Peru!

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Lake Titicaca

Leaving La Paz behind us, we thoroughly expected the bus to Copacabana to be late, being pleasantly surprised when it arrived on time and was uneventful, due to no chickens on board, working air conditioning and actual leg room! It was only 3 ½ hours to Copacabana so it went by in a flash, with a short boat journey half way through.

On the bus we met two Danish girls, Sarah and Katja whom we quickly became friends with, and we ended up travelling together for a few weeks.We booked into a hostel, 6 de Agosto which was insanely cheap, and arranged to visit Isle de Sol on Lake Titicaca for the following day.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, the boat over to the island took 2 hours and we were dropped off at the north of the island, to walk to the south to be picked up again at 3.20pm for the last boat back. It was 11am by the time we got to the island and we thought that we would have all the time in the world…. Oh how wrong we were!

Starting off we had to pay 10BOB to start the walk which we had to borrow form Sarah and Katja, as there are no ATM’s in Copacabana, so we had no cash. It started fine, walking across a beach, and the views were lovely, of crystal clear water in the brilliant sunshine and huge trees. Then, all of a sudden it was horrific! The hills got really steep and we all struggled so much, not one of us being particularly fit. Nobody told us that it was a really hard trek, mostly uphill, and we were still at quite a high altitude as well! On top of all that we had to rush so that we didn’t miss our boat back, we must have looked a right sight, all of us bright red and sweaty as everybody overtook us. Also what the booking office conveniently didn’t tell us was that at various points along the way you have to pay a further 5 BOB each time. Not a lot, but we had to keep borrowing it from Sarah and Katja who we had only just met. If it wasn’t for them we would have been stranded halfway over the island! Thankfully the last half hour was all downhill and we made it to the harbor with 20 minutes to spare before our boat left. Safe to say we all slept on the boat ride back! It was hard work but we saw it all as training for our climb up to Machu Picchu!



Arriving back in Copacabana, we only had an hour to spare until our bus to Cusco, Peru.

I think that they definitely overbooked the coach, as my seat number was 46, which didn’t exist; it only went as far as 45! It turned out that I had to sit at the front with the driver (as it was over booked) along with 2 other people who stood up around me. Surprisingly not resulting in the most comfortable journey ever, but luckily it was only 3 hours until we got to Puno and changed buses to cross the border into Peru, which went smoothly. We managed to get both an exit and entry stamp this time, not repeating the Bolivia adventures of being illegal!!

We were told that at Puno we would have an hour stopover in which to get some food etc, we didn’t, we had 10 minutes. In that time we had to buy our new tickets, buy food and then find the new bus. Thankfully I wasn’t sat with the driver this time, we were all squeezed on the back row. It was approximately 9 hours to Cusco and it was very bumpy the whole way. There were no floor lights, or any lights on the coach, and we were on roads that didn’t have any street lights with random donkeys and cows lying in the middle of the road, so if you wanted to go to the toilet (thankfully it actually had one!) it was a treacherous journey to it.

We arrived at Cusco about 6.30am and I nearly lost my bag…AGAIN!!!it was the big one this time, but it was just a case of someone having the same bag and grabbing it as it came out of the hold, but I had a keen eye from past experiences, and rushed to get it back!

We booked into Loki hostel, our first party hostel of the trip and we couldn’t wait to dance and book our trip to Machu Picchu!

Cusco

It didn’t take us long to establish that it was a major party hostel and we wasted absolutely no time and we were soon dancing on the tables and bar!

We ended up spending almost 2 weeks in Loki, visiting Machu Picchu in between partying every night. Loki basically consisted of drinking a lot of Cubra Libras every day, meeting a lot of people, dancing on tables, swinging from beams and recovering the next day either in a hammock or on a bean bag, ignoring the free breakfast of bread and jam and getting scrambled egg and bacon before doing it all again.

Whilst at Loki we bumped into Alison, who we had met in Rio and she came along to Machu Picchu with me Lisa, Han, Sarah and Katja. Unfortunately the 4 day trek there was fully booked for months ahead, so we went for the 2 day option which took us on a train to Aguas Calientes, staying overnight and then up the Inca steps to Machu Picchu.

Arriving at Aquas Calientes, heading up to the Machu Picchu site the following day, we decided to visit the hot springs available there. A few of them were not so hot though and when we finally got in one that was, I couldn’t help thinking that we were just sat in a giant bath that hundreds of people had already been in. I swiftly got out after thinking that.

Aguas Calientes is basically made up of market stalls, restaurants and hotels for the tourists, but still lovely. We sampled a couple of restaurants whilst there, trying out a local dish of Alpaca (a type of llama) in one, it tasted like beef! And the not so traditional Chinese restaurant in which I got noodles, pretty standard, but they came with some sort of birds nest on top. I have no idea what it was at all, I just know that I didn’t like it.

Preparing for Machu Picchu, we met our guide the evening before, whos first piece of information was to tell us that we were doing the first bit without him! Some guide! We were to set off at 4am on a 40 minute walk to the entrance to the Inca steps, in the hope that we got to the top within the first 400 people, as the first 400 get the opportunity to walk up Wayna Picchu (which means young peak) which is even higher than Machu Picchu (meaning old peak)! This was quite an effort, as there are lots of people coming from various different directions all with the same thing in mind, plus the lazy people who opt for the bus up there rather than walk!

Machu Picchu

So the following morning, we set off at 4am (with no guide) in the pitch black, with only 2 torches between the 6 of us, arriving at the gate ready for the steps with the hopeful sight of only about 100 people infront of us!

The Steps!

(They deserve their own title!)

I have never been in so much pain in my life!!! The steps were unbearable, soooo steep and never ending, trudging up them for about an hour and a half. I had to keep stopping as I felt like my lungs were on fire!

I'd like to say that it's quite a challenge to do for the fittest person, but they made me realise just how unfit I am, my unfitness enhanced by the constant partying at Loki, the Cubra Libras did absolutely nothing to help my already pathetic climbing ability. Around 6.45am, I managed to drag my wheezing body over the final step to a view of an almighty queue to get in! Somehow though, we still managed to be within the first 400 people! A miracle must have happened there!

They allow 200 people at a time to climb Wayna Picchu with the first 200 going up between 7-8am, and the last 200 between 11-12pm. Our guide met us at the gate and told us to go for the 11-12 option, as the clouds and mist would have cleared by then, giving us a better view. I asked if we would have a chance at that as surely all the other guides were telling their groups the same thing, but he said it would be fine. So, we asked for the 11-12 slot, and suprisingly it was full! Didn't see that one coming! We told the guide, and he said not to worry, he would get us up there as people sign up to it and then don't do it as they are too tired, so we put it to the back of our minds.

As it was still so early, the site was relatively empty as we wandered around, and our first glimpse of the ruins was breath taking. It was the most awesome thing that I have ever set my eyes on! As the mist slowly drifted away and the blazing sun came out, it was awe inspiring to think that people had actually lived there, in the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain! Our guide told us all about the history of Machu Picchu and how it was actually built, which was really interesting, although slightly distracting, as although his English was very good, he started pretty much every sentence with either, 'I'm sorry' or 'please', neither of which was ever relevent.

Throughout the tour it slowly got hotter and hotter. We were lucky with the weather, as just the day before it had been raining, but I got that sunburnt that I got a blister on my nose!

At about 10.30am the tour ended and the guide said that he had sorted it out so we could go up Wayna Picchu, so we joined the queue. Unsuprisingly on arriving at the front of the queue we were told that we couldn't go up as we didn't have a stamp. Our guide had convieniently vanished on us by this point. We were told that we could wait to see if people didn't turn up, but we didn't want to stand in a queue at Machu Picchu with so many other better things to do and see, so we explored on our own after that.

We had a fantastic day up at Machu Picchu, making the horrific climb up there definitaly worth it. After nearly a whole day up there we had to head back down to catch our train to take us back to Cusco. Our legs felt like jelly, so we couldn't even go down the steps, opting for the far quicker and far easier, bus journey down!

We arrived back at Loki hostel that evening and bumped into our two Dutch heroes Ben and Benny who saved us in Bolivia, had a quick catch up with them which was regretably too short and the last time we would see them on our trip. Shockingly after our exhausting day, we decided to get back on the Cubra Libras and go to the clubs in town!!! Han stayed in not feeling to good, it turned out that she had an abscess on her tonsil and stayed 24 hours in a clinic on a drip before she was good to go again. That's what Loki hostel and Machu Picchu do to you (combined with alcohol that is!).

We calmed down a bit after that and organised the next part of our trip down to Nazcar, which Sarah and Katja were going to come along to as well.

Nazcar

We finally left the party behind at Loki, and got a 10 hour bus to Nazcar arriving at 4.30am. Luckily there was a guy there looking to get people to stay in his hostel which we quickly agreed to, not wanting to walk around that time of the morning. It was actually quite nice and had a tiny (freezing cold) swimming pool, which came in very handy as Nazcar was so hot and dry.

Through the hostel we arranged a tour to see the Nazcar lines, (a cheaper option rather than taking a plane to see them) it took us up two towers 13 metres high, a lot less impressive, but also a lot less expensive. We got to see the family, hands and the tree lines from the towers, with the guide telling us all about them. There's no record of how they were made and there are several theories, the main one being that the lines and pictures are the markings of a huge astronomical calender, as at the summer solstice, the sun sets directly on one of the main Nazcar lines.

Another, not as widely accepted theory, is that they were made by aliens! I believe the calender theory personally.

The following day we went sandboarding on the worlds highest sand dune. We left at 4am, walking for 2 hours in the pitch black carrying our boards in order to spend less time in the sun. Walking up a sand dune is not easy, it was up there with climbing the Inca steps. We had a few practice runs down a slight slope and it was really difficult. Lisa took a tumble after gathering too much speed, she was ok just absolutely covered in sand!!

We spent the next few hours going from dune to dune, each one getting steadily steeper and steeper, until eventually at the last dune we couldn't believe our eyes, it was huge. 800 metres down and and at a 45 degree angle, it was scary to look at, nevermind slide down it on a bit of wood! As it was so steep, going down standing up wasn't an option, so we were instructed to sit down using our feet in the sand as brakes. So much fun. We all reached the bottom safely thankfully. We heard a horror story a few weeks later from someone who also did it, and their instructor told them to go down on their stomaches, face first, which just seemed stupid! This persons friend did it and lost control going too fast and crashed into someone elses board at the bottom... face first, losing most of her teeth and having to have reconstructive surgery! So glad I heard that story after I had done it!

At the bottom there was a 45 minute walk back to civilisation, where we just about had enough time to have a quick shower, rinsing the equivalent of a small dessert from us before we rushed off to catch a coach to Lima.

Lima

After having a few quiet days in Nazcar, and doing things such as hurling ourselves down giant sand dunes, we were all looking forward to the hustle and bustle of city life in Lima, booking oursleves into the Loki there, ready for more party times. Big disappointment.

Lima is a city of 9 million people, but it really doesn't have a lot going for it. It has the usual Inca markets, but lacks the charm of places such as Cusco. Also the Lima Loki was not at all like Cusco, it was so quiet in comparison, but it didn't stop us from trying to have a good time! We found a couple of clubs to go to, with our taxi driver actually joining us one night, he dropped us off and just decided to stop work and party with us.

After a couple of days in Lima, we had to say goodbye to Sarah and Katja as they headed back to Denmark. It was sad to see them go as we had all become pretty close over the past 3 weeks travelling together and it all got a bit emotional!

We had our final day in Lima without the girls getting ready for our own flight in the evening to Santiago in Chile for our final week in South America.

I absolutely adored Peru, with it being one of my favourite places I have been to, and Machu Picchu is still to be beat as the most amazing thing I have ever seen.

I vow to go back there one day!

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