the end of a journey

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As you can probably tell from the title I have come to the end of my trip and this is my final entry. For the past two weeks I have been on a tour travelling round Peru and I haven't had any time to write a blog about it, and alot has happened.

I caught a flight to Lima which went smoothly and I stayed in Lima for a couple of day before the tour began. The group had 14 females and only one male, but he didn't seem to mind!! Again it was a really good group and was very mixed but we all got on really well.

First on our agenda was to fly to Poono which is a city on the edge of Lake Titicaka, the largest lake above 2000m. Poono was around 3800m in altitude so just carrying your bags around made you short of breath. I was really lucky though as I was one of only two of the group that didn't get altitude sickness. The next morning we headed out onto Lake Titicaka which was hugh!! Half of it spreads into Boliva but we kept to the Peruvian side. We stopped on two different islands which both carry on traditional ways of life and we learnt a lot about their culture. The second island is where we stayed for a night with a homestay family. This was good as there weren't any other tourists there and the local people were really friendly and welcomed us into their home. That night I saw more stars than I had even seen in the Galapagos and the next morning another amazing sun rise. We headed back to Poono on the boat and stopped off at another community that lives on the lake. Some of the lake is very shallow and so reeds grow and they cover a small section. This community lifes on floating reed islands and makes everything they need from the reeds. It was really interesting to see how they live, I was especially intrigued that if there was an argument or a row between families they can just remove the wooden sticks anchoring the islands and move their home to a different part of the lake!!

The next stage of the trip was the one I was most looking forward to. We travelled to Cuzco which is considered the central city of the Inca times. It was a very cool city but it was just the starting place for our Inca adventure! We packed our bags and set off in a minibus to start our training day. We were in the Sacred Valley that contained many Inca ruins. We also did a small hike that we deemed our training for the Inca trail. It was a Good day and after filling up on a meal of Alpaka (!) we headed to a small town that was next to the starting point of the Inca trail.

The Inca trail was by far my highlight of the trip. I had such a good time.It was four days of hiking over 40 something kms. The distance wasn't that far but the trail was constantly changing from steep climbs to steep discents. The first day wasn't bad and took about 5 hours to reach our first campsite. With our group of 14 we had two guides, two cooks and 17 porters. They were amazing and would run past you with up to 60kg of weight on thier backs and would have the tents put up before you had even arrived, we were spoilt!! The second day was tough and we had to get up really early to leave by 6 because we had a long day ahead of us. It contained the famous Dead Women Pass which was at the altitude of 4200m. It was a long hard push to get up there but we all did it and felt very chuffed. Me being me, decided to add a little more of a challenge to the trail, and knowing that I would not beable to run the up sections decided to challenge myself to run the entire down hill sections. It was fun and at one point was over an hour ahead of the group!!! unfortunately the idea turned against me and while running down one of the steeper sections my water bottle lid came off and flooded my bag along with my camera. So that is the reason why I haven't put any pictures with is blog is because since then my camera hasn't been working. opps. That day also contained another high pass which was equally challenging. We got to camp at about 4 in the afternoon and had an early night. The next day was a short day of hiking and the aim was to get to our campsite which is just the other side of Machu Picchu Mountain. Along the way we saw some amazing Inca ruins and learnt even more about their history. The last day started at 4 in the morning when we set off in the dark to get to the check point. There we had to wait for a while until we were allowed to hike the last couple of hours to Machu Picchu. The first stop was the Sun Gate which is supposedly the first glimpse of Machu Picchu. The weather was not on our side that day and all we could see was whiteness!!! Fog was everywhere. We had had fantastic weather for the last couple of days, not too hot but always sunny. We trekked down the hill to Machu Picchu famous postcard shot position but it was still the same story and we still couldn't see a thing!!! We headed down into the actual ruins and our guide gave us a tour and explained a lot of the history to us. it wasn't till about 11 in the morning until we first caught a glimpse of blue sky. We were very happy but it was a shame as by that time the train had brought a lot more tourists and the place was blimming. we trekked back up to the postcard picture location and had fun taking pictures. Machu Picchu was amzing and its location breathtaking. I don't think it was my highlight though just due to the amount of tourists there at one time. Some of the other runins we had visited were just as amazing and with just the 14 of us there, i enjoyed them a lot more. We caught the train back to Cusco and the next day was our day off.

Although we were nursing our muscles myself and a friend in the group headed white water rafting!!!!!! It was completely different to the rafting I did in Ecuador due to the senery and the fact the water was frrrrrreeeeeezzzzzzzing. It was a good day though and had am excellent night out with the whole group. The next day we had to say good bye to over half of the group as that was the end of their trip. With a smaller group of 6 the next couple of days of our trip was the rainforest.

We didn't have long in the jungle and but it was a lot of fun. The first day we travelled there and when we arrived at the jungle lodge we took our first trip out. This took us though the jungle until we reached an extremely tall tower. We climbed a millions of steps, which made us remember the Inca trail, until we reached the top which was above the forest. It was hard to see specific animals but you could hear that they were there as it was very noisy. The next day we headed to an ox bow lake which was hugh, where we saw a group of 4 endangered giant otters that we saw, also some Camens and many different birds. We also got a chance to fish for piranas, and I have decided that fishing is definataly not my thing!!! In the afternoon we headed to a local shamen who is the medican man of the native community. We were shown a lot of different plants and their properties and even got to try some, which was interesting!! Then we were back in the lodge. The rooms were very open and one side of the room didn't have any wall so was just open to look into the forest.It was very cool and we saw loads of monkeys go past and other wildlife.
The next day was my birthday and the staff at the lodge had made me a cake and everyone sang happy birthday to me at breakfast. It was very good cake!! Unfortunataly the rest of the day was mainly taken up my travelling. we headed back to Lima and had our last night out as a group.

It was a wicked trip and I was very sad to leave the group. Not only is it the end of the tour of Peru but its the end of my whole travelling adventure. I am looking forward to getting home but I know within a day I'll want to be back in South America! Thanks to everyone who commented on the blog and I catch my flight home tonight so it won't be long till i'm back in sunny Emgland!

Kez

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Photos

Dead womens pass
this was the highest point of the hike. Dead womens pass at 4250m

Comments

[Ruth Ohldag]

WOW!
awesome pics as always. Sad your blog has come to an end. Maybe a joint Fiji one is needed soon? See you next weekend to hear all of your amazing stories. Rx