Los Angeles

Today is the final day of our holiday to the Americas. We're in Los Angeles waiting for our flight home late tonight. So we decided to explore the city by train. Yes it is possible to travel around LA without a car, though whenever we asked someone for directions they'd say something like "Oh it's about 15 minutes down the 110 then right on the 105." Never a thought that we'd be on foot and taking public transport!!! But we've discovered that if you can work out the public transport system of a city it's by far the best way for visitors to get around.
La is a sprawling city; very flat and criss-crossed by freeways and 8 lane roads, all of which are fairly full most of the time and bumper to bumper in "rush-hour". The downtown area though was fairly quiet. We walked up Bunker Hill where all the big banks have their offices and the cultural centres are set. Disney Concert Hall is a modern structure reminiscent of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Across the road is the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). We also discovered a beautiful garden hidden behind one of the big buildings on the hill. These sorts of accidental encounters are what make wandering a foreign city so fascinating. Finally we took the train to the last stop - Redondo Beach - but unfortunately it didn't quite go as far as the beach, just an industrial centre, so we didn't get to see the pacific ocean after all.
So now it's back to the real world and friends and family. We're looking forward to being in our own home and our own beds and eating "normal" food again.
See you soon!

Lima

Today we toured yet another city, starting in the centre of the city which is now a dead heart. Plaza San Martin, in the centre of the old city, is surrounded by empty buildings. The area is too dangerous for people to feel safe going out at night and owners of buildings aren't prepared to spend the money to renovate old buildings when there's no guarantee of finding someone to rent them.
The Basilica of Santa Rosa, the patron saint of Lima has a beautiful cloister tiled with Spanish tiles imported at the start of the 17th century .
The Plaza de Armas is alive, with government buildings and the Cathedral around it.


As well as the Cathedral we visited the Church of San Francisco which was at one stage the city's cemetery with around 20,000 people buried in the catacombs under the church.

Finally we visited the Larco Herrera museum, a private collection of hundreds of pieces of pottery and other handiworks from various areas of Peru, dating from 1000BC to 1600 AD. The quality of these pieces was overwhelming.

Lima

Today we flew from La Paz to Lima. We're now on the way home. The best thing so far about Lima is being able to walk up stairs without panting. You don't realise how much you take normal breathing for granted until you find yourself in a place where the oxygen level makes it difficult. Lima is a city by the sea. The suburb where our hotel is is Miraflores, a well to do area on the beach. Today the temperature is about 25C with a cool sea breeze to counter the hot sun. So it feels like holiday weather. We're feeling relaxed and if we hadn't had to get up at 5:15 this morning to catch the plane to Lima we'd probably even feel rested.
We walked to the beach where there's a shopping mall overlooking the sea. A case of surfers paradise on one side and shoppers paradise on the other - at least to some eyes! We were offered the opportunity to go paragliding but decided not to. But there were a few doing it, mimicking the birds, one of whom even joined in the fun at one stage. Instead we sat on the veranda of a cafe drinking coffee and enjoying the view.

La Paz

La Paz is not the capital of Bolivia but it is the home of the President and the Parliament. It is about a 1000ft below the Alto Plano, the high plains that we traveled over on the way to Puno. Still, altitude continues to be an issue as it sits at around 12,000ft. We still find ourselves panting just having a shower let alone going up a flight of stairs or a steep street of which there are many! Headaches, sleeplessness and loss of appetite are also effects of altitude so we've been eating small meals and taking Panadol on occasion. La Paz has the highest football field in the world and other South American countries are trying to have it omitted from the grounds where the international games are played - so far without success.
La Paz is a city of around 1 million but has a satellite city, El Alto, on its outskirts with another million mostly poor or unemployed.
Today we were driven around the city to see some of its sights. Moon Valley is an area just to the south where the weathered clay that surrounds the city has been preserved in a landscape that gives it its name.
Like most South American Cities the Catholic Church has had a large impact through the Spanish Conquistadors - not always positive. There are many churches and monasteries scattered around the city. Unfortunately their efforts to "introduce the Catholic religion" has failed to turn the people from Pagan practices to faith in Jesus Christ. Stalls in one part of the city near our hotel sell items to be used in pagan ceremonies. These include services to bless the foundations of a building using animal carcasses, including mummified foetuses of Alpacas!
Other miniature items are bought on January 24th, as we saw in Copacabana in the hope that the item being bought will turn out to be theirs in reality. These items are then blessed by a Shaman as well as by a Catholic Priest - so they get to have it both ways!

Bolivia

Today we travelled from Puno by bus to Copacabana where we caught a catamaran to first visit Sun Island and then go on to La Paz. Copacabana is in Bolivia so we had to cross another border and change our cash once again. It's a well known tourist spot, though it does seem a little run down. It is famous (apparently) for the church which houses the Black Madonna. Mind you the Madonna isn't black, the sculptor was black. Outside the church was a stall selling votive offerings - basically toys that were meant to represent the wishes of the person - so there were toy cars and suitcases with passport and money, etc. The idea is that you buy something that you''d really like to have and maybe get the priest to bless it and then in a year or so you might get it.







We then sailed to Sun Island which is considered the origin of the Inca Civilisation and therefore a holy place. It's on the edge of Lake Titicaca not far from Copacabana.
Lake Titicaca is huge. It's about 8,500sq. km. in area, so its about 4 times the size of Port Philip Bay.
On Sun Island we saw demonstrations of a number of local skills, boat building, weaving, farming, as well as a demonstration of one of the religious ceremonies carried out by their Shamans.








Finally we got to La Paz, a city of contrasts, from the beautiful vista from the hills above it to the terrible traffic snarls down below

Lake Titicaca

Today we went on a boat trip to visit the Uros Islands, floating islands of reeds on the edge of Lake Titicaca. An interesting mix of ancient lifestyle, living in reed houses and cooking with traditional stoves and utensils, yet with Solar power to operate electrical lights and even TVs.
The islands are made by cutting a 1 metre thick section of reed roots out and laying these side by side then laying reeds over the top to about another metre thickness. The root layer will last forever but the reeds are replaced constantly because of wear and tear.


Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world at around 14,000ft. Yes, that's twice as high as Mt Kosciusko.




At the hotel where we're staying there are countless guinea pigs running round. These are a national delicacy, eaten on special occasions. They also have a number of Baby Alpacas (That's a breed, not a reference to their age) that keep the lawn mown.

Train Cusco to Puno

On Monday we caught the Andes Explorer train to travel across the Andes to Puno. The train follows the Urubamba Valley until it reaches its highest point of 14,000 feet at a town called La Playa.

Ollantaytambo

On Saturday Afernoon we went to Ollantaytambo, a small village in the Urubamba River Valley up river from Aguas Calientes. This was the site of a major Inca City where the Incas resisted the Spanish for a number of years before leaving it deserted. The Incas were a Bronze Age civilisation so were no match for the Spanish with their horses, wagons and (especially) cannons. The Fortress here is another spectacular example of Inca engineering with huge granite blocks quarried on the mountain on the opposite side of the river and dragged down one mountain and up the next, before being finished to perfection by very skilled stone masons.




One of the interesting things we´ve noticed here is the syncretism of the locals. For example they put charms on their roofs that include both the symbols of the Inca deities and the cross. They spill a little of their wine on the ground as an offering to the earth mother then cross themselves to thank God for their food.

Aguas Calientes

On Saturday we spent the morning at Aguas Calientes and the base of Machu Picchu Mountain where there´s an archeological museum and botanic garden. There weren´t many flowers in bloom but the museum was fascinating, showing the history of the discovery of the site and some of the artifacts found there. Mind you, most of the artifacts are now at Yale University despite efforts by Peru to recover them.

In Aguas Calientes we spent quite a while browsing the market stalls looking for bargain souvenirs (which Chris loved of course!) then caught the train to Ollantaytambo. There we stayed at one of the most beautiful hotels we've sen, with beautiful gardens grown on rich alluvial soil.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is an Inca City built high in the Andes during the 15th & 16th centuries. It sits atop a tall mountain surrounded by even taller ones. Fortunately we were able to take a bus up the mountain.
It was mainly built as a temple site for the worship of the Inca deities, mainly the sun, the moon the condor and water. It was rediscovered in 1915 by a Yale Professor and has since undergone much cleaning up and restoration. We walked up to the site from the bus station, up amny steep steps wit ha guide to show us around. then after a buffet lunch on site Julie and I walked up the Inca trail to what's called the sun gate. A long and very steep walk! but the views were worth it.