Peru - buses, trekking, sandboarding & much much more!

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And so the journey began…

We got the bus up from Santiago in Chile, leaving Saturday night at 10:30pm crossing the northern desert region. I can officially confirm - that indeed 30 hours is a long time on a bus! At least the first film they showed was in English, but after that we were literally lost for words, as it was all Spanish from there on out!

Eventually we arrived in Arica in the very North of Chile at 4:30am Monday morning - a bit early to do anything, so we had to hang around the station. After some investigation, we managed to organise a car with a few other locals, to drive us to the border where we walked across - we got an exit stamp for Chile and then an entry stamp for Peru - and got picked up on the far side, after which we were dropped off in the dusty border town of Tacna, Peru’s most patriotic city which was actually part of Chile for a time until the people voted to return it to Peru around 80 year ago.

There were no early morning buses from Tacna to Cusco (where we were heading) so we spent the day hanging around Tacna town, having a ‘café-culture’ type day where we just wandered from place to place - all the while taking in the sites of this new country. After coming into town that morning from the station, we really played the “Gringo” card on the way back as we couldn’t remember the name of the station we wanted to go back to, and ended up at the wrong bus station!

We eventually managed to get to the correct station, after the ticket agent himself (that we booked with earlier that morning) had to come and get us. A kind lady who worked at one of the counters rang the place where we booked our tickets, and I guess told him there were two dumb Gringo’s hanging about looking for his bus in the wrong part of town!

Another 15 hour overnight ride and hair-raising altitude over the Andes, at times in excess of 5,000m, and we landed in a town called Puno - where a few hours later we managed to get another connecting bus on to Cusco. Finally, finally … after 45 hours on buses and nearly three full days later, we had made it to Cusco, to ready ourselves for our trek to Machu Picchu… Hurrah…!


The History bit….
Ancient Peru was the seat of the prominent Andean civilization - The Inca’s whose empire (12th - 16th century) was defeated by the Spanish conquistadors in 1533, while weakened by an internal civil war at the time. Spain ruled the roost until the early 19th century when they finally succumbed to pressure on all sides with rebellion in the air; being ousted in the North in Venezuela, Columbia and Ecuador, as well as the south with Chile and Argentina being liberated. The Peruvians finally managed to shake the Spanish off around 1826.

The country has an immensely varied geography with scenery on an epic scale - a vast coastal desert region, the Andes highlands with glacier snow capped peaks, to tropical lands with hot steamy rainforests bordering Columbia and Brazil.

The 20th century can pretty much be categorized by coups and military dictatorships! The 1980’s saw gross mismanagement of the economy with inflation soaring over 10,000%!w(MISSING)hich didn’t help matters, as well as the rise of insurgency gorilla groups that kept Peru off the travelers’ radar. The 1990’s saw governmental action, which were increasingly marred by money laundering corruption scandals, culminating in the arrest of disgraced ex-president Fujimori in 2006.

Even today with the improved governance & economic backdrop, not all Peruvians are benefiting with nearly 50%!o(MISSING)f the people still living below the poverty line, and unemployment is seen as out of control. As we traveled through the country from shanty towns in the countryside to the glitzy metropolitan landscape of Lima, we were astounded by the diversity of the rich and poor.

Cusco

Sitting at a whopping elevation of 3,300 meters (over 11,000 feet) above sea level - welcome to the home of altitude sickness and screaming headache territory!!! … And it wasn’t long before I was bed ridden - not from the altitude so much (as I had started taking medicine before I arrived), but vomiting from the local food - a common ailment around these parts we heard! Thankfully according to plan, we had arrived here about 3 days before the trek, in order to acclimatize and learn to expend energy at altitude…. and 12-18 hours later, I was ready for action!

Cusco is a city steeped in history. Once the foremost city of the Inca Empire built by the first Inca leader charged with finding the navel of the earth….and where he discovered it - so became Cusco. The Spanish later occupied the city under the tutelage of Francisco Pizarro; who looted it and then turned their attention to developing the coastal city of Lima, thus making Cusco a quaint colonial backwater.

That was until an American historian came up the thickly over grown ruins of the fabled Machu Picchu (the “lost” city of the Inca’s) in 1911 near Cusco. Not even the Spanish had known of its existence - or if they did they couldn’t find it in the remote highlands.

Machu Picchu

The country’s biggest trump card and one of South America’s most visited destinations, not to mention one of the most speculator archeological sites on the continent. At the height of Inca dominance and zenith of power in the early 1500’s, their empire stretched from the present day border of Ecuador and Columbia, to northern Chile and Argentina. It was at this time that a number of mountain top citadels (cities) were built including Machu Picchu. So why was it built? Possibly as a royal retreat; an agricultural site; an astronomical observatory, or a ceremonial centre for scholars and intellects - No one really knows for sure. The actual function of Machu Picchu is still a mystery; for all their greatness the Inca’s didn’t have a writing system and the city was never mentioned in the Spanish chronicles.

The four day trek to get there…
So after completing prep-work, including confirming permits, hiring trekking shoes, buying some trekking clothes etc… and other bits and pieces, and we were ready for our pre-trek meeting the night before with our guide and to meet the fellow trekkers in our group. We’d heard of several other people getting sick from the food in Cusco, and Nicola suddenly looked a bit green the day before the trek and then the vomiting started! The trek suddenly looked in doubt…….

At 4:30am the following morning we were up regardless and headed to the starting point. We nearly turned back at the entry gates, as Nicola was so sick vomiting continuously throughout the day. Ever-the-trekker, she persisted and was somewhat better post lunch.

What was the trek like?
Overall very good! It’s the most authentic and scenic way to see the ruins. Having trekked in Nepal last year for nearly a week - we kind-of thought we knew what it would be like. It was similar but different. This time around we were in a group with four lovely girls from the U.S. and another nice couple from Canada - all headed up by our legendry guide named Orlando. Somewhat slightly easier than the Annapurna mountain range in Nepal, but more of a drama was made of some of the “bigger climbs” including “Dead women’s pass” which takes you up to a nose bleeding 4,000m. I carried between 8-12kg on different days which I hadn’t done before, and it’s a whole different experience from where I had carried nothing in Nepal. A team of 10-12 porters carried most of our stuff; all the tents, foods, sleeping bags for 8 people, the guide and themselves. This is an extremely tough job and when I saw them running ahead of us up the mountain carrying between 25-30 kg, just so they could have lunch ready for us in time…. I felt slightly ashamed of my fitness level.

The four day trail is walked along hand-made stone slabs, through breathtaking mountain scenery, jaw dropping cloud forests, with lots of other Inca ruins to visit along the way. On the forth morning after three days and nights, we reached Machu Picchu. And after getting up at 3:30am, we reached the ruins for dawn. This majestic setting remains unchanged from several hundreds of years ago, and watching the sun rise over the ancient ruins will leave you awe struck by the power of its natural beauty; with its panorama of towering forests - and the ruins being unveiled building by building. That morning we pushed ourselves even further and went on to climb Wayna Picchu, as the views are spectacular from the top, looking down on the magical Machu Picchu below. This is where the money shot is to be had.

Heading to Nazca

After spending another day or two in Cusco and going white water rafting down the Urubamba River (grade 3+ rapids) which was awesome!!; we finally managed to drag ourselves away from Cusco and get a bus to the small town of Nazca, down the southern coast of Peru to go and see the famous Nazca Lines.

We coughed up for a better bus, yes nice comfortable seats, and they served food on board, even vegetarian if you wanted it, .... they’d nearly wipe your runny nose for you!!! But nothing could make up for the severe windy roads, as we drove for 15-16 hours over the Andes mountains, and we kept feeling like throwing up! The driver had little sympathy for his passengers woes.

Eventually - like all journeys we got there, and de-boarded at 7 bells in the morning. We flagged down a local taxi driver who brought us to a nearby hostel, which thankfully permitted us to check-in straight away, allowing us to get a couple of hours shut-eye. Not to waste time, we managed to get a chartered plane flight for 3pm that same day, to go and see the lines.

A town largely ignored until 1939, when a scientist flew over the desert and discovered one of ancient Peru’s most impressive achievements. The Nazca Lines! Spread out over 500 sq kms, the Nazca Lines form a network of over 800 lines, and several hundred geoglyphs figures (really only visible from the air), including some of the most elaborate designs such as - a spider, an astronaut, and a monkey with a long tail. These designs were created by removing sun beached stones from the desert to expose the lighter soil below. The enigma thickens when you realise these were created 900 BC - 600 AD. While many have theorized, no one is still quite sure what these drawings and lines represent, as well as why they bothered, since the creators couldn’t really see their own work without an aerial perspective.

With the naked eye from the widow of the plane we could easily spot the condor, parrot, whale, dog, humming bird, and a “drawing” with its hand raised to the sky - a figure which has become known as “the astronaut”. A word of warning, make sure not to eat before you get into one of these small aircraft, it was a lesson that the two young girls in the plane with us learnt the hard way, as they spent the whole 45 minute flight vomiting!

Sandboarding in Huacachina

That evening with the help of one of the girls in the hostel we figured out how to get to Huacachina, and the following morning rode the local bus for two hours to get there. Huacachina is a small oasis town in the Ocucaje desert. Once a holiday playground for Peru’s rich and famous, Huacachina now serves to amuse passing backpackers (that’s us!) who venture here for sandboarding and rides on big dune buggies, through the endless desert surrounding the oasis. Coincidentally this was exactly the reason for our trip there also….!

We eventually managed to get ourselves on a dune-buggy & sandboarding group later that day. The buggy, which looked more like a mini monster truck, was driven by a 40-something year old NUTTER, with no regard for our safety! But I have to say the trip was more hair-raising than anything we had done in a while, as we plummeted over gigantic sands dunes, our driver choosing to ignore the screams of fear and anguish (they were mine not Nicola’s!), as we climbed vertical walls of sand and vaulted off the dunes four wheels in the air at times! Crazy stuff! Again like tubing in Laos earlier in the trip - do it if you can before it gets banned or it’s productized so much that it’s no longer fun…!

And that was only part 1 of the adventure - next for the sand boarding bit and being dropped off at the top of the largest of large sand dunes I have ever seen. White plywood board in hand with a broken candle for wax (to make it go faster!), there we were launching ourselves face first into the sand. Not for the easily bruised, and you can, and people have been seriously hurt doing this.

So here’s how it worked….
Each of us would (unwillingly!) “disappear” (after some peer pressure and basic instruction from the maniac-buggy-driver) down the 100 metre high sand dunes into a cloud of dust, praying that the flimsy “sand board” would save us from sand rash in our arse! Lots of tears along the way as people slid and fell all over the place, getting mangled in the process. To this day we are still trying to remove sand from cavities it was never intended for…!

Lima

That evening from Huacachina, we got a night bus to Lima, for a brief stop in Peru’s capital. Stepping off the bus after five hours, may as well have been stepping off a five hour flight. It truly was like we’d landed on another world. A glitzy, modern metropolis - Europe away from home. A stark contrast to the grinding poverty of the depressing shanty towns which dot the outer ring, and the despair of some of the population, when compared against the ritzy apartments and glossy office buildings. It all sat uncomfortable in my stomach.

Many tourists who fly in here, make a beeline straight for Cusco, and several who had been here told us not to bother with the capital too much, as there’s not much to see compared to the treasuries that await you in the Andean region. Lima has also sadly earned a reputation amongst travelers for being somewhat dangerous - but never to be scared off by an unruly crowd so to speak, we spent a night in the Miraflores area (which is meant to be the “classy suburb” of Lima) err right… and we decided that was enough for us…

The following morning we got a taxi to one of the bus stations to find out our bus to Quito in Ecuador was leaving in 20 minutes; and wait for it - a forty one hour stinker of a bus ride - Jaysus! - a journey of epic proportions!

Our time spent in Peru was really memorable and we enjoyed it immensely, but time waits for no man or women as we saw… and certainly the bus wasn’t going to wait for us - so rucksacks onboard!! And after getting the worst mangled-up seats possible on the bus (as well as mine being completely broken!); like that we were off…

Ecuador - here we come…..

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Photos

Machu Picchu - The Lost City of the Incas
With Wayna Picchu in the background

On your markers, get set, .....goooo!
Our trekking group on day one

Now that's a heavy load!
One of the many inspiring porters on the Inca Trail

Celebrating!
Having just climbed the infamous "Dead Woman's Pass"

Going for a little rest!
Our accommodation for the trek

We made it!
Having reached Machu Picchu

The Humming Bird
Nazca Lines

Sandboarding rocks!
Huacachina

The buggy!
No helmets included!

Going down is just as bad as going up!
The Machu Picchu trek

A few minutes of bliss!
Enjoying a well earned break on the trek