Iain and Jo

Monkey magic

iainjosim — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:21:00 GMT

Ok, so it’s been a month – probably time we updated this blog.

After Galapagos we spent about a week being beach bums on the coast of Ecuador, and getting in a bit of hammock-time. Puerto Lopez has hundreds of humpback whales which come to the area for “romantic time and making the babies” as somebody in town told us. We went out on a whale watching boat trip which we expected to take all day, but within 20 minutes the boat pulled up alongside two whales that were happy to perform for our cameras – we didn't see any baby-making but they both breached, twice... previous similar tours have been more of a case of spotting black splotches in the water and waiting ten minutes watching the space.

After Ecuador we headed back to Peru for a night in Lima and some more bird watching and monkey-spotting in the Amazon jungle (including the smallest monkey in the world – about 10cms without the tail). We spent 4 days in a lodge going for walks in the muddy jungle (thank god for the gumboots we hired from town) and early morning and evening boat trips spotting sloths, birds and a couple of caiman (like an alligator). We also “swam” with pink dolphins in the Amazon River (read: we floated around in the extremely cloudy water, while a few dolphins swam about 50 metres away) until Iain felt a nibble on his back and yelled “piranha!” and we all raced back to the boat.

We allowed an extra day in Iquitos before flying back to Lima, to visit Pilpintuwasi – an animal orphanage and butterfly farm – which turned out to be one of the best days of the whole trip. The owners have taken in orphaned and often wounded wild animals to nurse them back to health. Most of the animals are free to roam in the wild, but choose to stay close to their adopted parents – and pickpocket unsuspecting tourists! Luckily this doesn’t include the jaguar, who has his own cage. We spent hours getting up close and personal with the overly friendly monkeys who didn’t seem to mind as Iain took hundreds of photos, from every possible angle!

After a quick day in Lima we headed back to Buenos Aires in Argentina, where we started the trip from. It definitely feels weird to be back where we started, and answering other travellers’ questions, instead of just grilling them for answers. It’s great to be back in the land of late nights, amazing steaks, malbec wine and empanadas.

Right now we’re in Puerto Iguazu after surviving a 17-hour bus (which was actually quite luxurious with hot meals, completely flat seat/beds and individual tv screens). The main attraction here is Iguazu Falls which are meant to be amazing.

Only 6 days to go.....see you all soon.

(we’re in the process of uploading pics to www.iainsim.net, so we’ll only be putting a few more up on the blog)

Look into my eyes, my eyes, not around the eyes...

iainjosim — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:13:00 GMT

We’re still coming down off the Galapagos high. We’d been looking forward to it for most of the trip, and our 8-day tour really lived up to our expectations, especially because we were joined by our UK friends, Jen and John, who we have been travelling on and off with for 6 weeks.

Everything on the islands is conservation focused, and in almost all cases the interests of birds, fish and animals are put before those of humans. Our guide explained that as most of the island’s creatures have never experienced human cruelty, they don’t have any reason to fear us. We’d heard that we’d be up close to the birds and animals but had no idea that we would have to in some cases step over them on the walking trails, or have animals so close that our cameras couldn’t focus on them. We were amazed to see a sea-lion lying next to our towels on the beach on the second day, but by the eighth day it was clear that they are as common as stray dogs in the rest of South America, but much nicer.

A real unexpected highlight was snorkelling each day (sometimes twice a day), swimming with playful sea-lions, marine turtles, pelicans, flightless cormorants, sharks (we didn’t see them, but a lot of the others swimming with us did), zippy penguins (the sheep-dogs of the ocean, rounding up herds of little fish), marine iguanas munching on algae, tropical fish and on the last day, a 3-metre wide manta ray swimming gracefully underneath us.

We’re a bit further up the coast of Ecuador now, in Puerto Lopez, spending a week or so relaxing before we head down to the Amazon in Peru.

Gallery: Galapagos Islands

iainjosim — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:00:00 GMT

Galapagos Islands and Guayaquil

Northern Peru

iainjosim — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:35:00 GMT

We’ve finally come down from altitude, and our lungs are happy about it. The weather in Lima is terrible (grey, misty and miserable, which we can get at home), so we’ve headed north towards Ecuador, stopping at a few cities/towns on the way. We bumped into Jon and Jen in the bus station in Lima and all happened to be heading in the same direction, so have been travelling together. We spent quite a bit of time together in Bolivia and it was great to see them again.

First stop was Huanchaco, on the coast and close to Chan Chan, which was built 850AD by the Chimu people (who were then conquered by the Incas and then the Spanish like everybody else in this country) and was once the largest adobe (mud-brick) city in the world. A lot of it’s been eroded, but it still has some massive temples and a tomb for the king, in which the bodies of 42 wives have been found, who were sacrificed when the king died.

Probably the best thing about Huanchaco was being invited to a birthday dinner by the family who ran our hostel for some chicken, chips and a massive chocolate cake. A really nice family, and a great chance to practise our Spanish. Iain also spent the best part of a day playing his new Charrango (like a Bolivian mandolin) with Nil, the family’s guitar-playing son.

Next up was Chiclayo. The city itself was nothing much, but the Peruvian equivalent of Tutankhamun’s tomb was found nearby – about ten tombs containing Moche royalty and a lot of others who were sacrificed with them (basically their whole family’s, a tomb guard, some animals and a lot of pottery etc).

And now we’re in Mancora, and have finally found some sun, sand and seafood. Iain has a bit of food-poisoning, so it’s a bit of a tease, but we keep seeing “Langosta” on menus, which means lobster – hopefully tomorrow...

Next stop will be the Galapagos Islands, so it will be a little while before we write again.

(P.S. Don't worry, we're nowhere near the riots going on in the highlands and amazon at the moment, and it's in very isolated areas - basically one town)

Gallery: Trujillo, Huanchaco and Chiclayo

iainjosim — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:53:00 GMT

Northern coast of Peru

Cusco and the Sacred Valley

iainjosim — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 09:23:00 GMT

Most countries have at least one over-hyped tourist destination, where everything costs more, the only people you see or meet are tourists, and the whole experience is so sanitised that it feels more like watching a movie than actually being there. Backpackers are always quick to point these out, so by the time we arrived in Cusco we’d heard enough to get the impression that Machu Picchu and the entire Cusco area were going to be a big disappointment. (Mentions in the guidebooks of ‘strangle-muggings’ didn’t help the situation either!). In the end though, we loved the whole area (and didn’t meet any strangle-muggers). There is a lot of hype, but to be honest, it’s justified.

A lot of the city of Cusco was built from a combination of Spanish architecture and Inca stone, both for symbolic and practical (there were a lot of stones lying about after the Spaniards had trashed a few temples) reasons. It shows – the city has a real European feel, except the almost monotone brownish colour of the stone looks a lot more like a small Peruvian village. It sits in the Andes at about 3500m (Kosciosko is 2200), and for most tourists (including us) is the starting point for trips into the Sacred Valley, and at the other end of the valley, Machu Picchu. We were staying in the arts district of San Blas, which is a bit of a climb from the centre, but worth it for some beautiful views over the city.

Our trip into the Sacred Valley started with a visit to Pisac. We planned to stop for an hour or so for a quick look at the Inca ruins and a walk through the market, but ended up spending most of the day walking around the ruins, which are spread out all across a mountain behind the town, and separated by little goat tracks (Inca tracks really, but that doesn’t really describe them) and at one point, a cave. Most tourists were on tour buses but we decided to walk, but were a bit unsure of the way down so asked the only Peruvian person we could see (an old woman who looked so authentic her face is probably on a few postcards) for directions. She pointed confidently at a path, but when we got lost later, we saw here again, also lost on the same track as us! So we ended up walking down with her family, all getting lost together. We all got there in the end though.

The next stop was Ollantytambo for a few nights. After exploring some more ruins, we hired mountain bikes and took a taxi up the winding mountain roads to the highest pass in the area. The views up there were incredible, but the real reason for the trip up was to ride down 1500 metres in 50 kilometres – a quick (and extremely scary) trip down but great fun!

Lastly, we moved on to Aguas Calientes (a grotty little town, but necessary to get to Machu Picchu), and at 6am the next day were sitting on the top of some very high mountains watching the sun rise over the famous ruins. Machu Picchu definitely attracts a lot of tourists, but it’s so big that quite often you’re on your own. I’ve seen a lot of photos, but really still had no idea that the ruins are sitting on top of a mountain with almost vertical drop-offs on either side, and similarly jagged points all around it. We climbed up Huayna Picchu at the back of the ruins for a different perspective (about 360m up to 2700m). At that altitude it is a big challenge to get up there, and I was really proud of Jo, especially only about a week after being discharged from hospital.

Gallery: Cusco and the Sacred Valley

iainjosim — Thu, 4 Jun 2009 02:19:00 GMT

Is it just me, or does that sound like the title of a bad movie...

Gallery: Lake Titicaca

iainjosim — Mon, 1 Jun 2009 02:00:00 GMT

Puno

Getting high in La Paz

iainjosim — Fri, 29 May 2009 02:17:00 GMT

The ‘little altitude sickness’ we mentioned in our last entry turned out to be a bit more than that for Jo. She’s fine now, but spent almost three days in bed with altitude sickness and stomach ‘issues’ before calling a doctor at 1am and being admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties. We weren’t sure whether we over-reacting by calling the doctor, but he later told us that Jo’s finger-tips were turning blue due to a lack of oxygen, and by the morning the rest of her might have been a bit funny-lookin too.

It turns out that our 30 minute flight and 3700m altitude increase up from Rurrenabaque had caused Jo’s lungs to take in some water, but we caught it early and luckily our Columbian / French-Canadian doctor was really nice and incredibly knowledgeable about the illness (I think a lot of gringo’s end up meeting Dr Oscar at some point in their travels to La Paz). The private hospital was fine, and much better than the phrase ‘admitted to a bolivian hospital’ conjures up.

Iain got a bed and meals as part of the deal. The only problem was the troupe of 25 (yes, we counted) staff taking turns at visiting, looking, checking, feeding, washing Jo and delivering bursts of rapid-fire Spanish medical terms that we didn’t understand (our doctor translated the important stuff though).

After 30 hours of oxygen, a drip and some random pills, she’s fine, and we’re looking forward to moving on to Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca (which some guidebooks say is the highest lake in the world, and others say it’s a bit of a lie) and finding ourselves some hammocks.

Backpackers here are always looking for somewhere to stay that’s outside of the ‘zona tourista’ ... I guess we found it!

Gallery: La Paz

iainjosim — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:59:00 GMT

Monkeys!!!

iainjosim — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:08:00 GMT

This place is paradise.

About 3700 metres lower than La Paz, surrounded by miles of beautiful rainforest sits a town called Rurrenabaque. It´s a nice, relaxing riverside town itself, but the real attraction is the nearby Madidi National Park. We had planned to take a trip into the park, but ended up staying in a private nature reserve called Serere, which is outside the park but was set up by a woman who was very influential in establishing Madidi.

Serere is the kind of goodness that is very difficult to describe. It´s 2.5 hours on a boat down the Rio Beni to a nondescript patch of river-bank from which you walk for about 20 minutes to get to the cabins. Our cabin was basic but beautiful – all four walls were made of fly-wire so that you could feel like you were in the jungle even inside (including while sitting on the state-of-the-art toilet – something we´ve come to appreciate a lot after some other more ´rustic´ facilities).

Every morning we woke up to the roar of howler monkeys, and the scratchings of lizards and birds around the cabin. Each day involves a way-too-big-but-im-not-complaining breakfast, followed by either short hikes or dug-out canoe trips around the reserve, with our guide Nilo who grew up in Madidi and not only knew how to find animals but could also ´talk´ to them (literally, he would make a perfect monkey sound, and the same sound would be mimicked back to him from up in the trees). We saw a lot of animals and birds, but the highlights would definitely be the groups of Howler, Capuchin and Squirrel monkeys playing, eating and jumping in the trees around us.

The people at Serere have done a great job in making the animals feel respected, comfortable and non-threatened after years of hunting in the area, and it shows in the way the animals interact with walkers (neither begging for food or scampering for their lives – the perfect balance).

Unfortunately we had to leave in the end though, because we ran out of clothes and money. We´re back in La Paz and after a 3700m increase in altitude in 30 minutes, Jo and I are both feeling a little sick. It´s amazing how difficult simple things like walking and talking become when there is so little oxygen in the air, but we acclimatised on the salt flats at a similar height so I´m sure we´ll be fine in a few days.

Gallery: Serere and Rurre

iainjosim — Mon, 25 May 2009 07:49:00 GMT

A bicentenary (approximately) party

iainjosim — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:01:00 GMT

We arrived in Sucre, the debateable capital of Bolivia, as the locals were preparing for a massive party to celebrate 200 years of independence. The white paint buckets were out in force, and it seemed that every public building (and most private ones) was getting a coating to make sure that the city once known as “El Cuidad de Blanco” (The white city) lived up to it’s name on the night of the big party. There also seemed to be street parties and parades happening all day and all night, to make sure that the locals had their party moves primed and ready – a month of practise-parties might be considered excessive though!

Sucre is the official capital, but La Paz often gets the title and is the home of most of Bolivia’s ‘international’ things, such as the airport, the football stadium etc. As a result, there’s a very strong rivalry between the two, to the point where the two cities celebrate the anniversary of independence on completely different dates (like having one Australia Day for Sydney and another for Canberra!).

As Bolivians have a reputation for speaking slower, clearer Spanish than in Chile or Argentina, we signed up for some Spanish lessons in Sucre. There isn’t much English spoken here at all, but we’ve picked up quite a bit of language now and are able to understand and be understood for most basic stuff. It’s become a bit of an obsession actually – twice now I’ve woken up and realised I’d been practising Spanish in my dreams – really useful except the first time I think I was just making words and grammar up!

We’re still travelling with a few English friends we met on the salt flats tour, and also managed to bump into Miguel, Vassco and Sebastian who we last saw in Santiago, and briefly, Nina and Hans from Germany.

The pic is from a street parade that we stumbled across – there were people dressed in traditional costumes from all over the region, dancing and singing their way through the city. A lot of the older women wear these bowler hats, but most are accompanied by woollen blankets and babies slung over their backs, rather than skirts and dancing shoes.

Gallery: Sucre

iainjosim — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:21:00 GMT

Gallery: Salt Flats tour

iainjosim — Sat, 16 May 2009 05:31:00 GMT

Gallery: Tupiza

iainjosim — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:05:00 GMT

Pass the salt please

iainjosim — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:49:00 GMT

We’re in Tupiza, Bolivia after an amazing three-day 4x4 trip across the Altiplano and Salt Flats from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. The scenery in this area is crazy (we really need to find somewhere ugly for a few days so we can appreciate the landscapes again).

The Altiplano is a huge plateau in the middle of the Andes which is mostly between 3500 and 4500 metres above sea level – weird stuff happens at this altitude, like toiletries exploding, headaches and shortness of breath, and unfortunately, beers having ridiculously big heads on them (lucky in a way, because hangovers are also worse so we’re staying away from alcohol)

We read some worrying reviews about the 4x4 trip from other travellers in San Pedro, saying that some of the drivers drink and some groups have even had to drive themselves because the driver wasn’t up to it. We picked a company that had really good feedback though and ended up in a group of 12 (really lucky to find such a good bunch - we’re still travelling with six of them now even though the tour finished a few days ago). The first two days of the trip were trouble-free and took us through some really beautiful, remote areas spotted with volcanoes, brightly coloured lagoons, flamingoes and Vicunas (like wild llamas).

(Note to the mums... please skip the next paragraph)

On the second night though, our two drivers went out and were busted stumbling home at 2am, absolutely legless. At 4:30am when we were all due to get up and head off, they were still sleeping off their hangovers (or maybe were just still liquored). So we woke them up and had a really tense meeting with them (luckily we had a few good Spanish speakers to take the lead) which started really aggressively with them threatening to leave us and us threatening to report them, but eventually we all calmed down and they agreed to wait a few hours and then drive slowly.

As we got in the car, our driver put Bob Marley on (a welcome change after two days of panpipes), and we cracked up laughing when the first song came on: “Get up, Stand up, Stand up for your rights”. The driver didn’t really get the joke, but we explained when the next song came on: “Every little thing is gonna be alright”. In the end we were just laughing about it, particularly when we arrived safely at our first stop and the other drivers started teasing ours about being late. We had only seen one car all morning, but he replied with “Un Poquito Tarde. Mucho Traffico” (A little bit late... There was a lot of traffic). But it was worth it, the salt flats were just incredible, hard white salt as far as you can see, combined with brilliant blue skies – lets just say, there are a lot of photos!

Now we´re in Tupiza is where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed, and the area really feels like the set of a western. It’s surrounded by cactus-filled desert and red-rock canyons, and just needs a few tumbleweeds to complete the scene. We went for a 3-hour horse ride through incredible canyons today before spending the afternoon relaxing by the hostel pool with our new mates from the tour – it´s a hard life!

ps. More pics when we get to a city with faster internet

Gallery: San Pedro

iainjosim — Wed, 6 May 2009 05:09:00 GMT

More pics to come...

Yabba Dabba Doo

iainjosim — Wed, 6 May 2009 05:05:00 GMT

We’re now in San Pedro, a funny little tourist town in the middle of the desert (apparently the driest in the world – they got 9mm last year, so suck it up Melbourne) that looks straight out of the Flintstones. The town isn’t really the main attraction though, it’s the stuff you can do around it. Yesterday we went out to the “Valley of the Moon” – which was just incredible. Massive moon-like craters, enormous sand dunes and just desert basically. It was really out of this world, and a welcome change to the cities that we have been to in the past 2 weeks. Today we got up at 4am to go out to the El Tatio Geysers – cracks in the desert with boiling hot water shooting out of them..... it was minus 12 degrees, so getting scalded was almost tempting. As it was, I think we were both wearing every item of clothing we have. Iain was brave enough to strip down and jump in the hot springs, but it was just too cold for me! Tonight we’re going out to an observatory to check out the night sky. The stars are incredible here because there are no city lights to get in the way.

This might be our last blog for a little while because we set off on a 3-day jeep tour to Uyuni in Bolivia tomorrow, via the salt flats. Again we have some freezing nights to look forward to, and an extremely bumpy ride, but should be fun.

Gooooooooooooooooool!

iainjosim — Sun, 3 May 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Despite hitting town on a public holiday and everything being closed, we really liked Santiago. The museums and buildings are quite cool, but the two main highlights were definitely seeing Universidad de Chile beat La Serena at the national football stadium, and drinking way too much Pisco (like tequila) with a good bunch at the hostel.

The football match was pretty good, but the atmosphere was incredible – only 8,500 home fans and approx 10 away fans, but they made about twenty times the amount of noise a Melbourne Victory crowd can muster, even though they were surrounded by cops in riot gear (called ‘Robocops’ here because of all the body armour).

The pic was taken in the main square, where buskers, artists, lost tourists, drummers, police (in riot gear of course) and old men playing chess all collide.