The Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

The Sacred Valley of Peru is amazingly beautiful. Majestic mountains that rise out of the valley floor so sharply with no foothills - just straight up! The mountains are quite baron with cactus and mostly scrub land and lately Eucalyptus trees from Australia have been planted. These trees grow quickly and provide beams for house construction and many other things.
Our first stop in the Sacred Valley was Ollantaytambo, one of the few intact Inca villages. The village is surrounded by lush farms and a rushing Urubamba River. Corn is the crop mostly grown here and since it is Spring in this part of the world the healthy young crop was well underway.

We climbed the ruins at Ollantaytambo, which has steep stairs rising through terraces once farmed by the Inca. It is so mind boggling to imagine just how this site was built. Huge stones were moved from a quarry 6 kms away and when the river got in the way, they just diverted it around the rocks.

Another Inca site we visited was called ‘Salinas’ where water from a hot spring fills huge stone pans and evaporated to produce salt . This is still in operation today.


Not far from Salinas, ‘Moray’ an Inca agricultural site that was built like a huge amphitheater. Each level of the theater was planted with different crops and they were then able to see which crops grew best at each elevation. The Inca’s were masters in engineering and these sites had built in irrigation and drainage. One of the trademarks we have seen in all the sites we have visited is very precise craftsmanship. The huge rocks fit together perfectly with no need for any filler. All corners and edges are perfectly straight. Amazing!

October 15th we took the Perurail Vistadome train to Machu Picchu.
This trip was totally mind boggling with the steep mountains so close to the train that you had to look through the roof to see the tops. When we got to Aqua Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu, it was raining so we waited till the afternoon and luckily the sun came out. The bus trip to the top of the mountain is about ½ hour on switch back roads with scenery that just no words will support. The site was so much more than we expected and I think it was the incredible setting of Machu Picchu with the huge surrounding mountains that make it so. We hiked the whole site and just knew that it would be an experience neither of us would ever forget.

Back in Cusco, we took a day trip to another small valley town called Pisac.
This town is also at the base of another incredible Inca ruin and on Sundays they have a huge market with goods from all over the valley. We hiked the amazing ruins first and then took in the market.

October 2008 - Peru!

Brian and Marilyn left Victoria at the end of September and 6 planes and 2 days later we were in Lima, Peru.

We try to always find good things to say about a place but we are hard pressed to come up with too many superlatives about Lima. The Plaza de Armas, where the Presidential Palace and the Cathedral are located is a lovely square, as is Plaza San Martin but the rest of Lima is just large and noisy. Hostel Iquique, where we stayed, was also great and they are keeping two large bags for us full of boat parts destined for Icarian.

After 4 days in Lima we flew to Cuzco, a charming town at the elevation of 3326 meters in the Andes Mountains. The day we arrived was sunny and hot, a treat we were not expecting but it proved to be kind of a fluke as the temperatures are for the most part very chilly here. Cusco is beautiful with cobblestone streets, quaint restaurants and is nestled on a valley surrounded by steep mountains. The people here have been great.

Tomorrow we are heading to a small village in the Sacred Valley called Ollantaytamba. We wanted to experience the feel of a village where not too many tourists come and this Inca village has been continuously inhabited since the 13th century. This should prove to be a very interesting stop on our way to Machu Picchu.
bye for now
Pixs: Lima Central Square, 3 in Cusco

Back home for a summer holiday

September 2008 and Marilyn and Brian are all set to begin year 5 of their amazing adventure. Icarian has spent the summer on the hard in Cartagena, Columbia where she is well below the hurricane belt. Brian got the bottom ready for painting and then worked on the engine, doing some very important servicing. Back in B.C. we have had a great time catching up with family and friends and attended two lovely weddings.

We fly out of Victoria on September 30th to Lima, Peru where we plan six weeks of inland travel. Machu Pichu, Lake Titicaca are a couple of the highlights but we plan to see much more.
Over the summer we have changed our cruising itinerary. We plan to launch Icarian at the end of November and after provisioning, leave Cartagena around the 1st of December. We have decided to do another season in the Western Caribbean as there is still so much more to see. First landfall will be Providencia where we will enjoy the Christmas season. Our plans include exploring the Bay of Islands of Honduras, Belize and Guatemala and more.
We will keep you posted on what we discover this year.
Bye for now

Pix: Some other cruisers visiting home, Sidney waterfront,Buchart's Gardens, Sidney malecon

July in Cartagena

Icarian has spent the last month anchored off Club Nautico in Cartagena.
We have been very spoiled with excellent weather as the rainy season was really late getting started.
Mid June we watched a big celebration that sent the tall ship ‘Gloria’ on a lengthy voyage. The pomp and ceremony involved in her ‘bon voyage’ party was really impressive. Sailors lined all the yardarms dressed in the colours of their flag, the bay was full of many kinds of boats and a tug gave a water salute as the Gloria departed.
We have enjoyed many nights wandering around the lovely ‘old town’, watching street dancing and lots of other forms of entertainment. We visited the amazing fortress of San Felipe and let our imagination runaway with visions of life in the 1600’s. The fort is very well preserved and the history associated with it so very interesting.
Marilyn is heading home to Canada in a couple of days and Brian will begin Icarian’s haulout.

June in Cartagena

We are now in this season’s final destination ‘Cartagena’ and what a beautiful big city it is. Our first impression was how much it was like Vancouver but without the mountains in the background.
Our journey here took us southeast along the coast of Panama as far as a small Kuna village called ‘Achitupu’. The village occupies a small island and appears to be bursting at the seams. A steady stream of children ventured out to visit us. They came on board to see how we lived and were very taken with pictures of our family back home. With our limited Spanish we had a great time. We passed out the rest of the school supplies we had brought with us and lots of homemade cookies and the children all left with happy smiles. The San Blas Islands are now our favourite cruising experience.

Our first landfall in Columbia was Isla Tintipan where we found some lovely private haciendas but as it was the off season, they were pretty much deserted. We moved northeast to the Rosario’s, a grouping of small island’s only 20 miles from Cartagena. This is a very funky area that has lots of fishermen’s cottages and weekend homes for some wealthy people in Cartagena.

Lively music, clean warm water and a lovely atmosphere made this an area we hope to visit again soon. We visited an aquarium there and saw lots of sharks up close and a very good dolphin show.. The feeding frenzy of the sharks, I won’t soon forget! Yikes!!

The old city is just gorgeous. The architecture just amazing and makes me wish that in Canada we weren’t so quick to tear down the old and put up modern buildings with no character. Lovely narrow streets with over hanging balconies and flowers spilling down towards the street. Just lovely! Surrounding the old city, the walls of the fortress are massive and very well preserved. So much history here!!
It’s time to do some serious boat projects over the next couple of months as well as investigate the many sites and sounds of the city. Icarian is getting a new bimini and will be hauled out for some TLC. We’re heading back to Vancouver (Marilyn July 8 and Brian Aug 12) to visits the clan and friends
Hasta luego!!

Icarian's May update!!

San Blas May 1st, 2008

Hi again from Paradise!
Brian and I are still here in the San Blas and have just spent 3 weeks with good friends Larry and Julie on Komara.

We have snorkeled some amazing reefs as we have re-visited some of our favourite spots. We are now getting used to sharks but I prefer them sleeping on the sand which is often where we find them. Brian likes them swimming around of course and is always ready to spur them on. Yikes!
This last week we saw a 5` Barracuda just hovering in one spot no doubt waiting for some tasty morsel to swim by.
In the Western Holandes Islands we discovered a series of underwater passageways and arches and tunnels leading to a secluded beach. The water actually shimmered it was so warm, it had to be over 100 degrees. We think there must have been an underwater hot springs helping the sun and were surprised to see lots of fish still swimming in that heat.

We visited a typical Kuna village called Isla Maquina. It is a tiny island with over 300 inhabitants and there is not a square inch of land not in use. A young man named Ildefonso had invited us to his village and he took us to the Congresso to meet his chief and get the necessary permission to walk around.
The pathways between the thatched cottages are narrow and so neat and lovely colourful hibiscus grow everywhere. Ildefonso speaks pretty good English that he has picked up from making friends with the passing Cruisers.

Brian and Larry went for a sail on an ulu. Amazing the speed and manouverability they can achieve in a dug out log with craps of material sewn together for a sail. The Kuna are true sailors!!

Icarian is now starting the next leg of this year's journey and that is heading East to Cartagena.
We left Nargana yesterday and ran right into a huge rain squall which continued all day and evening. We calculated 4 inches had come down and we managed to just about fill our water tanks. Icarian is now squeaky clean too!
The rainy season is just starting and we hope that it eases in slowly.

We are now in Snug Harbor a beautiful little spot nestled between 4 small islands and the mountainous mainland is close by.
The anchorages and villages we are about to visit are very remote and very few cruisers come this way.
Our plan is to coastal hop down as far as the Columbian border and then shoot across to Cartagena by mid May.
Hasta luego!
Marilyn and Brian

April's update - San Blas Islands

Icarian is presently anchored in the Eastern Holandes Cays in a lagoon commonly referred to as the Hot Tub.
It is lovely here, truly a paradise.

We made a short trip down to Colon in the middle of March. We needed to reprovision after 2 months in the islands and haul the boat out of the water to straighten the strut that had become bent when our propeller encountered a stray line. Long story, but luckily it straightened with no trouble and we were back in the water again within an hour. In Colon we were able to do a good re-provisioning again and are now set for another couple of months.
While we were in Colon they were filming the upcoming new James Bond movie called 'Quantum of Solace'. In fact, the filming was happening all around and in the Shelter Bay Marina where we were staying. The film company had hired about 40 cruising boats to anchor off the marina and form the back drop for a lot of the action. We saw some amazing stunts being practiced again and again and then watched as they shot the actual footage. Daniel Craig is James Bond and his leading lady Olga was very pretty.
I was interested to see that most of the work is done by the stunt doubles and the main actors are just slotted in at the end. The stunt double for James was named Wade and he was so friendly and had all the girls fawning over him. Fun to watch.

Yesterday our cruising friends Larry and Julie on Komara arrived here in the San Blas. We cruised with them in the Sea of Cortez in 2005 and now find ourselves back together for a couple of weeks before we head in different directions again.
We have some awesome 'favourite spots' to show them!!
Hasta luego!!