A Bert perspective

Well, Tania's been too busy having fun with me for the last two weeks to have time for blog writing but I've offered to cover the main excitements as I've got some time during the flight back to the UK.

Well, we first stayed at a little hostel in Mira Flores, a district of Lima but as soon as I arrived, Tania had to go into a hospital on a drip. I'm being dramatic, she was fine after 24hrs of drinking Peruvian medicinal strawberry juice (& antibiotics). We were looked after by the incredibly helpful hostel owner, Angelo.

Mira Flores is a posh area and reminded me of the States with enormous wide roads and pavements. We flew to Cusco on Sunday 16th March which is a town of 450,000 up at 3600m in the Andes. It's full of Inca ruins interspersed between colonial Spanish architecture which makes it look a bit like Spain. I booked us into a posh hotel so that Tania could have a hot shower and some luxuries she's probably been missing for the last two months - and to try and impress her which, I think, worked. One of the first things we saw was a woman coming out of the lift in the hotel gasping and crying out very loudly and pressing an oxygen cylinder to her face. The Incas were only around for 96 years - in the 15th Century but built lots of stuff out of big rocks - including Machu Picchu which was the destination of our four day Inca Trail trek, starting on 19th.

We spent a couple of days in bars, restaurants and wooly hat / llama jumper / carved chess set / fake alpaca knitwear markets acclimatising to the thin air. An alpaca is like a llama with hairier legs. Both are big in Peru.

The first two days of the Inca Trail took us up through incredible Andean mountain scenery. We were with four guides. About 9 obligatory and very speedy porters carrying our tents and three tonnes of food. We carried everything else. Day 2 included a vertical climb of 1200m up to Warmiwanuska. The tiredness this caused, combined with the effects of altitude and that of chewing coca leaves most of the way up had put Tania in a sufficiently vulnerable position, I felt, so I asked her to marry me. It worked, she said yes. The rest of the group wondered why we were crying together round the corner when we were supposed to be posing for a group photograph. Anyway, that was all very exciting. I gave her a temporary ring made of plywood until she gets back to London.

Then we had another couple of days hiking through jungle. After a 4am start on Friday 21st we got to the Sun Gate by about 6 for sunrise, although even my sundance didn't bring sun until after we'd left the sun gate. We did spend the day in Machu Picchu though and it's spectacular - South America's No. 1 tourist attraction.

Tania and I opted to stay an additional night in a village with a railwaytrack through its high street, called Agua Calientes. The other trekkers: Dennis and Catalina, Shirly and four blonde Swedish ninjas went back to Cusco. We needed a shower.

We spent another four or so days in cold Cusco in slightly less posh hotels buying stuff, visiting the cathedral, whitewater rafting and boozing. Also eating guinea pigs. Brilliant. We visited a place called "sexy woman" which the incas built somehow. It's like Stonehenge but bigger and better. Some of the rocks they transported and carved into perfect shape weigh up to 180tonnes.

Then back to Lima on Thursday 27th to do not very much. We visited a friend of a friend in a shantytown in Lima who has a small manufacturing business and it was very interesting to see a slightly different side of Lima life to tourist restaurants and artisan markets.

My flight home was delayed by 18 hours so we got an extra day together in the end and we got to try cerviche (Peruvian raw fish with chilli and lemon) and heart kebabs. My stomach is fine as I write this. Fingers crossed. An absolutely amazing two weeks for me - only a small slot of Tania's mammoth adventure.

Lord of the rings...

Sunday 30th March

Hola everyone, its been a while since last entry... but thats because have been having a bloomin brilliant time with Mr Bert. Bert flew home yesterday (boo) so its back to solo travelling for me.

Some of you will already know... but for those of you that don't, Bert and I are now engaged! Blimey! Was all rather lovely and a complete surprise... Bert popped the question on the second day of our Inca trail (20th March)... just after we'd arrived at the highest point of the trail (4215m) called Warmiwanuska. A complete surprise... I was in the middle of composing a potentially award winning photograph of some grass!!!

The rest of the trail was great and Machu Picchu was beautiful... we spent a night in Aguas Calientes (a pretty town near Machu Picchu) and then a few more days in Cusco. We went rafting and took some tours of the surrounding Inca sites... all good fun and really interesting. Luckily I dont have the photos of Bert and I in our wetsuits to upload for you all... phew! Its not the good look.

I'm now in Nazca (south of Lima in Peru)... am going to take a flight over the Nazca lines in the morning before heading on to Arequipa in the evening.

Look who I found...

Tuesday 18th March

Bert's here! Hurray. Met up in Lima fine although I managed to time getting a bout of food poisoning perfectly with Bert's arrival and spent our first day being ill... how romantic. However... after seeing a doctor and taking it easy I am back to normal and we are now in Cusco.

Hello. Bert here. Yippee! I´ve arrived and managed to meet up with Tania (thanks to the name board she was holding up for me at Lima airport). Having a few days "acclimatising" to the altitude of 3360m (which means lying about eating, drinking beer and not doing very much - how inconvenient) before starting our four day trek to 4,200m and to Machu Picchu tomorrow morning at 6am. Cusco is big and Spanish looking and there´s a Catholic festival going on so also rammed. Have discovered coco leaf toffees, corn cakes, alpaca steak but yet to try flattened guinea pig or llama burger. Saving those treats for after our trek. OOoh - I can promote my map here - www.sproutdesign.co.uk/transfer/taniamap.jpg

Tania again... so yes, we start our trek tomorrow and really looking forward to it although its going to be strange camping after spending 3 nights in a loverly hotel (which Bert booked as a surprise, ah)!

My journey from Iquique in Chile to Lima was a bit of a mission... I left at 7am on 13th and arrived at 1pm on 14th after a bus ride a collectivo ride across the border and finishing with a 19 hour bus ride, nice. However they had bingo on the bus which was good fun!!!

Well, must go and explore Cusco some more. Will let you know how our trek went when we get back in 5 days.

Adios,

T and Bert

A day of firsts...

Sunday 9th March

Hola from San Pedro de Atatcama. I am in the desert, the driest in the world apparently. It is hot.

Yesterday went to see the Valle Muerte (Valley of Death, nice) and Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon). Spectacular scenery and really different to anything I've seen before.

The helpful leaflet we were given said that the large sand dune in the Valle de la Luna was "probably due to the moving of sand". Thank goodness they cleared that one up for me! Ha.

Today as the title suggests was a day of firsts. Went to the El Tatio Geyser field up at 4320m, the highest in the world and third largest in the world and the largest in the southern hemisphere (for those of you who like facts). So, I saw my first geyser and my first llama, and I ate my first bit of llama (mmm, muy rico) and my camera broke for the first time (boo) but it was luckily the first time I've successfully fixed a camera (phew).

Tonight I get the bus further north to Iquique.

Thoughts on travelling

Tuesday 4th March

Wow, nothing on the blog for ages and then 3 posts in one day, its like London buses. I've been away now for a month and a half and thought I'd note some observations.

Backpackers' currency... good quality, durable plastic bags, ziploc bags and good teabags are all valuable curency for trade! Its funny what things become valuable when you dont have 'normal' stuff around you. I met a girl who had marmite and instantly started drooling... mmm.

I go half way round the world for adventure and Britain goes and has an earthquake without me, pah! Mind you, I don't fancy having one here though... its funny seeing 'fire and earthquake' safety signs.

Volcano climbing

Tuesday 4th March

Pucon is just under halfway to Santiago, near the east of Chile. Its a volcanic area and the town sits on a lake at the foot of Volcan Villaricca... which I wanted to climb! Its 2780m which is a touch higher then Mount Blanc (i think).

It was too cloudy to climb in on Friday, my first day in Pucon, so I postponed til Sunday when the weather forecast promised sun. Its not safe to climb in cloud because you cant see rocks falling (of which there were scarily alot of) which have been dislodged by snow melting and climbers higher on the mountain.

So Saturday I went rafting in a 2 man raft called a ducky. It was fun although the river was low which meant that alot of rocks were near the surface and we kept getting stuck on them. It was fun except in one instance when we got pushed off course by the force of the river onto a slope of rocks. Our raft got well an truly wedged between two rocks and consequently started to sink beneath the water. The only way out was to try and free the raft and then try not to fall out as it slid over 20 metres or so of rocks (backwards) into the rough water below! Well, once I realised it wasn't as dangerous as it felt and that we didnt have to get out of the raft it was quite exhilarating but was relieved when we regrouped further down river.

Sunday was volcano climbing day. Set off at 7am with a group of 6 climbers and 2 guides all kitted out with crampons, ice axes, helmets, gaitors, waterproofs and rather oddly a 'nappy' as it was called!!! We drove to the start point and then took a ski lift up part of the way (it was compulsory). Then it was a steady paced walk on rock to the start of the snow. Trudged up the snow, dodging falling rocks. It makes you feel quite small when you are on a steep ice slope watching a rock boucing and thundering towards you in a completely unpredictable way. Luckily none came too close, although one climber in another group got knocked off balance by a stone the size of a tennis ball... doesn't take much!

Got to the crater after about 4 hours of climbing and it was amazing. A bit smelly though! Reminded me of the smell in chemistry labs at school. The volcano was steaming nicely although it wasnt possible to see the actual hole or bubbling lava because the crater was too deep. View was fantastic and could see all the surrounding volcanoes. The one next door had erupted only a couple of weeks earlier! Although Villaricca last erupted in 1984.

The most fun bit was going down the volcano... thats where the nappy came into play. Basically we togged up in all our waterproof gear, strapped this nappy thing round our bottoms and then slid down the snow. There were 3 snow slide runs, the first was flat but fast, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. The second and third were in a sort of groove in the snow like a luge run. I liked going super fast... although had to keep braking with my ice axe (boo).

There were some really cool rocks from where the lava had flowed and cooled. And as we know, "its all in the rocks" eh Sian!

The towns in the volcanic region all have sirens, like the old airraid sirens which they test every day at noon. Unfortunately I didnt know this the first time it happened and it completely scared the wotsits out of me!

So got back to Pucon, showered and jumped on a bus to Santiago which is where I am now.

Chillin' in Chiloe in Chile

Tuesday 4th March

Its been a while since I updated you all so here's what I've been up to...

Chiloe was really lovely, I enjoyed staying here and was nice to have a relaxing few days without and major activity! I stayed for 3 nights in Ancud in the north of the island.

Took an excursion to see some penguins... the only place where you can see 2 different species in the same place (apparently)... the Humbolt and the Magallan penguins. I was lucky enough to not only catch a glimpse of but to get really close to a very rare type of penguin which is easy to tell apart from the others because it is almost 6 foot tall (see photo)!

Took a bus to Castro, the island's capital, for a day... saw some palifitos (which are houses built on stilts by the river). Saw a couple for sale which was tempting!

On Thursday I got a bus back to mainland Chile and on to Pucon.