The Inca-credible Inca capital...Cuzco, PERU!

Cuzco is a city built on the bold shoulders of memory; white washed hotels and tumble-down cafes are crouched upon the puzzle-like remains of Inca stonework, their paint dripped and clotted at the foundations like iced cakes.

The colonial churches and balconied houses are like beautiful masks which, at their bases, reveal an older and wiser face; the remains of a people who worshipped the sun, who dedicated temples to the moon. Everwhere the forgotton arches of an empire are bricked in and blocked; angles are turned into squares, curves into corners. Footsteps echo on the smooth stone paths down narrow side streets, expertly built for the Inca messengers to quickly deliver their news by foot.

The city is spread within the basin of a mountain valley. By day it is as though we are all contained inside the lining of some giant cosy pocket. By night, I feel like I'm in a huge snow globe being showered by invisible wishes, the lights dancing around the the curve of the valley like falling glitter.

I have moved into a house at the top of a cobbled hill which feels as though it must be the beginning of a story. The view below is full of red roof tiles, wandering dogs and a cluster of traditionally dressed ladies asking passing tourists for one Sole to take a picture. I am indulging in my first hot showers for seven months in my very own and very pink bathroom. It is such a comfort to be back in a cosy bed, especially one with a tartan blanket! The small pleasures of life are all around and shining brightly.

At the San Pedro market there are stalls for about pretty much anything. I wander between the isles of fish eggs and seeweed, cheese wheels and dried fruit, taylors and tinkers- this is where life seems to happen in the city, between the walls of the market and between the people. Through and among the colours and and chaos there is a order that brings me peace, and I can spend hours searching the stalls for curiosities and inspirations.

CHILE PART III: Mystery

Easter Island/ Rapa Nui!!

3700km away from the Chilean coast in the middle of the Pacific ocean, Rapa Nui has always been one of those places in the world that I have nurtured lovingly in my imagination. I have thought of it as a place where deep mysteries still prevail, and where secrets are still kept. In a world where prettty much everything else has been given a logical and perhaps disappointing explanation, this has always seemed like an extremely appealing quality to me. Before I arrived I had already constructed the island like a 3D dream in my mind, and of course this kind of projection can cause problems when it clashes with reality. My dream was composed of cut outs from magazines, the televised exploration by David Attenbolough, and books about European voyagers like Captain Cook who had landed on the island when parts of the world were still just topographical speculation.

But really and truly, and using this cliche with high-pitched delight, it was even better than I had imagined!

I think that the best known questions about the island are as follows:

How did the Moai (stone statues) get to their current positions on the island?

What caused the civil conflict that led to the toppling of the Moais?

What ancient stories are preserved in pictograph skript on the wooden tablets found by archeologiest?

I gather from my trip that the answer to all of the above questions have been tackled by different theorists, but there are conflicting views and problems with each. Due to the external blows of disease brought by foreigners and imposed slavery, many of the elders who posessed knowledge of the islands history and written language died leaving much information lost to time.

The traditional story goes that the Moia were calved at the Rano Raraku volcanoe and then got up and walked to take their position on the coastal Ahus....

We enter the quarry in the first hours of day light; a deep silence has settled into the vast crator inside the summit. All around us gigantic grey forms twist and emerge at every angle from the dry earth. Foreheads, ears, parts of torsos are visible, and the more you look the more Moia can be spotted still half merged into the slabs of sedimanted rock above. It is as though a brave troop of giants from the underworld had made the long journey to the earths surface, and then been petrified in the sunlight before they had chance to fully emerge. The rest of the bodies are indeed bueried in the earth where they stand.

The thing I realised about the island is that it doesnt need to remain mysterious to be incredible. Standing at the sights of the vaious restored Ahu (ceremonial platforms) I was completely overwhelmed by the presence of such powerful images which were the obvious direction of devotion for generations of people. Their endurance through civil strife, tsunamis and 100s of years of abandonment also gave me strong feelings when stood beneath their proud, damaged faces. To me they were powerful images of human belief aswell as archelogical wonders. When I read about the troubled history of the islanders the Moia became symbolic of the struggle to preserve a collective memory.

Aside from that, they are simply super-cool.

We set off on long walks around the island, loaded up with picnics and maps. There is only one inhabited town (Hanga Roa) and so it is easy to feel like you might be the only people there at times. There are cave networks running underneath the island formed by lava flows, and the entrances pop up all over in the windswept grassy fields that compose most of the landscape. Chestnut horses roam free in little family units; fluffed up sparrows perch on the heads of the Moai, completely oblivious to it all.

We climbed to the highest point of the island (getting lost once and ending up at pineapple farm) where we could see the wild blue yonder in a complete circle around us. This is the most coherant sense I´ve ever had of the world as a minute sphere hurtling through space; it was like you could see its dimensions disappearing into the fret on the brow of the circle horizon.

CHILE: PART II- Magic!!

Puerto Varas and Chiloe

I couldn´t decide weather to call this section Magic or Marmite, but since marmite was a magical part of these cold december days, I decided to go with the fomer. And yes, marmite meant visitors from home!! I picked up two sun-starved gnomes from the airport in Puerto Montt (my brother and my aunty for those who don´t know) and took them back to the German settlement town of Puerto Varas, which looks a lot like an imaginary village from a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale. The wood-slat homes are the picture of winter cosiness painted in bright colours with little smoking chimneys . In the town tiny shops sell home made knit wear and big slabs of creamy cakes . It is a novelty to be back in a place where its absolutely necessary to wear coats and hats, although something about it reminds me a bit of the Truman Show, and I keep expecting to turn a corner to find people waiting in position for their cue. The backdrop of two snow capped volcanoes behind a gigantic lake makes the scene even more magical, and the shore line is decorated with tiny villages that have suitably cute names such as Frutilla (which translates to Strawberry!). At night their evening lamps and windows make it looks as though there were a string of fairy-lights hung around the lake.

We spend Christmas day eating cheese sandwiches and opening presents at the top of volcanoe Osorno which is shown in the picture. What a view! We did cheat by getting the ski-lift but walked the last bit so still felt that we deserved our picnic. It was nice to have some parts of home on top of the world in a land far away!

The next stop was Chiloe, a huge island further south. The ocean divide between it and the mainland is like a castle moat, as though to keep all of the myth and history safely contained inside. The traditional houses stand at the shore edge on long wooden stilts like angular spiders, slanting against each other in a precarious fashion. This is like a land from a different type of story, the kind that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, but that you love to read just before bed anyway. The islands mythical figures are certainly fit for such a tale; Trauco is a deformed dwarf with course and swollen features, stumps for feet and a wooden club called "Pahueldún"; The ghost ship CALEUCHE sails the misty waters with a crew of drowned sailors playing a soft and enchanting music.

(http://www.chiloeweb.com/chwb/chiloeisland/english/tem_gen_mitologia.html for more enchanting characters).

As we arrive on the small ferry a light rain is falling over the grey water. On the cobbled street that slopes down to our hostel pirate-style accordion music is drifting from an open door way. We eat at a pier side restaurant where the tables are set for 200 peope but we are the only ones there..

Upon taking a tour to the remoter part of the island we are graced with a very excited tour guide who insists that we call out ´Magic!!´at various points during the trip. The churches and sites are indeed pretty magical in a rather sinister, unsettling way. They are the kind of places you might expect to see a ghost if you had a certain type of disposition.

We visit the national park where dense, mossy trees morph together and totally cover the land beneath. The Palo Mayor plant found here was used by medicine men as a potion to cure fear. I imagine that you might need such a thing journeying through this thicket of forest, where creatures and unknown things are sure to lurk in the deep clots of moss underfoot.

Chile

CHILE: PART I- Mayhem!! (Santiago and Valparaiso)

As soon as the foisty two day bus crosses the border into Chile a sequence of curious events begins; firsty I am back on my own and developing mild insanity after 27 hours of not talking to anyone except my trusty finger puppet Banjamin. Also, the countries length makes it like a pantomime of different characters chaging shape, colour and costume as you travel. As it therefore seems impossible to describe the whole show in one long stint, I have split the Chilean adventure into its three main parts: Mayhem, Magic and Mystery- Crikey, it was just as spectacular as the name suggests!

We begin shuttling through the parched roads of the northern desert, which slowly give way to the angular grey mountains of the middle-north where Santiago (the capital) is nestled between smog-covered peaks.

MAYHEM!! : Santiago and Valparaiso

(early December)

My time around Santiago was less like a sequence of events and more like a coiled slinky setting off down a flight of wonky stairs. The city itself is much like the petrifyingly beautiful ladies that live there; proud, intimidating and extremely fashionable. Billboards, shopping plazas, neon lights and frantic traffic are mingled with polite statues and fountains in the many parks (I can tell I have been reading my Rouge Guide a bit too much as I am starting to write about places in the same tone...yikes!). It´s very hot and I burnt the insides of my knees on the first day, ouch! On the first night I am introduced to Pisco Sours (very strong, never have more than one) and taken out partying with the crazy hostel owner.

In the morning I wake up confused and dishevelled but excited to be reuinted with my lovely Canadian friend Alex! After our morning choco cerial (which is the highlight of the hostel) we decide to hitch a ride to the famous seaside town of Valparaiso, but are offered a lift at the last minute by the very same hostel worker that had led me astray the previous night. The drive is all sunglasses and hot tarmac; everyone here seems to drive above the speed limit (if there even is one!)We are taken to the hostel of our escorts friend who greets us with glazed eyes and a suspicious smokey smell floating around him. The hostel is very perculiar: all the beds are unmade from god knows when and there dont appear to be any guests... We are told we can stay there for free if we provide wine for the party that eve, so we agree being a big skint but have a feeling we wont be able to do much sleeping anyway.

We head into the tumble- down streets of the town where colourful cubes of houses are scattered about the hillsides like thrown dice. Door-ways and alcoves are covered with quirky graffiti as though draped in costume jewellery, and street performers in stripey tights play for money at the traffic lights. We are given a quick tour in the car, getting lost down the helta-skelta streets in a confusion of reversing and three point turns.

We visit the house of the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda which contains a beautiful hotch potch of curious posessions such as a private bar decorated in extravagant gold, a fun house mirror and a stuffed penguin.

Our arrival back at the hostel is greeted with cream liquor, Absinth (burning sugar and all) and a wide eyed girl with a nervous twitch who is handing out little packets to the hostel owner..hmm. The night passes through to 7am in a colourful haze, and we watch the sunrise over the sea from the dusty hilltop.

Part II-Ecuador to Peru: Luggage and Baggage

I met an old man in the bus station when I first arrived in Ecuador; he had been travelling for over a year with nothing but a stuffed, scruffy briefcase and a walking stick. He was one of those wise bearded types, and seemed really comfortable amongst the hoards of backpackers who were waddling round the station with sweaty backs and packs nearly as big as their bodies. We got to talking about how he managed to travel around with so little stuff, and he said he had just never been the kind of person who needed much. I started thinking about what you could tell about a person by the things they carry, and how interesting it would be to see what people choose to pack; what special things they always take with them and what they leave behind.

I always try to carry a little but end up with a lot..having made the decision at the beginning of my trip to buy an accordion which I now haul round in a big black case. I also have a lot of seemingly impractical trinkits and momentos from home, and always too many books as I dont like to leave them behind in the book exchanges!

As we sit in the gray squares of the Quito bus station surrounded by stale smoke, I look over at Janes bag and spot a tupperware tub of wheat-germ and a copy of Richard Branson´s autobiography sticking out the top..read into this what you will :)

Half way through our wait two enormous suitcases are wheeled through the door by a perspiring taxi driver. A string of three small children follow being chased by the commanding tone of their mother who soon appears, cursing the Ecuadorians and her kids simultaneously with a Marlboro red hanging out of her mouth. It becomes clear immediately that this lady has a lot of baggage in every sense of the word, and before we know what has hit us she commences to tell us all about the particulars of her suitcase, and the burden of her children. A she does so one of the kids is coughing bronchially with his hands stuffed down his trousers, one is already wrapped around Jane´s legs, and the other is on the chair next to me pulling weird faces. It turns out that the two massive suitcases contain all their belongings, and they have left Canada to travel around South America in search of a new home. In the ensuing monologue I gather that she is carrying 2 large hunting knives in there (which she believes every sensible traveller should do), the remaining possessions of her dead father, and a computer (amongst other things). As we pile onto the bus, I wonder what she will pass onto her kids; what they will take with them and what they will leave behind as they grow older.

The bus is already crowded with long haul passengers from Veneuzala. A procrarious mountain of suitcases and duffle bags is stacked on the backseat behind us: exectutive black suitcases, checkered laundry bags, a roll or carpet and a stack of taped up cardboard boxes amongst them. I imagine the lives and secrets that are tucked away inside, the stories behind the trasit of the stranger items. If you emptied out all the bags, would you be able to match the people with their luggage just by comparing them?

After several hours we cross the border into Peru. The landscape changes into a sparse wilderness of sand banks and rocky mountains; the oily sun setting over a still, pale coast. Civilization is marked only by small corrugated-iron shacks which appear between the arrid peaks that line the road. We pass one such cell of existance with childrens washing hung out on a wire line. A rusted bike cart is parked at the front, its lone tyre track winding down the valley like a palm line. I imagine a whole family is living here, and that under that make-shift roof they have everything they need to survive.

ECUADOR TO CHILE - a curious soup of a journey. PART I - Quito time plays its tricks

Seven days, 3 countries and 110 hours on the coach is facing us if we want to make it from Ecuador to Chile in time for christmas. The journey starts in the crowded night streets of Quito on the 6th of December; a date that we had forgotten was a public holiday in the city. As we arrive from out first 9 hour coach journey from the coast we are husteled and bustled around the streets, tired eyed and vaguely confused. The first stint of our journey will be a daunting 36 hours from Quito to Peru´s capital, Lima. We go to the Transamerica office to buy our tickets and a man with a deep waxen scar like a sign across his forehead advises us that the bus will be leaving at 10pm that evening.
We head back into town with a few hours to kill, and find ourselves in the thick cheer of bottle swinging crowds, their laughing faces melting and twisting like wax in the bulb-lit night. A uniformed police band march past us, their spotless brass instruments held like curious weapons at their sides. Time seems to have slowed down and conjealed like the people and the traffic; nobody is hurrying anywhere. The night is on a continuous loop of red latin music that licks the buzzing pavements into a firework sheen and echos its deep laugh into the mouths and pint glasses of the people. We indulge in food and beer and saying goodbyes to this rich Colada Morada of a country, and the time melts into it all like slow syrup as the bus journey gets further and further away from our thoughts.
Suddenly we are pulled from the festivities like bubbles spitting out of the pot. We have 20 minutes to catch our bus and the streets are of course mainly closed due to the huge parades
that will act as the climax to the city holiday. We run through the rain varnished streets in search of a taxi, dodging stilt walkers with white painted faces and dancing school girls in pom-pommed plastic boots. We dodge small children chewing on greasy Pintox and whisky breathed men in thick coats and pork-pie hats. Everywhere are hot crowds in syrup slow motion and we are awkwardly trying to swim through, getting Áye aye ayes!!´from disaproving old ladies as we tumble past.
As we reach Amazonas we are greeted by a vast perade of dance, light and extravagant mayhem; a milkfloat decked with candy LED´s acting as a chintzy chariot for the Quito beauty queens who gaze into the crowd and wave submissivly like immaculate puppets.We push our way to the front of the mesmorised crowd with only 10 minutes to go until the bus leaves. This whole scene is like some kind of surreal carnival dream, and I feel like the omniprescent dreamer; whitnessing it all without actually being there.
We realise we have no choice but to cross the perade and also realise that this will be a sacriligious action causing anti-gringo feeling the crowd over. ´Just try to blend in´I say to Jane, forgetting that my pale skinned, stripey panted Englishness is unblendable at the best of times. Suddently there is a break in the crowd as a large man in a leather jacket attempts the mean feat of crossing. ´Follow him!´ screams Jane, and we charge across the perfect pattern of traditional dancers in cultural dress, exuding all responsibility for the ensuing cufuffle by hiding behind the rather tall man.
Finally in a taxi, two minutes to go, haggling with the taxi driver about the price, almost there....and the bus is nowhere to be seen. ´Have we missed it???´we question the security guard in exasperated Spanish. The man regards our panic with confused amusement and casually states that the bus will probably arrive at about midnight. I suppose we should have got used to the Quito time by now; it is always slowing down, speeding up, and then slowing back down again as it pleases. Oh well, at least we will be leaving the place in traditional style!