27/07/2005 by drops.

Another country, another post. We’re currently hunched over a computer in Huaraz, an Andean town in northern Peru. We got here three days ago, and spent the first couple of days acclimatizing to the altitude, 3km above sea level. This involved sleeping lots and drinking coca tea, a traditional and widely recommended restorative in the Andes. Today, we took it easy and visited a mirador (viewing point) above the town, for fantastic views across the Cordillera Blanca, and then a trout farm where Marilena got covered in fish poo. (Sorry, no pics. Mari wouldn’t let a camera near her.)

We left Mexico sooner than we planned. Firstly, our diving was cut short by Neil coming down with a dose of typhoid. The vaccination probably stopped it from getting too bad, and the fever went down after just three days of hefty antibiotics. It was ironic that he caught it in the most developed town we’ve visited so far (except Miami, of course). Secondly, Hurricane Emily decided to come our way. Before we learned it was definitely heading towards Cozumel, we were wondering why the normally pushy restaurant and shop touts were subdued and solemn. Then, in the evening, after we were alerted by a friendly restaurateur, we phoned American Airlines and got a flight out of Mexico the next day. The queue at Cancun airport was a nightmare, 3.5 hours to check in, but apparently this was normal. We’re certainly glad we didn’t wait until the last minute and got caught up in the evacuation. We later found out that our original flight was cancelled because of the hurricane, and dread to think how we would have got out (if at all). All this meant that we spent four unplanned days in Miami before we flew to Peru. We didn’t mind as we like the place. However, we got a nasty surprise as Mari got her Visa card cloned while there. Luckily, her bank noticed it straight away and no damage was done.

We flew into Lima on July 19, straight into the Peruvian coastal winter. Fog, grey skies and chilly nights in the middle of July; we felt immediately at home! We didn´t get much time to sightsee, as we flew out to the North almost straight away, but we´ll have time to take in a tour of the capital when we get back there in ten days’ time. Our first impressions, though, were that Lima is a very European-style city with lots of grand, colonial architecture.Our next stop was Trujillo, on the northern coast, a pretty colonial town full of colourful buildings. The only drawback was the constant honking of taxis trying to get our attention. The main draw for us there was the ancient adobe (mud-brick) city of Chan Chan, which originally covered over 40 000 square kilometres. The mouldings enclosed within high walls were really impressive, with their rainbow and fish net motifs. On the same day, we saw another adobe ruin, the Temple of the Moon, with incredibly well preserved coloured murals. We finally stopped off for a huge seafood lunch at Huanchaco, a seaside resort just north of Trujillo. They seem to have healthy appetites here because the ceviche starter alone filled a huge dinner plate. The main course was even bigger.We’re really enjoying Peru at the moment. We’d heard dire warnings about thefts and muggings, but we have found the people to be very friendly and have had no trouble at all so far. People here have told us that you just have to be careful, aware of your surroundings, and you should be OK. Just like London, then… And the food is great! (Although, we haven´t tried the guinea pig, yet.)

We have a few photos for you. We have finally completed the Belize pics, put up all the Mexico shots, and started the Peru folder. Enough to keep you all going for the moment. We’ve almost become part of the furniture in this Internet cafe…

Tomorrow we start the serious stuff in the Andes. More of this next time. Until then, Adios.

20:25:42 - Wednesday, 27.07.05

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10/07/2005 by drops.

¡Hola! We’ve finally found time to do another post after a hard week and a half on the road. Completing the Ruta Maya in Mexico was intense - we covered seven sites in eight days, equal to over two thousand km of travelling - but great fun. We were very grateful for the comfortable fleet of first class intercity buses and excellent roads (luxurious after Belize!). There were only two drawbacks. One was that we had to endure loud Hollywood movies, two or three on each journey. There’s only so many times you can watch I, Robot dubbed into Spanish, after all. The other drawback was that the bus company clearly views their passengers as perishable goods, to be kept chilled throughout the journey. We quickly learnt to bring socks, fleeces and long trousers onto the bus. We did hope to go as far as Oaxaca, in the centre of Mexico, but in the end we couldn’t face another fourteen hours of travel, not to mention the return leg.

We started off in the Yucatan peninsula, at Tulum. In hindsight, we could’ve skipped this site. The setting was beautiful, on a clifftop overlooking the turquoise Caribbean, but the ruins themselves were nothing compared to what we saw later. Also, the village itself was an expensive tourist trap lined with Italian restaurants, souvenir shops and internet cafes. We spent one night there and left.

Chichen Itza, on the other hand, was mind-blowing. We’d heard that the Great Pyramid was fantastic, but we didn’t expect the incredibly well-preserved reliefs - some of them still showing their original colours - and intricately ornate decorations on the other buildings. We got there at 8:30am, a good move because by 10 o’clock hordes of tourists were flocking in, and the heat and humidity had become unbearable. It got up to 40 degrees that day. We stayed in Valladolid, a town nearby still largely unspoilt by tourism, and also got to swim in a cenote, a section of an underground river revealed by the collapse of its limestone roof. It was very beautiful. The light shone down from a hole thirty metres above, through which the roots of an alamo tree stretched down into the pool. Bats flew above and black catfish swam with us in the clear water.

Uxmal was equally good, if not better than Chichen Itza. What knocked us out was the endlessly repeated abstract motifs and vividly carved serpents, tortoises and gods everywhere we looked. We also visited lesser sites at Kabah, Sayi and Edzna on the same day. Our base for this tour was Campeche, a beautiful and laid back walled city proud of its pirate legacy. There is street after street of immaculately clean, pastel-coloured colonial buildings and Mayan ladies in their traditional dresses living their everyday lives undisturbed by tourism. Everyone there is so relaxed and friendly that there´s a Mexican expression, “campechando”, for when people are having a good time.

Our final site was at Palenque, in Chiapas, a Mayan city rising from the jungle on beautiful hills. The ruins themselves were not as stunning as those in Chichen Itza or Uxmal, but the site, spread out in the middle of misty, jungle-covered mountains, screeching with cicadas, was very atmospheric. You could almost feel yourself in an Indiana Jones movie. The same afternoon we went to a couple of waterfalls nearby. Misul-Ha was the most breathtaking. A powerful river dropped twenty-five metres onto huge rocks sending up whirls of spray around us into the jungle.

We are now on Isla Cozumel, on the Caribbean coast, and enjoying some spectacular diving before we fly out to Peru on the 18th. Unfortunately, this end of Mexico is so heavily reliant on tourism from the States that it´s completely lost any authenticity. Once again, the streets are tourist traps with touts constantly trying to get you into their cigar, diamond or silverware shops. However, you forgive all this once you get into the water. The sea is a stunning turquoise - we´ve never seen anything like it before! - the coral formations are gigantic and the visibility so good that the colours are brilliant. Here there’s a powerful current, the Gulf Stream in fact, so all dives are so-called drift dives: you just relax, fold your legs up, and let the current propel you past the reef. It feels like you’re flying.

It hasn’t all been fun here though. News of the London bombings reached us quickly. A dive shop assistant told us about it, and we are still shocked and angry about it now. Thank goodness all our London friends are fine. We also kept a careful eye on Hurricane Dennis as it swept past us towards Cuba. In the end, though, we just got a couple of storms from its tail end, and certainly nothing as bad as those we experienced in Belize.

OK, we’re off for some hot-dogs now. Piccies will follow soon, we promise, including some of very strange marine life…

02:46:17 - Sunday, 10.07.05

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