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Trekking in the Cordillera Blanca0
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on November 30th, 2006

We have become hard-core hikers! The 4 day Inca Trail expedition not being enough, we headed up north to the town of Huaraz which is the trekking centre of Peru. On the advice of another couple of travelers who we had met on Lake Titicaca, we hired a local guide called Juan, who agreed to take us on a 4 day hike through the Cordillera Blaca. For those of you who have read or seen Touching the Void, this is the next-door mountain range. Our trip was to take us up to 4750 metres, mostly below the snow line.

In preparation for the trip, Juan took me to the local market in Huaraz to buy supplies. The meat market was particularly interesting and I was quite glad that Juan ignored the skinned guinea pigs, rabbits organs, rams heads and cows hoofs that were on offer and selected a huge slab of beef instead.

Once we had packed everything into boxes (4 people need a lot of stuff) we took a taxi to the tiny town of Cashapampa to begin the hike. Tony our mule driver lashed everything to donkeys and we set off. Even though it is the middle of the summer rainy season, the weather cooporated and it only rained while we were in our tents (we drank a lot of tea in 4 days!) And we only got snowed on once. The trek it self was relatively easy with only one hard day, climbing over the pass at 4750 metres. At that altitude you really start to feel short of breath, and every step becomes very difficult! But we are glad to be back to proper beds and hot showers. No idea how people do the 15 day trail that Juan also guides. Off to find a massage now.

Leaving Las Vegas2
neil posted in Travel on November 30th, 2006

I’m in the back of the Whissel’s big 4wd truck passing a suicidal trailer combination on a dirty white road in Idaho. Snow is streaming across the road and we’ve yet to reach “the pass” into Jackson Hole.

How did I end up here?

Gather round and I shall tell you a tale. Like all good tales, it begins with crawling from bed at 6:30am to go mountainbiking. We had negotiated a guided tour of Cottonwood canyon with McGhie’s Cycle tours the previous day. At the appointed time, after we were stung by the hotel for using electricity during our stay, a liveried van and crew of two swooped us away from the Riviera. Our guide for the day was Amy along with her husband Bob who was along (literally) for the ride. Out by an exclusive village called Blue Diamond was a spaghetti mass of singletrack set in cactus ridden desert. On the way out the slab sided van was being buffeted by a strong wind. Outside, Alicia and I were struck by the fact that the desert was COLD. It was freezing, the wind cut like a knife and hands started to chill alarmingly. Thankfully our guides had brought windbreakers and fleeces. We donned these and saddled up on Trek Fuel full sussers with cable discs. Mine lacked an effective back brake and had a mal-adjusted rear mech, the guides offered to return to town and switch the bike out, but I had seen singletrack and was itching to go.

The route was silky smooth dirt that lulled you into beautiful flowing corners and the howling tailwind blasting you up to speed. Inclines were limited but the wind provided both uphill and down. At the instant of overconfidence, the track threw a short sharp rocky descent at you. At one point the the trail crossed paths with a meter high boulder which required riders to hit it at speed and roll over with sprockets inches from its sharp peak. Opportunities for air were rare and limited in size. This trail lead to Blue Diamond down a streambed, overlooked by the wild descendant of a prospectors abandoned donkey. He chose not to interfere with me as I picked a path over the rocks, no clear lines were evident so the rocker-link suspension earned its paycheck. The upwind return took the legs from Bob & I and we rejoined Alicia and Amy at the van. With two guides, Amy had been able to take Alicia to build skills on singletrack while Bob and I sampled the gnarly though provoking trails. Talk about service! Individual tutelage, tailormade tours and no-one else in the group! After helping us out with lunch, the guides dropped us at the airport.

Our tour guides were from McGhies 

That’s where it all went wrong. We had reports of snow and storms in Jackson and our hearts sank, no seats were available on earlier flights, we were stuck on the last flight into the valley. We managed to get to Salt Lake City and stood in front of gate 77 listening to an unending stream of half baked promises and unworkable plans. Landing in the valley was impossible, driving in this late at night retarded and driving from SLC scarcely better. A weather cancelled flight means no hotel or compensation but we managed to get a “distressed passenger” form which gave us a number to call and a discount. We were given another number to call for an additional “segment” which was to be laid on the next day to get us into Jackson. Our baggage was to appear promptly for our overnight stay. Neither of these things occurred, the baggage was “somewhere” and did not appear neither did the additional segment. We rang the number, where Alicia was told that we could’nt change our reservation (what does THAT mean?) and I was told no flight was going to take us for two days and no compensation or accomodation was to be offered. The big issue here was my ticket home, I could get on at Salt Lake but without most of my kit, which I had left in Jackson.

The morning brought a very helpful person called Troy at the Delta check in desk. We discussed all possible scenarios and were booked onto a flight to nearby Idaho Falls from where I could at worst still make my international flight. At best Alicia’s father was willing to attempt to cross the Tetons to come get us. The flight went out late, queued behind every cancelled and delayed flight in the western US, but got us into the terminal as Fred swung the big Whissel-mobile up to the window. Its now just a hundred or so miles to Jackson, including the 12,000ft pass rearing ahead of us right now.

See you on the far side. The radio is playing the wartime tune “On a wing and a prayer” as the world outside turns white and spits traffic at us.

Loathing Las Vegas1
neil posted in Travel on November 29th, 2006

Las Vegas, home of hype and high rollers, garden of greenback and solicitor of silver. Delivered unto the aging pink Riviera at the head of the strip, Alicia and I prepared to explore this bizarre time and space distored world crammed into a few miles of desert. The city of Las Vegas is huge and growing like a wet carpet seeded with watercress. Its jobs and tarrif-free status suck in families from all over the US and nearby Mexico. Property is becoming incredibly expensive despite vast tracts of desert being turned into housing every day. Henderson has been absorbed and the sprawl is menacing Boulder city. Such is the fear of Vegas-assimilation that Boulder city limits the number of houses that can be built on its land every year and has bought land as far out as it can. I can understand this fear. The pumping heart of Vegas, the strip, should be the fear of all good towns everywhere. It is a simple machine, designed to extract money from tourists as efficiently as possible. Retirees in lounge suits and families are the bread and butter of the upper end of the strip. Most corners on most blocks sported a line of porn vending machines, shady looking leaflet-slappers offer ‘girls to your hotel room’ and strippers. We took the monorail to the classier end of town: the enormous MGM and celluloid heist prone Bellagio. It was a lot like getting stuck in a large expensive mall, until the slot machines reared their chattering beeping heads. Our one attempt at “playing the slots” wound us up with five dollars less and stone cold bored. What skill, science and entertainment that exists repeatedly pressing a single button to randomly produce or deduct credits is beyond my ken. Disappointed by the Bellagio water show and underwhelmed by the bright lights, we arranged a trip to the Hoover dam to escape the clawing, clutching, commercialised mugging of the strip.

Our mistake was expecting escape Vegasness on this trip. We booked a middle of the road bus tour. Our discount voucher was immediately countered by a “fuel surcharge” (charged when the coach tours use up some fuel I guess) Informed that no bags were allowed on the tour we hand-toted SLRs and were picked up by a cheerful New York driver in an unmarked white coach. Mike our driver was one of the excellent exceptions of our day. He cheerfully reeled off a recent economic and cultural history of the area as we barreled towards the traffic jams into the dam. Due to stringent searches post 9-11 and vast quantities of traffic the Hoover Dam has become a choke point. This is ostensibly the reason no bags were allowed on the coach. An armed officer strolled up and down the aisle and posed for a picture and the search was over. The Hoover Dam is magnificent to see. trouble is, you can only see it from a few places. The best viewpoints are closed off and stopping of vehicles is of course illegal. We paid the extra (get used to this) to actually tour the dam, muttering about how tours normally include the tour. The tour was good and reasonably informative, post 9-11, only two sections of the workings are visible. The cavernous Nevada turbine hall and a vibrating platform above a 54ft diameter penstock (supply pipe to the Francis, horizontal runner, turbines).

A shame, but a well stocked museum and walk thru synchronous generator (be good for my wind energy lecture) filled in the blanks. The dam is primarily to stop the seasonal Colorado river from alternately starving and flooding thirsty California farmland. The result is lake Mead, the worlds largest man-made lake, currently very low due to a recent drought. All this awe-inspiring engineering was followed up by penny-pinching and moneygrubbing as the tour dumped us at the has-been Hacienda casino. A two and a half hour pointless stop at a dank place where there is nowhere to sit but at a slot machine or at the bar. Sitting at the bar we were accosted by the security guard and a bartender who stopped families resting on the only seats in the building. The coach had no water on board, and a lack of rucksack prevented us carrying a meaningful amount, so at this point de-hydration had set in. Glaring sunshine and oppressive heat gave us both stinking headaches that lasted until the next evening.

We paid money for this?

Of course, everything costs money, this is Vegas!

Who needs sleep?1
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on November 25th, 2006

Kate and I have just spent 4 days hiking through a section of the Andes that was left largely unexplored by the conquering Spanish to get to an Inca site that was unknown to anyone apart from local farmers untill 1911. We have survived the Inca Trail…

Well, maybe thats a bit over-dramatic. Almost everyone who starts the trail finishes it. But it does climb through altiplano grasslands to over 4200 metres, known asDead Woman Pass. From there it descends through areas of cloud forest (where it hardly ever actually rains, but there is a permanent mist that provides water for all of the plants and mosses) and finally to thick jungle at the lower altitudes.

After three days of hiking through the mountains, our group of 15 tourists, 2 guides and 20 porters arrived at the last campsite. The morning of the fourth day we were woken up at 3.45am so that we could break camp and reach to official entrance to Machu Picchu before all the other visitors arrived. The gate opens at 5.30am, but another group was already waiting there by the time we arrived at 4.40am. Within half an hour there was a large queue waiting for the gate to open. The opening of the gates signals the start of a mad dash with each of the approximately 200 tourists trying to reach the Sun Gate to get the first views over Machu Picchu before too many other people get there. We set off at almost running pace for the final one and a half hour section of the trail, and because of our position near the start of the queue, we all managed to get there before it got too crowded. Our guide actually sprinted up the final flight of steps to overtake to group in front of us. Apparently this trip was the first time ever that he had not been at the very front of the queue to get in. The rush was worth it - the clouds parted to give us an almost birds eye view of Machu Picchu. After catching our breah, we were led into the complex itself to get lost among the passages, temples and palaces of the Incas.

Almost as soon as we got back from the Inca Trail, we got on a flight to Lima, and then on to an overnight bus to the town of Huaraz, which is surrounded entirely by mountain peaks. And what are we going to do next? Another 4 day hike, thats what! Starting tomorrow morning we will start trekking through the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, reaching nearly 5000 metres at the highest pass. This time it will be just the two of us, plus our guide, Juan, and some mules to carry our stuff.

The day my hat was run over1
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on November 19th, 2006

Peru is currently in the middle of a huge election fever. There have been marches, rallys, people waving banners and shouting in the streets all this week. They even set up stages in two of the squares here in Cusco the other night, and two rival parties tried to outdo each other with their chants, and the bands they had hired. The squares were not that far apart… In the last few days, in the build up to the election, it has been forbidden for any pub or restaurant to sell any form of alcohol (although this hasnt stopped our hostel having very noisy parties…). Apparently this is to persuade more people to turn out and vote. There is also a fine for any Peruvian who is registered to vote who fails to show up.

Meanwhile, we have been exploring the city and its surroundings. We went on a walk yesterday to see some of the Inca ruins just outside the city. A gust of wind blew the hat off my head. It had to happen just as a bus was coming along the road…
Kate discovered a really good place to have breakfast, they only serve one thing, a sort of sweet pastry filled with potato, meat, chicken and spices. Its a bit like watching a caburys creme egg ad, how do you eat yours?

Tomorrow we start walking along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu - there will be pictures and more updates when we return.

Edinburgh University AFC vs Keith FC0
neil posted in Photos, Neil on November 18th, 2006

Edinburgh University qualified for the Scottish Cup for the first time in thirty three years. Today they met their first opponents: Keith FC a fancied club from the highland league. Edinburgh were hopeful going into the match as the East of Scotland league (of which Ed Uni is a part) has been comparing favourably with the highlanders, however they were considered the underdogs. At stake was a second round tie with Cowdenbeath and a shot at the Tennents Scottish Cup.

The turnout was impressive despite the £5 entry cost and Edinburgh boasted a decent home crowd. The press were there in full force with photographers from the Daily Mail and other national papers. The game started well with Edinburgh scoring relatively early. A second followed to the crowds delight. Sometime during this Keith FC fans chanted “Get a job!” and were met with cries of “Get an Education!” and “We don’t pay council tax”. The police escorted one of the more vocal Keith FC supporters away from the field. At half time the score remained 2-0 while youngsters took penalties against Ed Uni’s mascot: “Burgh Bear”.

The second half saw more fight from Keith FC. When Stuart Walker was brought on for an injured Jamie Lennox his first ball was into the back of the Uni net. Keith looked dangerous up front and demanded saves from Uni keeper Scott Bennett. The second half stretched into its fifteith minute (despite little stoppage) prompting angry shouts from the Edinburgh dugout. The tension melted at the whistle, calling a halt with Ed Uni 2-1 up. Edinburgh fans and players were Jubilant and veteran honorary president Andrew Ross lit up a cigar in celebration.

John Comino-James and a very small Nikon0
neil posted in Travel on November 17th, 2006

Beyond Words brought John Comino-James to Stills this thursday. He was presenting his new book “a few streets, a few people” the title being a quote from Graham Greene. This describes perfectly his approach to photography.

He shoots one area in great detail over a large period of time, he finds this comfortable when working with people. Where possible he gives prints to the people in the photograph. This style leads to some very interesting connections with people, especially the Cubans. He described how the albums of many Cuban families stop with the economic crash of the Soviet Union. His photographs were the next things to be added I suspect.

Top notch black and white stuff, very reminiscent of David Alan Harvey (though he shoots colour).

Nikon have rather unsuprisingly released information on the ultra-tiny D40. Dpreview have given it their once over here. Its one ickle DSLR, and does’nt lose out too badly on the feature set compared to the D50. Having used a D50, I’m impressed. I’ve been looking for a wee camera that cuts the mustard and I think Nikon may have just stepped up.

The Cars0
Audrey posted in Travel on November 15th, 2006

We would like to thank our hosts for their hospitality and mention their mode of transport.
Ken drives a BMW M5 whish he assures us is an older model with only a V8 to power it.
It appears to have a rocket turbo boost mode which is refered to in the handbook as Second gear.This is very handy on NZ roads which have only short passing lanes (or they just seemed short in the BMW). There were two types of speed limiter,one was a buzzer set at 114 kph, the other was the look his wife gave him every time the buzzer went off.
The other shopping trolley was Robyn’s Z3 with its option of hard and soft top.

Our trip on the South Island was a return to normality,just a Toyota Corolla but like all hire cars it could go where real 4X4’s feared to tread.

Pictures!1
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on November 12th, 2006

Having finally got to a computer that can upload pictures (and doesnt take 2 hours per picture), I have now put some of our pictures online. They go as far as our trip to Lake Titicaca, but not quite as far as Bolivia. Those will be added soon.

Pictures are here.

David

Cuscotopia!2
Kate posted in Travel, Kate & Dave on November 12th, 2006

Lake Titicaca was very pretty, Bolivia was CHEAP and the Isla del Sol deserves its name. We went hiking round the island (which was great fun) but even though it was overcast and threatening to rain and cold enough that we needed sweaters and jackets, we both managed to get sunburnt faces. The peeling has started. Lovely. Altitude strengthens the effect of sunshine. We have now spent almost 10 days at over 4000m, so we should be nicely acclimatised by now, but breathing was a little harder than normal at the start.

But that is all behind us now: as you may have guessed from the title, we are now in Cusco, capital of the Incas. This morning as we walked through the Plaza de Armas we were greeted by a military marching band and lots of parading soldiers. There was some sort of flag raising ceremony, but we didnt understand very much of what the announcer was saying, so we dont yet know what it was all about…