Letter From Atlantia December 2008 and January 2009.

Happy Christmas and may 2009 be a better year for you than 2008.We are late with our Christmas greetings because we have been on holiday. Mostly a busman’s holiday but nevertheless very enjoyable. We decided that there were a number of places inland in South America we wished to see and also we wished to see as far south as we could. Antarctica seemed suitable. So we spent Christmas amongst the snow, ice and penguins of the Antarctica peninsular, cruising past the South Shetland Islands and the South Orkney Islands on our return. Admittedly we cheated. Atlantia is safely tucked up in a marina in Cartagena in Columbia and we are writing this letter to you from the deck of the cruise liner ‘Amsterdam’ presently making 21 knots northward to the Rio De Plata, Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Our excuse has been that Atlantia wouldn’t get as far south as the Antarctic, and therefore to have somebody else to take us would be a good thing. We were right and I hope, having read our letter a bit further you will agree that the comfort of an armchair beats the cold wet icy deck of Atlantia when viewing penguins!

We flew out of Cartagena at the beginning of December. The flight provided by Avianca was an ultra modern airbus, and the people were polite and helpful, and so were the staff. The leg room for Will was more comfortable than on most European flights, and despite our lack of Spanish we understood most signage (because it was repeated below in English!) and transferred satisfactorily in Bogata to fly to Lima. Again the aeroplane was to a standard equal or higher than the ones we have experienced before, as was the airport and transfer, although less crowded and more comfortable. Lima in Peru is disappointing from a tourist perspective. The weather is almost always misty and the single storey buildings seem unfinished. We were taken to a hotel in Miraflores, a suburb of Lima, and although the seventies style multi-storey was clean and inexpensive we were unable to go to the centre of Lima in the evening since the city is so vast.

8 million people live in Lima and it was founded by the Spanish in the 16th Century, so they could transfer all their looted goodies away from Peru when they had conquered the Incas. The Inca empire extended from Columbia to Chile (before the Spanish). The major reason the Spanish were able to conquer the Incas, was that the Incas, who had built up their empire from Cusco, in the Andes, between Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca, had nearly completed four years of civil war, and Pizarro was able to tip the balance in favour of one of the brothers who thought he should be Inca Emperor. The Spanish then promptly murdered that brother and took over administration, and pillage, of the empire. Another 30 years of resistance by yet another brother proved futile due to the Spanish guns and horses which had never been seen by the Incas, who had only timber rollers and logs, and perhaps round stones, as bearers for the heavy stones they lugged about for their temples. The last stronghold of the Incas, when they retreated from Machu Picchu (which was never assaulted by the Spanish),

was supposed to be in El Dorado (the city of gold) deep in the Amazon Jungle. Which is where we went next! (The Amazon Jungle, regrettably not El Dorado).

We flew from Lima, straight on over the Andes to one source of the Amazon River. Peru extends beyond the Andes to encompass a very, very large area of jungle which is designated a Peruvian National Park, and is well regulated by wardens and home to considerable scientific research by young graduates, usually of biology and tourism. We were deposited at the jungle airport of Puerto Maldonado (a port on the upper Amazon called Rio Tambopata there) and took the bus to the river. It was about an hours drive to our landing stage, along a dirt road with some decidedly dangerous log wood bridges, which the driver informed us were soon to be replaced, by similar bridges, but with bigger logs. On one occasion we had to disembark from the bus and walk over the bridge so that the bus could make its own perilous and lurching way across the bridge to collect us safely (fortunately) on the other side.

Our trip up to Refugio Amazonas, our lodge, took about 2 1/2 hours in a fifty foot dugout canoe. This one had a sixty horse power mercury outboard on the stern! Nevertheless, the tree from which the keel and floor of the craft was fashioned was a single log hollowed out with two large inch thick strakes glued and nailed to its sides to keep the water out. It was decidedly unstable at seven feet wide, but about twenty people and a considerable amount of stores were loaded aboard for the trip up the fast flowing muddy river.

It was about 100 yards (metres) wide at this point. The water was apparently eight metres lower than usual, but our helmsman knew his river and safely negotiated the rocks and old trees that had stuck on the bottom. There were large trees and bushes on either side of the river above the muddy and grassy banks. The air was full of weaver birds and the occasional macaw with herons and horned screamers on the banks.

We stopped to admire five turtles on a stranded log at one point, and also to see a capybara as big as a Shetland pony on the bank. It is the worlds biggest rodent but is a vegetarian, which is just as well. She had five young ones with her which were well camouflaged amongst the grasses.

Our room in the refuge had no external wall or window and no hot water. It was completely open to the jungle. There was no electricity either. All light being provided by hurricane lamp or candles. The food was excellent however. Mostly Peruvian lamb or fish traditionally prepared and served, on a plate, with an explanation of each dish and its preparation. There is a Chinese and Italian influence in Peru that goes back many years. We were lucky enough to have as excellent guide entirely devoted to us for the three days we were in the jungle. Her name was Karina and she had been to University in Lima to take a degree in tourism, with biology leaning. She knew a great deal about the jungle and its birds and flora.

Together we identified 46 species of birds there; parrots and macaws, hornbills, bitterns and toucans included.

We saw saddle back tamarind monkeys and Cayman in the river (alligators) and heard a troop of howler monkeys. We climbed a ninety metre high tower, which Will didn’t like very much, to see over the tree canopy. Will thought we saw more birds from the ground. Nevertheless the trees, with their orchids lodged in the crooks and crevices at considerable height, were very impressive.

None more so than the brazil nut trees growing to over 120 metres high with a straight trunk, with a diameter of over six feet. The brazil nut itself is about the size of a small coconut. Inside are the nuts themselves, which are the crinkly triangular ones that are so hard to open at Christmas. The nut itself is smooth, long and very tasty, and well worth the effort of opening the outer nut with a machete and then the inner nut with a sophisticated car jack converted to a nut opener! Don’t try this at home unless you live in a jungle.

We were sad to leave the peace of the tropical forest, and getting up at 4am to see the early birds catch their worms, or centipedes, or snakes! We took the dugout canoe back again to Puerto Maldonado and were waved goodbye by a flock of very rare chestnut breasted macaws. We took the plane to Cusco. Again, despite the remoteness of the air route we were looked after admirably and the plane was of a better standard than one would expect in Europe.

Cusco is high in the Andes at about 11,000 feet. The town centre is typically Spanish 18th Century with enormous edifices of Cathedral and Churches, and colonnades belonging to Spanish Grandees and government offices.

Further away, and on the same city plan, the lower storey stones of the Inca houses can be seen. A typical Inca house would have had no windows externally, but a single entrance and a large courtyard, around which would have been set five or six houses with thatched roofs. We went into one in Ollantaytambo in the sacred valley near Machu Picchu. It had earthen floors, a stream running through the courtyard, and guinea pigs exploring the house. Guinea pig is a delicacy of the Peruvian, only we didn’t taste them in deference to the late pets of Stephen and Susan. It’s difficult to eat a Snowy or a Fudge when you have such fond memories of the little creatures.

We did eat alpaca however, which tastes like a tough piece of mutton. The restaurants near the centre of Cusco seem to be dependent on the loudest shouting catcher stationed outside each doorway. Needless to say, and not to be barracked, we chose the quietest ones. The food was adequate but we wondered whether it would have been any better if we had let ourselves be badgered into entering one of the busier establishments. Perhaps it was the altitude though. The wine was excellent and inexpensive. We will search out Peruvian wine (especially the red) when we return to Scotland. It is to be recommended.

We have christened Peru ‘The Land of the Ubiquitous Tip’, meaning not that the land looks like a municipal dump, because it is the very opposite, and is particularly beautiful, but because the people appear to always expect money for services which we believe we have already paid for. Perhaps we were given the wrong advice by the travel agent or perhaps the culture is such that the people are genuinely badly paid and can’t live without tips. In any event it made us feel uncomfortable, not really knowing if we were being helpful, overgenerous or rude in offering additional money. Perhaps it is as well we are not going to Peru again because next time we would probably not tip at all! Possibly better for everybody.

Our guide to the Sacred Valley near Cusco was wonderful and spoke excellent English. We were well looked after and taken to all the tourist spots such as the temple/fortress/village pronounced, but not spelt, ‘Sexy Woman’. They hold the Inca worship of the sun every June at the Solstice to mark the beginning of the Inca year. Of course it is south of the equator so that is their mid winter, a sensible time to start the new year.

The whole Inca tradition was an agrarian economy and aristocratic hierarchy with The Inca at the head. We saw some of their farming methods using a bullock pulled plough and the woman casting the seeds behind, a method used for thousands of years. Their land ownership changed in the later part of the 20th Century, when the large estancias of the Spanish descendants were broken up and made into communes owned by the local people. Although all the people working the land at that time were given a small piece by the government, it is nevertheless their own land, with the produce being bought by the commune. They cannot sell the land, although they can pass it on to their family. This is not the case in cities however where the normal western rules seem to apply.

Machu Picchu was stunning and lived up to its photographs, although there were a considerable number of people there. The town itself perched very high on a hill is reached by one of five roads leading into it at different levels. Each road was used by a different class. The upper Inca way was used by the Imperial household and the messenger runners, who ran relays to the top and to the bottom of the empire, with verbal messages and khipu ( knotted string, knotted in a certain way to record land holding and other information). The road sweepers and sewage experts used the lowest road. The Incas knew that the Spaniards were coming their way since the Spanish used the wrong road. We think there might have been other telltale signs as well!

We stayed in a beautiful hotel below Machu Picchu and had arrived there by train from Cusco, a spectacular journey next to the raging torrents and ultra high cliffs. It is just as well there was a semi glass roof to the carriages.

We learnt to make the local drink delicacy, Pisco Sour.. It was exactly the same as petit punch in Dominica. It is also the same as the local drink in Brazil. Basically ice, white rum, sugar cane and lots of fresh lime. In Chile they seem to use lime juice instead of the whole mashed up limes.

After another night in Cusco we took an Orient Express type train to Lake Titicaca. Puno is the city associated with the lake and it is a dump. It was raining when we arrived but nevertheless huge improvements could be made to the look of the town whose only redeeming feature seems to be the church in the square and of course the lake itself which is a gem set between high hills at 19,000 feet above sea level. The highest mass of navigable water in the world. Believe it or not we felt breathless! We were a bit plodding in our steps. The launch (about 35 feet long) which took us on our trip to the floating islands in the middle of the lake, had a direct drive. Stopping was turning off the engine and going astern was by use of long quants (poles). We found that the owner/driver was not strong enough to punt us out of the reeds when trying to land us at our hotel in the evening.

The floating islands were just that. Floating. They were composed of peat layers and reed layers to bind them together, with reeds and houses on top. The size was about 150 metres (approx. 160 yards) square with a reed quayside for a short distance where we disembarked from our trusty old launch called ‘Waly’!

Margaret dressed up like one of the ladies and we went into her reed hut to see how they lived. Very basically. There was however a T.V. set blaring in the corner driven from a car battery which in turn was driven by a photoelectric panel just outside the hut.!

The ladies were very jolly and well dressed and even sang ‘hasta la vista baby’ when we left on one of their reed boats.

The reed boat carried about fifteen of us and was propelled by sculling. Will wasn’t dressed in the local tradition so wasn’t allowed to practice his sculling! We think he may have made the reed boat top heavy if he had stood up.

There is a wonderful steel ship on Lake Titicaca called the Yavari. It was built on the Bow Creek on the Thames for the Peruvian Government as a gun boat nearly 140 years ago. By the time it had been dismantled, shipped to Peru and taken by train and donkey from the coast to Puno and refabricated, six years later, the war was over! The original engine was steam and the boiler fired by lama dung. It took 1400 sacks of lama dung to steam once round Lake Titicaca, which is a long way! It has been reassembled with the old Volvo diesel engine it was given in the early 20th Century., a sight to behold and still working. We were lucky enough to be shown round the ship, which is about 120 feet long, originally with a sail or two, by the chief engineer (and only crew member at present). If we had been there longer we are sure he would have started the massive engine for us. It was worth our journey to Peru just to see Yavari, or so Will says.

Our tour around Peru was organised over the internet by ‘Simply Peru’. They were excellent and can be thoroughly recommended for all South American tours. They made our land trip extremely successful, with only one tiny glitch in the whole tour and many, many plus points we were not expecting. For instance the nature tour from our hotel, when we were in Machu Picchu, where we met Paddington Bear’s Uncle and Aunt. There was a spectacled bear sanctuary there which rescues bears that have been taken into captivity and mistreated. Apparently Stephen Fry is a sponsor and another contributor to the bears welfare. He deserves a pat on the back from Paddington for his compassion. They are interesting animals.

Simply Peru also organised a fabulous hotel on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro for our last day of touring. (We were even given a complimentary bottle of champagne before dinner).

Enough for one letter! Our letter about our cruise to Cape Horn and the Antarctic will come when Will gets up off his sick bed! He caught a bug on one of the planes back from Rio de Janeiro, but hopes to be alive and kicking again by mid week. You will have gathered that we are now back in Cartagena on our present ‘home’, Atlantia! Best Wishes for 2009 to you all.

Love from Atlantia