Down South, South America that is!
It's been a while since my last update but I have been busy, busy, busy with at first work, then traveling and now getting prepared for my move back home. I can't believe i'll be leaving London for good in 5 and a half weeks!
Anyway, I went to Brazil and Peru for two weeks. Simply amazing; beautiful, stunning and absolutely gorgeous views. In Brazil, we started with 3 nights in Rio. We didn't have much luck with the weather; it was foggy and rainy. Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain were shrouded in fog~ Chotto zannen but I suppose it gives a mysterious edge to the usually sunny Rio. We also went to Santa Marta, one of the many favelas in Rio. We finally had some sun on the last day and the beaches look great. I can see why people like Rio. That said, it's probably the most expensive city I've ever been to, more so than NY, Tokyo and London.
From Rio, we went to Lima for two nights before flying to Cusco. I didn't know what to expect of Lima prior to arriving in Lima and in more ways than one, Lima resembles Singapore. Well, at least Miraflores in Lima resembles Singapore. It has a dramatic coastline, really good infrastructure and a neat little city. Since we were in Lima, we had lotsa Pisco Sours in so many different flavours - cinnamon, lychee, passionfruit, mango... He loves cerviche so Lima's a great place to have cerviche at a very fair price.
We arrived in Cusco after a very short flight from Lima. Cusco, the gateway to Inca trail and Machu Picchu. The ancient capital of the Incans. A city at 3400m above sea level. Little wonder we did have a little bout of altitude sickness on the first day. We didn't manage to get too much sightseeing done, what with the preparation for our 4D3N hike and the general feeling of disorientation. W met Bruno, our guide for the Inca trail, in the evening for a briefing on the route and the things to pack and slept early that night. After all, we were having an early start the following morning at 530am!
Day 1 of the Inca trail begins with a bus ride to Ollantaytambo, where we stopped to refuel and pick up supplies we need for the next 4 days. Thereafter, we took another ride to the start of the trail where someone checked our passports and made sure we had the permit to enter the trail. They only allow 250 people on the trail each day, all hikers, guides and porters included. We were at somewhere 2400m above sea level and would be hiking/climbing our way to the highest point at 4200m the following morning. It's basically going from 2400m to 3200m on Day 1, 3200m - 4200m - 3400m - 3900m - 3600m on Day (lots of ups and downs and basically the most tiring day with 11 hours of hiking), then a couple hours of walking on Day 3 and on Day 4, it's hiking up to Sun Gate and from there to Machu Picchu in about 3 hours. It's not an easy trek by any means. Some parts are really steep and descending is never easy because of loose rocks, steep steps plus rain and moss doesn't help with it at all. All that said, the views are truly amazing and breathtaking. Reaching the top of the hill and an untouched Incan site comes into view, buried in between two mountains. An ancient Incan lookout tower shrouded in clouds with the snowcapped Andes range behind. Ancient steps carved out by the Incans, almost hidden by the trees and are still in use today. And of course there's Machu Picchu. It's grand and beautiful and one can see why it is the most famous of all Incan sites. It looks like the lost city in Studio Ghibli's Laputa. Yes, the trek was tiring but the views are definitely worth every step we took. Our guide Bruno was really knowledgeable and funny. Our cook is a genius - he baked chocolate cakes and apple pies in the mountains, out of a little tent and prepared chicken chow mien, steak and mash and many other amazing dishes. I guess we didn't expect such a spread and were more than a little pampered. Btw, our group consisted of just two couples - us and another couple from Canada - but the Canadian guy had really severe altitude sickness and had to drop out on Day 1. Good thing he turned back because it turned out that he had bronchitis and salmonella too.
Our last part of the journey took us to the spectacular Iguacu falls in Brazil. We spent 3 nights in Hotel Das Cataratas, the only hotel in the national park and allows us access to the falls before and after opening hours. Obviously we took advantage of that and went to see the falls in morning, noon and night. The hotel organised a full moon walk and we went to see the falls by the moonlight. We also went rafting which was tremendous fun but my other half fell out of the raft during the second series of rapids, lost his glasses and grazed his knee. On the second day we went to the Argentinean side of the falls and that offers a totally different perspective. Lots of pretty rainbows and falls appearing out of nowhere from trees and jungles. It's almost unreal. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Anyway, I went to Brazil and Peru for two weeks. Simply amazing; beautiful, stunning and absolutely gorgeous views. In Brazil, we started with 3 nights in Rio. We didn't have much luck with the weather; it was foggy and rainy. Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf Mountain were shrouded in fog~ Chotto zannen but I suppose it gives a mysterious edge to the usually sunny Rio. We also went to Santa Marta, one of the many favelas in Rio. We finally had some sun on the last day and the beaches look great. I can see why people like Rio. That said, it's probably the most expensive city I've ever been to, more so than NY, Tokyo and London.
From Rio, we went to Lima for two nights before flying to Cusco. I didn't know what to expect of Lima prior to arriving in Lima and in more ways than one, Lima resembles Singapore. Well, at least Miraflores in Lima resembles Singapore. It has a dramatic coastline, really good infrastructure and a neat little city. Since we were in Lima, we had lotsa Pisco Sours in so many different flavours - cinnamon, lychee, passionfruit, mango... He loves cerviche so Lima's a great place to have cerviche at a very fair price.
We arrived in Cusco after a very short flight from Lima. Cusco, the gateway to Inca trail and Machu Picchu. The ancient capital of the Incans. A city at 3400m above sea level. Little wonder we did have a little bout of altitude sickness on the first day. We didn't manage to get too much sightseeing done, what with the preparation for our 4D3N hike and the general feeling of disorientation. W met Bruno, our guide for the Inca trail, in the evening for a briefing on the route and the things to pack and slept early that night. After all, we were having an early start the following morning at 530am!
Day 1 of the Inca trail begins with a bus ride to Ollantaytambo, where we stopped to refuel and pick up supplies we need for the next 4 days. Thereafter, we took another ride to the start of the trail where someone checked our passports and made sure we had the permit to enter the trail. They only allow 250 people on the trail each day, all hikers, guides and porters included. We were at somewhere 2400m above sea level and would be hiking/climbing our way to the highest point at 4200m the following morning. It's basically going from 2400m to 3200m on Day 1, 3200m - 4200m - 3400m - 3900m - 3600m on Day (lots of ups and downs and basically the most tiring day with 11 hours of hiking), then a couple hours of walking on Day 3 and on Day 4, it's hiking up to Sun Gate and from there to Machu Picchu in about 3 hours. It's not an easy trek by any means. Some parts are really steep and descending is never easy because of loose rocks, steep steps plus rain and moss doesn't help with it at all. All that said, the views are truly amazing and breathtaking. Reaching the top of the hill and an untouched Incan site comes into view, buried in between two mountains. An ancient Incan lookout tower shrouded in clouds with the snowcapped Andes range behind. Ancient steps carved out by the Incans, almost hidden by the trees and are still in use today. And of course there's Machu Picchu. It's grand and beautiful and one can see why it is the most famous of all Incan sites. It looks like the lost city in Studio Ghibli's Laputa. Yes, the trek was tiring but the views are definitely worth every step we took. Our guide Bruno was really knowledgeable and funny. Our cook is a genius - he baked chocolate cakes and apple pies in the mountains, out of a little tent and prepared chicken chow mien, steak and mash and many other amazing dishes. I guess we didn't expect such a spread and were more than a little pampered. Btw, our group consisted of just two couples - us and another couple from Canada - but the Canadian guy had really severe altitude sickness and had to drop out on Day 1. Good thing he turned back because it turned out that he had bronchitis and salmonella too.
Our last part of the journey took us to the spectacular Iguacu falls in Brazil. We spent 3 nights in Hotel Das Cataratas, the only hotel in the national park and allows us access to the falls before and after opening hours. Obviously we took advantage of that and went to see the falls in morning, noon and night. The hotel organised a full moon walk and we went to see the falls by the moonlight. We also went rafting which was tremendous fun but my other half fell out of the raft during the second series of rapids, lost his glasses and grazed his knee. On the second day we went to the Argentinean side of the falls and that offers a totally different perspective. Lots of pretty rainbows and falls appearing out of nowhere from trees and jungles. It's almost unreal. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.