Well, since I last wrote there´s been a bit going on. First, I did do the floating islands and though they were very touristy, it´s a box ticked. One of many. Each island houses a couple of families and what cracks me up is that if there is a family feud, they just pick up their house (literally) and start a new island. We visited two islands in total, the second even more touristy than the first, with actual shops and a restaurant. En route between the islands, we took a reed boat and were entertained by a local school girl who sang us many songs in many languges. What talent.
Now from Puno I caught a night bus with three Danish girls. This was to be the first of many Peruvian bus lies. We were told is was a cama bus (with bed seats) though it wasn´t. Unfortunately to go down with this, the vegetarian I had for lunch decided to argue with my stomach and all pills and potions were in the luggage compartment. Fortunately, the lady sitting next to me explained that I would feel better if I spat on my hand and rubbed it on my tummy...ah the wonders of cooky ¨medicine.¨ I did feel better for a while or maybe I just fell asleep and forgot about it.
Anyway, we arrived in Cuzco at the pleasant hour of 3.30 in the morning and were kicked off the bus (despite being told when sold the ticket that we´d be able to sleep on it til 6am...another lie). We made it to the hostel and I spent the next three days looking around Cuzco and waiting for my Inca trek to start. During that time I saw the Tambombachay, Pukapukara, Qenqo, Temple de la Luna and Saqsaywaman Inca sites. They were pretty cool. My favourites were Quenqo and Temple de la Luna. We had an impromtu guide that we´d met walking up to the sites so this provided some good information. Other than that, not much was done. Just chilling and acclimatising until the time for my caminar del Inca.
This started at 6am on the 19th of November...ah it seems so long ago now. I was picked up from my hostel and we were taken by bus to a small town for breakfast...you´ll have to excuse me as all the town names currently escape me. They´ll be added later. In total there were 15 tourists, two awesome guides (Rony and Augusto), and 22 equally awesome porters. It was a fantastic group in all and I believe good friends were made. After breakfast we moved on to where the Classic Inca Trek starts and we began our walk. This first day was really quite easy and it was spent chatting and getting to know one another. We saw on the way one ruin and stopped many times for toilet breaks and snacks. When we got to our campsite, the tents were already set up which is the way it should be! and the boys decided to get in on a friendly soccer (football) game. Dinner, as with all the meals was delicious. Generally for breakfast we´d get the usual bread and jam but also either pancakes, scrambled eggs, omlette or what have you. Lunch and dinner was two to three courses - soup followed by mains of meat and pasta and rice with salads, then maybe dessert. It was all really, really tasty and rich in carbs for all the walking we were doing. It was reasonably cold that night but our tents and my sleeping bag managed to keep me warm and toasty all night.
The next morning, we were woken at around 5.30am with a knock on our tents and a hot drink in ¨bed¨...ah, what service!!! The walking started after breakfast and just felt like it didn´t stop. It was definately the toughest day on the trek. We walked maybe 5km and it was pretty much all up hill...1.4km vertical! I was in the slow group of all of us but I wasn´t alone. I was accompanied by Kelly who was sick, Martin who had a sprained ankle and Joel who was suffering badly from the altitude. Personally I blame the altitude but only for the lack of oxygen. Surely it wasn´t my fitness?? Once we got to Dead Womans Pass (altitude approx 4200m, maybe more), we took group photos and then started the steep downhill bit in the rain. It didn´t really let up from then until the morning we arrived at Machu Picchu thank goodness.
Day three was more walking though a lot easier than the previous day. It was Ïnca¨uphill for most of it and then at the end we had the ¨Gringo Killer¨which was downhill steps again. We were finally in the lush forest though few animals were seen. Mostly just birds. The views along the whole trek were pretty special though so not complaining. We ended at the camping village of Winaywayna (check spelling) where we were able to have a cold beer (mmm, beer). This was our last night with the porters so they put on a singing show for us and that´s when we gave our tips. I think they did pretty good but they so deserved it.
Day four, the final day, was an early one. We started at 4am with our usual breakfast though this time sans hot drink in bed. Then we headed down to the checkpoint to start our walk to the ¨Sun¨Gate. Not much sun this morning as when we got there, we were in the midst of cloud and Machu Picchu couldn´t be seen for love or money. Oh well. We rested there for a bit then headed down to the other look out over Machu Picchu. Again cloud. Yippee. It cleared occasionally for us but not for the group photo - curses. After that, it was down to the actual site. It was quite impressive, even given that it was thought that it may have been unfinished. We walked around for a while, took the obligatory hundreds of photos, including llamas getting jiggy with it (heehee) and then headed to Agua Calientes and the hot springs.
We finally arrived back in Cuzco at 9.30 that night, where we had about an hour to get fresh before meeting for the end of tour drinks and pub crawl. All up, four clubs were visited and I got back to my hostel around 4.30am. Others stayed til later and even had a wee nap in McDs. I needed at least a little sleep as I was heading to Arequipa with Kelly and Martin that night.
NB: The company I went with for the Inca Trek was Peru Treks. They were absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend them. Rony and Augusto (our guides) were just great, the porters were awesome and the food couldn´t be faulted. In fact, nothing could be faulted at all, so if you´re planning a trek, I´d seriously consider them.
Now from Puno I caught a night bus with three Danish girls. This was to be the first of many Peruvian bus lies. We were told is was a cama bus (with bed seats) though it wasn´t. Unfortunately to go down with this, the vegetarian I had for lunch decided to argue with my stomach and all pills and potions were in the luggage compartment. Fortunately, the lady sitting next to me explained that I would feel better if I spat on my hand and rubbed it on my tummy...ah the wonders of cooky ¨medicine.¨ I did feel better for a while or maybe I just fell asleep and forgot about it.
Anyway, we arrived in Cuzco at the pleasant hour of 3.30 in the morning and were kicked off the bus (despite being told when sold the ticket that we´d be able to sleep on it til 6am...another lie). We made it to the hostel and I spent the next three days looking around Cuzco and waiting for my Inca trek to start. During that time I saw the Tambombachay, Pukapukara, Qenqo, Temple de la Luna and Saqsaywaman Inca sites. They were pretty cool. My favourites were Quenqo and Temple de la Luna. We had an impromtu guide that we´d met walking up to the sites so this provided some good information. Other than that, not much was done. Just chilling and acclimatising until the time for my caminar del Inca.
This started at 6am on the 19th of November...ah it seems so long ago now. I was picked up from my hostel and we were taken by bus to a small town for breakfast...you´ll have to excuse me as all the town names currently escape me. They´ll be added later. In total there were 15 tourists, two awesome guides (Rony and Augusto), and 22 equally awesome porters. It was a fantastic group in all and I believe good friends were made. After breakfast we moved on to where the Classic Inca Trek starts and we began our walk. This first day was really quite easy and it was spent chatting and getting to know one another. We saw on the way one ruin and stopped many times for toilet breaks and snacks. When we got to our campsite, the tents were already set up which is the way it should be! and the boys decided to get in on a friendly soccer (football) game. Dinner, as with all the meals was delicious. Generally for breakfast we´d get the usual bread and jam but also either pancakes, scrambled eggs, omlette or what have you. Lunch and dinner was two to three courses - soup followed by mains of meat and pasta and rice with salads, then maybe dessert. It was all really, really tasty and rich in carbs for all the walking we were doing. It was reasonably cold that night but our tents and my sleeping bag managed to keep me warm and toasty all night.
The next morning, we were woken at around 5.30am with a knock on our tents and a hot drink in ¨bed¨...ah, what service!!! The walking started after breakfast and just felt like it didn´t stop. It was definately the toughest day on the trek. We walked maybe 5km and it was pretty much all up hill...1.4km vertical! I was in the slow group of all of us but I wasn´t alone. I was accompanied by Kelly who was sick, Martin who had a sprained ankle and Joel who was suffering badly from the altitude. Personally I blame the altitude but only for the lack of oxygen. Surely it wasn´t my fitness?? Once we got to Dead Womans Pass (altitude approx 4200m, maybe more), we took group photos and then started the steep downhill bit in the rain. It didn´t really let up from then until the morning we arrived at Machu Picchu thank goodness.
Day three was more walking though a lot easier than the previous day. It was Ïnca¨uphill for most of it and then at the end we had the ¨Gringo Killer¨which was downhill steps again. We were finally in the lush forest though few animals were seen. Mostly just birds. The views along the whole trek were pretty special though so not complaining. We ended at the camping village of Winaywayna (check spelling) where we were able to have a cold beer (mmm, beer). This was our last night with the porters so they put on a singing show for us and that´s when we gave our tips. I think they did pretty good but they so deserved it.
Day four, the final day, was an early one. We started at 4am with our usual breakfast though this time sans hot drink in bed. Then we headed down to the checkpoint to start our walk to the ¨Sun¨Gate. Not much sun this morning as when we got there, we were in the midst of cloud and Machu Picchu couldn´t be seen for love or money. Oh well. We rested there for a bit then headed down to the other look out over Machu Picchu. Again cloud. Yippee. It cleared occasionally for us but not for the group photo - curses. After that, it was down to the actual site. It was quite impressive, even given that it was thought that it may have been unfinished. We walked around for a while, took the obligatory hundreds of photos, including llamas getting jiggy with it (heehee) and then headed to Agua Calientes and the hot springs.
We finally arrived back in Cuzco at 9.30 that night, where we had about an hour to get fresh before meeting for the end of tour drinks and pub crawl. All up, four clubs were visited and I got back to my hostel around 4.30am. Others stayed til later and even had a wee nap in McDs. I needed at least a little sleep as I was heading to Arequipa with Kelly and Martin that night.
NB: The company I went with for the Inca Trek was Peru Treks. They were absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend them. Rony and Augusto (our guides) were just great, the porters were awesome and the food couldn´t be faulted. In fact, nothing could be faulted at all, so if you´re planning a trek, I´d seriously consider them.
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