MUNGO EATS Latin America

Just a short post today.  We are still in Cusco, and at the moment, Cusco remains a city of chores.  Yesterday was spent in gathering gifts (although  that is not really a chore), the better part of today was spent in gathering auto parts.  Kevin had a list of bits and pieces that he needed to find, and so we wandered around town, trying to track down these parts.  We were largely successful, but it took most of the day.  Kevin would like to get a little maintenance work done on the van.  The bearings on the trailer need regreasing and the van has an exhaust rattle which he would like addressed, so tomorrow we will go in search of a garage to help us with this.  All these things need doing, but it seems strange to worry about doing these things when we are in such a tourist hot spot.

We did actually try to visit a museum today, but Cusco is strange in that is has decided that all tourists should see all the touristy things, and so has invented a “tourist ticket”.  This is a fairly pricey item that allows you entrance into all the museums in town.  There is a separate ticket that allows you access into the different churches.  The museum we tried to visit today ONLY allows access with one of these  tickets, you can’t even buy a ticket to visit only that particular museum.  Since we are not really sure how many museums we wish to visit in this town, we hesitated.  The “tourist ticket” would cost us about $4o each!!

One of the tasks which we accomplished today was to get a “fake” license plate made.  Alberta only issues one license plate per vehicle and you are to mount it in the back of the vehicle, but in Peru (and many of  the other countries we have been through), a vehicle needs to display BOTH a front and back plate.  In Peru, it has been more of an issue than in any other country, and policeman after policeman has pulled us over to ask us why we don’t have a front plate.  In addition, most of the toll booths we pass through, try to take a digital picture of our non-existent front plate to put the number on our receipt.  Kevin decided that it would be worthwhile to “make” a second plate, get a color photocopy of our license plate, laminate it and stick it on the vehicle.  We decided to see if this helps.  At first we were unsure if a copy place would even help us with this request, but it turns out, copy places don’t have really high moral standards.  The first place we asked just nodded, no problems, no questions asked, how many copies would you like?  The fellow was amazing actually, he scanned the plate, made a paper copy of his scan, trimmed the corners so that they were rounded like a real plate, and then laminated the whole thing in about 10 minutes or so.  It looks very real!!  There is even a little rust on it.  So now we have two plates.  We have moved the “real” one up front, since it gets looked at the most thoroughly, and the “fake”one brings up the rear.  Hopefully, it won’t get more than a passing glance.  Hope it helps!

We are now in Cusco.  We arrived here last night.  We did get a chance to see some wildlife, which was nice.  We saw flamingoes, vicuñas and llamas (I think, although the llamas were not “wild”).

Unfortunately, this came at a a price.The altitude did prove to be too much for the kids.  Both kids felt quite sick sleeping that high, without having a chance to acclimatize.  Actually, I doubt a lot of sleep was had at all.  The kids were both vomiting, Kevin and I had headaches.  Poor Sean had it the worst.  He threw up several times through the night.  Sara felt a bit better in the morning, and could at least hold down a gravol pill before we started driving.  Sean on the other hand, could not keep down anything, so even after we descended to a reasonable altitude, he was throwing up because he was car sick.  We ended up stopping for over an hour, letting him recover enough to take some gravol and then giving the medicine time to start working before driving again.  We may  have been able to push all the way to Cusco, but since we were all tired, we ended up camped in a farmer’s field for the night, an hour or two out of Cusco. 

The farmer’s field was at about 2700m and everyone slept much , much better.  The next morning, we drove on to Cusco.  I am not sure how long we are here for.  We seem  to have a lot on our lists to try to accomplish while we are in town.  Kevin hopes to get a little maintenance work done on the van and trailer.  Yesterday, we restocked the camper, it was virtually empty.  Tough to come up with meals when there is nothing in the cupboards.  Today, we headed into town to do some gift shopping.  We don’t really think we will hit any better place for gifts than this, so all the people left to buy for were taken care of today (almost!).  It is so difficult to shop sometimes.  We wandered into an amazing pottery shop today, and I could easily have bought many things there, for myself and for friends as well, but the chances of pottery making it all the way back to Canada in one piece is ridiculously slim.  As a result, we left the shop without any purchases at all.  We will have to remember these shops on the NEXT trip to Cusco. 

Once we have accomplished our tasks in Cusco, we will be headed to Machu Picchu.  That is also going to take some figuring out.  We thought we would drive most of the way there, but the owner of the campground here in town, has his doubts as to whether the roads are passable at this time of year.   There are some guests that are supposed to return tonight or tomorrow, who might be able to tell us the conditions of the roads.

So, I will keep you posted.  We will be in this holding pattern until further notice.

Yesterday we left Huacachina, but not before the kids got a chance to try a little “real” sandboarding.  They were not satisfied with “sledding” down the dunes, so we rented a board for a little while and they trudged up and down the sand until they had their fill of boarding.

The Nazca Lines are located about 20 km north of the town.  We got our first glimpse of them from a lookout tower located on the highway.  From the lookout, you can only see two images really, the tree and the hands.  We decided to flu over the lines, so when we got to out hotel, we booked our flight, bright and early, 7 am. 

I was a little worried about the flight, because everything you read says that the flights are not really for the queasy.  So the kids and I loaded up on Gravol and away we went.  The plane was pretty tiny, a six seater.  The engine noise was  quite loud, so we had to wear headphones to be able to hear the pilot. 

The pilot flew us over 14 figures.  I managed to see all the figures, but in between figures I actually had to close my eyes to prevent myself from getting too sick.  As it was, I was feeling pretty queasy.  Sara actually threw up.  Despite this though, it was pretty cool to see the lines.  I have included a few pictures, and I ended up upping the contrast, so that the pictures are more visible to you.  Enjoy!

Alien

monkey

condor and spider

hummingbird

tree

hands

baby condor

Here we are after the flight, next to the plane.  See, we don’t look too bad!

We left Nazca as soon as Sara and I were ready to travel again.  We thought we would get at least 1/2 way to Cusco, but twisty roads, steep hills and construction on the road, conspired against us and we are only about 1/3 of the way tonight.  We are camped just off the highway at about 4400m!!  That is the highest we have ever tried to sleep.  Let’s hope the altitude isn’t too much for us.  It is BLOODY COLD up here.  The wind is howling and it is kind of raining/sleeting.  We actually turned the heater in the van on for the first time this trip.  It will definitely be down blankets tonight. 

Now here’s some real excitement, for a change.  Today, was dune buggy/sandboarding day!  This afternoon we were buckled into the seats of a nine seater dune buggy.  Our driver, Ricardo, told us  to hang on and away we went.  We sped along the dunes, initially just to a look out point, and were given a chance to take pictures of the landscape.  

Sean took a moment to reflect.  I think he was meditating on the merits of  the “dune buggy”!  Maybe, he was just crossing his fingers for a longer ride.

In any case, he was pretty excited about the upcoming ride, and had to pose with the vehicle.

There was another burst of speed in the buggy and then it was time to give sandboarding a try.  At the first hill, Sara and Sean were given their sandboards first, and wasted no time getting ready for the first ride. 

It wasn’t until after Sara took off down the hill, that we were told, we had to wait for the guide to launch us, and by the way, he would like us to go headfirst on our bellies.  Oops!  This is Kevin setting up, the proper way!

Kevin won the distance award in our group, coasting down one dune, across a flat section and down the next dune.  The rest of the group took two turns to complete the same run.  Just so you know I didn’t chicken out, here is photo proof.

What style, hey? 

With the sandboarding part of our adventure complete, we moved on to the sightseeing portion of the adventure.  We were taken to another nearby oasis, where fruits such as mangoes and dates are grown.

Finally, we got crazy with the serious driving portion of the trip!!  Seriously fast, steep, slanted, just a huge rush.  At times we were literally flying out of our seats.  I was busy trying to keep my lunch firmly in my stomach where it belonged, but the rest of my family was squealing with delight (okay, Kevin is not much of a squealer, but you get the picture).  We got to stop one more time on the last dune before the town, for a picture op of the town from above.

Told you it was small.  Then it was back to town.  Quite an exciting ride.  Tomorrow, hopefully we will be in Nazca, we hope to take a flight over the famed Nazca lines.  Think I will fill up on Gravol for the that one.   

We left Paracas yesterday, on route to Huacachina.  This is a small, little oasis town near Ica.  When I say small, little oasis town, I mean SMALL, little town, 20 or 30 buildings at best, clustered around an actual lagoon in the middle of the desert.

This used to be a little getaway town for the rich, but now really is only a cluster of restaurants and hostals/hotels, who’s sole purpose is to serve the crazy gringos who come here to dune buggy and sandboard.  There are a few little jewelry stands and souvenir stands, but otherwise, there is very little to do.  We are supposed to go “hit the dunes” tomorrow at 4 pm.

Today, the kids killed a bit of time, paddling around the lagoon in a paddle boat. 

Also, we decided to work our way up on e of the dunes on foot.  Way too much work!!!  The dunes are quite steep and it took the better part of an hour to get to the top of one of the dunes, not the tallest.  Mungo was with us, so in addition to slogging your way up the dune, you have to be ready, at a moments notice, to sidestep an oncoming Ridgeback!!  He sure got his exercise running up and down the hill! 

In hindsight, we could have spent just one day in Huacachina, tomorrow will undoubtedly be a boring day, as we wait for the afternoon to arrive.  But I am looking forward to an exciting finish!