Latin American Escapade Part 3- Peru

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When I started typing this entry, we were at an internet cafe in Puno, a major city on the bank of Lake Titicaca, at an altitude of 3,827 metres. Today I am in Rio de Janeiro, and its been a week since finishing our stint in Peru. So this has been a while in development but hopefully worth it. Enjoy!

We started our trip in Lima, where we met up with a tour group. We spent the morning running around the city attempting to complete errands before heading down to the Peruvian coast in the afternoon. Pisco was our destination, a port and fishing village south of Lima. The next morning we took advantage of the fact that we had already done the Galapagos Islands, so slept in and opted out of the Bellastas Islands tour. In the afternoon we visited Huacachina, a tiny oasis in the middle of the desert, where Campbell went dune buggy riding and sandboarding. I, on the other hand, wandered, took photos and had a lazy lunch - getting a face full of sand really didn’t inspire me!

That afternoon we drove down to Nazca, where we caught our first glimpse of the infamous Nazca Lines via a tower en route. Whilst driving through the hundreds of kilometers of desert (the entire coast of Peru is desert) we watched as the overhead clouds became thicker and darker. We were assured that rain would not be the result, as the area had not seen any rain in 8 years, and the last major rains were during the ice age. Not more than 20 minutes later big drops started falling. It wasn’t too heavy, and quite brief, but a definite milestone for both us and the locals!

The next morning we went out to the Nazca aeropuerto for our flights over the planes. Our group was first up - five of us plus the pilot in a tiny Cessna that looked seriously old to me. Even better, I was put in the front seat next to the pilot, so I got to watch as he turned clicking dials, pulled the throttle and used various other controls with worn off writing and random sticky taped pieces that looked like they had seen much better days. Taking off was a little scary but not too bad - it was only when we reached the lines that it stopped being quite so fun for me. The view was absolutely amazing, it was just that the pilot was very intent on ensuring that we all had a great view of every image - which meant countless circling and sharp banking to do so. I think even five more minutes up there and I would have been very sick! One of those must-dos though, and very worthwhile.

I’m still not sure exactly why the lines were created (and there are still conflicting stories, including one of an American guy who is adamant that it is the work of aliens!?!) but each subject held a significance to the Inca religions. Apparently the Inca Shamans were the only people who ever saw the images in their entirety (as they’re massive and only visible from well above ground level), using their third Cyclopes eye… after performing rituals to awaken it (i.e. snorting a lot of drugs). Prior to visiting Nazca I theorized that the Inca’s were trying to communicate with their Gods - looks like was more of a drug-induced, ´flying´ group of Shamans who were the viewers… oh well!

After the lines we visited a pre-Inca cemetery. The actual cemetery and grave had been re-created, but the skeletons, mummies and artifacts were all as originally found.

From Nazca we caught an overnight bus to Arequipa. There we visited a monastery that dates back to the sixteenth century, the Monastery of Santa Catalina. It was a stunning place and our guide was great which made for both an interesting visit plus heaps of photographic inspiration. We then also went to a museum where another great guide explained some of the key Inca traditions and beliefs to us. We saw the mummy of a child who was used as an Incan sacrifice. In all, 14 female children of around 12 years of age have been found to date, near or at the summits of some of the major volcanoes surrounding Arequipa. These children were brought up knowing tht they were going to be sacrificed as an offering to ´Pacha Mama´ (Mother Earth), for the salvation of their people. They were to climb the volcanoes for a ceremony that culminated in a fatal blow to their head in the belief that this offering would stop the volcano from erupting and killing further people. Interesting stuff.

Our next stop was the Colca Canyon, where we started practicing walking at altitude in preparation for the Inca Trail. We also visited a hot spring near the base of the canyon which was excellent - sitting in a hot pool on a cold day overlooking the stunning Colca River and terraced canyon walls.

One morning was an early start to visit a condor viewing point. Unfortunately there wasn’t much action, but luckily, just as we were due to leave a large make bird not only came into view, but spent around five minutes soaring back and forth directly past us. After some further hikes that day (the second through driving rain and a thunderstorm which was actually surprisingly fun), we spent the evening sitting by the hotel fire drinking red wine and playing jenga.

The following day we travelled to Puno and Lake Titicaca, via some small villages. We stopped at the highest point we reached on the trip, at 4,900 metres above sea level. The drive took most of the day (travelling distances and time throughout Peru were much longer than I expected) so that afternoon we caught up on our work (i.e. email and burning photos to CDs).

Day nine saw us taking a two day trip out onto Lake Titicaca and some of the islands within. We firstly sailed for about an hour out to the Uros Islands. These islands are entirely man-made out of totora reeds, string and bamboo poles. They float on the lake at a depth of around 16 metres and house various communities. The reeds on the islands need to be constantly replaced as they commence rotting, and the islands are therefore constantly changing in shape and size. New islands are created as the need arises. Apparently a few years ago, a large storm moved some of the islands up to 3km away from their original 'mooring'!

A little comical, the two islands we visited were set up completely for tourism and so, seemed quite artificial. With their inhabitants dressed up in traditional outfits and almost performing for us by grinding flour, knitting and cooking in specially selected locations. We coined them the Disneyworld Islands. The people however, were lovely and it was still a brilliant experience to visit the islands and see how they were traditionally developed and inhabited.

One little girl befriended me, and took me to her home where I met her little sister and various other children that may or may not have been related to her. I explored her home, with its solar panel for the all-important lighting and television (!!), and played with the kids for around twenty minutes or so (of course taking a copious amount of photographs as well).
Although these Disneyworld Islands were remarkably false, there are apparently more traditional reed islands further offshore that tourists are not allowed to visit. The government has set up these tourist versions to help preserve the traditional lifestyles of the communities, which I think is a great approach.

We then sailed for another three hours or so on to Amantani Island. There, we split into groups and were introduced to our home-stay families of one night. Our 'mama' was Fortunada. She lives on the island with her 13 year old son, while her husband and daughter live in Puno. We arrived at her house while she was preparing our lunch, so I offered to help. She showed me into the kitchen (also the dining room I later discovered) which was a small mudbrick single roomed cottage with a fireplace at one end. At the other, firewood was stacked behind a built-in bench seat (our dining chairs) and along one wall were a few shelves that housed the pantry, crockery and utensils. Though, I didn't actually see all of these details until we were eating out lunch (on a fold-out table in front of the bench seat) as, at the time off my offer to help, the kitchen was filled with so much smoke that I couldn’t see inside! (I also later noticed that the ceiling was pure black with soot, along with the electicity-less lightbulb). Seeing my apprehension for entering her smoke-filled kitchen, Fortunada brought me outside a little stool, bag of miniature potatoes, bucket of water and a knife. She demonstrated how to wash and peel each potato with an impressive flourish - removing the skin with her knife like an expert chef peeling an apple. Within a few twists of the potato the entire skin was removed in one long strip. She handed me the knife and potatoes and left me to it. I can just hear Mum laughing now at my likelihood of managing to peel a potato with a peeler, let alone a blunt knife at warp speed, and I must say it was probably pretty amusing to watch!

Campbell wandered in after about 10 minutes and also tried to help, but between us, we probably managed to peel one potato for every two of hers. In the end I think we were destroying the lunch preparation timings, because Fortunada kindly took back her knife to finish the peeling and we went back to our room to relax before lunch.

That afternoon we hiked to the summit of the island, to the ruins of a temple now used only once a year on January 20th. We arrived for sunset, and the amazing views across Lake Titicaca. It was absolutely stunning, but very difficult to believe we were standing at around 3,000 metres overlooking a lake - the scene was closely comparable to the view over the Whistsunday Islands off the Queensland coast!

After our dinner the evening (got out of help for that meal thank goodness!), the 'town' had a fiesta. In reality, it was our host families and those of other tourists staying on the island. For the fiesta we were dressed up in the traditional Quechan costumes and taught how to dance.

Fortunada was quite the toe-tapper, and took the whole thing very seriously! She grabbed Campbell by the hand, dragged him out onto the floor and barely let him go all night! It was absolutely hilarious to watch them dancing around in brightly coloured, crazy costumes. Campbell was in his element too (finally, a dance that he didn’t refuse to partake in!), and had me up on the floor even when everyone else was taking a break. An interesting albeit slightly contrived and silly evening!

The next morning after breakfast, Fortunada waved us off from the port (after the little mountain goat practically dragged me down the hill from her house at a scary speed) and we moved on to Taquile Island for some further walking. It was a gorgeous day, and with Missy Higgins blaring through my ipod, it was a wonderful way to get some exercise. The view along the way was of course beautiful, but also strange - out in the middle of Lake Titicaca we were walking past at least two types of Eucalyptus tree - and plenty of them! It has been amazing to see them in nearly every country we have visited in the past year.

Later in the afternoon we sailed back onto the mainland at Puno, and spent the evening there before travelling to Cuzco. From Cuzco we had a day trip through the Sacred Valley, visiting the Incan ruins of Saqsaywaman and Pisac, a Camelid farm (of alpacas, llamas and four or five other species I can’t remember the names of), a local corn farm and a medical clinic. We wandered amazing terraces on scarily steep mountainsides, through incredible ruins constructed of enormous stones precisely pieced together like fascinating jigsaw puzzles, ate huge cobs of corn and fed crazy llamas. We discovered the amazing generosity of two retired Americans who wanted to give something back to the Peruvian community by setting up a clinic funded by donations and volunteering medical practitioners, met an entrepreneurial Peruvian corn farmer who has diversified into cheese, cattle artificial insemination and tourism. It was a great, eclectic day!

The Inca trail was next on the itinerary. The most anticipated highlight of Peru was indeed, pretty spectacular. We started the trek by rising at 4.30am and bussing to the start of our hike, at a point known as km 82. (confusingly 40-something kilometres from Machu Picchu). From here we spent the first day walking at a pretty easy pace along relatively easy paths. The uphill sections were definitely more difficult at altitude, but day one was a nice introduction. We walked for around 6 hours on day one, with Campbell and I using the last section used as a test to see how much we could destroy ourselves for future days. With supposedly only one kilometre to go before reaching our campsite, our guide let Campbell and I go ahead of the group to test our fitness. We pounded up the final section (of mostly inclined paths) for much more than a kilometre and arrived at the site sweaty, sore and ready for a beer. As luck would have it, an industrious group of Peruvian kids were awaiting our arrival with their beers and soft drinks, and between that and finding our tents already set up with little individual buckets of warm water and soap for our use, it was certainly a nice way to camp!!

The style of camping continued to impress, with popcorn (only my absolute favourite food) served as a snack every afternoon, three course meals in a tent with tables and chairs (and real cutlery!), and not a dish in sight for us to wash. We were waited on hand and foot even to the point of being woken each morning with a cup of coca tea served to us in our tent!

Day two was where the real work began. The trek this day involved two passes, the first named Dead Woman’s Pass, at an altitude of 4,215 metres. Cam and I pressed on ahead of the group again this morning which proved to be good fun. We pushed ourselves and arrived to our lunch camp about an hour before the group, which awarded us a sleep in the sun before lunch! In the afternoon we climbed the second pass, and arrived at our second camp at dusk.

Day three was the short day in terms of distance, but one that I actually found harder than day two. The trail was predominantly downhill steps - making for some serious knee and ankle aching. We were treated at the end again however, arriving at the final campsite before Machu Picchu which included a shop (selling beer of course) for a wonderful afternoon of beer and Doritos overlooking the stunning mountains and valleys.

We arose on the final day at 4.30am, in the pouring rain (and leaking tent) for our final two hours to Machu Picchu. Thank goodness that the rain stopped as we commenced our trek, and the walk through daybreak was excellent. Joining with the other groups, we almost silently (sleepily, more likely) walked the final kilometres along the cobbled trail to the Sun Gate, where the clouds momentarily broke to allow us an amazing view of Machu Picchu.

The four days on the Inca Trail were memorable, challenging and stunning. We walked past streams and waterfalls, through little villages and jungle, along mountainsides and sheer cliff-faces. We passed through many Incan ruins and along winding, hundred year old paths. And our final destination was definitely magical.

After catching the bus down from Machu Picchu to Aguas Callientes, the closest town, we wolfed down a pizza to the beat of workers chipping away an enormous piece of granite across the road. It only caught our attention when someone yelled out, and the men all ran around the corner from the worksite. Not more than 20 metres from our table, three sticks of dynamite were smoking, sticking out of the rock! Restaurant staff were interested in the display, moving to the front of the restaurant for a better view. I, on the other hand decided to huddle against the back wall! The first stick went off with a loud, dense bang; cracking the granite in several places. The next two went out. After waiting a further five or so minutes, I guess they drew straws to decide who was checking the situation, because one guy nervously clambered over to the rock to find out if the dynamite was indeed out. They must have given up then, as they went back to chipping (and I was able to finish my lunch with a little less fear!). Very funny to imagine many other places allowing that type of activity in the main street without any protection or blocking of the road!

After surviving lunch, we caught a train and bus back to Cuzco, for a long-awaited shower and bed. Before retiring for the day however, we planned the most important part of our next day of rest in Cuzco - breakfast!
On recommendation of our leader, we headed straight to a cafe called ´Jacks´ the next morning. What a way to start the day. I was literally jumping with glee as I spotted the rack of magazines in english, and proceeded to collect my pile for review over breakfast. Next was the menu - everything you would expect from an Acland Street cafe and more... and the food (and most importantly, the coffee) was brilliant. Even better than many places I´ve been in Melbourne! A definite reward after our days of hiking.
A day of shopping proceeded breakfast, followed by dinner back at Jacks again, and breakfast again the following morning (a bit sad I know, but you try going months on end without a latte in sight and then see your reaction)!

We flew out of Cuzco for the Amazon on Thursday 16 March, for three days at a lodge in the jungle. It was nice to finally be back near sea level, but the heat and humidity was a shock to the system after weeks of dry and crisp altitude air.

It took a flight, an hour bus ride and two hour boat ride (during which we saw birds, turtles and capybaras - a pig-like animal that is the world´s largest rodent) to get to the lodge, so when we arrived a big relax was in order. It took the best part of a day, so our first activity was after dinner, when we went for a night walk through the jungle. Trudging around in gumboots, jeans, long sleaved tops and a rain coat (extra protection from the charming malaria-infected mosquitoes) was a sweaty and gross experience, but I woud have gladly donned more layers on seeing one of our first wildlife species - a big, hairy tarantula standing at the entrance to his hole next to the path. I really didnt expect to see one so close,and even writing about it now gives me shivers! Eugh.
We also saw a sloth, a large spotted rat-type animal about as big as a wallabe, fireflies, frogs, and plenty of other spiders, birds and insects. Before heading back to the lodge we all turned off our torches and spent a few minutes listening to the sounds around us. That was awesome (and almost deafening!).

The next morning was a 5.30am rise for a walk through the jungle. Hardly a decent time to be waking up on a holiday, but it turned out to be an hour later than we awoke anyway. Campbell was up at 4.30am sick, and ended up spending the next 24 hours vomiting like clockwork. Very disappointing for him as he missed our only day in the Amazon, but lucky that we weren´t on a travel day so he could stay in bed (although the humidity in a lodge without any electricity or windows wasn´t really the best).

My day was good though! We saw three snakes, heaps of different types of frogs and spiders, piranas, insects, stunning butterflies and a family of spdier monkeys. I am sure my memory isn´t serving me well and I´ve left out many sightings, but I´m sure you get the picture. We also saw some amazing flora and learnt plenty of interesting stuff that I won´t bore you with now (just you await my ramblings over a drink sometime!).
The afternoon I stayed around the lodge to look after Campbell (i.e. relax and sleep after my obscenely early start).

After dinner that evening we took a boat out to go cayman (alligator) spotting. Campbell decided that he would try to join us too after his day of boredom, and so we clambered on board the boat. We were sitting right in the middle, which allowed us a great view - once the guide spotted a cayman, that boat driver manouvered close for some great photos. As luck would have it, Campbell was sitting directly in front of our first cayman, under the spotlight, when he vomited again. The poor little cayman (not to mention the other passengers in a confined space next to him) pretty much had Cam vomiting on his head. Our tour leader was freaking out at the back of the boat yelling at the driver to reverse, convinced the animal was about to bite Cam´s head as he leaned out over it. And so that was our first sighting! Hilarious in retrospect but pretty foul at the time!

After going back to the lodge to drop Campbell back off, we attempted the trip again, this time spotting plenty of others. The guide even grabbed a small one and brought it into the boat for us to touch (Peru has slightly different ecological practices than we are used to!) And hopefully, I got some good shots.

The next day we flew back to Lima (Campbell was also better and in no time wolfing down KFC), where we took a final wander around the city, and went out for a last dinner with the group before flying to Buenos Aires that night.

Phew. What a thesis. But condensing such an amazing three weeks into even this space has been far from doing it justice. Hopefully my hundreds of photos will help!

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Photos

Nazca
The Monkey - Nazca Lines

Nazca
Our pilot and the tiny plane we flew in over the Nazca Lines.

Nazca
An Pre-Inca, 1,500 year old mummy within a cemetery near Nazca.

Arequipa
The Monastery of Santa Catalina.

Arequipa
The Monastery of Santa Catalina.

Arequipa
The Monastery of Santa Catalina - lunch for the nuns (I am deadly serious!)

Colca Canyon
Hanging out with a one-month old alpaca.

Colca Canyon
Our constant battle with the locals throughout Ecuador and Peru - it is carnivale, and that means water fights!

Colca Canyon
A condor flying over the Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon
A view over the Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon
A typical view.

At 4,900 metres
At the highest point we will reach in Peru!

Puno
A carnivale celebration we stumbled upon on our way to Puno.

Sacred Valley
He can´t actually see his food, but he certainly seems to be enjoying it!

Inca Trail
One of the many varied scenes along the Inca Trail.

Inca Trail
After readching our highest pass along the trail - at 4,215 metres above sea level... that was a hard day!

Machu Picchu
Our first view of Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu
After four days of hiking we made it... even if a little sore, tired and filthy!!

Machu Picchu
Some of the awesome stonework.

Machu Picchu
Our views from above the clouds.