Hasta luego Peru...

Hola Chicos,

Sorry it has been so long between postings. Since the post it has been non stop drama of the organisational, scenic, and dangerous varieties. Things over here can change really quickly and you have to be really flexible to change plans, something we have become experts at much to the annoyance of the lovely Kristy at Flight Centre and our ongoing love-hate relationship with LAN. Anyway.....

We arrived at Cuzco after leaving Arequipa (my word, that seems like such a long time ago). First thing (after marathon sleep) was a trip around the ruins close to town; one of which was called Sacsayhuaman, pronounced "Sexy Woman", we got a lot of mileage out of that one I can tell you. Cuzco is a really pretty town with a beautiful mix of Incan, Spanish and modern architecture - it's more expensive than other parts of Peru, but still really cheap. Better still Scottito's estamago infermio had scaled down so he could now fully enjoy some exotic cuisine, "How do you like your Guinea pig, sir??" After deciding to forgo the Inca Trail in order to allow time for 4 days in the Amazon, we went up to Machu Picchu by train/bus. We were always a bit sceptical of hugely hyped attractions but the beauty of this place defies belief. The setting is ridiculously stunning and because of its remoteness it was untouched by the destructive Spanish. It doesn't matter how long you spend there you leave feeling it was too desparately short. Just incredible!!

The land of contrasts. The next day we fly into Porto Maldonado and catch a boat up the Madre de Dios (Mother of God) river into the Amazon. Here we spend 4 days in the EcoAmazonia lodge trekking/boating and checking out all the flora and fauna. We saw many species of monkey (including one that bore a remarkable resemblance to Fordham), tarantulas, night trips spotting Caymans, Tapirs, and all sorts of critters that I had never heard of. and Ants!!! thousands of huge ants with almost an inch long with big pinchers and poisonous bites. Seriously watch your step. These guys rule the forest!! The nights in the forest are incredible the birds and bats come alive at night and make so much noise that it is almost literally impossible to sleep. A good broken 4 1/2 - 5 hours a night. Loco.

............and now the wheels started to fall off. Things had been going far too smoothly at this point, with the exception of having my camera taken off me in Arequipa, we had been cruising along nicely. Cue, bus trip to Puno to check out Lake Titicaca and cross into Bolivia. We have been drifting in and out of sleep on the overnight bus as you do, only to stop in the middle of nowhere at about 4am for no apparent reason. Little did we ignorant gringos know that we have just driven into a spot of civil unrest. We find out that the road has been blocked by angry butchers - they have strewn rocks and broken glass over the road for kilometres. At this point the only option is for us to get out, get our packs and walk through the roadblock (at 4:30am!!!). It wasn't until we got to the far end of the roadblock that the protesters started to arrive with whips and homemade machetes shouting Gringo as well as other things. We looked away as best as possible and walked past them (scary).

We finally get to Puno and are pretty tired at this point. We go and check out options to get into Bolivia as we are pretty keen to get out of here if we can. We find out that there are worse problems along the road into Bolivia and no one knows what is really going on . We decide that getting into Bolivia this way is not happening so we find a cab who says that he will try to find a way back past the roadblock to another town. So he drives straight along the main route and passed the mostly cleared road into the protesters ( nice work cabbie) We get stopped as they decide to shake the car, paint slogons on the bonnet, threaten to throw bottles through the windscreen, and with the timely intervention of some older cooler heads let us on our way. We tipped that cabbie. We haven't had a lot of sleep in the last 5 days and are now looking at a flight back to Lima and then down to the border of Chile as our best option of progressing the journey. 40 hours and 6 hours sleep later we arrive in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Sleep..........

Hasta luego Peru, you've been fantastic...
J & J

P.S. Click here for photos from Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and the Amazon, or click here to see a few pics from our roadblock fun.