Easter in Peru

Now we are in Peru after a short flight from Quito. Our rest day in Quito was spent looking for a laundry (unsuccessful--so back to the bathroom sink to rinse the salt of Galapagos out of our clothes) , and working out how to send a parcel from Ecuador ( successful eventually after a lot of red tape---and parcel tape!) It´s our fifth parcel so far so hope they are winging their way to Mhairi. It´s the only way to combine shopping with travelling light.

Lima was as busy as we expected but we were only there overnight before flying to Arequipa. We were most amused by the amount of people carrying boxes of Dunkin Donuts on board. The people at the airport welcoming the incoming flight with balloons and banners were obviously waiting for their next delivery of Dunkin Donuts.

Our hotel in Arequipa was described as Colonial/ Baroque and it was certainly very splendid with antique furnishings, each room different. We opted for the library room but unfortunately were too busy or too tired to actually read any of the excellent choice of travel books. We explored the very beautiful and old Santa Catalina Monastery which covers about five acres. It´s a very peaceful place, more spacious than we would have thought but originally the nuns who lived there could take a servant or even a slave with them. It also had splendid views towards El Misti--very aptly named as by late morning the mountain seemed to float in mid-air.



In the afternoon we took a bus tour of Arequipa and district, learning about the crops grown there, the Inca terraces which are still in use, and visiting a couple of old buildings. On Good Friday there were special celebrations at the Cathedral and in the main square. We decided to eat overlooking the square so saw the splendour of the Easter candlelit procession with all the local churches parading figures, mostly of the Virgin Mary dressed Spanish style with mantillas.

Next day it was up early (again) for the bus to Puno on Lake Titicaca. This took about 6 hours, a comfortable ride on a newish highway with snacks provided by the smartly dressed stewardesses. Puno is nearly 4000 metres high so we´ve been taking the tablets and drinking coca tea. The effects of altitude sickness have been much less marked than in Quito.

Another early start was required to take a boat trip to the Uros islands--a huge tick in Norma´s case ever since she read about Thor Heyerdahl and the Kontiki, as he came here to learn how to build reed boats. We had a very informative guide and can now tell you how to build a floating island--first you take a few tons of totora reeds......!

There followed a two hour crossing to Taquile, a real island which was equally if not more interesting. The 2000 people live on a beautiful fertile island and as well as subsistence farming they produce fantastic craft work for themselves as well as to sell to tourists. Women spin using a drop spindle as they walk along and then produce very fine woven goods. The men do the knitting--absolutely superb articles, particularly hats---red santa claus type hats with patterns similar to Fair Isle. We could go on about Taquile and its hats forever but will save further details for the lecture tour.

Just one wee story--when we were in the square they were celebrating Easter Sunday in the Catholic Church. When the important people of the island---they wear black hats--came out of the church they were heading up to the top of the island to make an offering to Pachamama--Mother Earth to the pre Inca people. This might be called keeping a foot in both camps!




More pictures when we get a better internet connection. Cusco and Machu Picchu next!

Galapagos Part 2

Well we promised you Galapagos 2 - the sequel - and here it is. Everybody has probably heard of Lonesome George, the last living Pinto tortoise. We called along the Charles Darwin Centre where he lives but he appeared to be out (or more likely sleeping indoors) but we did meet a few of his cousins from other islands. This fellow is about 5 feet long.

Probably the most amazing thing about Galapagos is how close you can get to the wildlife without disturbing them. This is a Galapagos Hawk and we were about 6 feet away from him and two others when we took this picture.

You must have heard of the blue-footed booby. Actually they are very similar to gannets and fish in the same way, although they don´t go so deep, and we don´t remember any gannets with feet this colour. This one is hatching two eggs, and the chick you can see was hatched while we were there.

Finally just to prove there really was some kayaking involved, here are a couple of our companions with a sealion swimming alongside.

It Was Awesome!

The title owes something to the fact that we spent our week in Galapagos with six Americans. Five of them are pictured here with us at dawn (yes really!) on Isla Bartolome. The view is apparently featured in the movie (oops! Americanism again) "Master and Commander". We haven't seen it but the view is certainly something special. By the way Hutch our kayak leader is on the right wearing the shirt. They were a great bunch and we had a few adventures which we'll tell about later.


Everyday started around dawn (6 o'clock in the tropics) and included a hike, a snorkel, and a paddle at least. The wildlife was every bit as amazing as everyone told us and every bit as approachable. Here are a pair of Magnificent Frigatebirds in the middle of a courtship ritual - male on the right with the huge red pouch, female on the left with the blue ring round her eye - that apparently is how you tell the Magnificent Frigatebird from the merely Great (and much more common) Frigatebird. Well you learned something new every few minutes in Galapagos, especially with Juan, our extremely patient and knowledgeable Naturalist Guide.

Just to prove how good we were at getting up in the mornings here is another dawn shot, this time on our last morning. This is the famous, and quite spectacular Kicker Rock.

Back to the animals now. Galapagos sealions were everywhere and we have loads of pictures but we thought we'd show you the much less common Galapagos Fur Seal, which despite the name is actually a sealion as well, and related to the New Zealand fur seal.

One of the really special moments of the trip came when one of the crew spotted a pod of orcas during a passage between islands. We were able to get close enough to get a fantastic view of them feeding on a school of fish while blue-footed boobies, frigatebirds, noddies, and pelicans swarmed around hoovering up their leavings. Thanks Miguel! Even in Galapagos these sightings are special.

We could go on - we have around a thousand pictures between us - but we can't fit it all on a blog. Watch out for Galapagos 2.

Peace Breaks Out

We were very pleased to see that, after we had been in Ecuador for less than 24 hours, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela settled their disagreements and there won't be a war. Actually we were asleep for most of that time anyway, catching up after a long and very confusing journey from New Zealand. We left Auckland at about 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, and after about 11 hours in the air we arrived in Santiago in Chile about 4 hours before we left Auckland. We then had to fill in Chilean Immmigration forms and have our passports stamped before collecting our luggage and walking through to the Departures Hall to join our flight to Ecuador. Our passports were stamped again and we reached Quito at 8.45 p.m., still on Thursday. The combination of jetlag, altitude (Quito is over 9000 feet up) and general confusion (it's sometimes called senility) meant that we slept round the clock, but we're fine now and war has been averted while we slept.

Tomorrow we have to be up for a bus at 7 a.m. which is taking us to the Saturday market at Otavalo, which just happens to be in the Northern Hemisphere, so we cross the equator on the way, but thankfully not the International Date Line again - that would be too much. Sunday we are up early again for the flight to Galapagos.

Smelly Rotorua

Actually we didn't find Rotorua nearly as sulphurous as some places in Iceland, but we took the opportunity to go to a Maori concert and meal. The meal was a hangi, which involves steam cooking the food in the ground. We already knew that, having been to one in Voe with Kester.



As you can see there was plenty of food.

The real thing, involving a party arriving in a waka (war canoe) and performing various dances and songs, including a full haka, was quite an experience.

Actually we could have organised our own hangi as the campsite had it's own steam cooking ovens set into the ground. The suggested recipes including cooking times like "4 to 8 hours" and "all day if possible" - definitely not fast food! After the hangi we had a night time tour of the neighbouring wildlife park, complete with kiwis. The Rotorua campsite had hot tubs fed from the same volcanic sources, but on Monday night we stayed at Miranda where the campsite had a full swimming pool fed by hot springs. It really was like swimming in a hot bath - luxury! Just up the road at the Firth of Thames we visited a bird reserve with thousands of migratory wading birds, some familiar and some not so.

Now we are back in Auckland having returned the camper van unscathed. Today we visited Waiheke island just half an hour out into the gulf. This is the view of the ferry heading back to Auckland, just visible in the distance.



Tomorrow it's a flight to South America. Due to time zones and international datelines it seems we will arrive in Santiago about five hours before we leave New Zealand - no we don't understand it either!

Heading north again

As we said in our last entry we hired a kayak for the day on Wednesday. It was a bit crowded with three of us in a double! Here's William getting ready to paddle with us.

It was an absolutely perfect day. We paddled across Queen Charlotte Sound to Lochmara Lodge where we had coffee. As you can see it's an idyllic spot. We must go back some time - for at least a week.

For our last day in the South Island we were walking again. This time it was the last section of the Queen Charlotte Track, so just the middle bit left! Then it was an early start for the ferry on Friday and up to a strange town called Dannevirke, which was originally settled by Danes. On the way we stopped at the National Wildlife Centre at Mount Bruce where we finally saw a couple of kiwis. No pictures though - because they are nocturnal they were in a special building which is dark through the day and lit up at night.

Since then we've visited Napier, which is an art deco town, rebuilt after an earthquake in 1931, and Taupo where we got mixed up with the NZ Ironman competition, and now we are in Rotorua. More on that later.