Peru

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I m in Peru but about to leave, almost 3months already, time really flies here!!
The last month has been full of adventures, it s really hard to keep up, update the blog and have fun at the same time so I tempt to forget about writing, sorry but at least it means i m having a good time!
Let s try to remember...
Panama
I left Panama after I spent an amazing time with this random couple and their friend. They took me around panama city, to the casino, to the restaurant to make me taste specialities then we did a visit by night, they even bought me a bottle of rhum from panama as a present and made me promise to come back to visit them. I stayed at their place the night and they took me to the airport in the morning, they were so sweet!
Lima
I arrived in Lima and instead of being ripped of like every tourist by taking a taxi in the airport I walked to the main street and took a taxi for 15oles when loads of people pay at least 3times more!! That s something you have to remember in Peru, you can get ripped off pretty easily when you re a tourist! I met the taxi driver and we had a nice chat, thankfully for me he spoke portuguese so i could express myself because I had forgotten all my spanish learned in BA, what s a waste
!! I stayed in Lima for 4days, I did not like the city, 1 day would have been enough but I was waiting for a friend who was coming to travel with me for a few weeks. In Lima, it was the first time that i had some time for myself, wondering around. I met some travellers in the hostel but no real connection with anyone so I prefered staying on my own. I visited a bit the city but it s horrible and the weather is depressing, everything is grey and it s like that 8months a year apparently. So I tried to fix my camera but did not succeed. I spend a lot o time reading and watchging movies in the hostel. I needed some time when i did not have to do anything. It s in Lima that i discovered "Arroz con Leiche" my favorite desert, it s a kind of rice pudding but so much better. I had one every night when i was there!! I went to the airport to meet my friend and we stayed the whole night there waiting for the flight to go to Chilclayo in the North of Peru.
Chilclayo
We arrived first thing in the morning, we asked the taxi driver to take us to the hostel but he relunctantly accepted pretexting that it did not exist and then that it was very dangerous place. We insisted and he finally drove us there and the place was fine! We slept a bit the}n we visited the city and went to some ruins in Sipan. When we got there, after a 1hour or so in a local bus we were quiet disappointed, there was some holes in the grounds!! Only few had some stuffs in it but it was only replicates of what was there originaly, some squeleton and potteries and other ornement... We went back to Chilclayo quiet disappointed for a first visit. There, we went to the market, pretty huge, quite smelly in some places but very interesting place, the organisation is like our supermaket i mean there are corners for anything your looking for, meat, vegetables, spices but also clothes for men, women, shoes, electronics, anyway, anything you can thing of and even a marjket for witches with loads of weird things!! In the afternoon, we were looking for something to eat and that s how we met a young peruvien gentlemen who was almost 10years old and he looked for a restaurant for us but because it was very late it was quiet hard to find anything, so we looked for an hour or so and at the end we finally managed to find a good local place and there we invited our gelntlemen to stay with us. It was very funny, it was a small version of an adult, it s incredible how kids here are mature very young! In the evening, we took the bus to Trujillo, a 2hours bus journey.
Trujillo
We arrived there quite late and the place we had found in the Lonely Planet was not as cheap as we thought but because it was late and we were tired we accepted to stay in a very nice room with TV for once!! It was a means for me to improve my spanish too!! In the morning, we went to visit some ruins, the temple of the Sun as well as the temple of the moon, it was very interesting and much better than we had seen before. It was templs of the pRe Inca civilisations but had been discovered not long ago and there were still excavating the place. In the afternoon we visited the ruins of Chan Chan and there as well there are still working on it, it s amazing to be there and realise than if we come back later all that will be different.
Huaraz
After Trujillo, we took a 10hours bus to goin the Andes and do some trekking. We arrived in Huaraz which is at 3000m of altitude. It was freezing in the morning when we got there but so hot during the day!! We could feel that we were in altitude, it was so more tiring tro do anything! We did not take too long to acclimatize and after one day in the cute town, we decided to go trekking the following morning to Santa Cruz. It is a 4days trek but we wanted to do it in 3. We left around 6 in the morning, the first day consisted in ctually going to the beginning of the trek, around 4hours in a car, where we drive passed beautiful lakes and the scenery to get there was really amazing. Around lunch time we started to walk, it was really hot, we had donkeys carrying our stuffs, i was not really happy about it at the beginning but after the trek, i really thanked those donkeys! We walked passed some houses, again everything we saw was pretty amazing, we were walking in the middle of the Andes and a few hours later we were at the first camp site. We set up the camp, had a rest, cup of Tea and later we had an amazing dinner prepared by our cook! I stared to feel the altitude at that point, I was suffering of headaches, which last the whole trek. We slept in our tents, it was very cold outside but luckily, I had brought a hot water bottle with me and made everyone jalous because i was not so cold - Thanks Dionne . In the morning, out tent was frozen, but as soon as there was some sun, it was warm again. We walked the whole day, we walked to the pass which was at 4750m, the whole walk was not difficult at all but because i had not spent enough time to acclimatize, it was very hard for me, each step was so difficult and my headache was killing me! But it was so nice that it was definitely worth it we stop at the pass to have lunch and our guide started to play some andean air with a pan flute, it was really nice with such a beautiful landscapem i think that s when i realised i was in Peru. Again at the camp, we had an amazing dinner, the group we were with was really fun, international, japonese, american, english, german and french! They made us laugh quite a bit. The following following day we had to leave them and carry on with the cook and carrying our bag since the donkey were staying with the rest of the group which was there for 4 days! The walk back was really nice in the valley following the river, I felt like i was in a movie, i had never seen anything like that. We got to the town after 6hours walk and there we took a car which took us to the main village to take a bus back to Huaraz. I realised again that everyone works pretty young, our cook was just 19 and the taxi driver must have been the same. On the mini bus back to Huaraz, we were lucky to sit on the front seats because the micro bust who has around 12seats contained much more people than that! I also had the opportunity to chat to the driver and learn more about the peruvian culture...
Huagachina
When we got back to HUaraz, in the evening we took a bus to Lima, we got there early in the morning and directly we took another bus to Ica, on the coast to go to the sand dunes in Huagachina. On the bus, to go to Ica, there was a massive argument, apparently there was some problems with seats, we could not sit where we were supposed to as some other people refused to move. We were given other seats but there was still a massive argument and the security people came as}king thjose people to leave and they did not. I did not catch the whole story but after a while we finally let, even though those people did not move. We watched some crap movies on the local bus but in spanish of course!! We got to Huagachina around midday, not much time to rest and we then left for a tour in the sand dunes as well as some sandboarding activity!! It was so fun! The weather was a bit cloudy when we started but it cleared up and it made such a difference, it was so nice. The landscape was really beautiful, in the buggy we felt like we were in a rollercoaster, especially as we were sitting in the front, the driver was mad, he made us fly! I really felt like that though, we were so long in the air... Sandbording was great, the dunes were so big! I got a bit scared at the beginning but then fine, and i was standing up!! as many were doig in on their stomach!
Nazca
We left the following morning to Nazca. I did not like it at all!! We got there, i had finally accepted to fly to see the lines even though it was quite expensive. We looked for a agency and there were all full apart from one, I felt like there was something wrong with it but after long talk we decided to go with them anyway. They kept telñling us we had to rush because the plane was leaving at 1pm When we got next to the aerodrome, they put us in front of a Tv. After an hour or so we went to talk to they guys as we were still waiting and it was 1.30pm. That s when the argument started, the guy was really rude with me telling me not to speak to him, he started the onversation in english and as it went a bit more agitated it carried on in spanish, i was representing the group as was with but my spanish was not good enough to argue back so i felt really frustrated, but anyway, he managed to call the guy from the agency who came back then iagain i argued with him because he sold us something we were not getting (luckily we had not paid for it yet) he wanted us to wait until 4pm now!! I refused, after another argument with their chauffeur, they finally drove us back to town. At that point, we gave up on the idea of flying and decided to go and see the lines from the miradors. We found a restaurant called " The grumpy" no wonder why, we heard about so many people pissed off with similar stories. We had decided to go by bus but again, the lady at the bus station was not very helpful, she had told me that buses were every 30min and after we just missed the bus, she told me that it was in fact every hour! So we decided to take a taxi, we agreed with the driver on a price, we went to the miradors, we were a bit disappointed, first you can t see much and then the lines are not as big as i thought it would be, but anyway, we had managed to see some anyway. On the way back, we found some other tourist would wanted to share the taxi with us. But again, all that created nothing else but more arguiments, thje taxi drver refused to share the cost but make them pay on the top and thos tourist were too tight too find a good arrangement for everyone. So after arguing on the whole way back, we managed to find a compreomise where we did not get ripoped off too much... You hav to remember that everywhere you are in the world, chinese restaurant were always the cheapest so many time we ate chinese when we felt we had spent too much, but it s very good anyway. In all cases, we tried not to eat in touristics retaurant but in rustic (i.e local) restaurant, and it paid off eahc time, very tasty. So we had a chinese that night before taking the night bus to Arequipa.
Arequipa
We got there early in the morning, went to the hostal, had a shower and we were ready to explore the city!! We had to decide on what trek to do to visit Colca Canyon, it would have been possible to do it on our own but the agency we had found proposed a tour really worth it, where we visited not only the canyon but the whole region around it. So we spent the day wonderig around Arequipa, we cooked our own food in the hostel iun the evening, quiet a challenge to find what the ingredient for western cuisine!
Colca Canyon
In the morning, we left Arequipa, fopr once, we had a good guide, very knowledgeable and who told us lots of facts on Arequipa, the region and the CAnyon. The region is surrounded with many volcanoes more than 6000m high. We stopped the first time to see some alpachas and some lamas, then we went off road to see some rock formatio, very impressive. We drove passed the highest point which were at 4900m high. We had lunch in a small town, close to the cayon, it was a buffet where we could taste many peruvian specialities. Then we stopped at many view point to admire the scenary, we were quite lucky because of the way it was made, we were never with any other tourist. Just before we watching the sunset, we stopped to observe some condors, pretty huge birds!! We stayed in a very luxurious hotel that night, the best i ve had so far, really really nice! In the morning, we started to walk down in the canyon, we started very slow, at the beginning we stayed with the group but i lost my patience and we finished it alone. The canyon is the second deepest in the world, we could actually see bottom to top of one of its side which was 3000m high. I really struggled to appreciate the size of it. At the bottom of the canyon, we had a really nice camp site with swimming pool!! We had some time to chill out in the afternoon and walk a bit around. In the evening, we had dinner then watch the stars, it was so beautiful... It was not so cold as night as we were in the bottom of the canyon, we were not too high. We had to wake up at 4am the following morning to start to walk at 5am. We managed to arrive to the top in 1h50min, we were really fast, it had taken us around 3hours to go down with the group!! The rest of the group took around 3hours to catch us up. We had breakfast and then after watching more condors but with thousands of tourists this time, we drove to some hot springs to relax a bit. We had a very nice lunch again and on the way back we stopped at the pass we could see a plant which is as hard as a rock and i could actually stand on it (see pic). The group left us in the middle of nowhere, at the jusnction to go to Puno with some policeman who were asked to stop buses for us to see whether or not they had some seats for us. When we finally got a seat, it was quite fast and i paid without thinking the 50soles they asked me. But once on the bus, i reaised it was quite a lot of money for 2, i asked around and everyone had paid only 10soles! Yes, another rip off, welcome to Peru!!! I asked the driver my money back but they would not undrstand.
Puno
Just before ariving in Puno, a guy started to talked to me, Jonatan, a 23years old peruvian. We chatted quite a lot, he told me he was travelling around Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil for a month. Once we gotto Puno, I tried to get my money back but failed, Jonattan helped us and after he argued with the guys we finally got our money back! We then decided to share a room with our new friend, we found a hostal together and we invited our new friend to stay with us. It was a very interesting and funny experience to travel with a peruvian in Peru. The following day, we visited a bit Puno together, then he left us to go to La Paz where a girl was waiting for him apparently...
Lake Titicaca
The following day, we went on the flotting islands. It was nice to see but so touristic, i did not like that! You can see that people saty on those islands just for tourist and you question how genuine it is in fact. After Uros, we went to Amantani, another island on Lake Titicaca, the whole situation was a bit weird. We were staying with a family there, they served us lunch but did not talk to us that much. It was nice to penetrate their family and to se it from the inside but because we were not really invited but they did that for money there was nopt a real exchange with the family, But it was cool though, The peruvian are quite small, therefore their houses are small too and we had to bend our head everywhere to not hurt ourselves! In the afternoon, we climbed to the highest point on the island, we were now at around 4000m high, but we were more than fine. We watched the sunset there, it was very nice. We went back to our family, had dinner and then went to a "party". It is actually not real at all and just made for tourists, they lent us }their traitional clothes to wear, they took us to dance with them, showed us some of there traditional dance, it was fun at the beginning but quite tiring soon. I went back to the house, and woke up in the middle of the night quite sick! Hopefully i did not have to run to the toilets which were in the end of their garden! I felt sick the whole day, the following day, i did not have any energy, i think meand my friend got food poisoning got he did not feel well either. I will always remenber the smell of that tubersule they gave us to eat, oca, i m sure that s what made me sick, horible!! So, we were visiting another island the following day, Taquile, but even though the walk was not difficult at all, it felt like a nightmare for me to walk around, it was very nice though, but i really wish i had felt better to appreciate the island even better! I survived though! Everyone else at lunch on the island and we left soon after to go back to Puno.
Cusco
The following day, we took a touristic bus to go to Cusco and to visit the ruins that arew between Puno and Cusco. It took us 8hours, it was so touristic but it was interesting that it built up until we actually saw the sacred valley. On the way, we stopped at a museum, some ruins, a temple... The first day in Cusco, we went to book the train to Aguas Calientes for the Machu Pichu. Then, we had some time to visit the sacred valley, we took a local bus to go to Pisaq, we walked pass the market and then had around an hour walk to the ruins, there was no tourist as everyone goes on a tour and go there by car. So it was really nice to appreciate the scenery, amazing. We got to the ruins after sweating quite a bit in the sun of midday! We got a bit dizzy because of the sun. However, the site was really big so we decided to spend quite some time and we had plenty of space to explore around. On the way back, we took a bus from Pisaq but this time the bus local was really full and it was quite challenging to not feel sic}k when you stand up, you can t see the road which is curvy, the bus is very packed and people arund are sick!! On the wayback, we stopped to see some other ruins but much smaller so we were not that impressed. We got a bit tired of such a full day so we got back to the hostel in Cusco. The following day, we took a bus to go to Moray, to visit some terracing cultures made by incas. The bus dropped us at Morras wher we shared a taxi with 3 other people to go and visit around. Valentino, our taxidriver was quite a funny person, my favorite taxi driver so far, he looked like a cowboy and made us lugh so much. We started the trip there was 9 of us in the car. He was taking some other ocal to town, once in town, he stopped to get his lunch, then to get some petrol from a normal house which did not look like a petrol station at all! on the way, he threatened a truck driver to call the police because his truck blocked the way. He drove us to the round terraces of Moray which were impressive and very different that anything we had seen so far. Then on the way back, he collected in the back of his car a sort of shepperd which obviously looked a drunk and was stinking!! The whole journey made us lough so much, it looked so unreal, even the towm looked like a cowboy town. We then went to the Salineras, which is where they exctract salt coming from an underground source of water. He was quite proud of it and played the guide for us. Finally after the tours, he dropped us off to Urumbamba where we too a micro bus to Ollantaytambo to visit some more ruins. Later, we ate in a local restaurant before taking the train to Aguas Calientes. We spent the night there and the following morning, we woke up at 4am to go to Machu Pichu. Most of people take a 30bus to go to the entrance of the site but we decided to climb it, it was meant to be a 1h20climb and we did it in less than 55min!!! We got there almost at the same time than the first bus, but we were the first in the queue and guess what!!! We (i mean I) were the FIRST tourist to walk on Machu Pichu that day and it was my friend s birthday so the day was starting very well!! We were the lucky one to se se the site completely empty of any other tourists!! So good... We then went to queue to get the ticket to climb the Wayna Pichu, they allow only 400people to climb it so it was better to get a ticket. We had to wait for a bit less than an hour because we were on site at 6am but they did not give the ticket jsut before 7am After that we we wondering on the site, went to the point where we can get the famous picture of machu pichu, it was quite cloudy so we waited there until the weather got better to get the "best" shot. Food is not allowed on site but when you spend more than 10hours on site you start to fell a bit angry!! We were naughty and had brought some food to eat but as we started to have our breakfast we got told off by one of the secutity guard! Wereally felt like naughty kids doing something wrong but we needed it afterall!!At 10am, we went to climb the wayna pichu that we did in 30min (when youre supposed to do it in 1h) It was very nice but i m a bit afraid of hight so it was quite challenging for me but so worth it! We went came back from WQaynma PIchu, we started to visit the site properly, we had a book which gave us some explanation so we took it in turn to read it and play the guide. It was a beautiful day, the site was amazing i did not jave great expectation about it but i was really impressed was there, really nice. At around 4pm, we left the site to catch out train at 6pm at Aguas Calientes, we had arrived on site at 6pm, we had therefore stayed there 10hours!! We did not believe it, so much to se though! We run back down, we had no water left, the pric of water there once 10times more than normal!!! so we did not buy anything. on the way back, the drain had exploded and the path was floded with dirty water, so not very nice for us ut luckily it was not all the way down. We look for a local restaurant in the back of the little town, where we tried some more peruviuan specialities then later we took the train back to Ollantaytambo and then we shared a taxi with an amewrican family to go back to Csuco, the taxi driver probably thought he was in a movie and was driving like crazy, chasing another taxi in front of him! We managed to get back safe at our hostel! The following day, we took it very easy compared to the rest of the trip so we woke up late, then we went to visit so ruins very close to the city. It is quite amazing how all the different ruins are different from each other, you would think you d get bored after seeing a few but because it s always differnt, it s interesting to see them all. We got back to the hostel, my friend pack and left first thing in the morning the following day.
I ve been very tired from all these adventures in Peru, so sine he left i m taking it pretty easy doing basically nothing in Cusco, catching up with my blog!!! It s been 4hours that i ve been writing now (without dealing with pictures yet), you don t realise hw long it takes to keep in touch!! I hope you re all fine, i m heading to Bolivia in a few days So the following episod will be Bolivia...

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