Cusco preliminaries

CUSCO!!  It has taken Russell and me a day and a half to acclimatize to the high altitude here. I am feeling slightly concerned, as still, just walking up the slightest incline makes my heart beat like a drum and leaves me short of breath! Russell with his lion’s heart and constitution of steel seems to have bounced back from altitude sickness in a wink…the lucky bugger! I’m hoping to be used to being physical at this altitude by the 1st when we start hiking the Inka trail!

We are gently pushing ourselves every day to walk more and more…especially the stairs and steep slopes around the city!

It has finally dawned on us that we are now without a home and that this holiday is leading us to a completely new and unknown place only visited by us in dreams, hopes, ideas and plans, with absolutely no guarantee whatsoever. Exciting? Yes!

The point that I’m actually trying to make, is this:

When you don’t have a physical structure you call home anymore, anywhere in the world where you stay becomes your home. Those moments that you spend between four walls; taking a warm shower (or luke warm/cold as is sometimes the case in South America!), reading your book tucked in a strange bed and waking up with the smell of a different air in your nose, becomes so well-defined, so clear, that one realises how much you take the normal every-day comforts of your own spot for granted. Your few, basic possessions are what feels familiar and I find a strange kind of comfort in carefully arranging my tin cup, toothbrush and book on the bedside table when arriving at a new room.

Russell and I have defined for ourselves what we find acceptable when staying at a hostel/backpackers whilst traveling:

Clean room, no smells, some ventilation, warm (ish) shower or bath, clean bedding and a relatively comfy bed.

Wow! Basic hey! I like breaking it down to the bare necessities. (Where’s Baloo when one needs him?!)

Being homeless, we are now, officially, tramps. I shall baptise us the

TERRIFIC TRAVELING TRAMPS

from this point onwards... (Wouldn’t it have been great if  we were three and I could add “trio”.. ha ha!)

Our current home is called Casa del Campo…an inn on the slope of the mountain housing the ancient site of Saqsaywaman (pronounced 'sexy woman'). 

We can basically see the whole of Cusco from here…very cool. Our room is small and quite cold, with two single beds and a tiny bathroom with a leaking shower. But it is comfortable, light, clean, very reasonably priced and the breakfasts include wonderful, freshly squeezed fruit juices and fruits in front of a big fire.  We are happy here.

A visual diary of Cusco thus far:

View from the plane of the Andes

Cusco by night

Classic Inka double-jamb doorways

The famous 12-cornered stone close to the Plaza de Armas

Lima, Peru

Elsje and I have just come back from an amazing evening. We went to see the Lima fountains and afterwards to see traditional Peruvian folk dances with a buffet dinner serving traditional food. Admittedly the fountains were a bit lame, but the folk dances and the music were absolutely amazing. It was the perfect end to an awesome week of exploring this fascinating city.

Whilst doing research about Lima and the best things to do and see here I came across a lot of negative comments regarding this strange and vibrant city. Most travelers seemed to dismiss the city in favour of Cuzco, which I understand in one sense, but in another I feel that they perhaps missed something about this place. Having said that, one commentator who had very little good to say about Lima mentioned that it is the people that make Lima the special place that it is. I have to agree with him and both Elsje and I feel that this is perhaps the  best advice one could give to anyone traveling here - engage with the people! They are an immensely proud, interesting, passionate, contrasting and friendly bunch if ever one there was. We were fortunate enough to be here during a special time of year for Peruvians. It is the the anniversary of Peruvian independence and the atmosphere is thick with festivity. Also the national football team won yesterday, making for a loud and enthusiastic Saturday night.

So, we did the Lima thing properly. We had a good balance of touristy stuff; a sprinkling of the ancient, the colonial and the modern. I tried cerviche (the traditional dish of raw fish marinated in lime juice, served with corn and sweet potato) and pisco sours, a traditional alcoholic drink, and ate some alpaca (a small lama).


On Friday we went to Huaca Pucllana, the pyramid in Miraflores. It is surrounded by high-rise buildings giving the area a strange atmosphere.  This site was a religous centre for the ancient Lima culture which predated the Inkas by a considerable margin of time.

Our guide, Wilmer, with a Peruvian hairless dog.

After Huaca Pucllana (and after a mandatory stop at the Indian market) we went to the historical centre to see the Plaza de Armas. We met there some friendly but clearly lost German tourists. I had map and it seemed we were going the same way so we went together to see the San Francisco cathedral and its catacombs. It is a very interesting building, both inside and out. You can't take pictures inside, which is unfortunate because the interiors are astoundingly beautiful. It's really eerie in the catacombs, what with all the piles of femurs and skulls, some arranged in macabre patterns. 

There is some truly awesome colonial architecture in Lima though and not only in the historical centre, but in areas like Miraflores and Barranco. Unfortunately most of the photos I have of the buildings were taken from taxis and are too blurry to be worth putting up.

San Francisco Cathedral

Say what you like about the Spaniards,  they knew how to build, or rather, they certainly knew how to decorate. I always wondered about that. It always seemed to me that Catholicism lends itself to a baroque aesthetic sensibility, a kind of excess of ornament. Coupled with the Moorish influences, which you can clearly see on the interiors of the San Francisco cathedral, it makes for some very interesting architecture, a kind of visual bombardment which stands in stark contrast to the Calvinist austerity of much of the Dutch architecture in South Africa.

Anyhoo, to finish off our day of unintentional contrasts we went for lunch at the famous open-air mall, Larcomar which is built on a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean.

The next day, Elsje's birthday, we went on a tour to an archeological site called Caral about two and a half hours north of Lima. This was a very special place. Apparently contemporaneous with the Egyptian pyramids, our tour guide reckoned that when the complex is fully uncovered (only 20% has been excavated so far) it will rival Machu Picchu in historical and archeological importance. It is located in  a desert (which looks remarkably like parts of Namibia) in amongst mountains, just above a fertile river valley.

Our guide for this trip was very cool. He veritably bombarded us with facts about his beloved Peru. He had extensive knowledge about all of the cultures, ancient and modern, of each of the main areas of Peru and was very interested in South Africa and Namibia. He even ventured to try some gemsbok biltong. After the tour of the site we went for lunch in a town - I think it was called Huaca - famous for its sausage(?). We got back to a Lima scored by a symphony of car hooters and chanting football fans ecstatic that Peru had won their match against Venezuela. We took a walk around Kennedy park to soak up the atmosphere and returned to our hotel, exhausted, but utterly satisfied. All in all it was a highly enjoyable and informative experience. We got to see parts of Lima and rural Peru that I think many tourists simply miss out on.

This morning (Sunday the 24th) Elsje woke up with a bit of a jippy tummy and so she decided to stay in bed. We had booked a tour to Pachacamac, another archaeological site, but she obviously wasn't up for it, so I went alone. It wasn't quite as impressive as Caral and it was a bit more touristy, judging by the proportion of Americans in the tour group, but it was interesting all the same though. I got to see some of the south coast and southern parts of Lima, as well as the Barranco district on the way back.

The restaurant on a cliff

Temple of the Moon

See, contrast

Pachacamac - the creator of the universe

Elsje at the fountains

Limaeans in the water labyrinth:

Some of the dancers we saw tonight:

So ja, that's Lima. I think we spent just enough time here to experience what there was to be seen. We touched lightly, didn't exhaust the place by any means and never were we without something to see or do. I'm glad we gave Lima a chance; it's a very cool, very weird place with very cool and weird people, and insane drivers! We recommend it.

On to Cuzco!!!

Stage 2: Peru, Lima

After a 20 hour journey, we finally arrived in Lima at midnight. This gigantic city of 9 million people has a little gem of a B&B...Hostal El Patio. We got a taxi to Miraflores and it was fascinating to observe the taxi driver's decorations dangling from the rear view mirror and parading on his dashboard! A strange collection of golden Inkan gods statuettes in between pictures of the mother Mary, a golden cross, two dangly headed bulldogs and a very bored looking Winnie the Poo stared at us all the way to our spot.

Russell and I were exhausted! Our room at El Patio is plain and simple, clean, and has a comfortable bed and en-suite bathroom. The atmosphere here is lovely; there are plants, flowers and birds everywhere and the people are very friendly.

Hostal El Patio; view from our room

Our first day of exploring the city was magnificent! We walked to the coastline and said hello to the Pacific ocean. We went for lunch at a wonderful little vegetarian restaurant.
The architecture here is fascinating! Some really ugly, old high risers but with these beautiful Spanish homes in between, complete with arches and ivy.

The well-worn Tsunami emergency exit...some of the stairs are on dodgy wooden platforms and coming down one of these I slipped and had a nasty fall! Hurt my elbow and hip, but thanks to hard core Namibian water, nothing is broken!

Time to say goodbye

Good morning everybody!

Russell and I are currently sitting at our boarding gate..in about ten minutes we shall be flying to Buenos Aires in South America. The last few days in Windhoek were magical..My little brother William, (now not so little anymore, in fact, he has grown into a very handsome young man and an exceptional pilot) flew Russell, my mum and me around the surrounding Windhoek and Rehoboth mountains. What an exciting experience! I even got to fly the plane myself for a minute! Check out the video of our take off.

Saying goodbye to family and dear friends was a bit sad for me...although we did spend some very special times together the last few days.

Saying goodbye to one of the most magnificent beings and friends that I've ever had the honour of living with. Sue-Anne is turning 11 this year.


Flight: