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Peru and the lost city of the Incas.... That is where we have been spending our last two weeks! We arrived in the beautiful city of Cusco, altitude 3,300 m, finding that every action we made took 5 times as much effort. Even getting out of bed and brushing our teeth made us out of breath initially... but thankfully neither of us suffered from altitude sickness. Just the familiar travellers diareah came back to haunt nat a couple of times!
Cusco is in a beautiful setting in a valley surrounded by mountains. We strolled around the steep, thin, pebblestoned alleys taking in the sights and sounds. The locals San Pedro Market was an interesting sight with cows muzzles, hooves, trotters..pretty much about every part of every farm animal on display for sale! We found ourselves as frequent customers of the little lady on the corner of our road selling Humitas for 70 centimos (warm, vanilla cakes made of corn wrapped in a corn leaf)!
Our Inca Trail trek was delayed by 1 day and in true peru style our company didnt let us know until the day before. The delay was due to a farmers strike - they peruvian
governement are trying to implement a new law stating the farmers must pay to receive water for their crops which was previously free. In retaliation the farmers block up the roads with rocks and boulders to prevent the tourists and any form of road or rail transportation from getting to Machu picchu, Sacred Valley or any other major site. Supposedly by the time we we on our coach on the way to the start of the Inca trail at 82km the strike was over... but the clear up operation had only just begun. On every blind bend was a pile of rocks, meaning our driver had to horn his was around the bend on the opposite side of the road, either speeding up to avoid the car coming towards us or breaking heavily to avoid a head on!!! I found it quite hilarious.. entirely nervous laughter however!! It was better for the nerves to just close your eyes! But we made it (thanks mr coach driver)...and we commenced our Inca trail that afternoon!
The inca trail is tough... anyone who says it isnt must be an olympian athlete... On day 2 we climbed continuously uphill for more than 2
Market Place
Nat buying "alpaca" jumper in Cusco market hours from 3,600 m to 4,200m... hence the uphill plus the reduced oxygen at this altitude made it a real achievement once we reached the Dead Womans Pass, the highest point on the Inca Trail at 4,200m! We made it without keeling over with altitude sickness..woohooo! The porters are amazing, they carry 25kg on their backs, which includes our tents, all the food, and enough camping equipment to conjure up some of the best food we have had in South America! They even managed to bake us a cake one morning with only camping stoves!?!?! While we are panting away walking slower than a tortoise, they are jogging past us despite the load on their backs!! Incredible people! They get paid pittence - 110 soles for the 4 day trek (GBP 23)..They are all mountain people, living in farms in the highlands of Peru... but they always had a smile on their faces, the friendliest, chirpiest people we met in Peru!
The last day of the trek we were up at 4am to begin our trek to the Sungate (2,700m), where we waited for the sun to rise over the Macchu Pichu city. We were so tired once we
Aldea Yanapay
Our fave restaurant in Cusco - decor with kids in mind, all moneys go to local schools arrived and the temperature warmed up really early, so looking around Machu Picchu itself was tough work, especially walking up those huge steps those Incas put there! But it was spectacular and worth every minute and every step of our trek. I think the trek was the best experience of all...the secenery along the way was spectacular and varied! We went from thick jungle to dry, barron mountain passes all in a day! And the fact we had an aim, and a great one at that!
Augas Clientes is the town at the bottom of the valley below Machu Picchu, called so for the hot springs it posses. We made a quick trip to the luke-warm springs before our very slow train and then bus back to Cusco. After a much needed good night sleep back in our hostel (with predominantly Israeli clientele) in Cusco, we packed our bags for Puno and our 2 day boat trip on Lake Titicaca, meaning "Grey Puma" ! The incas find the puma, snake and condor sacred animals hence there are many things named after or in the shape of these creatures. Lake Titicaca is huge, it puts Lake Tahoe to shame on
Cusco - san blas region
views of Cusco from the hills of San Blas size, but it isnt anywhere near as clear! Our petrol boat chugged along to the Uros Floating islands. We saw how the people live on these floating islands made of reeds, and how they make a living from selling fish and birds on the mainland but mainly from tourism! They kitted us out with some authentic atire and we ate some reed, which once peeled is a good source of energy for them.
After Uros, our boat took us to the island of Amantani, where we became aqcuainted with Sylvia, our sarrogate mother for the next 15 hours or so! Sylvia lived in a two storey house with 3 bedrooms, with her 3 children. She cooked us lunch (vegetable soup for starter, potatoes and cheese for main), dinner (vegetable soup for start, rice and garlic/oily chips for main) and breakfast (bread rolls from the market and she fried some kind of sweet dough herself which was yummy!!!). The food is basic, but its really nice, healthy and hearty! We were very grateful to her for making us feel very confortable in her house for the night... the beds were very confortable and she lit us a candle for our
The affects of the Farmer´s Strike
Road blocks on the way to Machu picchu room in the evening as the light wasnt very powerful at all! I have a cotton bracelet that Sylvia made for me as a souvenir!
The next day the boat chugged back to the port of Puno via the island of Taquille, where we had a typical lunch of vegetable soup for starter and fresh water trout with rice for main! The restaurant was on the roof terrace of a family house, with picturesque views of lake.
So that brings us to Lima.... where we await our long journey to Tokyo commencing at just after midnight tonight! We have loved our stay in Peru. The friendliness of the local people has exceeded our expectations, and despite being such a tourist destination it has still felt very special indeed!
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Rose
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ah... my motherland!
Hey guys! Am soooooo glad u had a great time in my motherland, beautiful isnt it - even if i do say so myself. You guys are so lucky u didnt get altitude sickness! I did! And how hard is the Inca Trail! Just the memories of when i did makes me breathless! lol! Looking forwards to the next update! Besos xx