Getting High With Gran in Peru

4910 meters above sea level to be precise.

Highest point on the tour

Our Colca Canyon experience started and finished with very dodgy and excruciatingly long bus rides, but the scenery was fantastic. On the first day we passed over our highest point for the whole tour, at 4910 meters, the air was pretty thin, but none of us were feeling too bad. Breathing at altitude is a funny thing. You get puffed so easily but recover just as quick, it just makes you feel like you've spent the last two months of your life drinking too much beer and doing no exercise, funny that.

We got to the canyon on the next day and I was excited to see some Condors gliding around. The day went passed at a few different lookout points and no Condors appeared. The guide said that the morning was too cold and not windy enough for the enormous birds, because they don't like to flap their wings. On the way back, and having not seen any Condors, the bus stopped suddenly on the side of the road and all the keen photographers jumped out of the bus. The bird was gliding around the canyon in its graceful style. I didn't get any photos because we were too far away for my camera, and I don't think any photo even from the best camera would have done it justice. I love the nature of their flight, with hardly any movement of their 3 meter wings, they use the wind currents to gain height. It reminds me of paragliding. They look so peaceful in the air, until you remember that they are a scavenging bird and are probably circling around a half dead sheep somewhere.

Colca Canyon at its shallowest 

The rock tower I built, 13 rocks in total

Puno was our next stop, mostly as a base for the trip out to Lake Titicaca. First stop was on the floating islands, where small groups of about six families live on a reed island that they have built. I wasn't entirely sold on the floating islands. It was very touristy, and didn't feel at all authentic. I asked my guide out of the 80 floating islands that are on the lake, how many are this touristy and how many live life the same way as their ancestors did. He told me that most of them are like this. The way that people were walking around the island, which is smaller than a school footy oval and staring at the people, it was just set up like a zoo and that didn't feel good. The trip was saved by a few little kids who were excited to receive a small koala teddy. Steph and I were engaged in a game which involved throwing the teddy to someone and shouting 'koala koala!'

Koala Koala!

When I stood up, it became apparent that I had been sitting in bird shit

Handstands are kinda becoming a thing

Later in the day we went to meet our homestay family. This was a much more fulfilling experience. We spent the afternoon ploughing fields, sifting dirt, playing futbol, and preparing vegetables. The hearty pasta and soup was just what I needed, even if there was no beer to wash it down. We dressed up in traditional clothing and participated in all the day to day activities of a Peruvian farming family, and it was a great experience.

Mr Plow that's my name, that name again is Mr Plow

Our host family father, Calixto with his Aussie hat

The traditional clothing: hat and beanie, poncho, footy socks and thongs

The whole fam

Tomorrow is a bus trip to Cuzco, where we will launch into the Inca Trek!

Due to the number of devices for taking photos having quadrupled, I have a lot more photos. So if you don't want to view all of the general tomfoolery that we are all partaking in then look away now...

Using the reeds for their proper use

This weird jump is becoming a thing as well

My world-travelling Gran

The coolest Fergie cousins

Poser

Found a mountain, climbed it. Found a building up top, climbed it

Did I mention handstands are becoming a thing?

Peru: Gastronomical Paradise

 G'day viewers!
Today I logged on to find that I'd received my 1000th view on the blog, a total I'm very proud of. Thank you for continuing to read, and hopefully you can continue to get some mild entertainment out of my experiences and occasional average joke.

Since last update, I had the pleasure of spending a night sleeping in a chair at Rio Airport before my flight to Lima. In short, that may have been the least comfortable 18 hours of my life, but an experience nonetheless! I arrived in Lima and over the next day or so I had two family members join me. Gran came from Melbourne and Steph from San Francisco. We went for a walk into the main square of Lima and I must have given this lady a greasy or something, whatever it was, it was enough to provoke her to throw her water into my face. I wasn't too worried about it, it was just funny that in the first half an hour Gran had been in the country, she witnessed that.

Town Centre, Lima. Changing of the Guards

Enjoying various drinks at a great place in Miraflores, Lima

Sunday night we were all to meet in a hotel in Lima for the start of our Geckos tour. We were all excited (Gran a bit nervous) to meet a bunch of young interesting travellers, who we would be spending the next three weeks with. When we got to the meeting, there was just one other young interesting traveller. It was mixed feelings between not getting what we expected from a tour, but realising that now our tour leader Giscard was very much our personal guide. Jules has fitted in perfectly into our group and we all have been laughing pretty much constantly, in our funny little unlikely group.

So far, my experience of doing a tour, rather than staying in hostels and doing your own thing, has been a positive one. I have seen things that I most likely wouldn't have if I was by myself. For example, I can't imagine I would have gone to the small seaside town of Paracus, but going there and getting on a boat to visit the Ballestas Islands was an amazing experience. The wildlife on the islands and the friendliness of the local country people was fantastic and definitely a thing I'd recommend. I have been staying in hotel rooms, a step or two above the 18-bed hostel dorms I'm used to. It allows for a few more creature comforts, like a tv in the room and crapping with the door open. Also I am zipping around the country at a much faster rate than I would be on my own, I'm unsure if that is a good or bad thing though. I think I prefer getting a more in depth feel of one place.

After Paracus, we boarded another bus to Nazca, the desert town located near the famous Nazca Lines. On our one and only evening in Nazca we got in a car with our very friendly guide, Antonio, and headed out for the oldest known drawings, a family and a dog on the side of a hill. They are incredible to see, and in unbelievably good condition. Going up the tower to see them did bring back a few of those irrational thoughts of jumping that I had at the Iguazu falls, is there something wrong with me?

A depiction of an ancient family

A depiction of a modern family

The next morning we jumped in a plane to view the lines from above. Most people have heard of or seen photos of the drawings like the monkey and spider and hummingbird, and they were incredible to view from the sky. I was surprised with the shear quantity of lines that weren't part of any of the actual drawings. They were used to point towards different constellations and water sources. They are perfectly straight and can stretch for kilometres, and the mathematician in me was left slightly mesmerised.

We all enjoyed viewing the lines from the comfort of this luxurious aircraft

Steph and Jules were really scared

I am still reliving this moment over in my head so I'll say it quickly, street meat in Nazca was taken to a whole new level, and has dwarfed any other attempt to sell meat on the street anywhere in the world. A man on the side of the road had lit a decent size fire and four frames held four whole pigs over the fire. The result was some of the best pork anyone has ever had and beautiful crackling to top it off.

A culinary wonder of the street-meat world

Today we arrived in Arequipa and we have mostly continued on our merry, and somewhat gluttonous way. Food has rarely been a let down in Peru and today was no exception at the local food market and later at a very popular local restaurant.

Fresh food market, Arequipa

If I had one suggestion to make Peru generally a more enjoyable place, it would be that honking your horn more than five times in one day incurs a similar penalty to breaking the speed limit by twenty k's. The unnecessary beeping is doing my head in slightly, but only slightly.

Tomorrow we are headed for Colca Canyon, a canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It will also be our first real contact with altitude.

Paraty, Costa Verde

 G'day viewers,
It's been some time since the last update I know. This time has been spent in the beautiful historic town of Paraty, in Rio de Janeiro's south. 
I arrived with the intention of staying for about three nights and with not many expectations of anything other than pristine beaches. I got to the town before I found out there was much more to the place than that. It is a very important part of Brazil's history. In colonial Portuguese time it was the best port to export from the worlds richest gold mines. 
The Colonial buildings have been preserved with perfection and the cobblestone streets finish off the feel of the place. Topped with locals selling ice-cream and beer to the tourists, it truly feels like you've stepped back into the 17th century!

Paraty Old Town

The first day in Paraty I went to the waterfalls near town, I'd heard that they were magnificent but I might not have gone had I not heard that there was a Cachaça distillery nearby with free taste testing. The waterfalls were even more beautiful than the spirit. There was one particular spot where a thin layer of water ran over a smooth rock and you could slide down it. There were locals sliding down on their feet but I was finding it hard enough to stay in a straight line parked on my arse. Other great watering holes (literal and metaphorical) were spotted along the river and we made sure to visit them all (literal and metaphorical).

Phresh water

Cachaça distillery, ranging from cinnamon flavoured to metho flavoured

Completely intentional 180

A nearby church, on a nearby rock

The very next day I embarked on a boat tour of a few different beaches and islands in the Paraty area. This day was beautiful and paradisey but also a little sun-strokey. The beaches visited were amazing and virtually deserted, great postcard kinda stuff.

One of the beaches off the boat

Sometimes open ocean is nicer than any beach, only sometimes

Practising my 'not a care in the world' pose

Paraty's nightlife was maybe the biggest let down, due to its virtual non-existence. The Friday night got lively at our hostel and a few of us were keen to see what Saturday night would hold, and it held nothing. So the rest of the night was spent shotgunning beer, and watching Irishmen do 'Dangercans' which involved shaking the can, smashing it on your head until it exploded and then drinking the beer from the hole in the can. Only the Irish.
The rest of the week was spent visiting smaller towns in the Paraty area and swimming at lovely smaller beaches. It was definitely hard to leave Paraty. It definitely deserves to be thought of as more than just an escape from Rio, and rather as its own destination with plenty more to do than sitting on beautiful beaches.

Sitting on a beautiful beach

Right now I am back in Rio, and have a flight to Lima in a few days where I will meet Gran and Steph, I am really looking forward to the next part of my trip through Peru.

Rio de Janeiro: Reveillon

Feliz ano novo, Amigos!

The last few memories of 2013, and the first few of 2014, may be the haziest of my trip so far. From all accounts however, and with some help from some photos that are equally as blurry, we rang in the new year with gusto!
At the start of the night, Shara and I met up with my friends Cam and Kahli, who I met in Buenos Aires. Another couple from England that I hadn't met yet were going to accompany us as well. We made our way through some champagne on the rooftop of the hotel, with incredible views of Christ the Redeemer overlooking one of Rio's largest favelas.

The view from the evening, the big guy up top

The crew for the night, in fairly good shape

We headed for the beach to join approximately two million others on the sand. This is where Cam and I came into our own.

The crew for the night, in a bit worse shape

You can see where this is going

Wow.

The stroke of midnight was approaching and the euphoria was all too much for two humble Aussies. We embraced in the water as the fireworks exploded overhead, while our respective females watched from the sand. Any romantic desires I had for the night were definitely fulfilled, in the least gay way possible.

People glimpsed the fireworks, if they could take their eyes of the dickheads in the water

My first romantic moment of 2014

January 1st was more or less a write-off, so on the 2nd we attempted to climb another mountain, this time with the aide of a cable car all the way to the top. The views at the top of Sugarloaf mountain are just as, if not more amazing than that of Corcovado. One thing about Rio over the New Year period, you need to be prepared to wait in line, for hours, in stifling heat and humidity. If its to get to the top of Sugarloaf mountain, or to buy a bottle of water at the supermarket.

Shara holding up the line so she could stand in the shade

Finally made it to the top of something!

The last few days have been very lazy for me and it will continue that way for about two more weeks until I fly to Peru to meet my Grandmother and cousin.