Every day in San Pedro de Atacama is warm and sunny. Every night is just bloody freezing. But the place is great, a quaint little tourist town with a real laid back atmosphere. So I´ll be hanging out here for the week until I catch a bus (for 24hrs) down to Santiago to meet Michael.
As well as soaking up the sunshine there is a lot to do here, I went out to the observatory to freeze my arse off for an hour so I could look at Saturn in through a telescope 7 feet long. I hired a bike and rode through 4 creeks to visit some ruins. By ride through 4 creeks I mean, tried riding, got stuck halfway through the first one and had soaking socks and shoes for the rest of the day.
Yesterday was the best though. I did a sandboarding tour in Death Valley. The sand dunes weren´t as big as the ones in Huacachina, but thank god for that because we actually had to walk up this one! It was also real sandboarding - standing on the board, not going down on my belly. I did ok for someone so naturally uncoordinated. The first time down I pretty much went about 2 metres and rolled the rest of the way. But I got better. I did.
After the sandboarding we went out to the Valley of the Moon where we climbed a big hill to have a sneaky Pisco Sour and watch the sunset which was pretty cool. Then in the dark we climbed back down and the guides took us through this really cool cave and then we sat and watched the stars for a bit. The night sky in this part of the world is quite sensational.
There have also been some other random entertainments here as well. Last night wandering through the streets we spotted two people dressed in yellow jackets racing up and down the street. I was like, WTF, then realised they had cameras following them and they had The Amazing Race envelopes. So they ran up and down the street a few times, then came to a door that had a sign saying that the place was closed til 10 the next morning. They pulled the appropriate downcast faces and we laughed because it was the only place in the whole town that was closed.
The coolest thing was the other night though. The Hong Kong magic man in the hostel. This random guy from Hong Kong did an impromptu magic show that he´s been doing everywhere he goes. He was pulling scarves out of empty bags, lots of cup and ball tricks and cracking jokes in English, Spanish and Cantonese. And I was all like, this is cool, but I see you slipping those balls under the cups, I´ve got your number. That was until he started dropping avocados out of the cups and I was like how the hell did he do that. Kick arse Hong Kong magic man.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Straw angels
This week I left Cusco for the sunny shores of Lake Titicaca. I travelled down to Puno with Pete, a fellow Aussie. Puno was a pretty average town and the only thing worth doing was going out to the floating reed islands. While there I did the best straw angel ever and ate soup with a fish head in it. There was a guide who did a little talk about the island which included putting a stick in a hole in the island to show us how deep it was before you reached the water. The best part of the whole thing was 5 min later when some kid ran through the middle, stepped into the hole and his entire leg disappeared. He shit himself and started crying, everyone was sniggering and trying not to giggle too loud, gee it was funny though.
From Puno we bussed it down to Copacabana. On the bus we met Sol & Nic, a German & Croatian who together spoke half a dozen languages and we didn't feel inferior at all only being able to speak Australian and a spattering of Spanglish. So the four of us got a cabin with a kitchen, visited the markets, purchased a bottle of red and had a nice home cooked meal.
Travelling is great because you get to experience so many new and amazing things, but it also really makes you appreciate the little things like hot showers, proper cheese and a home cooked meal.
Copacabana is a little tourist town, a bit more likeable than Puno. The days here are fine and sunny and perfect weather for taking out a Donald Duck paddle boat and trying to play dodgems with unsuspecting Bolivians.
Also on this side of Lake Titicaca is the Isle de Sol. So we caught a slow boat out there and walked the track from North to South. It's not the prettiest island in the world, but the walk was good and all the gum trees and dry landscape made me feel a little like I was taking a walk out the back of Briag. That is until you hit the top of a hill and get the view out over the lake which is pretty spectacular.
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| I'm doing a straw angel. |
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| Crazy reed boat |
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| Reed island |
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| Pete with his arm in the hole the kid fell in |
From Puno we bussed it down to Copacabana. On the bus we met Sol & Nic, a German & Croatian who together spoke half a dozen languages and we didn't feel inferior at all only being able to speak Australian and a spattering of Spanglish. So the four of us got a cabin with a kitchen, visited the markets, purchased a bottle of red and had a nice home cooked meal.
Travelling is great because you get to experience so many new and amazing things, but it also really makes you appreciate the little things like hot showers, proper cheese and a home cooked meal.
Copacabana is a little tourist town, a bit more likeable than Puno. The days here are fine and sunny and perfect weather for taking out a Donald Duck paddle boat and trying to play dodgems with unsuspecting Bolivians.
Also on this side of Lake Titicaca is the Isle de Sol. So we caught a slow boat out there and walked the track from North to South. It's not the prettiest island in the world, but the walk was good and all the gum trees and dry landscape made me feel a little like I was taking a walk out the back of Briag. That is until you hit the top of a hill and get the view out over the lake which is pretty spectacular.
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| Heading out to Isle de Sol |
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Granny pants
Grr. Slow internet is so frustrating. I wanted to put a few more pics up of Machu Picchu, but to no avail. There are a couple here. The squirrel rabbit things are pretty cool. I'd never even heard of them and then we saw three or four of them just hanging out on the grass between the buildings & I was like 'what the hell is that?'
Melissa & I made ourselves a lovely toilet paper and highlighter banner for 'Team Carmen', Carmen being the name of our truck we'd beenspilling beer travelling on for the last few weeks.
And there is also a great picture of me in my sexy wet weather granny pants. I know they are very giggle-worthy, but screw you all I had dry pants for three days of trekking in the rain. Oh by the way, if anyone is looking closely enough at me in my hot granny pants to wonder about my big bulge, that's the big lens for my camera.
Melissa & I made ourselves a lovely toilet paper and highlighter banner for 'Team Carmen', Carmen being the name of our truck we'd been
And there is also a great picture of me in my sexy wet weather granny pants. I know they are very giggle-worthy, but screw you all I had dry pants for three days of trekking in the rain. Oh by the way, if anyone is looking closely enough at me in my hot granny pants to wonder about my big bulge, that's the big lens for my camera.
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| Go Team Carmen! |
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| Rabbit-squirrel thing - a squibbit or a rabirrel? |
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| Looking the goods in my granny pants |
Friday, July 08, 2011
Old Penis
Apparently Machu Picchu mean Old Mountain, however, if you pronounce the Picchu wrong - as most everybody does - it means Old Penis.
Anyway, back to the story. 3.30am was the wake up call for the morning of Machu Picchu. Being woken at 3.30 is never fun. The rain and cold made it worse. The pancakes and knowing we were only hours away from the Sun Gate made it better.
And yes it was still raining.
After breakfast we stumbled through the dark to the control gate where we stood in the rain and cold with the other 200 people on the trail to wait for the 5.30 opening. Finally, the gates opened and everyone went through, we were the last. We walked the last hour through the approaching dawn to finally crawl up the last steep staircase to come up through the Sun Gate. But there was no sun :( Only clouds and rain. We didn't even have time to take photos of the clouds, let alone wait and see if there was any chance of anything appearing through the mists before our guide was 'Vamos, vamos!' and we were back on the trail and heading towards the lost city.
Barely 15 minutes later as we passed another lookout, Machu Picchu did peer through the clouds. It was a brief glimpse before the clouds moved back in. But it was amazing. It was so huge. And the way it appeared from the mists and disappeared again gave it an air of mystery which bordered on surreal. So we entered this mysterious and ancient city, walking paths that had been laid and tred by the Incas centuries before, and beelined for the cafe and a hot choc because it was bloody freezing.
After being invigorated by a warm drink and a snack we spent the next few hours exploring the ruins, waiting patiently for the cloud cover to break so we could get pics and musing on how amazing this place would have been like in the day.
All day as we wandered the ruins we kept an eye out for people from our tour who had gone on a seperate trek. We were pretty excited to see how their day had gone. It wasn't til we got back to the little town of Aguas Calientes that we finally ran into a couple from the tour, Lawrence & Sharon, who told us the news we'd been waiting to hear. Lawrence had manned the fuck up at Machu Picchu and dragged Sharon all the way up to the Sun Gate, where there was no sun, and proposed to her! Everybody except Sharon had already known this was going to happen. So we were all keen to get back to Cusco to celebrate. However, the celebrations had to be put on hold when our bus started blowing smoke from the engine and we had to wait for 2 hours on the road for another bus! But the wait wasn't so painful, we had a few beers with us, a guitar magically appeared and a couple of the guys, Colin & Rodney, entertained the troops til the new bus appeared.
Anyway, back to the story. 3.30am was the wake up call for the morning of Machu Picchu. Being woken at 3.30 is never fun. The rain and cold made it worse. The pancakes and knowing we were only hours away from the Sun Gate made it better.
And yes it was still raining.
After breakfast we stumbled through the dark to the control gate where we stood in the rain and cold with the other 200 people on the trail to wait for the 5.30 opening. Finally, the gates opened and everyone went through, we were the last. We walked the last hour through the approaching dawn to finally crawl up the last steep staircase to come up through the Sun Gate. But there was no sun :( Only clouds and rain. We didn't even have time to take photos of the clouds, let alone wait and see if there was any chance of anything appearing through the mists before our guide was 'Vamos, vamos!' and we were back on the trail and heading towards the lost city.
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| Machu Picchu during a brief break from cloud cover. |
Barely 15 minutes later as we passed another lookout, Machu Picchu did peer through the clouds. It was a brief glimpse before the clouds moved back in. But it was amazing. It was so huge. And the way it appeared from the mists and disappeared again gave it an air of mystery which bordered on surreal. So we entered this mysterious and ancient city, walking paths that had been laid and tred by the Incas centuries before, and beelined for the cafe and a hot choc because it was bloody freezing.
After being invigorated by a warm drink and a snack we spent the next few hours exploring the ruins, waiting patiently for the cloud cover to break so we could get pics and musing on how amazing this place would have been like in the day.
 |
| Machu Picchu arising from the mists |
All day as we wandered the ruins we kept an eye out for people from our tour who had gone on a seperate trek. We were pretty excited to see how their day had gone. It wasn't til we got back to the little town of Aguas Calientes that we finally ran into a couple from the tour, Lawrence & Sharon, who told us the news we'd been waiting to hear. Lawrence had manned the fuck up at Machu Picchu and dragged Sharon all the way up to the Sun Gate, where there was no sun, and proposed to her! Everybody except Sharon had already known this was going to happen. So we were all keen to get back to Cusco to celebrate. However, the celebrations had to be put on hold when our bus started blowing smoke from the engine and we had to wait for 2 hours on the road for another bus! But the wait wasn't so painful, we had a few beers with us, a guitar magically appeared and a couple of the guys, Colin & Rodney, entertained the troops til the new bus appeared.
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Rain rain go away
This week we did the Inca Trail trek. It was pretty hard at times, but the camping was totally camping in style. The term 'glamping' was thrown around - glamour camping. Sure we slept in tents, we survived with baby wipe baths and the toilets were beyond feral. But the food was bloody amazing, we got woken up to a warm cup of tea in our tents and we struggled up the mountains carrying nothing more than our cameras and a bottle of water.
The porters are the toughest blokes ever - there are rules now on the trail limiting them to carrying 'only' 25 kilos - but when you see some dude running up a mountain with a gas bottle sticking out the top of a tarp tied onto their back your're like 'holy shit - these guys are amazing'. So they race up the mountain and by the time you struggle up there, they've set up the tents, prepared you a snack and a hot drink and are halfway through getting your dinner ready.
The trek itself was pretty tough, but not as tough as I was expecting. The second day, climbing up to 4200m was pretty hard. The stairs climbing to the peak were large, awkward, and rocky. The altitude was getting to all of us - we would take 10 minutes to walk 100m and then have to stop to get our breath back. But we all made it, and our guides set a nice pace that meant within 10 minutes of the fastest people reaching the top, the slowest people also caught up to us.
Our guides had informed us that it was the dry season and we didn't have to worry about the rain. They were right - on the first day. Day one was brilliant and sunny, we tramped along the trail, moving aside for porters, donkeys and locals all loaded up. We got to camp and noticed a few clouds overhead. Nothing to worry about said the guides - it's the dry season. An hour later it started raining. It rained all night. It rained on and off the next day. It rained all the next night. We woke to a quarter inch of water in the bottom of our tent and the mountains now had fresh snowy peaks. Melissa's sleeping bag was soaked up to the knees, my passport and day bag were not looking to healthy and our resident American was grumpy as all hell, telling us 'I didn't sign up for this' (?then WTF did you sign up for love?)
And it continued to rain. But we trekked on...
The porters are the toughest blokes ever - there are rules now on the trail limiting them to carrying 'only' 25 kilos - but when you see some dude running up a mountain with a gas bottle sticking out the top of a tarp tied onto their back your're like 'holy shit - these guys are amazing'. So they race up the mountain and by the time you struggle up there, they've set up the tents, prepared you a snack and a hot drink and are halfway through getting your dinner ready.
The trek itself was pretty tough, but not as tough as I was expecting. The second day, climbing up to 4200m was pretty hard. The stairs climbing to the peak were large, awkward, and rocky. The altitude was getting to all of us - we would take 10 minutes to walk 100m and then have to stop to get our breath back. But we all made it, and our guides set a nice pace that meant within 10 minutes of the fastest people reaching the top, the slowest people also caught up to us.
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| Melissa and I pretty happy at reaching the 4200m marker. |
Our guides had informed us that it was the dry season and we didn't have to worry about the rain. They were right - on the first day. Day one was brilliant and sunny, we tramped along the trail, moving aside for porters, donkeys and locals all loaded up. We got to camp and noticed a few clouds overhead. Nothing to worry about said the guides - it's the dry season. An hour later it started raining. It rained all night. It rained on and off the next day. It rained all the next night. We woke to a quarter inch of water in the bottom of our tent and the mountains now had fresh snowy peaks. Melissa's sleeping bag was soaked up to the knees, my passport and day bag were not looking to healthy and our resident American was grumpy as all hell, telling us 'I didn't sign up for this' (?then WTF did you sign up for love?)
And it continued to rain. But we trekked on...
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| Snow capped peaks in the dry season? |
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