Dec 27: Guayaquil

Finally a decent internet connection. Well, not "decent"... perhaps "passable".

We're in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where we have our first hotel with free wireless, and as such have finally managed to get caught up on blog postings. This is really just a stopover for us before heading out to the Galapagos tomorrow (so no more blog postings for a week). We did a brief walking tour of the city, but at 31C we didn't last long and instead retired to our hotel to catch up on laundry and intertubing.

Oh, and if you like iguanas, we've got your stinkin' iguanas:

Dec 27: Lima

Lima was a blur. We had an afternoon car tour around the city and walked through various churches and museums, but it was information overload for us at this point since we've had such a busy week.

Now the sun sets on the Peruvian leg of the journey.


(In other news, Andrew forgot his beard trimmer and thus is now completely clean shaven.)

Dec 25: Ruined for Ruins

Today our guide took us to several more ruins in the countryside around Cusco. They were impressive but we've pretty much hit our limit for Incan ruins.

The really interesting aspect of today was seeing how Christmas is observed in the countryside and small villiages of Peru. Basically it amounts to drinking, performing a small parade, and more drinking. In the larger villages the parades are more polished and professional:


In the smaller villages, the focus is more on getting as much maise beer inside you before the parade sets out:


Tomorrow back to Lima.

Dec 24: Bonus Post!

ZOMG was the ride home ever fun! As we pulled out of the station, they herded us down into the drinks car for pre-dinner champaigne and Pisco Sours. They had a two-man mariachi band singing Latino standards, occasionally morphing into a four-man band by getting passengers to play the maracca's and bongo drums.


We then went back to our dining car for a five-course Christmas dinner and then happily dozed as the train rumbled on through the night.

We arrived back at Cusco at 10PM to find bustling with activity. The Peruvians celebrate Christmas Eve by spending the afternoon in the market buying gifts for the baby Jesus in the creche, then stay up drinking until midnight when they have their Christmas dinner, followed by drinking until 4 or 5. As such, the streets were alive with people celebrating, drinking, and setting off firecrackers.

At last, we got back to the Monestario hotel to find that we had been moved into a two-floor suite.

Best. Festivus. Eve. Ever.

Dec 24: I've Had Enough Vertigo for One Lifetime.

Many people have told us that one of the best things to do is to cliumb Wynu Picchu (the peak you see in the background of every picture of Machu Picchu - “Wynu Picchu” means “New Mountain”; “Machu Picchu” means “Old Mountain”). However, they limit it to 400 people a day starting at 7AM, so we decided to get all our bags packed, a 6AM wake-up call, and have an early night. We awoke early to a torrential downpour so just went back to bed instead. (That goodness we weren't hiking the Inca Trail to wake up to this!)

After an extra hour's sleep, a hearty breakfast, and the purchase of a couple ponchos from the hotel, we decided to try the climb in the rain. At 9AM we were only numbers 97 and 98 of the day, so obviously we weren't the only ones to decide to lie in a bit. As the rain had subsided to a light shower and the jungle heat started to kick in, we found ourselves as soaked with sweat on the inside of the ponchos as we were with rainwater on the outside, so we ended up taking them off after twenty minutes. The climb up Wynu Picchu was steep and precarious, but the view from the top was spectacular.


After a difficult descent, we headed up the other side of the ruins to the famous Sun Gate where those hiking the Inca Trail get their first spectacular view of Machu Picchu. Henceforth, we shall only refer to it as the Cloud Gate:


We couldn't see a thing from up there, though typically once we decended back to the ruins and looked back up, the clouds had burnt off and there was a perfect line of sight down to the ruins. :(

Now we've cleaned up in the hotel's day room, then had a good lunch and are killing time drinking in the lounge waiting for our bus to arrive to take us to our train, where the plan is to have a good dinner and then kill time drinking until we arrive back in Cuzco.

A note on spelling.

I know the spelling and grammar on the latest postings are a mess, but I'm catching up on old posts using the world's slowest internet connection and the online spell-checker won't work on it. :(

Dec 23: A little easier than the Spanish Conquistadors had it...

Another early start – we're not sure if we've hired tour guides or slave drivers. Our naseau had not worn off so we mostly pushed our breakfasts' around the plate rather than eat it. Today's target were the famous ruins of Machu Picchu. There are two main ways to get there:

1) A rugged four-day trek along the Inca Trail, carrying everything you need on your back, sleeping under the stars, and communing with spirits of the centuries of travelers who have gone this way before you; or...

2) A three-hour ride in a first-class train, enjoying a three-course meal, and getting pleasantly drunk like a spoiled, elitest snob

As the train cruised past the head of the Inca Trail, the maitre-de was kind enough to point it out for us. Andrew was almost bothered enough to pause eating his spinach and quinoa canneloni to take a picture. Almost.


Machu Picchu is every bit as good it looks in the pictures; better even. It resides among mountains that are among the most rugged and sheer we've ever seen, and almost every vantage point is picturesque. (Warning to anyone we show our photos to: there are a LOT of pictures from today.) Even better is the access: you can explore and climb around all areas of the ruins without limits; anything you've ever seen in a picture of this site is completely accessible while you're here. Sadly, our high standards were let down when we had to share our private tour guide with two other families for this leg – what is the world coming to?

Tonight we're staying at the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, on top of the mountain and just a few dozen metres from the ruins. We've got a food and booze inclusive night in a room with a terrace overlooking the ruins.


We had a bottle of wine sent up to our room to drink on the terrace while catching up on blog postings. Life's rough – pity us.

Dec 22: If I Wanted a Hangover, I'd Get Drunk

Up early on day two to go back to the airport and fly to Cusco. (A big shout-out to Lima's airport authority: that was the most efficient, pleasant, and low-agro airport experience we've ever had.) As soon as you get off the plane in Cusco the altitude (3500m) hits you with a faint lightheadedness; as the day progresses it moves on to a thundering headache and general naseua. It generally feels like a moderate hangover, only without that nuisance of having to get pleasantly pissed beforehand. Luckily they gave us a whopping two hours to acclimatize before our day's activities began – and during that two hours we also had to find somewhere to have lunch. Again, another beautiful hotel (this time a old monestary renovated into a 5-star hotel) was largely wasted as we had very little time there before our next guide came to pick us up.


Our guide in and around Cusco, Philip, was Andrew's Peruvian Mental Twin – they had the same opinions on religion, politics, economics, etc. He led us around the various churches and ruins in and around the city, plus through the many sidestreets that were very “authentic”: depressing poverty, wild dogs running everywhere, and unbelieveably narrow roads which were no wider than they had been when the Incans first laid them down. (We ended up at the front of a traffic jam caused by a family that had decided to roll a wheelchair-bound elderly woman the opposite way down the street. The road wasn't wide enough for the wheelchair plus our van, and they weren't backing up!)


An early night was required since the altitude sickness really started to kick in. The hotel had an option of oxygenating the room, but at the cost of $100USD, Andrew decided that sleep was the real antidote.

Dec 21: Made It.

The trip down here was long but uneventful: Calgary to San Francisco; wait three hours; on to San Salvador on a red-eye; wait six hours; then on to Lima. Andrew had been nervous about the connections since they had been booked separately through each airline and there was no fallback plan if anything went awry, but once we found our private guide at Lima airport we could finally relax. We've lashed out for the deluxe tour for the Peru leg of our journey and as such we have private guides throughout, meeting us at every airport and hotel and taking care of all the details.

Our hotel in Lima is one of the best in town and was GORGEOUS: a huge room, view of the coastline, and a swank bathroom with a huge tub and a the highest-throughput shower we've ever seen. (You could easily drown standing up in the thing.) Even the breakfast restaurant was stunning:


Sadly, we didn't get there until past 8 and had to be up at 6 to move on the next morning, so we didn't really get a chance to enjoy it.

First impression of the Peruvians is that they are incrediably warm and generous. (Post ed: this has been repeatadly backed up in the coming days.)

Online, at last.

Our first internet access so far is at our hotel in Machu Picchu but it is painfully slow, so we can´t load up our posts yet. They should be up when we get back to Lima on Friday. We´re doing great, though.

Happy Festivus, everyone.