Home brew in Peru

I did my first brew on the weekend. It was almost a freaking disaster...

It's been a trail from day one. First I had my grain stolen by the cops at the border, so I had to get a second shipment smuggled in.

Next step was making my mash tun. Got hold of an old esky easy enough so I thought the rest should be easy too. It's been anything but. I decided to go with a slotted copper manifold in the mash tun, which I was able to make, although cutting 120 slots in the thing was a pain in the rear. Next step was to fit a tap to the esky, seemed easy enough. Take out the bung insert a 1/2inch brass thread and put the tap on one end and the manifold on the other. Well trying to find a brass thread was next to impossible. Couldn't get any kind of thread that would work, no where no how. In the end I found a little hardware place who had a brass tap with a thread about the size I wanted, and got him to cut it off for me. But then he had to spend half an hour filling the end of it so the nut could go on either end. It took me at least two weekends to get this far, I did waste a day with hangover so that was kind of my own fault. So got my thread home, fitted it all nice and tight into the mash tun, no leaks. Woo hoo.

Next step is crush my smuggled grain... Well as you know a two roller mill is going to give the best crush. But I haven't seen one of those around here, so I figured I would go with the Corona mill, from what I could find online it works ok, if you can set the gap between the plates large enough. Sounds easy enough. Well being a homebrewer I didn’t want to spend too much money so when the missus said her Mum had one we could borrow, I said “sweet”. So we got that sent up on the bus, I planned to do the crush on Saturday as I wanted to do it the day before as I had heard that these kind of mills left a lot of dust in the air and it didn’t want that to get into the brew. So down to the bus stop we go to pick it up, to find out they are closed. Have to come back tomorrow. By this stage I am starting to think that maybe it was never meant to be…

Brew Day. My attempt to get out of bed early and get things started didn’t go exactly to plan. But I was back down the bus station by 11am, got my mill and raced home to start my brew day. First problem for the day, I have 5kg bag of pilsen malt, the recipe calls for 4kg. I have no scales, I figure I just guess. Divide it into 5 equal looking piles and then mill 4 of them. Good enough. Lucky for me Milka had a better idea, we take the whole bag next door to the shops and ask the nice lady to weigh out 4kg worth, please. Then it’s back to the house and grind. By midday I had the mill all set up and operational, after a lot of tweaking with the space setting on the mill I got what I thought was a reasonable crush, probably a bit too fine, but not bad for a first effort.

Next step get it in the mash tun with the hot water and let it sit. Water. I figured the water in Cusco wasn’t the best so I would use bottled water. The plan was to buy a 20l bottle use the water then use the bottle for my fermenter. Perfect. In hindsight it would have been wise to order the water the day before. But I figured they deliver, so what the heck, do it on brew day, no worries. Well we (the missus) rang them, they said half an hour. This was about 1pm by 3:30pm I figured they weren’t coming and I was running out of time. So plan B, go down the shops and buy one there. Did that and an hour later I was heating up my mash water. At last things seemed to be going right. A bit late in the day to be starting the brew, but I wasn’t worried… I should have been. To speed things up I was heating my mash water in part on the stove and in part with the electric kettle. All good, chuck in my fancy new digital thermometer to check the temp and sweet it’s looking good. Then not so good, the thermometer is reading all over the place. I take it out of the water to check the temp of the room and apparently I am standing in a 60 degree kitchen (Celsius that is). Crap. I chuck it in the freezer to test it out, nope the freezer is reading 40 degrees, I am melting here!!! It’s dead. What to do. I need the water to be about 75 degrees, but I have no way of know what freaking temp it’s at. So I bung my hand in and go hmmm. Call the missus over for a second opinion, throw a little hissy fit “why is every thing so damn hard!?!?!”. And then decided bugger it, I either through the lot out and forget about it, or I chuck the water in with the grain and hope for the best. So in it goes, at god know what temp. I figured it was a bit cooler than it should be so I whack another jug of boiling water in for good measure.

So I spend the next hour tweaking with the thermometer, no joy, it is screwed. Hour is up, time to drain the wort from the mash tun. Now in a perfect world the wort should be sweet tasting. The soak in 66 degree water for an hour converts the starches in the grain to sugar, giving it the sweet taste, this is very important as it is the sugar that is converted to alcohol. No sugar = No beer. So the moment of truth will it be sweet or will I have to toss the lot… It’s sweet!!!! And the crowd goes wild!!! But how sweet? This is where normally you would use a hydrometer to check the sugar content of the wort. But I didn’t have one… I figured I could get by with out one, no worries. As there isn’t a home brew store in Peru, so it isn’t that easy to get one either, so this one isn’t entirely my fault.…

So on with the show. I batch sparge the grain in my mash tun. Basically dump in another 10l of water at 80 degrees (according to my trusty hand in the boiling pot technique) and let sit for another 15 mins, then drain. So at the end of this I have just under 20 liters of sweet wort. Time to boil. By now the time is somewhere after 7pm, but I can’t stop now, must keep going.

My boil pot is a 24 liter pot the mother in law bought us, Milka refused to let me drill a hole in the side and install a tap. Considering the problems I had installing one in the mash tun, that was probably a good idea. So on the stove it goes, it’s just big enough to cover two burners so I crank them both up and start cooking. It took another hour to bring it to the boil. Time to add my hops. Oh crap, still no scale, no way to weigh out 25 grams… No nice lady at the shop, it’s 8pm on a Sunday night, shop is closed. So it’s back to my piles method, I know I have 100 grams in the bag, just split it into 4 even piles and Bob’s your uncle, 25 grams. So into the boil goes my hops, an hour later it’s done. Now I need to cool it down. So I take the pot and stick it in the bath tub full of cold water for half an hour or so to cool it down. Then I need to drain it into my fermenter, problem now is I don’t have a tap in the brew pot, so it back to old fashion siphon method, with me sucking on the hose to get the flow started. After straining off all the gunk (hop crud), and swallowing about a liter (my siphoning technique needs some work) I end up with about 16 liters of wort, again with out the hydrometer I have no idea how strong this will be, but I decide to top it up with another 2 liters of water anyway. Bung in the yeast, shake like crazy and hope for the best.

The next day I wake up early and jump out of bed to check on my precious brew, there it is bubbling away nicely. It’s not the clearest looking beer I have ever made, in fact it is quite hazy due to the over fine crush, and I have no idea how strong or more to the point how weak it will be. But it’s bubbling, and I am happy. Next step bottling…

I have learned a few lesson from this experience. Number one, don’t start your brew day so late. By the time I finished it was 10pm and I still had to clean up the kitchen. Which I did do, well I gave it a go. And I forgot about the mill and all the dust that was in the other room… Luckily Milka cleaned all that up for me. Thanks Honey… Lesson two, order or buy you water the day before. Lesson three, find a hydrometer before I brew again. And lesson four, water proof the thermometer. Turns out from reading a few articles online that it doesn’t like being submerged in water, so I will have to waterproof the probe before the next brew day. I am sure there were a few other lessons in there as well, but I can’t remember them all…

I'm in the JUNGLE!!!

I'm in Iquitos, so far I've not done a great deal other than eat and sleep. And it been GREAT!!! Ok so I lie, I have done a few things. Check out more of my photos HERE

That's all for now, I am off to India soon.

Cheers
Zac

Alive and well...

Just a quick note to let everybody know I am alive and well after the recent earth quake here in Peru. Luckily I was in Cusco when it happened and didn't feel a thing.

Thanks to everyone who has emailed to check up on me.

Hey Mum! I was on the radio!

So how did I end up on the radio? And where?

Well the where is easy, Sucre - Bolivia. The why, is going to take a little be longer. So go get a cup of coffee, and I'll tell you all about it.

While I was in Sucre, we arranged for some of the group to go and visit a local school and hand out some gifts (pens, pencils and the like). Anyway the school is one of the poorer schools in the city of Sucre, and I was told it had 800 children. That's about all I knew. So we load up our bus and off we go. On they way out to the school, I give the guys a bit of a run down on what to expect and what's going to happen based on previous school visits I have been on. Normally what happens is we get met by the principal or some other official, who shows us around and tells us about the school, we visit a class or two to hand out the stuff we brought along, the class will usually sing a song or two for us, and then we are expected to sing something for the kids. Now this sounds pretty easy, but it almost always ends in disaster. Get a group of about 15 adults together and then give them about 30 seconds to come up with a song to sing and see what happens. If they are smart they will go with something simple like, Old McDonald or the Hokey Pokey (They call it the Oakey Cokey in England, don't ask me why), and they will normally do ok, for a verse or two and then it disintegrates into either everyone mumbling along looking around to see who knows the words or just straight out fits of laughter. So with this in mind I warned the guys while will on the bus that they might need to sing. So they spent a couple of minutes going over options and came up with 2. Yes you guessed it. Old MacDonald and the Hokey Pokey (we had a mostly Australian group). So the bus ride out spent practicing Old MacDonald, right up until the moment the bus got bogged...

Fortunately by this stage we were just down the road from the school. So we all piled out of the bus and walk down to the school. Where we were swamped by hoards of kids, all about waist high. It was all very crazy, and there didn’t appear to be much in the way of order. But we were led into the Directors office and introduced to the big boss, who proceeded to welcome us, in Spanish. Being one of the only ones to speak Spanish in the group I was left to translate his words of welcome on to the rest. Well he spoke at length for what seemed like 10 or 15 minutes without pause, I then turned to the group and translated his 10 or 15 minute welcome speech into a 30 second version. I am pretty sure I got it all in, well the important stuff anyway. We were then led back outside where a semblance of order had been restored by the PE teacher. I could tell he was the PE teacher cause he was wearing a blue tracksuit and had a whistle on a string around his neck, just like PE teachers everywhere. So the PE teacher got out the microphone and introduced us to the school, and then various students came up and performed in front of the school for us, singing a couple of songs. Except for being paraded in front of the entire school (about 600 not 800, though there only seemed to be about half of them present), everything was going pretty much as I had expected. The kids all then went back to their classrooms, well most of them, there still seemed to be heaps of kids running around, and we were led back into the directors office where we were given lunch. Potatoes and spaghetti, tasted pretty good too.

While we were tucking into lunch, Nela the lady who had organised the trip for us came up to me and explained that a reported had shown up, unexpected of course. So I am thinking reported = newspaper. But no, we go inside to chat with the guy and he is on the phone and I can hear him saying “Good morning” and explaining about the gringos visiting the school, so I lean over to Nela and ask her what’s going on. She explains to me that he is a reporter, for a Sucre radio station and he is going to do and interview with us. So I am doing my best to follow the Spanish and getting pretty lost, but fortunately Nela is doing most of the talking. Then I hear the guy introducing me and he hands me the phone and BAM! I am on the radio. I’m not sure if anything I said was understandable (you try giving a radio interview in a second language), but I told them where we were from, why we had come to visit, and explained what a wonderful opportunity this was for us all. I think I might have repeated myself a little bit, but it seemed to go over well.

After all this excitement we were then taken to visit a class room, where as predicted the kids sang for us, fortunately we didn’t have to sing anything back. Then we were led to the next class room, and then the next, and then I started to get the idea that we would be visiting every class in the school, and yes that was the plan. It wouldn’t be fair to leave anyone out. So we continued our tour of every class, some of them even stayed back at lunch time so we could come and say hello and listen politely as they sang for us. I am not sure how many classes we saw, I think at least 12, but I think there were are few more. By then end we were all exhausted, and a little relieved to get back onto the bus, which had be rescued from the mud by some of the kids or so I was told.

All in all, it was an amazing experience. I have visited a few different school here in South America but I will always remember that one, and not just cause I was on the radio….

I found Jesus, he was at the hairdressers!!!

I went for a haircut the other day, and got a dose of religion at the same time...

I decided it was time to get the hair cut, and I wanted to go short. But short with style, not some dumb bowl cut. So I went looking for the right place while I was in Curitiba. What is the "right" kind of place you ask? Well to start with, I was looking for someone with two eyes. Made that mistake before and got a cut throat shave from a one eyed man... Generally I get it cut by a dude, not sure why... I also wanted somewhere with a bit of style, not just a plain looking hair cut place... So I went out and found the campest looking hair dresser I could find and walked in (his name was Paulo, and he might not have been gay at all, but it was the look I was going for).

And this is where the fun began. My Portuguese is shite, my Spanish is average and my ability to describe what I want in the way of a hair cut even in English is appalling. I got as far as explaining I wanted it cut short, then we gave up and got out a magazine so I could just point to what I wanted. During the pre cut hair wash, we established that yes my name is Zac and yes it is from the Bible. So we begin, the dude is cutting away and trying to make the usual hair dresser small talk and finding the language barrier a slight problem. But we get past the "Ah you’re from Australia? Muchos Kangaroos?" and then onto the other classic South American question, "so are you Christian?"... Of course I go with the standard evasive answer of, well my family is (ha!), but I am not so sure... Now depending where you are this either goes over ok and they let it go, or they start asking "What?!?!?! How can you not believe?" Fortunately it seemed the Paulo was going to let me get away with this answer.

So he keeps cutting and I am thinking this looks alright, not as short as what I first thought I wanted but ok. Then he changes the scissors for some other kind of weird scissors and goes again, by now the hair is starting to pile up. And I am thinking, ok ok, I said I wanted a change... but did I really mean this short? So now it's about the shortest it's been in about 10 years. Ok so I realise that what I think of as short is probably still considered long for most. But hey work with me here, I have had it in a pony tail for about half of those 10 years.

So it looks like we are all done, and Paulo takes me back for the post hair cut wash. So we are washing washing washing and Paulo calls over a girl who works in the shop and they are having a little whispered chat, and I am struggling to follow the Portuguese. But it turns out she speaks English and Paulo has asked her over to translate for me. She tells me that Paublo would like to invite me to go to a meeting with them, and I am thinking ok what the hell is going on here, so I ask what kind of meeting, and she says in the Church on Sunday. And now I am thinking phew, I was a little worried for a minute there, the idea of being invited to church is a bit of a relief as I wasn't sure what was going on. But sadly I wont be able to as I am leaving town that day (true). So there is another rapid Portages exchange between her and Paulo and then she starts to tell me that with my biblical name (thanks Mum and Dad), I should already know this, but Paublo wants to tell me that nothing in life is chance, that everything happens for a reason and that God has a plan for all of us. The whole while this is going on, I am lying there trapped as Paulo washes my hair for me, there is no where to run to, and no where to hide. And after the initial thought of shite, what the hell is going on here, what have walked into, I started to think yeah, this all sounds pretty cool, these guys were really genuine and I think had I been around on Sunday I might have even gone to church with them. Maybe…

Now the point of this story isn't that I almost found God at the hairdressers, but that occasionally you meet people who open you eyes to the world around you. And that's what Paulo did for me. I am not a great believer, but I do sometimes like to think that things happen for a reason, it gives me hope.

My Fat Lip

My Fat Lip
Originally uploaded by Jungle Zac.

Ok so it's been a little while since I last wrote. No excuses, I've just been having way too much fun to write... I wish...

As you can see from the photo, I got a fat lip. How did I manage to do this? Well, I've been running tours on trucks. This is Magaly (click here for a photo of the big yellow truck), the truck I am working on at the moment. This is Alex, the chofer. Chofer is spanish for driver, I reckon it sounds cooler than driver (click here for a photo of el chofer).

Anyway the truck has two sections, a front section for the chofer and I, and a back section where the passengers sit. There is a little hatch (click here for a photo of the hatch of death), that connects the front to the back, so I can crawl through to the back and talk to the passengers, play the good tour leader and tell them what's going on. Stuff like that. Then when I am done I crawl back through to the front. In theory this is a great idea, in practice it's not so great. The main problem is the hatch is small, and I am big. The second is that it's a little dangerous, like if I am crawling through and the chofer hits the brakes. Well as the laws of physics dictate, my forward momentum continues while the truck's doesn't. This has lead to me almost plastered to the windscreen of the truck on occasion, mildly amusing afterwards, but a little scary at the time.

So this time I was crawling through the hatch after chatting with the passengers in the back, when Alex thought he saw a unicorn, and hit the brakes. I went flying with a little more force than usual and kissed the dashboard... The result as you can see has only made me look all the more handsome.

This all happened about two hours or so north of Lima, I had to wait another 8 or so hours until we reached our destination before I could get a doctor to sew me up (click for a piture of me crying). I got three stitches! And a tiny little scar, I was hoping for something a little more piratical to be honest.

Zac

Monday afternoon at the office...

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Originally uploaded by Jungle Zac.

It's a hard life... My new job RULES!

I am still on my first tour, due to finish in La Paz on friday. This photo was taken while I was on my training tour. Camp one, first day of the Inca trail. I have done the Inca trail twice in last month. It is awesome. So much more fun doing it now that I speak more Spanish.

After this tour I am heading down to Santiago to visit a few friends and then jump on a truck tour that is heading up to Quito. 9 weeks, and a fair bit of camping. Should be great.

Later
Zac

Home sweet home...

IMG_0315
Originally uploaded by Jungle Zac.

As promised a long time ago, this is a photo of where I live in Santiago. The tall building on the left. 24th floor, 3rd from the top. Home sweet home, or at least it was...

That's right, I am moving again... For those of you who don't yet know, I have a new job as, wait for it... A Tour Leader! Hahaha, crazy no? Anyway, with this wounderous new job I will be travelling pretty much permanently. So I am now officaly homeless...

I am going to miss Santiago, the life style here is great. But the show must go on...

Zac

Sunset in Santiago

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Originally uploaded by Jungle Zac.

Nice view, huh?

Ecuador in a nutshell.

I am back in Cusco, Peru for a few days. So I figured I would give you a wrap up on Ecuador…

Ecuador in a nut shell… Go. Simple as that. Ecuador is great, it has everything you could want to see or do, and it’s small. So if you only have a few weeks to travel, and you don't want to waste half you time and money getting around, it perfect.

A few things I forgot to mention…

A) Don’t drink Ecuadorian fire water. I don’t know what it is really called, but I call it fire water. At around 80% and 15 cents US a shoot, it is lethal. The old man who sold it to us poured some on the floor and lit it up. It burned for ages! Lethal.

B) When your guide book or whatever recommends not walking in a certain area in the afternoon as there maybe drunks about. Heed the advice. I didn’t. I went for a walk through the old part of Quito at about 4.30 on a Friday afternoon. Not the nicest part of town at that time of day...

C) If the bus seems too cheap. It is too cheap! Don’t take it. You are not getting a good deal; you are getting a crap bus.

I am sure there should be a few other things on this list, but I am kind of out of it. I have just arrived in Cusco after spending 40 odd hours in transit, 3 different busses and a plane. After 2 nights and a day on busses I couldn’t face the thought of spending another 25 hours on a bus to get from Lima to Cusco, so I took the soft option and flew. My spine is fussed together, my knees are aching, and I smelt rank (not any more, thank you). Riobamba (Ecuador) to Cusco (Peru) in just under 48hours. My advice, don’t do it.

I am going to bed.
Zac

Fishy fishy fishy....

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Originally uploaded by Jungle Zac.

Back from the Jungle… But where am I? Not in Peru… That didn’t work out quite as planned. I made it is far as Coca in Ecuador, I even had a boat ticket to the border. But when we went to catch the boat in the morning they told us it was broken and there wouldn’t be another boat until the next day. Meanwhile we had been speaking to this guy who was telling us that the only boat from the border back into Peru took something like 15 days to make it to Iquitos. Now I am not sure if he was telling the truth or trying to sell me a Jungle tour, because the whole time he keep offering to take us on a jungle tour leaving that morning. Well no one else was able to provide us with more accurate information so, I let my plan of catching a river boat down to Peru slide, as I didn’t have 15 days to spare. But I haven’t give up on the idea, before I leave South America (yes, I will leave some day) I am going to take a river boat to somewhere. Mark my words…

So, what did we do? Well we signed up for the jungle tour. Sounded like fun and fun it was! 4 days and 3 nights in the Jungle, what more could you want. Day one was spent on a canoe heading down river to the lodge, I think in total around 7 or so hours on the boat. By the end my legs were red. Yes, Mum I had sunscreen, but there is only so much that can do. Lucky I had a hat…

2nd day we went traipsing off into the jungle looking for monkeys and what ever else we could find. Well we saw some monkeys, a tiny little frog. Then I found a little bit of snake skin, which turned out to be a lot of poisoness snake skin. Then, well then we found a real snake. A dirty great Boa Constrictor. The thing was huge, over 3 meters long, and so fat. Then…. Then our fearless guide picks up a stick and starts to poke the damn thing. I was getting a little worried at this stage, but hey, I am sure he knows what he is doing… But then, he picks it up, grabs the head, and we all had to grab the rest of it to stop it "constricting" him. That thing was strong, there were 4 big guys holding on to that thing and it was still struggling like demon. It also smelled bad, real bad. Somehow I ended up down the smelly end, and the snake didn’t really like being picked up like that so it shat itself. And I got it all over my hands, it took days to wash that off. I couldn’t bring my hands close to my face with out gagging for the rest of the day. It was rank…

That night we also went out in the canoe spotting for crocodiles. Again all good fun until our fearless guide decides it’s time to catch one and drag it up on the shore so we can all take a photo of the thing. Well the one he caught was about a meter and a half long. Big enough to put up a fair bit of a struggle. But I did get a nice photo of it. We also saw a heap of monkeys and birds a few spiders. Oh yeah we also went fishing for piraña! And I caught 2! Now normally I hate fishing cause I suck at it. But this was easy. Every time I threw the line in I got a bite. Most times they just stole my bait, but I managed to catch a little one, an then a real big one! We took the big one back to the lodge and they cooked it up for me. Tastes ok, but too many bones. They also took the bottom jaw off the thing and gave it to me. Though I left it behind as I wasn’t too keen on the idea of travelling around with that in my pocket.

And that was about it for my jungle trip. We caught our little boat back up to the main river and from there a fast boat back to Coca. But… the fast boat broke down 5 minutes out, so we spent the next hour floating back to the little village we set out from. Then spent the afternoon waiting for another boat which we were assured was coming. And come it did, it came, it towed the other boat away, and left us behind… Not impressed. So we spent a night staying in a little village on the Rio Napo. Next morning we were told there would be a boat. But by now I know that when they say there will be a boat, they mean, there might be a boat. This little village was pretty much cut off from the outside world, no phone or anything. So next morning a military boat with about 70 conscripts rocks up, and our fearless guide negotiates with them to take us back to Coca. He told us this was the only boat going that day. So on we get. What took us about 4 hours on the first day going down river, took around 8 coming back up river. Ok so we picked one of the slowest boats going, but I was just happy to be going somewhere.

So where am I now? Back in Baños, and the place is covered in ash, turns out the volcano is getting a little restless. Not to worry as I am off tomorrow, heading back down to Peru.

Later
Zac

Which way does it flush?

Quito at last!!! And it only took 2 weeks and 9 different busses… Now I have to turn around and head all the way back down to Santiago again…

But first an update. I spent my last day in Baños wandering around the hills. Started out at about 10ish in the am, and made it back to my hostel by around half 5 in the pm. Wore myself out well good and proper. I had a headache for the next day, combination of too much sun and altitude. But I had fun, I even had tea with some old dairy farmer in his little shack up in the hills. I was walking along minding my own business when this guy came running out and invited me in for tea. So I spent a good hour or so having tea and chatting away in Spanish with this old guy. He kept trying to feed me, I had to physically stop him from cooking me up some eggs. Crazy, but fun.

Quito! The northern most point of my journey, and the farthest north I have ever been. Quito sits across the equator so I am no sure if I have crossed into the North Hemisphere yet, would be the first time for me. I’ll have to check which way the toilet flushes when I get back to the hostel.

Today I went out to Otavalo to see the market out there. Absolutely amazing, this was by far the biggest craft market I have ever seen. Fortunately I went on my own, so I was able to wander through, make a purchase or two and be done all in about an hour. Pretty good huh? I reckon if I had of had female company (i.e. Sophie, Mum) I would never have made it out of there.

Anyway I’d show you my new groovy hat I bought, but the computer here doesn’t like my new camera. I blame the computer, it can’t be the camera, it’s new!!! And boy do I love it, though I haven’t a clue what half the buttons do, yet. But fear not I have a week on a river boat ahead of my to work it all out. And when I do I’ll put up a photo or two of me, in my brand new Roy Ban sun glasses. I look like a pimp in them, they are great! The guy who sold them to me said they were Ray Ban, but I figure for $12 there is no way they are, so Roy Bans it is.

Anyway have to go, much to do and so little time. Tomorrow I am off to the Jungle to try my luck catching a river boat back into Peru. Could be quite the adventure.

LaterZac

The wheels on the bus...

I've moved on up into Ecuador. Quite a change from the costal desert of Peru, I am now in the middle of mountains, but it all feels tropical. Apart from the freezing cold overnight bus to get here. Anyway they say the half the fun is in the journey itself. Well I had a rather interesting journey... But I will get to that in a bit.

First Chiclayo and the Witchdoctors market. The market was impressive, one of the biggest markets I have seen in South America. And full of all kinds of crazy stuff, I didn't spend too long looking around, but it would have been good to have a guided tour of the place. Someone to explain what all the different things were for. True my Spanish is good enough to ask, but I am not sure I would trust the answers or my translation enough to actually try anything. I had one guy offer me some Ayuasca, but once was enough. I don't think I need to be trying that stuff again. There were also great mounds of dried and green cactuses for sale. Again another hallucinogenic thing that the locals seem to make. And again not something I need to be trying, especial not when I am traveling on my own.

Anyway after Chiclayo I caught the bus up to Piura (still in Peru) and from there a bus onto Loja in Ecuador. This was the interesting bit. Now I have been on quite a few busses in South America, and I thought I had pretty much seen it all as far as crazy bus rides go. Well I was wrong, agian... I caught the day bus as I was told the secenry was spectacular, and true enough it was. The excitment came as we were crossing a section of road that had been covered by a recent landslide. I am not sure how recent it was, but it looked safe enough. The bus did have to stop and wait while the driver's helper got out to clear away some stones and make the track a little bit wider for us. It was during one of these breif pauses that I hear an almighty BANG! And feel the bus shake. I though something had exploded. The people up the back of the bus start screaming and running for the front. At this stage I look up the hill and see a few smallish rocks rolling down the slope at us and I realised that we had been hit by a rock or two. So the driver steps on it, and the bus doesn't move for a good 10 to 20 seconds. Felt like a lot more than that from where I was sitting watching more rubble come sliding down the slope. Well the wheels on the bus went round and round, and we got out of there safe and sound. The rest of the ride was uneventful compared to that. I stoped at Loja to change busses, and almost got talked into staying there for a couple of days by the nice young lady at the tourist information booth. What can I say, I am a sucker for pretty girls, and there are just so many of them down here...

So I am in Baños, which seems to have it all. You can go rafting, kayaking, cayoning, bungee jumping, horse back riding, mountain biking, hiking, trekking. You can take a tour of the Volcanoes or a 1 day to 1 week tour of the Jungle. This place has it all, if you have the money... I do, but I hate to spend it. So I am enjoying myself by doing the walks around the valley, free and spectacular. They also have a bunch of thermal baths, hence the name "Baños" so I might check them out as well.

Oh and I have a question, what the hell is a dime worth? They use US$ here, along with a bunch of coins which are only good here in Ecuador. So some times you get a US quarter, and other times you get an Ecuadorian 25 centavo coin. This is my 3rd country, and 3rd currency in 2 weeks and I getting a little confused. I keep converting everything back to Peruvian Sols, so I can compare prices with there, then I also convert to Chilean Peso as that is the money I am earning. Then my head hurts and I just pay what ever they ask. Sometimes I get lucky, sometimes I don't.

I have to say, Ecuador is a pretty amazing place. It seems to have it all, I only wish I had a little more time to spend here. Though I am already thinking about trying to come back again one day...

Later
Zac

You'd think I'd know better...

Time for an update. I am in Chiclayo tonight, seems like a cool place, but I don’t plan on being here too long. Though I will hang around long enough to check out the witchdoctors market tomorrow…

Ok so after Huaraz, I caught the night bus down to Trujillo. Trujillo, very cool place. I could see myself living there. Great weather, and the ladies… Well I’ll leave that to your imagination. But the weather, it doesn’t get cold in winter and not all that hot in summer and I was told it hardly ever rains. Maybe I am just unlucky, but it rained the whole night last night. I woke up this morning to find the hostel half flooded with water due to the lack of a full roof over the place. They say they don’t really need a full roof as they get an average of 6mm of precipitation a year. They are on the other end of that wonderful el nino/la nina weather system that we are all so fond of in Australia. Though where as we get drought at home they get floods over here. Doesn’t sound too bad to me, until they explained that the last time this happened it washed away the paint from a 2000 to 3000 year old temple. Now my question was obviously, if the painted had been there for more than 2000 year, why would it wash away so easily with a little bit of rain. Surely it has rained at least once or twice maybe even thrice in the past 2000 years. Come on… Well the explanation for this was that for most of that time the site has been buried under the desert. It was only excavated sometime during the past 10 years and they didn’t have any serious rainfall until la nina came along and wreck the thing. Bit of bad luck I say. But I am getting ahead of myself again.

The reason I stopped in Trujillo was to see Chan Chan and the pyramids of the sun and moon. These are archeological sites that predate the Inca empire, by a lot. I think Chan Chan is around 3000 years old. Though I don’t really remember and I don’t have my guide book with me (feel free to correct me if I am wrong). Chan Chan is a massive adobe city with a total of 9 palaces. It is really impressive, I was blown away by this place, absolutely incredible. I might be able to get a few photos up of it in a month or so. Sorry, still waiting on the new digital camera, but I snapped a few shots with my high tech disposable number. The pyramid of the Moon was also incredible. These places are built total out of mud bricks and then painted over with some amazing images. Which have managed to survive for 2000 to 3000 years, until someone came along and dug them up… The current idea is to excavate some areas and then recover them with sand as this seems to be the best way of preserving them. It is also interesting to see the damage done to some of these sites by grave robbers. When I hear the word “grave robbers”, I think of a bunch of guys sneaking in at night and stealing a few things. Not quite. When you see the damage some of these guys do… They were not exactly sneaking around during the night. The pyramid of the Moon has a massive tunnel dug through the side by people searching for buried treasure. And at the pyramid of the Sun and entire side was washed away with permission form the Spanish, so that they could look for gold. Apparently they found quite a bit.

Huanchaco is a little beach village just outside of Trujillo. Apparently it is a popular spot for surfing. Well on the way home from our tour of Chan Chan we stopped by to check out the beach. To be honest, it wasn’t that impressive. The sand was grey, the water freezing, and dirty. The whole beach just felt dirty. Call me a snob, but I like the beaches in Australia better. I’ve yet to see a beach in South America that even comes close to those at home, though I haven't been over to Brazil yet. So I wont write them off completely just yet. Anyway on the road to Huanchaco you have to pay a toll. It’s to help fund the clean up of the beach as basically everyone comes down from Trujillo for the day, leaves the place a mess and buggers off back home in time for tea. Not cool. Well when we arrived with our little combi full of gringos, our wonderful guide tried to tell them that we were all friends of the local lady who we were giving a ride. She sat there straight faced and tried to argue with this guy. Absolutely hilarious. The guys keep point to us in the back saying “gringos, gringos” and she is sitting telling him “no, amigos, amigos”. I was cracking up, eventually we paid and did a little tour of the beach town.

I’ve also been putting my stomach to the test, trying to toughen it up for what is to come on this trip. How you ask? I’ve been hooking into the Cheviche with reckless abandon. Reckless abandon? Eating at the market, and this morning I bough a cup of cheviche off some lady on the street. That one had my stomach in knots for a while. Cheviche for those who don’t know is a raw fish dish. The fish sits in this lemon juice mixture which in theory cooks the fish. Though you should always be a little careful with this kind of stuff. I wouldn’t exactly call eating of street vendors careful, but I think my stomach can take it. Though check back tomorrow and I’ll confirm that, or maybe not. You’d think I’d know better by know…

Later
Zac

I was wrong...

Oh so very wrong. There is a worse smell than me after 50 hours on a bus... Other people... I had forgotten all about that wonderful aspect of public transport in Peru. Needless to say I had a crap bus ride last night. Didn't sleep too well at all. But I made it to Huraz, arrived about 7am and promptly found a hostal. Got a good deal on that so I was happy, then sorted out a tour to Chavin..

Now this is where it started to go wrong. The guide on the bus did all the explanations in Spanish, not too big a problem as I understood most of what was said, though don't ask me to repeat it. My listen skills are the same in Spanish as they are in English, in one ear and out the other. Anyway, we were an hour or so into what was meant to be 4 hour bus ride to Chavin when we were told the road was closed. From what I could make out it had something to do with construction and explosives, great combination. Well the guide said we would press on so we could see some lake and then check out the road for ourselves. Though from the first mention of the road being closed he was quite clear that the tour would continue in some way, so there would be no money back as it wasn't his fault.

Anyway, saw the lake, woo freaking hoo. Nice lake but nothing special. Saw the road block, I am not exactly sure where the construction and explosives came into it, but there was a minor land slide and the road was defiantly closed. I think it may remain so for a few days to come. So we turned back, and the tour continued to some town, which looked just like 100 other towns I have seen in Peru. Then we had the choice of what to do next. Or so we were told, it seemed to me like the choice was made for us. We were going to head to some thermal bath and then some other minor archaeological site in the area. We came back to town so people could pick up a change of cloths for the baths and this is where I gave up. The guide seemed only to be explaining what was going on to the few people up the front of the bus. It seemed as if we were going round to people's hostals so they could grab some stuff, well that theory was right, except we went no where near mine. When I asked what was going on, he said I could go back and they would wait for me, but I only had 10 mins. Half way back to my hostal I decided to hell with it, I wasn't keen on the thermal bath to begin with. So I ditched my group and went and had lunch.

Not that impressed with Huaraz, I think I will bail tomorrow night and keep on moving up the coast to Trujillo. Hopefully things will work out a little better there.

Oh yeah, and I found part of Lima I don't like. Where my bus left from. For some reason the bus terminals are all in the seediest part of town. Not an area I want to be walking through after dark, or in the day for that matter.

The other thing I forgot about Peru was that February was not a smart time to travel. They have their crazy month long water fight going on, I've already had a few close calls and it's not even February until tomorrow.

I’ve had whinge and I feel better already.

Later
Zac

What's that smell....

That smell would be me. Or at least it was me. I've discovered the worst think about a 50+ hour bus journey isn't the uncomortable seats, or the cramped little toliet on the bus. It's the smell. After more than 50 hours with no shower, sitting in the same seat, sleeping in the same seat. You start to smell... I was glad when we finialy made it to Lima, first thing I did was have shower. Ah so good.

So obviously I made it to Lima. I survied the 50 plus hours on the bus, and managed to avoid using the little toliet on the bus. I think that has to be some kind of record. Well at least it should be. So Lima. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I've found a part of Lima I like and I think it would be a great city, if it ocasionaly had some blue sky. I've been to Lima 4 times now, at different times of the year and not once have I seen blue sky... But other than that it's cool. I got interviewed on the street about Australia's chances in the football world cup, but I forgot to ask what it was for. Doh!

Anyway I am off to Huaraz tonight and then Chavin tomorrow. So if you have a map of Peru check it out and you'll know where I am. If not, check back here, and I'll tell you all about it.

Later
Zac

Off again...

No, I don't smell bad. I am going travelling, again. I am leaving for Lima, Peru on Friday. Catching the bus up from here, 50ish hours. As the Chileans say, I am going to have to draw my arse back on afterwards...

My plan is to spend about a week or so travelling through the north of Peru and then go up through Ecuador to Quito. From there I am planning to make the return trip to Peru via the river Napo. It should be a 4 or 5 day trip down river to Iquitos in Peru. Then I will go up river to a place called Pucallpa, this one will be about 5 or 7 days. But this will take me half way back down Peru. From Pucallpa I am going to head over to Cusco to visit a few people and then continue on to Bolivia and La Paz. Then the rest depends on time, I am due back here in Santiago in March for work.

So over the next couple of weeks check back for some updates, and maybe even some photos... Provided I get my new camera......

Later
Zac

Ok, so my little holiday in Buenos Aires has come to an end. And the answer to the ultimate question "Is it possible to eat too much meat?".... Well the answer is yes. I ate too much meat. But I would gladly do it again, and I am sure I will.

I am unable to give a full account of the last days, as I don't have much memory of them. I am not sure if that was from all the beef or the beer and wine I was drinking. From what I can remember, it all started to blur into some kind of meat eating frenzy. Although I almost went one day with out meat, I had fish, but I also had a choripan (sausage in a bun) for breakfast, so not truly a meat free day. I do recall taking a trip out to Tigre, to escape the city for the day. Very nice, next time I might actually go see the wetlands which Tigre is famous for, instead of sitting in a bar all day. Maybe...

New Years Eve was pretty good as well. Another asado at the hostel, followed by a dance party in some park. I just managed to get to bed before the sun came up. Sometime around 7am I think. And you'll all be pleased to know the first thing I ate this year was.... Yes, another dirty great steak. Awesome.

I caught the bus back to Santiago on the 2nd of Jan. Forked out the extra cash for the full "carma" (bed) experience. Man o man, that was swish. Instead of the usual 4 seats to the row, there were only 3, and they went all the way back. The food was better than I would have expected for a bus, you even got wine with dinner. I also had the front seat, right in front of the window. At first I was happy about this, I had the best view of the city on the way out, but later at night when I got to watch the driver overtaking 3 and 4 trucks at once, and well it got a little scary.

Back in Santiago and back to work. Though today I had the coolest class ever. Not so much the student, but the where. I am now teaching 2 days a week in a brewery! Yeah!!! It's awesome, I could smell the malt the whole time... Mmmm malt..... I need to see if I can get one of my students to get me a tour of the place. Or at least let me take my own tour, I won’t touch... Promise. And if that isn't enough for you, I get a free lunch! I get the feeling that is the only reason I was given this course, the ladies here keep telling me I am too thin. And they tell me off for eating sandwiches all the time.

Oh yeah, I did the weigh in when I got back from Buenos Aires... Wait for it.... 2 kilos. That's it. Only two freaking kilos. I eat every bit of beef I can for 10 days, and only put on 2 kilos. I am a little disappointed.

That's about it for now. I am off travelling again in February. So keep an eye out for my updates, and hopefully photos if I get my new camera.

Zac

How much beef can one man eat?

Time for an update on the meat odyssey. Day four and I am still going strong!!! Or is it day five and am I starting to loose touch with reality...

We'll start at the beginning. I arrived last Friday in the am, checked into my hostel, met up with my friend Oliver who is living over here. He took me to a place called "The Hippopotamus", and I had without a doubt one of the greatest steak sandwiches ever. This was followed up by dinner at "Des Nivel", which in my humble opinion is one of the greatest steakhouse restaurants in the world. I had the biffe...

Day 2 and I found another little place for a steak sandwich. This one was a little cheaper than the one the day before. So I mistakenly assumed that it would be a little smaller, and ordered a chorizo (sausage) to go with it, kind of like a side salad, but better. Well I was wrong and the sandwich was even bigger, it was a struggle. But I made it. That night they threw on an Asado (BBQ) here at the hostel where I consumed even more meat.

Then day 3 (Christmas Day), we had another Asado around at Oliver's place. This was a 12 hour affair, with me in charge of the Asado. Not the cooking bit, but the making of fire. It was a thing of beauty. The following day (4) I decided it might be a good idea to stay off the beef for a day, just to make sure I didn't over do it. No chance of that, I dropped round to Oliver's again that night and we fired up the asado again and cooked up what can only be described as a small roast which someone had kindly left behind the day before.

Now here is where things get blurry. Yesterday... Ah it was day 5. Yesterday I went back for another of the greatest steak sandwiches in the world at the hippo place. The plan was to try and find some where that did fish for dinner so I thought a steak at lunch wouldn't be a bad idea. Well the plan fell through and I ended up eating a full mixed grill...

I had a little moment after this where it occurred to me that over the past five days I have consumed an obscene amount of meat not to mention the stupefying amount of alcohol I have drunk to go with this orgy of meat. That possibly, just possibly this wasn't the healthiest thing in the world to be doing. And to be honest my body is starting to show a few signs of fatigue and I am not sure if I can sustain this kind of self abuse for the remaining 6 days. But then it also occurred to me I have no other option. I can't help it. If there is a biffe de chorizo on the menu, then I am going to order it. It is inevitable. And this is I think why as much as I love this city, the people, the clubs, the shopping (don't even get me started) and of course the food, I couldn't live here, it would kill me. I have no self control when it comes to a big fat juicy steak. I am an addict, and here my addiction runs rampant...

Will I survive another 6 days of this? Only time will tell...

I feel the earth move under my feet...

I feel the sky tumblin down...

Well maybe not, but I felt the earth move. There was a minor tremor here on Monday, lasted all of 10 seconds and I am told registered about 2 on the scale. Nothing major, but it was enough to freak me out. The whole idea of living on the 24th floor no longer seems as appealing to me...

I am told they have tremors similar to this one at least every month or so, but this is the first one I have noticed.

In further news I am planning to head back to Buenos Aires (the land of meet) for Christmas and New Year. I am calling this trip the "Odyssey of Beef". The challenge, to eat as much beef as I possibly can, the proof... Right here, I will take a photo of every steak or sausage or meat product I consume and put it up here on the blog, along with a description and a rating (rating system to be advised). Ham sandwiches, chicken and seafood won't be counted, only things that once went moo. In fact I will try my best to avoid these tasty distractions…

Anyone want to join me ?