We arrived in Cusco at about 5.30am, the former capital of the Inca Empire was very pretty even through bleary eyes, but very cold. It didn`t get any warmer, we spent most of our time in Cusco wearing literally all of our clothes to keep warm, even in the hostal room!
Cusco offers tourists everything they want from pìzza to handicrafts. Peru in general is very much geared up for the tourist, you can´t visit any site without seeing coach loads of French, German, Chinese, American and English being guided round. And the sites aren´t cheap. Just a couple of months before we arrived all the site entrance fees doubled which was a pain, so we paid 70 soles (14 pounds) for ticket to take us to 4 inca sites around Cusco and later found out that Machu Picchu was 122 soles (23 pounds), steep prices when we were used to paying a couple of $ for entraces in other countries, but it was all worth it...!
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Monday, 15 September 2008
Arequipa and the Monasterio de Santa Catalina
Before we left for Cuzco, we had a few hours to run about and see the sights. This included the most extravagent nunnery, which was so large that its a city within a city. Each nun at Santa Catalina had between one and four servants or slaves, and the nuns invited musicians to perform in the convent, gave parties and generally lived a lavish lifestyle. Each family paid a dowry at their daughter's entrance to the convent, and the dowry owed to gain the highest status, indicated by wearing a black veil, was 2,400 silver coins, equivalent to US$50,000 today. We noted that they seemed to have better accomodation than us!
Me checking out the many paintings adorning the ceilings and walls
Jude in one of the many courtyards
One wing of the gallery room
The main Church at Plaza de Armas
A bit of a different sight this one...... yes, Father Christmas selling sweets to cars by standing in the middle of the road!
Me checking out the many paintings adorning the ceilings and walls
Jude in one of the many courtyards
One wing of the gallery room
The main Church at Plaza de Armas
A bit of a different sight this one...... yes, Father Christmas selling sweets to cars by standing in the middle of the road!
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Some more pics that jude wanted to put up
Was snapping away from the bus when I saw this little lady... it was only when I looked at the picture afterwards that I noticed I´d captured her picking her nose!
The locals wear great outfits- i took a sneaky pix on the bus of this lovely lady
I made Tim take this one - a lady carrying her baby on her back which seems to be the norm for all indigenious people in South America
The view from our ´flat` in Arequipa
Me on the rocks, trying (very badly) not to squint in the morning sunshine
Happequipa and the canyon county
Jude and I have been staying in Arequipa, in a lovely little 'flat' overlooking the volcanoes. Every single person we met was so happy and smiley all the time, we though it was something they put in the water!
Sadly due to reccent event back home we didnt have the most relaxing time, but we did manage to take a day off and visit the Colca Canyon and see the sunrise (its double the depth of the Grand Canyon in the US!). We stayed the night in a tiny village called Cabanaconde the night before, and were woken at 4am by cockrels, donkeys, goats, and any other mammal that wanted to wake up and tell the world they were alive. It wasnt too much of a problem as we needed to be up for 5:30am for the trek! We were also lucky enough to see some condors soaring overhead, though sadly no pics as they're pretty quick.
Me checking out the sunrise coming over the canyon
Pre-inca farms cut into the canyon!
An oasis in the middle of the desert
More crazy landscaping by those pre-inca's
Loads of alapacas grazing..... they are very tasty in a sandwich!
Sadly due to reccent event back home we didnt have the most relaxing time, but we did manage to take a day off and visit the Colca Canyon and see the sunrise (its double the depth of the Grand Canyon in the US!). We stayed the night in a tiny village called Cabanaconde the night before, and were woken at 4am by cockrels, donkeys, goats, and any other mammal that wanted to wake up and tell the world they were alive. It wasnt too much of a problem as we needed to be up for 5:30am for the trek! We were also lucky enough to see some condors soaring overhead, though sadly no pics as they're pretty quick.
Me checking out the sunrise coming over the canyon
Pre-inca farms cut into the canyon!
An oasis in the middle of the desert
More crazy landscaping by those pre-inca's
Loads of alapacas grazing..... they are very tasty in a sandwich!
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Nasca, lines worth waiting for!
I have never been in such a small plane, and probably never will again!
Tim and I both felt completely sick but it was worth it to see the world famous´enigmatic` Nasca lines. No one really knows what they mean, even though a German woman studied them for 16 years...I think a couple of guys got bored one day and decided to make giant markings in the rock for a laugh (what else was there to do 2000 years ago?). Tim thinks its to do with rituals to the gods.
There was three of us, plus the pilot on the 35 min flight over the desert. We saw all the lines from the Spider to the Hummingbird. Check out the pictures.
The whole process of getting on the plane was totally crazy. We were recommended to use Pepe by our hostal in Pisco to book the flight. After a long conversation in Spanish (I said "si" a lot and not much else) we took it that Pepe was going to meet us in Nasca but we didnt know how or where. Somehow it all worked out and Pepe greeted us with a big grin off our bus. We paid him the money ($65 each, that could feed us for a week!) and were told to be ready for 7.30am but we might not fly then.
It was all a bit confusing but we trusted happy Pepe and got up at 7am. We waited, had breakfast, waited, went on the internet, waited. I was starting to think that Pepe and done a runner with our money, Tim had faith. At about 8.30am a guy turned up, after much hand gesturing we realised he was taking us to Pepe. But when we got to Pepe he just told us we weren`t flying until about 1pm and to come back to the office then. So off back to our hostal we trotted. At 11.45am the woman at the hostal passed on a message that we needed to be at the office for 12 or we´d lose our flights, so we started running round only to be picked up half way by the first messenger. How did he know where we were?!
Why the rush i really dont know as we ended up waiting 35mins at the aeroport for our flight (maybe they didnt want us eating anything before the flight so kept us waiting a while!)
Tim and a tiny plane. Every slight gust of wind was felt... a lot!
Check out the view and all the other lines that haven't been given names...yet!
Spider
Hummingbird
Hands and tiny weeny people at the bottom
Tim and I both felt completely sick but it was worth it to see the world famous´enigmatic` Nasca lines. No one really knows what they mean, even though a German woman studied them for 16 years...I think a couple of guys got bored one day and decided to make giant markings in the rock for a laugh (what else was there to do 2000 years ago?). Tim thinks its to do with rituals to the gods.
There was three of us, plus the pilot on the 35 min flight over the desert. We saw all the lines from the Spider to the Hummingbird. Check out the pictures.
The whole process of getting on the plane was totally crazy. We were recommended to use Pepe by our hostal in Pisco to book the flight. After a long conversation in Spanish (I said "si" a lot and not much else) we took it that Pepe was going to meet us in Nasca but we didnt know how or where. Somehow it all worked out and Pepe greeted us with a big grin off our bus. We paid him the money ($65 each, that could feed us for a week!) and were told to be ready for 7.30am but we might not fly then.
It was all a bit confusing but we trusted happy Pepe and got up at 7am. We waited, had breakfast, waited, went on the internet, waited. I was starting to think that Pepe and done a runner with our money, Tim had faith. At about 8.30am a guy turned up, after much hand gesturing we realised he was taking us to Pepe. But when we got to Pepe he just told us we weren`t flying until about 1pm and to come back to the office then. So off back to our hostal we trotted. At 11.45am the woman at the hostal passed on a message that we needed to be at the office for 12 or we´d lose our flights, so we started running round only to be picked up half way by the first messenger. How did he know where we were?!
Why the rush i really dont know as we ended up waiting 35mins at the aeroport for our flight (maybe they didnt want us eating anything before the flight so kept us waiting a while!)
Tim and a tiny plane. Every slight gust of wind was felt... a lot!
Check out the view and all the other lines that haven't been given names...yet!
Spider
Hummingbird
Hands and tiny weeny people at the bottom
Monday, 8 September 2008
Pisco
After having our camera and pics stolen just after we went boobie and whale watching (so no time to load up any pics) we decided we had to do the poor mans galapagos in peru. Sadly it was any where close to isla de la plata, but still iterstig to check out massive bird colony. We now have to run to do the nasca lines....bye!
old inca symbol in the rock
lots and lots of birds
chilling out
2 guys fighting for a girl
the whole bunch of them
old inca symbol in the rock
lots and lots of birds
chilling out
2 guys fighting for a girl
the whole bunch of them
Sunday, 7 September 2008
You know you´re traveling when...
You have no idea what you´re doing next week
You have no idea what you´re doing tomorrow
You can´t remember when you last washed your hair
Your accommodation looks like a building site and you don´t complain, it´s normal
You can eat a three course meal for under 2 pounds
You don´t think twice about wearing the same pair of socks two days in a row
You can´t remember what carpet feels like
You dream about Beans on toast
You have no idea what the time is
You´re constantly working out how much you´ve spent
You´re constantly looking for a bargain
You get on buses with people carry chickens and chain saws
Nothing ever happens when it should or where it should
Every day is a surprise
You have no idea what you´re doing tomorrow
You can´t remember when you last washed your hair
Your accommodation looks like a building site and you don´t complain, it´s normal
You can eat a three course meal for under 2 pounds
You don´t think twice about wearing the same pair of socks two days in a row
You can´t remember what carpet feels like
You dream about Beans on toast
You have no idea what the time is
You´re constantly working out how much you´ve spent
You´re constantly looking for a bargain
You get on buses with people carry chickens and chain saws
Nothing ever happens when it should or where it should
Every day is a surprise
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