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Published: December 11th 2008
Could We Rule An Empire?
Sitting on the thrones of Incas Time Travellers
With all the zen we could muster we agreed to leave the trauma of the stolen bag behind us as we excitedly crossed a new border into Peru. Rather handily (insert sarcastic tones here) the border post is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, roughly half way between two border towns. As it was now dark and with no local buses in sight we decided to take a taxi to the nearest town of Tumbes. Unfortunately being in the middle of nowhere, at night, gives local taxi drivers somewhat of a price negotiating advantage....... USUALLY. What our fat and greedy taxi driver hadn´t planned on was meeting a fiesty blonde who in the last few hours had already had to deal with criminals, the Police and our insurance company and who was absolutely not going to take any more shit from anyone. In fact, we both had such 'do not mess with us´attitudes that we think we spoiled another scam. The taxi driver kept insisting that he needed fuel and we had to pay him in advance with a large US dollar note (a 20 or 50) as the petrol station would not take small
New Country, New Colours
Some wonderful ethnic wear in northern Peru notes or local currency. Most likely we were then going to get fake US notes back in change. Fake currency is a big problem is Peru. When we made it clear there was absolutely no way this was going to happen he pulled over after 5kms of driving and gave us to another taxi without us paying him a cent. Do you smell a rat?... we certainly did.
Although we were prepared to stay in Tumbes we really wanted to keep moving that night, which we did by catching the first of many night buses. These things are great. At least five companies in Peru offer this service at wildly varying costs depending on comfort and service. One company even has fully reclining wide leather seats like first class in an aeroplane. As usual we picked the cheapest one and after David chained and locked our packpacks into the luggage area we settled in for a bit of time travel. By this we mean, one minute we were settling into our seats in Tumbes and the next minute we woke up in Trujillo. Magic. As well as saving money on accommodation, a night time journey actually made this part
of Peru more interesting as there was absolutely nothing to see but dry, dead land for hundreds of kilometres. The scenery we saw for for ten minutes at the start and end of the journey was exactly the same as the other eight hours we slept through.
Even More Time Travel
Trujillo was a lovely little city with beautiful colonial buildings and a huge central Plaza dominated by an 18th century cathedral. After negotiating a nice room with a bathroom for 40 soles (USD $13), not the outrageous 70 soles advertised on the front door we found the local bus park and headed off to see one of two reasons we had come here, the nearby 1500 year old Moche Temples.
Sitting next to each other in a sun baked desert these two temples named the The Sun and The Moon are the remains of the previously great Moche culture. Rather splendidly the cheap entrance price also included a free guide in English, so for the next hour we explored the Moon Temple as all around us archeologists continued to dig away. Luckily for us the Moche had a tradition of building new temples
on top of old ones every time a new ruler took over. This means that while the top layer has been battered by the elements the layers beneath have been perfectly preserved. The problem for the archeologists is how to get down to the lower layers without collapsing the whole lot. It´s a bit like a huge game of scientific Jenga.
At the even larger Sun temple next door archeologists have not started to explore it yet so goodness knows what treasures are waiting to be found.
A quirky part to this adventure was the sight of ugly, hairless Peruvian dogs slouching about. It turns out these dogs used to be revered by the Moche and that because their body temperature is higher than normal dogs the Moche used to use them in bed like giant hot water bottles.
Before heading back to our hotel we decided to try a bottle of Peru´s favourite soft drink, Inca Cola. Perivians drink this stuff like water so we decided to see what the fuss is about. Bad mistake. It is such a bright yellow it looks radioactive and it has so many chemicals and so much sugar in it
Warning!!
Do not drink this stuff that we both felt totally hyperactive and a bit spaced out for the next hour. We´ve seen kids drinking 1.25 litre bottles of Inca Cola on their own and families in restaurants drinking two huge bottles in one sitting. Perhaps now is the time to open up a national chain of dentists and retire as millionaires!
The next day, in what seemed like a non-stop Indiana Jones adventure we visited the enormous ruins of Chan Chan. Built around AD 1300 this clay and straw brick city which was part of the Chimu Empire was once the largest of its kind in the world. At its peak it had about 10,000 buildings, from royal palaces lined with jewels to sacrifical burial grounds to keep the nearby and frequently angry volcanos happy. These days it is mostly just crumbling walls and indisinguishable clay mounds on the ground except for an extensively re-built area which is what we visited. Although only some of the original structures remain all of the reconstruction has been done with the same materials in the same style so we got a good idea of how huge and magnificent a city it must once have been. Of course,
like everywhere in South Amercia when the Spanish arrived they stole all the gold and jewels and smashed up everything they could, which was nice of them.
We finished our time around Trujillo by going to the once-tranquil fishing village of Huanchaco. These days it is full of surfers and stoners but we were able to see what we hoped to, which is the traditional way that village men still fish. Here they build high ended cigar shaped canoes that they call little horses (Caballitos) due to the fact they paddle out past the breakers to catch their fish and then ride the waves back in to sell their catch on the beach.
My War Ship Is Bigger Than Yours
From Trujillo we took another night bus to the capital city of Lima. We had very little interest in going there but with a need to replace our stolen camera equipment we headed for the bright lights of the big city. Luckily we discovered there was a specialist Nikon store somewhere, and after many hours of being pointed in this direction and that we finally found it and bought a new camera and lens.
Flying Coffin
We were squashed into a very small plane! The only other thing of interest in Lima was the APEC summit. Due to so many world leaders being in town the whole central city was on high alert, including a US Naval ship moored directly in front of George Bush´s hotel. We kept having to pass through check points and show our passports to heavily armed cops. Given Lima´s reputation for violent street crime it actually made our day walking around the central city quite relaxed and enjoyable as there wasn´t a single shifty looking charater in sight.
The Vomit Comet
Camera mission accomplished we jumped straight back onto a bus and headed overnight to the desert town of Nazca. Until 1939 this town was just a dusty dot on the map. Then the first plane flights started buzzing over-head and disbelieving passengers couldn´t believe their eyes. Below them, spread over 500 sq km were an amazing array of animal, plant and geometric figures including a monkey, a spider and a frog. Made by the Paracas and Nazca cultures from 900 BC to AD 600 these awesome lines were created by digging shallow trenches to expose the lighter soil below. The cool thing
La Araña
Lucky this 46m giant couldn´t get anywhere near the plane! (Click to enlarge and see properly) is, from the ground you can walk right past one and not even notice you are next to a huge shape as they are so big you can only see them from the air....something the creators of these shapes could never do. Scientists speculate that they were made for the gods, which these days means tourists, easily the most revered deities in these parts.
We paid USD$55 each for a 45 minutes flight in a four seater plane. In peak season this same flight costs $120 but with plenty of planes sitting idle it was easy to wangle a discount. In order to ensure the people sitting on both sides of the plane got an equally fair view of the shapes the pilot flew past each one and then made a sudden sharp turn in the air in order to fly past again on the other side of the plane. These vomitous aerial turns were repeated at least twenty more times before we landed again safely. Poor Tracey had to have a quick chunder in the toilet of the airport medical centre, which, by the look of the impressively well staffed and well stocked centre was a pretty mild
Where´s The Flying Fox?
Tracey contemplates the challenge ahead at the Canyon Canyon result compared to some.
Make Way For The Donkeys
Another magical night bus ride saw an early arrival into Arequipa. Unfortunately Tracey was suffering from an increasingly worse cold and possible chest infection. After we found a hotel she went straight to bed for the rest of the morning while David went out exploring.
We had come to Arequipa in order to catch a bus futher inland to the tiny desert town of Cabanaconde which sits perched on the edge of the 3191m deep Colca Canon, one of the deepest in the world. With Tracey not at her best David suggested that we give the walk into the canyon a miss but if you know Tracey then you know she is one tough and determined cookie, so after a restful day in bed we caught the bus the following day.
From Cabanaconde it is possible to do 1, 2 or 3 day walks in and around the canyon. In order to not exhaust Tracey we settled on a one day walk which in the end was a much harder experience than taking 2 days or more. Basicially, in 40 degree heat we walked steeply
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh
An Oasis in the desert... quite literally down down, down for three and a half hours before resting at the bottom, having lunch and then walking all the way back. To say we finished up knackered is an understatement but it was a fantastic day in a truly magnificent canyon. What made it all the better was the appropriately named OASIS lodge at the bottom of the canyon that had a large freshwater swimming pool where we were able to bathe our weary bodies during our rest on the bottom.
Tracey took time out from relaxing to make friends with a disgruntled looking alpaca. Although she was kind enough to feed it her apple core it still didn´t seem very happy to have us lazing on "its" grass.
We should add that it is possible to pay for a donkey to ferry you back to the top should the task become too hard. We found ourselves being pushed off the path by many a hot and bothered burro on our schelp back up.
Following In The Footsteps Of The Incas
Our next major stop was Cuzco, the former capital of the mighty Inca Empire. At its peak in the 16th century
You´re Never To Old For Ice Cream
A lovely couple in the main square of Arequipa this empire spread across Eduador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, but the religious and ruling centre was firmly in Cuzco, the continent´s oldest continuously inhabited city. When the Spanish arrived in 1533 they set about killing every Inca they could find, stealing all the gold and jewels (which was a LOT) and then pulling apart and destoying all the temples in order to use the stonework to build their own homes and churches. Although the Incas fought back over the next 200 years it was all in vain and bit by bit this amazing culture and most of their history was annihilated.
Luckily there were a few Inca cities that the Spanish never made it to with the most famous of all being the 'lost´city of Machu Picchu. Cuzco is the starting point for treks to Machu Picchu and around the sacred valley. Every second shop in the central city is either a trekking company (for those wanting to go) or a massge centre (for those who have just returned). We had booked and paid for our trip over the internet (a bit of a lucky dip) and after hunting out our travel agency and sorting departure details we
Thick As A Brick
The genius Inca walls. Look at how well they jigsaw together spent the next day and a half exploring Cusco and eating as much as we could in order to power up.
The Incas are famous for their amazing construction work. They were able to shape and fit stones of all sizes in order to build amazingly stong, perfectly flat walls. They had also mastered earthquake-proofing long before other civilisations. It is thanks to these advanced skills that a few Inca walls and building foundations still exist in Cuzco, all of which we had great fun exploring. The genius of their work is hard to describe so hopefully the pictures will do them justice.
Go Pumas!
With our packpacks stored in the hotel and our little day-bags stuffed to the brim we were picked up by our guide at 7am for the bus ride to the start of the Inca Trail. As always the enjoyment of an adventure like this has a lot to do with the people you are sharing it with and we were very very lucky. Our small group of 9 was made up of people roughly our own age with two other couples and three single people, none of whom knew each other previously
(so there were no pre-made cliques), and all but one spoke some level of English. Accompanying our intrepid group were two guides who were always with us, a cook and 7 porters who would race ahead of us with our food, tents and supplies which would be waiting and ready at the end of each day. We each had to carry our own bags plus a sleeping bag and a bed roll.
As it is the start of rainy season we had purchased ponchos, a lesson leaned from climbing in the rain in Borneo, and we put every item in our day packs into plastic bags. As it turned out, some how, miraclously the Inca Gods were smiling on us as every night it would rain hard and every day was dry and warm except for 90 minutes on the second day. Given we had spoken to other travellers who had just finished walking the trail in rain and HAIL we were very happy and very lucky. Perhaps we were getting some good Karma back after the stolen bag incident.
With a team name, The Pumas, and an unoffical team song, Copacabana by Barry Manilow (don´t ask) we
Celebration
Reaching 4198m, "Dead Woman´s Pass", the hardest part of the trail set off on what turned out to be 3 fun filled days of walking. Bit by bit everyone got to know everyone else and the activities and conversations became more animated and more fun. Tracey had walked the Inca trail almost 11 years ago so she already had an appreciation of what lay ahead, David had not, and for him the Inca Trail surpassed all expectations. Instead of being three days of pure trail walking that eventully ends at Machu Picchu, the trail itself is a journey through amazing Incan history. Every few hours we would come across the remains of a watch tower, defence post, temple, storage house or a city that were all part of their brilliant infrastructure. At times as we walked in cloud over the top of an amazing mountain pass (4198 metres high) only to decend into the centre of an ancient Inca city it felt like we were in The Lord Of The Rings or some other mythical story equivilent..... only it was all real!
Nothing But Clouds
On the forth and final morning we got up at 2am for a 3am departure in the hope of getting to the
Tracey Wonders If She Is Dreaming
2am chocolate cake on the final day Sun Gate for sunrise. The Sun Gate is the final structure before Machu Picchu and from its elevated position it gave arriving vistors a breathtaking view down over the city. We can only imagine how amazing a sight it must have been when the city was fully populated and alive with colour and sounds. As we all filed into the tent for our final breakfast we discoved that it was our cook´s birthday and that he had baked, with little more than a single gas ring and a big pot, a huge chocolate birthday cake for breakfast. Compared to some other groups we met it appears we had a very good cook as not everyone ate as well as we did including pizza, steak, mashed potato and spicy rice all on the last night and all cooked on that single gas hob. Amazing.
Half an hour later buzzing on chocolate and coffee we set off on the three hour walk to the Sun Gate. We all reached the final check point together, but at this point, keen to reach the Sun Gate for sunrise some of us raced ahead. The two of us, Lukas, Eduardo, Erika and Simon powered
along in the dark oblivious to any aches and pains as we raced the sun rise. As it turned out, other than the fun we had, it was all in vain as we were greeted at the Sun Gate by an impenetrable wall of cloud. Deflated by this discovery we sat on the ground and waited for the rest of our group to arrive. Having a slower rear order turned out to be another blessing. All the other hikers decided to give up on the view and to head down to the ruins, leaving us as the only people at the Sun Gate. As the rest of our group arrived most of the clouds slowly departed giving us our first view of this mighty city.
After that we all hiked down together and spend the next few hours exploring the ruins while our guides explained all that is known about the place, which is not that much. Scientists and archeologists have come up with an many as 400 different theories about Machu Picchu so we decided it is best to just take in the splendor of this incredible city and leave the rest a mystery. What we will say
is that when you see how brilliant and advanced the Incas were over 500 years ago it is one of the great crimes of history that they were so ruthlessly and brutally destroyed.
How Much Can One Person Eat?
After Machu Picchu we headed down to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes (Hot Springs) where we had a few hours free time before taking a train and bus journey home. Although we decided not to go to the hot springs we did soak our weary feet in the freezing cold stream that runs through the town. We also began our "24 hour eat-athon". Normally we eat cheap local food, and more often than not, share a meal. However we had agreed that after 4 days walking we would have an eat and drink all you like marathon. This we can assure you, we did with gusto!
After a good sleep and a huge breakfast we were surprised at how good our legs felt so we decided to walk up the hill to the other great Inca ruin of Saqsaywamán. This site is only 2km out of Cusco but once you are there it is a world
In The Jaws Of A Puma
More great Inca stone work at Saqsaywamán of its own. This place, pronounced like "Sexy Woman" saw one of the most bitter battles between the Spanish and the Inca who used it as a fortress to lay seige to the conquistadors. Unfortunately for history the Spanish won, but only just, and the thousands of dead bodies attracted swarms of Condors which is remembered by being part of Cuzco´s coat of arms. When the Incas designed Cuzco they planned for the city to be the shape of a Puma with Saqsaywamán as the head. From up high you can see quite clearly the 22 ziz-zag shaped walls that form the teeth.
It was during this day that numerous little reminders of our Inca Trail experience started to appear in the form of small, blood tipped, aggressively itchy mosquito bites. Yes it seems that while we had our eyes fimly on the ruins these little blood suckers had their teeth firmly into our legs and arms. The funny thing is everybody we meet back in Cuzco appeared to have been bitten yet nobody saw one little insect. The not so funny thing is, 7 days later we are still itching. Tracey has a row of 8 of them
just on one shin. Perhaps that is the reason why the Incas left, they all itched to death.
We finished that day with a ´Team Puma´re-union in Paddy's Irish Bar. Although some of the team had already left the city it was fun to catch up with the rest and see what they looked like when they were not sweaty, exhausted and covered in dirt. We are very lucky to have made some Brazilian and Argentinian friends who we are planning to see again when we are in their countires in February.
Could It Go Any Slower
For our final Puruvian act we headed to the cooler climbs of Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca. At 3820 metres above sea level this is one of the world´s highest lakes and judging by the few seconds we put our toes in, one of the coldest. That night, as you do, we ate guinea pig for dinner. It was alright, but nothing special. The other main we ordered, an Alpaca steak was simply superb.
Near Puno and accessible only by boat are the famous Floating Islands of the Uros people. Built entirely from Totora Reeds and
then anchored to the bottom by long poles, these floating islands were created centuries ago when the Uros decided to escape from the more violent Collas and Incas in order to seek a safer and more peaceful life.
These days that peace is shattered by the hoardes of invading tourists that arrive every day. Not that the Uros are complaining. Other than fishing for food and making reed models to sell in the markets, tourism is a prosperous income which has allowed them to send their kids to school on the mainland and to improve their standard of living. Don´t visit these islands if you expect to view the Uros people going about their daily business living their normal lives. Today a visit to these islands is shockingly commercialized but it is worth it if only to see how cleverly the islands are constructed and the superb skills they have for building reed boats, houses, communication towers and more.
After the Floating Islands we took the world´s slowest boat to Taquile Island. If this boat had a second gear or even a throttle our Captain certainly couldn´t find it. Much like the Floating Islands, the inhabitants of this
The Mayor Of Taquile Island
Only joking. We found this guy at the highest point on the island in an area for religous gatherings island were able to avoid all the action on the mainland and to live their own lives for thousands of years. Even now, except for tourism and TV, their lives are pretty much unchanged. For us the most obvious difference was the clothes. All the men were dressed like waiters in white shirts and black waistcoats, but with one huge difference, they all wear big floppy woolen hats. If you are married you have a hat that has colour all the way to the top, and if you are single it is half coloured and half white. Back home, with all the stress that people have trying to meet their perfect partner, adopting this married/single hat system could really help, especially on the dance floor of a night club at 3am.
We stayed the night on the island which was a much better experince than a day trip. When the last of the tourist boats left, the islanders packed all their tat and trinkets away and got on with their normal lives. We spent ages at what appeared to be an all-island sports day, watching soccer and volleyball while buying tasty red jelly and crackers from the stalls run
Do You Hang Yours To The Left Or Right?
The floppy hatted men of Taquile Island. They knit each one themselves. It takes about three months by little girls. With the pressure to sell to tourists gone we found the rest of the day and the next morning to be a pleasant and genuine peek into an age-old way of life.
So that´s it for Peru. Now we´re off to one of the earth´s coldest, warmest, windiest and steamiest places, IF our boat makes it back to shore this century!
There are loads of wonderful photos from Peru so don´t forget to check the rest on page two.
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