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November 29th 2006

Published: December 19th 2006

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Hanban

Cliff edge

After wondering around M.P we climbe the other 2 mountains, this was the edge of the cliff

Peru

Cusco, a brilliant city!!!

A few facts to start off with... population of 350,00, massive Inca city with Inca walls lining the streets with both colonial and modern buildings, beautiful although I have to admit I saw very little of it due to the great parties.
Cusco used to be ruled by the Incas before the Spanish conquest.

We stayed at the best hostel ever, called Loki Hostel. It used to be an old monastery but was renovated around 2 courtyards to become a party-based hangout. Met some real cool people inc a huge group of Irish and some guys who live round the corner from Kate. As Kate and Jonny were both sick for the first 4 days of our stay these guys took me under there wing and looked out for me. (Missed jonny dressing up in his best Bolivian outfits and watched Kate have an injection in her bottom to cure her tooth ache??!!!)

Here and had loads of fun. muchos drinkage and partying ensued in the classic gringo bars and clubs of Cuzco.

We didn’t do the Inca trail, put off by the day of uphill walking???but heard it was

Kate at Machu Picchu

an incredible trip so feel i missed out a bit but still made it to Machu Picchu and a few other Inca ruins.

2nd December

2km north west of city we went horse riding around Sacsayhuaman to see ruins of military and religious significance. (only 20% of original structure there though)
The Incas envisioned Cusco in the shape of a puma with Sacsayhuaman as its head and 22 zig zgged walls form the teeth ( clearly copied from the book because i didn’t notice any of this while riding around on very sorry looking horses!)
Saw many more ruins, rocks and steps but most of the structures had been torn down by the Spaniards after one of the most bitter battle of Spanish conquest.

3rd Dec

Set off to Machu Picchu, hoping to get on the train we rocked up at 5am to queue for an hour only to miss it by 2 places. Later had to get bus (nothing is straight forward with me and kate- would have been less trouble just to do the inca trail!)
We got the bus to a pretty town called Ollantaytambo which is a village dominated by massive fortress

kate clmbing up ladder!!!

above spectacular huge terraces which guard the Inca complex. However we only looked up at this from outside the gate as a tasty fresh trout was calling us for tea!! Later we arrived in Agua Calientes which is the village deep in the valley of Machu Pichu.

The next morning we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5 to visit the lost Inca city before all the dam tourists got there! It was a very mysterious site although at 5.30 you couldn’t see any of it....luckily we hadn’t been walking foe 3 days to get there!! Bumped into quite a lot of people from our hostel at the top which was quite funny .looking out to loads and loads of clouds!
The clouds did clear and we had a great day, there are over 50 burial sites there and over 100 skeletons remains. We managed to tag on to various tour groups, as too tight to buy our own guides, and learnt some info about various ceremonial baths, temples serpents windows and all sorts.
Feeling pretty lazy after seeing all the worn out Incas trekkers we decided to climb the further 2 mountains called Huayna Picchu and Wayna Picchu.

Millions os steps

We didnt realise what a mission we had embarked on..the incas loved their steps

These were 2 very steep mountains so I reckon we got our fair share of climbing! We went all the way down to the "Temple of the Moon" and caves which seemed to go further and further down into the jungle- soon realising the further you go down the further you have to walk back up- the look on Kates face was priceless!
We climbed and climbed up ladders, over hanging caves, plunges into cloud forests, literally hanging off cliff edges at some points clinging to wire with shire drops to the side just going up and up and up!......................

After feeling like we achieved so much after our climb we partied for the next couple of days with the rest of the hostel( not telling them we hadn’t actually done the Inca trail) We had tea each day at 9 for about 1pound 50 or had a cheese toasty from the bar joining in with the great atmosphere in the hostel, went out to quite a few bars which was good fun, one bar let me help myself in the kitchen as i was a bit hungry after sleeping through tea time!
Absolutely loved everyone i met

Wire to climb up the edge with!

here and was gutted to leave but once again it was time to move on...

We caught a night bus to Ica, west Peru, along with Ian from the hostel, which was pretty bad as we winded over the Andes in a freezing bus with the bus driver going mentally fast. We finally got a taxi to my final destination of the entire trip, Huacachina, a small town in the middle of the Peruvian desert from where we could do sandboarding! We spent the day recuperating our bodies from the escapades of Cusco, sitting by a pool in the boiling hot sunshine eating pancakes and drinking beer. It felt like we were on a package holiday and looked forward although slightly dubious of the the final activity of sand boarding down the sand dunes. We went in these massive trucks that sped across and over the sand like a rollercoaster. And they sounded like tanks. We hit 3 dunes whereby people could both try and board down them (I tried but I was truly shit so I gave up!) or go down on their bellies to the bottom. This way was so much better as it meant you

At Waynapicchu

looking down over Machu Picchu

go faster. Overall, we had so much fun on the dunes, and we randomly bumped into Paul and Georgina, two people who we met in Bolivia.

Thursday 14th

Pisco to sea penguins and sea lions (soar subject wont go into detail)

Then the Bus to Arequipa...had a very rushed meal in the same place we´d eaten for the last 3 nights with George and Kate, was very funny as we drank our vino tinto and ran to the bus stop...obviously the bus was not on time!!think we forgot we were in South America there for a minute!
We were told to go to the shop to amuse ourselves as we kept pestering people about when it would arrive which was entertainment in itself, we were followed around the whole shop picking up everything and being asked if we.d like it..no i dont need 500grams of sugar at the moment thank you, had about 5 people following us around in the end and came out with a random selection of goods in large santa bags! New toothbrushes, the biggest tube of toothpaste available, chocolate milk and all sorts..for another 10 mins of entertainment we brushed our teeth

Machu Picchu

and we climbed the mountain on the right!

on the side of the street much to the amusement of the locals. Our bus fianly turned up an hour late but worth it as was greeted at the door by a lady dressed in a suit(never seen this on a bus before) and we were escorted to our panaramic view seats for our 15 hour journey. Pure luxuury, although anything is compared to Bolivian buses!

sorry forgot to mention that Jonny left today so was truley heartbroken..saddened..not sure if will get over it....that good enough for you Jonny???!!!!!

Arequipa-known as the "white City" land of active volcanoes,thermal springs,high altitude and the deepest canyons

Canon Del Colca 16th December

3 day trip of seroius hiking! What were we thinking!Not 100% sure if it is the worlds deepest canyon but at 3191m deep its pretty close.

As ususal me and kate had to cause some sort of chaos at beginning of trip, forgot camera so had to go back, nearly missed bus etc etc... not very welcomed by the rest of the group all with faces like thunder!We had to get on a bus for 6 hours then where i was woken up

Me quite happy climbing!

kates face was not quite so happy looking!

with kate nearly sitting on my knee as half of Peru had also got on the bus and a huge traditioanly dressed and smelling lady was nearly sitting on Kate! Very funny!

We started the trek in the rain and realised it was up to me and kate and the guide to make the trip any fun so tried to learn a bit more Spanish and were singing, laughing and chatting all the way down the Canyon, we were soaked to the skin! It was hard work going down but kate was on a moaning ban( although i owed her a day of moaning and bad temper after the Pisco day out which in my opinion was horrible and a waste of a day...actually kate managed to keep her cool with me most of the time only to take her anger out on a tuc tuc driver calling him a "robbing pirate " and refusing to pay him!this made me crack a smile!)
anyway back to the trip.............

After walking down the Colca Canyon for 4hrs we arrived in the quiet pretty village of Cabanaconde to sleep in San Juan de Chuccho which is 2,300ms down.

Day

Waynapicchu

2 . We got up for pancakes..the best way to lure me and kate out of bed! and walked to Cosnirhua back up to a height of 2,660m where we learnt about the plants and animals and how the local people survive. Little white snail thnigs that live on cactus are used to create dye for food colouring and make up etc...sold to countries for 25solers per kg! We visited a museum where a local woman dressed in highly decorated and embroidered clothing taught us about how they live in the the Canyon.

After this we continued to walk where it dawned on Kate that the furhter you walk down a Canyon the further you will have to walk back up it!We arrived at this beautiful Oasis at 12 in the rain again and contemplated what to for the afternoon. We were to get up at 2am the next morning so it was going ot have to be an early night so did some extra activities to tire ourselves out....ended up playing football with all the guides with me and kate in goals! loads of fun, we were quite good too! i then got chased by a goose and

More Macchu Picchu

it nipped me on the foot!i was hungry but i wasnt going to steel its dinner, was merely walking past it! Had a nice swim in the pool in the evening, dinner and in bed by 7.30 after 2 bowls of spagetti!
We wondered how on earth we were going to get up the mountain in the pitch black when finding the toilet in the dark was hard enough!

Day 3 ..... 2am up and out with head torches on, kate safely strapped in on a mule ( there was no chance she´d walk for 3 hours up hill) This mountain was 1000m tall but we zig zagged our way up and was there by 5.30, realised im as fit as a fiddle as nearly ran up there overtaking 2 different groups!
After breaky we went to a national park to look for Condours but we didnt see any unfortunately, after that we relaxed in hot springs before another long bus journey home.

All in all had a brilliant trip, really enjoyed the walking and didnt find it too hard, 3 days of Canyons is enough though!

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