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Published: February 17th 2006
25th January - 8th February ( on a 3 weeks tour this time, finishing 13/2 in Lima)
Making up my mind... quick!
I finished one tour (Patagonia), spend 1 day catching with Grant in Bariloche and jumped on 2 planes to start another tour in Peru this time. Do not ask me about my bank account, I choose not to think (too much) about it. It was a rushed decision mainly based on the fact that we probably won't be able to continue the motorbike trip after March (and make it to Peru), and for the simple reason that the dates were matching perfectly (finishing on time to join Ted back in Ushuaia).
Not a good start
a) I miss the 1.5 Arg. Peso bus to the airport at Bariloche (trying to work on the blogs again) and pay a whoppy 25 p for a taxi instead.
b) my plane to Buenos Aires is delayed meaning that I would miss my connection to Lima. Luckily, they bump me on an earlier flight (I thought I was supposed to pay business class because all the planes were full! yeah, right. Lucky I bargain my travel agent hard and
he probably had to do immoral things to get me an economy priced ticket).
c) The transfer from national to international airport was late, and here I stress again for the whole hour it took to get me there (yes, just before the plane left, phew).
d) long queue at the Immigration booths in Lima airport. It is late (midnight) but once out, I quickly find the transfer bus after they walk me to the airport ATMs.
e) 1.30 am. I am dropped at the hotel recommended by the tour people in the middle of the town but not knowing when is my next departure for Juliaca...
f) and for sure, 1.5 hr later (note 3am), I get woken up to drive straight back to the airport! aaargh! That is after I pay for a hotel I thought was included in the tour starting the 25th of January.
A n y h o w
but wait, there's more
g)I finally got to a hotel in Puno (landing in Juliaca, 9am bus to Puno on the shore of Lake Titicaca). With the flu getting worse and in need of sleep, I managed the worse nap while they were pulling pipes
out of this hotel! didn't get better that night after the dinner with the newly met group (most being Aussies so we toasted Australia Day), with music pumping until early morning behind my bedroom wall!
Give me a break!
Getting slightly better
27·01·06 Under the rain, we made our 'tricycle' way to the harbour to visit the islands of Lake Titicaca (4 hours boat ride away). After a stay with a family on Amantati island, including costume dressing dance and local tucker, we progressed to Taquile island where the men knit the colorful hats, belts, etc. Beautiful view from the top and wonderful sun all the way back to the Uros island. Those floating islands harbor whole families who now live of tourism principaly (I so wanted to buy those cute mobiles for the new babies of Ted's friends). Beautiful vibes from the people there (and the cute kids).
The Chulpas of Sillustanis
On the way to Cusco, we stopped by some ruins on the top of a little hill. Some of the passangers didn´t go out of the truck and I didn´t even expected the guide to be so thorough about his explanations of
the place. What seemed initially unimportant became a wake up call when sudden sad feelings overwhelmed me as we reached some sacrifical stone circles. I separated from the group not able to stop crying and wondering around by myself I surrounded to the different emotions of sadness, guilt, pardon. Stones were turning into faces and the chulpas (royal tombs) had an aura of omnipresence. I eventually found peace at the top, soothed by the view overhanging above a gorgeous lake. I didn´t dare imagined what the rest of the trip and especially our next stop Machu Picchu would be like...
Cusco (31/1 & 1/2) and The 'Crystal City' -Machu Picchu, 2&3 Feb-
I originally had planned to hike 1 day from KM104 of the train line towards Machu Picchu but being part of the Inca trail (closed in Feb), I missed out through miscommunication with the tour leader. I guess I have another good 30 years to attempt it again!.
So I had a spare 2 days in Cusco (before heading to MP and meeting the group thereafter), finding vegetarian restaurant for 3.45 soles for a 2 course meal (=1.50A$). I also found some jewellery (for friends
of course) and 2 rings for around 18A$ each! Sure, the jewellery is about the same in the numerous tourist and market places but the quality and the price were overall quite good, so why resist?...
The official version...?
In summary, the Incas or ´Kings´(said to a taller race) are to originate 500 years ago from near the lake Titicaca (another strongly charged place) as Tiwanas and forced out, they took over different areas until making Cusco or ´Qosqo´the Empire of the Sun or more commonly translated from the Inca Chechuan language as ´The Navel of the Earth´. Cusco, the big city and its surroundings, certainly hold an interesting number of ruins and a lot of the city is actually built on to big Inca square stones!.
To gain the Inca gold, the Spaniards/Conquistadors benefited from the support of the local clans by the Incas, succeeding in destroying all Intihuatanas (scared sundale stone) by the end of the XVI century, except for the one in Machu Picchu, well hidden until fully discovered in 1911. So you could said the Incas left quite an impressive mark in a very short reign.
Machu Picchu (MP) is said to be strategically
placed, lined up between 2 major mountains, complementing the ´said´essentials 3 levels of earth/life/ spirit, found symbolically as 3 steps in front of sacred spots. MP translates as Old Peak but I have also found it named as the Crystal City. It certainly would have shined on Solcice Day with most temple windows and sacreds tones marking these special moments with specifically placed shadows.
This is were Mystic tourism finds its peak and as one of the tourist guide pointed out, it is very likely that the 3 levels of Pachamama, the symbols for Mother Earth, were transformed in time into the catholic trilogy. In a similar fashion, the 3 symbols of the Condor for air/spiritual wisdom, the puma for the earth and the snake for water/internal wisdom do not seem to have substiantiated evidence of their specific use in the Inca days. The Incas are said to have used only oral communication (unless it is hidden in their intricate textile patterns
Burn´s research), which made them expert in the art of using messengers (´chasqui´) posted every 7 kms to carry news (or fresh fish) to their Cusco capital.
But to going back to the topic of MP, I wanted
2 days there (while the other group travellers did the Inca trail) and organised the train (4 hours one way, return the next day) to Agua Calients (MP town), the bus to MP (20 min uphill) and stay at Adelas Hostel for 118U$ with an agency from the Cusca main square (Plaza des Armas) (no guide this time as I wanted to follow my own rythm on the 1st day).
Day 1
I just wondered around. No guide, no map. I sadly found the altars (energy seats) screened off which forced me in searching other interesting spots and thus ended up discovering a few hidden caves, niches instead.
I must say that I didn't feel the energy strongly here but a more general feeling of being safe. Probably to be expected from the site of Pachamama (Mother Earth), which by the way, is the main energy around the people in Sud-America and North-America. No wonder I find them so gentle!
I am hoping the photos will speak for themselves. Machu Picchu is impressive in the standard of the remains, the four different weather I experienced in one day and the still unclear history/purpose of the place. On a more esoteric
level, I had read a few interesting things before hand such as MP being a double vortex of electro-magnetic hydro-energised place.
I grabbed the last bus out of MP (5.40pm)and had time after further ticket purchasing to get to the hot springs of Agua Calientes (10 soles). The 10 min walk up the river was nice and leaving me with the impression of a cute little town (I´m biais cause I love water anyway). Sure it has the typical tourist shops (5 soles for a pan flute and instructions which I probably will never play), but I have found as many locals enjoying the late hot baths as MP weary tourists (lockers=1 sole, inside rental towels=3soles).
Day 2
The second day I joined the up the group and their knowleadable guide after paying the 80 soles (divide by 2.4 for A$) for the MP entrance and 12U$ for the bus to get there and back.
You'd expect to feel a million buck after a visit here but I was pretty buggered by the end of the 2 day after a 4 hours climb/ascent/climb/ascent to the more masculine energy filled Hyanapichu (mountain at the back of the site). Who´s
idea was it, after reaching the top, to go around and all the way down to a part a bit more jungly than MP where hid the Temple of the Moon and the Great Cavern?!. I do hope now I'll get some healing from the feminine energy strongly represented at MP to fix my winging knee and sour ankle (hurting again since the motorbike fall).
I feel good however since I have been in Peru with less nodding off during the day. And a shaman met at MP told me (twice) that I have a nice energy (eh eh). All this energy is said to go back to the Lemurian 2500 BC! Of course the tourist guides only stick to the Incas history, but some allow some legends to be sometimes revealed, playing their part in Mystic Tourism.
So is it all for real or just another gringo tourist version? You might just have to get there yourself to decide...
Back in Cusco from MP, after mooooore Inca ruins (15 soles 5 hours bus tour), I was tempted to eat a delicious ceviche (fish cooked in lime) at the market in Cusco and for sure paid for
it for the next 2 days. I´m used to it now and know how not to eat anything until my stomakc settles again. Ah, the joy of travelling... My stomack behaved luckily during our white water rafting of the something something river towards Ollaytambo. I thoroughly enjoyed it (Grade IV sections), hoping now to do more back in Queensland. Make sense, I love the water (remember?), speed and some exciting sensations! Having the girls from our group in 1 raft and the boys in another made it even more fun splashing each other.
COLCA CANYON 7/2. Not worth dying for...
The auxilary brake of the truck is gone. the back axel is tight, there´s fog, rain, precipices, muddy roads but even the hail is not stopping us on our way to see the condors. We even got the the little town of Chivay in time for -yet another- hot springs. Only the mad taxi nearly send us to an early death: Firstly the four of us waited outside for some phantom taxi which probably didn´t get ordered by reception. On the other side of the road we could see this old car coughing smoke between starts and
stops. A taxi arrived but for the people next door; he hailed the ´sick´car and it is agreed to take us to the thermals. The woman front passenger dissappears in the night, saving our tour leader from sitting in the boot of the car. His door doesn´t close and the car stops before we even make our 1st meter. Great! A successful restart throws us in the dark night with poor headlights, only 1 wipescreen and all windows foogy from the constant rain. From my position at the back, I try to align myself with the driver´s vision and it´s not encouraging. Slow we go now bumping off rocks with th growing feeling that a misaligned wheel is about to fall off. Then it´s downhill ad encouraged, our driver hits the accelerator while the silence grows in the car. And then suddenly in the poor car lights appear 2 white big spots in the middle of the road! Cows? Donkeys? We only know that they are in our collision parth! The driver hits the brake, turns the wheel towards... the wall!, and the car, somehow managing to stay on the wet muddy road, swirves arounds the animals. I struggl to
keep from laughing while the other girl next to me start taking a new breath, froze with shock. The driver told to slow down as our death was not on the tour itinery, we happily arrived to the now more welcomed hot springs.
Trying not to think about the return trip with the awaiting taxi, we slipped in the hot sulphurised murky liquid of the open swimming pool. Practically empty at this time of the night, the pool had mystic surroundering with stony arcades showing through the highlighted pool steam. It then felts it was all worth it.
Even more when after a good resting night, the sun came out at the Colca Canyon and on our way back (too foogy at the Crux del Condor) we saw 6 condors cruising the hot winds up to the sky.
PS I didn´t leave a little pile of stone at the obligatory 4900m pass cause I was hopeless at it. I´ll be better at sand castle making hopefully at our next beach stop after Arequipa. The beach?! Yeah! But I´m getting ahead of myself.
PSS Ted is finally getting some surf in his secret location with amazing clear waters
(can´t wait to see the photos).
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Bill
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Hi Sandy, great stuff, can't wait to get there! Still in San Pedro de Atacama waiting for the weather in Bolivia to clear!...maybe get out tomorrow. Do you have a schedule for your travels up from Ushuai? Is Ted going to keep going or go back to Oz?...Enjoy the bike ride north...Beso, Bill