Puno - The First Altitude Experience

We wanted to visit the city of Puno because it is on the banks of Lake Titicaca - the highest navigable lake. Once we were there though, we were unsure whether we would make it down to the shore. It turns out that flying from sea level to 3800 metres is not as good an idea as it sounds. For the first day, all three of us were suffering from altitude sickness. For me, it felt a little like my eyes were too big for my head and thus were trying to pop out of my skull. Dad suffered quite a bit more... very unpleasant business, which left said one of us completely susceptible to any bugs that were floating around.

The second day Mum and I were well enough to venture downstairs for a cup of tea (of the coca kind). The climb back up though had us panting after the first flight like little puppies. We went back to bed and considered our predicament. Dad could still barely lift his head. We managed to force some dry toast into him. At least there was cable TV.

Our third and final day a Puno we all felt well enough to go for a short boat ride out to the floating islands on the lake. It was such an exhiliration to actually be able to sit up for more than an hour, and so exciting to actually be on the lake. Dad even had some of the fresh popcorn. We disembarked on an island where the cheif of the island, Marco, greeted us and told us how the islands were made - by roping together 2m of reed roots then placing a further 1m of cut reeds on top. We bought a couple of souveniers (excellent paintings by a local 13 year old boy) and had dinner back at Puno in an Andean restaurant.

Finally on the shore of Lake Titicaca

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and Judy
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Minor Mishap # 10

We had flown from Lima to Juliaca, with a stop in Arequipa. In order to get to Puno, it was necessary to take a bus. So we threw our bags on top of the minivan and sardined ourselves into seats in the overpacked vehicle.

First stop for the driver was at a station to fill up the tyres. We didn't think much of that event until halfway to Puno (about 30 mins) he stopped to check the tyres... hmm. The next station he stopped at didn't have any air. So the driver decided to try and change the tyre - with us still packed inside.

The light was fading, cold was coming in and we were all starting to feel the altitude. While wondering if we would ever make it to Puno, the driver gave up on the tyre and rang for another bus - bigger and better yay!

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Rapa Nui

After our Russian flight rigmarole (see Minor Mishap #9) we met Dad in Santiago (yay!) before heading to Rapa Nui (translated as: Big Race i.e. Easter Island). The flight got a little turbulent near the end but apparently that is quite normal. Goody. Something to look forward to on the return flight. The runway took up the entire width of one end of the island - which made landing exciting. Our hotel Iorana (¨Welcome¨ in Rapa Nui-an) was right on the coast and had a spectacular view of rugged coastline, which we named Hell's Precipice. The rest of the day was free to explore town - the one main street. Horses and dogs were our "security escorts" while roaming many of the streets. We were so exhausted we fell in to bed early.

The view from our hotel room

Our second day on the island consisted of two half-day tours. The morning was exploring the museum, top knot quarry, and Ahu Akivi - the only statues (Moai) facing towards the ocean. At lunch time we enjoyed fresh fish on the coast and then walked back to Iorana Hotel along the coastline. The afternoon tour took us to the volcano Rana Kao, where there was an ¨Olympic Village¨ (Orongo). This was the location of the 400 year old Birdman contest to become the King's right hand man. The crater of the volcano contained a spectacular lake, filled with reeds apparently genetically identical to those at Lake Titikaka in Peru. Final destination for the day was an Ahu that was constructed in a very similar way to an imperial Incan wall. (This led Thor Heyerdal to mistakenly speculate that Rapa Nui was populated by Incan descendants.)

The next day was a full day tour, where we got to see remains of a village, followed by Ahu Tongariki (which was our first view of Moai with topknots), and then the Moai quarry (in another volcano - Rana Roratka). After frollicking amongst the unfinished Moai, we walked into the crater, also lake filled with an extra helping of Dengue fever, before heading down to a packed lunch. We traveled next to the navel of the world, before our last stop at the only beach of the island. This was where the original settlers had landed and the oldest Moai were found.

Ahu Tongariki

Our last day we made up our own tour of the Moai along the coast towards the museum - consisting of the only one retaining coral eyes. We spent some time in the museum library reading about the undeciphered Rapa Nui script, Rongo Rongo. We wandered around trying to find an unusual home Dad had seen and obsessively wanted to photograph... at any cost. Mum and I gave up while Dad went back to run around in circles. We stumbled across it at the next corner. Once dad had finally caught up with us, we went back to the hotel for some final pictures at Hell's Precipice.

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Minor Mishap #9

On the Saturday before we left St Petersburg, Mum was looking through the trip notes and noticed that our flight in to Moscow arrived at a different Airport than where we were supposed to fly out (to South America). We didn't panic, because our travel agent hadn't pointed it out to us, so we thought it likely that they were just two names for international and domestic terminals.

That afternoon I showed Katya, our tour leader, and asked what was the best way to travel between the terminals... and her face dropped. Apparently the Airports were on opposite sides of the city. We thus started to panic.

For those of you who have not been to Russia before here are the locations of the two airports:

Straight line distance between these is 60 km.

Katya suggested a taxi would be the best way, but would be expensive, and luckily we were travelling on a Sunday, since during the week it could take up to 6 hours crossing the city. We went to bed feeling a little nervous.

As it happened, our flight from St Petersburg arrived an hour early in Sheremetyevo and I immediately went to the transfer desk to ask about the best way to get to Domodedovo. The two attendants exchanged disbelieving looks, which further plummeted my confidence. However, they gave me comprehensive information on catching a bus, metro then train.

Luckily passport control was unattended, so we saved another hour there. Outside I asked about the cost of a taxi - 5000 Rubels (about $250!). This pretty much made our decision to take the public transport. All up we had 3 hours to get to Domodedovo.

It took an hour on the bus to the metro because traffic was bad due to rain. The nausea started to rise. The metro took 30 minutes and the express train to the airport took a further hour. So we ended up making it with 30 minutes to spare. Easy... right? Total cost - 500 Rubels ($25).

After checking in, our nausea had lifted and we even had time to get something to eat.

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St Petersburg - The City of Palaces

Following a rather bumpy (but safe) bus ride to St Petersburg, we went to the Nikaloveski Theatre to enjoy a Cossack music and dance show. We were met in the foyer by wigged Victorian courtiers who handed us a glass of champagne. After the first half we had another glass of champagne together with caviar. The second half opened with glorious singing from a male quartet and continued with more of the traditional dancing. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards, Mum and I forwent the boat cruise to look around St Isaacs cathedral.

Some of the Palaces.

The next day was the group's city tour. We started with Smolny Cathedral - painted as blue as the sky and which was never used as a place of worship. We continued on to the Church of our Saviour on Spilt Blood (built on the site where Alexander I was assasinated). At 12 noon we viewed the Peter and Paul fortress from across the River Neva. Katya had failed to mention that the cannon goes off at 12 and the fountain in the middle of the river starts up, accompanied by classical music. Rather a nice surprise. Lunch was at a Russian restaurant a bit like Sizzler, only you pay for the time you are in there. The afternoon was spent at the Hermitage Museum which is made up of 5 buildings including the Winter Palace. The opulence was like too much candy for the eyes.

Alexander column near the Winter Palace.

The last day Mum and I went in to explore Nevsky prospect - the main street of St Petersburg. The evening was spent having goodbye drinks with our lovely group.

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and Judy

A Day in Pskov

It turned out that not much sleep was had on the train ride due to open carriages and lack of ventilation. Arriving in Pskov, we only had time to freshen up before our bus tour. We saw the city Kremlin from across the river at the cathedral of the Three Sacraments - where Elizabeth had seen three rays of light when the area was just a forest and subsequently ordered a cathedral built with a surrounding town.

View of Pskov Kremlin

We then made our way up to the border with Estonia to visit Pechory Monastery, stopping at roadside stalls for some delicious strawberries. We donned scarves and skirts to enter the monastery and were even allowed to enter the burial caves (not all tourists are allowed inside them to ensure the temperature is kept at 5 deg C). We only had a thin candle to light the way which made the whole experience very Indiana Jones-esque. We were careful not to lose the group leader!

After the Monastery we headed to a local retreat in order to take part in a Banya.
How to perform a Banya:
1. Season with a shot of vodka
2. Heat at 70 deg C until sweating
3. Tenderise by thrashing with birch twigs soaked in water
4. Quench with cold water
5. Run in to lake (sqealing optional)

After these exertions, we filled ourselves full of traditional Russian cuisine - chicken kebab-ish pieces, pickles, cabbage salad, salmon, potatoes and spiced biscuit/cakes. We then went back to our hotel fully sated to nap (ahh sleep, finally). We woke up for the group dinner... not that we needed it, and then had a lovely sunset walk along the river before heading back to bed.

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and Judy

Россуя - Москва (Russia - Moscow in Cyrillic)

We got to Russia by travelling through Paris, London and Moscow all in 36 hours. It's a hard life...

We met our tour guide Katya on the first day who was gorgeously Russian with a lovely long plait. That night we met with our group and found out all 15 of us were Aussies! It was a little weird not being home for so long and then having a buffer zone of Australia on tour.

The tour started the next day, with Katya taking us via the Moscow metro to the Red square - first stop: Lenin's Mausoleum. After waiting in line for half an hour we had a very quick and eerie 3 minute walk through the highly guarded mausoleum. Lenin looked like he was about to take a breath. Afterwards we toured around the Red Square (the word for red in Russian also means beautiful). We walked throught the GUM shopping center - previously only for Russian-made apparel, but now exclusive boutiques. St Basil's Cathedral at the end of the square was stunning as expected. We decided to look inside the Cathedral and were surprised at the several small chambers as opposed to a large worship hall (to conserve heat in the -20 deg C winters). We walked to an underground restaurant for lunch then past a un-namable building before walking to the Church of Our Saviour. The president happened to be inside where a service was being held, so we couldn't go in to the main part, but we donned scarves to attend the service in a subsiduary cathedral. Very ceremonial. We finished off the day having a tour of three of the best metro stations - complete with chandeliers, marble and mosaics.

In the Red Square

The second day was back to Red square for a tour of the Kremlin. Actually, Kremlin just means fort - every Russian city has a Kremlin... the Moscow one is just famous. Inside the Kremlin was different to what I expected. It was just a conglomeration of buildings, some old, some modern and some still used by today's parliament. We saw the biggest cannon that hasn't been fired and the biggest bell never rung as well as a slew of cannon's captured from Napoleon as spoils of war. People (tourists) were kept in line by guards using their whistles with gusto. We also saw the main church area that contained about four churches. One for coronation, one for everyday use and one for funerals. After the Kremlin , Mum and I split off from the group with a few other people and walked up to the main coffee area for lunch at Starbucks and a visit to Hard Rock Cafe. In the afternoon we walked back to the Alexandrian gardens around the Kremlin and were in time for the very precise, but short, changing of the guard.

The next day, Katya took some of our group to a park in front of the University overlooking the Moscow skyline. It was then back to the hotel and off to catch the train to Pskov.

Overlooking the Moscow skyline

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and Judy