The Secret of Monkey Island

Arriving in the Jungle was a welcome relief after quite some time at altitude. The was thicker, but also much hotter and humid, so maybe not so much better as more like home.

We had to take a trip up stream for justy over an hour to reach our eco lodge. The eco part being that they didn't have mains electricity or heated the eco-pool (seriously that's what they called it). the river we travelled up was huge; by my estimation more than 100m wide in places. It was technically not the Amazon river, but fed into it. You can see from the plane when you fly in and out that the river snakes up and down, but on the boat it is so vast that you can't tell.

Arriving at the lodge we were greeted by the resident tapir, Karina. She was quite domesticated and was happy to have people around. Meredith even gave her a pat while she was taking a nap.

From the lodge our first excursion was a trip over to Monkey Island, which was on the other side fo the river. We have seen plenty of monkeys in zoos but never this close in natural habitat. Meredith goes "Hey I'll stand over here next to this four fingered spider monkey (one on a lower branch) and you take a picture to show how close we got". The monkey proceeded to launch on to her head. How close we got indeed!

It was a bit of a scary moment because neither of us have had rabies shots, but we are happy to report that she received no bites or scratches and the guide was able to 'coax' her away with a large stick. It also had really soft hands, like it moisturised its four fingers every day!

The next day we had a longer more involved trip deeper into the jungle. After travelling further up the river on our motor canoe, We grabbed paddles and peeled off into an inlet to the Lost Lagoon to look for wildlife. We saw quite a few tortoise families and a few caimen aligators. They were mostly juniors so not really big. The guide said they can grow up to 6-7 metres... Yawn, let us know when they are 17 metres and they can eat a buffalo whole like the boys back home and we might be interested!

On the way back the guide was able to coax a tarantula out of its hole which was cool, they are big hairy suckers, though mostly non-lethal to humans.

Here is a list of the other fauna we saw:

• giant guinea pig
• tucans and macaws
  
• anaconda (ok, so we only got to see a tiny bit of its body because it was hiding in the swamp, but it was still cool).

The food was surprisingly good at the lodge and the cabins were basic but very comfortable complete with our own hammocks! The cabins didn't have windows of course, just mosquito netting. Someone might have mentioned this to the local Peruvian couple staying nearby. They started their own 'jungle chorus' several times that night. We all enjoyed that a lot.

Trekkers return!

The main focus of the second half of our tour in Peru was our trek to Lares through the Sacred Valley.

The Trek was as hard as we expected but met our expectation in every way. The adventure was was 44km over 3 days. The most challenging part was on day 2 when we had two mountain passess to cover at an altitude of over 4800 mtrs! As it turned out we crossed the first pass through a snow shower!

We can't complain though because helping us through the whole trek were two horseman to carry our gear (Illias and Ubung) as well as our chef Phillippe, his helper Hector and our local guide Julian. We felt really spoilt because this crew weren't servicing a group of 12 people—oh no—they were there solely for senoritos Matthew and Meredith! We were the only people on this particular trek because all the other gringos were doing the more famous Inca Trail.

You wouldn't believe the set up on these trips. The meals were as good as you would be served in any restaurant and we felt as though we never stopped eating. On the first day for example, lunch consisted of an avocado entree with thousand island dressing, quinoa soup, pasta with two different kinds of sauce and fruit salad! On our last morning, we were even served a decorated, freshly baked cake!!! We still have no idea how they pulled that one off!

Along the way we saw all sorts of great animals and landscapes including beautiful lakes and waterfalls, small hamlets with houses made from stone and mountain grass, llamas and alpacas, all sorts of birdlife and even some chinchillas! We also made friends with local kids along the way and even had a successful game of hopscotch with some keen beans.

Meeting all the kids was a real highlight of the trip for us both. On one day we met a little boy who was walking to school. When we met him he had already been walking for an hour and he still had some way to travel. So he was happy we think to walk along holding Meredith's hand for a while before he went on his merry way. We discovered afterwards that he was only 6 years old!

We crossed several sections of raods with sheer cliffs, but the only hairy event occurred after we had crossed the second mountain pass and thought the worst of it was behind us. We still had to desend another 1000m to reach our camp, and Meredith had more trouble going down than going up. On one of the last sections before nightfall Meredith had a slip and started rolling down the hill towards a sharp drop. Luckily our brilliant guide heard her slip, spun around and dived down the hill after her, securing her after a couple of rotations. Fortunately the only injury she sustained was to her dignity and we all had a good belly laugh after the event.

After conquering the hairy bits, our third and final day culminated in a visit to some hot springs which proved to be a great remedy for aching muscles and weary knees. Meanwhile all our helpers were loading the gear onto the horses and getting ready to turnaround and walk another 40kms back to where they live— in their sandals!

It was certainly a great experience for us to complete the trek and we're proud to say we didn't need the services of the "emergency horse". We're pretty sure the the emergency horse was equally relieved having sized us up against your average Peruvian!!

Great Day, Runny Night

We have just returned from a top adventure out to Lake Titicaca–the highest commercially navigable lake in the world at 3,812 metres above sea level. Titi means Puma and you can see from this link how the lake actually looks like a puma chasing a rabbit from above (just like the way Orion looks like a guy holding his sword).

It is amazing how many inca derived tribes still exist there living seemingly traditional lifestyles untouched by modern conveniences (but more on that later).

The first stop on the lake was the island of Uros. These special islands are made from reeds. No land, just reeds, floating around the lake. Each island sustains around 12 families each. The Uros people eat the reeds, sleep on the reeds and even make special boats from the reeds. Walking on the island is like walking on a giant inflatable dingy.

We are pleased to report that we have taken instruction on how to build said islands and will be commencing construction on Lake Ginninderra on our return. The main benefit of living on a floating island in Peru is the exemption from paying taxes. Do you think John Stanhope will extend us the same privilege?

The next port was the island of Amantani. This is where we had our homestay with a local couple. Here we had the chance to participate in a fiesta complete with traditional costumes and bonfire. We have acquired some fancy new dance moves from our "mother" which we can impart on our return.

Everything was going swimmingly..........until.....

It was on our return trip up the steep path back to our homestay on the hill that Matthew felt something brewing from within. This was not good news because as we foreshadowed earlier in this entry, the islands of Lake Titicaca, while beautiful, are not furnished with modern conveniences we take for granted.

It must be said that the outhouse was of decent construction, but after several visits throughout the night, Matthew can now give you a full description of its function.

Suffice to say, after 24 hours of unpleasantness he is now on the mend and now rearing to tackle the 4850 metre mountain passes of our Lares Trek which will start on Sunday morning.

We´ll tell you all about it when we get back!

I'm so dizzy, my heading is spinning. Like a whirlpool.....

Please forgive any seeming incoherence in today's entry. We are both feeling the light-headed effects of altitude as we blog from a computer terminal 3827 metres above sea level give or take a stairwell.

Yesterday we took a tour of downtown Lima, the first opportunity we'd had to do so having previously been too scared to hail a taxi from Miraflores into Centro Lima. When we finally did our fears were fully realised. As you can imagine indicating is optional and the lines are just are just rough suggestions. The cab drivers seem to have a mystical power that allows them to conjure up the space for three cars where my driving experience would tell you only two (maybe one and a half), kind of like Jesus with the loaves and fishes. I guess that is one of the advantages of living in a 98% devout catholic country.

Centro Lima itself is very colonial European and is well worth a look. Very large squares with central statues of local conquerors/liberators. We had the whole how many horses legs in the air vs did he die in battle debate, which I think is just an urban legend anyway.

The highlight of the area is Franciscan chapel which houses religious art with a Peruvian twist (with Jesus feasting on Guinea pig in the portrayal of the last supper) as well as the bones of 25,000 Limoleans bodies that have rested in communitas for hundreds of years in the church catacoombs before the existance of cemetaries in the city. The absolute highlight of the visit was the "harry potter-esque" library complete with spiral staircase and dusty books dating from the 1600's.

So we're now in the lovely Puno among the Quechan people in their colourful outfits and very spiffy headwear. Matthew has purchased a local hombre style hat. Of course this purchase was first preceeded with the trying on of the hat for the seniorettas, much to the amusement of the vendor whom was unaware of Matthew's penchant for such apparal. In any case he is now working on a serious mo to complement the outfit. He was very chuffed because our local guide assumed he was Latino and started speaking to him in Espanol! Only after she regaled him with what seemed like her life story did he regretfully own up to not understanding a word she said.

Tomorrow we head out to the islands on Lake Titticaca that are man-made from reeds. We'll have a homestay there and really get amongst the locals. Think of us heading to the out-house in the middle of the night, floating along in the darkness.

What Happens on Tour Stays on Tour

Unless you read it on our blog of course!

We have just spent our first day in Lima. Well almost a first day because we got to the hotel at 2am last night and then slept until 1pm today. We are not as lazy as you think though, we had to fly via LA which means we were in the air for 22hrs plus 5 hours in line for US customs after filling in our¨were you ever in the Nazi party?¨ questionnaire. Then when Matt got pulled up on the national security watch list he couldn´t sit down for the first 5 hours of the Peru leg.

Lima is an attractive city and we´ve enjoyed spending today just people watching. Meredith is also making a mental list of all the alpaca yarn shops we have to visit on our return in a couple of weeks.

Our phrase book is getting a good workout, the only slip up was ordering 3 main meals at the restaurant tonight—and we couldn´t work out why she was looking at us like we were greedy pigs! She didn´t say anything, maybe she thought we were looking for a super-sized American meal!

There is no sign of the earthquake except for a relief effort drive being run from the centre of town. There were also a few aid workers on our flight to Peru as well as many red cross teams at the airport.

Tomorrow we are going to head to check out the coast and a monastery with some good catacombs. Real skulls have been promised!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We have ponied up our cash and are ready to go. We are leaving on the 17th of August for our exploration of the old new world. Our first stop will be Lima Peru before embarking on a 2 week tour that will include a visit to Lake Titicaca, a four day trek to Machu Pichu, and spending a day in the Amazonian jungle. I will remember not to do any number one's in the river, lest a spiny fish find a home where it shouldn't.

After South America we will be heading to Washington DC to visit with J&J Young. They will be tres pleased to see us too! We will be there for around 10 days exploring the local scenery, and exciting venues such as Baltimore, Delaware and New Jersey. Broadway might get a look in, but as you know Matt isn't too keen on musical theater :-P.

On the way home we will be making a quick stop in Vegas baby. There I hope to win back the cost of our trip at the black jack tables. Hopefully we can also see Megatron and the Allspark at Hoover dam.

Stay tuned for further updates of our adventure as it unfolds. It could be really interesting, unlike the standard descriptions of our mundane lives.

Sorry, what was that?

After around 2 months trying out the benefits of a 'hearing instrument' I made the difficult choice today to send it back.

After a false start initially (due to some fitting issues), my audiologist was able to make some adjustments and pump up the volume on the whole thing. It looked promising for a while, but over the last couple of weeks of the trial I began to get some hard core ringing in my ear.

More testing revealed that my hearing has further deteriorated and thus the benefits of wearing the hearing aid, even with the volume up high, are marginal at best. That considered, I decided the $4,000 could be better spent elsewhere.

I am quite sad about it all. I was really hopeful that wearing a hearing aid would be the answer to my audiological prayers but I guess the reality is that sometimes you just have to accept the way things are, and that even with impressive technology there are still things today that medicine just can't fix. It also makes me conscious of the need to be more judicious in looking after the aspects of my health that I can actually control (like not eating quite so much turkish delight ice-cream).

Overall though, I am grateful that my deaf ear is something I can live with. I wish the same could be said for our family friend Elaine who succumbed to cancer this week. She was a strong woman and a bloody good maths teacher. I respected her immensely and I can't believe she's gone...

Anyway, next time you see me, don't forget to ask me for the full story on my 'aid'—just don't be surprised if you have to ask me twice!