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Published: June 20th 2009
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27th May-19th June 2009
As we were about to depart Bolivia, the travelling girl clan of Luce, Rach, Jamie and Mandy, did what we were 'supposed' to do (Lonely Planet) and changed all of our hard cash aka Bolivianas into Peruvian Soles since it was supposed to be very difficult to change over the border. We were all very pleased with our organisational skills until the 'helpful' bus driver launched into a very serious speech about how we MUST NOT change our money until we got into Peru because there were many instances of false Soles being exchanged for Bolvianas and if we were caught with them we would be in serious trouble... After a few nervous glances between us all, we reached for our newly exchanged cash and shoved it all into our bras'...and we successfully made it across the border!
Once we arrived into Puno, which we were amazed was still on the banks of Lake Titicaca -that's one big lake-we trudged to find our hostel. The walk was worth it since we were greeted by a home from home, with it's own lounge, DVD player, comfy beds, hot shower and the chance to order a take
Reed Boat
We travelled from one village to another on one (quite) like this away-it was bliss! We had a quick look around Puno, bumped into Daz (far too briefly), braved the local 'supermarket' and all before 3pm when we embarked on our 'Floating Village' trip. The floating islands really are amazing feats of 'reed' engineering and we were greeted by very friendly locals who explained how the reeds were made into their houses and homes. We even had the chance to set sail on one of their local reed boats (for about 5p) from one village to another.
Arequipa was our next destination and we arrived to the Puno bus terminal to be greeted by very loud bus vendors and our bright pink local bus. We are not sure how long the journey should have taken but the original time expectation must have been increased by at least 2 hours thanks to numerous long winded stops where locals tried to sell us everything from queso (cheese) and trout to toothbrushes, obviously you need all of these on a bus journey... Eventually, we arrived and were very excited to be entering an area and city which is surrounded by volcanoes, one of them is the most active in South America. The city was
Supermarket in Puno
Rach fancied a large banana, Luce had already found hers. picturesque and yet again we landed ourselves a very comfy hostel but with sporadic hot water.
After a couple of days exploring the city and searching out the best value Colca Canyon experience we rose at 2.30am to make our way to the 'World's Deepest Canyon', our first stop (after driving up to 5,000m, where the insides of the windows froze, and back down again) was the viewing spot for the magnificant condors. Chivay, a small town near the canyon, was the start of our expedition and we geared ourselves up for our 4 hour descent to our first lodgings. The scenery was amazing, the weather warm and we were even lucky enough to see some condors cruising through the canyon. Our second day was equally as exerting- down, up and along, it was very interesting since our guide, Juan, explained a number of herbal remadies and we tramped through some indigenous villages. Whilst walking through one of these, Luce was offered a new life with a very friendly, elderly and somewhat toothless Peruvian chap...with his flies undone, showing off his fetching green underpants. She declined. Soon after this encounter we arrived at the 'Oasis', but it wasn't midnight
(!) and we whiled away the rest of the day relaxing in the pool and sunning ourselves.
The next morning was a slightly early start (5.30am) and as we rose from our cattle shed dwelling we prepared ourselves for the very steep ascent to the top of the canyon. Ipods were the technological gadget and encouragement of the day since the air became thinner, and therefore it became more difficult to catch our breath, as we trekked 1,400m up to the height of 3,400m in under 2 and quarter hours. On our return mini bus journey we were able to visit a spot where you can see 6 of the volcanoes from around the region and got provided with an all you can eat buffet lunch!
That night we hopped on a night bus to Cusco, another very pretty city with narrow cobbled streets and many women offering massages and food. We explored the city, it's grand buildings, restaurants and nightlife... The latter of which we shared with Mandy plus (once again!) Ludi and James, who were pleased (?) to have another night out, until 6am, with the 'old girls'! It was a great night with (far too)
Girls night out
Mandy, Jamie and Luce in Arequipa. much dancing, photos and laughter. It took us most of the next day to recover!
After slightly underestimating how far in advance you have to book the train to Agus Calientes (the nearest town to Machu Picchu) we eventually got our tickets and set off on one of the most wobbly train journeys we have encountered, made even more dramatic by the emergency stop which was hastily performed to avoid hitting an unsuspecting donkey. We rose at 4.30am the next morning to make sure that we were on one of the first buses up to the ruins, we managed it and were even able to get one of the 400 tickets to allow us to climb up Huaynapicchu...even though Rach was sent back to the gates because her bag was too big (25 litres...they've obviously not seen our main packs!) apparently they were worried she might try a base jump! Being at the ruins at sunrise was amazing, we can't even describe it, these are photos that you will have to see to even slightly appreciate Machu Picchu-sorry! Since we had gotten up so early we decided that we really HAD to make the pilgramidge to the top, it
was pretty hard going, since we had only eaten crackers for breakfast at 4.30am, but was very much worth it. After a great day we headed off back to Cusco on the train, met with Mandy, for half an hour, who helped to us to reorganise our backpacks before heading off again on a night bus (where we found we had been upgraded to the posh full cama seats/beds) to Nazca.
Over the next few days we spent some time in Nazca learning about the Nazca lines (they are approximately 1500 years old and were made by removing the dark stones to remove the lighter soil underneath), visited a Nazcan 'Chauchilla Cemetery' (some of the mummies, also approx 1500 years old, still had hair and skin) and finally caught local bus to the mirador, which you climb up, where you can see two of the animal forms and some of the geometric shapes. Ica was the next stop where we caught a motorised rickshaw (like a tuk tuk) to Huacachina to see some sanddunes, once there we realised that we didn't actually have enough money to sand board or buggy so took photos of the big sand dunes and
oasis instead. The next day it was off to Pisco, we were slightly surprised to be dropped off on the side of the Panamericana highway and taxied into Pisco, we were even more surprised by the amount of rubble lying around, in particular the hostel we were going to stay in...it turned out that 85% of Pisco had been destroyed by a 7.9 earthquake two years ago, our 'Lonely Planet' is really not up to date! Before heading off to Lima we detoured to the 'Isla Ballesta' (sometimes known as the 'Poor Man's Galapagos) where we saw more birds than either of us have ever seen in once place at one time, yet again Luce was shat on from a great height as was Rach...there is also alot of bird poo flying around in that area...
Before we knew it we were in Lima (Peru's capital) and had met up with James (again...but no Ludi because he had already left for the U of K) and Mandy (oh no!) where we samped a Peruvian club one evening, the local delicacy of Cuy or guinea pig another and topped off our few days in Lima by celebrating Mandy's birthday and
James' departure back to the UK (sorry, we meant commiserated for the last one), it was a great night with us all rolling home at 9am...
Peru is a fantastic country and we will be glad to head back, but first a spot of voluntary work in Ecuador, after a 33 hour bus journey...
Luce and Rach xx
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Helen
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Yuk/Wow/Not long now
Yuk to the food!, Wow to the sights and the condors remind me of the ones Michelle and I saw on our trip and NOT LONG NOW TILL WE SEE YOU AGAIN!!! Enjoy the rest of the travels!! H.Mc Mummy xxx