Monkey business
Topic: Peru
We were up early in order to get to the ox-bow lake and claim the floating platform by 8am. The sun beat down ye we spent a pleasant 3 hours drifting slowly around the lake spotting birds and animals - including the endangered giant otter, bats, turtles and a black caiman.

On the walk back we looked for woolly monkeys. When we found some, Nicolas decided to provoke them by shaking trees so that they would get angry and throw stuff down on us. I asked him to stop. He must have thought I was a right misery guts. I told him that we were there just to observe nature not interfere. A biologist should be giving us that speech not the other way around.

Deepest Darkest Peru
Topic: Peru
Ann, Mark and Vaila completed our party on Friday night, but on Saturday morning we had to say goodbye to Katherine. She was going to be taken to Boca Manu airport by another group and so we got in our boat to head down river towards the reserve zone. We had chosen this agency because they are among the few ones which have permits to visit the zone where there are no towns, just virgin rain forest. We had to stop to check in at the ranger's station and once inside the area, we really noticed a difference. We saw numerous white caiman (like a crocodile), turtles and different exotic birds much closer than before. There are sandy beaches on the river banks caused from natural erosion on the other side of the bank - sand deposits on the other bank. It's not unusual to see huge trees falling into the river. Men in Boca Manu collect them and make them into boats.

The weather was perfect - warm and dry, and after a few hours of pleasant travel on the river - moving air and no insects - we arrived at our campsite nestled deep in the forest.

We went on a walk to an ox-bow lake and up to a lookout post. We saw all sorts of horrors on the way. Nicolas thought it was really funny to pretend to throw critters at me. Not funny. Not even slightly. I told him so and he laughed and fake-threw a millipede at me. At least he didn't go near the Caterpillar pile. It's what caterpillars do for protection so that they look like a larger animal and deter birds from eating them. They make a pile of about 200 caterpillars and move together as one organism. Fascinating but disgusting.

Nicolas had just got a new camera and thought it a good opportunity to disturb wildlife with the flash. The poor little tree frog was stunned. I don't think the leaf-cutter ants were too pleased at having a camera in their path either. Nicolas had just told us that we shouldn't touch anything in their path as it disturbs them!

From the lookout tower we were able to see some lovely hoitsin birds up close. In the rafters of the tower was a sleeping boa constrictor. Of course, our fearless guide wanted to wake him up (to impress Nora no doubt who had taken a real shine to him). We talked him out of it.

We were in very full-on jungle. It was dense, green and smelled of rotting fruit and leaves. There was fungi everywhere, thousands of mosquitoes, beautiful butterflies in all shades and other unidentifiable flying critters. On the ground there were ant colonies, frog eggs surrounded by poisonous foam, unidentified gooey stuff, trees wrapped around tress wrapped around trees, vines and bright tropical flowers. There is of course the background sound of cicadas, howler monkeys, alien calls of exotic birds and idiotic whistles of infantile guide.

There was a strange ritual of tea at 6 followed by dinner at 7. We eat stale bread and sauco (funny berry) jam with cinnamon and clove tea. Then we have a delicious home made soup and 2 more courses. The "Cooker" (sic) really got his act together finally.

Macaw clay lick
The 5 o'clock starts were becoming the norm but fiddling around in a tent in the dark is no fun. We had no breakfast and had to be ready to leave by 5.30 in order to catch the parrots who visit the clay lick early each morning.

It was slinging it down with rain (it is a rain forest after all) and after taking the boat down river for a bit, we trudged through the mud and lashing rain for 20 minutes carrying our breakfast in tupperwares and flasks until we reached the lookout hut. Nicolas told us that we wouldn't see anything as it was raining so hard we settled down to breakfast and a lot of waiting around. It was warm and dry inside and I had brought a Thomas Hardy novel with me so I didn't mind too much. I was lost in Wessex and would occasionally look up and remember where I really was!

After 4 hours (really, I am not making this up), the rain eased and stopped and a flock of about 40 colourful macaws descended to feed on nutrients from the clay wall. It was really amazing to see them. They made loads of noise as if they were fighting, and stayed for almost an hour. We watched with fascination and couldn't leave until they did as we would frighten them.

After the parrot show, it was back to the boat and an hour trip to the lodge we were staying at. It was again, very basic but really beautifully situated. The weather really brightened up and we spent the afternoon on the wooden balcony drinking warm beer, reading and watching the wildlife all around us.

The last three people in our party, Vaila, Ann and Mark, arrived later that day. They had (perhaps sensibly) decided to fly in. Their arrival marked a sudden change in the food. The quality improved enormously and we even started to get puddings! We wondered which of them was from head office or writing for a travel magazine.

Rain forest, day 2
Topic: Peru
I felt a lot better and was able to start eating solids again. The transport on day 2 was by boat as there were no more roads. The boat was long with comfortable seats and a roof. When it rained, we covered ourselves with plastic sheets. We motored down the chocolate coloured river for most of the day with a few stops for walks to spot birds, monkeys and plants. It was mozzie hell. After just 10 minutes of the second hike, I could hear David going SLAP-OUCH all the time. I looked round to find him with a fat lip and a face that looked like bubble-wrap. Yes, he had been bitten to pieces. We borrowed some of Katherine's killer deet which seemed to do the trick.

Nicolas thinks he can talk to the animals. He whistled at them all the time in various tunes, it was really annoying plus they take no notice!

We got to the campsite just before dark and found that the lads had put our tents up for us on raised wooden platforms. The campsite is very rustic, i.e. rainwater shower and no electricity but it's very charming.

After dinner, we went out for a walk to look for tarantulas and found one! Yuck. Those things are huge and scary. It wasn't too far away from the campsite either! We just hoped that they were no good at zips.

Cusco Scenes
Topic: Peru
Narrow cobbled streets. Colonial buildings built on the foundations of Inca structures. Ladies leading sheep and llamas on ropes through the streets. Kids selling postcards and knitted finger puppets. Old ladies selling handmade dolls. School aged "musicians" playing sketchy pan pipe versions of El Condor Pasa (Think of the Simon and Garfunkel version - "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail...". Old med selling cigarettes. Street stands full of alpaca jumpers, woven rugs and stone carvings. Gangs of kids in school uniform marching and carrying the school banner. Shoe shine boys glaring at all the trainer-wearers. Gold shops. Colonial houses and palaces converted into hotels. Beautiful plazas and fountains. Internet cafes on every corner. Trendy coffee bars and cocktail lounges. Restaurants specialising in Novoandean cuisine - imaginative dishes with local ingredients. Ladies in white top hats selling huge round loaves of bread. Jewellery shops. Backpackers walking round with open copies of Lonely Planet South America. Some wearing only local woven clothes. Hounds. Women carrying babies on their backs in multi-coloured blankets. Tour agencies. Magnificent churches.

We'll be back on the 22nd to spent Christmas. Off to the jungle tomorrow. I hope we have a good tent, the creepy crawlies look vicious.

Amazon rainforest trip, day 1
Topic: Peru
The jungle trip started out pretty badly. The night before the trip I was suffering the effects of food poisoning from a local dish called "sufle de rocoto", a kind of stuffed pepper dish. I can't think about it without cringing. That night I emptied the contents of my stomach throughout the course of the night and then had to be up at 5am to begin the 9 hour bus journey though windy Andean roads down through the cloud forest.

We were (of course!) going with a tour company and had to be at the office at ten to six to be picked up. We got there in the pouring rain and met the two other girls who were coming with us: Nora from Germany and Katherine from England. No sign of any bus however.... sooner or later, Nicolas (our guide, a biologist) turned up and we got taxis to the other office for breakfast. The office turned out to be a house on an estate on the outskirts of Cusco. A lady answered the door in her dressing gown and I thought there must be some sort of mistake, but, no, breakfast was ready (for those not too sick to tuck in to a cheese omelet).

The driver was late so while we waited, Nicolas showed us a video in Japanese about the section of the Amazon rain forest we were going to visit: Manu Biosphere Reserve. Time dragged on and we wondered whether watching the video would be the closest we would get to the forest!

Finally, the driver and truck arrived and we filled it with our bags, water bottles, tents etc and got on board. After about 5 minutes of driving through Cusco, the brakes failed, the driver lost control of the truck and piled into the back of a taxi. Fortunately, no one was hurt but it took an hour of angry negotiations to sort things out. We wouldn't be using the bus with no brakes for the trip we were pleased to learn.

We squeezed ourselves and minimum baggage into a Mitsubishi jeep instead and were off again.
After 10 minutes of driving, the driver started to have problems with the gears and the car filled with black smoke so we pulled over. We were beginning to think the trip was doomed. Food poisoning, late driver, a crash and now gearbox trouble! Would we ever get there?

The car was fine, we just think that the driver was trying to change gear in 4X4 mode being unused to it. After a few minutes of fiddling, we were off and there was no more trouble for the next 8 days.

The road was scarily narrow with steep drops down into the valley below but our driver was very careful which is more than can be said for the local buses! We drove through many small villages seemingly full of women in strange hats toiling. Where were the men?

We had a brief stop for lunch (which I couldn't eat) and a few quick walks, but we had lost so much time, we drove most of the day and reached the lodge well after dark. After a quick dinner (which I couldn't eat), we crashed out until our 5am wakeup call the next day.

Machu Picchu
Topic: Peru
I am writing this in a little tourist town full of pizza restaurants and postcard shops called Aguas Calientes. What am I doing here? It's the town nearest to Machu Picchu. We did it. We finished the Inca Trail and had a really wonderful time.

Here are some highlights:

- The beautiful trails through cloud forests and rain forests, up high peaks and into fertile valleys.

- The food. A team of staff carried tents, cooking equipment and food and created the most amazing meals three times a day. It really was posh camping.

- Morning tea delivered to our tent as a wake up call each morning at 6am along with a bowl of hot water for washing!

- Our fellow trekkers. A really nice, fun and supportive group all around our age. It helped that we all had a similar hiking ability and we never had to wait more than 5 minutes for everyone to finish a stretch.

- Our guide Aly. Very relaxed yet encouraging and professional.

- Our crew of cooks and porters. We wouldn't have been able to do it without them.

- The weather. Even though it was the wet season, we had very little rain.

- The birds, butterflies and flowers. Beautiful beautiful, beautiful!

- The single beer we each carried for 8 hours, 12km and up to over 4000m high and down to the camp so that we could celebrate our success of day 2 - the most difficult day. We were very restrained and chilled the bottles in the river first!

- The first glimpse of Machu Picchu at sunrise as the mist cleared. Breath-taking.

- Wandering around the ruins on day 5 and climbing up to the mountain overlooking the city in search of the perfect photograph.

So what's next? Back to Cusco for a couple of days and then into the Amazon forest for 8 days. See you when we get back!

Inca Trail
Topic: Peru
Well, after years of dreaming and planning, tomorrow is when we start the Inca Trail walk. 4 days, 46km up to 4000m through the mountains to Machu Picchu. There is a thunder storm in Cusco right now...I hope it clears a bit but just in case, I have bought a beautiful orange plastic poncho to cover everything. At 6.30 tonight we have a briefing meeting where we meet our guide and the other people in our group. 2 Australians, 2 Germans and a Spanish guy. I am relieved that I am not the oldest, but I am worried whether I am fit enough...we will see. Here's our itinerary if you are interested: Itinerary

See you in 4 or 5 days...

Isla del sol
Topic: Bolivia
A key spiritual place for the Incas was an island inside Lake Titicaca. We took a slowboat full of backpackers over to it. I cringed at all the exposed white skin in the harsh high altitude sun.

The island looks like a Greek island surrounded by beautiful blue water. 3000 people live there in 3 urban settlements. they keep pigs, sheep and llamas and tend coca and potato crops on the ancient terraces originally used by pre-Inca civilizations (Tiwanaku), we visited a small museum showing pottery and gold belonging to the Tiwanaku civilization which is now underwater. we walked for about 45 minutes to the north of the island to see ruins including a creepy sacrificial alter. We then had a lovely hike for about 2 hours back to the south of the island along a high path - 4000m above sea level where the boat would pick us up again. Good practice for the Inca trail on the 8th...just multiply it by about 12.

Copacabana, Lake Titicaca
Topic: Bolivia
Even though we had booked a bus ticket in advance with a decent company, the agent messed up and had to put us on public transport. This meant luggage on the roof, black fumes coming in through the open windows, sacks of groceries in the aisles and people crammed in standing for 4 hours on the journey from La Paz to Copacabana.

When we reached the straights we caught a motor boat - again crammed beyond safe - while our bus went across on a raft. We thought it was going to sink, but it made it.

The peninsular is quite bleak and scrubby but the colour of lake Titicaca lake is a beautiful deep blue. Our hostel was at the top of the hill with a fabulous view over the lake and Copacabana beach.

We went for a walk down to the beach lined with places selling drinks and grilled lake trout. An ancient, deaf bowler-hatted old lady in black dragged us into her cafe where we sat for a while having a drink and looking at the lake while she took out her teeth and played with them.

Copacabana town is tiny but quite interesting. The cathedral looks like a mosque.How did that happen? the restaurants are fabulous, selling very inventive, healthy food in rustic courtyards.
Sunset over the lake was one of the best I have ever seen. All in all we passed a pleasant mellow few days in this town.