Arches National Park, Utah

Arrived in Utah from LAX on Monday last week. Rudi picked me up at the airport and we drove down to Draper, about 1/2 hour south of SLC.

Spent Tuesday in SLC looking at the Mormon temple square area and shopping.

Went for a 4-hour hike on Wednesday in Mill Creek Canyon area just west of SLC.

Drove four hours to Arches National Park on Thursday and spent the afternoon hiking to some of the arches. My nephew, Jo, and a friend of his, Malanie, came with. Slept over in Moab. Place booked out and had to pay $150 for a room! Returned Friday night after we spent the morning driving to Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park.

BBQ Saturday.

Drove out to Mt Timpanogos area on Sunday for a look (half hour south of Draper).

Drove 1 hour north to Antelope Island State Park on Monday and spent 2 1/2 hours hiking up a hill to see the east side of the great salt lake. Good views. Also spotted the bison (introduced onto the island) and mule deer. Then went to Waterfall Canyon in Ogden (just north of antelope island area). Parked at 29th street trailhead, where I thought the trail started. No signs, so walked about 2km out of my way to end up where I started and headed up the canyon. Not much of a waterfall to talk of, but a steep climb to get to it.

Went back to Mt Timpanogos on Tuesday to go to Timpanogos cave. Steep climb up to cave then a 1hr cave tour. Very nice. Also go a good pick of a little chipmunk. Too cute. Lots of squirrle-like animals running around.

Much time was also spend shopping...

Packing now, leave for LAX this afternoon. Should be back in Australia on Friday.

Inka Trail done

I hiked the trail in two days. We went in at 88km and spend the first night just up the trail from there. Walked a couple of kilometers to the start of the race the next morning (that was yesterday). Set off at 6am. Left my gloves behind and my fingers were frozen for most of the day.

Dead woman`s pass was steep up and slow. I enjoyed the down runs (lots and lots of steps). The Red Arrow runs really helped with those!

Took me 9 hours to go the 27km for the first day - I´ll use the excuse that I was taking photos, lots of them... The winner, Roxanne, of the marathon did the entire trail in 6h12min!

Froze last night. Anne, from Adelaide, estimated it was about 6 degrees Celcius. I had everything that I brought with me on the trail on, and I was still cold.

Poured with rain during the entire night. Thunder and lightning too. Tents held up really well.

Today took me another 5 hours for the last 17km! Insane, but at least I know I did more than that as I went the wrong way (yes, impossible as it sounds, it´s possible for some of us), went back to the correct trail and then on to Michu Pichu.

Overall it was a fantastic few days. Hiked just about the whole way all on my own.

First run at altitude of about 4000m or so.

Arrived in Cusco yesterday. Had some coco tea. Ran 6km today. Did okay.

Visited some archeological sites today. Free time this afternoon. Needed to buy new sunglasses. Got some for S/. 26.00. Also bought some baby alpacha jumpers - beautiful and soft. And a pair of gloves for the trail. US$286! Oeps, shopping done for now.

I think I might be cold on the trail. Will need to get into my sleeping bag, at least that´s warm.

Gotta go, on free internet access and others want to get on.

Bundu Bashing

I miss Isabela Island life terribly. Been difficult to sleep in Guayaquil, Lima and Iquitos with all the road noise.
Been in the jungle the past 3 days- nearly exactly like the blue arrow, except there are lots of things that can kill you. My guides took me on a few different trails and on a couple of occasions we were just bashing our way through the bush. They always knew where they were, and so did I, thanks to my GPS watch.
Seen four types of monkeys, a squirrel, poison dart frog, lots of other frogs, sloth, pink dolphin and grey dolphin, nice big gecko, lots of different birds, including the hoatin bird, parrots, macaws. May sound great, but without binoculars it was pretty crap. But the tame monkey made up for it. She would sit only on my lap, to the disgust of the other guest that was with us. Visited three villages and had breakfast with one family (they ate their food, I ate mine). The food at the lodge was fantastic. I still eat my two cups of rice with each meal, even if there is a choice...
I`m now in Lima and fly to Cusco tomorrow to start acclimatising for the run. It`s on later this week. I`m looking forward to the trip. Tonight I`m in a very flash hotel, had a BATH with lovely hot water (then washed my clothes in it! Ha!). A bit different from the rainforest lodge where there was no electricity.

Day out at the zoo.

Ended up going to the zoo. Fantastic day, but lots of kids! Saw so much - condor, otters, lamas, totugas, preditor birds, parrots, pirana, rodents, tapier with stripped baby, piglike animals - really cute, penguinos, lobos, giraffe, 3 JAGUARS, lioness, lion, tiger, swans black from Australia, and white ones, and lots of other things I cannot remember now. Cost me about US$30 including taxi to and from zoo. The guy that took me there also picked me up.

Crap computer I`m on, so cannot type much.

In Iquitos now, had to pay S/. 140 (not sure how much that is, about US$60) for a room - travel insurance should pay for it though. Going to lodge tomorrow, there is a tour group going so I`m getting a lift with them.

Really tired, up at 2:15am this morning. It`s 10pm now and I need to find some food and a few last minute things for jungle. Lunch today was soupa with a chicken foot in it. Sort of ate around that. Main was rice, chips and crumbed chicken??

Have not seen a mozzie yet.

Lima for a bit longer than anticipated.

I am well and as per usual there are dramas with travelling. My flight to Iquitos was cancelled today due to bad weather. I`m on another flight at 6pm tonight. I got in from Guayaquil (Ecuador) at 7 last night and had to be at the airport early, so left the hotel at 2:30am! Just to wait until 5:30am to find out the flight was cancelled. Mad rush to get hold of people to check what to do. Got email from Peru Jungel people to say that they will meet me at the airport tonight. The boat usually only goes to the lodge on Mondays, so maybe it was also delayed due to the weather?? Will find out when I get there. Also spoke to my travel insurance co as I thought I may miss out on the Jungle trip altogether. Spent about an hour sorting the paperwork in case I need to pay for accommodation tonight and my trip is cancelled. They will pay up to $200 for a hotel. (Ha! It costs about $50 for a VERY nice room here, may be living like a queen for one day of my trip...)
Today is Independance Day in Peru, so I`m not sure what is going on in Lima. I`m looking on the internet to see if the zoo is open today. One taxi driver said it will be like a madhouse as all the poor families with their screaming kids go there for the day as it`s a holiday today (actually, he didn`t really say that, I`m just paraphrasing into Ingles).

There is also a celebration at Plaza de Armas in historic downtown Lima, so I may go there. But it only starts at 11am and I don`t feel like being mugged today.

I`ll come back to the airport at 3pm. Spoke to another couple who missed their flight to Cusco. The plane left 50min early, while they were having a coffee yesterday.

Bartholome

Went to Bartholome on my last day in the Galapagos. Pic of pinnecal rock and snorkel to see the choc-chip starfish.

I`m at Guayaquil airport now and board my flight to Lima in a couple of hours. Didn`t do anything while here in Guayaquil. Got in at about 4pm yesterday and just went to hotel. Watched TV and then went to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. In bed by 9pm.
Decided not to run the 19km I was suppose too, as I`m sooo tired. Got up at 7am, packed my bags and went to the river. Very nice, but everything closed (Sunday??). Watched Batman, the dark knight in Spanish. Not too hard to follow...
Gotta go. Don´t know when next I`ll be able to contact you. Going to a hotel in Lima tonight, out very early tomorrow to go to jungle until Friday.