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Published: November 18th 2007
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The thing about Peru and Bolivia that just stands out as soon as you arrive in the highlands is the local attire of the women. These great hats that just perch on top of their heads with what seems to be no grips, and these great, brightly coloured dick whittington style pieces of cloth that are just tied onto their backs to carry their wares and more than often their babies...
Such a contrast for us really seeing the indigenous population as so prominent within the community, carrying out their every day life in a very traditional way, compared to what we have just seen in Colombia.
We made a very fleeting visit to Lima after which we headed to Cusco and the Sacred Valley, where, of course we were on our quest to finally reach Machu Picchu. It took us about 4 days to acclimatise, even with the coca tea and all the other spin-off products we tried; it is a really weird sensation. Cusco is a beautiful city, set in what feels like a great big sunken bowl with the contrast of the mountains all around and a few snow-capped peaks in the distance.
Before we
actually visited Machu Picchu itself we spent time exploring the rest of the scared valley and some other the other Inca sites. Our first stop was the little town of Pisac where there are the remains of a huge Inca citadel. The sheer size of it was probably the most impressive bit and also it’s still very much, distinguishable layout. As with Machu Picchu it is perched high on the hilltop as a guard to the valley. In the days of the Incas, they had not yet discovered the wheel for transportation nor did they have horses at their disposal, so you end up wondering just how the hell all of this stone was 'lugged' from place to place and especially to the top of mountains?
After about 6 days in Peru we saw our first sighting of Machu Picchu, a bit of a different one to the standard tourist route. We arrived in Aguas Calientes, the town (well kind of a town) nearest to the site mid-morning and planned to stay there overnight as we wanted to arrive at Machu Picchu itself for sunrise the following day. We had read about a walk from Aguas Calientes to the
top of Puku Kutsi, a mountain across the valley from Machu Picchu with claimed 'incredible views' so we thought we would go and explore. It was raining a bit but that was fine, we had purchased our 25p bin liner style triangles to keep the rain off. After about 30mins of walking, we unexpectedly came across a very steep, very long, very old-looking wooden ladder actually attached the sheer face of the mountain which was our only route to the summit. There were six more of these on route, great on the way up but not so good on the way down, especially with the rain and the inability to actually see the rungs because of my plastic sheeting. The view at the top though was breathtaking, we hadn't really thought about it as we were concentrating so much on surviving the heights and sheer drops, so it was a real treat.
The next morning, following on from our previous day's climb, we also took the steps from the town up to Machu Picchu too, we had really hoped to do the 4 day Inca trail, but hadn't got a booking, so this was the consolation. The walk was
90 minutes of very steep steps, what was Simon trying to do to me? Fortunately we arrived before the daily entourage of tourists so we hired a guide and spent the next few hours exploring and learning loads about its history. It is an incredible place, unfortunately there was quite a bit of mist which meant that our views of the whole site were pretty intermittent and limited, but at least we had a great view the day before.
From Cusco we then traveled by bus to Lake Titicaca, it was a stunning journey across what is termed an anti-plane, just miles and miles on baron flat land but at very high altitude - 3,600metres in fact.
As soon as we reached Lake Titicaca which we pretty much went straight to the Bolivian side to the small town of Copacabana. From here we then walked 17 kilometres along the side of the lake which was absolutely stunning through lots of small villages to a small jetty where a very slight man (he said he was 70 but I think maybe 60?) rowed us over to Isla del Sol, the island of the sun, where we were planning to
Machu Picchu
Our first sighting.. stay for a couple of nights. The truth is, he only rowed for about 5 minutes before we felt so guilty so Simon took over and slowly rowed us until he was totally knackered and then we were nearly there.
The lake and the islands are beautiful, so tranquil, it was just so different to anything else we had seen. The sheer expanse of the Lake, spanning two countries, the snow-capped mountains of Bolivia in the distance. We spent the night on the house of a local family, it was absolutely freezing, no heater, just a small battery powered light as our guide. The next morning we got up for sunrise…wow…and walked all over the island to explore…. Rather than bare another night in the cold we headed back to Copacabana and then off to La Paz for the final part of our Inca journey.
After a 4 hour bus drive we arrived in La Paz, the Bolivia capital - lying between 3250 and 4100m. The actual centre itself is in a huge valley so we spent quite a bit of time on the bus driving downhill through tiny streets and enjoying all the bustle of a capital
city. La Paz is so different to the other capital cities we have seen in South America. You really get a feel for the very simple living there. The streets are dusty and full of people, rather than traffic, selling maize, coca leaves, empanadas on every corner. We spent a few days in La Paz, the highlight of which was the 5395m high Chacaltaya Mountain, in fact the highest point in our trip. The scene was like something out of a North Pole expedition, the wind was so strong we were almost being blown off the side and the altitude was affecting us so much that we had to stop regularly and just bear the freezing temperature eating away at us. Though, as you can see - worth it.
From La Paz we headed to our final destination by plane - Argentina - Buenos Aires - only 8 days until we head home..
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