Disneyland

The land of wonderment and joy....ahh Disneyland. Our first time!

It really is a remarkable place. We arrived a little tired and jaded really after getting up at 6.30, walking to Hollywood and Vine to catch the Metro subway train than changing downtown to and walking to a bus stop to catch a bus headed for Disneyland which took almost two hours to get there, going through what is apparently the biggest spaghetti junction in the US - that was impressive!Anyway, by the time that we dumped our bags in the luggage store at the hotel and walked through the gates of Disneyland it was about 10:30.

Everything looks perfect - like the set on that movie the Truman Show. There is no rubbish, no chipped paint, no carnies operating rides with greasy hair, a scowl and a ciggie hanging out their mouths. Everything is just perfect. Buildings are all themed and the lands were SO big and full of so much stuff that it was mind blowing!

Our first ride was Space Mountain - a rollercoaster in the dark as if you are in space. It was awesone - we went back again later in the day!

After that we were adrenalised, with smiles on our faces and eager to get back out there and discover what else the place had to offer! Other highlights were Star Tours (just like being in a space ship on a Star Wars movie!), the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Carribean, the Pirate Lair Island, the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain! That one had to be the best! Eva rode it three times - once by herself. We stayed until the fireworks finished at 10pm after which we are both totally exhausted!
 We definitely pushed it and got the absolute most that we could out of the day!~

Thankyou Disneyland - the place is definitely a little bit of magic.

LA City

As our time here is so limited, decided to spend a whirldwind of a day in a minivan touring around LA. We took in all of the major 'sights' like the Hollywood sign, Venice Beach - that was cool!, famous people's houses, bars and shopping strips like Rodeo Drive.

Apparently all the rel action happens down at Venice on the weenkends, but on Firday they were still swarms of people and things happening everywhere - although only two guys working out in the muscle gym area, which was just a little disappointing! The was also a gym on the sand which was totally cool with rings, a beam, bars and boxing bags.

This area was great fun, although it was a ltitle spoilt by the fact that a group of homeless old timers and young were camped out in the corner. Initally some were slepping and others were drinking but in the end all were in a fight over something stupid like you touched me and you threw sand on me you mother @#**er"" whilst stumbling into each other and falling all over the place! Pretty messy - Eva wasn't impressed! That stuff just comes hand in hand with big cities though doesn't it! The ugly side that doesn't really get talked about - homelessness, mental illness and debauchery!

From there we hit the beach proper, (it is beautiful) and walked down to the water - just got my feet wet though, it was a little chillly....I'm so soft!

The skate pask was real all the real action  was happening - there was a DJ playing and heaps of people riding and doing tricks in front of a gawping crowd. It seems that everyone in LA likes to do things in front of a crowd!

I have to say that the immensity of LA is quite something and there is certainly a buzz of frenetic energy that I quite like. It is a party place though and our travels in South America stand in stark contrast to the plastic consumerism and obvious wealth.

LA - Bring it on!

Well we have said goodbye to South America after a very happy, eventful and exciting, three months!

Mum went on a plane around 11pm yesterday and we boarded ours a little after midnight, bound for LA via Atlanta. We made it to our hotel on Hollywood Boulevard around 3.30pm.

At LAX airport soon after we arrived

After a shower we were ready to take a walk along the boulevard to check out the Walk of Fame, the Hollywood sign and just take in the spectacle of the place.We ended up finding the world's greatest vintage/retro/costume store it took up three floors = oh my God! You all know of my love of thrift stores! We spent a good hour or more in there having a ball, trying on funky hats, capes, shoes - you name it. It turned into a shopping spree and we spent $60!
 

Inside the vintage shope - great fun!

 

We were looking for Johnny Depp's star - but found....

After that we went to the Kodak Theatre - the place where they have the Academy Awards (apparently) and I bought a couple of last minute cheap tickets to see Cirque de Soleil. The show was awesome! We both thought that they were mindblowing - the acrobatics, lighting, staging everything!





Afterwards we bought some pizza by the slice and walked back to the hotel at around 11pm - just in time to see the weird and wonderful Hollywood freaks coming out to play. We even had a chat to a paparrazi camera man out with his video camera to try and catch a few celebs behaving badly.

Eva was totally, completelt exhausted by the time we got back - can't blame her. She did remarkably well though, considering that we have had less than six hours sleep. But LA is supposed to be the city that never sleeps right? and we only have a couple of days to do it all.
 

It is totally surreal being here - everything is spinning us out. Cars stop to let you cross at traffic lights! You can drink the water and put paper in the loo. People all look different - there are plenty of them dressed up as crazy characters just hanging out on the street: like Batman, Elvis of course, Marilyn and others....

And we keep accidentally saying gracias instead of thankyou!

Lake Titicaca

After Machu PIcchu we had a night's rest in Cusco and jumped on a cheap bus headed south for Puno and Lake Titicaca. The bus was cheap and meant for locals really and what an experience. Our tickets were for the 'death seats' which are the ones right at the front of the bus with a great view of the highway. I now know why they are called death seats!

Our bus driver had a penchant for taking corners on the wrong side of the road, overtaking on crests and overtaking directly in the face of oncoming traffic, with horn blaring of course!

Check out the photos - notice that the bus is on the wrong side of the road and yes we are moving!

The car is moving out of our way!

Yes, all vehicles are moving!

My heart was in my mounth as we sped toward this crest!

That aside, the journey was full of colour and excitement. We had people coming onto the bus selling all sorts of things, from bread and sweets, to ladies with a huge cut of pork which they sliced with a knife almost the size of a machete and stuffed into a bread roll. That was something!

We arrived in Punowith our lives intact, just after dark and managed to arrange a super cheap trip out to the islands with a tout at the bus station! So we left at 8 the next morning bound first for the Uros islands, then for Amantani Isaland to stay for the night with a local family.
 
Our days on the Lake were spectacular. Uros Islands are the floating islands that are made from reeds. The spongy feel of the islands underneath your feet is something else. It almost feels like you are on a waterbed. The local family that we visited gave us a great demonstration of how the islands are made and about their daily lives. We also took the ubiquitos reedboat ride to another island, which was slow and peaceful.

On the boat and ready to go!

Linda - the presidents wife

On the reed boat

It took another 3 hours in a motorbike to get to Amantani Isalnd, which is a natural island in the lake. It is covered in agricultural terraces that pre-date the Incas, and about 4000 people live there in 10 different communities.

The kitchen of Rita;s house & Mud bricks drying

We were welcomed by Rita, our host, and she escorted us to her lovely adobe (mud brick)family house, where she lived with her family and her mother and father. Although it wasn't just a house, more like a little complex of different buildings, including a sheep pen, cook house and toilet.Everything was wonderfully simple and rustic. There was no electricity except for a solar panel for lights, if there was running water I never saw any! And they cooked on a firepit in the cook house on the floor. It was an incredible experience!

Eva in the kitchen - the stone on the floor she is looking at is used for grinding corn and quinoa

This one is obvious!

Eva and I were both totally excited about sleeping in an adobe house. There are so many here in Peru and in Ecuador but we hadn't slept in one before! We weren't disappointed, our little room was separate from the rest of the 'house' and it was cosy and well insulated from the freezing cold of the night! It was actually warmer than any of the hostel rooms that we have stayed in!And the views of Lake Titicaca were sublime.

We took a walk to the top of the mountain on the island, which was about 4200 metres above sea level. It was a hard walk up - and Eva did it all under her own steam - and the view from the top included Bolivia and a spectacular sunset! Just wonderful!

 

The night involved dinner with the family and going to a fiesta where we were encouraged to dress up in local gear and dance the way they do here. Great fun!
Us dressed up as locals with Rita, our host. The night could have been really cheesy, but for some reason it wasn't. There was a band playing and a room full of toursits and locals all dancing together and having a good time.

Lake Titicaca is like nothing else. A very special place.

Cuzco & Machu Picchu

Time is flying by now.

After the rush of the mountains in Huaraz we took a night bus to Lima. The plan was to meet mum at the airport after her long and arduos flight from Sydney. Unfortunately, our much anticipated re-union after almost three months didn't quite go according to plan. (as with so much of our travels in Peru!!)

Eva and I were a touch late arriving at the airport, for reasons I needn't explain. It was around 11pm when we got there and mum was frantic. She had left her bag with a fellow she met on the plane and was manically running around the arrivals hall looking for us...Oops, sorry mum!


After getting that little incident behind us we managed to get out and enjoy a little of what Lima has to offer by way of ancinet ruins and good food!

Eva & I had a beautiful dinner in a restaurant at the base of Ancient Ruins - very nice!

At the Huaca Pucllana ruins in Lima - Mum was still a little jaded at this point

A couple of days in the city were enough though and we were soon on a plane bound for Cusco. A truly beautiful, ancient city with Incan walls, colonial buildings, statues and narrow cobblestoned streets. We spent quite a bit of time trawling the markets and walking around absorbing the atmosphere of the place. The days have been idyllic with blue skies and warm sun. The nights and mornings though are freezing.

As well as being named as the bellybutton of the world, Cusco is also famous for its rather tasty beer - Cusquena and the local Cuscuenans don't mind downing a few it the honour of various fiestas. We have seen two so far; Semana Sunday on the day we arrived when the streets were full of people parading, playing music, eating, drinking and generally having great time. The second involved seemingly all of the children and adolescents in the town performing various indigenous dances and parades. Again there were marching bands everywhere in the streets and marquees set up with people selling beer and food. It was a fabulous energy.

Tasty street food of alpaca, beef heart and chicken kebabs topped with a boiled spud.
This was a little too much for Mum to bear!

We arrived and the city was in full swing for a Semana Santa Festival - Cuzco loves to party

Eva and Mum and an Incan wall

Kids dancing in the Plaza de Armas they were sooo cute!

The costumes were amazing

The Sacred Valley just outside of Cusco was also beautiful, the Incan ruins were impressive and we definitely could have spent more time there. 

Ruins of Inca Terraces and burial sites at Pisac

Markets in Pisac

Ollantaytambo ruins - massive!

But of course the ultimate place was Machu Picchu. It really is incredible, awe-inspiring, majestic, mystical and more..... The site itself sits on the top of a mountain, but it is also surrounded by stunning jagged peaks. We spent hours wandering around, picnicking and enjoying just being there. I wish that we had the opportunity to have been shown around by a shaman guide though. Our fellow was informative and historically sound but he didn't delve into the rituals and spiritual beliefs of the Incas and that element of the culture is fascinating and you could definitely feel something spiritual about the place.

My photo doesn't do it justice, but in the mountain behind Machu Picchu - can you see the profile of a face w a big nose. It is looking up to the sky.

Who expected llamas to be there, just hanging out and walking around?

When you are in the know, apparently the mountain talks to you, as do the birds! And the Incan understanding of astronomy was incredible, there was a stone in the shape of the southern cross and when a compass was placed on it it pointed exactly North South. There is also a mountain to the East where the sun rises on the June 20th and another to the south where it rises six months later to the day, so they could measure the year. As well as lots of other incredible stuff like temples and water fountains. It is a truly an incredible place.

At the end of a big day. Thankyou Machu Picchu.

Peru – The land of the long bus ride.

Well we finally made it to Peru – after an arduous overnight bus journey and border crossing we landed in Piura at 6am. We swapped the bus for a minivan to get to Mancora, on the north coast. The trip was a long 3 hours, driving through a desert-like sandy landscape that seemed to go on forever and dotted with tiny villages made of basic adobe houses and surrounded by tonnes of garbage.

Mancora appeared out of nowhere in a dusty haze. It seemed like a buzzing toursit mecca from where we stopped on the Panamericana, the street was lined with shops and heaps of noisy and cute looking moto-taxis swamped the road. 

Eva geared up and standing in front of a moto-taxi.

 Once we stepped off the main road though it was clear that Mancora was a rustic, rundown village of mostly mudbrick houses and bamboo and palm leaf bungalows. Except of course for the big tourist hotels built right on the beach that looked totally out of place among the rest. We stayed in a bungalow a couple of streets back from the beach – it was lovely, basic and more in tune with our budget. 

Mancora is famous for the beach, it is beautiful and goes on for miles, although a security guard came and stopped us from walking too far as she said that it was unsafe. There were a few surfers out, but most of the crowd were there to party hard! We spent a couple of lovely days hanging out though – we hadn't seen a beach for a while!

One disappointment was the amount of rubbish everywhere, especially on the beach. Even the big places built right on the edge of the beach had just dumped their building rubble onto the sand. Go figure! Nothing quite like dumping garbage in your own front yard. ...I just couldn't get it, especially as the beach itself was covered with limes and tomato offcuts, and other rubbish and there were too many touts selling dried sea horses, turtles shells and coral. It was a little sad and hard to understand.

After sitting on the side of the road at midnight to wait for a bus, we headed to Chiclayo. I thought that it was going to be a small town nearby to some ancient pyramids, but no. It was a crazy, manic metropolis with cars and taxis jamming the roads and noise and a sick smell everywhere. We found our way to the central market and were assaulted by the sights and smells of it. It was like a maze that never ended and everything that you could imagine was for sale, from old boots, typwriters and sewing machines to pigs heads and herbal remedies. We came upon a whole section where huge fish were lying on trestle tables for sale, covered in flies. The smell was like nothing else.

After losing ourselves in the market we finally made our way out, but not before buying a backpack for Eva. It was lucky we did because half an hour later, our other backpack got stolen. We went into a swanky modern restaurant that was recommended in the Lonely Planet. It was clean and sleek with modern orange seats and huge central water feature. But we got a little dazzled by our surroundings. We haven't been going to these sorts of places, $2.00 lunches in local style restaurants are more our thing– anyway, we took our eyes off the backpack for about 15 seconds and it was stolen. Of course it had the new camera and my phone in it! Bummer! The police were called and we did get a ride through central Chiclayo on the back of police motorbikes with the siren going. At least that was a little fun. We were also lucky that they had CCTV footage of the incident and the restuarant manager could speak a little English. He was a really nice guy and actually came to the police station with us and helped interpret. Thank goodness becuase I don't know what we would have done otherwise, he was a godsend. He also invited us back to the restaurant for a free dinner and breakfast as he felt so bad about what had happened. Obviously then, things could have been a lot worse. But we don't have any photos of Mancora or Vilcabamba in Ecuador.

The pyramids and museums in Chiclayo did manage to take our minds off our misfortune though – they were impressive, especially the gold and silver jewelry and the mummies. 

Eva holding a replica of a brick used to build the pyramids

Ceremonial mask of the Lord of Sipan

Eva standing with the "Lord of Sipan"

One of the massive 'pyrmids' of Tucume

 

Two nights were more than enough for us in Chiclayo and we hit the buses once again – this time headed for Huaraz, up high in the Cordillera Blanca Mountains, via a quick visit to Huanchaco on the coast off Trujillo. Another beautiful beach where we saw the sun set over the sea as we arrived. Huanchaco is more developed than Mancora but still beautiful. A nice little place to hang out, but we only had a meal then jumped on an overnight bus.

Huanchaco Beach

Eva sitting in a bus-cama total luxury compared to the Ecuadorian buses - we are on our way to Huaraz in style!

The view outside our bedroom in the hostel - beautiful!

Huaraz, at 3100m, was beautiful and surrounded by stunning snowcapped mountains. It is a trekking and mountaineering mecca and it is no wonder, the mountains are calling out to be explored, but it is not for the feint hearted. We took a bus trip to visit the Pastoruri glacier, which at 5200m, was very high. Altitude was definintely affecting both of us. I had to carry Eva the last couple of hundred metres to get her there. For me it was definintely worth the effort, although I'm not sure that Eva would agree! She felt sick, had a head ache and just wanted to go to sleep!

On our way back in the bus, it broke down! At one point everyone from the bus was out trying to push it. I wish that I got a photo of that! We were stuck up really high, about 4800m and all of the kids were sick with altitude and the guide's cell phone didn't have reception. Luckily one of the Swiss tourists on the bus was a mountaineer and had a satellite phone, otherwise we would have been out there all night as there was no-one around and we were miles from anywhere! Thankfully a minivan finally appeared to take us back, but not before a couple of the people on the bus lost it with the driver and the guide. You guessed it, it was the obnoxious Americans, threatening to sue them! By the time we got home it was 9pm and we both went straight to bed. My head was pounding.

At a spring where carbonated mineral water was bubbling up from the ground. It didn't taste too good though!

Native Peruvian plants that live for 100 years and flower only once during that time. They were huge.

Eva at the base of the Pastoruri Glacier

After that Eva said that she wasn't going to venture into the mountains again – although of course, being the courageous person that she is, she agreed to go on an un-guided trek to Laguna 69 two days later. At 4800m we were hoping that altitude wouldn't be such an issue. The walk was amazing- stunningly beautiful and it was so lovely to be in nature, away from crowds and cars. We didn't make it to the final lake, the high pass was a little too much, but the day we spent out there walking for about 5 hours was totally uplifting and thoroughly enjoyable!

Not Laguna 69 but another beautiful torqiouse blue lake we saw

After that fix of nature it was again time to board an overnight bus, this time bound for Lima. The city of 9 million people that is packed with people, noise, cars and pollution. Quite a change from the peace and grandeur of the mountains! Mum is coming in two days though and we have to be there to meet her!

Peru - it's growing on us slowly!