Archive for June, 2010

Paradise found.

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Its been quite a while since the last update because, well, for a long time we didn’t really do anything. After 5 days doing nothing in Lima we had 7 days doing nothing in San Jose. All this nothingness was good in that we saved enough off our daily budget to get on with the trip.

From San Jose we had to go via Orlando to get to Mexico, so had 6 days seeing some of the most culturally significant things in the entire trip such as The Upside Down House.

Krusty Land

And my personal favourite – Lobster Car

Although not particularly my cup of tea, we had a great time in Orlando. USA, bizarrely, seems to be one of the cheapest places we have been to yet. For not much more than bunk beds in a 10ft by 5ft room in San Jose we had 300 sq ft apartment, with everything needed. Plus we were really near an amazing supermarket, so it was great to fill up on descent (and some not so decent) food again.

Anyway, we now on Isla Mujeres, a Mexican Caribbean Island, which is just perfect:

There are loads of these huge Iguanas everywhere, which are pretty cool:


This is the first country we have been to yet where everything, so far, seems to cost much less than we had budgeted for. This means we can eat out most days. Those of you who know me well will know that I am obsessed with Mexican food, and we have found some great little local restaurants here. In about a month when we are leaving Mexico I’ll update you with a food only blog to let you know the best places and things to chow on.

Although it is cheap, a lot of the bars are quite touristy with prices to match, so we often prefer to buy a 6 pack and head to “Our Local”. I dread to think the number of hours we have spent here the last week or so.

The sea surrounding an Island near here, Isla Holbox, is the largest known home of Whale Sharks during the summer months. Although we had to pay a hefty price tag of $75 each, swimming with them was just amazing. (You’ll have to forgive me for the quality of the photos, they were taken on a compact camera submersed in a glorified plastic bag.)

Also included in the trip was snorkeling over the Isla Contoy Reef, also incredible:

The hardest thing about my underwater camera bag is that you cant see the viewfinder at all, so you just have to point vaguely in the direction of something bright and hope for the best.

We also saw, quite incredibly, mating turtles from the boat on the way back to the Island:

This is my third trip in the last 10 years to Isla Mujeres, and It will be a shame to leave. Not too much of a shame as tomorrow we head to another Caribbean Island, Cozumel. Is smugness really the worst character trait? Think about it until next time.

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Machu Machu Man, I Want To Be A Machu Man

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

Welcome to part 2 of our Machu Picchu story.

From Ollantaytambo we caught a bus to the train station. Its all still a bit messed up from the severe land slides earlier in the year. Eventually we got to Aguas Calientes, the town at the bottom of the mountain Machu Picchu sits on. Our Trek package included accommodation and a restaurant dinner, so we expected the worst, but both were tolerable. The trouble started when we were told by some random that our tour guide would meet us at 10:30 so as to tell us what the plan was for the morning. Bearing in mind that we intended to walk up and leave at 3:00am, when he didn’t show up until 11:45pm we were fairly livid. I told him, amongst other less savory things, that we just wanted our entrance tickets and we didn’t want his tour. He was a total cock after all. Anyway, after getting to bed at midnight we were up 3 short hours later and set off into the darkness to climb our way to Machu Pichu.

The walk up was hard, especially as it is pitch black, but I was very pleased to discover on reaching the top that we were in fact the first up. This meant we were guaranteed entry to to view Machu Picchu from the second mountain, Huayna Picchu, as only the first 400 up are allowed everyday. It also meant, that for an extremely brief moment, we were the only 2 people in the grounds:

Unfortunately at 6:00am the light is pretty terrible, and my hair is inexplicable, but you get the idea.

The ruins at Machu Picchu really do live up to their reputation. I got a far better shot much later in the day:

What I didn’t realise before was that there are loads of treks to be done within the ruins themselves. The first one takes you to an Incan Bridge:

They must have really wanted to get round that mountain as it seems a fantastically difficult place to build a bridge.

The second trek was the Huayna Picchu trek. This is the mountain in the middle of the overview shot from before. It is incredibly steep, but the view from halfway up is great:


And even better from the summit:

You can see the road that that the buses (for lazy people) take, the walking route is slightly more direct, but a lot steeper and goes almost straight up the middle of the white tracks.

At the very very summit you get to an area that would almost certainly be roped off to tourists in Europe, but in South America it was access all areas:

We are sitting down because it is a sheer drop behind and either side of us. This guy didn’t mind though:

After the Huayna Picchu Trek, we explored the ruins up close for a bit. They really are incredible:

It was then time for the final and most daunting trek of the day. Mt Machu Picchu. Its the one we are not quite pointing at below:

(yes, the tallest mountain in the middle)

The guy I’m with is William, an Alabaman we had met on the bus the day before, and an excellent hiking partner. we only had 3 hours to get up and down. I really did think at one point I couldn’t go on but we made it. Of the 3500 tourists that day only 41 people climbed it. (I know this as you have to sign in and I was the last that day).

Again, the views from up there are outstanding.

If you are wondering how they maintain the grass they have a very willing grounds team:

The day was so much better than I could have anticipated. It was a real highlight of the trip. After walking back down, shattered and broken we had dinner and a few drinks with William, then made the long and painful journey back to Cuzco, arriving at 3:00am.

We stayed in Cuzco recovering from 4 days intense trekking then made a move to Nasca, so I could see something I have wanted to for about 20 years, the Nasca Lines:

Again, these were more incredible than I could have imagined. The 4 seater plane ride only lasted 35 minutes which is a shame as there is so much out there. Many of them are just geometric shapes, but the animals,which are over 500 metres in length, are amazing. I can also see why the priest/astronaut has spawned so an conspiracy theories. It is amazing that nothing can be seen from the ground, and it wasn’t until the invention of modern aviation that these were rediscovered. They are thought to be about 2000 years old.

After all of these amazing things we have had to step back into reality and just sit around saving money so that we can continue in Mexico and the US in style. So in Lima we ate noodles and cereal, went for walks along the coast and that was about it. Other than a bird and a crab we didn’t see much of any interest

In fact being from sunny Worthing myself I felt quite at home there:

We had 5 nights in Lima on the noodle £2 a day diet and are now in San Jose, Costa Rica where we have been doing it for 7 days. I have also put down my camera for a week as San Jose is fairly non-descript and to date I have already kept 4525 photos of the many times that which I have taken. Its been a dull 12 days but tomorrow we are off to Orlando and have saved so much off the daily budget we should have enough to have a pretty good time.

Until next time, always remember, a balanced diet is the way forward.

Posted in Costa Rica, Peru | No Comments »