TravelStream™ news feed for member sebou on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/sebou en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:43:27 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sebou/2/1262706057/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sebou/2/1262706057/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sebou/2/1262706057/tpod.html Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:43:27 -0500 From Ushuaia to Quito

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Tacna, Tacna, Peru

Rallying thourgh the desert in our double decker bus - not quite the Paris Dakar but we're getting there.
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Lima, Lima, Peru

Grabbing a bus tonight at 10h45. Arrive tomorrow morning around 7am at Lima. Various bits and bobs to take care of before continuing our long road south to Patagonia. Including buying a new camera charger (mine is broken). Cleaning Agathes sand clogged camera. Visiting the NAtional musuem and buying a few souvenirs for ourselves.



Current planned Itenary is:

Lima - Nasca - Tacna - San Pedro de Atacama (Chili) - Salta (Argentina) - Then south following the Andes down to Ushuaia (Mendoza, Barriloche, Puerto Madrine). Once we cant go any more south its back North following the cast up to Buenos Aires. Thats the pretty much the next two months I guess. Still got a few fotos to upload from Equador. Will do this in Lima.



Change of plans. Off quicker than planned to catch the ´Dakar´ rally race which goes through Argentina and Chili this year. Probably meet up for the arrival of a stage at Iguique on the 7th and see the start fo the next race on the 8th. Which means less time in NAzca - still going to see the lines but only staying the day at NAzca (arrive in the mornign wiht a nioght bus and head off in the vening wiht a nigth bus)

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Trujillo, Peru

Today was very interesting. Leaving our hostel early we went over to Chan Chan the old Chimor capital built around 800AD and lasted until the Incan invasion mid 1400. It is the biggest ruins in the world of an Adobe city, covering nearly 14km.sqd. Most just resembles a pile of rumble but renovations of one of the 9 citadels has been renovated allowing an indepth understanding of how and why these constructions came to be. The exterior walls reach 12m high and at the base are nearly 5m deep. Inside there are wide plazas, long corridors bordered with simple moulds representing various sea scenes (this culture unlie the incas worshipped the sea and the moon - Incans worshipped the Sun and the earth). In the middle of hte citadel was also a massive pond (100m x 30m) which allowed irrigation of the surrounding land (the desert). Anyway very impressive stuff. Here is a map of the citadel visited so that you can get an idea of the structure from front to back is about 1km and about 400m wide.




Following this we went to the rather plain and small musuem of the site (took us 2min to go arond) and then grabbed a bus into town to go to another set of ruins - Huacas del Sol y de la Luna. This is only ten km away from ChanChan and is the ancient capital of the Moche - after the Incas the most well known civilisation of south America. The Moche predate the Incans by 1500 years and the temples here dated from that period i.e. Just after Christ (not quite sure if its AD or BC). It is the remanants of this civilisation which started the Chimor civilisation (ChanChan). Again not much left of these temple apart from mounds of earth. Nevertheless these structures are impressive, in the middle of the desert and at the foot of a mountain the Sun and Moon temple stick out. At first they look like mountains, natural heaps of soil but a closer look unveils adobe bricks used to build these enourmous eroded pyramids. 140 million bricks were used to build the sun temple. ONE HUNDRE AND FORTY. LOL




The Sun temple hasnt been excavated and as such you can not visit is and instead we toured the Moon temple. Apparently every one hundre years or so (every 2 generations) the Moche would decide to build a new temple. At the place of building one next door they just bricked up the old one and built on top of it. This has allowed the conservation of beautiful colourful iconographies and the conservation of the oldest temples. Absurdly the most recent temples have been weathered down and only the oldest remain. Anyway great stuff, we'll upload a set of fotos tomorrow.

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Huanchaco, Peru

31 Décembre

Arrivée a Huanchaco apres un long périple depuis l´Equateur. Départ 16h de Zamora apres une journée dans la jungle, passage frontiere ridicule a 4h du mat´, changement de bus a Piura pour Trujillo dans la matinée, et arrivée a Huanchaco a 18h.
Par fatigue, je me fais voler mes lunettes de soleil et mon lecteur musique. Rapide le voleur péruvien, et surtout pas gentleman...Ca aurait pu etre plus grave.

Huanchaco = petit port de peche avec 20 000 habitants...mais pour les festivités je pense que le nombre d´habitants dépassent le nombre de poissons. Dur de trouver un hotel dans nos budgets, nous trouvons une chambre chere dans un gros complexe, mais la patronne est adorable.
Resto pour le réveillon (fruits de mer et poisson au barbecue) puis nous retrons a l´hotel ou c´est la fete version locale. Sympa.

Bonne Année 2010 a tout le monde!

1 Janvier 2010

On change de décennie et il est difficile de se dire que nous sommes en janvier avec la chaleur qu´il fait au réveil.
Les gens ont campé sur la plage qui était recouverte de tentes la veille.
Aujourd´hui elle est noire de monde.

Nous partons donc pour Trujillo - ville deserte en ce jour de récupération. Pas un chat dans les rues, c´est assez surprenant pour une ville péruvienne.


Nous partons voir les ruines de Chan Chan demain. PLus dephotos a venir de Montanitas aussi (je n´ai pas la carte mémoire sur moi).



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Montañita, Guayas, Ecuador

30h of bus from Lima, but on the beach, where its sunny and hot - over 30 degrees. Beautiful room with a seafront view, private balcony with hammock and all. Christmas in the sun !!!


Merry Christmas to all in the snow and cold.




Arrives a Montanita en Equateur apres 29h de bus + 3h de Guayaquil a la plage.
Soleil, plage, hotel avec hamac vue sur mer...voila le programme pour ce Noel.
Les meres Noel font du surf, et sont en bikini....Ca change de notre gros Papa Noel!
Nous allons bien profiter de ces quelques jours ici..
Des photos et plus de nouvelles asap. Nous venons d' arriver....


gros bisous et Joyeux Noel!

Well arrived in Montanita - Ecuador after 29h of bus....
Sun, beach, hotel with a hammock on the terrasse - view on the sea...here is the plan for Xmas.

Here, Mama Noel is a pro of surf and is wearing a bikini...No big papa...
Let' s enjoy these couple of days here, pics to come asap.


Happy Xmas to everyone!

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Cuenca, Ecuador

Left Montanita aroudn 13h after a last swim. Grabbed a bus to Guyaquil where after 4hrs of bus ride we jumped on another one practically immmediatly. The bus ride was great again as we were at sea level heading strait for the mountains that pop out of nowhere and spend 2hrs driving up and up and up until we finally arrived. Great view of the fertile plains and in the distance the ocean.

World heritage city Cuenca is full of wonderfull colonial mansions and cobblestone streets. It is divided by a white water river which is the only way of knowing that you are in the mountains at 2500m altitude. Effectively it is warm, sunny and you are surrounded by palm trees. Anyway we spent on day visiting Cuenca, roaming around the streets crisscrossing around town.

A quick visit to the Sombrero musuem and that was our day. We stayed at a locals house. Approaching us at the bus terminal we didnt trust him too much (even though this 55 year old didn't look the slighest bit offensive) so we jumped in a cab after accepting to take his business cab and we went to a hostel in town. Visited the hostel, not too impressed by the price or the ammenities we decided to head off to the guys hotel. It was a three storey mansion where we lived amongst the familly (we did have our owqn private room). GReat breakfeast and a great time we left this morning (29th) for Loja where I am now waiting for a next bus to take me to Zamora - the jungle.

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Loja, Ecuador

Great day out. Didnt sleep that well the night before though so didnt get a move before 9am. Grabbed the slowest most talkative taxi ever and managed to get to the Parc entrance in over 10 min (6km). After a half an hour walk along a clearly marked path we got to the rangers hut who happily relieved us of 20 dollars but gave us valuable information. We walked down to a white water river, thought briefly about having a swim but the current was clearly overwhelmingly strong so we walked back up. Cruised through the orchard where there were hundreds of orchids growing on mossy treetrunks (yes mum orchids) - all along our stroll we were surrounded with orchids but most werent flowering... :-( Following this we went over to a massive waterfall (nothing compared to Iguazu but still impressive).

The path going through tropical rainforest, was clearly marked and thankfully didnt have any mosquitoes. I had a dip under the waterfall. The 30m drop bashing into my back I didnt stay long and didnt go into the strongest part of the fall. Agathe put her swimming trunks on but never made it into the water (too cold). We had lunch on our own infront of the waterfalls, it was great. Since the beginning we didnt cross a living sole but as all good things this came to an end on par with our lunch as a familly of over 20 Ecuadorians arrived at the falls. We followed the rapids down a bit, to get away, until another fall stymied our progress. Finished lunch and the digestion so we decided to head back the river back to the track. Agathe stepped on a moving rock and for a few neverending moments we thought she might have twisted her anckle or worse, but a bruised pinky toe was thankfully all that became of the small accident.

After a 500m backtrack we grabbed a path indicating the 'mirador' (viewpoint). At first the track was good but it quickly became chaotic and steeper. Agathe started moaning after half an hour and swore not to continue. Nevertheless we made it to the mirador with an extra 15 min climb. The slope was steep, it was hot and humid and everytime you stopped for a break various creepy crawlies started to swarm around. On the other hand the view was beautiful, orchids , ants, spiders, grasshoppers and multicoloured butterflies everywhere and more importantly we were in the middle of the jungle climbing a mountain with nobody apart from ourselves for company.... The way down was easier and Agathe was clearly alot happier with the slope slanting that way. Arriving back at the intersection with the path to the waterfall we decided to go bath as 'sweaty' hardly began to describe our condition. Agathe made it in the water this time, I did aswell and we both enjoyed a refreshing and clensing bath.

All in all, 6hrs in the jungle, mainly walking about with moutainous jungle as a view. It was fantastic and we could have spent longer but off to Perou now to get back to Argentina the initial goal of this journey.

Grabbed a 2hr bus back to Loja where we set off tonight at midnight to Piurra, Perou, a transport hub. From there its Trujillo, its beach, grandious pre-Inca ruins and NEW YEAR PARTY (on the beach).

Photos to come, internet here in Ecuador is absurdly slow.

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Zamora, Ecuador

Heading off to the Pocomadigu-thingymagigy national park where we will visit the jungle go swimming under waterfalls. Will be there tonight, spend the tommorrow day there and then grab a night bus off to Peru. New year somewhere in Peru... ¿Trujillo or Chaclayo?

The bus ride down to Zamora is an attraction in itself. Swirving down from over 2000m to practically sea level, the bus goes down luscious green mountains where every 200m there is a more or less sizeable waterfall crashing down under the road and into the underlying river. Great views. Arrived in Zamora, jungle outpost where apart from pickup trucks, offroad motobikes and a hefty contingent of the equadorian police force, there isnt much. Due to lack of information concerning the Podocarpus (I know the name now) we have decided to spend the night here in Zamora and head off early tomorrow morning to visit the park. There is a refuge overthere where we mightve been able to sleep but as I said the guide says practicallly nothing bar acknoledge its existence and here in town we found nothing.

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Lima, Peru

The past few days have been quite uneventful, main activites included walking around town and on the beach, reading, cinema, sleeping -- a restfull couple of days. Good seafood livened up the act with a cheap local seafood restaurant right next to the hotel serving, ceviche, scallops, langoustine and much more. It was hard to decide where to go from here as christmas and new year are approaching rapidly but we have finally come to some conlcusion. Tonight we head up north. Up into Equador. We will spend christmas over there somewhere along wiht new year. Tomorrow we will be at the highest point North of our journey. From there we will travel south and should be back in Lima in less than two weeks. From there we will continue south through Northern Chili into Northern Argentina and steadily head towards the southern tip of this continent. More news when we have some LOL


Pas grand chose a raconter de Lima. Etape plutot dodo - pas reposante car c´est une ville qui bouge dans tous les sens. Mais ca fait du bien de se poser un peu.
Arrivée le 15 décembre, départ de Flore (émotions émotions a l´aéroport) le 17, entre temps nous avons retrouvé Zoé (copine de Sevres des deux loulous)...Bref pas de photo Lima, désolée, mais je l´ai joué sécurité en laissant l´appareil a l´hotel.
Plage par temps couvert, cinéma, ballade dans les rues.. Retour a la vie citadine a Lima.



Puisque je ne mets pas d´images sur cette entrée, j´y ajoute la "carte de Noel" faite maison...avec les photos du bord..histoire de feter a tout le monde des bonnes fetes de fin d´Annee...enneigées pour vous, tropicales pour nous!
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Lima, Peru

Mission accomplished we have arrived at Lima with 2 days to spare before Flores plane. First night we get to a hostel where a long lost friend of Agat (good friend from when she was 14) should be. Accoridingly we immediatly bump into him and spend the evening at the hostal's bar with him. Next day we enjoy our extra confortable beds until late. Shower, breakfeast, some pingpong and pool and the day passes by quickly. Zoe meets up with us before dusk and we meander our way aournd town, we are in the Barranco district, rich small houses, along the seafront cliffs. Later in the evening we met up with Manu, Pepe (friends that accompagnied us to Caral last year, among other things) and others. Going away party, we got back to our beds well before dawn nonetheless. Today Flroe is doing her bag and I am catching up on the blog. Later more town visit planned and ultimatly goodbyes and the airport.
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