Grand Canyon

The coach trip is around 3 hours to the west rim of the Grand Canyon plus the detour to the Hoover Dam. We stopped at the the Indian reservation for the Hualapia tribe as its their land that this part of the Grand Canyon sits on. Not so sure that they could run a drinking contest in a brewery though. With changes to regulations nearly daily. We walked around a couple of different viewing areas and took photos, Sarah has been shooting with the iPhone, see pictures below. Not surprisingly it's deep, very deep and quite inspiring. Puts you in your place as we are clearly insignificance in comparison to its great size. Our only disappointment was that we didn't get to spend more time there. 

The Hualapia believe that the rock in the depression you can see in the middle of the picture is there sacred eagle. Can you see it? We managed to spot it after a short stare! 

Hoover Dam

Whilst in Vegas we took an early morning trip to the Grand Canyon via the Hoover Dam. Interesting spot high in the Nevada hills not to far from Las Vegas. Lake Meade sits closer to Vegas and I am not sure if it's fed by the Colorado River but the normal water level is very low and keeps dropping which is a big concern for the desert population of Las Vegas. No water no city I guess. Lake Meade is over 100 miles in length, it's big! Very big!

The Colorado river is also suffering from low water and concerns over the dams long term ability to produce electricity are prevelant. If you look at the image of the Colorado taken from in front of the dam you can see how low the water level is. We didn't take a photo of it but the are two excess water tunnels either side of the dam which are big enough to take a few coaches side by side down them, these haven't been needed since 2007. 

Lazy 5 Weeks

We've had a relaxing five weeks in Florida. Although the weathers been hot we have done some work around the house and garden so it's not been total relaxation. Also, we have travelled up to Floridas pan handle around Jacksonville and Lake City. The tent and my backpack have been sent back to Hilłeberg and Osprey (respectively) for repair. Both have been excellent and offered to take care of repairs free of charge.

We're in the process of planning our travel and trekking around North America. We're picking up a car from Las Vegas and driving/ walking through the central national parks Bryce, Zion, Arches, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone and then returning the car back to Vegas. Then off into Canada, latter back into Maine and finally catching the plane back to the UK for July. Then it's Europe by car!

It's been good speaking with so many of you over the past weeks. As you know we've had a leak in the pool, not a big deal but it's taken 3 attempts for the pool guys to resolve it, hope it's sorted now. I found a snake, dead, in the AC unit outside. It was still fresh so only died that day, had to move it before Sarah saw it. We've also done some painting including the front door. Finished putting the fence up so now the backs all done. After having the villa for nearly ten years now this year is the first time we have sorted the mail box out so we recived our first junk mail in ten years last week, how about that! Thankfully it's been the only one albeit the first mail we recived. 

We also went to see the rocket launch on 24th, little video attached but not much to see as we were 7 miles away. The wind sound you can hear from about half way through is the sonic boom reaching us from the launch site.

The Inca Trail and Macchu Picchu

We had a great time doing the Inca Trail with G Adventures. Massive difference from our normal backpacking it was more like glamping. In total the 7 days from arrival in Cusco to departing again was a treat. The 4 days spent trekking the trail were relatively easy, especially as the porters carry the majority of the gear. Just like in Nepal you see them trotting past in sandals with loaded packs on their backs. They race ahead and pitch the mess tent every lunch time and then pack up and have the same stuff ready again for your evening camp plus the tent your due to sleep in. Really you are spoilt! 

Our Inca Trail Group - Isi, Gary, Anna, Gabriella, Rosie, Me and Sarah, Amy and Darren

Great trek with lots of archeology to look at along the way, our guide Angel and Rumi both provided lots of insightful info and local knowledge. The weather was fairly good with only one day of heavy rain. As always you have to expect it in the mountains. Cusco is the centre of the historic Inca civilisation, unfortunately the invading Spanish conquiserdors either demolished or superimposed their catholic religion onto the Peruvian population of the time. Which ment many Incan archeological sites were built over.  One of which The Sunpalace in Cusco is now the cathedral. Interestingly the Incas were not a long standing civilisation but only very short term masters of the region (all beit a very large region) of central South America. Thè 'Inca' was the name given to the ruler of this empire not the name of the indigenous ethnic population who were likely Chimu in the Cusco and Macchu Picchu area, I think!

It's claimed this is the only whole gold ceremonial set of Chimu attire in public ownership 

The Inca dominated, frightened and in some instances decimated tribal populations in order to gain wider control in the geographical area. They managed to undertake great architectural works in there short 130 year existence by forced  'conscription' and taxation. We found fantastic feats of engineering but so many, including Macchu Picchu were unfinished. Further on towards the Amazon lie at least two further cities bigger and more diverse than Macchu Picchu none of which including Macchu Pichu were ever discovered by the Spanish. It's another 11 days walk, if you can find a guide to take you, to these cities. 

Macchu Picchu as we found it early in the morning just after dawn. Smothered in cloud and mist, this disappeared suddenly shortly afterwards

A little later on in the morning

Interestingly, although we think that the Spanish stole lots of gold from the Incas in reality they mined more than they stole. The Incas were masters of gold plating other metals. Sarah and I visited the Larco Museum in Lima which had wonderful examples from many civilisations from 8000 BC to 1600 AD (the Spanish arrived in 1532). Around 60% of the indigenous population died of chicken pox and other european disease never mind through conquistador violence. To begin with some of the Inca tribes aided the Spanish because they thought they were sent by the gods. The armour they wore was similar to the Incan rules garb I.E. shiny metal. It took approximately 4 years for the Incan rulers to realise they were being invaded and by that time they were to late to stop it. In the end they retreated towards the Amazon jungle and by all accounts vanished.

The scenery on the trail was wonderful with big sweeping vistas, often smothered in cloud.

Other beautiful things we crossed paths with were this Macchu Picchu Orchid, below and further below this strange but interesting drooping flower. 

Thanks to Angel and Rumi for an enjoyable and educational trek. 

Images from the Inca Trail and Macchu Picchu

I've Just had a chance to upload some of the images I took last week on the Inca Trail as promised to the group we were travelling with. The 11 of us (including our two guides) said we would all like to exchange photos so I thought I'd post the link below and you can also have a look at the images on  Flickr should you wish to. 

Link to Flickr - https://flic.kr/ps/2ZhKj7

This trip was like 'glamping' with porters and two guides, Rumi and 'Proffesor' Angel. These two guys made it fun and provided a wealth of information to us. Rumi was actually born in Macchu Picchu and his parents still live there. Angel was the head guide he had a wicked laugh and really knew his stuff. 

Hope to give you loads more info over the coming days but we have a long list of jobs to do including calling you all. Speak to you soon and I'll post again in a day or so. 

Dave

Torres Del Paine

Hi everyone hope you are all well. We have completed our walk around the 146km circuit of Torres Del Paine and are now about to start our journey to Macchu Picchu from Lima airport. Chile was a little cooler than it is here in Peru. 

Punta Arenas is the main or only city that connects Santiago with this area of Chile via aeroplane. It's in the Antartic region of Chile. The American airbase at Tiere Del Feugo on the tip of Chile is only a short distance away. Torres Del Paine was then a little further north in the Magellanas region, just a 5 hour and two bus ride away! The scenery on the journey was magnificent with wide open plains and ragged tall mountains penning everything in around the edges. Our arrival in the national park was met with a change in weather conditions from sunny, arid flat grassy plain to stark black volcanic stone and of course the ever present rain drops. The first evenings walk was a short one into what later we would describe as a little windy gale. Arriving at Campamento Carrettas round 8pm. Thankfully in the morning the rain had stopped and the sun was out. Our first view was as you see below.

The day turned out to be hot and with our packs at their heaviest for this journey we were quite warm. The evening before we had discovered that our schedule needed a little amending as one of the campsites had been closed due to deteriorating conditions. So our first full days walk was going to be approximately double the intended distance. 

View from our first full days walk, near Lago Pehoe

Campamento Italiano the revised end point for the days walk was a little scruffy with the usual class of composting toilets however they did have a flushing system! Sarah thinks they're great! I have to agree with her. After a day's use in a campsite they do tend to be something you don't look forward to using. As we had done double distance the day before we stayed at Campamento Intaliano for two nights and walked up to Mirador Britanico and back during the day. Views were tremendouse with glaciers to our left. One interesting aspect of sleeping near a glacier is the loud cracking and groaning that occurs regularly throughout the day and night. At first you wonder if it's going to break apart and come crashing down the mountain perhaps taking out the surrounding area where you're staying but after a while you become accustomed to the loud intermittent breaking sound. 

View back down the valley to our camp site. As viewed from the trail up to Mirrador Britanico

This is a little artistic work on my part looking at the glacier and mountain from Campamento Italiano

On waking morning three we found ourselves in the middle of a water bath. Although there were many other people worse off than us it was still a shocker to find your tent taking in water. Throughout the night the rain had been pouring.  As we were under the shelter of trees it had not been so bad. However,  the water was running through the site like a fresh river and the rain poured down throughout the rest of the day, in torrents. So we packed up wet sleeping bags and just about wet everything and walked for the day with downcast thoughts of an up and coming wet nights sleep. So on arrival at Refugio Ceurnos we took the 'executive' decision to have a bed and attempt to dry our gear. Good job we arrived early afternoon as the place later got packed out with a bun fight for warm positions near the stoves for drying clothes etc. The place looked worse than a chinese laundrette. 

By morning things had improved a little and some stuff had dried out but not completely. We moved on and as the day progressed the weather improved somewhat. By the time we arrived at Los Torres we managed to hang our gear out across trees and benches for a few hours and dry out the rest. 

Sunset at Los Torres

It was later in the evening when the wind started to blow and the rain came that we noticed our trusty Hilleberg (that's the tent) had developed a drip at the front. This was soon followed by a second one. So with two of our pans underneath to catch the drips and the wind howling outside we slept a fitful night. The following day we left the tent and bags while we walked up to the definitive view of Torres Del Paine, the three towers. 

Inspiring views of the Torres Del Paine rock towers from Mirador Los Torres

The images probably don't do it justice but if you like majestic scenery this is truly it!

And the views not to bad on the way down too

The two following days were easier and somewhat dryer. You never really escape the wind and rain here it's just part of every day's experience. Along the way we have seen (lookup birds name Cocobula), rabbit or hare, fox's barking and there clubs yapping, alpaca lama things Gouncho, and at a distance condors plus many others that I either don't know the name of or didn't recognise. 

Perhaps the nicest place in terms of friendliness and location was Refugio Dickinson with Glacier Dickson behind it and across the lake. We had a pleasant night and woke up to snow falling with the surrounding mountains starting to look like frosted cakes. 

Camping at Refugio Dickson and waking up to sugar frosted, icy mountains

The next two days were all up hill. Accending finally to the John Gardner Pass high above the Central Patagonian Ice Field. The day we crossed the pass, which is the highest point on the trail the wind was doing its best. At points on the way up we were both blown over several times. In the pass itself the wind easily topped 100km per hour but I am sure you could add an extra 20% on that and it still may be a conservative guess. 

Paso John Gardner

A torrid looking Sarah and Dave at the pass. We didn't hang about for to long the wind was at its strongest here

Just over the top the snow deepened and remained above knee height for a good part of the descent.  Following this we slipped down a muddy none existent trail until making the camp site at Paso. Dave got the lions share of the mud all over himself after slipping and sliding flat on his back or side down the muddy mountainside on three of four occasions. Campamento Paso was perched on the side of the mountain directly above the Grey Glacier providing extensive views over the vast ice sheet as it makes its way down into Lago Grey. 

Dusk over Glacier Grey

The following day we made our way down to Refugio Grey passing the glacial morain on the way

Three nights left and this one did its best to destroy the tent. We lost a guide rope and the tent zipper was pulled so much it has had a problem since remaining knitted together. The local animal life also took shelter and sustanance in the tent on several nights eating there way through several dry bags even when we had put them inside our backpacks. So when we get to the U.S. we'll have to do some repairs and replacements. 

Just letting you know we are both OK

We're back in one piece after a very wet and windy two weeks walking in the wilds of Chile. We start our travel to Peru in 5 hours from now, so we'll blog in the next 48 hours and let you know what we've been upto. 

But for now have a look at this short video of our +100km / hour windy camping!