Where your (YELLOW) PANTS at !!!

Where your (YELLOW) PANTS at !!!

Odd statement I know but with happy New Year greetings currently occurring around the world. I have to ask… are you all donning your YELLOW and it appears RED in Bolivia underwear. The Tradition is Latin America wide and has boosted sales in pants this time of year. (Maybe this could be the next stimulus package for the WORLD ECONOMY)

The YELLOW pants are supposed to ward away evil spirits, offer luck for the year ahead and possibly the night. As well as allow you to ensure that you are part of the party crowd if or when the New Year Moonies are required to test your luckiness for the forthcoming year ahead. Remember the New Year sales begin soon and I urge you to grab these pants while you can!

Home of the Inca´s

Home of the Inca´s

Well sometimes you are treated and you seem to forget about it, the Inca Trail and Cusco is one of those travel treats that makes other locations seem tiny in comparison. This is how I think we both felt about lake Titicaca. As you can see by the vivid picture this is a beautiful lake and if considered in its perspective as the home of the Inca´s until they went walk about you can see that it sustained life very early in history.

Still for the travellers out there you can also see why the people were motivated to travel throughout unknown lands to pave a way for their planned civilisation. This paid handsome dividends for the culture, but one must wonder how claiming to be the son of the SUN GOD can really be pulled off on an entire civilisation. Call me sceptic but I do believe David Ike attempted a similar feat on Wogan a couple of decades ago and at least he had the credentials of both being a pretty goo goalkeeper and a strong like for maroon track suits. These are obviously key traits to be held by any Son of God.

Xmas day in Cusco

After 4 days of walking in a combination of both sunny and as you can see by the pictures, rainy weather we finally managed to make it back at 23.45 on Christmas eve. Coming through the mountains into Cusco really does take some serious time. However as Claire stated, having lived with British Rail and its derivatives we are trained for pretty much anything.

Anyway arriving into Cusco at this time is an amazing experience, both for seeing all the last minute purchasing occurring not to mention the spectacular 12 – 1.30 am firework display. We had arranged back in our pad in the mountain to witness this and it was nothing short of a government coup.

As for xmas as you can see we managed to meet up with some friends and have a traditional lunch. Certainly beat my McDonalds lunch in Xmas 1997.

In Search of Paddington Bear

Having been in darkest Peru for over a week now, I had hoped to see at least one of Paddington´s relatives, but have so far been disappointed. I have seen copious pots of ´mermelade´(jam to you and me), but not seen anyone make a sandwich of it and hide it under their hat. Nevermind - the end of 2008 brings a close to the 50th anniversary of the creation of Michael Bond´s famous character... check out http://www.paddingtonbear.com/ to see the celebrations that took place and an alternative board-game to the Credit Crunch Christmas (you will require a wellington boot, two slices of bread and a jar of marmalade)!

When not searching for bears, I have had the pleasure of meeting various local peruvians of human-form through the latest volunteering this week. I have helped classes of varying ages (17-29) practise their English at the Inca Educa school (and have fielded various questions in Spanish regarding Harry Potter and Hogwarts, the local passion). Unfortunately they were also slightly disappointed to discover that I don´t know David Beckham.

In addition I spent some time in the Plaza de Armas helping a local called Freddy to practise his English so that he can fulfill his dream of moving to the USA and setting up his own business. Whiling away a few hours in the park together was a really interesting way to get to know each other, our different experiences and aspirations, and of course we both welcomed the chance to practise our language skills together.

Now all that remains to do is eat our last supper before we head off at 5am tomorrow morning to hike the Sacred Valley. Following this morning´s briefing with our guide José, we´re all set to put our best feet forward and wend our way through the mountains, arriving Machu Picchu on Christmas Eve.

So until Santa has been, it´s over and out for us... have a very Feliz Navidad everyone! (And Happy Birthday Paddington!)

Playing Games @ Xmas

Well Christmas is a coming and the goose is getting fat, whilst guess what? Rob is messing around to find a game that will keep people occupied during Christmas SCRAN (Sultanas, Currants Raisin and Nuts) or for that matter Scoff.

Yes the worlds finest Newspaper Periodical has not let us down this year. Despite not being personably able to get hold of a copy of the world in 2009 to review what the futurists say will occur in the financially bankrupt west in the next 12 months. I have by the power of Adode and of course the Net been able to secure the modern equivalent of Monopoly produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

If you are interested in recreating the same (some may say AGONY) for your family or dinner guests this Christmas, then click on http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12798307 and get downloading Credit Crunch the game where you to have the ability to recreate the excess of the credit boom whilst chomping on your turkey. Enjoy and seasons regards.

Journey to the heart of the Ancient Inca Empire…

Journey to the heart of the Ancient Inca Empire…

Yes that’s right whilst many of you are concerning yourself with Christmas parties and work nights out, not forgetting of course the obligatory stuffy head the morning after. Somewhere in a place far, far away, Claire and I are preparing for a trip to the very heart of the ancient Inca Empire. Located thousands of feet into heavens is the picturesque city of Cuzco, with the magical city of Machu pichu being just a 4 day trek away.

Yes although we do not set off until next Saturday, we are already conducting our acclimatisation training with either early morning runs or for that matter long walks to where we are either studying or working. Although I feel in great shape the altitude certainly takes its toll so we are waiting to see how tough the trip will be.

So spare a thought for crazy fools as you are getting stuck into your works Christmas dinner, for the fools on the hill, who will be tucking into as much pasta as there is going…

Finally if I don’t get a chance to say so before the Christmas period, Merry Christmas and have a great New Year….

"The feelings of men have founded cities..."

"It was grand and stately, and must have been founded by a people of great intelligence. It has fine streets, except that they are narrow, and the houses are built of solid stones, beautifully joined..." said one lady who saw Cusco (acording to Victor W. Von Hagen anyway), and I can´t say I disagree with her. Cusco is a beautiful city, with many of the colonial buildings we see today having been built on impressive original Inca stonework (as in the picture above).

The Inkas set up an extremely well organised Empire c1500, with the temples and palaces of Cusco allegedly being plated with gold in their glory days (until they were looted by the spanish conquistadors). Today most of the original buildings have gone but the steep narrow streets, pretty plazas and great views remain. I certainly have to catch my breath at the top of the hill where we´re staying at the moment anyway (okay, that´s mainly to do with the altitude and my lack of fitness but the view is pretty stunning too!).

Since arriving in Cusco we have been spending our time soaking up the atmosphere and reading up on the legendary empire, whilst of course making our preparations for Christmas! This week will see Rob continuing his Spanish classes and I will be volunteering to help teenagers and adults to practise their English (see http://www.inca-educa.org/en/index.htm for the project´s website).

So, with 11 days to go until Santa´s work is over for another year, we hope everyone back home is enjoying their Christmas parties!

The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round...

...Round and round, round and round...!

The past week has seen us put in a lot of miles on buses (at least 800 miles, probably more) as well as time (8 hours from the Ecuadorian rainforest to Guyaquil, then 25 hours over the border to Peruvian capital Lima, then another 20 hours to Cusco)! That has given us the chance to see very varied landscapes up close, which air travel doesn´t permit. The most noticeable difference was in travelling from central Ecuador down to Lima... the lush rainforests changed to barren desert country. Although we were following a coastal road for much of that journey, there was virtually no vegetation or habitation. Other than some messages written on the slopes in stones, there was little respite from the moon-like landscape of sand and rock. It was therefore a welcome relief to travel back to higher altitudes on the way to Cusco, seeing local inhabitants and being surrounded by red-tiled roofs, green tree-covered slopes and white snow-capped peaks.

We are now settled in the ancient capital of the Inca Empire for the next week, using the time for more spanish study, volunteering and adjustment to the altitude (3310m), before our trip to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu!

Back to Basics!

Digging grey water systems, building an animals´food-house, making furniture: all in a week´s work!

This week we have worked hard helping to advance the construction of the

Merazonia animal rescue project. Our main tasks have been centred around the animals´food-house (where fruit will be stored and prepared to feed to the birds,

monkeys and other animals that are eventually rescued and rehabilitated here). Whilst Rob helped Frank to dig a deep hole (no easy task in rock-filled ground with the sun beating down), I helped Jennifer to heave rocks up from the river with which to fill the hole. The purpose of this (grey water system) is to filter the water that is drained from the food-house (e.g. cleaning water) before it reaches the river, thereby avoiding pollution of what is currently pure clean spring water straight from the mountains. In addition to that, we worked with Ecuadorian employee Guido to mix concrete and make columns which will hold the food-house walls. When the rain started falling (it is a rainforest after all!) we headed to the toolshed and helped make additional furniture for the volunteers´living quarters. Phew!

In the evenings we took our turn at cooking... using candles and torches to see by, and thankfully a gas oven (which must have been hard work to transport there!) rather than a camp fire we managed to knock up some hearty food.

All in all, a good week´s work!

Journeying above the clouds and through the jungle...

Riding through the Andes looking down on clouds and cascading waterfalls, sleeping in a tree house, cooking by candlelight... such are the things we have enjoyed in the past week on our rainforest volunteering experience!

The journey to the Merazonia project didn´t end when we disembarked from the fantastically beautiful bus ride through the mountains... instead we climbed into a 4x4 vehicle to go into the rainforest and when that could go no further, we donned our backpacks to begin a one kilometre trek. Following the narrow track as it weaved up and downhill through the trees, we clambered over boulders, clomped through bogs and waded through streams (thankfully we´d been supplied with wellington boots!) until we arrived hot and sticky at our destination!

After dumping our rucksacks in our penthouse apartment (our room was the second floor of a large pentagon-shaped wooden hut, with large triangular windows open to the air - shown in the photo above) we were treated to a cup of fresh coffee and a tour of the site. There is no electricity there (although the owners are hoping to solve that problem by harnessing the hydro-power of the river that forms one of the borders to their land), and so due to that and various other issues it has taken 4 years to build the volunteer house, owners cabin, toilet / shower block (no flushing systems here - deposits are given a sprinking of sawdust and then burnt so as not to pollute the river), kitchen and one large aviary. More sites have been identified around the many acres of land owned by the project on which to build further enclosures.

After an afternoon of hard work in the partially built animals´food-house, project owners Frank (a journalist from Holland) and Jennifer (a psychologist from the USA) cooked us up a candle-lit vegetable curry. Then it was time to take our torches, climb the little ladder to our rooftop room and fall fast asleep to the sound of the rushing river and countless buzzing insects!