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Published: October 13th 2008
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Sunday 24
No rest for the wicked, it was up early again and down to the local bus station. Travelled for approximately 6-7 hours across the spectacular Altiplano to Cuzco. We were all suffering different symptoms from the altitude so were munching on the coca leaf lollies. Stopped at the point midway between Puno and Cusco at 4335m and what an absolutely fantastic view and of course no photo opportunity is complete without the numerous ‘tourist traps’. Commercialism has really caught up…a little girl with a lamb and baby alpaca is really cute, but if you want to take a photo …’that will be 1 sol’ and she wouldn’t take anything less!
Continued onto Cusco. This time we arrived during day light hours. Since we had arrived early and had spent the last couple of days sitting in a bus another girl and I thought we would try out one of the massage places which seem to abound in Cusco. The massage was OK but the surroundings left a lot to be desired…certainly no white fluffy towels here….now I know why they had dull light and it wasn’t for the ambience. To start off they walked us through the back
more shopping
a stop is never complete without shopping stalls of an art gallery, up 2 flights of stairs to the roof top where they kept us waiting for 30mins. In fact they had kept us waiting so long that Yasmin got fed up and left and after my massage I advised her to find somewhere else to go.
Stayed at Hotel Emperador which had a long flight of stairs up to reception and if you were lucky you got to stay on that floor otherwise it was up another flight of stairs. At least the beds were comfy, pillows good and water HOT. I hate to harp on about hot water but when you’re getting up in altitude and the nights are getting much, much colder, the last thing you want is to take cold showers or find that there isn’t hot water til 10am the next morning!
Monday 25
We managed to get a sleep in today. Started the day at 10am with an orientation walking tour of Cusco, stopped off at the coca shop and had a lovely coca leaf tea and tried some coca leaf chocolates...all purely for medicinal purposes…for the altitude. (this is not Amsterdam where you can try all sorts of things!)
Don't I look cute
and that will be "1 sol please" and she woudn't take anything less. Of course no day is complete without some shopping. Everywhere you go there are people selling something from finger puppets to jewellery to artworks to having your shoes cleaned not to mention the numerous shops.
Another community program that Intrepid supports is Aldea Yanapy. They have a restaurant in town that promotes economic sustainability and supports an orphanage. Absolutely yummy food.
More shopping…found a place that hand makes boots to order…only 110 sol which is about $40…how can you resist. I don't know how much wear they will get on the Gold Coast but we thought since we were going to be having 3 winters in a row we might get some wear out of them.
Tuesday Aug 26
Next stop on the agenda is Ollantaytambo with a visit to Chincheros’ community on the way. Malcolm tells me this drive through the valley was spectacular but all the early mornings and not getting much sleep at night time (you know how it is when you share a room with somebody you’re not familiar with) is starting to catch up, hence I managed to sleep all the way to the Chincheros’ community.
Chinchero, called "El Pueblo Del Arco
Iris" (the town of the rainbow), is high up on a spectacular place,
around 12,000 feet above sea level, with tremendous views of the Urubamba mountain range as well as
the majestic Salkantay mountain that reaches almost 19,000 ft. Chinchero is halfway between the Sacred
Valley and Cusco. The town of Hispanic architecture is built on old Inka constructions.
To get to the site you have to run the gauntlet of stalls. By this stage it’s getting to be same ol’, same ol’. Had lunch prepared by the local community which consisted of soup followed by vegetable patties then chicken, guinea pig, potatoes and salad. Hygiene didn’t seem to be too apparent and some people found they couldn’t eat anything. The toilet was a little cubicle awash with water which we found came from the shower rose above and which continuously dripped while using the toilet. This was a case of roll your jeans up before entering. Visited another community project, a school where we took bread rolls, fruit and drinks. After living in a land of plenty it’s a really nice to see how appreciative the kids are for just the basic things. They wanted us to visit their
class rooms and delighted us with some singing and drumming (tapping on a wooden box).
In Chinchero we participated in a ceremonial prayer for mother earth (Pachamama), safety in our travels, and our own personal wishes. The offering consisted of coca leaves of which we had 3 each, one for the spiritual realm, one for the earthly realm and one for the deceased world , then it was offerings of very potent alcohol of which they party with afterwards.
Finally made it to our hotel and after a brief pit stop we visited the Ollantaytambo archaeological site which is like a prelude to Machuu Pichuu or so we thought. Being at altitude seems to take it out of you so we all had an early night but Malcolm ended being up all night with the vomits whether it was from the food at lunch time or altitude we don’t know…nobody else was ill.
Wednesday 27
It was a very subdued Malcolm that finally made it to the train the next morning. In fact we had to hire a tuk tuk to take us to the train station as he wouldn’t have made it there on foot. It
was a shame he wasn’t feeling well as he missed some of the best scenery we have seen and consequently had to make do with the movies that I took. The train was built to take advantage of the scenery with windows part way up the roof. The service on the train was like what you would expect on a plane which was all rather unexpected. The train track runs along side the river along which you can imagine them doing white water rafting. One of our fellow travellers told me the river was probably a grade 4 for white water rafting, whatever that means but it was certainly spectacular. The scenery is quite varied. At one stage we thought we must have been back home as we went through a whole grove of eucalyptus trees, the next minute we were in the rainforest. Aguas Calientes is basically small town that runs down a hill, with hotels/shops along the train track that runs through middle of the town. Upon arrival at the train station you have to run the gauntlet of the many stalls that abound at the top of the town…all selling the same ol’ same ol’ but nevertheless
The gang enjoying coca leaf tea
and coca leaf lollies and coca leaf chocolates...definitely only for the altitude... you can always find something to buy. I am sure the only reason for its existence is to house the hordes that use it as a base for Machuu Pichuu.
Arrived at lunch time so had the remainder of the day to relax and for Malcolm to recover so he would be able to go to Machuu Pichuu since this was one of the reasons for doing the trip in the first place.
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Johan & Magda
non-member comment
coca leaf
Hi Lesley and Malcolm, Is the coca leaf from the cocacola plant :-)) Then i advise you the pepsi plant :-( Beautifull photo's again. And Malcolm you're an artist with your lunch.