Eleonor Collins

¡Hola todos! Dad and I have been in Quito, Ecuador for the past four days, since 21st of September. We came from our very brief stay in La Paz, Bolivia where the shopping was cheap and the traffic plenty. On arrival at Quito airport we weren´t sure if we´d be greeted by anyone in the family. Upon our exit from customs we didn´t see anyone from the family so we were quite disappointed. Dad then proceeded to go to one of the phone booths at the airport when I noticed a young man with aviation sunglasses walking towards me with another lady beside him. I was my cousin Carlos Alberto who had come to Australia to study a few years ago with his mother Susanna! Some of our family was there! We were so happy because it turned out that a lot of our family had come to the airport to see us! About 10 people! I just wish I knew a lot more Spanish because most of them don´t speak English. I´ve been trying to speak in Spanish most of the time. It´s been quite trying and funny at the same time. W

Our trip through Peru has almost come to an end. Tomorrow we leave Puno and make our way to La Paz in Bolivia. I am feeling very sad yet happy at the same time because we´ll be meeting the family very soon. Ok I better get typing! The last few days have been great! From visiting Cusco´s local archaeological sites; Sacsaywahman, Tambomachay, Quenqo, Puka Pukara to shopping in the local markets to experiencing the wonderful nightlife clubbing in Cuzco....it´s all been amazing! Cuzco is a very busy city and there always seems to be something happening everyday. In total we spent 4 days in Cuzco and we saw two parades which celebrated two of the 400 saints that Cuzco regularly celebrate down the streets of the Plaza de Armas (the Main Square). On the last day in uzco there was another parade. This one was a Marching Parade that is held every Sunday through Cuzco´s main Square. It starts with the Military Band followed by a series of different groups like schools, hotels, environment

So much has happened in the last week that it{s going to be very difficult to type it all up in the space of an hour but I'll try my best. After flying up from Arequipa to Cuzco we had an easy day in Cuzco. We just wondered the local streets soaking up the culture and atmosphere of this huge city. It's the 3rd largest city in Peru (I think) with 300 000 people. Later that afternoon we met with our local Inca Trail guide called Coco who ran through what we'd be doing on the Inca Trail over the next 4 days. He English was pretty good so it was easy to understand him, he was also an easy going guy. The next day we had to be ready for 6:30am to be at 82km (the start of the Inca Trail) for 7:30am. It was a beautiful day for hiking. We hiked for 14km the first day which was mostly up hill. Along the way we passed many houses with goats, horses, pigs and chickens. The hike was extremely tiring for me and I really regretted not doing any active exercise before leaving Oz. The

After a lengthy evening bus ride to Arequipa from Nazca which took around 8 hours, we all had a free day to wonder around this beautiful city. Arequipa is called the white city due to many of the buildings being carved out of lava and soil from a volcanic erruption that happened in the past. It´s one of the most beautiful cities we´ve seen so far and the atmosphere is a buzz here. The following day we made our journey to Colca Canyon, our local tour guide Fernando was great and very knowledgable about the area. We stopped at many vantage points along the way to Colca Canyon. The mountain terraces (flat planes in the mountain side used for farming) are incredible, although these days aren´t widely used. Mining is the main source of income for a lot of the people. We went to the highest point in the region which was 4971m (or there abouts), there we found many small rock towers that people had constructed as an offering to the mountains to let them have a safe journey. Quite specta

Today has been another adventurous day in Peru. I´m absolutely knackered! Early this morning we all made our way to the local airport to have a one hour flight over the Nazca lines; it was absolutely amazing experience. It´s really hard to describe it, I guess it´s just one of those things where you have to be there. However I forgot to bring my tea tree oil to sniff because if anyone knows me well I have terrible motion sickness. I was ok for most of the flight but when we landed back at the airport the pilot did one fast hairpin turn and that was enough to make me bring up all my delicious breakfast...I felt so awful and gross. Lucky there were bags there. Sorry for the ones back home who have just finished eating! I´m so glad we stayed on the ground afterwards. We visited a local cemetery of the Nazca people. It was extrodinary to see these open graves that had a whole family together as well as some of their possessions in order to bring it with them in the afterlife. We also

Yesterday we met the people in our tour group and funnily enough the majority are from Australia. :) About half Oz, one Japanese, two English, and one Canadan. The majority of the group are quite young with the oldest going to 55years or there abouts. We also met our tour leader Nicolas who has been doing this profession for about 4 months but has been a guide in other things for 4 years. It{s amazing that he's only 22 years old! Right now we're in Pisco, Peru and relaxing after our bus ride from Lima which was about 4 hours. Our hotel is beautifully furnished and adorned with Peruvian arts and crafts. It's very homely and has a wonderful atmosphere. Before arriving here though, it was hard to believe that such a nice place could be in the midst of very poor neighbourhoods. On our way here we passed two funerals which were street funerals; massive crowds follow a car adorned with flowers and the procession is quite amazing. Music is played and from what I saw the peopl

Yesterday dad and I had a very late night in Lima-Miraflores trying to fix my iPod at a local Internet cafe (they operate 24 hours a day which is great!). The problem I was having was that I couldn´t download photos from my camera and the iPod also had photos on there that weren´t showing on the menu. The only solution I could see was to re-install the iPod updater. This would mean I´d lose all the songs I put on there, which was probably only 3 albums, so that was not much of a sacrifice. Well I´m very happy now because now I can download the pictures directly from my camera again after installing the iPod updater from the PC here in Lima. :) I´m hoping the iPod behaves itself for the rest of the trip. Anyway later today we are meeting our tour guide to discuss our 3 week tour through Peru. We met Nicholas (tour guide) briefly this morning to meet him and to find out what was happening because we only had notice today about our tour. Very late notice. So we´ll find out more later. T

It´s been a very long day so I´ll keep this short. Dad and I went on the Lima City Tour today and saw many great places including a tour of the Cathedral of the Francescas and the Catacombes. Quite amazing! It was the very first place where the religious believers were practicing and were buried since there were no cemeteries. I´ve had terrible issues with my iPod but it may be fixed now. I have to go but I´ll try uploading some photos before we go. My poor dad is sleeping in the seat next to me as I´m typing this it´s 1:25 am