Aerials

Our flight from Sydney to Buenos Aires took us over hundreds of kilometres of cracked ice. Even on the internal flights at lower altitudes we managed sots through the small aircraft windows. the Panasonic Lumix TZ10 (believe it or not) has a special setting for shooting through aircraft windows. Like most things on this amazing camera the settings actually work better than manual settings!

Lunch being prepared

Roasted guinea pig is a favourite menu item in both Peru and Bolivia. Your guinea pig is served with potatoes, rice or quinoa and spicy source. Another delicious variation is fried guinea pig with a pepper and quinoa sauce. Its not a good idea to get close too your favourite guinea pig or the prettiest one before you choose which one wil be served up. Its especially not a good idea to learn personal names - you know saying 'I think Miriam looks really cute'.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is Peru's No 1 photographic icon. Our group made evening and early morning visits to MP. The unforgettable memory for me was the incredible stone masonry skills of the Incas. You could barely fit a cigaretrte paper between the stones and the tapered leaning walls to strengthen buildings was a sign of advanced engineering.
When we arrived for the morning visit mists swirled around the ruins and the mountains. Its a good place to shoot alone as their is a spiritual feel to this mountain top.

The Sacred Valley & Ollantaytambo

Our group was getting used to moving slowly and breathing deeply. Fabulous landscapes with volcanic backdops greeted us around each hairpin. National costumeis important and HATS are very important. Hats signify geographical origin and social status.
One of the highlights was lunch witha local family in The Sacred Valley. They met us on the outskirts of their isolated village in national dress and drummed us through the dry, dusty laneways. In the cloistered enclave they presenred a panotomine and then served us lunch.

Cusco - Lima

When you land at Cusco airport you are literally transported to another world - you are at 3310 metres. The first thing I noticed was how bright everything seemed. I wanted to put on two pairs of sunglasses. There were bottles of oxygen for sale in the airport. When I walked up the 4 flights steps at the Cusco Plaza 1 Hotel I wished I had bought some O2! Wow, it hit me like a ton of bricks. But aftere 5 muins laying breathless on my bed I was ok to walk around VERY slowly.

Lima - Peru

On landing at Lima Airport we were met by our guide Anna Maria Meneses. Lima is the commercial centre and capital of Peru.
Our welcome dinner was at an upmarket seaside restaurant chosen by Peter Lambert. We had our first taste of Peru's famous Pisco Sour - a 48% proof grape brandy based rocket fuel!

Argentina

Its so easy to fall in love with Argentina and Buenos Aires. There's the tree-lined boulevardes wide enough to land 4 jumbos side-by-side, the warm-hearted Spanish and Italian based peoples and of course the TANGO.