10/12/09 - 22/12/09, Peru

We know a few of you out there have been to Peru before and loved it so it´s fair to say that before arriving we felt under a little pressure to make the most of it! But we are starting to feel a little jaded now after 9 months on the road and the budget has been squeezed a smidgen too so we weren´t sure if we would really manage to do Peru justice.

However, our plans took a twist and were given a boost by meeting an Irish couple in Santiago who are pretty much doing the same trip as us but "the other way round". This reassured us that we´re not crazy or, there´s 4 crazy travellers on the loose at the moment? So with renewed energy we set about deciding what sights we could fit in to our 2 weeks.

The first relic (there´s a few to choose from in Peru) being the bizzare Nazca Lines. Ancient pictures in the desert, which you can only see from a plane or UFO as some theories imply. Sadly, even with renewed optimisim we couldn´t afford the UFO tickets, but we did get 2 out of the 6 seats going on the microlight plane. Luckily, our contacts had also warned us to ¨skip breakfast and take a travel sickness tablet¨ - these turned out to be words of wisdom!

And when we arrived at the airport (a pretty small one it has to be said), like most backpacking tours there was a little jostling to see who was going to get the best seats - but we (Graham only) had a secret weapon - chubbiness!!! Being the heaviest of the passengers Graham was upgraded to the cockpit to balance out the weight ratio with the ¨portly¨ pilot - result! And I was able to sit right behind next to the airvent, which stopped things getting really messy later :)

Now, a wee trip in a microlight would have been an experience for us in itself (beats the pricey red letter days you have to fork out for at home), but we were also flying and banking heavily so we could get good views of the Nazcas - very weird! And massive! The shadow of the plane was just a dot in comparison. A fascinating trip - 30 minutes well spent!

So on to the next stop - Cusco and the gateway to Machu Picchu. At this point we hadn´t had any real intention of trekking the Inca Trail but a couple of fellow backpackers let us in on the secret that in low season you can just turn up and get a cheap deal. It sounded too good to be true but it sparked our interest. Of course there´s always someone who says ¨no way, you have to arrange a permit 6 weeks in advance¨- for the record this turned out to be s**t*!

But we needed to get to Cusco and its dizzying altitude of 3600m before we could check if we were in luck. And we set out to do this in comfort in ¨cama¨ luxury - i.e. the really comfy seats that recline way back and make the memories of the buses in India seem like hell ....... but ...... there´s always something you´ve overlooked. Like the road from Nazca to Cusco being the windiest road ever! So no matter how comfy those seats were, there was very little sleep to be had. Although there was still a positive - Graham won at ¨bus bingo!!" That´s how far our Spanish has come on - we can count! It was a pretty good prize too - if we´d been planning a return trip to Lima on the ¨bus with no sleep".

Bleary eyed we arrived in Cusco but this was soon followed with breathlessness too (try saying that when you can´t breath!) - damn altitude sickness! But the good news was that the rumours were true and we did manage to get a good deal on the Inca Trek - sorted!

However, similar to jet lag the altitude sickness basically grounded us for a few days with the only thing we could do was worrying about whether or not we´d just wasted money on a trek when we couldn´t even walk to the Plaza and back! Graham wasn´t worrying about whether the altitude sickness would kill us......it was worse than that.......we could have wasted money!!!

We are pleased to say that no such catastrophe occurred and we made it all the way to Machu Picchu.....but it was tough, by the afternoon of day 3 I just wanted to cry!!! And Day 2 which they call "Dead Woman´s Pass" or the "Gringo Killer" wasn´t a walk in the park either!

I´m starting to think trekking is like childbirth - really painful at the time but you go back and do it again later?....... at this point in time I´m never trekking again ...... nothing wrong with taking the train :) Saying that, it was an amazing experience to actually do (and complete!) the trek and follow in the footsteps of the Incas - they really did pick the most serene locations to settle down. Machu Picchu has made it into our top 5 highlights of the trip so far :)

But after all that hard work we thought a wee massage wouldn´t go a miss to help with the recovery process ..... mmmmm ....... you can imagine my giggles when the last words I heard from Graham before he went for his massage were -"bad time to have a dose of the runs!!!!!!" ........ sure was ...... particularly as it was a full body massage which included the buttocks!!!! .......we did leave a tip :(

Off now to Bolivia for Christmas and we´re pleased to say feeling like we had made a real effort in Peru - and maybe we´ll be back one day to see a bit more ..... Machu Picchu is definitely somewhere we wouldn´t mind seeing again and again!

Chile - "Buenos Noches Amigos"

We've made it to South America for the very first time - exciting!! And crossing the international date line and arriving in a new continent 5 hours before we had left the last one was also a bit of a novelty - that is, until we were hit by a serious dose of jet lag........for a whole week!!!.....be warned time travel has its downsides!

It also meant that 'Wee G' was able to put off turning 35 for an extra 24 hours. Alright for some - time travel and slowing down the ageing process! Although, we're now not sure if his birthday should really be on the 19th next year?

But it wasn't difficult to party this year in Santiago - as Santiago Rocks!! ..... and there was no sense in wasting the extra time we'd been gifted so we got stuck into celebrating with some Chilean Homebrew. And would you believe it the guy crooning at the bar started to sing "Wise Men Say" - now if my Spanish had been more advanced than "uno, dos, tres" at this point I would have requested that one myself!

I'm afraid there's then not much to blog about for the next few days as we pretty much slept until 4.00pm each day and chatted at 4.00am! But no time to rest too long as we had to make our way down to Pucon to meet Stephen & Natalie - so we headed off to the bus station for the first of our many bus journeys in South America. Bus travel in itself is a highlight here!

Have to say it's pretty weird when your brother and his fiance just pop round to your hostel thousands of miles from home when you haven't seen anyone for 8 months. Mind you I think it was pretty weird for them too, particularly as G has turned all hairy! But it was great to see them and Mum now has proof that we are still alive and well and we're not just a recording on Skype!

And we were lucky to get the chance to be the first to celebrate their engagement with them......and to hear their plans for the Big Day when we get back - exciting!!!! (but Susie - you will be disturbed and worried to hear that Natalie has asked me to help with the arrangements......the day I have been elevated to a Wedding Planner is not a good one!!!!... I feel alas I'll never be able to do as good a job as you but I perhaps have a more willing client :)

However, I still need to split my time between weddings and travel so back to Chile. Well, I forgot to point out the obvious - Chile is as long as Australia is big! And after 8 months on the road I think we've nearly peaked with the amount of long distance public transport we can cope with so alas for this trip we've had to put some of the best bits of Chile on ice :( - and some of the best bits of Chile involve a lot of ice!

But not to worry I have already planned our next holiday, granted that may not be until about 2015!....but we'll be able to ramp up to holiday comfort with flights everywhere! - one to Santiago, another one to Easter Island and another one right down the bottom to Torres Del Paine (I'm looking forward to it already but to really top it of we'd love to come back here with Elaine & Manuel - Manuel, you are rightly proud of Chile it is a beautiful country).

Although we have still managed to see some of the sights and soak up the culture this time - we had the most amazing seafood in Castro on Chiloe, (which included the biggest oysters ever for about 40p so was also the biggest bargain ever!), gawped at the snow clad volcanoes, fished on one of the many rivers, learnt a bit about the ancient history and admired the skill of the ChinChinNero man!!!! (he is a talented one man band who also twirls at the same time - it did not look easy!)

And we've had a good time interacting with the locals - Chileans are very congenial and warm in nature so it's not been difficult! We've also been intrigued by Spanish so we are hoping we will be slightly better than pigeons at the end of 3 months. But it would be great to go to some classes when we get back too as there is always an element of embarassment to travelling when you are from the UK - as we are always the ones who have to say "habla ingles?".

However, that's not to say we haven't tried, and if you know Graham well you'll know that he'll give most things a shot, but sometimes regardless of his skill level!! An amusing example of this was when we were trying to get somewhere nice booked in Copacabana at Lake Titicaca for Chrimbo. Our first attempt of emailing failed with no reponse, so we gave them a call but alas this also fell flat on its face as the chap on the other end was using all his 40/50 years of native Spanish and wasn't up for talking to pigeons! So what did G do?

Well, he still likes to call on his nerdiness when faced with a challenge so he googled babel fish and got it to translate what he thought would get us the Honeymoon Suite booked for Christmas. Starting with " I speak only a little Spanish......".......you ain't kidding!!!.... he was just about to tell the guy all the Spanish he knew and that didn't include the other 3 lines!!!!! I did have to stop him before he actually embarked on this call as the guy had already put the phone down once! But we compromised and used babel fish to ask the hotel owner to call for us instead, which was just as well as the guy even cut her off 3 times!! Anyway, we have it booked now :)...just New Year to sort out!

P.S. If you fancy seeing where we are going to be for Christmas check it out below (nice?) :-
http://www.hotelcupula.com/

New Zealand in Colour!

Now there's a first!! - a blog followed quickly by the photos (that's not likely to happen twice!)

You'll see in these pictures that I was being stalked by a Fisherman, and there is a prize for whoever can tell me how many times he appears!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4163290&l=374388f46d&id=810223271