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Sacred Valley, Cusco
A beautiful shot of the surrounding country side. After travelling mostly on our own for the beginning of the trip, we were so excited to be joining a tour where everything would be organised for us, and we wouldn´t have to think about a thing. A 3 week Gecko´s tour around Peru. It involved many long bus trips, a bunch of early morning wake up calls but we were never disappointed.
The tour started in Lima, the capital of Peru. We met the rest of our group at a fancy hotel in Miraflores and everyone got along with each other instantly. We were all introduced to our tour leader, Marco, and welcomed to the beginning of our tour in true Peruvian fashion, with a glass of pisco sour. We would be travelling with another group for the 1st half of the tour.
We saw the sights of Lima on the first day in a city tour, and then it was on the bus to start our journey. The first stop was Pisco, the real home of the pisco sour. We stayed there the night, and then visited the Ballestas Islands the next morning. It was a short boat trip where we saw many rare birds, sea
Colca Canyon
The amazing view of the canyon from a road side market. lions, penguins and other marine life.
That afternoon we continued south to Nazca. On the way we stopped off at El Catador winery for Pisco tasting and went sandboarding in Haucachina, an oasis in the middle of the desert, which was awesome fun.
Once in Nazca, we took the 2 hour flight over the famous Nazca lines which revealed the many geometric shapes carved into the desert, that spread across 500 square kilometres. Carved some 2,000 years ago, it is believed the lines were used as a calender. What was more interesting was the history, and theories about who created these mysterious lines. Aliens? For sure.
On the tour of Nazca, we visited the desert cemetery, which houses a very well preserved Nazcan mummy and wandered around the many open graves. Then it was off for a demonstration on how the nazcan´s made their pottery, and finally to the gold factory.
Continuing our tour with an overnight bus trip, we arrived in Arequipa, the second largest city in Peru. At an altitude of 2325m, many of the group suffered from altitude sickness, so only a few of us managed to get out and catch the beautiful
Amantani
This was the storm coming towards us at the top of Pachatata. Our favourite photo. sunset over this picturesque city, shadowed by 3 snow capped volcanos. It was here we were introduced to the wonders of coca tea.
The next morning, we packed our day packs for our excursion to the Colca Canyon. At 3191m, it is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, and the 2nd deepest in the world. We wandered the markets and visited the hotsprings, and rested our heads that night in the town of Chivay. We woke up at 4am the next morning and drove to Cabanaconde, where the worlds largest birds nest. At one point, we had 5 Andean Condors circling above our heads, and it was a memorable sight. But even expert nature photographers like Lia and I weren´t able to get a snap shot of this massive birds with our Nikon camera. It was here we got our first glimpse of Inca ruins, but more on that later.
More people succumbed to the altitude, as we stopped at our highest point, 4,900m above sea level, on top of the Colca Canyon. The two of us altitude-iron-people were never effected by the high altitudes. Everest here we come.
We returned to Arequipa to gather our
Inca Trail Day 3
Pushing through we arrived at Machu Picchu a day early. belongings, and say goodbye to the other group. After dinner, we all celebrated a fantastic tour together by dancing (and drinking) the night away until 5 that morning.
We were woken up 2 hours later, and the 5 remaining members of our group set off for Puno (3860m), on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world! It is said the first Inca, Manco Capac, rose from the waters of Lake Titicaca.
The next morning the group set off for our island homestay at Amantani island. On the way, we stopped at the floating reed islands of the Uros Indians. Everything here was made entirely from reeds. The ground, the boats, the houses, even the people.
Our host family´s wives or daughters were waiting for us at Amantani Island, and we were split into groups and shown to our quarters. With very basic living conditions, and no electricity, it was one of the highlights of the trip. Our hosts, who slaved away over the stove for hours for us, were the most lovely people. The meals were amazing, and everyone on the island is vegetarian. We climbed the mountain of
Ballestas Islands
We were able to get right up next to the sea lions and birds. Pachatata, danced the traditional dance in our peruvian get up, and were even present for the opening ceremony of a new restaurant, which was an awesome experience.
The next day we returned via Tequile island, a town with no taxes, very unusual traditions and it´s own police system. Back at Puno, we rested up and made our way to Cusco the next day.
Cusco is the most beautiful town we visited in Peru. We visited the Sacred Valley, Pisac market, and the Inca ruins of Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo, but nothing will top the 4 day Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu.
The starting point was Kilometre 82, where we got our passports stamped. Very exciting. We hiked for 15km the 1st day, past Huillca Raccay and the archaeological site of Llactapata, setting up camp in Yuncachimpa. The walk was meant to be easy, but with this in our minds, it proved more testing and we made it to camp very sore and tired.
Day 2: One crazy day. It´s the toughest on the trail. The biggest challenge is Warminwanusca, or Dead Womans Pass (4,200m). We walked for 3 hours up this very steep section, and making
El Catador
Lia and our guides, Milli & Marco, at the pisco winery. the top was very satisfying. We continued to walk up and down massive mountains for the rest of the day, from sunrise to sunset, right past camp 2 (Pacaymayo) and made it to camp 3, in the cloud forest, a day ahead of schedule. Lia´s little body didn´t cope too well, and was extremely run down that night at camp.
Day 3: Lia battles on with a cold and terribly sore muscles, to the wonderful Inca site of Winyawayna which was only discovered in the 1940´s, and is very well preserved. We continued along the trail, up and down giant rocky steps, past beautiful orchids and forest. We made it to the last pass at lunch, and decided to head to the Sun Gate. At roughly 3:30 that afternoon, we reached the Gateway of the Sun. Tired and exhausted, we sat at the gate and took in the breathtaking views of one of the Modern Wonders of the World, Machu Picchu. We´d made it. We wandered down and through the site, taking memory cards worth of photo´s, and caught the bus down to Aguas Callientes. The town had even thrown a festival that night welcome us, which was very
Huacachina
The buggy ride over the dunes to the sandboarding was the best. nice of them.
Day 4: Machu Picchu. I was so excited this morning, as I´d wanted to see this site more then anything in the world. We caught the bus up the mountain and entered the historical site for a 2 hour guided tour of the ruins, which was very interesting. After that we climbed Huayna Picchu, overlooking the site. We spent the rest of the day wandering and climbing the grounds to conclude an unforgettable experience.
We did the 4 day Inca Trail in 3 days, but the real heroes were the porters. Each and every day, they would run up and down the trail and have our camp set up before we got there. Awaiting us was the best food we´ve eaten. 4 course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They were absolutely phenomenal!
We spent the last 2 days of the tour in the Peruvian Amazon. Our open air lodge in the middle of the jungle was incredible. We walked through the constant rain and saw an ant eater, chicken spider, rainbow boa snake, long-nosed bats, various monkeys, toucans, maccaws and a billion other birds.
On the lake tour, we saw the near
Huacachina
The sandboarding X-tremists. extinct giant river otters, a billion more birds, and Lia was even the first one on the boat to catch a Piranha. Not bad for her first time fishing.
The weather was perfect, we made some great new friends, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on the whole trip. But it´s back on our own again. Just the 2 of us, sitting in an internet cafe in Bolivia. Stay tuned to see what happens next.
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Val and Dave
non-member comment
Literary genius and stunning Photography
Dear Lia and Ryan, What an unbelievable adventure you are both having. The photos are spectacular and so is your effort, well done! Looking at all this has been a real joy for us and we look forward to the next episode of your big adventure. Lots of love Val and Dave, Mum and Dad