Peru is super duper fabulous

I HEART PERU

So, Peru has officially won my favourite south american country award! It is AWESOME. It literally has it all- mountains, lakes, beaches, wildlife, hot springs, jungle, cool cities, lovely people, great food (apart from guinea pig-more on that later!). Really very cool.

LAKE TITICACA
We began by crossing the border into Peru at Lake Titicaca,and were immediately greeted by Inca Kola signs EVERYWHERE- its peru´s soft drink of choice. Its fluorescent yellow- looks radioactive- a cross between the green radioactive stuff in the simpsons and dodgy cooking oil, and apparently tastes like bubblegum. yum?! Plus its called inca kola which gives it added comedy value. Anyway,rich and I were so taken with this inca kola business we bought yellow inca kola t shirts the other day (another tourist tat purchase... ohhh dear).

Anyway so our first point of call was Puno, a town on the edge of Lake Titicaca. The drive to Puno was stunning- we were in completely deserted landscapes, with random clay huts with tin rooves dotted in the fields around us with the odd cow and horse and Peruvian woman with a blanket tied on her back. The sky just also seemed absolutely huge and blue with absolutely no clouds- really gorgeous.

In Puno, we visited the reed islands whcih are apparently quite famous although I hadnt really heard of them before this trip. They turned out to be really very cool- basically, theyre islands made out of reed (shockingly,given the name?!) which people live on in little reed huts. We were taken out on a gringo boat,and greeted by singing and dancing locals and shown how they build the islands, the insides of their huts, how they barter for food on the mainland etc. It was all quite cool until we were then basically forced to buy stuff from them (local handicrafts- I bought a bracelet...)- its not that we minded buying things but it felt a bit gringo-y and forced. We had a little ride in one of their reed boats too whcih was fun- until he seemed to lose control of it a bit and we were randomly drifting in the middle of lake titicaca....error! We had a bit of a night out in Puno too which was fun- the club we went to had a comedy group of middle aged german men attempting to dance - rich showed them a thing or two! they were playing lots of reggaeton music which i thoroughly embraced- have had a soft spot for it ever since spending 2 months in central america where that and bob marley is basically the only music you can find while out!

CUSCO
After Puno, we headed towards CUSCO (place of dreams,honestly!). On the way we stopped at our first set of (many) inca ruins- it was the site of inca sacrifices to the gods- pretty cool, and we had a guide which always helps makes ruins seem a bit more than a pile of rocks. We also visited a place where we were shown what hte local people eat- basically clay and potatoes. yum yum- i decided not to try the clay...pretty sceptical as to its taste value.

Cusco turned out to be absolutely BRILLIANT. Pretty touristy as its the main place to visit Machu Picchu from but it was very pretty with a gorgeous main square, huge amounts of tourist tat everywhere which seriously pleased me and rich (i bought my second generic peru alpaca wool hat...), great clubs and bars, a few choice gringo eating establishments for baked beans and post night out fry ups and lots of cheap rum and cokes- perfecto. We had a day to sort ourselves out pre inca trail- for me that meant hiring a sleeping bag and hiking boots (came raaaaaather unprepared- excessive dresses and leggings in my backpack but rather deficient in terms of hiking gear-oops).

Rather annoyingly, we were booked to do the classic inca trail but an admin mix up at dragoman meant we were instead booked onto their tailor made ´community trek´where you hike through a different trail in the andes through local communities (for anyone going to peru,its called the lares trek i think) and money goes straight to the communities to help with food,schools,reforestation etc. We were pretty unimpressed but ended up having an absolutely AWESOME time. The trek we did ended up being a few kms longer than the classic one, and went up to 3800m above sea level which is a bit higher than the other one but it was well worth it! We camped beside local communities for 3 nights, and trekked for most of the days complete with sexy walking poles and coca leaves to chew. FYI, coca leaves are repulsive. Theyre meant to help with altitude- all the locals chew them constantly at altitude, or drink coca tea made with them. my first experience of them was in bolivia where I decided I hated the smell- ERROR when hiking for three days at altitude! They do actually help but made me feel so sick- literally made me gag- i had to rely on gatorade instead! Decided i´d rather feel a bit ill from altitude than throw up from coca leaves.

The scenery we trekked through was absolutely beautiful- glaciers, lakes, mountains, huge sky and not a soul except us around except in the local villages. We had an incredible team with us- all we had to carry were day packs with waterproofs and stuff in them- our sleeping bags,tents etc were all carried by donkeys and llamas and when we arrived at each campsite our tents were already put up and our three course meals were being prepared. hell yes! The food was incredible- some of the best we´ve had in all of south america- amazing soups,roast meat,pancakes for breakfast,fruit salads...yummy yum yum. Every morning, we were woken up with a cup of tea being passed into the tent and a bowl of hot water being placed outside. on the coldest night they even made us mulled wine. Pretty sweet really!

So for someone who is not especially outdoorsy or hiking-y I actually really really enjoyed the trek. I suffered a little bit from the altitude, especially when we were climbing the last bit up to the mountain pass at 3800m- Rich and I both felt pretty dizzy which was rather concerning when you were faced with steep rock climbing with massive drops on either side- not reeeally the place you want to put a foot wrong!- but it was awesome and really well worth it.

After we finished trekking we went to Machu Picchu. I was excited about it but also a little bit sceptical as to how ´real´it would feel and I turned out to be right on this one. While it was awesome, and very very exciting to see, it also felt pretty touristy. It felt like the kind of place you had to keep taking photos of rather than just enjoying being there and absorbing it all- all got quite stressful really! Thats to be expected when its such an iconic place,but I couldnt help but feel a teeensy bit underwhelmed,which sounds so awful to say,but it didnt quite have the wow factor you´d expect it to. In a lot of ways, there was more ´wow´about the scenery and what we saw while trekking in the days before.

Having said that, it was very cool to see and the scenery around it is totally stunning- it is literally above the clouds, surrouned by jurassic park-esque scenery- very jungley and green. We also got super cool machu picchu stamps in our passports (they potentially void your passport but oh well!)- iona enjoyed them so much she got two side by side!

I had a grumpy moment after we´d had our tour of the site- we had the option of trekking to see the sun gate (where the classic trail ends) which is where you get a good panoramic view of machu picchu- about a 40 min walk away (UPHILL). By this point, i wasnt feeling great and was very hot (FYI, dont wear jeans to go to machu picchu-its bloody boiling!) but we decided to go but I was in a proper strop the whole way,much to everyone elses amusement! I was glad we made it there, but theres some comedy photos of me looking rather unimpressed! Iona and ben were firing on ahead while i stomped along behind with poor rich bless him! ohhh dear.

So that was machu picchu. Very cool, very iconic, great to see but... be prepared to -
a)see excessive numbers of middle aged americans wearing socks and sandals with cameras round their necks, shouting at each other across the site and generally being rather irritating,
b)see excessive numbers of japanese tourists wearing swine flu masks. we coughed all over them as we walked past for comedy value... not the most mature thing to do but pretty amusing all the same!
c) feel stressed about the need to take the generic iconic photo of machu picchu

After machu picchu we returned to cusco for a very very messy post inca trail night out at a club called inca team (I kept calling it inca trail after a couple of rum and cokes...trekking on the brain clearly!) with our group.... there was a stevie wonder tribute band which made me very very happy,so we had some tequila to celebrate... no more needs to be said except that we felt rather ill the next day and got four quid manicures and pedicures to make ourselves feel better! We had one more night out at mama afrikas the following night where antics with potentially underage thieving peruvian girls were involved (rich managed to ´subltey´hand ben his camera and money while dancing with one,brilliant)... again, no more needs to be said! Comedy times all round though. Cusco is absolutely awesome.

This is turning into an essay,sorry!

HOMESTAY
We then had our most bizarre evening in Peru,doing a homestay in a random andean village. It was generally a very very odd experience. Rich ben iona and I were placed in ´Julias´home which turned out to be a purpose built ´gringo´extension to her house (or so we suspect anyway) which meant we were pretty comfortable as it had proper beds,lights,electricity etc but was rather lacking in authenticity-some of our group were in proper mud hut style houses which while much less comfortable,at least felt more ´real´. We had our meals with the family (lots of potatoes and soup... potatoes for breakfast at 6am was a trial. rich stuffed them in his pocket...) and in the evening,all got together, having been dressed up in traditional dress, to watch an Andean ceremony involving more sodding coca leaves (we didnt have to eat them this time thank goodness) and making wishes (rich wished, out loud, for ´the health and happiness of everyone here´-cheeeesey!). iona bizarrely suited the traditional clothes (big skirts, jackety things with embroidery and hats)- although she was also sporting a sexy birkenstock and white sock combo! We then danced around the fire to peruvian music- it was all utterly bizarre due to the touristy gringo feel of it. We had some beers to make the experience,ahem,more bearable!

COLCA CANYON
From there we headed to Chivay, to visit colca canyon which turned out to be one of those unexpectedly AMAZING days. Probably one of my favourite days so far! We got up v early (5am or something horrible) to drive to Colca Canyon (second deepest in the world- twice as deep as the grand canyon. fact!) to see condors (huge vulture like birds). I was pretty sceptical due to a)the early start, and b) the fact I generally am not a nature-wildlife-birdy person. But it was faaaaab. The birds are massive,and really gorgeous from far away (up close theyre extremely ugly). Seeing them fly up from the canyon in their natural habitat and swoop around was absolutely stunning (im almost ashamed to admit to something so sad!). On the drive back, we were able to open up the roof seats on the truck (imagine a safari style vehicle with roof seats-kind of like that) so we cruised back along the edge of hte canyon,sitting in the sun, on the roof, the boys had some beers and the scenery was breathtaking- another real wow moment. That afternoon we went to a hot spring and had some cocktails and spent over four hours in the pool watching the sun setting- a very cool end to an amazing day.

AREQUIPA
Arequipa was our next stop- second largest city in peru. Another extremely lovely place! Our hotel had a POOL (quelle luxury!) and it was HOT- after a month or so at altitude we were finally at a NORMAL altitude and were able to wear NORMAL clothes. waheeeey! We tried guinea pig that night- a peruvian delicacy,goodness knows why.It looks like ROADKILL. it comes with EYES and a HEAD and WHISKERS and FUR. I have never seen anything like it! It tastes quite like chicken to be honest,but doesnt have much meat on. We all had a token couple of bites and took many comedy photos with it... a few of the braver among us tried the brains and eyes (I most definitely did not). We also had a comedy night out after that with our whole group- there were antics involving a stolen pineapple, a stolen taxi light, lots of crazy dancing and a hilarious walk home. Photos to follow!

Arequipa was a very relaxing stop- we spent a lot of time beside the pool, I got an hour long massage for about six pounds, and we generally wandered around the town which was lovely- gorgeous big square with a cathedral, cobbled streets etc. We also visisted Juanita- an inca mummy which was actually brilliant. We were feeling a bit dodgy from the night before and werent sure if we could be bothered but im so glad we went- we had an excellent guide who showed us around the museum with more inca artefacts (as if we hadnt seen enough already!) in a big build up to seeing the mummy itself. It was pretty creepy- skin and hair and teeth etc all perfectly preserved!

PUERTO INCA,NAZCA
Our final few days in Peru were spent camping! We made it back to the coast after Arequipa (iona and I have gone from the Atlantic coast in New York, to the Pacific in California,back over to the Atlantic for Rio etc and now back to the Pacific!) and camped beside the sea which was extremely cool- we had a huge bbq and campfire and slept ride beside the ocean. The next night we camped beside the nazca lines at a campsite... WITH A POOL again-super exciting. I chose not to bother wiht a flight over the nazca lines as wasnt that fussed about them (theyre huge crop circle esque shapes in the sand-mystery as to how/why theyre there,can only really see them from the air) but apparently it was very cool.

HUACACHINA
After nazca came THE BEST DAY EVER! We went sand boarding and buggying in Huacachina, which is an oasis in the desert. it was SO MUCH FUN. The buggies alone are pretty terrifying-theyre like moon buggies,and the drivers have some kind of death wish and/or are mental. They drive crazily fast up and down the sand dunes but its brilliant fun- like being on a rollercoaster.They then present you with a snowboard basically,and give you a lump of wax to wax the bottom of it, then you lie down on your front,hold on for dear life and go head first straight down the sand dunes. MEEEENTAL. the first hill was pretty tame and not overly scary,then we were taken to the first of three HUGE ones. Its like going down a big,pretty steep red ski slope head first on a snow board. On the first big one, I managed to somehow go the furthest out of our whole group- I was going to fast I was genuinely terrified and apaprently did 7 separate screams but it was AMAZINGLY good fun in a terrified-rush-of-adrenalin-I-think-I-might-die kind of way! really awesome. After boarding, we camped under the stars in a sand dune, with a bbq and campfire and lots of vodka (purely to stay warm,obviously). The stars were so clear and it was an absolutely brilliant end to our trip.

So we´re now in lima for a few days before flying down to CHILE where the boys will leave us to go to new zealand (sob) and iona and me will be parted for a month as ill be studying spanish in santiago and she´ll be volunteering in vina del mar about an hour away (double sob). gold star if youve managed to get to the end of this!!

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