Lima - Cuzco & Machu Pichu

After a short stay in Lima, we hopped on a plane to Cuzco ... the ancient captial of the Inca empire. Cuzco is really beautiful. Lots of old colonial spanish buildings.

After a day in Cuzco, we headed for Machu Pichu, the lost city of the Incas! It was quite a journey to get there, but it was worth it. Its a huge site, really well preserved. Although I did manage to get bitten to death by sandflies.

Lima, Peru

Just arrived in Lima ... got a 26 hour bus journey from Guayquil in Ecuador (we flew back from the Galapagos to there). 26 hours on a bus was a trial ... but at least it was comfortable & served us meals & even had a waiter !

Staying in a nice hotel in Lima ... in Miraflores. Actually very nice here, even though we heard some bad reports. Some nice old spanish architecture on the main squares and the tourist area of town is very clean and quite scenic

Going to fly inland tommorrow to Cuzco to head for Machu Pichu and a trip into the Amazon for a few days to see some wildlife!

Galapagos Islands

Just back from the week on the Galapagos Islands. it was awesome ... the wildlife there is very unique as all the animals evolved in isolation. They even have penuigns ... on the equator!

Our boat was nice, although the sea was quite rough ... and we both suffered a bit with sea sickness, but it got better towards the end of the week.

Below are some pictures from the week


Me & A Giant Tortise ... the almost the only place in the world they are found in the wild


Blue Footed Boobie Birds


Giant Turtles ... got to snorkel with these guys as well as some Sting Rays and Reef Sharks ... I wasn't making any sudden movements !


On one of the Galapagos's many beaches



Sending a postcard to Granny ... I sent it from a old seafarer's post office box ... you have to rely on another sea farer (or tourist) coming, checking the post box & bringing it back to Ireland to send it ... it may take a while


Some furry seals ... there were thousands of these. Got to snorkel with them as well!

The Queen of the Galapagos

Here is a link to a video of the boat we're going on to the Galapagos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAHaT8qSJHM#

Very Exciting !

Quito

Quito is a great city ... its actually at 2800m not 4000m like I thought - still quite high. We are staying in a hotel a little outside of town - its an old converted house, with a beautiful reception and sweeping staircase.

We spent a day and a half going around travel agents and boat operators looking for a last minute Galapagos trip. Finally we got a great deal and are getting 40% the price of an 8 day tour on this boat:

http://www.galasam.com/cruises-queenofgalapagos


Its a great deal and we get to see the Galapagos in style ! We leave next Monday (15th October).

Other than negotiating prices, we've been looking around the old town of Quito which is really scenic and has the Andes as a backdrop.

We've also travelled out of Quito to the exact Equator line. There was a experiment there demonstrating how the water drains in different directions either side of the equator line ... I'm suspicious of this - as the drains were only 5m apart. The tour also included some descriptions of native Ecuadorian practices .. including how to shrink the head of your enemy (or nearest and dearest if you wish !).

I went for a run this morning - 30 minutes @ almost 3000m ... pretty tiring ! The receptionist was laughing when she let me out of the hotel, saying that she hoped I had a strong heart !

Touch Down in Quito, Ecuador

We just landed in Quito Ecuador. It was just over a 2 hour flight from San Jose. We checked into a reasonably hotel, however its a little cold. The elevation here is over 4000m & its noticeably cold compared to San Jose - 20degC here right now, and I am sure it will get colder at night. Toria has gone to bed with a relapse of the cold that she picked up in Cuba ... yuck. We might have to move to a warmer hotel if her cold doesn't clear up, as they do not have any heating here.

Quito looks like an interesting place. Going to take it easy for a day or 2 and try and book the Galapagos Islands trip and maybe a tour down the Amazon.

Costa Rican Coffee Tour

For our last day in San Jose, we decide to visit a coffee plantation - which is Costa Rica's number one export. We take a bus for a hour and arrive at Cafe Britt.

We get shown around by a very entertaining set of guides and see the process of Coffee from Plant (coffee grows as a red berry - didn't know that!) to cup! We splash out on the deluxe tour, which includes 4 course lunch and coffee tasting session. Drank alot of coffee!

Here is a picture of the coffee berries and then Toria drinking the end product !






We arrive back to the Hostel at 16:00. It is raining heavily, as it has done every afternoon since we arrived in Costa Rica - its the rainy season here!

Map to date

Here is a map of our progress to date:

San Jose

We take it easy for 2 days in San Jose, we tour around the market, shops and museums & also avail of the free wireless internet in the hostel (its not all bad there!) to check email etc ... which was almost completely absent in Cuba.

San Jose is a nice town, with excellent, Mexican style food, but less spicy and very tasty.

Here is a bus we saw:

We're on the way to San Jose

We take a afternoon flight to San Jose Costa Rica and arrive there at 17:00 and share a taxi into town with a friendly Canadian. We drop him off at the Holiday Inn and head on to the luxury of "Costa Rica Backpacker's Hostel". At $10 each per night, its cheap - but basic. Toria says the room is like a jail! ... but less hygienic.

Just from the drive in from the airport, San Jose looks alot cleaner and more prosperous than Cuba. Also quite Americanized.

Life's a beach at Maria La Gorda

We head further west and spend 3 days and 2 nights at Maria La Gorda on the extreme west of Cuba. I come down with a heavy cold also - so we are laid low for much of the time which is not great. However, by the last day I felt well enough to try diving, which is the main activity at the resort. The dive is amazing, with loads of tropical fish and a huge vertical drop from 18m to 50+m ... although I don't go past 18m !

Here is a picture from the beach in Maria La Gorda



We leave in the afternoon of the 2nd to Pinar del Rio for an overnight stay before catching a morning bus directly to Havana airport and onwards to Costa Rica.

All in all, Cuba was interesting - but we are glad to leave. Much of the country is quite run down. It is like somebody pressed pause in the 1960's and much of the buildings and cars have deteriorated in condition since then. The road pollution in Havana was very bad. Although the countryside was beautiful.