Pig Flu and Mexico status update

Hello All,

Some have been in touch to let us know about this breaking news, thanks very much for the information. We were due to fly out of Mexico on June 1 but have contacted our travel agent to see what the options are...up until then we will most likely change course and unfortunately have to spend a week in Costa Rica instead of Mexico, half our luck :) So the rough plan from here is Peru/Ecuador/Gallapagos Islands up until May 18 then fly to Costa Rica for a week then Cuba Havana and surrounds for a week then either back through Mexico airport or some alternative country back to London. From there as you know we are off to Tanzania Africa after a nice few days in London with Tom and Hannah.

Love to you all

S & T

PS we are having the time of our lives as expected

Hoo chee mama Pictures

HUACACHINA (pronounced hoo-chee-mama) - Sand Boarding

Well I knew it would come ...the time when an experience would totally blow our minds, pump the adrenaline to extreme and dazzle us with beauty!

For the mathematicians:

1 Desert Warrior + 1 sandboard (a planks of wood with bindings) + massive Peruvian sand dunes = MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF FUN!

So we had a few days up our sleeve on our way through Peru and we decided to detour close along the coast mid Peru to Huachachina (sounds like a type of chihuahua)...glad we did...Lonely Planet totally undersold this place..for sure the hotels were a little run down but they were fit for purpose, some chilling time by the pool and some sand fun. We booked into a medium range Hostel got a double room with a pool, nice. There are 3 things to do in this place, drink Pisco cocktails (average local grape used in Brandy), sit by the pool and top up the tan and get sand blasted! So we soaked up options one and two on day and two then came time for the sand work.

So H as I will call it is a desert oasis with a lagoon surrounded by hotels and eateries..we walked out the front of our hostel with an english guy keen for some sandbiting action and we saw a well spec'd dune buggy fit for the three of us (the rest of people go in 9 seaters which is like a small school bus, not as cool) the guy hands us card - the desert warrior! 8 years driving experience on dunes, from Venezuela, what struck us was his professionalism he had no interest in crazyiness and confirmed his credientials early on, we were booked in.

So that afternoon at 4pm we ascended into the desert from some crazy fun...it was a like a roller coaster with some sand boarding thrown in...the sand boarding was great fun, we rocketed down dunes and ate lots of sand on the way. I had some many memories of my dad taking me to Kurnell sand dunes in Sydney growing up, giving me a piece of cardboard and saying down you go! Aside of the baording the driving was the highlight, loads of of great driving, high dunes, fast pace action and amazing scenery and sunset all in about 2 or 3 hours...an experience we will never forget and didnt think we would see in Peru....any one making a trip to here MUST come past this.

Nazca Line Pictures

Nazca Lines and Hair Loss...

With another bus ride from hell but this time we got on a really nice bus (cama full bed style) which means business class in S.A bus terms. Heading straight over the Andean mountains it meant crazy driving at a speed that is not probably not recommended....anyway we have heard all the bus stories now on with the real story...this one will be short.

Arriving into Nazca, we checked in, had a quick power nap and Si went up in a 4 seater cessna plane to see the lines (in summary a stomach wrenching ride with amazing views overlooking lines on the ground shaped into many formations, apparently formed by movement of dark rocks revealing lighter coloured sand...Simon thinks a few drunken farmers could have achieved this rather than the Nascans http://skepdic.com/nazca.html) Tish wasn´t overly interested in seeing the lines so poped down the street for some internet time.

Nazca is just a place, very basic... Wouldn´t overly suggest it unless you are extremly interested in the lines themselves as the town is a bit of a dive but has one of the best Chinese Restaurants we have been to in a VERY long time at a bargin price of 9 soles ( about 1 pound 60) including won ton soup great for travellers budgets!
Nazca was a great place for us to rest and recover before heading off again and we comically ran into our Welsh friends again and joined them on the bus on the way to the Peruvian Desert town Huachachina for some sand dune buggy and sand boarding fun.

Last point on Nasca is that it was the place where Mr Peric finally decided to shave off his growing mop...number 4 on top, 3 on the sides...he had only been promising it for abou t20 years :)

Manu Jungle Pictures

Manu Jungle Peru

As we all know, a trip to South America is not complete without a trip to the Jungle...so we got together in Cusco with our good Australian friends from London Lindsay and Richie and booked ourselves a 4 day trip deep into the Manu Jungle. In a nutshell here is what we got for about $300USD per person:

• Transfers via truck (A- team style Ford Van) to and from the jungle



• all meals, water and snacks included



• Birding



• white water rafting on class 2/3 rapids



• Birding



• Tree top canopy flying fox and abseiling - so much fun!
  



• Birding



• Motor boating (no not what you think Dev if you ar reading this!)



• Birding



• Jungle walks at night (scary!)



• Log boat ride in the marshes with baby anacondas apparently (not on the brochure!)



• an english speaking guide with EXTENSIVE birding experience, good sense of humour, 2nd class white water rafting experience (the main guy had jungle fever!)



• Clay Licks experience...and amazing feeding pattern of parrots and macaws http://www.inkanatura.com/macawclaylicks.asp



• See this link for more on Birding...its a serious sport! http://www.birdwatching.com/

We had a great time with great people with good sense of humour, Will and Rachel from Wales joined us who were on our hell bus in Bolivia and we were also joined by a quiet english guy called Matt aka Megatron for his inhuman strength in knocking down trees on jungle walks...a trip he wont forget!

Funniest thing we remember on the first Jungle walk at night was our guide Miguel saying calmly "Only one rule of the Jungle...dont touch ANYTHING. Ants will bite you and you will cry like a child all night." Happy days! I have never seen people stick together so well! Of course there were lots of mysterious branches touching the person in front to heighten the scare. I was disappointed I didnt see a tarantula but was kind of happy after seeing a scorpion spider..this massive man eating disgusting thing! Aside of that we saw marsupials, rats, monkeys, birds, many more spiders and insects etc but no anacondas, jaguars or pumas - very rare!