Advertisement
Published: April 8th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Well.... it´s pretty damn amazing out here! Seemed to take forever to get here, had a small delay in Madrid but still got to Santiago in good time. Was really funny bumping into the lads in Santiago, they flew from New Zealand so our body clocks were all over the place. We decided to try and drink off the jet lag, started drinking at 2ish and after many bars ended up playing poker with some locals ´til 4am, was very messy, I still have scars from a few drunken falls now!! Stayed a few days in Santiago, went to the Chilean National Stadium to watch Universidad de Chile who are like the Manchester Utd of Chilean football, Marcelo Salas plays for them if anyone remembers him! The stadium wasn´t packed but the atmosphere was still absolutley mental, the army had to protect the officials and were having flares thrown at them! The fans had some passion, didn´t stop jumping about and singing at any point, was hilarious! We´re gonna try and watch at least five more matches, hopefully watch River Plate or Boca. After Santiago we pretty much got busy with the travelling, taken about 6 buses so far with the
shortest journey being 7 hours and the longest being 23, caned through 3 books already! All of the buses apart from one have been total luxury reclining into beds with films on and food brought to you all for less than a quid an hour! Pretty much bypassed Chile on the buses but it´s all just desert anyway, in speaking to people didn´t really miss out. It was pretty much a case of wake up, get bus, get hostel, get out drinking (or stay in and play poker), go to bed for a few days! Finally got to Peru, their elections are on tomorrow, the atmosphere since we´ve been here has been chaotic, they take their elections very seriously, it´s like a carnival, first morning in Peru we were rudely awaken by one of many parades going past our balcony, funny stuff. The people over here absolutley love the Gringos (Americans/British) you almost feel like a celebrity once you get used to the stares and giggles from the girls when you smile back! The one awful bus that we did get from Arequipa to Puno was an 8 hour adventure, we had dogs and chickens on board, broke down about
three times and all of our luggage was strapped to the top of the bus not very convincingly! I´m sure the lads won´t be surprised that I´ve been trying a few of the local delights, been slightly dissapointed though but....... ´When in Rome!´. From Puno we travelled to Cuzco which is where we set out for the Inca Trail from, Cuzco is beautiful, lots to see and do.
The Inca Trail
This was the most breathtaking experience of my life in more ways than one! The scenery is just amazing, the trekking was pretty much an asthmatics nightmare! Our group was very small, only us and a scottish couple which was great, our tour guide Diego was a bit of a legend! We had a team of ten porters who carried all of our stuff, cooked for us, put our tents up, they pretty much did everything. You should have seen these guys go, they are absolute heros, it was hilarious! They have 20kgs on their back and run the whole way pretty much, god knows how, we struggled when walking with just our day bags! One of the porters looked like Pharrell Williams, got a pic of
him with Lanni, doesn´t really do him justice though. The boys have elequantly named Lanni ´Ratdog´and are trying kill her by various means but don´t worry Leanne I will try and look after her! The closest she came was a small incident with a train which you can see in the photos!
Day one was pretty straightforward, we were picked up from our hostel at 5am, went 2 hours by coach and then the walking was quite easy with only a few hills and a few ruins on the way. Saw loads of wildlife including a tarantula which was pretty cool. The alpaca steaks out here are to die for! We camped up in the hills and were spoilt with some amazing Andean cuisine.
Day two was a totally different story! It was uphill (and when I say uphill I mean 45 degrees) solidly for five hours up to Dead Woman´s Pass which was at 4200m, the air was very thin up there!!! This was easily the most challenging thing I have EVER done in my life but also probably the most rewarding. After the climb it was a two hour descent which kills the knees and after
that I was spent! We were supposed to walk further that day as our route was lengthened by about 12km due to a landslide blocking the original trail just before Macchu Picchu but luckily we just camped and got up at 4am to do the extra on day three.
Day three was 9 hrs, we first climbed the second pass, then descended, then climbed the third pass, then descended for about 4hrs to a small town where we stayed before visiting Macchu Picchu the following morning. Day three was 23km which doesn´t sound much but it was by no means flat and it absolutley pissed it down which wasn´t much fun! I felt a little under the weather that night so retired early as the boys got on the beer. That night I was violently ill and couldn´t even get up at 4am with the others to go to Macchu Picchu, another of our group was the same, she and her husband didn´t make it up at all! I struggled up on my own at about 11am but was only up there for about 45mins and forgot Lanni! I don´t think I´ve ever been so ill, just wanted to
be at home. Some advice - If you´re gonna get ill, do not do it in the middle of the Peruvian jungle, it´s hell! Still recovering today but definately on the mend back in Cuzco now.
Been invited to play the Peruvians at football this afternoon but I´m deciding against it cos I´m still a bit of a fever boy, Arnie´s got a bad knee and Bean doesn´t wanna show them up! Joe and Pies will probably play later though. Probably gonna go and get a nice massage this afternoon (not that type of massage!) and just recuperate. I believe Arsenal are playing Utd tomorrow at 10am so will enjoy that over a nice breakfast in the sun! Go on then Utd!
I hope everyone´s well and the weather is nice - haha!
To summarise, this is just incredible, the time of my life but my God what I´d give for a warm shower!
Ta da.
P.S. If anyone else wants to receive my blog updates just send their e-mail address to freakin_around@yahoo.com and also Steve can you get Crippsy to send me his address as I´ve lost it, cheers.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0462s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Peter Williams
non-member comment
Impressed!
Very good you are all making so much of it. Keep posting!