The Oldest Civilisation in the Americas

We've spent the last few days getting to know a bit more of Peru's history, from the oldest civilisation in the Americas to the turbulent recent past.

Ayacucho

From Ica, we set off for the less-visited city of Ayacucho, back up in the mountains. Ayacucho was the main base for the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) communist organisation. Starting in the early 80s, it waged a guerilla war against the military government that, predictably, responded with violence. This left much of the populace caught between the two sides with thousands of casualties, the majority poor people from the countryside. Sendero Luminoso declined in activity from 1992 when its leader was captured, but there are still sporadic bursts of activity.

The remains of the powerful Wari empire

We used Ayacucho as a base to visit the ruins of the Wari civilisation's capital city. This was a city of an estimated 50,000 people and was the centre of a pre-Inca empire extending over much of Peru between the years 500 and 900. There isn't much left of it today; although there are some remaining buildings and walls still standing, it's hard to imagine a city that big in the abandoned cactus-covered desert.

The main square in Lima

After Ayacucho, we took another night bus back down to the coast for a brief stay in Lima. We're planning to return here in about a month, so we just visited the main sites - the park filled with stray cats in Miraflores (which Jo loved), and a walk around the historic colonial-era centre. It felt a bit depressing as Lima is famous for being covered in white mist for half of the year. We cheered ourselves up by finding one of the first places in which pisco sours were made.

5,000 year old pyramids at Caral

We left Lima to travel further north along the coast to Barranca, the closest town to the ancient ruins of Caral. This is an astounding site - it dates from 5,000 years ago so is one of the cradles of civilisation. It's the oldest such site in the Americas, and was founded at the same time as the Egyptian pyramids were being built. There are remains of pyramids and residential buildings centred around a large square that are in amazing condition considering their age.

Being gluttons for punishment, we've now returned to the mountains, where we're hoping to do some more trekking from Huaraz.

Volcanoes, Forts and Beer

From Chiloé we took a bus to Puerto Varas, a touristy town close to Volcán Calbuco. En route the volcano erupted for a third time and we could see the ensuing ash cloud from the bus window. Sadly, once in Puerto Varas itself the weather was too bad to see any more of the volcano, despite it being just over the lake. Since most activities in the town were suspended due to the Calbuco situation, we decided to move on after one night.

Hazy view across from Puerto Varas to Volcán Osorno (left) and Calbuco (right)

Our next stop was Valdivia, a pretty city towards the west coast, with tame sea lions and pelicans frequenting the big riverside fish market. We were lucky to find a fantastic hostel to stay in - it was very eco-friendly, had a resident pet cat (adorable) and duck (vicious!) and was very sociable, with a delicious communal fish barbecue on our first night.

Resident sea lions at the fish market in Valdivia

Valdivia is located at the junction of three rivers and has some wonderful scenery just out of town. On our second day we visited the remains of several forts around Corral Bay. These were built by the Spanish in the 17th century to defend their territories from the threat of attacks from the Pacific, especially pirate raids which were becoming an increasing problem at the time. After going round the recently renovated and very well done fort at Niebla, we took a ferry across the bay to the town of Corral and went to see two more forts there. Corral seemed to be the store for the whole country's supply of wood chippings - the town was dominated by two absolutely enormous piles!

Guns at the fort in Niebla, near Valdivia

Valdivia is also known for its breweries and after a washed out attempt to go to a national park one day, we spent an enjoyable afternoon sampling beers. It is the base for one of Chile's largest brewing companies, Kunstmann, but we decided to give the very touristy trip there a miss and instead checked out two microbreweries. We particularly liked the first of these, El Duende (The Gnome), which had a wood burning stove, free herb bread and lovely river views even in the rain. Not to mention very decent beer on tap!

Fishing boats and pelicans

After three days in Valdivia we moved on to Pucón, a lakeside town adjacent to Volcán Villarrica. We only intended to stay here for one night since a) it is very touristy; b) the top activity, climbing Villarrica, has been impossible since it erupted in March; and c) we'd heard the town was badly affected by volcanic ash blown across from Calbuco. However, on arrival we swiftly reversed this decision. The air was perfectly clear, there weren't many people around, and there was plenty to do! Our hostel in Pucón is on the lakefront and also has a great view of Volcán Villarrica. There's still a plume of smoke from time to time and on a clear night you can see the top glowing red - it's pretty awesome.

Glowing Volcán Villarrica, from Pucón

The forecast for the day after we arrived was clear, so we took the opportunity to climb another of the volcanoes in the area. Not Villarrica of course, but a much less active one. We left the hostel at 7 am and made the ascent in a group of ten with two local guides. The walk started in the forest but most was out on the mountain and the snow cover increased as went up. We were carrying lots of gear and in the course of the walk up our bags lightened considerably as we donned crampons, helmets and began using ice picks. This was the best part of the whole experience - neither of us had ever done any serious hiking in snow and ice before, and the scenery blanketed in white was spectacular. As were the views from the top, from where we could see down to the snow filled crater, and across to Volcan Villarrica on one side and numerous other volcanoes in the other direction.

Ascending Volcán Quetrupillán, with Volcán Villarrica in the distance

We have another couple of days here, with lots more outdoor activity planned, including a waterfall and a national park.

First Impressions

Well, here we are in Buenos Aires, Argentina!  After a very long flight the first challenge was getting through Argentine passport control and customs. The queue for the former was pretty impressive, making a lot of Southeast Asian immigration queues pale in comparison. The next challenge was finding transport from the airport into the city - we had been well informed previously about which minibus we needed to take, but said minibus proved elusive. So elusive that we gave up in the end and got a shared taxi.

We had pre-booked an AirBnB in Buenos Aires and this proved to be an excellent choice. We turned out to be staying in an extremely grand, former palace of a house. It is owned by a British lady, who employs some people here to look after  and run it. It is very much a work in progress, with various rooms in various states of restoration. The rooms on the first floor, where we were, are accessed via the sweeping original staircase, and all the doors are covered in mirrors. Mosaic floors, stained glass windows, high ceilings ... we had it all. Highly recommended! It also had a garden with hammock and resident dog, cat and chickens (and avocado tree) - great.

In front of the grand staircase

Our AirBnB recommended us a place to change money. We went along the touristy street, up a flight of stairs to a level at about 0.5 between ground and 1. Then down to the end of a corridor to a completely blacked out office, where we were quietly ushered in when we knocked on the door. Not many words were exchanged, but currency definitely was.

The money exchange office

For the past few days we have been exploring the city and getting a feel for life here. It is an interesting place. Very mixed, with horrific breezeblock apartments alongside very grand, former colonial mansions and palaces like the one in which we were staying. It has a ramshackle feel to it and a lot of the downtown areas seem like they are in a recession - the pavements are cracked and crumbling, most of the roads seem to be being dug up (there are bulldozers and roadworks in every other street) and we are constantly being dripped on by air conditioning units. Despite this we like it - it is quite a loveable state of disrepair. Other neighbourhoods of the city are quite different - the Recoleta area, which we visited today, is full of posh mansions and hotels, art galleries, boutiques and foreign embassies. More a la Mayfair! Like many other cities, there is definitely a pronounced rich and poor divide.

Highlights of our recent sightseeing include the Casa Rosada (literally, the pink house), where the presidential offices are; the famous Recoleta cemetery, where we saw Evita's tomb; an art gallery with Rodin statues and plenty of impressionist paintings; and a tour through underground tunnels of BA, where old tributaries used to run. The tour guide for the latter was very informative as much about present day life as the past - we learnt a lot about Argentinian politics, e.g. this year is an election year and the mayor of BA is standing against the president.

La Casa Rosada

The food is, shall we say, somewhat meat heavy! They do meat very well but vegetables are hard to come by. I tried to be healthier the other day ordering a mixed vegetable grill rather than meat. It came swimming in oil... think maybe best to stick with what they're best at! The empanadas are veeery tasty.

Enough for now - see you next time! We're going to try and update the blog every Tues and Fri, internet depending.