After sky diving and a poor performance in a backpacker's quiz where rather too much Tui beer was consumed (and far too many women got topless for a pint of beer) we hit the road again for Napier. Arriving in the Art Deco capital of the world, we wandered around and went to see the marvellous Atonement as we were too tired to do anything else. Stunning film for those who have not seen it, even with Keira Shitely hamster woman in it.
The next day we did an Art Deco walking tour of the city which was rebuilt entirely in 1931 over 2 years after a massive volcano eruption which meant the sea floor moved upwards adding loads of land to the city and destroying everything. In the afternoon we hastily jumped on the Grape Escape wine tour. On no lunch, 4 wineries with about 10 samples per winery, a cheese platter and extra samples of Viognier, Merlot and Port by a v welcoming vineyard owner called Dan, we arrived back to the hostel wasted and passed out before a well needed burger dinner. Thank goodness we didn't chose the 'bike and wine' option or I may not have been writing now.
The following day we left for Wellington also known as 'Windy Welly'. The buzzing capital had a lovely harbour and good nightlife explored by the core 3 and lovely Aussie Rohan who accompanied us. The next day we explored the city in the rain i.e. shopped and ate and had some dinner and a bottle that night before getting up at 5.30am to catch the interislander ferry to Picton.
Arrived to the South Island (after a seasick Virginia had slept all the way on the deck in the sun) through the beautiful Marlborough Sound. Drove off to Kaikoura along the east coast stopping off at a seal colony where the seals were chilling out on the rocks. Hung out in the sun and booked our dolphin swimming tour for the next morning. Wetsuited up the following day we jumped off our boat 4 times to catch some dolphins swimming around us, not quite Free Willy but awesome to see the pods all around us nonetheless.
Saturday, 10 November 2007
Thursday, 8 November 2007
KIA ORA!
So.. we arrived in Auckland and headed to the Base Backpackers hostel and bumped into a girl from Fiji in our dorm room, crazy coincidence. Next day early 7.45am we rose to watch England's victory over France, get in. Particularly as there were some Welsh girls sat next to us supporting France, bloody Welsh (Sorry Welshies). Then came the arrival of Giles, Em's boyfriend bearing replacements of my stolen goodies so most welcome. The next couple of days we explored Auckland, went up the sky tower and had a drink, went to the Auckland art gallery to check out some traditional maori portraits and hit the Auckland museum where we had the haka (All Black's psyche out dance) warrior dance performed for us.
Tuesday, we got into our hire car and hit the road for Paihia and the Bay of Islands. This was where the first settlers came to NZ from Europe and settled in Russell and the Waitangi Treaty was signed bringing unity to NZ at the instance of a British representative there. Explored Russell across the bay and its pretty beach and Waitangi National Park where the House of said treaty was and some waterfalls/big Maori meeting house and war canoe stuff! Thursday we did a big boat trip around the Bay of Islands which has some stunning beaches and some rather happy holiday home owners living there. Friday, we headed to the northern tip of the North Island to Northland, where Cape Reinga can be found and a 90km beach which we walked around the next day and helped a kiwi family get their car out of the sand after an ambitious off the road project.
After this we spent a long day driving down to Rotorua, all hostels were booked up and we ended up staying in a Young Christians Women's Association hostel, bit quiet and grim but hosted us well and meant we could watch England's hideous defeat on the Sunday morning before heading to Rotorua. Rotorua for those who don't know is a big sulphur smelling town where there are hot geysers shooting up steam and thermal baths, obviously we visited both. Also bumped into some guys from law school there in our hostel, surreal and had a good drinking session with them. This was where I got to see the kiwi bird for the first time, in a darkened enclosed area in the Rotorua maori cultural centre but a kiwi bird nonetheless.
When we could stomach the sulphur no longer we headed to Taupo and what was to be the site of the long anticipated and feared Burgess skydive. The day we arrived we headed over to SkyDive Taupo and all 3 of us were wetting ourselves. I went rather pale and quiet apparently but chirped up big time when I got the blue overalls on and was harness to a rather nice Kiwi and got in the plane. It hit home I was doing it then and I decided to give it my all. 15,000 ft, 60 seconds of free fall and a groin wrenching parachute fall later, I landed, relieved and hyperactive on the ground. Great rush, thought my heart would explode when I fell out of the plane!
Tuesday, we got into our hire car and hit the road for Paihia and the Bay of Islands. This was where the first settlers came to NZ from Europe and settled in Russell and the Waitangi Treaty was signed bringing unity to NZ at the instance of a British representative there. Explored Russell across the bay and its pretty beach and Waitangi National Park where the House of said treaty was and some waterfalls/big Maori meeting house and war canoe stuff! Thursday we did a big boat trip around the Bay of Islands which has some stunning beaches and some rather happy holiday home owners living there. Friday, we headed to the northern tip of the North Island to Northland, where Cape Reinga can be found and a 90km beach which we walked around the next day and helped a kiwi family get their car out of the sand after an ambitious off the road project.
After this we spent a long day driving down to Rotorua, all hostels were booked up and we ended up staying in a Young Christians Women's Association hostel, bit quiet and grim but hosted us well and meant we could watch England's hideous defeat on the Sunday morning before heading to Rotorua. Rotorua for those who don't know is a big sulphur smelling town where there are hot geysers shooting up steam and thermal baths, obviously we visited both. Also bumped into some guys from law school there in our hostel, surreal and had a good drinking session with them. This was where I got to see the kiwi bird for the first time, in a darkened enclosed area in the Rotorua maori cultural centre but a kiwi bird nonetheless.
When we could stomach the sulphur no longer we headed to Taupo and what was to be the site of the long anticipated and feared Burgess skydive. The day we arrived we headed over to SkyDive Taupo and all 3 of us were wetting ourselves. I went rather pale and quiet apparently but chirped up big time when I got the blue overalls on and was harness to a rather nice Kiwi and got in the plane. It hit home I was doing it then and I decided to give it my all. 15,000 ft, 60 seconds of free fall and a groin wrenching parachute fall later, I landed, relieved and hyperactive on the ground. Great rush, thought my heart would explode when I fell out of the plane!
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
BULA continued...
The next day in Bariloche we caught a bus to El Bolson, a beautiful looking mountainous town which had pink blossoming trees surrounding a big artesan craft fair (to die for Alfajores for those who've been to Argentina). Returned to Bariloche for dinner and drinks out with people from our hostel where we met a suspect couple of Argentinians hoping to open a hostel just for women called The Nunnery. Interesting. Needless to say we moved away from them pretty quickly.
The next day we moved on after the mountain luge to Mendoza on the overnight bus. After bingo on the bus (which Emma won without realising and missed out on the prize) and some crappy films we arrived early Sat morning to the wealthy wine region of Mendoza. Spent the day looking around and had a great wine tasting in the evening with Matias in a boutique winery where we got through 10 bottles of wine (swirling, sniffing, gargling, examining and pompously defining) and generally came out very happy.
Things took a bit of a downturn the next day when we had a great time at the San Felipe vineyard and returned to Mendoza city for lunch. Here, while having lunch on the side of a restaurant I had my bag with all my valuables in it stolen by a guy with a pistol. After much upset and cancelling of everything, we left Mendoza the next day on the night bus to Buenos Aires to get a new passport from the British Embassy. Met the consul and had a cup of tea and the Great British network handed me a new passport the same day. Caught an early flight to Santiago and spent the next day looking around before flying to Fiji via Auckland. Santiago was quite a European and buzzing place and quite chilled, liked it a lot.
After a 14hr flight and 8hrs hanging out in Auckland airport we boarded the plane to Nadi, the main town in Fiji, on the biggest island. Spent the night there by the seaside where there was amazing seafood and a fire twirling dance display. The next day we boarded the boat to Waya island and the Octopus resort. Octopus resort went even beyond the idyllic pacific island stereotype, it was stunning. We spent 5 days here relaxing, snorkelling, swimming, sunbathing, reading 4 Harry Potters (blush), handgliding, cocktailing and eating. Will stop now, that's enough.
After a couple of days back on the big island with yes more chilling we caught the flight back to Auckland laden up with Fijian wood goodies and worrying about customs...
The next day we moved on after the mountain luge to Mendoza on the overnight bus. After bingo on the bus (which Emma won without realising and missed out on the prize) and some crappy films we arrived early Sat morning to the wealthy wine region of Mendoza. Spent the day looking around and had a great wine tasting in the evening with Matias in a boutique winery where we got through 10 bottles of wine (swirling, sniffing, gargling, examining and pompously defining) and generally came out very happy.
Things took a bit of a downturn the next day when we had a great time at the San Felipe vineyard and returned to Mendoza city for lunch. Here, while having lunch on the side of a restaurant I had my bag with all my valuables in it stolen by a guy with a pistol. After much upset and cancelling of everything, we left Mendoza the next day on the night bus to Buenos Aires to get a new passport from the British Embassy. Met the consul and had a cup of tea and the Great British network handed me a new passport the same day. Caught an early flight to Santiago and spent the next day looking around before flying to Fiji via Auckland. Santiago was quite a European and buzzing place and quite chilled, liked it a lot.
After a 14hr flight and 8hrs hanging out in Auckland airport we boarded the plane to Nadi, the main town in Fiji, on the biggest island. Spent the night there by the seaside where there was amazing seafood and a fire twirling dance display. The next day we boarded the boat to Waya island and the Octopus resort. Octopus resort went even beyond the idyllic pacific island stereotype, it was stunning. We spent 5 days here relaxing, snorkelling, swimming, sunbathing, reading 4 Harry Potters (blush), handgliding, cocktailing and eating. Will stop now, that's enough.
After a couple of days back on the big island with yes more chilling we caught the flight back to Auckland laden up with Fijian wood goodies and worrying about customs...
Saturday, 13 October 2007
BULA from Fiji!
Perito Moreno glacier was stunning and freezing. It was a beautiful blue colour and bits kept breaking off making thundrous noises. Having not seen a glacier before I was suitably impressed. We then got the bus from El calafate to Torres del Paine where we spent one day going around the whole park looking at Lake Grey and its glacier and 'Los Cuernos' and 'Las Torres' mountains which were imposing and covered in snow. Day 2 we did a 20k up to the Torres and back. Brilliant. Not having time to do the full 5 day hike we headed upwards to Puerto Montt, port town in Chile, not very exciting place and the hostel we stayed in was shabby to say the least!
In the morning we caught an 8hr bus to Bariloche where we were rewarded for the long travel by oodles of the most amazing chocolate. We raided the chocolate shop street and had a big feast while we went to the cinema there. Bariloche is a town which looks v much like an Alpine ski resort so mostly sells chocolate and ski wear. Its the big skiing/snow boarding resort and we celebrated that by doing a snow luge thing down the mountain. Great stuff. Running out of time in internet cafe so will continue later! xxx
In the morning we caught an 8hr bus to Bariloche where we were rewarded for the long travel by oodles of the most amazing chocolate. We raided the chocolate shop street and had a big feast while we went to the cinema there. Bariloche is a town which looks v much like an Alpine ski resort so mostly sells chocolate and ski wear. Its the big skiing/snow boarding resort and we celebrated that by doing a snow luge thing down the mountain. Great stuff. Running out of time in internet cafe so will continue later! xxx
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
"In Patagonia" by Virginia Burgess
Met a slightly sickly Emma in Trelew and went to Gaiman to check out the centre of Welsh Patagonia and have some tea. God milky tea in a teapot plus tea cosy felt good! We went to the tea house belonging to the great granddaughter of the first Welsh settler in Patagonia who arrived in 1865. The tea house was like a swiss lodge full of Welsh memorabilia in cabinets and a big iron fire/grate thing which came across on that first ship to Patagonia, the Mimosa.
After stuffing our faces with inordinate amounts of dulce de leche cake we caught the bus back to Trelew and our kitch tumble down hostel. The next day we passed through Puerto Madryn and on to Puerto Piramides where we got on a boat to do some whale watching. Emma´s SLR camera went nuts at this point. There were big Right whales and their calves everywhere, enormous and beautiful animals with big carbuncles all over. After this I had a big lamb lunch a la parilla (big fat bbq) in a lighthouse estancia on the Peninsula Valdes. Em, still not feeling great had soup, a few guilt feelings on my part. That afternoon, we went onto the beach below to see elephant seals. Whopping creatures making bit flatulent snoring noises, awesome.
Saturday and Sunday were spent chilling while Emma recovered and the elections took place meaning everything was shut. Much time listening to "estas viendo Warner Channel" on tv. Sunday afternoon we flew down to Ushuaia.
Ushuaia is the town which claims to be at the end of the world. It´s not really but it is the biggest southern town apparently. It´s like an Austrian or Swiss ski resort. We are staying in a wood pannelled hostel, feels very European and much more wealthy than concrete jungle Welsh Patagonia. It does feel good and quite strange to be the furthest South I have been in my life.
Since being here we have done a boat trip down the Beagle Channel and seen sea lions and massive cormorants that look like penguins if you squint. Yesterday we took a bus to the National Park, Tierra del Fuego, and strolled around the park which is stunning. Looks a bit like the Lake District in the UK but more extreme. Today we are off dog sledding up in the snow should be hilarious, am thinking Canadian Mountie style but we shall see. Tomorrow morning we plan to go up a glacier before flying to El Calafate to see the mother of glaciers and the best apparently, El Perito Moreno. Em and I are hugely excited about this and Torres del Paine, the best National Park in South America apparently, our next destination after that....
That´s all for now, if you´ve read this far, thanks for your persistence and interest! xx
After stuffing our faces with inordinate amounts of dulce de leche cake we caught the bus back to Trelew and our kitch tumble down hostel. The next day we passed through Puerto Madryn and on to Puerto Piramides where we got on a boat to do some whale watching. Emma´s SLR camera went nuts at this point. There were big Right whales and their calves everywhere, enormous and beautiful animals with big carbuncles all over. After this I had a big lamb lunch a la parilla (big fat bbq) in a lighthouse estancia on the Peninsula Valdes. Em, still not feeling great had soup, a few guilt feelings on my part. That afternoon, we went onto the beach below to see elephant seals. Whopping creatures making bit flatulent snoring noises, awesome.
Saturday and Sunday were spent chilling while Emma recovered and the elections took place meaning everything was shut. Much time listening to "estas viendo Warner Channel" on tv. Sunday afternoon we flew down to Ushuaia.
Ushuaia is the town which claims to be at the end of the world. It´s not really but it is the biggest southern town apparently. It´s like an Austrian or Swiss ski resort. We are staying in a wood pannelled hostel, feels very European and much more wealthy than concrete jungle Welsh Patagonia. It does feel good and quite strange to be the furthest South I have been in my life.
Since being here we have done a boat trip down the Beagle Channel and seen sea lions and massive cormorants that look like penguins if you squint. Yesterday we took a bus to the National Park, Tierra del Fuego, and strolled around the park which is stunning. Looks a bit like the Lake District in the UK but more extreme. Today we are off dog sledding up in the snow should be hilarious, am thinking Canadian Mountie style but we shall see. Tomorrow morning we plan to go up a glacier before flying to El Calafate to see the mother of glaciers and the best apparently, El Perito Moreno. Em and I are hugely excited about this and Torres del Paine, the best National Park in South America apparently, our next destination after that....
That´s all for now, if you´ve read this far, thanks for your persistence and interest! xx
Cross Continental Crazyness
Much has happened since I was in Lake Titicaca (incidentally the biggest mass of water at that altitude not the highest as in my last entry whoops). The Uros islands were intriguing. There is the possibility that the Bolivian government pay the population to be there as its such a major tourist attraction but its still pretty amazing. We visited a couple of islands and floated about on a reed boat. It would be crazy to live there all the time but I´ve thought this many a time on my travels.
On the island tour I met a couple of Kiwis, Alice and Tim from Christchurch who then got the bus to La Paz with me where we also met a Dane and a Brit and the 5 of us got a hostel together in La Paz. This was particularly good for me as a girl travelling alone as we got into La Paz at 11pm and a tourist policeman got on the bus and told us not to get off where we were planning to because we´d be robbed. We forced the bus driver to take us to the bus station. Novel idea I know.
La Paz was a crazy working city. A mass of roads and squares. No major central focal point except for maybe the Plaza San Francisco with a pretty cathedral, little streets behind selling textiles and llama foetuses and a witches market up one end. All this gave La Paz a really interesting feel, I liked it a lot. There was also a big 2 day demonstration going on by the cocaleros who are feeling hard done by by Evo Morales government.
After a couple of days exploring and a cheeky trip to see The Willis in Die Hard 4, I caught an overnight bus (after rushing to the toll booths to wait for it as I thought I´d missed it) to Uyuni where the salt flats are. We would have got there at 7am in time for a 10am tour but the bus got 2 major punctures and we arrived at 2pm. After a night of amazing MinuteMan pizza and alcohol with the members of my bus I headed off the next day on tour. The Salt flats were unbelievable and enormous. Think Pirates of the Carribean 3 (Johnny Depp´s Worlds End). Cue lots of stupid photos. We also had fun travelling about in a jeep seeing a volcano and flamingos and a hell of a lot of cacti.
On the Friday at 5.30 am after a false start where my bus drove straight past me, I headed south to the Argentine border. This involved stopping and changing buses at Atocha and Tupiza little Bolivian market towns and arriving at Villazon at the border at about 5pm. I then crossed into Argentina, had some chicken and chips with a couple from Sheffield and caught a bus to Salta. Arriving at 4.00 am I decided to keep going and went straight to the airport to catch a flight to Buenos Aires.
Arrived at our Moulin Rouge style hostel in Buenos Aires at 10.30am where Emma was waiting for me. We spent the day catching up big time and exploring the San Telmo district, a beautiful old style antiques section of B.A. then went to Florida to the shopping zone and then saw the Bourne Ultimatum before dinner back in San Telmo. A great but exhausting day after 30hours travelling.
Sunday I visited the Recoleta where there is a big cemetery and Evita´s body and a great market. Caught some tango dancing in a bar in the evening. Monday I met up with Stephanie!! Was lovely to see her and her mother in their stunning BA flat. We headed to Palermo for some steak lunch (GOD the steak is good here) and then wandered around a bit while she did the dentist and I did incredible Argentine ice cream (Freddo for those in the know) and travel arrangements.
That evening I jumped on a 16 hour bus (turned out to be 18hr) over night to Puerto Iguacu to see the waterfalls. They were as beautiful as Niagara only much more tropical and much more scope to explore around jungle style trails. Here I bumped into the Kiwis again who´d been in Rio in the interim! I love those coincidences. After getting trigger finger from so many photos I flew back to BA and went out for dinner in Puerto Madero which reminded me a lot of the docklands in Bristol and the South Bank in London. Emma in this time was taking a trip to Uruguay as she´d done Iguacu already.
Thursday morning I took a flight to Trelew to begin the Patagonian stage....
On the island tour I met a couple of Kiwis, Alice and Tim from Christchurch who then got the bus to La Paz with me where we also met a Dane and a Brit and the 5 of us got a hostel together in La Paz. This was particularly good for me as a girl travelling alone as we got into La Paz at 11pm and a tourist policeman got on the bus and told us not to get off where we were planning to because we´d be robbed. We forced the bus driver to take us to the bus station. Novel idea I know.
La Paz was a crazy working city. A mass of roads and squares. No major central focal point except for maybe the Plaza San Francisco with a pretty cathedral, little streets behind selling textiles and llama foetuses and a witches market up one end. All this gave La Paz a really interesting feel, I liked it a lot. There was also a big 2 day demonstration going on by the cocaleros who are feeling hard done by by Evo Morales government.
After a couple of days exploring and a cheeky trip to see The Willis in Die Hard 4, I caught an overnight bus (after rushing to the toll booths to wait for it as I thought I´d missed it) to Uyuni where the salt flats are. We would have got there at 7am in time for a 10am tour but the bus got 2 major punctures and we arrived at 2pm. After a night of amazing MinuteMan pizza and alcohol with the members of my bus I headed off the next day on tour. The Salt flats were unbelievable and enormous. Think Pirates of the Carribean 3 (Johnny Depp´s Worlds End). Cue lots of stupid photos. We also had fun travelling about in a jeep seeing a volcano and flamingos and a hell of a lot of cacti.
On the Friday at 5.30 am after a false start where my bus drove straight past me, I headed south to the Argentine border. This involved stopping and changing buses at Atocha and Tupiza little Bolivian market towns and arriving at Villazon at the border at about 5pm. I then crossed into Argentina, had some chicken and chips with a couple from Sheffield and caught a bus to Salta. Arriving at 4.00 am I decided to keep going and went straight to the airport to catch a flight to Buenos Aires.
Arrived at our Moulin Rouge style hostel in Buenos Aires at 10.30am where Emma was waiting for me. We spent the day catching up big time and exploring the San Telmo district, a beautiful old style antiques section of B.A. then went to Florida to the shopping zone and then saw the Bourne Ultimatum before dinner back in San Telmo. A great but exhausting day after 30hours travelling.
Sunday I visited the Recoleta where there is a big cemetery and Evita´s body and a great market. Caught some tango dancing in a bar in the evening. Monday I met up with Stephanie!! Was lovely to see her and her mother in their stunning BA flat. We headed to Palermo for some steak lunch (GOD the steak is good here) and then wandered around a bit while she did the dentist and I did incredible Argentine ice cream (Freddo for those in the know) and travel arrangements.
That evening I jumped on a 16 hour bus (turned out to be 18hr) over night to Puerto Iguacu to see the waterfalls. They were as beautiful as Niagara only much more tropical and much more scope to explore around jungle style trails. Here I bumped into the Kiwis again who´d been in Rio in the interim! I love those coincidences. After getting trigger finger from so many photos I flew back to BA and went out for dinner in Puerto Madero which reminded me a lot of the docklands in Bristol and the South Bank in London. Emma in this time was taking a trip to Uruguay as she´d done Iguacu already.
Thursday morning I took a flight to Trelew to begin the Patagonian stage....
Saturday, 1 September 2007
Buenos Aires here I come!
So my last day with my group involved White Water Rafting... I loved the rafting, the bit where our guide decided to topple as many of us as possible into the river right in the middle of a rapid, not so much. Picture 4 of us flying down the river with the currents shouting backwards for someone to get us back in the raft, elegant we weren´t, pretty funny it was.
The others left for Lima on Weds and I took a day for a bit of a breather, to regain energy and get rid of some more tummy fun, I´m lucky like that. I flew to Arequipa on the Thurs and spent all of Fri looking around. It´s bigger than Cusco, with a beautiful backdrop of the El Misti volcano towering behind it. It´s all made of white sillar stone and has many religious buildings, including the most important in Peru, the Monasterio Santa Catalina. Spent some good hours wandering around this colourful and serene citadel, v impressive. I had forgotten that Arequipa is the home of Mario Vargas Llosa, one of my favourite S.American authors, whose latest book I have signed by him. He is quite a guy, having stood to be president of Peru, he got beaten sadly by the murderous dictator Fujimori but there we go.
The other highlight of Arequipa was seeing Juanita. She was a body discovered at the top of one of the nearby mountains, frozen in the glacier. She is important because she was one of 4 bodies found which show that the Incas used to smack young pure noble girls over the head with a 5 pronged mace and bury them along with offerings to the Mountain gods called Apus. These girls had also marched for days from Cusco to these mountains in a big festival and had voluntarily given their lives, it was a great honour.
Juanita was a bit freaky really, she still had her hair and teeth. It´s going to take me a while to shake off her image but she was fascinating nonetheless. Have grown quite fond of these Incas in the last 6 weeks. They were amazingly advanced and had an interesting set of beliefs, worshipping PachaMama (Mother Earth) and the God Inti Sol (the Sun God) and the Apu mountain gods too. The ruins left behind are incredible and it makes me sad to think how much the Spaniards destroyed...
Am currently, after a 6 hour bus trip, in Puno which is the town by the side of Lake Titicaca the highest lake in the world. Tomorrow am doing a trip to see the Uros islands made of Tortora reeds. The locals make the island they live on and each time it rots away they replace the reeds. Am intrigued to see them before I take another long bus trip to La Paz and my first steps into Bolivia.
The others left for Lima on Weds and I took a day for a bit of a breather, to regain energy and get rid of some more tummy fun, I´m lucky like that. I flew to Arequipa on the Thurs and spent all of Fri looking around. It´s bigger than Cusco, with a beautiful backdrop of the El Misti volcano towering behind it. It´s all made of white sillar stone and has many religious buildings, including the most important in Peru, the Monasterio Santa Catalina. Spent some good hours wandering around this colourful and serene citadel, v impressive. I had forgotten that Arequipa is the home of Mario Vargas Llosa, one of my favourite S.American authors, whose latest book I have signed by him. He is quite a guy, having stood to be president of Peru, he got beaten sadly by the murderous dictator Fujimori but there we go.
The other highlight of Arequipa was seeing Juanita. She was a body discovered at the top of one of the nearby mountains, frozen in the glacier. She is important because she was one of 4 bodies found which show that the Incas used to smack young pure noble girls over the head with a 5 pronged mace and bury them along with offerings to the Mountain gods called Apus. These girls had also marched for days from Cusco to these mountains in a big festival and had voluntarily given their lives, it was a great honour.
Juanita was a bit freaky really, she still had her hair and teeth. It´s going to take me a while to shake off her image but she was fascinating nonetheless. Have grown quite fond of these Incas in the last 6 weeks. They were amazingly advanced and had an interesting set of beliefs, worshipping PachaMama (Mother Earth) and the God Inti Sol (the Sun God) and the Apu mountain gods too. The ruins left behind are incredible and it makes me sad to think how much the Spaniards destroyed...
Am currently, after a 6 hour bus trip, in Puno which is the town by the side of Lake Titicaca the highest lake in the world. Tomorrow am doing a trip to see the Uros islands made of Tortora reeds. The locals make the island they live on and each time it rots away they replace the reeds. Am intrigued to see them before I take another long bus trip to La Paz and my first steps into Bolivia.
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