Log/Pic 27 Peru

So I hit the big 5-0. Peru is my 50th country! Yeah! I arrived in Lima and the next day flew to Cusco. Cusco is a great town with houses high on the hills and many churches and museums. It has a pretty high altitude so I chilled the first day to adapt. I already found out previously on this trip that altitude kicks my butt, plus I had pulled an all-nighter in the airport the night before.

After checking out Cusco for a few days I took a train to Aguas Calientes. This is a quaint town that totally caters to folks that are there to visit Machu Picchu. In fact, I don't know that there was a town there before the re-discovery of Machu Picchu. The first day was raining so this guy from Switzerland and I went to the hotsprings. It had great views of the mountains all around us. The next morning we set out at 4 am and climbed to the entrance. It took almost 1 1/2 hours to reach the top. The thin, lingering clouds as the sun started to rise, made the trip well worth it. Below is what I saw when the sun came up.

This is from the same spot I had seen my first photo of Machu Picchu. Wayanpichu is the high peek in the background. I needed to climb that too!
This is the view from Wayanpichu looking down at all of Machu Picchu. To the left is the winding road that the buses take, the route strait up through the bus route, and the Inca Trail above that.
One of the individual buildings that make up Machu Picchu.
The guard house on top of it all.
A chinchilla I followed along the ruins that led me to three others. I thought it was a Rabbit!
More buildings
Impacas grazing within the ruins.
The city of Cusco.

A mom and her son in traditional dress on the streets of Aquas Calientes.

Log/Pic 26 Easter Island

So this is Easter Island. It belongs to Chili. I arranged a three day layover before I went to Santiago, Chili. The first day was raining and the waves were crazy.
The island was filled with free-range horses.
The rain stopped just before sunset. I arranged to scuba dive the next day but the people who I was staying with did not wake me up as I had requested. I stayed at someones house I had met at the airport. This time I at least had a room off the porch instead of just a bed on the porch. I probably would have gotten up in time if the extended family did not party all night-ON THE PORCH!
There were many caves on the island used by the Rapa Nui people of the past.
The statues were huge.
Some were on the ocean facing inland, some were inland facing the ocean.
I rented a motorcycle to insure I saw it all! It was wicked fun because the dirt roads were mud due to the previous day's rain.
Several islands off the southeastern coast from the main village

Well I'm heading to my 6th continent-blog ya later!

Log/Pic 25 Tahiti

Tahiti!
So this is one of the most expensive places to go, but my Lans Chili Airlines has a stopover there so I had to take advantage of this and dive! dive! dive! I decided to bond with this stingray, kind of as a tribute to Steve Irwin-sorry mom!

The water was very clear and deep blue as you can imagine. This made it easier to spot the sharks, eagle rays and turtles we saw.
The resort that I dove from was beautiful, so I spent most of my time there.
I stayed at Fi-Fi. I never figured out if it was the name of someone or a type of hostel. What it was was a bed on a porch attached to someone's house. This is NOT a picture of it.
Messing around with my underwater camera.
I only stayed in Tahiti a couple of days. This airline made one more stop before it hit S.A.

Log/pic 24 Australia

So after PNG, I headed to Australia to see the Australian Zoo and hopefully meet this man. As you are aware my hero got killed less than a week earlier by a stingray. I spent a couple days in Cairns and then went to Brisbane (Steve's zoo is about 70 km north). I went to the zoo the next day. Although it was impressive, and I was able to see several animals I had not seen before, it was a very sad atmosphere. There were hundreds of flowers and plants around the outside, brought in by the crocodile hunter's fans, and more were being brought each day. They plan to bury him on the grounds and there was to be a ceramony two days after I was there.
A koala and her baby-this one's for you mom!
This is the dingo that ate that lady's baby.
Two kangaroos (or wallabes-still haven't figured out the difference), caught in the act.
Wombat
Cookaberras
Tazmanian devil

It was nice to just chill in Australia. Brisbane was a nice clean, friendly city but I really enjoyed my hostel, Aussie Way. It was relaxing just talking to fellow travelers with no language barrier or cultural difference.

I couldn't do the Pacific Islands because it was too hard to get to and too expensive. I'm running out of money. Based on my expenditures thus far, I had to adjust my plans and will have to dive the Pacific at a later date. With money running out, I'm heading to South America-via Tahiti and Easter Island of course!

Log/Pic 23 Papua New Guinea

So this is the real new guinea. I was thrilled to be able to witness this.

see website for additional photos

Log/Pic 22 Bogia, Manan & Boisa Islands PNG

So I'm in Madang and I meet this guy Steve from the cultural center. He is going to the area of Bogia, about three hours north of where I am. This couple, Jackie and Gus want to open a little guest house behind this village. They are taking Steve there to show him the area and see if he thinks there is potential for travelers. A guide from the highlands and a Japanese representative, Toeshe, are going too. Steve asks if I want to come along. I cancel my dive and head out.

The ride to the guest house, named Anua Negu, was a trip in itself. We passed many villages that started as care centers for all the people who had to leave a volcanic island after its eruption in 2004. After checking out my room, #1 (I was the first official guest that would ever stay here), I visited the village which separates the guest house from the ocean. We then were off to see what would make this an attraction to a visitor beside the amazing ocean and view of Manan, the volcanic island.

First we visited the village of Malangen to pick up a small boat. All the people were so nice and so curious. This girl was my favorite. In the three times we would visit this village, this was the only time she would not be holding a baby. Notice the village tattoo on her right cheek.
Here is the view of Manan from this village where we picked up our boat. It has been smoking since its eruption one and 1/2 years ago. Once we arrived on this island we walked through the jungle for awhile to get a better view from above. Three men from the village Manan lead us with their machetes clearing the path.
This is a second village on the island we visited and ate bananas cooked in coconut oil.
A third village,Waia, offered us nuts called galig (again prolly wrong spelling).
This young girl is cracking the hard outer shell before we peeled off the skin and ate it.
This bunch, and about 50 more residents of this island, saw us off.
here is me trying some big nut, potato, yam looking thing-I liked it! Im on the small island of Boisa. The island is shaped like a snail or a whale, depending how you look at it. This village is 700 people strong. I estimated 500 were children. The chief not only offered us coconuts, nuts and fish to eat, he gave Jackie a live chicken to take back. The water around this island was a divers/snorkelers dream. On the way back we watched as countless tuna leaped out of the water. We also saw dolphins. We stopped by Hansa Bay, an inlet which houses about 35 plane or ship wrecks from WWll
This is a Japanese plane wreck near the Awar Village. Appearently there are many more around, and used to be even more. See website for more pics.

This was our last stop of our two-day adventure, The village of Awar. This boy swam across the river in the background and got coconuts to quench our thirst. We talked to the people as the group ate some smelly fish and glue-like substance. I took pictures of people chewing beetlenut, which I did finally try. I had some photos of my red lips, gum and teeth, but couldn't get myself to blog any of them. This was a great trip and a hell of an experience. The people of the villages were as friendly as the the people I travelled with. PNG rules!

Log/Pic 21 Vemino & Madang, PNG

So I arrived in Jayapura, Indonesia and went strait to immigration to get a visa for Papua New Guniea (PNG). Signs were posted everywhere and the gentleman stated that it was at least a two day process. 50,000 Rupia (about five bucks), made the process magically take a couple hours. It took about another hour to get a van to the border and about 45 minutes to cross through two Indonesian checkpoints/borders. Then I walked through to a PNG border.

I waited a couple hours to get a ride to the nearest town, Vemino, about 45 minutes away. I met a very kind family who gave me advise, a ride, and showed me where to stay. Later they would spend the weekend showing me their town and the surrounding village. I didn't plan on staying in Vemino, I was heading to Madang where the diving is! But after finding out that I couldn't drive to Madang because there are no roads, we went to the "airport" and I was told there was a flight on Monday.

Before I had a chance to get discouraged, I decided I would make the best of this small town. Abby and Eddie, part of the family I met at the border, would be my PNG representitives. They turned out to be extreamlly nice guys who wanted absolutely nothing from me except friendship. This was very different from what I had experienced for the last four and 1/2 months in Asia. I also discovered that everyone I met from PNG was just like them. The first thing my new friends did was take me to their home to meet their family. I came at a bad time because the entire female extended family was washing. After getting decent, they showed me their pets.

This is Abby's sister holding their pet cuscus (chances are this is the wrong spelling). This is a small baby but huge ones are found in the highlands.

Note the tail. It feels like a snake. It has very long claws on its fingers which feel clammy.

Eddie's pet parrot. He taught it to talk and I think it sings Bob Marley songs.

This is a friendly family in one of the nearby villages. Her teeth are red because she is chewing beetlenut. Almost everyone in PNG does-I'm not exaggerating. They chew a beetlenut or two, take a piece of mustard stick (looks like asperagas), dip it in lime, throw that in your mouth and chew them all. The lime and mustard make it red and give you the dizziness. Most people spit like when your chewing tabacco. It took me a day to realize why the streets were lined with blood-like stains. The real veterans swallow.

When I took this picture the nice lady ran away. I thought she didn't want her photo taken but she went to go get another family member to be in the picture...and then another, and another, and another, until this.

The longer I stayed, the more people joined. This is a pretty modern village as it is close to the town.

Vemino has some awesome coastline. I spent most of Sunday walking it and watching kids play, people fish and spear, and all of them just enjoying life.

Once in Madang, I hit the ocean. Although I could have spent the entire time just looking out at it from any of the places I stayed. The snorkeling was as good as the diving. Above is a school of baracuda.
Lionfish with cool colors in the background. This was actually a stormy day that I went diving.
Around Madang, there were these huge bats known to the locals as "flying fox." They are out during the day and night flying and hanging from the trees. You can see them doing both in this picture.