break.
Tonight we are just relaxing at the unit, with beef pattie sambo’s for dinner.
Day 2 Tahiti
What a way to wake up, not only did we sleep in till about 7.30 am, but it was the sounds of birds that woke us. Time for coffee and toast before we head out to Teahupoo to check out the world famous break, which is about an hours drive.
It’s strange how your perception can change from one day to the next. The culture shock (horrible term) of seeing the villages looking rather run down yesterday, seems to have disappeared today, replaced by an acceptance of the Tahitian way. It seems in Tahiti you do whatever you can to make a buck. As, along the roadsides, you have people selling all kinds of fruit and vegies, a lot of stuff we didn’t know what it was, and even fish just hanging in the sun. You also had food vendors with gazebos in carparks.
There’s a few things that you see plenty of in Tahiti, rooster, mangy dogs that look like they’ve been constantly pregnant and pedestrian crossings, but a word of warning, don’t just walk out thinking traffic will stop – it won’t.
We got onto the boat from Teahupoo Adventure tours for a trip out to the world famous break, Teahupoo, unfortunately we missed the Billabong Pro by 2 days and our driver, who did tours for it, said it was pumping. Today it wasn’t real big but it was still great to see the surfers catching a few waves. And we were lucky enough that Kelly Slater and Wayne McCormack (Aussie camp) were still here catching a few waves. During the Billabong Pro there would be up to 50 boats in the water, then on top of that theres all the jet ski’s. After spending a couple hours out on the water, yes I can’t believe it was 2 hours, it went so quickly, I actually thought it would be a bit like watching paint dry, but it was actually really good, we headed back in.
Our guide told us about a lookout and a lake at the top of the island, with the best view going down both the west side and east side of Tahiti, so we took a drive up to check out the view. He wasn’t wrong, it was amazing, and from there you could see the surf break all the way down the coast lines. As there was no lake at the lookout, just a small pond, we asked a local if it was up further, “yes yes, lake up further”, so we jumped in the car to go “up further”, Which was only about 1 kilometre. Now when your on an island that has an extinct volcano, and you drive up towards the top, you kind of get a picture in your head of a crater filled with water. You can imagine our disappointment when we see a man made dam, not that big, with a black plastic lining and a tall chain mesh fence around it. Not the “lake” we where hoping for, but a massive old tree made up for it, but I shake my head at all the initials carved into it. Why do people feel the need to put their mark everywhere?
Day 3 – Tahiti
We woke up this morning to misty covered mountains and an overcast sky. Which is ok as today we are going 4WD through the centre of Tahiti. You actually go up the side of Mont Orohena, an extinct volcano and cross the core.
We got picked up at 8.45am, by an open backed 4WD with a canopy, from a resort at the bottom of the hill from where we are staying, along with a family of four. The start of the island crossing was on the other side, so we had to travel through Papeete. With the little 2 stroke scooters zipping in an out of traffic, there was a continuos buzzing noise. And the funniest thing we saw today was a guy in the middle of a 2 lane road, carrying a tray of food, walking backwards, offering it to cars going by, a new spin on drive-through service. All we get are window washers.
We had a quick stop at one of the beaches before we turned to start making our way across the island. The start of the road wasn’t too bad, but contiued to decline the further we went. Little did we know how bad it was going to be.
A few kilometers up the road we checked out the first of the waterfalls. We also pulled the canopy back so we could stand up if we wanted. We stopped at what looked like a popular “locals” swimming hole, as there were a few families having a BBQ and swimming. It was a nice spot with some little rapids that flowed into a deep pool, deep enough to climb up on a large boulder and jump in. I felt like we were gate crashing their camp site. Light rain started to fall so the canopy went back over, as our driver said its only going to get worse.
At this point I was thinking it was a little mundane, a bit like a really slow roller coaster, where your waiting for the fun part to happen, and it didn’t. And we still had a few hours to go. We joked about calling in a helicopter to airlift us out of there.
Once we reached the centre we stopped at the restaurant, yes theres a restaurant in the middle, and had some lunch. You know your in a whole new world when the waitresses are barefoot. Lunch was served out on the deck with its magnificent views of the misty mountains, and off to the left and down in the valley, a small village.
Now remember how I said it was a bit mundane, well that was about to change. Our driver informed us that we were about to go back up to a height of 2,200 meters above sea level before heading down the other side. The road now became a single lane goat track with shear drops down one side. I believe this is Tahiti’s version of Bolivia’s Death Road. There was literally no place to pass a vehicle coming the other way, and our driver blasted the horn, to warn on coming vehicles, as we went up steep parts that quickly turned at right angles. And of course we came bonnet to bonnet with another vehicle, luckily they had a grassey spot they could pull up on to, but it was a tight squeeze. On some of the hairpin corners we had to do three-point turns to make it around them.
Slowly we crawled our way to the top and started making our way down the other side. Part way down a couple of motorcycles came up behind us and quickly zipped past. We stopped at a natural lake which was formed, many years ago, by a landslide and another couple of waterfalls. The rain forest is so dense, with lots of heliconias and a variety of other tropical flowers. It would be amazing if they were all in flower
We start seeing tiny houses which is a sign that we are nearing the main road and the end of our tour. Finally we get home around 5pm. The tour was good, and we enjoyed it, but its not one we’d do again, as just sitting in the back of a 4WD looking at scenery is not adrenaline pumping enough for us. Our driver was excellent though, funny, very knowledgeable and a great driver.
* note pictures not uploading via phone so will be uploaded at end of trip. Not happy Jan. So they’ll be on Facebook.
Day 4 Tahiti
Its Sunday, so it’s time to relax and sleep in a little, or you have to relax, as you thought the washing machine was a washer/dryer combo and it’s not, you’re just putting it through another cycle… Doh.. now we have to wait to hang it out inside as it’s drizzling outside. It’s a good chance for Matt to catch up on some much needed rest.
The unemployment rate is 26% here in Tahiti, which probably explains why most houses are quite run down, and why a lot of people sit out on the road sides selling what ever they can to make some form of living. As tourism is the main industry over here, if you don’t have basic English skills, I think it would be hard for you to obtain employment, especially if its “face to face” work. Our driver yesterday spoke English really well, but because the family spoke French, it seemed that the conversation was dominated by French, which sort of made you feel like a shag on a rock.
We went for a drive to Papeete this morning to hopefully find some markets. We should have realised, due to the numerous number of churches, that Sunday would be a “no work” day. Everything was shut, but we went for a stroll along the marina and checked out the boats. There were a couple of very impressive super yachts in port. As we were driving home people were leaving the churches and all the ladies were beautifully dressed in white with their weaved hats on. We did find that the museum was opened, so took a 15 minute stroll through it. It had some awesome things in there but all the information was written in French, which was annoying as you wanted to know about it.
Matt seems to be drained, which I reckon is his body finally realising it can slow down, so because nothing is open we are just chilling at the unit. We have decided to go out for dinner tonight to the resort at the bottom of the hill.
The funny moment of the day, but probably not if you were involved, was the ambulance under lights, going down the main dual lane road, 30 klm zone, but the mopeds were over taking it.
Day 5 Tahiti
Here’s a tip when in Tahiti, carry toilet paper. When I first used a public toilet it was at Teahupoo, and they were pretty bad, smelly, dirty and a lot of “liquid” lying around. There was only two toilets and a shower, so I chose what I thought was the better of the two. Whilst putting my quad muscles to use I looked for some toilet paper, and yes you guessed it, there was none, thankfully I only had to pee. I didn’t notice at the time that there was something missing, besides the top of the cistern and the button to flush the toilet, but I’ll tell you what that is shortly. I put the state of the toilets down to being over used from the Billabong Pro, even though that had ended three days ago, it takes “Tahitian” time to get around to things.
The next time I had to use a public toilet it was at a shopping mall. Now trying to find toilets in a shopping mall is a challenge in its self, they don’t have signs showing where they are, like we do in Australia. So once again I try and chose the better of the two, and using the quads again, I searched for the toilet paper. I looked to the left, not there, I looked to the right, not there, definitely not on the door and nothing behind me. I do another scan, thinking surely its here somewhere, but no, there is no toilet paper, but not only is it devoid of toilet paper, it doesn’t even have a toilet paper dispenser. Once again I thankfully only had to pee. I wash my hands and turn to get some paper towel to dry them. The paper towel is more like tissue paper. So I’m thinking maybe you grab some tissue paper before you enter the toilet?
Today we are just roaming aimlessly around Papeete trying to work out were we will have some lunch. But with Matt’s stomach not feeling so good, the menu’s all in French and the smell of the city, we are contemplating just getting some bread from the supermarket and heading back to the unit, to relax and grab some sleep before we head to the airpirt at 1 am. If I haven’t mentioned it before, Papeete is quite dirty, and every now and then you get a strong smell of urine. They certainly don’t show that in the glossy tourist magazines.
I’ve learnt that Tahiti is famous for it’s black pearl industry, and there are numerous shops selling some very beautiful, but expensive, jewellery. The rest of the shops are your typical tourist shops, full of floral clothing, carved shells and shell jewellery.
We did grab some lunch at at restaurant called Hollywood. I grabbed a hamburger, as I thought that would be a safe option and Matt, the curried chicken, which with his tummy all squirmy, I thought was a bad option for him. It was the other way around, although the curry was a bit bland, my burger was basically raw, luckily it came with a pile of chips. One very expensive lunch for what I ate of it.
We drove back to the unit via Paa’a. It looks to be one of the poorer suburbs of Papeete. I find myself wanting to take a picture but unable to because I feel like I’m being judgemental. As the unemployment rate is so high you see a lot of people just sitting or lying around. I’m not sure if they are homeless or just totally “lost” with nothing to do.
Tahiti is quite expensive, with what seems like a huge divide between those with jobs/money and those that don’t. I suppose it’s the same the world over, but I guess here in “paradise” it just doesn’t seem right.
There have been a lot of places I’ve been to where, when its time to leave, you find yourself saying “I’d love to come back here”, Tahiti for us, even though the island is very beautiful, once you get out of Papeete, is not one of those places. But at least Matt can cross Teahupoo off his bucket list.
Easter Island
Day 1 Papa Nui, Easter Island
Our day started at 12.30 am, as we had to get the hire car back to the airport before they shut at 2am and our flight out was at 4am. Leaving us plenty of time to hand back the key to the car, get our boarding passes, get through security and maybe grab a hours snooze. It would have been if the airport hadn’t just implement a new system that morning. When getting our boarding passes the lady asked if we had filled out the forms, we had no idea what she was talking about, and of course no other passengers did either. We lined up to fill out this new form, they only had one iPad to do it on, and there were a few passengers in front of us. Another customer service officer was helping people using a mobile phone. She came to Matt and I, as we were next in line, she put all Matts details in and gave him his number, put most of my details in and said she needed the name of were we where staying, of course we didn’t know it as it’s an airBNB, and why did I need it and Matt didn’t? She had to do Matt’s all again. We finally found the name through searching emails.
Anyway after chewing up about 1/2 hour of our nap time we went on to security where we thought we’d just beeeze through, as Matt had put his belt in the scanner, the alarm went off, so he got the whole pat down and a wave over with the “magic wand” to find out his new shorts had a metal button, I cracked up, as he was adamant he’d go straight through “this time”.
The flight was great, I got to watch Aquaman, obviously only for Jason Mamoa, the movie wasn’t that great. But this was another flight that did our heads in. We left at 4am and were to land at Easter Island at 1.30 pm. At about 1 pm we checked the on board flight information and it was saying we were 35 minutes till we landed. You can imagine our confusion when it was dark inside the plane and also looked dark outside. We couldn’t work it out, its supposed to be daylight outside???? The captain made the usual announcenent about landing, the cabin lights went on and outside was daylight, it went from dark to light at a flick of a switch, what the actual _____? Does this planes windows have some sort of tinting that can be turned up to darken them???
Papa Nui’s air strip literally runs from one side of the island to the other, so you want to hope your plane has good brakes. The process through customs is pretty slow, and as we were lined up Matt said to me ” They forgot the R”. “What are you talking about?” “The ladies toilets”. When I turned to look the word for “women” is Dama. Oh he’s a funny man.
Outside the airport we look for our ride to our accommodation. There is no one holding a sign with our names. So we’re standing, once again like shags on a rock, everyones basically gone, and a lady from a hotel says she can drop us off, but another guy rang our hosts and organised a ride for us. Now since we were expecting to be picked up we had no cash for the taxi, but in true island style the lady said “no worries, you fix up later, its island time”. She told us were she had a stall, so we went to the bank, got 100,000 out, and went and found her and paid, plus a tip.
On the island you have to buy a park pass to enter the main area’s with the Moai Heads. At the office we were given the price, those with little English type it onto a calculator and show you. The passes are 54,000 each. For about an hour we felt very rich with just under 100,000 in the wallet. Back to the bank.
We also decide to hire a 4wd AV, as some of the sites were a fair way away. It has turned out to be a great decision. Matt was in his element, flying up the road trying to avoid the huge potholes. We went and checked out a few Moai Heads and found some caves. The colour of the water is unbelievable, and of course the photo’s don’t do it justice.
By 7 pm we were getting pretty tired as we’d been up since 12.30am, with a big lunch we didnt worry about dinner, and went to bed and was sound asleep by 7.30. But around 11.30 the dogs of the local neighbourhood, and there’s dogs everywhere, started barking and 10 mins later an alarm near by went of. Oh great, just what we needed. The dogs eventually settled and the alarm only went off one more time, but as the quiteness once again took over the village we started hearing something else, something thats really annoying, but its not a mosquito, which here is a worry as Dengue fever is bad, so we pack on the Deet, its a dripping tap, OMG, Matt goes to investigate the bathroom.
Back in Tahiti we bought some cough medicine, its called Toplexil, as Matt was getting a dry cough, this medicine knocked him out, so we both took a dose, it’s about 12.30 am ish…. nec minut…. it’s 8.30 am. Best sleeping tonic ever. I literally don’t think I moved, I was out to it.
Day 2 Rapa Nui, Easter Island
Went up to the cafe just up the road and had the best coffee we’ve had for ages, including in Australia. Prior to the coffee Matt looked so drowsy and said “I feel like I’ve been hit with a tranquilizer dart”. Two coffees later we were ready to go exploring.
Today we’ve just been zipping around the island in the AV checking out a few sites. Tomorrow our hosts are giving us a private tour, so it will be good to get some local history. Hopefully we can also find the larva tubes.
Looking at the Moai heads you start questioning a lot of things, like why do they stand facing away from the sea but some stand looking at the sea? How did they get them to the locations as they were carved inland? The are no real signs around explaining it, so hopefully tomorrow our host will be able to answer some of them.
Being a small island there are a lot of scooters, motorbikes and quad bikes used as the main mode of transport, and it seems there are no real rules, except its 30 klm in town and 60 klm out. It seems even helmets are optional, and the ones that did have them on, most were not done up.
We dropped the AV back at 6pm then wandered up the street and checked out some T-shirts, which we ended up buying a few. We also decided to have dinner at the same restaurant that we had lunch at the day before, Kanahau, it was delicious, and we had two Pisco Sours. After dinner we walked back to our bungalow and it was getting quite chilly, there are people here wearing Puffer jackets, they must think we’re mad in just T-shirts and jeans. It’s time to hit the sack, lets hope the dogs don’t go off their heads tonight.
Day 3 Rapa Nui, Easter Island
I spoke too soon regarding the dogs. They kept going off through out the night, making for a very broken sleep. I should have had some of that cough medicine. Matt some how slept through it, probably because he stayed up late reading. I was thinking they were barking at other dogs, as they seem to be very territorial, and they roam around everywhere. But I think it was the horses that also roam around as there was piles of fresh horse poo on the road.
While I’m on the subject of poo, lets go back to the topic of toilets. I haven’t had to use a public toilet here, as the town is small you can just duck back to your bungalow, but even at the bungalow you don’t put the toilet paper in the loo, it goes into the bin. Matt has a real issue with that, as thats “gross”, he said “thats it, I’m not eating”. Good luck with that, we’ve got 3 more weeks to go.
Wow what a day. We got picked up by our host, and now guide, Leonardo, who is a direct decendant of the 1st Polynesian to inhabit the island. We couldn’t have asked for a better guide. The stories that he told us were not only amazing and factual, but were funny as well.
But lets start at the beginning. We went to the cafe to grab some breaky and a coffee. As we were sitting there we could hear a siren, the first siren we have heard since being on the island, then a white 4wd came up the street with a guy hanging out the back passenger window with a loude hailer with the siren wailing. We just cracked up laughing. Just after he left we jumped in to start our tour of the island. Just up the road there was a fire engine with lights flashing. As we are heading out the road Matt’s phone started going off, and Leonardo’s, and we were wondering what was going on. Tsunami warning Leonado said. What???? Are you serious??? Only a drill he says.
Leonardo starts explain some of the history of the island as we make our way to the first sight. But heres a little history on Leonardo. Besides being a direct decendant of the 1st inhabitants of the island, Leonardo’s name is about 70 names long, as their name is built up from all their ancestors, we shall just call him Leonardo.
Leonardo is a film maker and produced a documentry of Easter Island, and was also involved in the movie Rapa Nui with Kevin Costner, which then made the island popular with tourists, which in a away is good but as Leonardo said, it takes away their privacy. Leonardo relayed some very funny stories from when he was a boy, and as a boy, he and his family lived in a cave. Unbelievable considering he was born in 1966, the year of freedom.
A story he told was one day he needed to “meditate – cleanse” so he was out in the middle of no where, it was raining, so he stripped off to allow the rain to cleanse him, and sat naked with his head bent and long hair cascading down with rain, and he has very long hair, when a lady out of nowhere asks him directions. He said to her “you should not approach a 100 kg naked man” she replied “but I just want to know how to get back” and his words, which I love were “where ever you go, you arrive”. Another line he said to us was “you two are visitors to my island, tourists take selfies”. How true those words are, take your selfie stick and shove them where the sun don’t shine and appreciate what you are standing in front of.
Now I’ll try and condense this next lot of information for you, you know you can google/youtube heaps of information.
The airstrip is 3 klm long and stretches from one side of the island to the other and this was just in case the Space Shuttle had to land here.
There are approximately 4,000 horses that roam free on the island. The horse was originally used obviously as a mode of transport and for work, but also as a source of meat.
The Moai where carved when an important person died. That person was buried under the platform that the Moai were placed upon. The Moai were carved in the quarry, but the eyes were not carved in until they stood on the platform, as Leonardo explained in his humorous way, “the soul entered the Maoi once the eyes were carved, he would not want to know if he fell and broke on the way to the platform”, you must realise that the platform could be over 20 klm away and take weeks, if not months, to get there, as the transportation of the heads was the hardest job. And yes the Moai heads were “walked” to their resting sites.
In the 16th century and part of the civil war the Moai heads were pushed over, where some were destroyed. But after Papa Nui became a free country in 1966, the heads were stood back up, although some, along with the customary villages, were once again knocked down by a Tsunami, but the Moai heads are now back standing. It is so hard to believe that the decendants of the 1st inhabitants of this island were forced to live in a compound up until the late 60’s.
We learnt that the Moai stood facing inland to protect the village, but a few, mainly inland, were in line with the constellation. There are also platforms built with no Moai, these where built in the hopes that one day a family member will become “famous” or of “importance”.
We went to the quarry to see where the Moai were carved. It’s just so crazy to know that after the civil war that the islanders basically said “this is stupid, why are we carving such big heads, when our departed could be in a small rock?” They realised their spirit can be in anything they put their energy into. So basically it was “tools down” and Moai Heads left where ever they were at that particular time. Whether that was in the process of carving or transporting.
We were amazed at the amount of heads, and the fact that sometimes the heads fell and broke on transportation, so back to carving a replacement. There is only one, and it is probably one of the oldest ones, with legs and is in a kneeling position, as if meditating. Some of the heads are long and narrow with pointed noses and some are fatter, with broader noses. Not really sure why.
Nearing the end of the day Leonardo took us up to the crater at the Southern end of the island. He told us of how the system changed, to elect the Cheif for the following year, which involved the story of the birdman, maybe something you can google as its a lengthy story.
To end our day we got dropped off at a restaurant with great views of the surf as the sun set, I had maybe 1 too many Pisco Sours, and Matt 1 too many JD’s.
What an awesome day with the best tour guide ever, we couldn’t believe our luck. We wished we had more time here, but tomorrow we are flying to Peru.
Peru
Day 1 Paracas, Peru
After leaving Rapa Nui at 3 pm on the 6th of September, we arrived in Lima, Peru, at 3am on the 7th September. Now all we have to do is get the hire car and somehow make it out of Lima, which is a huge city, to Paracas, which is on the coast. Thats ok, we have Google, or so we thought. For some reason, once you put in your destination, it wouldn’t give you directions, so Matt, the driver, used his sixth sence of direction and headed out. I could scroll around mapping, so was making sure we were on the right track. Even though it was dark we could still see we weren’t in a very good neighbourhood. I told Matt if the lights go red don’t stop.
We somehow made it to the coast and headed south. Only to discover we had to go back inland as we had ended up out on a point. It wasn’t long before we were on the Pan American highway heading to Paracas.
As the sun starts to lighten the sky we finally begin to see the country side. Are we even still on earth? The ground is totally barren, not a blade of grass or tree to been seen. Instead there are these massive sand dunes, but unlike our golden sand dunes, these are brown. Dotted along the way are what look like abondoned, and I struggle to find the right description, so I’ll say shacks. I thought the villages in Tahiti and Rapa Nui were poor and run down, but they were nothing compared to what I am seeing now.
I’ll try my best to paint a picture for you. The houses are basically square boxes. Some would only be as big as our standard bedroom and don’t appear to be very high. Some look like they’ve got so far with building the house and just stopped. The effect, when in a town, looked like you were driving through a town that had been war torn, like you see on the news reports of Iraq, with out the bullet holes, and a bit more colourful. There were little pockets of ramshackled shops, some as basic as bits of old tin and tarp roughly put together. Then it would look like they had come along with a bulldozer and just pushed them over, leaving it all lying around for the sand to eventually cover. When we were near the beach it looked like a Tsunami had come in and wiped the area clean of any dwellings, leaving behind its calling card of debri.
In other areas there were brick fences sectioning of areas, with what looked like half finished 3 x 3 homes, and I mean just a shell, no doors or windows. Then there were places that were just brick fenced areas, they certainly love building fences, and I think you’d be smart to invest in a brick company. Some of these areas would have only a handful of houses, then others would look like a housing estate or small town, but with no signs of anyone living there. No cars moving around, no people walking the streets, no dogs, which again are everywhere, and no colour.
I truly cant believe what I am seeing, and my words certainly don’t come anywhere to capturing the area. The poverty is so overwhelming and to make it look worse there is rubbish everywhere.
We arrived a lot earlier into Paracas then we planned, so we couldn’t check into our accommodation, but we did drop in, and thanked our lucky stars that we didnt go for an airBNB.
At this point we are so tired, but decided to take a drive down to the town to see if we can find where our tour to the Ballestas Islands leaves from tomorrow. As we drove in people where trying to call you into their businesses, they where every 10 or so meters, it was pretty freaky. Next minute there were police everywhere and the road was blocked, so Matt the driver, did a U-Turn and headed back out. We drove up to this area over looking the town, to maybe have a snooze in the car, and I got out to take a picture. I could hear lots of band music and realised it was coming from down in the streets, so they must have had the road blocked for a street party.
We decide to go back to the resort and see if we could maybe check in and pay for the extra hours, which thankfully they could do. It was a quick hot shower and into bed to catch up on some sleep. We were woken by a knock on the door and voice saying “I’m delivering birthday gift for you”. Matt jumps up and we are given a plate of delicious looking little deserts. But we are so tired, so we put them aside and it was back to sleep.
After having a sleep we decided it might be an idea to walk down and go find where our tour met, to make it easier and a no stress day tomorrow, fingers crossed. We took the road way as we weren’t sure if the beaches had private sections.
All along the beach front you have lots of restaurant/bars and each one of them have one or two staff members, with menu in hand, trying to entice you into the restaurant, and all with the same catch phrase “come, its happy hour”. I think it’s happy hour every hour.
We didnt find the meeting spot at the front, so headed around the back. A young guy helped us out with its location. Once located we headed back down to the water front to walk back past the little stalls to maybe find a hat for Matt, and to make our way back via the beach.
The sea has a very pungent salty smell and the bay is filled with hundreds of boats. Walking back along the beach was heart breaking. In Australia, even though we are far from perfect, we love and respect our beaches, and they are mostly very clean, I know I pick up litter when I come across it, here the plastic litter is crazy, it is everywhere, you would think the resorts would clean up in front of their resorts.
Day 2 Pacaras – Ica, Peru
With some breakfast in the belly we wandered down to catch our boat to check out the Ballestas Islands. The main reason we booked this trip was to see the well known petroglyth, the Candelabra, it has been carbon dated to 200 BC. The estimated the depth was originally 1 meter but is now only about 60 cm, but of course varies with the winds and sand. Its a whopping 181 meters tall and about 60 meters wide.
As we headed out we were impressed with the massive sand dunes, and I mean massive. The colours of yellow, brown and reds are amazing.
We catch a glimpse of the Candelabra as we first headed out to the Ballestas islands.
Wow this place is incredible, the colours, the shapes and the amount of shit, which to the Peruvians, is good and expensive shit, and thats coming directly from our guide. It’s collected after breeding season, by hand using shovels and brooms, and is worth about $350/tonne. They have two guards on the island at all times to stop people trying to get on the island and stealing it.
We cruised in and around the islands checking out a few sea lions. There aren’t as many as usual as its out of season, just a few lazy ones that haven’t moved on yet. The boat driver gets the boat so close to the rock walls its not funny. After learning a bit about the wild life we head back to the Candelabra.
The wind has picked up and the sea is quite rough. The people down the back are getting saturated from the sea spray. It takes about 30 mins to get back to float around and hear all about the petroglyph. Then it’s another 15 mins back to dock.
As we are heading back we notice that a sand storm is moving in. Once we get off the boat we head back to the resort, looking back towards the wharf you couldn’t see the big sand dunes that over looked the town. We jump in the car and start heading towards Ica, about an hours drive. Along the road out we could see that the sand storm had engulfed the town.
Back onto the Pan American Highway, but now only single laned. I have to tell you the drivers over hear are Loco, thats crazy, and I mean crazy as bat shit. We were behind a truck and being careful when overtaking, Matt went to over take when this bus, like a Greyhound bus, was coming around us, and I presume the truck, so we stayed behind the truck. Then all of a sudden the bus slowed and tried to pull back in, insert some of your own swear words here. Luckily we had some room hehind the truck so Matt hit the gas to get past the bus, it then pulled in behind us again and then pulled on to the edge to pick up passengers. They are LOCO drivers here.
Now we’ve done really well with finding our way around with no real mapping, a few screen shots, a blue dot blinking but no map, so no streets displayed. So when we get to where we think is Ica, as we seen a sign, we start trying to find our accommodation. We end up going in around blocks that look pretty dodgy, and we thought we’d seen dodgy already. I try my luck with asking a lady that was opening an internet shop and she informed us Ica was further. I put up my fingers and say 10klm, “si, si”, yes. So we head back out and down the highway.
Now we come to a place that is beyond belief, desperately poor, rubbish piled everywhere and even more chaos on the roads. And theres the welcome sign, ICA. At this point Matt begins to prepare me that our accommodation could be pretty basic.
We pull up the address, and with no streets coming up on mapping, we just try and get the blue dot as close as possible to the red pin. We where going down places I dont think two white Gringo’s should go. What these people are living in is hard to fathom. Seriously all the while whislt trying to find our hotel I just keep repeating “Oh my F#&cking god I cant believe this”. Some of the areas are beyond squalor.
We’ve probably been driving around in circles for about 30 mins, but getting our barings and getting closer to the red marker for our accommodation, we turn down this street that has a check point and speak to the guards and show them the name of our accommodation. “Yes Yes down and around”. Okay, think we’ve made it. We turn down this road and a few hundred meters in Matt says I think it’s the next street, so we do a U turn, go back and go down to the next street, yes we are just about there, OMG there it is, and at that point Matt says “we did the U turn just up there”. We just cracked up, oh well a drive around the block just for fun. The area we are in is like having a wall with barbed wire all the way around Macauleys to stop people from Park Beach getting in, sorry for using these places, it is just to give you and idea.
After checking in and taking 10 mins to destress Matt says lets go find Huacachina, the desert Oasis. So with wifi we checked out google maps. Yep thats easy, first main road after the second big round-a-bout, screenshots taken, just in case. So back in the car and off we head, and you guessed it, we took the wrong street and ended up in the ghetto, and realised we where heading into the ghettos of all ghettos, so we quickly turned around and back tracked. Matt the drive realised were we went wrong and got us back on track.
It was only about 15 klms when the huge sand dunes came into view. And as we reached the top of the hill we looked down onto a small town surrounding a large lagoon and all around, as far as the eyes could see where these massive sand dunes. Freakishly Matt got a car park straight away, so parked and wandered into the main area where all the tours and shops are. Straight away we have people trying to sell us a tour. We ended up jumping on a sunset dune buggy tour, but these are monster dune buggies, seating 11 people. While we are waiting a young couple with a girl about 4 and a baby, maybe 5 months, jump on. Are you serious, a baby?
The driver starts up the engine and with a roar we take off, and I mean take off. The mother at this point has started breast feeding, the baby is quite content to just lie there as we are all bouncing around, not to mention screaming and laughing, the little girl is laughing and screaming with the rest if us. I’m struggling to stop myself elbowing the baby in the head, which is near impossible. Once we stopped for some photos I tried to explain to the mother that in Australia there would be no way her children would be allowed on this tour. Did I mention the seat belts couldn’t be tightened so if anything happened you would be screwed.
Let me say it was the best roller coast ride I have ever been on, plummeting down steep dunes to then race up the other side to turn suddenly at the top. These guys sure can drive. At one place we stopped some of the guys pulled out some old snow boards and offered one to Matt and me, I declined, due to a thumping headache, but Matt took up the offer, this was not on the tour we chose and is usually an extra cost, which by the way, the tour was only $15 each for 2 hours.
I said to Matt “its a long way to come back up you know”. But luckily for Matt we drove down to get them all.
After watching the sunset we headed back, all the while the bady just laid there peacefully. We are so glad we made the decision to go check it out instead of relaxing at the hotel, which by the way is really good. Now time to relax and hit the sack early as we have a big day tomorrow. It maybe a little difficult as there is Perivian music playing and loud explosions, and I’m presuming, or really hoping, that they are celebration explosions.
Day 2 Ica , Peru
Today we have a flight booked over the Nazca lines, so Matt can tick that off he’s bucket list. We get picked up by the tour company at 6.50 am, as its a 2 1/2 hour drive to Nazca and we have things to stop and see along the way.
The first quick stop was the large “face”, a natural formation on the side of the cliff. He is said to be watching over the small village in the valley, protecting it. A few happy snaps, and the tour company wanted a few for their marketimg, I think they are a new company starting up.
We did another quick stop at some geoglyths, which are dated older then the Nazca Lines which are Petroglyphs.
Next we stop at the Maria Reiche Museum, this woman dedicated her life to not only restoring the Nazca Lines, but also plotted them all, as she was a mathematician. Her and her sister lived together all their lives and both died in their mid 90’s. The museum was her actual house, a small mud brick single room. Because of her work the government eventually gave her permanent accommodation in one of the nice hotels.
A bit further down the road we came to a couple of towers, one each side of the road. So yet another quick stop to get our first glimpse of the Nazca lines from up in the tower. There is of course your touristy things for sale, magnets of different Nazca Lines, rocks with carvings, and other normal tourist memorabilia. As we peruse the items the gentleman manning the stall asks where we are from, to which we reply “Australia”. “Bloody hell mate” was his reply, I nearly pissed myself laughing. His English was pretty good and he new a few Aussie terms, but I asked him “have you heard fairdinkum?” He hadnt so then I had to try and explain what it meant. I came up with its like saying somethings true, ‘that’s fairdinkum’, or questioning what someones told you because your not sure if their pulling your leg, anither thing I had to explain, ‘is that fairdinkum?'”. We exchanged a bit more aussie slang, I was really surprised how many he knew, then it was up the stair case to the platform. On the way out old mate said “goodbye”. I said “no, it’s see ya later”.
Finally we get to the airport, and with a bit of waiting around, we head out to the 6 seater, plus pilot and co pilot, a little Cessna. Looking out past the air strip we could see another sand storm coming in and the pilot said this trip will probably be the last, so we are very lucky, and a bumpy one, so no screaming, and theres plastic bags in the seat pocket. We head on up, and yep it was a little bumpy, but not only that they will drop the left wing and do a donut so the left side can see the petroglyph, then do a figure 8 and drop the right side and do a donut so the right side can see. After about 10 or so figure 8’s the stomach was feeling a bit squeamish, having the air full of dust probably didnt help either.
Safely back on terra firma we head off to an archeological site from the Nazca era and to some aquaducts that spiral down to the man made underground piping system.
Finally for some lunch at the famous Gulo Restaurant. It was really nice and Pepe, our waiter, spoke very good English. Oh and finally a decent coffee in Peru.
Basically after lunch it was a 2 1/2 hour drive home. Arriving home at 7pm we are exhausted after the day, especially Matt as he only had 3 hours sleep, so still full from lunch, and knowing tomorrow was a 10 or 12 hour drive to Arepuipa, we went to bed.
Day 3 Ica to Arequipa, Peru
Up at sparrows fart o’clock to do the drive to Arequipa, which Google says is about 12 hours, which we sort of don’t believe because its only 700 klms. Theres a vague recollection of our guise saying fill up at Ica, along with a vague memory of reading somewhere that some areas of Peru dont have ATMs, but their both vague memories. As theres still half a tank of petrol in the car we decide to get fuel down at Nazca and head off at about 5.30 am.
This is where things start turning pear shaped. We pull up at a servo to fill up and hopefully get some coffee. First up the cafe is not opened, its no even finished being built but theres a huge sign saying cafe, then the attendant informs Matt no credit cards, cash only. Matt has only 60 sols in his pocket, so he puts in 50, which half fills the tank. Surely theres petrol stations along the way, so off we go.
About an hour or so down the road a fog starts building up and soon turns to a light drizzle and you can’t see shit, to make matters worse the road turns to shit. The fuel gauge starts dropping and Matt starts to worry, now remembering the words of our guide “fill up at Ica”. We could just imagine two silly Gringos stuck on the side of the road, no petrol, no food, speak no Spanola and one small bottle of water. And we thought even if there are petrol stations will they take cash? The decision to turn around and head back to Nazca to get some cash, fill the car right up, get some food and a much needed coffee was made, better safe then sorry.
There was the whole drama of finding where we were yesterday in Nazca where the bank and restaurants are, but finally completed all the things required to do the trip, but now its around 12pm, so another decision was made to just forgo one nights accommodation in Arequipa and find somewhere down the road and break up the drive, we have no plans in Arequipa so it didn’t matter. We booked a night at Chala, another 3 1/2 hours drive.
By the time we got back to where we turned around the drizzle had lifted and about a kilometre or two down the road, the road got better, you should never speak too soon. The scenery is still miles and miles of desert.
When we came over a hill we got a glimpse of the ocean, woo hoo, we thought, a change of scenery. It may have been a change of scenery but bloody hell it was crazy. The wind was blowing across the road and with it sheets of sand, so much that you couldn’t tell where the road was. In some places the sand was forming little sand dunes that were inching its way across to claim the road. We drove through this for about 10 or so k’s when we seen a town between the ocean and a mountain, and that the road started winding up the mountain. Finally we’ll be out of the sand.
As we are winding up the mountain Matt is wishing he had a .motorbike, big hairpin corners, the works, then the drizzle starts back up again, and then guess what? When we thought the road was shit before, we had no idea what we were heading for. The Pan American highway, which is truly hard to believe its titled that, turns to an absolute disgrace. You literally have to zig zag up the road so you don’t lose your car in a pot hole, we are travelling at about 15 klm per hour. In some places it was slush. There are heaps of semi trailers using the road and at some points you have them coming straight at you, as yourside, at that part, is better then theirs, or vica a versa. We had to laugh when we seen a sign that said 25 klm max, as if you could go that fast, oh and the speed bumps in town to also slow you down. REALLY!!
We finally arrive in Chala and find the hotel. Sitting in the car park we contemplate whether we should stay, as of course, the pictures you see online are obviously photoshopped. But considering the day we’ve had a good rest is very much needed. The rooms not so bad and we have a great view of the ocean and can hear the surf crashing onto the beach.
We take a wander up the road and discover the local markets, the “real Peru” markets. Matts feeling like a giant, as he almost hung himself, he has to keep ducking under the ropes that tie the awnings up of each stall. We buy some strawberries, bananas and some coca leaves, the coca leaves are preparing for the altitude we are going to be heading to. Time to rest up and fingers crossed that the road gets better.
Day 4 Chala to Arequipa, Peru
Considering we drove all day this should be a short post. Yeah right, not the way things have been going in Peru.
After a restless night, due to me stressing about how bad the road was going to get, because we presume the owner of the hotel misinterpreted our question and told us “lots of holes, very dangerous curves”. I was envisioning Bolivia’s Death Road.
We headed off about 7am. The road was a little messy, with still quite a few pot holes, or just lifted tar. Matt comes out with “lucky I spent a lot of time playing Mario Brothers”. It wasn’t long before it turned into a pretty good road, but everytime we commented about the road we’d add “but we dont know what’s ahead”.
The scenery is so dramatic, and changed quickly from sand to jagged red rock walls, large round boulders, similiar to up around tentefield, to black rock. There was an area where a retainer wall was desperately trying to hold back a massive sand dune. Matt said one area looked post apocalyptic, but still beautiful. We where constantly saying “wow its crazy”.
We would come to areas where you could see the beach, which would have been about 300 meters wide, full of rocks, and every now and then there would be a 3 x 3 humpy.
We would wind our way up a large hill with shear cliffs to the ocean, probably over a 100 meters down. I was feeling a little on edge, as semi’s, and there was heaps of them, would come around blind corners on your side of the road. I would have felt so much better on the “right” side of the road. We probably had more “holy fuck” moments then I can count on my fingers and toes. And besides that, you had trucks over taking trucks on inclines as you come over a crest.
If you weren’t preparing to hit the brakes to avoid a head on you were dodging landslides. It looked like they had a couple of teams that went through sweeping and getting large rocks off the road.
We would pass through villages or small towns, and again be gobsmacked that people lived like this. We did have a laugh when passing through one town, the local ladies, trying to drum up business, would wave plastic colourful colanders around and waving you in with their other hand.
We turned off just past Camana to start our incline up to Arequipa, which is about 2400 meters above sea level. As we start getting higher we hit the fog, which got so thick you couldn’t see 20 meters in front of you, which sucked because we just had to sit tight behind a little convoy of trucks and a bus, we hadn’t got around them prior to the fog. It was a slow grind at about 10 k’s an hour. Thankfully three of the trucks pulled over and not long after that we broke through the fog. Once out on the plateau you could see across the top of the fog which semi circled the mountain. It really made it loom like you where above the clouds.
Again we start going through a variety of landscapes we hadn’t experienced yet. There was canyon like areas, large farming fields and there was this area that looked like a sand dune between two rocky cliffs but it was different shades of blue, yellow and pinkish/red.
We are about 40 minutes to Arequipa and we once again begin to climb, and sometimes when you go up you must go down, which we did, quite steeply.
Once we arrived in Arequipa we got the car washed, as it was trashed and didnt want to cop an expensive cleaning bill. Then we tried to find our hotel, but you guessed it two silly Gringos with no fucking idea. But I must say we came really close, but with traffic an absolute nightmare, and nearly been can-opened a few times, we made the decision to take it to the airport and drop it off to hire company and taxi into the hotel. This was a great decision, as we discovered there is no parking at the hotel, or close by, not to mention the centre is a myriad of one way streets and narrow.
When we got to the airport and walked over to the terminal I started feeling weird. I felt my legs weren’t connected to my body anymore and was squirmy in the belly. As we’d had no lunch we first decided to grab a coffee. I sat down, as I thought I was going to fall down, then the legs started to tremble, and I don’t mean like when you shiver, they were bouncing up and down and going side ways. My hands where shaking and my arms didn’t want to work properly. I said to Matt “I feel like what I presume someone with Parkinsons feels like”. I couldn’t control my limbs. The coffee, which I had to be careful holding due to the shakes, and sandwhich made me feel better, but the squirmy tummy remained for awhile. I think a combination of stress, tired, no food and of course altitude where all a factor. Matt was feeling a little weird.
Car handed back we jumped into a taxi to get to the motel, we are exhausted.
At the hotel we had to walk up some stairs carrying our bags. It was a struggle and we were a little woozy when we got to reception and had to sit for a few minutes before booking in. Because we didn’t turn up the night before, and didn’t notify them, we think they booked our room out, they scrambled around a bit, gave some excuse why the original room was not available, but have another room but with two singles. Right at this moment we couldn’t care, we just want to rest, get food and sleep.
First things first a hot shower, since lasts nights accommodation didnt have hot water. Then a quick wander around the La Plaza. Then some dinner, which I chose lamb and all I can say is a leather boot would have been easier to chew.
We have a few hours tomorrow before we fly to Cusco, so will have a better look around the main Plaza area.
We can now understand why a few people couldn’t believe we where driving from Lima to Arequipa. Its not something we would recommend, and we’d certainly never do it again, and would have done it differently had we known. But boy it was an experience we’ll never forget. Plum Loco Gringo’s
Day 1 Cusco, Peru
Arrived into Cusco at about 7.30 pm and grabbed a taxi to the Belmond Monasterio Hotel. We felt totally under dressed in our thongs, bloody Aussies. We are given a complimentary tea, whilst the concierge explains our booking, and that we have recieved an upgrade.
We are just amazed at the hotel, which is an old Monastry, with all original art works on the walls. We are even more amazed when we get to our room and see the size of the bed. I nearly need a pack lunch to get from my side to Matts to snuggle up.
After a quick shower we head out to find a place for dinner. The altitude is affecting Matt this time, so we walk quite slowly, and of course we have to go down which means we have to walk up. We marveled at the old church buildings and stone walls.
Once we had dinner it was back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep in that gigantic bed. Unfortunately the altitude is not playing nicely with Matt, as he had a pretty bad headache all night, even with our oxygenated room, so a restless night for him.
Day 2 Cusco, Peru
First thing on our to do list is to get some laundry done, which thankfully, there was one just around the corner.
One the way we were checking out the huge block wall, that was on one side of the very narrow cobbled street, when a local guy started telling us a little about it. The wall was built by the Inca and right near were we stopped was a block that had twelve angles, this represented the twelve important families of Cusco, six on either side of the road, as this road divided the “high” Cusco and the “low” Cusco. This wall had the palace on top, which is now a museum. He pointed to the wall and said “we say the Inca’s built this” then pointing to a wall that was more brick like and wobbly and cracking, and said “the idiotso’s built this”, meaning the spanish. The Inca’s built their walls to withstand earthquakes, and it shows, they are perfectly aligned, even over a thousand years and numerous earthquakes. He also showed us the Panther in the wall, which was just down around the corner, luckily he had a picture tgat highlighted the panther otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to pick it. We’re not sure if he was pulling our legs but he told us he was studying to be a tour guide, with 1 year to go and an artist. He showed us some art work, which was totally different to the ones lots of locals where trying to sell, and yes you guessed it sucked Matt into buying one. But he did take us to the laundry and then showed also how to get to the big market quite a few blocks away.
On the way we stopped at a chemist and got some tablets for altitude sickness and a can of oxygen, yes you buy oxygen in a can and use it like an asthma puffer.
The markets are very cramped, with most stalls only about meter wide, crammed packed with either knitted Alpaca apparel or souvenirs, and basically all selling the same stuff, just like Paddy’s markets in Sydney. Then you had your food section where you take a seat at a bar and watch the vendor prepare your meal. You also had your fresh produce, herbs and spices area. The smells and colours are amazing, especially the strong smell of coriander, if your a fan of coriander, wich I am but Matt’s not.
Of course we wanted to buy a jumper and it had to be baby Alpaca, now don’t panick its not from a baby Alpaca its the first wool of the Alpaca. So we found a couple we liked and tried them on, wow they are so soft. We still are on the hunt for a beany scarf.
We basically spend the day coming and going from the hotel, its a real struggle for Matt, so short bursts of walking to climatise and then to rest, which we had planned for.
Every time we go out we are also constantly saying “No Gracias” as you are forever getting hassled to buy sunnies, even though your wearing some, pictures, which they all apparently painted, photos with baby Alpaca with traditionally dressed ladies, massages, to dine or tours. There could literally be two hawkers standing two meters apart and even though you put up your hand and say “No Gracias” the next one will still hassle you, it does start to wear thin and become annoying. In the main Plaza you hear the security guards constantly blowing their whistles and we are presuming its to tell the hawkers to get out of the square as they try to wander in to peddle their wares. There are some in the square which seem to be allowed, like photographers which wear an official vest and tour operators who have lanyards on, so again we assume they must pay a fee to be allowed to be in that area.
We only have to have a meeting with our Manchu Pichu tour company tonight and then rest up for maybe a quad bike tour tomorrow.
Day 3 Cusco, Peru
When we landed in Cusco it was dark so we didn’t get a good look at the city on the way in from the airport. Only until we got towards the main Plaza could we see that Cusco was going to be a more cosmopolitan city and very clean. This was varified the next morning when we spent the day wandering around the main Plaza as we found KFC and McDonalds.
Today we have booked in for a quad bike tour out to Moray and Maras. We get picked up from the Plaza at 1 pm, along with another ten passengers and drive for about an hour outside of Cusco. Only a few kilometers out of the main centre you start seeing the same poverty we seen down at Arequipa, the half finished houses, the dirty streets and dirt side streets.
We turn into this tiny little village, it was literally only a couple of streets, the houses where all mud brick and the dust was bad. We get the run down on how to use them and of course whether you have experience.
As Matt and I have experience we where asked to ride at the back, but first a couple of practice laps up and down the road. Now some how in the confusion of how many laps we were doing, a couple of riders started following another group, so they had to turn around, this made Matt and I in the front, and thank fuck for that, as they were really slow and we would have copped the dust of 10 quad bikes. This was the only time Matt ate my dust. It was about an hour on the quads to the first location and when we got off and looked at the others they where covered in dust. Matt and I so thankful that we inadvertently ended at the front. We still got a bit of dust on us.
When we reached our first destination,
Moray, the lead guide came up to Matt and I and sort of apologised that it was a bit slow and boring for us. It was okay as we got to check out the scenery, and try and slide them out on the tight corners.
Moray is basically a large circle of terraces, obviously getting smaller the deeper it got. This is apparently where the Inca’s aclimitised their crops. Planting them in the next terrace up and seeing if they grew, if they did then they would plant the following crop in the next terrance.
We took a different route back to the quad base. We passed through a village that had a sealed main road but all the side streets where dirt. I wished I had the video going. The houses basically all join and they are so low and made of mud, so everything was brown. The houses front doors where literally a door step from the road. With kids and dogs roaming the streets.
The bus then took us to Moras, which are the salt lakes. The road down into the valley where they are is a bit dodgy, dirt and narrow with a big drop on one side. As Matt was struggling with the altitude we stayed up the top so didn’t hear the talk on how the salt was produce. Our salt lakes use salt water from the ocean, but we are a long way from the ocean, so can only presume its salt minerals from the ground. I shall google it.
We had an hours drive back to Cusco, we couldn’t wait to get in the shower to get the dust off.
We have come to the conclusion that quad bike tours are not our thing. It was only the scenery that saved this tour for us.
Day 4 Manchu Picchu, Peru
It was an early start to make our way to Manchu Picchu, as we had a few archeological sites to see along the way.
We were picked up at the hotel at 7.30 and joined eight other passengers. All, but three of us were Americans and can you believe it not the loud type. Theres a cool big guy, Nick, from London, whose scared of everything, or so he says, and I quote “I don’t have an ego, I’ll scream”. He’s a really funny guy.
Our first stop was at an Alpaca farm where they showed you how they spun and coloured the wool. And of course the sales pitch, to many Sols later we walked out to head to Pisaq.
Our tour guide gave us the run down of the history of Pisaq and then you had a bit of time to have either more time in the site or wander through the little market. All the market stalls sell all the same stuff and a lot of it is from China, so you really need to know how to pick your authentic Alpaca wool.
Back on the bus for our next location, Ollantaytambo. On the way we pass ladies on the street, at one town, selling baked Guinee pig, it didn’t look appetizing at all, the poor little thing skewered on a big stick, and our guide said only try just before you leave, he also said, as they have heaps of Gum trees here, to help stop erosion, that if they had Koalas they’d eat them, as they eat all cute things, guinee pig, alpaca, but not dogs or cats.
Ollantaytambo is the only location that the Inca’s held off the Spanish in their first attempt to conquer the city, that was until the Spanish teamed up with the local enemies and over run them. We didn’t try climbing to the top as it was a bloody long way up, and we only had about half an hour “free” time. Its just amazing how they built these places.
Ollantaytambo is also where we board the train to make our way to Manchu Picchu. The group gets split up here into different carriages, but will regroup once at Manchu Picchu. The train trip is nearly two hours. We basically follow the river and pass houses built practically on the track. We pass a football, as in soccer, field in the middle of nowhere, the nets are basically non existent and there’s an abandoned old soccer ball on the paddock, the random things you see.The train line runs between the mountains, which are huge and its not long into the trip that we see snow on the peaks. They are practically vertical. We can feel the train heading down and the first signs of rain forest start to appear. Cusco is at about 3,400 meters and Manchu Picchu town is at about 2,200 meters, but it felt like we were going down a lot further then a 1,000 meters. Even Matts breathing became easier. I just can’t believe the mountains, they are so high and steep, and you are constantly admiring them. The river is now full of rapids as it starts to drop steeply. This river feeds into the Amazon river.
The vegetation is now quite dense but in the middle of B.F.N (bum f#%k nowhere) you would see a shack. How the hell do they get here? There’s no road to Manchu Picchu and no train stations.
When we get into Manchu Picchu I am totally surprised at the town. I was expecting a few backpacker hostels, maybe a hotel or two, maybe a resturant or cafe and of course your little tourist shop with their Tshirts and nick nacks. But its quite big with a lot of the fore mentioned. It also has your “Paddy’s” style markets right at the train station. As its dark I am yet to be surprised by what surrounds the town. I guess with over 5,000 visitors per day there has to be the services to cater for everyone. And remember there are no roads into Manchu Picchu, everything is bought in by train, this means food supplies, building material, tourists and the twenty six buses that ferry everyone up to the site. There are no cars, the streets are too narrow for them anyway, no motorbikes or golf carts so all supplies bought in are delivered by “delivery” guys using wheelbarrows and man made carts. A job that would be hard work, as if theres one thing you need to know is that Peru, once away from the ocean, is extremely steep and you are constantly walking up and down hills.
We try and get a good nights sleep as we are up at 4.30 to have breakfast, check out, get your bags stored and make your way to the bus terminal. The rooms at the hotel are really small, so yes the bed was small, it didnt make for a good nights sleep.
Day 5 Manchu Picchu, Peru
As we leave our hotel, to catch the bus, I look up and we are totally surrounded by these mountains that tower over the town.
We had read reviews where they say you need to be at the bus terminal at least 5 am as the line is huge. We get there around 6 am and yes there is already a big line. But thankfully, as we are a booked tour and have a set time to enter Manchu Picchu, we bypass the line, getting a few disbelief stares. So if doing Manch Puccu I recommend getting to the bus stop around 5 am. Plus its not so hot and you will do a lot of walking up and down steps.
Matt and I scored the front seat and I’m not sure if it was a good idea, as about ten minutes out of town I noticed the bus driver rub his religous paraphernalia hanging off the review mirror and cross himself a few times while whispering a prayer. Seriously?? How bad is this road going to be? The road wasn’t too bad, yes it was dirt, yes it was narrow and yes in some place there where shear drops and you zig zagged up the mountain. There were places for the buses to pass each other, but if they miss timed it one would have to back up. Along the roads you see people who have decided to walk, some of these people don’t look very fit and would have to be friggen crazy to walk it, it took half and hour in the bus. You would see people resting looking absolutely stuffed and they’d be only about half way.
The mountains have now become even more amazing, if thats possible, I have never seen mountains like it, and its only a smidgen of the Andes.
Off the bus we go and get a Manchu Picchu stamp in our passports, then make our way inside. You only get four hours inside, there are no facilities inside, so make sure you go before you go, because once you exit, even to use the loo, you can’t re-enter. So dont drink too much water.
Now all I can say is WOW this place is amazing. It is hard to fathom how in the hell they built in such a place or why. When you first enter you walk up a heap of stairs and come out over looking the city, our guide gave us a good ten minutes to just take in the view. Which was simply stunning, only ruined by the numerous “instadicks” trying to get the “perfect” pose, fluffing their hair, tilting their heads this way and that and the sultry pout, twenty plus photo’s later they’d move on to the next location. The best thing is no selfie sticks are allowed into the site.
Our guide takes us around, and everyone has to go one way now, and explains the different buildings and history of the Inca’s. After his talk we have an hour to do our own thing and then make our way out and to the buses. Manchu Picchu is something that has to be seen to be believed.
After making it back we pick up our bag from the hotel, grab some lunch then onto the train to Ollantaytambo to be picked up by our mini bus for the two hour drive back to Cusco.
With two big days its an early night for us. We have a few more days in Cusco with no real plans, but I’m sure Matt will fix that.
Day 7 & 8 Cusco, Peru
The last two days have just been going to some relatively close Inca sites, which means going on group tours, and we are hating these more and more. Being herded around like sheep with limited time to see the site you are at.
We have one more day in Cusco before we fly out to La Paz in Bolivia. I’m thinking we may have stayed a day too long in Cusco. You get over the hawkers, and I can now add massages to the list, and all the shops are the same. Also if you come to Peru don’t trust anyone. The artists didn’t paint their pictures, as we listened to a guy trying to sell to some “newbie” travellers and he was using the same speil that one used on us, most of the textiles where not woven by them, we did meet a lady at the Belmond Monasterio who showed us hers and what wasn’t, very rare, the delious bread you get to taste on a tour wont be the bread you buy, it will be stale. But the frozen fruit bars are delicious.
Matt is struggling with breathing because of all the hills, theres literally only the Plaza thats flat. I think tomorrow will be a day of just lazing around as we have done so much walking.
Everytime lunch and dinner time we have the same dilemma, what and where for food. You either go cheap and its not that great or you go expensive and its delicious, but even expensive here is not expensive compared to home. A delicious fancy meal here would still be half the price of Australian. My chicken salad at Uchu was about $16.
As its a short blog I’ll give you some information about Cusco.
Always carry toilet paper or tissue in your pockets as a lot of places outside the city don’t have toilet paper. Oh and when you get to use a clean toilet take the opportunity, but also expect to pay at least a couple of Sols. You’ll probably need tissues as it’s so dusty you will constantly get “crusties”, well I am, and my nose vessels don’t like the altitude so usually “bloody crusties”.
# The sun is extremely hash so have sunscreen and a hat and have good walking shoes.
# The perivians, or maybe the tourists, must be a sick bunch as there is so many pharmacies. Grab yourself a can of oxygen if you struggle with breathing, Matts on his second one.
# Cusco has KFC and McDonalds, and if its possible, its worse then Australia’s. Yes we tried both as we were tired and just wanted something small and, dare I say, something familiar
# The hotel breakfasts, to us, are pretty basic, so Matt eats some bread with jam.
# A lot more Peruvians in Cusco speak English, well enough to be able to communicate. The guides have very good English as they have to do a course.
# The population of Cusco is just over 500,000 and gets about 3 million tourists a year. Its at an altitude of 3,400 meters and as mentioned the town is very hilly. The rain season starts around November and lasts for about 4 months.
# The Perivans call everybody “friend”, so in Cusco you have 500,000 friends.
# You should haggle with people over prices, we found this hard to do, not that we didn’t want to, it was just looking at their living conditions you felt so sorry for them, and really, if you shop in the right areas its pretty cheap any way, except the authentic Alpaca textiles.
# When getting a taxi get the price up front, if you have someone like a guide or hotel reception, to ask prior what it would roughly cost then make sure you do that. We were also told by a couple from Chile that you are best to get a taxi from inside the airport then heading out to the street and getting one, as they will rip you off.
# Laundry can cost you anywhere from 2 sols to 8 sols per kilo and usually takes all day. You can pay more for a faster service. I would suggest using a independent service then your hotel, as hotels usually charge a bomb, it was, from memory, 5 sols per pair of socks or undies, 9 sols per TShirt. We had 6 kilos of clothes @ Sols, about $15 Aud. Everything is washed, dried and folded.
Day 1 La Paz, Bolivia.
Its only an hours flight to go from Cusco, Peru to La Paz, Bolivia. I suggest when flying in South America to get to the airports early, as the process can be a bit slower than most western airports.
We boarded the plane at 8.30am and landed in La Paz about 9.30am. It was strange sitting in the plane and looking out the right side of the plane and seeing desert as far as you could see then looking out the left and seeing snow capped mountain peaks. There was also a huge lake that we think was Lake Titicaca. The air looked like it was tarnished a light orange colour, we are presuming it is just dust in the air.
As we’re getting closer to land I’m looking at the lanscape thinking its flat, Matt was saying the streets were as steep, if not steeper, then Cusco. It looks pretty flat to me. Matt was also talking about taking the cable car up to the “top”. Top of what??? We did see cable cars as we were landing, but there was no mountain in sight.
We got through customs really quickly and I have to say they were the happiest custom officers we’ve come across in all our travels. We jumped into a taxi for the half hour ride to our hotel. The traffic doesn’t seem to be so chaotic here. After about five minutes we turned a corner and were gob smacked. The city lay far below in like a huge canyon. It was amazing. The driver pulled over so we could get a quick photo but as usual photos never do it justice.
We weaved our way down through the narrow streets and we couldn’t believe our eyes when we came through an area that was full of mechanics and they had cars up on stumps changing both wheels or doing brakes, as they sure do need them here, now remember these streets are really steep, there is no way in hell I’d be under one of them.
La Paz, even though it still has it poor surrounding areas, is even more cosmopolitan they Cusco and straight away we get a great feeling about La Paz. The taxi from the airport to our hotel was only $17, in Australia that trip would have cost you probably around $150.
We were fortunate enough to be able to head up to our room and when we entered we were amazed that the shower is a glass cubicle in your room, so you can watch TV while having a shower, or look out over the city. The one thing Matt loved was the fact that when I was in the shower he couldn’t hear a word I was saying. The veiw out the window, which was wall to wall, floor to ceiling, was stunning, and even better at night, and the cable car station is just below the hotel.
There is six different lines for the cable cars, red, orange, white, blue, green and yellow, and so easy to navigate. The only problem was that very few people speak English in Bolivia and we were trying to find out if they had a card like our Opal card that you just put money onto and just scan that, but it was lost in translation. We worked out you can buy a ticket for each colour, so we got a ticket for the white line and went to the end, which was about four kilometers, and then one to cross over to the orange line, these tickets were about 0.60 cents, can you believe that. We later found out, you can buy a ticket to do four lines but you can’t exit, so its basically like a sight seeing tour, we ended up buying one which cost about $2 each, but we discovered that the red line wasn’t one of the lines you could use it on, so we just ended up heading back. I did see a guy scan a card so there is probably a system but we’ll have to work that out later.
The cable cars is the best transport system we’ve seen for a city, granted this city is built up the sides of mountains. Each car seats eight and run from 7 am till 11 pm, I think like Peru things start late in Bolivia. You can even get the cable car to the airport and is supposed to be quicker then a taxi.
Just to ride the cable cars was a great experience, you seen so much and was constantly swivelling in your seat to see something new. Like workers working four or five stories up with no scaffolding, a cemetry that was so jammed packed, but also neglected, and the graves seemed so tiny like it was a cemetry for babies or young children, you could see how far the city stretched up each ravine.
What we haven’t seen a lot of, and its a relief, is the hawkers, I’ve seen a couple so maybe we are just not in the “touristy” spot, and of course a couple of beggars, they are usually elderly or disabled and so heart breaking to see, and yes if we have a few coins we drop one or two in.
Day 2 La Paz, Bolivia.
We start the morning by grabbing a taxi to take us up to a church to get picked up by the tour bus. There was a taxi right outside our hotel but as you find out everyone is after your money, so another taxi pulled up and tried to get our business but we wanted to go with the old bloke who was already there. We only had to go maybe 3 klms up the road but it was steep. We get to the church and we ask how much and he replied but we didnt know what he said so Matt offered him $5, he shook his head, so Matt gave him an extra $3, he still shook his head and sad $10. We were like “no.. no.. no”… and laughing, he was laughing to and the waved us on. He was a real character. We still think we got ripped even though it was less then $2.
The bus turned up and we climbed aboard. Now we’re pretty sure these buses must be made in Sth America as the seats were small and not comfortable. We wound our way up the steep narrow streets and picked up a few more people. Then it was a pretty long drive out to Tiwinaku and Pumapunku.
Both sites were pretty amazing in there own way. Tiwanaku for its walls of head carvings, there were 175, and I reckon two were aliens, and its huge stones. Pumapunka had the pecision cut stones and the H blocks that made a compass go crazy.
We were supplied lunch as it was part of our tour but for those that didn’t have it included, the cost was $35 Bolivian, which equates to about $7 AUD. For that you got soup, main meal, dessert and coca tea and it was pretty good.
As your driving around Bolivia you notice that all the cows, sheep and pigs are tethered but the Llamas and dogs aren’t. You would be in the middle of BFN (remember Bum F%#k Nowhere) and you will see some sort of animal tethered and a person just lying or sitting on the ground, probably waiting to move them somewhere else.
The main centre of La Paz is pretty clean but once outside the city its once again disgustingly filthy with litter. If you hate seeing rubbish everywhere, as I do, you will be apalled by South America.
La Paz is like every other place we’ve been to where all the houses and building look half built, we have learnt that they do this because if you finish your house you have to pay more taxes. You also still see six foot fences made of bricks about the size of a house block, sometimes bigger, around nothing, its like they do things backward to us, they build the fence and then their house, where we build our house then our fence. But maybe I’m wrong as there are unfinished houses without fences.
We have a quiet night as we are back up early, 4am, to fly to Uyuni for 3 days.
Day 1 Uyuni, salt flat tour, Bolivia
We get picked up at our hotel at 4.40 by Johny and taken to the domestic terminal. Johny lets us know he’ll be waiting for us on our return and that there will be someone at Uyuni to pick us up. His English is not so good but we understand, this service is all part of our Uyuni tour.
We arrive in Uyuni, which is a very small airport, and there is no one waiting for us with our names on a sign. Everyone else is getting picked up. We start to wonder if the tour company name was accurate, Joker Expedition, as we have no real paper work, only that on arrival we get a breakfast at a popular cafe included. Eventually a driver pulled up and took us to this building, on the outskirts of the main town, no signage, nothing, and we go inside. We are ushered up stairs and shown into a room, it was really nice and we were thinking “this can’t be right, the accommodation was basic”. So we had no idea what was going on. At 9am we were given breakfast, but after breakfast, still scratching our heads, we went back to the room. It was getting close to 10 am when I decided to go down stairs and try and find out what was happening. I found the office for the tour company and he said a driver would pick us up at 10am, so all was good, and the room was to rest as we arrived early.
Once picked up we were taken to the main tourist office where we were divided up into groups to head out in 4WD. We actually joined up with Salty Expiditions. There were two 4WD in our group and our tour guide was named Liroy (yes with an i).
Our first stop was the train grave yard which was just a bunch of trains left to rust. They make for a great picture, except for the hoards of selfie taking tourists.
The next stop was the salt producing work shop. The amount of work, which is basically all by hand, makes the salt very expensive and they don’t export the salt due to that fact.
Finally we head out to the salt flats. Its really amazing how big they are and glary, so if you go sunnies, hat and sunscreen are a must. You see 4WD racing off in all directions, and there’s heaps of them. We stop at the Salt Hotel, with the big Dakar sculpture and the flags of the world for lunch. Lunch was pretty good but Matt with his fussy eating is struggling to eat more then some bread and rice.
After lunch we head further into the salt flats, heading towards Cactus Island, but first around 50 klms in it was time to do some funny photos. This is were our group really bonded. We had such a great time doing the pictures, and our group video was the best out of the two cars. Liroy our guide was exceptional at this. We must have been mucking around for a good hour.
Back in the cars it was off to Cactus Island, with a quick stop to see how in some areas the water pushed up and formed water filled potholes. Off to the side of the roads we found little holes but Liroy showed how stepping on them they opened up and became quite large and reached in and pulled out what looked like crystals, the edges were extremely sharp and the water freezing. Showing us how beneath a small hole a larger one lay made a couple of us concerned that the car might fall into one but was reassured that it doesn’t happen, maybe in the rainy season, but then no one is allowed to drive pass the hotel.
We arrive at Cactus Island and are amazed at the size and number of cactus on the island. We have to remember that thousands of years ago the salt flats was once a sea, and we are reminded of this as we walk up and over the island as you see lots of old coral heads. Standing at the top, which was a struggle due to altitude, you can get a 360° view and the salt flats just go on forever.
Its time to make our way to our first nights accommodation, but one more stop to watch the sun set over the salt flats.
LWe arrive at the hotel around 8pm so its been a big day. The accommodation is very, very basic, which we expected, but we didn’t expect the floor to be salt. We had dinner and then it was time for a shower. I grab my stuff, paid my $2 to shower and crossed my fingers there was hot water. There is no seperation from the ladies and mens amenities. I get into the shower and turn it on and this trickle of cold water comes out “oh great” I moan and one of the guys in our group in the next shower says it takes a minute for the hot water, I asked if it was the same for the pressure, “no thats about it”. Well at least some warm water started to come through. So it was more a “wash the important bits” and get out and go to bed.
Day 2 &3 Uyuni, salt flat tour, Bolivia
We’re able to have a sleep in as breakfast is not until 7.00 am and depart at 7.30 am. Poor Matt again has a breakfast consisting of bread as eggs are served up.
We left the salt flats last night so instead of seeing bright whiteness for miles we are now seeing the reds, browns and cream colours of the rugged deserts and mountains, some of which are old volcanoes. In some areas its so flat for miles but you would get this narrow path of large rocks like some giant over at the mountains had been practising shot put. The colours in the mountains are amazing, the rich reds contrasted against the white, even the small yellow shrubs turning the hills yellow. The scenery constantly changed but one thing remained the same, no grass or trees and lots of dust.
With seven of us in the 4WD it became quite hot but with the dust from either passing or getting passed, or even just dust storms, you couldn’t put the windows down all the time, also some of the group found it cold. They thought we were weird, whilst they’re walking around with puffer jackets and scarves on we are wearing T-shirts.
We stopped off to check out some rock formations and the active volcano in the background. Its last eruption was in 1974 but was only minor, its last major eruption is estimated about 6,000 years ago.
It was then on to check out a few lakes and the flamingos. It never ceases to amaze me the stupidity of people, there are signs telling you to stay of the grassed areas for environmental reasons, as well as staying back from the flamingos, granted theres no real fence, maybe painted rocks or bottles stuck in the ground, but people still walk past them to get close. Listen dickheads you have zoom on your cameras. The flamingos get their colour from the algae in the water and their no pinker at the pink lake.
Over the day we have gradually gone higher in altitude and from memory I believe the pink lake is about 4,670 meters above sea level. Both Matt and I start feeling it with bad headaches, which makes the sight seeing a bit unbearable and you just want to get to the accommodation and rest. We were offered some oxygen but we toughed it out a bit. We hadn’t reached the highest point of the trip yet and the next stop was the hot mud pools at 5,000 meters. It was a bit weird as even though we were higher my headache seemed to abate a bit but Matts didn’t. It was blowing a gale and was quite cold, not to mention smelt a bit, at the mud pools so we actually put our jackets on.
Our final stop was our accommodation, which looked a little better then the last one but had no showers, but there was the hot spring pool you could go into. As we were not feeling crash hot we just wanted to lay down in a dark room. As they were issuing rooms there was only one room that was twin share allocated to the group and there were two couples, Matt and myself and Iris and Leo, we were going to flip a coin but with both Matt and I really suffering I pulled the “respect your elders” card and we got the room. Iris and Leo were able to pay a little extra and get a seperate room as well, they need to use up their Bolivian dollars, so all worked out.
While the others went to the hot pool Matt and I hid in our room sipping coca tea, which is good for altitude sickness, no you dont get high, and took some panadol. A little later our guide, Liroy, knocked on the door with a hot cup of some sort of concoction that was a local remedy, which was so great of him. It wasnt the best tasting drink but we where going to try anything.
After dinner, which consisted of a soup, which was tasty, and one square piece of what we believed to be a carrot lasagne, that was it, no salad no vegies. Even if you didn’t like it you ate it. After dinner was finished it was outside for a group star photo. It was cold and windy and I just wanted to get inside.
The final day was basically making our way back to Uyuni, but first a stop at the green lake. Now its only green when the wind blows as it stirs up the algae, but today theres not a breath of wind, so no green lake but you got a pretty good reflection of the mountain in it.
We then stopped at a place which is made famous by the artist, Salvador Dahli. I’m not sure if I’ve seen it but Matt knows it, something about elephants with long skinny legs, I’ll google it.
Theres only a couple of stops on the way back, one for lunch, and again poor Matt, as they served up something that tasted like a salmon pattie, just had soup.
A stop at some huge rock formations. In a couple of places along the trip Liroy would point out something and asked what we thought it looked like, some where a bit far fetched and we’d all laugh. I started finding formations, especially like my witch face the day before, and point them out to Liroy telling him he could use that on his next tour. At these particular rocks I pointed out a chinchilla, it took a little bit of explaining and a picture in the sand but he finally saw it, yes Liroy you can use that one as well. Liroy pointed out a supposedly alligator head but it was a pretty bad alligator.
We had one final stop to use the banos (toilet stop) and I bought a bag of marshmallow biscuits, thats the best description I can use. We all had one and all decided they were crap and instead of throwing them in the bin three young boys where walking past so I held them up and offered them to them. Well their faces light up and like little vultures they all grabbed for them with one succeeding and took off, now I’m hoping he shared them.
Finally after just over a 1,000 klms we were back at Uyuni and the five of us, one girl got dropped off at a pickup point to go to Chile, went and had dinner then Liroy organised for a drive to take us to the airport. We got back into La Paz around 10.30 pm so back to a new hotel and into a hot shower and a comfy bed.
Reflecting back on the trip we sort of think just doing the salt flats would have been enough. It was great seeing the deserts and the ever changing scenery, but the long hours in a bouncing 4WD was extremely tiring. We are so greatful that we not only had a great tour guide but great tour companions as well. As we found out later, talking to another couple at the airport, that our group had a way better experience then they did and it all came down to Liroy, he was funny, he was passionate about this area, he was a great photographer, he was caring, he had really good English so easy to communicate with the group and he made everyone feel welcomed. We have been pretty lucky with our tour guides which makes a tour that much more enjoyable.
Back at La Paz, Bolivia
After our three days out driving around the deserts of Bolivia we really needed to rest so basically today was a very relaxing day. We did venture up to the Witches Market, but quite frankly they were just like every other market place. We got dropped off at the top and we just wandered down and because it was down hill we walked all the way back to the hotel and kicked back for the rest of the afternoon.
From our hotel you could here a band doing sound testing which was really loud. I went out onto the balcony and theres an out side amphitheater just up the hill. When the people started rolling in we could hear the lead singer, presuming, talking and reving the crowd up and the funny thing was they were speaking and singing in English, most of the people in this city don’t speak English.
Santiago, Chile
We boarded the plane at 8.30 and arrived into Santiago around 12.30pm. First impressions straight out of the airport is “geez theres a lot of smog”. The city is more Westernized so a lot less chaos on the roads and no whete near as much rubbish. Still lots of vendors on the side of the road as you get close to the main centre and man there’s people everywhere. I don’t think we’ll do much but rest here, it was just to break up the long flight home.
Final day Santiago
After a huge 14 hours sleep we lazily had breakfast and then a wander around Santiago, although we didn’t wander far from the hotel. Santiago has really bad smog and its so busy.
We want to the airport early as we are basically roaming around aimlessly. At least we mught be able to catch a few Z’s before our 12 hour flight, yes even after 14 hours of sleep we could do with some more.
Well what an exit from Santiago, Chile. Planned on getting to airport super early, but you cant just get a taxi because the ones you hail are as dodgy as fuck, so hotel books a taxi, it will be 20 minutes. BUT in that 20 mins a protest march happens. The doorman says “its ok, maybe 15 mins to 1/2 hour”, 1/2 hour later the front grilles get pulled down, thats a worry, still hoards of people. Another 1/2 hour the metal door goes on and police take up position out front, time is ticking, we are supposed to be at the airport 3 hours before, we are starting to really stress. Finally after about two hours the march finishes and 10 minutes later the taxi can make it to the underground carpark. The porters get our bags and tell us to go one floor down, we get in elevator and go one floor down and come to the pool and gym foyer, we see no bagage stewards or carpark. So we go one more floor down and there’s a delivery area, but no one. A lady takes us back up to reception. By this time I’m fuming. Someone takes us down one floor and then turns left and we go out to a driveway. Into the cab and the driver heads for the airport. Theres people still everywhere, but he starts to floor it, theres police cars and big tank like armored trucks with lights flashing. We are duck, diving and weaving, the taxi driver floors it even more when bottles start getting thrown and smashing everywhere. He says we have to get out, as that was the danger zone. Once out onto the highway we start to relax and laugh. Matt told him we drove from Lima to Arequipa, even he said we were crazy loco.
The protest march was for Climate change, go figure, smashing bottles, rubbish left all over the road.
Get to the airport and check in. In the line up we noticed the bagage carousel isnt working and all the bags are piling up, if they lose my fucking bag I’m going to lose it.
Ive had a coffee now, just waiting for the plane.
OMG…. what an eventful evening…..
Fourtween hours later we arrive in New Zealand, its 5.30 am, so that means we can’t get into our room for a few hours, but they are going to get our room ready ASAP. So we go to a coffee shop and gave some breakfast then wander down to the harbour.
We made our way back to the hotel at 10 am and just as we pulled up in the taxi the hotel rang to say they had a room ready. So it was straight up and into a shower then climbed into bed for a nap, which ended up being a couple hours.
All I can say is how awesome it is to put the toilet paper in the toilet and tyo be able to make a coffee in your hotel room, now where in South America had coffee or tea facilities in the rooms.
Cash Strapped Travellers 