Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/richtam2/Japan
Well unfortunatley as I alluded to in my last post, our time in Japan has been marked by sickness. Today, our last full day in Japan, and indeed of our entire trip, has been the first day since we got to Japan that at least one of us hasn't been in bed with a fever.
It started the first day we were in Tokyo when after a full day of looking around I started the trend (everyone is deservedly blaming me) and ended up in bed. Since then we alternated between good and bad days with only Rhiannon not succombing to whatever it was that we have picked up. We have stil managed to see and do quite a lot however but are now very much looking forward to starting the trip home tomorrow.
In Tokyo we were staying in a hostel in an historical part of the city called Asakusa. There was a large Buddhist temple nearby and a lot of markets and shops so it was quite a nice place to base ouselves. We negotiated the tokyo subways quite well for country bumpkins although in reality it was quite easy since the efficiency and ease of use of the system was everything we had beeen led to believe. We travelled over to the opposite side of the city to see a huge shinto shrine which was set in a large forested park and a world away from the hustle of the shopping areas. I couldn't be so lucky to get away from Tokyo without some level of shopping however and the girls managed to find some of the weird teenage fashion areas as well as some of the more mainstream shopping areas. In truth however I did not mind the shopping areas too much as the people and fashions are something else to watch.
Day two was spent travelling to Hakuba via Nagano and the Shinkasen (Bullet train). Our lodge (the Penke Panke) is great and only a two minute walk from some of the lifts of the Happo One ski area. Since we have been in Hakuba, judging by the build up on roofs, I reckon there has been about a metre and a half of snow. It has been absolutely amazing. The snow is light and dry and as a result the skiing conditions have just been incredible. The pistes are groomed to perection every night but if you want to venture off them the powder is waist deep. There has been plenty of sunshine mixed in with the snow too and as you can see by the new photos I have posted on the photo site the place is packed (not). On the weekend there were a few people around but generally you virtually have the runs to yourself. I have not had to wait once for a ski lift. Rhiannon got to ski everyday but Ally and I missed a couple. Tammy even had a go and decided that she really isn't a skier any more. Happo One is where the downhill events of the Nagano winter Olympics were held and while we were here there was a world cup race for disabled skiers. For me, the most amazing disabled skiers we saw were the blind ones who were led down the hill by a caller at incredible speeds. Amazing courage and trust.
On Tuesday one of the highlights of the entire trip was a visit to the snow monkeys at the monkey hot springs. The location was stunning, requiring a half hour hike through a beautifull snow laden forest before you got to the hot springs set in the side of a hill beside a bubbling river. The monkeys didn't dissapoint with about two hundred or so in or around the hot springs. They are very photogenic and seem almost to pose for photos.
Well we are about to head off into the snow for mexican dinner (we can't find any Japanese food that the girls will eat). Tomorrow we travel back to Tokyo and depart for Sydney in the evening. I guess this will be my last post for the trip so I hope you have enjoyed reading it and that it hasn't been too boring or too long winded.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Japan
I realise that the posts have been a bit thin on the ground latley and the reason is that sickness has finaly caught up with us on this trip. Tammy and I picked up something the last couple of days in New York and brought it to Japan with us. I got pretty crook in Tokyo and then stupidly went out and boarded the first day here at Hakuba instead of resting. The result, two days in bed with a fever. Ally got the fever too and had to miss a day of skiing which absolutley killed her. Tammy very wisely rested when she got here and so has recovered O.K and is now doing a fantastic job looking after the rest of us. Rhiannon is the only one who has been unaffected and has been enjoying her ski lessons immensly. There has been over a metre of fresh snow at the top of the mountain over the last day and night and this morning the lifts have been on a wind hold. More photos have been posted.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
New York
We've had a great time the last few days seeing plenty of the sights around New York but also enjoying relaxing at our B&B which has been the best find on the trip. I found it on a travel website and I can't believe how lucky we were. It is half the price of a New York hotel but has plenty of room, a full kitchen and is incredibly conveniently located. For anyone coming to New York I couldn't recomend Jack and Judys B&B on the upper westside more highly.
Last Wednesday was a bad day weather wise with heavy rain all day but we braved the elements and had a trip to Mid Town for the girls to check out shops and stay inside as much as we could. Tammy and I enjoyed some of the insanely large bookshops and the girls thought that the Toys R Us complete with interior ferris wheel couldn't be beaten.
Thursday was bitterly cold but sparklingly clear so we took the oppurtunity to do the ferry trip to Liberty island. The lines and security were worse than any airport or other attraction that we had been to on the entire trip. It was a nice view back towards Manhatten though even if the wind was coming straight from the arctic.
We walked back up through downtown past the world trade centre site which with its displays and murals around the perimiter is still quite an emotional place to visit even if it is now just another building site.
On Friday we went ice skating in central park. When we first got there it was relativly uncrowded and a lot of fun. By the time we left a couple of school groups had turned up and the place was bedlam. One of the school groups was from a deaf school and it was fascinating to see how deaf school teachers cope with a big group of deaf teenagers. Tammy and I felt particularly sorry for the teachers because deaf teenagers are of course just like teenagers with hearing but for the teachers instead of four people yelling at once "hey miss" to get their attention they had four kids tapping them on the shoulder. Kind of hard to ignore!
Today we had a trip up to the top of the Rockerfeller Centre which on a cristal clear day like today resulted in some fantastic views. I'm a sucker for views from high up and could have stayed up for hours. The girls however were non plussed and keener on lunch (ally and rhiannon) and coffee (tammy). The roles were reversed however at the next stop when the girls spent an inordinate amount ot time looking around Spandex World.
More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/richtam2/NewYork.
Last Wednesday was a bad day weather wise with heavy rain all day but we braved the elements and had a trip to Mid Town for the girls to check out shops and stay inside as much as we could. Tammy and I enjoyed some of the insanely large bookshops and the girls thought that the Toys R Us complete with interior ferris wheel couldn't be beaten.
Thursday was bitterly cold but sparklingly clear so we took the oppurtunity to do the ferry trip to Liberty island. The lines and security were worse than any airport or other attraction that we had been to on the entire trip. It was a nice view back towards Manhatten though even if the wind was coming straight from the arctic.
We walked back up through downtown past the world trade centre site which with its displays and murals around the perimiter is still quite an emotional place to visit even if it is now just another building site.
On Friday we went ice skating in central park. When we first got there it was relativly uncrowded and a lot of fun. By the time we left a couple of school groups had turned up and the place was bedlam. One of the school groups was from a deaf school and it was fascinating to see how deaf school teachers cope with a big group of deaf teenagers. Tammy and I felt particularly sorry for the teachers because deaf teenagers are of course just like teenagers with hearing but for the teachers instead of four people yelling at once "hey miss" to get their attention they had four kids tapping them on the shoulder. Kind of hard to ignore!
Today we had a trip up to the top of the Rockerfeller Centre which on a cristal clear day like today resulted in some fantastic views. I'm a sucker for views from high up and could have stayed up for hours. The girls however were non plussed and keener on lunch (ally and rhiannon) and coffee (tammy). The roles were reversed however at the next stop when the girls spent an inordinate amount ot time looking around Spandex World.
More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/richtam2/NewYork.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Museums and Snow
The last couple of days we have spent visiting two of the biggest museums in New York, the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Both are only a short walk from our B&B and both are fantastic. We probably saw less than 25% of either one after a full day at both. Tammy wishes she had the Natural History Museum in Gunnedah to take science excursions to. The exhibits are so clear and kept Ally and Rhiannon interested and even commenting that science was pretty cool so that says something about how well written they were.
Today we went to the Met Art Museum which was slightly less entertaining for the girls but still we had fun looking at some of the ridiculous modern art and I think they appreciated the amount of famous and significant paintings that they saw. For both of them the "mad dude that cut off his own ear" was a favourite.
The weather was pretty grey when we went in to the museum and by the time we came out there had been quite a bit of snow. We had to walk back through central park to get home which was very pretty with the fresh snow. A novelty for all of us but especially exciting for the girls. We were quite glad to be walking as the traffic was in chaos with minor fender benders everywhere and gridlock and general chaos reigning.
One of the things we have been enjoying about New York so far is the food. For all the wonderful things we have been doing on our trip, apart from the Chilean BBQ there have been very few food highlights. Just around the corner from where we are staying there is a very famous deli called Zabars. It is a food wonderland with every sort of fresh and prepared food you can imagine and a cheese section that is intimidating.
Today we went to the Met Art Museum which was slightly less entertaining for the girls but still we had fun looking at some of the ridiculous modern art and I think they appreciated the amount of famous and significant paintings that they saw. For both of them the "mad dude that cut off his own ear" was a favourite.
The weather was pretty grey when we went in to the museum and by the time we came out there had been quite a bit of snow. We had to walk back through central park to get home which was very pretty with the fresh snow. A novelty for all of us but especially exciting for the girls. We were quite glad to be walking as the traffic was in chaos with minor fender benders everywhere and gridlock and general chaos reigning.
One of the things we have been enjoying about New York so far is the food. For all the wonderful things we have been doing on our trip, apart from the Chilean BBQ there have been very few food highlights. Just around the corner from where we are staying there is a very famous deli called Zabars. It is a food wonderland with every sort of fresh and prepared food you can imagine and a cheese section that is intimidating.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Photos
More photos have been posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/richtam2 in the Disney and New York folders.
New York
Without a doubt the worst airport we have experienced on our Travels has been Miami and today they didn't dissapoint. We arrived in New York today without three of our bags. I somehow manged to get all of my gear through but none of the girls stuff arrived. There were about twenty other people on the same flight whose bags didn't turn up so Miami obviously just forgot to put a whole trolley of bags on the plane or something.
Anyway we are hoping (fervently) that they should turn up tonight and be delivered to our B&B. All the girls warm gear is in their bags so we will be stuck tomorrow if they don't turn up.
Apart the bags incident the first afternoon in NY has been great. We are very happy with our B&B which is in an exceptional location (half a block from the Natural History Museum in central park west) and much bigger than we expected. Rhiannon is enthalled with the squirrels in Central Park and to cap off the afternoon it started snowing about two hours ago (would be more enjoyable if the girls had jackets).
Anyway we are hoping (fervently) that they should turn up tonight and be delivered to our B&B. All the girls warm gear is in their bags so we will be stuck tomorrow if they don't turn up.
Apart the bags incident the first afternoon in NY has been great. We are very happy with our B&B which is in an exceptional location (half a block from the Natural History Museum in central park west) and much bigger than we expected. Rhiannon is enthalled with the squirrels in Central Park and to cap off the afternoon it started snowing about two hours ago (would be more enjoyable if the girls had jackets).
Kennedy Space Centre
We had allways intended to visit the space centre and after seeing the shuttle launch we were especially keen to do so. For Tammy and myself it was much better than Disney and I think the girls even enjoed it a little too. The space centre has a great visitors centre and from there you can take bus tours all over the complex. We took one of the longer tours which let us go right up to the shuttle launch pads and landing strips as well as the gigantic assembly building. It was a fascinating tour with a great guide who kept us riveted talking about all the activity at the centre. KSC has about 1 launch a month of one sort or another, mostly servicing the international space station. The place is a hive of action.
Yesterday we took a slow drive down the coast back to Miami. We stopped at a beautiful beach in a reserve between Jupiter Island and Palm Beach but unfortunately had to make a dash for the car as a violent storm came in from the ocean. Rhiannon was devistated because it was one of the best shell beaches we have ever been to. The strech of coast leading north from Palm beach was quite interesting because it was originally all owned by an individual who decided that he didn't want it to end up looking like Miami and stipulated in his will that large tracts of the coastline that he owned had to be retained for he environment. As a result there is much more variation in scenery compared to the monotonous high rise developments between Palm Beach and Miami.
The storm that drove us off the beach intensified once we started driving and got so bad that I had to stop driving before my hair all fell out. The first place I found to pull in off the road happened to be a Mall in Palm Beach Gardens which is one of the more affluent areas in Florida. It was full of Gucci, Armani etc and we looked distinctly out of place racing in out of the rain soaked to the skin.
Last night was at an Airport hotel and I had an interesting time returning the hire car that I think is a sign of the times in Miami. When I went to top up the fuel the service station attendent only spoke Spanish and couldn't understand that I wanted to fill the car up (I had to prepay). Finally the manager turned up and seemed quite surprised that I couldn't speak Spanish. Then when waiting for the hotel shuttle to take me back to the hotel, two shuttles from the same chain turned up at the same time. Again one of the drivers only spoke Spanish and we couldn't work out wether it was the right shuttle or not. Luckily the other driver sorted it out. It seemed odd that ofter a month in South America the biggest incident I had with language difficulties was in Miami!
Yesterday we took a slow drive down the coast back to Miami. We stopped at a beautiful beach in a reserve between Jupiter Island and Palm Beach but unfortunately had to make a dash for the car as a violent storm came in from the ocean. Rhiannon was devistated because it was one of the best shell beaches we have ever been to. The strech of coast leading north from Palm beach was quite interesting because it was originally all owned by an individual who decided that he didn't want it to end up looking like Miami and stipulated in his will that large tracts of the coastline that he owned had to be retained for he environment. As a result there is much more variation in scenery compared to the monotonous high rise developments between Palm Beach and Miami.
The storm that drove us off the beach intensified once we started driving and got so bad that I had to stop driving before my hair all fell out. The first place I found to pull in off the road happened to be a Mall in Palm Beach Gardens which is one of the more affluent areas in Florida. It was full of Gucci, Armani etc and we looked distinctly out of place racing in out of the rain soaked to the skin.
Last night was at an Airport hotel and I had an interesting time returning the hire car that I think is a sign of the times in Miami. When I went to top up the fuel the service station attendent only spoke Spanish and couldn't understand that I wanted to fill the car up (I had to prepay). Finally the manager turned up and seemed quite surprised that I couldn't speak Spanish. Then when waiting for the hotel shuttle to take me back to the hotel, two shuttles from the same chain turned up at the same time. Again one of the drivers only spoke Spanish and we couldn't work out wether it was the right shuttle or not. Luckily the other driver sorted it out. It seemed odd that ofter a month in South America the biggest incident I had with language difficulties was in Miami!
Friday, February 8, 2008
Disney Day 4 and Shuttle Launch
Yesterday turned out to be perfect as we somehow managed to fit everything in. We went to Disney Hollywood Studios in the morning and somehow managed to fluke turning up at several shows just as they were starting as well as gettign through quite a few rides. As the day went on the weather seemed to be getting better and better and we thought that the shuttle launch would be getting more likely so we decided at the last minute to try and get there to see it. We left with about an hour to spare and tuned in to a local radio station with launch coverage. As we left it was still up in the air as to whether it would go or not then with about half an hour to go the call came through that it was definately on. The radio station had live coverage from NASA and i was really quite exciting listening to the pilot talk to mission control and start the countdown. We were expecting terrible traffic but I we got very lucky and with about five minutes to lauch we pulled up at a park straight accross the river from Kennedy Space centre where hundreds of people were gathered to watch. Lots of people had their internet phones and were spreading news of the launch sequence so there was a general countdown once it got to 10 seconds and then off it went.
It was sooooo cool. I knew it would be something that we would be glad we went to but I really didn't expect it to have the effect on all of us that it did. The flames were so big out of the bottom of the rocket that the shuttle, which is huge, was dwarfed in comparison. To imagine the people in the shuttle who we had just been listening to on the radio sitting up on top of it all you realised just how brave they are. And the excelleration, the speed that it was up and gone and out of site was sooo quick. By the time the low rumbling roar reached us the shuttle was a tiny speck of light almost not visible. Absolutely a highlight of the trip and I have decided that when I grow up I want to be an Astronaught.
It was sooooo cool. I knew it would be something that we would be glad we went to but I really didn't expect it to have the effect on all of us that it did. The flames were so big out of the bottom of the rocket that the shuttle, which is huge, was dwarfed in comparison. To imagine the people in the shuttle who we had just been listening to on the radio sitting up on top of it all you realised just how brave they are. And the excelleration, the speed that it was up and gone and out of site was sooo quick. By the time the low rumbling roar reached us the shuttle was a tiny speck of light almost not visible. Absolutely a highlight of the trip and I have decided that when I grow up I want to be an Astronaught.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Disney Day 2 and 3
Day 2 was Animal Kingdoms turn and we all thought that it was better than Magic Kingdom. Animal Kingdom is basically a giant zoo with rides incorparted. The exhibits are as good or better than any zoo I've been to in terms of the quality and size of the enclosures and the rides mix it all up. Rhiannon of course was entrhalled being the animal lover that she is and had many close encounters with all sorts of animals.
After Animal Kingdom we went to one of the Disney water parks which features an incredibly big lagoon type pool with wave (big) generator, many water slides and a long lazy river.
Day 3 was a bit more relaxed with no actual Disney visits. We had another look around shops in order to buy some more luggage to fit our ever expanding souvenir purchases and then went to one of the extraordinary mini golf courses that are all over Orlando.
The afternoon was spent in the pool here at the hotel before one of the absolute highlights of the trip so far, a show at Cirque de Soleil. We had seen the DVD of the show but as always the live event is so much better. My favorite was the little girls doing the Diablo. The skill was just incredible. Just so much to see though, alot of the time you were trying to look at 10 things at once. The culmination of the show was an inconceivable trampoline act which has got the girls thinking about updating their trampoline show and demanding an improvement to facilities at home.
We have a dilema today over what to do as there is a shuttle launch scheduled for this afternoon. The weather is not great and the forcast is only for a 30% cnace of a launch but we would be gutted if we were this close (cape canaveral is only 40min away) and we didn't take the chance to watch a launch.
Next post will have the answer.
After Animal Kingdom we went to one of the Disney water parks which features an incredibly big lagoon type pool with wave (big) generator, many water slides and a long lazy river.
Day 3 was a bit more relaxed with no actual Disney visits. We had another look around shops in order to buy some more luggage to fit our ever expanding souvenir purchases and then went to one of the extraordinary mini golf courses that are all over Orlando.
The afternoon was spent in the pool here at the hotel before one of the absolute highlights of the trip so far, a show at Cirque de Soleil. We had seen the DVD of the show but as always the live event is so much better. My favorite was the little girls doing the Diablo. The skill was just incredible. Just so much to see though, alot of the time you were trying to look at 10 things at once. The culmination of the show was an inconceivable trampoline act which has got the girls thinking about updating their trampoline show and demanding an improvement to facilities at home.
We have a dilema today over what to do as there is a shuttle launch scheduled for this afternoon. The weather is not great and the forcast is only for a 30% cnace of a launch but we would be gutted if we were this close (cape canaveral is only 40min away) and we didn't take the chance to watch a launch.
Next post will have the answer.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Disney - Day 1
A day at Disney with no spewing from the adults. I think we did well! We spent the day at Magic Kingdom and had a fantastic time. Got there early so the crowds weren't too bad. Beautiful weather helped the atmosphere and using the fast pass system we rarely had to wait more than 5 minutes for a ride.
Fantastic people watching too.
After Magic Kingdom we went to the entertainment district, Downtown Disney and had a HUGE late afternoon desert which was not a good move for Tammy and myself as we then went to one of the other Disney attractions which is a building full of virtual reality type computer games. We had been feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves that we had gone on all the roller coasters without getting nausious but I tell you those virtual reality games just knocked us down. It is amazing what your brain can do to your body since we were not even moving but the simulated action had me and Tammy both having to go outside to get fresh air. I know Nicki, we are wimps!
Fantastic people watching too.
After Magic Kingdom we went to the entertainment district, Downtown Disney and had a HUGE late afternoon desert which was not a good move for Tammy and myself as we then went to one of the other Disney attractions which is a building full of virtual reality type computer games. We had been feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves that we had gone on all the roller coasters without getting nausious but I tell you those virtual reality games just knocked us down. It is amazing what your brain can do to your body since we were not even moving but the simulated action had me and Tammy both having to go outside to get fresh air. I know Nicki, we are wimps!
Photos
I have added a couple of photos from Disney to the photo site. For anyone who couldn't get the Chile photos go to http://picasaweb.google.com/richtam2 and you will find all the photos.
Orlando
Back in America and watching the Superbowl in our huge condo resort house near Disneyland. Things could not be much different from South America. Our trip back here was uneventful, we really have been lucky with all our flights and general travel on this trip.
We have ended up in a resort which is about 15min from the gates of Disney. Not very far but far enough that the price drops considerably from the actual Disney resorts and for less than $100 a night we are getting 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and all the mod cons in a resort with a huge pool complex including a lazy river.
Today we took the chance to catch up on laundry and generally organise ourselves a bit before heading out to see the delights of Orlando this afternoon. I find myself, like every time I am in America, at odds with myself over how to react to what I see. The consumer culture is epic, the new car yards need postcodes of their own, outlet malls and t-shirt shops compete with fast food joints for every inch of space and there is a general excess of everything that we believe to be bad about America. Yet I always find it exciting and somehow energizing to be here.
The weak American dollar is certainly evident in the Outlet Malls with people loaded with shopping bags speaking with every accent except the local one. We were certainly not immune to the attraction of low prices with $30 Nikes hard to look past.
The scale of accommodation options in Orlando is hard to believe until you actually get here and drive around. We tried valiantly today to find some sort of local housing area but between the time share resort suburbs, huge mega hotels, golf course residential resorts and your normal run of the mill hotel chains there was nowhere we could see that the employee’s of all these places actually lived. I guess they all must come in from further out.
Tomorrow we brave day one of four of Disney and Tammy and I have decided that after seeing the cost of the tickets our previous squeamishness about going on the big rides is going to be over ridden by a need to get our monies worth!
We have ended up in a resort which is about 15min from the gates of Disney. Not very far but far enough that the price drops considerably from the actual Disney resorts and for less than $100 a night we are getting 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and all the mod cons in a resort with a huge pool complex including a lazy river.
Today we took the chance to catch up on laundry and generally organise ourselves a bit before heading out to see the delights of Orlando this afternoon. I find myself, like every time I am in America, at odds with myself over how to react to what I see. The consumer culture is epic, the new car yards need postcodes of their own, outlet malls and t-shirt shops compete with fast food joints for every inch of space and there is a general excess of everything that we believe to be bad about America. Yet I always find it exciting and somehow energizing to be here.
The weak American dollar is certainly evident in the Outlet Malls with people loaded with shopping bags speaking with every accent except the local one. We were certainly not immune to the attraction of low prices with $30 Nikes hard to look past.
The scale of accommodation options in Orlando is hard to believe until you actually get here and drive around. We tried valiantly today to find some sort of local housing area but between the time share resort suburbs, huge mega hotels, golf course residential resorts and your normal run of the mill hotel chains there was nowhere we could see that the employee’s of all these places actually lived. I guess they all must come in from further out.
Tomorrow we brave day one of four of Disney and Tammy and I have decided that after seeing the cost of the tickets our previous squeamishness about going on the big rides is going to be over ridden by a need to get our monies worth!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Chile
We are sitting around at the airport at the moment waiting to catch a flight to Quito where we will overnight before flying to Miami tomorrow and leaving South America behind. Chile has been a great experience and the things we have done have given us a real impression of what it would be like to live here as opposed to the touristy things we did in Equador and Peru. Chile is a very comfortable place to travel in and the people are all extremely friendly and helpful.
Taking up from where I left the last post we, (Tammy and I) went flying with Barb. Barb had been getting her plane serviced at Concepcion which is a city on the coast, west of Chillan. We took a bus over, (the bus system in Chile is amazing) and picked her plane up from the airport which is also the same airport servicing Chile's second biggest city. Taking off on the same runway in between the big jets was quite an experience. It was a beautiful cloudless day as every day has been in Chile and the flight back to Chillan was picture perfect.
That night we went to a BBQ at some friends of Barb and Johns, Allan and Hermena (?spelling).
Allan is one of the most interesting agricultural businessmen I have ever come accross. Amongst many enterprises he has a huge pork production business that exports pork into Korea, Japan and China from the USA, Mexico and Chile, he has a business that has developed a technique for cloning blueberries and also produces seed for GM grain crops. They were also fantastic hosts and I don't know whether all Chilean BBQ's are like the one they gave us but it basically consisited of sitting around the BBQ for three hours while a succession of different sorts of meat were cooked and eaten as they came off one after another. All accompanied by extremely good red wine. We could barely move at the end of it.
The next day we went for a drive up to a ski resort in the mountains east of Chillan. No snow obviously but a beautiful drive and some lovely little rivers and streams through huge trees.
Tuesday morning we said goodbye to the Cotes who were wonderful to us while we were in Chillan. The girls stayed with them the while time while Tammy and I stayed in a hotel.
We drove back up to the outskirts of Santiago where we visited one of the biggest wineries in Chile, Concha y Toro. It was an interesting tour and we sample some exceptional wine.
We stayed the next two nights at a cabin the mountains to the East of Santiago. It was an interesting place that was basically a private nature reserve and hippy paradise. Tammy and Ally went horseriding while Rhiannon and I walked to some waterfalls.
The last two days we have spent in Santiago. Santiago is a great city as long as you stay at ground level. The smog is horrific as it it gets trapped by the Andes but there is not much of a skyline to obscure in any case because of a history of earthquakes that has knocked out any interesting buildings. At ground level however it has the most pedestrian friendly and green city scape I have ever seen. Virtually every major road, at least in the part we were in, is dual carriageway with a wide tree filled green belt running down the middle. The centre bit is full of winding paths and statues and fountains. There are parks everywhere and loads and loads of trees.
I'm finishing this post a bit abruptly because the plane is about to leave. Next news from Disney World!
ps more photos on the photo site will post link later
Taking up from where I left the last post we, (Tammy and I) went flying with Barb. Barb had been getting her plane serviced at Concepcion which is a city on the coast, west of Chillan. We took a bus over, (the bus system in Chile is amazing) and picked her plane up from the airport which is also the same airport servicing Chile's second biggest city. Taking off on the same runway in between the big jets was quite an experience. It was a beautiful cloudless day as every day has been in Chile and the flight back to Chillan was picture perfect.
That night we went to a BBQ at some friends of Barb and Johns, Allan and Hermena (?spelling).
Allan is one of the most interesting agricultural businessmen I have ever come accross. Amongst many enterprises he has a huge pork production business that exports pork into Korea, Japan and China from the USA, Mexico and Chile, he has a business that has developed a technique for cloning blueberries and also produces seed for GM grain crops. They were also fantastic hosts and I don't know whether all Chilean BBQ's are like the one they gave us but it basically consisited of sitting around the BBQ for three hours while a succession of different sorts of meat were cooked and eaten as they came off one after another. All accompanied by extremely good red wine. We could barely move at the end of it.
The next day we went for a drive up to a ski resort in the mountains east of Chillan. No snow obviously but a beautiful drive and some lovely little rivers and streams through huge trees.
Tuesday morning we said goodbye to the Cotes who were wonderful to us while we were in Chillan. The girls stayed with them the while time while Tammy and I stayed in a hotel.
We drove back up to the outskirts of Santiago where we visited one of the biggest wineries in Chile, Concha y Toro. It was an interesting tour and we sample some exceptional wine.
We stayed the next two nights at a cabin the mountains to the East of Santiago. It was an interesting place that was basically a private nature reserve and hippy paradise. Tammy and Ally went horseriding while Rhiannon and I walked to some waterfalls.
The last two days we have spent in Santiago. Santiago is a great city as long as you stay at ground level. The smog is horrific as it it gets trapped by the Andes but there is not much of a skyline to obscure in any case because of a history of earthquakes that has knocked out any interesting buildings. At ground level however it has the most pedestrian friendly and green city scape I have ever seen. Virtually every major road, at least in the part we were in, is dual carriageway with a wide tree filled green belt running down the middle. The centre bit is full of winding paths and statues and fountains. There are parks everywhere and loads and loads of trees.
I'm finishing this post a bit abruptly because the plane is about to leave. Next news from Disney World!
ps more photos on the photo site will post link later
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Chillan
The difference from Peru and Ecuador to Chile was obvious even before we landed in the plane. The scale of the agriculture and infrastructure is much larger and the country is generally completely modern and just like Australia (except for the Spanish of course). The main difference we are having trouble adapting to is the South American timing for meals and sleeping. We are quite far south so its not completely dark until about 10.30. People don't seem to get going much before about 9.00am then a big breakfast with lunch lucky to be before about 3pm. Dinner is just a couple of snacks around 10pm and everyone including kids gets to bed at midnight. Nothing wrong with that but its just taking a bit of time to adapt to for us early risers.
We have been having a fantastic time with our friends Barb and John Cote. They have four children, Josh (14), Erin (12), Morgan (10) and Lyndon (8). Our kids get on really well with them and have been enjoying having the oppurtunity to play.
The drive down form Santiago to Chillan (about 4 hours) was fascinating as the entire trip was through the Chilean central valley which is chock full of intensive agriculture. I lost count of the number of huge fruit packers, wineries and grain set ups. Every sort of crop and vine and fruit could be seen along the way. The roads are good (nice change) and the road rules, well lets just say that there actually are road rules in Chile which is a nice change.
We have spent the last couple of days at the beach about an hour west of Chillan with Barb and John and some of their Chilean friends. It has been a really nice change of pace to just sit on the beach for a couple of days after 4 weeks of constant movement. The beaches were great but very different to what we are used to. Black sand, amazing rock formations including huge walk through caves, seal lion colonies and freezing, freezing water. A couple of the beaches that we went to had these weird little crab/bug things that burrowed into the sand on the edge of the surf. There were so many of them that you could scoop up a handfull of sand and there would be ten or twenty in your hand. The girls had hours of fun filling buckets full of them.
Today we are back in Chillan where we will go to the markets this morning then go flying with Barb this afternoon.
We have been having a fantastic time with our friends Barb and John Cote. They have four children, Josh (14), Erin (12), Morgan (10) and Lyndon (8). Our kids get on really well with them and have been enjoying having the oppurtunity to play.
The drive down form Santiago to Chillan (about 4 hours) was fascinating as the entire trip was through the Chilean central valley which is chock full of intensive agriculture. I lost count of the number of huge fruit packers, wineries and grain set ups. Every sort of crop and vine and fruit could be seen along the way. The roads are good (nice change) and the road rules, well lets just say that there actually are road rules in Chile which is a nice change.
We have spent the last couple of days at the beach about an hour west of Chillan with Barb and John and some of their Chilean friends. It has been a really nice change of pace to just sit on the beach for a couple of days after 4 weeks of constant movement. The beaches were great but very different to what we are used to. Black sand, amazing rock formations including huge walk through caves, seal lion colonies and freezing, freezing water. A couple of the beaches that we went to had these weird little crab/bug things that burrowed into the sand on the edge of the surf. There were so many of them that you could scoop up a handfull of sand and there would be ten or twenty in your hand. The girls had hours of fun filling buckets full of them.
Today we are back in Chillan where we will go to the markets this morning then go flying with Barb this afternoon.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Tammy's Contribution
I thought I'd better write something. So far we've had an excellent trip and I can't believe we've been away nearly a month. I've read 8 books so far not that this means the trip has been boring we've just had lots of plane/bus/car trips between things.
The food in South America has been really good. We didn't end up trying Guinea pig, it seems to be served with the head and feet still attached and we thought this might be a traumatic for Rhiannon. Ally has become much more adventurous with her eating and will now try things she wouldn't have touched before.
We've all learned a few basics of Spanish. The biggest problem isn't figuring out what to say it's understanding the answer. Fortunately the guides we've had have been really good and most people in Peru speak some english. The old ladies in Peru all seem to want to steal Rhiannon she's been kissed by some complete strangers.
Richard likes blogging better than me so I'll leave it up to him. But yes Nikki I'm still here.
Tammy
The food in South America has been really good. We didn't end up trying Guinea pig, it seems to be served with the head and feet still attached and we thought this might be a traumatic for Rhiannon. Ally has become much more adventurous with her eating and will now try things she wouldn't have touched before.
We've all learned a few basics of Spanish. The biggest problem isn't figuring out what to say it's understanding the answer. Fortunately the guides we've had have been really good and most people in Peru speak some english. The old ladies in Peru all seem to want to steal Rhiannon she's been kissed by some complete strangers.
Richard likes blogging better than me so I'll leave it up to him. But yes Nikki I'm still here.
Tammy
Lake Titicaca
I apologise in advance for the length of this post. Internet connection points are hard to find on islands with no electricity so there is a bit to catch up on.
We are back in Cusco now at the end of our tour of Peru. Tomorrow we fly to Lima then the next day on to Santiago. We have an afternoon in Lima but we are unsure of what to do with it because we have not met one person (even the people that come from there) with a single positive thing to say about Lima.
Lake Titicaca was a highlight of the trip and well worth the bus trip and other transport dramas.
We traveled to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca via a nine hour bus ride that was actually quite interesting. The bus stopped at a few sites along the way including a Church of St Peter that had every inch of its interior covered with frescoes and gold leaf. It really was quite spectacular. Another highlight for me was an Inca site with an extensive silo system!
After passing through the highest point of the trip (4200m) we spent about three hours driving through the high antiplano. Completely treeless and at first glance quite desolate. A careful second look however revealed that the landscape was full of people and animals. Huge herds of Llamas and Alpacas were tended by shepherds (mostly women) across the plains and up the sides of the mountains. The people lived in tiny adobe brick houses which blended into the landscape. There were no roads and definitely no electricity. Quite a bleak existence which seemed incongruous with the beautiful brightly coloured clothes that were worn.
Before Puno we passed through Juliaca which is one of Peru’s biggest industrial cities. It was quite a bizarre town to drive through with most business seeming to be done in the open on the verges of or sometimes in the middle of the crumbling roads. Juliaca was obviously a centre for bus repairs and given the massive size of the Peruvian bus fleet we spent what seemed like about 15 minutes driving along a wide road weaving our way through bus after bus in various stages of repair being fixed in the open on the road.
Puno itself was really nothing to write home about with only the very centre of the city being relatively clean and safe and not particularly pretty. The lake however was a different matter entirely.
After a night in Puno we set out on a boat with about 18 others for an overnight tour of the lake and a couple of the islands. The group consisted of Americans, English, Welsh (Welsh first language), Argentineans and some other Aussies. It was great to travel with some other people and it was a fun group who all got on well.
First stop was the Uros floating reed islands. The people of the islands still live in tiny reed huts built on piles of floating reeds. Solar panels give enough electricity for the odd television and other concession to modern life but on the whole they live as they have for many hundreds of years. The other concession to modern life is the boat loads of tourists that they now cater to with slick presentations of island life along with the obligatory handicraft market. Rhiannon made friends with a girl around her age who as result of growing up with boatloads of tourists visiting her everyday was a born performer and spent the whole time parading for the cameras.
Next stop was Amantani Island which had about 4000 inhabitants in small communities around a central mountain. Here we were all farmed off to local families for our overnight stay. While the house itself was very comfortable it was basic living at best with the kitchen consisting of an open fire with a sort of clay oven. The meals that our host produced from this tiny space were amazing with beautifully tasting soup and main dishes seeming to appear from nowhere. Our hosts spoke no English and in fact very little Spanish with Cechwa, the indigenous language of the Incas being the main language spoken on the islands.
We walked up to the top of the mountain in the afternoon and the views were spectacular. Titicaca is truly immense with the snow capped peaks of Bolivia on the other side only just visible. The island itself is very pretty with every inch of the mountain being divided into tiny fields surrounded by stone walls and pathways. The fields were growing crops of corn, wheat, potatoes and beans and the patchwork landscape resulting was spectacular from up high.
In the evening we were treated to a fiesta where local costumes were provided for everybody and the dancing seemed to go forever. A very memorable night and a wonderful island.
The next morning we boated over to Taquile Island, equally beautiful and with the fame of being UNESCO listed for its traditional textile production. We had a long and leisurely trout lunch with the whole group in a little restaurant on a terrace overlooking a steep drop to the lake. We could have easily stayed there all day.
After the beauty and peace of the lake it was a shame to go back to Puno but it was made somewhat better by a very enjoyable dinner with most of the group from the boat. After dinner we were exposed to the more unpredictable side of Peru when we got back to our hotel and were informed that a snap strike had been called by Bus drivers and it was doubtful that we would get out of Puno in the morning. This is where guides come in extremely handy as Paull quickly organized a minibus to get us to Juliaca from where we were flying back to Cusco. The bus was going to have to leave at four o’clock in the morning however as the main road was going to be blockaded by the strikers and we would have to take back roads.
As it turned out when we got up at four the strike had been averted and all the drama of the previous night was for naught. Paull had not wanted to take any risks however as Puno is a hotbed of political discontent with a couple of local mayors killed in the last few years and most strikes seeming to emanate out of there. Paull told us that if he was president of Peru we would give Puno to Bolivia.
So now on to Chile and the next stage of out trip.
We are back in Cusco now at the end of our tour of Peru. Tomorrow we fly to Lima then the next day on to Santiago. We have an afternoon in Lima but we are unsure of what to do with it because we have not met one person (even the people that come from there) with a single positive thing to say about Lima.
Lake Titicaca was a highlight of the trip and well worth the bus trip and other transport dramas.
We traveled to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca via a nine hour bus ride that was actually quite interesting. The bus stopped at a few sites along the way including a Church of St Peter that had every inch of its interior covered with frescoes and gold leaf. It really was quite spectacular. Another highlight for me was an Inca site with an extensive silo system!
After passing through the highest point of the trip (4200m) we spent about three hours driving through the high antiplano. Completely treeless and at first glance quite desolate. A careful second look however revealed that the landscape was full of people and animals. Huge herds of Llamas and Alpacas were tended by shepherds (mostly women) across the plains and up the sides of the mountains. The people lived in tiny adobe brick houses which blended into the landscape. There were no roads and definitely no electricity. Quite a bleak existence which seemed incongruous with the beautiful brightly coloured clothes that were worn.
Before Puno we passed through Juliaca which is one of Peru’s biggest industrial cities. It was quite a bizarre town to drive through with most business seeming to be done in the open on the verges of or sometimes in the middle of the crumbling roads. Juliaca was obviously a centre for bus repairs and given the massive size of the Peruvian bus fleet we spent what seemed like about 15 minutes driving along a wide road weaving our way through bus after bus in various stages of repair being fixed in the open on the road.
Puno itself was really nothing to write home about with only the very centre of the city being relatively clean and safe and not particularly pretty. The lake however was a different matter entirely.
After a night in Puno we set out on a boat with about 18 others for an overnight tour of the lake and a couple of the islands. The group consisted of Americans, English, Welsh (Welsh first language), Argentineans and some other Aussies. It was great to travel with some other people and it was a fun group who all got on well.
First stop was the Uros floating reed islands. The people of the islands still live in tiny reed huts built on piles of floating reeds. Solar panels give enough electricity for the odd television and other concession to modern life but on the whole they live as they have for many hundreds of years. The other concession to modern life is the boat loads of tourists that they now cater to with slick presentations of island life along with the obligatory handicraft market. Rhiannon made friends with a girl around her age who as result of growing up with boatloads of tourists visiting her everyday was a born performer and spent the whole time parading for the cameras.
Next stop was Amantani Island which had about 4000 inhabitants in small communities around a central mountain. Here we were all farmed off to local families for our overnight stay. While the house itself was very comfortable it was basic living at best with the kitchen consisting of an open fire with a sort of clay oven. The meals that our host produced from this tiny space were amazing with beautifully tasting soup and main dishes seeming to appear from nowhere. Our hosts spoke no English and in fact very little Spanish with Cechwa, the indigenous language of the Incas being the main language spoken on the islands.
We walked up to the top of the mountain in the afternoon and the views were spectacular. Titicaca is truly immense with the snow capped peaks of Bolivia on the other side only just visible. The island itself is very pretty with every inch of the mountain being divided into tiny fields surrounded by stone walls and pathways. The fields were growing crops of corn, wheat, potatoes and beans and the patchwork landscape resulting was spectacular from up high.
In the evening we were treated to a fiesta where local costumes were provided for everybody and the dancing seemed to go forever. A very memorable night and a wonderful island.
The next morning we boated over to Taquile Island, equally beautiful and with the fame of being UNESCO listed for its traditional textile production. We had a long and leisurely trout lunch with the whole group in a little restaurant on a terrace overlooking a steep drop to the lake. We could have easily stayed there all day.
After the beauty and peace of the lake it was a shame to go back to Puno but it was made somewhat better by a very enjoyable dinner with most of the group from the boat. After dinner we were exposed to the more unpredictable side of Peru when we got back to our hotel and were informed that a snap strike had been called by Bus drivers and it was doubtful that we would get out of Puno in the morning. This is where guides come in extremely handy as Paull quickly organized a minibus to get us to Juliaca from where we were flying back to Cusco. The bus was going to have to leave at four o’clock in the morning however as the main road was going to be blockaded by the strikers and we would have to take back roads.
As it turned out when we got up at four the strike had been averted and all the drama of the previous night was for naught. Paull had not wanted to take any risks however as Puno is a hotbed of political discontent with a couple of local mayors killed in the last few years and most strikes seeming to emanate out of there. Paull told us that if he was president of Peru we would give Puno to Bolivia.
So now on to Chile and the next stage of out trip.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Machu Picchu
Wow. Machu Picchu has joined the very short list of places that have not only met but much exceeded expectations.
We set out this morning (along with hundreds of others) on the buses that run from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu. It was cold, dark and very wet and I have to say I was wondering whether it was going to be worth it. By the time we snaked our way through the half hour line up to get in the rain had stopped but we were still in thick cloud. We walked up to a high vanatage point and as Paull spent about half an hour giving us some of the history the cloud slowly cleared revealing more and more of the ruins until by the time he had finished it had completely cleared. What a sight. The ruins themselves are amazing and much more complete than I thought they would be but their location is just as if not more impressive. Perched high up, a lot higher than it looks in the photos on a narrow ridge with almost vertical drops down to a thundering river on three sides and towering mountains at the ends and accross the narrow valley.
The great thing about Machu Picchu is that because it is so complete there are so many stories to tell about what went on at the site. We spent an easy four and a half hours walking around seeing the many astrological features and hearing about the religous ceromonies that were performed. Paull is a fantastic guide with an obvious passion for Inca history and kept us enthralled for the whole time.
Once we got in the crowds tended to thin out a little bit and it wasn´t too bad at all for people. One bit of Australian celebrity spotting. We saw Liz Ellis the Australian netball captain taking a tour.
Hopefully I´ll get to a wireless site soon instead of internet cafes and get some more photos up.
We´re back in Cusco tonight and spend the whole day tomorrow on a Bus to Puna on the shores of Lake Titicacca.
We set out this morning (along with hundreds of others) on the buses that run from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu. It was cold, dark and very wet and I have to say I was wondering whether it was going to be worth it. By the time we snaked our way through the half hour line up to get in the rain had stopped but we were still in thick cloud. We walked up to a high vanatage point and as Paull spent about half an hour giving us some of the history the cloud slowly cleared revealing more and more of the ruins until by the time he had finished it had completely cleared. What a sight. The ruins themselves are amazing and much more complete than I thought they would be but their location is just as if not more impressive. Perched high up, a lot higher than it looks in the photos on a narrow ridge with almost vertical drops down to a thundering river on three sides and towering mountains at the ends and accross the narrow valley.
The great thing about Machu Picchu is that because it is so complete there are so many stories to tell about what went on at the site. We spent an easy four and a half hours walking around seeing the many astrological features and hearing about the religous ceromonies that were performed. Paull is a fantastic guide with an obvious passion for Inca history and kept us enthralled for the whole time.
Once we got in the crowds tended to thin out a little bit and it wasn´t too bad at all for people. One bit of Australian celebrity spotting. We saw Liz Ellis the Australian netball captain taking a tour.
Hopefully I´ll get to a wireless site soon instead of internet cafes and get some more photos up.
We´re back in Cusco tonight and spend the whole day tomorrow on a Bus to Puna on the shores of Lake Titicacca.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The Sacred Valley and Aguas Caliente
Tomorrow morning we head up to Machu Pichu at 6am and after the Inca ruins we have seen the last couple of days I now don´t know what to expect. Machu Pichu is supposed to be the most amzing and complete Inca ruins however what we have seen so far has already blown me away. We set off yesterday morning from Cusco to Pisco where a bustling handicraft market lightened our wallets yet again. It is hard to pass up nice Alpaca wool jumpers for $15.
On the mountain above Pisco was the first amazing Inca temple that we visited. Huge stone blocks that had been brought in from 33km away and hauled up the mountain fit together so well that you could barley feel the joins when you ran your hands over them. One of the common themes for Incan temple sites was that they are all either astronomically significant in terms of the way shadows were cast from the surrounding mountains or they were strategically placed geographically. Pisco overlooks the convergence of three steep valleys and the views are incredible.
After Pisco we went on to Ollantaytambo, another Inca site along the sacred valley. It was just as impressive with an incredible set of terraces used for agriculture carved laser like into the mountain. Under each terrace is a layer of dirt then sand then small rocks then large rocks with precise drainage allowing irrigation from one to another. The engineering effort required to do this as perfectly as they did is astounding.
We stayed the night in Ollantaytambo and this morning caught the train to Aguas Caliente which is the town at the bottom of Machu Pichu. Aguas Caliente would have to be one of the more bizarre places I have ever been to. Fifty years ago it barley existed but as the tourist traffic to Machu Pichu has grown so has the town. The only way in is by train and the only road is a short one running from the town to the base of Machu Pichu. The tiny space it occupies in the bottom of a valley with towering sheer faces of rock around it has resulted in a dense, steep collection of restaurants, cafes, hostels, shops and markets all in a space that measures no more than about 400m by 100m. During peak season about 5000 people a day visit Machu Pichu and every hostel and hotel in town is booked out and the restaurants are pumping. At the moment it is a little quieter and most of the tourists seem to be Argentinians and Chileans on summer holidays. It is full of people either completely shagged out after completing the four day Inca Trail or people pumped up in anticipation of a visit to Machu Pichu the next day (as we are).
On the mountain above Pisco was the first amazing Inca temple that we visited. Huge stone blocks that had been brought in from 33km away and hauled up the mountain fit together so well that you could barley feel the joins when you ran your hands over them. One of the common themes for Incan temple sites was that they are all either astronomically significant in terms of the way shadows were cast from the surrounding mountains or they were strategically placed geographically. Pisco overlooks the convergence of three steep valleys and the views are incredible.
After Pisco we went on to Ollantaytambo, another Inca site along the sacred valley. It was just as impressive with an incredible set of terraces used for agriculture carved laser like into the mountain. Under each terrace is a layer of dirt then sand then small rocks then large rocks with precise drainage allowing irrigation from one to another. The engineering effort required to do this as perfectly as they did is astounding.
We stayed the night in Ollantaytambo and this morning caught the train to Aguas Caliente which is the town at the bottom of Machu Pichu. Aguas Caliente would have to be one of the more bizarre places I have ever been to. Fifty years ago it barley existed but as the tourist traffic to Machu Pichu has grown so has the town. The only way in is by train and the only road is a short one running from the town to the base of Machu Pichu. The tiny space it occupies in the bottom of a valley with towering sheer faces of rock around it has resulted in a dense, steep collection of restaurants, cafes, hostels, shops and markets all in a space that measures no more than about 400m by 100m. During peak season about 5000 people a day visit Machu Pichu and every hostel and hotel in town is booked out and the restaurants are pumping. At the moment it is a little quieter and most of the tourists seem to be Argentinians and Chileans on summer holidays. It is full of people either completely shagged out after completing the four day Inca Trail or people pumped up in anticipation of a visit to Machu Pichu the next day (as we are).
Monday, January 14, 2008
Cusco
The first couple of days in and around Cusco have been fantastic and quite different to Ecuador. the differences started as soon as we got to the hotel at Lima with everyone speaking quite good English (very few people spoke English in Ecuador). We were quite surprised to be picked up at the airport in Cusco by virtually the whole travel agency running the tour. While the tours are under the Kumuka name they are organised and run by local agencies. In Ecuador it was Happy Gringos (couldn´t fault them for any else looking to do anything at all in Ecuador) and here in Peru it is SASPeru. Robin, an Australian who has lived here for 11 years is part owner of the agency and she met us along with a driver, a porter and our guide, Paull. Paull is a local and an absolute wealth of knowledge about Inca and Spannish history. The girls have been informed that this tour is to be treated as a history lesson to make up for lost school. They are not impressed! Again we are the only people on the tour which is a pity and again apparently we are the first to this particular tour as well.
Yesterday we just wandered around Cusco which is a booming town of about 400,000 and a mecca for every type of tourist. It is backpacker heaven with cheap hostels, food and beer but also caters to a significant sector of more wealthy tourists with very upmarket jewellery, garment and art shops. The city is architecturally stunning which the Spannish style closed courtyards and tiny cobbled streets leading away from beautiful leafy plazas with impressive cathedrals and churches. Walking up the tiny alleys every door leads into a cafe or courtyard or hostal or shop. Like Ecuador once you get away from the central areas there is grinding poverty but it is amazing how much of a difference the housing style makes in disguising the extent. in Ecuador as I mentioned most housing seems to be constructed with grey concrete blocks with flat roofs and a perpetually unfinished look. In Cusco the houses are adobe brick with red tile sloped roofs. While there is just as much poverty somehow the houses look more inhabitable. I guess it is just closer to what we are used to.
Today Paull led us on a horse ride around four Inca sites in the mountains overlooking cusco. The history was a bit overwhelming to take in one day but the ruins were fascinating. Massive constructions made of huge stone blocks that fit together perfectly in intricate patterens all in a grand plan that made sure that water was able to be fed by gravity throughout all the significant sites. It was truly awe inspiring to think about how such feats were carried out 600 years ago and the girls were suitably impressed wishing that they could have seen it when it was at its peak.
For lunch we had a picnic with a herd of Alpacas that had been organised especially for the occaision. Being the first family to do this tour I think they are trying to get some goood phots and all the stops are being pulled out.
We wandered back down into cusco at about 5pm.
tommorrow we head off to the sacred valley for more inca sites and some markets.
I´ll try and get some more photos up next time i get to a wireless spot for my laptop.
Yesterday we just wandered around Cusco which is a booming town of about 400,000 and a mecca for every type of tourist. It is backpacker heaven with cheap hostels, food and beer but also caters to a significant sector of more wealthy tourists with very upmarket jewellery, garment and art shops. The city is architecturally stunning which the Spannish style closed courtyards and tiny cobbled streets leading away from beautiful leafy plazas with impressive cathedrals and churches. Walking up the tiny alleys every door leads into a cafe or courtyard or hostal or shop. Like Ecuador once you get away from the central areas there is grinding poverty but it is amazing how much of a difference the housing style makes in disguising the extent. in Ecuador as I mentioned most housing seems to be constructed with grey concrete blocks with flat roofs and a perpetually unfinished look. In Cusco the houses are adobe brick with red tile sloped roofs. While there is just as much poverty somehow the houses look more inhabitable. I guess it is just closer to what we are used to.
Today Paull led us on a horse ride around four Inca sites in the mountains overlooking cusco. The history was a bit overwhelming to take in one day but the ruins were fascinating. Massive constructions made of huge stone blocks that fit together perfectly in intricate patterens all in a grand plan that made sure that water was able to be fed by gravity throughout all the significant sites. It was truly awe inspiring to think about how such feats were carried out 600 years ago and the girls were suitably impressed wishing that they could have seen it when it was at its peak.
For lunch we had a picnic with a herd of Alpacas that had been organised especially for the occaision. Being the first family to do this tour I think they are trying to get some goood phots and all the stops are being pulled out.
We wandered back down into cusco at about 5pm.
tommorrow we head off to the sacred valley for more inca sites and some markets.
I´ll try and get some more photos up next time i get to a wireless spot for my laptop.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Cotopaxi
Tonight is our last night on the Ecuador tour before going straight on to join a tour of Peru at Cuzco. It has been a wondeful week and a half and Equador sure is a country of imense physical beauty and extremes. It is a real pity that the country is so poor because the diabolical roads, dirty towns, the state of the housing and infrastructure in general just take the shine off what would otherwise I'm sure be one of the premier destinations in the world. The few towns that have really seen the value in the tourist dollar and made an effort to be clean and safe are truly spectacular.
Anyway as for what we have been up to the last few days I will do seperate posts for each place as I have done so far. Instead of putting photos in the blog this time I have posted them to a seperate site so it's easier to get more on and add captions. Just click on the link and hit slideshow.
http://picasaweb.google.com/richtam2/TripPhotos02
Anyway as for what we have been up to the last few days I will do seperate posts for each place as I have done so far. Instead of putting photos in the blog this time I have posted them to a seperate site so it's easier to get more on and add captions. Just click on the link and hit slideshow.
http://picasaweb.google.com/richtam2/TripPhotos02
Cotopaxi
Today we got as close to a true mountain climbing experince as we have ever been and some of us (Rhiannon) will ever want to be again.
Cotopaxi is a volcano whose peak sits at 5897m. It is a classical snow topped cone shaped volcano that looks spectacular from the surrounding plains. You can drive a significant way up with the top car park being at 4500m. We walked from there to the base camp or refuge at 4800m. We had a climbing guide who was great because it was really tough at that altitude. It was only 1km from the car park to the refuge but it took just over an hour with Rhiannon suffering the most from the altitude and being carried a bit by me and the guide. Ally virtually sprinted up and waited for us at the top. We felt quite an acievement when we finally got there because at 4800m it is higher than any peak in Europe. The fact that we only actually climbed the last 300m I think is not important!
Needless to say we have spent the rest of the day recovering and I'm sure we will all feel it tomorrow.
Cotopaxi is a volcano whose peak sits at 5897m. It is a classical snow topped cone shaped volcano that looks spectacular from the surrounding plains. You can drive a significant way up with the top car park being at 4500m. We walked from there to the base camp or refuge at 4800m. We had a climbing guide who was great because it was really tough at that altitude. It was only 1km from the car park to the refuge but it took just over an hour with Rhiannon suffering the most from the altitude and being carried a bit by me and the guide. Ally virtually sprinted up and waited for us at the top. We felt quite an acievement when we finally got there because at 4800m it is higher than any peak in Europe. The fact that we only actually climbed the last 300m I think is not important!
Needless to say we have spent the rest of the day recovering and I'm sure we will all feel it tomorrow.
Tena to Cotopaxi
Travelling from Tena to Cotopaxi was much like the trip to Tena. Unbelievably spectacular but like spending 5 hours in a washing machine. We drove along the "valley of the waterfalls" and stopped at one that was a combination of a huge flow with a massive drop. It was one of those falls that you got drenched by just getting within 50m of it.
Just after the waterfall was the town of Banos which is the adventure sports capital of Ecuador. It has massive volcanos towering over it and a wild river running through it so it is easy to see why it attects thrill seekers from all over the world.
Around Banos there is quite a bit of farming on slopes that are mind bogglingly steep. On almost sheer slopes there are patches of corn and potatoes and sugarcane and a whole range of crops. The patterns created by these small fields between patches of jungle and small waterfalls are stunning.
We got to our Hacienda after a full day of driving to find a sort of farmstay type setup with baby llamas, rabits, sheep and all sorts of things to keep the girls happy as well as wifi to keep me happy so all was good.
Just after the waterfall was the town of Banos which is the adventure sports capital of Ecuador. It has massive volcanos towering over it and a wild river running through it so it is easy to see why it attects thrill seekers from all over the world.
Around Banos there is quite a bit of farming on slopes that are mind bogglingly steep. On almost sheer slopes there are patches of corn and potatoes and sugarcane and a whole range of crops. The patterns created by these small fields between patches of jungle and small waterfalls are stunning.
We got to our Hacienda after a full day of driving to find a sort of farmstay type setup with baby llamas, rabits, sheep and all sorts of things to keep the girls happy as well as wifi to keep me happy so all was good.
Cotococha Lodge, Tena
We travelled from Papallacta to Tena along some of the most spectacular yet diabolically bad roads I have ever been on. Mountains, valleys, waterfalls, jungle, landslides anything and everything was to be seen along the way. The roads however would alternate between dual carriageway and single lane goat track only marginally better than the road up Pine Cliff hill at the drop of a hat. Traffic quantity seemed to have very little to do with the quality of the road. At one memorable spot on a quite nice stretch of dual carriageway we came to a bridge that had obviously never been finished. The dual carriageway then transformed into a single lane muddy goat track throught the bottom of a river bed.
Our lodge was situated on the banks of the Rio Napo which is a tributory of the Amazon. As far as we were from the mouth of the amazon we were amazed at just how big this river was and how much water it was carrying. Our cabin had no electricty and was basically a tent with beds and a toilet. It was completely surrounded by jungle with all sorts of amazing plants and fruits and the odd Tarantula.
The morning after we got there we took a motorised canoe for about an hour and a half downstream to an animal rescue centre. The river is the centre of all activity and it was fascinating to see clothes washing, gold panning, fishing and boating all the way. The animal rescue centre is a Swiss run organisation which rehabilitates injured or confiscated aimals back into the wild. It was full of Monkeys, Macaws, Toucans, Ocelots, Capybaras and other jungle animals. Needless to say it was a fascinating place. The girl that took us around was a vet student from Holland volunteering for six weeks. She had only been there for two weeks and was more mosquito bite than human. We felt very sorry for her but she seemed happy enough.
We had lunch on the river bank on the way back including a swim and a swing from from a rope which was pretty cool.
After lunch we went to an indigenous village where we had demonstrations of pottery, jungle beer making (foul), blow pipes and gold panning. Ally was very impressed with the gold panning after having a go at Gulgong with very little success. The gold here is everywhere. You can see it sparkling in the water and can pan out a few flakes with very little technique every go.
The second day at Tena we took a canoe up the river and trekked into the jungle to a beautiful waterfall where we swum for a while. When we got back to the river we floated back down to the lodge on tire tubes which was just magic. After lunch we went on a walk in the jungle with an Indian guide who showed us all the plants and there qualities. It was very similar to the walk we did in the Daintree with an Aboriginal guide. To me one green plant looked like another green plant however they all seemed to have quite specific medicinal qualities (apart from the fact that they were nearly all halucinogenic!). The ants were the things that amazed me. There must have been twenty different sorts, ranging from congo ants which gave you a three day fever if they bit you to lemon ants which were tiny and we all had a turn at eating.
A fantastic couple of days with the weather co operating by not raining and a real taste of what the amazon is like.
Our lodge was situated on the banks of the Rio Napo which is a tributory of the Amazon. As far as we were from the mouth of the amazon we were amazed at just how big this river was and how much water it was carrying. Our cabin had no electricty and was basically a tent with beds and a toilet. It was completely surrounded by jungle with all sorts of amazing plants and fruits and the odd Tarantula.
The morning after we got there we took a motorised canoe for about an hour and a half downstream to an animal rescue centre. The river is the centre of all activity and it was fascinating to see clothes washing, gold panning, fishing and boating all the way. The animal rescue centre is a Swiss run organisation which rehabilitates injured or confiscated aimals back into the wild. It was full of Monkeys, Macaws, Toucans, Ocelots, Capybaras and other jungle animals. Needless to say it was a fascinating place. The girl that took us around was a vet student from Holland volunteering for six weeks. She had only been there for two weeks and was more mosquito bite than human. We felt very sorry for her but she seemed happy enough.
We had lunch on the river bank on the way back including a swim and a swing from from a rope which was pretty cool.
After lunch we went to an indigenous village where we had demonstrations of pottery, jungle beer making (foul), blow pipes and gold panning. Ally was very impressed with the gold panning after having a go at Gulgong with very little success. The gold here is everywhere. You can see it sparkling in the water and can pan out a few flakes with very little technique every go.
The second day at Tena we took a canoe up the river and trekked into the jungle to a beautiful waterfall where we swum for a while. When we got back to the river we floated back down to the lodge on tire tubes which was just magic. After lunch we went on a walk in the jungle with an Indian guide who showed us all the plants and there qualities. It was very similar to the walk we did in the Daintree with an Aboriginal guide. To me one green plant looked like another green plant however they all seemed to have quite specific medicinal qualities (apart from the fact that they were nearly all halucinogenic!). The ants were the things that amazed me. There must have been twenty different sorts, ranging from congo ants which gave you a three day fever if they bit you to lemon ants which were tiny and we all had a turn at eating.
A fantastic couple of days with the weather co operating by not raining and a real taste of what the amazon is like.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Banos
Just a quick note to say we survivied the amazon. Lots of interestign things to report on but we are just quickly stopping at an internet cafe on our way to Cotopaxi where I am not sure whether there will be internet. Apparently there is a volcano erupting on the route we are going on so there is some conjecture over whether the road will be open. Hope we get there.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Papallacta
Just a quick note this time before we head off to the Amazon for the next three days where there will definately be no internet (possibly no electicty).
Last night we stayed in a hot spring resort at Papallacta, east of Quito. It was quite an upscale resort by equadorian standards and very enjoyable. Quite high again, about 3200m, and misty rain with the temperature at about 10degrees so soaking in beautiful hot springs was a very nice experience.
More updates and photos after the Amazon. We will be staying near Tena for anyone who wants to look it up.
Last night we stayed in a hot spring resort at Papallacta, east of Quito. It was quite an upscale resort by equadorian standards and very enjoyable. Quite high again, about 3200m, and misty rain with the temperature at about 10degrees so soaking in beautiful hot springs was a very nice experience.
More updates and photos after the Amazon. We will be staying near Tena for anyone who wants to look it up.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Photos
Photos in order (I hope)Church of San Fransisco, Quito
Sucking in the big ones on the top of Pinchincha volcano
Cable Car with Quito in backgorund
Ally and Rhiannon on either side of equator
Equadorian Taxi
Ally zipping over the trees
Tammy zipping into the clouds
Ally and Rhiannon on one of the dodgy rope bridges over the river
Rhiannon buying a traditonal shirt
Tammy bargaining at the markets
Ally in her new alpaca jumper
Otavalo
It´s Saturday the 5th January and I am typing this in an internet cafe in Otavalo north of Quito. This post will be a bit jumbled up because this is the first time I have had access to the internet in a few days and it will be a mixture of stuff I have saved from my computer and stuff I am typing now. Sorry if the flow does not make sense. I still havn´t got the hang of posting photos where I want them either so I think they are all in the wrong order. Dealing with posting instructions in Spanish isn´t helping either and I can´t seem to get it to change to English. Anyway we´re basically having a great time and heaps of stuff has been happening so I´ll get on with it.
Edit: After posting I realised that the photos were all over the place so I am going to do them in a seperate post with just photos.
Today we have spent the day trawling the massive Otavalo markets.
Early this morning before the main markets were open we went to the animal markets for a bit of authentic Equadorian farming experience. There was definately no NLIS procedures in place here. The markets consisted of a whole lot of people with individual goats, sheep, pigs, cattle and horses who stood around in a clearing on the side of a hill while buyers came and inspected the animals and negotiated a price. Each animal was led by a piece of rope and once bought they were dragged off to the back of a ute or simply walked home.
After breakfast we spent virtually the rest of the day at the main markets which were dominated by Ecuadorian handicrafts such as alpaca wool jumpers, scarves, rugs, silver jewellery all cheap and all up for negotiation for an even cheaper price. Ally was in seventh heaven and we all ended up buying at least a couple of things. Rhiannon bought a traditonal Ecuadorian costume shirt and wore it around which resulted in all the old ladies pulling her up and carrying on we think along the lines of how cute she looked.
It really was the most colourfull and vibrant markets with most of the indigenous people still wearing traditional dress. Tonight we are ging to an indiginous village for a dinner and some sort of show. Not sure whats involved but apparently dressing up is on the cards.
Edit: After posting I realised that the photos were all over the place so I am going to do them in a seperate post with just photos.
Today we have spent the day trawling the massive Otavalo markets.
Early this morning before the main markets were open we went to the animal markets for a bit of authentic Equadorian farming experience. There was definately no NLIS procedures in place here. The markets consisted of a whole lot of people with individual goats, sheep, pigs, cattle and horses who stood around in a clearing on the side of a hill while buyers came and inspected the animals and negotiated a price. Each animal was led by a piece of rope and once bought they were dragged off to the back of a ute or simply walked home.
After breakfast we spent virtually the rest of the day at the main markets which were dominated by Ecuadorian handicrafts such as alpaca wool jumpers, scarves, rugs, silver jewellery all cheap and all up for negotiation for an even cheaper price. Ally was in seventh heaven and we all ended up buying at least a couple of things. Rhiannon bought a traditonal Ecuadorian costume shirt and wore it around which resulted in all the old ladies pulling her up and carrying on we think along the lines of how cute she looked.
It really was the most colourfull and vibrant markets with most of the indigenous people still wearing traditional dress. Tonight we are ging to an indiginous village for a dinner and some sort of show. Not sure whats involved but apparently dressing up is on the cards.
Mindo to Otavalo
We travelled back to the edge of Quito where there are several monuments and museums marking where the equator runs through. The reason that there is more than one is because over time the equator has been measured in different spots! The biggest and most visited spot is a big monument where most people (including us) get their photo taken standing either side of the equator and so on. Just up the road is a much more intersting smaller museum that claims to be on the actual equator as measured with GPS. They do a series of equator related experiments such as watching water go down the plug hole and I must say that we were all greatly surprised at how interesting they were. For example it is extremely hard to keep your balance walking exactly on the equator line as opposed to a couple of metres off it. Tammy and I were both extremely surprised at how much moving a mere metre or two either side of the equator can have on a whole range of things and Tammy the Physics teacher is now on the case to try and determine whether it was all just tricks or not.
After Ciudad del Mundo (city at the centre of the world) we hedaed back to the North to Otavalo which is home to reputably the best markets in South America.
The countryside between Quito and Otavalo was very interesting. It was basically a series of broad valleys bordered by towering mountains and volcanoes. In the bottom of the valleys was quite a bit of agriculture with corn and flowers being the primary crops. The corn was very much what you´d descibe as subsistence agriculture with oxen drawn plows and tiny fields but the flowers were much more modern in their cultivation with huge greenhouses and cold storages dotting the landscape. Apparently flowers are equal with Bananas as Equadors biggest exports behind oil.
The landscape is extemely beautiful but it is spoiled or I should say characterised by the Equadorians penchant for living in half finished houses. Most houses are built out of cinder block and seem to added to over time as money allows. As a result almost all houses look either half finished or half fallen down and the overall effect is like driving through a war zone.
Otavalo itself however is quite different. It has a much higher percentage indigenous population who are generally a bit more wealthy than those in Quito and the as a result there is an obvious difference on the pride taken in the town and the correspdonding cleanliness and feeling of safety.
After Ciudad del Mundo (city at the centre of the world) we hedaed back to the North to Otavalo which is home to reputably the best markets in South America.
The countryside between Quito and Otavalo was very interesting. It was basically a series of broad valleys bordered by towering mountains and volcanoes. In the bottom of the valleys was quite a bit of agriculture with corn and flowers being the primary crops. The corn was very much what you´d descibe as subsistence agriculture with oxen drawn plows and tiny fields but the flowers were much more modern in their cultivation with huge greenhouses and cold storages dotting the landscape. Apparently flowers are equal with Bananas as Equadors biggest exports behind oil.
The landscape is extemely beautiful but it is spoiled or I should say characterised by the Equadorians penchant for living in half finished houses. Most houses are built out of cinder block and seem to added to over time as money allows. As a result almost all houses look either half finished or half fallen down and the overall effect is like driving through a war zone.
Otavalo itself however is quite different. It has a much higher percentage indigenous population who are generally a bit more wealthy than those in Quito and the as a result there is an obvious difference on the pride taken in the town and the correspdonding cleanliness and feeling of safety.
Mindo
Still raining today but it seemed quite appropriate given how dense and lush the vegetation was everywhere. The hummingbirds here truly are amazing. If you go and stand still by the feeders after a while they will hover right in front of your face. Ecuador is obviuously a mecca for bird lovers and on the lodge there are a couple of tour groups here solely for bird spotting. At breakfast, lunch and dinner they all earnestly poor over their Birds of Equador text (3 inches thick and they all have one!).
We started off the day with a visit to a “canopy tour” which was essentially a series of 10 flying foxes over the rainforest. They varied on length and height with some being over quite precipitous valleys. Some of them were long enough that the other end disappeared into the cloud.
After the canopy tour we went on a walk to some amazing waterfalls. It was really raining heavily by now and the warterfalls were pounding. By the time we were finished we were soaked through but the rain was warm and as I said before it seemed appropriate that it was raining so apart from the lack of view it was really nice.
Quito to Mindo
Our first full day on the tour is pointing towards a wonderful two weeks. It turns out that we are the only people on the tour which is a pity in that we don’t get to meet any other fellow travelers but a bonus on that we are essentially going to have a pretty flexible fully guided private two week tour of Ecuador Ecuador
We spent the morning seeing the old town of
The old town really was very pretty and the city of
After seeing the old town we took a cable car ride to the top of Pichincha, one of the inactive volcanoes surrounding
For most of the trip in
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Quito
Made it into Quito last night after a little wait on the tarmac at Miami while they changed a flat tire! Immigration procedures into Ecuador are refreshingly welcoming after the ¨what are you doing coming here¨ attitude you get trying to get into the USA.
We are staying in a lovely old spanish mansion that has been converted into a hotel. Two huge bedrooms and amazing old wooden furniture plus three flights of squeaky stairs.
This morning we went for a bit of a walk around Quito but all is fairly quiet for the new year holiday and hardly anything is open. We don´t really mind (at least not Tammy and me anyway) because the altitude sure hits hard. We are finding ourselves gasping after walking up the stairs so are enjoying just relaxing inthe hotel and acclimatising. The girls are running around everywhere making us feel extremely old. How Nikki coped with being here pregnant and with morning sickness is beyond us.
We meet our guide tonight and find out who else is on the tour. Our Spanish phrasebook is getting a workout but so far no problems.
I need to spend a bit of time describing our taxi ride in from the airport last night. Quito airport is about 10km from where we are staying and after advice from the hotel the quickest and cheapest way to get here was via taxi. Quito streets are very narrow and lane markings seem to be present only occaisonaly and only then in abstract patterns. Our taxi driver managed to communicate with us that obviously it was very busy becuase of NYE and then proceeded to drive at 80km\hr all the way to the hotel. It was one of those taxi trips that will not be forgotten quickly. I never actually felt unsafe, he seemed to be a very good driver, but there was definately an element of the thrill of a roller coaster ride or parachute jump involved. There were some crazy NYE celebration sights on the way in including a very large and very ugly transvestite who danced in the middle of the road while associates held a rope accross the road to stop cars until they gave her money. This was taking place on one of the main roads through the centre of quito in front of the Canadian embassy with security guards looking on and seemed to have some sort of official quality to it. Quite strange.
We are staying in a lovely old spanish mansion that has been converted into a hotel. Two huge bedrooms and amazing old wooden furniture plus three flights of squeaky stairs.
This morning we went for a bit of a walk around Quito but all is fairly quiet for the new year holiday and hardly anything is open. We don´t really mind (at least not Tammy and me anyway) because the altitude sure hits hard. We are finding ourselves gasping after walking up the stairs so are enjoying just relaxing inthe hotel and acclimatising. The girls are running around everywhere making us feel extremely old. How Nikki coped with being here pregnant and with morning sickness is beyond us.
We meet our guide tonight and find out who else is on the tour. Our Spanish phrasebook is getting a workout but so far no problems.
I need to spend a bit of time describing our taxi ride in from the airport last night. Quito airport is about 10km from where we are staying and after advice from the hotel the quickest and cheapest way to get here was via taxi. Quito streets are very narrow and lane markings seem to be present only occaisonaly and only then in abstract patterns. Our taxi driver managed to communicate with us that obviously it was very busy becuase of NYE and then proceeded to drive at 80km\hr all the way to the hotel. It was one of those taxi trips that will not be forgotten quickly. I never actually felt unsafe, he seemed to be a very good driver, but there was definately an element of the thrill of a roller coaster ride or parachute jump involved. There were some crazy NYE celebration sights on the way in including a very large and very ugly transvestite who danced in the middle of the road while associates held a rope accross the road to stop cars until they gave her money. This was taking place on one of the main roads through the centre of quito in front of the Canadian embassy with security guards looking on and seemed to have some sort of official quality to it. Quite strange.
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