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Published: March 21st 2009
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Yes its official, here in Peru I could be classed as a tall long legged blond for the first and probably only time in my life! 😊
Well its been a hectic 10 days here in the Andes with lots of climbing, magnificent sights, more climbing, early starts and yet more climbing!!! I can´t say I´ve developed a life long passion for climbing. Its been a long hard slog but the views at the end worth it.
We departed Lima on the 12th for Arequippa, which is a very pretty town. No sooner had we arrived when they whisked us off for a city tour followed by a Monastery tour. Didn´t even notice we had arrived at 2,300m! Unfortunately we had some camera technical malfunction with the screen of my digital going caput. So the rest of my photos are on film and will have to be developed when I get back (8 films so far). We are using Martys camera to take all the digital shots with. The next morning we joined a mini bus for the journey to the Colca Canyon - the deepest canyon in thew world I think? and to see the famed Condor. The
journey to Chivay where we stayed the night took us through 4,300m where both of us experienced althitude sickness. By the time we reached 4,800 I was very very sicvk, could barely stand, vertigo, nausea. Marty was in a bad state as he had an upset gut as well so it was a bit of a relief when we reached Chivay at 3,800m for the night. I doubled the dose of the pills I had for altitude sickness, went for a hot pool and then to a cultural show while Marty went to bed. By the next day I was feeling a lot better - the drugs had kicked in, and Marty a bit better. Chivay is a tiny town with about 1 street, a square, markets and a couple of shops. A 5am start saw us headed for the Canyon. We were lucky and got there just before all the cloud rolled in by the time we were walking back to the bus we could hardly see in front of us! However it is really hard work walking up and down mtns at this altitude - you can´t get your breathe back and I started coughing again so the
trsuty inhaler made an appearance. We did manage to see the condor - several times in fact so were lucky with this.
That afternoon saw a 6 hr bus ride through to Puno onm the shores of Lake Titicaca, passing through 4,800m again we felt fine so the drugs were obviously wotking. We arrived in the evening and unfortunately Marty was still a bit ill so I ventured out alone taking in a street parade, finding money changers, doing a little shopping (poncho for me). It was very cold in Puno and I didnt have enough clothes as I had sebnt all the antarctic gear home. The next day we went on an all day tour on Lake Titicaca visiting the floating reed villages of Eros and onto a large island who´s name has slipped out of my head. We climbed up about 300m in altitude (about 1-2km) for lunch (3,900m) with a million dollar view. After lunch we carried onto the top at 4,100m. You can really feel the exertion. After a short rest we started the 500 steps down which just about killed me as they are made for giant people (despite the size of the locals),
are completely uneven and go straight down - could barely move the next day ha ha!!!!
The next morning we had a late start of 7am and joined the Inka Express from Puno yo Cuzco. The bus broke down before we managed to leave Puno and after a 2 hr wait our journey started again on a new bus. We vsitied ruins, churches and markets in Pukara (3879m), La Raya (4335m), Sicuani (3540m), Raqchi (3475m), Andahuaylillas (3093) finally arriving at Cuzco (3400m) around 6.30pm on Mar 16.
Cuzco is very pretty and after changing hotels every night we were very pleased to have 3 nights in the same place. It has a town square with losa of restaurants around it and steep narrow cobbled streets. The next day (17th) we headed to the sacred Valley for the day visiting the Pisac market (where I went a little mad!), Urubamba, then onto a couple of sites including Ollyantampo Temple. More hiking up and down mountains although this time wasn´t sufferring from altitude sickness so that was good. Stopped to taste the local beer - very bitter although the strawberry beer was nicer. We finished the day in a fitting
way being St Patricks Day at Paddys Irish Pub in the square. It was rowdy, packed, and pretty loose. People dancing on (and falling off) tables, chairs, down stairs, beer thrown everywhere, lots of people dressed up. I was given a nice green hat to wear! Finally staggered home about 1.30am
Mar 18 - yay a sleep in. All we have today is a cuty tour in the afternoon. VisitedKoriancha Temple, the big cathedral, Saqsaywaman, qénqo, puka pukara and Tambomachay.
Mar 19. Left the hotel at 6.50am to catch the train up to Macchu Picchu (3hrs). Arrived about 11am then transferred up to the site to begin the hike to the top and the famous view of the site with Waynapicchu in the background. Amazing. I will say no more about this and will let the photos tell the story. Back in Cuzco today (21st). Departing for Lima in a couple of hours and onto Quito and then the Galapagos - will be in Galapagos tomorrow (22nd).
Adios for now
Julz & Marty
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