Middle Earth...

... that's the equator Im referring to, not the fictional setting of J.R.Tolkeins fantasy stories, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings!


The Equator runs just north of Quito in Ecuador - this being the seventh country in my epic journey around South America. I was a little apprehensive about visiting Quito as Id heard a few horror stories to do with the city, namely it was meant to have some dodgy areas. But then thinking about it Im in South America and all of its cities seem to have its fair share of crime...


My journey to Ecuador consisted of catching the second part to the most expensive flight ever that Id bought in Cusco, Peru. The flight itself went super quick, the same couldn't be said for the landing. Our pilot attempted to land the plane on arrival at Quito airport and suddenly pulled the plane up as he couldn't see the runway due to thick fog?! Luckily the second attempt (after thirty minutes circling the air again) was more successful. Thank goodness. Had we not been able to land then we would have had to go to Guayaquil airport  in Ecuador which whilst being only a forty minute flight away would have meant a seven hour drive back to Quito...phew!


The weather in Quito, as experienced during our flight, is fairly miserable - it rains EVERY day here. It is also much colder than warm Lima, Peru where Id come from. I am slowly realising that I function much better in warmer climes, not just physically but also emotionally!

A typical overcast day in the main square of Quito

I had arranged to meet Evelyn (my new Californian bestie who Id met on Machu Picchu) in Quito, however as her flight wasn't getting in until the afternoon, I went and had some lunch in what turned out to be the poshest gringo populated (but not expensive) restaurant in Quito called Mea Culpa. My lunch consisted of langoustine bisque followed by pesto gnocchi - both delicious but not the greatest combo taste wise. After such a rich lunch, and having woken up at 2:30am to catch my flight I was struggling to stay awake. I therefore went back to the hostel for a light nap. Three hours later...Evelyn arrived and we went out to meet one of her childhood friends Amie who was living in Quito as a teacher. Amie had been living in Quito for quite a few months so Evelyn and I suddenly had a ton of ready made friends to socialise with which was nice.  


Our socialising, unfortunately didn't bode well with the hostel we were staying at. The family who owned it seemed to switch off work after 10pm (locking the front door) which left us unable to get in! Cue several occasions where we had to ring the doorbell and wake them up. Thankfully each time we had our taxi driver Rene waiting outside for us. (He literally was our driver throughout our stay in Quito) We wouldn't have minded but there was no sign in the hostel saying that there was a curfew...


After a few nights of the above door saga we decided to change hostels to a hotel in the Mariscal district of Quito. This area isn't as pretty as the old town but it is where all the bars and restaurants are and given we were there most of the time it made sense to be closer to the action as it were. The hotel was lovely and we had two double beds in our room which made a change from the usual twin single beds you get. 

I love that our hotel looked straight out of Heathrow...

Luckily for us, Evelyns childhood friend Amie also worked part time in a bar / restaurant called Uncle Hos (they had rather amusing t-shirts that had I heart Hos on them...) so we were fortunate enough to get a few drinks for free. As Amie also knew pretty much most of the owners of the other drinking and dancing establishments in the area we also got in for free there! We had well and truly landed on our feet : D 


One night we ended up in the local dance spot Bungalow 6 (VIP of course ;-p ), unfortunately none of us had anticipated going out that evening so we were all in casual clothing, me in my hoodie, thermals and hiking boots. To say we stuck out like sore thumbs was an understatement. Either way we had fun, albeit dancing proved a little tricky given out footwear...


Quito wasn't all socialising, we did actually manage to drag ourselves to numerous tourist spots. Including the San Francisco Church which had a large stained glass window a la Notre Dame in Paris, the Equator line a.k.a middle Earth and finally Otavalo market which is two hours north of Quito and is tourist souvenir tat central. 

San Francisco Church

View from the window of the cafe in the church 

Amazing window in the church...check out the size (Im in the bottom left hand corner)

A sign in the church telling you how to do a confession...

View of north & south of the Equator at Middle Earth

One foot in North and one in South

One of the few interesting things at Otavalo market...

Food wise in Quito, I don't think I've eaten more of an eclectic mixture of cuisine since I've been travelling in South America. Here we literally had the pick of pretty much every nationality. Our favourites were Mexican and Thai. Price wise, everything in Ecuador is in dollars. Despite this we managed to find what had to be the cheapest three course meal ever for $1.50. Bargainous! 


During our stay Amie and Evelyn decided to get tattooed. Separately of course. Having not got a tattoo I was curious to see how it happened, so in addition to acting as moral support (not that she needed it as this wasn't her first tattoo) I accompanied Evelyn to get hers done. The process was longer than I imagined it would be although the tattoo gun didn't freak me out as much as I thought it would (its pretty loud and scary sounding). Randomly I ended up assisting the tattoo artist by passing him the paints, water etc. It was such a bizarre experience and one Im sure only happened because I was in Ecuador! Im no longer scared of getting a tattoo but I don't think I´ll be getting one done any time soon...


Tomorrow we leave for Colombia, via bus. Im travelling with two English guys - Kieran and Tom (who I met in Chile). Im hoping we don't have as such bad luck as Kieran had when he was travelling in Brazil from Sao Paolo to Iguazu Falls...basically his bus got hijacked at gun point and they were all locked up in the luggage section under the bus! horrific...

What? No Paddington Bear in Lima...?!

Lima was my next stop after Cusco in Peru. I wasn't planning on even visiting this city but the flight I bought meant a two day stop over before heading to Quito in Ecuador due to lack of flight availability. In hindsight Im glad I ended up staying here two days as the weather we had was gloriously hot and sunny which made a change from the cold in Cusco.


I was staying in the same hostel brand that Id stayed in Cusco - Kokopelli - whose dorms have the comfiest beds I think I have ever encountered in South America. The hostels themselves weren't too bad either.


The taxi ride from the airport was fairly quick and I was surprised to see that Lima is situated by the sea?! For some reason I hadn't even realised this prior to going which I felt a little ignorant about. Regardless it was a welcome surprise. Driving along the coastline reminded me of the road trip I did to California last year, albeit a much faster Peruvian taxi version!


Arriving at the hostel I met a lovely Aussie/Irish girl called Queva who Id met previously in my dorm in Arequipa. She had left Arequipa a few days before me but due to my flight Id managed to catch her up. We explored Lima together with a Flemmish girl called Stephanie who unfortunately had had her bag stolen from McDonald's the day Id arrived in Lima. I've lost count now of the amount of people I've met who have had their stuff stolen from them whilst in South America...


Our hostel was in an area called Miraflores which is where most of the hostels tend to be located as its fairly safe (with the exception of the above incident!). Having explored the area we took a taxi to the centre of Lima which randomly was almost thirty minutes drive away! Who knew this city was so big?

The cathedral in Miraflores

Turn off your mobile. You don't need this to talk to God...

The centre of Lima turned out to be much prettier than we expected, with beautiful colonial buildings surrounding numerous plazas (squares). One of which actually reminded me of being back in London!


We visited the Basilica de San Francisco - another UNESCO World Heritage Site - which is famous for its catacombs (buried bones!) under the church. The church itself was beautiful with courtyard walls covered in tiles that reminded me of Seville - funny that seeing as they did actually come from Spain...

The basilica

The most annoying thing about the tour (which happened to be sooo boring and all in Spanish) was that we weren't allowed to take any photos. None at all. I understand that taking pictures with flash can impact paintings, but not being allowed to take photos of courtyards and the building itself is just ridiculous. There was a library in the church which apparently contained twenty five thousand antique books some of which dated back to the fifteenth century. As you can imagine we weren't allowed to take pictures of these, but what I found most irritating was that they had all the windows wide open with sun light streaming in onto the books and the pollution from the street drifting in?! I doubt cameras cause as much damage to books as that... 

The one picture I managed to take without our guide seeing...

The last part of the tour was visiting the catacombs for which the church is famous for. I thought I would be fine visiting them, but as per our rather disastrous cave tour in Chile, I ended up freaking out a little - especially with all the bones piled up everywhere...Queva was way braver and coped extremely well despite my patheticness. 


That evening we celebrated St Patrick's day in the hostel - the staff had gone a little overboard in the decorations, going so far as having a St Patricks day piñata! (papier-mâché container that is decorated, filled with toys and/or sweets, and then broken as part of a ceremony or celebration). Being Irish, Queva got given a free drink along with a hat and scarf. I tried to pull the "I look Gaelic card" but failed miserable. We stayed in the bar a while, had a few "free shots" which were literally lemonade?! and then moved onto the rest of the evening in the bar next door...


The next day (feeling slightly fragile) we walked to the bohemian district of Barranco (Spanish for ravine) which is just up the coast from Mirasol. The walk there was mostly strolling by the sea until we came to a free way which wasn't easy to cross! The name Barranco was pretty apt as the area itself was in and around a ravine near a cliff overlooking the sea where loads of surfers were catching some waves. 


Barranco reminded me of Santa Teresa in Rio which was just up from where I was staying with my friends Tom and Manuela. It had similar coloured houses and interesting graffiti.  

The Pacific Ocean!

Lima´s own muscle beach!

The stairs which take you up to Barranco from the cliff edge

Barranco street art

The main square in Barranco

Two things (unrelated) we saw which were interesting were a tuk tuk and some black sweet corn!

Weird...

tuk tuk!

In the evening we went to a local sushi restaurant and ate the best sushi I've ever eaten! Im normally not that adventurous with sushi - tending to stick to salmon and tuna - but we ate octopus and some other random fish sushi. All for way less money than you would spend in the UK : D


Overall Lima was pleasantly surprising although I was disappointed to not have seen any trace of Lima's supposedly most famous resident, Mr Paddington Bear...

Machu Picchuchuchu train

Having discovered Peru´s most luxurious bus company - Cruz del Sur - and being rather brand loyal, it was inevitably that our journey from Arequipa to Cusco (also spelt Cuzco) would be with them. Our decision was made even more poignant when we discovered prior to boarding that there was a waiting lounge which served unlimited drinks!


The journey to Cusco was an overnighter so we all drifted off to sleep reclining in our leather chairs, only to stir every time the driver drove really fast around a bend, which actually was quite often. 


During the drive from the bus terminal to the hostel via our transfer taxi organised by the hostel (which I realised later I had to pay for...) we drove past numerous signs for the local council whose logo is an Inca coin that I really liked the look of. 


Cusco is really pretty, very European in style and reminded me (once again) of a mixture between my beloved Bariloche in Argentina and Galicia in Spain which is where my mama is from.

Some church I dont know the name of...

This building reminded me of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela , Spain

The main square in Cusco

Having settled myself into my hostel, I was about to leave for a wander around the town when walking through the hostel courtyard I bumped into the Greek guy - Panagiotis - who Id met a few months earlier on a bus into Chile. This bumping into people business is actually extremely common when you´re travelling as everyone tends to end up doing the same routes.


We therefore went for lunch to catch up and ate some ceviche to start, followed by some alpaca with quinoa for main. All very Peruvian. 


That afternoon, I accompanied Panas to a local computer store as his laptop had broken, as had mine. Given that he used his for work and I used mine for blogging we were both keen to get them fixed and stop using the rather limited PCs in hostels. The guy in the shop (actually I should say boy as he looked so young!) was amazing and managed to get both fixed overnight and for very little cash. Gotta love Peru!


The next day, I woke up early to set off to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Machu Picchu which is roughly three hours north of Cusco. I was tres excited as I had wanted to visit this Incan site for a long time given it is so synonymous with South America. 


The usual route up is a four day hike, however having just recovered from a rather nasty cold and having heard numerous horror stories from friends about their hikes up to the site - one friend having caught bronchitis from the trek and also slipping and falling off a ridge but thankfully only bruising herself(!) - I was rather reluctant to do the four day hike up there. I therefore (rather smugly) chose to take the train up instead. 


I chose to go with Perurail who whilst being one of the more expensive train operators, do in fact have the more modern and comfier trains. Both things which I believe are worth paying a bit extra for in my book! 


My journey started at the bus station in Cusco as the first two hours of our journey were on a bus due to some maintenance work they were doing on the tracks. I fell asleep during this time so the journey past me by...


Arriving at the village of Ollantaytambo we then caught the choo choo train up to Machu Picchu. Due to availability Perurail had booked me on an Expedition train going up and a Vistadome coming back. Basically they're two different trains, the Vistadome being the nicer (more expensive) of the two with leather seats and free food served on board. The Expedition train was pretty similar albeit you were just given snacks to eat and the seats weren't as comfy. 

The Expedition train I caught

Lost in translation

Arriving at Aguas Calientes train station which is the stop to get up to Machu Pichu, we immediately entered an indoor market upon exiting the station. To say this disorientated us was an understatement. It took us a good five minutes to find out way out and then follow the masses to the buses that would actually take us up to Machu Picchu. Which by the way were another extra cost - its not cheap this place!


Finally after a very windy and bumpy journey we made it to the entrance of Machu Picchu. In true fashion it started to torrential rain the minute we stepped off the bus. Typical. I was itching to get going so despite the rain I set off with my anorak hood up. It wasn't long before we caught a glance at the amazing spectacle that is Machu Pichu. We were a little too low initially to see it in all its glory (as you have to climb up some steep steps to fully appreciate the view of this mind blowing village set in such a precarious place) but it was still breath taking. Literally. As the altitude of almost 2,500 metres above sea leave and leaves walking around pretty exhausting. 

Poncho anoraks are all the rage here

Obligatory llama knitwear & knitwear catalogue pose

AWESOME

Same pose, different view

Walking around the site was at times akin to being in central London with all the tourists - there were so many people everywhere. All of them vying for the same pictures. I felt like I was back in El Calafate in Argentina visiting the El Perrito Moreno Glacier! 


One couple, who just so happened to be deaf and dumb, were taken pictures on a rock which overlooked the main view of Machu Picchu. The girlfriend was jumping up and down on the rock whilst her boyfriend took photos. In an instant one of the stern security guys (there were quite a few at the site) ran up to them and grabbed the camera from the boyfriend and tried to delete the jumping pictures. The poor couple, being deaf and dumb were unable to initially understand what was happening and then when they did realise found it difficult to communicate with the guard. The whole scene was fairly tragic but one Im told happens fairly often as they don't like people jumping there for safety reasons.


Surprisingly, given the location, there were llamas grazing on the grass of Machu Picchu! We even saw a stray dog chillaxing on a rock which just made us laugh as they literally get everywhere in South America.

How did it get here?!

nom nom nom

We were pretty lucky with the weather as the mist which tends to surround the site stayed away long enough for us to take pictures of the magnificent view. Unfortunately by the time we reached Huayna Picchu, which is the mountain which rises over Machu Picchu, the mist had completely covered it. This meant that any view from the top would have been obscured. This, in addition to the fact that the climb is steep and slippery meant that we didn't climb it. However I did get my passport stamped with a picture of the mountain to say Id been there which made up for it : D 

Huayna Picchu 

Whilst walking around the site, I met a lovely American girl called Evelyn who I made friends with. We got on really well and ate lunch together in the ridiculously expensive albeit quite tasty buffet restaurant that there was at the bottom of the site. 


After getting our passports stamped with a picture of Machu Picchu, we caught the bus back to Aguas Calientes, which incidentally is the most touristic town ever. We wandered around the market we´d encountered when we first arrived that day. I bought some more pressies for peeps and embarrassingly almost got sucked into buying some pan pipes until I realised that would be the most clichéd thing ever and stopped myself. Phew. 


The next day we all went to lunch at Jacks cafe which is a gringo mecca in Cuzco. I ate the Peruvian version attempt at a fry up which was delicious. En route back to the hostel we saw some Peruvian cholitas who I couldn't resist taking a pic of : D

mmmmmmm

Peruvian Cholitas

Floating islands and soaring birds

We arrived late at night to Puno which is in Peru. The border crossing was the fastest I think Ive ever encountered in South America. We were literally given fifteen minutes by our bus company to get out passports and visas stamped. Not a mean feat when there is a whole bus load of travellers! But we did it, albeit running around like headless chickens in the rain as the Bolivian and Peruvian border control offices were quite a distance from each other.

My hotel in Puno (yes this is the second hotel in a row Ive stayed at. Dont judge me) had kindly arranged a transfer from the bus terminal to the hotel which given the lateness of our arrival was much appreciated. The hotel itself was nothing to write home about but they bent over backwards to help me with tour advice and booking future bus tickets for me so gracias San Antonio Suites.

The next morning, I was picked up early and taken to the port in Puno where a boat was waiting for to take us to the floating islands of Uros which are in Lake Titicaca - yes the funny named lake I told you about in my previous blog. Interestingly I found out that the name Lake Titicaca actually means grey puma in Quechua which is the ancient language the locals speak. Not so amusing anymore. 


There are a total of sixty three floating islands on Lake Titicaca and of these roughly two thousands inhabitants live on the island of Uros which is on the River Willy (yes that really is its name) where we visited. 

Our tour boat - Willy Expeditions :D

Uros, like the rest of the floating islands, are made of Tortora reeds which grow in the lake. This reed is also used to produce the houses and boats. The islands tend to last twenty years but the people of Uros have to lay new reeds on top roughly three times a month. All of which sounds like a bit of a palava if you ask me, give me a house of bricks and mortar any day... 

The island we visited with two modes of river transport, traditional and modern!

Each island has its own President. Damian (not a name I was expecting!) was the President of the island we visited. He showed us how he hunts ducks and birds for everyone. With the actual rifle he uses. He scared half our group as we didn't realise his rifle has live ammo in it!!

Armed and dangerous

Euphoria after having shot an already dead chicken...

The islands felt weird to walk on - very spongy. There were also numerous pigs and chickens wandering around everywhere which, in addition to the damp, gave a rather off-putting scent. 


We were invited into the hut of Luzmilla who was one of the inhabitants on the island. Luzmilla was lovely, explaining all about her island and her upbringing. Everything was going well until she started showing us all the artisan items she had made to sell, and she realised I had no money with me to buy anything (arriving late the night before I hadn't had time to change my Bolivianos or withdrew any Peruvian Soles out). To say she froze me out was an understatement. It would seem, unless you are buying items from the island, the locals don't want to know. Charming. 

Luzmilla, albeit captured with her eyes shut. 

Trying to sell us some of her wares...

Feeling the wrath of the community after not purchasing anything...

The second island we visited was called Tupirmarka and was interestingly more civilised than the first, with its own stalls selling artisan items and a telephone booth to make those emergency calls back to the mainland...

How cute is this sign?

I didn't check to see if it actually worked...

Despite this blip, the trip to the islands were interesting, albeit a little voyeuristic for my liking. The locals also acted like it was Disney World, dancing and singing on command for everyone which I personally found a little sad. 


That evening we caught the bus to Arequipa which is roughly six hours from Puno. We chose to go with a bus company called Cruz del Sur which unbeknownst to us just happens to be one of the top notch bus companies in Peru. Alleluja! Not only was the bus modern, the staff were the most security concious ever. In addition to having our luggage swiped with a metal detector (?!) we were also filmed by camcorder before boarding. At first I thought it was a training video being made, until one of the other travellers said its to identify us should there be an accident! nice. 


The journey to Arequipa was beatifically scenic. Reminding me, once again, a lot of Bariloche in Argentina. It would have been a perfect journey had it not have been for the guy next to us passing wind the entire time. Foul. 


Arriving in Arequipa, we had been warned about rogue taxi drivers picking tourists up and then mugging them. I was therefore slightly apprehensive about stepping into any taxi that didn't have a sign on its roof. Eventually we found one and set off to the hostel, only to discover that it had moved since my guide book had been written. Cue an extra twenty five minutes circling the town before we eventually found it. Phew. The hostel (Arequipay Backpackers) was worth the find, as it was welcoming and clean and had everything a traveller needs. It was even in its own private, gated road!


The next day we explored the town, which is a lovely mix of colonial and traditional architecture. One of the nicest places Id visited in Peru to date. 

So many taxis in this city!

The Cathedral

Looking through the side gate of the Cathedral 

We walked through Arequipa´s Plaza de Armas (which every Latin town seems to have) and visited the Casa del Moral, a large ancestral house which contained lots of beautiful colonial art. After a delicious lunch of alpaca burger and chips, we visited the Santa Catalina Monastery. I couldn't believe how big this monastery was, it went on forever and would have been quite easy to get lost had there not have been signs pointing you in the right direction. 

Casa del Moral 

One of the rooms in Casa Moral - like being in England!!

Obligatory JC painting, albeit slightly hung wonky.

This is taken in the Monastery

A "street" in the monastery

Pretty doorway

Where the nuns did the washing!

Peruvian child

Visiting Arequipa, couldn't be done without also visiting Colca Canyon which is about two hours away. It is the canyon (obviously) of the Colca River and is apparently twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA. The main attraction of the Canyon is the Andean Condor bird which lives there. 


Our excursion began at the ungodly time of 2:30am when we were picked up by the tour bus. Predictably we all fell asleep until our first stop which was 4,900 metres above sea level in snow capped mountains! It was freezing, but enjoyable scrambling around in the snow taking pictures. 

Snow!

Our chauffeurs await...

Rather amusingly two of my fellow travellers - Rory and James - were wearing similar llama print jumpers to me so of course we had to capture the Kodak moment!

Jumper brothers from other mothers...

After driving down many winding, often landslide hit roads we eventually reached the town of Chivay where we ate breakfast before setting off to the Canyon itself. The scenery was stunning. There were masses of terraces which had been cut into the hills by the Incas which made for some great pics. 

We imagined the small square of water in the middle of the pic was an Incan swimming pool...

We were dropped off half way through the canyon, stopping to pap at a girl who was posing with a hawk and a llama, and then started walking towards the Cruz del Condor area where the Condor birds are known to circulate.

We gave her some pesos for this pic

We must have been there not even twenty minutes before we saw our first bird soaring beneath us in the canyon. It was HUGE! We couldn't believe our luck at having seen one so quickly - I had been warned that sometimes you can go hours without seeing any. It was then that we turned around and glanced back at the field behind us to see the locals had just carted a dead donkey into the middle of the field to act as a lure. Eeeeewww (aawwww)

Cruising on by...

Drop the dead donkey

Mr Condor in all his glory