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SOUTH AMERICAN TRIP 2008

After 18 months of planning, on the 20th of September 24 students, six parents and three teachers finally headed off on the trip of a lifetime.  This was to be the most educational trip of all time! After a lovely (what am I saying?!) 11 hours and 50 minute plane ride, we landed in Santiago, Chile.  We were transferred to our hotel and then went exploring the city.  As a group of 33 people, we were definitely noticed and also followed as we made our way around the city.  Lucky we had Ms. Gowdy with us as the Spanish was a little hard to understand, even after all our lessons!!

We visited an amazing cathedral which had been built by the Spanish and some of the student bought some art.   We tried to order our dinner at a food hall, which was very entertaining.  It only took Mrs. McKnight 50 minutes to get her ice-cream!  After filling our tums, we headed back to the hotel for an early night.

With a very early wake up call the next morning, we headed back to the airport, passed the slums and shanty towns and caught a flight to Lima, Peru.  At the airport we were met by the three guides who would become great mates.  They worked for Intrepid and did an awesome job in showing us the sights and sounds of Peru.  We headed to our hotel and then straight out to lunch and a bit of food shopping.

We were then given a rundown of what we were going to do for the next 16 days with them and then had a tour of the city of Miraflores.  We visited the Catacombes and were amazed by all the bones!  After walking through the town and seeing millions of people, we jumped on the bus and headed back to the hotel to go out for dinner.  We walked for about 45 minutes to a restaurant for dinner where we experienced authentic Peruvian food.  We walked back and slept like babies, until the  next early wake up call and then it was back off to Lima airport for our flight to Cuzco (for a stopover) and then onto Puerto Maldonado, which was the start of our Amazon adventure.  We left our packs at the Intrepid office and we met our first tarantula of the journey before heading to the Tambopata River, which is a tributary to the Amazon. 

On the way we were given a wonderful basket of food that was supplied by the locals.  As we reached the boats, we were  given our lunch which was wrapped up in banana leaves and tasted divine!  The funniest thing was throwing away the banana leaves afterwards, straight into the river, for the fish to eat.

 

We reached our lodge and were blown away by what we saw.  Each room had three walls with the fourth opening straight into the jungle.  It was awesome!  We were definitely out there doing it!!  Right in the middle of the Amazon!

We started the next day by tramping through the bush and seeing heaps of animals, bugs, birds, spiders and anything else that was alive!  We climbed a 40 meter tower that over looked the canopy of the jungle and were amazed to see monkeys swinging from tree to tree!

After a rest and some amazing food, we all headed across the river to visit a subsistence farm.  The farmer kindly let us wander around his farm, tasting all the food and then agreed to having Mrs. McKnight and Ms. Gowdy interview him about the farm, while the students went and played football on his field!

We headed back across the river to our lodge and then proceed to go on another walk to view an Oxbow lake.  This was pretty exciting for the students as we saw an incredible amount of birds, and other wildlife - including the piranha that we caught!

We went for a walk and saw the biggest tree ever (which we hugged for Mrs. Brown), then after tramping back in the dark (and Jed and Mrs. McKnight being attacked by moths), we finally made it back in time for dinner, and to witness the extremely entertaining “Attack of the killer cicada” (see Mrs. McKnight for a re-enactment!!!).  After an amazing three days in the Amazon, sadly it was time to leave.  So we said farewell to our new friends, the guides, did a haka for them and headed off on the plane to Cusco.

We arrived in Cusco, went to  the hotel to unpack, then headed straight out for lunch and an orientation of the city.  Most of us were blown away by the place.  It was so old, but very clean and tidy.  The people were really friendly and the shopping in all the little stalls was pretty cool too!

This was where some of us started to get sick from the altitude, although most people were ok.  We all had an early night after so many early rises, and the next day we headed out to visit some of the sights of this amazing city.  We went to places like Tambomachay and Puca Pucara, as well as Qeno, White Christ and Saqsayhuaman (Sexy Woman!).  We had fun and informative local guides showing us the sights and they were fantastic as they knew so much and could answer all of Marcus’s questions!

 

We had our briefing for the Inca Trail that night and then headed to dinner at a restaurant in town to celebrate Frances’s 18th Birthday!

The next day we headed into the Sacred Valley and visited some local communities where we were shown the art of making Chicha (local corn beer), chocolate making, honey production and also pottery.  It was awesome to experience what was happening in the local communities, and to see how these people lived.

Then it was on to Ollaytaytambo.  This was quite a neat little town, in an amazing location with stunning architecture and the fact that it was a “planned city” excited all the geography and design teachers - well Mrs. McKnight and Mr. Forrest anyway!  Luckily our local guides were still with us as we had a tour around the ruins which was pretty awesome and they could answer all the teachers’ and Marcus’s questions.

The next day saw us at the beginning of the Inca Trail.

This was quite an exciting time and so we headed off for four days of fun, fun, fun. (we didn’t know what were in for!).

We started off on a gentle slope only to be told that this was the easiest part and not to get too used to it!  We had a three-course lunch at our first stop and then carried on to the first camp site.  It rained just before we got in and then the fun started!  Mr. Forrest thought it would be fun to have kidney stones and get taken back down the mountain in the middle of the night by 8 porters and Mrs. McKnight thought it would be fun to get really bad altitude sickness that night too.  So poor Mrs. Gowdy held the fort and looked after them, along with two Irish nurses, six parents and Richard who is now really good at looking after sick teachers!

Day two dawned bright and early and after being “prepped” that this was going to be our hard day, we started off with gusto.  The boys managed really well and made it to Dead Woman’s Pass in record time (well, record time for our group anyway!). Some of us took a little longer as we were struggling to breathe!  But make it we did.  (Go Team Daisy!) It was only 4215 meters above sea level (Mt. Cook has a lower elevation that this!).

At this stage the  group split up and one group carried on to the second campsite, while the other group camped out at the lunch stop.  The next day, we carried on and managed to make it to third camp with the afternoon to spare.  We waited in anticipation for the other group and they were very weary when they arrived!  Along the way we were treated to many wonderful Incan ruins and of course the guides, being as superb as they were, gave Marcus all the information he needed to know!

Day four dawned dark and very early.  We waited for the control gate to open so we could walk the last few hours to the Sungate.  When we finally got our first glimpse of Machu Pichu, it was everything we thought it would be and more.

We met up with the others who included Mr. Forrest, Elysia, Grace, Debra, Mr. Gregory and Ms. Gloy and then set about having a tour of the place.  We were amazed at the size of it and were in awe of the construction of something so incredible. It was just a shame that we were all so exhausted!

After a few hours on our shaking, weary legs, we headed down the road on the bus.  It was a little hair raising at times - but quite fun and Mrs. McKnight didn’t throw up!

After arriving back in Cusco, we all showered (for the first time in 4 days!) and fell asleep pretty quickly!  We had a day off the next day and decided that it was a good idea to have a football match against the very fit and strong porters who had just carried all our gear for four days!  We lost, but can hold our heads high as we almost scored as many goals as them!

After another early morning wake up call (we were getting use to them by now), we headed for the bus that would take us to Puno.  We stopped at the highest point of the pass (4338m) and then headed down into Puno.  We checked into a lovely hotel and then ventured out to see the sights.  The next day we had a taxi-cholo (tuktuk) ride down to the port which was AWESOME and went out on Lake Titicaca to visit Taquillie Island.  They showed us how they live and what they use on the island, before treating us to a display of their musical talents!  We then bought a lot of their handmade goods and had lunch.

We jumped back on the boats and headed to the Uros islands which are made of reeds.  There are 45 of them and although some are private most are used for tourists nowdays.  We visited an island where they showed us how the islands were made, inside their homes, how they live, took us for a boat ride (in a reed boat) and then offered us more goods to purchase! 

These islands have solar panels for power and even a small television! We were made to feel very welcome but sadly we had to say goodbye and head back to Puno.

After a great time in Puno, it was time to head back to Lima.  We arrived back at the same hotel and set about seeing the sights of the city again.  (And to do some last minute shopping!).  Some of the group decided to attend a local football match which was very entertaining (even though the locals lost!) The presence of 200 riot police was an eye opener for all in our group.

Then it time to head to the airport and say a very sad goodbye to our guides who had been too awesome to even put into words.

We flew to Santiago and checked back into our old hotel at about 12.45am.  So a sleep was in order!  In the morning we headed out for a bus tour of the city which was fabulous.   We stopped at a shopping mall where we had lunch and wandered around doing all the last minute  shopping that our packs would hold.

The bus tour was really interesting and what surprised most of us was how pretty Santiago was, especially with the Andes as the back drop to all of the photos that we took.

So, after 18 days, it was finally time to head back to New Zealand and share all our experiences with our families and friends.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people and organizations for their support:

The Parents and one Aunt who accompanied us on this adventure: Dru Yerex, Sharon van Rijn, Charley Boocock, Elysia Gumbley, Debra Cargill, and Wendy Pirie.

Your support of the students and teaching staff  was incredible and we loved that you were able to share this wonderful adventure with your children and ourselves.

To the Students - YOU WERE AWESOME! All 24 of you! It was a privilege to travel with each and every one of you.

Without exception you demonstrated the values which we know make you all so special; your caring attitude towards each other shone through on many occasions, looking out for each other at all times. You were all fantastic ambassadors for New Zealand, Taupo-nui-a-Tia College and of course your families. Well done . You were the stand out highlight of the trip!

Thanks to Bay Audiology—Taupo, Mighty River Power, Scholastic Media and Technology who sponsored our travel uniform and GeoSystems Auckland who supplied GPS units for the group.

Finally we would like to thank the Board of Trustees, staff and management of Taupo-nui-a-Tia College for their support of what has been a life changing experience for many parents, staff and most importantly students.