The Plaza de Armas in Cusco + Flags. A load from Titicaca.
Some of the sights of the Sacred Valley
Machu Picchu
Saturday, November 29, 2003
On the way to the station we were approached by a BBC World news person who interviewed me about my experiences at MP. If I make the cut it´ll be on some program or other on or around 7/8/9th December.
Well as you know by now it`s impossible for us to have a normal trip without a saga and the train journey proved to be a saga of epic proportions. We started off on time, and we`d just commented on how good PeruRail were (apart from the ticket costs and uncomfortableness of their seats) when the train broke down, across two lines. The complete lack of information was unreal, speculation was rife;it was an electrical fault, it was the engine overheated, it was the wrong type of leaves on the track...eventually we found out that the power was buggered and as the lights went out people reached for their torches. Now the real drama began. They eventually sent for a new locamotive from Cusco (2 hours away) which would mean that it would take us about 4 1/2 hours to get back. The time by now was about 7.30pm...I was due for my second rabies jab at 9pm. The doctor had previously said I needed to have my shots within a couple of hours. Thus I was starting to get a little stressed. We explained the situation to the conductor who spoke a little English, with the help of a Spanish speaking American. They radioed my doc, who said I needed the shot `este noche` (ie before midnight) and we were left to panic for a few more minutes. Eventually a car turned up at the side of the train, seemingly following the train. We were informed that this car was being driven by the Director of Trains, and a few minutes later we pulled up to an abrupt halt at a level crossing where we were unloaded into said car. I eventually got the jab at around 11.20pm, relieved but absolutely knackered.
Well as you know by now it`s impossible for us to have a normal trip without a saga and the train journey proved to be a saga of epic proportions. We started off on time, and we`d just commented on how good PeruRail were (apart from the ticket costs and uncomfortableness of their seats) when the train broke down, across two lines. The complete lack of information was unreal, speculation was rife;it was an electrical fault, it was the engine overheated, it was the wrong type of leaves on the track...eventually we found out that the power was buggered and as the lights went out people reached for their torches. Now the real drama began. They eventually sent for a new locamotive from Cusco (2 hours away) which would mean that it would take us about 4 1/2 hours to get back. The time by now was about 7.30pm...I was due for my second rabies jab at 9pm. The doctor had previously said I needed to have my shots within a couple of hours. Thus I was starting to get a little stressed. We explained the situation to the conductor who spoke a little English, with the help of a Spanish speaking American. They radioed my doc, who said I needed the shot `este noche` (ie before midnight) and we were left to panic for a few more minutes. Eventually a car turned up at the side of the train, seemingly following the train. We were informed that this car was being driven by the Director of Trains, and a few minutes later we pulled up to an abrupt halt at a level crossing where we were unloaded into said car. I eventually got the jab at around 11.20pm, relieved but absolutely knackered.
Friday, November 28, 2003
Things never go to plan do they? First we had the dog bite and then Richard came down with a chronic bout of food poisoning, stomach cramps et al...meaning that we`ve just finished our 2 days at Machu Picchu without H & R.
So off we headed at 6am to be greeted by Ruben, our guide, and the rest of our group. This time our group was a great bunch and consisted of:
Paul (or Pablo) a San Franciscan
Kris from Belgium who is about 12 feet tall and weighs about a stone
and sisters Emma and Jacqui from England (siblings not nuns) who are sitting just to my left right now so I can`t write anything bad about them....only joking! They are both lovely, one of them taking a year out the other taking about 3 months out.
Unfortunately as soon as we were together we were apart as we were all on different carriages on the train. We settled down for the 4 hour trip into the sacred valley and beyond, but only a few minutes in I had another seriously misjudged Cornwell moment. You know when train food comes whizzing by on that trolley and your mind flicks back to Philip Larkin and his bad pie, well I chose a bad sandwich and regretted it for the next 6/7 hours, more of that later.
We started our Inca trail at KM104, missing the two really high passes (4,200m, and 3,900m - you do these on the full 4-day trail) but still with 14km to trek in a day. The climb of over 600m wasn`t accurately reported in the agents when we booked and it proved to be a bit of a pain. Ruben started off by telling us his life story and to start with I couldn`t tell if he was just a bit of a nutter who wanted us to feel sorry for him to get a tip. I soon realised, however, that I had misjudged him and he was (and indeed still is...) an exceptionally informative guide, who maybe overenthuses on occasion.
So we started, the first half of our day was all uphill to Winay Wayna - the hostal where the 4-day trekkers and some of the 2-day trekkers stay. It was a hard walk with the sun beating down on us. Halfway up I felt really ill, presumably due to the sandwich, and genuinely thought about stopping and turning round at one point, but Ruben (and Jen) kept me going by persuading me to stop more regularly, and just generally geeing me up. We eventually made it to the hostal, via a cooling waterfall, now knowing we were only about 1 1/2 hours from the Sun Gate, the first time you get to see Machu Picchu . Feeling much better we made short work of the first hour or so and reached the bottom of the climb to the Sun Gate. The climb is 15 minutes of pure uphill via a seemingly endless number of steps. It`s as iff the Inca`s wanted to heighten the tension you are already feeling as you know as you climb the final stair and round the corner you will finally see the sacred site of Machu Picchu. Now I am pretty sure I have written about this before but some things we`ve been to see have lived up to or exceeded our expectations (Angkor, The Great Wall, Uluru, The Moreno Glacier) and others have fallen woefully short (The Floating Markets, and the Colca Canyon to name but 2!), but none have affected me like Machu Picchu did. As I climbed the final stair and rounded the corner there it was in front of me. My emotions got the better of me, and finally viewing this almost unreal city, some 2,500m up in the middle of the jungle, after the hardest day`s walking I`d ever done, after reading about it for so long, after seeing the pictures on TV and on thousands of postcards I shed a tear...a mixture of relief that the trek was over, and joy at one of the most amazing sights I think anyone could ever witness.
Just as we stood there admiring the whole area (we still had an extra half hour climb down to the site itself) it srtaed raining and we got the most beautiful double rainbow. The rainbow was sacred to the Inca`s and was a great sign, and it was so fitting that not one, but two should greet our arrival at their sacred city.
So we took the slippery walk down to the Hut of the Caretake of the Funery Rock, where all the postcard shots are taken from. It was clear that the rain had scared most tourists off as there were only 2 people left that we could see, and a half dozen llamas. Incidentally llamas got their name from when the Spanish arrived and having never seen llama before asked the Quechua speaking Inca`s `Como se llama` (what is the name) and the Inca`s mused `llama, llama` as they didn`t speak Spanish. The Spanish thought thanks very much and named it the `llama`!
We spent half an hour taking tons of pictures before heading to our bus, tired but utterly elated.
When we got back there was just time for tea (average) and internet (slow), before bed (welcome).
Today we were up at sparrow`s fart again (5.30am) and made our way to Machu Picchu for a guided tour of the site by Ruben. He has learned all he knows from numerous books on MP but also from the Quechua people, from whom he is descended. This meant we got alot of info that may or may not be 100% accurate, but it sounded fesable, and certainly added another dimension to the speculation from various anthropologists. In 1533 the Spanish reached the Sacred Valley and it is thought the men from MP left to help the fight but with no food reaching MP from the valley there became a serious food shortage. MP was then abandoned in favour of other sites, Villacobamba (100km NW, and ironically the site Hiram Bingham was searching for when he stumbled upon MP) for one. MP itself was discovered by locals in 1901 and Bingham used their help in re-discovering the overgrown site 10 years later. The complete excavation took some 37 years.
After Ruben left with a generous tip in his pocket (and he deserved every penny) we tried to find shelter from the rain and eventually emerged as the sun shone once again. We took more photos before heading back to Aguas Clientes where I am writing this from.
The choice on how to `do` MP seems a really logical and easy one for me. Do you a) walk 45kms over some stupidly high passes, getting soaked when the tents leak, and possibly if you are very unlucky, altitude sickness, only to arrive at MP at 6am with it covered in cloud...or do you b) walk a tough but demanded 14kms, still see all the scenery preceeding the site itself, enter the site when the cloud has generally lifted and have the site to yourself, and then have a guided tour and the best part of a day to see the area at your leisure. Oh and pay 100 USD less...? For me there`s not really a choice to be made. I think the thing with the trail is that there`s a hell of alot of bravado, last night at the hostal the 4-dayers didn`t speak to us, obviously believing we weren`t worthy, as we hadn`t had to suffer like they had...I always thought they called it using your head. Now finally, and we`re shamed to say it, but as the mist stayed around MP for most of the morning and the 4-dayers saw little or nothing we couldn`t help but feel at least a little smug.
So off we headed at 6am to be greeted by Ruben, our guide, and the rest of our group. This time our group was a great bunch and consisted of:
Paul (or Pablo) a San Franciscan
Kris from Belgium who is about 12 feet tall and weighs about a stone
and sisters Emma and Jacqui from England (siblings not nuns) who are sitting just to my left right now so I can`t write anything bad about them....only joking! They are both lovely, one of them taking a year out the other taking about 3 months out.
Unfortunately as soon as we were together we were apart as we were all on different carriages on the train. We settled down for the 4 hour trip into the sacred valley and beyond, but only a few minutes in I had another seriously misjudged Cornwell moment. You know when train food comes whizzing by on that trolley and your mind flicks back to Philip Larkin and his bad pie, well I chose a bad sandwich and regretted it for the next 6/7 hours, more of that later.
We started our Inca trail at KM104, missing the two really high passes (4,200m, and 3,900m - you do these on the full 4-day trail) but still with 14km to trek in a day. The climb of over 600m wasn`t accurately reported in the agents when we booked and it proved to be a bit of a pain. Ruben started off by telling us his life story and to start with I couldn`t tell if he was just a bit of a nutter who wanted us to feel sorry for him to get a tip. I soon realised, however, that I had misjudged him and he was (and indeed still is...) an exceptionally informative guide, who maybe overenthuses on occasion.
So we started, the first half of our day was all uphill to Winay Wayna - the hostal where the 4-day trekkers and some of the 2-day trekkers stay. It was a hard walk with the sun beating down on us. Halfway up I felt really ill, presumably due to the sandwich, and genuinely thought about stopping and turning round at one point, but Ruben (and Jen) kept me going by persuading me to stop more regularly, and just generally geeing me up. We eventually made it to the hostal, via a cooling waterfall, now knowing we were only about 1 1/2 hours from the Sun Gate, the first time you get to see Machu Picchu . Feeling much better we made short work of the first hour or so and reached the bottom of the climb to the Sun Gate. The climb is 15 minutes of pure uphill via a seemingly endless number of steps. It`s as iff the Inca`s wanted to heighten the tension you are already feeling as you know as you climb the final stair and round the corner you will finally see the sacred site of Machu Picchu. Now I am pretty sure I have written about this before but some things we`ve been to see have lived up to or exceeded our expectations (Angkor, The Great Wall, Uluru, The Moreno Glacier) and others have fallen woefully short (The Floating Markets, and the Colca Canyon to name but 2!), but none have affected me like Machu Picchu did. As I climbed the final stair and rounded the corner there it was in front of me. My emotions got the better of me, and finally viewing this almost unreal city, some 2,500m up in the middle of the jungle, after the hardest day`s walking I`d ever done, after reading about it for so long, after seeing the pictures on TV and on thousands of postcards I shed a tear...a mixture of relief that the trek was over, and joy at one of the most amazing sights I think anyone could ever witness.
Just as we stood there admiring the whole area (we still had an extra half hour climb down to the site itself) it srtaed raining and we got the most beautiful double rainbow. The rainbow was sacred to the Inca`s and was a great sign, and it was so fitting that not one, but two should greet our arrival at their sacred city.
So we took the slippery walk down to the Hut of the Caretake of the Funery Rock, where all the postcard shots are taken from. It was clear that the rain had scared most tourists off as there were only 2 people left that we could see, and a half dozen llamas. Incidentally llamas got their name from when the Spanish arrived and having never seen llama before asked the Quechua speaking Inca`s `Como se llama` (what is the name) and the Inca`s mused `llama, llama` as they didn`t speak Spanish. The Spanish thought thanks very much and named it the `llama`!
We spent half an hour taking tons of pictures before heading to our bus, tired but utterly elated.
When we got back there was just time for tea (average) and internet (slow), before bed (welcome).
Today we were up at sparrow`s fart again (5.30am) and made our way to Machu Picchu for a guided tour of the site by Ruben. He has learned all he knows from numerous books on MP but also from the Quechua people, from whom he is descended. This meant we got alot of info that may or may not be 100% accurate, but it sounded fesable, and certainly added another dimension to the speculation from various anthropologists. In 1533 the Spanish reached the Sacred Valley and it is thought the men from MP left to help the fight but with no food reaching MP from the valley there became a serious food shortage. MP was then abandoned in favour of other sites, Villacobamba (100km NW, and ironically the site Hiram Bingham was searching for when he stumbled upon MP) for one. MP itself was discovered by locals in 1901 and Bingham used their help in re-discovering the overgrown site 10 years later. The complete excavation took some 37 years.
After Ruben left with a generous tip in his pocket (and he deserved every penny) we tried to find shelter from the rain and eventually emerged as the sun shone once again. We took more photos before heading back to Aguas Clientes where I am writing this from.
The choice on how to `do` MP seems a really logical and easy one for me. Do you a) walk 45kms over some stupidly high passes, getting soaked when the tents leak, and possibly if you are very unlucky, altitude sickness, only to arrive at MP at 6am with it covered in cloud...or do you b) walk a tough but demanded 14kms, still see all the scenery preceeding the site itself, enter the site when the cloud has generally lifted and have the site to yourself, and then have a guided tour and the best part of a day to see the area at your leisure. Oh and pay 100 USD less...? For me there`s not really a choice to be made. I think the thing with the trail is that there`s a hell of alot of bravado, last night at the hostal the 4-dayers didn`t speak to us, obviously believing we weren`t worthy, as we hadn`t had to suffer like they had...I always thought they called it using your head. Now finally, and we`re shamed to say it, but as the mist stayed around MP for most of the morning and the 4-dayers saw little or nothing we couldn`t help but feel at least a little smug.
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
To say yesterday was a bad day would be like describing the second world war as a bit of a punch up. It all started at our first port or call, Pisac market. Jen and Helen were nogotiating over some hats when I made the mistake of getting a little too close to the owner´s dog, who decided to go for me. The result was a bit on my right wrist (about the size of a pin-head where it broke the skin) in South America´s rabies hotspot country. I asked the guide (who, incidentally was excellent) if I needed to see a doctor and he said, no, no worries, no rabies in this area, or words to that effect. So we went on to finish the day´s tour (more of that later) before logging on last night and reading from some webiste or other...
Rabies: There is a higher risk of rabies in Peru than in other South American countries. Cases of human rabies, usually transmitted by dogs, has increased but the exact incidence of human rabies is not known. Two outbreaks of rabies, transmitted by vampire bats, claimed 40 lives in 1989–90.
So we contacted a doctor as recommended by our travel agents. Eventually we saw him after he saw ´yet another stupid Englishman who didn´t take altitude sickness seriously, here look at the pulminary something or other x-ray...´ and he explained that the old system of injections (1 a day for 2 weeks injected into the stomach muscle with a (in my case very) long needle) had been superceded by a new one where you 5 injections; one on day 0, and on days 3, 7, 14, ans 28. Day 3 is fine, day 7 however we{re in the jungle, day 14 we´re in the Galapagos, and day 28 is Xmas eve and we´re in Madrid...ahhh I hear you cry but Jen´s a dentist, she can inject you can´t she. Yes this much is true but the problem is with the vaccine, it has to be kept at between 2-8 degrees C, which might be a little tricky in the middle of the rainforest, on a boat, or after a 12 hour flight. We´re working on it, and will let you know. On the positive side the Cusco area hasn´t had a reported case of rabies for 4 years (although presumable some go unreported in the outlying areas), the dog only just broke the skin (and he seemed non-frothy and fairly normal, by the way the first question the doc asked me was ´do you have the dog with you´hahahaha, yeah I just picked up this biting little bundle of hate and put him in my rucksack), and we´ve caught it early. Will let you know if I start foaming at the mouth...
The day´s trip to the Sacred Valley itself was really good, starting at Pisac market, and then heading to the ruins that tower above the city. We did some training for our assault on Machu Picchu by climbing up and over a pretty big hill before exploring the ruins. There were about 500 people that lived here in the space for about 50 houses, you got the feeling the houses only had one room too...there was an old ornate sundial too.
Secondly we headed for lunch at another non-descript, pan-pipe filled tourist buffet hole. Nothing else to write about that place. Ollantaytambo was next and it did not disappoint. It used to be the starting point for the Inka trail, and you can still start here but it becomes a 5 rather than 4 day walk. The ruins are above and alongside some of the best preserved agricultural terracing we have seen, and are all overlooked by an image of one of the Inka God´s - a rock formation on an opposing hill. This was the last settlement anyone knows anything about as it was the last place the Spanish got to. Very little is known about Machu Picchu for this very reason, the Spanish never found it...
We headed back via Chinchero which was very similar to Taquile island, lots of locals doing their thing (and selling to tourists) and a church with a wonderfully ornate ceiling. The suinset over the snow-capped peaks was devine and we stopped for one last photo.
Rabies: There is a higher risk of rabies in Peru than in other South American countries. Cases of human rabies, usually transmitted by dogs, has increased but the exact incidence of human rabies is not known. Two outbreaks of rabies, transmitted by vampire bats, claimed 40 lives in 1989–90.
So we contacted a doctor as recommended by our travel agents. Eventually we saw him after he saw ´yet another stupid Englishman who didn´t take altitude sickness seriously, here look at the pulminary something or other x-ray...´ and he explained that the old system of injections (1 a day for 2 weeks injected into the stomach muscle with a (in my case very) long needle) had been superceded by a new one where you 5 injections; one on day 0, and on days 3, 7, 14, ans 28. Day 3 is fine, day 7 however we{re in the jungle, day 14 we´re in the Galapagos, and day 28 is Xmas eve and we´re in Madrid...ahhh I hear you cry but Jen´s a dentist, she can inject you can´t she. Yes this much is true but the problem is with the vaccine, it has to be kept at between 2-8 degrees C, which might be a little tricky in the middle of the rainforest, on a boat, or after a 12 hour flight. We´re working on it, and will let you know. On the positive side the Cusco area hasn´t had a reported case of rabies for 4 years (although presumable some go unreported in the outlying areas), the dog only just broke the skin (and he seemed non-frothy and fairly normal, by the way the first question the doc asked me was ´do you have the dog with you´hahahaha, yeah I just picked up this biting little bundle of hate and put him in my rucksack), and we´ve caught it early. Will let you know if I start foaming at the mouth...
The day´s trip to the Sacred Valley itself was really good, starting at Pisac market, and then heading to the ruins that tower above the city. We did some training for our assault on Machu Picchu by climbing up and over a pretty big hill before exploring the ruins. There were about 500 people that lived here in the space for about 50 houses, you got the feeling the houses only had one room too...there was an old ornate sundial too.
Secondly we headed for lunch at another non-descript, pan-pipe filled tourist buffet hole. Nothing else to write about that place. Ollantaytambo was next and it did not disappoint. It used to be the starting point for the Inka trail, and you can still start here but it becomes a 5 rather than 4 day walk. The ruins are above and alongside some of the best preserved agricultural terracing we have seen, and are all overlooked by an image of one of the Inka God´s - a rock formation on an opposing hill. This was the last settlement anyone knows anything about as it was the last place the Spanish got to. Very little is known about Machu Picchu for this very reason, the Spanish never found it...
We headed back via Chinchero which was very similar to Taquile island, lots of locals doing their thing (and selling to tourists) and a church with a wonderfully ornate ceiling. The suinset over the snow-capped peaks was devine and we stopped for one last photo.
Monday, November 24, 2003
This morning we went about paying for everything we booked yesterday, and what a fun time we have in store. Also, after musing with a beer overlooking Cusco`s wonderful Plaza de Armas we worked out that at the end of the trip the 4 of us (us 2 & H & R) will have spent about 56 days or so in each others company...quite remarkable really.
The following programme is now booked and all very exciting it is too.
Today - well I`ll come to that in a minute.
Tomorrow (25th) - All day tour to the Sacred Valley
Wednesday (26th) - Taxi to Sacsayhuaman, and 8km walk back via loads of other Inka ruins.
Thursday/Friday (27th/28th) - The short (2-day) Inka trail to Machu Picchu look at the link here
- we come in on the 3rd day, and do 6 hrs walking and then MP itself on day 2.
Saturday (29th) - Day in Cusco, or if the weather`s bad in MP on Friday, another day there.
Sunday (30th) to Wednesday (3rd) - 4 day (3 night) trip to the Amazon rainforest to stay at Posada Amazonas. Click here for more info.
Wedneday 3rd Dec we fly to Lima, on the 4th we follow that up with a mammoth day of flights, Lima to Sanitago, and Santiago to Quito (Ecuador) - which we have to do due to the vagaries of our ticket. It menas we get an extra 4,000 odd air miles.
5th and 6th of December will be spent finalising the Galapagos trip, going up to the equator and standing with a foot in each hemisphere (we are such tourists) and going to Otavalo market.
We then have a week left (15th to 21st Dec) when we`re going to have to find something to do in Ecuador, before we head to Madrid, and then Barcelona...
It`s going to be a hell of a few weeks...
As for today we`ve had a really good day exploring Cusco. We started just after lunch with the Santa Catalina monestery, which was founded in 1605. Only 45 years later a huge earthquake rocked the buildings and most of them had to be rebuilt. In doing so a number if Inka treasures were discovered, the colonialists built the church over the walls of the Acllawasi, the palace of the Inka`s handmaidens. There is a wonderful courtyard complete with well, and many religious pieces of art from the last four centuries.
We followed this up with a trip to the fabulous Inka Museum. It is really well laid out, chronicalling the first Inka`s through to modern day descendents who still roam in the countryside. It is home to a collection of everything from pottery though to weaponry, and also a small but to scale model of Machu Picchu, and some really interesting photos of the site as it was when it was discovered in 1911 by `Hiram Bingham, an American anthropologist.
Our final stop for the day was at the Cathedral that sits on the north side of the Plaza de Armas. It is a wonderful building, which has enough silver and gold to enable every Peruvian to live a life of luxury were it equally distributed. It also has a beuatifully carved cloister and chapel.
Cusco is certainly turning into a `favourite place´ although the constant hassle from shoe-shine boys, postcard sellers, and kids with lambs (!) is beginning to get to us.
The following programme is now booked and all very exciting it is too.
Today - well I`ll come to that in a minute.
Tomorrow (25th) - All day tour to the Sacred Valley
Wednesday (26th) - Taxi to Sacsayhuaman, and 8km walk back via loads of other Inka ruins.
Thursday/Friday (27th/28th) - The short (2-day) Inka trail to Machu Picchu look at the link here
- we come in on the 3rd day, and do 6 hrs walking and then MP itself on day 2.
Saturday (29th) - Day in Cusco, or if the weather`s bad in MP on Friday, another day there.
Sunday (30th) to Wednesday (3rd) - 4 day (3 night) trip to the Amazon rainforest to stay at Posada Amazonas. Click here for more info.
Wedneday 3rd Dec we fly to Lima, on the 4th we follow that up with a mammoth day of flights, Lima to Sanitago, and Santiago to Quito (Ecuador) - which we have to do due to the vagaries of our ticket. It menas we get an extra 4,000 odd air miles.
5th and 6th of December will be spent finalising the Galapagos trip, going up to the equator and standing with a foot in each hemisphere (we are such tourists) and going to Otavalo market.
We then have a week left (15th to 21st Dec) when we`re going to have to find something to do in Ecuador, before we head to Madrid, and then Barcelona...
It`s going to be a hell of a few weeks...
As for today we`ve had a really good day exploring Cusco. We started just after lunch with the Santa Catalina monestery, which was founded in 1605. Only 45 years later a huge earthquake rocked the buildings and most of them had to be rebuilt. In doing so a number if Inka treasures were discovered, the colonialists built the church over the walls of the Acllawasi, the palace of the Inka`s handmaidens. There is a wonderful courtyard complete with well, and many religious pieces of art from the last four centuries.
We followed this up with a trip to the fabulous Inka Museum. It is really well laid out, chronicalling the first Inka`s through to modern day descendents who still roam in the countryside. It is home to a collection of everything from pottery though to weaponry, and also a small but to scale model of Machu Picchu, and some really interesting photos of the site as it was when it was discovered in 1911 by `Hiram Bingham, an American anthropologist.
Our final stop for the day was at the Cathedral that sits on the north side of the Plaza de Armas. It is a wonderful building, which has enough silver and gold to enable every Peruvian to live a life of luxury were it equally distributed. It also has a beuatifully carved cloister and chapel.
Cusco is certainly turning into a `favourite place´ although the constant hassle from shoe-shine boys, postcard sellers, and kids with lambs (!) is beginning to get to us.
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Well last night we successfully found a good trip to Machu Picchu and jungle tour. We then went to find a reasturant recommended to us and wentg down "gringo alley", which we will not repeat again. apart from being touted and almost dragged into every doorway we settled on a mexican. The problem with said Mexican has been found out this morning, the chicken Jen felt that smelt off...was, in a big way and we´re both suffering for it now. Helen and Rich have arrived, have felt the altitude, and have agreed a course of events which´ll mean another 10 day haul together. We´re heading off to the jungle after a 2 day trek to Machu Picchu and a couple of days in Cusco...should be fun.
Saturday, November 22, 2003
For starters well done England, and what a mach. I managed successfully to not wake Jen up until about 2 minutes from the end of normal time, so I`m not really in the doghouse either...back of the net.
This morning started well (ruby) and went downhill from there. Jen woke up with a migraine, and then the twat behind the desk at the hotel thought the 100 soles note we paid for the room with was a fake, and the 2nd one i offered ,a nd the 3rd and 4th...eventually we made it into a cab with him cursing us. I got the notes from the bank last night for Godssakes, and if I was going to go into large scale money faking it wouldn`t be with Peruvian Soles...
The bus journey to Cusco was a nightmare, the bus stopped everywhere (despite climing it was direct with no stops), the air con wasn`t switched on (contra to their promises pre-departure) and one guy (a Peruvian surprisngly) had his bag nicked. Top that off with the length of time it took to go 350 kms (7hours) and you can understand why it was a nightmare...however, every cloud and all that...
Cusco is lovely, yes, it`s touristy but that has it`s bonuses, shedloads of great restaurants for starters. Also we don`t get hit upon by hawkers as much as we look a little like scabby backpackers (well I do at least, no hair cut for 10 weeks and counting) compared to all the tour groups here to see Machu Picchu. No idea of our plans as yet, we´re off to talk to some travel agents now. H & R arrive tomorrow, should be fun being back together again (God I sound all whistful...)
This morning started well (ruby) and went downhill from there. Jen woke up with a migraine, and then the twat behind the desk at the hotel thought the 100 soles note we paid for the room with was a fake, and the 2nd one i offered ,a nd the 3rd and 4th...eventually we made it into a cab with him cursing us. I got the notes from the bank last night for Godssakes, and if I was going to go into large scale money faking it wouldn`t be with Peruvian Soles...
The bus journey to Cusco was a nightmare, the bus stopped everywhere (despite climing it was direct with no stops), the air con wasn`t switched on (contra to their promises pre-departure) and one guy (a Peruvian surprisngly) had his bag nicked. Top that off with the length of time it took to go 350 kms (7hours) and you can understand why it was a nightmare...however, every cloud and all that...
Cusco is lovely, yes, it`s touristy but that has it`s bonuses, shedloads of great restaurants for starters. Also we don`t get hit upon by hawkers as much as we look a little like scabby backpackers (well I do at least, no hair cut for 10 weeks and counting) compared to all the tour groups here to see Machu Picchu. No idea of our plans as yet, we´re off to talk to some travel agents now. H & R arrive tomorrow, should be fun being back together again (God I sound all whistful...)
We managed to find a great Italian restaurant for our tea, and, sated, we headed back to the hotel. After a nice breakfast we headed to the bus station. We had another goodbye kiss, a few waves, at on point I thought she was going to cry. Again, I reiterate, if you stay in Arequipa you MUST STAY HERE, it´s wonderful!
Our bus was scheduled for 9am and as we arrived at 8.45 it was clear there was a problem...apparently there had been some demonstrations in Puno a couple of days back which resulted in them bricking the Ormeno buses...so they put ours back 5 hours in the hope the protests would have subsided...after hanging around the station for the full 5 hours (we figured if we left they would almost certainly bring the bus forward just to spite us!!) we boarded, and got through to Puno without inncident. Well, the only incident was me getting a nose bleed, well it is very high here I guess. The guesthouse we booked into is nice, no cable though,a d they told us last night that no hotel in Puno has cable...today we founf this to be a complete lie, but more of this later. We felt the altitude on climbing the stairs, OK so I´m not the fittest bloke in the world but I don´t usually pant for 2 mins/nearly faint after climbing the stairs...maybe those steaks in Argentina are having an effect. Anyway with our tour for today booked we headed out for a great Calzone, the nicest thing we´ve had in Peru by far.
Puno itself is not a nice place, one pedestrian mall is flanked on all sides by scary alleys and scary pople, it´s a definite walk back to the hotel with chest puffed out looking hard kinda place (not that I´m very good at that...)
So to today, we were picked up at 7.20 (!) by our guide, Percy, WHO SPOKE PERFECT ENGLISH!!! We headed to the port where we boarded the worlds slowest boat...all in all today we spent 6 hours on it, I could have swam faster. However the trip itself was excellent, which was a pelasant surprise. The first port of call on Lake Titicaca was the floating villages of the Uros, just 20 mins (about 100 metres I think) away. Although heavily touristed (on4e island per boat seemingly) we got a fascinating insight into how they live. The islands themselves are about 2m thick and are made of reeds, the same reeds they use to make their houses, boats, and even eat! They tether them in the shallow parts of the islands although ain heavy storms the islands often break their moorings. We met a couple who were 19 and 17 and already had 2 kids, they marry at 14/15 apparently. The man does manly stuff like fishing and the woman does the cooking etc...although for some reason Percy claimed this was feminism working...not sure on that one old chap...
We then got treated to all their crafts/handiwork and although we weren´t under real pressure to buy it felt a bit forced in the way it happened, kind of, here´s our culture now buy...
As you know by now we are the ultimate tourists so we took a trip in a reed boat, driven/piloted/captained by Julio who I´d recently not bought somehting from. He was a big lad, and when he demanded (not asked for) a 2 soles ´tip´we all obliged...
So onto Taquile, an island made of rock and the like where we spent 3 hours wandering round getting a real feel for the Peru of say a couple of hundred years ago, although they have finally now got electricity and within 2 years over 80% of homes have got TV...the locals wree all dressed in traditional clothing and you got to see many knitting hats, tending to flocks of sheep, or just doing they´re thing. It was fascinating. Percy told us all about the knittin ghats ritual and it goes something like this. All the 14/15 y.o. boys have to knit hats and when they are courting the hats are taken home by the girls who then pour a load of water into them. The theory goes that the boys that work hardest and thus produce the better quality, no corners cut hats, have hats that don´t leak. The workshy fops on the other hand have leaky shoddy ´Friday afternoon´ hats and do not make as good suitors...I guess if Darwin had landed here not the Galapagos (pretty hard as it´s a landlocked lake at 12,000 feet) he may have worked out natural selection on this basis eventually too...
On the way back to Puno it cropped up in conversation that our hotel had said nowhere in Puno had cable...I asked the ever knowledgable Percy and he said that was complete and utter bollocks (not his words) and that a number of hotels did. We, are now firmly esconced in one, but it doesn´t have ESPN2, the channel we need...however I think it is being shown on TV5, a French channel, which we do have. So I´m going to have to settle for the match in French, with a 4am kickoff. I am under strict, turn the volume, brightness, contrast down instructions, and under no illusion that if I wake my better half I will be a dead man.
So off to Cusco tomorrow, we´ve got high hopes for the place. Helen and Rich are arriving on Sunday so we´re going to try to arrange the Machu Pichu thang with them.
Our bus was scheduled for 9am and as we arrived at 8.45 it was clear there was a problem...apparently there had been some demonstrations in Puno a couple of days back which resulted in them bricking the Ormeno buses...so they put ours back 5 hours in the hope the protests would have subsided...after hanging around the station for the full 5 hours (we figured if we left they would almost certainly bring the bus forward just to spite us!!) we boarded, and got through to Puno without inncident. Well, the only incident was me getting a nose bleed, well it is very high here I guess. The guesthouse we booked into is nice, no cable though,a d they told us last night that no hotel in Puno has cable...today we founf this to be a complete lie, but more of this later. We felt the altitude on climbing the stairs, OK so I´m not the fittest bloke in the world but I don´t usually pant for 2 mins/nearly faint after climbing the stairs...maybe those steaks in Argentina are having an effect. Anyway with our tour for today booked we headed out for a great Calzone, the nicest thing we´ve had in Peru by far.
Puno itself is not a nice place, one pedestrian mall is flanked on all sides by scary alleys and scary pople, it´s a definite walk back to the hotel with chest puffed out looking hard kinda place (not that I´m very good at that...)
So to today, we were picked up at 7.20 (!) by our guide, Percy, WHO SPOKE PERFECT ENGLISH!!! We headed to the port where we boarded the worlds slowest boat...all in all today we spent 6 hours on it, I could have swam faster. However the trip itself was excellent, which was a pelasant surprise. The first port of call on Lake Titicaca was the floating villages of the Uros, just 20 mins (about 100 metres I think) away. Although heavily touristed (on4e island per boat seemingly) we got a fascinating insight into how they live. The islands themselves are about 2m thick and are made of reeds, the same reeds they use to make their houses, boats, and even eat! They tether them in the shallow parts of the islands although ain heavy storms the islands often break their moorings. We met a couple who were 19 and 17 and already had 2 kids, they marry at 14/15 apparently. The man does manly stuff like fishing and the woman does the cooking etc...although for some reason Percy claimed this was feminism working...not sure on that one old chap...
We then got treated to all their crafts/handiwork and although we weren´t under real pressure to buy it felt a bit forced in the way it happened, kind of, here´s our culture now buy...
As you know by now we are the ultimate tourists so we took a trip in a reed boat, driven/piloted/captained by Julio who I´d recently not bought somehting from. He was a big lad, and when he demanded (not asked for) a 2 soles ´tip´we all obliged...
So onto Taquile, an island made of rock and the like where we spent 3 hours wandering round getting a real feel for the Peru of say a couple of hundred years ago, although they have finally now got electricity and within 2 years over 80% of homes have got TV...the locals wree all dressed in traditional clothing and you got to see many knitting hats, tending to flocks of sheep, or just doing they´re thing. It was fascinating. Percy told us all about the knittin ghats ritual and it goes something like this. All the 14/15 y.o. boys have to knit hats and when they are courting the hats are taken home by the girls who then pour a load of water into them. The theory goes that the boys that work hardest and thus produce the better quality, no corners cut hats, have hats that don´t leak. The workshy fops on the other hand have leaky shoddy ´Friday afternoon´ hats and do not make as good suitors...I guess if Darwin had landed here not the Galapagos (pretty hard as it´s a landlocked lake at 12,000 feet) he may have worked out natural selection on this basis eventually too...
On the way back to Puno it cropped up in conversation that our hotel had said nowhere in Puno had cable...I asked the ever knowledgable Percy and he said that was complete and utter bollocks (not his words) and that a number of hotels did. We, are now firmly esconced in one, but it doesn´t have ESPN2, the channel we need...however I think it is being shown on TV5, a French channel, which we do have. So I´m going to have to settle for the match in French, with a 4am kickoff. I am under strict, turn the volume, brightness, contrast down instructions, and under no illusion that if I wake my better half I will be a dead man.
So off to Cusco tomorrow, we´ve got high hopes for the place. Helen and Rich are arriving on Sunday so we´re going to try to arrange the Machu Pichu thang with them.
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Some photos from today...the hotel where we´re staying has got free broadband (and they´re wonderful, one of the nicest, friendliest places we´ve stayed all year - Las Torres de Ugarte click on their website here , they even gave us a kiss on our return!!!) so these may be the last til after Machu Picchu, oh and while I remember Helen and Rich have changed their plans and we´re all set to meet up in Cusco...bring it on!
First off, some piccies of the canyon and us, some arty ones and the terraces.
Condors
Some hots of locals doing their thing...and one of the ubiquitous show...
First off, some piccies of the canyon and us, some arty ones and the terraces.
Condors
Some hots of locals doing their thing...and one of the ubiquitous show...
So we´re back from our little trip to the big canyon. I know I´ve used the Motley Crew analogy a couple of tiems so far, but I feel it´s been long enough since the last one and I am going to again. Think of Motley Crue and what do you think of...? Dodgy mullets, bad mysogynistic soft rock etc...who were even worse than these muppets? Poison? Europe? No idea, but anyway if you can think of a bad soft rock band worse that THE CRUE then enter their name here .... --------- because the group of people we´ve just spent 2 delightful (not) days with were worse than the worse motley crew you could ever imagine. For starters, and the best of a very bad bunch, 2 Italians who fashionwise were old enough to know better. Perms, tattoos and bad sunglasses DO NOT GO no matter how you dress them up, especially when you´re in your mid 40s. Now, stage left, enter Carolyn (who was really nice but that´s not the point) with her newly found Spanish boyfriend and his two friends. I´ll start with Carolyn´s beau hereon in known as ´Knifeboy´. For a start all he did was slobber over her constantly, in a packed minibus. He had more (scary) tattoos than you could shake a stick at, smoked like a chimney (seemingly deliberately in our faces at times), drank (beer, pisco sour, meths) all day, was incredibly rude, looked like a drug addict/devil worshipper, and carried a massive flick-knife which he used to peel a banana...what a man, a big knife, wow! He also, later on the trip bought a knuckle duster from a market stall ´para este noche´ his words not mine...nice chap. He also took turns in taking the piss out of me, Jen and the other non-Spanish speaker and egged the others on to do so. In short he was an utter prick of the highest order. What Carolyn was doing with him we´ll never know, but I guess they do say something about all women loving rogues...Knifeboy´s 2 mates were a mid 40´s arrogant hairy monster, who looked a bit like Yanni, and the ugliest woman I have ever seen. If she stood next to Anne Widdicombe you´d swear the die-gard Tory had just been voted Miss Universe. Apart from the fact she was uglier than all 7 sins, she was rude, obknoxious, another inconsiderate heavy smoker, and just plain strange. I nicknamed this couple ´Beardy and Weirdy´.
The group was topped off with some upper-class snob of a woman from London. For this lady everything was wrong; worng tour, wrong guide, wrong country, wrong trip to the jungle etc etc...she didn´t even stay with the group for tea, she was staying at a 70USD a night place, so she obviously took the brunt of the Spaniard´s pisstaking.
Oh and to our guide, Lady (I kid you not this was her name). Bless her. She tried. I think Osama Bin Laden would have made a better English speaking tour guide, as her grip of the English language was, erm how to put it politely, SHIT. She had been told by her boss, and thus completely stitched up by her boss, that the whole group spoke Spanish. She did try to speak English but we would have learnt more if we´d sat in the pub for 2 days.
Hey the driver was a nice guy though. Didn´t catch his name, or give him a nickname so we´ll call him, erm, driver.
We set of on the long, gruelling drive with Carolyn doting on Knifeboy´s every command, at one point I thought she was going to follow him to the loo to wipe his arse for him...the non-aircon bus was completely full and getting hotter by the second, and with those too all over each other next door to us we knew we were in for a long journey. We couldn´t open the windows due to the dusty roads so we had to suffer the heat and the people...The first day was a real letdown, we basically drove to Chivay, via some llamas, cute kids, cute kids with llamas, and some coca tea (for altitude sickness) climbing to over 4800m (15,600 ft) in the process. Chivay was a little lower at 3681m (still nearly 12,000 ft) and we all felt a bit out of puff as we climbed the hotel steps. Entering the hotel bar and hearing Celine Dion ´My heart will go on´we did what any self respecting English couple would do, and went to bed for 3 hours, only to be woken by the same song, which was then played for another hour or so. During this time everyone else went to the nearby hot springs, seen it done it we thought and caught some shut-eye. The meal at a local restaurant would best be described as bad, and the ´entertainment´of a few locals and some panpipes best be described as ´very bad´. Hell but at least we didn´t get dressed up in local costume like a German couple on the next table. They were both over 6 ft tall, and they looked liked they´d hired their clothes from a Peruvian school outfitters. Funny without meaning to be...bed came at 9.30pm, not a moment too soon.
So, to today. Up and out by 6am we arrived at the Colca Canyon at around 7.30 after a couple of pointless stops at craft stalls and the like. The drive was a little more scenic than the previous day, as we passed numerous estancias (farms) and the famous terraces, resplendent with green healthy looking crops. The canyon itself was quite a sight, dropping from a peak of 5,800m down to below 1,000m (this may be incorrect, this was what I managed to decipher from Lady) - a drop of 3 miles. The condors came out in full flight, although nowhere near as close to us, or as great in number as when we were in El Calefate or Rio...at that moment anyway. After an hour at the acnyon we headed a bit further along the road and walked for about 30 minutes away from the crowds at the first viewpoint. Here we were really lucky as just as we were about to head back to the van 6 condors came out of nowhere and circled about 30 ft above us. I was tempted to injure Kinfebiy and let the birds do the rest but he was much bigger than me, and he had a knife. So back on the bus, and home some 5 hours later. The trip for me was almost worthwhile due to the condor moment, but for Jen it was a complete washout, ´as bad as the floating market´...harsh words indeed. We´re off out tonight to try and avopid the people we´ve just met. Hopefully they won´t ever read this either...
The group was topped off with some upper-class snob of a woman from London. For this lady everything was wrong; worng tour, wrong guide, wrong country, wrong trip to the jungle etc etc...she didn´t even stay with the group for tea, she was staying at a 70USD a night place, so she obviously took the brunt of the Spaniard´s pisstaking.
Oh and to our guide, Lady (I kid you not this was her name). Bless her. She tried. I think Osama Bin Laden would have made a better English speaking tour guide, as her grip of the English language was, erm how to put it politely, SHIT. She had been told by her boss, and thus completely stitched up by her boss, that the whole group spoke Spanish. She did try to speak English but we would have learnt more if we´d sat in the pub for 2 days.
Hey the driver was a nice guy though. Didn´t catch his name, or give him a nickname so we´ll call him, erm, driver.
We set of on the long, gruelling drive with Carolyn doting on Knifeboy´s every command, at one point I thought she was going to follow him to the loo to wipe his arse for him...the non-aircon bus was completely full and getting hotter by the second, and with those too all over each other next door to us we knew we were in for a long journey. We couldn´t open the windows due to the dusty roads so we had to suffer the heat and the people...The first day was a real letdown, we basically drove to Chivay, via some llamas, cute kids, cute kids with llamas, and some coca tea (for altitude sickness) climbing to over 4800m (15,600 ft) in the process. Chivay was a little lower at 3681m (still nearly 12,000 ft) and we all felt a bit out of puff as we climbed the hotel steps. Entering the hotel bar and hearing Celine Dion ´My heart will go on´we did what any self respecting English couple would do, and went to bed for 3 hours, only to be woken by the same song, which was then played for another hour or so. During this time everyone else went to the nearby hot springs, seen it done it we thought and caught some shut-eye. The meal at a local restaurant would best be described as bad, and the ´entertainment´of a few locals and some panpipes best be described as ´very bad´. Hell but at least we didn´t get dressed up in local costume like a German couple on the next table. They were both over 6 ft tall, and they looked liked they´d hired their clothes from a Peruvian school outfitters. Funny without meaning to be...bed came at 9.30pm, not a moment too soon.
So, to today. Up and out by 6am we arrived at the Colca Canyon at around 7.30 after a couple of pointless stops at craft stalls and the like. The drive was a little more scenic than the previous day, as we passed numerous estancias (farms) and the famous terraces, resplendent with green healthy looking crops. The canyon itself was quite a sight, dropping from a peak of 5,800m down to below 1,000m (this may be incorrect, this was what I managed to decipher from Lady) - a drop of 3 miles. The condors came out in full flight, although nowhere near as close to us, or as great in number as when we were in El Calefate or Rio...at that moment anyway. After an hour at the acnyon we headed a bit further along the road and walked for about 30 minutes away from the crowds at the first viewpoint. Here we were really lucky as just as we were about to head back to the van 6 condors came out of nowhere and circled about 30 ft above us. I was tempted to injure Kinfebiy and let the birds do the rest but he was much bigger than me, and he had a knife. So back on the bus, and home some 5 hours later. The trip for me was almost worthwhile due to the condor moment, but for Jen it was a complete washout, ´as bad as the floating market´...harsh words indeed. We´re off out tonight to try and avopid the people we´ve just met. Hopefully they won´t ever read this either...
Monday, November 17, 2003
Tea was nice (´Doner Kebab´, made from chicken...) and so was getting a full nights sleep. We´ve nearly shaken off the bugs we´ve been carrying, thanks to the penicillin we bought over the counter...
Today was a good day. We started off by booking our 2 day, 1 night trip to the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest in the world. We go on that first thing tomorrow morning. We also booked our bus tickets out of here - we go to Puno on 20th for Lake Titicaca. We have also booked a hostel in Cusco. We´ve decided we´re definitely going to go into the Amazon but as we´re not sure how we´re going to react to the alititude in Cusco (we might need more days acclimatizing) we´re going ot have to wait until we get there before we decide whether to do it in Peru or Ecuador.
After a great (and cheap) lunch we headed out on our lown little walking tour of Arequipa. The city itself is full of buildings made in white vocanic rock, hence it´s rather imaginative moniker, ´the white city´... It is the 2nd largest city in Peru with a population fast approaching a million. Unfortunately for it´s inhabitants, living in the shadow of El Misti (a big volcano) means that there are regular earthquakes. The last one in 2001 destroyed many historic buildings, although they have clearly patched things up since them as everything looks pristine nowadays. Our first port of call was the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, which was once home to 450 nuns. Now, only 30 are left (aged 18-90 apparently) and have all taken a vow of ´not meeting anyone else´as they are locked up in one corner. The Monestery (as monesteries go) was excellent, brightly coloured and still maintaining it´s century old charm. The entry price of 25 soles (about 4.50 UKP) was a bit steep though maybe it was this that led to only tourists in the grounds, no locals...
We then headed to the Museo Santuarios Andinos which houses the ´Ice Princess, Juanita´ a mummy of a girl who died 500 years ago. We didn´t get very far as it was shut, as was the cathedral and another church we wanted to visit on the Plaza de Armas. Never mins, we sat with our ice-creams and people watched for an hour or so until we felt compelled to give our seats to an elderly lady who could barely walk (interestingly she walked past about 20 locals who didn´t offer their seats without saying a word, and then got to us and started cursing ...so she got the seats...discretion, valour and all that...)
We´ve sent another parcel home, containing a couple of presents and the art we couldn´t send back from Argentina.
Today was a good day. We started off by booking our 2 day, 1 night trip to the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest in the world. We go on that first thing tomorrow morning. We also booked our bus tickets out of here - we go to Puno on 20th for Lake Titicaca. We have also booked a hostel in Cusco. We´ve decided we´re definitely going to go into the Amazon but as we´re not sure how we´re going to react to the alititude in Cusco (we might need more days acclimatizing) we´re going ot have to wait until we get there before we decide whether to do it in Peru or Ecuador.
After a great (and cheap) lunch we headed out on our lown little walking tour of Arequipa. The city itself is full of buildings made in white vocanic rock, hence it´s rather imaginative moniker, ´the white city´... It is the 2nd largest city in Peru with a population fast approaching a million. Unfortunately for it´s inhabitants, living in the shadow of El Misti (a big volcano) means that there are regular earthquakes. The last one in 2001 destroyed many historic buildings, although they have clearly patched things up since them as everything looks pristine nowadays. Our first port of call was the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, which was once home to 450 nuns. Now, only 30 are left (aged 18-90 apparently) and have all taken a vow of ´not meeting anyone else´as they are locked up in one corner. The Monestery (as monesteries go) was excellent, brightly coloured and still maintaining it´s century old charm. The entry price of 25 soles (about 4.50 UKP) was a bit steep though maybe it was this that led to only tourists in the grounds, no locals...
We then headed to the Museo Santuarios Andinos which houses the ´Ice Princess, Juanita´ a mummy of a girl who died 500 years ago. We didn´t get very far as it was shut, as was the cathedral and another church we wanted to visit on the Plaza de Armas. Never mins, we sat with our ice-creams and people watched for an hour or so until we felt compelled to give our seats to an elderly lady who could barely walk (interestingly she walked past about 20 locals who didn´t offer their seats without saying a word, and then got to us and started cursing ...so she got the seats...discretion, valour and all that...)
We´ve sent another parcel home, containing a couple of presents and the art we couldn´t send back from Argentina.
After an afternoon of doing nothing we pitched up at our sister hotel which is conveniently situated outside where the bus stops, at around 10pm. We were greeted by the stupidly enthusiastic Freddy, who has taught himself English in 8 months. He learns most from the guests who stay at the hostel and has picked up some great phrases, namely ´supercalifragilisticexbealidocious´, ´easy peesy lemon squeezy´and ´I´m hank Marvin...´ We helped with a few choice Manc phrases, i.e. ´Alright our kid´ and ´I´m gonna brain yer´ amongst others.
Our bus arrived a whole ten minutes late, just after midnight, and we were asleep a full ten minutes later...and pretty much slept through til 8am when we arrived in Arequipa. The first thing we noticed was the altitude, it may only be 2,500m here (about 8,000 feet) but for unfit buggers like me it is fun even walking down a street. Obviosuly Macchu Picchu and the rest are even higher so we´re spending a couple of days here just adjusting to the height before we head out on any trips. The current plan (and, as always this is subject to a ridiculous amount of change) is to sepnd tomorrow here, the next 2 days doing the Colca Canyon tour, and then head to Puno for Lake Titicaca for a few days. We should be in Cusco this time next week to allow us to spend a few days doing (hopefully) 2 of the 4 days of the Inca trail, and a jungle tour out of Puerto Maldonado....
Arequipa looks great fun, some nice restaurants, great buildings and enough to keep us occupied for a day or two. Our hotel is great, hell they´ve got cable and we´ve just watched a film in English, and although it was pretty bad (Sliding Doors) it was nice to understand something on telly. We also watched a bit of Brasil Vs Peru (1-1) in a bar and the locals were really mad for it - great!
Our bus arrived a whole ten minutes late, just after midnight, and we were asleep a full ten minutes later...and pretty much slept through til 8am when we arrived in Arequipa. The first thing we noticed was the altitude, it may only be 2,500m here (about 8,000 feet) but for unfit buggers like me it is fun even walking down a street. Obviosuly Macchu Picchu and the rest are even higher so we´re spending a couple of days here just adjusting to the height before we head out on any trips. The current plan (and, as always this is subject to a ridiculous amount of change) is to sepnd tomorrow here, the next 2 days doing the Colca Canyon tour, and then head to Puno for Lake Titicaca for a few days. We should be in Cusco this time next week to allow us to spend a few days doing (hopefully) 2 of the 4 days of the Inca trail, and a jungle tour out of Puerto Maldonado....
Arequipa looks great fun, some nice restaurants, great buildings and enough to keep us occupied for a day or two. Our hotel is great, hell they´ve got cable and we´ve just watched a film in English, and although it was pretty bad (Sliding Doors) it was nice to understand something on telly. We also watched a bit of Brasil Vs Peru (1-1) in a bar and the locals were really mad for it - great!
Saturday, November 15, 2003
Nazca gets a bum reputaion as far as we are concerned. Everyone we`ve met says `get out of there quickly, there`s nothing to do`and the like, and that might be true but it`s a small, compact, tidy town with a handful of good restaurants, one fantastic internet cafe, and friendly and helpful people. After an utterly fantastic meal at one of said restaurants last night we took our penicillin we`d bought from a local pharmacy earlier in an attempt to start killing off the bugs we`re carrying. Jen`s had a cough and splutter for about 2 weeks now and I am just developing a mean sore throat. Thanks to the complete lack of curtains in our room we woke at about 4am and dozed until about 4.05, before the cockerels started making cockerel noises. This is an example of one of the reasons being in Peru is really like being back in Asia. The infrastructure is poor, the traffic is manic, the people have genuine smiles on their faces, and people work HARD for a living, seriously hard in some cases. And they`re the lucky ones, unemployment is currently running at 22%.
This morning (after the cocks) we headed to the cemetery in the middle of the desert at Chauchilla. This is an area of tombs some 2,000 years old which were discovered, and subsequently looted, in 1901. A German chap, Max Ulle was responsible for their discovery and some would say he was the first looter, many objects are now on display in German museums. It is a really earie place, with only 12 of the 1,400 tombs open, surrounded completely by desert. Our excellent guide talked us through the mummying process, people were placed in the foetal position, and put in wicker baskets, to help them be reborn. Food and drink were placed in the tomb with them, and their innards were removed, their skin embalmed. At the head of most tombs lay a baby, and many tombs of the more important people also contained hair grown by a nominated virgin (!) which was in some cases 3 metres long.
It was a really interesting morning, and was followed up by a trip to a local pottery maker, where he showed us the process he goes through to make the fantastic replicas of pre-Inca earthware. It was really good and, although we obviously had to visit his shop, there was no pressure to buy, although we did...
The final stop this morning was at a gold making area, where we saw the process they used to earn 100 USD a week, which is a good wage here. It involved mercury and none of them wore gloves/protective clothing. Many die very young or lose fingers etc...nice.
This afternoon was the trip out to the Nazca lines. These are huge shapes in the ground, only visible in their full glory from the air. The lines were first discovered after passenger flights started in Peru in 1920s. Most depict animals; a whale, a monkey, a dog, a hummingbord, amongst others. There is also a mysterious pair of hands, and one that looks like an astronaught. As above, the best (and only) way to see the lines is from the air. That means a light aircraft, a very light aircraft. The pilot strapped the two of us, a couple of locals, and a Canadian in, and immediately said it would be bumpy...oh and boy was it!!?? Jen is still green and it`s over an hour since we touched down. The flight itself was OK, I prefered it to airline flights, you could see all the instruments, what the pilot was doing etc...but in order for both sides of the aircraft to see each figure the pilot had to bank sharply (at 45 degrees) every cuople of minutes. It was fantastic though, they are pretty unique (although I believe there are some more, not as impressive ones just up the road), and it was well worth the 35 USD.
We`re booked on a night bus tonight, as per previous post, leaving at midnight, and arriving in Arequipa at 9am tomorrow. So we`ll miss the England match, come on England, a France Vs Aus final is like choosing between death by hanging or death by firing squad...
This morning (after the cocks) we headed to the cemetery in the middle of the desert at Chauchilla. This is an area of tombs some 2,000 years old which were discovered, and subsequently looted, in 1901. A German chap, Max Ulle was responsible for their discovery and some would say he was the first looter, many objects are now on display in German museums. It is a really earie place, with only 12 of the 1,400 tombs open, surrounded completely by desert. Our excellent guide talked us through the mummying process, people were placed in the foetal position, and put in wicker baskets, to help them be reborn. Food and drink were placed in the tomb with them, and their innards were removed, their skin embalmed. At the head of most tombs lay a baby, and many tombs of the more important people also contained hair grown by a nominated virgin (!) which was in some cases 3 metres long.
It was a really interesting morning, and was followed up by a trip to a local pottery maker, where he showed us the process he goes through to make the fantastic replicas of pre-Inca earthware. It was really good and, although we obviously had to visit his shop, there was no pressure to buy, although we did...
The final stop this morning was at a gold making area, where we saw the process they used to earn 100 USD a week, which is a good wage here. It involved mercury and none of them wore gloves/protective clothing. Many die very young or lose fingers etc...nice.
This afternoon was the trip out to the Nazca lines. These are huge shapes in the ground, only visible in their full glory from the air. The lines were first discovered after passenger flights started in Peru in 1920s. Most depict animals; a whale, a monkey, a dog, a hummingbord, amongst others. There is also a mysterious pair of hands, and one that looks like an astronaught. As above, the best (and only) way to see the lines is from the air. That means a light aircraft, a very light aircraft. The pilot strapped the two of us, a couple of locals, and a Canadian in, and immediately said it would be bumpy...oh and boy was it!!?? Jen is still green and it`s over an hour since we touched down. The flight itself was OK, I prefered it to airline flights, you could see all the instruments, what the pilot was doing etc...but in order for both sides of the aircraft to see each figure the pilot had to bank sharply (at 45 degrees) every cuople of minutes. It was fantastic though, they are pretty unique (although I believe there are some more, not as impressive ones just up the road), and it was well worth the 35 USD.
We`re booked on a night bus tonight, as per previous post, leaving at midnight, and arriving in Arequipa at 9am tomorrow. So we`ll miss the England match, come on England, a France Vs Aus final is like choosing between death by hanging or death by firing squad...
Friday, November 14, 2003
OK, an unexpected bonus for you all...Rio piccies...yup loads of Christ and we're not religious but hey...here he is, the main man, it's JC (or Christo Redontor to his friends) and one with the view from the top!
2 meal shots, first me and Neil on a meat fest, and then the 4 of us at 'The Girl from Ipanema'
Me at the spiritual home of football, the Maracana, and the Saint Teresa Tram...
3 at Sugar Loaf, waiting for the cloud to clear...also, the last 3 - MONKEYS!!! (I love the one with the beach in the background) and finally the Andes as seen from the plane an the way to Santiago (One of the American's remarked to Jen 'My aren't they big, I didn't think we'd see them from the plane...'!!!)
2 meal shots, first me and Neil on a meat fest, and then the 4 of us at 'The Girl from Ipanema'
Me at the spiritual home of football, the Maracana, and the Saint Teresa Tram...
3 at Sugar Loaf, waiting for the cloud to clear...also, the last 3 - MONKEYS!!! (I love the one with the beach in the background) and finally the Andes as seen from the plane an the way to Santiago (One of the American's remarked to Jen 'My aren't they big, I didn't think we'd see them from the plane...'!!!)