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Published: January 12th 2006
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We spent our time in Cusco relaxing before our trek. Despite being a lovely town with fantastic buildings and history we were a little overwhelmed by all the people hassling us on the street for everything from meals with free pisco to finger puppets. We spent most of our time in the usual Gringo hang-outs, Jack's, Paddy's (the highest Irish owned pub in the world).
After two days in Cusco we were ready to leave on our Inca Trek. We weren't doing the classic Inca Trail but what the tour company called a 'community trek'. This involved walking in a nearby valley and staying with the local communities with a percentage of the money we paid going to projects in these communities. The first day of our trek was spent mainly visiting the ruins of Sacsayhuaman and Pisac, both very impressive Inca ruins around Cusco. In the afternoon we headed to our first community, Quishuarani, which was somewhat of a relief as we were beginning to get a bit 'Inca'd Out' with all the ruins.
The village of Quisharani was very remote at 3600m reached only by dirt track. Only the two schools had electricity. As soon as we
got there we were challenged to a game of football by the local children, most of whom claimed their names were Ronaldo or Ronaldinho. After a breathless hour football was the winner although the altitude and state of the pitch were certainly a leveller between the sides. The next day we spent the morning helping out at one of the schools, plastering some damage to a wall and putting up a christmas tree, before setting off on our trek.
We walked up the valley, over the pass (4300m) and down to the next community, Cuncani. The walk was difficult but the views from the pass and especially on the descent made up for any discomfort. After 7 hours walking we were delighted to be greeted by another group of children brandishing a football.
The next day was our big day, a pass of 4600m. We set off early and were soon caught by the weather - mist, rain and occasional sleet. This was slightly disappointing as it obscured any views on the way up to and from the pass. On the way down in cleared allowing us to see the cloud we had walked through. We camped for
the night by a lovely waterfall before walking the relatively short distance to Urubamba and civilisation in the morning.
Throughout the trek our guides and porters we amazing. Each morning they would serve us breakfast before we set off. During the morning the cooks would overtake us and prepare a two-course meal for lunch. In the afternoon the cooks would overtake us again along with the porters with our tents. They would have camp set up by the time we arrived and prepare a three-course meal for us. We couldn’t thank them enough for the effort they put in.
From Urubamba we headed to Ollytaytambo via a bar serving Chicha, an Inca wheat beer, and offering a strange game involving throwing gold discs into the mouth of a brass frog. In Ollytaytambo we saw yet more Inca ruins before spending a well deserved night in a hotel.
The next morning we visited Machu Piccu. We were quite optimistic as the day dawned bright and sunny. However by the time we got the train and bus there the cloud had set in and we were restricted to brief glimpses of the famous ruins through gaps in the mist.
The best views were seen by climbing the ‘path’ up to Wayna Piccu however being caught on the top as the rain came in wasn’t too much fun, neither was the descent in the wet. We returned to Cusco that afternoon for our final night with our group before we were to go it alone.
After saying our farewells we left for La Paz on the night bus the next day. This was our first experience of traveling on our own since Quito over a month ago. All went quite smoothly despite warnings of trouble in the wake of the Bolivian general election. Our only minor problem came at the border when it was temporarily shut with us on one side and our bus and baggage on the other.
When we arrived in La Paz we discovered our hotel was right in the middle of the markets area meaning no taxi could take us within about 4 blocks between 6am and midnight. The steep walk up the hill, through the markets, with all our luggage at 4000m quickly became a chore. Despite this we enjoyed our time in this crazy city taking time to visit the ruins of
Tiwanaku, Copacabana, Lake Titicaca and Isla Del Sol.
We spent a couple of days in Copacabana, a hippy town on the shores of Lake Titicaca. It was a very laidback place where they caught and ate a lot of trout. From here w visited the Island Of The Sun for a day. This little island is apparently where the Incas came out of the lake to dominate South America for a bit. We weren’t convinced but the walk from one end of the island to the other was beautiful.
From La Paz we headed south to the colonial town of Potosi which is where we find ourselves stranded now as we got some bum info off a tour guide. He told us that we could get out of here anytime we wanted over the holiday period, he lied, there are no buses out of here and nothing is open until 2nd Jan. Nevermind, there are worse places to be stuck.
After our enforced stay in Potosi we headed to Uyuni to visit the Salar De Uyuni, lagoons and volcanoes. The first day of our trip on the salt flats was fairly disasterous. The first jeep we were
in broke down in the middle of the salt and we were stranded for about an hour and a half before rescue came (no radio or phone in the jeep so we had to wait until another jeep came past!). In the afternoon and in a second jeep we broke down again. As night came in along with thunder storms a mechanic came to fix the truck, with no torch or tools! We eventually made it back to Uyuni at about 1030 at night. We were just glad to have survived and not spending the night on the salt, it getrs pretty nippy out there at night!
Maybe against our better judgement we continued with the second and third day of or our trip, continuing South through the lagoons and volcanoes to the border with Chile, with the same company. Everytime the jeep mis-fired we expected the worst but somehow we made it. Despite any problems this area if Bolivia was amazing. The Salar De Uyuni was amazing (day and night) while the red, white and green lagoons dotted with flamingoes were cool. The best thing we saw were the hot geysers, it was like being on another planet.
After this we left Bolivia and entered Chile and San Pedro De Atacama. The change from Bolivia was wierd, even though we'd only travelled about 50km all of a sudden things seemed much more organised, buses ran on time and seats were booked with computers, no more double-booked seats here!
San Pedro is a lovely little town but after spending a night there and finally having a decent shower we decided we needed to get a move on and headed quickly to Antofagasta and then to La Serena on the night bus.
La Serena is the second oldest city in Chile apparently and a nice beach resort. When we arrived the hostel we wanted to stay at was full however the owner, Walter, wouldn't turn us away and insisted he put us up at his mother-in-laws, which was nice... Despite such generous hospitality we only stayed a day at La Serena before heading to Valpariso, an amazing port near Santiago, where we are now and intended to stay for a few days relaxing.
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