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Ah, I finally worked out how to read my messages - thanks to everyone for your comments!! 😊
I´m starting to feel more like an independent traveller! And I´m starting to feel the pressures of time.. Peru is certainly a different ambiance to Bolivia. I thought there were a lot of tourists in Bolivia, but Peru tops the list! And, whereas most travellers in Bolivia were doing a 6 month to 1 year stint, many travellers to Peru go nowhere else! Here is a brief overview of my itinerary since I arrived:
Desaguadero (border crossing) - Puno (on Lake Titicaca) - Uros Floating Islands - Isla Amantani - Isla Taquile - Puno - Cusco (at the heart of the Inca empire) - The Sacred Valley (Inca ruins of Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chincyhero & markets in Corao and Urubamba) - Cusco - Quillabamba (jungle port) - alta Selva (the ´high jungle´) - Quillabamba - Santa Teresa - Aguas Calientes - Machu Picchu - Moray & the Salineras - Cuzco.
LAKE TITICACA - THE PERU SIDE
I walked across the border, and back again once informed by immigration that I needed a stamp from the Bolivian side! This, of
Puno - the port
Our boat for the floating islandscourse, meant I needed to pay the fine for overstaying my 30 day visa for two days! But 10 S/. (we´re into Peruvian soles: 3 S/. is roughly equivalent to $1) didn´t break my budget too much!
My bag was the last to be lifted off the roof of the bus and, as everyone in this country assumes all foreigners must somehow be friends, one of the women on the bus shouted to the man on the roof - ¨give her her backpack, her friends have already gone!¨ In fact, I had made friends with the French family - a guy and his parents - who had boarded the bus at Tiwanaku, and this proved to be very useful when I arrived in Puno as I was able to share a taxi, and a room with the son (I managed to get the same room again two days later for the same price of 15 S/. although I was alone... it took some bargaining with the deaf ? attendant though!!).
So I left early the next morning after varying reports of what time the boats left for the floating islands - better to arrive early and discover first
hand! I decided to stay overnight on Amantani, and boarded a boat which gradually filled up (Nothing ever leaves ´on time´ - you learn to just sit and wait! Buses, for example, rather than leaving at a set time, normally wait until every last seat is filled before they go). We had an interesting group - a Swiss German couple (who joined me on the bus to Cuzco), and English/Scottish couple who lived in New Zealand, a Canadian, and a few Americans. The English girl, a doctor, had just finished a course in Tropical Medicine in Lima, and she had some interesting stories to tell. Aids is apparently a big problem in Peru, where the women are often faithful while it is quite common for the men to sleep around. She said sometimes it is better to leave a few worms in the children rather than treat them, as the bacteria they have helps with immunity!
First stop was the amazing floating islands - apparently the Uros people built these islands using totora reeds (which are also a nice snack!), replenished weekly, to isolate themselves from the Collas and the Incas centuries ago. We were welcomed to the island
The floating islands
Lake Titicaca is in the shape of a Puma eating a rabbit! (not all the islands welcome tourists), and shown a map of Lake Titicaca which is the shape of a Puma eating a rabbit (Cusco is also built in the shape of a Puma - an important symbol for the Incas)! I couldn´t resist helping support the community by buying some of their lovely handicraft.
Next stop, a few hours later, was Isla Amantani, where we were met by our host families in bright, colourful traditional dress. The men wear colourful knitted long beanies, and the little girl in my family had a particularly gorgeous one! The inhabitants of Isla Amantani and Isla Taquile (where we stopped on the way back the next day - and I had to ask directions to get back to the boat after spending the 3 hours climbing to the top and exploring the stone walled paths and Inca ruins criss-crossing the island!!) are Quechua-speaking , highly religious (the little girls in my family started singing hymns at night), and very poor. Most houses have no electricity, and they cook on a woodfire stove in a mud brick kitchen, often with no ventilation.
The lady I stayed with had three gorgeous little girls who
The floating islands
You can eat the reeds too! were my guides up to the top of the hill to see the beautiful sunset. She made some delicious meals, always serving me first - the children even went to buy me some tea in the morning! Her husband worked on the mainland (many husbands had left their wives) and the only money she made was from selling handicrafts to tourists (so of course, I bought more stuff to send home!). None of the houses have heating (in Bolivia and Peru, this is usual in fact), and it got very cold at night. But I must say, the stars were amazing!!
Back in Puno, I enjoyed every minute of my ´luxury´ hotel (ie. hot shower, tv, and private room... only heating could have made it better, but I had my sleeping bag). Suddenly I realised why people stay in hotels!! Our group from the boat met up in the evening for a few Pisco Sours and dinner. Happy hour is pretty standard in most bars for most of the night - 2, 3, and even 4 drinks for the price of 1!!! And they go straight to your head at 3000m+ altitude! It was nice to have a social
Amantani
My host mother cooking evening for a change though!
The next day we had an 8, not 6 as we were told (my Swiss companions were livid!), hour bus ride through some beautiful scenery and over a very bumpy road to Cusco. I should have known, as the bus was practically empty when we left, that we´d stop for about an hour at the next town till it filled up a bit more!
We certainly had some interesting passengers to fill in the time. You never go hungry on bus rides in Peru or Bolivia as there are constantly people offering food through the window or hopping on the bus with their wares. This bus ride, a woman got on with her cloth bundle and proceded to unwrap it on the back seat. Inside was practically a whole animal! She got out her butchers knife and chopped the meat into lunchbox size pieces which she packaged with potatoes in plastic sacks to sell to the passengers - YUM! Then I was asked by a man to take a jacket across the checkpoint - he was smuggling clothes in to sell, and was busy the whole journey hiding, and then recuperating them from
Amantani
Woodfire stove
various places throughout the bus!
THE INCA EMPIRE
My first impression of Cusco - GORGEOUS!!! A colonial town, built over the Inca stone foundations (it was once the foremost city of the Inca Empire, 3326m), it looks a lot like a European city with its cobblestone streets and pretty lights. I am starting to appreciate a bit of luxury after the dusty dirty bustling towns that are Bolivia and Peru, even if Cusco is a tourist hub filled with ´expensive´ restaurants (they are gorgeous!).
We were met at the station by a hostel owner, who took us to his hostel by taxi where we decided to stay. The first day I bought the ´Tourist Ticket´ for a whopping 70 S/. which included entry into the Valley Sagrada and nearby Inca ruins (which I hope to see tomorrow), as well as various museums in the city. I was a bit disappointed that some main museums and churches were not included, but the ticket has been worth buying. The first day, therefore, I filled with museums!
One museum is in the house of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, of both Spanish and Inca parents, who was one of
Amantani
My host family in traditional dress
the first writers to give an appreciative account of the Incas. I also visited Qorikancha (Coricancha) which was a temple lined with solid gold in Inca times, following which the Spanish created Santo Domingo Church atop the ruins to house Catholic nuns. Here was my first taste of the amazingly perfect stonework of the Incas. Mind-boggling is the perfection to which the enormous stones have been fitted together, the ingeniously engineered slope of the walls to provide stability to withstand earthquakes (Cuzco has suffered two, although the Inca walls remained standing!), and the superbly designed drainage systems which are common to all of the Inca architecture.
The last attraction on my ticket for the day was a great show of different Peruvian music and dance - the dancers wore bright gay costumes for each occasion (harvest, bull fighting, carnaval, fighting over water), and even included girls whipping the men´s legs to show their love and courage!!
Day two I relented, and decided I needed to be mindlessly led around in a bus on a tourist tour... ah, it was great! 😊 My guide was not impressed with the great guide book I had bought on recommendation from my
Amantani
One of my gorgeous guides!
Uyuni tour companions - ´Exploring Cusco´ by Peter Frost. He said the author had entered his property to nose around in the Inca ruins there, claiming he had permission, when in fact he had not asked them at all. While my guide was right in suggesting I should get a guidebook written by a local, I do agree with my friends that this little book is certainly a gem, and has been a great guide through the Inca empire!
A bit of background...
Cusco and the Sacred Valley were at the heart of the Inca empire. According to one Inca legend, the founding Incas emerged from Island of the Sun and Moon, and founded their civilisation where Manco Capac Inca probed his golden staff and it disappeared into the ground - Cusco. From there, the Incas expanded their empire into modern Equador, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. In 1533, the Spaniard, Pizarro, killed the Atahualpa Inca, took over Cusco, and appointed Manco II Inca as a puppet ruler of the Inca. When Manco II rebelled from Sacsayhuaman (where I will visit tomorrow) and laid seige on Cusco, the Spanish forced him to retreat to Ollantaytambo (in the Sacred Valley) and
Amantani
Gorgeous sunset from the top of the island
eventually to the jungle at Vilcabamba (reached from Quillabamba jungle port).
The river Urubamba runs through the heart of what was the Inca empire, and forms the basis of the Sacred Valley. This river was called Willcamayu by the Incas, and its celestial counterpart - the Milky Way - was oriented along the same axis during the summer. Each ruin is very distinct, and all are amazing... Pisac clings to a mountain spur like a condor´s nest, sporting a spectacular view over the valley, and an immense terraced hillside. Ollantaytambo is the only Inca settlement in Peru that has survived as the Incas built it, with people still living in Inca buildings today. The ruins are spectacular. It is quite amazing the way everything is lined up - including the different ruins - on axes from north to south, east to west. At Ollantaytambo, certain sites are designed so that on the winter solstice, the sun lines up perfectly to shine on the rock. Also at Ollantaytambo you can see various faces and designs in the rock! And there is a ramp which must have been used to haul stones up to the site... What a mamoth job!
Amantani
My two guides
Finally, after a delicious smorgasboard lunch for 15 S/. (I tried alpaca - very yummy!) - I could hardly walk out, and was definitely satisfied for dinner too - we saw the ruins of Chinchero. An interesting example of a church built smack bang on top of a temple (we couldn´t see much else as it was dark!). I was struck by the irony of the Peruvians religiously crossing themselves as they entered the elaborate building, when it was the Catholic Spanish who had come in and destroyed the native empire.
That evening back in Cusco I met up with a Peruvian (Lima) from the tour group for a night on the town. Half an hour later, just as I was about to give up waiting, he arrived - I have to get used to Peruvian timing!! We danced till 5am, and then I got up two hours later for my 8 hour bus ride (including one hour waiting for roadworks to let us through!) to the jungle port of Ollantaytambo!
THE JUNGLE & THE MYSTIC
As the original Inca Trail to Machu Picchu nowadays is limited to 500 people per day, and thus is sold out
Amantani
Dancing on the way home!
months in advance, my hostel Munay Wasi) owner, Roberto, suggested an attractive, cheap alternative. Since foreigners took over the railway to Machu Picchu, prices have doubled! But, my trusty informant told me of an alternative route via a tropical town called Quillabamba, 8 hours away in toward the jungle. This bus only cost 15 S/. and from there another bus a few hours and a few soles to Santa Teresa brings you to the Hydro Electric station from where a train ($8 as opposed to $40+ from Cusco) takes you up from the opposite side of Machu Picchu to Aguas Calientes. Whatsmore, he added another incentive - the name of a mystic in Quillabamba who could tell my fortune 😊 I was sold!!
Quillabamba was all I expected and more! The warmth of a tropical town was a lovely change from the Altiplano I had travelled in since Bolivia, there were practically no tourists at all - so much so that there was even no tourist information point!! I dropped my bag off at the hostel recommended to me by Ricardo on Plaza de Armas - rooms off a lovely big courtyard, with views over the surroundings hills. Then
I headed straight to find the 'mystic'. After much asking around, a shop owner, who knew him as ´the man with the long hair´ (locally, he told me, he is known as the ´gringo´or foreigner, despite being Peruvian!) showed me to his house.
A pleasant, soothing voice greeted me, and I felt right at home in his humble abode. As we chatted, he casually brought up my astrology chart and glanced at my hand, many of his comments ringing suprisingly true! For example, he noted that last year had been a year of change (my leaving my life and job in Switzerland), one of two I would pass in my lifetime, and also mentioned April of this year - the three month mark in my trip. After my birthday in July, I should sort myself out and be a lot more mellow... ´ojala´ (I hope so!), as they say in Spanish! 😊
We arranged to meet the following morning for a massage/reiki session, following which I chilled out in my hostel and then decided, rather late in the afternoon, to catch a bus to see the nearby 7 Tinajas waterfall. As usual, there was about a half hour
Taquile
A man in fiesta costume
wait before the bus was full - ie. 12 people squashed into a mini bus, me with my knees up around my chin! They dropped me off beside the road as the sun was starting to fade, and I paid the 2 S/. ´maintenance fee´ to the woman who appeared from her house before walking the banana tree lined track to the falls. On my way back, the couple were carrying food back for their guinea pigs - in this country bred to be killed and eaten on special occasions, not as domestic pets!! They invited me in for a tea, made from a special plant to help coughs, and told me their mud brick house had been devastated recently by a flood, so they had been working to reconstruct it...
They were lovely, and the husband waited with me in the dark by the side of the road to catch a bus back to Quillabamba. As several packed buses passed without stopping, he told me he was tired from turning the handle of the machine to roast coffee all day (the area is a big coffee growing area, and I saw a coffee plant for the first time!).
Taquile
We just missed the festival
Finally, a huge truck used to carry wood stopped and I climbed up to join half a dozen people sitting up above the driver part. It was a fantastic journey through the tropical forest, stars and moon over our heads, sitting high enough to get wind, rather than dust from the road, blowing through our hair. And it was much faster than the tiny combie I had arrived in! My companions had come back from working in the jungle all day, and were very inquisitive about me and my country. They explained Peru´s political situation to me - everyone in Latin America seems to be very negative about the political situation of their country, although the new wave of governments is seen as a positive movement... let´s see who wins Peru´s elections!
That night, the local guide my hostel owner told me about was in the lobby. After chatting to him about the sights in the area, he asked me if I´d like to join him at his friend´s birthday party. Why not! It was a funny atmosphere, with everyone sitting in a circle, drinking beer, and some dancing in the centre to.... Cumbia! Ahhhh!!! They also gave us
a huge plate of food which I struggled to make a dent in after having already eaten dinner!! By the end of the night, the guys were pretty off their face, but still headed off to find another party. I said I was going back to my hostel, but, much to my dismay, it was locked, and noone answered the bell! I returned to my host´s house, on the assurance that his mother was there so it was perfectly safe, and ended up sleeping in a bed right next to her! He showed me the toilet out the back - I couldn´t see a thing - and he lit a match to show me where the hole in the ground was!! An experience! When his mother left at 5am, I had to let my host know that I did not want company in my bed!! He had it all planned. Ah, these Peruvians!!
As usual, my plans to move on again went out the window for another adventure - the Mystic offered to take me up to his tropical retreat in Pasnapacana. The next morning we headed off to the start of the trail in his dusty little Volkswagon,
and hiked up about 5 hours into the tropical forest. His wooden two story house, designed for bringing tourists to the high jungle where he has his property, isn´t quite completed yet, and I followed as he slashed his way through the vegetation that had grown back since his last visit. It was a great hike though, and we slept in our sleeping bags on the second floor, overlooking the valley, with the odd drip from the roof reminding us that we were pretty much in the open! The night was gorgeous, with fireflies extending the starry sky. We cooked over his woodfire stove, walked to the giant ceder, and went for a swim at a nearby waterfall! It was lovely and relaxing! We also visited his neighbour who grows flowers on his property to sell. It is nice to see people like him buying up land in the high jungle and conserving it, although someone had illegally entered to cut down a tree for wood.
MACHU PICCHU
The next morning, I found a bus for 7 S/. leaving at 10am (yeah right, Peruvian time) for Santa Teresa. About 3 hours later I arrived in a little dusty
town with a few mud shacks in the main square. Following directions to where the trucks left for the Hydro Electric station, I passed a football field and arrived at a river with a flying fox like contraption as what looked like the only means to cross it! Seconds later, a few boys arrived, pulled the rope until the little platform reached our side, we all hopped in, and slid along the wire to the other side!! I joined a few others sitting waiting under the tarpaulins where women were selling a few goods, and soaked up the gorgeous valley views. Certainly a nice route to Machu Picchu! The truck arrived just before 3pm - and everyone jumped in the back so we´d make the last train from the Hydro Electric station to Aguas Calientes at 3.15pm. Here the tourist price of 3 S/. as opposed to 1 S/. for the locals reminded me I was in tourist country. We made the train, and there tourists were allotted a whole carriage! For some reason, the conductor skipped me when collecting the $8 fare though, so it worked out a very cheap ride!
I talked the hostel owner in Aguas
Calientes - a lovely little town nestled in among the towering peaks, one of which houses the ruins of Machu Picchu - into giving me a room for 15 S/. (he finally relented, and even reluctantly gave me this price for two consecutive nights for a single room), and dropped my things there before heading off to explore the town. Lucky I happened to pass the ticket office for Machu Picchu as tickets cannot be purchased at the ruins, but must be purchased in advance in the town - no guidebook mentions this, oddly enough. An early night helped me with the 4am rise the next morning, although the fact that it was pouring with rain outside made motivation difficult, and ruined all chances of my plans to see the sun rise!! I headed to book my train back to Ollantaytambo (cheaper to bus from there to Cusco than train it the whole way) at the station before starting the walk up to Machu Picchu - about 1 hour up a zigzag track... up, up and up, made worse with the altitude! At the top it was intermittent rain and cloud, which kind of made for a mystical atmosphere which
I can´t say was totally inappropriate for what was to come.
Machu Picchu, the fabled ´Lost City´was first thought by its discoverer, Bingham, to be the site of Vilcabamba, where Manco Inca retreated after being forced out of Cusco by the Spanish. Now it is thought to be the ceremonial and administrative centre of a large region, although its exact purpose can only be speculated. It certainly has some spectacularly preserved buildings, fountains, and temples, as none of the site was destroyed by the Spanish as with many other Inca ruins. The ruins are vaster than I ever imagined, spread out over the hillside like an entire city. When between the walls, you have no idea of the scale of the ruin as a whole, but it is monstrous, and incredible to think of all the work that must have gone into creating this stone city nestled in the mountains! One particular stone has no fewer than 32 angles in its separate faces - all helping to reinforce the structure of the buildings.
I also walked to the Inca drawbridge, with a strategic gap in the stone path, bridged by logs which could be withdrawn to prevent unwanted
visitors from entering. Then I walked toward Intipunku Sun Gate, the last section of the Inca trail, although the trail was closed midway due to a rockslide - hence all those doing the Inca trail had to pass through Aguas Calientes. Then, I registered at the control point and headed off on the 5 hour circuit up the nearby peak of Wayna Picchu for a rainy view back over Machu Picchu, and then down the mountain to the Temple of the Moon - located in a huge cavern carved into the rock. By this stage it was around 4pm and my tired legs were looking forward to getting back to some R&R...
I met several people through the day - a Peruvian from Lima, a lovely Japanese lady on her second visit 23 years after her first, a Canadian girl, and a German man with whom I walked back down to Aguas Calientes - by which time I was completely saturated, as the rain steadily flowed. He joined me for dinner, and we headed up to soak in the hot springs the town is named after... what a perfect ending for a day of 10 hours straight walking! And,
who did I meet in the hot springs by two of my Uyuni companions! What a small world! I enjoyed a bit of pool service, and sipped on a Pina Colada to complete the relaxation process! 😊 Then, to bed ready for another early rise!
BACK TO CUSCO
Today I saw Moray and the Salineras, after arriving at Ollantaytambo at 7.40am (I left Aguas Calientes on the cheap $30 train at 5.45am!). This involved catching a two buses and then bargaining with the taxi driver for a good price, returning by bus (flagged down from the main road) to Cusco around 4pm to see the last museum on my list. Moray is a fascinating site as the Incas basically built circular terracing in four huge depressions in the altiplano as a kind of ´greenhouse´ to experiment planting different crop strains, as it was found that many different climatic conditions were present at the one site. Even today the region is known for the variety of crops it produces. Unfortunately my camera ran out after the first photo, but the taxi driver kindly offered for me to charge it at his house, where his mother offered me a delicious
soup for lunch - while guinea pigs, hens and other animals ran around our feet! Everything I ate was produced by their family!
After lunch I was driven to the nearby ´Salineras´ which is a huge slope of salt encrusted terraces, built by the Incas, and watered by an underground saline stream. The drainage system of the Inca buildings, like this model, is elaborate and incredibly effective, one of the reasons the ruins are in such good condition today.
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Amande
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waouhhhhhh
Désolée de ne te répondre que si tard, j'ai mis du temps à lire tous tes messages mais c'est vraiment intéressant, j'aime beaucoup te lire :)