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Published: August 7th 2006
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First days in Cuzco
So after a night in Lima airport curled up in a ball trying to catch some zzzzzz's i caught my next flight to Cuzco at 5.40am.
Landed in Cuzco, in flip flops, nearly froze.... blinkin freezing here! Luckily Dr MacArthur had arrived before i left Tarapoto and so i was drugged up on the old altitude drugs but i was still wacked. Taxo straight to hotel, climbed in to my bed, still freezing and slept on and off for 7 hours, still freezing! My hotel is cute, but my room has no day light and so i super cold and then the windows dont shut properly and there is no heater... but it dinky and the best bit is I have had my first HOT shower in 5 weeks! Admitedly it is a dribble, but is does the job!
So first day was a bit of a write off here, slept for the most and went adventuring at the end of the day and booked my incredibly expensive Machu Pichu trip. So hot when i left the hotel!
Today i bought the horribly expensive tourist ticket booklet that lets you in to 80%!(NOVERB)
of the things here, can't decide still if it was worth it or not. Anyway, decided to make the most of it and went round everywhere! So hot in the day, sat and had freshly squeezed orange juice and sunbathed whilst looking over the central Plaza - bliss!
Machu Picchu via Aguas Calientes
An early 5.15am rise, bus and train up to Aguas Calientes, an amazing journey with beautful mountains all about. Slightly traumatic arrival in hostel, had to phone my guides company in order to sort it out. Room, a little to be desired as door wouldn´t shut and bathroom glass smashed (as I found out first hand) the handle is broken! Hot springs visit, nice but I have been fortunate to visit 2 other hot springs and they were a scratch on them. Room turned into mini disaster with random man coming in whn i was asleep... but went for nice dinner with a woman I met called Nicky, had a few beers to ensure i slept soundly!
early rise up to Machu Picchu on the bus by 6am, problems (again) in meeting my guide, but found them. The ruins were amazing and took hundreds
of photos as the sun rose. Journey back again eventful, but paid my way on to a connecting bus and made it back in one piece. Sadly the whole trip has been slightly tainted by the endless problems, but give me a couple of weeks and I am sure it was worth the extremely high cost and I will be glad I did it!
White Water Rafting
The MacArthurs, Zoie and I all set off for some rafting on Sunday, hoping this Peruvian run trip would go smoothly…
We all got into our sexy wet suits and Dr David MacArthur ensured we all had lots of sunblock (45) cream on - please see photo of Dr David creaming up!!
Trip was fun and the rapids weren´t too bad although our guide was a little crazy/stupid and in the end he got our raft stuck vertical on a rock resulting in Rach falling out and going through the rapids. We were all left clinging to the boat and all I could hear our guide saying was that he was going to have to flip the boat… I don’t think so! Anyway we all managed to climb to
the front of the boat and the finally came off the rock. All were fine, a little shell shocked and our guide got a bollocking from his boss! Was fun though!
Lima
So now in the land of Lima for the day before I fly to Guatamala tomorrow.
So off to explore as I have updated my blog!
Conclusions of Peru
So in leaving Peru I feel I must summarise my thoughts on the locals:
1) First and foremost, they love
paperwork. Really, never seen anything like it. So for example you go to a pharamacy and need to buy some suncream. You choose it from one person - they have to pick it off the shelf from behind a counter, there is no ´help yourself´going on! Then she will write down what it is you want on a piece of paper. You then take this to another desk, which is where you pay. You pass your piece of paper through a little glass screen, all very secretive. Then she gives you another piece of paper and you across to another counter and give this to another person, where at last, you can
collect your suncream! Amazing!
2) Peruvians are
very friendly. Firstly you address randoms as ámigo´in the street - always nice. But they love a chat, its great for those learning Spanish! And more than often you are invited back to their house. Even if they can´t afford it they will give you their food, drink and of course you get the best seat in the house.
3) Peruvians, in the jungle at least,
love to sing. Karoke appears to a fav. This is usually done in the front room with the doors and windows open to ensure that all can listen. Sadly on the whole, the singing tends to be a little flat.
4)
Noise, the louder the better. Nothing is too loud and at no matter what time of day!
5)
Time is never an issue, things take for ever! partly due to the paperwork involved in everything, but I think they enjoy it. Even the most simple thing seems to get complicated in some way!
6)
Extreme weather results in nothing happening. In the jungle when it rained Rach had no students, the excuse being ´It rained Miss´and this is deemed acceptable. The
Shopping stands
Everywhere there were stands full of tourist hats, gloves, etc. All selling the same stuff, batering was quite fun though! This was one big market that I went to. heat also results in life moving nice and slowly if at all!
I conclude, Peru is a wonderful country. The points listed make it what it is!!
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