Sunday 5 October, 2014

Today was Galapagas tortoise day! We cruised to Santa Cruz and bussed it up to the highlands. Very overcast drizzly weather and by the time we got to the highlands it was a very heavy drizzle. It was so hard to take photos, sloshing through the mud in our ponchos and rain boots and trying to keep the lense of the camera free from rain drops! We saw so many tortoises! They live to be 150-200 years old and weigh 250-300 kg. they must not like the wet weather as none of them would move for us. We even had to drive around one on the road to the farm! 

Of course today is the day I chose to wear white pants....so my white pants are now very mud splattered!,!! Finished the morning with a lovely hot tea, just what we needed. 

Back to the ship for lunch, but there is always a snack as we come off the Zodiacs...today was white chocolate and milk chocolate fountains with cut up fruit! Nice treat!

After lunch we cruised to the other side of the island where we visited the Charles Darwin breeding centre for Galápagos Tortoises. The centre works to provide environmental education to communities and schools within the islands and to preserve the fragile environment of the Galapagas islands.

They had baby tortoises and very old ones. They bring tortoises here that have been living in domestic situations. They will never be released, but those from the breeding program will be.

On the way back to the ship we were rewarded with a sighting of a heron! Then we saw some petrels skimming on the water. It is just amazing all the creatures that we have seen on this whole trip!

Tonight is our last night on board and we cruised during dinner in very, very rough seas. Don't know how the waiters managed not to spill anything!

Monday 29 September / Tuesday 30 September / Wednesday 1 October, 2014

Flew back to Lima Monday and had the afternoon free for a few hours.

Tuesday we flew to Quito with the 9 that will be going to the Galapagas Islands!

What a huge city of 2 million people in a country of 40 million. So hard to grasp! Equador has become quite stable in the last 10 years or so as their economy is now based on the U.S. Dollar so inflation is only running at 6%.

They pay a lot of taxes but it is used to support the poor, if they sign a statement to prove that their children go to school. Most everyone buys houses here, very few rent. Not the greatest of public transport systems so everyone likes having their own car even though they are expensive. Fuel is very very cheap, at $2 US gallon and diesel is $1.00 US gallon.

Quito is 3000 metres above sea level and I am really struggling to breathe again....at least I don't have a headache.

They say it is the middle of the world and has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nighttime and the temperature rarely varies.

Quito is 3 km wide and 50 km long and is a very fertile land. It's top five economies are 1) oil, 2) bananas( Dole, Chiquita) 3) coffee, 4) Tourism and 5) Flowers!

There are so many houses around that are not finished and we found out that if they don't paint their house or finish the top level they don't have to pay taxes on the house and land. Must be beneficial or all the houses would be done. The majority of the population is between 14 and 35. Don't know what is going to happen in 20 yrs or so.

Wednesday we had an early start and drove an hour outside of Quito to the Equator. We all fooled around with the line, took lots of photos and went up in the observation deck. The area around has been made to look like it would have many many years ago.

Came back into Quito and had a tour of the Old Town, visiting the church built by the Loyola priests and one built by the Franciscan priests. I think these churches take the cake for the amount of gold everywhere. I don't think I have ever seen so much gold plating!

The statue of the Blessed Mother has been depicted as they think she would be on Judgement day, with wings, stepping on a serpent and her crown had 12 parts to represent the 12 Apostles.

We lunch in a lovely hotel that used to be the Bishops quarters. Quite good food!

Saturday 27 September, 2014

At 6:30am we headed for a morning walk thru Machu Picchu to the Sun Gate. It was very foggy and misty so we weren't sure what we were going to be able to see when we got to the top but decided to go anyway! Only 6 out of the 38 decided to make the walk up to the 2400 metre level. The round trip took us 2 1/2 hrs of pretty solid climbing, up sets of stairs, some steep and some not so. It was a great climb and every so often we were rewarded by glimpses of views. We only stopped once on the way up and when we got to the top we were rewarded with some spectacular views! As all the mist and fog had cleared. 

When we got to the top we took a few minutes to catch our breath and take some photos! Wow! All worth the climb. 

We then wandered over to the Guards hut for more photos and then headed back down to catch the bus down the 16 switchbacks that they call the curves in the road. One of the photos shows the road...and how close the buses are to each other to get up and down. They are very narrow buses, you have to walk sideways down the aisle to your seat. One side of the road is a straight down cliff, not a road for the faint hearted! We think the bus drivers have bets to see who can go up and down the mountain the most times in a day!

After checking out of the hotel, we walked down the street to have lunch. We couldn't believe our eyes when the heavens opened and it poured rain. We were so lucky that it held off and hadn't rained while we climbing....that would have been most unpleasant and probably pretty dangerous on the walk that we took!

After lunch we got back on the train and headed back to the Sacred Valley then took the bus to Cusco. Amazingly, it took us over an hour to get out of the train station. There was a march going on for one of the candidates as elections will be held this week. That clogged the road so no one could go anywhere. Thankfully we weren't heading to the train as we would have missed it! The road was so narrow it was quite difficult for the bus to get past the cars. They had to halt the cars coming in to let the buses get out to free up the road. Quite a sight. So what was to have been less than two hrs to our hotel was over three.

We stopped on the way to stretch our legs and take photos of the glaciers.

A quick dinner and then hit the sack, only to be jolted awake an hour later with what turned out to be a 4.9 earthquake that killed 8 people.

The high altitude really got to me and I called reception at 2 in the morning for some oxygen. It helped a bit but when I woke up in the morning I was no better so I asked reception to call the Dr while I had more oxygen as I had the worst ever headache and still was having trouble breathing. The Dr diagnosed pneumonia and took me to the clinic, which is a mini private hospital. I was hooked up to a drip for 6 hours so they could administer  antibiotics and prednisone. What a difference after a couple hours...I felt so much better. Our local tour guide stayed with us for a few hours so she could translate what was needed although the Dr and nurses spoke pretty good English.  They even rang my insurance company in Aust who said it was an excellent clinic, the best one inCusco, which was good to hear.

Got back to the hotel in time to shower and change to go to the farewell dinner.  Fabulous meal and some great entertainment! It was an excellent group, everyone got along, helped each other when needed and had a great time together!

Friday 26 September, 2014

This morning we went to the Inca Fortress of Ollantaytambo to see a home of the locals, complete with many guinea pigs which are a huge delicacy here. 

  

Then it was time to take the train through Urumbamba to Machu Picchu. What a beautiful relaxing trip following the river.  

Still trouble breathing and a pretty severe headache so had oxygen on the train which really helped. Machu Picchu means Old Mountain and is known as the "Lost city of the Incas". The altitude is 2453 metres high and was mapped by a German cartographer Herman Gohring in 1874. I don't know what I was expecting but it didn't seem to look anything like the photos I had seen.

We spent several hours climbing up and around the ruins. It is a huge place. Coming in the afternoon is good as most people were heading home. We saw the Temple of the Three Windows, Temple of the Condor, the Inkas house and the agricultural sector.

We had a scrumptious dinner at the beautiful hotel, but I am going to do a separate blog about that.