Left Arequipa at 8.30 on saturday morning, spent 6 hours on the local bus to Puno which is the same time as the tourist bus takes except 4 times cheaper and lots more interesting as its all locals! Saying that could have done without the chiuld puking in the seat in front of us. Was a very scenic drive over the altiplano which is high altitude plains that are basically desert. Mostly its just all huge flat valleys, with hills on the rims and not much there except the odd llama/alpaca/sheep farm ... these people seriously live in the middle of nothing in the middle of nowhere. There´s the odd river of green with little lakes and we saw our first flamingos!
From Puno, we got the bust to Cocabana .. well after a ritual of ´theres no bus until tomorrow´followed by ´there is a bus and its 30 soles´ followed by us saying we we leaving tothe other bus terminal and then ´miracously´ there is a bus ALL the way to La Paz for 25 soles! Saying that we had to sit on little stools for 2 hours to Cocabana (which we will stop properly at some time later as its really nice looking there). Also Cocabana is in Bolivia so we had to cross the border which is all very relaxed. Had to get off the bus and get 2 stamps in Peru, then walk over to Bolivia for 200m and get another stamp there. There´s stalls and stuff for sale all the way and locals pushing bikes both ways. From Cocabana we had to change bus to La Paz which was another 5 hours ... 2 hours of this was spent waiting for the ferry across Lake Titicaca. BTW ferry is the largest exageration todate. For the people on the buses there was little boats with a motor smaller then a lawnmower and for the buses there was large floats/barges with a slightly larger motor that held a bus each. Throw in the added bonus of nighttime and NO lights on any of the boats increased the sense of adventure lots ... especially when our boat driver couldn´t start the motor. Anyways we made it. Got into La Paz 2 hours later then we were told at 11pm so that was a bit dodgy. The police met all the tourists, get ya a taxi, take his number etc (which isn´t the safest feeling) and then we went straight to the hotel (which we actually had the foresight to book).
Stayed in Tambo de Oro which is right next 2 the bus terminal and worked out very handy for the next day. Spent another 4 hours on a bus to Oruro. The drive there is much less spectacular then in Peru or maybe I was getting tired of seeing nothing but desert with the odd llama and unbeleivably remote looking village. In Oruro booked our train tickets to Uyuni but then got ´latched onto´ by this kiwi fella - now its good meeting people along the way and I have no problem talking to someone travelling on their own BUT not if they turn out to be one of those tight arse, ´I carry 2kgs of stuff´, ´only use the toilet when its free´´ kind of blokes. We were STARVING ... seriously had no hot food in 2 days and had only eaten biscuits, bread and snacks the day before SO we wanted to get a nice hot dinner before the train. Yer man tags along and suggested this place outside the train station ... now I dont have a weak stomach but jayus the food looked like it had been frying in the oldest oil in Bolivia for 4 days continously .. so we said NO. Eventually found a lovely little pizza place open and went in there. So we ordered pizza and he said he{d have a bit of ours cos he had already eaten (ok fair enough we´re getting a big pizza). After that he vanished to the toilet for 15mins and then came back and said dont use the toilet as he stunk it out! and then he proceeded to tell us on ways to save backpack weight for the next half hour .. eg dont bring a change of clothes just wash them every night - like seriously what a muppet ... we didn´t say too much as really no point. He was ASTONISHED when Dunk ordered icecream for dessert ... like I mean how extravagant are we ... must have cost us all of 1 euro .. seriously like. Anyways in fairness he did throw in some cash for the meal and then told us to use the toilets as they were free!!!! Baffling. After that we managed to lose him on the train but did see him lurking about Uyuni today ... we made sure there was no kiwis on our tour just in case!
So ye we made it Uyuni. The train trip was really good (altho screaming brat of child was annoying but was worth it to see the bolivians telling the mother to shut him up - no words spared seriously!). It was like being in a wild west movie as the moon was full and we could see the plains going on and on and on. Uyuni is grand. Got an unbelivable good brekkie (fresh fruit and yoghurt and the best pineapple juice, Dunk got an omellete that much have had 5 eggs in it!)this morning (the kiwi would have freaked at the price) and 3 day tour to salt plains sorted so we´re all good and happy. Have had a post brekkie nap and think a post lunch nap (altho dont think there´s room yet after brekkie!).
Booked our 3 day trip with Oasis but all the tours here are allegedly unreliable so could be an interesting few days. Watch out flaming flamingoes here we come!!
PS we´ve started to met the ´extreme backpackers´ and I dont mean the ones who do extreme sports BUT the ones who harass, are rude and horrible to all the locals they met just to get the best deal ... is arguing over 2 bolivianos(about 20 cents euro) REALLY worth p1ssing off that many people. Ah well as long as the locals dont think we´re all like that!
Monday, October 29, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Photos of Peru are up!
Check out the link on the side bar or
http://picasaweb.google.com/grace.cantillon
We´re off to Bolivia and the salt plains for the next week or so. More news when we get back from there!
http://picasaweb.google.com/grace.cantillon
We´re off to Bolivia and the salt plains for the next week or so. More news when we get back from there!
Friday, October 26, 2007
Arequipa, Colca Canyon and studying!
Yes so we arrived safely to Arequipa which is Peru´s 2nd city. Its got perfect weather ... seriously like ... sunny 300 days a year, cool at night so nice to sleep, no mossies, cheap beer, nobody harassing us to buy finger puppets, paintings, etc, good food and its just a normal real town which is a relief after 12 days around Cusco and mass tourism!! Staying in an ok hostel (PS in case your wondering why I keep mentioning hostels its for anyone else who´ll be along soon after us!) Hostal Nunez. The ensuite rooms were great but we´re going cheapo now so in smaller non-ensuite room. Saying that hardly any backpackers about so have the top floor to ourselves. Really nice rooftop for brekkie.
Doing a spainish course with CEICA and I have to say its brilliant. We´re doing 5 hours a day and its all beginning to make sense in shops, restaurants, etc. Would highly recommend this place to learn spanish. Its in a little house, with lovely garden and room, about $10 us per hour for us both and really good, professional and keen teachers. Did a cooking course last night with them and made cerviche (Peru´s national dish of fish cooked in lime - really nice!), cuasa papa (which is like a potato castle made from egg, spuds, avocado and mayonaise mixed in layers - its ok), and some yummy dessert made from purple-black corn syrup with fruit. Tell ya what tho - the Peruvians are seriously sweet toothed. All of them out 3- 8 spoons ofsugar in tea ... really they do!! there´s cake shops everywhere and ya its a bit of a tubby place (altho not obese just well rounded). Oh and the meals here are MASSIVE ... did I say this before? Like I can eat for Ireland and I find I leave half my food frequently as they just serve way too much.´Oh and its about 2-3 euro for a litre of beer .... yummy!!
What else is in Arequipa ... nice main square and buildings. Think its called the white city cos of the stone they use. Found awesome coffee (well for Peru) too in Manola just off the square.
Annoying things are the little taxis, buses and colectivos (hiaces with lunny drivers which are local buses really) that continously beep the horns ... and I mean all the time ... not just at each street corner but every 10 metres ... really. And if someone stops, everyone behind the car just beeps the horn even if its for a red light (all about 6 of them!!). Also the beds here are the lumpiest things ever ... I think they went out of their way to make our pillows and bed lumpy. But aside from that ... we´re happy being spanish students (altho learnt the irregular verbs today and that sucks!) until tomorrow.
Think we´re going to head to salt plains in Uyuni (Salar del Uyuni), Bolivia on saturday via either aArica in Chile or else La Paz. Will decide on beer tonight!!
Colca Canyon ... did the trip last weekend. The plan was to do the 2 day tour and see what it was like and go back for more this weekend after spanish course. Decided tho not to go back as its savage dry - suppose it is the Atacama desert for a reason - hence the plan to head south.
The tour was ... well VERY touristy. It was cheap out us$20 but jaysus they did their utmost to squeeze every last sole out of us. The drive is amazing (could also have done in public transport), over the desert, passing by ChaChani, El Misti and other volcanoes I cant remember the name of. The highest pass was 4900m and the view was incredible. The road was a bit wild tho, drove thru an (extinct) volcano at one stage, the driver was a headcase - I wouldn´t put him drivign nails, and in some parts drops of 1000 (ya 1km) straight down. Stayed in Chivay (with obligatory Irish pubs - was alright, the most irish thing was the name McElroy!), had to do tourist lunch, dinner and again lunch the next day but in fairness the food was good. Didthe hot springs as well which were really good and clean ... recommended!
On the sunday we got dragged out of bed at 5am to go and see the condors ... supposed to go early as best time of day. So off we went, and then we stopped at not 1 but 3 little villages on the way so it was 9am by the time we got to the condor lookout. I seriously thought that was pulling the p1ss like. In one place there was little boys danvcing around a fountain at 6am for the tourists ... jayus whats that about. And the usual hawkers selling stuff everywhere but I suppose at least they didn´t follow us. Its a cool drive (altho a bit scary) out to the highest part of the canyon which is 3700m or something AND we did see condors AND they did make the trip worthwile as did the scenery but we could have done with less ´sheep tourism!´ Oh also seeing llamas, alpacas and vicunas in the wild is very cool!
One last rant for the week. There´s a delicacy here called ´cuy´which is guinea pig. Now I´m no biologist (I cant even spell the word!) but dotn guinea pigs look a little like colourful rats??? We´ve all seen road kill ok (especially in Oz) and you know the flattened look it gets after a day or so ... well thats what cuy looks like on a plate except the head is fully intact and not squashed, the little paws have all the nails etc but apart from that everything is flattened as they cook it under a big stone. Our spanish teacher said check the tail before eating as if its long then its RAT!! yummo ... on that note I´ll sign off and have a good w-e all!!
We´re off to Chile or Bolivia or both .... wahoooooo!!
Doing a spainish course with CEICA and I have to say its brilliant. We´re doing 5 hours a day and its all beginning to make sense in shops, restaurants, etc. Would highly recommend this place to learn spanish. Its in a little house, with lovely garden and room, about $10 us per hour for us both and really good, professional and keen teachers. Did a cooking course last night with them and made cerviche (Peru´s national dish of fish cooked in lime - really nice!), cuasa papa (which is like a potato castle made from egg, spuds, avocado and mayonaise mixed in layers - its ok), and some yummy dessert made from purple-black corn syrup with fruit. Tell ya what tho - the Peruvians are seriously sweet toothed. All of them out 3- 8 spoons ofsugar in tea ... really they do!! there´s cake shops everywhere and ya its a bit of a tubby place (altho not obese just well rounded). Oh and the meals here are MASSIVE ... did I say this before? Like I can eat for Ireland and I find I leave half my food frequently as they just serve way too much.´Oh and its about 2-3 euro for a litre of beer .... yummy!!
What else is in Arequipa ... nice main square and buildings. Think its called the white city cos of the stone they use. Found awesome coffee (well for Peru) too in Manola just off the square.
Annoying things are the little taxis, buses and colectivos (hiaces with lunny drivers which are local buses really) that continously beep the horns ... and I mean all the time ... not just at each street corner but every 10 metres ... really. And if someone stops, everyone behind the car just beeps the horn even if its for a red light (all about 6 of them!!). Also the beds here are the lumpiest things ever ... I think they went out of their way to make our pillows and bed lumpy. But aside from that ... we´re happy being spanish students (altho learnt the irregular verbs today and that sucks!) until tomorrow.
Think we´re going to head to salt plains in Uyuni (Salar del Uyuni), Bolivia on saturday via either aArica in Chile or else La Paz. Will decide on beer tonight!!
Colca Canyon ... did the trip last weekend. The plan was to do the 2 day tour and see what it was like and go back for more this weekend after spanish course. Decided tho not to go back as its savage dry - suppose it is the Atacama desert for a reason - hence the plan to head south.
The tour was ... well VERY touristy. It was cheap out us$20 but jaysus they did their utmost to squeeze every last sole out of us. The drive is amazing (could also have done in public transport), over the desert, passing by ChaChani, El Misti and other volcanoes I cant remember the name of. The highest pass was 4900m and the view was incredible. The road was a bit wild tho, drove thru an (extinct) volcano at one stage, the driver was a headcase - I wouldn´t put him drivign nails, and in some parts drops of 1000 (ya 1km) straight down. Stayed in Chivay (with obligatory Irish pubs - was alright, the most irish thing was the name McElroy!), had to do tourist lunch, dinner and again lunch the next day but in fairness the food was good. Didthe hot springs as well which were really good and clean ... recommended!
On the sunday we got dragged out of bed at 5am to go and see the condors ... supposed to go early as best time of day. So off we went, and then we stopped at not 1 but 3 little villages on the way so it was 9am by the time we got to the condor lookout. I seriously thought that was pulling the p1ss like. In one place there was little boys danvcing around a fountain at 6am for the tourists ... jayus whats that about. And the usual hawkers selling stuff everywhere but I suppose at least they didn´t follow us. Its a cool drive (altho a bit scary) out to the highest part of the canyon which is 3700m or something AND we did see condors AND they did make the trip worthwile as did the scenery but we could have done with less ´sheep tourism!´ Oh also seeing llamas, alpacas and vicunas in the wild is very cool!
One last rant for the week. There´s a delicacy here called ´cuy´which is guinea pig. Now I´m no biologist (I cant even spell the word!) but dotn guinea pigs look a little like colourful rats??? We´ve all seen road kill ok (especially in Oz) and you know the flattened look it gets after a day or so ... well thats what cuy looks like on a plate except the head is fully intact and not squashed, the little paws have all the nails etc but apart from that everything is flattened as they cook it under a big stone. Our spanish teacher said check the tail before eating as if its long then its RAT!! yummo ... on that note I´ll sign off and have a good w-e all!!
We´re off to Chile or Bolivia or both .... wahoooooo!!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Off to sunny Arequipa
We had planned to head off and do a 6 day hike around Mt Ausangate but the rainy season has well and truly hit us here in Cusco. Yesterday poured all the day and the clouds were down on the hills here so decided it would be miserable at 1000m higher. Bit of a pity cos looks like a fantastic hike.
We´re off to Arequipa tonight instead. Going to learn Spanish there and wander about Colca Canyon for the next 3 weeks so that should keep us out of trouble.
We´re off to Arequipa tonight instead. Going to learn Spanish there and wander about Colca Canyon for the next 3 weeks so that should keep us out of trouble.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Eating, sleeping and drinking in Cusco
There´s over 200 places to stay in Cusco. So far we have tried 3 of them all near San Blas on Carmen Alto.
Hostel El Grial - very clean, cosy and friendly place. Free internet, ok brekkie included, had cable tv in our room, but there was a stink of sweage in the toilet and we had a very noisy room but possibly all rooms noisy as face over the balcony and since people arrive-leave at all hours then quiet sleep impossible. US35 so expensive for what it was.
Hotel Marani. Stayed there for 6 nights with tara and colin. got a deal for 30us per room per night so was well worth while. Spotless clean, new towels and room cleaned everyday, good staff. Continental brekkie included. Nice cafe area, very sfe, stored all our stuff when went on the inca trail plus they made us brekkie at 4.30 am also on the morning we left for inca trail. Only reservation was that it was slightly clinical and I got the feeling if I was Dutch-german then it would have been more welcoming as its run by a dutch lady.
Hospedaje de San Blas - US20 including brekkie, staying here cos its near the last place we stayed and cheap ;) bit disorganised and water seems to be a problem. Very friendly tho and free internet when the kids aren´t using it!
Restaurants abound in Cusco. I think there is more then there is tourists. have tried some peruvian but also falling back on more western type food as the peruvian food seems to be very carb driven.
Jacks cafe - gringo place. great comfort food, steak sandwich rocks, so do there fries, coffee and shakes. medium expensive. 15 -20 soles per person
Fallen Angel - fantastic bar restaurant. Steak (35 soles) is incredible but dont get the hot one as its too hot. Fries are amazing - seriously! great pisco sours - think thy add some dynamite!
also salads and desserts are very good. Decor is funky. Has baths with goldfish as tables!
Chez Maggy and a millin other pizza places like it. good italian pizza in Cusco.
Inka Panaka, on 140 tandapata, just before the right hand corner ther´s an amazing peruvian
restaurant. try the banana wrapped in bacon and the ceviche. Also the
veggie curry and alpaca were excellent. go hungry tho cos the portions
are huge. about 40 soles for entree and main.
On corner of Calle garcilaso and Plaza San Francisco
theres a great cheap local place. he menu of the day is 4.5 soles and
is massive. 3 courses for 1 euro! and tasty also. They serve the quioa
soup which is yummy!
El Buen Pastor is good bakery and very cheap.
KM 0 is a good bar with live music and the muse also is ok.
Cusquena is yummy beer and pisco sours are a must!
Great bakeries down Tullymayo - 3 in a row together as you head towards the pisac bus station.
On the inside corner of Teqoscha and Wayna Pata, there{s a great cheap peruvian place which is really cheap. Its something Baieche Trattoria. Great feed for 7, 12 or 20 soles. Their Lomo Saltado is good.
Hostel El Grial - very clean, cosy and friendly place. Free internet, ok brekkie included, had cable tv in our room, but there was a stink of sweage in the toilet and we had a very noisy room but possibly all rooms noisy as face over the balcony and since people arrive-leave at all hours then quiet sleep impossible. US35 so expensive for what it was.
Hotel Marani. Stayed there for 6 nights with tara and colin. got a deal for 30us per room per night so was well worth while. Spotless clean, new towels and room cleaned everyday, good staff. Continental brekkie included. Nice cafe area, very sfe, stored all our stuff when went on the inca trail plus they made us brekkie at 4.30 am also on the morning we left for inca trail. Only reservation was that it was slightly clinical and I got the feeling if I was Dutch-german then it would have been more welcoming as its run by a dutch lady.
Hospedaje de San Blas - US20 including brekkie, staying here cos its near the last place we stayed and cheap ;) bit disorganised and water seems to be a problem. Very friendly tho and free internet when the kids aren´t using it!
Restaurants abound in Cusco. I think there is more then there is tourists. have tried some peruvian but also falling back on more western type food as the peruvian food seems to be very carb driven.
Jacks cafe - gringo place. great comfort food, steak sandwich rocks, so do there fries, coffee and shakes. medium expensive. 15 -20 soles per person
Fallen Angel - fantastic bar restaurant. Steak (35 soles) is incredible but dont get the hot one as its too hot. Fries are amazing - seriously! great pisco sours - think thy add some dynamite!
also salads and desserts are very good. Decor is funky. Has baths with goldfish as tables!
Chez Maggy and a millin other pizza places like it. good italian pizza in Cusco.
Inka Panaka, on 140 tandapata, just before the right hand corner ther´s an amazing peruvian
restaurant. try the banana wrapped in bacon and the ceviche. Also the
veggie curry and alpaca were excellent. go hungry tho cos the portions
are huge. about 40 soles for entree and main.
On corner of Calle garcilaso and Plaza San Francisco
theres a great cheap local place. he menu of the day is 4.5 soles and
is massive. 3 courses for 1 euro! and tasty also. They serve the quioa
soup which is yummy!
El Buen Pastor is good bakery and very cheap.
KM 0 is a good bar with live music and the muse also is ok.
Cusquena is yummy beer and pisco sours are a must!
Great bakeries down Tullymayo - 3 in a row together as you head towards the pisac bus station.
On the inside corner of Teqoscha and Wayna Pata, there{s a great cheap peruvian place which is really cheap. Its something Baieche Trattoria. Great feed for 7, 12 or 20 soles. Their Lomo Saltado is good.
The Inca Trail
This is the reason we´re in Cuso, really... The Inca Trail is a 4 day walk, following an old Inca road, which finishes at the Inca site of Machu Pichu. It´s compulsory to use a guide to walk the Inca Trail, and we went with Peru Treks, who were superb.
We (Tara, Colin, Grace and Dunk) were picked up from our hostal at about 5.30 (a sign of things to come), and headed off to Ollantaytambo on a bus with the 13 others in our walking group. After a stop for some strange luke-warm coffee we drove along a dirt road to "km 82" to the checkpoint which marks the start of the walk. Along with the 15 walkers, we had 2 guides (the cheif guides name was bobby), 18 porters and a cook - i think they needed all the porters to carry the mountains of food we were fed!
We followed the Rio Cusichaca for a few hours, stopping to check out the Inca site at Llactapata - Bobby gave us a 30 minute description of the site, its purpose, the reasons for it being built where it was etc. He was very knowledgeable. Not long after starting the walk, we began to see some of the 13 species of humming bird which inhabit the Machu Pichu National Park - I´ve never seen them before and they´re pretty unusual. The smallest looks more like and insect than a bird...
Lunch was had across the river from Llactapata. We had a dining tent and 3 course meal - a bit of a change from sitting under a tree and munching on a sandwhich like we usually do at home! From here, we walked a couple of hours to the village of Huayllabamba, where we camped. A couple of beers from the village shop broke the ice; we had a great group of people on the tour, most of who were fairly fit, which made for a great trip.
Day 2 consisted of a climb up to Warmiwanusca Pass (Dead Woman Pass) at 4198m, and then down to camp at a site named Pacamayo. The walk was made difficult by the altitude, but was otherwise short, and easy going on a rock-surfaced track. Much of the walk up to the pass went thru lush cloud forest. This reminded me a bit of the rainforest in south west Tasmania, and was beautiful. Views of the surrounding mountains were obscured by high cloud for most of the day, but Mt Veronica cleared in time for sunset. The view from our tens was stupendous - we looked across a massively deep rainforest filled valley surrounded by huge and precipitously sided mountains. No beers for sale nearby this night, but we were entertained by Bobby´s card tricks, and fed a huge lunch at 3 in the arvo (at the camp site), followed by afternoon tea at 4.30 and then dinner at 6.30 - no chance of loosing weight on this walk! Myself, Grace and Tara spotted an Andean Deer (quite common apparently) whilst going for an afternoon stroll.
Day 3 began at some ungodly hour of the morning, and we finished walking at 2 or 3 in the arvo. It was very misty in the valley where were camped, with a lot of low cloud which pesisted for the day. This was very atmospheric, but prevented us from seeing the apparently majestic mountain views this days walking is sposed to provide. We stopped at the Inca site of Runkuracay on our way up to the second pass at 3998m, where we each added a stone to the collection of cairns on the pass. Spectacular high mountain scenery... From the pass, we walked several hours thru cloud forest, and open alpine areas along an original section of Inca trail. This is a rock trail built by the Incas which clings to the mountain side in some unlikely places, providing people who dont like heights (won´t mention any names ;)) with a few nervous moments. We stopped at the Inca site of Phuyupatamarca, which provided a spectacular view of Machu Picchu mountain and the surrounding peaks before descending to camp at Huinay Huayna - this ´research station´built by the cusco university years ago seems to have been transformed into a Gringo service station, equipped with cold beer and hot showers. The researchers have been replaced with walkers in (I can only assume) the name of profit. This is a real shame, but we had a few coldies anyway...
The final day began sometime before 3 and 4 in the morning (you´d think we were off to climb a mountain or something!). We walked for 2 hours to Machu Picchu through beautiful cloud forest with yet more majestic views of the hugely deep valley below us, and massive moutains above. It was too cloudy to see anything from the Sun gate (the point at which the trail enters Machu Picchu), so we walked down to the site itself and were shown around for a few hours by Bobby. It was great to have a guide to explain the place, and I don´t think it would be half as interesting without. The train arrived in the valley below at about 10.30 and the crows descended at about 11, at which time we bailed to Agus Calientes.
Macchu Picchu is an interesting spot, but I think its location is really what makes it, rather than the history of the site itself. It sits on top of an improbably steep mountain in a rainforested valley, bringing back memories of Indian Jones.
We caught the train back to Ollantaytambo, and then the bus to Cusco, where we promptly went for an awesome streak at Fallen Angel - thouroughly recommended!
All in all, this is a very enjoyable walk. The spectacular mountain scenery, cloud forest and humming birds made it for me, and the Inca sites along the way, and particularly Machu Picchu at the end add an interesting cultural aspect to it. The distances are short, and the track has a hard rock surface for most of the walk, making life easy indeed. The altitude made for hard going about about 4000m. Going with a tour group was not as bad as I thought (it was great fun actually), although I suspect we were particularly lucky in having such a good guide. Also, I think I mave have become a walking pole convert - i took a wooden pole on the walk as my knee is giving me grief at the moment, and it helped a lot...
We (Tara, Colin, Grace and Dunk) were picked up from our hostal at about 5.30 (a sign of things to come), and headed off to Ollantaytambo on a bus with the 13 others in our walking group. After a stop for some strange luke-warm coffee we drove along a dirt road to "km 82" to the checkpoint which marks the start of the walk. Along with the 15 walkers, we had 2 guides (the cheif guides name was bobby), 18 porters and a cook - i think they needed all the porters to carry the mountains of food we were fed!
We followed the Rio Cusichaca for a few hours, stopping to check out the Inca site at Llactapata - Bobby gave us a 30 minute description of the site, its purpose, the reasons for it being built where it was etc. He was very knowledgeable. Not long after starting the walk, we began to see some of the 13 species of humming bird which inhabit the Machu Pichu National Park - I´ve never seen them before and they´re pretty unusual. The smallest looks more like and insect than a bird...
Lunch was had across the river from Llactapata. We had a dining tent and 3 course meal - a bit of a change from sitting under a tree and munching on a sandwhich like we usually do at home! From here, we walked a couple of hours to the village of Huayllabamba, where we camped. A couple of beers from the village shop broke the ice; we had a great group of people on the tour, most of who were fairly fit, which made for a great trip.
Day 2 consisted of a climb up to Warmiwanusca Pass (Dead Woman Pass) at 4198m, and then down to camp at a site named Pacamayo. The walk was made difficult by the altitude, but was otherwise short, and easy going on a rock-surfaced track. Much of the walk up to the pass went thru lush cloud forest. This reminded me a bit of the rainforest in south west Tasmania, and was beautiful. Views of the surrounding mountains were obscured by high cloud for most of the day, but Mt Veronica cleared in time for sunset. The view from our tens was stupendous - we looked across a massively deep rainforest filled valley surrounded by huge and precipitously sided mountains. No beers for sale nearby this night, but we were entertained by Bobby´s card tricks, and fed a huge lunch at 3 in the arvo (at the camp site), followed by afternoon tea at 4.30 and then dinner at 6.30 - no chance of loosing weight on this walk! Myself, Grace and Tara spotted an Andean Deer (quite common apparently) whilst going for an afternoon stroll.
Day 3 began at some ungodly hour of the morning, and we finished walking at 2 or 3 in the arvo. It was very misty in the valley where were camped, with a lot of low cloud which pesisted for the day. This was very atmospheric, but prevented us from seeing the apparently majestic mountain views this days walking is sposed to provide. We stopped at the Inca site of Runkuracay on our way up to the second pass at 3998m, where we each added a stone to the collection of cairns on the pass. Spectacular high mountain scenery... From the pass, we walked several hours thru cloud forest, and open alpine areas along an original section of Inca trail. This is a rock trail built by the Incas which clings to the mountain side in some unlikely places, providing people who dont like heights (won´t mention any names ;)) with a few nervous moments. We stopped at the Inca site of Phuyupatamarca, which provided a spectacular view of Machu Picchu mountain and the surrounding peaks before descending to camp at Huinay Huayna - this ´research station´built by the cusco university years ago seems to have been transformed into a Gringo service station, equipped with cold beer and hot showers. The researchers have been replaced with walkers in (I can only assume) the name of profit. This is a real shame, but we had a few coldies anyway...
The final day began sometime before 3 and 4 in the morning (you´d think we were off to climb a mountain or something!). We walked for 2 hours to Machu Picchu through beautiful cloud forest with yet more majestic views of the hugely deep valley below us, and massive moutains above. It was too cloudy to see anything from the Sun gate (the point at which the trail enters Machu Picchu), so we walked down to the site itself and were shown around for a few hours by Bobby. It was great to have a guide to explain the place, and I don´t think it would be half as interesting without. The train arrived in the valley below at about 10.30 and the crows descended at about 11, at which time we bailed to Agus Calientes.
Macchu Picchu is an interesting spot, but I think its location is really what makes it, rather than the history of the site itself. It sits on top of an improbably steep mountain in a rainforested valley, bringing back memories of Indian Jones.
We caught the train back to Ollantaytambo, and then the bus to Cusco, where we promptly went for an awesome streak at Fallen Angel - thouroughly recommended!
All in all, this is a very enjoyable walk. The spectacular mountain scenery, cloud forest and humming birds made it for me, and the Inca sites along the way, and particularly Machu Picchu at the end add an interesting cultural aspect to it. The distances are short, and the track has a hard rock surface for most of the walk, making life easy indeed. The altitude made for hard going about about 4000m. Going with a tour group was not as bad as I thought (it was great fun actually), although I suspect we were particularly lucky in having such a good guide. Also, I think I mave have become a walking pole convert - i took a wooden pole on the walk as my knee is giving me grief at the moment, and it helped a lot...
A trip to Pisac
The day after Tara and Colin arrived we headed out to Pisac which is a village in the Sacred Valley. Went on the local bus which was pretty interesting and very cheap (2 soles). Decided to walk UP to the inca site as I thought it was only 20 mins - well turned out to be a very steep hot climb in altitude to the top but the view was magnificient and the inca ruins were pretty impressive as well perched on top of a precarious hill side. We should have brought more food nd water but found a nice little cafe to have dessert at the bottom ;) probably not the best preparation for th inca trail either!!
There´s a massive tourist market there selling all the usual peruvians tourist treasures - think its just the same ole same ole stuff everywhere except more expensive out there. Well overloaded by that now.
Recommend the trip and climb up the hill tho!
There´s a massive tourist market there selling all the usual peruvians tourist treasures - think its just the same ole same ole stuff everywhere except more expensive out there. Well overloaded by that now.
Recommend the trip and climb up the hill tho!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Cusco, Peru first impressions
Arrived into Cusco on Sunday afternoon. Bit of a shock to land in a mountaineous region after being accustomed to landing in large open spaces in Aussie - the sharp left into he valley was a bit stomach churning! First day was spent mostly suffering from altitude sickness unfortunately - horrible headaches and short of breath but had some coca tea the next day and that set us right!! Stayed in a nice atmo hostel calld El Grial altho it was pretty noisy and the toilet was stinky even tho looked spotless. Woke to the sound of bells/siren at 7am. Thought the whole street was n fire or the police were raiding the biggest drug baron in peru - it was th garbage men who ring a siren as the streets are so narrow people ya cant put the rubbish bins on the streets.
Cusco is a lovely little town altho very tourist driven which is good for the locals. Touts everywhere trying to selll hats, finger puppets, massages (dunno if they have a happy ending!), paintings, etc which gets a bit annoying after awhile. The range of food and restaurants here is amazing - today we had lunch for 21 soles for 4 people (3 of us had the menu of the day which was soup plus a main of steak with rice - the soup had me full!) which is about 5 eur for us ALL! There´s also good pizzas, italian, mexican and basically anything ya want here. For anyone visiting Jack´s cafe on Chocheura, El Coccilora (cheap place mentioned above) on Calle Garcelisoa cnr with San Francisco plaza are tops so far and some pizza chain place which had yummy pizza altho the guy also gave us some evil local spirit/brew (think that contributed more to th altitude sickness then anything).
Have walked about the place a good bit. Its all cobblestone narrown streets, crazy taxi drivers i this tiny little cars, inca stone walls, spanish churches and museums. The market near San Pedro was worth a visit altho I hope they dont source the meat in restaurants there cos there is NO hygiene. Fruit there is ridicusly cheap - like 1 eur for 4 apples, 6 bananas and 2 oranges. Lots of weird looking spuds and unidentifiable things - think there was llama foetuses dried and hanging out to sell as well. Presume some local ritual. The locals tend to dress like westerners ie jeans ad jumpers but some of the women wear the full peruvian kit especially if they trying to flog ya something! Hiked upto Sachaysun (!?) ruins from inca times which the spanish thrashed so nooe is fully sure what is the story. Pretty impressive (once we got our breaths back from the 300m ascent) .
Also spent lots of time in South America Exlorers club which is brilliant source of info for treks, trips, accomodation, volunteering, spanish courses, etc. If your spending any time at all in SA probaby worth joining!
Colin and Tara arrived this morning so brilliant catching up with them. It rained again today so hoping it will clear up for the inca trail in 2 days time.
Cusco is a lovely little town altho very tourist driven which is good for the locals. Touts everywhere trying to selll hats, finger puppets, massages (dunno if they have a happy ending!), paintings, etc which gets a bit annoying after awhile. The range of food and restaurants here is amazing - today we had lunch for 21 soles for 4 people (3 of us had the menu of the day which was soup plus a main of steak with rice - the soup had me full!) which is about 5 eur for us ALL! There´s also good pizzas, italian, mexican and basically anything ya want here. For anyone visiting Jack´s cafe on Chocheura, El Coccilora (cheap place mentioned above) on Calle Garcelisoa cnr with San Francisco plaza are tops so far and some pizza chain place which had yummy pizza altho the guy also gave us some evil local spirit/brew (think that contributed more to th altitude sickness then anything).
Have walked about the place a good bit. Its all cobblestone narrown streets, crazy taxi drivers i this tiny little cars, inca stone walls, spanish churches and museums. The market near San Pedro was worth a visit altho I hope they dont source the meat in restaurants there cos there is NO hygiene. Fruit there is ridicusly cheap - like 1 eur for 4 apples, 6 bananas and 2 oranges. Lots of weird looking spuds and unidentifiable things - think there was llama foetuses dried and hanging out to sell as well. Presume some local ritual. The locals tend to dress like westerners ie jeans ad jumpers but some of the women wear the full peruvian kit especially if they trying to flog ya something! Hiked upto Sachaysun (!?) ruins from inca times which the spanish thrashed so nooe is fully sure what is the story. Pretty impressive (once we got our breaths back from the 300m ascent) .
Also spent lots of time in South America Exlorers club which is brilliant source of info for treks, trips, accomodation, volunteering, spanish courses, etc. If your spending any time at all in SA probaby worth joining!
Colin and Tara arrived this morning so brilliant catching up with them. It rained again today so hoping it will clear up for the inca trail in 2 days time.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
its all in spanish!
Ok we need to learn Spanish FAST. First encounter with no english speaking person was of course the demented taxi driver we got from Madrid airport to Madrid city centre (via all the suburbs outside of madrid). He asks us where we´re going so we show him a piece of paper with the address and a map of the nearest large streets clearly marked then sticks its into his GPS (which was directly in front of his head - dunno how he saw anything but tahts another story), then off we head to some unpronounceable madrid suburb. We get there, he cant find the street, meanwhile were thinking hang on this is a VERY small city centre so we show him the address again. After about 15 mins of arsing about, asking locals etc he asks us are we sure the hotel is in dfjghdfghdajk and we´re like NO its in Madrid (you clown). So he gets pissed off with us at which point I did want to strangle the braindead first time ever in a taxi muppet. Why do new taxi drivers INSIST on doing airport trips - grrrrrr. Eventually we did find the hotel after he finally managed to find the centre by GPS - hopefully the dumbo is still trying to find his way back to the airport for next unsuspecting victim.
Aside from that Madrid was good fun altho jaysus the smoke is awful. Just about everything that moves including the dogs (which leave plenty poo smells in the small narrow streets) has a fag dangling at all times. Dunk reckoned the coffee was awesome and so did I altho didn´t have too much! The beer was either very cheap or very expensive if ya got caught in a touristy place which we figured out quickly enough. Number one backpacking skill has been rediscovered!!! Visited the palace, did the bus tour and admired all the really funky architecture (even tho some of the palace rooms had the tackiest decor ever). Also the pastries are awesome and so are the tostados! and the ham Dunk says!
Next headed to Madrid aiport by Metro (for 4 eur about 20 times cheaper and easier then the taxi langar) to be told we were on standby cos the flight was overbooked. Not very impressed but we managed to be the first on standby so did get a seat. Arrived into Lima last night. First impressions of Lima from the bus to the hostel was pretty intimidating place to arrive at night so we just stayed in the hostal (really nice place called Mami Panchita, they picked us up and dropped us to the airport which was great as didn´t really have the brains to fight Lima transport after the 12 hour flight). We now in Cusco.
First impressions are that its great - really nice, friendly place. Even the street sellers go away after 4 ´No por favor´s! Staying in a lovely hostal called El Grial Hotel on a really narrow cobblestone street. Got a HUGE lunch for about 2 euros so happy out now. The altitiude is knocking us about a bit - must start walking slower :) Right off for a beer now - must practise for Colin and Tara´s arrival on Wed!
Aside from that Madrid was good fun altho jaysus the smoke is awful. Just about everything that moves including the dogs (which leave plenty poo smells in the small narrow streets) has a fag dangling at all times. Dunk reckoned the coffee was awesome and so did I altho didn´t have too much! The beer was either very cheap or very expensive if ya got caught in a touristy place which we figured out quickly enough. Number one backpacking skill has been rediscovered!!! Visited the palace, did the bus tour and admired all the really funky architecture (even tho some of the palace rooms had the tackiest decor ever). Also the pastries are awesome and so are the tostados! and the ham Dunk says!
Next headed to Madrid aiport by Metro (for 4 eur about 20 times cheaper and easier then the taxi langar) to be told we were on standby cos the flight was overbooked. Not very impressed but we managed to be the first on standby so did get a seat. Arrived into Lima last night. First impressions of Lima from the bus to the hostel was pretty intimidating place to arrive at night so we just stayed in the hostal (really nice place called Mami Panchita, they picked us up and dropped us to the airport which was great as didn´t really have the brains to fight Lima transport after the 12 hour flight). We now in Cusco.
First impressions are that its great - really nice, friendly place. Even the street sellers go away after 4 ´No por favor´s! Staying in a lovely hostal called El Grial Hotel on a really narrow cobblestone street. Got a HUGE lunch for about 2 euros so happy out now. The altitiude is knocking us about a bit - must start walking slower :) Right off for a beer now - must practise for Colin and Tara´s arrival on Wed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)