Peru - Iquitos & Spiritquest

After a very brief stopover in Lima, Peru´s capital city (just another big city really), we took a small plane to the Amazonian city of Iquitos.

Flying over the amazon jungle was amazing.  The city and small towns on the outskirts slowly giving way to masses of green tropical rainforest, as far as the eye could see.  It was only a fairly short flight, about 3 hours total, with a small stopoff before Iquitos proper.  Iquitos is only accessable via plane or boat, coming up the amazon, but as the amazon begins in Brasil, plane was our only option.

We were going to Iquitos less as tourists, and more as travellers...the place we were going to be spending 9 days was in the middle of the amazon jungle, about half an hour by boat down river from Iquitos itself.  We knew that on our plane were going to be 6 other people heading for the same destination - a beautiful little spot in the jungle known as the SpiritQuest Sanctuary.  Tennille and i passed the time trying to figure out who the people might be, which wasnt terribly difficult seeing as most of the passengers were indiginous indians and Peruvians!

We arrived at the aeroporto to be greated by our host for the next 9 days, Howard, a tall american man with long white hair, and around 60 years of experience on this planet.  He was to be our guide and mentor for our stay in the Amazon.

After some introductions (and the customary tipping of the man getting our bags off the carousel), we jumped on a boat to head down river to the sanctuary.

It was a little surreal going down the river on the boat; partly as this was our first taste of Peru, but also because we were a group of soon to be close friends travelling to destinations unknown!  

As it turns out, the Sanctuary was an amazingly well setup little slice of heaven for us to stay.  We were completely seperated from the outside world, with only the sounds of the insects and animals to keep us company (with the occasional passing boat).  Our only neighbours were indigenous Indians who have protected lands near the sanctuary, and for whom Howard and the staff were close friends and allies.

We were all excited about the week ahead, and the challenges and  opportunities that it would bring.  There were 8 of us in total, with Howard and his partner in the ceremons, Don Rober, a powerful amazonian Shaman who was guide us through the healing rituals that we would be partaking.  The 8 of us came from all different backgrounds and locations around the world.  A few Canadians, another Aussie, and an American.

For the most part, we spent a lot of time relaxing in what came to be called the Crows Nest, chilling out in hammocks, reading, listening to music, or talking about whatever.  Over the course of the week we all became extremely close, partly through shared experiences, but also because we shared a common bond by coming here in the first place.

Basically we were all there for a spiritual journey, although our reasons were as varied as our accents; but what it came down to, is that we came for spiritual healing from a true amazonian Maestro Ayahuascero shaman.  The maestro shaman uses plants indigenous to the Amazon jungle in specially conducted healing ceremonis, where the participants partake in a specially construced brew called Ayahuasca, which lets the shaman and the particpants journey to the spirit world, where healing can take place.

We were to have 4 ceremonies through out the week, with time to reflect in between, as well as some trips down river to meet some of the local indians (and buy some of their goods).

During our time at the scantuary, we became quite good friends with a couple of the people who were attending, namely the guy from Australia (and not because he was aussie!), and an American named michael, who it turns out used to be a rock star in a heavy metal band back in the early 90´s.

We basically took over the crows nest (see pic on the right) as our default meeting, and hang out place.  Much laughter and silliness (including an obsession with farting) ensued in the nest.  It was an unusual way to meet people, as we werent necessarily burdened by the normal traveller dialogue, as we already knew something about each others character for being there in the first place.  It was really easy to relax more or less straight from the beginning and just get to know each other an intellectual level (ok maybe apart from the farting thing!!)

During the week we took some walks out in the ´backyard´, which was basically a path leading into the jungle beyond, complete with monkeys, birds and a whole lot of insects, especially mozzies, which you learnt really quickly to dislike, no matter how zen you were feeling.  One day we even encountered a snake up close and personal while we were in the crows nest.  Michael the american rock star was in one of the hammocks, next to a where a part of the covered walkway on the bottom level joined our floor (on the top of the nest), and i was sitting a deck chair facing him.  We were all just relaxing and talking when a movement caught my eye, just underneath Michael, a snake popping its head out from under the walkway roof!!

I perhaps stupidly leapt up from my chair and said, "Michael, dont move!", which of course when he saw my face he jumped three feet in the air out of the hammock turning around to see the snake that had been right near his head!  The snake was just as surprised as we were i think, and it was just trying to go where-ever it was going, and didnt expect to see us there.  It turns out it wasnt poisoness, but we didnt know that at the time, so we were all a little freaked out.  Later on it came back and scared the hell out of the kitchen ladies, but was caught by our shaman, Don Rober, which we all took as a good sign for that nights ceremony - snakes being a symbol of the Ayahuasca plant and all.

The next day we went to visit some of the local tribes down the river.  There were two tribes, the Yagua and the Bora, both who have Don Rober as there local Shaman, and who still live in a more or less traditional way.  We had stocked up on medical supplies and trading items before we got to Iquitos, as these were all extremely valuable to these people.  We had tshirts, medication and nail clippers to trade for some of their hand made goods.  They generally dont were clothes, apart from grass skirts, only putting on tshirts etc when they have to go into Iquitos to get supplies etc, so tshirts were a HUGE deal to them - anyone who had clothing to trade got mobbed fairly quickly.  It was a little disconcerting for sure!  Overall though, it was a great experience, seeing how these people live compared to us, still keeping up their old traditions in a modern world.

Another trip down the river we left our tributary and went down the Amazon proper, which is a couple of kilometers wide at some parts, wide and deep enough for major container ships to come in off the ocean and make port in Iquitos.  We travelled for about an hour and a half down the river, seeing the beautiful countryside roll past, and marvelling at the pink river dolphins (one of two places in the world were there are fresh water dolphins!), as well as the floating city of Belen.  This is a fairly amazing part of Iquitos, where the poor mainly peruvian people, build their houses on stilts or on pontoons, floating on the amazon river.  Many of them have bits and pieces from old signs, petrol station logos and advertising, basically whatever materials they can find to make a wall or roof with.

All in all our time in Iquitos (well the jungle down the river anyway), was a wonderful, beautiful experience.  We meet some fantastic people, who will remain friends for life i think, and we all shared some experiences together that most people wouldnt dream of.


Hopefully Tennille and I will be able to make the journey back to the jungle one day, to again be part of nature for a week without having to worry about the cares and woes of the everyday world.  Until then, the memories and friends we have made on the journey will be close to our hearts...

Click the link below for more photos from Spiritquest:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=215089&id=672116857&l=6172864076

Argentina - Beunos Aires

After the high adrenalin adventure of  Mendoza, it was back to the big city - Beunos Aires.  Being a more or less Spanish influenced ´European´city, it has many beautiful and large colonial style buildings, large open plazas and wide avenues.

We were staying in the main business district of BA, known as Micro Centro, right around the corner from some of the most important landmarks in Beunos Aires.  Including the plaza de Mayo (Plaza of May), where every Thursday afternoon, mothers from all over the city come to walk around the plaza in a circle, pleading in a peaceful protest for answer to the whereabouts of their children stolen during the ´dirty war´ of the early 80´s.  It is unfortunate that quite a bit of BA´s history is marked by violence and bloodshed.  Apparently there is a protest of one form or another pretty much everyday in one of the cities many plazas.

We visited the ´La Recoleta cemetery´, a massive place that started off as the main cemetery for the cities wealthy.  The cemetery is actually more like a small town, where all of the buildings are made of crypts and mausoleums, all trying to be bigger and more impressive than the rest. 


It was a little creepy, knowing that all of these incredibly beautiful structures were actually graves, but it was an amazing experience to see them.


Just around the corner from the cemetery was the Recoleta cultural centre - basically a large gallery and artspace.  There was some amazing street art on the walls outside (commissioned of course!), and fantastic exhibitions inside.  We discovered a show that we came back for about a week later, which was called Nocturna - a high flying tango show with added trapez and circus elements!!  It was a pretty amazing show, and a great way to end our trip to Argentina.




We also did a tourist bus trip around Beunos Aires, on a open air, double decker bus.  A fantastic way to see the city in a day!  There were a few major stops along the way, where you could get off the bus, and then get on another one a little later and continue the tour.  One of the most exciting places we went was possibly BA´s most famous barrio (neighbourhood) called La Bocha.  All of the buildings (mainly peoples houses) are painted different colours, giving the whole neighbourhood a bright, vibrant feel.  The story goes that the Italian imigrants who first populated the area were very poor (it still is a poor neighbourhood), could not afford to buy paint for their houses, so as they all worked down on the docks, the ´borrowed´ paint from the various international ships that docked there, and used that to paint their houses!  now obviously they paint them just to keep up with the tradition, but it gives the area a great feel.


The rest of our time in BA was spent just wandering around the city, checking out its various parks and beautiful architecture.  We found one park in the middle of the city that was inhabited by hundreds of cats! They were everywhere!!

All in all, Argentina was a pretty amazing, varied and beautiful country, but it was time to move on to the next part of the adventure - on to Peru!!


Click the link below for pictures of Beunos Aires:


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=160001&id=553896164&l=3f8b93c7eb 


 

Argentina - Mendoza

We arrived early into town. Immediately you noticed that it was a much smaller place than Buenos Aires (which by the way is about 100 times larger than melbourne). There is a mountain range right behind the city, and the pace is definately more laid back and relaxed - thank god!

We had a wander around the city to get our bearings, noticing that the population here seems to be younger, and more ´fashionable´than BA. Mendoza is actually situated on the eastern most side of the Andes mountain range, which is one of the great ranges of the world, comparible to the Himalayas for instance. The town is full of extreme adventure tour shops, and a more bohemian, hippy kind of vibe.

We only had a week to spend there, so Grant, Eliza, Tennille and I had to decide fairly quickly what we were going to do. We found a tour place that did packages for all the adventure activities, so after much deliberation, we decided on: White water rafting, Quad biking, Wineary tours, Paragliding, and finally a zipline experience over a lake.

We decided to do the wind tours on the friday, and the rest of the adventures over the next few days, which coincidently was easter. During the course of the day we visited an Olive grove, which had 20,000 trees, and 2 wineries.

The first winery was quite large and modern, with a huge white building were we had a tour through the process of making the wine, and finally a tasting session in the owners private room in the basement. The wine was fairly nice, but unfortunately we didnt get to drink much of it :(

The last winery was a much smaller affair, but had much nicer wine, and a more interesting look and feel to the whole place. Much more of a family affair that had been in operation for a long time. The famous local grape is called Malbec, and it is beautiful!! We did buy a bottle for the bus rid back to Beunos Aires, but unfortunately we were all a little under the weather that night so we didnt drink it.

On Saturday we did the White water rafting. Its ironic how weather can be hot and fantastic the whole time, and thee day you decide to do something where you are garanteed to get extremely wet, the weather is overcast and freezing. Well, we got saturated, and i couldnt feel my feet after about 5 minutes of being in the boat, the water was that cold. It was, however, fantastic fun! Grant and i had the helm and were ´Capitans´for the day, although i dont know if we were really leading the boat that well ha ha ha. Nobody fell off though, so that has to count for something!

White water rafting is definately something we would do again, it was amazing fun, like a really wet cold roller coaster. Maybe next time a few more rapids!!

Next for the day was a Quad motor bike adventure. Grant and I stayed to the pack of the pack so that we could go full speed and get loose on the corners. Might have to get me one of those!! it was serious fun! Tennille had a great time as well, even though she was a little apphrehensive to begin with.

The last adventure for th day was a Zip line along some valleys and over a large lake. The zip line is like a much bigger version of the flying foxes we used to have at school, except these ones are 30-50+ meters above the ground, and you fly down the cable MUCH faster. The first couple werent too bad (none of them were really), just over rocky valleys. The last couple of cables though were over the lake, and were a lot faster, steeper and longer. The last cable was almost 1km in length!!

That was the end to a fantastic day overall. Even though the weather was freezing for the most part, the adventures surely made up for it. We only had one more adventure after this - arguably the most exciting and potentially scary one of the lot - Paragliding!!

Paragliding, in case you didnt know, is similar to hang gliding; except you have a parachute instead of the hang glider. The pilot (no WAY you could do this by yourself!) is attached to the back of you, and controls the parachute, which is more like an inflatable wing than a parachute. You are in a harness with a sort of seat that you sit into once you have taken flight.

We had to drive for about an hour to the top of the mountains just outside of Mendoza. It wasnt until after we had landed later on that we realised the drive up was FAR scarier than the actual flight itself. The drops on the left hand side of the road were huge, with rocks all the way down. Plus some of the angles we drove up were about 45 degrees, far steeper than pretty much anything ive driven up before (offroad anyway).

When we got up to the top there was one other group just about to take off. One of the pilots got his parachute inflated badly, which collapsed just before they jumped off the edge of the mountain - not good for our nerves to see that! But you soon realise that it is actually relatively safe.

Tennille and Eliza decided that they wanted to go first, which was fine. It was exciting and nerve racking watching them get geared up and strapped into the harness, while waiting for favourable wind conditions to take off. To take off, the pilot yanks on the cords attached to the parachute, so that it catches the wind and inflates. As soon as he does that, the wind starts to take you away, so you have to run towards the edge of the cliff (which is very high and straight down by the way). At the last second, you leap out a little bit, and then finally settle down into your seat and admire the view.

Grant and i watched T & E fly away for about 20 minutes before they disappeared behind the mountains to the landing zone. Then we were off! There really are no words to describe the feeling. Everything is silent, no real sound of wind, and you gently float over the mountains; directed by the pilot sitting behind you. The view is absolutely sensational, you can see for miles and miles.

Heading towards the landing zone, we had to come down in a spiral to loose speed and land in the right spot ( a car park). The landing was beautiful and soft, and i managed to stay on my feet. Surely one of the coolest things we have ever done, and will do again in a heartbeat!!

That, unfortunately, was the last day in Mendoza. We had to jump on an overnight bus back to BA, where we would spend another few days, before leaving for Peru. A great little mountain side city - recommended!!

Photos of Mendoza:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=160004&id=553896164&l=c676576d66

Argentina - El Calafate


Hello all!

This is going to be a regularly updated blog to let you all know what is happening in our trip to South & Central America.

We arrived into buenos aires - Argentina at about 5pm local time, after 15+ hours on a plane from Sydney. Needless to say, our first night in Argentina was non existant, we went straight from the airport to the hostel and passed out. The next morning we boarded a plane early and flew 3 hours south to the beautiful town of El Calafate, home to the world famous Perito Mereno glacier.

We arrived to find Grant and Eliza standing on the side of the road with signs for us! what a great way to start the south american part of the trip ;)

The first day was basically relaxing and catching up with our friends, then a quick walk to the town itself to have some lunch.

El Calafate is a relatively small town situated near the southern part of the andes, down near the bottom of Argentina and Chile. The town itself is a lot like you would imagine a small Swedish village would look like in the summer; lots of wooden buildings with steep sloping roofs, surrounded by desolate mountains, with clean moutain air, and a laid back attitude. There were dogs wandering around everywhere (pretty standard for all the places we been so far!) friendly, laid back locals going about their daily business.

PERITO MORENO GLACIER

We got up early and jumped on a bus to go further into the Andes for a trip to the most famous glacier in Argentina - Perito Moreno. After about an hour, we finally entered the national park, now right on the outskirts of the Andes proper, the mountains starting to rise around us, brown and seemingly devoid of animal life. Although on closer inspection, the harsh brown scrub that covers this entire area of Patagonia is teeming with wildlife, along with a few circling Condors.

We drove down towards Perito Moreno to start our days adventuring, the white wall of ice looming closer and closer every minute, spilling down between two mountains and out onto a lake of its own making. We eventually made it down to the edge of the park, where we were greeted by a network of catwalks built into the side of the cliffs directly facing the glacier, at times barely 100 meters away from its sheer 50-60m tall face.

The plan for the day was to spend 2 hours on the catwalks, taking photos and having lunch, before catching a boat over the lake, where we would don Crampons, and get up close and personnal with the glacier by hiking out on to it.

The size of the glacier is truely immense. Once you get out on to it, its hard not to feel humbled by nature at its finest. Although it looks sort of like soft sculpted light blue ice cream in places, its actually very hard, and walking on it makes a crunching sound as you stamp you´re spiked feet into it.

We hiked around on top of Perito Moreno for about an hour and a half, observing the bizarre way that the constantly melting ice has created valleys, holes and crevasses over the entire glacier. There were a couple of areas that were like giant slashes and holes in the ice, where the water had carved its way into the interior. If you fall down there - theres no coming back...Luckily our guides were very experienced, and we were in no danger of that happening, but the thought to be careful is always there.

We ended the hike by taking a slightly different route. There were a few other groups on the glacier at the same time, we all started converging to one particular spot, just over a large rise in the rise. To our absolute surprise (and joy!) we crested the peak to find a few wooden tables in a large flat area on the ice, laden with glasses, chocolates, and scotch!! What a way to end an amazing experience - scotch on ice hahahaha!

To see the full range of photos from Perito Moreno - click below

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=157085&id=553896164&l=068bffcd97


The rest of our time at El Calafate was very relaxing and laid back. We hung around the hostel, with the awesome friendly staff. It was Grants birthday the night we were due to catch the overnight bus back to Buenos Aires, so we celebrated the night before. The hostel put on a fantastic BBQ, and plenty of beer was drunk by all!

Next stop, Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, then west on another overnight bus to the foothills of the Andes mountain range to the beautiful wineries of Mendoza.