h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Ian,
I know my account of the trek was written to you but would you mind if I cut and paste some of it to my space? Other people have asked me about it (well - one other person!) and if I write it out again (apart from coming out more or less the same anyway) it'll take forever.
Jan
xx

No problem it deserves a larger audience.
IAN XX

Hey - real-time conversation!!
Thanks - I'll have to work out a way of putting it into my space - it'll disappear off the bottom if I put it all into the journal bit!
What are you cooking this evening? Anything interesting?
xx

Tonight i am mainly having curry which i dont know whether it will be interesting but it will certainly be hot. Thats when i get aroung to cooking it i have just been on to the ethical consumer website it is a magazine i used to buy but few people stock it now. It is pretty scary the information you can get on some companies, it just gives out what certain companies are up to and you can decide whether to boycott them or not. Not to be undertaken if you cannot live without favourite consumables.
That was a partly political brodcast for the ethical party anyway i am off to make that curry before i shoot of on another tangent
And i have not asked what you are having TUT TUT
XX

I've just had a really nice stir-fry. Hope the curry was good. (What interesting conversations we have! Mind you - food is pretty much one of the most important things in my life!!)

The curry was great thanks i have started eating it with couscous since somebody put me off rice(cannot for the life of me think who it was!!)I know food food food food food its just part of being vegan, i suppose well thats my excuse anyway! I now work with a girl who has recently moved in with her boyfriend so we have long conversatons about cooking(just cannot get away from the subject)I thought it was just me who was food obssessed!! The surprising thing is that i have definitely lost weight since becoming a vegan which is a bit of a surprise.

I've lost at least a stone (probably more now) since becoming vegan. I was training for Peru as well during the same time period. I think being vegan must suit me because I (usually!) have so much more energy than I used to have. At the moment I think I must still be recovering from the traumas of the trip. I've just been to a yoga class and I got quite shakey at one point. And now I'm very weary - so goodnight.
xx

Have meant to ask when you are teaching yoga for the first time, i will be thinking of you, sure everything will be fine.
Getting ready for our training walk on Sunday have bought recommended compass(Silva type4) and we have the ordnance survey map for the area. Being one of the few car owners i have been nominated to drive down their, there was talk of a minibus which would have been great but unfortunately it failed to materialise so bang goes my relaxing drinks afterwards, i will be on the soft drinks!
Training consists of pacing,spotting handrail features and basic navigation, just about to check insurance policies to see what the small print says and if it mentions the weather which is likely to be of biblical proportions come sunday!! that will pale into insignificance come wednesday when we take our bronze test near betys y coed. If we pass then the silver award is pencilled in for next April, this will be a two day course at a country house in wales.
I think that is enough about walking i feel a bit embarrassed mentioning it after your exploits
XX

Your exploits sound just as (if not more) involved than mine! I didn't have to study for what I was doing - or be tested on it! I hope it all goes well. Where is the walk on Sunday? (I'm sure you've told be before but my brain is still feeling jet-lagged.)
I won't actually be teaching any yoga for a long time yet. The course lasts 3 years and it doesn't start until January - although I already have the first assignment to do - along with mountains of reading (so it feels as though I've started already). I'm not sure at what point I have to start teaching. We are videoed taking at least 2 classes but I suspect that will be teaching to the other students (although I may be wrong). I guess I'll find all this out when I go to the first tutorial. I'm getting excited already!!
xx

Your yoga course sounds really intersting three years sounds a long time but once you get into it the time will go nowhere, this is said from experience as i completed a hnc course last year and that took two years, at first i thought no way could i complete a course that long, it seemed a short time later i was attending a cap and gown ceremony at Preston Guild Hall, alright maybe a slight exageration but you know what i mean. It surely will be a lot more fun than Business Studies with finance.
Before i forget our walks on sunday start at Loggerheads which i hope is not a prediction for the arguments during the day. Its quite near really in North Wales and our teacher says that we will be mainly forest area so that if we see mountains or coastline our navigation is very bad!!
XX

Time seems to fly by all too quickly these days - it hardly seems a few years since I was setting out on a 4 year degree course - and that was 22 years ago! I am sure the 3 years will pass very rapidly - but I know it's going to be 3 years of change and transformation (there's a lot of introspection involved in learning to teach something so deep).
I'll have to look Loggerheads up now. Forest sounds good - I'm sure you'll get mountains on the next part.
Hey - we haven't talked about food for.....oh - hours!
xxx

Will have to rectify the lack of food talk by mentioning that the pitta bread with various filling recipe you gave me was excellent and has become a favourite, will have to stop having it soon otherwise i will get sick of it. Tonight i am having a chilli concoction, its a variation on a veggie meal with guacamole,salsa and kidney beans, will soon find out if it makes it from the planning stage.
Hope that you found Loggerheads its in the Clwydian range, actually hope that i find Loggerheads as will be setting out at around 8.30, the teacher said that he was eating breakfast at 9 at the tescos near by, was glad the lads turned down his offer the prospect of sitting with twelve people all eating full english breakfasts would be very offputting just realised back to food again(oh no!!)
XX

The chilli thing sounds good. We quite often have a beany chilli with tortilla wraps and an avocado, tomato, pepper and sweetcorn salad. But we're on lentil shepherd's pie tonight - nice and warming. (Have I given you that recipe already?) I was just thinking, as I was driving back from picking one of my girls up from her after-school French Club, what a damp, miserable day it had been and how I fancied something nice and warming and filling for tea. Then we turned a corner and the sky infront of us was fantastic - all striped with turquoise and silver - and with a half moon that looked like a slice of lemon with a light watercolour wash of bluey-grey over it. Magic! I still fancied the lentil shepherd's pie for tea though.
xx

No i do believe the lentil shepherds pie has somehow escaped me. Please could you tell me what you had taken pre car journey, only joking i love looking up into the sky also specially these mornings as i live quite close to Martin Mere wildfowl trust and the sight of hundreds of geese setting off in formation does put me in a good mood before work. This reminds me of a couple of weeks ago when i was taking one of my all to infrequent walks to work the weather was cold but luckily dry and i was thinking why dont i do this more often when i looked up to see geese in formation and for an instant it looked like they were dragging a plane across the sky. It was only later when standing at the bus stop in the pouring rain thinking ahh this is why i jump in my car.
I think the chilli has potential with a little tinkering it might just work and on that rather foody point i will leave it for now, i was hoping to hear about macchu picchu that is unless you are fed up writing about it, if so ignore previous request.
XXX

What can I say about Machu Picchu? If I had your e-mail address I'd send you some photos. It really is an amazing place. Where did I get to in my story of the trip? Hang on I'll have to get out of here a moment to check...........

I did put a little bit about the atmosphere there on our other conversation - but I've written a bit more in my 'diary' that I don't think I've told you yet. If I have - excuse me for repeating things - I've confused myself now by writing in two places to you!
I got up to telling you about the train journey back to join the group and how the scenery changed along the route as we got nearer to Machu Picchu and more into the "cloud-forest" as they call it. Well -
arriving at the little station in the village below Machu Picchu (can't remember the name of it - I'll have to look it up) was a bit of a surreal experience. On walking off the platform you are immediately in a narrow lane lined with colourful market stalls selling knitwear, woven blankets and bags, jewellery etc. The blankets and wall hangings are so closely packed across the street that they almost meet in the middle like a roof to a tent. The lane widens out and then you are met with overpowering fumes from queues and queues of coaches waiting to take the masses of tourists up the hill to the sacred ruins. There seemed to be some complicated system of issuing ticket vouchers before you actually get your hands on the coach tickets that involved lengthy queuing. But, luckily, we were met by a guide from the trek company who sorted out places on a coach for us - after a small debate with one of the ushering officials. Our coach driver skilfully manoeuvred his way through the ranks of returning coaches, reversing back up into the narrow road (there seemed to be no place for them to turn round) - and we set off up the switch-back road to Machu Picchu. It was a hair-raising trip! It only lasted about 20 minutes but we must have met at least 20 other coaches on their way down. It all had the feel of a choreographed dance with our coach meeting another just at the pull-in points every time. The drivers must have it timed down to the second! The views over the sheer drop to the side were fantastic. On reaching the top I was surprised to see a fairly commercialised centre with cafe, bar and shops - rather like a well done-out National Trust property. As we looked around to get our bearings we realised the party of bedraggled looking trekkers just crossing the road infront of us were from our group - they were just arriving and making their way to a little shelter to deposit their daysacks and have a snack. How was that for timing! It felt good to be back with our friends and the guides - part of the group again. Hugs and greetings were exchanged and there were comments about how good we smelled! (We'd had showers that morning and a chance to wash our hair!) After the snack stop we went up through a check point where our passports were stamped as we passed through into the ruins. My first impression of the little buildings and walls was that it looked like a small English village! A kind of cross between Derbyshire dry-stone walls and the thatching of somewhere in Wiltshire! There are numerous of these little buildings on various different levels that have been reconstructed. One or two of the roofs were being worked on by restorers while we were there. There are several terraces of maybe only a metre or two wide and we settled down on one of the - our backs against the wall behind - to listen to Ozzie (our crazy Peruvian Guide - I'd missed him while I'd been back in Cusco!) tell us all about the ruins. He knows so much about it and is so enthusiastic - but I'm afraid I became a bit mesmerised by his voice and sat there in the warm sunshine - the smell of the grasses around me - I kind of drifted off. So I didn't take in all that much about the history - just soaked it all up. It actually started to get really hot while we were there and, as we moved on to an area near one of the temples I had to move off to the side a bit to find some shade by one of the huge blocks of stone. So again I didn't really take in what Ozzie was saying - just pressed my back up against the cool rock and closed my eyes for a while. I could really feel the energy of the place and soon Ozzie had stopped talking and the group was moving on to look at the next feature - a series of ritual baths through which water would have cascaded (passing down the chain) in a kind of ritual like a baptism or purification. The participants would have stood in the baths at different levels - possibly related to their level of spiritual attainment - while the water washed over them. Apparently the Incas had a sophisticated method of diverting water from a nearby mountain - that looked to be higher than the level we were on and so, I suppose, built up a head of pressure to get down that slope and up to the temples with some force. It must have been quite a sight to see the water gushing down through the series of baths.
The next place to look at was an alter in a partially man-made partially natural cave. (I can't remember which temple this was - maybe the one to Pacha Mama - mother earth or nature. The stepped carving of the alter was so smooth - it looked more like a modern sculpture outside some posh office block than a site of ritual sacrifice. The Incas liked to include rock that was in-situ into their temples dedicated to the earth and part of the cave was as it had been but with some block work incorporated at the side. It was so beautiful - I tried not to think about the blood that must have trickled down the steps of the alter to the ground. (I have some good photos of this part - I wish I could include them here!) From the cave-like temple we moved up to the temple of the sun - a smallish room built of quite regular sized blocks - with a large rectangular door at one end. There were niches high up in the walls which actually would have been on the floor above - but the floor/ceiling is no longer there - and would have held small statues. From here we walked up some steps to the highest point in the ruins - sometimes called Sun-dial Hill because at it's top there is a carved stone (smooth - like the alter in the cave) that is know at the Hitching Post of the Sun. At the Solstices (or is it the Equinoxes - again I wasn't really paying full attention - there is just too much to take in!) the sun passes through the Sun Gate - a dip on the brow of a nearby hill - to shine on this stone and pass exactly through a corner of it. There were hoards of people trying to touch the stone and Ozzie explained that they were asking it to give them their heart's desire - whatever you wanted would drip off the end of the stone (it kind of has a little overhanging bit). We didn't fight our way to the front to have a go but waited for the crowds to part enough to get a good picture of the stone. I didn't feel the need to ask it for anything anyway - I felt totally content just to be there. Descending from the little hill, Ozzie told us we were then free to wander around the site on our own. So, my friend (with the teddy that had to be photographed for school) and I went to take some bear shots. As we were setting up for one photo we heard thunder rumble around the surrounding hills. The sky all around us looked incredibly threatening and yet the ruins were still bathed in sunlight - the quality of light for the photo was just amazing - it's one of my favourites of the ones I took at Machu Picchu - the teddy looks all cute and innocent, with a miniature Peruvian hat we had bought for him in Cusco and he's sat on a stone block that contrasts dramatically with the back-drop of dark, jungle-clad hills and menacing storm clouds. It didn't actually rain on us while we were there and there was something very weird about being surrounded by a storm - the occasional flash of lightning off in the clouds and the odd ominous rumble - but to be so hot in the sun just focussed on the sacred site.
Anyway - I have rambled on for far too long again! That was just about it for the Machu Picchu part of the trip. I'll tell you about the return journey to Cusco and our day out in Lima next time.
Good night and take care,
Love Jan
xx

I really do not know what to say, i read your account of macchu picchu and it was brilliant, thanks for taking the time to tell me about it, i was feeling a bit low after work and reading about Peru really brought me out of it. I never expected such a detailed travelogue when you said you would tell me about your trip and i think i better stop talking about it now otherwise i might get a virtual fist through the screen. By the way you can have my e mail address([email protected]) as i am soon changing isp`s, the account was vivid enough to make me want to visit peru and also make me feel as though i have been there, any photos will add to the writing(specially the teddy photo on macchu picchu). Looking forward to the next instalment whenever you are ready, it sounds like the guide should do tapes to play when you come home, it would be hard to take in too much detail with the views, it could be better listening to whilst reading a diary or looking at photos(do you think he needs an agent!!)
I was looking last night at the loggerheads web site unfortunately i cannot find the address but if type loggerheads visitor centre into a search engine you should be able to get the address if you want to see were we are going on Sunday, it is a interesting web site.
Many thanks again for the account
LOVE IAN
XX

Again - you are very kind with your comments about my writing. It is probably just the same as the way I talk about it! i.e. I go on and on and on............!!! Thanks for your e-mail address - I'll send you a message in a minute (just to test it out).
What do you think of these little eyes?

You are too modest about your writing it does help writing from the heart but maintaining an interest is a real skill so be told!!
E Mail received 1
E Mail sent 1
Technological achievement 10/10

IAN XX

Now with 3 places to talk to you I'm going to get really confused.......