Andy and Sophie Peru 2008

Gallery: Rainforest

andyandsophie — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:03:00 GMT

4 Days in Refugio Amazonas

Cusco & The Sacred Valley

andyandsophie — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 10:18:00 GMT

After pissing off the hostel owner by arriving at 1am, we settled into room for our first night in Cusco. We spent the following day trying to arrange all the trips and activities that we wanted to do whilst in the Sacred Valley.

The day after, we decided to go on a 3 hour quadbiking tour, however, the seemingly safety-conscious tour operator may have thought too much off our skill when immediately after showing us the off-road bikes, took us onto a dual carriageway! Nevertheless, slightly fazed we headed off over bumps, up hills and past lagoons until our arms were shaking and bums numb.

We decided to follow this with the illogical descision to go horseriding the next morning…..our pelvises were not pleased! With no regard for our derrieres comfort we headed off to explore 4 Inca sites close to Cusco, the most famous being Saqsaywaman, pronounced “Sexy woman” (prompting several boistrous jokes and giggles) is a huge imposing Inca fortress overlooking the city. Since we explained we had ridden before, we were allowed to add a few long canters over grassland and past streams to the otherwise chilled walk.

Not travellers to shy away from challenges, we booked to go on a 4 day/3 night “Inca Jungle Trail” to Machupiccu, that began the next day with a 53km downhill mountain biking ride from mountains to the tiny jungle town of Santa Maria. With our pelvises now basically shattered we set off, and whilst we enjoyed every sweaty minute of it, it became a tad tedious putting the chaín back on the (rather shoddy) bike every 10 minutes. Undettered we arrived in the jungle town for a beer and needed good nights sleep. The next morning we began the hardest day of trekking, 25km up and down mountains following small trails clinging to rock faces and although the views were amazing and well-worth the trekking, the highlight of the day had to be the monkey we encountered whose party-piece was drinking milk from an upturned gatorade bottle….Classic! We ended the blistering day´s walking in hot springs in the dusty town of Santa Theresa. Unfortunately this night´s sleep was less sound than the first, due to the unwelcome cockroach found under our bed! Safe in the knowledge we would never have to return to the grubby hostel, we began our final day´s trekking to Aguas Calientes (the nearest town to Machupiccu) following defunct railway lines the whole way. I felt quite dozey around the middle of the day and so decided to wake myself up with a swim in the ridiculously cold rapids of the Rio Urubamba…however, Sophie was not quick to follow! After arriving in Aguas Calientes we headed out to dinner for a bit, but since I was feeling a bit rough, hit the sack early. We awoke the next morning, to our horror, at 4am to begin the 2000 step climb to Machupiccu. We reached the gates at around 6am and got to see Machupiccu at sunrise, a beautiful sight! We then had a guided tour for 2 hours followed by picture taking and some sunbathing on the grassy terraces before we headed back down to Aguas Calientes. Our transport back to Cusco was arranged for us and we caught the train back arriving in the evening.

We took our first day back in Cusco easy since neither of us were feeling top-notch and enjoyed a hot shower and clean clothes, after our sweaty and dirty jungle trip!!!

We spent the next day shopping for friends´ presents and eating in this fantastic restuarant we found, called “Jack´s Café” – which has the biggest and best fry-ups we´ve ever seen!!!!

After our little 2 day rest, I thought I needed another adreneline boost and so took a taxi to “Action Valley” a local company, where I did a 122m Bungy jump….which did the trick! So….buzzing alter my adrenaline shot we headed to Jacks for a light snack, which rather inevitably turned into a massive feast, and headed back for a nap before our last night in Cusco.

Tomorrow we are heading to the rainforest for 4 days before returning to Lima for the final few days of what has been an amazing trip. We will keep you all updated! Hope to hear from you soon!

love A and S xxxx

Gallery: Cuzco & The Sacred Valley

andyandsophie — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:51:00 GMT

Stop.....Incatime!

Puno & Lake Titicaca

andyandsophie — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 06:30:00 GMT

After going against our instincts and booking to travel with the unknown bus company of "San Martin", the service was promptly cancelled meaning we were bumped onto another bus run by a completely different company. Whilst not what you would call "lush", the bus got us to the bus terminal in Puno, in about 6 hours. And it was cold.

We hopped in a taxi and quickly arrived at our hostel, Santa Maria, near the centre of town. Although costing more than other hostels we´ve stayed at, the large rooms, comfortable bed, reliably hot showers and, of course, cable TV :) brought a smile to our, by now, frozen faces.

The next day, due to Puno´s altitude (3800m), we took it easy and spent the day making plans for our stay here, whilst sampling some of Puno´s finest cakes at "Rico´s Pan".

The following day, with us both feeling fine, (a nice change) we took a guided tour to Sillustani, a small site on a peninsula 30km outside Puno. Sillustani was very important to the Tiahuanaco, Pukara and Inca cultures and served as a site for burying their dead. The dead were placed in giant funerary towers that can be seen for miles. We spent the afternoon exploring the towers and admiring the beautiful scenery surrounding the site. We were then driven back to our hostel and went to explore “Calle Lima” the main street in Puno, where nearly all bars, restaurants and tour operators are located. We found a fantastic pizza place, “Ekekos” which has since become our favourite restuarant in Puno. We then fought through the crowds and made it back to the hostel with half a dozen free drinks tickets desperately handed out by bar reps. As has become tradition on this trip, we watched some American TV, and then hit the sack for our early start the next morning.

Woken by the infuriatingly loud and high pitched beeping of our alarm clock at 6am, we rolled out of bed, quickly packed our day sacks and shoveled down some breakfast before being picked up by a tour guide for a 2 day/1 night tour of some Lake Titicaca islands. We boarded our barge-looking motorboat and set of for the famous floating Uros Islands, completely made of reeds. We had a brief demonstration of how the islands stayed afloat and met some of the locals, who were so pleased to have tourists visiting the island the invited us into their houses for a quick tour! We then bought some souvenirs and headed off to another floating island, Uros-style, taking a traditional reed boat which we later discovered was filled with thousands of empty plastic bottles!

After our surreal tour to the Islas Flotantes, we headed towards Isla Amantani, a lesser visited island where we stayed overnight with a traditional Amantani family. Our hostess, Raquel, took great care of us preparing 3 filling meals and even dressed us up in traditional Amantani clothes for a dancing party with the other tourists and several locals. With inhibitions thrown to the wind, we danced the night away, executing the demanding swivels and spins with perfection! Exhausted once again we returned home for sleeeeeeeeeeep.

An annoyingly early start again meant that we had breakfast at 6.30am and headed down to the port to move off this fairytale island and onto the next, the more frequently visited Isla Taquile. We arrive in the marina at around 9am and began the breathtaking climb up the island to the main town near its peak. Luckily, we arrived on the day of the “Fiesta del San Diego”, Taquile´s largest and most elaborate festival. Although a good hour or so delayed, we watched the inhabitants of the island do a variety of dances in elaborate feathery costumes, before heading across the island for lunch, after which we climbed down the 500 steps to the harbour. Against his better judgement, Andy and some friends that we had met on the trip jumped off the back of one of the boats into Lake Titicaca (according to our guide around 10 degrees). This was executed in compete thermal gear, and when Andy was asked why he didn’t just go in in boxers, he had to admit he`d run out of clean ones and so was going commando! Shivering, but with a sense of achievement Andy reclined on top of the boat to dry off in the intense sun. The boat then headed back to Puno, where we had a brief TV/chocolate ciesta in preparation for a potentially late night out.

After heading out for another great pizza, we went to “Kamizaraky- Rock Pub” lonely planet´s vote for the best watering hole in southern Peru! With high expectations we headed to the bar and met up with our new amigos...2 bottles of rum later and having lost one guy to the booze, most people left leaving me, Sophie and a fellow medic called James to discuss (rather passionately) the intricate runnings of the NHS. We stumbled home at 3am to find the doors of our hostel locked and bolted, and had to wake the owners to get in!

We’re off to Cusco next...Talk soon!

Gallery: Lake Titicaca Islands

andyandsophie — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:04:00 GMT

Islas Flotantes, Amantani, and Taquille

Gallery: Puno

andyandsophie — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:54:00 GMT

Gate to the lake

Gallery: Colca Canyon (Chivay)

andyandsophie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:13:00 GMT

Sick time for Sophie....

Gallery: Arequipa

andyandsophie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:01:00 GMT

The White City

Colca Canyon and Arequipa cont.

andyandsophie — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:47:00 GMT

After our least favourite bus journey so far (they say three hours, they dont say you turn a corner every thirty seconds), we arrived in another dusty little town - Chivay (pr. chiv-iiiiiiii!), apparently the capital of the region, and at the head of the Colca Canyon. The surrounding scenary was stunning with huge mountains stretching up around the town in every direction; the town itself was not so picturesque! We boarded our first mototaxi (think rickshaw with minimum engine power) and made our way to Hospedaje Rumi Wasi, and after banging on the gate for awhile as there was apparently no door, a kind man let us in and showed us to our room. Although colder than outside, Lonely Planet wasnt lying when they told us the rooms were impecably clean! We were slightly disappointed that the grazing alpacas in the courtyard we had been promised were absent though!

Sophie wasnt feeling very well, so we decided to have a chilled day, went to an Irish pub for lunch and made our way in another mototaxi 3 km out of town to the natural hot springs. Although we were expecting a couple of holes in the grounds, this actually consisted of a full on resort with five swimming pools of naturally bath-hot water, surrounded by a cafe, bar, massage hut (although the man did look INCREDIBLY sketchy), all sat right on the edge of the beautiful river with mini waterfalls and rapids. We spent the whole afternoon there enjoying the hot water and bar, before making our way home. Problem, we hadnt quite thought the return journey through. With no taxis at the pools, only a vast array of tour buses, we had no choice but to start walking the road back into town, hoping that maybe a taxi would stop for us on the way. Due to the altitude we couldnt walk too quickly, but it was quickly getting dark and we werent too keen to be stranded in the countryside as night fell. On route we stopped briefly to take some photos of the canyon, before continuing until Andy psychically knew to check that the sunglasses case we had put our money in was still in the bag. It wasnt. About half way home, we turned around to walk back to the pools, avoiding the speedy buses as they went past. Now in the dark, we found the spot we had stopped at to take photos and by complete chance Sophie looked down to find the case at her feet. So we commenced the third trip along the dusty road, now in complete darkness, and tried in vain to flag down a few tourist buses. Taking pity on us, one bus did stop and drove us back into the town, by which time the temperature had dropped below zero.

Exhausted from the day and with Sophie still not feeling well, we had a quick dinner and early night. The following morning, Sophs was still feeling dizzy and faint so we decided to go back to Arequipa instead of heading further into the canyon to Cabanaconde, thus avoiding a five hour bus journey. Full of hope, we turned up at the bus station and tried to find a bus, and thankfully only had to wait a couple of hours. Sophie was feeling slightly better from drinking Gatorade and nibbling on bananas (all of which she had so far managed to keep down) we amused some local kids by playing cards. We thought they just wanted to play with us - really they wanted cigarettes (apparently everyone here beleives all Europeans smoke!). Our bus arrived and we were soon back in Arequipa. Our taxi dropped us off a street or so away from the hostel, so we walked back. On route, however, Sophies memory clearly seemed to remember being sick on this street a few days previously, and again she decided to empty her stomach contents. Don´t say we don´t learn, though; this time we were fully equiped with the notorious "sickbag".

The following day (Sunday), with Sophie having been throwing up, feeling dizzy and nauseous and having severe diarrhoea for almost a week, we found the only English speaking doctor working in the city on a sunday, who kindly took us to his clinic, where we spend the next few hours. We left with a prescription for a cocktail of drugs, along with a hefty bill!

On monday, Andy got up early to go rafting on Rio Chili with a group of other tourists, bombing their way down class 4 rapids. Sophie was feeling much better immeadiately and in the afternoon we left Arequipa to head over to Puno, a city on the side of Lake Titicaca. More from there.......

Arequipa

andyandsophie — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:21:00 GMT

After getting onto the best bus company in Peru, "Cruz del Sur" we settled into our large comfy seats for the 8 hour journey ahead. Whilst the film choice (What Happens in Vegas...in English!) beat the usual Spanish dubbing, complete with Spanish subtitles! The ticket price, more than double that of other companies, was a bit steep. Although, we did enjoy the mid-trip game of bingo!

We arrived in Arequipa at around 11.30pm, and it was much colder than Nazca! We quickly hopped in a taxi and drove to "Home Sweet Home" a recommended hostel near the Plaza de Armas. Unfortunately, they were completely full! And so against our instincts we followed the cabby’s suggestion and went to "Hostal Piccola Daniella", which has been our comfy Arequipa home for the duration of our time here :) We both very much enjoy the cable TV provided, regularly tuning in for our fill of American sitcoms.

The following morning we decided to take things slow, as Arequipa is at 2500m, not very high altitude, but potentially enough to cause Sophs problems. We went for pancakes on a balcony overlooking the Cathedral and the Plaza de Armas which were nice, however, for some reason didn’t agree with Sophie....which her stomach all too quickly illustrated! We took the rest of the day very slow to make sure Sophie wasn’t suffering from the altitude. The next couple of days were spent making sure Sophie felt a bit better and sorting out my bank. Which, after seeing I took out a small amount of money in Peru, blocked my card. Meaning I had to call up, be put on hold, and finally talk to the identity theft prevention people and get my card reactivated, A tad annoying, after I had checked with my branch and assured this would all be fine. Anyway, with all money matters sorted and Sophie feeling a bit more human we decided to go shopping in the many stores down one of Arequipa´s main streets, "Santa Catalina". Most shops all sold variations of the same things; jumpers woven from alpaca hair, chess boards (Incas against conquistadors) and warm hats. I also found a shop with a good selection of framed Amazonian butterflies (Edward ;)). After some retail therapy, we decided to go back to the balcony restaurant, have a beer and try to teach Sophie chess….which she managed to win. After which we returned for another night of "Friends", "two and a half men" and "Gossip Girl".

Another highlight of our time here has got to be the coffee/cake shop that we found just off the Plaza. Huge magnificent cakes and a reminder of home with Irish Coffees, nice hot chocolate and tea. Needless to say we stayed here for a good couple of hours!

We decided to make an excursion into the famed Colca Canyon (Over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon) after checking local tour guides, we decided it was best to DIY and so with a small day sack each we jumped onto a local bus and headed into the mountains…

Gallery: Nazca

andyandsophie — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:22:00 GMT

Dusty, liney town

Nazca

andyandsophie — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:09:00 GMT

After arriving in Nazca, we stayed in Hostal Yemaya just outside the “Plaza de Armas” (the main town square), for both of the nights we were there. On the first night, after arriving in the afternoon, we went out for dinner at Las Cañas, a restaurant we came to love for its pasta and club sandwiches (but mostly just because of the treehouse we insisted on sitting in!) See photo. We then booked our bus tickets with “Cruz del Sur” who are supposedly the best bus company in Peru, and most of South America (they had better be after costing so much!).

Earlier in the day we had booked tickets to see a presentation in a nearby planetarium, on the famous Nazca lines. This mysterious phenomenon is mainly what drew us to this dusty town; 30km outside Nazca, in the Nazca Desert, are huge etchings of geometric shapes and intricate animal figures in the ground. Whilst no-one knows exactly who made these and why, the generally accepted view is that they were created by the Nazca culture over a thousand years ago, by removing the sun-baked top layer of rock to leave the lighter rock underneath. These were related to religious rituals based around water. Another theory proposed by Maria Reiche was that the lines were based on the stars. The lecture in the Planetarium explained these theories and gave us a good insight into the history of the lines (with a bonus of some star-gazing afterwards, including seeing Jupiter!)

The following morning, instead of taking an over flight (which cost $200 for ½ hour!!), we got the bus out to a “Mirador” - a rickety observation tower on the side of the Panamericana. From the top of this 30 ft structure we were able to get a rough idea of the lines first hand. We were told that it was very easy to flag down a bus (hurtling along the road at high speeds) back to Nazca……we found it slightly harder. The problem was not that they didn’t see us…they just chose to flash their lights and wave at us as they drove past! A friendly Peruvian trying to do the same thing offered to help us and had more luck!

On our last day in Nazca, we went on a tour out to the Chauchilla Cemetery to see ancient bones, skulls and mummies in tombs around 1000 years old, from the Nazca culture. The tombs had all been uncovered and grave robbers from nearby towns had dug them up in search of precious metals, leaving bones scattered across the desert, which have now been reassembled into tombs visible for tourists. On the tour, they were only us two and a friendly Israeli man who served as our translator and photographer!

After a hearty lunch, we left the dusty town behind and prepared for out 9 hour bus journey to Arequipa, on which we happened to be sitting behind the Israeli man we´d met earlier!

Huacachina (desert)

andyandsophie — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:57:00 GMT

After the surprisingly safe and cheap bus journey with Perubus! down the Panamerican Highway to Ica, we got a taxi out of town to a small natural Oasis in the desert called "Huacachina". Whilst supposedly having curative properties and high mineral content, the lagoon gives an intersting odour to the entire small settlement, which consists of a handful of hostels, tour agencies, bars and restaurants around the lagoon.

The inevitable case of "the runs" hit Andy on the first evening, and I woke up to find him with a fever of thirty nine and a half degrees and intermittent shivering, shooting tummy pains, and in need of a toilet every 10 minutes. Needless to say he got very little sleep. However, I forced him to get out of bed, take a handfull of pills and vitamins and some rehydration salts, and he was feeling well again within a couple of hours (the need for the toilet, however, has not diminished!)

After Dr. Sophie´s "gentle" guidance, I decided to get out of bed and partake in a dune ascent. Within moments I was light-headed and needed a rest. Sophie managed to amaze once more by crafting two "sand chairs" with her flip flops, and after a few moments of forced rehyrdation I was feeling much better. Soph´s tough love approach appeared to be working! My tummy at least temporarily soothed, we decided to take a pedalo out onto the lagoon. After the relaxing ride, we decided to sort out my digestive difficulties with a shot of adrenaline. So we to to the dunes for a buggy ride and sandboarding excursion.

After strapping in to the sand-mobile, we headed into the desert at what seemed like hurtling speeds up and very much down mountains of sand!....after which we quickly broke down and needed to jump ship into sand buggy 2: the replacement. We began sandboarding down baby dunes to get the hang of it. Sophie, the dark horse, showed yet MORE skill by showing up every other person in our buggy group! Her braking skills, however, need much improvement and her bum is most definitely not a brake pad. Meanwhile, I embraced my feminine side, deciding to give myself a free exfoliating facial treatment by sitting on the board and hurtling down one of the biggest dunes and using my feet as stoppers, whilst spraying my face with buckets of sand! However, the trip was one of our highlights so far and we are still removing sand from our ears!

Today we got another bus with Perubus! from Ica down to Nazca and have found a lovely small place to stay tonight. Must dash - Sophie´s forced me to drink so much water to rehydrate myself I´m now bursting for the loo for better reaons than before! Will update soon!

Andy and Sophie xx

Gallery: Huacachina

andyandsophie — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:23:00 GMT

Oasis

Lima

andyandsophie — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:39:00 GMT

After arriving at Lima´s airport, the trip started well with Andy being chosen for a random customs search. We clambered into a taxi with all of our bags and headed to Hostal Iquique, which was to become our temporary home. During the ride Andy reeled off 1 to 20 in Spanish to the amusement of our driver. The following morning we enjoyed our inclusive breakfast and headed off into the city to explore and get our bearings, finding many streets which each sold one item. After "musical instrument" plaza, we found ourselves walking down "stove" street, "Jesus and candle" street, "wheelchair" street and finally "medical supply" street. We found our way to the Plaza des Armes and had a lunch of noodle and chicken soup followed by fried chicken, fried potatoes and rice, as well as enjoying our first taste of the legendary Inca Kola!

After exhausting central Lima´s markets and street sellers, we headed back to Iquique and got a taxi over to Miraflores, a much more upmarket part of town. After finding that the hostel we planned on staying in was fully booked, we got out of the taxi with all of our bags and began walking the streets for somewhere to sleep. Seconds later, after fighting over reading the map, we stumbled upon Imperial Inn (Andy found it - a coincidence, I think not!). We settled in and then headed out into Miraflores for dinner. Having had a heavy and cultural day, we settled on Pizza hut!

The following morning we headed over to probably the most posh supermarket in town, Vivanda, for a spanish omelette for breakfast. We headed down to the coast for a walk by the cliffs, taking some photos, and eventually found the paragliders. Andy was only too keen to try it, and convinced Sophie to try it after we saw numerous other tourists take to the sky without dropping to their deaths, including a six year old girl! We both found the experience breathtaking - in a tandem flight we ran off the cliffs and flew along the coasts, past the cliffs and over the beach, before going up higher to fly over the city of Lima.

In order to get back to the centre of the city for the next day, we thought it would be fun to try out one of the Daewoo taxis, aka, tiny beat up smart car type things, forgetting that we were in fact carrying all of our things for 6 weeks on our backs. Eventually we got back to Iquique and enjoyed a quiet night playing pool and watching School of Rock (we had spent the whole day speaking spanish and eating local food!)

Wednesday morning we got up with the plan to go over to the Daytona Amusement Park for go-karting and laser quest, but to our dismay, having taken a taxi over there we found that the park had been demolished last August! Instead, quick thinking led to us heading over to the Museo de la Nacion, the best museum in Peru. However we wern´t really feeling up to it. So...in what has become "Sophie and Andy Style" we headed back to Iquique after our cultural excursion for some Pizza and Cable TV!

This morning we packed up our things and said goodbye to Iquique, to which we have both become strangely attached, and are writing this blog on our way to the bus station to get down the coast to Ica and Huacachina, a small oasis in the desert! Not sure how much we´ll be able to contact you all from there, so hope you´re all having a great summer, and speak soon.

Lots of love,

Andy and Sophie xxxxx

Gallery: Lima

andyandsophie — Tue, 8 Jul 2008 12:51:00 GMT

Gallery: New York, New York

andyandsophie — Sun, 6 Jul 2008 22:15:00 GMT

New York, New York

andyandsophie — Sun, 6 Jul 2008 08:13:00 GMT

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all well! We had a good flight into Newark airport and a great 4th July weekend. Highlights include; A tour around Central Park in a rickshaw (bicycle taxi), Yankees v. Red Sox @ Yankee stadium, on independance day and watching the 4th July fireworks on the Hudson River. (See photos)

We are now just finishing the last bit of packing before our flight later today. :)

Our next entry will be from Lima. Looking forward to reading all your comments. Hope to hear from you all soon!