Well, he climbed right up to 4,900 metres when we crossed a big mountain range in the Andes in Peru.

The mountains are called the Cordilleras Blanca.  The tallest mountain is 6,900 metres.  The roads and pathways that go between the mountains are called ‘Passes’, because they pass between the mountains.

The zig zap road climbing the mountain. See how steep it is!

The roads that lead up the sides of mountains to these ‘passes’ would be too steep if they climbed straight up the mountain so they often make a zig zag pattern as they get higher. 

Climbing all the way up the mountain side to the Pass we drove through lots of small towns and villages where mainly indigenous people live.  That’s the descendents of the people who lived here long before the people from Europe came here to live.  The villages got smaller and fewer in number the higher we climbed.

We could see the bottom of a glacier from where we were driving on a mountain road.

Near the top we saw the bottom of a glacier.  Then we passed higher than the bottom of the glacier.  We passed up through what is called the ‘snow line’, the point where the snow has not melted.  Until right at the top there was lots of thick snow and even a small avalanche. 

Landy driving through one of the mountain villages on the way to the high pass.

The higher we climbed up the mountains the fewer other cars we saw on the road.  Until, right at the top there were only three of us left crossing the pass.  A big coach was just a little way in front of us.  I’m really glad I wasn’t on that coach.  I think it would have been very scary.  The bus couldn’t get right over the mountain.  It had to get help from a big JCB earth moving truck that sits at the top of the pass just to help people who get stuck.  The road is very narrow at the top and we watched as the JCB earth mover carefully towed the big bus up the last half mile before it could travel down the other side on its own.  There was lots of snow to slip on.  If any of the drivers had made a mistake they would have had a very nasty fall down the steep mountainside.

Next to cross the pass was a small car.   He had problems too and his wheels kept slipping in the snow and mud.  Eventually he asked for help from the JCB earth mover too.

Once the car had crossed over it was our turn.  We were a bit nervous, after seeing everyone else have problems.  But we shouldn’t have been.  Landy was more than capable of getting over the last bit of snow and mud, even though it was very steep and narrow, and we cheered loudly as we passed the big JCB earth mover without having to get his help.

Right up high on mountains there is less oxygen in the air.  People who climb really high mountains like Everest carry extra oxygen to help them breathe.

At 4,900 metres there was plenty enough oxygen for us to breathe OK, but we might have found it difficult to do lots of exercise.

But did you know that cars need air too.  For Landy’s engine to run he needs a mixture of fuel and air.  He’s designed to run really well on the amount of air that we normally breathe where the land is not very high above the sea.   But when we go higher such as into the mountains or in aeroplanes the air around the earth gets thinner (there’s not so much of it).  And so, although Landy has lots of fuel he doesn’t have as much air to breathe.  So, like us, he huffs and puffs a bit when we get very high up.

See how little this lizard is

We knew we were staying in our camp on the sands of a coastal desert in Peru for several days.  So we dug a pit just outside our camp where we could put our used tea bags and waste food scraps and then bury them before we left.

But in the meantime we hoped something else might happen.  And it did!

The bad bit was that the food scraps attracted flies. That is why we dug the hole downwind and away from the camp (downwind just means the wind doesn’t blow towards us).

The good bit was that the flies attracted some of the tiny sand lizards that live here in the desert.  The lizards feed on small insects such as flies.  They are the same colour as the sand and hard to see unless they are close up.  If you go near them they run away – very fast.

So we needed them to come near to our camp instead of us going out to look for them.  And over the next few days lots of them did.

They run very fast over short distances.  Running on their toes they run with their heads and tails in the air, making them look like little boats moving across the sand.  Then they stop and often lay flat on the sand for a few moments, before looking up and peering around them.  They like to sit near the top of tiny hills in the sand where they can see more of the ground around them.

Even though we can’t see them very well from a distance, there is a big bird, a member of the eagle family, that also lives in the desert.  This eagle has very good eyesight.  Sometimes we would see one flying overhead and suddenly swoop down to pluck something from the ground.  We guessed it must be some small desert lizard and that’s how we knew they were here.

Science Question

Our Amazing Adventure Map

Look at our adventure map to see where we camped and where we dug the pit.  We show you which way the wind blows.

How did we know the way the wind blows so we could dig our pit for the right side of the camp?

Watch the video to check your answers.

paddy fields in Peru

What’s your favourite food? Do you like meat or vegetables? Do you like chips? What about eggs or toast? Your body needs all sorts of things like vitamins and minerals, and even some fat to stay fit and healthy and it gets these things from the food you eat.

One thing the body needs from food is something called carbohydrates. That’s because the body is able to use this to make a type of sugar that gives you energy.

In England most people get this stuff from eating potatoes (including chips) but in lots of other parts of the world they get these carbohydrates from rice.

Especially where we are now in Peru. All the way through Mexico, Central America and now in South America we’ve found people eat lots and lots of rice.

Rice is grown in lots of countries around the world. Even some countries in Europe, such as France, Italy and Greece, but not in England which is too cold. The two countries in the whole world that grow the most rice are China and India.

We never used to know much about how rice was grown. But here in Peru we’ve seen something called ’paddy fields’ which is what fields where rice is growing are called. The rice is grown in small fields that are flooded with water. When the rice plant is nearly fully grown no more water is allowed into that part of the field and gradually the water is used up by the plants or drains away and then the rice can be harvested. In many countries this is still usually done by hand, although in some places, such as the United States, harvesting machines are used.

The fully grown rice plant is about 1m tall and the grains of rice are found at the top of a stem, a bit like wheat (which is grown in England).

a monkey drinks from a left over drinks carton

We visited a small town right on the edge of the Amazon Basin the other day, called Misahoualli.  As we walked around looking for somewhere to stop and eat we noticed lots of very small monkeys right in the middle of a pavement.  Lots of tourists were taking photos and we took some photos too.

We really liked being able to see the little monkeys up so close but we were really sad to see them eating left over food people had thrown away.

They had been really clever in learning how to get at some of the food and drinks.  We even watched one monkey deliberately smash and break a glass bottle to find out if anything was inside.

Then we watched the monkeys go back into the forest.  They climbed up a pole and onto some power cables and used the cables to travel across a big open space and back into the trees.

What do you think?

That made us think a bit.  This is what we replied.  We like to eat the local foods whenever we can, so we have eaten lots of different foods in all the countries we have visited.  Here are a few of them:

Here's Helen eating some dried fish in Ukraine - we bought this at a stall by the roadside

Ukraine – Fresh water fish, smoked and sold by the roadside in a wooden hut. Wild Strawberries bought from roadside sellers who had picked them in the woods
Russia – Fried eggs and mashed potato for breakfast.
Kazakhstan – Sweet donuts filled with meat and onions, not jam
Mongolia – Lamb cut up and boiled, with the arteries and bones still in it.  Yaks cheese, which is very very hard, and tastes like smelly socks; and tea made with warm horse milk and hardly any tea. Both horrid!!
USA – Biscuits and gravy, and german pancakes with sugar and maple syrup – yummie!
Mexico – Coconut straight from the tree – Drinking the milk from the inside first, then chopping it open to eat the white coconut flesh. Frijoles, which are red beans boiled and then refried – sometimes served mashed into a paste.
Belize – Mixed ‘Rice and Beans’ served with fried chicken, and deep fried banana.
Guatamala – Fresh Pineapple cut up for us by a man in a truck on the street.
El Salvador – Papusa – small, round, very flat pastry, folded around a filling of meat, cheese, or vegetables, and then flattened and cooked on a heated iron plate.
Honduras – Plantain fritters, which are a type of hard banana, mashed up and flattened into fritters and deep fried until crispy.
Nicaragua - chocolate omelette (not a local dish but one we loved)
Costa Rica – Deep fried maize – which explodes like popcporn and goes all crispy on the outside, served for breakfast with raw onion, potato, and sausage.
Panama – Home made pizza – lovely!!
Colombia – Chicken with its head still on! Chorizo sausage, which is very spicy and has a lot of fat and gristle in it.
Ecuador – Pumpkin soup, currried hamburger (:-/) and grilled guineapig. Sugared sweets made from spices, fresh milk and sugar. Sweets made from chocolate, marmalade and milk mixed into a paste and chilled.

Argentina is famous for really lovely steaks, so we are looking forward to getting there.

There are no Christmas cards.  The people don’t eat a special Christmas Dinner – many had roast guinea pig but that’s a typcial Sunday dinner here.  Christmas Day seemed just the same as any other day of the week.  Lots of people were out working in their gardens, and the local cafe was open as usual.  There weren’t even many presents!  Most of the children received some biscuits and sweets.

arriving at church for Nativity celebration

The last day of school was on Thursday (3 days before Christmas).  In the morning the children gathered together.  Some children got dressed up as Mary and Joseph, and shepherds and wise men from the Christian Christmas Nativity story.  They all then walked through the village to the big Catholic Church.  The girl dressed as Mary was riding on a donkey, just like in the Christmas story.  There was a musician and singers.  Right at the back was a llama with some Christmas paper tied to him.

Everyone then sat in church while the rosary was read.  This took about an hour.  Then everyone walked back to school.  Including the donkey and the llama.

Back at school the children went into their own classrooms and got changed into special outfits.  Each class performed some kind of dance that showed a different part of Ecuador’s history, culture and traditions.  Some acted out a bull fight.  Others dressed up and did the dances of some of the native indian tribes that still live in Ecuador.

The following Friday (after Christmas Day) a small fair was set up in the church car park – a small merry go round, table football, a trampoline and someone selling toffee apples.  In the evening there was an all night disco with dancing in the community hall.  All weekend there was lots of music and dancing and fireworks being let off.

On Saturday (New Year’s Eve) something really different happened.  We were a bit shocked.  Let me tell you what happened and then you can decide what you think of it.

On Saturday morning there was a cock fight!!  Men (and some teenagers) breed cockerels just to make them fight each other.  This used to happen in England many many years ago but it has been illegal in our country for a long time now.

cockfight

Two cockerels are put in a ring together and allowed to fight.  Their owners stand close by and a referee is in the ring as well.  If one bird it getting really hurt or looks like it doesn’t want to fight any more the referee blows his whistle and the owners of the birds separate them and check if they are alright and still want to fight.  The fights are divided up into rounds so the birds only get to fight for a certain amount of time before the fight ends.  Eventually the referee decides which bird is the winner based on a ‘points’ system – which bird did not surrender or which bird fought the best.  The rules seemed a bit like boxing.

Some of the birds got really badly hurt and will need a lot of care by their owners to help them get better again.  Do you think it right to make animals fight and hurt each other just so people can have fun watching them and betting on the result?  Does it matter that cockerels naturally fight each other?  Fighting is how they protect their hens from other cockerels taking them away.  This is quite normal in the animal world.

This woman tackles a young bull during the ladies bull fight

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons there were “bull fights”.  A young bull was let loose in a ring with at least two or three people (mostly men in their 20′s, 30′s and 40′s).  The men waved cloaks or just ran about in front of the bull until the bull charged at them.  Then they dodged the bull so they didn’t get hurt.  There was one event for children aged around 9-12.  They ‘fought’ a young bull that was aged about 6 months.  This very young bull hadn’t grown any horns yet but you could still get very hurt if he hit you with his head and knocked you over.  If that happens the bull will then try and head butt you some more and maybe stand on you and you can get really badly hurt.  The women took a turn in the ring with an older bull.  That one had horns.  Then the older men had a turn in the ring with one of the bigger bulls – he had horns too.  A few times someone got knocked over by a bull. Then the young men would dash around and distract the bull until it charged away from the person who had fallen down.

These bull fights were a ‘family’ version of the more famous Spanish bull fights were a bull fighter (almost always a young man) fights the bull in the ring until one of them dies (the bull always gets killed though).  The bull fights we saw were not like that.  Some people suffered from bruises when the bull hit them but no-one got really badly hurt.  And none of the bulls got hurt.

What do you think though?  Do you think it’s right to tease an animal for fun?  Does it make any difference that most of these people are farmers and this is a ‘safe’ way for children and teenagers learning not to be afraid of the animals and learning how to handle the animals so they can be more confident farmers when they grow up?

typical go-kart and riders

One more thing happened over the weekend that wouldn’t happen in England.  Several of the men and teenagers have been building go-karts over the last few weeks.  These are just flat wooden boards with small wheels in each corner.  To stop the cart you pull on a lever and make a piece of wood rub against the wheels.  They then rode on these carts in pairs, down a steep mountain road with seven ‘hairpin’ bends.  These are bends in the road where the road doubles back on itself.  If they had gone round any of the bends a bit too fast they would have hit trees or bushes.  On some bends they might have gone right over the edge and down the side of the mountain.

hairpin bends on the mountain road

Some people might say this was too dangerous and try to stop other people doing this.  What do you think?  Should people be allowed to take risks like this if they want to?  What if they get hurt?  Do you think taking risks like this helps people to learn about their own limits and how to keep safe from danger?

Do you think these things are adventures?  What is the difference between enjoying adventure and taking silly risks?  What about if other people or animals get hurt?  What difference does that make to what you think?  What if you get hurt?  Whose responsibility is it then?

We’d like to know your thoughts – let us know by using the ‘ask a question’ button to send us a message.

On the last day we climbed a steep path part of the way up the side of the mountain.  The air gets very thin as you climb higher and higher up a mountain.  That meant there was not as much oxygen to breathe and it was very hard work and tiring.

Later we explored more of the Cotopaxi National Park.  We learned that the people who look after the park have noticed that in the last ten years there is less snow on the mountains.  They have also noticed that there is less water in the two big lakes in the park.  They think this is happening because of global warming.  They are working very hard to make the best use of the rain water that falls to stop the lakes from drying up.  If the lakes dry up there will be nowhere for the fish to live and the birds that feed on the fish will have to find somewhere else to live.

Helen demonstrates some Equator magic

We are in Ecuador.  Just after we crossed the border into Ecuador we arrived at the Equator.  The equator is the bit of the earth that divides the north of the world from the south of the world.

It’s like magic at the equator.  We went to a special museum there today and found out we can balance an egg on its end right on top of the head of a nail.

At the equator water goes straight down the plughole – check it out at home, water normally swirls round and round as it goes down the plughole.

The ancient tribes who lived in this area over two thousand years ago recognised this part of the world as special.  They noticed that there was hardly any wind.  They noticed that the sun always rises at 6.00 in the morning and sets at 6.00 in the evening.  They worked out that this place is at the middle of the earth and they named it Quito.  Quito means ‘middle earth’.  Quito is still the name of the capital city of Ecuador.

The descendents of those tribes still live in the forests in these areas.  They still hunt and fish for their food.  And some of them still practice the art of shrinking heads!!  

Panama separates the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.  Joining Panama and Columbia is a very deep forest.  But there is no road between the two countries and it is not possible to drive between them.  This area has a special name.  It’s called the Darien Gap.

It’s only a short journey even for Landy.  We both left on Sunday 23rd October.  We were not allowed to travel on the ship with Landy so we had to fly from Panama to Columbia.  Landy’s ship will land in port on Monday but it will be a couple of days before he is able to leave the port (it takes time to unload a big ship and check everything’s OK).  We will stay in the port town of Cartegena for a couple of days while this happens.

Here's Paul - he's just got off the plane in Cartegena in Columbia