Day to Day

First things first... Yes - we all made it (For anybody thats seen the movie "Alive" - nothing like that happened). Aoife did nearly slip off into the oblivion but due to her famed agility and balance she avoided the drop... and a very different blog post.

The whole trek business turned out to be a LOT more difficult than anyone of us had imagined. It was actually closer to 75km than the previously toted figure of 50ish km. We set off on Day 1 bright and early, the boys kitted out in their new ponchos (essential hiking wear ). The first day was pretty tough due to the fact that there was plenty of uphill and the guide's (Ricardo) definition of "flat" differed greatly from ours. On the plus side we saw a condor (or rather those of us who weren't frantically fishing in their bags for cameras saw it). That night when we eventually made it to the camp ground we get fed and watered and headed straight to bed. It was freezing but the sleeping bags were greatly appreciated.

The next morning we were rudely awoken by a cockerel - the first of many times to come. We hadn't slept that well and Aoife had been sick during the night so we looked upon the day ahead with trepidation. Our pessimism turned out to be well founded as we quickly realised that what had previously been billed as "the toughest day of the trek" was going to be a nightmare.. I became very sick along the way too so the two of us moved very very slowly. It was all uphill which wasn't helping! Aoife felt much improved after 2 or 3 hours and, after a grueling morning, we finally made it to lunch. I lay on the ground of the tent while the others ate lunch and discussed my fate (send me back on a donkey or not). Luckily I felt much better after lunch and we pushed on for the afternoon on the actually fairly enjoyable downhill bit. As we arrived in the campsite we could hear the lilting tones of Cork (each sentence ending with the obligatory "- boy"). These voices were part of another group doing the same trek - A.K.A. "The Competition". We actually never talked to them apart from the odd hello but we could hear them at the end of everyday from then until the end. We were in much better spirits at the end of the 2nd day, despite being sick during the day, because the toughest part of the trek was officially over. The only thing to dampen the mood was the toilet (and we use the term loosely here). It was actually a hole in the ground in a little concrete hut with tarp for a door (shared between about 30 people). When you're trekking in the Andes you can't be expecting heated toilet seats but this was depressing to say the least..

Day 3's walk was probably our favourite of the lot - a nice mix of up and downhill through a jungle with a few waterfalls thrown in for good measure. We were also all pretty healthy (although the aches and pains were beginning to accumulate) to boot. In the afternoon we visited some hot springs - a very nice way to end a days walking I must say! The helped us to various degrees - Niall felt fully refreshed, while Aoife still walked like somebody doing the robot dance. Steps especially were not her friend - "Ouch, (step), ouch, (step), ouch, etc". The rest were somewhere between the two extremes (although mostly leaning towards Aoife's end of the scale).

Day 4 we were expecting to be flat but it turned out to be "flat". The first part of the morning was very difficult due to the oppressive humidity and heat and the various tough uphill bits. The highlight of the morning was the "cable car" that we caught across the river. We were expecting a 15 minute ride with panoramic views of the valley and that nice safe feeling you get in electrically powered cable cars. Not a cage and a rope dangling precariously over a rocky and wild river. Was actually great fun though - not as dangerous as photos or first impressions suggest. After we stopped for lunch the walk really was flat. We walked for the afternoon along train tracks to take us to Agua Calientes - the jumping off point for all trips to Machu Picchu, and also our first chance for a proper shower since we set off. We were at the stage where we felt we would never be clean again! We arrived into town at about half 3 and all headed straight to the hostel for our promised hot showers and a well deserved nap on actual beds! The hot showers worked out for everyone... except me. But I wasn't bitter... oh no... We even managed to go out for a few drinks that evening. Niall spent a lot of his time trying to capture the expression of pain on Aoife's face going up and down steps. Stubbornness however prevailed as all he managed to capture were a series of forced grins.

Bright and early again the next morning (4:30am!!!) for the end goal of the trek - Machu Picchu. We got a bus up first thing and saw the sunrise over the site. Then Ricardo gave us a tour of the ruins for about 2 hours. Plenty of information and (almost ) all questions answered. Afterwards in either some show of machismo or an insane sense of masochism all the guys decided to climb the peak behind Machu Picchu - Huayna Picchu. It was an hours very steep, and frankly a wee bit dangerous, climb to the top but the views were amazing (although I didn't actually manage to get any photos because my camera was down on the ground with Aoife). We got the train back to Cusco that afternoon and were back into the same tiny room for 6 in our hostel by about 8 o' clock.

The next day was Aoife's birthday (yay!) and the Irish rugby game (which turned out to be not so yay..). We got up in the morning had pringles and Terry's Chocolate Orange (sent all the way from Ireland compliments of Finola for the special occasion). I did an early morning run (read: scramble) to the market and picked up some DVD's for Aoife (Desperate Housewives - which I'm now also going to have to watch with her...). To be fair I haven' been able to get away from her for the last few months to get her something... Went down a treat apparently anyway so - phew! We then headed down to watch the rugby and treat ourselves to lunch in the Irish bar (reputedly the highest Irish owned bar in the world.. wow..). The disastrous rugby scuppered the mood a bit but at least we looked cool in our new rugby jersies

The following day we caught the train to Puno with a mind to seeing Lake Titicaca before we all went our different ways. The group surprised myself and Aoife with First Class tickets - not the style in which we are accustomed to travelling. It was so sweet!

Puno wasn't much to look at really. The upsides were that we found a really nice place to eat and a nice bar for a few beers; the downside was that the showers in the hostel either gave you an electric shock (our shower), or tried to cook / scald you with clouds of lethal looking steam (Niall and Johnny's shower). We took a quick walk down to the lake (which was a decidedly underwhelming view from Puno's shores) and then bid Niall and Johnny a sad farewell.

The following day we took a tour out the the "Floating Islands" (which were literally that) with John & Sorcha. The whole thing was VERY touristy but it was at least interesting to see how they make the islands (if thoroughly impractical). Then it was time for us to leave John & Sorcha and catch our bus to Copacabana in Bolivia (more sad farewell but we'll hopefully meet again in Buenos Aires before they fly home). Yes by the way - we have had the song hummed and referenced many times along the way here..

And that's where we leave it.. We're in Copacabana now staying in a nice hotel and recharging the batteries. Its a tough life this..

Tadhg & Aoife

This is just a quick update as its 4:20am and we're about to leave on our 5 day trek to Macchu Pichu (excuse any spelling mistakes in advance please!) ... We've all (That's Aoife, Johnny, John, Sorcha, Niall and myself) spent the last few days at altitude (approx. 3000m) trying to get acclimatised. So far so good - nobody has been affected too badly.. Mostly a bit of insomnia and tiredness..

We had a bit of a fisasco with the booking of the trip. The crowd we had booked with fell conspicously out of contact after payment was made for the trek! But after some threatening e-mails yesterday they came through so we're definitely good to go. Plan is to walk about 55km over 4 days and we{ll be getting up above 4600m (which will be bloody cold probably). On the fifth day we{ll arrive in Macchu Pichu and have the day there.

Fingers crossed we make it!

Take care,

Tadhg & Aoife (et al).

Since our last post we visited the north island of New Zealand. We stayed in Rotorua - the home of a lot of thermal activity. Our campsite even had free hot spring baths (where we met a slightly crazy but very nice Norwegian family.. the father took a photo of his wife and son and us in the pool and then presented us with 2 copies in postcard form half an hour later! Nice idea - anyone expecting a photo of me in my swimsuit winging its way across the world to them though will just have to keep waiting though - FOREVER ). We also went to a kind of reserve with a geyser and lots of odd coloured goo on rocks.. all named devil's this and devil's that. It was pretty cool - looked like some characters from Ghostbusters had got to work on the place (see photos)! After that we headed up to Auckland, waved goodbye to the campervan and caught our flight to Santiago.

This was our first time travel experience. We crossed the international date line on our flight so we experience Sunday twice. Crazy eh... No Deloreans involved or nothing!

We arrived into Santiago early on Sunday number two and checked into Hostel de Sammy - a great place - more games and DVDs than you can shake a stick at!

With only 10 days in Chile, our options were limited. We whittled it down to 2 options - spend 20 hours on a bus and go up to see the desert and saltflats at San Pedro de Atacama or spend 10 hours on a bus and travel down to Pucon and maybe climb an active volcano (Volcan Villarrica). We figured the latter to be a better choice - the last eruption was in the early 80s so we thought we'd take the risk!

We arrived in Pucon after a very pleasant bus journey - Bus Eireann have a lot to learn from this crowd! We'd massive chairs that went a long way back and blankets and movies and a meal.... Wow! We checked into our hostel - it was great but it was freeeezing! Headed off then to do a bit of research on our volcano adventure. We booked it for the following day. The whole trip was very weather dependent so we were given instructions to not even get out of bed the next morning if it was raining (at 6.45, staying in bed is no hardship). It was raining. We managed to do it the next day though. We were given lots of gear - boots, trousers, jackets etc. - crampons and an ice axe even - yep, looked like we were off to do Everest

It turned out to be pretty hard work. 2800m it turns out is no picnic (or Carrauntoohil if you will). The rain the previous day had been snow up on the volcano so we were often sinking a foot or two into the snow as we walked - not fun. The most frustrating part had to be the 2 hours we spent trudging along below a chairlift that just wasn't switched on at this time of year - tch!

As we got higher up (slowly - me, slowest of all if I'm honest - my legs had lost all will to move me!!) the guides seemed to start suggesting that we might not even get to the top to look into the volcano if the weather kept going the way it was. It had been beautiful in the morning but wind was coming in. They were letting us down gently I suppose. When one of the Irish guys in the group asked to go back early I gratefully accepted the chance to give up! But still with a little pride intact as I hadn't cracked first - nothing if not competitive

Tadhg soldiered on (tough - hoo-ha!) with the rest of the group but they eventually had to turn around as well. Ah well... no volcano payoff... but we now feel we're in tiptop form for our hiking in Peru - lean mean walking machines and all that. Perhaps not.

We went to hot springs in Pucon the following evening to soothe the sore muscles and the following morning got a bus back to Santiago. Tomorrow it's on to Lima where we'll be meeting up with our Dundalk homies Hurray!

That's all for now - we'll be back with details of our adventures in Peru!

Aoife (& Tadhg)

The white water rafting didn't work out. It appears the wussy Aussies don't like cold weather or something because there was no demand for it... So that was that really.

The next day in an attempt to rescue the rafting day we visited "The Big Banana" (Australia's first "Big" thing - very prestigious ), a koala hospital and a koala breeding centre/zoo. No koalas in the wild for us unfortunately but it was still great to see the cute little critters. We also saw some cool cockatoos in the zoo who could mimic pretty much everything. It's favourite phrase was -"G'day! How ye going?" or "Ring ring [sounding like a mobile phone]. Hello?", but it also said goodbye and did an excellent impression of Aoife's laugh (very distinctive ).

We then went back to Bucketty to stay for our last few days where we got our last bit of home cooking for the next few months and said our goodbyes.

We arrived in New Zealand last Sunday in Wellington. On our flight over from Sydney we were separated but a very apologetic Qantas guy at the check in desk. Aoife ended up sitting between two women from Wellington who were very friendly and full of advice about our trip in NZ. After we had gotten our luggage we ran into one of them again (Shelley) who kindly offered us a lift into town (The backpackers code dictates that free lifts must be accepted unless they look crazy of have strange twitches... We weren't in Australia anymore - the place where most backpackers seem to come to grizzly ends for accepting lifts from strangers - so we felt more confident). Anyway, to put everyones mind at ease we're not stupid (well at least one of us isn't...) - we appraised the situation and we figured we could take her.. Either way - we're still alive and we got a great tour of Wellington and its surrounds from a very very nice and enthusiastic guide.

Due to an administrative error (of ours) we managed to book both our inward and outward flights to New Zealand's north island... As a result it meant that we had to catch a flight to Christchurch the day after we arrived in Wellington so we could see the south island. We decided to hire a campervan (see photos below!) to get us around in so we just killed a day in Christchurch organising ourselves for the impending road trip.

On Tuesday morning we grabbed ourselves the van and we were off! We decided to drive down towards Dunedin with a mind to seeing some penguins. We found out we could see them at a beach along the way but we turned our noses up at the $18 admission fee! We planned instead to try and see them for free. Penguin watching, it turns out, is a long and arduous process with little payback! We did eventually manage to see some from a long way off after many hours of patient(ish) waiting. We also managed to see plenty of seals and sea lions and loads of cormorants (or "shags" as they're called here in NZ).

We then drove from Dunedin down along the "southern scenic route" which takes in the Catlins - lots of really nice scenery, waterfalls etc. Unfortunately one of the main attractions along the way - The Cathedral Caves - were closed due to tide times, and by the time we got to one of the other main attractions - Curio Bay - it was dark. We still gave it our level best by wandering around in the dark with our flashlights trying to identify the fossils we were probably walking on. Apparently its pretty spectacular during the day. Ah well...

On Saturday we got up early and drove from the south coast to Te Anau with a mind to visiting Milford Sound - one of New Zealand's fjords. It however was also a disaster as the road was closed due to the high avalanche risk caused by the torrential rain - did we mention it had been raining for the last few days? Instead of Milford Sound we drove on to Queenstown - home of adventure sports.

Yesterday we went skiing for the day at Cardrona. We did a package thing that included transport there and back, ski and clothing hire, and two lessons for beginners. We had a great day of it - weather was fantastic in the morning, mental in the afternoon. Skiing was cool - both really enjoyed. It may not be confirmed as "Aoife's Sport" (defined as that she's going pro) but she has yet to rule it out. Aoife had some spectacular falls (the highlight of which has to be the time she whizzed past the rest of the group making everyone wonder what the blur of green with flailing arms was) but she avoided killing any children with any of them (just).

We're moving on from Queenstown today. Will maybe try and get in seeing a glacier if possible before moving back to the north island.

Take care,

Tadhg & Aoife

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