The Last Post

Well, we're back. I'm sure half of our regular readers have quit checking by now. Our apologies for leaving it so long.
We left Torreon on the 29th of June, sadly, as we had made some good friends there. After spending four quick hours in Oklahoma City we boarded our LAST bus! I won't miss it. Three days in Tulsa with Piet's grandma and another four days in Nebraska with Piet's family meant we spent July 4th in small town US of A. That night was fun-filled with firecrackers, fireworks, and exploding toilet bowl cleaner.
The old '86 Corolla was less than ready to take us back to Canada. There were no brakes and in searching for the problem we broke two wheel studs and another brake line. After getting it out of the shop, we made it across the street before another brake line burst. It's interesting to think what might have happened had we driven it into the mountains. So, we left with Piet's dad's van, which still has the dent from when I "rear"ended it. We stayed five days with Kris and Tasha in Duluth, having Annika for ample entertainment.
Then we headed for our last border crossing. They searched our stuff for an hour, then kept us an hour more before deciding we actually could drive a US licensed vehicle into Canada. In 15 minutes we heard two Tragically Hip songs and a token tune from Neil Young, leaving no doubt that we were back in the Great White North.
It feels good to be on home soil. I can't figure why, it just does.
Six and a half months, 12 new countries, 49, 807 km (1.2 times around the earth), 817 hours of travelling (just over 34 days on a bus). Ironically there are no truly remarkable stories, meaning nothing extremely funny happened, there are no tales of escape from danger, in short nothing out of which we could write a book and get rich. That said, it was the most remarkable six months of my life, and I know Piet feels the same. What began a year and a half ago as an outrageous idea quickly grew into a dream, which became a reality, and it has left us with the sense that you can do anything you set your mind to. How can we possibly sum up the adventure? I'd like to say wait for the slideshow, because a picture is worth a thousand words, but even though we have eight hours of video and 6000 stills, the pictures don't rival the memories. I guess that's just the way it is. We all have special experiences and thoughts, stuff we have trouble describing or communicating. But that must be the reason they are so special to us, because they are, and can only be, ours, our thoughts, our experiences. It was our adventure, and even if I could, I wouldn't give it up for anything.

Here are some lists which you may or may not find interesting.

Memorable Experiences (impossible to rank)
Scuba Diving
Perito Moreno Glaciar
River Plate Game
Sunrise on the Salar
Tierra del Fuego
Potosi
Santa Maria
Barbeque at Butch and Sundance's place
Ferry in Chile
Hitchhiking
Torreon

Top Five
Torres del Paine
Puerto Madryn
Iguazu Falls
Death Road
Jungle

Numero Uno
Machu Picchu

Some Superlatives
Most beautiful women: #1 Costa Rica, #2 Buenos Aires
Most dogs: Chile
Most dog poop: Buenos Aires
Best food: Chile, Argentina, Mexico, the Baleada (Honduras)
Best coffee: Argentina
Cheapest food: Bolivia
Most diarrhea: Bolivia
Best country: Argentina
Friendliest people: Argentina
Most hospitable: Mexico
Rudest: Peru
Worst border: Peru-Ecuador
Least "westernized": Bolivia
Most "westernized": Ecuador
Windiest place: El Chalten, Argentina
Best Music: Bolivia
Best city: Buenos Aires
Best meal: Boliche de Dario (all you can eat meat)
Best fries: Salta, Argentina
Most gringos: Torres del Paine
Country from which the most tourists came: Israel
Worst busride: Uyuni to Potosi in Bolivia
Nicest buses: Argentina
Worst bus company: Greyhound (by far)
Longest busride: 38 hours from Quito to Lima
Biggest bus terminal: Panama City
Best donut: Costa Rica
Most overplayed song: Noviembre Sin Ti by Reik
Worst Spanish accent:Chile
Most expensive country: Chile
Most butterflies: Iguazu Falls
Most shotguns in the street: Guatemala
Best beach: Manuel Antonio National Park
Worst Beach: Valparaiso, Chile
Biggest dissapointment: Devil's Nose Train
Most fantastic display of nature: Iguazu Falls
Best sunrise: Salar
Best churches: Xela, Guatemala and Arequipa, Peru

Other Stuff:
Total number of Belgians spotted: 8
Major Arguments: 5
Points of homesickness: Ushuaia and Bolivia
Total weightloss: nil
Articles lost:
Clay: 5 towels, 1 pair of glasses, 1 pair of swimming trunks, pocket knife, watch
Pieter: 1 towel, 1 belt, 2 notebooks, 1 bankcard (found), Tim Horton's cup, countless pairs of socks, code to padlock, Central America guidebook

Lastly, it is hard to explain how exciting and strangely comforting it was to know that you were following along. It was kind of fun to have an audience of sorts. For that we want to thank you, and we hope that you've enjoyed it. Take care and God bless!

Sincerely, the Bandidos Yanquis


Butch: I got a great idea where we should go next.
Sundance: I don't want to hear it.
Butch: You'll change your mind when I tell ya.
Sundance: Shut up.
Butch: OK, OK.
Sundance: It's your great ideas that got us here.
Butch: Forget about it.
Sundance: I don't ever want to hear another one of your ideas. All right?
Butch: All right.
Sundance: OK.
Butch: Australia - I figured secretly you wanted to know, so I told ya. Australia.

Back in Torreon

We apoligize for not posting anything for awhile. The truth is, the end of our trip is turning out to be kind of anti-climactic, and there's just not that much to write about. We've been in Torreon for the last week, enjoying three football games a day and the Mexican hospitality. We needed to be here by the 10th for the wedding of two friends, Monica and Nolan. We left Flores, Guatemala, at 5:00 am, last Tuesday morning, and took a bus to the border with Mexico. We crossed the border, the Rio Usumacinta, with about 15 others in an outboard motorboat. After a 20 minute ride upstream we 'docked' (there was just a dirt road leading down to the river) on the Mexican side. We took a two-hour busride through the Chiapas countryside to Palenque, where we waited a few hours for the night bus to Mexico City, while trying to avoid the heat. We spent all day Wednesday in Mexico City checking out the main sights (like Azteca Stadium). By Thursday morning we were in Torreon. We are staying with Carlos and Erin, our roommates in Brandon for the last year and a half. After five months it's nice to just relax a little, and spend time with friends. The wedding was a lot of fun, and quite different from a North American wedding. The bride, Monica, lived in the same house as us for four months in Brandon, and we went to school (and I played soccer) with Nolan for the last three years. The ceremony didn't start till 9:00 pm. It was held at a Catholic church on the top of a hill overlooking the city, and was really nice. The reception started around 10:30, and was held outside. It lasted till 4:00 am. There was dancing, marriachis, and tequila, three Mexican staples. Before the throwing of the garter belt, all the guys had to hold hands and run around in what is called 'the snake of the sea.' It got going pretty fast, and Clay and I, who were almost at the back, came close to falling, which is, as we found out later, the purpose of this game. Neither of us caught the garter belt, but that didn't deter us from trying to meet a few senioritas. We got home at 5:00, and I woke up at 8:00 for the Holland-Serbia game. Sunday was a big day in Mexico, as Mexico was playing their first game of this year's World Cup. I'm a bit lost this year, because for the first time in my life Belgium isn't playing. Being here though, among die-hard fans, is at least some consolation, and I feel myself cheering for Mexico just a little bit. There were about 15 of Carlos' friends here. After it looked like Mexico might not win, they went crazy when Mexico scored their two go-ahead goals. We continued our sport-filled day by checking out a local baseball game. On Tuesday, we went to Cuatrocienegas, with Carlos, Erin, Becky, and Fernanda (whom some of you might know from Western.) Cuatrocienegas is a series of pools in the middle of the desert which are fed by an underwater aquifer. The water is crystal clear, and is home to several species of fish and other animals which are found in no other place in the world. In some places you can see the water coming out of the ground at the bottom of the pond. If you have any old copies of National Geographic lying around, you should read the article on Cuatrocienegas in the October, 1995 issue. We spent most of our time in the water trying to keep cool in the 43°C heat. If we stood still the fish would come and bite our feet, a great example of a symbiotic relationship because they managed to bite off the scabs we got from using flippers last week. It would be interesting to know if they survived that. We're back in Torreon. Both of us are making a last ditch effort to locate Etta Place. Which is why I have to go right now, cause I'm late. We might go to Mazatlan next week. After that we will be slowly making our way back home with a few stops in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Minnesota. So we will see most of you soon. We'll keep you updated on how the last two weeks of our trip go. Pieter

Utila and Tikal

Time for a quick one, and it's Clayton here. Scuba diving was quite the rush. You must understand that I've had a general fear of water ever since I can remeber, and it has manifested itself in a phobia of sharks. I'll toot my own horn and say that I'm proud of myself for doing it. Definitely one thing I have learned, in part from this trip, is that you can pretty much do anything you set your mind to. It's an empowering feeling. Anyway, more about diving, once you become comfortable, it is an incredibly relaxing activity. Floating weightless, you marvel at the ability to breathe underwater, all the while observing every color and shape of sea creature imaginable, under you beside you and overhead. The best way I can think of to describe what we saw is to liken it to a Discovery channel program. Just one more thing on the list of recommendations. Today we saw the Mayan ruins of Tikal, in northern Guatemala. We had been told the site was on par with Machu Picchu, so I guess my expectations were set a little too high. That said, it is still a remarkable place. Only 20% excavated, much of it remains covered by the jungle. In comparison to the Inca ruins of the 15th century, Tikal dates back to somewhere around 800BC, which I thought was quite impressive. Apparently, within the last five years, they have discovered a new Mayan site that is four times the size of Tikal (Tikal was thought to have been the capital of the Mayan civilization). A five day hike from here, it made us wish we had more time. Always short on time so I will end here. Piet should have some pictures up. And we should mention that the last entry gave us a lot of problems. We ended up deleting the first two postings, which means we may have deleted any comments made, just in case you were wondering. See most of you soon!

In Nicaragua they play beisbol

That has nothing to do with anything, but I feel bad that we just skipped over Nicaragua, so this way it at least gets mentioned. After crossing the border we drove into Rivas and saw a large baseball stadium on our right. Apparantly baseball is more popular than football here. I suppose that means we're getting closer to home. Speaking of borders, we went through five countries in two days. We flew out of Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday morning, to Panama, from where we immediately hopped on a bus for San Jose. After three hours, and an ill-fated search for a donut we had there 3 months ago, we caught the bus for Managua, Nicaragua. We spent the night there, and left for Honduras at 5:00am. We were on the north coast by Thursday night. It was a long ride, but worth it because we will be in paradise for the next week.

We had no problems at any of the borders the past three days, although at the Panama - Costa Rica border it took four hours to pass through immigration. We do want to tell you about the border between Peru and Ecuador last week. What a joke that was. Partly our own fault, but mostly not. We arrived at the border last Saturday morning. The bus dropped us off right at immigration, after which we needed to walk across the border, which runs through the hot and dusty town of Huaquillas, and catch the next bus. As always, a bunch of kids crowded around us, offering to carry our bags and help us through the formalities. We told them we didn't need their help, we were here in February. But they insisted, and got into the bicycle-taxi with us even though we told them not to. At this point we thought, okay, maybe we can use their help to find the bus, and then we'll tip them 5 soles (about$2) each. So they found our bus and told us they would be able to get us a discount. After we paid for the tickets (which we later found out were at regular price) they were ready to leave, and waited for their tip. We offered them the 10 soles and they just laughed. They wanted $10 each! We argued back and forth for about half an hour, saying we didn't even want or need their help in the first place. And they were saying they needed to buy milk for their children (they weren't even 18, like they had kids). We ended up paying them $15. They still weren't satisfied and wanted to change the rest of our soles (Peru's currency) to dollars (Ecuador's currency) at a ridiculous rate. They finally left, mad. But not not as mad as us, I guarantee you. The thing is, they were demanding $10 for a half hour's work. That's $20 an hour, more than I've ever made. And if you consider that the dollar goes about twice as far here, they were wanting $40 an hour, each. And why did we need two guys helping us anyway? Well, the lesson we learned was that we should have agreed on a price beforehand. Although, we heard from several other travellers that they had the same problem, and that tactic doesn't always work.

By the end of the day we had cooled off a bit, and were in Alausi, from where we would catch the famous Devil's Nose train. The train left Sunday morning at 11:00. There were quite a few other tourists. The ride took three hours and took us back to Alausi. It wasn't quite what we expected, but it was still cool. Everybody sat on a roof of one of the four wagons. What makes this train so special is that at one point it descends down the side of a mountain which is too steep for normal switchbacks, so they use 2 V-switchbacks. This means the train goes forward for a while then backs up for a section while descending, and then continues the descent going forward. It basically zig-zags down the side of the mountain. I hope I explained that well enough.

From Alausi we went to Quito, where we had a day to relax. We decided to go to the centre of the world. We weren't sure what would be there, besides the equator. When we got there, we found quite a large park with a monument with an orb on the top marking the equator, and several restaurants and craft stores. That evening we met up with Veronica, an Ecuadorian who goes to school in Brandon. She actually moved into our house after we left in January, and is now home for the summer. It was neat to hang out in her home country and meet her boyfriend, as well as catch up on how things were going at the house in Brandon. Ecuador gave us a good impression, and we wish we could have spent a little more time there.

Are you for scuba? We are now on the island of Utila, a few kilometres off the north coast of Honduras. The Caribbean is a totally different world from anywhere else we've been so far. We just got back from snorkeling. Tomorrow we are starting a diving course (thanks Bonnie and Charlie) which will take three days. I am very excited, but I don't think I'll feel nearly the adrenaline rush Clay will, if you know what I mean. He'll let you know how it went in a few days.

Thanks for reading,
Pieter

Lobo, the Jungle Wolf

Clayton here. It's been two good weeks. We relaxed in Lima for a couple days, getting organized. Our last item on the checklist for Peru was the jungle. 26 hours on a bus took us to Tarapoto. From there we caught a "three" hour taxi to Yurimaguas, where we were to catch a riverboat at 2:00 in the afternoon. The taxi left late, but the driver assured us that the boat always leaves two hours late. Four hours later and of course we had missed the boat. Typical. No big deal as they leave daily. So we spent a free night on the next day's boat, sleeping in our newly purchased hammocks. Two more relaxing nights on the river and we were in Iquitos, a city the size of Winnipeg, situated at the beginning of the Amazon river. That afternoon we were on our way with Jungle Wolf Expeditions, one of the many tour operators in Iquitos. Lobo, which in spanish means "wolf", owned the company and was also our guide for four days (and four nights, all of which were spent in hammocks; they are more comfortable than I thought). We stayed that night at his house on the river, in the little village of Puerto Miguel, surrounded by the water of the Rio Yurapa (there wasn't much dry ground to be seen, as the rainy season ended only a month ago, though by the end of the week the level had dropped a half metre). Having grown up in the jungle, Lobo did not disappoint. We woke to a beautiful sunrise and immediately went fishing for breakfast. Using a bamboo spear with three prongs on the end, throwing from the front of the canoe, he speared about a dozen fish in less than an hour. Twice he skewered two fish at once. I couldn't even see them let alone hit anything. After a breakfast of fried fish and fried bananas, he informed us that he needed to make medicine for his sister, who apparently is dying of cancer (Lobo is also a bit of a shaman). So the rest of the day was spent with his brother Raul. We searched for wildlife along the river, cruising in a canoe. In the afternoon we watched the river dolphins. They were curious enough to come right under the boat, but when I got enough courage to jump in the water they stayed about fifty yards away (which was fine by me). That night we searched for cayman but were stymied. The next day we travelled two and a half hours by canoe into the jungle. We were joined there by Sebastian and Veronica, a Polish couple Lobo had brought along. Raul knew they were close long before they arrived. He and Lobo were calling to each other with an animal sound, deep and throaty. Normally, it seemed they were a very quiet people, almost speaking in whispers when passing by on the river, often quietly laughing. The campsite was just a clearing where we strung our hammocks, with mosquito nets. As far as the mosquitoes go, they were no worse than in Manitoba, and really only at night (still bad I guess). Apparently they are far worse in the wet season. Moving on: we went for a walk exploring the plants and searching for animals. We saw rubber flow from a tree (the base of the early economy of Iquitos), we ate some palm fruit, which he had to hack open with a machete, and we drank water from a vine, which tasted great. He taught us about the benefits of jungle garlic, tree resin and other plants, but we declined to try the hallucinogenic ayahuascar "medicine". We saw a host of birds, including parrots, scarlet macaws and a toucan. He was able to call monkeys close enough to where, if we ran we could catch a glimpse, and he caught a snake from a tree, which we all got to hold. That night we searched for cayman again. On the way Lobo caught a catfish with his hand (I think the croc hunter has nothing on this guy). We all got to hold the cayman he caught, and then Sebastian grabbed the next one, an impressive feat. The scenery was truly amazing; thousands of fireflies, the stars reflecting off the mirror like water and the exotic sounds of the jungle. Unforgettable. Our last day was the most memorable. We travelled back to Lobo's house then took a motorpowered canoe to search for more animals, the sloth in particular. After a couple of hours with no luck we headed back for lunch. Then Raul spotted one, far above in the tree top, thirty feet above the water. Raul is probably 40 years old, but he was up that tree in no time and soon enough we were holding a wild sloth. Their claws are extremely sharp and they move far quicker than I had thought, when they are stimulated. And the sound it made was mournful, it really made me feel bad. Eventually we had to put him back, and on the rest of the way we saw four different kinds of monkeys in the trees, all very close. We were lucky. The rest of the night we relaxed, woke to a breakfast of piranha in the morning (which can grow to 25 kg), and headed back to Iquitos. Lobo's daughter had a shirt on which read "Life is Good", and after a shower I couldn't have agreed more.
Now we are in Trujillo, travelling back to Quito, and our time in South America is nearly over. Time to start thinking about lessons learned I guess.

Machu Picchu ... just in time?

Hi everyone,

This has been one of the best weeks we´ve had, capped off yesterday by probably the most amazing thing either of us has ever seen. On Tuesday, our last day in Arequipa, we went to the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest in the world. Our bus left at 2:00 am. It was a four hour ride on "el camino mas estupido del mundo." It seemed like the dips in the road were purposely designed to make people, especially those in the back row of a bus, bounce as high as possible. Needless to say we didn´t get much sleep, but we got breakfast and coffee as soon as we got to Chivay at 6:00 so we were okay. We left from here with a tourgroup on a 2 hour vanride to the canyon, stopping at a few places along the way. The canyon itself wasn´t as spectacular as we expected, but the main reason people come here is to see the condors, and that part was not dissapointing. We saw several condors, birds of prey with a wingspan of up to 4 metres, flying at eye-level, just 10 metres away from us. A couple times, two of them sat together on a ledge, posing for the 100-odd tourists. Question: Has anyone besides my brothers and I seen the movie Condorman?

We got back to Arequipa that evening and took the bus to Cusco where we arrived Wednesday morning. We played bingo on the bus and the winner won a free trip. Cusco is nice, and there´s good reason for its popularity. Besides being close to Machu Picchu, the city has remnants of Inca walls, nice churches, and some good museums. One of the museums we visited was the Temple of the Sun, which is a Dominican abbey built over an old Inca temple. The old Inca walls remain. They are built of huge carved stones perfectly shaped to fit together without mortar. Another wall in the city has stones of all imaginable shapes and sizes, yet they still fit together perfectly. The Spaniards used these existing walls and built them higher for their own buildings. Cusquenians like to say that the bottom walls were built buy the Incas and the top walls by the `incapables´. We also visited the Cathedral. It is actually the centre church of three churches attached to each other, the centre one being the biggest. Everything inside is covered in either gold or silver. The main altar is actually covered with a layer of silver overtop of a layer of gold, because the bishop decided he liked silver more. One of the weird things about the Catholic church in Cusco is that Rome turns a blind eye to local traditions that wouldn´t be accepted in any other part of the world. There are mirrors hanging up which represent the vanity of the Catholic church, there is an altar with a black Jesus, and a painting of the Last Supper with a roasted guinea pig, a local delicacy, on a platter in the middle of the table. Something we decided we had to try.

We left for Auguascalientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu, on Thursday evening, taking two busses and a train. (The town is only accesible by train.) During the first busride, the driver all of a sudden slammed on his brakes, and the people standing in the isles went flying to the front. It sounded like we hit something, and when we got off we saw a huge dent in the front. Probably a llama. In Auguascalientes we stepped off the train and got bombarded by hostel workers trying to get us to stay with them, shouting prices and things like "hot water", and "private bathroom." We always enjoy the position of power that puts us in, and drag it out as long as we can. Then we usually just choose the first one. So we had to try guinea pig, or cuy, for supper. I thought it was pretty good. And yes, it does taste like chicken. The problem is that it looks like a rat, a dead rat on your plate. I think Clay was convinced it really was a rat so he didn´t eat too much of it.

Friday morning we started hiking up the Inca stairs to Machu Picchu at 5:30. We got there, sweating and breathing hard, in time to see the clouds rolling over the ruins. There is no way to describe what we saw. It looks completely different than the pictures or movies. We took some more stairs to the top of Waynapicchu, that steep mountain in the background which also has ruins at the top, and realized the magnitude of what we were looking at. First of all, the setting itself is amazing, a lush green valley rising almost straight out of the Urubamba river, whose white water rapids are visible below. Parts of the valley are vertical, bare cliffs. And then, on top of a hill is a city, complete with a main square, walking streets, houses, temples, and surrounded by farming terraces which are built down the edge of the steep mountain. We had an unforgettable breakfast at the top. The rest of the day was spent walking around the ruins, which are just as amazing from close up as from a distance. Machu Picchu is huge, and it is impossible to see all of it in one day. The Inca stonework was similar to that in Cusco, but for some houses it looked like huge stones at the bottom were just carved straight out of the original boulders that were already there, the tops of which were shaped to fit more stones. There was alot more cool stuff, but it´s impossible to describe so I´m not even going to try. We both decided Machu Picchu is something no one can afford to miss. Unfortunately, one of Saturday´s newspaper headlines was that Machu Picchu was put on UNESCO´s list of world heritage sites most at risk of being damaged, so who knows how long people will have the chance to visit it. Do it before it´s too late.
Pieter

This is a bit of a cut and paste job as we had some computer trouble. (third attempt now)

Clayton here. A few days ago we went for a bike ride. "El camino mas peligroso del mundo" roughly translates to: the most dangerous road in the world. The tour we joined was called "The Death Road". Piet tells me there was a National Geographic article on this road. The "road" starts just outside of La Paz at 4700m and soon becomes little more than a path, single track gravel, carved into the side of a green mountain. It ends 30kms later, just before Coroico, at 1200m, taking us five hours with stops. Ascending vehicles are given the right of way, so when they meet, the descending bus or truck must grind to a halt and reverse until finding a spot where they can squeeze by. We were able to travel much faster than the traffic, so we made several narrow passes, with school kids waving out the bus windows, close enough to touch. At times our bike tires were no more than four inches from the brink, allowing us to see straight down. You simply would not survive the fall. I have no official stats, but they told us the last tourist to meet his doom was in 2001. Piet was nearly run off the road by a cargo truck, but he came away smiling. My front tire popped, and going over the handle bars I managed to catch a tree to save myself from being the next statistic. Just kidding. I did blow a tire, but it's not quite as dangerous as we make it out to be. In fact it was the most fun we've had on the entire trip, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. The scenery was stunning, and trying to keep up to our guide reminded me of my childhood, trying to catch my big brother. Never could until he put on the brakes. Anyway, the tour ended with lunch and a three hour van ride back up, which I slept through. Now we are in Copacabana, on the shores of lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world (though I don't really know what that means). Yesterday we visited the Isla del Sol (island of the sun), said to be the birthplace of the Inca race. There were a couple of interesting ruins, like mazes of stone. One was a temple with blackened ceilings, presumably from ancient sacrifices. Also quite stunning was the staircase leading up the east side of the island.
That's about it for now. Kind of sad to be leaving Bolivia, but we know Peru holds some treasures for us too.

And the last few days have been pretty relaxing. We found a very friendly church yestreday, here in Arequipa, and the only thing of note today was the "Juanita" museum. Juanita is a frozen mummy. Found on top of a mountain in 1995, she was an Inca sacrifice over five hundred years ago. Apparently this was common practice. A volcano would erupt, melting the snow of the nearby mountain, and to appease the volcanic/mountain gods a troop of priests would trek to the 6000m summit, bringing with them the sacrificial child. Chosen from a noble family, he or she would be prepared from birth for this moment (should the need arise before they turned 18, at that time marrying and enjoying a normal life, while the next in line assumed the responsibility). The ceremony would begin with a fermented drink, rendering the child unconscious. It would end in death with a blow to the head. Buried with various offerings (such as gold and silver figurines, different crops from the regions of the empire, alpaca and vicuña textiles, even the umbilical cord and the first fingernail clippings of the child) she would soon be covered by fifty metres of ice and snow, immaculately preserved for us to find after a similar volcanic eruption. You can even see her eyelashes. Being the best preserved of 18 mummies found in Peru and Argentina, she is kept in a glass vault at minus 20 degrees, awaiting new technology to discover the secrets she still holds. Strange and interesting. As we were not permitted to take cameras into the museum you'll have to search for pictures on the net.
By Wednesday we should be in Cusco, ancient capital of the Inca empire, now the gringo capital of South America, and we should post again after visiting Machu Picchu. Until then.