Smoking volcanoes. White sand beaches. Untouched beauty. Exceptionally friendly people. Welcome to Nicaragua my friend, enjoy your stay. This is a beautiful country, with few tourists and heaps of culture. Oh and don’t forget the beer and rum, they definitely aren’t bad either.

One would be forgiven for having second thoughts at the Peñas Blancas border crossing from Costa Rica into Nicaragua. Hot, crowded and filled with all manner of people hassling you to buy immigration forms and exchange your leftover Costa Rican Colones, it is a harrowing experience. But a cool head and patience usually wins through in these situations.

But I am getting ahead myself. Our visit to Central America started in Costa Rica. An eye-wateringly beautiful country that both frustrated and surprised us. Expensive and lacking the heaps of culture we had become accustomed to in Peru, it was definitely something we struggled to come to terms with. The beautiful beaches, wildlife and amazing scenery did however redeem it to some extent. We just struggled to stomach the high prices of food and accommodation in return for the value we received. That being said, Costa Rica is considered the rich American’s playground and has definitely benefited from tourism in a big way. So after spending 10 days with Margarét’s family in thermal baths, on the beach, in cloudforest and in the mountains we hightailed it out of there and headed north to Costa Rica’s poorest neighbour and second poorest country in the western hemisphere after Haiti – Nicaragua.

Time for a quick history lesson. Nicaragua was inhabited by the Nahuatl peoples up until 1522 when the Spanish Conquistadors arrived. The Spanish, as was their custom of the time, destroyed as much culture as possible and in return brought Christianity, smallpox and European influences to this part of the world. The country only won independence back from Spain 300 hundred years later and it’s politics since then was dominated by the Liberals in the north and the Conservatives in the south. Nicaragua’s most valuable asset was its location. Up until the completion of the Panama canal, it was the quickest route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This meant that control over the region was very important to both the US and the British. The 20th century was probably it’s most tumultuous time. The country was ruled by the dictatorial Samoza family for 50 years and went from the wealthiest country in Central America during the 1960s to the poorest. When regime change finally came around in 1979, Nicaragua began to receive aid from China and the USSR which led to the US suspending its own aid to the country. A US-backed guerrilla war waged through the country for 9 years before a treaty was signed to end it. Today, Nicaragua is considered the second poorest country in the Americas after Haiti. It is also under the control of what is turning out to be another despot. Estimated to be worth roughly $400 million, President Daniel Ortega is busy filling his pockets while the gap between the rich and the poor increases.

Enough with the bad stuff though. As poor as Nicaragua is, it does have a lot to offer the traveller. Surprisingly, it is one of the safest countries in Central America. We hopped on a chicken bus after the border jump, to Rivas. A chicken bus is the cornerstone of Central American public transport and Nicaragua is no exception. Painted in wild and sometimes amazing colours, these American school busses are so named for their cargos on the roof. Chickens, fruit, vegetables. You name it, the bus will transport it. Need to move house? Just load your bed, wardrobe and dining room table on the roof and you’re off to your next villa on the beach. Passengers with large luggage get stuffed into the back of the bus through the door at the back. Our first bus was packed to the rafters. Margarét had to sit on an ice-cream seller’s stand and I think I accidentally squashed somebody’s sack of gigantic papayas.

We hopped off the bus halfway to Rivas as we wanted to catch a connecting bus to the beach village of San Juan del Sur. After waiting for 2 hours on the side of the road in the blazing heat and having broken Spanish conversations with a granny, who was waiting with us, we were on our second bus – flying through the green countryside toward the sea.

San Juan del Sur is a tiny fishing village with the most stunning beaches. Famous as a two-time location for the TV show Survivor, it is arguably Nicaragua’s most popular tourist destination. For me, it was a great way to cool off the wallet after Costa Rica and sit on the beach with a glass of Nicaragua’s finest rum (our favourite being Flor de Caña) or a Piña Colada – made with fresh coconut and pineapple – while admiring spectacular sunsets. The town itself has an “okay” beach but the best beaches only require a short and rather bumpy trip both up and down the coast. We took a short drive in a local taxi up to Playa Maderas, which is a famous surf spot for beginner surfers. A short walk away from the main beach there are tiny inlets with smaller beaches which are perfect places to escape other people and just relax under a tree. We weren’t here to surf, just to relax, swim and photograph the sunset. If I ever return to this part of Nicaragua I would rather stay near Playa Maderas than in San Juan del Sur, it is smaller and the beaches are better. There are however, less restaurants and shops which may not suit every traveller’s taste.

We could have stayed at the beach for the rest of our time in Nicaragua if we weren’t so itchy to see more of the country, so we caught a chicken bus out of San Juan del Sur to Rivas and on to Lake Nicaragua. Formed from two stratovolcanoes, the lake island Ometepe has been one of the highlights of our trip. Nicaragua is not very developed – Ometepe Island in particular. It boasts one very sleepy and a second rather active volcano. It is for all intents and purposes, a tropical island, just not in the sea. This is a fantastic place to do more of the Nicaraguan thing: sit back, relax and watch the sunset with howler monkeys setting off their throaty roars in the background and the odd flock of madly squawking parrots passing by. The island is untouched, unspoilt, and filled with nooks and crannies that could swallow weeks let alone days of your travel time. We stayed at the fantastic Finca Mystica, a guesthouse run by an American couple situated on the southern side of the island under the smaller of the two volcanoes, Volcan Maderas. Across the isthmus of the island runs an invisible line that divides the flora. Volcan Concepción and the north is drier and the slopes of the volcano are covered in dry forest. Volcan Maderas and the south are wetter and the volcano boasts some primary cloudforest. The fact that it is visually different from north to south makes the island great for trekking and exploring. The lake is also famous for its sharks, once thought to have been a unique freshwater species. Further research found out they were actually Bull Sharks which had navigated the San Juan Rio from the Caribbean into the lake. Sadly, the sharks are all but extinct having been fished out under the Samoza regime and their fins sold to the Chinese.

The biggest drawcard to the southern part of the island is it’s sheer peace and quiet. This is helped by some diabolical roads which force car and bus drivers to drive very slowly. Literally every few kilometers is a tyre repair shop and it took us nearly an hour and a half to drive in our 4×4 taxi the 20 kilometers from Moyogalpa to our guesthouse – of which half of the way is paved!

Sadly, we had to eventually leave Finca Mystica, their fantastic food, and Ometepe Island, as our time was running out in Nicaragua and we still wanted to see the two colonial cities of Granada and Léon. There are two ways you both “get-to” and leave the island: the big ferry and the little ferry. We were lucky enough to get the big ferry to the island but not so lucky to find a small ferry at the dock on the day we left. The vessel looked like it had been built – how should I put this – a long time ago and somewhat resembled an ancient wooden tugboat. It was about 50 feet long and had a passenger deck at the bottom and a bridge and lookout deck above. It was also packed full of people, including baskets of live chickens and a motorbike on the top deck. Safety features, such as life jackets, were not in abundance. Fortunately, it is made of wood so should something catastrophic happen, all you need to do is pick your plank and hang on until the cavalry arrives. The ferry pulled out of the dock in a puff of a black smoke. It also had a rather bad port side list. The water was flat and calm and the cloud-covered Volcan Concepción shrank into the distance. Once out of the wind shadow of the island, the water started to become more choppy and eventually we were rolling about in rather rough swells. There were a couple of panicky moments where we had to hang on quite tightly, but after an hour and a half we pulled into port safe and sound.

We shared a taxi with some Spanish tourists to get to Granada. Nicaragua is a tiny country and getting around is fairly quick and easy. Taxis will take you just about anywhere and within an hour of leaving the ferry in San Jorge, we were in the old colonial town. The first thing that strikes you about this place is how brightly coloured the buildings are. Sitting on the banks of Lake Nicaragua, Granada was an important port during Spain’s colonisation. For this very reason it was attacked numerous times by French, Dutch and English pirates trying to take control of the port city and ultimately Nicaragua.

Today, Granada is the home of the conservatives – one of the leading political parties in Nicaragua. It is also considered the main tourist hub and the city is undergoing somewhat of an upgrade. Freshly painted, colonial buildings line the streets and the stunning cathedral on the main square looks as though it was built yesterday. For us, we enjoyed walking around the city while taking photos. The people here are very friendly and quite often eager to have their photo taken. A visit to the market early in the morning copped quite a few stares but they quickly turned into smiles. If you have never been to a Central American market, then Granada’s is a great introduction. It is a hive of activity from sunrise to sunset and you can pretty much buy anything. It is also great to take advantage of the fantastic and cheap fresh fruit if you have a kitchen in your guesthouse.

Overall, I loved the laid back feeling of Granada. You aren’t pestered by beggars nor accosted by tour operators and just about everybody is friendly. That being said, you still know you are in a third world city due to the amount of litter lying in the street and the dirty water trickling down the gutters toward the lake. This didn’t detract from the place in any way, in fact it is a small, yet important reminder of the bigger problems this country faces.

After extending our stay in Granada for one more night – so that we could do a chocolate making course (more on this in another post) – we hopped on a bus to Léon, the intellectual capital of Nicaragua. There aren’t any direct busses from Granada to Léon so we had to go through the big, bad capital Managua. We were only in Managua for ten minutes while we switched busses but it wasn’t nearly as scary as all the internet forums and rumours make it out to be. The only bad thing I could say about those few minutes there, was that there were piles of rubbish lying on the side of the road and the traffic is a nightmare.

The shuttle bus to Léon takes roughly an hour and a half and passes giant, smoking volcanoes and the grey Lake Managua. Léon is situated within close proximity of a number of active volcanoes. Some of which are huge. Our first impression of Léon was that it was a bigger, hotter, more unkempt version of exquisite Granada. There are also fewer and lower quality accommodation options. Léon does however, have much more impressive activities and attractions in the surrounding countryside. The most popular of them is volcano boarding down the Cerro Negro. Cerro Negro means Black Hill in Spanish and it is a very young volcano. The black cinder cone sprouted out of farmer’s fields in 1850 and has been erupting regularly ever since. As active and dangerous as it is, groups of tourists are regularly taken to slopes of this volcano to slide at high speed down the sides – the most recent speed record being 85 km/h!

We opted to take the safe route and rather headed to Léon’s nearby Las Peñitas beach. Our hotel was situated in a sleepy village on the banks of an estuary and we spent our last few days in Nicaragua there, doing what we had been doing best: lying in hammocks and drinking Nica Libres. I think our batteries had been completely spent and we just wanted to do nothing.

Our last 2 days in Nicaragua revolved around preparing a plan to get to the airport in Managua. All those rumours and stories on the internet about not travelling through the capital at night didn’t help. Suffice it to say, we reached the airport just after dark, safe and sound, with very little complications or threat of danger along the way – except for some suspect overtaking maneuvers of our shuttle driver.

So how can I sum up Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a really beautiful, well organised country. Our visit however, was marred by the high prices and really bad value we received in return. What makes Costa Rica even more frustrating for a budget traveller is that their neighbour, Nicaragua, to the north is much cheaper, less touristy and just as beautiful albeit at the expense of more convenient tourist amenities. We really enjoyed Nicaragua. It has beautiful beaches. Relatively easy, always interesting transportation options. Tons of culture and some spectacular natural surroundings. But the one thing that makes Nicaragua special for me, is the people. The people have gone through such hell and are still looking for their identity, still trying to claw themselves from the depths of poverty despite their president’s best efforts to make himself as rich as possible at their expense. It’s a poignant reminder that whatever reality we live in, be it peaceful, free, safe or easy, it can be taken away from you at any second. This is the reality Nicaraguans and many other people in the world live with today.

(We will be posting more photos of colourful Nicaragua soon, in another post…)

Apart from the spectacular cathedrals, churches and palaces in Cusco there are some very interesting and beautiful Inca and pre-hispanic ruins in the areas surrounding the city and in the neighboring Sacred Valley. Here are a few of the ruins we visited while in the area.

Tipon

About a 45 minute drive out of Cusco and perched on a hill, are the well manicured ruins of Tipon. Tipon was a place for Incan royalty to kick back and relax. The ruins are characterised by a set of beautifully manicured terraces fed by an intricate system of water canals – some of the most impressive yet discovered – which are still in perfect functioning order. The ruins are situated about 30 minutes from Cusco and were a huge walled settlement for Inca nobility. Tipon is an example of how the Incas married water, soil, agriculture and topography to create functional yet beautiful settlements.

Tambomachay

Popularly known as El Baño del Inca or the Bath of the Inca, Archaeologists are undecided on what Tambomachay’s purpose was. It may have been used as a ceremonial cleansing site for Inca royalty and water still flows through the site today.

Ritual bathing was used as a way to cleanse sins by the Incas. Examples of sins were lawbreaking, failure of religious observances and disobeying the chief. If a man had many sins he would be risking all sorts bad things happening to him. If an Inca ruler had any sins hard times would fall on his subjects hence the importance of this site.

The most impressive part of Tambomachay is that each end of the water fountain has an identical flow rate. In other words, if you put a bucket under each of the two main fountains simultaneously you would fill them up at exactly the same rate.

Puka Pukara

Puka Pukara or “Red Fort” in the Quechua language was possibly used as a checkpoint for travelers and traders on their way to Cusco during the times of the Inca. There are some magnificent views from the top of the site of the surrounding hills and valleys. The name “Red Fort” comes from the red hue the walls give off in the evenings. Puka Pukara is situated a short distance from Tambomachay and the Inca ruler probably housed his vast staff at the fort while bathing at the royal baths.

The site consists of a set of large, roughly built stone buildings, high walls and the remains of what seemed to have been watchtowers. This is probably why archeologists think it was primarily used for military purposes. Other reasons for their thinking are its proximity to Cusco and location on the main road from the Sacred Valley.

Qenko

Qenko is thought to have been place of worship for the Inca. Weird shapes have been carved out of the rock and there is a ceremonial chamber carved out of the rock underground. The Inca were known to worship rocks and this may have been the sites primary purpose.

Sacsayhuaman

Sacsayhuaman is Inca architecture on the grandest of scales. Often incorrectly referred to as solely a fortress, it had a dual purpose for the Incas. First and foremost it was a place of worship and a site for festivals honouring the sun god – Inti. It also served as a fortress and a vast storage complex. It is undeniably spectacular. After the Spanish conquered Cusco they tore what they could of the complex down and used the stones to build their own buildings in the city below. There are very few colonial buildings in Cusco that haven’t been built out of stone from Sacsayhuaman. What was left are the parts the Spanish were simply unable to destroy nor use. 4-metre high stones make up parts of the construction, some so expertly and closely slotted between their neighbours that you can’t help wondering how it was done. Sadly, a lot has been left up to the imagination as most of the fortress was destroyed. Today the ruins are the site of the Inti-Raimi festival marking the Winter Solstice which was started in the 1940s in an attempt to resurrect a part of the Inca culture.

Pumamarca

If you get to spend some time in Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, then I would highly recommend the hike up to the ruins of Pumamarca. Largely untouched and hardly visited by tourists the trail offers some spectacular scenery of the surrounding Andes. Along the route you pass through ancient farmlands where the the farming methods haven’t changed since the Incas. Little is known of what the ruins were used for – some speculate it was a checkpoint for traffic into Ollantaytambo. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful place to visit, especially on foot. Along the way you pass through tiny villages that are only reachable on foot as well as some beautiful Inca terraces and ruins.

Ollantaytambo

Perched on the side of a mountain with a beautiful, living Inca-village of the same name below, Ollantaytambo is probably the most impressive Inca ruin we visited, save for Machu Picchu. The ruin was the royal palace for Emperor Pachacuti. During the Spanish conquest, the palace served as a stronghold where Manco Inca successfully drove off a raiding Spanish party in a bloody battle. Due to its location they were able to flood the planes below the fortress and drive the Spanish out of the valley. After the battle Manco Inca fled deeper into the mountains where he was pursued by the Spanish. An unsuccessful attempt to capture him at Uiticos led him to escape to Vilcabamba – the lost city Hiram Bingham was searching for when he discovered Machu Picchu.

The ruins consist of a rather large temple housing some impressive cut stones, extensive terraces, granaries, quarries and a ritual cleansing area. We stayed the night in Ollantaytambo and were lucky enough to be the first visitors to the site the next morning which meant we could enjoy the ruins with very few other visitors. The view from the top of the ruins across the valley is spectacular. On one side you have a bird’s eye view of the town and farmlands and on the other side of the ruins you can see the tail of the snowy peaks Veronica and Salkantay with the Urubamba river snaking its way toward them.

Walking among the ruins and imagining what it looked like during the height of the Inca Empire is a fantastic experience but after one-too-many we started to suffer from the dreaded ruin-fatigue. So after visiting Ollantaytambo we decided to call it a day and not visit Pisaq, Moray and Chinchero. I think we will leave these for our next visit to Peru which is definitely going to be in the near future.

Standing on the top of Wayna Picchu all we could see were clouds. We had raced to the top to get a good lookout spot of the scenery below. It was a lung busting climb up the narrow, slippery and steep, rock-cut pathway. Slowly out of the gloom, shadows of Inca-built buildings loomed above us. Everything was either green foliage or black rock and covered in a layer of moisture. The path abruptly ended at a rock ladder sticking out of the cliff face at the top of which was a dark, wet cave. Over the steps we squeezed through the cave and onto the other side of the peak. The very top was covered in a collection of very large boulders. We staked out our spot and waited for more people to arrive and the clouds to clear. One by one more tourists came up, preceded by their heavy breathing and curses at the tiny cave they had just had to squeeze through. Still no view. A woman called up to a few people sitting on the rock and asked which way she had to go to get to the top. She had obviously not thought of going through the cave. One of the guys on top yelled something back which obviously annoyed her as she started flipping the bird at us. The group on top laughed.

Slowly but surely the sun began to thin the thick cloud and we started to see momentary glimpses of the ruins below. The rocks on top were now covered in people. The scene resembled a troupe of baboons sitting around looking for fleas in each other’s coats. For a moment Machu Picchu came into the clear only to disappear in a white haze and a flutter of camera shutter releases from the crowd behind me.

Welcome to Machu Picchu. Few words come to mind when I think about this very special place. Mystical and inspirational it is hard not to be spellbound by the sheer beauty of it’s location. Not to mention its size and ingenuity. There are a number of theories as to what it was used for by the Incas but the most widely accepted one is that it was a grand estate built by the Emperor Pachacuti in 1450 and a place of significant religious importance to the Incas. It was abandoned 100 years later as a result of the Spanish conquest but it was never plundered or destroyed by the Spanish and is one of the most intact Inca ruins ever discovered.

Talk about Machu Picchu and the name Hiram Bingham is usually mentioned somewhere in the same discussion. Famous for being the “re-discoverer” of the site in 1911, the archeologist and explorer happened upon the ruins while searching for the lost city of Vilcabamba – the last stronghold of the Inca. The story goes that his support group set up camp on a farm along the Urubamba river. Too tired to immediately start exploring the surrounding area, Bingham’s party stayed behind in their tents while he was led up a mountain by the farmer’s young son. Little did he know what was awaiting him. Up to his dying day, Bingham believed that he had discovered the lost city of Vilcabamba. It was later discovered that the real Vilcabamba was in an entirely different location. This year, Peru celebrates the centenary of Hiram Bingham’s discovery.

Getting to Machu Picchu is more a journey of patience than anything else. Our trip started in Ollantaytambo. A living Inca-village roughly 75 kilometers away from Machu Picchu Pueblo. There are only two realistic ways of reaching Machu Picchu. You can hike the Inca Trail or take the train. Both are very expensive. The Inca Trail can be done for roughly $600 per person, the 2 hour train journey can be done for US$70 roundtrip. We opted for the lazier and cheaper option and took the train. The train journey is no short of spectacular scenery though. Machu Picchu is situated above thick cloud forest and as the train winds its way along the Urubamba river, the landscape changes from high altitude grasses to thick jungle. Dramatic snow-capped peaks can be seen from either side of the steep valley along the way.

If Machu Picchu can be described as heaven, then Machu Picchu Pueblo can be described as hell. Immediately after disembarking the train you are plunged into a world of tourist shops, restaurants and hotels. The entire existence of this little town depends on the thousands of tourists that visit the site every day. At one stage Machu Picchu was enjoying 8000 visitors per day. Pressure from UNESCO to control the numbers and ensure Machu Picchu’s World Heritage status has forced authorities to limit it to 2500. This consequently, has had a negative effect on the businesses below resulting in more desperate tactics to get you to eat in their restaurant or stay in their hotel. Our hostel for instance, was rated as the best hostel in the area on Trip Advisor. It turned out to be a tiny room, with paper-thin walls. Suffice it to say, the hostel staff kept us up all night chatting in the foyer.

We sprung out of bed bleary-eyed and disorientated at 4:45am and headed for the bus stop. The bus system that takes people up to the ruins is very well organised. Busses run continuously along the 6 km route that switchbacks up the side of the mountain. Even at 5am there is a rather long line of people waiting for a bus. The ticket costs a hefty US$8 one-way. The busses however, are new and air-conditioned.

Our entrance ticket to the ruins included the optional hike to Wayna Picchu – the mountain in the background of all the classic photos of Machu Picchu. Only 200 people a day are allowed to climb to the peak. As if building Machu Picchu wasn’t enough, the Incas even built structures at the top of the mountain in fantastically perilous positions overlooking the valley below. Once the clouds at the top had cleared entirely we could see the miniature Urubamba river below. Particularly tricky sections on the way up to the summit are made easier by stairs cut out of the solid rock – courtesy of the Incas – and chains and railings courtesy of the Peruvians.

After climbing the peak we decided to do the hike down through the cloud forest to the Temple of the Moon and the Great Cavern. This is a great spot to get away from the crowds on the rest of the site and the forest is very beautiful and unspoiled. Along the way, you get to experience some pristine cloud forest. The path is hot and sweaty work and takes roughly 40 minutes before you emerge from the forest into a clearing with a few terraces and a set of caves. This is the Caverna Grande, or Grand Cavern. When we arrived here there were a few people looking around and taking pics but after a while they went back up the path. We were then able to view the Temple of the Moon, down a pathway to the side, completely on our own. For anyone who has been to Machu Picchu, you will understand the significance of this, as the main site is packed with people in every direction.

On our way back to the main site, the rain clouds started to close in and we made it to the entrance of the Wayna Picchu trek just in time to find shelter in one of the restored buildings alongside the famous sacred rock before it started to come down. It was roughly midday by this time and the site was jam packed with tourists, so before long our shelter was crammed full of people. It rained for about an hour and a half. The rain was a blessing in disguise as once it had cleared, most of the tourists had decided to leave. This meant that we were able to walk through the ruins at our leisure and get plenty of photos without people in them.

The Temple of the Sun

This temple was used to honour and celebrate the sun god – Inti. We weren’t allowed inside the temple to take a look at the giant stone set in the middle but on a specific day, the sun shines through the central window onto the stone. This was probably used to mark the day of a ceremony.

Underneath the temple is the Royal tomb where hundreds of skeletons were discovered, most of which were women. It is thought that a royal mummy could have been kept here.

The Intihuatana – The Sun Stone

The Incas used the Intihuatana as a sun dial to measure time for various reasons including agriculture. The Spanish on the other hand thought the Incas worshipped the stone and therefore destroyed every single one they could find. At other sites, in place of where the Intihuatana may have stood is a pile of rocks or a just an empty space. The Sun Stone at Machu Picchu is the only intact stone ever discovered. The name Intihuatana means “Hitching Post of the Sun” and was believed by the Incas to be the point where the sun was tethered to the earth to keep the sun god connected to the people.

The Intihuatana is situated in the centre of the main temple complex indicating its importance in the Inca religion. Unfortunately, it was damaged a few years ago when a film company smuggled equipment into the site to shoot a beer commercial and a 900kg crane chipped a piece off the corner. Had they been around today, I wonder what the Incas would have done to the crane operators.

The Funerary Rock

The Incas believed in sacrificing animals and people to appease the gods and this strangely shaped stone is believed to have been used for that exact purpose. Hiram Bingham thought the stone could also have been used as a slab for preparing mummies. Behind the stone he discovered a number of skeletons in what is believed to have been the cemetery of Machu Picchu. The Incas believed that the dead and living existed together. They were known to keep mummies of royalty in temples where they were brought out for public display during ceremonies and festivals. Sacrificial mummies were normally buried on the top of mountains and in holy places to appease the gods that lived there. Sadly, the Spanish were greatly disturbed by the way the Incas worshipped these mummies and ended up destroying all of them.

The funerary rock is also the point from which all the famous photos of the view of Machu Picchu with Wayna Picchu in the background are taken as it overlooks the entire complex.

The Temple of the Condor

The Incas were incredible craftsmen and the Temple of the Condor is a spectacular example of this. The structure has been fashioned to resemble a Condor in flight. On the floor of the temple is a rock fashioned after the head of the Condor where it is believed to have been used as a sacrificial altar. Above the temple are three stone niches where royal mummies may have been placed for worship.

The Prison

Behind the Temple of the Condor is a structure thought to have been used as a prison. Holes have been carved into stones where chains could be passed through and then shackled onto prisoners. The Incas punished people for such sins as laziness, lust or theft and depending on the degree could have been put to death.

The Quarry

The white granite used to build many of the buildings in Machu Picchu was quarried and cut on site and a section of the complex was devoted to stone masonry. Walking around the quarry you can see exactly how the Incas worked with the rock. Using primitive techniques they were able to cut, carve and polish the stone with such accuracy that they needed very little mortar to build their buildings. One of the rocks looks as though it was in the process of being cut when the site was abandoned. Here you can see how the stone masons chiseled holes into the rock, then placed wooden stakes in and poured water on the stakes to make them expand thereby forcing the rock to crack along the line of holes. This was a very effective means of separating the stones before they were carved and polished.

The Main Gate

Machu Picchu is not only spectacular in the place it was built, it also boggles the mind when you realise that each doorway and each temple is positioned to either align with a celestial body such as the sun or moon, or a significant mountain. The main gate is a fantastic example of this. It frames Wayna Picchu in the background and as you walk from this gate through the ruins you find that the positioning of each gate had some sort of significance in the way it was aligned. This may have marked a ceremonial route the Incas would have walked through the buildings. Another example is how the Intihuatana mimics a peak behind it. Not only were the Incas precision builders, they planned each building meticulously in accordance with their belief system.

The main gate is an impressive example of Inca ingenuity. A system of slots and holes carved into the rock was used to affix a giant door. To put things into perspective the lintel above the main gate weighs approximately 3-4 tons – or 2-3 family-sized cars!

Agricultural Zone & Terraces

Machu Picchu was not only used as a residence it was also a living and working town and may have been completely self sufficient. At the entrance to the ruins, on the sides and halfway down the mountain are magnificent, precision-built terraces. The terraces served two purposes. The first was to increase the surface area for planting crops such as, potatoes, coca and maize. The second reason was to control water flow and reduce soil erosion. We saw terraces all over the Sacred Valley and ruins around Cusco but the terraces at Machu Picchu seemed to be on a grander scale.

After spending a full day at the ruins we eventually had to make our way back down to Machu Picchu Pueblo to catch our train out. As if we hadn’t done enough walking already, we decided to walk back to the town rather than catch the bus. Surprisingly, the walk isn’t as tough as everybody makes it out to be. Neither is it made unpleasant by the busses that zigzag their way down, as the well kept path heads straight down and only crosses the road every now and again. It is also a lot easier to go down than up.

Machu Picchu is a spectacular place. I have really struggled to write this post about it because there are few words that can really bring the place to life on a computer screen. Even the photos we took do little justice to it. I can whole-heartedly understand why so many people year after year visit it. It is so much more than just a set of ruins on top of a mountain, it is a place that vividly tells the story of a long lost people, their culture, their religion, their achievements and their downfall. We visited many ruins while in Peru and I have to admit I did get tired after seeing so many but my energy and zeal was enlivened the moment I walked through the gates into the site. Even if you try to avoid tourist attractions to get away from it all, I still can’t recommend visiting this mystical place enough to everyone I meet.

Each breath becomes more and more difficult. Each footstep becomes more and more deliberate. The sky deepens in colour with every meter gained. The world around you shrinks. Spikey, unfriendly grasses turn into luminous-green mosses. The colours of the mountain around me light up. Blue sky, red, yellow and orange striped mountains and the spongey green mosses. It’s like walking onto the set of a sci-fi movie. At 4800m above sea level.

It’s hard to describe this landscape and do it justice. It’s essentially a desert but there is life all around. The terrain is foreboding. Gigantic, smoking volcanoes, deep canyons and plains as flat as a pancake. Life revolves around the volcanoes and mountains. Melting snow and underground springs feed rivers and streams that pool in grassy swamps, called Bofedales. Vicuñas, Andean geese, Giant Coots, Alpacas & Llamas among many other creatures all gather in the pools to eat the nutrient rich grass and drink the fresh, cold water. The silence is pierced by sudden gusts of icy wind. You certainly feel like an alien visitor to this landscape. There is nobody for miles in any direction and you can feel effects of high altitude if you move around too quickly.

This is the South America I had come to see and photograph. It took a bit of effort to get here but it was worth it.

The Atacama desert is the driest desert on earth. In some parts the average rainfall is 1mm per year. To put that into perspective it would take 200 years to fill a tea cup. Most of the Atacama is found in Northern Chile. It is an unforgiving piece of land wedged between the cold Pacific ocean and the high mountains of the Andes. So why in the world would we choose to visit such a place? I was asking myself that same question when we left tourist-packed San Pedro de Atacama. It seemed we weren’t the only people that found the desert alluring. Our search for peace and untouched nature led us northwards to the northernmost city in Chile – Arica. Arica is a dirty, laid back, seaside city. Dirty because it almost certainly never rains here. It is however, one of South America’s most famous surf spots and many travelers make their way to this brown, drab town to surf some really good breaks. Arica is a stepping stone to one of the most magical places I have ever been: Parque Nacional Lauca and Parque Nacional Las Vicuñas. Two of Chile’s lesser known parks and probably more famous for the highway that runs between them creating Bolivia’s main trade route with the sea.

We hired a pickup in Arica from Hertz – pronounced ‘ertz’ by Spanish speakers if you are ever looking for it in a Latin America city – and headed northwest along the Chile 11 highway to the tiny village of Putre. It was Sunday so we were lucky enough to travel on a relatively quiet day. The Chile 11 highway links Bolivia with the Pacific Ocean and is the main artery through which Bolivia receives its imports and sends out its exports. Locals told us that the average truck count per day is around 800. Suffice it to say, this road gets really, really busy. Heading inland from Arica, we turned off at a town called San Miguel de Azapa to see a fantastic little museum; famous for housing the Chinchorro Mummies – the oldest mummies yet discovered. The Atacama desert provides perfect conditions for preserving human remains and these mummies have been dated to over 7000 years old, making them roughly 2000 years older than the first Egyptian mummies. The most fascinating characteristic of some of these mummies was how they were embalmed. The skin was carefully removed from the body. The internal organs and flesh was replaced with clay, vegetable fibres and animal fur. The body was then recovered with the skin and a clay mask was put over the face. Mummification was also not reserved for the elite. Everybody was mummified including newborn babies and fetuses. The museum is really well curated and I found it incredibly fascinating being able to stare 7000 years into the past at the wrinkled hands and feet of the mummies.

We continued our drive into the mountains through the Azapa Valley and Lluta Valley before meeting up again with the Chile 11 highway. The landscape in this area is quite disconcerting. The green valleys are flanked by gigantic, bone-dry, white, sand dunes – over 500m high. Nothing grows on the sides of the valleys. Not even a single dead plant can be spotted. It is really that dry. This is where the twisty climb up to the Altiplano begins. Altiplano means “High Plains” in Spanish and has an average altitude of around 3500 metres above sea level. The only plains in the world higher are those of the Tibetan Plateau. Our destination, the village of Putre sits at 3500m – the starting point of the Altiplano under the spectacular Taapaca Volcano. With a population of roughly 2000 people, it is the largest village in the region.

We based ourselves in Putre for the following week at a cozy little guesthouse on the outskirts of the village, called La Chakana. This proved to be the exact remedy to our mediocre experience of Chile thus far. Over the course of the week we drove up to the national parks and experienced some of the most pristine wilderness ever. Best of all, there was not a person in sight, let alone beige tourists donning wide-brimmed hats and silly sunburns. Parque Nacional Lauca is famous for the Payachata twins. Two gigantic stratovolcanoes. The larger of the two, Parinacota is 6348m high and is flanked by Pomerape at 6282m high. The two volcanoes are situated on the border with Bolivia and are fronted by a beautiful, deep blue lake – Lago Chungara. Hollywood wouldn’t be able to come up with a dreamier landscape.

To the south of Lauca National Park is Parque Nacional Las Vicuñas. Vicuñas are the smallest of the camel family and related to Guanacos, Llamas and Alpacas. In fact, Llamas and Alpacas were selectively bred from Vicuñas and Guanacos. The main differences between Guanacos and Vicuñas, apart from size, are that Guanacos have a black face and Vicuñas occur at altitudes above 4000m. The park is filled with them. We saw literally hundreds along the road to the salt lake of Surire – the park’s most famous attraction. Along the way we stopped off to marvel at smoking Volcan Guallatiri – featured in an episode in the Top Gear Bolivia episode. Apart where the volcanos break the earth’s surface the landscape is flat and dry and the roads are well maintained gravel roads. The Salar de Surire is a great place to spot flamingos as they are drawn to the algae-rich, super-saline water to feed.

Each day as we headed out to the national parks and the Altiplano we became more and more acclimatized to the altitude. So we decided to climb a fairly easy mountain near Putre. I had seen photos of this place before and the mountain we wanted to climb overlooked the painted mountains. Armed with a GPS, a rough description of the trail, lots of water and suncream, we set out from the Termas de Jurasi – a complex of thermal springs just outside of Putre. The trek started at an elevation of 4000m through sharp, spikey grasses along an ice-covered river. The colours of the river bed changed from bright yellows, to dark purples to deep reds. Even though we were carrying a GPS with waypoints marking the trail we got lost a couple of times and had to double back. All the time the trail took us upwards. Soon we were at 4400m and the peak of the mountain loomed up in front of us. The only direction now was straight up the sandy slope.

It was like climbing a giant sand dune in very thin air. So thin it’s a struggle to even walk. We zigg-zagged slowly back and forth. Ever closer to the summit. At this altitude there are no plants, only Llareta moss. This is one of the oldest living organisms on earth. It takes roughly a year to grow a millimeter and some of the mosses are over 3 metres long. Their abundance on north facing slopes and their bright green colour gives the illusion of luscious valleys turned upside down. At 4600m, even the mosses stop growing. There is nothing here but sand and rocks. With each step we got closer to the summit and eventually at 4860m we reached the top.

I don’t know what the mountain was called but the view was spectacular. Way below and to the north was Putre overshadowed by the snow and ice covered peaks of Taapaca. In front of us was the Cerro de Milagro; the ‘painted mountain’ as George our guesthouse host aptly described it. Behind the painted mountain were the distinctive cones of the Payachata twins. The bands of red, yellow, orange and black of the mountains in front of us made for an unreal view. It wasn’t a particularly difficult mountain to climb – we did it on our own without a guide or any climbing gear but it certainly was a unique sight.

All my mixed feelings about Chile thus far were wiped away by visiting Putre and the surrounding national parks. We often found ourselves alone in the most spectacular places we have ever been and yet it was so easy to get there. So if you ever visit Chile, don’t bother with anywhere else in the Atacama. Hire a car, drive straight to Putre but don’t mention it to any tourists along the way. Keep it a secrect it is that amazing.

I’ve been to many tourist traps in my life. In Paharganj in India, Kuta in Bali, Ao Nang in Thailand. Few measure up to San Pedro de Atacama in Chile though. A dusty little oasis in the middle of the Atacama desert, you would be forgiven for thinking you were getting away from tourists, tour groups and fancy restaurants. After a long but fantastic bus journey over the Alitplano from Salta we descended into one of the driest places on earth. The bus tipped us out and we had to go through Chilean border control and customs. Chileans are petrified – so it would seem – that you bring any fruit or vegetables into their country and so our bags had to be inspected by stoic-faced customs officials wearing latex gloves and lacking any sense of humour. I suppose digging in tourists’ dirty undies all day is not a job perk, hence the grumpy attitude.

After repacking our bags we set off down the dusty unpaved road into town. At first the little town was a little disorienting. It was late evening and every street looked the same. White washed buildings, red sandy roads and dim street lamps. The first guesthouse we stopped at wanted US$70 a night for a tiny room with ensuite bathroom. Yikes! Next guesthouse on from there was full. We were exhausted, bewildered and my pack was starting to cut into my shoulders. Eventually we were led to a hostel down the road by an overly friendly man on the street. We should have known better. Before we knew it, we had handed out $40 for a private room with shared bathroom without even having looked at the room first. Suffice it to say, it was the size of a largish coffin. It had no towels, no toilet paper, no waste basket, no plug sockets and the window didn’t close properly – something that is rather important in the desert since it get’s really cold at night. There was nowhere to put our stuff save for two wire hangers hanging on the curtain rail. We had just picked the worst value hotel in the world – according to Trip Advisor it is ranked as the worst place to stay in San Pedro.

So started out our visit to Chile. Margarét has been to Chile before. One of her favourite places was San Pedro, but a lot has changed in this sleepy village since 2005. The streets are lined with travel agents, restaurants and hostels. Everything is so overpriced it would make Bill Gates feel a little ill. A beer costs around US$5 (the bottle stores sell them for around $1), lip balm cost us $4 and restaurants are mediocre at best where a set menu was around $40 for 2 people. Everything is covered in a layer of dust even smelly hippies sitting in the square notwithstanding.

It’s not all bad though. There is a reason so many tourists come to this place in the middle of absolutely nowhere. We moved out of the worst place in San Pedro the next morning and found a much quieter and better place down the road. They even gave us a family room for the price of a double because all their double rooms were full. This place came with 4 beds, towels, a walk in closet and two rolls of double ply toilet paper every day! It turned out this was the highest rated place to stay in San Pedro, according to Trip Advisor. It was also only $20 a night more than the worst place in town.

The reason so many people come to the desert is for its sights. San Pedro sits at the northernmost point of the second largest salt flat in the world, the Salar de Atacama. It is also situated under the most spectacular vista of some of Chile’s biggest volcanoes. Every day hundreds of tourists head out on bus trips to the surrounding attractions. Some tours climb up onto the Altiplano to visit salt flats, geysers, smoking volcanoes, colourful lakes, towering columns of stone, valleys that look like Mars and the Moon. While others take people off sandboarding, mountain biking and trekking. You can even climb a 6000m volcano with very little organisation or equipment needed. Of course, these tours come at a price. How much you ask? Our half-day trip to El Tatio geysers – the second highest geyser field on earth as well as the third largest costs a cool $40 each excluding the entrance fee. That’s lot of money for anyone to pay even if it comes with a free headache due to the altitude.

There is something to be said for the natural beauty here, as well as how easy it is to see it. We took a short walk out of the town to the pre-colombian fortress of Quitor, which turned out to have a fantastic view of the Valley of Death – so called because the first Englishman to see it called it the valley of Mars which sound like the word meurte in Spanish, hence the name.

Another trip we did was for sundowners overlooking a salt lake in the Salar de Atacama. Sipping pisco sours, while the sun paints the surrounding volcanos blood red is quite an experience. Granted there were about 200 people with the same view too. We also took a trip to a dizzying 4300m at 4am to see the El Tatio geyser field. The reason for the early drive was due to the geysers being most active at sunrise. Margarét and I were wearing just about all the clothes we brought with us to brave the subzero temperatures. The field was filled with fumeroles and vents that spouted superheated steam into the air. It was quite a sight. One of the geysers is even nicknamed “The Killer” due to having killed a few tourists who got too close and fell in. Our guide told us it isn’t so much the temperature that kills you, it’s the mixture of arsenic, cadmium and sulphur that does the trick. In about 20 minutes. Not a pleasant end indeed. The drive back to San Pedro was no less spectacular alongside smoking volcanos and beautiful wetlands filled with birds. We even got see the very odd looking viscacha (kind of like a rabbit with a long tale) and vicuñas (the smallest of the camel family and only occur at altitudes above 4000m).

So San Pedro is a bit of an enigma, ask any traveller that has been there whether they liked it or not and they will usually say they loved the sights but hated the multitude of tourists. I guess you could call it Chile’s version of Disneyland – Adobeland. There is very little atacameña culture to be seen in the main part of the village and yet there is heaps of it just a short walk out of town. For us, we both came away with colds caused by the dusty and dry air. As for the Atacama desert, there are few places I have been that have such mystical appeal. Scorchingly hot during the day and positively chilly at night it is definitely a part of the world I will never forget. Just remember to bring muchos dineros (lots of cash) with you and try to keep a straight face when you get told the price of a bottle of water.

It was as an absurd sight as any I had ever seen. Imagine a bush or small tree about the size of a fully grown apple tree – not more than 3-4 meters high. Now imagine a fairly large male lion lying in the thick branches of that tree. Yes, this lion had discovered a leopard kill in a Shepherd’s bush and had wedged himself between the thorny branches while he chewed on what was left of the carcass. He had to be really hungry and mightily uncomfortable with his back legs splayed out, hanging off the branches behind him. We were the second vehicle on the scene. The first had seen him climbing into the tree before calling us in. We could hear the cracking of the bones as he munched down on what looked to be a dead Impala.

According to our guide, this was rather unusual. While lions are known to climb they rarely do – this one had obviously done it out of desperation and we could see it in his eyes when the carcass eventually fell to the ground and he leapt out of the tree after it, only to give a quick growl to the vehicles parked around the tree. He munched a bit longer on the bones before he was gone, like a ghost, back into the thick bush.

I had been to Madikwe Game Reserve in the Northern Province of South Africa once before. Famed for its packs of Wild Dog and its incredible density of wildlife, it is definitely a wonderful place to experience the bush. My sister had been lucky enough to have won a 2-nights stay for 4 people at the ultra-luxurious &Beyond Madikwe Safari Lodge. So we all bundled ourselves into the Land Cruiser, packed to the hilt with camera equipment and headed off on a cool Saturday morning.

Madikwe Game Reserve, is situated about 3 hours from Johannesburg along the border of South Africa with Botswana. It is one of the largest game reserves in South Africa and was proclaimed a national park in 1991. It is home to the Big Five – Elephant, Rhino, Lion, Leopard and Buffalo and was seeded with over 8000 animals when the park was created.

Madikwe Safari Lodge is a really beautiful place. Nestled on the side of a hill and protected by a few strands of electrical wire from the elephants, it really does have a wild, yet intimate feeling to it. We arrived at about lunch time and after a delicious lunch and mid-afternoon snooze (these are about all the activities you can do at the lodge), we were on our first game drive of the trip. Our ranger’s name was Mark and after about 2 minutes on the back of the vehicle, he pulled off the road to check out an old giraffe carcass, only to see one of the weirder looking of the African scavengers – a Brown Hyaena. It was surrounded by a few Black-Backed Jackals who were snapping scraps of meat broken free by the hyaena. I had never seen a Brown Hyaena before, so this was an exciting sight for me. The giraffe had died from natural causes about 2 weeks earlier, so there wasn’t much left apart from a few bones and some skin. We got to see a few other interesting sightings on that evening drive, such as two very fat juvenile male lions – who had obviously just eaten – chasing a couple of rhinos, an African Wildcat (for about a second) and an orphaned newborn Wildebeest. We also sat and watched a really spectacular, truly African sunset over one of the park’s damns – before making our way back to camp for dinner.

Wake up call the next morning was at 5am, and we sleepily made our way to the vehicle. We bounced along on the back of the open 4×4 in the fresh morning air. It’s freezing cold, it’s uncomfortable and a lot of the time, you wish you were relaxing in your luxurious room, sipping a cup of hot coffee and complaining about being overfed by the hotel staff. Many people who have been on an organised game drive in Africa, and possibly a game drive in other places such as India or South America will know exactly what I am talking about. However, you aren’t on that vehicle to experience the fresh air and pass the hours, counting the mounds of rhino dung lying on the side of the road. You are there to see the unusual, the wild and experience the bush in all it’s serene beauty.

Mark was very confident we would be able to get a Wild Dog sighting that morning. An animal – if you listen to the 2-way radios on the vehicle and know the Tswana name for it – that is very popular with visitors in the park. It seemed every vehicle on a drive that morning was on the lookout for them. Wild Dogs are a beautiful animal. Well known for their veracious appetite and their uncanny ability to successfully hunt just about anything they chase – they were and still are in some parts considered a scourge by livestock and game farmers alike. Due to this fact, they are now a critically endangered species with the very last populations of them in only a few Southern African game parks. We were driving along the northern fence of the park, when Mark spotted their tracks in the road. He had discovered the day before that they had been hunting in the area. The animals had learnt to use the game fence as a way of cornering prey and so there was a high likelihood that they would be there.

Our first major sighting along the fence was a pride of lions relaxing in the soft wet grass. Lions to me always look sleepy and yet when they look you in the eyes you can feel a cold chill run down your spine. They are MUCH larger up close and it wouldn’t take much for one to suddenly decide to leap up onto the back of the open game viewing vehicle. Fortunately, they are accustomed to the vehicles and so as long as you don’t stand up or make too much noise to attract their attention, they tend to view the vehicle as a single non-threatening animal. Make no mistake, these are very dangerous creatures. They have been known to kill elephants, giraffes and rhinos. Animals which are much larger and considerably dangerous in their own right. Yet they always seem the laziest and relaxed of the park animals.

While watching the lions, Mark got a call in on the radio from another ranger who had spotted Wild Dog tracks further back along the road in the direction from which we had come. So we headed back along that route. Sure enough, three males were spotted running along the road. The Wild Dog, also known as the Cape Hunting Dog or Painted Dog is about the size and build of a slight Alsatian. They usually roam in packs and this group was no exception as the three adults led us into the bush to their pack. An interesting part of this whole experience was to see a herd of Wildebeest stay within visual range of the dogs. This is quite normal behaviour as it is a lot safer to be able to see these predators as opposed to being surprised by them. The dogs weren’t really interested in the Wildebeest, but we were assured by Mark that should they start running, it would be a bloody end for one of them.

We left the sighting after about 30 minutes to allow for the queue of vehicles that was rapidly building to have a turn to see the animals. Only 3 vehicles are allowed around a sighting at any given time, which is great as it doesn’t get very crowded.

Further along on the drive we got to see juvenile male giraffes sparring. The crack of their necks and horns against their bodies sounds quite painful and can sometimes be fatal if an individual gets a blow to the back of the head. We saw many zebra, impala and wildebeest. A lot of the park was cordoned off from vehicles due to the heavy rains they had been experiencing. This made game viewing difficult as a lot of the animals were hanging out in these areas to avoid predators – so it would seem.

We headed back to the lodge for breakfast, more snoozing, further eating, further snoozing and our second evening game drive. This drive proved to yield few interesting sightings and photo opportunities, the next morning we were having much the same experience until somebody called in the lion in the tree. We ended our trip with an amazing bush breakfast – which was definitely a highlight.

All in all, a luxury bush experience is great for the lucky few that can afford it. I can definitely recommend the place we were staying in, even though I can’t really justify nor afford the price. It is ultra luxury, the staff are very friendly, professional and welcoming, our guide – Mark – was very knowledgeable and did a fantastic job at taking us around the park and finding interesting stuff to see. Every time I am in the bush I feel really privileged to be there and experience it’s beauty, serenity and wildness.