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Published: April 3rd 2007
Machu Picchu in the eyes of a llama
Tired and weary, after 4 days of following the inka trail we finally arrived at this incredible site and it did not fail to disapoint. Day 76 - Day 92 (11/03/07 - 29/03/07)
Arriving into Peru late at night, we were excited but unprepared for what to expect in the second country in our South American tour. Separated by only 4 air miles, we found that Peru and Brazil couldn´t be more different, needless to say it was quite a culture shock! Although in 2 and a half months we hadn't picked much portugese expect the niceities, we found it hard to adjust to spanish speaking ways and customs, well much harder than we'd imagined!
Two months living the Brazilian lifestyle had rubbed off on us nicely, and we arrived into Lima with only havianas and beach gear....so the new Andean temperate was quite a shock to our systems. Lima, which was our entry point to this country was not so cold as the rest of the country, but was definitely cooler than anywhere we´d been so far.
Lima
Lima, as the capital and home to more than 8 million people, has a certain elegance that is widely observed as a colonial centre that holds itself as a much more modern city than we imagined and one that is
a perfect introduction to Peru. The bright white and clean municipal buildings were quite impressive and housed interesting museums and crypt collections...much to our surprise, they like their bone artifacts here...see the photos!
Our hotel in central Lima, was one well found but also quite an experience, it seemed to be an old converted museum, so the smell was quite musty and the atmosphere was really spooky, but it was possibly one of the most interesting places we´ve been so far! Exploring the markets in Lima was a hectic and chaotic experince but very excitng, it seemed to be the jewellry making heaven of south america as it had zillions of bead and decorative stalls for unbelivebly low prices, so i cashed in on some unusual beeds and hope to make some jewellry for myself and friends and if we need some extra money along the way maybe i can sell some stuff! The Chinese food here in Lima is also worth a mention as being paticualrly good!
Next stop was notably our main purpose to Peru, Cusco, which was a 22 hour south easterly bus journey from Lima including 2 meals and 1 game of bingo, which
passed rather smoothly as we climbed higher into the mountains, what hit us was the sheer cold though! The city of Cusco was surprisingly nice, built in the depression of many hills, it sat comfortably on the valley floor, looking nice and pittoresque for the tourists photos or indeed any onlookers amusement. The first main noticabilities was the traditional dress of the local people unlike the more modern dress of Lima, and not just for show actually it was what they actually wore.
The Sacred Valley
Arriving in Cusco, the owner of the hostel we were staying in took pity on our beach gear, and took us to the local Cusconian market where we saw sights that would effect the rest of our travels, inc food that looked delicious but was made from deep dark dodggy stuff, and 45 year old-looking women breast feeding 3 year old kids on the street corners, aswell a loads of latest fasion stalls, from where we would desperately purchase winter jackets and walking shoes, except here in this part of the world, they are not familiar with people over the height of 170cm, so Christian had to resort to buying
leather office shoes for our trekking as they were the only footwear that they had in his size in this country!!
Arriving in Cusco and taking it easy adjucting to the new altitude for a few days lent us no favours, we later leant that apparently we had to have booked the Inka Trail 5 days before wanted to leave as they had to register it with the governement to protect the area etc etc, so we had a good 6 days, in its heart, to explore The Sacred Inka valley. The friendly local boy Marcos guided us on to the local bus, it was us-1 english, 1 swede and 40 Cusconians complete with their livelihoods and their entire belongings, all the 1 hour journey to one of the ancient Inka towns-Pisac. This was the normal sunday market, which was to us really cool and chaotic. There was millions of stalls selling everything from hand made inka tapastries to locally produced vegetables, of which we have never seen anything quite like before, mainly coca leaves and root vegetables that looked completetly alien to us. Here we purchased some really nice tapestries for our future home and for our family.
After some shopping we climbed up for 1 and a half hours to an Inka temple and some local inka peoples houses, it was really intresting insight into the areas history but at this point we did not know that we would see hundreds of these sights on the inka trail.
Another day we trekked to another inka sight called "sacsayhuaman " but pronunced for us gringos as "sexy woman" but meant nothing in the slightest and represented a zigzag fort which took over 100 hundred years to build and apparently 3000 men died (can you imagine) in the building of this fort when transporting 1 stone which weighed over 300 tonnes.
The 4 day Inka trail
Bright and early at 06:30 am the tour group picked us up from our hotel and drove us for 3 hours deep into the mountains. Exiting the bus we were harassed by at least 20 locals mountain folk who tried to sell us handmade wooden walking sticks, little did we know that we would desperatly need these along the trekk. Crossing the river over the handmade bridge was the real aknowledgement that we were enbarking on a serious and
historic trekk.
Day1:
The first day we were told was the easiest which it was, but it was actually quite hard for some. The scenery wasn´t so spectacular as we were low in the valley but we saw some inka ruins and began our trekk along the original inka trail. This was the first point at which we saw how incredible the porters were: they were local men aged between 15 and 60 years old and carried everything from 2 gas canisters (which weighed per unit 30 kilos each), to 4 man tents for 18 people, to food for 40 people for 4 days and there were only 15 of them with home made bags created from sacks and rugs. Walking 7 hours was alright, but nothing in comparison for what was to come! We played cards in the dark with candles in our tents as the porters prepared dinner, a pasta feast!
Day 2:
Bright and early, after not too much sleep in our tents, the porters woke us with offering of coca tea in our tents. We were well warned that this was to be the hardest day by far, so we filled our gums with
coca leaves and set off on the mammoth trek. Up and up we walked the seemingly never-ending uphill mountain trek to the "Dead Woman's Pass". It was awful and every corner we turned within the mountain we thought was the end.... only to be bitterly dissapointed as the clouds shifted and it was actually miles more! Fortunately we had a great group, so we kept each others spirit´s high and the moaning down, with coca leaves and jokes...the higer we got, the harder it got (it makes sense though, higher altitude means less oxygen) and the longer we walked the more breaks we needed, and even after a quick breather, only 10 steps into the next bit you were as tired as if not having a break.....eventually we dragged ourselves over the peak...an impressive 4,700m high and right above the clouds! That night we slept like babies underneath the stars in the middle of the main valley too tires to do anything else!
Day 3:
Woke up with sore legs and stiff back and already tired but there was still more than 18km to walk and most of it uphill....but at the end of it we were guaranteed beers,
No rest for the wicked.
This old dear only 4 foot tall but still going strong. so spirits were high and all of a sudden we were racing up mountains! It was hard but by now we were used to it, we saw a number of Inka ruins along the way, many of which were used as places to wash and clean up by the Inkas before they reached the sacred Machu Picchu! Finally many hours of uphill and then 3 hours of steep downhill climb we reached the last camp...where we thoroughly abused the bar and celebrated our journey so far, maybe it wasn´t such a good idea with the altitude and extremely early wakeup the following day, but at the time it was well deserved beer!
Day 4:
The 3.40am wakup was less than appreciated, the rain poured all night long resulting in very little sleep all round, and we were wet and cold and tired as we began the last leg of the journey to Machu Picchu (Geez we don´t know how those inkas managed it). Reaching the Sun Gate at 5am, or something silly was not as rewarding as promised as the clouds blocked all view we had of the sacred city...we did not give up hope though, 4 days of
trekking and we had high aspirations for this place let us tell you...so thankfully at about 11am the sun burst through and blue skies prevailed and we really enjoyed exploring and sitting and admiring the manmade wonder! The llamas and tourists added to the experience, but it really is truly spectacular, even if it is 70%!r(MISSING)ebuilt which we weren´t aware of....but you get the idea!
It was an incredible experiece, extremely difficult and don´t believe anyone who says it isn´t, but every step is worth it when you reach the ultimate goal of Machu Picchu, the surroundings and scenery are incredible and adds to the whole thing!
Lake Titikaka
A day or so later, after recovering from our immense trekking in the andes mountains, terrain stark and strenuous, we took the bus east, to the also famous Lagoa Titikaka. Famous for its bright blue waters and indigenous populations we were keen to explore this natural wonder. Known as the world´s highest navigable lake, at almost 4000 m, we stayed in a little peruvian town on the edge of it for a day before exploring the waters. We took a boat trip and visited
Living the life of luxury before they end up on the grill.
Peru´s national dish, supposed to be very but not very filling. Could not bring ourself to eat these little fury cuties. a few of the man-made islands created from the lakes reeds, and dependant totally on tourism today. Then, wanting to get a true feel for the lake´s lifestyles and history we stayed the night on one of the lakes natural islands. Our host mother was a very sweet little woman with 2 adorable little boys, we slept in a nicely prepared room, and ate her tasty homemade traditional cooking in her little mudbrick kitchen which was mostly homegrown vegetables. That night she took us to a local fiesta in the town, where we dressed up and felt the part as locals and danced the traditional dance, it was actually a lot of fun, the local people showed huge amounts of hospitality despite being very humble.
Next step was crossing the border into Bolivia, which was really rather close! We had had an interesting and enjoyable stay in Peru, more than we had imagined. The people and their traditions were so prominent and still alive today it made for great and refreshing travelling!
(Now we are in Uruguay for a few days, and have spent a month already touring and enjoying Argentina, and Bolivia before that, sorry we are
Male fashion icon here in Pisac, Peru.
he was desperate for 5 minutes of fame, but not for free. so behind on launching our bklogs, we have been on the move and non stop for nearly two months, but we have incredible stories and photos to show for it, hope all is well with you and looking forward to hearing from you!)
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Linda
non-member comment
Anyone got a flat to go with my peruvian tapestry??
Hey chickens! Me and mum was talking bout the blog yest, and here we go.. woho! Love you in them traditional outfits... You should wear them to South, big sucess!! Mum will be exciting when telling you bout this blog.. Here its bit grey and rainy today... Ok darlings, spk to you soon hopefully!!! Luv ya!! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX