Katie and Sarah’s Travel Blog

We were well prepared for our 18 hour nightbus to Iguacu, Brazil, and had booked fully flat (tuttoletto) beds for a long night ahead. We even had a take-out pizza to scoff for supper.

What we weren´t prepared for was the Argentinian farmers to strike and block the roads with their tractors. Instead of arriving at 11am the following day, we arrived at 6pm! A one hour commute into Birmingham now seems like a breeze.. short hop public transport in the UK will never seem the same again.

The next morning we started early for a full day of viewing the Iguacu Falls. The Falls are located on the border of three countries  - Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay - and can be viewed from all three. However, the Argentinian side is renowned for the being the most impressive so we crossed back to Argentina from Brazil for the day.

Our first sight of the Falls was from a motor boat. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the towering water falls were really spectacular especially as we caught sight of many rainbows within the water. 

A thrilling boat ride, the driver took us right under the falling water of some of the Falls. We wore our ponchos, which we´d saved from the Inca Trail, but these had no effect at keeping us dry whatsoover - we were soaked through!

Iguacu consists of 275 falls along 2 miles of the Iguacu River so, rather than one major fall like Niagra, these are a series of large falls spread over a distance.

Later in the afternoon we trekked to Devil´s Throat, the highest of the Falls, and were able to see it from a view point above:

This made for the best view of the Falls all day.

That evening, Katie finally got the meat feast she had been dreaming of! We went to Rodizio where they barbecue amazing cuts of meat and bring them straight to the table. There is no limit to how much you can eat as they keep bringing out the skewers of meat until you can eat no more! Katie´s favourite was the juicy rump steak but she drew the line at the local delicacy of turkey testicles. Can´t think of anything worse myself!! Fortunately for me there was a vast and delicious salad spread to keep me going.

The next morning we caught a flight to the long-awaited Rio de Janeiro! Another update to follow soon!

Another long bus journey (!!) and interesting border crossing brought us into the city of Salta in Argentina. Once again we experienced a bit of a culture shock but this time it was the shock of being landed in the hustle and bustle of civilisation and modern city life! This was in complete contrast to the endless desert and large scale landscapes of Bolivia, as well as the poverty we had witnessed there.

The city of Salta “La Linda” (”The beautiful”)  is an attractive colonial city and a centre point for visiting the rest of the province. We soon found ourselves on another bus, crossing canyons and cliffs and the red-rock formations of the Valle Calchaquies and then lunching in the pretty wine-town of Cafayate. 

Katie and I also managed to put our wine tasting skills to test in a local winery but unfortunately the Argentinian wine wasn´t even close to the New Zealand wine and I found myself craving some Cloudy Bay desert wine!

On the other hand, the Argentinian food was warmly welcomed by all our group - no more Peruvian/Bolivian quinoa soup and dried out scrambled egg, but juicy croissants and great steaks!

The next day we excitedly flew out of Salta to the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, where we have spent the last three days exploring every suburb and shop…!

The difference between here and the other parts of South America we have experienced is marked in every way from the people to the architecture. Buenos Aires is very cool and very European and is often likened to Paris due to its wide boulevards and the magnificent architecture which resembles Barcelona, Paris and Rome altogether. The people do not have the dark but open faces of the Andean people, but are much fairer and Spanish looking, and their use of the Spanish language is more flowery than we are used to!

Each area of the city has its own distinct personality - from the modern centre with its abundance of leather shops; the really bright and coloufully painted buildings of La Boca; the cobbled streets of the antique quarter called San Telmo; to the regenerated port with its super restored warehouse buildings.

A highlight of our time here was a visit to a parilla (grill) in the port called Cabana Las Lilas. Recommended by our guide Ursula, this was a no expense spared kind of a restaurant, but with the promise of the ´best´argentinian steak, it was something we (well, Katie!) could not miss out on. Fortunately, the restuarant had flawless service and incredible food. So incredible in fact, that me, the ´vegetarian´, ended up trying a mouthful of Tesni´s steak!

Another unique Argentinian experience was a traditional Tango show in an intimate venue which was as dramatic as we could have expected it to be with lots of fun, flamboyant dresses and sharp moves!

We move on to Iguacu Falls on a night bus tonight. It has been sad to say goodbye to the friends we have made over the past 26 days on tour including Malcolm and Tesni, but we are also very excited to start the next part of our venture back to the two of us. And our next stops, Iguacu and Rio de Janeiro, promise to be fantastic elements of the trip!  

From Potosi, we took another (!) bus journey through the mountains to Uyuni, a small town on the edge of Bolivia’s Salt Flats. 

In Uyuni, we picked up our driver and 4×4 vehicle and started our 3 day crossing across the Bolivian Salt Flats and Atacama desert.  It was truly mesmerising scenery, like nothing we have ever seen before.  The salt flats are hundreds of square miles of desert area when the ground is covered by a very hard layer of salt deposits.  The sky was blue all the time (one of the driest places on earth) and this lead to pure white ground as far as you could see and blue blue skies above! 

From the salt flats, we passed into the Atacama desert, an area covered in every direction with enormous snow topped mountains, live volcanoes, huge sand dunes, red sand and beautiful lakes.  It is a very remote corner of the earth and provided us with some of the most basic accommodation that we have stayed in - remote huts with big shared dorms and simple food - but very cool to be somewhere so peaceful.  The temperature dropped considerably at night thought so lots of blankets were required to keep us warm and we had hired sleeping bags to give us an extra layer!

We spent the days travelling amongst the spectacular scenery stopping to see the Lakes and views, the scenery changed considerably every few minutes and was extremely diverse.  A lot of lakes were inhabited by Flamingos, which was certainly an amazing sight against the spectacular mountains in the background.  Lake Colorada was particularly memorable, the algae in the Lake gives it a red colour, which was a huge contrast to the blue sky and mountains!

Whilst our 4×4 was a great way to cross the desert, we would have perhaps preferred one that was a little more reliable!  It was an old Toyota Landcruiser with a very old battery which wouldn’t not start the engine each morning and frequently died on us half way across some of the most remote parts of the desert!  Juan our Spanish speaking driver, did his absolute best for us but luckily our group had 2 vehicles so every time we needed to start, we simply borrowed their battery to start the car or got a shunt from behind to start us off again!!!

On our last morning of the crossing, we got up at 4 am to see the sunrise over the geysers.  It was pitch black and freezing cold at that time ( especially when the car wouldn’t start yet again…..!) but we made it to the geysers and saw the sun rise over the steamy flats where the pools of water are heated by the geothermal activity.  Although it was freezing, I (and Tesni - a Welsh girl in our group) braved it into a hot pool at 6.30am before breakfast - truly amazing and almost too hot to sit in for long but a great start to the day!  Sarah, very sensibly, preferred to stay warm and watch the crazy people who followed us into the pool!

After 3 long but superb days crossing this scenery we arrived at the Chilean border, where we had to leave Beautiful Bolivia behind.  Our impression of Bolivia changed as we travelled through it, the cities were very poor and ramshackle places with lots of atmosphere and made for very  interesting cultural viewing, but the rural parts of the country were breathtaking and showed us scenery that neither of had imagined we would see in this country.  After a doubtful arrival in Bolivia’s capital of La Paz, the scenery of Bolivia has definitely been a top point of a trip.

See more photos of the crossing here: -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22964726@N05/

After crossing the border into Chile, we arrived at the small town of San Pedro de Atacama, a small town still within the Atacama desert that has grown to accommodate travellers coming out of the desert.  It was an extremely welcoming place with lots of superb restaurants and small artisan shops.

We took a trip from Atacama to the Valley of the Moon (the third such named place on our trip so far!) to see more desert scenery and formations.  The highlight of which was climbing a huge sand dune to watch the sun set over the mountains to the west immediately  followed by the moon rising over the mountains to the east. I’ve never seen the moon rise before and this simultaneous occurrence in the middle of the desert was fabulous.  We had been lucky enough to be there on the night of a full moon and once the darkness drew in around us, it was certainly a magical evening.

We arrived in the town of Puno - a much poorer and commercial city than Cusco, which was a lovely cobbled  and historical town.  From Puno, we took an early morning boat out to the floating villages where the Uros people live upon floating (well tethered so they can´t actually move but still floating) banks of reeds that have been constructed over hundreds of years on Lake Titicaca. 

Their houses were also made completely of the local reeds and now 35 families live in harmony on the islands just 20 mins from Puno.  Whilst their lives are now very touristy as tens of boats arrive each day with tourists disembarking to look around their houses, they still live a traditional and simple life.

We then took the boat further across the huge Lake Titicaca to Taquile Island, where further indigenous Peruvian people live in isolation to the mainland.  The island is very poor and the living conditions extremely basic but it was a very pretty place that reminded me of greek island (Lake Titicaca is so huge it is somewhat like the sea….!). 

The next day, we encountered a day of travelling to get us across the border from Peru and into Bolivia.  We were quite sad to leave Peru after two weeks in this amazing country - we loved Miraflores, the Inca Trail was something we will never forget and the general feel and friendliness of the people in the country has made it a definitite highlight of our trip.

Crossing the border was certianly interesting  - as to be expected in South America.  We started on a bus in Peru, had to cross the border by foot via fairly scary immigration offices and got on a tiny Bolivian minibus which took us to the town of Copacabana (the name is certianly more exotic than the place!) where we stopped for our first Bolivian lunch!

We then continued in a much less comfortable bus into Bolivia and on towards La Paz.  Halfway through this journey we had to cross a small part of Lake Titicaca and the bus was ferried across seperately to the passengers, from this picture, you will see why - seriously dodgy angle!!!

Altogether an interesting arrival into Bolivia!  Bolivia is much poorer than Peru and this is fairly evident upon arrival.  We had a bit of a culture shock arriving in La Paz - the highest capital city in the world - and a true “developing country” city.  At over 4,000m above sea level we can certainly feel the affects of the altitude and our pace of movement here is certainly much slower.

We spent 3 days in La Paz, catching up with ourselves after the trail and lots of days of travelling.  We visited the historical ruined site of Tiwanaku, which gave us an insight into the Pre-Inca archeological past of Bolivia.  We also took a city tour (on an open top red bus!) which showed us the very varied districts of La Paz and highlighted the huge poverty gap of the Bolivia - ranging from th very poor to the comparitively well off in the south of the city.

We also visited Valley of the Moon - a quite extraordinary geological structure of land based stalagmites within the Andes mountains.  I still cannot understand how they were formed and the Geographer in me means I will have to investigate further. 

From La Paz we took the 10 hour night bus (without toilet!) to Potosi.  This was certianly an experience never to be forgotten - a very bumpy ride through the night with stops at highly random Bolivian villages where locals would come aboard the bus to try to sell us everything and everything!  Whilst the seats reclined to almost flat, not a great deal of sleep was had by either of us!  Bolivia is certainly a new experience!

It is fair to say that since completing the Inca Trail we have been pretty shattered!!  All the adventure has certainly taken its toll on us  and there is no rest on our tour. However, the quick pace is one of the reasons we chose GAP Adventures, to ensure we saw as much of South America as possible in 5 weeks!

First day after the trail, we set out to meet Brittaney and Scott.  (Brittaney is a very good friend of ours who was secconded with her work from Conneticut, USA to Leamington Spa and who has been our Gym buddy for the last year) She & Scott were starting the Inca Trail the next day and we had planned a day in Cusco together.  It was so lovely to see her and catch up for the whole day over morning coffee, lunch (slightly dodgy pizza), afternoon hot chocolate and a traditional Peruvian dinner.  Poor Scott, whom we had never met before was a complete star listening to the 3 of us catching up on the last few months. 

The traditional Peruvian dinner was organised by our tour leader Tita and was certainly interesting!  One member of our group chose to eat Guinea Pig, which arrived (much to Sarah’s horror especially as she is veggie) complete with head, teeth, tail and feet in an upright standing postion on the plate!  Stuart and Dad, im not sure how you ate this last year - it certainly did not tempt me!

The dinner was followed by traditional Peruvian pipe music (although we were unsure of when Eric Clapton  had become Peruvian……..) and some very scary Peruvian dancing complete with masks, hoods and crazy moves. 

Today we spent 7 hours on a local bus travelling between Cusco and Puno.  I was amazed at the quality of the buses here, fully reclining seats and DVD players on board.  We passed through some stunning scenery - snow capped mountains, local villages, and a true insight into rural Peru.  Tomorrow we take a boat onto Lake Titicaca to view the floating villages and then then move onto our next South America country - Bolivia.

As most of you know, Katie and I have been talking about the Inca Trail for months and months… are we fit enough, do we have the right kit, would we get altitude sickness or bad knees etc etc.. and when we arrived in Cusco two days before the start of the trail, admittedly we were more nervous than ever!!

The Inca Trail is a four day 26 mile trek through the lower Andes in Peru to the most famous of the Inca sites, MachuPicchu. The trail is notoriously hard work for tourists who are not used to the altitude (if not for the porters who hop up the mountain side like goats!) but also massively rewarding when you reach MachuPicchu on the fourth morning!

To prepare us for the Inca Trail ahead, our tour guide organised a day trip to an archeological site in the Sacred Valley the day before. The scenery was so dramatic with towering mountains and was a lot more rugged than anything we experienced in New Zealand for example. The ruins were also quite remarkable - how the Incas managed to haul such massive rocks and building materials up such enormous mountains we are just not sure!

As the day went by, the affects of the altitude (headaches, difficulty breathing and a general hangover effect) did start to ease but not enough for me to wonder whether the trail was simply a really bad idea!!!

However, we were determined and the next morning the sun was out as we set off on the first day of the trail with our trail group comprising 12 walkers along with 16 porters and 2 guides.

The first day turned out to be brilliant and somehow all of our concerns and symptoms subsided during the course of the day! The trail was relatively flat that day and we stopped regularly at some beautiful places for the guides to fill us in on Inca history and got to know the other members of our group as we walked. We loved it!

We quickly realised how remarkable the porters are too. Setting off after us with all the kit to cater for our every need on their backs (all our bags, clothing, tents, sleeping bags, chairs, tables, cooking equipment etc etc…)  they would then overtake us on route and have everything set-up for us and three course meals prepared by the time we arrived at the campsite or lunch spot. Absolutely amazing. Also a little embarassing as they applauded us on our arrival….!

The second day of the trail is reknowned for its difficulty - approximately a 5hour steep uphill lug to the highest point on the trail, Dead Womans Pass at 4200m, followed by a rough 2hour downhill. To survive this, Katie and I put into practice every tactic we could and took the day at our own steady pace, taking very small steps in zig zags across the path. We can proudly say it worked as we came in 6th and 7th out of our group of 12 and it took us 5 and 3/4 hours.

The third day was a much longer walking day but a better day in terms of opportunities to stop and admire the views and learn about the inca ruins. However, the fourth day was the most satisfying. Following a 4am start in the dark, we arrived at our prize, MachuPicchu, at 8am. It was important to get there before the lazy American and Japanese tourists arrived who took the train direct!

Having trekked for 4 days solid, the view of MachuPicchu was an awesome sight once the early morning mist had cleared.  It quite literally cleared in seconds in front of our eyes to reveal an amazing site of Inca ruins sat high up in the Andes Mountains and surrounded 360 degrees by huge mountain peaks.

It took us a good half an hour to recover from the really steep climb up to the Sun Gate, which is the first point at which you can see MachuPicchu from the trek.  Although it was cloudy at first, the view appeared eventually and it definitely made all that walking worth it.

The guide that had been wih us all along the trail was then keen to start his tour of the actual Inca ruins.  It was still only 8.30am and we were about ready for bed.  However, he gave us his tour and described how and why the ruins were constructed as they were and gave us an insight into Inca living.  As the mist lifted off MachuPicchu (thankfully!!), the scale of the site was really quite breathtaking as you will see from our pictures (when we can upload them!). Some of the more energetic in the group even managed to then climb Waynapicchu, the mountain at the backdrop of Machupicchu, but most of us spent the day exploring the ruins and resting on the huge grass terraces.

From MacchuPicchu, we took the bus (along with the other tourists who had also got the bus up!) down the very steep drive to Aguas Calientes (named after the hot water springs in the town - we had overloaded on this in New Zealand so resisted the chance for another hot bath here!).  We really, really enjoyed a massive pizza lunch and the chance to sit and relax without needing to walk any further that day.

We then caught the train from Aguas Calientes back to Cusco.  Bearing in mind that we were absolutely shattered by this point and more than ready for our beds, we couldn’t wait to get to the hotel.  However, about 3/4 of the way through the train journey, we came to a very abrupt halt.  We were informed that the train’s engine had exploded and that another tain was on its way to shunt us into the Cusco!   The shunt arrived and we carried on our journey only to come to another abrupt halt.  This time, there had been a landslide onto the railway line.  You can imagine our delight at hearing this news.  After at least an hours wait whilst the locals cleared all of the rocks from the track, we crawled into the next station, picked up another bus and carried on for an hour and half into Cusco.  Needless to say, it didn’t take long for us to get into bed that night!  We had got up at 4am and it was at least midnight before our heads hit the pillow!! 

All in all, the Inca Trail experience was challenging, but we loved it and it was amazing how quickly we adapted to the early nights and early starts, the camping, the rain and the rough terrain. The group also turned out to be really great bunch of people - there was a lot of humour - and they really did help the motivation at lagging moments. All credit to Jos, the 63year old Kiwi who helped me down some scary downhill moments and pushed Katie up some nasty ups, and still managed to finish before anyone else in the group!!!

We have posted some of our recent photos from the Amazon and the Inca Trail here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22964726@N05/

More to follow!

On Saturday evening, we met up with our tour group who we were to spend the next 26 days with! We were met by our tour leader Tita - a lovely Peruvian lady and were introduced to the othr 4 members of our group.  Jos - 63 year old from Christchurch in NZ, Luciana (Brazilian) & Malcolm - a couple from London and James - a 26 year old from Vancouver, Canada.  We were taken out for a dinner in Lima to get to know each other better.  At first we felt quite young and bubbly compared to the rest but our first impressions were totally wrong and we were soon to find out that they are actually a very caring and fun group to be with!

Very early the next morning (start of an on going trend we suspected!) we flew from Lima airport to Puerto Maldonada, which is a small town within the Amazon Jungle where we started our adventure into the jungle.  We were met at the airport by our jungle guide and ushered into a “thatched” 4×4 vehicle i.e. a thatched hut on he back of a bus!  See photo from later link!!!  After a very bumpy ride down a dirt track we arrived at the river - a tributary of the Amazon River.  It was huge - about 100 meters wide and a very cloudy brown colour, that was flowing very fast.  We had been told that flip flops would be fine to get to the jungle lodge in but we quite quickly found out that the banks of the river are very very muddy and flip flops were not a great idea at all!

We then set off on an hours ride upriver in our motorised canoe, which was pretty unstable, but the ride and view were amazing.  We were sat pretty low to the water in the wooden canoe, which gave us a superb view of the river and both banks which were covered with thick jungle vegetation.  The canoe berthed at a set of steps  - literally in the middle of know where along the river, which scaled the bank and we were told to disembark!  Climbing up slippy, muddy, wooden steps set at a 120 degree angle was certainly a challenge in flip flops but somehow we managed it!

A short walk through the jungle brought us to our lodge, a fabulous wooden structure set on stilts in a clearing betwen the trees.  The lodge has several rooms and we were stunned at the extremely high level of accomodation.  We were told we had a room with a large window looking out onto the jungle which would allow us maximimum interaction with the wildlife.  The phrase “large window” was a slight understatement, what they actually meant was that the rooms only had 3 walls and the entire wall siding the jungle was open!!!  It was great - very noisy with the sounds of ciccadas, frogs, monkeys and goodness only knows what else - but actually very relaxing.  We had a bed each, complete with mosquito net and en-suite bathroom with shower (cold only!).  Altogether it was extremely impressive considering how remote we were and the fact we were in the middle of the jungle!

That afternoon, we were taken on a walk through the jungle to a viewing tower that we climbed up 192 steps above the canopy level to see over the trees and back to the river.  It was seriously high and very wobbly - maybe it is the surveyor in me not liking the wobbly structure, but Sarah manged much longer looking at the stunning view from the top than I did!!!!

We had been warned about the mosquitos and this was the point we found out about them.  It was just getting dark and the rain was pouring!  Even though I was covered in 100% deet, I still got bitten - even through my clothes!!  These are serious mosquitoes!

The lodge only had electrcity for 4 hours per day to cover dinner only.  So after a substantial jungle supper, we went to bed by candlelight and slept well despite the overwhelming noise of the jungle.

Next morning we had a 4am start - the jungle animals are most activefirst thing in the morning due to the heat at midday and this meant walking and boating further up river before sunrise!  Our head torches were very handy at this point!!  We arrived at a lake just inland from the banks of the river and boarded a second boat (more like a floating platform with seats) and were very gently punted around the river.  We were told to keep very quiet in the hope we would see some of the very rare and amazing animals that inhabited the lake.  We were lucky, we saw a cayman (type of aligator) swimming through the water, a pair of extremely rare and highly endangered giant otters catching fish and jumping through the water, many very brighly coloured birds, humming birds, vultures and much more.  There are Jaguars in the jungle and although we looked, we were not lucky enought to spot one although the previous group apparently had. We were then told there were pirahnas in the water and were given wooden poles loaded with a hook and beef bait to try to catch some!!!!  Whilst you could certianly feel them biting at the bait, we weren’t quick enough to snare any but our guides and othere members of our group who clearly had the knack caught some!  We were shown their teeth and how easily they bit through a leaf when it was put into their mouths and were sure not to put our hands into the water from then on!

That afternoon, we were taken to visit a Shaman (type of Peruvian Witch Doctor) who uses the native plants of the jungle to cure a huge range of ailments.  He took us on a tour around his reserve and pointed out various plants and their medical benefits.  Despite being bitten to death at this point by the mossies, it was fascinating and at the end of the talk we braved trying a couple of potions for ourselves!  With the Inca Trail only a few days away we opted for an energy potion but apparently needed it in huge quantities to make much difference!!!

After a second night in the jungle, we had another early start to walk to a salt lick.  Because of the acidic nature of the jungle fauna, most of the animals and birds living there, need to lick the clay (which is the main component of the banks of the river) to neutralise the acid in their diets.  Whilst we didn{t get to see the parrots or parakeets licking (we had seen then flying overhead) we did see two very cute wild pigs licking the clay.

After an experince neither of us had encountered before we were relcutant to leave the jungle!  We had seen so many amzing animals, spent two nights virtually under the stars and learnt a lot about the indigeous jungle people.  Fortunately, we had not been shown any of the native tarantuallas.  Other people staying at the lodge at the time had been shown some down a dark deep hole, but I think our guide knew better than to plan such pictures in our minds!  There were plenty of other huge bugs, beetles and flies to keep us itching without actually seeing a spider!

It was a bit of a hairy exit out of the jungle, we had to walk across thick mud on a single plank of wood (again in flip flops!) Sarah had just made it safely across when I lost my balance, put my leg into the mud upto my knee, grabbed her and pulled her leg in too!!!  Very mucky but easily washed off.  Never ever venture into the jungle with flip flops!  One lesson well learnt!

We travelled back out of the jungle in our thatched vehicle and caught a flight out of the tiny jungle airport to Cusco to start our acclimatisiation into the high altitude before commencing the Inca Trail.

We arrived in Lima, Peru on Thursday safe and sound, if not a little bit sleep deprived from all our recent travelling! However, we were warmly greeted by Angello, the owner of our next hostel, who has been absolutely amazing in supplying us with really useful information about Peru and Lima, as well as making us feel totally at home in his small, friendly hostel.  

Hotel Tradiciones is based in the suburb of Miraflores, which is the wealthiest area here and surprisingly developed. We were expecting a lot less development and more poverty.

After a couple of really fun days exploring Miraflores and spending time with other travellers here, our concern before arriving that we would not like Lima has totally subsided! We´ve soaked up the chilled-out South American atmosphere; tested our Spanish on the friendly local Peruvians; been introduced to the local drink - pisco sour; eaten the local delicacy, cerviche (raw fish marinated in chili and lemon juice) - well Katie did!!; watched paragliding off the seafront; and I´ve even adopted an alpaca…!

Tomorrow we embark on the next part of our adventure as we head to the Amazon jungle for two nights withour electricty and lots of mosquitos!

Will update you all again soon but at the moment South America seems a really colourful and exciting place to be.

Update! Photos for Santiago are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22964726@N05/?saved=1

Plus check the New Zealand folders on Flickr as we´ve added more photos.

We fly to Lima tomorrow and will post from there!

We arrived in Chile this afternoon following a gruelling 11 hour flight from Auckland. We have in fact regained the day we lost when we flew out to Australia as we arrived here before the time we took off from New Zealand… The longest day ever!

Another update on our activities here will follow! We are only in Santiago for two days then off to Lima… the Inca Trail looms…!