Lima

“Lima´s climate also echoes it´s contrasting faces: from April to December, a melancholy coastal fog (garûa) blankets the city´s skyline, but during the coastal summer the sun breaks through and the high-spirited limeños (people from Lima) make a break for the nearby beaches”. Lonley Plant.

Melancholic fog

More fog

Unfortunately Jo and I managed to travel in the melancholic fog… but none-the-less, Lima was a nice, easy city. It has all the perks of any western city. We stayed in a suburb called Miraflores which was apparently the tourist friendly part which may have helped! We also managed to time our trip so as we were there at the end of APEC (a major meeting between South American governments and the European Union, not the Apec we had in Oz last year) and for the Potato Festival (there are more than 2000 kinds in Peru!)! So we managed to sneak in another street fiesta! Unfortunately, we didn’t have a programme for the event and were at the mercy of the crowds… we weren’t sure where the main events were and had to follow the main crowds to the different events… the bigger the crowd we figured the more interesting the event! Wasn’t quite as interesting as the fiesta in Copacobana and a lot less alcohol around also! Though someone must have been on the booze when they made the giant potato that was wheeled through the streets!

The owner of our hostel was apparently a “prominent businessman” and involved in the APEC meeting, He was also friends with the Estonian President (a fact that he managed to slip into every conversation). We almost got to rub shoulders with him as we were offered (though an empty offer) a lift on the bus they were taking into Lima Central… lets just say we were stood up…

Lima Central is a seedier part of town and where most of the museums are. There is a lot of old architecture and plazas. We went to the Monasterio de Santa Francisco and the Museo del Tribunal de la Santa Inquisiciön. The Monastery contained underground catacombs which we went down to see. They contained the bones (the top layers of which were nicely arranged into patterns to make it more attractive…) of an estimated 70 000 people. Interesting if not a little claustrophobic. The Inquisition Museum was built on the foundations of the buildings used in the Spanish Inquisition and we got to see some of the chambers where people were tortured… spelt out in life-size wax figures!! Yes, it was a ghoulish trip to the city!

Monasterio de Santa Francisco

Government palace

To lighten things up a bit, we also went for a walk along the beach suburbs, though you couldn’t be sure there was beach out there as the fog was so thick. We went to a swanky mall where the rich play (and watched/window shopped in our worn out clothes 🙁 oh how i miss my other clothes…). Actually we did make one purchase.. Jo had to purchase a new pair of jeans as his old ones literally disintegrated. Poor thing tried to stitch them up but this let to further fraying. It was also getting pretty inappropriate as one of the holes was in the crutch…. That was how we spent 17 may, Norway’s Constitution day, as no other Norwegians could be sourced… Well, we had icecream and drinks as well…

Love park

We were also to witness another accident (luckily not part of one this time). We were wandering the streets when one car hit another at an intersection. This caused one of them to continue on to plough into a side walk cafe (they are crazy drivers over here). Just honking doesn’t make up for not stopping at the stop signs! Anyways, luckily it didn’t appear that anyone was injured. The cars were pretty smashed up though.

Apart from wandering around the city, we also had a health scare…we developed a growing number of itchy red bites that seemed to flare up/multiply at night. It became obvious that these weren’t mozzie bites and investigated on the internet… this left us with two options.. scabies or body lice (Dr Jo was able to rule out bed bugs and fleas, though the latter I felt was more likely given the number of animals living at the hostel in Cuzco that i blame for the whole thing). The treatment being to clean everything and for scabies, apply a cream to every inch of your body (a tip given: you may need to buy a spatula to apply the cream to you butt crack) and leave it on for 24 hours… The unappealing nature of the treatments meant that instead we chose to shower twice daily and change our clothes every day (yes, shameful as it is to admit, we have been double dipping). We also buried our head in the sand and all these measures seem to have worked and we now are proud to say that there are no more of these mysterious bites developing…. to our knowledge. We still don’t know what they were. I have noticed a few other backpackers with lot of bites but its not really something you can broach with a stranger…
Well, after 3 nights in Lima, we left at the crack of dawn for Buenos Aires….

to be continued….

Cuzco

We have spent a few days in Cuzco now, getting here before we set off to the Amazon and back again before and after Machu Picchu . Both were great, but in this town, everything is priced in US dollars. Bit of a pain when you are accustomed to thinking in the local currency but now have to account for a third currency. This also causes price inflation of course, and breeds a new spieces of very aggressive hawkers. Today, a lady tried to make Sara take and pay for a picture of herself (in traditrional clothes) with her Llama….. while she was breast feeding. We thought it a bit over the top….

Anyways, Cuzco. We have stayed at some nice hostels, and some not so nice hostels. Our last was in the latter category, but we couldnt be stuffed changing, so we are just putting up with the dirt (you dont throw toilet paper in the toilet here, you put it in the bin next to the toilet and ours aint been cleared out for a while).

While here, we have submersed ourselves in the local ruins, cuisine and parks. Its a nice city, but I think that you get the feeling you dont want to stay for too long or your money will be gone too. Coming here from further south really highlights how mainstream Cuzco has become as a staging point for Machu Picchu. We havent seen such a concentration of other tourists yet in Peru.

Corn in the market
Corn in the market

The Labyrinth
The Labyrinth

Cuzco prides itself as the cultural capital of Peru, and is also the old Inka capital. Many of the spanish churches here have been built on the bases of Inka palaces and temples. We have been to the Sacred Vally with Ollaytantambo and Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy-woman) just outside Cuzco. However, this all pales when compared to Machu Picchu. Therefore, Ill keep this post short, and rather put the rest in the Machu Picchu post, which we will put together ishortly.

City Gate
City Gate

Sacsayhuaman
Sacsayhuaman

Building blocks for the Inkas
Building blocks for the Inkas

Church engraving in Cathedral
Church engraving in Cathedral

Machu Picchu

This was going to be on of the highlights of our trip, and it was! We had been concerned about the weather, as it turned just before we left (apparently this was related to the full moon) and luckily all cleared before we arrived.

On the way to Aguas Calientes, we travelled to the Sacred Vally with Ollaytantambo, as it was on the way. This is a site that was never completed due to the Spanish invasion.

Ollaytantambo
Ollaytantambo – Painstaking precision stone masonary

Pisaq
Pisaq

Pisaq
Pisaq

Pisaq valley

We got to Aguas Calientes the night before, only to be put up in mini sized beds (literally, maybe they want you to air your feet out?!) that was part of our package. Next morning, we arose at 4:30, with at 5am breakfast and 5:30 meeting. This preliminary headcount dragged on for 30 minutes, until another member of our group (which had grown to almost 50 people) cracked the shits and demanded that we get moving. She actually did that twice, but only the second time had enough fire in it! Our expected english speaking guide, had not yet turned up, so we tried to follow the crowd, and hoped that included us too. This saw us onto the bus, up to the top.

Machu Pichu
Machu Pichu – Looking towards Waynapicchu

Machu Picchu
Apparently the rest area of town

Machu Picchu

The main gate
The main gate

Machu Picchu

There seems to be no roads leading into this village, only the train. So only the tour buses get to use the 1 street, and they ride it hard!

Once up, we got ushered through, after the second half of our group had arrived. We were still following the spanish speaking guide for some reason, and it was not until we got inside that we got placed with the english guide. He took us around the site, and showed us the main spots. This went on from about 6:15 until 7:45 or so, when Sara and I split, and decided that we should climb Waynapicchu, the mountain you see in the background of most postcards. It is a lot steeper than we gave it credit for and pretty slippery too. Sooo many steps, but we made it to the summit and it was a fantastic view.

from the summit of Waynapicchu
from the summit of Waynapicchu

Waynapicchu
Waynapicchu – en route down

Machu Picchu from Waynapicchu
Machu Picchu from Waynapicchu

A shaky descent on Waynapicchu
A shaky descent on Waynapicchu

Waynapicchu
Waynapicchu

We also went to the Inka Drawbridge (luckily for Sara, we couldnt cross it). The drawbridge is a path carved into the face of a massively steep mountain cliff face (no photos we took seemed to be able to convey just how steep and tall this area is). It was also very impressive. Unfortunately, we nearly had a disagreement with an alpaca on the way back from the drawbridge. The path there was quite narrow and the alpaca didnt want to budge to let us past. Luckily neither party was injured and an amicable overtaking agreement was reached.

The Inka Bridge
The Inka Bridge

Llama roadblock
Llama roadblock

After having to purchase some very expensive water to sustain us, we decided to head back down to Aguas Calientes for some slightly cheaper lunch.

After burning some time, we caught our train home at 7pm. We were lucky enough to be treated to a fashion show en route… after serving our snack, the waiter and waitress went out back and got changed into various alpaca outfits which of course we could purchase if we wanted.

The train ride
On the Machu Picchu train… our waiter, waitress (& models) and other entertainer

Cannibal Holocaust

So, we didnt know too much about the Amazon, except that we were going to what was described to us as a frontier town of the Peruvian Amazon; Puerto Maldonado. A few months earlier, I had watched “Cannibal Holocaust”, and those were the impressions freshest in my mind…

It of course turned out to be nothing like it! The above is more for dramatic effect… We only carried DEET to protect ourselves.

We had decided to go to the Amazon when we first bought our tickets, without knowing what we would do there. Monday was spent pestering various tour agencies organising a spot for us, and choosing activities. We figured the Mystic Adventure offered by Explorers Inn sounded like a good thing. I was at the same time in the early stages of travellers diarrhoea, something which I kept with me for a good few days. This might have had an impact on my ability ot make rational decissions under pressure….

Anyways, we left on Tuesday with Sara clutching my knee again as we took of and landed only 40 minutes later. The usual pickup process and getting to know thy fellow guest rituals followed, and a 1hr bus ride and a 1.5hr boat ride later, we were at the lodge.

Exploreres Inn on Google Maps

Explorers Inn was very nice, and we settled in to some nice warm days, 30 degrees and sunny every day (something we have been missing)! We even got a bit of rain in the rain forrest!

Halfway through the second day, was when the first alarm bells appeared. We were walking back along a trail, and we were casualy told, that “this is what you will be drinking with the Shaman”. Ok, we will be drinking? What do you mean? “For the Ayahuasca session, stupid!”. Ok, but what do you mean???

At this stage, we were starting to wonder, and inquired a bit further and after the penny dropped, we explained to our guide what we were expecting… something like sitting around a camp fire and observing a magic ritual. What it turned out to be, what we had signed up for, was a hallucinating inner spiritual cleansing process… Not quite what we had on mind… We bailed out! It would start at 9pm on the last night (not quite sure why it had to be the last night…) and last between 3-5hrs in room 7D… It would be co-ordinated by a spanish speaking (and no, unfortunately, we still arent too good on the old spanish) Shaman and our 21 year old guide translating. Not our cup of tea at that stage! Note also the vomitting and diarhoea that might come from this!

Anyway, aside from the drama of the defunct mystic tour, we managed to do a lot of rainforest walks and relaxing. The rainforest was really nice and most days started at 5am with the howler monkeys and all of the birds in the forest. Our footwear was strictly gumboots (surprisingly comfortable despite the odd 10km walk we did) and as it was coming out of the rainy season, there were stretches of slippery mud. We saw a lot of cool plants, many of which had medicinal properties for the locals. We tried a few of these, like one stem that we were told to chew on and after a while we realised that it had anaesthetic properties!. There were lots of cool relationships in the rainforest too, like the tree that was living with soldier ants; the soldier ants kept the area around the tree clear of any other growth (about almost a meter radius) so the tree would not have to fight for nutrients and the ants survived on food from the middle of the tree. Another one that sticks in my mind is the tree whose bark looks like a particular snake and within its root is the antidote to the bite from the snake for the locals!

We also went to a fruit farm across the river and got to eat the flesh of the chocolate bean. Very nice, but no, it didnt taste like chocolate…

We decided to stick to the nature stuff, of which I have a few pictures below:

In the jungle...

Lago Cotacotcha

Caiman

Lago Copacotcha

Brazil nuts

Waoi

Snake

Lady in the sunset

Cocao

I also included another video, of a crazy ant trail, they was very impressive! The Amazon is definately something we would do again!

Puno

We had decided to cut our stay in Copacobana short so that we could be sure to watch the Floating Islands, and organise onwards transport to Cuzco. En route, we learnt (via traveller gossip) that Puno was currently hosting typhoid, and really wasnt worth much more than 1 night. Fair enough, with these bleak expectations, we didnt have our hopes raised too high.

All accounts turned out to be correct, and Puno is the most frigid city so far (or maybe just the coldest hostel ever)! We got in, shopped around for a tour and transport to Cuzco, we got both in not to long, and with that, there wasnt much more to do in Puno city. The tour we got with a discount thanks to some Aussie “amigos” we stumbled upon, but we reckon she made up for it by punishing us with the bus ticket instead.

While waiting for nightfall, so that we could eat (again), we used the internet for a good couple of hours, then I had my first Llama meal. The meat was very nice! Definatly something to try again!

The next day, we headed out towards the Floating Islands. It turned out to be a long day…. We got the slowest boat, we had an 8 year old “captain”, literally, and a toilet that was full and did not flush (despite some heavy advertising re baño being on board). We got to the Floating Islands in only 20 minutes, then listened to our guides presentation, before I got tricked into an old mans cottage to buy handicarafts made by he and his wife. Sara followed suit, and in not very long at all, we had bought what seemed like a reasonable rug, or wall hanging. Then we got pestered to buy other stuff once outside again, and then the cold shoulder for declining to go on a very expensive paddle across to another floating island. We caught our own boat instead, and to our great delight, found an almost identical rug on the other island as well.

Floating Island

Reed boat

Reed phonebooth

Floating Island

Enough about that, the islands themselves are interesting, 2m deep, floating ontop of 20m of water. They are anchored (so as not to float to Bolivian waters), and continously renewed or extended. Each Island is home to about 7 families, and there are about 2000 people living out there. It was very commercialiced, and geared for the tourist. After no one seemed to care to shop anymore, we where ushered back onto the boat, to go to Isla Taquile. This turned out to be a slow ride (2.5hrs). With the 8 other tourist boats along side ours, it was not hard to tell who was going to get there last, us. It didnt help that we at most times had an 8 year old (man-child) and very distracted skipper.

Isla Taquile was very picteruesque (a self-sustaining farmimg communities), although a lot of hard work for some who could not handle the altitude and walking up the hill. Again, we enjoyed the tourist show, but not the tourist toilets. Who decided that it was a good idea to install european toilets in a place with no sewerage and no running water, instead turning it into a very expensive potty? I dont know, but it seems like a poor idea to me.

Isla Taquile

We bought some more handicraft, before getting back onto our boat. We also got an Inca Kola. It may surprise you, but Inka Kola and Julebrus, seems to be the same drink, exept for different colours (Inka Kola being fluorescent yellow). The boat ride back took another while, again beeing the last boat to port, and again with an underage captain.

Puno invited us back in with her freezing arms, we ate some more, then went to bed, again. I apologise for the negative tones throughout this, but Puno didnt show us her best side, and if she did, it wasnt much to brag about.

Next morning, we got onto our FirstClass bus. It was quite a confusing rigmaroll getting there (we werent clear on where the bus left from… wasnt from the bus station..), and this also repeated itself when we got to Cuzco. Anyways, this is the cultural express to Cuzco, it stops at a few good, and a few not so good sites (we can only presume that they were actually just tourist focused market places..) along the way. The lunch buffet put something in my stomach, that I were to carry with me the next 5 days… Gastrolyte and Immodium to the rescue. Sara on the other hand, is so far fine.

Token random stop

Old Inka temple city

Chapel

What turned out to be a dragged out version of the previous day, eventually saw us to Cuzco!