Dominic & Iris' trip to Peru.

My trip to Peru  ~By Dominic~

This year I went to Peru with my family and I would like to share a bit of my holiday with you.

We have just landed in Lima which is the capital of Peru.  It is midnight and I am relieved to have made it. (It is 18 hours behind NZ time)!

My first day at high altitude (in Cusco) felt strange - at 3,300 metres above sea level! The air was thin and there was barely any humidity!

There were heaps of rocky outcrops and Inca ruins. In the Sacred Valley, we went to Machu  Picchu and also climbed Wayna Picchu. The highest I went was 5,325 metres at Rainbow Mountain!

I really enjoyed it all but the part that really stood out for me was how advanced some of the Inca tools, structures and mechanisms were! The most interesting thing was staying on a floating island on Lake Titicaca!

When we were on our way to Cusco, the plane we were in was speeding along the runway,  just about to take off, when it suddenly skidded to a halt! The pilot had to make an emergency stop because something was wrong with the plane.

The last place we went was the Amazon rainforest. The temperature there was in the late 30s and it was extremely humid. We saw monkeys , pink dolphins, catfish, sloths, tarantulas, and a whole lot of other species. Our trip lasted three weeks and two days!

Finally the holiday came to an end, but I was happy because then I could chill at home, and NOT have to make sure that I had put 80% deet mosquito repellent on.

My Amazing South American Trip - By Iris

In September my family went on holiday for three weeks to South America.  My favourite part of our trip was when we went in a boat up the Amazon river to a lodge. When we got there in the boat I had to walk through a huge rice field, on a lovely little wooden foot path that leads you to the lodge. In the lodge there was an upstairs room full of hammocks and I had a great time swinging in the hammocks reading my book. 

After I had to hop out and go to the dining room to have lunch.  For lunch we  had baby catfish, rice and salad.  Then our guide, Luis came in and said that in an hour we were going fishing.  We agreed with him, so I said “thank you” and ran back into where the hammocks were.  

When it was time to go fishing, we walked down through the rice fields to get back to the little canoe and motored away down a narrow water outlet, to get to where the fishing spot was. When the boat stopped, we started to fish.  The first person to catch a fish was Dominic.  It was a catfish that was about 15cm long! In New Zealand that would not be legal! We all caught a fish apart from Mum and Dad. Luis, Dom and I  did. My fish was a bit bigger than Dom’s was.  Mine was 5cm larger. To be exact, it was 20cm. 

From there, David, our outboard man drove us all back to the lodge to have a rest.  Then, after we had dinner at 7, o'clock (mmmmmmmmmmmm dinner was delicious) we got dressed into some warmer clothes and went hunting for tarantula!

You can view more of their amazing photos here.