Manu Day 1: Cusco to Cloud Forest

As the van wound it's way through Cusco's narrow cobblestone streets with orange tiled rooves the sun was just starting to touch the tops of the far hills.  We were on our way to Manu National Park, one of the least touched parts of the Amazon rainforest.  It's been a dream of mine to visit the Amazon ever since studying it in school.  Thoughts of killer ants, poisonous snakes and battalions of mosquitoes couldn't deter me.  Ben, of course, was just wanting to get photos of everything, especially the ridiculously elusive jaguar.

Onwards through the Andes, with clear views of Ausungate mountain, over a 4,000m pass and time for a quick stop at some pre-Incan ruins.  It was clear that our guide for the first part of the trip, Miguel, was a keen birder as he quickly pointed out a pair of American Kestrels, then stopped the van to get a better look at one of them.

Ausungate mountain in the hazy distance

Pre-Incan funeral tombs

The famous view from the top of the Andes looking down across the rainforest was unfortunately covered in low clouds, so we piled back in the van and started heading down and down through the cloud forest.

Hazy cloud forest

We stopped for multiple walks down the road, seeing various birds including the rare grey breasted mountain toucan, hawks, hummingbirds, plus delicate orchids and a variety of fuschia.  As we descended there was more to see - a nesting solitary eagle (well in the distance), our first view of monkeys - woolly monkeys - and a flash of colour allowed me to spot golden headed quetzals which Miguel said were very unusual to see.

The only toucan picture through a tiny window in the leaves

Roadside hawk

Roadside hawk transforming into Gonebird

Brightly coloured bird of some sort

The last walk of the day was to see the famous Andean cock-of-the-rock.  This peculiar looking bird is the official Peruvian bird, due to it's colouration, and the males perform a curious display to attract females.  At one point we could see 8 males all dancing and calling, but no females.

Somewhat strange . . .

. . . but gorgeously coloured cock-of-the-rock

By this time it was raining in earnest and as we rolled into the cloud forest lodge and I did begin to question our decision to head into the rainforest for 9 days . . .

However, by dinner time the heavy rain had stopped and after dinner we went out on our first night walk.  Even before leaving the lodge grounds Miguel had found our first specimen:

Prince in waiting

We walked a short distance along the road, avoiding puddles and enthusiastically waving headlamps around.  The road was surprisingly busy with traffic, not quite as remote as we'd expected.  I was glad we weren't travelling on it after dark as it was quite interesting enough in the daylight.

There were plenty of bugs to gawk at, plus frogs to Miguel to point out.  He became rather excited when we could hear an owl, but no amount of spotlighting or playing owl noises on his ipod could reveal it.  We went to sleep with our first experience of the humidity - the cloud forest is still quite high and cool, but already everything was damp.  The night noises from the insects lulled us to sleep - crickets can be surprisingly loud!

Teenie frog

Slightly larger frog

Slightly larger frog in different pose

Some kind of katydid

Cusco

Back to Cusco, base of the infamous 2006 trip.  As I type this we are ready to head to Bolivia on the night bus tonight and so far nothing bad has happened!

Cusco itself is justifiably one of the top tourist spots in South America.  Breath takingly high (3,300-something meters), we decided to book a hostel up on the hill overlooking the city.  One hundred steps later, we weren't sure it was such a good idea.  However, Hostal Home Sweet Home turned out to be a wonderful base with amazing views, a good breakfast and very, very quiet (such a novelty for SA!)

 Right out the bedroom window

The historic center is full of over priced gringo restaurants, people trying to sell everything from watercolours to jewellery to massages to dinner.  'No, gracias' is repeated frequently, but the persistance we noticed in Arequipa was missing, a welcome relief.

It's a fun place to be, with plenty of places to explore, things to do and places to eat.

The city is another interesting mixture of old and new, cathedrals and churches built on old Incan stone work.

It's also home to the best coffee (and only Flat Whites) we've experienced on our trip.

Massive Incan wall with church on top

Not sure why I was standing on the stone . . .

. . . or why the riot police were on the cathedral steps that day

Colca Canyon

Walking along the rim of Colca Canyon was gorgeous, looking down into the depths of the canyon and up to the mountain tops.

From the veiwpoint near the town

There were a multitude of birds for Ben to try and photograph. We saw condors many times, plus two different kinds of large eagles, smaller hawks, smaller still kestrels, hummingbirds feeding on cactus flowers, whirry birds (no idea of their proper name but they would take off very startlingly with a loud 'whirrrr!'), and a multitude of others. The landscape looks so stark but if you take the time to look around it's amazing what there is to see. There were lots of lizards in the rocks, ranging from the size of my little finger to almost as long as my forearm, but they were all too quick for photos!

The red rock cliffs towered over the path, full of birds

Andean parakeet hiding in a cactus

There were a couple of trip planning errors going to Colca Canyon; firstly, I assured Ben that he wouldn't need his down jacket as it didn't get that cold. Actually Cabanaconde is 1000m higher than Arequipa and is a lot colder at night. Secondly, I told him that he wouldn't need a rain coat as we were going in the dry season and it never rains the. Wrong again - on our last afternoon there was lightening and thunder and a solid amount of rain. Luckily neither mattered very much; the hostal had the fireplace in the evenings and we'd finished our walk by the time it rained. The precipitation did leave a lot more snow up above 4000m – very beautiful. Anyway, as I do the bulk of the trip planning he can't complain too much ;-)

Admiring more veiws

The local cemetary

Waiting for delicious pizza with mama cat enjoying a cuddle

Even more stunning with snow

Small child vs bull; guess who just kept eating

From Cabanaconde we caught the returning tourist bus back to Arequipa.  It had the benefit of stopping at viewpoints, but the drawback of stopping at touristy places for ages.  Ah, well, nothing's perfect.

From a lookout we could see the results of thousands of years of terracing

The road out of the canyon was bumpy but had great veiws and a few tunnels

Later the road was through immense, wide landscapes . . .

 . . . populated by llamas . . .

. . . vicuñas . . .

. . . and studded by volcanos

Colca Condors

From Arequipa we caught a tourist bus at 3:30am (!) to travel the six hours to see the canyon. It seemed like a good idea at the time of booking, but less so at 3am.

The reason for catching the tourist bus was to see condors starting their morning flight at Cruz del Condor. Even though it's very touristy, with buses and minivans parked all up and down the road and hundreds of people, the sight of the condors gliding so close was amazing.

An eagle, just for a change

El Canyon Del Colca is the second deepest canyon in the world. No, it's not second after the Grand Canyon, it's second after Cotahuasi, which is in the same region. Both Cotahuasi and Colca are more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Colca is 100km long, surrounded by snow covered peaks and has a drop of 3191m at it's deepest point.

A very vast vista

A short hop later we arrived in Cabanaconde, a little town on the edge of the canyon. Not being sure what to expect, we were pleasantly surprised by the town and our hostal. The town itself is pretty typical South American small town; a little dusty, a little dirty, loose dogs hanging about, not much happening, but it has stunning views of the mountains and the locals are friendly.

Pachamama Hostal was a great base. It's pretty simple, with basic rooms and a small courtyard, but has a fantastic bar and restaurant. We had amazing woodfired pizzas, expertly cooked by teenaged boys, delicious Alpaca Saltado (almost an alpaca stirfry) and fabulous breakfasts. Best of all it wasn't the normal overpriced gringo fare. We chatted to lots of other travellers who were headed out or coming back from the canyon.

The hostal also came with a box of cuteness

We elected not to walk down to the bottom of the canyon (about 1200m at Cabanaconde), instead we made up our own day walks which we decided were far better as we had fabulous views all the time and plenty of time for Ben to take photos. Of course it's impossible for photos to do justice to the immense landscape.

Some friendly fellow travellers took our photo, in between admiring condors and eagles flying past

The bull fighting ring

Rush hour traffic in Cabanaconde

Arequipa

From Santiago we were able to fly 'direct' to Arequipa, in southern Peru. I say direct as the other option is to go all the way to Lima, spend the night and then fly on, but this was far from direct. We landed in a small town in northern Chile, let some people off and more got on while we stayed on the plane. Then landed again at Arica, where we all had to disembark, go through customs to leave Chile, then re-board. A little slow but the tickets were cheap!

Coming in to land at Arequipa we could see we were back in Peru, back to a stark, arid landscape, full of dramatic mountains.

Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru, after Lima, but is considerably nicer. It has a lovely historic centre, with many buildings being made of sillar, the white volcanic stone. Of course it's full of honking taxis and noisy collectivos, but it is in South America :-)

The street our hostel was on, with a volcano in the background

Entry to the plaza

The cathedral; the only one in Peru that covers a whole plaza side

Lovely colonades surround the plaza.
Lovely to look at, filled with overpriced restaurants and tour agencies determined to get you to go in.
'No, gracias' is a frequent phrase for us.

The Monasterio de Santa Catalina is one of the main attractions of the city. Even though we're not really into touring churches we thought we had better make an exception for the monastery. Started in 1580, the high stone walls enclose a whole city block. Inside is a bewildering array of streets, courtyards, cells and gardens. It is truly beautiful, especially at night when the open rooms are lit by candle light and lanterns. It is a world away from the busy city outside.

The nearly empty streets of the monastary were filled with flowers

It was so peaceful . . .

. . . and beautiful

The dining room was lined with religious art, much painted in the style of the Cusco School

Beautiful planting made the architecture even more interesting

We were fortunate that there was an important football match on (Peru vs Argentina) because we were there late and stayed well past closing time.  We watched Peru score a goal with the guards and then headed off.

Santiago

Back to South America! This time we stayed in Santiago for 2.5 days and decided that we actually rather liked it. It's an interesting mix of old and new, first world and third world.

Eco-hostal, where we stayed, supports a raptor rehabilitation centre so we decided to go and visit it. It was amazing seeing so many big birds of prey in one place. The centre receives injured birds from all over Chile. Some are able to be returned to the wild, but many are not, due to badly damaged wings or eyes.

Eagle

Enzo, from Ecohostal, and a female condor

More condors: female on the left, male on the right.  Not the most attractive birds up close . . .

Juvenile eagle on left, adult on right

Falcon

Three wise owls.  Or possibly just surprised

Four big eagles

Anna patting the only bird in the place that doesn't eat fingers

We also visited Santiago zoo, almost by accident as we were just going for a walk. It climbs a hill in the middle of the city and would have shown great views if it wasn't so smoggy.

A native of Chile

Also natives

Not a native, but gorgeous colours