The Big Trip

Puno was our last destination in Peru before we crossed the border into Bolivia. We stopped briefly on the Uros Islands, on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, to have a gawp at the locals who live on man-made islands made from layers and layers of reeds.

They began living their floating lives to escape the Incas hundreds of years ago - sadly it now looks as though they stay there mainly for the benefit of us tourists. Apparently, if you have an argument or really dislike your neighbour it´s pretty easy to saw your island in half and float somewhere else to get rid, good ´ey!

Boarded the bus over to Copacabana in Bolivia the next day in time to experience Independendence Day celebrations - good fun but an absolutely manic place, two days was well enough! We joined in the local celebrations and hiked up the side of the mountain where they take minature objects to the top to be blessed and then sprayed with local beer (not sure why!) ... the search for the perfect photo led us around the side of the mountain where Keith promptly managed to stand in human poo. Cue lots of gagging ... gave us the perfect excuse to head back down and get the sympathy beers in!

A look back in disugust at the crime scene!

We planned our escape to Isla del Sol, on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, and supposed birthplace of the Incas. Absolutely stunning views of snow-capped mountains and Lake Titicaca ... we had an excellent view from possibly the worst hostel we´ve stayed in so far!

View from window made up for the skanky room!

Killer steps to hostel - note to self, leave big bags back on mainland

Everything shuts down at approximately 9pm on the Island, so after a loooong nights sleep we took the bumpiest boat back to shore and jumped on the bus marked La Paz.

We had an early rise on Thursday after a couple of days exploring Cusco - a tourist ticket covers loads of sites here so we had the chance to visit a couple of museums as well as a few local Inca ruins to get the legs in shape for the Inca Trail!

The bus dropped us off at Km 82 where our trail began and what would be four days of trekking before we hit Machu Picchu on the Sunday. Everyone in our group, apart from Rich and I and another couple, had hired porters to carry their stuff the entire journey ... the four of us looked on with envy when we were struggling to attach roll mats and sleeping bags to our packs in the rain!

Off we go ...!

We eventually got going into day one of the trek - a fairly straightforward and flat morning led us to believe that it was in fact as´easy´as the guide had mentioned. After a really good three course lunch we cracked on into the afternoon where things started to get a little harder and a little more uphill. All in all, we covered around 14kms which made for tired legs and feet at the end of day one!

We arrived at our first campsite around 5pm in time for tea to find all the tents set up and dinner on the go. The porters carry absolutely everything we need from gas canisters to tents as well as four days worth of food and drink .... they fly past you at some speed too! These guys are ace, they cover the distance so quickly every day and each one carries around 30kgs worth of gear ... trust me, they fully deserve their tip at the end of the trek!

A porter flys past!

View from tent on the first night

After a cold non-sleep in the tent we were up bright and early to tackle day two, the most difficult day which involved a hike of 1km up followed by the same downhill on some knee-jarringly spectacular steps through cloud forest and mossies in order to make it over ´Dead Womans Pass´, the highest point on Trail at 4200m. It hurt so much! Hopefully the photies will do the scenery some justice as we were spoilt over the course of the trek by some spectacular views.

The nightly entertainment usually consisted of learning a few new card games (which helpfully breaks downs any language barriers!), shivering in the food tent from the cold and being well and truly entertained by a group of Irish girls who I reckon are pretty much going to laugh themselves around South America and keep everyone else amused at the same time!

A couple of the Irish ´lads´

Into day three - bliss compared to the previous two! We headed down from the mountains to a warmer climate and were safe in the knowledge that we had covered pretty much most of the Trail in the previous two days. A four hour morning trek and then straight to camp number three which had ..... A BAR!! After a tour around the local ruins, we hit the cerveza all looking forward to the final day.

Looking happy on day three!

We were woken at 4am on Sunday to trek the final two hours to Machu Picchu - it was raining so we were all praying the clouds would clear before we hit the Sun Gate which is where THE picture you always see is taken from. Sadly, we saw ´nowt from here so began plodding down the steps dodging llamas on the way.

Eeek, hope it clears!

It began to clear around 8am and Machu Picchu began to slowly unravel itself bit by bit - it was great to be on the ruins and piece together where everything is ... takes a while to appreciate how big the place is and you´re wowed by how the Incas built something so big in a place so high and so isolated. As expected, definitely the highlight of Peru so far and so glad we booked the Trail early enough to be able to get on!

Next stop Lake Titicaca, our last stop in Peru.

Yaaaaay, we´re here in Cusco ahead of Spanish school and eventually Machu Picchu!

We arrived back to Arequipa from the Colca trip to the news that there were no buses to or from most places including Cusco due to the strikes ... an unsuccessful attempt on Friday to board a bus left us feeling pretty nervous about missing our first day of Spanish school on Monday.

On the Gringo grapevine, however, we had heard about a mysterious bus that left once a night and was willing to brave the road blocks - we had to track this down immediately! Saturday consisted of visiting various travel agencies trying to plan our exit - luckily we happened to meet Livvy, a lady who had been trying to get to Cusco since Tuesday night and wasn´t taking no for an answer anymore! She had poached several travellers from tourist offices along the way so we managed to cobble together enough cash between the eleven of us to hire a private bus to take us overnight to Cusco. Sure enough, Battle Bus II, working on Peruvian time, rocked up an hour and a half late at 4.30am!

We arrived in Cusco some 11 or so hours later after lots of bus banter and no sleep - we managed a short walk around town before a quick cerveza and then bed ready for class at 9am.

Spanish school has been absolutely excellent - Rich and I can now (almost!) string a sentence together in Spanish and can pretty much get by with the basics we have learnt ... wish we could have stayed for more than the one week but sadly we don´t have the time here in Cusco. Have made some excellent friends here at the school and hope to meet them further down the line in Bolivia should our paths cross.

Out homestay has been slightly weird in that the Mama of the Casa is more keen to practice her English than she is to help us with our Spanish ... she´s pretty scary too so anything mis-pronounced is quickly scorned and corrected and then we move swiftly back to English! We´ve been staying in a lovely apartment though, off the beaten track, and have been eating three massive meals a day when we can, so have done quite well out of it - plus HOT showers at any time of the day, hurrah!

Rich and I spent the weekend post-school with a Canadian couple touring the Sacred Valley here around Cusco. Lots of Inca ruins on Saturday followed by a hefty 4-hour uphill hike in Pisac on Sunday - was worth the sweat and stamping of feet when we made it to the top though as the views were great! You can really feel the altitude here as the breathlessness kicks in unexpectedly - made for hard work on the way up! Honestly, it was soooo hot, as it is most days here, I can´t believe Peruvians think this is Winter ...

We´ve a couple of days here in Cusco now to explore the place properly before we head to the Inca trail on Thursday.

Chivay here we come - after the joys of negotiating the strikes and road blocks, the following four hour bus journey on the edge of a mountain road to the town was nothing!

The road to Chivay is pretty high, probably as high as we´re going get during the rest of our journey throughout South America, 4,900m above sea level. The road lends itself to the best scenery, on one stop we were surrounded by eight volcanoes, not including El Misti, along with plently of Llamas and Alpacas (they´re like upmarket Llamas!). Luckily Rich and I weren´t that affected by the altitude but some people were really ill when we eventually reached Chivay - I think the local brew of coca tea actually worked!

Chivay is ace, a really small quaint place but over-run with the likes of us unfortunately. Lots of locals in traditional dress and another strikers march around the Plaza! We had a gander around town and market, bought a much needed woolly hat then grabbed our towels and headed striaght to the hot springs just outside town. The soak was well needed after a day on the bus and it was getting pretty cold once the sun went down so it kept us pretty toasty. After a beer and a nice Alpaca steak (aww!) we hit the hay ready for another early start.

5.00am start and we´re back on the battle bus heading to the Colca Canyon. Colca is the second deepest canyon in the world behind Cotohuasi which is also in Peru. At certain points, Colca is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon .... we didn´t get too close to the edge! It´s also home to the Andean Condor which fly through at pretty close range. LP mentions that you have to be fairly lucky to see the birds but we managed ten of the bad boys at the same time so we did well!

Really enjoyed both Chivay and the Colca Canyon and really pleased we decided to go through Arequipa. Next stop, Cusco.

We arrived bright and early in Arequipa after the overnight bus journey from Nazca and we´d managed to get a bit of shut-eye during the journey so we were ready for exploring once we'd sorted our hostel and dumped the bags.

Arequipa is Peru's second largest city - it´s really pretty and is such a contrast from Lima in that everything is within walking distance and the smog isn´t quite as bad! El Misti, the local well-loved volcano, towers over the place and is visible from most parts of the city as are snow-capped mountains which is quite strange as the place is basking in sunshine and really hot during the day.
It´s a really nice place to spend a couple of days just pottering around and is the base for loads of trekking tours which makes it a must visit place on the way through Peru. It´s also quite well travelled so there are plenty of Gringo bars and restaurants!

It must be the altitude (or the night on the local cerveza) which lends itself to the most horrific hangovers so spent most of the next day in bed wary of hitting the local juice again. We did manage to book ourselves onto a tour of nearby Colca Canyon though which is why most people are in town - we decided against the trekking option which was described as 'difficult' and involved seven hours of trekking per day for three days. Bus tour all the way for us!

When we were in Lima we saw a couple of protests but didn't think too much about it at the time. Seems that word has spread and there are now full scale strikes across most towns and cities in Peru involving teachers, miners and agricultural workers. Credit to the Peruvians, when they strike they do it properly! All transport in and out of affected places is blocked which means, as the road is king here, there are all kinds of problems. All pubic services have shut down - there have been so many marches around the Plaza de Armas and the shop-front shutters are constantly going up and down to avoid any broken windows .... as I'm typing this Rich and I are currently locked in an internet cafe!

We were picked up from the hostel at 4am on Wednesday (1st day of strike) instead of the usual 8am so we could be in with a chance of crossing the picket lines that were (and still are) blocking all the roads in and out of Arequipa. Destination Chivay and the hot springs before the Colca Canyon tour on Thursday. We managed to drive about 2 miles before we hit the first roadside fire and saw police kitted out with riot shields and tear gas ... seemed like quite a peacful demonstration though so we carried on through. How serious can they be at 4am?!

Erm, they take their strikes pretty seriously! We were forced to turn back a bit further down the road after they refused to let us pass any further ... after turning around we drove past another strike group only they weren't as passive this time and started chucking huge great rocks at the bus. Luckily they only managed to hit the sides and none of the windows went through even through they took a battering. A minibus also on our route was a bit worse off and had one of it's windows put through so it seems we did okay!

By this point we had been forced off the road into a nearby village and it was still pretty dark. Our driver decided that there might be a way to hit the road over to Chivay ... after negotiating the battle bus through a huge shanty town and on some very dodgy roads (the bus nearly tipped a couple of times!) we made it onto the mountain road. Hoorah! On the way through, the villagers wern´t giving us an easy ride either and we had a couple of rogue stones stones thrown at us by old ladies and kids too!

Eventually hit the road after FOUR hours trying to get out of Arequipa and we were still only two miles or so from the hostel! Next stop Chivay for the hot springs and the Colca Canyon.