Cusco - Historical Capital of Peru

WE MADE IT!
The bus ride to Cusco, which I had been dreading, turned out to have some unexpected perks... gran and I opted to bump ourselves up to first class for an extra $4 and, wow, it was worth every penny! Comfiest seats I could have imagined, and I managed at least 3 hours sleep :)

At our hotel we met our guide for the Inca Trail, and had a long briefing on everything we needed to know about the trek. For dinner we ate at a tiny, hidden away pizza joint that did not disappoint! Next Giscard took us downtown for a late-night shop to buy whatever we were missing from our long list of 'must haves', including ponchos, head torches, waterproof pants and the list goes on...

Right now it's nearly 6pm, Thursday 30th of Jan. The five of us had a great day strolling through the enormous city and admiring the endless supply of beautiful buildings and squares; we even got to enjoy another fresh juice from the locals market, my pick was piña con fresa (a pineapple and strawberry juice at these markets costs AU$2, and you get one glass refilled three or four times!!) After a long day of shopping for awesome Peruvian style shoes and other souvenirs, all four of us are packing for the Inca Trek!

The main square in Cusco, amazing architecture

Classic family pic 

Classic handstand pic

Tomorrow, the 31st, marks the first day of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and is supposedly the slightly easier day, consisting of 15km of gentle rolling hills until we reach our first camp. For Jules, Zac, Gran, Giscard, our guide and me, we have 10 porters and 1 cook. Seems ridiculous I know, but I think we will be greatful for their help the second day when we trek over two passes; the first and highest peak, 'Dead Woman's Pass', reaches 4215m! (Our starting point is at 2600m...you can do the math haha)

We are all nervous and excited to start, what we expect to be, the most challenging activity we have ever partaken in. But we also know it will be such a satisfying trek to complete, and what awaits us at the end will be well worth cold nights, rain, wind and, more shockingly, no showers for four days!

See you in four days!
PS. I forgot to mention Grans birthday is the third day of the trek, after we have completed the hardest day over the two passes! It will be great to relax and see some amazing historical Inca sites on her birthday :)

BELOW ARE SOME PICTURES FROM OUR LAST NIGHT IN PUNO, WARNING THEY INVOLVE A GUINEA PIG, ALPACA, MACHU PICCHU AND KARAOKE...

The night started with the strongest cocktail I have ever tasted, named "Machu Picchu" 

Then Gran ate alpaca... 

Thennn Zac ate guinea pig......

Returning to our fav bar for some more nitrogen cocktails, this time I brought the camera!

Then it just got plain messy...

Living Like Locals On Lake Titicaca

After yet another epic bus ride South, our little tour group of four arrived in Puno, a lake side city of about 120 000 people. We spent the afternoon exploring the Spanish influenced central square (a feature that every major city in Peru shares), doing a little gift shopping and finally settling down for a delicious dinner followed by some impressive cocktails. My cocktail of choice was 'Iceberg de fresa sour', a strawberry daiquiri made with nitrogen and the local brandy Pisco, while Zac opted for one with tiny frozen Blue Curaçao balls. Both were fizzled with liquid nitrogen and I got a good laugh out of the bar tenders when I nearly froze my tongue taking a sip while the nitrogen was still smoking...

Next on the list were the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, a slow boat ride out led us to one of the man-made reed islands called Uros. I have to give the people of these islands credit, because replacing your floor every 15 days in order not to sink shows a lot of commitment! Learning about structure of the island was interesting, but I had to step back out of the crowd of tourists and take a break, imposing on these people didn't feel right, most of our larger tourist group we were a part of acted as though they were at a zoo, peeking into bedrooms and snapping a photo every 12 seconds. I'm sure the families benefit from the tourism as a source of income, but for me the highlight was playing catch with a little girl behind one of the reed houses, it didn't matter that we couldn't understand a word we said to each other, it was just a good laugh. Soon other kids joined and before long Zac and I were being tackled by these kids who were getting more and more competitive at this simple game of throwing around a toy koala Zac had given them! It reminded me so much of my time in Cambodia, and made me miss it- anyway definitely another sneaky highlight of my trip so far :)

Saying goodbye to my little friend, needed a seat after "koala koala" 

Doing something a little different, to make the other tourists stare 

Half an hour or so of 'catch the koala koala' and Zac and I were absolutely buggered- high altitude is a funny thing... Anyway, it was time to re-board the boat for a short ride to the peninsula where Gran, Zac, Jules (or Macarina, as Giscard has nicknamed her) and I would get to experience or own traditional Peruvian home stay in the Llachon community!

Our home stay family were so lovely, we ate some yummy homestyle meals, and even helped prepare our dinner! But before dinner we participated in a few 'local activities', or so Giscard called them... They involved sifting dirt to make a base for a mud-like concrete, picking up rocks, ploughing in the veggie garden, and weeding! Bit of a reality check when we heard that the tiny old man instructing us does what we did for 40 minutes, all day (and when I say all day I mean a 4am start and a 6pm finish!!!). We ended the afternoon on a more fun note, playing a couple matches of volleyball and soccer... The locals pretty much dominated the foreigners in both sports, although Zac carried our team fairly well!

Our host family and all of us in traditional clothing

Coolest kids on the Llachon peninsula 

Yep, handstands and tricks are definitely becoming our thing!

It was a little sad to say goodbye to that beautiful family, despite the fact we only stayed one night. But we are back in Puno after riding home in a local bus... Which, we learnt, means squeezing 22 people in a 14 seater minivan!

Tonight marks our second and last night night in Puno, Giscard is taking us to a show for dinner and in the morning we take our LAST bus to Cusco (I AM SO HAPPY TO END OUR TRAIL OF LONG BUS RIDES!). Hopefully I will survive this 8 hour ride and get back on here with some pictures of what I expect to be the most beautiful city we will encounter in Peru.

Bye for now! <3

Testing our altitude abilities in the Colca Canyon

What's more than twice he depth of the Grand Canyon and has two Aussies attempting handstands at 3500m above sea level?

The Colca Canyon of course!

It seems the continuous increase in altitude over the past few days has sent us all a little loopy! The jokes seem to be flowing faster and are probably less funny, even though the response of laughter is growing. A new phrase "it's the altitude" can be used anytime one of us slips up or does something hilarious. But all in all we are coping with heights well, sometimes we just need to catch our breath after a really long sentence...

Before the high altitudes of the Colca Canyon, we were in Arequipa; a stunning city, and probably the most upmarket central square we have seen. The Spanish influenced architecture and cobble stone roads made you feel as though you were in Europe! The highlight of Arequipa for me was a HUGE local market Giscard took us to, the freshest produce you can imagine and no shortage of choice!

Just a taste of Arequipa 

A tiny section of the market that sold every type of food

I was so stoked to find oeas already out of heir pod

Yes another bus ride ride later and we found ourselves in a little town called Chivay, in the Colca Canyon region. No sooner had we arrived, we went on exploring the gorgeous valley town. We pushed our boundaries a little when it came to altitude, as you'll see in the pictures below, but I'm feeling a little more confident about the 4 day trek to Machu Picchu. 

Zac and I saw a small mountain, we pushed ourselves to climb it, so worth the exhaustion!

Gran embracing Chivay scenery, we love her

The following day we drove through the most beautiful towns I have ever seen; the tiny farming communities on the sides of the canyon looked as though you'd stepped back in time. Next we visited a popular spot to view the canyon, at its shallowest point the canyon was still ridiculously impressive and I think the best part for all four of us was sitting with our legs dangling over the edge taking in the brilliance and peacefulness of it.

My fury friend nearly fell asleep on my leg, drool marks for days... 

The shallowest point of the canyon, and Zac's rock tower

Gran at the highest point of our entire journey

Sitting up top, my face shows I've been in enough pictures...

Zac and I are kinda getting delirious, and so we do handstands...

Ok enough of my long list of adjectives, the next stint of our trip is to Puno, and you guessed it, we travel via bus!! Yay... (100% sarcasm on the bus positivity) But on the upside, Puno is the hometown of our tour leader Giscard, and we are all excited for him to show us the sites!

Hola from Peru!

Flights, buses, and a lot of dodgy wifi has made it pretty difficult to get online for more than a minute or two at a time. Right now, I'm sitting next to a peaceful sleeping Gran all tuckered out from our flight this morning over the Nasca lines- but more on that later! Ok, so it's nearly 10.30am on Wednesday here in Nasca Peru, marking the 4th day on our Gecko Peruvian tour. So far the trip has been awesome, we met our tour leader Giscard on Sunday as well as Jules, the lovely girl who gets to join our little family for the whole tour... We were expecting a bit larger group, but with only one extra person it's as though we are on a private tour with a personal Spanish translated and teacher!! Plus Jules is another Aussie, so naturally she fits in perfectly :)

We caught a bus to the seaside village of Paracas where Gran and Zac went out for a lovely beach front seafood dinner, unfortunately I stayed home with a bit of an upset stomach... But the next morning I'd recovered and it was lucky that I had because the Ballestas Islands were spectacular! We were lucky enough to see dolphins only a few minutes into the trip, and after that the wildlife kept coming. Millions of Peruvian Boobies (named for their lack of brains) and a few of their fluffy white chicks sat in their bird-poo nests that stunk out the entire area. After that we got to see my personal fav, the sea lions! The noisy, grunting animals can weigh up to 300kg, and look pretty awkward on the rocky beaches, but in the water they were so relaxed. There would have been hundreds on the the little beaches we saw. Along the trip we also saw countless other bird species, lots of little penguins, amazing rock formations and caves, even locals in wetsuits catching octopus and crabs on the rocky shoreline.

Just as soon as we arrived back at the hotel it was time to hop on another 4.5 hour bus ride to Nasca. The time flew by fairly fast, with a mixture of sleep, reading and admiring the harsh desert like terrain, mountain ranges, and the occasional valley or 'oasis'. We got to Nasca and jumped straight in a car with guide Antonio (who was quite the character-loud, confident and funny), we drove to Palpa where we climbed a 25m iron tower decades old (I was a little edgy at the top, and the wind didn't help!), at the top we saw drawings from approx. 400BC. Then we drove back toward Nasca to see some of the later but more famous lines, which included the hands, the tree and the lizard. Even though the lizard is hardly visible because the highway runs straight through the middle if it. Anyway I could ramble on for ages because I find the lines so interesting, but I won't or this will turn into a novel not a blog... I will try to put some pictures below, but honestly photos could not do them any justice!

The next morning (today) we were up bright and early (hence why Gran, Zac and Jules are all napping now), and drove straight to a tiny little airport to see the lines from a bit different perspective. Forget the plane to Calgary, this plane was so tiny if Zac were any taller I don't think he would have fit! Despite the size, the plane ride was so smooth and the two young peruvian pilots were great. We saw more famous drawings, and countless shapes and lines many kilometres long. It was so impressive to see from the air!

Back at hotel, I am waiting for these sleepy heads to wake up! Then we have the rest of the day to roam around town until about 10pm tonight, when we board a night bus for 9 hours to Arequipa- our longest bus ride for the entire tour.

Our tiny little plane! 

Palpa drawings, over 2500 years old 

Female and male sea-lion 

Sunset on a hill looking over the Nasca Desert 

The Ballestas Islands from afar

Exploring the Palpa & Nasca lines, and the rickety old towers we had to climb

USA Pit Stops

It was a little sad saying goodbye to Fernie, my time went so fast and I would have loved to stay longer (I could definitely see myself back visiting that quaint little town Shauni calls home). My last two days were spent relaxing in hot tubs and exploring town, as well as heading out Sunday night for what ended up to be a fun and crazy night full of singing, dancing and lots of shots! (Unfortunately I didn't take my camera out so I have no photos of that night... Thank goodness!)

Anyway, on the morning of Tuesday the 14th Shauni and I stocked up on supplies for our road trip to Whitefish, Montana. The roads were not too icy so we made good time, our only delay was some thick burning off about half way that had the roads so full of smoke we could only see a few metres ahead. Soon enough we passed through the US border and arrived in Whitefish. The original plan was to explore the town, have some dinner and maybe a local beer and head back to our motel for a good sleep before our 5am departure to Kalispell airport where we would fly to San Francisco. Needless to say we didn't stick to that plan very long... The drinks were cheap, the locals were friendly and our bar of choice had pool tables, ping pong and a game called shuffle ball- add that all together and we had ourselves a hilarious evening. (Shuffle ball looks a little like air hockey, you slide a puck across a long thin table and try to land it as close as you can to the opposite edge without it falling off- the closer to the end, the higher the points- it's quite a competitive game!)

Our hangovers the next morning were brutal, but eventually we made it to the airport, and we only had a few painful hours before we got to The Golden State. Finally it was time to disembark one of the smallest plans I have ever flown in, and despite our hunger and headaches we were still ridiculously excited to have made it to San Francisco!

After lunch, we caught a shuttle to our hotel and checked in. First thing on my list to do was get directions to Oracle Stadium in Oakland where Shauni and I were going to see Denver play the Warriors that evening! Our receptionist was so helpful, explaining how to use the BART (underground train) and where was safe and not so safe in Oakland and San Fran cities. The BART was super simple to use (after we figured out how to print tickets anyway...) and we got to the stadium with ease. The atmosphere was amazing, and the game was better than I could have imagined, easily the highlight of my trip so far.

Today (Thursday 16th Jan, 8.30pm right now), we woke up early, determined to walk from our side of the city through the main city centre all the way to the pier. We worked out that from when we left our hotel to when we arrived home again this evening we had walked over 25 kilometres! By the time we strolled through Bloomingdales and to the pier it was just past 11am, we bought tickets for the Alcatraz ferry and off we went. We saw seals and seagulls that looked like they were on steroids, as well as spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Alcatraz was so interesting and a little eery, but well worth the trip out. After Alcatraz we walked down pier 39, had a very late lunch at Bubba Gumps and decided we needed an ice cream for the long walk home.

Tomorrow I plan to do a little shopping and a lot more exploring, but right now I am in need of a long shower and a lot of sleep... My feet are aching!!!! PS. Tomorrow marks 1 more sleep till Peru!

Watching the sun set in the city on our long trek home

City hall

Real life comparisons...

Getting to know the warriors pre-game

Pretty happy with our seats!

Aussie boy getting some slam ducks :)

Steph preparing to shoot two 

Crowd on their feet, as excitement builds toward the end of the game

Made it to the pier after our 10k stroll through the city

In a cell listening to the audio tape

First view of the rock from our ferry

Alcatraz shore line

On Alcatraz, looking over the city 

Newspaper dispensers!

Coolest little apartment block in San Fran 

Walking through the city streets as the sun goes down