My OperaSouth America (Peru & Brazil) - May 2013
Sunday, June 9, 2013 7:39:26 PM
Arrived at Heathrow terminal 5 on 16th may 2013.
Long flight to Sao Paulo where we went to Sables hotel.. quick sleep...burger flat bread at wow burger. Walked around trim park..shopped at ‘extra’ where we saw new types of fruit and bon bons before heading across the road to a posh looking restaurant and got sloshed at posh restaurant on caparinha - no waiters could speak English so the 1st waiter kept trying to offer us the buffet and even dished a few bits on a plate to ‘help us understand’ that we can put anything on the plate...We only wanted a drink so many faulty tower moments were had lost in translation. properly polished we had a llarge pizza and more drinks at the next pizza restaurant (with a Portuguese lesson from the chef) to share and back to hotel.
From Sao Paulo We flew to Lima and quick change to Puerto maldonado. Met dave and rode rixi to fauna forever. Stayed in orchina... saw obelisk and ate at restaurant in town. Yummy fish and cusquena! Early night in and early start the next day.
19th saw i rise before 6am. We had a coffee before we got some motorbikes delivered. We drove through sand and mud roads to the animal sanctuary where we saw the feeding of howler monkeys, a shy jungle dear, a cheeky parrot and stinky peccary pig + piglets!! We had the awesome experience of hugging a rescued money and a toucan fell inlove with my canon camera and tried to peck the daylights out my lense. After the animals we drove back as fast as we could to Fauna Forever for Dave to get some clothes and also return the bikes. We took a taxi to lucerne and then boat to Arcc!( a 5 /6 hour journey) - what a beautiful space. we had dinner and then dave took us for a night walk where we saw many spiders and heard all the night sounds of the insects and creatures. defaning
20th another earlyish start with a quick breakfast for energy and the large chunk of the day paddling on lake ‘Solidad’. The heat came back with a vengeance even though there was little sun which in turn brought out ever insect you can think of. We often got taunted by butterflies which were attracted to the sweat. Videos we have of Alex wiggling setting off hundreds of flutterbyes are awesome! A bonus was spending much time with my new favorite bird the ‘white winged swallow’ which is beautiful and blue and grey with a shine like a glossy starling.Downtime in the afternoon and chilled in the main area before catching up on some jungle sleep
21st we went hiking for a fair walk down paths we had walked in the previous nightwalk. We explored further and Dave introduced us to some of the largest trees with the largest root systems we had ever seen!. as an additional bonus we showed off our tree climbing skills when we scales the metal staircase to heaven and up 33 meters to the lookout deck. Jo rode the ‘cage’ to the top and I am very proud of her because of her fear of heights. I think it was harder sending her down as you get flung from the side to be pullied down. The view at the top was worth it, and Sam? at the top helped us work out the birds in the area based on the sounds. We also saw wild parrots flying en-masse and other favourites like the roadside hawk.
22nd was our last full day in the jungle
. We kicked it off with a long hike (~10 kms) up and down hills in the thick of the forest ending with lunch in camping site/ Dave had arranged the surprise and Daisy had picked a cooked lunch (Yellow rice, chicken and Egg) in a banana leaf with drinks ( Beer/ Cola). Mello even hand built a table fit for purpose out of logs and string. Then hide around the tree which made rooms with its roots and changed into the cozies for a Lazy river paddle all way home! We had a rubber dingy and the tractor tire and floated down the river for 3.5 hours! On the day we got caught in the mud when we went off exploring and found a little waterfall. We also saw wild giant otters in the river which bailed up the bank when they saw us and
23rd early start and boat trip hoping to see the parrots at the clay lick (unfortunately didn't see any)...and got a chance to.see school in lucerna and play football and fall in the mud which the kids thought was probably the funniest thing they have ever seen, A young skilled boy (12/13 ish) was quite keen to have a kick about and when scored said he was ‘Messy’ which means that even in remote locations like Peru, the premiership is known. Football is a religion!....The taxi pitched 20 minutes late and we rushed .back to Puerto to swap clothes and grab Thai food (really good Pad Thai) and play with more monkeys.We flew to Cuzco. I couldn't breathe! Nor could Jinnie. Everyone seems to be sluggish with the lack of oxygen! Even at the airport one of the only 2 stores was selling ‘Oxi-shot’ a gas canister of pure oxygen to prop people up. We cabbed to the hotel ) Nino’s Hotel) and checked in. With so little air, Both Jinnie and I each got a migraine and spent the rest of the day sick.I don't remember much else....
24th had a breakfast of homemade bread toast with cheese and salami accompanied with a cup of Coca tea for altitude sickness and caught a taxi to Cuzco taxi rank for a long haul taxi to ‘Ollyantambo’. We got our own car and driver for 70 soles (not bad for a 70km drive!) and drove some beautiful places. The full view of the Andes mountains with snow on them and drove throu Poroy at 4200 meters above sea level. At Olyanthamobo we got some sandwhichws and pies for the Machu Picchu ‘express’ and trained to Machu Picchu town (you can only get to here by train as its such a remote place in the world) they build the train and town for this purpose!
I don't know the name of the hotel, but it was immediately apparent that the staff didn't care and we were going to have a painful (and costly experience). The staff were rubbish! and awkward and made us work for the stay. when we finished checking in and the dust had settled we went to the local bars for ‘Happy hour’..2 for 1 and 4 for 1 Pisco sours soothed the poor management blow and we got quite tippled enjoying the local drinks and entertainment (of street hippies from Argentina drinking the the town court singing 4 Non Blonde tunes and getting vrot)
25th. The day we had all been waiting for! Early Early start - 4.15 rise (no shine) and stand in a queue to bus up the the ruins. When we got there we realised Jinnie and Alex had forgotten the passports so lucky got into the venue! We were one of the first groups in so we had the whole place to ourselves before the sun really came up. We took lots of pictures as the mist hovered infront of all the mountains maccu picchu. We walked around a back path Dave knew of and saw the bridge where the Inka soldiers would escape to in case they were attached and remove the logs on the cliff face so there enemies couldnt follow. The team split up a bit because of the passport issue and Jo and the rest went to see the sungate while I climbed WaynaPicchu 2 hours of straight up and down white nuckle climbing. the walk literally had guide ropes to pull the body up because of the steep turns. Cliff face turns made you feel uneasy as you climbed. At the top I had to maneuver through a cave before finally getting to the peak. It was beautiful! great views and photos before a 25 minute descend (mostly on my bum because of the steep stairs). Why worry about health and Safety!!!! We caught the 7.45 Late train to ollantaytambo. checked into a hotel and got a pizza in the only open restaurant in town. It was festival time so everyone was running around with falick masks and they were burning a huge tree and roots in the road in the town centre. early to bed, early to rise.
26th breakfast was continental before we followed the noise.... a walk around ollantaytambo with festival fever. We shopped but found nothing in the local market while Jinne and Alex slipped into the ruines through the back door (complements ala Dave) and after we all regrouped we hit the road again to Cuzco. En route we stopped at traditional material makers who showed us how they make colours out of insect bodies found on cactus’s. Over Poroy and back to the top of Cuzco mountain for another out of breath walk to the hotel due to closed roads and road works. In the evening we went to arty pub (aussie) - the couch bar? for jazzy sounds and many drinks!
27th Jo's bday!!! The rest of the crew brought us a coffee in the morning and we all gave Jo here presents. Quick polish up and . Breakfast at Jacks (full english of course; ) and walk to and around market shopping for table throw and placemats. Then back up the hill for a massage and chill. Always concentrating on breath we took things slow. As a celebration we had a posh dinner in the town- we had steaks on the hot rock. Cook your own food. Dave had Mahi Mahi which was awesome! I need to remind myself to get some when next I can.
28th - A sad goodbye before we headed to the airport for our Cusco to Lima flight. In Lima I I had my first Dunkin donuts which was rubbish - Krispy kremes rule!. Then onward flight to Sao Paulo.We watched this is 40 on the plane which was hilarious. Due to a flight cancellation the airline put us up in the Maritz by Tam airlines. Great hotel plus 3 course meal! This was a good amount of luxury after a hard bit of traveling so far!
29th to Rio!!! scoffed a full breakfast and made for the airport. We sat on the already late plane for 45 minutes. Not once did the airline explain why..but we got to Rio. Rio is the best of Durban and Capetown rolled into 1. We stayed in Santa Teresa ( The art district) where Zaba met us at the bnb. On the first day we cabbed to Copacabana beach where we went to the most amazing Rodizio just up the street from the beach. We also watched a pod of excited jumping dolphins jump out the water. We canned to impelima beach and then back to the house. Went out for dinner at Bar de Mihnero and got quite sloshed on Antarctica beer and caipirinhas.
30th slightly babalas I started with a breakfast and swim in the cold pool. Then walk around the gardens at the top of Santa Teresa after a lunch of piranha soup. Siesta'd in the afternoon and dinner out - more rich food.
31st...all that rich food. Seems Alex and I both got sick on the same day and spent most of the day lying in bed. the weather was a bit rubbish so it wasn't a great loss. We had lunch at the b&b - which was cheesy rice bake and not yet cooked chicken (bloody and needed to be send for more cooking). When we finally paid the bill we found out it was 45 Reals each! A real rip off for a piece of chicken in yellow sauce with some rice). We did manage to surface at the end of the day and went to a local restaurant (where we had the Piranha) for dinner.
1st - Saturday - the sunny day. We tried to go to Christ the redeemer and caught the bus up the windy road to the ‘entrance’ of the park. only to be turned away to go back into the city, where we were expected to stand in a queue for 2 hours, to buy tickets to a taxi to go and queue again. We decided to give it a miss! what a joke.
Instead we caught another taxi and went to sugar loaf beach. Here we sat for 3 hours staring at the beautiful surroundings. after too much sun we went to the Jardim botanical gardens for a stroll. then to the bay across the road, where we had a steak at a bank side cafe. Jo and I cooked on a ‘hot rock’ plate. What's with all the lazy cooks?
Slow drive back to the b&b to get our bags and shower before going to the airport. With lots of time for shopping we checked in at Rio terminal 1. We went through to international space to do shopping as there was nothing going on in all access area. Only to find that there was less going on in the duty free section. Namibia’s airport had more going for it and it was only a single room.
flight back was no memorable because I took a sleeping table and passed out. woke up just before Heathrow where we landed at 2 pm and cabbed it back to clean house and get ready for the working week.
Long flight to Sao Paulo where we went to Sables hotel.. quick sleep...burger flat bread at wow burger. Walked around trim park..shopped at ‘extra’ where we saw new types of fruit and bon bons before heading across the road to a posh looking restaurant and got sloshed at posh restaurant on caparinha - no waiters could speak English so the 1st waiter kept trying to offer us the buffet and even dished a few bits on a plate to ‘help us understand’ that we can put anything on the plate...We only wanted a drink so many faulty tower moments were had lost in translation. properly polished we had a llarge pizza and more drinks at the next pizza restaurant (with a Portuguese lesson from the chef) to share and back to hotel.
From Sao Paulo We flew to Lima and quick change to Puerto maldonado. Met dave and rode rixi to fauna forever. Stayed in orchina... saw obelisk and ate at restaurant in town. Yummy fish and cusquena! Early night in and early start the next day.
19th saw i rise before 6am. We had a coffee before we got some motorbikes delivered. We drove through sand and mud roads to the animal sanctuary where we saw the feeding of howler monkeys, a shy jungle dear, a cheeky parrot and stinky peccary pig + piglets!! We had the awesome experience of hugging a rescued money and a toucan fell inlove with my canon camera and tried to peck the daylights out my lense. After the animals we drove back as fast as we could to Fauna Forever for Dave to get some clothes and also return the bikes. We took a taxi to lucerne and then boat to Arcc!( a 5 /6 hour journey) - what a beautiful space. we had dinner and then dave took us for a night walk where we saw many spiders and heard all the night sounds of the insects and creatures. defaning
20th another earlyish start with a quick breakfast for energy and the large chunk of the day paddling on lake ‘Solidad’. The heat came back with a vengeance even though there was little sun which in turn brought out ever insect you can think of. We often got taunted by butterflies which were attracted to the sweat. Videos we have of Alex wiggling setting off hundreds of flutterbyes are awesome! A bonus was spending much time with my new favorite bird the ‘white winged swallow’ which is beautiful and blue and grey with a shine like a glossy starling.Downtime in the afternoon and chilled in the main area before catching up on some jungle sleep
21st we went hiking for a fair walk down paths we had walked in the previous nightwalk. We explored further and Dave introduced us to some of the largest trees with the largest root systems we had ever seen!. as an additional bonus we showed off our tree climbing skills when we scales the metal staircase to heaven and up 33 meters to the lookout deck. Jo rode the ‘cage’ to the top and I am very proud of her because of her fear of heights. I think it was harder sending her down as you get flung from the side to be pullied down. The view at the top was worth it, and Sam? at the top helped us work out the birds in the area based on the sounds. We also saw wild parrots flying en-masse and other favourites like the roadside hawk.
22nd was our last full day in the jungle
. We kicked it off with a long hike (~10 kms) up and down hills in the thick of the forest ending with lunch in camping site/ Dave had arranged the surprise and Daisy had picked a cooked lunch (Yellow rice, chicken and Egg) in a banana leaf with drinks ( Beer/ Cola). Mello even hand built a table fit for purpose out of logs and string. Then hide around the tree which made rooms with its roots and changed into the cozies for a Lazy river paddle all way home! We had a rubber dingy and the tractor tire and floated down the river for 3.5 hours! On the day we got caught in the mud when we went off exploring and found a little waterfall. We also saw wild giant otters in the river which bailed up the bank when they saw us and23rd early start and boat trip hoping to see the parrots at the clay lick (unfortunately didn't see any)...and got a chance to.see school in lucerna and play football and fall in the mud which the kids thought was probably the funniest thing they have ever seen, A young skilled boy (12/13 ish) was quite keen to have a kick about and when scored said he was ‘Messy’ which means that even in remote locations like Peru, the premiership is known. Football is a religion!....The taxi pitched 20 minutes late and we rushed .back to Puerto to swap clothes and grab Thai food (really good Pad Thai) and play with more monkeys.We flew to Cuzco. I couldn't breathe! Nor could Jinnie. Everyone seems to be sluggish with the lack of oxygen! Even at the airport one of the only 2 stores was selling ‘Oxi-shot’ a gas canister of pure oxygen to prop people up. We cabbed to the hotel ) Nino’s Hotel) and checked in. With so little air, Both Jinnie and I each got a migraine and spent the rest of the day sick.I don't remember much else....
24th had a breakfast of homemade bread toast with cheese and salami accompanied with a cup of Coca tea for altitude sickness and caught a taxi to Cuzco taxi rank for a long haul taxi to ‘Ollyantambo’. We got our own car and driver for 70 soles (not bad for a 70km drive!) and drove some beautiful places. The full view of the Andes mountains with snow on them and drove throu Poroy at 4200 meters above sea level. At Olyanthamobo we got some sandwhichws and pies for the Machu Picchu ‘express’ and trained to Machu Picchu town (you can only get to here by train as its such a remote place in the world) they build the train and town for this purpose!
I don't know the name of the hotel, but it was immediately apparent that the staff didn't care and we were going to have a painful (and costly experience). The staff were rubbish! and awkward and made us work for the stay. when we finished checking in and the dust had settled we went to the local bars for ‘Happy hour’..2 for 1 and 4 for 1 Pisco sours soothed the poor management blow and we got quite tippled enjoying the local drinks and entertainment (of street hippies from Argentina drinking the the town court singing 4 Non Blonde tunes and getting vrot)
25th. The day we had all been waiting for! Early Early start - 4.15 rise (no shine) and stand in a queue to bus up the the ruins. When we got there we realised Jinnie and Alex had forgotten the passports so lucky got into the venue! We were one of the first groups in so we had the whole place to ourselves before the sun really came up. We took lots of pictures as the mist hovered infront of all the mountains maccu picchu. We walked around a back path Dave knew of and saw the bridge where the Inka soldiers would escape to in case they were attached and remove the logs on the cliff face so there enemies couldnt follow. The team split up a bit because of the passport issue and Jo and the rest went to see the sungate while I climbed WaynaPicchu 2 hours of straight up and down white nuckle climbing. the walk literally had guide ropes to pull the body up because of the steep turns. Cliff face turns made you feel uneasy as you climbed. At the top I had to maneuver through a cave before finally getting to the peak. It was beautiful! great views and photos before a 25 minute descend (mostly on my bum because of the steep stairs). Why worry about health and Safety!!!!
We caught the 7.45 Late train to ollantaytambo. checked into a hotel and got a pizza in the only open restaurant in town. It was festival time so everyone was running around with falick masks and they were burning a huge tree and roots in the road in the town centre. early to bed, early to rise.26th breakfast was continental before we followed the noise.... a walk around ollantaytambo with festival fever. We shopped but found nothing in the local market while Jinne and Alex slipped into the ruines through the back door (complements ala Dave) and after we all regrouped we hit the road again to Cuzco. En route we stopped at traditional material makers who showed us how they make colours out of insect bodies found on cactus’s. Over Poroy and back to the top of Cuzco mountain for another out of breath walk to the hotel due to closed roads and road works. In the evening we went to arty pub (aussie) - the couch bar? for jazzy sounds and many drinks!
27th Jo's bday!!! The rest of the crew brought us a coffee in the morning and we all gave Jo here presents. Quick polish up and . Breakfast at Jacks (full english of course; ) and walk to and around market shopping for table throw and placemats. Then back up the hill for a massage and chill. Always concentrating on breath we took things slow. As a celebration we had a posh dinner in the town- we had steaks on the hot rock. Cook your own food. Dave had Mahi Mahi which was awesome! I need to remind myself to get some when next I can.
28th - A sad goodbye before we headed to the airport for our Cusco to Lima flight. In Lima I I had my first Dunkin donuts which was rubbish - Krispy kremes rule!. Then onward flight to Sao Paulo.We watched this is 40 on the plane which was hilarious. Due to a flight cancellation the airline put us up in the Maritz by Tam airlines. Great hotel plus 3 course meal! This was a good amount of luxury after a hard bit of traveling so far!
29th to Rio!!! scoffed a full breakfast and made for the airport. We sat on the already late plane for 45 minutes. Not once did the airline explain why..but we got to Rio. Rio is the best of Durban and Capetown rolled into 1. We stayed in Santa Teresa ( The art district) where Zaba met us at the bnb. On the first day we cabbed to Copacabana beach where we went to the most amazing Rodizio just up the street from the beach. We also watched a pod of excited jumping dolphins jump out the water. We canned to impelima beach and then back to the house. Went out for dinner at Bar de Mihnero and got quite sloshed on Antarctica beer and caipirinhas.
30th slightly babalas I started with a breakfast and swim in the cold pool. Then walk around the gardens at the top of Santa Teresa after a lunch of piranha soup. Siesta'd in the afternoon and dinner out - more rich food.
31st...all that rich food. Seems Alex and I both got sick on the same day and spent most of the day lying in bed. the weather was a bit rubbish so it wasn't a great loss. We had lunch at the b&b - which was cheesy rice bake and not yet cooked chicken (bloody and needed to be send for more cooking). When we finally paid the bill we found out it was 45 Reals each! A real rip off for a piece of chicken in yellow sauce with some rice). We did manage to surface at the end of the day and went to a local restaurant (where we had the Piranha) for dinner.
1st - Saturday - the sunny day. We tried to go to Christ the redeemer and caught the bus up the windy road to the ‘entrance’ of the park. only to be turned away to go back into the city, where we were expected to stand in a queue for 2 hours, to buy tickets to a taxi to go and queue again. We decided to give it a miss! what a joke.
Instead we caught another taxi and went to sugar loaf beach. Here we sat for 3 hours staring at the beautiful surroundings. after too much sun we went to the Jardim botanical gardens for a stroll. then to the bay across the road, where we had a steak at a bank side cafe. Jo and I cooked on a ‘hot rock’ plate. What's with all the lazy cooks?
Slow drive back to the b&b to get our bags and shower before going to the airport. With lots of time for shopping we checked in at Rio terminal 1. We went through to international space to do shopping as there was nothing going on in all access area. Only to find that there was less going on in the duty free section. Namibia’s airport had more going for it and it was only a single room.
flight back was no memorable because I took a sleeping table and passed out. woke up just before Heathrow where we landed at 2 pm and cabbed it back to clean house and get ready for the working week.
