cross country Peru to Bolivia

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Well ladies and gentlemen alike. Hope you don’t feel snobbed by my recent lack of blogging and other forms of communication. However the truth of the matter is I’ve been thinking of you all but circumstances haven’t allowed me to communicate as frequently as desired. From across the globe I wish my parents happy anniversary and to Toisc I hope you aren’t still homeless in California.
Well since I’ve updated last the laptop has broken then vivaciously fixed itself. Lucky because our Spanish is still far too poor to try and go into a shop to get it sorted. We’ve also crossed the borer into Bolivia where internet is virtually unheard of. Other backpackers have informed us that we will have to go back to using the telephone as a means of communication. So expect a call soon. Reverse charges may apply!!
Anyways here’s a brief summary of what we’ve been up to for the last 2-3 weeks since I updated last. This summary may be short but I’ll make up for that in pictures.
Cuzco…
This foremost city of the Inca empire is where we’ve stayed for longest on our trip thus far. We’ve met many travellers who’ve done the same. Massive Inca walls, good food and drink and a hearty dose of altitude sickness ensured we stayed in this tourist haven for a week.
Arrived in the bus station here about 10 am after an overnight to get tackled by several senoras trying to get them to stay at their hostel. After some tough negotiona and many hundred steps with backpacks in tow got a nice hostel with a great view of the city. Soon Gary began to feel sick. Altitude sickness knocked him for 6. After 4 days of relaxing and some drinking we booked the trip to Macciu Picciu. Since Gary was still not 100% we choose to take the bus option, this is much cheaper than the train. It was a beautiful scenic ride to Agus Caliente. Lots of room on the bus and got to know each other. That night we all went out to dinner and got tickets and instructions for the following morning. We got up early 4am for a hike up to Machu Picchu. This consisted of 1665 steps. It was also more like a race up with everybody passing each other out and no time to stop for breaks. This was unfare on Gary who was just recovering and hadn’t eaten much all week. Once we got there it was all was forgiven. It’s the most spectacular place I’ve ever seen. All the pictures you’ve seen and I’m going to upload don’t do it justice, it’s breathtaking. We spend 5 really nice hours up there wandering around and relaxing in the sun. Didn’t realize it at the time but I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. Following 5 hours in a little part of heaven we headed back to Cuzco. The bus journey was terrible. Worse so far for certain. The 11 seater bus had 16 people and a tyre burst from the weight of us all. If I was going again I would definitely spend the extra $40 and get the train. Also I would have gotten a fake student card, all entries are ½ price with this.
Next stop Arequipa.
This pretty white town surrounded by massive show capped active volcanos is the point to which travellers come to explore some of the wildest terrain in Peru. We arrived here with a notion to see some condors.
Arequipa was a nice change after Cuzco it’s much less touristy and there was no need to say ‘no gracias’ all the time. Here we stayed at a wonderfully comfortable B&B called home sweet home. Here we met with a gang of 7 and hung around with them for 3 days. We all got along very well and had great craic together. It helped having such a good crowd for the hike that lay ahead. Because there were 9 of us we managed to book a tour for just us and for a great rate. The tour was a 2 day 1 night to see Colca Canyon. 2 of the girls in the group organised everything with he tour people in Spanish so we didn’t have much of a clue what was going on. But sure we just went along with it like the troupers than we are. The first day was a 7 hour of hike down into the canyon. Now just so you know there’s a term here known as Inca Down. This is different to a laymans downhill. It involves severe downhills followed by strenuous uphills. Its like 2 steps forward and one step back. After 7 hours of this we landed where we were staying for the night, this was a beautiful place deep in the canyon. Here we lid under the stars and rested our weary limbs. We knew there was a 4 hour hike up out of the canyon the following morning but we forgot about what while we slept in very comfy beds. We woke at 4am to start our trekking again. Lets just say we made it to the top, it wasn’t easy but there was a sense of achievement once we reached the summit. The rest of that day was great. We went to see the condors, visited hot springs and stopped and wonderful vewpoints. From here we said our goodbyes and hopped on a bus to Puno.
Puno,
Puno is a town on the Peruvian edge of lake Titicaca. This is a city with a bad reputation but which I found charming with the ladies going around with multi- layered and multi-coloured dresses and bowler hats perched on top of their heads. We didn’t really plan on staying the night there but we were too late to get the connecting bus to Bolivia so we stayed the night. The following morning we decided to do a tour of the manmade floating islands before we caught the bus to Bolivia. Although these floating islands were really nice it was a really cringworthy tour. The people living on the island jumped and danced around like puppets. From Puno we caught a bus to Copacabana which is a town on the Bolivian side of the lake.
Copacabana.
The border crossing into Bolivia was easy. We were a wee bit nervous cause it’s a while since we’ve done one and it’s our first in central America. Some people got caught to pay tax of some sort but we got by no problem0. Nobody suspects the Irish. I’ve noticed Americans get a lot of hassles at these borders. Seems like everything is not forgiven.. Anyways back to Copacabana.
This is a nice little town is nestled between 2 hills on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca. The bolivian side the lake looks much more impressive. Really clean and blue. We chill axed here for a day and watched the England USA match. We watched this with a bunch of English people. Afterwards we climbed a big hill outside town to watch the sunset, with about 100 other tourists. The view from the top of the hill was more impressivce than the sunset. The following morning we got up to watch them bless the cars outside the cathedral and got the boat to Isla Del Sol.
Isla Del Sol
This island is the biggest on lake Titicaca and is the birthplace of the sun in Inca Mythology. It was a very pleasant 1 hour boatride to get to the island. From here we had to walk up a few hundred Inca steps to the town on top of the south part of the island. It seems to us now that the Incas love to be up high. When we landed in this village there was a festival on. Nothing unusual there, Every Sunday we’ve been in South America we’ve witnessed a festival. This one was a wee bit different tho. There were all just dancing in the square in front of the church. All were dressed in their native wears but seemed like their Sunday best. All sparkly and jewelled. They were also drinking heavily. We found somewhere to stay and went for a wander, we found somewhere with another nice view to sit, Yvonne read her book and Gary sketched, On the way back we went for really nice dinner. Yvonne had trout. Nicest fish ever! On our way back in the dark with only a the light of a mobile phone to guide us we met some locals who were very enibrated and not so friendly. We got to our hostel and locked the door, The following morning we walked the 10k to the other side of the island. We both decided that the island was a bit like Ireland. So I won’t go on about how pretty it was cause ye all can guess just think of a nice summers day in Kerry or Donegal. Plus dare I say I’m kinda getting tired of looking at great scenery. Time to start doing some stuff we thinks. To that end I’m now on a bus on a barge across lake Titicaca on the way to La Paz. This is the capital

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Photos

which one is the real scooby
Ona trip around arequipa, trying to find someone to sow Garys´pants

see we were there
There are lots more places of Macciu Picciu but we´ll have to wait for a faster internet connection

Colca Canyon
Brilliant views, tough hike but worth every minute

Sweetcorn Heaven
They make alcohol, desert and juice out of the black ones. I´ve tried them all. Yucky!

Isla Del Sol tour boat
Made with Rushes. Not get working in the nog Mammy!!

Rico in an Irish pub
Rico in Paddy O´Flatherys, Highest Irish pub in hte world or so they claim. Had a very good night here!

Start of Day 1 of Colca Caynon
Tanya, Sean and Gary. Good fun had by all

Cuzco 12 sided stone
This is a major attraction believe it or not. Its even on the bottle of the national beer. Don´t ask how I know that

river ont he back road to agus alicante
Nice view on the way there, trip back was hell

night hike up 1200 metre Caynon
Some of us needed more breaks than others