The Cheapest Way Round

3/20/09

Ecuador and home :(

So all over now and on the way home. 81 days. 5 countries. 18 buses (120 hours). 11 flights. 2 trains. 4 boats. 4 bikes. 24 hostels. 2 packets of immodium.

Due to our Galapagos tour getting moved back we had 5 more (slightly unwanted) days in Quito. One of them was Paddy's day. There aren't many Irish people in Quito so we struggled to meet some fellow recession-dodgers in the only real Irish pub in town. Also with a small picture of the Queen on the wall and no Guinness on tap we had to make the most of it. Luckily they got the colours on the flag right, see below.

Our only other notable adventure in Quito was a trip to the Equator! Running right through the middle of Ecuador it provides tourists with an opportunity to put one foot in either hemisphere and take a photo of it.... Geographically located as the centre of the earth by GPS its possible to see the famous Coriolis effect in action. Due to the Earth's spin there is an anti-clockwise force on everything in the Northern hemisphere and vice-versa in the South. But right on the equator everything balances and allows for some interesting experiments. See my video here.

In typical South American style our trip home was eventful. After arriving into the airport and waiting to board at the gate we were informed that our plane had not left its own to airport as the one we were sitting in wouldn't let it land due to bad weather. After some angry repsonses from the irate passengers it was explained that 2 smaller planes had been chartered to bring us in two loads to our connection in Guayaquil before heading onto Madrid. All well and good until I'd met a few more passengers who explained they had been told the same thing the day before and were still waiting! Luckily, the planes actually arrived, we hopped on and made our connection, albeit 2 hours late. A 10 hour hop across the Atlantic left us in Madrid at 4pm, having only just missed our connection to Dublin, but confident we could secure something else for the last short leg home. Not to be. Characteristically awkward, Air Iberia promised us our 4pm flight the next day. So close to home we would have to spend one more night away...

In the end it worked out well. We got to watch the Ireland match (which we would have missed on the plane) and caught up on some sleep to cure a little jetlag. Back in Ireland now things are strange but not much different than when we left it. People seem more depressed about the recession that's lurking everywhere, ready to pounce on you. Its colder than I remember. The M50 looks EXACTLY the same. Thank God for safe food though, my stomach is thanking me already.

That's it for now, signing off. I'll have one more update at some stage to list all the places we stayed as reccomendations for others.

Thanks for reading!

My €12 pint of Guinness!

A late night visitor

3/16/09

Galapagos

As if Machu Picchu wasn't a highly anticipated part of our trip, a week later we get the Galapagos :) Here comes the history part, get ready! Made up of 18 islands and over one hundred rocks and islets, the oldest estimated at 10 million years old. Formed by underwater volcanoes they sprung up 600 miles from the coast of South America unknown to the rest of the world until their discovery in 1535. Due to their isolation they enjoyed a completely independent evolution of endemic animal species. Birds and reptiles either flew or hitched a ride on a floating debris and free from natural predators in a environment completely foreign from the mainland they adapted and developed compeltely differently. Today the Galapagos is home to hundreds of species that are found only there, and in some cases only on one islands. Tortoises and iguanas are several times the size of their South American cousins, some species of birds have become flightless and most special of all, very few of the animals have any fear of humans. Visiting the Galapagos is like wandering around a huge zoo, except everything is in its natural environment.

Altogther, we spent 5 days amongst the islands on a 16 person yacht, each day docked in a different bay with a new island and new animals to discover. The sights and environment are the closest thing to paradise. Sealions would greet you on each boat landing, some lazily sunning themselves in the morning sun, others playing in the water chasing each other. Stepping over stubborn iguanas and red-rock craps they ground seemed alive. Birds, mammals and reptiles appeared to exist in harmony (the common food being fish) and it wasn't unusual to see an see an iguana crawling over a sealion or sharing a meal with a pair of crabs. All the time they were content to let sunburnt tourists poke camera lenses in their faces snapping photos. Acting neither as a threat nor a source of food (visitors have strict instructions to avoid feeding or even touching the animals) humans were merely part of the scenery to the wildlife, a curious, temporary guest. Baby sealions in particular would often hop over to a tour group sniffing their feet before shuffling off again to lie in the sun. Adults, less inquisitive, would instead watch us, almost posing for photographs before losing interest and back-flipping into the water.

Afternoons would be spent snorkelling around the shallow bays and volcanic craters swimming with sea turtles, manta rays, white tipped sharks and hundreds of types of tropical fish. Someone remarked that every day was like diving into an aquarium, its the best expression I can think of to describe it.

Not much more to say, this Galapagos entry will be more show than tell as I think the experience can be best expressed in photographs (I've tried to add most of the best below). I could have easily taken as many photos in our 5 day stay as I did for the rest of our 2 month holiday up to that point, every shot seemed to be National Geographic material. Enjoy and save your pennies to make to make the trip out someday - an incredible experience.

Auto-pilot Galapagos style

Sniff sniff!

3/10/09

The Lares trek and Machu Picchu

Ah yes. The centre of anyone's trip to South America - the home of the Incas. 500 years ago the Spanish arrived in Cusco and levelled it. They killed everyone in sight, took every bit of gold and silver and destroyed any legacy of Inca existence. Everything except Machu Picchu. Hidden deep in the high jungle of the Sacred Valley it was abandoned by the Incas to protect its discovery by the Spanish. Today the it is visited by hundreds of people every day to appreciate its almost completely preserved beauty.

A visit is pre-empted in two ways, sitting on a train for 90 minutes or trekking and camping in the mountains for four days. To skip the trek is really missing out on most of what one of the most sacred and precious places on earth has to offer. The Inca trail is the typical choice by most. Over 4 days up to 16 people in a group will walk 6-7 hours each day finishing at Machu Picchu. Back in November me and Karen did a bit of reseach and decided that we preferred an alternative, less popular but more difficult and higher version; the Lares trek. Instead of walking with 500 people there is a good chance there might only be a handful on the mountain paths with you. In our case, since it was low season it was just me, Karen, 2 cooks, a guide, a horseman, 4 horses and a dog. Since no one else had booked the trip for our dates (or anywhere near them) we had our own private tour.

Starting out on our first day with a easy 4 hours of light uphill we quickly realised how remote and special the trek would be. Very rarely did we spot any other locals and not once did we see another tourist. That night we camped in a remote village tucked into a valley miles from any road or technology. People lived in mud and brick houses, inside about the size of an average sitting room, maybe 4 or 5 people per house. Horses, pigs, sheep, llamas, dogs and cats all wandered around, the source of food and transport for the locals. The following morning we were introduced to the family who's land we were camped on. We were invited into their house to see meat hanging from the walls, animal skins drying and guinea pigs running around on the ground (all houses have guinea pigs, cooked and eaten on special occasions). They welcomed us and our guide translated our questions. We gave the owner a bag of coca leaves as a gift as we left.

Our second day proved to be twice as hard as the first, beginning with a gentle incline for 2 hours, followed by a hard steep slog to the top of a mountain pass at 4700m. An extremely demanding hike, each step became increasingly difficult as the road got steeper and the air got thinner. Eventually we were taking breaks every 5 minutes to gather up enough energy for a few more metres. Nearing the top the grass and trees disappeared and even the llamas looked at us quizzically as we passed them up to the lifeless peak. A few times we wondered were really going to make it but pushed on, we had come this far....

After what seemed like an age we somehow dragged ourselves to the peak of the pass. The tops of the mountains either side of us seemed like only another few minutes walk. Houses, animals and people were tiny dots in valley below us, only Neil Armstrong and Pete Doherty had been higher than this. It was an incredible feeling making it to (what our guide said) was the peak difficulty from the trek for the 4 days, everything was downhill from here (in a good way). Looking down the moutain ahead of us we could see a spectacular lake, where we would be having lunch. It looked like the inside of the crater of a volcano, completely surrounded in rock, a few bits of heather and grass the only living things visible. It started to rain (more like sleet, from the cold) and we made are way down to set up camp. After a rest and another hour of walking we camped beside and stream with a huge waterfall, an amazing sound that we fell asleep to that night.

A few of the pictures below show the horses and porters that travelled with us. Each day we left camp they packed up behind us, loaded the horses and usually started about an hour after we did. Incredibily, within about 2 hours they had caught up and passed us, carry twice what we had, skipping across the rocks like it was tarmac. They reached our camping spot for the night, set up the tents and had food cooking by the time we arrived! Superhumans. Despite having limited space for food and utensils they managed to make delicious and always different food every night. Incredibly creative they presented, llama, beef, chicken, omlette, chips, salad even desserts. Permanently cheerful and helpful they seemed oblivious to the cold, rain or hard work naturally toughened to the conditions like the generations before them living in the mountains.

Here and there on our walk we'd be greeted by a child herding llamas or sheep. These kids would spend their entire day watching over the animals then bringing them back down to the farm for the night away from hungry foxes and mountain pumas. Spotting us panting up a mountain path a kid would would come bounding over the rocks as if they weren't there to greet us. We'd stop, welcoming the break and our guide would chat to them in Quechan (the Inca language) asking where they were from etc. Before the trek we were told it would be a good idea to bring small gifts such as fruit or colouring pencils to give to the children - most of them owned nothing other than the clothes on their backs. They would treat an orange like a birthday and Christmas arriving at once. Shy and slightly afraid of us white-skinned people they would whisper their thanks and disappear off into the mountain again. Each encounter with one of these kids felt very special. Looking at their clothes and simple life it was if time had stopped for these families 500 years ago, the Inca life had been preserved, isolated from the rest of the world changing around them.
Halfway through our second day we met a 10 year old girl who asked if we had any coca leaves for her Grandmother. Asked about her parents she quietly told our guide that her father had beaten her mother to death the year before (the reason wasn't clear) and that he was now married to another woman. Asking our guide why he wasn't in jail and why nothing was done he simply said "This is mountain life, very brutal". Law didn't really exist here, problems were solved domestically and no one interfered.

Our third day finished at the foot of the moutains where we said goodbye to our porters and met our bus to catch the "Machu Choo Choo", the train to the final stop before the great Inca ruins we had come so far to see. Hopping aboard the train we merged with all the gringos who had chosen the light-weight option of letting locomotion do the work of getting them to summit. Either too unfit or unwilling to experience the reward of seeing true mountain life up close the opted for the direct route from their hotel room and back. Looking around it felt like a New York subway carraige, filled with Americans, their cameras with lenses bigger than their backpacks, chattering about how "cute" everything was and using up whole memory cards on helpless locals minding their own business at the side of the track.
After one more overnight stay we rose at 4.30 the next morning for the sunrise race and the best camera positions as soon as the gate opened at Machu Picchu. Having seen and read so much about what we would see I had braced myself for possible disappointment. Reaching the top of the steps and looking down for the first time I needn't have worried. A breath-taking sight. Even with the all the excited pointing at the cute Inca temples and ruins by the Nikon brigade around us it was hard to not to be blown away by beauty of the valley, not sure the pictures below can even do us justice.

We spent the day wandering around before heading back to Cusco, the battery in my camera almost dead so happy we'd made it :)