Sunday, January 02, 2011

18 December 2010 – 21 December 2010 – Lima

·        Not a bad city at all and certainly doesn’t deserve the bad wrap offered in the guide books
·        Did a bike tour to see the city’s major sights






15 December 2010 - 17 December 2010 - Cuzco


·        Spent 3 days chilling in this quaint little town following our climbing adventures!
·        Most of the time we just wandered around the main square, going to Xmas markets, eating and drinking and avoiding the afternoon storms




View from our room (raining version!)

·        We also checked out some more ruins – Sacsayhuaman – pronounced Sexy Woman. They were okay but we are pretty much over them now so started taking stupid photos!  











Thursday, December 16, 2010

13 December 2010 – 14 December 2010 – Machu Picchu

·        Arrived into Machu Picchu after a 3 hour train ride to torrential rain but went up anyway
·        We were rewarded at times when the clouds broke and the rain stopped

                Before                                                                After












·        4am start the next day so we could be at Machu Picchu by the 6am opening time to get one of the 400 tickets each day to climb Wayna Picchu (mountain next to the ruins and in the background of the photo above)
·        Wayna Picchu is 2635m and took about an hour to scramble to the top
·        Pretty tough walk but the brilliant views made it worth it


Scrambling to the top................
At the top of Wayna Picchu

The stairs were steep!



·        Some other pictures once we had made it back down from Wayna Picchu


The resident lawn mowers!
Wayna Picchu in the background

The Inca's View!




12 December 2010 - Travelling day to Cuzco

·        Travelling to Cuzco
·        Should have been a short flight (55 mins) but instead took all day as a result of plane delays
·        Cuzco is our home for the next 5 days (with a quick side trip to Machu Picchu)

Saturday, December 11, 2010

7 December 2010 – 11 December 2010 – La Paz

·        Chaotic but very likable city
·        Altitude (3,660m above sea level) and afternoon storms made it easy to duck into a cafĂ© for some chill time each day
·        Loads of shoe shine boys wearing balaclavas and Bolivian ladies in traditional dress working in the streets
·        Did a day trip to Tiawanaku Ruins (c4,000m above sea level and close to Lake Titicaca and Peru) – pretty interesting






Thursday, December 09, 2010

3 December 2010 – 6 December 2010 – Salt Flats Trip


·        Trip to Salar de Uyuni
·        On the way to the Salt Flats we went past some amazing landscapes, volcano’s, geysers, lakes and rock formations











Tuesday, December 07, 2010

1 December 2010 – 2 December 2010 – Tupiza


·        Arrived in Bolivia today and made our way to Tupiza by bus – well that was the initial plan anyway until we saw it!



·        Touristy town with electric showers - but good place to chill ahead of our 4 day Salt Flats trip


·        Did a 3 hour horseback ride (wild west style – compulsory given we were in the town of Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid)