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Published: October 4th 2009
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First lunch in Peru!
Deep fried, apparently it´s better roasted. It’s been two and a half weeks since my last entry, which has all been Peru. A bit of a mixed experience………………
After arriving at the permanently grey capital of Lima we made a swift exit to the high altitude Inca town of Cuzco (3400 metres above sea level). Cuzco was an initially appealing town - mix of Spanish and Inca architecture but the place is very touristy. You spend half the day batting off offers of paintings, massages, ´please look at my menu´ etc. Within hours of arriving in Cuzco I was somehow roped into eating the local delicacy - Guinea Pig! Once I got over the appearance of what was on my plate it was OK and certainly edible, sort of like a chewy, boney chicken. However when I discovered that the internal organs where still present, my stomach turned and the memory would stick with me for the next few days…..
The next day I woke up with a stinging headache, nausea and complete lethargy (not something I am familiar with!); tell tale signs of altitude sickness which meant a couple of uncomfortable days in bed. Unfortunately the symptoms got worse and I acquired a ´flu
like illness. I had to go to the hospital in an ambulance with sirens going and lights flashing which was a bit over the top and maybe more for the benefit of the driver than me. After a quick check up I was diagnosed with ´altitude sickness with complication´ (the complication being a cold which I’d brought from Brazil). I was told I’d need to stay in for a couple of days to get my temperature down and oxygen levels in my blood up. This meant my first ever drip, to feed me with medicine and tubes up my nose to pump in oxygen. The service in the hospital was good (I had two nurses solely looking after me) but it was ramped up a bit when Natalie arrived with my travel insurance and they realized they could bill them direct. I had every test under the sun (not sure if they were all necessary) and also spent an hour in a Michael Jackson style oxygen chamber, which took me to sea level and back. By the second day of my hospitalisation I have to say I was feeling a lot better and I was also very comfortable. Nice meals
served in bed; cable TV, lots of attention, things could have been worse. My enjoyment was spoiled slightly by a call from a Dr from the UK acting for the insurance company. He verified my symptoms, checked how I felt, then asked me to insist on being discharged ´they’ll keep you in there for a week if you let them.´ Reluctantly I left the warmth and comfort of the hospital and returned the rather less luxurious hostel. In this illness paragraph Nat also warrants a mention - she had root canal therapy at the same hospital, so they did well out of us two.
Because of my illness we missed the start of our Spanish course but we still managed to fit in four 4 hour lessons. Nat and I are definitely not natural linguists but we did enjoy using our brains a bit and the teachers at the school were lovely and very patient. We still don’t know much (it is so hard) but we do speak ´un poco´ and we are planning to have some more tuition in Bolivia later this month.
The day after Spanish we finally got out of Cuzco for a few days
to trek the ´Inca Trail´ which was our main reason for being in there really. We had a good group of all English speakers - 3 Brits (including me), a South African, a Canadian, an Aussie (Nat) and a nice Irish lady. Despite a foot sore I picked up in hospital (I won’t go into that) the first day was relatively easy as we walked on flat paths, taking regular breaks at Inca ruins where our rather verbose guide ´Jaya´ filled us in on the history with the enthusiasm of a Jackanory presenter. Day 2 was a completely different story as we climbed to the highest point on the trek ´Dead Woman’s pass´ (4200 meters) which had everyone gasping for breath. We camped just a few hundred metres lower that night which was absolutely freezing despite wearing thermals and being fully clothed inside our sleeping bags. Day 3 was long with quite a bit of downhill which took it’s toll on the knees and toes but a least the weather held out (we’d had hale and rain for much of the two previous days) so we could enjoy the ever changing scenery. At the end of day 3 we’d done
Inca Trail Group Photo
At the very start of the trek with Ross, Siobhan, Callie, Adrian, Kirsty, Nat and I. around 40km and reached our first decent campsite which allowed us our first shower and a couple of beers before another early night. The final day was a 5am start to get to ´Sun Gate´ entrance of the Machu Pichu site as early as possible. The first glimpse was amazing, reduced only slightly by the familiarity having seen it plastered all over Peru for the previous fortnight. The condition and size of the site are the most impressive things about it, but also the fact that it’s in the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains. Even Nat was impressed although her major concern was how the Inca’s kept dry given that there were no roofs. Jaya did well to explain that straw and wood hadn’t survived 600 years without sounding patronizing! After a few hours exploring with increasingly confusing Jackanory interjections from Jaya we took the four hour train and bus journey back, which seemed a little bit too quick compared to four days walking.
After a day of recuperating we finally left Cuzco for good after what seemed like a long couple of weeks. We departed for Puno (which is where I’m wring from now), where the main
attraction is Lake Titicaca (the world’s highest navigable lake). Yesterday we went on a boat trip which included seeing the ´floating islands´ where some of the indigenous population still live on rafts made of reeds. They used to be self sufficient from fishing and hunting birds but their main income now is tourism and it shows as they put on a show and try to flog souvenirs. It is however interesting to see their way of life regardless of how authentic it is today, and the setting of the lake is amazing.
In a few hours we head off to Bolivia, first to Copacabana and to La Paz to meet up with Ash. Peru has been good, the challenge has been the altitude and the cold but we are now fully acclimatized, although Nat is desperate to get down from the Andes to somewhere a bit warmer. The big bonus of Peru is that it is so cheap and Bolivia is supposed to be cheaper still which will help to balance the books after the Brazil battered budget!
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Mark Gittus
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Hello you two... Sounds like your having a great time - you can tell this by the fact that Mayoh is only happy when he is moaning... Deep Fried Guinea Pig ? Now I will take most things on which have been deep fried but I think I may have declined on this occasion, although after a couple of beers never say never... Mayoh - Wear a hat if your cold as they say you lose most of your body heat through your head and you are already at a disadvantage... Enjoy Bolivia. ps. Your not missing anything in UK.