Huaraz

In Huaraz we visited the Languna Llanganuco and the Chavin de Huantar.

The Laguna Llanganuco, is high up in the valley at 3,850 meters, it is surrounded by two glaciers. The lagoon itself has a turqoise glow which is caused by the glacier silt reflecting the sun.

Chavin de Huantar, was the capital of the Chavín culture, which spread across Peru from 900–200 b.c., nearly 2,000 years before the Incas. There are several underground chambers which are maze like halls, they lead nowhere but apparently would have been used when people had hallucinations. Noises would be echoed through the halls to scare the hallucinating people. In these chambers. The halls are made of large stone, and have sandy floors. In the centre of one chamber is the carved statue called the Lanzón. This granite pillar is carved with a frightening mythical being in great detail.

Arequipa - El Misti Volcano

In Arequipa, we did a two day trek on El Misti which is a 5825m volcano. The first day we walked uphill for 6 hours, the air is very thin and gets thinner each hour you go up. It was very difficult, as least half of it was just climbing up very jagged rocky ground, and we were carrying our big bags, plus the tent, mats, sleeping bags, food etc. Sam and the guide Alex arrived at camp before Samantha, who was walking around 4 steps and then siting down for a rest. She was not very well from altitude sickness. Once we all reached camp, we had soup and pasta for tea and then went to bed at 6pm, as Sam had to be up at 1am. Before bed we noticed the city lights and the stars once again were truely amazing, with a gorgeous bright orange sunset. At 1am, Sam and the guide left for the summit of the volcano to climb the last 1325m (the recommended height to climb in a day is around 700-800m t0o avoid altitude sickness...). Unfortunately Samantha couldnt go as she was too unwell. She stayed in the tent alone, on the side of the volcano very scared. After twenty minutes of Sam having left, an animal of some sort started sniffing around the tent and eating any remainders of ths soup. Samantha very scared, tried to sleep. Sam meanwhile had reached the top in 4 hours, whilst his toes and lips had swollen up and his fingers were numb, but didnt suffer any altitude sickness luckily. He was freezing cold and his bottle of water actually froze along with his toes and fingers. A good example of the body concentrating on the essential organs lol. After staying at the top for 10 minutes or so due to having a big toe the size of a small potato and being frozen Alex the guide told me we would be down in less that 1 hour. 4 hours up, 1 hour down? From the summit they literally ran down one of the faces of the volcano because it just consisted of sand. For Sam that was a sport by its self, it was like skiing, but your hiking boots were the skis. It was pretty fun running down 1325m down a volcano back to base camp. From base camp we then walked another hour or so to the bottom and to head back to Arequipa.
Also in Arequipa Sam went to a Monostary that took up an entire city block. Inside it had its own street names and everything. Sam also went to see a 500 year old frozen girl 'Juanita the ice maiden' (still had skin, hair, organs, nails) that archeologists discovered on a nearby mountain to the volcano we climbed. At a restaurant in the main square Sam wanted to be a little adventerous and try 'Cuy'....Guinea Pig. When it came it had been opened up to be cooked, but it still had a few organs left in and teeth. There was hardly any meat on it, but it made a good photo.

Arequipa - Colca Canon and Rafting

In Arequipa, we visited the Colca Canon. On our way to the Colca Canon, we passed through a national park called Pampa Canahuas, in this park we saw Vicunas which are similar to alpaca but have less wool. We also saw whilwinds in the sand, they must have been at least 20 feet tall and there were about 15 of them throughout the journey. There was also a point on the journey which was covered in ice, this was the highest point on our tour and we could only stop for a few minutes due to the alltitude. We also saw many churches and local villages, with local people and alpacas. For lunch we went to a buffet restaurant where we tried Alpaca meat (an animal very similar to a LLama found in the Andes). It was pretty disgusting, it didnt have a pleasant taste at all. We finished the first day in a town called Chivay. In the evening we went to a local restauraunt and watched traditional dancers. At the end of the night, the final dance involved a woman being hit by a length of rope and being flung over the mans back. Samantha funnily enough was chosen as the nervous victim and got beaten by the rope. Luckily she got no bruises. On the second day, we saw a brilliant view of Colca Valley, and the terrances used for farming. We passed through a tunnel in the rock face which must have been at least 400m long, no lighting, and no asthetic work, just jagged rock. The Colca Canon is the largest canon in the world, with a depth more than 3400m, we stopped here and patiently awaited for Condors, the largest flying bird in the world, with a wing span of 3m. Sam perched himself on a rock in the valley wall, and got amazingly close to the Condor.

On returning to Arequipa, we spent the night in our hostel and the next day completed a level 3 river rafting expedition. The River Chilli, is the most popular in Arequipa and our run lasted one hour. We were accompanied by just 2 guides, making the raft itself very light in comparasion to a more full raft. This made the run faster and more fun, as the guides were more adventurous. During the run we went backwards into rocks, spun around and went down a 5 foot drop.

Lake Titicaca

We took a small boat with a group of other tourists on the 8500 square kilometer lake, for about 30 minutes to the Isla Uros (Uros Islands). These many small islands are totally made up of the reed that grows in the lake naturally. The inhabitants float huge pieces of root filled soil and anchor them to the bottom of the lake. They then lay masses of the dried reed on the soil and make themselves their own island to live on. The islands themselves are spongy to walk on due to them only being made from soil and reed floating on water. We got took into one of their houses to be shown some handicrafts and how the locals live. We then got back on the boat for 3 hours to get to Isla Amantani,( a real island, not a floating reed island) where we had our very own local family to stay with for the night. We had our own room there in the house with a 4-5 foot door which was handy to get through at night. They fed us basic food as they dont have meat on the island. Each family may only have up to 15 sheep but when one of the family members is married they kill 5 sheep to eat at the ceremony so they cant eat meat at all. So we had rice and curried veg. We also had peppermint tea, but the peppermint was actually off the bush in twig form, so we had quite a twiggy and leafy cup of peppermint tea. We walked to the highest point of the island to view the scenery of the lake and to watch the sunset. At the night time there were a blanket of hundreds stars out in the sky (too many times on our travels have we seen this that we dont get to see at all in England). We also got dressed up in the local islanders clothes for the ´grande fiesta´ (big party) with all the other families and their adopted tourists. Sam wore a cloth poncho and a hat, but Samantha got the full works, a petti coat, pleated skirt, embroided shirt, waist belt and a shawl. At the party we were dancing with our local family whislt the young boys played local music (drum, guitar, panpipes, wood flute and ukelele) and of course there was plenty of cerveza (beer). The next day we said bye to our family and headed off on an hour boat ride to Isla Taquile. Here the local dress is more or less the same but more plain. The other difference is that single men wore a red and white hat, where as married men wore a stripy one. Single women wore a coloured skirt, where as married women wore a black one. Here on Taquile we walked around the island and learnt about the local traditions and customs before we got back on the boat for the 3 hour ride back to Puno (the city on the Peruvian side as half he lake is also in Bolivia).

Salkantay Trek

On the day of leaving for our Slaknatay trek we were travelling to the starting point Mollepata at 4.30am, here we had breakfast and prepared to walk the first 10km. In Mollepata we were advised to buy Coca leaves for chewing on to help alltiude sickness. Before lunch the walk gradually ascended. For lunch we stopped and had our food served to us by 2 waiters and a chef in uniform, this was very funny considering the view was Humantay Glacier and we were 3700m above sea level. Lunch consided of a starter (always prepared as a 5* restaurant would), a soup, a buffet lunch of about 10 huge plates for 12 of us. After around 7km more walking , passing the Humantay Glacier, we reached the first camp. This was the coldet camp and was -10 degrees, so difficult to sleep for Samantha in her -5 sleeping bag. The second day we woke up at 4 and had 18 km to walk, half uphill and half downhill. The air was very thin and sometimes difficult to breathe due to the allitude. We passed through Salkantay Valley and saw Salkantay Mountain. We heard 2 avalanches but did not see them, apparently they are very common there. Once arriving at the second camp, after walking a long time, we had our happy hour ( crackers, jam, hot drinks, juice, popcorn) and our 3 course tea. This night was slightly warmer but still cool. On the third day we woke up at 6am and walked for 12km, we reached Camp Playa (unfortunately not by a beach, Playa is Beach in Spanish ) by lunch and Sam still had time to play some Glacier side football on the way with the guides and other tourists. At La Playa we washed in the river which was absolutley freezing as its water source was from the glaciers. On the forth day we went to the hot springs in Santa Teresa, these are natural and crystal clear and by the bottom of the mountains. There were 3 hot springs and one cold one, which Sam dared to go in. The best one was the size of a swimming pool, and deep enough to dive in. We then caught a train to Aguas Caliente and stayed in a hotel for our final night. The fifth moring we woke up at 4am and joined a bus queue for the Machu Picchu ruins. When we arrived in Machu Picchu at 6am, it was cloudy and cold as its 2400m above sea level. After our tour by our guide Marco we adventured it ourselves and the weather cleared up. We hiked to the sungate which had spectactular views. The view we had was incrediblle, it looked unreal like something from a film. It was also much bigger than we had imagined, from the pictures that we have seen. We saw proof that the site had never been finished and the Quechan people had abandoned it before it was complete, probably due to spanish invaders. We saw a sundial which on the 22nd of June for 4 minutes is on the equater of the earth. Machu Picchu was incredible. Finally we got a bus back down to Aguas Calinete as we didnt fancy more hiking after the 60km we had just done.

Nazca and Cusco

In Nazca, we Visited the Nazca Lines, we did this by visiting an observing tower, but most importantly taking a 35 minute flight in a cesna plane, to see them from the air. This was an amazing experience, and the lines looked amazing from the air. We managed to see the several including the spider, hummingbird, monkey and whale. These lines are beleived to have been created by the Nazcan people from 900BC, to attract attention from the gods to help rainfall.

After an 18 hour bus journey from Nasza, we arrived in Cuzco. Cuzco is 3326m above sea level, so we were there to acclimatize before the Salkantay trek. In Cuzco we visited Saqsaywaman, Pisac, Q`engo, Pukapukara and Tambomachany, all of which are inca ruins. We also visited Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo where we watched traditional andean dances. In Qorikancha museum, we saw mummys which had been preserved and saw many inca artifacts. In Cuzco Cathedral, we did a self guided tour with headphones. The cathedral itself was built in 1559, and survived the earthquake in 1650.

Peru - Lima and Huacachina

Before we could begin our flight to Lima, we had to spend 17 hours in Caracas Airport until 6am the next morning. This was worse than we imagined as there were no chairs, except in the food court. The flight was fine, we both slept straight through. In Lima, we stayed at a very grand hotel, there were pieces of artwork and statues of naked greek men everywhere. In Lima we visited San Francisco Monastery, where we did a tour of the catacombs. In the catacombs there were over 25, 000 peoples bones all arranged into bone catorgories in graves. We also looked around at the Cathedral, the Congress building and the Inquisition Museum where people used to be tortured for information. We then went to China town where we looked around the market and had sweet and sour chicken, which was a welcomed change.

Next we went to Huacachina where we did sandboarding. This involved riding up the dunes in a dune buggy and sandboard down them. First Samantha slid down the dune using the board as a sledge, Sam went down standing up. On the last dune we were both standing, however Samantha went to fast and fell over and got a face full of sand.

Coro and Puerto Columbia

In Merida after all the activities we had about 8 days spare until we flew to Peru. We decided to go to a colonial town called Coro. Here we walked around the center, which is preserved as a world heritage site. We were waiting in Coro for 3 days to do a tour of a peninsular that is joined to the mainland by a thin strip of land. On the tour we were took to various small towns to look at the buildings and things. In one town we were let into a church by the priests son called ´Jesus´ (pronouced hay-sus) which was ironic. Here we went up to the bell tower and loked around the church. We also did a walk around a arid woodland, where we saw cactus, something that translates to tree beard, a bright red bird. There also lives a bright blue trantular, but when we went they were all sleeping so we didnt get to see any unfortunately. We got taken to a lighthouse on the most northen point of South America. We went to a lake that i so concentrated with salt the colour of the water is pink and ther are loads of huge salt crystals around. Near the salt lake we got to see wild flamingos. Nearer to the end of the day we stopped off at a beach for an hour and then headed towards the narrow strip of land thats connected to the mainland. In this strip there happens to be a desert with huge sand dunes.
After Coro we decided to go to some beaches at Puerto Columbia on the coast as it was fairly near to Caracas (the capital city) for the flight to Lima in Peru. From Coro we got a bus to Maracay and then from there you can get to Puerto Columbia. The bus journey to Puerto Columbia was crazy. It was a total pimped out American school bus type with tinted windows, blasting reggeton out (Venezuela music similar to Sean Paul, but more rap-like with massive beat), driving over a huge hills with windy, foggys bends. Rather than the driver brake round a corner, he would just beep his ship sounding horn and expect any oncoming traffic to hear this and stop. Also his green lights didnt help with the fog as it made the fog blend in with the forest. In Puerto Columbia we have just been going to the beach. On the beach there are at least 6 foot waves everyday so you cant swim too far our as they just batter you around. Everyday so far the life guards have been going in because people cant swim back because they are stuck in between the huge waves sucking them back and hitting them all the time. Also when you are trying to avoid getting hit by a wave you are also dodging the surfers riding them.

Merida

From Isla de Margarita we took a bus to Merida. On our 1st day we did paragliding on the Andes mountain range. We drove from Merida about an hour and made our way up part of the mountain range and waited there for the wind to be right so we can take off. You basically just stand there and then the wind catches the parachute and your off. No running or anything you just get lifted up. We both had a pilot flying it for us and we went up at the same time. It lasted for about 30 minutes and we decended around 1000 meters. The views were incredible as we were flying down in the middle of a gorge with the Andes either side of us. Plus there was a rainbow. Sams pilot decided to do some quite tight downwards spirals where you plummit about 100 meters in a few seconds. Samantha saw this and was glad her pilot didn´t really do that as she was feeling a little motion sick. The pilots stopped on the way home and decided to buy us some beers, a water melon juice for samantha and snacks, which topped off the day. They also introduced us to the oldest man in the village.



The 2nd day we did canyoning, which is a mix of rock climbing, abseiling, jumping into plunge pools in and around waterfalls and sliding down natural water slides in the rock. At the start of the day we once again drove up into the Andes and then walked for about 30 minutes to the gorge where the river and waterfalls were. From here we walked through the river after putting on our wetsuits. The river was rapids or fast flowing water all the way along. During the day we abseiled down 3 water falls. The 1st was 10 meters, the 2nd was 15 meters and the 3rd was around 30 meters. Whilst we were abseiling down the waterfall the water was totaly battering your helmet on you head and throwing your body around. Sometimes it was hard to see and breathe because the water was constantly in your face. It was a scary experience, but also fantastic. In between abseiling down the waterfalls, there were a number of large jumps, one of which was into a very narrow slit between two rock walls. Sam was first to volunteer and made the jump look easy. Samantha on the other hand, wimped out and had to slide down the rock face and in the process twisted and hurt her arm. Next was a slide of about 5 meters and down a rock face, this looked very dangerous due to us not knowing the depth of the water at the bottom. Once we had finished canyoning, we were welcomed by a family having a bbq at the bottom. They invited us to eat with them and to share their wine. This was very tasty and appreciated. We then walked for 5 minutes and were given are provided lunch back at the jeep. We were stuffed.


On the 3rd day we went on the worlds longest and highest cable car ride, the Teleferico de Merida, which was around a 3000 meter ascent on 4 cable cars to a snow topped mountain called Pico Espejo (4765 meters). The ascent took about an hour into the clouds. Due to ascending 3000 meters in an hour or so you get a headache and at the top the air is pretty thin, which makes it hard to breathe so we didn´t stay up there long to avoid getting altitude sickness. Also we went to an ice cream shop, which is in the guiness book of records for having over 900 flavours. Sam had the flavours spaghetti and cheese, which made him feel sick as it was disgusting, coffee mocca and maltin polar, which is a malt, horlicks tasting energy drink in Venezuela. Samantha had rose water flavour and cheese and ham flavour which was surprisingly nice with lumps of cheese and ham.


We have just got back from a 2 day trip to see an unique natural phenomenon that happens no where else in the world, Catatumbo lightning. The phenomenon is the lightning is accompanied by no thunder at all. This is the collision with the winds coming from the Andes causing the storms and lightning, as a result of electrical discharges through methane created by the decomposition of organic matter in the marshes of Lake Maracaibo. Being lighter than air, the gas rises up to the clouds, feeding the storms. Once we got to the lake we stayed on floating houses in the middle. We went out in the dark to find snakes and caimen, the guoide shone the torch and it would reflect back in animals eyes. We saw 2 monkeys, a group of birds which we got within inches of, a boa constricter and a caimen. The caimen was around 3 years old, and looks alot more muscley and scary than the alligator we caught in the amazon. Sam asked the guide if he could hold the caimen, noone else in the group wanted to. He also wanted to hold the snake, Crazy! That night it was more cloudy than usual because it rained extremely hard earlier on in the day. So rather than seeing the lightning bolts, there were more flashes in the clouds and bolts moving from cloud to cloud instead. To get the pictures sam woke up at 3am and was patiently taking them for about an hour or so. On the 2nd day on the way back to Merida we stopped off at a coffee musuem and a sugar cane place where they made it into a block of a brown sugar substance that tastes malty.

Isla de Margarita

From Angel Falls we decided to skip the Orinico Delta because it was too similar to what we had done in the Amazon in Brazil. Instead we decided to head up to an Island in the Carribean sea to relax for a bit. We had to get a 4-5 hour ferry across to the Island from the mainland of Venezuela. Firstly we headed to Porlamar, the capital of the island. The island is duty free so there were just shops there and one small beach. After 2 nights we moved to the real Isla de Margarita and went to Playa el yaque (El Yaque beach) to improve our tans. This is one of the best destinations in the world for windsurfing and some tournaments are held there each year. We stayed there for a week in a little apartment complex owned by an American a couple of minutes away from the beach. The apartment had satalite tv, kitchen and air con so it was like being on an actual holiday rather than just backpacking which was nice.

Angel Falls

On the first day of our trip to Angle Falls, we visited the falls themselves. We got to the falls via a 3 hour boat ride with scenary of the tepuis mountains all the way, it was very idealic. Halfway there we stopped off in one of the local indigeous peoples home for lunch, we tried some of their homemade bread, which we found quite sour. Luckily we have spaghetti bolognaise for luch rather than the bread. The waters to the falls were very rough at places, and somehow we managed to be sitting in the exact place on the boat where the waves would flood in, Samantha at point of arrival to the falls, was soaked through. We then walked through the jungle to a halfway point of the falls, where we could see the waterfall clearly as the weather was good. We then walked to our camp which was in view of the waterfall. We were sleeping in hammocks which was quite luxorious compared to the tents on Roraima. Next morning we were awoken by the guide as a very friendly and tame anteater was eating the remainder of the dinner from the night before. We then made our way back to the main camp and later on in the afternoon and visited the Sapo Falls which was an amazing experience. Our new guide, Oswaldo was brilliant, he made Samantha a crown from a jungle leaf. We had to wear our swimming wear for this experience as it was a very wet one. We walked behind the waterfall, which was a very noisy and windy experience. At the time of us doing the walk there was a thunder storm which made the experience even more incredible. We could see the sky flashing as we got soaked from the fall. On the final day us and a guy called Anthony from our trip went to a local indigeous restauraunt and surprisingly ordered the best burger and chips possible, which was a nice, but English way to finish the trip.

Venezuela - Roraima

Next we headed off to Santa Elena, where we booked ourselves onto a hike up Roraima, a 2800m table top mountian. In our group there was 6 people, 2 French guys, 1 Venezuelan women and 1 Brazilian guy, our guide used to be native indian from Guyana, but missionaries taught him English and called him Roger when he was young. The first day of the hike we began our hike from the first camp called Paraitepui, we hiked for 6 hours and covered 12 km. We then spent the first night at the first camp called Rio Tek, didnt sleep well as we were staying in tents. Second day we woke at 5am with the sun, had a breakfast of the national famous dish areypas and scrambled egg and headed off to the next camp a further 10.5km along and 450m up. To get to this camp, we crossed two rivers, the second called Kukenan, this river was fast flowing and quite difficult to cross, we wore our socks so we didnt slip and the guide carried Samantha´s bag for her or she would have fell in. The second night we stayed at the bottom of Roraima, at the base camp. Roraima looked within touching distance but next day we realised just how much further it was to the top. The third day we began the walk from base camp to the top of Roraima, which was about 500m up and 2.5km along. When we reached the top we were congratulated by our guide and made the extra walk to hotel Indio, which was basically a cave on the edge of Roraima. We then went to explore the surface, which was the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyles book, The Lost World and for the Jurassic Park film. On the forth day we did some more exploring. We firstly washed in the pools, which were quite cold but refreshing. We walked to the 'window' of Roraima, which was a fallen rock which had created a window of the Guyana rainforest below. We also walked to the highest point of Roraima, which had some amazing views on the way up and from the top. On Roraima because its higher than some clouds when the weather changes Roraima can become very foggy as the clouds roll in. Sam decided to do some rock climbing and twisted his knee which didnt help when the next 2 days were all downhill, putting most of the strain on your knees. The fifth day we walked from the top back down to Rio Tek, this is 15km and almost all downhill. When we reached Rio Tek, we swam in the river there and washed under the small waterfall. The last day was 3.5 hours back and this was 12km. When we finished we were all congratulated with a chinese fried rice lunch, which was much appreciated. Throughout the entire trip we got absolutely covered in bites from various insects, mainly sand flies. We also saw a miniture scorpian hiding under a tent when they were packed away. On the way back from Roraima we went to a small waterfall where the rock was bright red due to magma hardening on the surface.

Porto Velho and the Amazon

From Bonito we travelled 40 hours in 3 buses to get to Porto Velho where we took a 4 day boat trip to Manaus, where we were starting te trip to the Amazon rain forest. We stayed in a cabin on the boat. It had bunkbeds, a toilet with no seat or door and it was pretty small. You could also stay in hammocks, but as the boat filled up with locals the hammock area was completely packed. There were literally 30 side by side in a really small area. There were also hammocks in the aisles where you walk around, it was like a maze weaving and ducking under hammocks to get past. We stayed on the boat 2 days before departure. During this time there were dock workers filling the boats lower deck completely full with water melons, garlic, potatoes, bananas etc. Some of the workers were hauling 4 massive water melons at a time in a bag for the whole day. Once the boat left it took 4 days to get to Manaus. During the voyage we saw lots of pink dolphins in the Rio Madeira river (which was at least a few miles wide). We were the only forigners on the boat and one day two young portugese girls came up to us because they were facinated with blonde hair and our blue eyes. We also met a guy in the cabin next door to us who was teaching us Portugese and we were teaching him English. When we finally got to Manaus we saw a point in which a 'white water' (which was actually brown) and a 'black water' (darker brown) river mixed. At this point there was a sudden line where the water changed into the different river. It was quite strange.

We then booked a 4 day tour into the Amazon rain forest. When we first arrived we bought some local spirt made from sugarcane to make the Brazilian national drink Caipirinha. Firstly our guide James made some and on the second go Sam made some. Both were very nice. The litre bottle of spirt and 13 limes cost the equivilant of 2 quid. The heat in the Amazon really hits you, being 35 degrees each day. On the 1st day we went in a canoe into the floating forest because at this time of year the river rises around 8 meters and floods most of the forest. During the ride in the floating forest we did some more piranah fishing. Samantha caught 2 this time and Sam got none. The guide also got 1, but there was not enough to eat them. Some others did the same activity a few days later and caught 18! Later on in the evening, we went alligator spotting in the canoe. It was pitch black and millions of stars were out, it was really nice. Our guide managed to spot two alligators, the second of which he managed to catch, by jumping out of the canoe into the river and grabbing it with his hands. On the way back, Samantha saw 3 shooting stars, due to the sheer number of stars visible and luck. On the second day we went on a 4 hour jungle walk in the morning. We saw squirrel monkeys, stick insects, tiny frog, humming bird. We made braclets from the wood shaving of a tree, we drank fresh water from a Liana, which wraps itself around trees. James showed us various medicines that can be made from trees. That night we canoed to separate part of the forest, completed a 2 hour walk to a jungle camp and slept in the jungle, in hammocks. We ate our tea out of leaves and used cutlery made freshly from tree branches and washed in the stream. Our guide James, was washing before bed and smell't a tarantula which he caught and brought to us. During the night, Samantha saw a huge jungle frog. The next morning we collected wood to make some blowpipes and made our way back to the main camp. On our final day we made our blowpipes ad went dolphin spotting, but didnt manage to see any.