Farmer Dave - South America

Swimming in the Amazon

December 13th, 2007 by Farmer Dave

Swimming in the Amazon, missing our tour group and sandboarding down desert dunes?.all within 24 hours?

Lima isn?t as much fun as guide books would lead you to believe, though arriving at the airport is something that would make the most shy of people feel like a rock star?.and yeah that was the highlight of the city?being mobbed as soon as we landed.So after meeting up with some locals and getting the lowdown on the city, Adrian and I headed for the Amazon, which incidently we had decided not to visit as the tours and flights there were so pricy? Turns out it was all a farce and we flew there for around $200, a fraction of what our travel agent suggested, and we could also see all that we needed as the airport is smackbang in the jungle.

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However, we almost didn?t make it to the Amazon, due th the fact that when we landed and tried to get a taxi into town to get a tour out to get in amongst the jaguars, we were hounded by airport security raving about something? As we were accustomed to this airport behaviour we just ignored them, till someone interjected and said you are in the wrong city.Ah yes, the walk of shame back across the tarmac to our waiting 737 and all the other passengers, who weren?t as eager as us to get into the muddy Amazon waters? It seemed our flight did a stopover in Aporto? which I thought just meant airport. Finally we made it and chose a lodge from the array of keen touts, which turned out to be one suggested by a friend from Lima. We only chose him as he was less annoying than the others? and so glad we did. Within half an hour of landing (at the right airport) we were jetting along the ginormous Amazon River, and were literally surrounded by the supposedly elisive Pink Dolphins

It was a dream come true and the dream only got better? our lodge was a stilted paradise just off the Amazon on Sunchicuy River, about an hour and a half from the civilised Iquitos, and to make it even more perfect we had the lodge to ourselves, with a dozen or so staff to answer our every need, we had none? WE WERE IN THE AMAZON JUNGLE, WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?

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After dropping our packs we immediately set off into the thick rainforest with our pint-sized Indian guide. You will have to wait for the video as words and I don?t even think vision can transfer the reality of being there. It?s like all those documentaries times ten. I mean, nothing prepared me for the sheer size of everything, the rivers, the trees, the ANTS? though the monkeys and sloths were tiny compared to my expectations? but then again, against the foliage of the giants even we were miniaturised.

Adrian and I are both over six foot, double the Indians? height, which was so weird as we came across them in their grass outfits in their stilted huts, and probably why we broke a few of their bridges with our weight?.oops.

Though tiny, these little buggers knew how to get what they wanted. They showed us how to use their lethal blow darts, which is surprisingly easy? so I am thinking whatever they set their eyes on they had for dinner.

To show our gratitude for their hospitality we bought a few of their handicrafts, all of which are very ornate and made from animals and plants we had never seen, and probably have no chance of getting back through Australian customs.

After leaving the little people, we set off to a Mezito township, the same one that the legendary Che Guevara holed up in for 9 months with the leaper colony (just for the record, he never swam the Amazon? just the Sinchcuy? oh and for the record so did I). We came across the most serene of communities, having all that they wanted there in the jungle? even four discotechs? Not bad for having only 500 people.

Peru - Amazon River - Me & Snakes

Peru - Nazca Lines

December 18th, 2007 by Farmer Dave

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The Nazca Lines are a series of geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, a high arid plateau that stretches 53 miles or more than 80 kilometers between the towns of Nazca and Palpa on the Pampas de Jumana in Peru. They were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and AD 700. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fishes, sharks, llamas and lizards.

The Nazca lines cannot be recognized as coherent figures except from the air. Since it is presumed the Nazca people could never have seen their work from this vantage point, there has been much speculation on the builders abilities and motivations.

Peru - Nazca Irrigation System

December 18th, 2007 by Farmer Dave

Nazca is the name of a system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru, and the name of the region's largest existing town. It is also the name applied to the Nazca culture.

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The Nazca culture flourished in the Nazca region between 300 BC and 800 AD. They created the famous Nazca lines and built an impressive system of underground aqueducts that still function today. Near the aqueducts open to tourists, there is an overlook point which includes an Inca building added after the Inca conquest of the area. On the pampa, on which the Nazca lines were made, the ceremonial city of Cahuachi (1-500 AD) sits overlooking the lines. Modern knowledge about the culture of the Nazca is built upon studying the city of Cahuachi.

Peru - Arequipa - White City

Peru - Arequipa - The White City

December 20th, 2007 by Farmer Dave

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Arequipa, located in southern Peru, is that nation's second largest city. It is also the capital of the Arequipa Province, and is 633.8 miles from Lima. The city lies in the highlands at the foot of the snow-capped volcano El Misti. El Misti is currently inactive, but erupted strongly between 1438 and 1471. Several smaller eruptions have occurred since then, most recently in 1784. Arequipa has over 80 volcanoes which can be found in the Valley of Volcanoes.

Arequipa has many fine colonial-era Spanish buildings built of sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock used extensively in the city, and from which it gets its nickname La Ciudad Blanca ('the white city'). The historic centre of Arequipa was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2000, in recognition of its architecture and historic integrity. The city is located at an altitude of 2,380 meters (7740 feet) above sea level. El Misti is located beside a bigger volcano Chachani 'the Beloved' and the peak Picchu Picchu 'Top Top' - both named in the Quechua language of the ancient Inca Empire.

Peru - Arequipa - Monasterio de Santa Catalina

December 20th, 2007 by Farmer Dave

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The Monasterio de Santa Catalina is a cloistered convent located in Arequipa, Peru. It was built in 1580 and was enlarged in the 17th century. The over 20,000-square-meter monastery is predominantly of the Mudejar style, and is characterised by the vividly painted walls. There are approximately 20 nuns currently living in the northern corner of the complex; the rest of the monastery is open to the public.

Built with sillar, the white volcanic rock that gives Arequipa the name of the White City, and ashlar, petrified volcanic ash from Volcan Chachani overlooking the city, the monastery was closed off to the city, but much of it is open to the intensely blue sky over the southern Peruvian desert.

In 1970, when the civic authorities insisted the monastery install electricity and running water, the now poor community of nuns elected to open the greater portion of the monastery to the public in order to pay for the work. The few remaining nuns retreated to a corner of their community and the remainder became one ofthe prime tourist attractions in Arequipa

Peru - Inka Uyo temple of fertility

A drive south along Lake Titicaca to ancient and mysterious monuments. On the way, visit the poetic pueblos of Chucuito, Juli and Pomata, whose churches are jewels of colonial architecture. Chucuito was occupied by the Pukaras, Lupakas and Incas, who left constructions ranging from rustic to extremely fine. It is rich in archaeological remains, such as the phallic temple 'Inka Uyo', devoted to the cult of fertility. A sundial suggests use as a solar and astronomical observatory.

According to the guide 'Then she would sit on top,' pointing to a 1.5-meter high,mushroom-shaped object that many say looks too much like a phallus to be anything else. Incan priests would pour chicha, or corn beer, on the woman trying to conceive and determine the future child's sex by which side of the monolith the libation ran down.

Bolivian Border Crossing - Illegal?

I just wish there was "I Survived Bolivia" T-Shirt, as it would be apt.

Why, you say, Well, for a start we did get into the country with the illegal, unfinished, uninsured truck (thanks for the almost adventure of a border crossing, Kumuka!!), only because we did the dodge run to the south, which is hardly frequented by non-Andeans, and did it first thing in the morning. This was so not on the cards the day before, as not only was the truck a red tape nightmare on wheels, but the main driver had a broken ankle that had blown out and resembled a crocqet mallet, and of course Jose our little offsider driver couldn't reach the pedals (again, great work on the driver application process, Kumuka!!!) Alas the day was almost saved by Kumuka's replacement Peruvian driver who was flown in, well, almost. The morning began with our guides frantically calling replacement Peruvian driver, who was nowhere to be found, at the arranged uber early meeting time, which was necessary to negate boarder crossing issues. Finally, upon reaching said driver by phone, we were told he had somehow got lost and instead of driving the few blocks from the truck park to us waiting nervously in the picanini daylight at the hotel, ended up driving almost back to Cuzco.

Oh yeah, we were really in great spirits by the time he smashed his way back to where he was meant to be. So when he offered a hand for each of the ladies to clamber into the unfinished but not-as-bad-as-we-were-expecting truck, you can imagine the response.

This was just the beginning of what was to come. Sitting in the front of the truck's cargo area, we were in a precarious position above the cabin, giving my two new Kiwi girlfriends, Adrian and I front seat tickets to "YAY, THERE IS A MADMAN AT THE WHEEL". Believe me, I've been in with some crazy drivers (my dad for one), but this guy was something else. After amost decapitating a a line of donkeys and mowing down several dogs.may I remind you of our front seat status,a certain Kiwi lady, who felt one such canine's demise under the several sets of truck tyres, had had enough. The dunny bell was rung, the truck came to a "thank God I'm alive" halt, and Peruvian replacement driver was grinning with outstretched hand, ready to help said Kiwi lady down for her requested dunny stop.

It was on, I thought South American screaming match was something to behold- oh no- said Kiwi lady made it clear to non-English speaking Peruvian replacement driver that she was #??#$#%& &/%&%&%$%;)(/&$?!%; $#$%&&%&//((/()/ %$#?/))=$$#$#&%%$#$%%&%?.

or something similar, you know how the Kiwi accent is hard to pick up sometimes.

At a decidedly more sedate pace, we trundled to the border. Let's just say truck, no dramas, all other passengers, no dramas, David, well, let's just say Hitler would have an easier time getting into to Israel then I did getting into Bolivia.

Luckily, our sedately driver had pulled up a little on the gung ho attitude, as the bridge which formed an almost East/West Berlin frontier was oddly packed with traditionally dressed Andean women with their wares spread out for sale... I didn't really concentrate too much on the traffic jam, as my mind, as juvenile as it is, just kept trying to see what nation's currency they were using.