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chrishoorweg

24 Blog Entries
1 Trip
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Trips:

and one last trip before we come home.........?

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Gaucho country - yee haa!

Salta, Argentina


Main square Salta
San Pedro is a tiny little village in the Atacama Desert which is surrounded by some spectacular scenery. It was a cool experience just being here in the driest desert in the world. We had a couple of days to recoup from Bolivia and then were off again heading to Salta in Northern Argentina. We were relieved to get seats for the next bus, only 3 leave a week, and so we endured a 14 hour bus ride to Gaucho country. It wasn´t that bad really. The only annoying thing was that Chris left his head phones on the bus and we have´t been able to find the right adaptor since - so he is without music (all of you know what this means for me!:)


Riding amongst the tabacco plantation
Salta is a beautiful colonial city with gorgeous weather and buildings. We spent a few days looking around, chilling out having coffee on the main plaza and eating copious amounts of the glorious icecream and not to mention the steaks and Argentinian wines! Yep, we were in heaven!! We thought, yes, we can justify eating continously for 2 days as we had lost a bit of weight travelling through Peru and Bolivia. We did pull ourselves away from the cafes to go on the gondola to get a good view of the city.

Giddy up

So, as we were in Gaucho country we thought it was only right to go horse riding. Chris did try and convince me that he needed another cowboy hat as he had done in Vegas but I convinced him otherwise! However, that hat has come in handy for a few dress up parties.


Our guide
We spent a day and night on a ranch owned by a lovely Argentinian man who was very hospitable and fed us so much barbecued meat and red wine for lunch that it was hard work getting on the horses in the afternoon. Surprisingly, or not, we had a new found confidence and were galloping around everywhere! It was great fun. After a very peaceful nights sleep we met up in the local village with an organised tour company to go to Cafayate and explore the surrounding mountains and canyons. As you all know Chris and I are not too keen on organised tours and this reminded us why! The scenery was fantastic, however, being shuttled around with 20 other middle aged tourists is not our idea of a good time. He he.

Road side views

The wineries we visited were fab. We tasted some very nice malbecs and of course could not leave without purchasing a few bottles.


Devils Throat
Overall, our time in Northern Argentina was thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing. We look forward to our return later in November for some more steak, wine and mountains of a different kind.

Cafayate winery

permalink written by  chrishoorweg on October 4, 2007 from Salta, Argentina
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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Salt plains, 4WD and brrrrr.........

Uyuni, Bolivia


Transportation for 3 days
Some of the frustrating things about travelling in South America, is the Bus or train timetables!! Particularly in Bolivia. For us, we wanted to get the train from La Paz to Uyuni to start a 4WD Salt plains tour. Unfortunately, the train only runs twice a week (the other option, is to do an overnight bus which we´ve heard is a nightmare), so we had to rush La Paz a bit. We only had a day and a half, so unfortunately didn´t get to see a whole lot. If we hadn´t of left when we did, we would have had to stay for another 5 days.

Salt ´factory´ - tummy bugs start here!


La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at 3680m and is built within a canyon, approx 5km from rim to rim. A lot of the houses are unfinished without exterior paint. This gives the place a bit of a run down and shabby appearance. We later discovered that if the house is not ´finished´then the owner doesn´t have to pay tax on it!!

We wandered around and experienced many of the colourful markets.


Jumping for joy
Our next main attraction was our Salt plains tour from Uyuni to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. This tour was causing us anxiety, as we´d heard many stories of drunk drivers, poor food if any and cars breaking down......

We researched as much as possible and found a company with the least amount of complaints, paid our money and crossed our fingers.....


Blow me a kiss xxxx
Toñito tours proved to be quite good. We ended up with a group of 4 Aussie girls in their early twenties sharing our jeep, so there was plenty of talking going on!! They were a good bunch of girls who´d between them had seen large part of the world!!! Impressive for there age.

Trickery, good girl.....


Rock formations
The trip was well worth all the effort. The scenery was some of the most dramatic and interesting we´ve seen.

The Salar de Uyuni is a massive salt desert, with white salt as far as the eye can see. We had lots of fun taking the usual trick photography shots.


Cactus Fish Island
In the middle of the salt desert, there is an island ´Isla de Pescado´ or Fish island to you and me. It is a volcanic island, with remains of coral and most importantly and famously has giant Cactus growing on it. It was amazing to say the least.

From there we saw other rock formations and picturesque lakes with perfect reflections in them, in particular, Laguna Verde was the most impressive for that reason.


Laguna Colorado
We stayed at Laguna Colorado on our final night, which was pretty cold (-10, we were happy that we´d brought our lovely sleeping bags!!). Laguna Colorado is a red lake, fed by a natural hot spring. It has Flamingos as well as a massive amount of brilliantly white Borax. We hope our photos have been able to capture how amazing this part of the world is.

Reflection of mountain


We had our transfer into San Pedro with a Chilean driver, who quite happily announced ´welcome back to civilisation´. Cheeky bugger. However, we did sit back and enjoy the paved roads! Incredible what you take for granted.

Vicuñas

Jumping Laguna Colorado

Exploding Geyser

Thermal Pools

Geysers at Sunrise

Laguna Verde

Flying Flamingo

Salt Pan

permalink written by  chrishoorweg on October 2, 2007 from Uyuni, Bolivia
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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A big lake way up in the sky.....

Copacabana, Bolivia


Festivities Puno
We arrived into Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca (highest navigable lake in the world 3820m), late in the afternoon. We were not particularly taken by this little city so we were happy to have been here whilst the ´Lady of Mercy´ festival was on. Many types of traditional dance were being displayed including Aymara.

Traditional hair style Puno

Mother and child Puno


Floating Uros Islands
The next day we went out to the floating islands of the Uros people. Although they were very touristy it was still very interesting to learn about how they make and sustain the islands. For those who haven´t been her they make the islands out of the reeds that grow in the shallows of the lake. They then replace the reeds from the top. It was rather disconcerting as it was rather spongy under foot.

Boat docked

Lady of the Uros Islands


Boat ramp
Instead of staying here longer we decided to head to the Bolivian side of the lake, Copacabana, as we had heard from many travellers that it was much nicer. They were absolutely correct. It very much reminded us of Greece and Croatia - very mediteranean. We headed out to Isla del Sol (the island of the sun), the Inca creation site and birthplace of the sun in Inca mythology.

Cactus Isla del Sol

Tadar!
We checked out all the ruins and then hiked from the north of the island to the south. The views were stunning and the water so blue. Acclimatized now, we got up the hills fairly easily. We were going to stay the night but felt we had seen and experienced it enough and wanted to move onto La Paz so we could connect with our train to Uyuni.

Us at Puma stone

Isla del Sol Lake Titicaca

Bus ferry!

Chris chilling


permalink written by  chrishoorweg on September 23, 2007 from Copacabana, Bolivia
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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A white city, a brown town and Condors

Arequipa, Peru


Coffee break Arequipa
After an overnight bus from Cusco we made it into Arequipa at around 530am!! We thought that we were to arrive at around 7, but we were early.

We took a taxi to our hostel and were dumped on the street outside. After 5 minutes of ringing the door bell, we were feeling a little exposed and wandering what to do? However, after a couple more minutes whilst consulting our Lonely Planet, the door opened and we were shown inside. Phew!!!


Main square Arequipa
Arequipa itself is a lovely town, built mainly of volcanic stone (sillar), hence the name of the white city. It has a great backdrop consiting of a volcanoe (El Misti 5822m) and a number of big mountains, such as (Chachani 6075m and Picchu Picchu 5571m).

We really enjoyed the vibe of Arequipa. Compared to Cusco it was very laid back. We had a great day wandering around the Santa Catalina Monastery in the city, which we pretty much had to ourselves.

After deciding not to climb the big mountains, I (Chris) decided that going into the Colca Canyon was a good idea. (It is the deepest canyon in the world and there are Condors to be seen). Of course I wanted to get there!


Colca Canyon
Getting to Cabanaconde entailed a 5.5 hour bus ride, which took us over one of the highest roads being 4800m. A very scenic drive, where we saw wild Llamas and Vicuñas.


Street scene Cabanaconde
Cabanaconde is a very small adobe village, although it does have its Plaza de Armas!! We arrived at around lunch time and found ourselves the best hostel in the place (there was only really two to choose from!) For those that don´t know, Adobe just means that the houses are made from mud, hence looking quite rustic.

Corinne in Cabanaconde

We were planning on hiking into the canyon to visit the Oasis, however Corinne wasn´t really feeling up to it, so we decided that we´d only stay the one night there intead of two and go see the Condors in the morning on our way back to Arequipa.


Condor in flight
The Condors were amazing. They really are huge animals with a wing span of around 2m and seem to effortlessly glide on the thermal currents. We spent a good hour and a half watching them take off and cruise around. we were surprised as to how close they got.

Flight of the Condor

Flight of the Condors

After our bird watching we headed back on the local bus to Chivay, where we spent an hour waiting for the next bus to Arequipa. Although the birds were great, we were thinking at the end of the 11hr round trip if they were worth it!!


Entrance to Monastery
Another interesting thing we did in Arequipa was to see ´Juanita´ the ice princess at the Museo Santuarios Andinos. She is a frozen Inca maiden who was sacrificed on the summit of Mt Ampato over 500 years ago. Considering how old she is, she looks great!! You can see most of her facial features, nails and hair.

Santa Catalina Monastery

All in all, we had a very nice time relaxing in Arequipa, sampling some of the local dishes, including llama. We also found a good burger joint, which helped settle our upset tummies!! Nothing like a good ´ol burger to put things right!!

Next stop, Puno, Puno, Puno...... (for those who have travelled these parts do you recall the crazy bus touts calling out?)

We hope you are all keeping well. Keep the comments coming.

Lots of love,
Chris and Corinne xx


Santa Catalina

Creative Corinne shot



permalink written by  chrishoorweg on September 20, 2007 from Arequipa, Peru
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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Inca Trail Trek - Day 4

Machupicchu, Peru


Early start on final day
In the pitch black we packed up our things, had a quick breakfast, put our head lights on and started our final trek to Machupicchu. It didn´t take us long to reach the Sun Gate for Sunrise. Absolutely spectacular! We sat and watched the sun come up behind us and over Machupicchu mountain before descending down to the ruins themselves. We all felt really proud of ourselves for making the journey and earning the right to be at such an amazing place in the world.


Llama
Solay showed us around the ruins with fantastic explanations. We then took our own time to appreciate being here and to soak it all up! We were really lucky to have such a clear day and to have the ruins almost to ourselves for a couple of hours before all the tourists arrived.

Llama at Machupicchu

Machupicchu

Us at Machupicchu

House with Huaynapicchu behind

Corinne relaxing at Machupicchu

Houses Machupicchu

We reluctantly headed down to Aguas Calientes for lunch and then our train back to Cusco. We were certainly ready for a shower and a rest but felt rather sad to be leaving. What an incredible and amazing 4 days.



permalink written by  chrishoorweg on September 15, 2007 from Machupicchu, Peru
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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Inca Trail Trek - Day 3

Aguas Calientes, Peru


Scenery Day 3
Again, our guide woke us with hot chocolate. We were in for an easy day of walking as we had done the hard part in the first 2 days. In total we walked only 5.5 hours before we stopped for lunch and set up camp for our 3rd night. Firstly we walked uphill to the ruins of Puyupatamarca ruins at 3640m and then downhill to Winaywayna - elevation 2650m.

Typical Lunch
After lunch we checked out the ruins of Winaywayna. We were really lucky as we had the place to ourselves. The other trekkers had not arrived to camp yet. We had a really relaxing afternoon drinking a few beers and chatting. In the evening we thanked our porters as this was the last time we would see them. Another early night as tomorrow we would be woken at 4am to reach the Sun Gate for Sunrise.

Winaywayna

Chris at Winaywayna

Us on terraces Winaywayna

View from tent third night

permalink written by  chrishoorweg on September 14, 2007 from Aguas Calientes, Peru
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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Inca Trail Trek - Day 2

Cusco, Peru


Uphill to Dead Womans Pass
The day was off to a fine start when Solay brought hot chocolate to us in our tent. With a full belly of pancakes and porridge we set off uphill for 500m to the infamous ´Dead Woman´s pass´at 4215m. The push uphill from our camp was challenging but we made it in about 45 mins. It was rather chilly up here and all the layers were quickly put on. To celebrate, Solay brought out some Peruvian rum, and we all had a shot to warm our bellies. After a quick break, we then descended to 3500m to our lunch spot. This was hard going on the knees as it was very steep. At this point we were very happy that we had rented trekking poles in Cusco.

Us at Dead Womans Pass


Trail and Scenery Day 2

Scenery along the way
After a much needed lie in the sun, we headed uphill again climbing to 4000m where we passed the ruins of Runkuraqay. We then descended again to Sayacmarca ruins at 3580m. They think this is where the Incas would have stopped and rested overnight on their pilgrimage to Machu Picchu. It was then a short downhill walk to our campsite. We had a great night playing games round the dinner table and then headed off to bed as 8 hours of walking up and downhill at altitude had taken its toll.

Porters at sunset

permalink written by  chrishoorweg on September 13, 2007 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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Inca Trail Trek - Day 1

Cusco, Peru


Before we head off
An early morning pick up of 4am - but hey we didn´t mind as we were so excited. Drove through the Sacred Valley and had breakfast at Ollantaytambo - pancakes and eggs, yummy! Back into the bus for another 40 mins arriving at the Trail Head - KM 82 at 2750m. A quick group snap, stamps in the passports, packs on and we were off.

Trail head

Hit the track at 8:30am, crossing the Rio Urubamba, and had a very nice 4 hour walk to our lunch spot at Wayllabamba (3000m) stopping at Llactapata ruins along the way. They think this place was used for grain storage as it is located between two valleys and is always windy, therefore good for drying. We were expecting a sandwich on the grass so you can imagine how shocked and excited we were when we saw the dining tent, individual wash bowls with soap and a tarp layed out for our packs! Impressed? We were! Lunch consisted of 3 courses finished off with sweets and hot tea.


Fresh faced half way through the first morning

Llactapata Ruins
Oh my, how were we going to get up after this? Before setting off again, our guide, Solay, taught us how to chew coca leaves to help with altitude sickness. It tasted kind of strange at first but rather sweet. We were warned that the afternoon hike was going to be challenging and Solay kept saying ´positive thoughts, positive attitudes and always smiling.´


Llamas on the trail
The next 4 hours were challenging, 700m all uphill, and Chris and I chewed those coca leaves like they were going out of fashion. They really did help - it was a strange feeling as our energy was renewed and we were able to keep pushing on up the mountain. We arrived at camp, Llulluchapampa 3750m, at about 5pm and got into our tent just before it started to hail. The last people arriving an hour later ( a little wet). We were totally exhausted but felt exhilarated at the same time. Corinne felt a little dizzy and nauseaus but after a lie down, some gatorade and chocolate she was back in full form. The terrain was fairly varied going from trees and grasslands to cloud forest and spectacular ravines.

We had another amazing 3 course meal and got to meet our fellow trekkers a little better. There was another married couple about our age from the Napa Valley, California, very cool, 2 girls from New York who were just lovely and a 64 and 62 year old couple from Alberqurque, New Mexico. They were interesting to say the least. We thought at one point they were going to sell us vitamin supplements. They had very strong opinions on practically everything to do with nutrition and were somewhat hard to take at times (apparently she has been reincarnated 20 times!). Oh well, it takes all types for the world to go round. However, if we´re that fit at that age we´ll be happy! Time for bed I think - sleep is much needed after 9 hours of walking.


First Camp site



permalink written by  chrishoorweg on September 12, 2007 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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Piranhas, toucans, gum boots and funny rashes!!

Iquitos, Peru

Hola from the Amazon,


Local transport Iquitos
Arriving into Iquitos, we were met by our guides and transferred to our little red boat for our 3 hour journey upstream on the Amazon River to Muyuna Lodge. Iquitos was a really interesting city. Only accesible by boat or plane it has developed over time through the production of rubber. A population of 600,000 surprised us. Not many cars about so the main form of transport on the roads were little motor bikes with carriages attached to the back - very noisy.

Early morning on the river

A day out on the boat


Journey to the markets
Wow - the humidity and heat were hard to cope with at first but then our minds were taken straight off of it when we saw the mighty river and were greeted with friendly hello's from the local village people. Chris and I couldn't quite believe we were actually here.


Front of lodge
We arrived at the lodge, had a lovely lunch of barbecued cat fish and local fruits. Very excited, we set off into the jungle for a hike to learn about the medicinal properties of the plants and in the hope of seeing some monkeys! Well, all was going great, we swung like Tarzan and Jane on massive vines, saw a tree rat (very cute) and Chris spotted a tarantula!

Hammocks at our Lodge
All of a sudden the wind picked up and it truly felt like the trees were roaring and then the heavens opened! Our guide started to run and we thought it sensible to high tail it too. Inexperienced and should we say foolish, we didn't take our wet weather gear out with us as the thought of putting on any more clothing scared me (I even told Chris not to bring his jacket - woops!!)


Juvenile Hawk
The jungle floor quickly started to resemble a creek and our gum boots were now full of water. Testing out the water proofness of our (all weather) camera bag failed miserably. First day in the jungle, we arrived back dripping wet and one of our camera lenses full of water. On the upside, the insect repellent Chris bought worked a treat and we didn't have any bites! Secretly we really enjoyed it.


Chris with Piranha
Over the next week we had 3 activities a day - including bird watching by boat before breakfast, various hikes, piranha fishing, swimming with the pink dolphins in the Amazon (major highlight), excursion to see the prehistoric birds and the giant water lilles and a trip to a local village.

Giant water lillies


Corinne with Anaconda!!
This was fascinating. We were welcomed by an anaconda that had been caught that morning. It was really cold round our necks and slightly slimy - very cool!! As you would imagine, the local people live in very simple huts and eat two meals a day, which consists of fish, locally grown vegetables and fruit, rice and berries from the jungle. To our surprise they had two little classrooms, pre-school and primary.

Corinne with local village school children
The children were just gorgeous and sung us a song. So Chris and I and 2 other Aussie girls sang 'Home among the Gum Trees' as the kids looked on with rather perplexed faces and then possibly out of politeness gave us a big clap! It was great fun. We then played soccer with the littlies and then had to stop as we were all absolutely dripping with sweat and exhausted.


Chris tired after a days exploring
In true Chris fashion he got really sick. Our guide brewed up some local medicine made from tree bark (can't remember the name)and Chris managed to force it down - only just! Not long after that he started to feel much better and is now on the mend. We are now slightly concerned about the strange rash that is now on both of his arms. I say off to the Doctor if it's not gone in a few days (even if I have to drag him there myself)!!! Don't worry - the rash appeared before the local medicine was ingested, so hopefully no strange jungle disease.

We are now in Lima airport waiting for our connection to Cusco.

Hasta Luego Amigos,

Lots of love,
Chris and Corinne xx

permalink written by  chrishoorweg on September 9, 2007 from Iquitos, Peru
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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Cusco and Surrounds

Cusco, Peru


Plaza de Armas Cusco
After our amazing week in the Amazon and getting our camera gear wet, we arrived in Cusco. Wow, what a pushy city!!! Too many street touts trying to sell you everything from finger puppets to different tours. By the end of two days, we were well and truly ready to head into the mountains for our Inka trail trek.


Girls on Parade
Apart from the harrassment, Cusco is actually a beautiful city. It has the customary Plaza de Armas (in every city or town). Very nice cathedrals and some great small hikes to do in the surrounding area. This was especially good for us to prepare and get acclimatised for our trek.


Corinne with Inka Kola
Our first day was mainly spent trying to get our wide angle lens sorted out!! As it turned out, the Amazonian rain, well and truly ruined it! Bummer. So after a good day of stressing and trying to find a ´reputable´dealer in Cusco (there aren´t many), we were able to sort it out with a second hand lens. (Sigma 18-50. f 2.8 for those techno people).


Boy on Parade

Cactus near Sacsayhuaman
We also saw a religious parade on the main plaza with school children as the main focus. Their brightly coloured clothing and head dresses were spectacular. As it turned out, there seemed to be some sort of parade nearly everyday we were there. Not surprisingly, Sunday had the biggest celebrations.

We did a day hike to the four ruins around Cusco. This entailed catching a local bus to the furthest one and then walking for approximately 4-5 hours back into Cusco.


Lady with Llama
The first ruins were Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara, Qenko and then finally Sacsayhuaman. (Sexy woman!) The ruins were a great introduction to the Inka culture for us and the final ruins were certainly the most spectacular. Admittedly, the altitude got to us this day and we did find it hard work walking up hill to our hotel at the end of the day!! Not too bad really just a slight headache and short of breath. Cusco is at 3326m and the furthest ruins of Tambo Machay are even higher at 3700m.

Our last night was spent meeting the rest of the trekking group, who were all Americans, made up of two other couples and two girl friends. More on this later!!

Off to the trail we go!! Woo hoo.

Keep the emails coming. We love to hear from you all.

Oh, by the way, my rash cleared up after about a week. I think it was heat rash, combined with mozzie bites!! So no weird jungle fungus Chris.....

C and C xx



permalink written by  chrishoorweg on September 9, 2007 from Cusco, Peru
from the travel blog: and one last trip before we come home.........?
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