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Published: April 30th 2009
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I´m sittng here in our B&B basement accomodation in Cusco, Peru trying to get my brain into gear after a jam packed week of amazing sights, history (ancient), uncomfortable bus and train trips, walks and markets - somehow I think that I´m going to have to let the photos do the talking!
Canyon Country
We left Arequipa joining a 3 day Colca Canyon trip. Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the US. The steep sides range in depth from 1000-3000m at an altitude of 5000m to 2500m or so above sea level. It is pretty dry country that gets extremely cold in winter and is where a lot of the film Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid was filmed.
We hiked down into the valley - 3 hrs straight down and then an agonising 3 hrs back out the next day and short of being able to say we did it we are not sure why anyone would really want to do it!! We did, however, learn to appreciate the tough life the remote villagers live having to cart ther produce either by mule or on their backs up &
down this steep and demanding landscape.
A highlight of the trip was a stop at a stone forest were these amazing rock formations in the middle of nowhere.
After a long and bumpy late afternoon/evening bus trip we stopped the night at Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. This massive lake was not on our ¨to see¨ list and bright and early the next day we headed for Cusco on the Inka Express. This bus trip was over the high altiplano plains and we stopped at a few churches, towns and markets along the way.
Markets...Markets...Markets
The Sunday Markets at Pisac (just outside of Cusco) were high on our list of ¨must sees¨ so we arranged a taxi to take us out there, wait for us and return us safely to our B&B - a 6 hour excursion for approx $35!!. The colours, the noise, the hustle & bustle was so much fun and we managed to help the local economy by spending up big!
And then to Machu Picchu
We spent the day on an interesting tour up the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo learning all about Inca ruins, farming and
Peruvian village life (spoilt marginally by all the gum trees planted for building and firewood). From Ollantaytambo we took the evening train to Aguas Calientes which has the nearest accomodation to Machu Picchu unless you can afford The Lodge which is right beside the ruins at US$1000-2000 per night (not quite in our budget!)
Anyway up at 4.30am to catch the first bus up to the ruins at 5.30am. Misty rain and cloud hung around for the first hour or so which made for some wonderful photos. You just can´t explain the feeling of the place - to sit there and look at amazing buildings and terracing constructed over 600 years ago, to wonder at the people who laboured so hard, their daily life and their beliefs. Amazingly somehow even though thousands of people visit every day the spirit of the place remains. We spent 6 hour wandering, sitting and taking photo and throughly enjoyed ourselves.
A rough 3 1/2 hour train trip back to Cusco the only ¨blip¨ in a fantastic day.
Roaming mobile phones
It has taken us awhile to figure it out but even if you don´t own a mobile phone in Sth
America you can still enjoy the freedom of making a call from almost anywhere. On most busy streets are people with a couple of mobiles (we think that they work for the service providers) ready for you to make a call. When finished you pay for your call and ¨hey presto¨ you have arranged your taxi, called your friend or made that deal!!
We are trying to arrange getting to northern Chile so will hopefully update the blog from there.
Bye for now
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cath
non-member comment
Hope you've stocked up on face masks for the plane journey home!