Thursday 31 May 2012

Day 68 - Quito, Ecuador to Bogota, Colombia (25 May 2012)

Day 68 – Quito, Ecuador to Bogota, Colombia (25 May 2012)

We awake today to a beautiful clear day, typical, just the day we are leaving!  We pack up our bags and get ready for our 4.30pm flight.  We have to check out of the hostel at midday so we make use of every minute in our room before we check out.  At about 12.30 we get a taxi to the airport.  The airport is only about a 15 minute drive from where we are staying.  Quito are currently constructing a new airport which is about 30 minutes out of the city, so it would have been about an hour drive if that airport had been in operation.  This new airport is due to be open in October this year, although in saying that when construction first began in 2006, the new airport was supposed to be in full operation by 2010. 
We decide to take an early taxi to the airport because we don’t know too much about what the airport systems are, I’m sure they are strait forward though.  We have also heard stories about travellers turning up to the airport and being told that they couldn’t get on the flight because the flight had been oversold, so we wanted to get in early to make sure we had our seats all sorted!
We get to the international terminal and have plenty of time, so we sit down and soak it all in.  We then decide to go to our gate and line up to check in.  The line is big, as per usual with international flights, however this line wasn’t moving! And yes, there were attendants at the counter and they were processing passengers.  After about half an hour the line starts moving at a normal pace, and eventually we are at the front of the line and are booked into our flight with no dramas. 

The flight to Bogota is a standard flight, an hour and a half with a platter of food and a drink.  Good entertainment system too which could be viewed in Spanish OR English, bonus!  We arrive in Bogota and get through customs with no hassle what so ever.  Ann had told me that they will search through everyone’s bags so I was preparing to get all the cloths out, however it was as normal as ever with all bags just going through the x-ray machine.  We get a taxi to our hostel, but before we did this we changed our remaining US dollars to Colombian Peso’s.  The Colombian currency is very annoying.  The exchange rate is about NZ$1 for every COP$1390 (Colombian Peso’s).  This makes it very difficult to work out how much we are spending in NZ dollars.  That’s alright though, need to keep the mind active! We arrive at our hostel and just settle into the place.  It is about 8pm by the time we have our bags in our room so we watch a movie.

Day 67 - Quito, Ecuador (24 May 2012)

Day 67 – Quito, Ecuador (24 May 2012)

I wake up today and am feeling normal, I’m back!!! We have figured out that I probably had altitude sickness as I had all the symptoms and the illness didn’t last for too long.  Thankfully we will not be at altitude for too much longer! We decide to book flights this morning for Bogota, Colombia tomorrow.  We reckon we will finish everything we want to see in Quito by tonight.  We book flights for about 4pm the next day, which should get us to Bogota in time to get settled into a hostel and have some dinner and prepare for the next day.  The reason we are flying is basically for safety issues, convenience and to save a few days! We have been recommended not to travel at night in Southern Colombia as armed groups are on the highways and sometimes rob the bus.  Security however has increased a lot in Colombia so it probably isn’t an issue but we don’t want to take the risk.  Also with no night travel, the trip from Quito to Bogota will take a total of 3 days on the bus.  It is a much better option to take the hour and a half flight.  Also we have heard horror stories about the Ecuadorian and Colombian border.  When everything is all sorted we start the day by getting a taxi to the Teleferico, which is a cable car that takes you to the top of a mountain.  In Quito we are at about 2,850 metres above sea level, at the top of the Teleferico the mountain is about 4,100 metres above sea level.  The cable car takes about 15 minutes to get to the top of the hill, the views are amazing as we climb, but not as good as the Basilica as we are further away from the city.  Also the cloud is interrupting our view.  When we get out of the cable car it is freezing! It is incredible what altitude can do to the temperature!  We spend a bit of time up here exploring what there is to see and taking in the views, but other than the views there is not too much to see, so we decide to head down, and it was freezing!  After this we head into Old Town once again, the majority of the cities attractions are here so it is a great place to base ourselves. We then have a look around the old Archbishops palace which is located off the main plaza and has now been converted into a shopping and eating area.  When we have looked around we have lunch here, a set menu for US$4 each.  Here we get soup for an entree, a main of very tasty chicken and pasta, and ice cream for dessert.  We also got a fantastic drink which was basically blended watermelon, it was very tasty. 

After lunch we made our way to the Cathedral which is on the opposite side of the Plaza to the Archbishops Palace.  This Cathedral has heaps of tombs inside it, including that of Mariscal Sucre, the name of our suburb we are staying in (also known as New Town).  After the Cathedral we make our way to the city museum, which was previously the city hospital.  Here it showed the history of the city and also the history of the old hospital.  There was also an art display where Ann got a picture holding a sign saying “Hello NZ, from Quito”.  After this we had finished everything we wanted to do in Quito, and it was 4.30pm so just about perfect timing! We made our way back to New Town and went to the supermarket to pick up some dinner, breakfast and snacks for tomorrow.  We got back to the hostel, cooked dinner and parked up in front of the tv again for the night.

Day 66 - Quito, Ecuador (23 May 2012)

Day 66 – Quito, Ecuador (23 May 2012)

This morning I wake up and am feeling a lot better! Today we will finally get to explore Quito Old Town (Historico Centre).  On our brief visit yesterday the area showed glimpses of why it is so popular with tourists with the history of the area going back hundreds of years.  We get ready and then go to the bus station to catch the metro.  When we arrive in town the first thing we do is walk to a street called La Rhonda which is a 17th century street which has been upgraded and made touristy, well it was supposed to have been.  When we arrived we were disappointed at what we saw, it just looked like a normal street to me! We took a couple of obligatory photos and jumped into a taxi and headed up a hill called El Panacillo. At the top of the hill is a large statue called La Virgin de Quitowhich, this overlooks Old town and you can also see new town and various suburbs in the distance.  It is a spectacular view.  We thought we would head up the hill in the morning as it was a beautiful clear day and we had been warned that the clouds roll in over Quito in the afternoon.  We then get a taxi back into town (taxi cost US$3 each way) and have a look around the old Archbishops palace which is located off the main plaza and has now been converted into a shopping and eating area.  We have an empanada for lunch, these empanada’s are ok but nowhere near as nice as the Argentinean version.  After lunch we walk across the plaza to the entrance to the Presidents Palace.  Since this current President has been elected, he has opened the Palace up for tours.  This had never been done before by previous Presidents.  We begin our tour, which is completely in Spanish.  Luckily there was a nice local who was in the tour who could speak English.  This guy followed us and translated the entire tour, it was a great help! We initially were not too worried about getting the guided tour as we were just interested in seeing the Palace but having this guy translate for us made the tour even better.  Also of note was that we were the only foreigners on the tour, everyone else was Ecuadorian.  There are no advertisements for this tour, it is for the people of Ecuador to see, but of course everyone is welcome.  We only heard about it through a wee note in our Lonely Planet. 

Our tour begins with us walking up to the Ecuadorian flag which is a very important symbol for the Ecuadorian’s.  Everyone bows before the flag and then our tour begins.  We start by walking into the main meeting room where all the Members of Parliament meet and discuss their agendas.  We then walk along the corridor and we get to see the original legislation of Ecuador which was written in the 1800s.  We then enter the small parlour which is not small at all.  It can fit like 40 people at the table.  At the end of the room is a private chapel for the cremation of past presidents.  We are then taken onto the balcony of the palace where we get a great view of the plaza below.  We are then taken back into the parlour to see the silverware that has been given to the President and the gold plates and glasses that he is suppose to eat off.  The President doesn’t use this and prefers that it is on display for the people of Ecuador to admire.  We are then taken into the press conference room.  I really enjoyed this room as there was a painting of every President on the wall, and the term which they served as President.  After this the tour finished, with our new Ecuadorian friend telling us about some other sites in Quito and also warning us to stay alert as there are a few robberies in the city. 

After the tour we decide to walk to another church which is on top of a small rise in the city, called the Basilica.  It is a very nice church and has bell towers which rise over the city.  We take the lift to the top of the church, about 3 stories up.  From there we continue climbing up the bell tower.  The climb is very steep but safe.  As we climbed we went through the clock tower area, we must be very high now.  We walk to the edge and have a look at the view which is stunning.  This view is better than the view at the top of El Panacillo as we are right in the heart of the city.  On one side of the church the view is of Old Town and on the other the view is of New Town.  We climb back down, tentatively, and then head over to the tower on the other side of the church.  To get to this tower we had to walk through the roof of the church which was interesting.  We then began our climb, which was outside, up what I would consider a ladder set in concrete.  It was definitely not one for the faint hearted.  When we got to the top of the tower I felt a slight case of vertigo.  We took some more photos up here and then went down.  The walk down was probably harder than going up, once again it was very tentative.  Fantastic experience though.  On our way down, on level three, we overlook the church and then continue down the stairs back to ground level.

We walk back into the city and head to the Monastery San Francisco.  We were warned by our Ecuadorian friend earlier today that there are pickpockers in this area, so we walk quickly to the entrance.  In here we have a look around the Monastery.  The entrance is US2 each. This Monastery has an extensive collection of religious art.  We walk around then enter the church.  The interior of the church is red with gold decorations.  After this we decide to head back to the hostel after getting some groceries for dinner and breakfast tomorrow morning.  We then park ourselves on the couch and watch tv for the rest of the night.

Day 65 - Quito, Ecuador (22 May 2012)

Day 65 – Quito, Ecuador (22 May 2012)

That was an interesting night, I managed to get quite a bit of sleep considering my condition but the times when I woke up it wasn’t a nice feeling.  I have had plenty of water overnight, Ann thinks it might be a case of altitude sickness combined with me not having enough water.  During the morning I rest in bed and I start to feel abit better.  By lunchtime we are out and about again.  We catch the metro bus system to old town which is about 20 minutes away on the bus.  We walk into old town and Im not feeling flash again.  I’ll see how I go and battle on through.  We get to the main plaza and have a look around.  This plaza is nice with gardens in the middle and it is surrounded by the Presidents Palace, the Cathedral and other older style buildings.  We walk through the plaza and down a main street to the La Compania de Jesus Church.  This church’s interior is covered in 23 carrot gold, it is everywhere, pretty incredible.  We have a walk around the church and soak it all in.  There is a lot of gold surrounding us at the moment.  After a quick tour here we walk outside and there is a bit of rain around.  This is the moment I call it a day, I couldn’t handle the jandle anymore, I had to get home and rest again, I still was not feeling the greatest.  At this stage I can tell Ann is having a wee tantrum, she wants to continue exploring but I can’t handle it.  I later finally get it out of her that she was indeed having a tantrum at me, she said she is just pissed off that Im not drinking enough water and that is making me sick.  Well sorry!!!!! Next time Ann is sick I will throw a tantrum at her! Anyway enough of that, we got over that sob story pretty quickly, we are back in the area of the hostel and we head to the supermarket to pick up some dinner (and more water, I’m a good boy).  As we are walking back to the hostel I have to stop and have a spit on the side of the road.  Usually you would be embarrassed about this, maybe Ann was as she was standing next to me, but I didn’t care, and I didn’t know anyone around me and if they did offer to help or say something to me I wouldn’t understand them anyway! We continue walking to the hostel, and then park ourselves on the couch for the night.

Monday 28 May 2012

Day 64 - Quito, Ecuador (21 May 2012)

Day 64 – Quito, Ecuador (21 May 2012)

Today’s plans were going to be decided by the weather.  If it was fine (or at least not raining), we were going to go half an hour north of Quito taking the bus systems and head to Mitad del Mundo, which is a monument where the centre of the world is.  If it was raining, we were going to stay in the city and head to Old Town to take a look.  Either way it was going to be a good day and we were going to be doing both at some stage anyway.  We awake to an overcast day, no rain however.  Our decision was made for us, we are going to the centre of the world!  We get ready and pack a day pack and head to the bus stop.  Here we catch the local metro system, which is a long bus that has its own lane in the centre of the road.  We ride this until the last stop and then catch another bus which takes us to Mitad del Mundo.  We arrive and pay the entry fee of US$2 and wander to the monument.  It is a pretty cool place, we get the usual photos of having our feet in different continents, the north and south plants and also some feeble attempts of having photos whilst holding the world in our hands (the monument has a globe at the top).   This site of the centre of the world was made after numerous measurements in the mid 18th century.  The monument is actually in the wrong spot, the real equator is 300 metres north of the tourist ‘equator line’.  More modern gps measurements have concluded this.  Not a bad attempt at estimating the equator I guess considering the technology back in the day.  Another activity we did was try to balance an egg on a nail.  I couldn’t do it, and I blame the fact that we are not actually on the equator, if we were 300 metres north I would have been able to balance that egg blindfolded.... yeah right!!!

There were also some measuring scales at the site.  The reasoning for this was that apparently you are supposed to weigh less on the equator than normal.  Ann and I paid our 25 cents each and weighed ourselves.  We were considerably lighter than normal.  I know I have lost some weight whilst travelling but definitely not this much! We have a theory that the scales have been tampered with, but we decide to wait until we have googled it (we later did and found out that you do indeed weigh less on the equator, but only by about 0.5%, so the scales had definitely been tampered with).  We have a look through the museum which is in the middle of the monument and then decide to head back into Quito.  At this time I start to feel a little unwell, not again!!! When we get back to the hostel we decide to head to the supermarket and get some dinner to cook and breakfast, Im feeling terrible at this stage.  We head back to the hostel and Ann starts cooking tea while I go to bed.  Long story short, it was a terrible night, I vomited four times and had a crook guts which was increasing my frequency to the toilet.

Day 63 - Otavalo to Quito, Ecuador (20 May 2012)

Day 63 – Otavalo to Quito, Ecuador (20 May 2012)

We awake to a beautiful day, typical since we didn’t have a market to go to today! We pack up our gear all ready for Quito, which is about two hours south of Otavalo.  We skipped Quito and continued north to Otavalo so we could experience the Otavalo Saturday market, the largest market in South America, definitely worth the trip.  First things first though, our magnificent breakfast, where we get the same as yesterday.  Now is the trip south to Quito.  We get a taxi to the bus station (US$1) and a bus is ready to depart so we jump on.  The bus trip took us to the northern bus terminal in Quito and cost us US$2 each.  We get a taxi into the city where our hostel awaits! We have booked a place called Hostel Backpackers Inn in Mariscal Sucre, the newer part of the city.  We arrive after about a half an hour taxi ride that cost us US$7.  Transport is ridiculously cheap in this country.  Once at the backpackers we settle into our room.  We are unsure how long we are going to stay in Quito but will see what happens, there is alot to do here but apparently we have to keep our wits about us as there is a lot of theft in this city.  We decide to have a look around the Mariscal Sucre neighbourhood.  This area is where quite a few tourists stay.  We find the main square which is full of restaurants, but the place is dead! We even check out the supermarket and that is even closed!!! We head back to our hostel and decide to watch tv for the rest of the afternoon as everything was closed! Also new town does not have much to offer and it was too late to take a bus into old town, which is the historical part of the city and plenty to do there.  We read our Lonely Planet and are happy we came back to the hostel as we read that the Mariscal Sucre is a dodgy place to wander around on Sundays.  Think we will stick to the hostel for the rest of the day! We round out the day by going out for dinner at a Texan restaurant, not the greatest meal but not too bad at the same time.

Day 62 - Otavalo, Ecuador (19 May 2012)

Day 62 – Otavalo, Ecuador (19 May 2012)

We wake this morning to an overcast day, that is perfect conditions for wandering around the biggest market in South America!  We get ready for the day and stumble downstairs to the restaurant for our breakfast.  We are paying US$12 each a night and breakfast is included in the price.  The Lonely Planet advises that this breakfast is fantastic and is the reason why the hostel is still running.  Well, the Lonely Planet is not lying. We get three options for breakfast, one stands out above the others in a big way! It is pancakes with maple and chocolate syrup and fruit salad, it is fantastic! We are getting used to these pancake and fruit salad breakfasts! Anyway, this isn’t why we came to Otavalo, we are here for the Saturday markets! We get out the front door of the hostel and look around and to our amazement the markets begin about a block from the hostel.  Very handy indeed! We walk around the markets just looking as we can’t really purchase anything because of limited room in our backpacks.  If we find something we can’t walk away from, well then it will be different story, we will find room!!! The market is full of different crafts including tapestries, blankets, ponchos, sweaters, hammocks, carvings, beads, original paintings, all types of food and alot more!  The men and women who are at each stall are all dressed in traditional clothing which included long single pigtails, calf length white pants, rope sandals, reversible gray or blue ponchos and dark felt hats for the men and embroided blouses, long black skirts and folded head cloths for the women.  The market stretches for blocks and is centred around the main plaza of Otavalo.  As the morning wears on, the clouds thicken and finally the rain starts falling.  Ann and I decide this is a good opportunity to have a break, so we walk back to our hostel and have a sit down and pick up our jackets!  As we sit, the rain gets heavier.  We decide this rain is not going to subside so we once again venture out.  We look around and get saturated at the same time.  The stall operators have seen rain before, they are prepared with their tarpaulins which were up in a flash to protect their merchandise.   After lunch we have made it around the whole market, it has taken us four hours and we havnt even stopped to take a closer look at things since we are not buying! It is a very big market.  By this time the rain had got very heavy and a few stalls were starting to pack up as the crowds were also thinning out.  We take one last look at the market, buy a couple of small items and call it a day ourselves.  There is not much else to do in Otavalo, especially on a rainy day, so we head back to the hostel and watch a movie.  We round out the day by heading out for dinner.  We go to a Mexican restaurant in the main plaza which is on the second story.  By this time the rain had stopped.  As we were eating dinner we looked out the window and saw the mammoth effort of taking down all the market stalls and cleaning up the streets.  Funny to think that this happens every Saturday!

Friday 18 May 2012

Day 61 - Banos to Otavalo, Ecuador (18 May 2012)

Day 61 - Banos to Otavalo, Ecuador (18 May 2012)

Today we have decided to travel to Otavalo.  Otavalo is about two hours north of Quito, and we are also planning to go to Quito for a few nights too.  The reason we have decided to go to Otavalo today is because tomorrow is Saturday, and number two on the list of things to do in South America in our Lonely Planet book is to go to the Saturday markets in Otavalo.  Apparently the streets throughout the town are full of market stalls.  The market runs every day of the week but apparently Saturday is the day that everyone comes to town and the streets are chocker, so we thought we would check it out. 
We leave Banos after another fantastic breakfast at the hostel.  We catch a bus that drops us off on the Pan American highway in Ambato, about an hour from Banos.  Here we jump on a direct bus to Otavalo, via Quito.  Quito is Ecuadors capital city and it takes us ages to get through the city! We are mucking around in the city for almost two hours!  The heavy Friday afternoon traffic doesnt help the situation either! We arrive in Otavalo about 5pm.  This is a historic occasion for me, it is my debut in the northern hemisphere! Quito is about an hour south of the equator (we will be going to the equator tourist spot when we head back to Quito, which is off the main highway).  I was a bit disappointed there was no signs on the main highway telling you that we had entered the northern hemisphere.  Oh well, not a great loss, I got over it pretty quickly. 
We taxi to our hostel and drop our bags off and then immediately head into town to have a look and also to get some dinner.  We had found a place recommended by our lonely planet which specialises in Ecuarian food, always keen to try the local food.  The meal was fantastic! Loved it. 

Day 60 - Banos, Ecuador (17 May 2012)

Day 60 – Banos, Ecuador (17 May 2012)

We awake to another rainy day.  Banos reminds me of a larger version of Arthurs Pass, a small town nestled in between green mountains with a weather pattern that is various and unpredictable.  I am really enjoying the place so far though.  We go upstairs and have breakfast, I get double pancakes with maple syrup, yogurt and a large fruit salad, for US$3.50, cheap as chips! Although the falling NZD against the USD is making travelling a bit more expensive.  I’m sure other members of my family are happy about the falling dollar though, and I’m even more sure it would affect them more than me losing an extra couple of dollars on my travels so that makes me feel good about the falling dollar.  After breakfast we decide to finish our exploration of Banos town.  Once again it is raining but it’s not too bad.  We then decide to walk up a hill to get a good view of the town.  We are halfway up and Ann is getting pretty tired and her knee is starting to play up, so we head back and relax by the covered pool at our hostel.  Our hostel is more like a hotel, everyone has their own bathroom, the rooms/bathrooms and common areas are of good quality and are clean and every room has their own deck.  We are lucky that we got a room that overlooks the town and then the mountains on the other side of town.  For US$8.50 per person per night, we think we are getting a pretty good deal.  We decide to cook dinner tonight and head to the supermarket to get some supplies.  We cook a massive vegetable soup, great meal and good to have a lot of veges!  After dinner we head to the thermal pools again, we are there for an hour and a half and then head back to the hostel for the night.

Day 59 - Banos, Ecuador (16 May 2012)

Day 59 – Banos, Ecuador (16 May 2012)

We awake to the sound of rain on the roof.  Not a nice sound as we were hoping to hire buggies today and explore the area surrounding Banos.  That is ok, hopefully the weather clears later in the day, we only need 3 hours of no rain! We head up to the top floor of our hostel to get breakfast.  This is not included in our hostel package but breakfast only costs US$2-3 per person and it is a very generous helping.  After breakfast we head out into town and explore the town centre.  After about an hour of exploring, there is a wee break in the weather so we decide to walk to the zoo (there were still ominous clouds hanging around so we decide not to buggy just yet).  We look around the zoo and see animals including a puma, ocelot, spider monkey, Galapagos turtle, jaguar, Andean bear, eagle, vulture, condor, macaw, paracets, parrots and toucans.  It was quite interesting and the first time I had seen many of these animals.  Pretty happy the gates were solid, as I wouldn’t have been hanging around otherwise!  We then start our walk back to the centre of town (the zoo is on the periphery). 

While we were at the zoo, we had no rain and the skies were relatively clear so we decide to hire the buggy.  We go to the travel agency and I show my licence and we are on our way.  The buggy cost US$10 per hour and we were told by the tour agency that 3 hours would be more than enough time to do the ‘waterfall circuit’.  Ann wasn’t too fazed if she drove or not so I was more than happy to do the driving.  We start our ride by driving through town, and then we make our way to the valley where there are plenty of waterfalls.  We have to drive on the main highway which is a bit of a challenge at first as I had to concentrate very hard to remember that I had to drive on the right hand side of the road, not the left hand side!  Ann had to remind me a couple of times as I turned into quiet streets in Banos town, lucky that didn’t happen on the main highway!   About 15 minutes into the ride, as we entered the valley, the dark clouds start forming and wouldn’t you know it, it starts raining, very heavily too! It didn’t help that we had no windscreen so the rain was driving into our faces.  We arrived at the first two waterfalls on the circuit, pretty impressive waterfalls.  The second was a double waterfall and you could get close to it via cable car.  We didn’t have the time to do this so we continued on.  By this point the rain had stopped and the clouds were rolling away, however we are drenched! I’m sure with my speedy driving we will be dry relatively quickly... although the buggies don’t go terribly fast (we were overtaken on the main highway very frequently).  We have been told that we are not allowed to go through the tunnels that are on the main highway, and there are about 4 of them.  There are paths around the tunnel especially designed for tourists and buggies.  We do however have to go through one tunnel as there is no path around the side of the tunnel.  We arrive at a small village, this village is the entrance to Pailon Del Diablo waterfall.  We park our buggy and begin the 1 kilometre trek to the waterfall.  This trek is downhill through rainforest and is a nice walk.  We arrive and can hear the waterfall pounding, but we can’t see it! We do see a bridge over a river which would give us a prime view of the waterfall, but the bridge is locked off and a sign is on the door saying it is private property.  We think to ourselves that it is a rip off telling us about a spectacular waterfall and then not being able to see it.  There is a restaurant about 20 metres away so we walk up to that to see if anyone could tell us where there was a good view of the waterfall.  We find a guy who informs us of a track to walk next to and under the waterfall.  This is sounding more promising.  The fee (always a fee) is US$1.50, so very cheap.  I didn’t bring any money with me but luckily Ann had US$10 in her jacket, change from paying for the buggy.  We walk up the hill and after about two minutes we get to a spectacular viewing platform which is right next to the waterfall.  The water is falling at a rapid pace and is only about 5 metres away from us, it is incredible! We are getting very wet with the spray the waterfall is producing but we don’t care, we start taking pictures and a video and are just amazed at how close we are.  We find a pathway, well this path you basically have to crawl, under some rocks.  We decide to go through the wee track and see what else this area has to offer.  I was walking behind Ann and all of a sudden I hear her yell “WOW”!!! I continue walking and get out the other side and we are higher in the waterfall but extremely close now! Probably about two metres from the falling water now, pretty incredible! The force of the water is amazing, loving being here at the moment but at the same time it is pretty formidable!  We spend a wee bit of time here, taking photos and a video, and see another access way, to climb further up! We think we couldn’t see anything more spectacular than this and we couldn’t get any closer to the waterfall, we were wrong.  The next viewing platform we get to is right next to the waterfall, actually I lie, it is closer than that, half of the platform is being hit by the falling water.  We spend a couple of minutes here and then the water starts falling closer to us.  We think this is because of the recent heavy rain.  We did see another access way to continue going up but the waterfall was cutting this off, we wisely decide not to continue and we would have been pelted by water, and it would have been very dangerous to continue on.  We see the water continue to fall closer to us so we decide to turn back.  When we were away from the waterfall we realised just how wet we got, but it was definitely worth it.  What an amazing experience! It was incredible that we were able to get that close.  I just don’t know how those viewing platforms were constructed in the first place.  They are pretty stable too considering the force that is continuously being placed upon them.  Imagine what we are going to experience at Iguazu falls in Argentina and Brazil! Can’t wait.

We walk back to the buggy, uphill this time, and decide that we don’t have enough time to continue on up the road to the final waterfall.  We didn’t mind though, the Pailon Del Diablo is the main attraction so any other waterfall would be a disappointment.  We make our way back to town on the main highway, once again being overtaken by cars, buses, trucks, a wee bit nerve racking.  We are about 1 kilometre away from the office and we start stuttering, and then we stop.  We have run out of petrol.  Typical, just about back in town and this happens.  Ann decides to walk the rest of the way and get some help while I wait with the buggy on the side of the road.  I have to drag the buggy into the gutter so the traffic is not disrupted.  About a half an hour later another buggy turns up with Ann in the passenger seat.  The fella driving tells us to drive the replacement buggy back into town and he will deal with our original buggy, sounded good to me so we were on our way.  When we got back to the office (half an hour late), we hopped out of the buggy and went home and got changed.  We were dry again but still felt a bit cold as we arrived back at 6pm (darkness sets in about 630pm).
Once we are changed we head out for dinner.  The restaurant we originally were going to go to was closed as the owners were on vacation for a couple of weeks.  We go to a Swiss restaurant just down the road which is also recommended in our lonely planet guide book.  After dinner we go back to the hostel and put our togs on and head to the thermal pools which are about 200 metres from our hostel.  These thermal pools are created with water from the neighbouring volcano.  We spend about an hour here and it is very nice and relaxing.  It even started raining while we were there which was fantastic! We went home afterwards and called it a night.

Day 58 - Cuenca to Banos, Ecuador (15 May 2012)

Day 58 – Cuenca to Banos, Ecuador (15 May 2012)

We got up early this morning and went to the bus station.  Once again we were confused at the bus station, and heaps of people tried to come up to us and sell their buses! I’m getting sick of people hounding us to buy things.  Anyway we get on a bus bound for Ambato, a 7 hour bus trip.  Here we exchange buses and jump on a bus to Banos, which is only about another hour away.  The bus trip north is a nice one, we drove through the highlands all the way to Banos.  Our bus driver on the first bus was a nice guy, one of the few in Ecuador (surely the people can only get better!).  He also spoke English which helped a lot.  He told us when to get off the bus and what bus to catch when we arrived in Ambato.  Our bus to Ambato cost us US$7 each and then the bus from Ambato to Banos cost us US$1 each.  The Banos part of the trip had some very nice scenery.  We arrived in Banos at about 530pm, and went straight to our hostel which we had booked the day before.  We are planning on staying here for 3 nights, there are plenty of activities to do which you will read about in the coming days.  The hostel is nice and is costing us US$8.50 each per night.  We have our own bathroom, a deck and wifi (which is currently not working).  We cook dinner at the hostel and then watch a movie and call it a night, in preparation for tomorrow, where we will hire buggies and explore the area if it is fine.

Day 57 - Cuenca, Ecuador (14 May 2012)

Day 57 – Cuenca, Ecuador (14 May 2012)

This morning we are undecided if we are going to stay another night in Cuenca or not.  We decide that we will make the decision at the end of the day depending on how much we get done during the day.  We eat breakfast at the hostel (bought from the supermarket the day before) and head on our way into town.  We head back into the city centre to finish off our sightseeing there.  The city was a bit busier today since it is a Monday morning, but still not that busy and nothing in comparison to Guayaquil.  Anyway we are about to finish our sightseeing in the city centre and then head to the fringe of the CBD to go to a couple of museums.  I see a building that is quite nice, so I head across the road to get a better angle for a picture.  I pull out my camera, line up the photo and before I could click, BANG, I got a smack to the head! I turn around and see this fella sprinting away from me.  He was looking back at me as he was running.  I was a bit shocked, and I look around and all the locals are just looking at me, no one was coming up to me to see if I was alright.  I then walked back over the road to talk to Ann who was waiting for me to take my picture, and she was in disbelief about what happened.  Apparently, as we have read in our lonely planet book, people in some cities around Ecuador try and knock tourists out with a tackle around the neck and when they are on the ground for a couple of minutes, they steal all their gear.  Well this guys arm knocked my neck and his fist got me right behind the ear.  I am either tough and can handle a hit like that or this guy is an amateur because I hardly flinched.   I do have a wee bump on my head now.  Maybe all those days playing footy has hardened me up.  Listen to me, talking myself up! But in all seriousness though, it gave me a bit of a fright when I reflected on what happened.  It certainly made our decision easier as to if we were going to stay another night in Cuenca, the answer is definitely NO!!!!  This continues the Ecuadorian theme so far that people are a lot ruder than we have previously encountered in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile.  We head back to the hostel for a little bit to calm down, then we head to the first museum,  Museo del Banco Central ‘Pumapungo’.  This museum is famous for the sidplay of ‘tsantsas’ (shrunken heads).  It was crazy to see these shrunken head’s, they are even smaller than a new born babies head.   The one thing that was disappointing about this museum is they didn’t explain how they actually shrunk their heads! (and there was English explanations too). Out the back of this museum is a garden park so we have a wander through here.  We come across some birds locked in a cage.  The last cage we came across had some Toucans which are very colourful birds with a distinctive beak.  We were hoping to see these on the Inca Trail but we lucked out so it was good to see them now.  We then went to Museo de las Culturas Aborigenes which has over 5000 archaeological pieces representative of about 20 Ecuadorian pre-Columbian cultures.  After this museum we were done with this city.  I was over the place and just wanted to leave.  We went back to the hostel about mid afternoon and then watched a movie and had an early night.

Sunday 13 May 2012

Day 56 - Guayaquil to Cuenca, Ecuador (13 May 2012)

Day 56 - Guayaquil to Cuenca, Ecuador (13 May 2012)

First things first, Happy Mothers Day Mum!!! I know it is not Mothers Day anymore in NZ but it is still here.
We wake up this morning and head down for breakfast and find out the cafe is closed.  Gutted.  Oh well, we will get some breakfast at the bus station.  We get a taxi to the bus station.  When we get there we find it difficult to find the right bus company to take us to Montaneta, which is on the coast of Ecuador.  We finally find the right company and the line is huge.  We are also hungry.  I leave Ann to line up and organise our bus tickets while I go to the supermarket to get us some breakfast.  I buy a couple of croissants, 3 bananas, and some snacks and water for the bus trip.  This supermarket is similar to the supermarkets in Peru, it is a supermarket mixed with a store like The Warehouse.  I watch the football which is on one of the tv's in the store for a couple of minutes, it is the last round of the English Premier League and it was a spectacular finish to the season with Manchester City winning the title, very dramatic.  When I get back to the bus terminal (the bus terminal is part of the shopping centre, which has the supermarket), I find Ann sitting on her bag with a look of frustration on her face.  She had been lining up and when she got to the front and asked for two tickets to Montineta, she kept getting told to go to the next window booth, and having to line up again.  She had given up.  We tell each other that it is a sign that we are not meant to go to Montineta, so we will head inland to Cuenca, which was going to be our next stop after Montineta.  We also tell ourselves that the day we save can be additional day at the top of Columbia on the Caribean in a couple of weeks.  We are now very happy with our decision.  We book our ticket to Cuenca and realise the bus that we had booked was leaving in five minutes and we had no idea where to board the bus.  After a bit of running around we realise we have to go up two levels to the departure gate.  When we get here we jump on the bus and it is very hot! Two minutes later we are off.  After about an hour we start an ascent up a mountain, we continue climbing up for about an hour, we must be at a very high level of altitude here.  We then descend a wee bit into Cuenca.  Cuenca is about 2,500 metres above sea level and is Ecuadors third largest city with about 450,000 people living here.  It is also surprisingly cold (well compared to what we have encountered).  It is about 15 degrees here when we arrive.  We find our hostal (Hostal El Capitolo).  We just turn up and hope there is space which there is.  We have been doing this quite a bit as it is low season and there usually is a room available.  When we get settled we have a look around the city.  It is nice but very quiet, especially in comparison to Guayaquil.  Maybe this is because it is a Sunday, we will find out tomorrow.  We then head to the supermarket and get some dinner, snacks and water and head back to the hostal for the night.

Day 55 - Guayaquil, Ecuador (12 May 2012)

Day 55 - Guayaquil, Ecuador (12 May 2012)

We wake up this morning and head downstairs for some breakfast at a cafe at the bottom of the hostel.  When we get out of the air conditioned hostel we are hit with a heat bomb, it is freaking hot here!  I get a cheese toastie and a banana milkshake for breakfast and Ann gets Humita, which is a sweet corn cut in half with cheese in the middle.  Ann was not a fan of this so we swapped breakfasts half way through.  She wasnt getting my banana milkshake though, that was fantastic! As we find out during the day, Ecuadorians seem to put bananas in most of their meals, I suppose they do have the world capital of bananas in their country!
After breakfast we head out and explore the city.  First stop was the cenre of the city, the plaza which is called Parque del Centenario (yes, it is not called Plaza de Armes, I think we are heading away from those plazas now.  A bit of variety in the names is always a good thing).  This plaza covers four blocks and is full of monuments.  It is located at the eastern end of the main thoroughfare, 9 de Octubre, which is definitely a vibrant street.  This street ends at the waterfront which I will talk about later.  Some street names are named after important dates of the year.  This date, 9th of October, marks Independence day in Ecuador. 
We then stroll down 9 de October and then take a turn and arrive at the tree filled Parque Bolivar.  It is just another plaza, but prehistoric looking iguanas roam around the park.  There are quite a few of them here too, it is incredible to see them roaming around a park in the centre of the city.  Across the road from this plaza is the cities Cathedral.  We cross the road and have a look.
We stroll on down to the waterfront.  This has been reconstructed about ten years ago and is called the Malecon 2000.  The waterfront stretches for 2.5km along the river, which is very dirty.  This reconstruction was part of the cities efforts to clean up the place as well as provide increased security as at the time of reconstruction, Guayaquil was considered a crime ridden port city.  We have seen no evidence of that so far.  They have done a fantastic job on tidying up the waterfront.  There are monuments, garden areas, restaurants and shopping malls.  It is generally a nice tidy area with quite alot of police presence.  We walk up and down the waterfront, no mean feat in this stiffling heat.  We stop for lunch at a restaurant on the waterfront, with airconditioning of course.  After lunch we continue to the southern end and then hit the La Bahia markets.  The markets are very crowded and we notice we are the only tourists in there.  It is definitely a local market.  We walk on through and by the end of it we are sick of being offered the 'best deal in town' so we call it quits here.  We then walk to the Iglesia de San Francisco church which is just off 9 de Octubre and have a quick look here.
Finally to finish the day off we walk back to the waterfront and head to the northern end which is the entrance to the walk Cerro Santa Ana.  This walk takes up to the top of a hill close to the city centre and gives us fantastic 360 degree views of the city.  As we walk up the hill we go through historic neighbourhoods which have been refurbished into an idealised version of a quaint South American hillside village with brightly painted homes and cobblestone alleyways.  The stairway winding up through the neighbourhoods is also lined with restaurants and bars.  When we reach the top the views from the hilltop fort called Fortin del Cerro, and the lighthouse are spectacular.  The reason we waited until the end of the day to do this was because we figured it would be more comfortable walking up a hill towards the end of the day compared to the middle of the day and also so we could get daylight views, sunset views and night views.  They were all fantastic.  What made our decision easier is that there is constant police presence from 7am until midnight on the walk up and at the top of the hill, another example of the city pushing its security. 
We then made our way down the hill and went out for dinner.  During the day we had seen alot of people wearing a yellow football jersey, so we figured it was their local football team and they were playing a match that night.  Well while we were at the restaurant we saw the game on the screen, and to be honest the quality of play was not what I expected.  I thought since they were South American professional footballers they would be great players.  I was wrong, the Phoenix could even beat these two teams! That is definitely saying something. 
Today was a good day, we got through all the sights of Guayaquil.  We were planning on staying here three nights but now can save a day and head to our next destination tomorrow morning.  Guayaquil however is a nice city, and the work they have done over the last 10 years has paid off by the looks of things (Guayaquil is also the gateway to Ecuadors tourist gem, the Galapagos Islands.  All flights here are from Guayaquil.  It is very expensive to go there so we have missed it, and we saw the 'cheap mans' Galapagos Islands in Paracas, Peru.  This is another reason why Guayaquil has put a lot of effort into cleaning up, as more and more tourists come here before and after the Galapagos Islands).

Saturday 12 May 2012

Day 54 - Mancora, Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador (11 May 2012)

Day 54 – Mancora, Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador (11 May 2012)

This morning we head to a restaurant for breakfast.  After breakfast we have a few Peruvian Soles left so I buy some water and some snacks for the bus ride.  Today we will be leaving Peru.  We have been here for about 4 weeks now and have loved the country, with the obvious highlight being Machu Picchu.  We are heading into Ecuador and the first stop will be Ecuador’s biggest city called Guayaquil (pronounced why-a-kill).  After breakfast and my snack stop, we wait at the bus station and to our surprise we are put in a mini van collective and taken to the border which is about a two hour drive away.  When we get here we wait at the bus station and then after about 45 minutes board a bus that will take us the remaining six hours to Guayaquil.  We arrive at the border about half an hour later and get our passports stamped etc, and then we are on our way! At this point the bus is relatively empty, about half an hour down the road the bus is packed and it is like this all the way as people are getting dropped off everywhere and the bus is also stopping at random points along the road and picking people up.  It was a very unusual bus experience.  Also about 30 minutes after we cross the Ecuadorian border, we come across our first banana tree (don’t know what they are called).  From there, we see banana trees along the side of the road and stretching miles into the distance for pretty much the rest of the trip to Guayaquil.  We also pass through the town which is the banana capital of the world.  I can’t quite remember the name of the town at the moment but I am not surprised it is the banana capital, they are everywhere!!!  We arrive in Guayaquil about 6.30pm, and the bus station is massive! It is connected to a shopping mall and is very busy considering it is a Friday night.  We get a taxi into the city which costs us US$5.  We have to get used to a new currency again.  Ecuador’s currency is the US dollar.  We do not have a hostel booked but Ann finds a good one in our Lonely Planet guide and we head there and hope for the best.  They have a nice room available, which has its own bathroom, TV and most importantly, an air conditioning unit.  That is the most important feature because it is so hot!!!  We are 2 degrees south of the equator at present so that explains a lot.  We then head out for dinner and it is terrible.  The food is terrible and the service is even worse.  Luckily I was pretty hungry so I gobbled the food down anyway.  During our brief walk around the city, it looked like a nice city with a good vibe.  Apparently in the last ten years there has been massive headway made in this city in terms of security and appearance and so far it shows.  I am looking forward to tomorrow to explore the place.

Day 53 - Mancora, Peru (10 May 2012)


Day 53 – Mancora, Peru (10 May 2012)
We arrived in Mancora just before 10am, well ahead of the scheduled time of 11am which was fantastic! Gave us abit more time to explore the place.  The bus ride was surprisingly good.  I got a pretty good nights sleep in my semi cama seat, probably the best sleep I have had on a bus on this trip so far so I was feeling pretty happy.  When we got off the bus we were hounded by about 10 guys trying to give us a ride on their ‘tuk tuk’ taxis, and trying to sell us their hostel.  We jumped into a tuk tuk, first time for me in Peru, and were taken to a hostel that was going to cost us 30 soles.  Well that was what we were told.  When we got to the hostel it was suddenly 30 soles each, and then when we said we were only going to stay for one night, it was suddenly 60 soles each.  We said no and demanded we were taken to a cheap hostel.  We are idiots, we should know by now about these fellas, we just need to say no at the bus station, and when we say no we have to be forceful! Oh well, lesson learnt.  The next hostel we go to is 20 soles each, so total of 40 soles.  We get a room with two double beds and our own bathroom.  As we walk into the room we can see why it was so cheap.  Concrete floors, terrible beds, and the bathroom is not much either.  Oh well, it was a good place to store our gear and sleep for the night, we didn’t plan on spending too much time at this hostel.  We are all settled in and have changed into summer clothes as it is very hot here.  We decide to explore the town.  There are a few market shops all along the main street and down a side street so we go into these.  During out shopping Ann buys a singlet top and I buy a ‘Jake the mus’ singlet.  K and N would be very proud.  During this shopping expedition, we have a break for lunch.  We just needed to get some energy as the sun and the heat was zapping it from us!  We also booked some bus tickets for tomorrow, where we will be leaving Peru and heading to a city called Guayaquil (pronounced why-a-kill) in Ecuador.  Once we have finished looking at the town (very small place, about the size of Punikaiki) we head down to the beach and lye in the sand and swim all afternoon, it is fantastic!!! The beach is warm, the sand is beautiful, the water is warm and there are bars and restaurants on the beach front waiting for us when we are finished.  About 5pm we head to a pub and sit outside and have a couple of beers and wait for the sun to set.  After this we head out for dinner and then back to the hostel for a good nights kip.

Day 52 - Huanchaco, Peru (9 May 2012)

Day 52 – Huanchaco, Peru (9 May 2012)

We wake up and head to the bakery to pick up a bit of breakfast.  I find some fantastic muffins and get two of them.  I end up going back later in the day and buying another couple of muffins.  Chocolate chip with peach in the middle, yum.  After breakfast we catch the bus and head into Trujillo, this takes us about half an hour.  Here we have a look around the city.  It is just another city really.  We head into the Plaza (yes you guessed it) de Armes, which is the centre of the city.  After a wee bit of exploring we walk towards the Cruz Del Sur bus station to book some bus tickets for the overnight service to Mancora.  When we arrive at the terminal we find out that the Cama seats (seats that recline to 160 degrees) had been sold out.  I was gutted with this as I need the longer seat to stretch out.  Oh well, we had to buy the semi cama seats.  We then jumped onto a local bus towards Chan Chan.  The ticket we bought yesterday was valid for another 3 different sites, so since we had a bit of time during the afternoon, we decided to go to the museum here.  After this we got on another local bus and headed back to Huanchaco.  It was quite good to travel like the Peruvians for a wee bit, just like it was in the collectivo’s in Paracas, just to experience their way of living.
When we got back to Huanchaco we went for a walk around town and a walk along the beach.  Whilst at the beach we watched a few surfers doing their thing out on the water.  It was nice just lying on the beach relaxing.  We then went back to the hostel and played some cards again on the roof, once again nice to sit in the sun in beautiful weather playing a bit of cards.  We went out for dinner and then it was time to head into Trujillo for our overnight bus to Mancora.

Day 51 - Huanchaco, Peru (8 May 2012)

Day 51 – Huanchaco, Peru (8 May 2012)

This morning we have a bit of a sleep in, and then we head into town for an early lunch.  Once again I get a Lomo Saltado, but this one is not very nice.  After our early lunch we walk around the town.  Huanchaco is a small town about the size of Greymouth, it is on the beach front and is a nice place.  It seems like a very popular place for surfers as there are a few out on the water and there are a few surf shops and surf lesson companies on the main street.  Our walk includes heading down the back streets, the main streets and onto the pier.  Also on the beach are reed boats which you can hire and take out to the sea.  The water actually looks quite dirty so we decide not to swim, we will save the swim until our next sea side town, Mancora, which we will be visiting in a couple of days.  During early afternoon we decide to go to some ruins called Chan Chan which is about 15 minutes out of town.  On our way to the bus stop, we run into the Swiss couple who we met a few weeks ago in Bolivia.  We stop and talk to them for half an hour and then catch the bus to Chan Chan.  This bus is a local bus which runs between Huanchaco and Trujillo, a large city about 20 minutes inland from Huanchaco.  Buses run very frequently (probably once every five minutes, maybe even more frequent than that) and they are usually full.  Our bus was full of local school children, so we had to stand.  One of the young school girls stood up and offered me her seat when I got on the bus, but I declined and told her to keep her seat.  It was very nice of her though.  We then got off the bus at Chan Chan and walk the 1 kilometre to the ruins.  We did our own tour here and we were here for about an hour looking at the city, which was once the capital of Peru and home to about 300,000 people.  After this we head back to Huanchaco, buy a couple of beers and head up to the roof of our hostel and enjoyed some beers while we played cards for a couple of hours.  This was fantastic as it was a beautiful day with the temperature probably hitting high 20’s.  When the sun went down we walked back into town for dinner and then went back to the hostel.

And there it is, the referee blows half time on South America.  End of Day 51 signals half way through the trip.  Here’s a summary of some highlights of the trip so far.

Highlight: Without doubt the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, had a fantastic time with amazing scenery and the ruins at Machu Picchu and sites throughout the Inca Trail were amazing!

Lowlight: Being sick for about 10 days.  I still continued on and done everything, however it was at a slower pace.  Thank you doctor in Cusco, Peru for making me fit and in tip top condition for the Inca Trail!

Favourite place: Apart from Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, I would say Mendoza, Argentina.  Reminded me of Christchurch.  Definitely looking forward to heading back to Argentina in a month or so.  Huacachina, Peru (sandboarding and Dune Buggying) was a very close second.  In saying this, I have enjoyed most places we have been to, just a few stand out more than the rest.

Least favourite place: Valparaiso, Chile.  Even though it is listed as a world heritage place by UNISEC, I didn’t feel the vibe in this place and was happy to leave.

Cheapest country: By far – Bolivia

Most expensive country: By far – Chile

Favourite food: Apart from the Argentinean steak (because that would be too predictable) Lomo Saltado has been my favourite – Peruvian dish with Lamb and a whole heap of other goodness – here’s a link to a recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/peruvian-lomo-saltado/

Least favourite food: whatever made me sick for 10 days.
If you have any other questions about favourites or least favourites, ask me and I will add it to the blog.  Definitely open for more suggestions.

Day 50 - Lima to Huanchaco, Peru (7 May 2012)

Day 50 – Lima to Huanchaco, Peru (7 May 2012)

This morning we get up and book the bus to Trujillo, which is about ten minutes inland from Huanchaco, our next destination.  The bus trip is going to take us about 9 or so hours.  We can book the bus (Cruz Del Sur) at the hostel so that is handy.  Our bus is booked for 12.30pm so we head back to our room and pack our things.  We get to the bus terminal and board our bus, the majority of the trip was along the coastline so it wasn’t too bad.  It was fantastic to see the Pacific Ocean!  After such a long time without seeing the sea, great site!  Also a bonus was the whole bus was Cama so we had a comfortable ride north.  During the bus ride we had four movies to watch, 3 of them were in Spanish with English subtitles so that is a step up from previous bus trips.  But one of the movies was in English!! Pity it was the worst movie of the lot of them.  Anyway we arrive in Trujillo about 9.30pm.  We talk to a German girl who was on the bus, she is heading to Huanchaco to spend three weeks there volunteering, so we hop in a taxi with her.  We booked a hostel but we have not heard from them so we are just going to turn up at the hostel.  As we drop the German girl off, one of her friends asked if we had a hostel booked, we said no and she offered us a room at a very cheap price, so we took it.  Problem solved!  This place is quite a nice hostel too. 

Day 49 - Lima, Peru (6 May 2012)

Day 49 – Lima, Peru (6 May 2012)

This morning we wake up and I have a killer headache.  I must not have had enough water the day before on the hot bus.  I take a couple of panadol and keep the water flowing throughout the day.  We take the bus into town, it costs about 2 soles each ($1NZ) and we were on the bus for about half an hour with all the locals.  When we arrive into the city centre we head to the Plaza de Armes which is the main area of town.  Here there is a cathedral, the Priest’ Palace and the Presidents Palace.  It is a really nice area.  The reason we are not staying in the city centre is because it gets very dangerous after dark so it is best to stay away.  Apparently Miraflores, the suburb where we are staying, is the safest suburb in town.  We walk into the Cathedral as there is a mass on, good timing coming in on a Sunday morning.  The mass is being played on a loud speaker and can be heard throughout the Plaza de Armes.  It is a special mass as there is some 50 year anniversary with this church as we are given a flyer about it, but we can’t read anymore of the brochure as it is in Spanish.  We then leave the cathedral and walk down a block to the Inquisition Museum.  Here we get a free tour of the old judicial system of Peru.  We also are shown the room where prisoners were tortured.  They were often stretched on the rack, had gags put in their throats and water poured down to suffocate them or they were given the death penalty by being strangled with a rope around their necks.  There were life size wax sculptures showing how these torturous procedures were carried out.  Pretty freaky really.  We were also taken into the basement where they still have the original cells where the prisoners were held.  After this we walk back to the main square as we are keen to see the changing of the guards at noon at the President’s palace.  We wait for half an hour, switching from different places as we wern’t completely sure where about’s the changing of the guards was going to happen, but then we  saw a good crowd gathering and waited until midday, when the guards finally marched out and the old ones marched away.  After this we go to the San Francisco Monastery.  This costs us 7 soles each (3.50) and we get a guided tour.  We have four Americans with us on our tour.  We are told at the beginning of the tour that we are not to take any photo’s.  These American’s however were thinking something different because the whole tour they are sneaking photos. This convent was built in the 1500s..  In the main stair way there is a fantastic wooden ceiling that has been carved out.  Lima has been hit by a few earthquakes and we are told that this ceiling has fallen a couple of times.  This is not reassuring as we are currently standing underneath it!  We then walk up into the choir box and look down at the cathedral below.  We then get to the good part of the tour which is going underground to the catacombs.  This is the reason why we have come here.  25,000 bodies were buried underneath this monastery.  In the 1950s, they decided to pull out all the bones and count how many people were buried here.  However, when they counted, they couldn’t find complete bodies.  We walk through the mazes underground and there is just cell after cell of bones.  One cell contains the femur, one cell contains some skulls and so forth.  The guide tells us that there are doors that they haven’t even opened yet, but they assume there are more galleries of bodies in there as well.  At one point we come up to a 10 metre well that is just fill of human bones.  It is here that the guide gets sick of the American’s and tells us that we have five minutes to take as many pictures as we want.  So we get a couple of pictures of the bones in the wells.  Every now and then you look up into the ceiling and you can see a grate that leads into the main church.  The guide said that some of the galleries were originally private and they had a direct link to the church to show their faith.  As we are leaving the monastery, we run into a couple who we walked the Inca trail with.    We stopped and chatted for about half an hour.  They tell us about a church a block from the main plaza that has good views of the city from the bell tower.  We decide to go there.  As we are on our way back to the main plaza we see there is now a big parade on.  One of the alters from the main church has been taken out and they are walking it around the square.  We walk past this and continue on to the church.  We get to the church and find that it is closed because of the parade and that it will open in an hour.  While we wait we decide to walk down the pedestrian street from Plaza de Mayor to Plaza San Martin.  This street is just one big mall.  When we get to Plaza San Martin we take a seat on a bench.  This plaza is beautiful and all the buildings are made with white stone.  After 15 minutes we decide to head back to the main plaza.  We stand up and Ann notices something is up her shorts.  After a bit of jumping around a centipede drops to the ground.  We think nothing of it until a couple of locals come up to us and say ‘no bien’, which means no good.  Ann doesn’t know if she has been bitten or not so starts to freak out and we head back to the hostel so she can speak with someone in English.  We google the symptoms and speak to the hostel manager.  We realise that she hasn’t been bitten and everything was going to be ok so we relax.  Ann is not too keen to head back into town so we go for a walk in Miraflores and head to the supermarket.  We get some food to cook up for dinner and a couple of snacks.  After dinner we watch a couple of movies in the common area at the hostel and then head to bed.

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Day 48 - Paracas to Lima, Peru (5 May 2012)

Day 48 – Paracas to Lima, Peru (5 May 2012)

Today we wake up early hoping to go on our Isla Ballestas tour.  We are lucky, it is heavily overcast today therefore, there is not much wind to make the sea rough.  We head to the dock and jump on our boat.  We then start to head out the island.  This boat is about the same speed as Federal Offence (so much faster than that hideously slow boat at Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.  As we get further out to sea (and away from the protection from the wind of the peninsula) the boat is bouncing up and down more and more and hitting the water after a wave heavier and heavier.  The driver doesn’t mind though, it is actually quite an entertaining ride.  We do get to the island in quick time, about half an hour.  On the way we stop to look at the Candelabra.   This is just a big picture of a candle in the middle of a sandy cliff.  It is similar to what we missed with the Nasca lines (city between Arequipa and Ica, Peru).  We are happy we have seen this and we tell ourselves that this justifies our decision to skip Nasca.  We then head on to the island.  We do not go on the island, and even if we had the choice, I think I would pass.  This island is home to over 1,000,000 birds.  We can see that.  They are everywhere!  The island has so many birds that it is white from the bird shit.  We float slowly around this island and we see many different varieties of birds as well as penguins and sea lions.  This island is known as the “poor mans Galapagos Islands”.  The Galapagos Islands are off Ecuador and cost a fortune to visit, and if they were anything like this Island I wouldn’t pay too much to go.  After two hours we head back to the shore.  Ann and I then pack up our bags and leave Paracas.  We catch a collectivo to Pisco.  A collectivo is a taxi that will drive you to a certain point for a fixed price, but the only catch is it wont leave until it is full.  Our collectivo is full in five minutes and we are on our way.  We are heading to Pisco which is the town 15 minutes away so we can catch another collectivo to the Pan Americana Highway.  These two collectivo’s cost us 9 soles (4.5) for the both of us as opposed to the taxi that would have cost 20 soles (10).  In normal circumstances we would have just caught the taxi, however I wanted to experience what the Peruvians did in everyday life, and also it was a good challenge to see if our Spanish was up to finding the second Collectivo in Pisco. When on the Pan Americana Highway, we find a lady on the side of the highway who is selling bus tickets to Lima.  We buy a ticket each for 20 soles (10).    We don’t have to wait for a bus, we just jump on the next one that drives through the highway which is 2 minutes.  This bus doesn’t have any tourists on it.  It is full of locals.  This bus is also a little inferior to the touristic buses we have been using.  For starters, they don’t have working air conditioning, the seats don’t recline.  My seat is broken, there’s no food on this bus.  But they are playing braveheart the movie in Spanish.  The bus takes us four hours.  We know when we have arrived in Lima.  The city just goes on and on.  Lima has a population of 8 million, so effectively just about twice the size of NZ’s population.  It is the biggest city that we have been in.  We get off the bus and jump into a taxi.  We are staying in a suburb called Miraflores.  It is the safest suburb in Lima since central Lima is quiet dangerous.  We get to the suburb and the taxi driver tells us that south of our hostel is safe, but north isn’t.  So we thank him and walk into our hostel.  We reserved a room in this hostel the other day, but when we arrive they don’t have our reservation.  Therefore, they only have two beds left in a dorm.   We take them as it is already 5pm and we don’t want to be looking for a hostel at night time.  We put down our gear and quickly walk down the road to the closest supermarket to buy dinner.  From what I have seen of Lima Central and Miraflores so far, Lima looks like a nice modern city, just a pity about the crime that occurs.  When we get back to the supermarket we cook dinner and relax for the evening.