Ice mummies, earthquakes and volcanos

Yes, where else but Arequipa, Peru. This colonial city is Peru´s second biggest next to Lima, yet it still sparkles after days bussing through desert. It lies in a fertile valley which after so long just seeing sand and rocks is a relief on the eyes. The city is surrounded by 12 volcanos with El Misti (5571m) looming over the Plaza de Armas and the Cathedral. El Misti is another perfect volcano shape, just like Taranaki in New Zealand. It´s a perfect cone with snow on top - and sometimes a bit of smoke too I believe. The older colonial buildings are quite grand and are all built in the local white volcanic rock called sillar.The crystals in the rock give it a glittery feel. We felt the Spanish influence very strongly, and mused how it sometimes felt like we could be in Southern Spain. People´s faces were starting to change as well, as there was now a more prominent indigenous influence.
So what to do. We were dying to climb El Misti, but after four months below 3000m felt it was just a bit daft launching ourselves at it without any acclimitisation. How I wish acclimitisation was a culminative process (and aerobic fitness too). So, we decided to go visit "Juanita" (a nickname)the 500 year old ice maiden currently residing in the Museo Santuarios Andinos, whilst we worked out our next move. Poor Juanita was only about 13 years old when sacrificed on top of another volcano, Ampato (6288m). The neighbouring volcano had been erupting meaning that the Gods were displeased, so some appeasement with the Gods had to made. It was known that she was from an important family because of the quality of her clothes, and also that she had to travel to Cusco to be blessed by the Inca King before travelling on to Ampato. What a journey - that was an overnight bus ride for us. and what a great feat climbing so high. Ampato was clear of snow at the time because of the eruption, but after this calmed, the usual freezing ice and snow set in with Juanita only being found in a subsequent eruption in the 1990s when the snow surrounding her again melted.
Still undecided, we walked around the Cathedral (shameless wealth displayed by the church in my opinion) and also visited Monasterio de Santa Catalina. Founded in 1580,this nunnery takes up a whole block within the city surrounded by high walls. It appears that this was some sort of closed order as there was hardly any comings and goings with the outside world until 1970 when it opened it´s doors to the public. Probably to raise funds! (Skeptic me) We took lots of pictures there as some of their colour schemes were great and Greg has plans to replicate on any future home we have! Watch this space and check out the pics when I uploead next week!
So now we have a plan. We decided to do some downhill mountain biking on Pichu Pichu (another volcano) which Greg is going to write about, and we booked ourselves onto a 2 day trek into the Colpa Canyon which is supposed to be the second deepest canyon in the world at 3191m. What a packed 2 days - totally knackered at the end of it. It started with a 3am pick up and then a 3 hour drive with the road rising to 4900m. Easiest 4900m I´ve ever done - but it did hurt. After breakfast in Chivay, we went to see the condors cruising (with about another 100 folks) at Crux de Condor. But, it wasn´t wasted and the birds put on a good display and swooped in really close. Much discussion between myself and Greg as to which has the biggest wingspan, albatross (as seen in NZ) or condor.
Then the trekking began, and it was no picnic in the park. Our guide, Salome was really interesting and explained a good deal about the plants on the way ie what you could eat, what you couldn´t, medicinal qualities and plants used for dying clothes. We checked out the cochineal beetles on the cacti. She also told us about all the customs of the village folk and how they had incorporated the old religion into Christianity. I like this. She explained how a family would worship both Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the Christian God in parellel. After going down in to the canyon bottom and up and again and across, we descended into an oasis called Sangalle to spend the night. We only got to see Sangalle from above, as we arrived in the dark and left in the dark at 5am the next morning. Following the trail of headtorches up the slope, this truly reminded me of Alpine starts, but we were only up early as there still so much more to pack in. Three hours of oxygen deplition and exhaustion later, we arrived at the rim of the canyon and had breakfast in a village called Cabanaconde. How welcome was that. I´ve never had such good scrambled egg on toast. Even the cocoa tea was starting to taste good. The trip`ended on a real high, however, as we journeyed back to Chivay to soak in the hot spring pools at La Calera. Beautiful, clean pools, it was funny to swim at altitude. Reccomended! The buffet afterwards was good too - all you could eat :)
So that´s the ice mummy and volcanos covered. The earthquake happened twice on our night of arrival, as I woke to feel my bunk shaking (deja vue from Christchurch). With great excitement I asked Greg in the morning if he had felt it too. "No you spanner," he replied, "That was me shaking the bunk because you were snoring!"
Liz

Pics show Plaza de Armes (Arequipa), the Colpa Canyon trekking team, that condor moment, inside the Santa Catalina monastry and starting our mtn bike downhill on Pichu Pichu with Walter our guide (El Misti in the background)

Chile

Monday 16th May was the longest day of both of lives so far – all 40 hours of it. Yes, that´s the day we flew from NZ to Chile and crossed the international date line. How jet lagged was I (Liz). Greg fared a little better. We stayed in a fairly boho area in the Barrio Brasil part of Santiago and recovered by exploring the local streets and bars, and checking out some of the city´s parks and central shopping area. Coolest place was the bar we stumbled into on the first night of arrival. It was like stepping back in time. Really dark with latin music playing. Old left wing political posters were pasted onto the walls as wallpaper. Old Che was very evident. We ordered the dish of the day which was one of our best South American meals so far. Greg´s been on a bit of a meat fest, whilst I have been eating mostly cheese due to my poor grasp of Spanish! However, on this day, Greg tucked into a huge steak and I got a really tasty bean and pasta stew soupy thing, Yum. We had to move our table as salsa dancing was about to start. You´d have thought they´d laid it all on for the tourists.
Barrio Brasil is a lovely square with a kiddie´s play area, grass, big trees and park benches outlining it´s perimeter. On these benches, I am convinced that Santiago´s student population conduct their romancing and dating. We saw kisses and clinches galore, and even a few tears there. I wonder how many babies have been conceived on them!
We really wanted to go to Patagonia, but our timing was too late, so we decided to head north for Peru and visit Arequipa and Cusco before home. Thus said, we then took the 26 hour bus ride from Santiago to Arica in the north of Chile. Not as bad as expected really, and we did manage to sleep. What a trip though threw the Atacama desert. I believe it´s the driest in the world, and it really looked like some God forsaken place. That´s the weird thing about deserts isn´t it – so opposite to life supporting, yet so beautiful in their own way too.

An afternoon and overnight stop in Arica found us walking along the Pacific coast again watching wakeboarders framed against a background of moored ships, boats and submarines. Sublime.
Next stop the Peruvain border……

Liz

WWOOF

WWOOF

Willing workers on organic farms. Not woof as in a dog though Neal and Nicky who we stayed with had Charlie the rescue dog who was far too chilled out to woof at anyone. We were in Eltham in Taranaki. Rolling grass land full of cows with a huge snow capped volcano dominating the landscape. Well it was for the first day till the clouds rolled in and we never saw it again. Black volcanic sand beaches lined the coast. We mainly undertook gardening in there HUGE garden complete with stream and ducks and loads of trees. Nicky is a world champion tree climber and has competed around the world. She made climbing up ropes look very easy indeed and when me and Liz tried we made it look very hard till we practiced a bit and got the hang of jumaring in a style up a tree. Neal was a lawyer and went to work in his tracksuit pants unless he was in court. Normally at home its only the accused who wears a tracky. A man with no doubts the All Blacks would win the Rugby World Cup and holds football in the same disregard as many Kiwis. Mind you when the have a section on the sports program called,
"Smash 'em bro'" and smashed they do get it puts our puffy over paid prima donnas to shame.(no offence to puffy people unless you play football and fall down like a wet rag)
It was lovely to have a week off travelling and sleep in a proper bed and get away from the tourist trail for a while and see how a small town gets along and to eat a fantastic steak instead of Tofu with Liz. Good Luck for Singapore Nicky hope you both have fun. There is a train station for Neal. Check out the Chicken Curry stall opposite the ticket kiosk its super good in a city full of really good food.



Greg

Eat, drive and eat some more

Eat, drive and eat some more

Oh yes, how we enjoyed our food in NZ. Our skinny waif-like selves burst forth again now that we were self-catering and back in the land of European food! Top of the list was Greg’s obsession with Hokey Pokey. Unfortunately, this wasn’t some weird deviant behaviour, but cinder toffee coated in chocolate mmmm yum. We also enjoyed Afghan biscuits, Fejoa fruits (should be national fruit instead of impostor Kiwi) and lots of fish & chips!! (The fish having names I’d never heard of, but tasted good).
But, hey, since we’re leaving NZ tomorrow, I thought I’d do our usual summary on things we thought were funny, unusual etc.

Driving. Yup we pretty much circumnavigated the whole of the South Island by road, and then up to Auckland. Our trusty 20 year car did us proud. Just a little TLC in the form of oil and water, we sold it for $NZ600 yesterday which ain't bad as it only cost us $NZ900. Driving here is nimps. The roads are just like two lane A roads and there are hardly any other cars about. Tail-gating , however, is de rigour, but didn’t seem to be as aggressive as back home. It got more tense as we travelled north and the population density increased, so by the time we hit Auckland, everyone was ready to wipe you off the road – just like at home really.

Kiwi TV and adverts. Well, for a start their adverts are on too long, but there are a few gems in there. Straight talking tell it like it is stuff. Really playing on the male psyche with drink driving stuff “You’re a bloody idiot!” Yes, can’t argue with that really. There’s also a yoghurt marketed at men called Mammoth. It says only men can eat it with great shovel like spoon action and each carton has advice on things real men should and shouldn’t do – like not share an umbrella no matter how desperate. Moa Beer – “…you can buy it in shops.” And it’s true – you can.
Sports programme – how I (Liz) really can’t stand these at home. But here, check out The Crowd Went Wild on You Tube, it’s so entertaining. Can’t tell if they actually have a script, but I was riveted, even though I have no understanding on any of the sports shown. That’s another refreshing thing, it wasn’t all about football, it showed a really diverse range, including women’s games. (They did give the vote to women years before Britain).
Kids with bare feet. No, this is not poverty related, kids genuinely feel restricted in shoes. Saw them playing in the street, in supermarkets, in school. They start wearing shoes for high school according to Nickie our Wwoof host.
Coffee obsession. Yes, never fear, you will never be far away from a fresh and expensive brew.
Shopkeepers say “How are you?’ or “How’s your day going?” instead of hello. Always throws me, as I think this might be someone I’m supposed to know (it’s the reserved Brit bit coming out).
There are sections in shops labelled Manchester. Where, I ask, is Liverpool or Leeds? Guess what it is – think industrial revolution. Yes, it’s cotton and linen. Funny or what!
All bad things are not native eg stoats, possums, deadly nightshade, brambles, gorse. It’s all there taking the country over.
Well funky dressed older ladies in even the smallest of towns.
Adventure sports – yeah right. You just pay to participate really (not that I’m cynical).
Kiwis are really good at bigging things up. “Historic train station” sign and “historic plaque”.

Apart from the milder climes, the best thing about NZ is the people. They’re straight talking, tell it like it is and really friendly & helpful. They have good dry sense of humour, with a liberal dose of irony (just like Brits I believe). People are not obsessed with money, houses, cars, just looking forward to the weekend when they can take the kids to the beach, camp and have a barbie. The important, and simple pleasures.
We loved it here and will be back!
Total no. of night's camping = 43
Liz
www.picasaweb.google.com/lizzypatkay