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Published: September 15th 2007
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Peruvian Women Dressed In Their Best
And posing for photos (and a peso or two) On a bus full of tourists, we left Bolivia from Copacabana and headed into Puno, Peru. Another quick border crossing which was good. A cute little boy was sitting near the passport control police office, took a look at my passport (I have been traveling with my Portuguese passport over here) and said ´you’re from Portugal´ I asked him if I was a gringo, he shook his head with an enthusiastic no. I was happy about that. Anyways, a quick border crossing we were in Peru, and stopped in Puno, still on the fringes of Lake Titicaca. From there we cruised on to Cusco, the old Inca capital. There was a crazy Peruvian woman on the bus who asked us to carry something for her (probably drugs), saying if she got caught, she would get in trouble. As if we wouldn’t, and besides we are not stupid. Police would love to jail a couple of gringo tourists. Anyway she was acting a little strange, when we realized she had somehow tied a plastic bag full of something under our seat. We pulled it out and left in on the spare seat next to us, she slowly walked by and collected the
Macchu Piccu
Yes, overphotographed but incredible to see in person, one of the highlights of the trip so far. Turn your head to you right.... do you see a face in the mountains? goods. We knew something fishy was on. She was stashing the stuff all over the bus. Another Aussie sitting behind us thought is was a bit strange too; we talked to him most of the way to Cusco. It was good to talk to someone normal again, there aren’t a hell of a lot of Aussies here so it was good (specially Queenslanders). We arrived late at night, found a nice dodgy place to stay with one of the worst bathrooms we have had the pleasure in using on this whole trip... anyways one of the bonuses is that we had a TV.... yay, we could finally watch some news. We turn on the tele and find out there has been a massive earthquake on the Peruvian coast near Ica and Pisco, homes and services completely destroyed, roads torn apart, and absolute chaos. Lucky for us we chose to head inland from Puno instead of head to the coast (as we first had planned).
Cusco was awesome, tourists galore but at least I could understand why. There is something really cool about walking along street, along grand colonial Spanish buildings built on top of the foundations of the old
Cusco
Beautiful plaza in the centre of Cusco. Inca ones. We spent a few days there; also checked out the nearby ruins on a bit of a mammoth day trip near town, spoke to a few really nice Peruvians for quite a while. Shopped around for an alternative to the Macchu Piccu Inca trail, but decided on going there from the nearby town, Agua Calientes. Spend a day on tour (yes finally succumbed to doing one) out to the sacred valley, which was incredible. So many old Inca sites, they were all impressive and the setting was beautiful. Met some kiwis and a couple of aussie chicks, which was awesome. Some good laughs. Anyways, at the end of the tour we were left in Ollyantambo, where we caught the late night train to Agua Calientes.
Next morning woke up at 4am, got dressed and left our room and hiked up to Macchu Piccu for sunrise. It was a hard walk, 1km vertically uphill (lost count of how many steps), heaps of other people were puffing and panting up the hill, it wasn’t too bad for us only because we had been at altitude for quite a while now, but my legs were dying. We got to the
Pisac Ruins
Walking through the Pisac Ruins in the Sacred Valley top at the crack of dawn, what a view. I don’t know how those crazy Incas managed to build up on the top of a mountain, it was amazing. Had to wait in a mammoth queue, met some more aussies and ran into the ones we had met the day before, we were all on the same tour. Tour guide was late and we were all pissed off, but when we got inside, (before most of the tour groups arrived, the early start was worth it. I could go on and on about how much I enjoyed that day, but I won’t, because you can’t describe it unless you have been there yourself, but it is the most incredible thing I have seen on this whole trip.
Returned to Cusco and left for the beautiful town of Arequipa, known as the white city. Great plaza and some colonial buildings, along with a gorgeous convent (used to be for the rich spahish women). Then zipped up the coast, avoiding the towns of Pisco and Ica (where the earthquake had hit) and arrived in Lima. Stayed in Miraflores, nice part of town. Lima itself was really cool but full of crazy
Arequipa
In the main plaza of the so-called white city. buses, but some great buildings and plazas. Spent a little time in Mireflores, on the Pacific coast, realizing how far we had been.
Then we left South America, a little sad but excited to move on to Cuba. If we had more time (we have a wedding to go back to now), we probably would have kept on going. Oh well. Fidel, we are coming to visit!
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