La Paz to Cusco

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After flying in from the rainforest I only spent a few hours in La Paz, from the airport I rushed to a bar called Oliver’s Travels (officially the 5th best bar in town and a 100% fake English pub) to watch England’s disappointing defeat in the world cup. Strangely when we eventually lost, not one person made a sound, everyone just got up and left. That afternoon I got a bus through to Copacabana, a small colonial town on the edge of Lake Titicaca whose name was made famous by Barry Manilow. On my first morning there I climbed the Stations of the Cross, a steep hill adjacent to the town, to get a good view of the lake. Being the highest lake on earth ensures that wall to wall blue skies are a daily occurrence; this makes the water in this huge lake seem unnaturally blue. Under the direct morning sunlight the ripples in the water caught the sun which made a vast swathe of the lake sparkle. I spent most of the day in the company of two lovely American girls, either relaxing in the numerous cafes that line the main street or relaxing in a peddle boat.

The next day I was due to travel over the border into Peru and onto Cuzco to start my Inca Trail, but some border dispute meant all the busses were cancelled. In desperation I returned to La Paz and tried to fly to Cuzco, again no joy. Next morning I returned to Copacabana only to find that once more a border crossing by bus was not possible. After ten hours in a bus and a mad dash through La Paz trying to organize a flight I was not best pleased. I decided to make the most of my misfortune and went on a trip that afternoon to Isla del Sol, the main site of the Inca creation Myth.

The boat trip out to the island was an amusing affair, I could have easily outpaced the vessel in a sculling boat and could probably have given it a run for its money in a peddle boat, even the one aptly named Titanic. The island itself had few well preserved ruins; the Inca temple at the south of the island was the most impressive and the water steps were also quite pretty, especially in the afternoon sun. I would have enjoyed the tour more were it not for the constant pestering from touts, but at that point I was just happy not to be on a bus.

Last night and this morning I’ve been catching up on my blogging, for the last week travelblog’s server has been down so I’ve spent many hours in this internet cafe. I am booked onto a bus to Cuzco this afternoon but I’ve already missed the start date of my Inca Trail which is really crap, since I doubt I will be able to reschedule. I have absolutely loved Bolivia despite the bittersweet ending. Even though the third world inefficiency and corruption that’s so insidious here can be infuriating and frustrating the country has an awful lot to offer travelers, which I hope I’ve been able to convey in my blogs.

Amazingly I managed to cross the border to Peru without a hitch but my luck did not hold, after arriving in Puno mid afternoon I was informed that the road blocks were still in full swing and that our bus would be delayed for a further six hours. This meant a 9pm departure with a slightly crappier bus company. They stuck me in a seat with enough leg room to satisfy a midget; so I got up and moved straight to the front seat. This caused quite a ruckus since I refused to change seats and the conductor spent much of the journey mumbling "fucking gringos" under his breath; about an hour into the trip a local woman sat down next to me, her posterior rivaled that of a small elephant so I spent the next eight hours wedged against the window. I think it may have dropped below freezing during the night since I was continually loosing feeling down one side of my body. Ah, the joys of traveling.

After four days of effort I finally made it into Cusco at 6am on the 5th of July; still rather desperate to get onto the Inca Trail, I went directly to Toucan Travel to see what could be arranged. Before I even sat down the boss said to me "No Inca Trail, you cannot go, it is impossible", I countered with "nothings impossible" which she seemed to like. Fortunately the office was run almost entirely by women who took quite a motherly shine to me, within thirty minutes I was standing outside the INC (Inca Trail governing body), while two ladies were trying to persuade the INC’s President to let me onto the trail and two more were back in the office writing a letter arguing my case. It’s amazing where a cheesy grin and a positive attitude will get you.

Before the president made his decision I jumped in a cab and was driven hell for leather up to the start of the Inca Trail with the intention of doing the first two days of hiking in one afternoon in order to catch up with my group. It wasn’t to be, the President made a personal call to the guard on the gate to stop me getting on the trail, it was a shame after all that effort. The day wasn’t a complete loss, Toucan Travel arranged for me to hop on a tourist bus and to be carted round the best archeological sites of the sacred valley, the guides even felt so sorry for me that I got in everywhere for free! The best part of the afternoon’s tour was visiting Ollantaytambo village, which is dominated by a vast Inca fortress. The site has huge walled terraces topped by a beautifully built Inca temple. Considering I had only been in Peru twelve hours I thought I’d achieved rather a lot.

After discussions with the boss of Toucan Travel I have booked myself onto an alternative Inca Trail, the Lares Valley Trek, which as well as being a more challenging and beautiful trail still terminates at Machu Picchu. My travel plans have been in such a constant state of flux over the last few days that I was quite relieved to find that I had two free days in Cusco before I was due to start Lares. The city is a wonderful place to explore; it is the continents oldest continually inhabited city and is undoubtedly both the tourist and archeological capital of South America. Vast colonial churches dominate the broad Plaza de Armas, but the city’s Incan heritage still abounds; the distinctive masonry of the Inca-built walls line many of the central streets, indeed Incan stonework still forms the foundations for many of the colonial buildings. The city is dominated by tourists, where Bolivia stayed almost exclusively in the backpacker’s domain; Peru caters for every age and nationality. The number of tour busses (usually filled with Americans or Brits) is astounding; despite this I enjoyed spending time here probably because it’s the closest thing to a European city I’ve seen since leaving home.

Wandering through the main plaza on my second evening in Cusco I ran into an old Barnard Castle School friend, Ross Tones. With his shaved head and my ever expanding bouffon it was a wonder we recognized each other. We had a great night reminiscing about our shared time at school and wondering at the peculiarity of running into each other in the middle of South America. It turns out he and his girlfriend have been doing an almost identical RTW trip to me, only two weeks behind, its a small world after all.

The next day Ross, Colleen and I met up for a full cooked English breakfast complete with imported Heinz baked beans, during breakfast we decided to explore all the best Inca ruins within walking distance of Cusco. The first stop was a vast site called Sacsayhuaman, which is affectionately known to gringos by the mnemonic “Sexy Woman”. The site is dominated by a huge wall built from equally massive stones; some of the doorways were in excess of double my height. All the stonework is intricately carved so it fits together perfectly, the effect is an organic structure that is very pleasing to the eye. After a bit of exploring we found a labyrinth of tunnels hewn into the rock which all centred around an oval sporting arena. Perhaps the best part of this site were the rock slides, we all had a go sliding down these natural chutes, Ross and I even had a couple of races. It’s a strange thought that those slides were probably used by the Incas for the exact same purpose and its only there continual use over the last few hundred years that’s made them so smooth. Over the next few hours we visited the smaller sites of Q´enqo, Pukapukara, and Tambomachay, all of which were fascinating. Q´enqo had a subterranean sacrificial altar and Tambomachay had a functioning ceremonial fountain that still gushes natural spring water. It was great fun wandering round with people that share my love of ancient history; it was a great day out and has made me even more excited about seeing Machu Picchu in four days time. My trek starts at 5:30 tomorrow and having just finished the pre-trek meeting I can’t wait, it sounds fantastic. Our guide said he done the Inca Trail 452 times and still prefers the Lares Trek, bodes well me thinks.

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