After deciding that tours to Machu Picchu were expensive we decided to DIY it and go village by village to Ollntaytambo then get the train and take the inca steps up to Macchu Picchu itself..
The first stop was Pisaq a giant hillside fort surrounded by Inca terraces. The site was huuuuge and really impresive with atmospheric pipes being played and chimes. While exploring the ruins we were approached by the son of a Shaman (apparrently) who after a quick read of mine and sophies hand energy told me I was Ímpatient´ but that was ok as Soph was ´Patient´to balance... Urumbamba was a bit uneventful, we had planned to visit some more ruins but decided to press on to Ollantaytambo which had another huge hillside terraced set of ruins looking over the town. A podgy American pointed out the tiny curves cut into the giant stone walls and noted that the technology to cut this detail in such large pieces with such precision was still beyond us now and that obviously aliens must have interveined. From here we got a train to Aguas Calientes - the town next to machu Picchu - and very nearly punched the ticket man square in the face when he told us how expensive this little train journey was (considering there is no other transport there and you pay extra for useless tat like snacks and even dancing thrown in on the jounrey on the even more expensive trips). Anyway the mountains seen from the train were amazing and in contrast Aguas Caliente was a damp dump sat at the bottom of them. We got a bed in a hovel/damp cellar and set out in the morning at 5am to walk.
It was dark and damp and we set off up the mammoth trek up vertical Inca steps that took about an hour+ to climb and arrived knackered at Machu Picchu to be clapped to the top by a small group of Israelis only to behold a stunning vista of telephones and waste bins. We nipped round these and showed our over priced ticket to the guy to see Machu Picchu proper. The view was stunning. Stunningly white actually as it was completely covered in mist and we could hardly see a thing. Slowly it lifted and we could finally see the giant complex. It was pretty amazing, but better than the site itself was the trek up the massively steep Wayna Pichu (The peak at the back of Machu Picchu) which we clambered up and down over several hours and at the top even crawled through a cave and up over steps to a small temple right on the very top. The views were immense!
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Canyon Country, Cusco and The Scared Valley
From Arequipa we headed North to Colca Canyon. To get to the deepest Canyon in the World (the one next door is actually a little deeper in truth) we went in a taxi via series of little villages. At the first we clambered up a waterfall only to descend down into an old mans trout fishery! He was soo friendly and gave us a peek around. We also went out at 6am to see wild Viscatchas - which are like chinchillas - bounding across rocks in the freezing cold of the desert. We saw different traditional dress including white hats and sequins on the women (one of who we gave a lift to as we passed her village). As is usual in South America each village had a central Plaza de Armas and Iglesia (Church) established since the Spanish Conquision. We eventually got to the Cruz del Condor - a point from which you can see Condors fly closely and possibly the most dramatic canyon scenery ever! It was soo vast and deep its hard to believe and made you feel wably approaching the edge - the sides are incredibly steep and so big that villages exist a regular points along its sides. Most people trek down to the bottom and back, it takes a 5 hours down and more back up... we opted to walk over the rim of it, stopped at an amazing hostel drinking Pisco Sours (incredibly tasty alcholholic drinks) and ventured down a bit, then nipped off to Cusco.
Cusco was pretty touristy and although the streets are cobbled and many of them have ancient Inca walls on top of which the new building are built, it felt a bit hollow as every building was a restaurant or shop. We stayed in a great hostel previously a Tambo (roadhouse) looking over the city. I didnt really like Cusco much until we were suddenly caught up in a parade of dancers that continued for hours. Many tradional costumes and dances were in troups by region and they banged drums and swirled about wearing really bright, decorative costumes. Some oddities were cowboy-types with whips, guys in grass hats, a drunken man and wife fighting song and a gang of men in balaclavas with moustaches on them who whips each others legs then danced off arm in arm- presumably traking the piss out of the spanish who of course conquered the country.
We got a bus out to Tambo Machay - an Inca fountain and walked back to Cusco via another Inca ruin to Saksaywaman (pronounced sexy woman) which was a huge ruin with zigzag walls designed to be the head of a puma - a shape the ruler wanted for the town.
Back in Cusco we headed out for to Machu Picchu.
Cusco was pretty touristy and although the streets are cobbled and many of them have ancient Inca walls on top of which the new building are built, it felt a bit hollow as every building was a restaurant or shop. We stayed in a great hostel previously a Tambo (roadhouse) looking over the city. I didnt really like Cusco much until we were suddenly caught up in a parade of dancers that continued for hours. Many tradional costumes and dances were in troups by region and they banged drums and swirled about wearing really bright, decorative costumes. Some oddities were cowboy-types with whips, guys in grass hats, a drunken man and wife fighting song and a gang of men in balaclavas with moustaches on them who whips each others legs then danced off arm in arm- presumably traking the piss out of the spanish who of course conquered the country.
We got a bus out to Tambo Machay - an Inca fountain and walked back to Cusco via another Inca ruin to Saksaywaman (pronounced sexy woman) which was a huge ruin with zigzag walls designed to be the head of a puma - a shape the ruler wanted for the town.
Back in Cusco we headed out for to Machu Picchu.
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Lake Titicaca & finally -- Peru!
We got a bus to Copacabana (not the Brazillian one but the Bolivian one) and went wandering the ruins. The lake is the Wolr´ds highest navigable lake and is closed in by the Andes mountain range on the border with Peru. From Copacabana we got a boat out to the Isla del Sol - the Isla the Sun was born on and center to a handful of South American cultures including the Incas.
We made friends with a gang going to the nothern most point of the island on a tiny boat on top of which we had our bags balenced and feared they would slide off into the sea forever. At the northern bay it was incredible - goats, donkeys, families worked on the land and there were hills over which we found a sacrifical table and a set of ruins from Inca times. The views of the lake were immense. We spent the next days in the fields around the northern part in which husband & wife teams in traditional dress tilled the land using hand trowels, digging potatoes.
Back in Copacabana we headed north to Peru on a bus and crossed the border to find clean busses, paved roads, good food and expensive accomodation in Puno.
From puno we headed for Arequipa and found it to be rather noice actually. The food in Peru ois great unlike the greasy, carb laden-efforts in Bolivia. In Arequipa we visited a monestry which was like a huuge complex, a town within a city. Every corner looked like a medaeval kitchen or bed chamber with whips that the nuns had used up until the 70´s. We saw books that were hundreds of years old in an ancient libarary at the Recoleta and a tradional band in a Pena - trad. folk club.
From Arequipa we tried to go to a bull fight but it were unable for a week or so, so headed to Cusco..
We made friends with a gang going to the nothern most point of the island on a tiny boat on top of which we had our bags balenced and feared they would slide off into the sea forever. At the northern bay it was incredible - goats, donkeys, families worked on the land and there were hills over which we found a sacrifical table and a set of ruins from Inca times. The views of the lake were immense. We spent the next days in the fields around the northern part in which husband & wife teams in traditional dress tilled the land using hand trowels, digging potatoes.
Back in Copacabana we headed north to Peru on a bus and crossed the border to find clean busses, paved roads, good food and expensive accomodation in Puno.
From puno we headed for Arequipa and found it to be rather noice actually. The food in Peru ois great unlike the greasy, carb laden-efforts in Bolivia. In Arequipa we visited a monestry which was like a huuge complex, a town within a city. Every corner looked like a medaeval kitchen or bed chamber with whips that the nuns had used up until the 70´s. We saw books that were hundreds of years old in an ancient libarary at the Recoleta and a tradional band in a Pena - trad. folk club.
From Arequipa we tried to go to a bull fight but it were unable for a week or so, so headed to Cusco..
Saturday, 9 May 2009
La Paz
La Paz...
Working from memory now and it was a while ago but here we go while I have a minute...
Well, La Paz was hectic, the streets were rammed full of cars zipping down narrow cobbled streets and people with millions of little old ladies (Cholas) in traditional dress selling on the streets. There were a gang of Zebras (men in costumes) directing traffic and a usual chaos about the place. Sadly within hours of arriving we heard a thump as we left a cafe and saw a teenage girl on the floor - she´d been hit by a bus.
Aside from traffic chaos, there were some great things to do in La Paz - There was also a wicked musical instrument museum, a musuem on Coca with interesting quotes like "1 in 2 North Americans arrested test positive for cocaine"... hmmm... The view across the city was immense which we saw from our bus on the way to watch the Wrestling that takes place in El Alto - a city on a plateau that looks out over La Paz with an 80% indigenous population. The Wrestling was great, Ninja Turtles, midgets and women in traditional dress pulling hair and dropkicking each other.
We also went to the ancient ruins at Tiahuanaco - a giant Temple with astromonical lake on top, plus a rock with a hole shaped like the center of your ear canal that amplified sound (possibly used to scare tample-goers or hear better). There were also monoliths and gates in stone that had on calendars for the 2000 year old civilisation that predtaed the Inca and of which incredibly little is known... There was also a sunken chamber in whihc heads were carved, possibly of enemies now residing as Trophy Heads...
We bought tickets for a tour to Rurrenabaque - in the Bolivian Pampas in the Amazon Basin. We got a 40 minte flight out in a rickerty 12 person plane and then spent a few days at a jungle lodge with resident Caimen (Alligators) after speeding by jeep from the airport down dirtroads to our boat. The first day we saw many birds, Squirrel Monkeys, Howler Monkeys, turtles. We went out by boat at night Caimen spotting by shining a torch into the banks and looking for glowing eyes!
Day 2 we went out to hunt anacondas! No really we did... we spent a sweltering few hours roaming the grasses in the waterlogged lowlands trying to spot movement by our feet in search of huge anacondas... without luck. apparently its not the best season and they were allusive although one person did see 2 slithering away from them in the water. The trip was made extra fun/agonising by a gang from Leeds who´s mentality had obviosly stopped at age 16 sand a gang of Aussies & Americas who were like extras from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and promptly turned up and fell in the river, then cruised the waters complete with a crate of beer.
Day 3 we went out to an area where pink river dolphins collect and swam with them! (nasty animals dont come here as the dolphins butt them out of the group to protect themselves and their young). We could swim really close and see them breaching and I even touched one with my foot - they were slimy...
Back in Rurrenabaque - the office told us that there were planes but there were not. Bad weather meant a bogged airstrip and so after 3 days without flights and a days wait for us, we got a bus. It was 30 minutes hereon the plane and after a jeep ride in which the jeep got stuck in the mud (We were sharing the road with guys on mopeds, family cars and huuuuge trucks.) it took 20 hours back to La Paz along (officially) the world´s most dangerous road. 30+ people die a year on this cliff hanger. We took sleeping tablets and got back early morning.
Safely back in La Paz, we headed out to the Isla del Sol on lake Titicaca...
Working from memory now and it was a while ago but here we go while I have a minute...
Well, La Paz was hectic, the streets were rammed full of cars zipping down narrow cobbled streets and people with millions of little old ladies (Cholas) in traditional dress selling on the streets. There were a gang of Zebras (men in costumes) directing traffic and a usual chaos about the place. Sadly within hours of arriving we heard a thump as we left a cafe and saw a teenage girl on the floor - she´d been hit by a bus.
Aside from traffic chaos, there were some great things to do in La Paz - There was also a wicked musical instrument museum, a musuem on Coca with interesting quotes like "1 in 2 North Americans arrested test positive for cocaine"... hmmm... The view across the city was immense which we saw from our bus on the way to watch the Wrestling that takes place in El Alto - a city on a plateau that looks out over La Paz with an 80% indigenous population. The Wrestling was great, Ninja Turtles, midgets and women in traditional dress pulling hair and dropkicking each other.
We also went to the ancient ruins at Tiahuanaco - a giant Temple with astromonical lake on top, plus a rock with a hole shaped like the center of your ear canal that amplified sound (possibly used to scare tample-goers or hear better). There were also monoliths and gates in stone that had on calendars for the 2000 year old civilisation that predtaed the Inca and of which incredibly little is known... There was also a sunken chamber in whihc heads were carved, possibly of enemies now residing as Trophy Heads...
We bought tickets for a tour to Rurrenabaque - in the Bolivian Pampas in the Amazon Basin. We got a 40 minte flight out in a rickerty 12 person plane and then spent a few days at a jungle lodge with resident Caimen (Alligators) after speeding by jeep from the airport down dirtroads to our boat. The first day we saw many birds, Squirrel Monkeys, Howler Monkeys, turtles. We went out by boat at night Caimen spotting by shining a torch into the banks and looking for glowing eyes!
Day 2 we went out to hunt anacondas! No really we did... we spent a sweltering few hours roaming the grasses in the waterlogged lowlands trying to spot movement by our feet in search of huge anacondas... without luck. apparently its not the best season and they were allusive although one person did see 2 slithering away from them in the water. The trip was made extra fun/agonising by a gang from Leeds who´s mentality had obviosly stopped at age 16 sand a gang of Aussies & Americas who were like extras from Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas and promptly turned up and fell in the river, then cruised the waters complete with a crate of beer.
Day 3 we went out to an area where pink river dolphins collect and swam with them! (nasty animals dont come here as the dolphins butt them out of the group to protect themselves and their young). We could swim really close and see them breaching and I even touched one with my foot - they were slimy...
Back in Rurrenabaque - the office told us that there were planes but there were not. Bad weather meant a bogged airstrip and so after 3 days without flights and a days wait for us, we got a bus. It was 30 minutes hereon the plane and after a jeep ride in which the jeep got stuck in the mud (We were sharing the road with guys on mopeds, family cars and huuuuge trucks.) it took 20 hours back to La Paz along (officially) the world´s most dangerous road. 30+ people die a year on this cliff hanger. We took sleeping tablets and got back early morning.
Safely back in La Paz, we headed out to the Isla del Sol on lake Titicaca...
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