Santiago: the Peruvian antidote ...

After 15 consecutive days of pre-6am get-ups, money belts, cramped Peruvian buses, no make-up (for Amy!), subsisting on packets of biscuits and brushing our teeth with bottled water (and still being inflicted with a dose of Delhi Belly) and the high altitude issue of hyperventilating if we so much as had to tie our shoelaces, it's fair to say we were relieved to be in Chile!


All-in-all, Santiago made a great city break. Fun and cosmopolitan (has a very European feel), with great weather, restaurants and the wine regions just under an hour away, it was a great way to relax before getting back to the action-packed adventure style travelling that awaits us in Argentina.

The Lost City of the Incas

Halfway up the Andes Plateau, deep in the Amazon jungle above the Urubamba River lies a city in the clouds known as Machu Picchu – bizarrely 'lost' for over three centuries, but now probably the most famous symbol of the Inca Empire, just voted one of New Seven Wonders of the World and raved about by every person we know who has visited it. Despite all this, we couldn’t help wonder whether it would live up to expectations. The truth is, it smashed our expectations out of the ball park, and we’re sorry to say that words and photos won’t be able to do it justice.

In terms of getting there, our new found hiking ability (cf. Italian Lakes) and the fact that we now own all the gear (and, some might say, no idea!), coupled with the reality that we despise tents, sleeping bags, drop toilets and all things camping, left us with a dilemma – to trek or not to trek? We decided to compromise and do a 2-day (rather than 4-day) trek of the Inca Trail known as the "Camino Real de los Incas", which involved a hostel, 2 very lovely porters to carry our food and a slightly lower altitude – sounded good to us!

At the end of the first day we reached Machu Picchu, and we were ecstatic - it really is unlike any other ancient site we have ever visited. Full credit to the Incas – they really were impressive architects, stoneworkers, astronomers and environmentalists!

Day two involved a heck of a lot of climbing – a 400m vertical challenge to the peak of Wayna Picchu mountain (the one that rises over Machu Picchu, 2720m above sea level). At the summit we were rewarded with unmatched views of the Machu Picchu city and the feeling of being on top of the world. And Rory’s desire to re-live his mountain biking days resulted in a sprint down to the bottom. I’m not sure that our knees will ever be the same again.

Illusive condors and floating islands

Since leaving Lima last week, we have been on a real high … on several occasions over 5000m (16,400 ft). First up, we flew to Peru’s second city, Arequipa, which was the base for a 2-day tour of the Colca valley.


The Colca valley is famed for many things, not least its sheer scale (being twice as deep as the Grand Canyon) and its breath taking beauty. It was also one of the key agricultural areas for the Incas, who created the tiered fields throughout the valley. The second day involved getting up at the crack-of-dawn, which we were told would be worth it due to the dozens of condors we would see gliding through the canyon. It seems, however, that the condors had other engagements, although after 90mins a total of three decided to grace us with their presence. Hmmph…

The next highlight (pun intended) on our ‘gringo trail’ was Puno, the main Peruvian city on the huge Lake Titicaca (nearly 10,000 sq Km) which is the highest navigable lake in the world at 3900m! Its shores and islands are home to some of Peru’s oldest people and we visited the people of Uros who actually live on floating islands made of reeds. The reeds are also used to build their houses and boats and even as food! Overall it was very cool - Rory managed to alight the boat onto the island without sinking the whole thing, and Amy made a couple of new friends …

The great Peruvian adventure begins ...

With a cancelled flight, missed connection in Miami and a likelihood of arriving in Lima too late to catch our pre-booked tour of the Nazca Lines and Ballestas Islands, Peru did not look like it was going to start off well for us … So we are still baffled as to how we found ourselves sitting in business class seats on a direct flight with Delta, arriving in Lima (complete with our luggage – the mystery continues) 15 minutes prior to the flight we should have been on, all at the expense of American Airlines. Absolute result!

After all that drama, we only had 2 hours to rest our weary cankles (I’ve convinced myself that even Kate Moss gets those after a day of flying) before our 3.30am pick-up for our adventures around the Peruvian “Galapagos Islands” (or the Ballestas as they are technically known). The 250 Km drive (most of which we slept, as our kind hosts had brought us pillows!) to get to the region was well worth it and it was hard to believe that less than 24hrs previously we were stuck in the sprawling metropolis of Atlanta.




After our tour of the Ballestas, it was a further 250 Km south to Nazca, home of the famous Nazca Lines. These are not only lines and geometrical figures, but also designs such as a dog, monkey, birds - one with a wing span of over 100m - a spider, a tree and an astronaut (!), which were thought to have been etched into the stony desert between 900BC and 600AD. The lines can really only be seen from the air - fortunately , we had the ‘luxury’ of a 5 seater Cessna to get the big picture!

Dear Steph & Ty ...

This entry is dedicated to little sis Steph and her husband Ty, who will be following their dreams in Jan 08 and going to live in Atlanta ... I suppose we should be clear that their dream is not to live in Atlanta per se, but rather Atlanta will be where Ty's band ("Revive") will be based for a while, as they've been given a fantastic opportunity to seek to become more widely known in the USA!

So, what were our impressions of Atlanta (and why did we include it as part of our world trip in the first place)?


Well the good news for Steph & Ty is that, at least visually, Atlanta is like Chatswood on steroids. It is also the home to cultural icons such as Coca Cola and CNN as well as the world's largest aquarium (we have no doubt that they included the giant fast food area when coming up with that calculation) and more parks and shopping malls than you can poke a stick at. So Steph & Ty should feel right at home and will have plenty to keep them busy ... well at least for three days anyway (which is the time we took to do the CNN tour, Coca Cola museum, aquarium and the best malls and parks!)


And finally, what were we doing here? Well it's quite simple: it's where Rory's dad and stepmom (and step family) live. And whilst there, we got to meet the newest addition to the family - one year old Kai, who is Rory's step sister's (very cute) son!

Chilling in the Big Apple!

Aaah New York. The city that never sleeps. Where the underground is the subway, the footpath is the sidewalk, and restaurant service is so quick that your (very large) main course is slapped in front of you before the last forkful of your entree has even met your mouth (although is that really a good thing?).

As we've both been to New York before we didn't feel the need to spend much time on touristy-stuff, but instead enjoyed a taste of New York life by hanging out with lots of friends who've been living here for a while. So we enjoyed dinner and drinks at a trendy West Village bar with Nicola, Simon, Daniel and Jen and the New York institution (we love it!) of Sunday brunch with Marie and Paul. Also got to visit Justin and Laurel Moffatt's church which was awesome. The weather was gorgeous so a cycle around central park (another feature of New York which we wish we could take home with us) was a must.

So, it's now time to leave the Big Apple, loaded up with a new pair of jeans, a little too much junkfood in our stomachs and a lot more insight into what the hype is all about (and our verdict is that it's generally warranted). The only mystery that remains is the authenticity (or otherwise) of one of our favourite TV shows Friends - how DO twentysomething New Yorkers with minimum-wage jobs afford spacious apartments right on Central Park and $200 haircuts?? Oh, that and the technical definitions of words like "Schlep", the New Yorker's ability to insert the words "awesome", "like" and "so" ["You are so moving"; "You are so dead"] into almost any sentence, why the question is always "are you done?" instead of "are you finished?" and why it is now more common to say you are standing "on line", not "in line" (what the?!). Although, when we reflected on a large portion of the Australian vocabulary, we realised we can't really criticise.

See youse later...

Bordeaux and Belfast ... naturally

And the relaxation continues. This time the setting is a gorgeous vineyard in the south of France, just over an hour's drive from Bordeaux.


The general theme involved wine, cheese, crème brulee, rugby, pottering around little villages and vineyards along the River Dordogne and the good company of family and friends. We also managed to muster up the energy for a quick side-trip to Paris.

And just to make sure we're really really ready to go on the move again, we've just spent a few days in Northern Ireland with Rory's mum Rosie and step-dad Don, where we were quite literally refuelled with hearty Irish fare, and were able to fit in a quick road-trip along the beautiful north coast (including a stop to cross Carrick-a-rede rope bridge and check out the Giant's Causeway). It was a lovely way to spend a few days before tackling a new continent. Stay tuned...