| 24th Cusco Cusco is the old Inca capital and a really nice town. The buildings are all colonial looking and there is a nice buzz around the place. Maybe that�s because their is so many pubs there, many which I frequented (Irish bars in general!). It also has a Spanish feel and is also the centre of attraction for all the tourists heading to the same place as us. It also means that for every three or four steps you take you are asked if you want "tourist information about the Inca Trail", a postcard, some art, or your shoes shined. The next 2 days we got ready for the trail by buying gloves, food and choc. We also did a city which went to Santa Domingo church, (built on the old inca temple of the sun) and the cathedral. The cathedral is lovely there, it has some really nice paintings in it, but its really OTT. Also visited Sasyawemen ruins - they were an impressive site built over several acres which some stones that are over 5 tons and have 10 sides. The incas didn�t use cement, so they just shaped the rocks into position, pretty amazing stuff as they never fell down in the earthquake of �66 whereas the spanish buildings all fell down! The Inca trail to Machu Picchu starts at an altitude of 2500m above sea level, rising to a maximum height of 4200m before finishing at 2400m. During the trek, there are three passes to climb the highest is Dead Womans Pass and it occurs on the second day. The tour company that we used provides three guides, porters, all the tents and food and we had a choice of either paying extra for a porter to carry our sleeping bags, roll mats and clothes or carrying it ourselves. Day 1 was a gentle walk from the start just through some forests and over some passes. During the day, we just chatted and walked as the blue monkey swung behind me. I was in the lead group for most of the day, didn�t know I was super fit! We stopped for lunch and the porters had set up a tent, with tables, stools and a tablecloth! They had to carry all this stuff! We camped at night by a stream, and by the official campsite. You have to camp in these official places and often there can be 200-300 staying there. The second day, was the hard one. We climbed thru the jungle part which was very hard in the heat and altitude and then stopped at the platuean just before the big pass at 4200m. We stayed there for 30mins to fill up water bottles, and have baths in the stream. We then started to climb which was very slow. I lost my position at the front as I was suffering from this extreme climb...eventually I got to the top after every person I passed or who passed me commented on the blue chap swinging behind me. Even the porters commented on him! The third day was just down loads of steps which was quite hard work, esp on the knees. It threatened to rain all day, and I threatened to get out my bright blue rain jacket! Thankfully, I whipped it out, and then the sun shone! Strange that! We could stay at the hostal as our guide lied and said that we had 4 sick people otherwise it meant walking for 4 hrs in the darkness before we would reach Maccho Piccho. But it did pour at 5 when we were 30 mins from the hostal. We rocked up to our campsite and then headed to the bar - it was packed, so we stayed for a couple of beers before dinner and then headed back there after until about 11ish. Final day... Today, we had to wake at 4am so that we could be at the sun gate for sun rise. It was still dark when we set off at 5pm, and we walked for another hour on a path illumated only by torchlight. Then the rain started, and we all got soaked! Brilliant! We reached the sun gate just past dawn, but we could not see anything as it was so misty....this is where the bulk of th e tourist shots are taken of Machhu Piccho. So we wandered down the path, with me leading of course, and found the visitors centre. Then we saw the most spectacular sight we had seen for ages, the cafe! So we all rushed in and ordered some food...it was nice to be b ack in civilisation! I must also admit that the toilets there got a hammering as most people were suffering at this point! and then at 10am the mist cleared and we could see it...what a sight. A huge city, in really good condition in such a breathtaking setting with the mountains on the other side and the river at the bottom. So we walked around various buildings as Jose gave us a talk...I did my own tour with some others, although it was very interesting. Such a huge place, that was totally deserted and never found by the Spanish. The locals were living in the ruins for years but now the only residents were Llama`s! Monica, Phil and I went on a wander to one of the hills with houses on it. I wanted to get some good photo`s of the town and of the mountain in the background. The city itself was only a administrative place for the inca`s. It had schools and temples there. There were several different inca trails, which we followed, and some of ours was built in the last 50 years or so, the inca`s must have had other, much harder routes! Well, we had done it. There was an amazing sense of accomplishment after all we had been through. We jumped on the bus down to the town at the bottom (bus ride is pretty scary as its some hair raising bends!),called Aqua`s Calientes (literally hot water, due to the springs there!). Had some pizza and beers there before we headed back to Cuzco on the slowest, main painful but most scenic train ride I have been on! Got back into town for around 10pm, then had a quick shower before going to meet the folks from SAS. We met them in the Norton`s head pub and we chatted and drank till 12.30ish, when most of our lot headed to bed! (only 6 had gone out!) 30th Rest day... Today we had another rest day in Cusco, just to do nothing. So after a leisurely brekkie, Margot and I checked out the Inka Museam and then just sat in juice bars all afternoon chatting. I don`t think anything happened at nite...as we were all too chattered! The next few days are a mystery to me, as the system siped out my original diary but here are the key points... 1-5th May Drove from Cusco back to Arequipa via Puno. It was a long drive there. Arequipa - is called the white city as its built from local volcanic rock which is totally white. It has a lovely setting though, with the El Misti volcano in the background overlooking the town. Spent a day there looking at the ice mummies. The inca`s used to sacrifice kids to the mountians in order to stop them erupting. They took them up to the top and dumped them into a freshly dug grave with other offerings. Some of these had been preserved by the extreme cold up there. They were quite an amazing sight! Interesting times here, especially with my roommates, Phil and Neil and Ivana...the photo`s have had to be censored!! The nest day we drove high up on the hills heading towards Colca canyon - it was a spectacular drive with some amazing scenery. We never managed to drive the whole way, so at 10pm we stopped by a restaurant. We were going to sleep in it. So we set up all the cooking stuff and we ate at about 11.30pm and then we all slept on the floor of this restaurant. The owner was really happy as we were all buying stuff, and we were happy as it was so cold outside!! I was sleeping in my thermals and another 2 layers! The guy also kept Llama`s and Alpaca`s as pets so we could hear them walk around outside. The following day we woke at 4am, as we had to be at th e canyon for 9pm to see the condor`s in their thermals. Neil and I had offered to walk around in our thermals instead, but no many people were interested! It was very cold that morning, and the first time we had used the truck heating! It wasn`t that good, but the sunrise was pretty good. Got there just after 9am, and saw heaps of other people there. We then saw some condor`s gliding through the air. They are wonderful, graceful birds. Really enjoyed that. We then had brekkie and lunch together as we never had brekkie b4! I had an argument with the park ranger about walking over cactus... Colca canyon is supposedly the deepest in the world at over 1km. It was very wide in places and seemed to be very long as well. Pretty awesome sights. We then drove the 4 hrs back on roads that had chunks missing!! to the restaurant for lunch. We then drove towards Nazca... Arrived in Nazca at around 10ish and waited ages for the small cessna planes to take us. You need to fly over the various shapes to see them. Some of the guys came down with tales of vomitting from the steep turns, i was not looking forward to it! We got pictures done with the pilot and our SAS survival book (in case the pilot died!). We flew over the lines, and they were really small, but we saw a monkey, spider, alien and chicken? Some of the turns where rather sharp, but we then landed OK. We drove up north, camping on the way up. The next day we arrived in paracas. We got on a boat to see the birds and sea lions in the national park. On the way out, we all got soaked, but we saw some dolphins! Carried on to the islands and there was thousands of birds there. Some where diving into the sea looking for fish, others where just resting. Loads of sea lions there - we saw a vulture eating a dead baby sea lion... Really nice trip. Back to truck and lunchtime. We then headed to Lima... |