Final Blog from Ali

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Hello all,
I am now home and thought i'd just add the final week or so of the trip, just as Lorna said i would. It was all such a rush and i was so busy out and about that i barely had time to log in, even if the was a internet connection available - I could've done it on the Inca trail, but clearly there was no opportunity!!!

My last blog was at Ariquipa, just before the real altitude hit and like Lorna said, it was quite a airless, heady effect. Loved the Coca tea / brew that Rob and Jose plied us with and we really did have quite an entertaining afternoon. I nearly managed to sell Adrian to the ladies who needed a lift down the mountain to Chivay - they thought he had 'lovely eyes'. They also enjoyed learning the correct way to eat jelly babies (do you bite the head or feet off first??). Our sing-song on board the bus deteriorated from 80's and 90's classics, through to songs with actions and one classic moment when Cathy (a wonderful Catholic woman) began singing about "spanking nuns bums'....oh yes, was a hilarious afternoon full of warmth and joy!!
Once we got to Chivay there was the hot baths, supplied by the mountains and very HOT. We were then treated, as Lorna said to very cold rooms.
I have been extremely fortunate in that altitude did not affect me too much, at this stage all i could feel was a breathlessness that was totally alien and i'd start off running up some stairs and almost collapse on the way up. A couple of spots of blood errupted from my nose, but in general i felt ok. However, at this point in the holiday, it became almost impossible to sleep for longer than a couple of hours at a time.
In Chivay i decided to walk a small hill (!) with some of the others to check out some ruins and that i was feeling fit. It was not too bad and the success of this made me feel more confident than perhaps i should have felt about the effects of altitude, particularly as i continued to rush upstairs and nearly pass out with breathlessness, etc.

We headed on the Puno and again went over the big high mountain, this time minus the coca tea. Puno was a city that felt very welcoming but it had high poverty, the housing was very poor (although not as poor as the shacks we saw as we left Lima). There was a really busy, bustling square and people approached us to talk and try to sell goods (yes, finger puppets again!)
There were many tourists who had just finished the Inca trail and as we got money from the ATM we were under observation. Kids were eying up where we put money and then trying to encourage us to get our trainers polished (!) and also standing looking very mournfully at ice-cream counters. This was where Lorna and i bought some rather stunning hats with little tassels and stripes. I was starting to feel a little frustrated at the limited party action by this point and the fact that early mornings were leading to sleepiness by 9pm. After dinner, a small gang of us went dancing, Jose knew a club nearby and 6 of us went and po-goed and bopped for about an hour....believe me, at 4000 meters, it was more than long enough!

The following day we set out to the Uros islands on Titicaca, ending up at Raul and Sabina's place on Amantani. They were very good hosts, although i have to say i'd never had so many potatos piled on a plate. It was amazing to find so many flavours of potato (purple nobbly ones are very sweet).
I did the hike up the 'earth mother' mountain, which is taller than the 'earth father' mountain (can't recall the Quechuan name). From the top were amazing views over lake Titicaca, out to Bolivia - mountains and snow caps. It was also at this point that we watched a most stunning sunset. The wind got up and a different level of cold set in.
After dinner, Raul came up to dress me for the evenings entertainment, the skirts were tied very tight on the base of the rib cage and fortunately i was allowed to keep my combat trousers on underneath. Raul and i walked to the hall, with very halting conversation, using a combination of English, Spanish, Quechan and hand movements. When we got there it was a manic hour or so of dancing, i did not get to sit down at all, Enrichie our guide would make me dance when Raul took a break. At 4000 meters there was alot of spinning, side-stepping and forward and back movements (kind of a foot-stomp) while the music speeds up and the band competes with each other to go the fastest, the dancers also have to keep up. Totally unbelieveable!!

The next day another hike up a island where men wore red hats if they were single, paterned hats if they were married. Apparently they could decide to change their hats (even if married) when they wanted another woman (!?!). Here the coca leaf was a greeting, carried in hats people swapped coca leaf with their friends.
We arrived back in Puno and the same little gang of dancers from the other night went out to the nightclub. This time we got free Pisco sours on arrival and the locals joined us dancing. It was much easier to dance now at the altitude and we realised that one alcoholic drink was more than enough to get us hammered!!

We then went to Cusco and the whole preparation for doing the Inca trail began, packing up the bags and checking they were not too heavy, also having a day to wander at our own pace. Was fantastic.

The Inca trail was a truly wonderful experience with alot of laughs, pain, anguish (particularly as at the front where we didn't know who was needing oxygen when it was needed - my fear on day 2 was that Lorna had been struggling). Luckily they arrived at camp just before the weather really broke, clouds and rain had been threatening and we just didn't know how those at the back were managing 'Dead Woman's Pass'. At the front we had been on a 'slow-but-sure' pace, it is just SO STEEP when the air quality is poor, but this adds to the feeling of euphoria when you hit the top and get cheered and hugged by all the other people who have just made it too.

Ditto all the things Lorna said about getting to Macchu Picchu (totally, unbelievably, incredible view and feeling) the toilets (yuck). and Nicky, you'll be impressed, i actually had a shower every day - even on the Inca Trail, even though it was cold water. I also managed to brush my teeth every day (or at least i think i did)!!
I think i was remarkably lucky as i got my most violent bit of illness of the whole trip on the sunday night that we finished the trail - vomit and diarroah. Hope nobody's reading this over their cornflakes.

The following night was party night and we were back in Cusco, we went for a final meal, very posh place for about a tenner was fed and watered enough to go dancing...
Mario, our guide on the Inca trail joined us and Jose with about 7 of the gang went to a club. An Afro-Peruvian band was playing (a kind of Peruvian/rock/folk/Aboriginal fusion) and it was a really grungy club, big paintings were muralled on the walls and the bar-staff would flip over the bar to dance, then go back to elaborately mixing cocktails. There was a waiter who danced (Peruvian and Russian styles!!) with bottles and drinks balanced on his head. I think anything went in this place and people were on tables, bars, etc - yust dancing, Later the music was western and later still - salsa. Yeah!!
A brilliant night and perfect celebration to the end of the Inca trail and the holiday.
For all of us, i think the holiday was finished when we left Cusco. We arrived back in Lima to kill 24 hours before our flights back to the UK.

I am now home for over 24 hours, done my laundry and slept in my own bed. I hope you have enjoyed our travel blog. I've had the most amazing time

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