Nunery

Quickly moving through peru and im in Arequipa. Im half dead from the night bus but have managed to visit a nunery built in the 16th century when christianity was brought over. This was a nunery for the rich...each nun had her own quarters with multiple servants. Ok lets start from the beginning. Back in those days, the first born son would have to marry to carry on the family name. The second born son had a choice, join the military to become a priest. If he chose the military then the second born daughter was to be a nun. The idea was that every family needed at least one person praying for the salvation of the whole lot. The second born daughter, at the age of 12 would spend 4 years as a "Novice"...living in the nunery but speaking to no one (although family could come and visit now and again and speak to her through a gate). After 4 years, she would become a nun afterwhich she would never have contact with the outside world again. Even after a nuns death, her family members would not have the oppertunity to see the body. This all sounds horrible, but life outside the walls of the nunery was a lot worse.


Blue,red and white: the three main colors found in the nunery.

Aliens?

Today i got into a 6-seater plane and flew over the famous Nazca lines. You may be familiar with these drawings from such shows as unsolved mysteries. Basically huge drawings of animals (some of which span hundreds of meters) and straight lines that extent as far as the eye can see. There are many theories about how this figures were created...everything from maps of water sources to aliens. Personally, i think any culture with a few centuries of time to kill and nothing but desert to play with would have built it our of bordom. From the plane i could also see the worlds tallest known sand dune...over 2000m of sand. In the afternoon, i visited a Nazca cemetary...where i got to casualy hold 2000 year old human bones.


Hummingbird

Sandboarding

Great day today. Was back in the dessert...this time instead of riding camels (like in morocco), we took dune buggies which turned the huge sand dunes into an amusement park of roller coasters. Every now and then we would stop and sandboard down the dunes. Good fun. This was in the Ica dunes btw. In the afternoon we stopped in the Pisco winery, got a tour and of course tasting at the end. The most popular drink in peru is the Pisco Sour...which is just pisco liquer plus some lime, sugar and ice. Here´s a great saying that ive picked up and should be used before taking a shot:
"Por Ella, la botella, la mas bella."
(For her, the bottle, it is more beautiful)


Like a pro

Lima...boooo

Just passing through Lima...cause this town sucks from a touristic stand point. I did manage to buy an "Inca Kola" t-shirt that im very proud of. Inca Kola is the peruvian answer to Coca Cola, looks like Mountain Dew and tastes like cream soda.

Sand City

Im in Huanchaco another coastal town. Today we visited Chan Chan, a huge city built out of sand during pre-inca times by the Chimu. The coastal part of peru does not get rain...none... except during El Nino, so at its peak Chan Chan was a sand city supporting around 60,000 people. Of course we can thank our spanish amigos from destroying most of it. You still dont believe me about the rain...internet cafes here do not have proper roofs. When you ask "what do you do when it rains"...the answer you get is "it doesnt rain".


Chimu design

From Ecuador to Peru

I should mention that im traveling with a bunch of backpackers from Quito to Santiago with the help of a local guide. Ive booked a few of these, the first one being Galapagos, the current being the second, then a Patagonia trip and finally my antarctic voyage. We finally managed to leave ecuador and now im in Mancora Peru. A tiny surfing town on the coast. Its sunny and warm, i spent the day on the beach reading...went for a jog...that kind of stuff. The trip here was exciting, it included a broken mini-bus in the Andes, restaurant staff running after us through a busy square, counterfeit money, and the "interesting" ecuador/peruvian boarder which is essentially 45km of no-mans land.

Cajas National Park

Its my final full day in Ecuador...staying in the colonial city of Cuenca. Today i spent the day hiking in Cajas National Park...very high elevation with a couple hundred apline lakes. On the way back we stopped by "Che" restaurant and had some smoked pig...our cab driver was really cool and took us to the place, he even got the women to add extra meat for us because he thought our portions were too small. Tomorrow we cross the boarder to peru.


Funny lookin plant

Hikin ´in Bikin

Im in Baños. Spent the day biking down curvy roads surrounded by mountains, stopping every once in a while and hiking up to waterfalls (the most famous being El Diablo). ...great day, boring post...im sorry.

Cucarachas

I spent the last three days in the Amazon Jungle...La Selva to be exact. This is in a very remote part of ecuador...from quito it took 30 minutes on a plane to Coca then a 3 hour motorized canoe ride down a river, followed by a 1 hour hike and then another 30 minute canoe ride to reach our lodge. The lodge was very pimp by jungle standards...three course meals, hot water, etc. I had a private hut which i shared with about a dozen cockroaches (jungle sized). We did about 2 or 3 hikes each day...saw plenty of huge insects, hundreds of parrots and other exotic birds, and some caimons. I did fish for pirannahs...but unfortunately the buggers are just to fast...after lowering a piece of meat on a hook into the water within 20 seconds it would be polished off...very frustrating. Weather was perfect...rained for 15 minutes one day.


PG-13


Lake that we spotted caimon by night, fished for piranahs in the evenings and swam in during the day

Cloud Forest

Spent the entire day hiking in a sub-tropical cloud forest in north western ecuador. Highlight of the hike was seeing a tucan (like Sam, the one on the Fruit Loops box). Tomorrow i leave for three days to the jungle (eastern ecuador close to brazil) were i will have the opportunity to fish for piranahs.

Biking down Cotopaxi

Today i spent the day cycling down the worlds highest active volcano, Cotopaxi. We started with snow, then hail, some rain, and by the time we got to the bottom (4 hours of cycling) i had a big grin in my face. The company that i went with was called the Cycling Dutchman. I had a chance to meet the dutchman himself when we pulled up to his huge mansion to pick up bikes. Here´s the quick story...but its really funny to hear him tell it in a thick dutch accent.
- travelled the world for 5 years...would work summers in the netherlands painting houses and travelled the rest of the time
- when he was in vancouver, he bought a bicycle and cycled down to LA where he fell in love
- not with a girl, but with a boat. he sold his bike, and bought an old decrepid 21 foot sail boat for 400 dollars. painted rich peoples homes in LA for 8 months while restoring the boat.
- sailed by himself from LA to cabo st luca in mexico...took several months...realized half way through his trip that he didnt really know how to sail...got lost for weeks without land in sight...the only maps he had with him was a world map (just a piece of paper) and a map of india...almost got run over by a huge tanker but somehow managed to reach his destination.
- travelled south and met a girl in ecuador and fell in love
- they went back to the netherlands to paint for another year and then moved back to quito
- he bought 5 bycicles, and old pickup truck and started the first volcano cycling business in latin america. of course everyone though he was crazy taking people to the top of a volcano and cycling down...but the business grew.
- he now lives in a pimp mansion in quito with his wife and 2 children (who are fluent in spanish, english, dutch and french)...other people do most of the work and he collects money...loves ecuador (claims europe is shit).

Who´s That?

Me silly... pictures have just been posted from my adventure trip in slovenia.


yeeeeee!

Diving but no sharks

Quick Galapagos update. Ive gone scuba diving twice. The first time was not successful due to very difficult conditions (strong currents, waves, bad vis, etc) but the second time was very pleasant. I swam with a sea lion...err...actually he swam circles around me and i just stared in amazement. We saw a huge sting ray...over one meter in diameter. Ive also snorkeled with galapagos penguins...so cute and way too fast. Weather has been fantastic everyday, so ive got a tan and of course im very relaxed. One and a half days left on this trip before i fly back to Quito.


Me again

Galapagos

Hey all, i have a few moments to blog from the galapagos islands. Ive been in a boat the whole time but today we have stopped in town to pick up some more people. The boat is small, holds 14 tourists plus the crew. I have a private room and my own washroom on the second level. It gets very rocky at night when we are sailing, but i haven't experienced any sea sickness. The experience has been amazing so far...im going to try to list a the things ive seen over the last couple of days: marine iguanas, land iguanas, hybrid iguanas, sea lions (and many cute sea lion pups including a very rare albino), reef sharks, sea cucumbers, sting rays, sea turtles, giant tortoises, fish fish fish and more tropical fish, pink flamingos, blue footed boobies, and many other species of birds. The great thing is that all these animals are tame...so ive been able to get some really close up pictures just using my 50mm lens. We also did a short hike to the top of St. Bartoleme (the best island IMHO) which is the highest point in the islands giving you a nice view of the archipelago.


Land Iguana


Blue Footed Booby


Sealion pup trying to wake up


"Salty" the albino sealion pup


Giant Tortoise

Good old TV

Nothing very interesting to report...i switched from my hostel to a pimp hotel in the new town which is included with my galapagos trip. Having my own room, a nice shower and a TV is a nice change. I spent the afternoon watching random spanish shows and half of Clear and Present Danger which im dying to find out the conclusion. Tomorrow i fly to the galapagos and begin an 8 day cruise.