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Published: June 26th 2007
Upon finally reaching Peru, after the nightmare bus journey, our patience was duly rewarded with four idyllic nights at the Pacific beach resort of Mancora. It didn´t take long to re-adjust to beach life, and we were soon relaxing on the sand and playing beach football and cricket (David cleaned up with 31 runs in the first inning, astonishingly). The town itself was lined with touristy bars and restaurants. Our evenings were shared between these bars, and beach gatherings. The most memorable night was undoubtedly Joss´ birthday. Our endearing tour leader was one of many of us who had a little too much to drink. Nevertheless, a great night was had by most.
Next stop was a little town called Huanchaco. There was little to do in the town, but it served as a base for the pre-Inca ruins at Chan Chan. Here we were given a tour of the ancient Sun and Moon temples of some of Peru´s oldest inhabitants. In reality, this was quite a boring tour with a little too much detail for our liking. The highlight of the day was surely one of the dioramas we saw depicting the lifestyle of these ancient peoples. Looking closely,
we noticed that one of the pre-Inca boys was wearing none other than a ´Digimon´ t-shirt. We summised they must have run out of appropriate material, but come on, was that the best they could do to make it look authentic!?
The tour then took us to Huaraz, one of Peru´s major cities, for a host of physically demanding pirsuits. The altitude here was challenging, and David was finding it very hard to breathe properly. It might not have been so bad, but he had also managed to catch the stomach bug that had been doing the rounds on the tour, and had been yakking out of the bus window on the way there. A group of us enjoyed take-away pizza, and we called it a night.
As David was still feeling the worse for wear, Louise headed out for the day to complete an ice-climb with some of the other members of the group. It was an excellent day out, but quite a challenge. First of all, we were not yet used to the altitude, having made the climb from sea level to 3100 metres the previous afternoon. After a minibus drive through the hills and farmland,
we began a further ascent to nearly 5000 metres by foot. We had to take it slow and drink plenty of fluids as the altitude left us short of breath and prone to dehydration.
Rugged stone landscape with coarse vegetation and a backdrop of snow-capped mountains made the route enjoyable as well as challenging.
Arriving at the site for the ice-climb presented us with spectacular glacier views: frozen lakes, sparkling ice, and icicle encrusted sheer faces met our eyes. The ice-climb was far from easy. We donned our crampons and ice-picks and attached ourselves to the safety ropes. It was very difficult to heave yourself up. The ice was hard and I had to really put my back into the swing of each pick in order to gain a good enough grip to heave myself up. I was ecstatic when I reached the top of the mountain and could abseil down again. The whole experience left me exhausted and gave me pins and needles in my hands. I felt really proud of myself for completing the challenge. David, meanwhile, spent his time in Huaraz recovering and discovering the town itself.
Next, we were off to the capital, Lima.
We spent a couple of days here, soaking up the modern shopping facilities and culinary delights. David suffered a whole day of shopping, including a marathon spell in a ´TK Maxx-esque´ store. However, he was rewarded for his patience with a Burger King meal, a Starbucks´ special, and most importantly a visit to a music shop where he purchased a fabulous semi-acoustic guitar.
The two most memorable features of our time here were that a) Princess Anne was arriving in town on a state visit (we didn´t get to see her, sadly) and b) a whole new group of people were joining our tour. David and Poodle (real name, James) also went to play football with the locals, where they had immense fun.
Our previous tour guide, Nat, left us here in the safe hands of Truman (another Budget leader) and Joss (who would be taking over in Cusco). We also said our goodbyes to Anna and Sarah, and awaited the newcomers eargerly.
With the new group in tow, the itinerary took an exciting turn in the form of an excursion into the desert. We were to stay near an oasis called Huacachina. From start to finish
we had a wonderful time. We began with a wild and bumpy ride in sand-buggies across an amazing dune landscape. The buggies felt safe, with hefty metal cages overhead, but it was still a thrilling ride. We then tried our hand at sandboarding. First we tried on our bellies, lifting our legs up and letting the guide push us off, down the sand dune. It was great fun, and nobody minded the odd mouthfull of sand! Then they let us have a go standing up. It was a bit like snowboarding. You strap in your legs and push yourself off. Most of the group fell over periodically down the hill, but surprisingly, Louise managed to glide professionally nearly all the way to the bottom, the group´s most impressive performance of the day!
After a few more attempts, we descended our last dune down to the campsite below. A campfire was roaring and we were treated to Pisco Sour (a very popular South American spirit-based drink) and appetizers before enjoying a tasty barbecue meal. We were to spend the night under the stars in our sleeping bags (that´s right, no tents!) but before that we had a hard night of
drinking to get through; getting to know the new people to a soundtrack of bizarre party music pumping from the jeep´s sound system.
The next day Louise had to hold her guts together for one last dune-buggy ride back to Trevor (our truck). The rest of the day, permeated by one of Louise´s classic hangovers, consisted of a journey to Nazca, putting up of tents, and a scenic flight to view the mysterious Nazca lines from above. This promised to be a sick-inducing ride, as the pilot had to tip the plane this way and that to allow all the passengers a full view of these oddities. Louise, amazingly, held herself together, and after a long nap in the tent she was back to normal and ready for a tasty chicken casserole with mash. Yes, camping food is that great (sometimes)!
An annoying interlude followed the next day. We arrived at the beach resort of Puerto Inca and put up our tents. After a game of 6-a-side (on a sandy pitch with actual goals and nets) and a spot of lunch, we were told to take our canvas dwellings back down again, lest we got stranded by the
Peruvian teachers´ strike that was hitting the streets ´en force´.
Arequipa was our next destination, but getting there was not as easy as we had hoped. The national teachers strike was extreme, and the whole country seemed to be behind them, barracading roads, parading the streets, and generally causing havoc. We finally arrived in the town where we were due to camp, but decided to abandon late night cookery in favour of some classic food-court delights form the mall up the road. We opted to upgrade to a room that night and put up the tent the following day. Everything was hanging in the balance (including the Inca trail) due to these inconvenient strikes. We were stranded here, waiting for news, so we set about seeing some of the city´s sites. Louise headed off to see the Nunnery with new friends, Annie and Isobel. This consisted of a maze-like network of stone buidings, connected by quaint cobbled walkways and courtyards. We saw what the nuns´ rooms looked like and surveyed the kitchens. Strange models of Mary, Christ, and angels with forlorn faces could be found in glass cases in many of the sprawling rooms.
The next day we
Nazca Lines
If you enlarge this photo, you should be able to see the Condor.both went to check out the ´Ice Princess´, a mummy that had been preserved from the Inca period; a supposedly high-status girl (maybe a princess). The girl had been sacrificed as part of the Inca tradition, and we took a guided tour around the museum to see her and a host of other fascinating artefacts from the time. This was an excellent activity. Later that night, we had steak for dinner at the camp barbcue, and heard tales from our friends about their trying a local delicacy - frog juice!! During our time here the strikes were in full swing, and we saw plenty of activity on every venture into town. The essence of the protests was that teachers had been told they needed higher qualifications to keep their jobs. This resulted in all sorts of libellous banners accusing the president of genocide and paedophilia among other things (just a little over-the-top!).
Cusco, the town in the shape of a Puma, was to be the starting point for our trek and our visit to Machu Picchu. We had a rough ride to get there and all arrived feeling a little altitude sick and very tired. We spent the next
few days here getting ready for our trek and gently aclimatising to our position, 3360m above sea level. Our guide, Wilbert, filled us with confidence, and we were feeling a little nervous, as well as excited about the challenges that lay ahead of us.
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june&graham
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loving the girl-power
At last another blog! Only one question.....How did you get the Llama into the pink, flowery t-shirt? (Oh and will David be back for the final test against India? - we may be needing him). We are just about containing our excitement at your impending return but can't promise you a dry-eyed arrival. xxx