Loving California!!

Hi all,

Just a really quick update as internet is really expensive in California.

We've had a great few days in LA. We climbed up to the Griffith Observatory which overlooks the Hollywood sign (and most of LA!), spent the day at Universal studios (sooooo much fun), and then went to Santa Monica and Venice Beach for the day. We were lucky enough not to be too close to any of the crazy wild fires. Although we did see them in the distance.

We arrived in San Francisco last night and went off to Alcatraz this morning. Ooh that's a creepy place! We really love the San Francisco vibe and sea food. (chowder in a bowl made from bread)

We've got another couple of days here then we're off to Las Vegas to see the Lakers game. Our next blog entry will probably be in a week when we get to Stuart's in Korea.

Hope you're all well

US x

The Jungle

We spent a couple of nights in the hot and humid Amazon Jungle. It wasn´t quite roughing it as we were staying in a really beautiful jungle lodge that was well protected from the beasties.
All of the jungle walks were postponed due to a lot of rain that lasted a good 18 hours. It finally stopped on the last afternoon and we managed to squeeze in a daylight and a night walk as well as a night boat trip to do some Cayman spotting (type of small crocodile).
We had a 2 hour boat trip to the lodge and our guide spotted a Jaguar on the banks of the water. They are endangered so our guide was really excited as he had only seen 4 in his life. Our rubbish camera didn't take a good photo but the guide managed to get a slightly blurry one through binoculars.
We´re off to LA tomorrow on yet another really long flight. We´re looking forward it though!
Hope all is well
Sx
P.S Lots of people have asked about the Alpaca in the photo. It was definitely real. It just wandered in looking for some food! Very cute.

Answer for Tracey

Tracey asked what the food was like while we were camping on the inca trail...

The food was some of the best we have eaten in Peru. Breakfast was pancakes or omelette and plenty of different teas. We had a snack bag containing a combination of cookies, energy bars, boiled sweets, chcolate, and fruit. Lunch and dinner was two courses. Starter was a vegetable soup (always really good). The main course was meat such as trout, lomo saltado (Peruvian beef stir fry made with onions and tomatoes) chicken stuffed with vegetables etc. with rice, vegetables and some kind of potato. After the evening meal we had a dessert like chocolate pudding or stewed apple and cinnamon. And always plenty of tea.

So not that weird or disgusting really.

I did have guinea pig the other day. It was like chicken covered in pork crackling. Quite nice but a bit fiddly to eat. They are sometimes served with the head still attached but mine wasn´t...here´s a picture

Answers for Jason

Best smell so far?
A familiar smell... The scent of cooking garlic which is usually followed by a bowl of fantastic soup.

Worst smell so far?
The stale smell of urine and other things coming from the toilets at the inca trail camps.

Most unusual sound so far?
Some kind of insect that can make a sound like a high pitched electric drill. Very loud and mechanical sounding. We heard it around Machu Picchu and thought it might have been workmen at first before being told it was an insect.

Most annoying sound so far?
El Condor Pasa being played on the pan pipes. urgh.

Weirdest animal?
We saw a capibara on the banks of the river in the jungle. It is the world´s largest rodent. Basically a Guinea pig the size of a small dog.

Most scary/exciting moment?
Exciting - Walking though the sun gate on the final day of the Inca trail and seeing Machu Picchu below us. That was a fitting finale to the hike.
Scary - The end of the sand dune hike. We were out of water, heat stroke was kicking in, we were physcially drained and we thought we were starting to get burnt, and we didn´t know how long we had left to walk. As it turns out neither of us got burnt at all, our skin must have just turned red in an attempt to cool down a bit. In hindsight the sand dune was so difficult because of our expectations of it. We thought it was going to be 2 hours up 45 minutes down when in fact it tutned into 3 hours up 2 hours down. Still good fun though.

Best journey?
Inca trail...easy.

Temperature?
Cold in Lima today 10-15 degrees. Quite hot, humid, and rainy in the jungle. Desert areas are hot and sunny during the day and chilly at night. Peru has a very varied landscape with weather to match.

Is the moon upside down?
Haven´t noticed.

Does the water go the wrong way down the plug?
Again, haven´t checked, but I´ll try and remember tonight. One last chance before going back to the northern hemisphere, one of my favourite hemispheres.

How big are the insects?
Big in the jungle and normal everywhere else.

Inca Trail # 5

And here we are at Machu Picchu with the Incan city behind us. We wandered around the ruins for a few hours before getting the train back to Cusco for a well needed shower and sleep. 4 days of getting up at 4-5 am, walking all day and not showering takes it´s toll.

Many more details have been excluded but we shall fill you all in when we get home.

A fantastic few days :)

Inca Trail # 4

Here´s a great view of the mountains...and our feet!

Inca Trail # 3

Here´s Matt with our guide for the trail, Jose. The weather looks good here but we did have a few heavy showers of rain over the 4 days. Sadly it was too wet to get any photos of us in our fetching ponchos. The rain did give the mountains a different atmosphere though especially when we were in the clouds.

Inca Trail # 2

Here´s Sueann climbing up to Dead Woman´s pass on the second day. This is near the start of a 6 hour climb taking us from 3000m to 4200m.
Pretty tough going but the scenery was enough to take our minds off it.

Inca Trail # 1

Wow! The Inca trail was one of the best things we´ve ever done. Here´s it is in a few pictures...


This is our group of five at the start of the trail on Monday morning.

Fanny Tuna!

Yep, this is Fanny Tuna. Also available ... Fanny jam!

I´m all acclimatised to the altitude and food now so I´m looking forward to the Inca trail tomorrow. Wahoo!

Oh my god it´s the Inca Trail tomorrow!!!

Hola again,

After Jase and Selina putting pressure on Matt I have finally been able to write first. Well done guys!

We´ve done masses in the last few days so it´s difficult to know what to write about. We went out to some islands on Lake Titicaca and stayed over night with a family on Amantile Island. It was really amazing. They barely had electricty and everything was really basic, but they were really beautiful people. The whole island was a hill and it was at over 4000m.....jeez that was hard work.

I´m uploading a photo of Matt with our Mama and her daughter. His head is higher than the roof!!! I´m also uploading one of the mum with her little baby....how cute is she??

We´re now in Cusco (the original Inca City). It´s got loads of cobbled streets and is really lovely. We have been buying scarves and gloves to keep us warm on the trail. Our 4 day hike begins tomorrow. I´m a little nervous as it´s so high and so long, but i´m also really excited. Here´s hoping I make it to the end!!

Anyhoo, thanks so much for all of your comments. It´s really great to hear from everyone.

We´ll do another update as soon as we're back (Friday) and let you know how it went.

Sx

Very high indeed!

Hello all,

It's difficult to know what to say as I keep writing my entry after Matt....i'll get there first next time!!

Sadly Matt has been sick while we've been staying at the most beautiful hotel. It was set in the Colca Valley in the middle of nowhere. I opened the curtains and all I could see was mountains...or Matt sleeping!
The Colca Canyon was really spectacular. The Condors with 3m wing span were pretty amazing. We weren't quite sure what we were looking for but there was no mistaking them when they appeared.....huge!

I went on a short hike (sadly it was Matt-less) but I saw a really beautiful woman with her little baby and pet alpaca. (picture attached)

Fingers crossed the next time I write I won't be suffering from altitude sickness!!
Hope all is well
Sx

Titicaca...snigger

Here´s a picture of the hotel´s pet alpaca that decided to pay a visit to the dining room this morning

Hi,

We´ve just arrived at Puno on the banks of Lake Titicaca at 4000m above sea level. Since my last post I´ve been struggling with a combination dodgy stomach, lack of sleep and altitude sickness, all of which are symptoms of each other (almost). Feeling a bit better today apart from a bit of mild altitude sickness. We are staying at this altitude for a few days so I should get used to it soon. The Colca Canyon reagion was beautiful and we saw some massive condors. We are going to stay with some families on an island on Lake Titicaca tomorrow so looking forward to that.

later, Matt