6th to 13th May Cusco and Machu Picchu

Getting out of Arequipa proved trickier than planned. After following the GPS and several maps. we discovered the 60 km bypass took you about 5km from where we started. Could have had a 2 and a half hour lie in. So, Kirsten packed Mikkel and Francois off into a taxi, which we followed to make our escape. Genius.

3800m altitude bushcamp in a quarry. Altitude makes a person a bit windy anyway, but Rogan feeding us all beans made for a tuneful evening. I discovered that the cold of being high up plus the shortness of breath means I do not sleep at all. Not good when we have similar conditions till Argentina. People are starting to drop with a stomach bug. Uh oh.

Main square



ATM queue


Arrived in Cusco - a very cool town. Lots of side streets, full of markets and a cracking main square. About a dozen of the group went off to do a trek from Larez to meet us nearer to Machu Picchu. The rest of us did some serious mooching and souvenir shopping. We also took a tour of the Sacred Valley, seeing some 14th century Inca ruins. Very impressive. The Inca's worshipped the sun, so had all their temples built high on the hills, getting the Quechua race to push huge (100 tonne) stones up to the tops. Paddy's bar became the 'local' for everyone, with good atmosphere, music and food. A huge festival took place in the main square one night, with amazing costumes, fireworks and dancing.

Typical market - Typical Kirsten pose



Sacred Valley - climbing to the top was slow



This lady decided I was missing some necessary adornments


Heather, Kirsten and Vanessa in Paddy's Bar - the highest Irish owned bar in the world it claims



Crashing the festival - me and Kirsten


Me and Rogan


Then it was time to go on our trip to see Machu Picchu. We met the trekkers on the train which was a nice surprise. The train took us to Aguas Calientes (it has hot springs so I am guessing the spelling is right) where we checked into a very nice hotel. Sadly, we'd be up at 4.15am the next morning in order to queue to get the first bus into Machu Picchu (5.30am). Entering the site at 6am was fabulous as it was virtually empty and as most people run up to the sun gate to try to see a sunrise that the cloud will prevent them seeing, we had the rest of the site to ourselves. 3500 people visit each day but most don't turn up till 10am. Our guide talked us round the site a bit and then we all wondered off ourselves. A truly magical place and real highlight of the trip. Apparently, there are Inca ruins all over all the high mountains but Machu Picchu was not discovered by the Spanish when they invaded so was not destroyed. Oh, Machu Picchu means old mountain and should be pronounced Match-oo Pik-choo. Pronouncing it Pitch-oo means something else altogether. Ha.

To get this picture.....


.....you have to climb these steps to get to the building top centre of pic











Perhaps even alpaca's get altitude sickness


The Incas shaped some of the rocks to match mountains behind them


If you get up at 4.15am, you have lunch a bit early

3rd to 5th May, Nasca Lines, Arequipa

An early start for some of us, to avoid the cloud and turbulance later in the day. For those that don't know, it's not certain what the Nasca Lines actually are. These lines and patterns can only properly be viewed from the air as some are several km long. Aliens putting them there is one theory but more likely is the Inca's put them there as some sort of offering to the gods. Who knows. They're magnificent and a magical thing to see, so huge and surviving for centuries. They don't come out too great in photos so with my photos shrunk onto this blog, I'm not sure you'll see much. I'll put a few up and if you're really interested, go google pictures better than mine. :-) Another beach camp that night.

The monkey - hope you can see it once blogger shrinks the photo quality





Next stop Arequipa, where our hostel was situated opposite the hospital and therefore along the street where all the coffin shops were! I did try a few times to get a picture but couldn't do it without getting caught.
somewhere in town


they like BIG stereo systems in South America






Main square


Cathedral


Mikkel and I went for an evening wander and came across an evening mass which we went to watch and take in the church. We suddenly heard a band play outside behind us (I jumped out of my skin) and then bangers going off outside (bizarrely as part of the ceremony), so we did a fast but respectful (we hoped) comedy walk to the back of the pews, then ran outside to the amusement of a few locals. We'd missed the bangers but after a procession around the town, everyone converged outside the church for a fireworks display. The display was made from bamboo it seemed and as each firework went off, if any failed, the chaps just climbed in and set them off , inches from their faces. The final rocket from the top flew everywhere and as bits of flaming debris fell near us, Mikkel pulled me in to cover my highly flammable hair from 'going up'. Very funny and we were both like a pair of kids. Brilliant. Others had gone out for 'coy' - guinea pig (not a lot of meat but very boney apparently) and alpaca (a bit like beef I'm told).

Francois making us pose at the monastery


A few of us took a trip around the Monastery here where nuns have been cloistered for centuries. Apparently, this is why it's a Monastery rather than a convent, because the nuns are not allowed out into the community. A very picturesque and peaceful place. Apparently the rich would marry off their first daughter and send their second daughter off to be a nun so she could pray for the family. (Yes, I am a second daughter. eek) These 12 year old girls would be a novice for 4 or so years, during which time they had no contact with their family. Once they formally became nuns, their families contributed an amount equivalent today to $150k to the monastery and would build a house in the convent for their daughter. Some had servants, although the dowry and servants were cleared out in 1872 by the then pope. Contact with family was allowed now but only through two hard to see through grills, a foot apart, not big enough to allow them to touch.

30th April to 2nd May, Ballestas Islands, Sand Dunes and mummified remains

We drove through a sandy Paracas National Reserve, taking in the beautiful views, before finding a spot in the reserve, by the sea, to bush camp. The group mainly went to bed at an astonishingly early 8pm this night. A few of us escaped the light pollution from the truck and the camp fire to watch the stars, then ended the night chatting by the fire. Everyone else going to bed so early meant we were woken at 5am though. Grrr.











Next was a boat trip round the Ballestas Islands. From what I could make out, this place is famous for the sheer volume of birds that live there, which was amazing, and the fact that they used to export for sale the bird poop from the islands. Needless to say, it whiffed a bit.

tuk tuk


Local schoolgirl commented on how tall we all were......so I called (6ft) Heather over. All the schoolkids pulled out their phones to take a pic


Ballestas Islands


Next stop was an oasis in the dessert! Huacachica. A few stayed in a hostel, while the rest of us hopped onto V8 dune buggies and screamed off into the dessert to go sandboarding. After a bump with a coach (ooops), Kirsten and Rogan were delayed till later. Rogan hired a proper board with fixed boots. The rest of us went down on our tums on the boards, as this was faster and more fun. I did a couple of runs and swallowed a tonne of sand due to my useless technique of hollering with enjoyment as I plummeted down the dune. Then I realised taking the buggy over the edge, down to pick up the boarders was possibly even more fun. We clearly had the nutter driver (albeit very skilful) and I loved getting flung up, over, down and around the dunes with the roar of the powerful engines. Brilliant.





Getting flung around in the dune buggy


Get your boards


How to get a mouthful of sand at speed


Then, as it got dark, we went to find the sandy patch where we would sleep. Kirsten and Rogan rocked up with our dinner in another buggy along with a 7 litre bottle of pisco sour. After dinner, round the fire, and after drinks, a few of us decided to go boarding in the dark. I make it about 30 feet up the dune before deciding it is blinking hard to climb a dune. So we watched Kirsten, Rogan, Francois, Terry and Lesley. One run ended about a metre from a sleeping Ken's head but he wasn't hit and no-one actually landed on the fire, so that was a result. It didn't get too cold so we all slept well that eve, in our sleeping bags, looking up at the stars.

Morning Lisa


Sandboards, people in sleeping bags, a dune buggy and it's driver's tent


One more run in the morning, then back to get the others and head off to our campsite for our Nasca lines flight. The flight would be the next day so that afternoon, we instead went to see some well preserved mummies.

26th to 29th April Huarez and Lima

Next stop Huarez, and some beautiful scenery on the way, closing, as we approached Huarez, with some of the highest and best views outside the Himalayas. Huarez is at 3700m and we stopped for a wheezy set of pictures at 4500m. Some of the peaks reach 6km above sea level.

wowzers


broader view from truck cab's front window






Jeanne and I decided to upgrade to try and avoid the cold....only to find ourselves in a cold unheated room. Ha. Queue many blankets. Spent time mooching around town, (no surprises there then), enjoying the cafe culture and we went out for a group meal to say goodbye to Pete. The Pisco Sour flowed.
Kirsten sharing out the rather large bottle of pisco sour


Next stop Lima. Nice hotel in an excellent location. Some of us decided to go for a chinese meal on the first evening and went for the safer option of choosing food by pictures. A beautiful city, with magnificent squares. Unique to this city were the wooden closed balconies. I took in the museums here, inbetween my mooching. Gorgeous cathedral, Bishops Palace and tour of the St Francisco Church. Then our last night in Peru marked Pete's departure for another trip, so we all met back at the hotel at 3pm for a few beers. I can only wonder how Pete fared on his flight, after a few started buying him whiskey. It was incredibly sad to see Pete go, having gotten so close to him over the last 5 months and always being able to rely on him to be enthusiastic, excited and jolly. A tearful goodbye. More to come in a month. Hmmmm.














Pete double parked with drinks


Kirsten, if your gin and tonic is this strong (tonic yet to be added to either glass), then later on.......


.....I will get you to pose for photos with shop window stickers!



Just a small whiskey for Ken