After an amazing couple of days in Iguazu, it was time to head back to Buenos Aires for a night before catching an early flight to Bogota, Colombia….Located high in the Andes at 8646 ft above sea level, Bogota is the capital of Colombia and it’s largest financial center. Most companies in Colombia have their headquarters in Bogota and it is home to most foreign companies doing business in Colombia as well as Colombia’s main stock market. It’s population is approximately 8,000,000. Bogota, or Colombia for that matter has a reputation as being a relatively dangerous place with kidnappings. bombings and gunfights being regular occurrence…in the past this may have been true, but now a days, the government has “cleaned up” it’s major cities and tourist areas and it has become as safe as any other large South American city….You should still be on your guard, as you should be as a tourist in any big city, but safety concerns should not dominate your thoughts in such a fun city where people are, on the whole, very nice and willing to help.

We were staying in the north part of the city which is mainly the upper middle and affluent area with designer malls, world class restaurants and more bar/nightclubs you could shake a stick at. Walking around this neighbourhood, I felt totally safe and didn’t have any worries about roaming about…havin said this, you could still “feel” the past as there was security everywhere and the odd soldier with automatic weapons hanging around…

We did the usual tours in the city center with the government buildings, churches and squares…not too much different from any other major South American city, but we still had to see it…also went to the top of Monsurrate which is a mountain that dominates the center of Bogota 10,000 ft above sea level with beautiful views of the city…

About 1hr outside of the city is a town called Zipaquira and in Zipaquira is something called the Salt Cathedral…this place is amazing and is just as the name says, a Cathedral built into and old underground salt mine more than 600ft below the surface…it was incredible and definite one of the highlights of the whole trip!!
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The next few days were spent exploring the rest of the city and soaking up the Colombian culture…as was mentioned earlier, Bogota seem like an entertainment city with its numerous restaurants and bars….if you’re looking for a party, Bogota is definitely a place to visit!!

So that’s it!!! 30 days has gone past and I think it’s time to make my way back to Vancouver…It has been one of those “once in a lifetime” trips with only one regret….I didn’t get to see Brazil!!! Oh well, that just gives me another excuse to come back (maybe on my motorcycle!!) and spend 30 days just in Brazil…..Ok, time to hop on a plane back and see if I can plan a trip on “two wheels” this  time……

 

Although in previous posts I mentioned that riding the bus to destinations wasn’t that bad and almost comfortable, it still doesn’t beat the time savings of air travel!! So instead of hopping on a bus for 16hrs, we taxied to the airport and caught a 1:50 hr flight to Puerto Iguazu….we arrived in the afternoon and the weather was the best we have had since leaving Vancouver the beginning of October… 30 C and sunny!!!

Iguazu Falls is undoubtedly the most visited place in Misiones and one of the most imposing natural attractions in Argentina. In guarani language, the term “Iguazu” means “great waters”. It was discovered in 1541 by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Situated in Iguazu National Park, some 20 km. from Puerto Iguazu in the north of the province, these falls are shared by Brazil and Argentina. Iguazu river is born in Parana state in Brazil, and after crossing 1,200 km. on a plateau, it reaches a fault forming a crack in the layers of sandstone and basalt where the river runs. The Falls can be experienced from either Brazil or Argentina as the Falls are split by the bordering two countries…Due to visa requirements for Canadians in Brazil, we could only stay on the Argentinean side…Some have said that if you were just travelling for the day to Brazil, a visa was not needed, you could just hire a taxi or bus and take the 30 minute drive across the border with no Brazilian immigration in sight…Unfortunately, this is technically not true and the fine, if caught, can be as high as $5000 US…Although many have done this, I just didn’t think the risk was worth it and the Argentinean side looked much better anyhow!!! There are more than 270 falls in an area where cliffs and islets are scattered in a half moon. From the visitors center there are many trails to explore or, if you’re a little tired (lazy??) there is a train taking you to some of the more distant sites.

There are two basic circuits: an upper path and a lower path. The lower path leads to the base of the falls, where with the spray, you get pretty much soaked. It is a unique experience as it brings you right up to the Falls and is definitely worth the climb back up.
From the upper path you have panoramic views from the footbridges that give you a birds eye view of going down the Falls, just like the lower path, up close and personal!!

 

 

 

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The boat gives you a whole different experience of the falls, the driver takes you right to the base where the sound is deafening and there is sooo much spray you can’t even see…was kinda scary at times, but I figured the boat guy knew what he was doing…..I hoped!!

 

 

 

 

If you do plan on visiting the falls, one piece of advice, get one of those dorky looking plastic ponchos (looks stupid, but functions well) or bring some dry clothing…even though it was sunny and warm out, it still took me 2-3hrs to dry out!!! All in all, a pretty good day at the falls and well worth the trip there….

We leave the next day  back to Buenos Aires to catch a flight to Bogota, Colombia…the last destination n South America!!!

 

This time it’s because of neccessity and not financialy….the airport in Bariloche is closed so no flights in or out…so our options were to bus 7hrs to another city, then fly to Buenos Aires or to just bus the whole way…we decided to bus the whole way…20hrs!!!  It actually wasn’t that bad…we left Bariloche bus station around 3:30pm, I was alseep by 7pm and didn’t wake up until late morning the next day!!! The ride was over in a breeze!! The trick?? I had a sleeping pill on the bus and it worked like a charm…

We finally made it Buenos Aires around noon the next day and feeling refreshed after a good nights sleep, i grabbed my bags and headed for the taxi stand….Two and half weeks in hostels can take its toll on a person (yeah, I know it sounds wimpy, but I just don’t like no hotwater, no heat and no privacy), so it was time to splurge a little  and grab a hotel room for Buenos Aires…nothing fancy, just a decent bed, hot water and maid service…ahhh the simple things we miss!!! As in every big city (Buenos Aires population approx. 15 million), there are usually several barrios (neighbourhoods) that make up the city…In Buenos Aires, some of the popular ones are Palermo, Recoleta, Puerto Madero, Caballito, Retiro and Centro. These are the ones we managed to get to but are certainly not the only ones…it would take weeks to explore them all!!

Our hotel was located in Recoleta which is a downtown residential neighborhood. It is an area of great historical and architectural interest, due, particularly to the Recoleta Cemetery and is also considered one of the more affluent neighborhoods…the cost per square meter/foot of real estate is one of the highest in the city. This barrio’s “claim to fame” is the Recoleta Cemetary…who would of thought?? a cemetary?? but believe me, it’s definitely something to see…Recoleta Cemetery is a city within a city, with streets and alleyways winding throughout the massive, ornate mausoleums.  Many famous Argentines (including Eva Peron) are buried here, and it’s fascinating to stroll around and check out the myriad of different architectural styles evident and not to mention the caskets dating back several hundreds of years…

Next on the list was Palermo…It is located in the northeast of the city, bordering the barrios of Belgrano to the north, Almagro and Recoleta to the south and is loosley made up of two areas, Palermo Soho and Palmero Hollywood…Soho is a small area of Palermo Viejo around Plaza Serrano (officially Plazoleta Cortázar) on Serrano near Palermo’s south-western edge. It is a newly fashionable area for fashion, design, restaurants, bars and street culture. The atmosphere in many cafés and restaurants strives to be “alternative”, which makes this area of the city especially popular with young, upper-middle class Argentines as well as foreign tourists. The traditional low houses have been adapted into boutiques and bars, creating a bohemian feel….kinda a little like Gastown… sorry, no pics…there really wasn’t too much to take a pic of other than a bunch of cafes and restaurants…and it started to rain, so the tour was cut a little short…

Secondly, Palmero Hollywood, like its neighbor, Palermo Soho, Palermo Hollywood is all about wining and dining as opposed to sightseeing and is the colloquial name for the section of Palermo Viejo (which, for the map lovers, is the half of Palermo that’s bordered by Santa Fe, Córdoba, Dorrego and Coronel Díaz) that lies between Juan B. Justo and Dorrego. There are a lot of radio and television studios in the area – hence the name – but now it’s more known for its nightlife, which includes some of the best restaurants, bar and clubs in the city…I didn’t really get to confirm the ratings on the restaurants and bars cause the restaurants were out of my budget and I’m too old for the night clubs…I guess we’ll just have to take their ratings at face value…sorry, no pics here either (see above).

So two down, a couple more to go…next day, we were off to Puerto Madero, a Yaletownesque area…minus the “port” part…as the name suggests, Puerto Madero was originally a port and oddly enough it was only a functioning port for about fifteen years after it was finished in 1897. It was built to accommodate the cargo ships of the day, but  becuase of the increasing use of larger cargo ships, the port quickly became obsolete. A new port built to accommodate the larger ships opened in 1911, and that was it for Puerto Madero. Up until 1999 the port decayed…rusting ships and empty warehouse were abound…then the “let’s turn the dock area into an apartment tower luxury hotel and international corporation office precinct”  brigade took over, and the rest is history. Gone are the rusting ships and vacant warehouses, and in their place is an upmarket and clean area that feels like it could be in any city in the world….sounds kinda like Yaletown, doesn’t it?? We spent the day there walking the port and checking out all the restaurants and shops and ended up doing an “all you can eat” parilla (Grill) restaurant for lunch…the pace was packed and all you could smell was grilling meat!! and I love my grilled meats!!! As with any “all you can eat” joint, quantity comes before quality and this place was no different…having said this, the food was still “passable” and we ate enough meat to choke a dinosaur….

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Enough with Puerto Madero!! It was time for San Nicolas, or better known as El Centro which is the city center and home to most of the government buildings and the headquarters of Argentina’s largest companies…. We spent the day walking the streets and touring all the major attractions….Plaza de Mayo, Casa Rosada (Presidential House), various government buildings and churches…and El Obelisko ( a memorial monument centered on one of Buenos Aires busiest streets)…and of course, all the shopping malls located in every city center…

Pretty much in any large city in South America is pretty much the same….a center square surrounded by government buildings and churches, lots of shopping malls and tons of people milling around…I gotta tell ya, it was starting to get a little monotonous and a little boring…but when you’re in th city, I guess you gotta go….one part of Buenos Aires that wasn’t monotonous was La Boca and Caminito!! A small barrio located in the south east La Boca ,La Boca is the oldest, most colorful, and most authentic neighborhood in Buenos
Aires. The neighborhood was settled and built by Italian immigrants that worked
in the warehouses and meatpacking plants in the area and it’s colorful nature came from the leftover paint used for the boats on the docks…The main street in La Boca, Caminito, is the most famous for its street lined cafes/restaurants and Tango dancers…Tango shows are pretty much in every restaurant and Tango lessons are abound on the streets!!! So if you are a tango fan, this is the place to be in Buenos Aires…

So that Buenos Aires in a nutshell…at least my version of it……we’ve been here for quite a few days now and I’m starting to get the itch to move on now…tomorrow, back on a plane (screw the buses!!!) and off to Puerto Iguazu, home of the famous Iguazu Falls…

Back on the bus again!!! It was sooo fun the last time that we had to do it again!!! Actually, this time it is an actual tour we are taking, which consists of several buses and ferries to cross the Andes mountain range into Argentina, the whole trip, approx. 8hrs…the tour follows the route that more than 400 years ago the Huilliches, the natives of Southern Chile, used as a commercial route, and later the Jesuits of Chiloé used to found the missions in the Nahuel Huapi region…the route is set in the zone of the crystal clear Andean Lakes surrounded by the towering mountains and volcanoes of the Andes….everywhere I looked, it was like staring at a postcard!! Luckily the weather was in our favor (clear skies and sunny, but cold!!) which just made everything seemed that much more surreal (apparently it rains about 280 days a year…just like Vancouver!!!)…

When these problems are experienced, it is better to take steps to expel harmful toxins viagra generika check stock from the body. vardenafil generic The hidden royal purple pigment in this fruit makes it nature’s perfect energy fruit. It also improves desire for buy generic cialis lovemaking naturally. A man experiences repeatedly feeble erection tadalafil overnight even after being sexually stimulated. We rolled into Bariloche around 7:00pm and started making our way to our hostel…Bariloche is a city in the province of Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake and is located inside Nahuel Huapi National Park. After an extensive public works and architectural buildup the city emerged in the 1930s and 1940s as a major tourism centre with ski, trekking and mountaineering facilities apart from numerous restaurants, cafes and chocolate shops. The place reminds me of a little Swiss ski village with it’s chalet style buildings and cobble stone streets….one other thing that stood out…the whole town was covered in ashes!!! Back in June, a volcanic eruption that began in the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic complex in Chile on June 4, 2011. Misleadingly called by media the Puyehue eruption – the eruption is actually from the Cordon Caulle fissure. At least 3,500 people were evacuated from nearby areas,while the ash cloud was blown across cities all around the Southern hemisphere, including Bariloche…and even though it was more than 4 months ago, the whole city had this “grey” hue to it…ashes everywhere and when the wind blew, it was like being in a sandstorm!!! (and of course, the wind was howling during our stay!!) It got so bad, that we just wanted to leave, it was that unpleasant…without the ashes and wind, Bariloche would be beautiful, kinda reminding me of Lake Tahoe in the USA…small resort town on the shores of a beautiful lake set in the mountains…next time I roll through town, it should be much nicer!!!

Bariloche done!! We didn’t actually spend too much time in town as we had to hop on the bus again, this time for 20hrs, to get to Buenos Aires!!! The decision to bus to Buenos Aires wasn’t so much financial as it was necessary…there were no flights leavin Bariloche as the airport was closed for repairs (probably cause of the ash!!). So at 3pm, back at the bus terminal gettin ready to go to Buenos Aires…

 

 

8pm, Santiago, bus station…..located in the middle of the city down some back street, it’s definitely not located in the nicest part of town, but hey… it is a bus station….To save a few bucks and to see a little of the countryside (more to save a few bucks), we decided to take the 10 hr bus ride to Puerto Varas instead of hopping on a plane…the savings, $49 for one way bus ticket to Puerto Varas versus $200 for the one way flight…I think worth the bus ride…

Puerto Varas is one of Chile’s most charming villages, located on the shore of  Lake Llanquihue (one of South America’s largest lakes). It is an adventure travel hub, and it is also the  gateway to the Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales. Unlike its neighbor  Puerto Montt, 20 minutes away, it is a spruce little town, with wood-shingled  homes, a rose-encircled plaza, a beautifully designed casino (btw. this casino sucks…they charge an entrance fee to gamble!!) and a distinct “German” feeling.  This is probably because in the 1800’s, the Chilean government encouraged German immigration and set aside land in Puerto Varas to be farmed by the new immigrants. The city was  built by the sweat and tenacity of these German immigrants, and later it became a port  for goods being shipped from the Lake Llanquihue area to Puerto Montt (mostly  timber).

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Now back to the food part of this blog….so far, the food during this trip has been pretty average at best (once again, this could be cause of the places I’ve been eating at) with the exception of some great beef in Chilean Parrilla house (grill restaurant)…sorry, forgot to take some pics of that…until we found a seafood shop in Puerto Varas!!! The name escapes me right now, but it is an old seafood restaurant that is styled after an old German couple’s basement (if you have any German friends and been to their parents house, you know what I’m talking about). Although the decor left something to be desired, the food was amazing (and I don’t even like seafood!!)…I had the corvina (which is sea bass) with a shrimp sauce which consisted of a ton of shrimp loaded on top of a huge chunk of corvina…It was awesome!!! But I gotta say what Adriana ordered stole the show…crepe de la centollo (I’m not sure if this was the correct name as I’m going off memory) which amounted to a massive mound of king crab smothered in a buttery creme sauce covered by a crepe. i don’t even wanna know how much butter they used in this, but with every taste, I could feel my arteries harden, which in this case, happens to be a good thing!!! Needless to say, this was the best meal we have had so far and probably the best deal as the whole bill with drinks, appies and dessert was about $50….If you ever go to Puerto Varas, I’ll dig up the name for you, it’s a must do!!

Ok, done with the food and also done with Puerto Varas….one of the main reasons we came here was to take the bus/ferry tour across the Andes mountain range into Argentina….It’s another 8hr trip and begins tomorrow morn….

Back to the mainland and Santiago, Chile….we are here for a couple days before we are back on the road heading south again…Never thought I would ever be standing in the middle of Santiago, but here we are!!!….It’s amazing what a little time and a Visa card can get you!!

Santiago de Chile is the capital and economic centre of Chile. With its many museums, theaters, restaurants, bars and other entertainment and cultural opportunities, it is also the political and cultural center of the country. The metropolitan area has about seven million inhabitants. The climate is cold and rainy in the winter.  It only snows up in the Andes, which are an hour and a half from the city.   Temperatures at night fall to around 0ºC.  and it gets progressively hotter towards the summer.  Summers are fairly dry although you may experience some humidity at times.  The temperature can reach as high as 35ºC. It is springtime now so the temps are pretty moderate, highs about 22 and lows to 12 and mostly cloudy with some sunny periods, perfect for touring the city….enough with the weather report…we really only had a couple of days in the city, so we really got to it in the morning…10 am, meet by the big Chilean flag in the center of town for a walking tour of the city…10am rolls around, no guide…10:30, still no guide…luckily the brochure we had for the tour included a map of the actual tour, so off we went doing our own solo walking tour…FYI, we weren’t the only ones waiting for the tour so it wasn’t a mistake on our part…the tour guys just didn’t show!!!…we spent about 3hrs walking about the city visiting various prominent sites, the only thing missing was the commentary!! It actually was a great way to see the city at our own pace and there was usually some info explaining the different sites, so a guide really wasn’t needed, just a map…

When you go to Chile, as when you go to the Okanagan, one thing you must do is a winery tour!!! The next (and last) day we hopped on a bus one hour south of Santiago towards Concha Y Toro winery, the second largest producer of wine in the world (second to E&J Gallo). The Concha y Toro Vineyard was founded by Don Melchor de Santiago Concha y Toro and his wife, Emiliana Subercaseaux, in 1883. To start the winery, he brought grape varieties from the Bordeaux region in France.The grapes that he brought were: Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Merlot, and Carmenère. The vineyard was incorporated as a stock company in 1923 and shares were sold in the Santiago stock market. Concha y Toro began exporting wine in March 1933 to the port of Rotterdam, Holland. In 1950, the winery began to acquire more vineyards and also began the process of adapting its business to new markets and meeting a higher demand. We spent about 2hrs at the winery touring their facilities with several samples along along the (in my opinion, not enough samples!!) then back on the bus back to Santiago…..

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after sucking back a few samples (including a 1996 cab sav that was outstanding!!), we were back on the bus to Santiago…actually, to catch another bus, this time to leave the city and head south to Puerto Varas which is located 10 hrs (by bus) from Santiago located on the shores of one of South America’s largest lakes….10 hrs on a bus???? not exactly what I’m used to, but i’m willing to give it a shot…..

 

 

I know you’ve seen them before, these crazy little (actually quite large) elongated stone heads carved by some Polynesian natives a long time ago on some island in the middle of the pacific….Well, it’s Easter Island and the stone statues are “moai”…..The name “Easter Island” was given by the island’s first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday 1722, while searching for Davis or David’s island. Roggeveen named it Paasch-Eyland (18th century Dutch for “Easter Island”). The island’s official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means “Easter Island”.

The current Polynesian name of the island, Rapa Nui or “Big Rapa”, was coined after the slave raids of the early 1860s, and refers to the island’s topographic resemblance to the island of Rapa in the Bass Islands of the Austral Islands group.

It’s actually quite a ways from Lima as we had to fly Lima to Santiago, Chile, then spend 8hrs at Santiago airport to catch a 5hr flight to Easter Island….phew!!! Another long travel day (and night)…but we made it!!

We arrived on Easter Island around 1pm and were met by our hostel host to drive us back to the hostel. Easter Island is not that large (kinda reminded me of Koh Samui in Thailand) with a population of approx 4000 and the whole island can been seen in a day with a vehicle…we settled into our room and then went off to explore…the whole island is pretty much a national park with stone statues scattered all over, some destroyed during tribal wars, some restored by archaeologists and all quite large in stature…The guide books and Internet blogs said 3 days were needed to explore the whole island and it’s sights….we rented a scooter and did the whole thing in a day!!!

Needless to say, we had some spare time as we had planned to stay for 3 nights….unfortunately, on an island this size, spare time is not what you want!! Other than the main attractions (which we had already seen), there was not much else to do…The main town on the island (the only one) Hanga Roa has but one main drag with the usual tourist amenities, souvenir shops, a few pubs and restaurants and a number of tour agencies…all in about 4 blocks…once you’ve done the “strip” a few times, that’s it!!!

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A couple of things that stuck out during this visit (other than the amazing moais)….this town is expensive!!! I guess cause this island is in the middle of nowhere (some Polynesian called this the “belly button” of the world) and everything has to be flown in, the prices should be a little higher, but $100 cdn for lunch for 2 seems a little out of whack!! We stuck with makin our own sandwiches a few times…… and dogs…dogs everywhere!! Not sure where they originally came from, but the island is crowded with stray dogs just roaming the streets…most seem pretty friendly lookin for a hand out, but there are a few you gotta watch out for….

As usual, these are only a small sample of the pics I took. To upload them all to this blog would take weeks!!! So, if you wanna see some more (and they are pretty good), just give me a shout….

Easter Island done!! It’s time to move on to Santiago, Chile for a couple of days….

After experiencing Machu Picchu, it’ll be hard to top that in terms of things to see….Lima didn’t even come close!!….We decided to venture back to Lima for a few days  after Cusco and Machu Picchu since we didn’t get to see much (just the airport) on our way through the first time….a 90 minute flight later, we were back at Lima airport in a cab heading towards Miraflores ( where our Hostel was)….Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima Metropolitan Area. With a population fast approaching 9 million, Lima is the fifth largest city in Latin America, behind Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Miraflores is a district of the Lima. Known for its shopping areas, gardens, flower-filled parks and beaches, it is one of the upscale districts that make up the city of Lima. The district is full of hotels, cafés, pubs, restaurants and shops, which is a draw for a large part of the Lima population on Sundays. Parque Kennedy, Miraflores’ central plaza, regularly has flea markets and art exhibitions. Larcomar, a shopping mall overlooking the Pacific coast, is located in Miraflores, and is very popular among tourists, young people, and the middle and upper classes. They have restaurants, stores, a food court, ice cream shops, arcades, bowling alleys, nightclubs, bars, and the most modern cinema in all of Lima.

We spent the next few days hopping around Lima visiting the usual tourist spots and trying to get a feel or the city, we skipped all the “ruins”, churches and temples…we already had our fill of those in Cuzco…One thing I do have to mention is the food…I’m not sure if it’s just me or the establishments I ate at, but I was certainly not impressed with the food. It all seemed a little bland to me… I guess it could be cause I’m a salt feind and with everything I eat, I gotta load up on the “white death”…none the less, if you ever go to Peru, lemme know what you think of the food…..

One other thing that stuck in my mind when we were travelling from the airport to our hostel along the oceanfront….they seemed to use the beach as a dump!!! It was amazing (in a bad way)…piles of garbage and construction waste just piled up along the shoreline…I guess these peruvians don’t like to live along the ocean???

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In Lima there is also a park called “Parque de la Reserva” which is the largest water park in South America…opened in June of 2007 and is an amazing display of fountains, some choreographed to music and some interactive…you do have to be careful though as some of the displays shoot water randomly and have been known to “drench” unsuspecting visitors!!!

 

On our last day we went into “old” Lima to view the colonial architecture, Presidential Palace and the Plaza de las Armas (the main square)…all of a sudden a parade popped up!!!! Little did we know that it was a national holiday in Peru, Combate Naval de Angamos (Battle of Angamos), which was fought on October 8, 1879, during the naval stage of the War of the Pacific (Guerra del Pacífico)….. there were marching bands and crazy costumes all over the place!!

 

Pretty much the main reason to come to Peru….Machu Picchu, “The Lost City” of the Incas…Agua Caliente is the closest town to Machu Picchu and can only be reached by train. Depending on where you catch the train, the ride lasts about 3hrs and snakes along the Urubamba River through the Urubamba Valley…..The Incas started building the “estate” around AD 1400, but abandoned it as an official site for the Inca rulers a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by the American historian Hiram Bingham…..

When we arrived at Agua Caliente, we were ushered to the bus area where a constant stream of buses take visitors up the windy 5km dirt road to Machu Picchu….this is one busy place…and we aren’t even in high season!!! At the top, with ticket and passport in hand (no one told us you needed your passport, but fortunately we had ours with us…) we filed through the entrance gate and were finally rewarded with an amazing view of the Lost City!!!

After entering the gates, you are pretty much assigned a tour guide which will take you around the site and give you a little history about each site. The tour lasts about 2 hrs, some pretty interesting, but mostly boring, so much so that we decided to dump the tour and just explore on our own….there were a lot of tours around and if we found something interesting, we could just listen in on whatever tour guide was there…we spent about 1.5 hrs exploring the whole site and right at the end we sat down for a little break before exiting…2 minutes after sitting down, one of our guides came around the corner and shouted “Adriana”….apparently he had been looking for us soon after we left the tour group and finally found us just as we finished…we were not supposed to separate from the group and they had thought we were lost in the site somewhere!! Oh well, for those of you that plan to tour Machu Picchu, don’t leave the tour group….
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That’s it for Machu Picchu…we hopped on the bus back down to Agua Caliente then caught the train back towards Cuzco…All in all a great day trip to this historic site and next time maybe I’ll do the 4 day hike in….

Tomorrow we leave Cuzco and catch a flight back to Lima for a couple of days….See ya in Lima!!!

After a “lovely” night in the Lima airport, we caught a 7:45 am flight to Cuzco and luckily it was only about an hour long…24 hrs of travelling with little or no sleep doesn’t make for a “happy” camper, but we made it, got picked up at the airport and made ou way to the hostel….first thing I noticed…shortness of breath…the elevation in Cuzco is approx. 3400 meters or about 11,000 ft above sea level and altitude sickness definitely comes into play. For the first couple of days it almost seemed like I was 70 years old!!! shortness of breath, aches and pains….couldn’t even climb a flight of stairs without taking a break….ok, it really wasn’t that bad, but you could definitely feel he affects.

The plan was to spend a few days in Cuzco, tour the city, acclimatize then take the train to Machu Picchu and tour the “Lost City” of the Incas…

anyone that knows me will know that I like to eat (as the size of my gut will attest) and I am pretty much open to trying anything at least once…so while I am travelling, I want to try something that is “unique” to that country…for Peru, it was Alpaca meat (domesticated camelid similar to a llama) and Cuy  (South American Guinea Pig). First off, there were a ton of restaurants around the main square all of which were average at best…although we only got to try a few of them, Cuzco didn’t seem like a city known for it’s cuisine (I hear Lima is much better!!)…just a lot of bland food or the usual North American pizza and burger joints (perhaps catering to the young backpacking tourist, of which there were many…), but we did mange to find a few “Italian” restaurants with a few Peruvian dishes on the menu…so first off, Alpaca, kinda reminds me of lamb with that gamey after taste…wasn’t one of my favorites, although it didn’t help that the chef (???) over cooked it and made it a little chewy…second off, Cuy (pronounced “cooyee”), it didn’t looked to appetizing as it was the whole roasted guinea pig, head and all, presented on your plate. It reminded me of a roasted suckling pig without the meat!! Guinea pigs are not that big and literally, mine was all skin and bones…the taste was nothing to write home about and it was a little daunting having this thing staring at you while you rip a leg off…

So far, Peruvian cuisine=
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A couple of days in Cuzco was more than enough to see the city sights…we spent day 3 hiking in the hills up to some ruins and Cuzco’s version of Christ the Redeemer (Brazil’s statue of Jesus Christ)….

Day 4 we decided to rab a taxi to a small town about an hour outside of Cuzco called Maras which is known for its salt ponds that have been used since the days of the Incas. It is quite a site to see as it is an “old school” salt operation with white salt ponds terraced on the mountainside…it was a great place to visit as anyone was allowed to pretty much go wherever they wanted…..at least that’s what we did…

Since pre-Inca times, salt has been obtained in Maras by evaporating salty water from a local subterranean stream. The highly salty water emerges at a spring, a natural outlet of the underground stream. The flow is directed into an intricate system of tiny channels constructed so that the water runs gradually down onto the several hundred ancient terraced ponds. Almost all the ponds are less than four meters square in area, and none exceeds thirty centimeters in depth. All are necessarily shaped into polygons with the flow of water carefully controlled and monitored by the “farmers”. The altitude of the ponds slowly decreases, so that the water may flow through the myriad branches of the water-supply channels and be introduced slowly through a notch in one sidewall of each pond. As water evaporates from the sun-warmed ponds, the water becomes supersaturated and salt precipitates as various size crystals onto the inner surfaces of a pond’s walls and floor….Then the “farmer” carefully scrapes the salt into bags and carts it away….

Tommorrow…Machu Picchu!!!!