Puno is the Peruvian gateway to Lake Titicaca, but as we’d already explored the lake from the Bolivian side we decided to head onto Juliaca instead. Upon arrival in Juliaca we were warned by our taxi driver that it was a dangerous city. He even recommended that we stay locked in our hotel after sundown so as to avoid any trouble. So after eating both lunch and dinner in the best hotel in town (a 3* hotel), we made our way back to our accommodation and settled in for the night. At about 2am in the morning we were awoken by a really loud bang. This was then followed by shouting and repeated door-slamming for the next three hours. From our bedroom it sounded like someone was going from room to room robbing each guest. I (Gaz) had been pretending to sleep through it, but Tara eventually woke me at about 3am and asked me if I could hear all the commotion. Ever the hero, my response was, “Yes, and if they come to our room I’m not opening the door”. Eventually the noises subsided, and when we emerged from our room the next morning everything seemed to be normal. It was probably just a case of overactive imaginations on our behalf, but it was nerve-wracking at the time.
From Juliaca we flew up to Cusco in the hope that a nicer side of South America awaited us. Thankfully we were not disappointed. Cusco is a great city, with a very European feel to it. We spent our first few days exploring the many cathedrals, churches and museums that Cusco has to offer. We also made full use of the excellent bars and restaurants in Cusco. After two weeks of essentially emergency rations in Bolivia, we felt that we deserved some good quality food and wine. If you’re ever passing through, then make sure you head for Jacks. The food is outstanding, and great value.
Whilst in Cusco we also booked ourselves on a 4-day trek through the Lares valley ending in Machu Picchu with SAS Travel Peru. SAS have a poor reputation for their office’s organisation skills, so we were slightly concerned when we turned up on the morning of the tour at the meeting point to find that our guide was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully he did turn up within about 10 minutes, but it was another hour before our bus turned up. This was the last of the hiccups though, and we were soon heading out on our bus to the Lares valley. Our first stop was in the market town of Calca where we stocked up on pencils and sweets. These were gifts that our tour guide, Justino, advised purchasing to give to the many indigenous children that we would meet along the way. After a quick breakfast we got back on the bus and drove onwards to Quiswarani, with a quick stop en-route at a Condor “sanctuary” (a “sanctuary” in South America is actually a small cage with barely enough room for the animal to move). As soon as we got off the bus at Quiswarani it became apparent why we needed so many sweets and pencils. We were immediately mobbed by a small horde of adorable Peruvian children that were hungry for free goodies. We placated them with some sweets, and then set off on our trek. We covered 12km on our first day of hiking, and reached an altitude of 4200m. Despite the fact that we’d been acclimatizing to altitude since first crossing into Bolivia, we still found it very hard going. The air was very thin, especially near the top, but we’re both proud to say that we never had to resort to using the emergency donkey that SAS Travel provided just in case. Our efforts were very much overshadowed by our porters though. They not only covered the same ground as us, but managed to do so twice as quickly and without breaking a sweat. Furthermore, they still had the energy to put up our tents each evening and cook us breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. We bonded with our fellow trekkers over dinner on the first evening. Our group consisted of two Irish girls (Clodagh and Elaine), an American mother and son duo (Christine and Chris), Diba (a superhuman hiking machine from South Africa), and a group of four girls that had met volunteering in Wanaka (Laura, Rachelle, Annamarth, & Robyn). After a long days hiking we bedded down early in our tents, and had a reasonably good nights sleep considering the altitude (4000m) and temperature (below freezing).
We started our trek the following morning by visiting a traditional Andean home. We were sceptical of this, but it was far more authentic than we ever imagined. An old couple in their 70s lived in the small hut which was no more than 3m by 3m, the floor of which was infested with Guinea Pigs (a local delicacy). They cooked, cleaned, lived and slept in this tiny hut. Justino, our guide, told us all about their way of life and translated our questions into Quechua (the local indigenous language). From the house we continued trekking and by the end of the day we’d covered 15km and reached an altitude of 4400m. Our campsite for the evening was at 4200m, and was considerably colder than the previous night. Despite the harsh conditions our chef cooked up a storm again. We’re still amazed at how he managed to produce such culinary delights with the aid of only a gas hob.
Thankfully our final day of hiking was nearly all downhill. We walked from our campsite down to Ollantaytambo (18km),and from their we caught a train to Aguas Calientes. Diba, Tara and I all indulged in a well deserved beer on the train whilst we took in the stunning scenery that surrounded us. Following one final screw-up by the SAS Travel office (they’d forgotten to book our accommodation in Aguas Calientes), we settled into our hotel and then made our way up to the thermal baths from which the town gets its name (Aguas Calientes literally means hot water in Spanish....I think). We were then supposed to meet our guide at 7:30pm so that we could go for dinner, but he’d got lucky with one of the girls at the thermal pools so was running a little late.
The following morning we dragged ourselves kicking and screaming out of bed at 4am. For some unfathomable reason we’d decided the night before that it would be “fun” to walk up to Machu Picchu. The walk consists of a 400m ascent up uneven Inca steps in the pitch dark. Its definitely not fun. It was worth it, however, as it means you reach the site before all the hoards start arriving in buses. Justino had spent the entire evening with the girl from the springs and was lacking the energy that he’d had on previous days, but still managed to give us an informative tour of the site before letting us loose to explore on our own. Despite having hiked over 40km in the past 3 days, Gaz managed to muster the energy to climb Huayna Picchu, and Tara walked up to the bridge on the original Inca trail. We then set off back towards Cusco by train and bus, arriving back just in time to check into our hostel before heading out on the town with our fellow trekkers to drink away our aches and celebrate our achievement. David & Victoria, a couple we’d met in Mission Beach (Australia) and again in Copacabana (Bolivia), were also in town so they joined us as well for a skinful of booze. I’m still not sure how, but we even managed to drag ourselves in Mama Africa (one of Cusco’s nightclubs) for a dance. I believe a considerable number of gin & tonics may have been responsible for this.
We spent a couple more days in Cusco after our trek and visited a few more Inca ruins. Its alarming how blasé you become about ancient ruins after a few days. The most interesting of the ruins was Sacsayhuaman (or Sexy Woman as its often referred to by visitors), which is in the hills just above Cusco. From there we decided to go horse riding around a few more of the local Inca sites, but we were conned into paying for a three hour ride which turned out to actually be a 1 hour pony trek to just a single site. Fortunately the trek only cost us £7, so we weren’t too badly out of pocket.
From Cusco we flew to Lima where we spent five nights. In hindsight this was probably too long to spend in Lima as there’s really not that much to see, but we took the opportunity to do some normal none-travelling things such as watch the new Batman film (probably the highlight of Lima to be honest). Lima has an abundance of good restaurants (especially in the Miraflores area where we were staying), so we took advantage of these and made some serious progress in regaining the weight (fat) that we’d lost whilst on emergency rations in Bolivia.
On our penultimate day in Lima we took a day trip out to Pachacamac. This pre-Inca archeological site was pretty uninspiring (mainly because most of it looked like piles of sand), but the trip deserves a mention because of the other people on our tour. They were without doubt the biggest freaks that we’ve come across so far. The group consisted of three parties as follows:
1.A skittish lady who was dressed entirely in white (white cap, white leatherette backpack, white shorts, white t-shirt, white rain jacket and white shoes), and refused to tell anybody where she came from (although it later transpired that she was Russian).
2.An American family of four with an obsessive compulsion to keep as clean as possible. After stroking one of the dogs at the site, the children immediately ran to their parents so that they could disinfect themselves. The mother is pictured below wearing florescent pink and yellow children’s sunglasses.
3.An American family of three, the father of which wrote down everything that anybody said in a notebook. When not writing things down he spent most of his time ordering his wife to take photos of inanimate objects. The son scared me most though. He had the air of one of those crazed trenchcoat wearing American children that might embark on a killing spree at any given moment.
Before the tour we’d had high hopes of meeting some new and interesting people (as we had done on every other tour that we’d been on), but instead we finished the tour feeling that someone had sucked the life out of us.
Fortunately Peru had on the whole been a great experience (with the exception of that first night in Juliaca). We both really enjoyed Cusco and our Lares Trek to Machu Picchu. We’d also met some great new people (both Peruvians and fellow travellers), and we’d managed to replenish the fat supplies that we’d lost in Bolivia. Given our time again we probably would not have spent so much time in Lima, but as our days in Lima coincided with Peruvian Independence day (a bank holiday) we would’ve struggled to get to anywhere else anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment