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This is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is a lake shared by Bolivia and Peru. Titicaca means puma in one of the two main dialects here – Quechua and Aymara. We started the day quite amusingly. We were used to being picked up by busses to our tour site but today we were picked up by 11 pedal powered tricycles. They took us to a mainly downhill ride into the Puno Port where a boat would take us to the islands in Lake Titicaca.

We went nuts taking photos of this grandeur, that we forgot we were in a tour. Our tour guide and the rest of the group have been patiently waiting for us at the entry of this Inca city. The tour commentary is as important as the site itself. Machupicchu was never discovered by the Spaniards when they colonised Peru. The city was abandoned long before the conquistadors came, and vegetation concealed the place. There would have been more places like this, but they were destroyed by the white people when found. They were looking for treasures, at the same time using Christianity as an excuse to destroy a pagan religion.

As expected, the site of the statue is an awesome vantage point to see Rio de Janiero. The sky is clear, weather not too warm. The crowd is of reasonable density for the time we were there. It is one off my bucket list of things to see.

The highlight of our Argentinian visit is the Iguazu Falls. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site – it is not to be missed. The Iguazu River that feeds the falls divides Argentina and Brazil.

01-April-2012 – Buenos Aires, Argentina As it turned out, a number in our tour group also had difficulty sleeping. A disco right next to the hotel and a car alarm that kept going off was blamed but most would agree that we could have slept through that. The body clock is probably more to blame. [...]

31-March-2012 3:30 AM AEST After almost a year since it was planned, we are finally embarking in a journey we’ve only learnt in the classroom of our Spanish classes in college. There are 20 people in our group and we have arranged a ‘hatid’ service to the airport. Jeanne and I are the first to [...]

Growing up in Baguio, Ruben and I have a flock of pigeons for pets. We’ve fashioned a wooden box used for ‘tuyo’ (smoked fish) as their nest/home. Our first pair was given to me by Dr. Sabater from his own flock. We raised the these birds since they were small, feeding them by hand and [...]

After a crazy start to their holiday, Jessica and Celine is back from a week long R&R in Samui, Thailand.

During my Concert Band days, we competed in Eistedfodd where we played a variety of music from melancholic, to cheerful and playful. Our conductor would remind us to dig into our hearts to find that emotion that would help us play the music. You also need to find it quick as there is less than [...]

We celebrated this year’s Valentine’s Day by cashing in a gift certificate we received from Ryan and Angie. It’s for a seven-course meal on a gourmet restaurant in Pymble. If you’ve seen L.A. Story, then you would know that each course is more plate than grub . Jeanne had the normal set whilst I had the deluxe version where 5 of the seven courses comes with a glass of matching wine.