Cuzco Times

After 5 days of eating miso soup, potatoes au gratin, Italian pizza and Thai green curry, we decided to deny ouselves the culinary feast that is Cuzco and head to the land of the cold shower, bland food, and uncomfortable bed. Yep we´re back staying with a local family, zapping ourselves on electric showers and making Spanish smalltalk about how many kangaroos we Australians eat in one year. This time we´re staying with an older family, our host mother is a slightly younger ZZar Zar Gabor look a like who works in beauty parlour and wants to travel to the Miami for 6 months so she can earn more money than in her entire lifetime.
We´re doing a week of Spanish School as well, 4 hours a day, one on one instruction, in a lovely little school in one of the trendiest areas of Cuzco. In the afternoons we´ve also been playing with street kids in a school that has been set up as a sort of homework club where westerners can volunteer. So Kate and I are real do gooders at the moment. Can you believe I couldn´t even beat the little girl below in a simple memory card again...Cuzco is the most beautiful Spanish colonial city I have seen in all of the America´s. Most of the buildings have an Incan base and then Spanish buildings on top of this. Cobblestone streets, amazing restaurants, and every kind of badly dressed tourist you can imagine. Do notice the Cuzco flag behind me in top picture, you may recognise the gay pride colours. This is pure coincidence and our family assures us that any homesexuals here have the piss taken out of them and their families. If you don´t mind saying "no gracias" every 5 minutes, Cuzco is the kind of place you could really live in. (Except that it is really cold here and I wouldn't recommend it for marathon runners or surfers being 3300 metres above sea leve)l.
We´ve also met up with Carmen a friend of my sisters from Sydney who aside from starting up Cuzco ghost tours is teaching the latinos how to dance. Being one of the featured dancers in the olympics opening ceremony she is having a ball putting the machistas in their place on the dancefloor.
Monday we start doing our tourist thing again and head off to the Sacred Valley to view a few old buildings and purchase some silly coloured cotton things to put around our ankles. Oh yeah we thought we might go to Machu Pichu as well.... by train of course, The Inca Trail is so last century... what with all that rubbish and us being Spanish learning, charity working, clean living make you sick pain in the arse smug, superior travellers...

Flight of the Condor

Paul Simon tried to immortalise this amazing bird in his rip off what seems to be the Peruvian national anthem but I don´t think anyone can quite capture how beautiful it is to watch these creatures fly. The American next to me tried with perhaps the quote of the trip so far "How can anyone believe in Evolution when everything is so hand crafted... look at those houses down there for instance" In my opinion an absolute corker up there with the time when I was at the Pyramids and an American next to me remarked " These are just like the ones we have in Vegas"and in a close third comes the American looking starry eyed at the Sydney Opera House "Wow, so they built this for the Olympics did they" But back to the Condors, we don´t want talk of stupid Americans hogging up the blog. The Condor is a very large bird. Infact it can reach a height of about 5 feet and have a wingspan of about 3 metres. Condors are scavengers so basically they cruise around the skies waiting for an animal to die, once they spot one they hover for about 3 hours waiting to see if the coast is clear. Finally they descend down for a bit of neck in eye socket.


After gorging themselves with rotten flesh they are unable to fly for about 3 hours ... They can fly at about 100 km an hour and put on a daily tourist show at no extra charge. We were lucky enough to see 8 flying at once which was quite spectacular considering they´re on the endangered list. Unfortuantely they do have very ugly heads. Which is why I´d rather be a forest than a Condor...yes I would, If I only could, I surely would

"I´ll have the Alpaca stroganoff thanks"

Must admit I was tempted, but in the end I didn´t succumb to the temptation of munching on these beautiful creatures(actually I lie, I did have a bite of someone elses Alpaca steak but importantly I have not contributed to an extra Alpacas death.... In fact I think it saved my relationship in the end, Kate being a vegetarian and all)


Right behind those two gorgeous individuals lies the Colca Canyon which is in fact the world´s second deepest canyon at 3191 metres. ( the worlds deepest at 16o metres more lies just a few hundred kilometres away). We hopped on an organised 2 day tour of the Canyon which was a whole load of fun not to mention quite spectacular in scenery

We got to pay a few locals to take their picture, dip in some hot springs, do a bit of Condor watching, view a few ancient skulls, pat an Alpaca, almost eat one and drink some beer with a few people mainly Italians who we enjoyed talking to in SpanitalianOne thing I didnt do was pay this guy for the photo as this only encourages the capture of local wild life. But being a moral hippocrite I couldn´t resist the photo opportunity
and I´d like a dollar for every church I´ve taken a photo of in South America. This one happenned to be particularly beautiful
Peruvian Polizia are currently looking for the fugitive below. Any information on the wherabouts of the individual should be forwarded immediately

It´s a nuns life in Arequipa

After a 12 hour bus trip on a bus with seats made for dwarfs and more Patrick Swayze movies than any sane person can handle we arrived in Arequipa, Peru´s second largest city. For the first time on the trip so far we really felt like we hit the Gringo trail. Foreigners in silly zip off pants, and stripey ponchos everywhere. But must admit they are all in Arequipa for a reason. It´s a beautiful city surrounded by 3 beautiful volcanos. Yes devastating earthquakes and horrific eruptions are common here too. The highlight of the city though is the wonderful Monasterio Santa Catalina as seen in the pictures. The place takes up an entire block and used to house 450 so called Nuns.
It was here that Nuns really knew how to party. Looking more like the prettiest streets of Cordoba or Sevilla in Spain, here the nuns had their own houses, slaves, visiting musicians and parties. Wealthy families wanted to ensure the virginity of their daughters to enable a higher dowry and the best way to do so was to send them off to the convent. They arrived with mucho dinero which ensured they had a good time on the inside.

Mysteries of the Nazca Lines

You may or may not be aware of a phenomena in Southern Peru called the Nazca Lines.Basically hundreds of geometric and ancient patterns of animals were etched out in the desert about 1000 to 2000 years ago. Unfortunately despite waiting a whole day at the airport for a flight in a very unsafe plane we didn´t get a chance to see these strange lines except from a local viewpoint which as you can see from the photos wasn´t quite high enough.
There are many different explanations for the these lines. The current prevailing theory is they were first created 10,000 years ago by Tom Cruise and his then girlfriend Katie Holmes, who through the use of shamanistic scientology rituals managed to unlock the mystery of time travel and communicate with ancient astronauts from another planet. Commenting on the egocentric geometric patterns Mr Cruise says ´´They´re my lines and nobody elses. I put them there and I don´t give a damn if you believe me or not.´´ Miss Holmes was quoted as saying ´´I agree with Tom´´

Hanging out with friends in Nazca

Meet Atahui, he´s doing pretty well considering he´s well over 1000 years old. Being a Nazcan and dying in a desert where it rains only ever 50 years or so helps as well.
These ghoulish delights we saw in a cemetary that had been raided by graverobbers in the 1930´s. The thieves just left all the skeletons and clothing etc strewn across the desert.It was quite remarkable to see how everything was so well preserved
and now tourists are lining up to see whats in store for the next 1000 years.
As you can see from the pictures some of these guys had very long hair and were buried with potteries, clothes etc they would need for their journey to the afterlife. Just hoping nobody finds me in a thousand years and starts taking photos... but then again the sick side of me thinks maybe it could be quite funny. These guys look like they´re enjoying themselves

Mystify me

Lima was discovered by Francisco Pizarro in the month of December, one of the great mistakes a city founder has ever made. He saw a a majestic river pouring into an ocean the perfect setting for a great new city of the Spanish Empire. Foolishly he didn´t hang around long enough to discover that betwen April to Novemeber the sun doesn´t shine at all in Lima due to the Garua, a coastal fog that blankets the city. That´s right, no sunshine for 9 months and 9 million Limeños are cursing that silly spaniard.
Contrary to pretty much every other traveller we´ve met, Lima is not that bad a place. It´s actually the gastronomic capital of the continent and we´ve been dining out in the top restaurants for the price of a cafe lunch in Sydney. Tomorrow we continue south to Ica the sandboarding capital of South America.

Bicicletas de Montañas

We decided to join the other tourist dudes of Huaraz and booked ourselves on a mountain bike tour. The great thing about this mountain bike tour was that it was all downhill. We got driven up to 4100 metres and it was all hold on to the brakes as hard as you can from there. Despite the the tens of dogs that tried to attack us on the way down and the reasonably sized rocks that tried to evict us from our bikes we had a fantastic day with spectacular mountain views everwhere we looked.
Tonight we head to Lima... home to 9 million people, a third of Peru´s population.

Trekkers or trekkies?

Last sunday I booked myself on a 4 day trek through the Andes specifically the famous Cordillera Blanca mountains. Like all good long term backpackers I booked myself on the Budget 4 day santa Cruz trek, believing that a hike thru the mountains is indeed just a hike thru the mountains. Now it´s been about 10 years since I´ve done a trek of the 4 day variety and it seems things have changed a fair bit in the camping world. For me part of the trip has always been out there in the mountains suffering a little with your powdered mash potato, raincoat rolled into a pillow and your own gear on your back over those mountain passes. But it seems the SUV generation has turned camping on it´s ear.
My fellow random tour members were 2 Belgian chess players, father Rudi and his son Thomas, 2 hard as nails Scottish ladies in their fifties, a spanish mountain man with his belly dancer girlfriend, a dutch couple and our Peruvian guide. Believing I was suitably prepared with my torch, sleeping bag, pocket knife and 3 chocolate bars (which I believed would make my fellow campers envious) I set off for the mountains. Upon meeting my fellow campers I immediately realised I was the only one without walking sticks. Yes the walking stick has been a very strange development in the trekking world. Virtually everyone has them. (at about 100 bucks per stick I might add). Most people also seem to have the 380 dollar goretex jacket, not to mention superdown pertex pants, 7000 series aluminium accessories, waterproof jackets with sleeve control, nylon pants complete with outdoor washed out look that turn into detachable shorts with one zip, miners headlamp torches, and a variety of other gadgets all worth hundreds of dollars and which will probably be only used on the Santa Cruz trek. All of which will be carried up by the poor old donkeys. When you think that back in the 1920´s some men climbed everest only with hobnailed boots, tweeds and canvas backpacks it makes one think.

As me and my fellow budget trekkers sat huddled behind a stone wall to protect ourselves from shivering we started to ponder the benefits of posh camping. Personally I find it a little insensitive tramping around Peru in 4000 dollars worth of gear you´ll wear once. Moreover some of the trekkers had all their gear carried for them, their tents set up for them , toilet tents, eating tents, cooking tents, shower tents, private guides, Red wine and restaurant quality food to eat. And paying up to 300 US dollars a day for the privilege of walking in the mountains. But isn´t the point of camping to rough it a tiny bit? The feel of that first shower when you get back to civilisation, that first meal, first beer. Having said that there wasn´t one of us that wouldn´t have jumped at the chance to join them if invited. I wonder what camping in the mountains will be like in another 10 years time...

The views of the mountains were quite spectacular and were exactly the same whether you were on the budget tour or not. We crossed a 4700 metre pass which was hard work but were rewarding with fantastic views and luckily the weather was clear for virtually our entire trek. Definitely worth 4 days of roughing it without the special altitude watch, high peak trekking poles, zyrtec oxygen cannisters, battery powered shower, brass whistle, disposable handwarmers, insect head net, GPS navigator and sock warmers.

Adventure tourism with a twist.

We´re currently in Huaraz, the adventure tourism capital of South America. This is where you can trek, climb, mountain bike, extreme ski, river raft, river run, horse ride, paraglide, hang glide and pick your nose with a fantastic view. In fact I´m off to do a 4 day trek tomorrow on the Santa cruz circuit apparently a very famous and reasonably hard walk crossing over 4800 metre passes. Yet, it´s not just about the above adventure tourism pursuits that has made huaraz famous. In fact just being here is an extreme adventure. In 1941, an avalanche hit the town flattening the city centre and killing 5000 of it´s inhabitants. Then in 1970 a huge earthquake hit killing 70,000 people in central peru, including 15,000 people in Huaraz where the city was flattened once again. But that´s not all. We just went up the road to a town called Yungay, where the above Earthquake caused an alluvion which buried the entire population of the city barring a few fast runners who made it to a statue of Christ on high ground in the cemetary. An alluvion is basically a huge wall of water often mixed with snow, ice, mud, rocks and other matter with sharp edges. The one in Yungay was about 30 metres high and 4 miles wide. The place was really quite eerie and all that was left of the town was the top of the church and a car. This from a large town that had a population of 25,000.
Little wonder the area around Huaraz is at the cutting edge of adventure tourism. well at least I´ll be taking a few thousand beanie clad tourists with me

Peru ain't Thailand

Kate and I left Cajamarca on Wednesday and headed for the coast, the first time so far on the trip. Being only 5 degrees south of the Equator, Trujillo, Peru´s answer to Surfers Paradise was eagerly awaited. Unfortunately God was a bit tired when he created Peru and made a quite a few mistakes with the weather here. 1) it´s really cold and I had to wear a jacket most of the day and it´s supposed to be summer. 2) the water is about 15 degrees 3) it hasnt rained here since the last El Nino which was 7 years ago.
So much for our beach holiday. By the way half fallen down apartment blocks and millions of plastic bags don´t quite make it Bondi Beach. But I can´t really complain.
One thing they did have in Trujillo were these boats made out of cane papyrus which the locals use like surf skis and go fishing with. Apparently they have been using these boats for thousands of years.
Speaking of thousands of years there are some amazing ruins in Trujillo, from the Moshi and Chavin empires which both predate the inca empires by hundreds of years. In fact the incas only starred for about 150 years before the Spanish. These other empires left amazing ruins as well, not to mention incredible examples of human sacrifices. So our beach holiday lasted a day and a half before we took the night bus to the Cordillera Blanca, specifically Huaraz.

The Cajamarca stove trek

We've just arrived back from one of the more unusual tourist trips I've ever been on, building a stove for a Peruvian Family. I met this guy Ben from Glen Innes in NSW who now resides in Northern Peru and runs stove building tours for tourists. So we hopped on a bus from Cajamarca and headed to a very remote community in the mountains for a spot of bricklaying.
Smoke from cooking fires is the 4th biggest cause of death in developing countries, in fact it kills more people than Malaria. Other than very smoky kitchens, headaches and lots of tears, the smoke can cause low birth weights, infant mortality, cataracts and cancer. For more info type killer in the kitchen in google.
So Ben has set up socio adventures to help local communities. So if anyone out there plans on coming to Peru I can't recommend this tour more
Not only do you get to help little cuties like the twins above, but you'll get that sense of achievment of actually having built something, not to mention the gratitude of the locals who quote "Will never forget you as long as they live". They also threw in a couple of guinea pigs( they were delicious), a chicken and a sack of potatoes for good measure even the kids lent a hand, they were particularly fond of washing bricks and eating our poporn
It was a great 5 days and the guy in the hat is currently writing a poem about us... The family were lovely and of course we ended up getting more out of the tour than they did.... Gotta love giving, it's so selfish

Australia is a weird shaped country to the East

We were invited by Jose to take a class in the local school. Kate had been rendered speechless by a sudden bout of diarrhoea which meant I was leading the lesson for a group of eager 9 year olds... in my very bad Spanish I might add. First it was a bit of geography and as you can see from the blackboard I'll never be an artist. Then followed a bit of hello, how are you?, My name is Gomez which I might add they all did very well with

Second prize in a beauty contest

One afternoon during the stove trek we found ourselves at the local fiesta and as important guests from Australia were invited to judge the local beauty contest. After a couple of beers and a few introductions to the region's important people we sat down in front of a large crowd and waited for the 3 beauty queens to arrive by horse.

Of course all great beauty pageants have some half time entertainment and we found ourselves at the centre of that as well. Here I am doing the region's famous hanky dance. Kate got extremely jealous when I was invited up by one of the beauty Queens

There's something slightly perverted about judging 12 year old girls in a beauty contest but we took our responsibilities very seriously. The categories were 1) overall presentation and entance 2) facial beauty 3) dress 4) ability to answer a question
and the result? well Kate, Jose the guy to my right in the top photo and me voted for number 2. Unfortunately the other judge voted very high for number 3 on the right and she was crowned the fiesta's beauty queeen and given 35 bucks for good measure.

Welcome to beautiful Peru

After 5 days of intensive travelling we have finally made it to Peru. Cajarmarca to be exact the place where Pizarro and 37 spaniards managed to capture Atuahalpa the Inca King and his 80,000 troops. I think the horses and cannons helped. And this place excepted, Peru is one almighty rubbish tip. The people are less friendly, out to rip you off, the landscape is bleak, desert with the occasional eucalyptus, and most of the world´s plastic bags seem to be stewn across it. Oh well lucky this place is beautiful or we would have turned around and gone back to Ecuador. We´re just about to embark on a 5 day stove tour. I met this Aussie guy Ben in Ecuador who has a company that organises tours where you get off the beaten track and build a stove for a local family whose little hut is full of smoke. Sounded like a great thing to do so thats where we are going for 5 days...... considering my very limited building experience consists of painting my flat and changing a few lightbulbs it should be very interesting....

South to peru

After visiting our family in Otavalo, Northern Ecuador for a few days we hit the road and the railways south. The highlight being the famous El Nariz de Diablo, Devils nose railway.















6 richety hours thru
spectacular mountain
scenery, with 200 tourist
friends.





cold but fun












Last day with the
family and the
St Bernards

Doing the rumba in vilcbamba

We´re currently heading southwards thru Ecuador on our way to Peru. The internet is really slow everywhere we go so will be out of contact until next week. At the moment we are in a gorgeous little village called Vilcabamba. Will probably stay here 5 days before we head over the border to Cajamarca where we plan on building stoves in a local village. Hasta lluego