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We are alive. just.
first off all let us just apolagise as we are on the sketchiest computer ever, the screen is really blurry and we can´t really see what we´re typing!!
Following on from the previous blog, we visited the ruins in Lima only to find that there were NO Llamas and NO peruvian dogs just a pile of mud bricks still being constructed, and a loads of graves where the Incas murdered women, children and guinea pigs! Having said that the 50p entrance fee kind of made it worth it!
The next day in Lima we decided to walk along the cliff face (not down the cliff this time!) to a recommended shopping mall but we didn´t really like it as once inside you could have been anywhere in the world with KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Hooters. So from there we thought we´d be generic tourists and hop on an open top sightseeing bus around Miraflores and Burranca! It was great only 4 pounds a head and it lasted two hours including a walking tour! there was only four of us all together too! It was slightly cloudier that day too meaning our burns had a chance to heal before the mega sun kicked in again! That night we went out with a load of peeps from our hostel. That was great as we had people from all over the world! We went to some restaurant where Turlough didn´t eat because hes still being really fussy, but i went really local and ordered a club sandwhich! Anyhoo several more pisco sours and beers later, after Turlough abused some poor American about George Bush, we stumbled back to play some Jenga.
We had to be up early the next day (great) to check out and find our HOTEL for the beginning of our Lares Trek. Lukily Christian flagged us down a cab, but it was the dogiest thing ever in some bashed up little Micra that barely fit one of our bags let alone both of us! Safe to say, he had NO idea where the hotel was and kept stopping ever five minutes to ask people. We showed him the address but it said Girasoles Hotel LIma, so he got it into his head the hotel was called hotel Lima. He wouldn´t be told otherwise so got many a blank expression when asking for hotel lima. Managed to find it in the end (basically because I saw it by chance and shouted) but the whole pound that he charged us was well worth it!
That day the sun was out in full force again, and after enjoying a hotel room with our own bathroom and fresh towels. Then just minced about again, going to some Incan markets and sorting laundry etc. We met the majority of our fellow trekkers that evening and had our briefing by our GAP rep. She informed us we had to LEAVE the hotel at 3:30am in order to catch our flight to Cusco! Once again some free Pisco Sours came round (haven´t paid for one yet) and we hit the sack pretty early ready for the stupid start.
Stumbled out of bed at about 3 and lugged the backpacks down to some little coaches where we hopped in one with two Aussies, in the pitch black. When we got on the plane, we couldn´t believe it. This was a ONE hour flight and we had more room than our INTERNATIONAL 12 and half hour flight from Madrid. There was also more Tvs and even breakfast! When we got off the plane in Cusco it was freezing!! I of course hated it wanting the Lima sun back, and Turlough was loving it. We found our other GAP person ourside the airport where we were greeted by what we thought was a mentalist taking random photos of us with an empty camera. It later transipired that he DID have film in his camera, printed them up and met us outside our Cusco hotel with them stuck to postcards! We found it so hirlarious we actually bought one! Although im not sure the shoddy glue will make it all the way back to England.
We got to our hotel about 7am and had a meeting there and then with who was going to be our Tour guide up the mountain. His name was Johann and was incredibly softly spoken. We grasped what we could from what he was saying but i think we were a little tired and hungry by this point as one of the aussies lost it with hunger and just got up and left to get some pringles, we all thought Johann was pretty unbearable. Obviously that was just being tired and the hunger as we soon thought he was well alright. That day we had free to explore the wonderful Cusco. This city is much more beautiful than Lima and a lot less touristy. The buildings alll have red tiles, and we are completley surrounded by the mountains. We are roughly 3400meters up at the moment and it gets chilly at night! After a long and deserved nap, Turl and I went to have lunch in this little pit of a Cafe. All the buildings have small windows and doors so you dont really know what you´re getting until you´re in there. The first place we went into had no menu and the lady tried to tell us it in Spanish, we quickly thought no way im getting ripped off and tricked into eating guinea pig and pegged it to our pit cafe. This was better as it has menus with prices on, but we didn´t realize until we got inside and ordered that the walls started to move and it was actually fly ridden. Yum. In all faireness the food was very cheap and very nice too, i think my chicken and fly sandwhich cost about 80p and Turls roasted chicken and fly was about two pounds. Can´t argue with that.
We bummed around Cusco, looking around markets and musuems. Turlough bought a horrific balaclava thing that goes all over your face and looks like a devil. And we picked up some cliche incan hats and head bands too! (didn´t know how needed they would be at this point) That night we all went out to dinner with the rest of our group. at this point there was 4 aussie guys, us two brits, a canadian bloke, a south african girl, and some girl who was form Jersey but lived in chille. we were to meet later on with the final four. The restaurant was nice and Jack the Canadian ate Alapaca stake! Turlough was too much of a wimp as the alpacas are too cute and just had beef, but he did taste some, apparently its like pork. No one dared the guinea pig, yet.
Another early start for 7:30am when we had a bus tour round the sacred valley that ended up in our final destination before the trek, Ollyantantambo (or something to that effect) I however just discovered that i dont mix with high altitudes and took a turn for the worse, even having a nose bleed halfway up some mountauin, Little did i know this was only the beggining. We had a different tour guide for this, his name was Wilburt so we called him big willy. This was a great jam packed day where we went high into the mountains, our first sightings of the more rural Peru. We stopped off in a tiny villiage and visited the market. There was the cutest little boy there (about 3) who came up to us a shook all our hands and said hola. He was great and we all played with him rather than buying anything as we forgot our money! We also visited a little animal rescue place, even though i was dying from the altitude and sun, it was brilliant. Big Willy also got me some alcohol to sniff to make me feel better. (not sure what medicinal value this had, but i enjoyed it) At the animal place we greeted by a very vocal goose who thought hed show us around. We saw Alpacas and Llamas (as ever!) along with some snouty things that had had their paws cut off. The insane things were two Pumas that were rescued from a Club show in Lima, and a CONDOR, boasting a four meter wings span. It was huge, which i know what you´re thinking, isnñt so impressive, well... we got INTO the cage with it. We all sat at the front of its cage and the owner called it down so it flew right infront of us! Mental! That day was also filled with tasting traditional incan beer made from corn (chiicha) which was pretty nice actually. This was in an oldschool pub in the middle of nowhere, where they have this game where you have to through gold coins at a table with holes in it, trying to get the most points by getting it in a golden frgos mouth. Obviously this got very competitive and i annoyingly have to admit Turlough thrashed me and even big Willy!
Later that afternoon we went back to Ollantatambo and had a little taster of how the next few days might work out. All we had to do was climb up some steps and some incan ruins The group just about made it to the top but we were all pretty much hyperventalating from the lack of oxygen up here and nearly keeling over from massive heart attacks. No one could really care less about what Big Willy was saying, just trying to steady the rapid heart beats and thikning about how on earth we were going to get up any sort of mountain.
That night we all went for some dinenr togther and found a nice little blues cafe that played peruvian versions of Nirvana and Eric Clapton. We really sampled the delay it takes to get food over here as it took over 2hours for us to get our food and most of it was only sandwhiches or soup that turned out to be cupa soup!
We went to bed early that night ready for the start of the trek the next day, however im going to leave you in suspense as we´re late with meeting the rest of our group for some dinner! Hahahaha sorry! We´ll hopefully write about our hellish ecperience when we get back!
Much love to everyone, we miss you loads, and thank you for the messages!! Hope England is still as boring as ever!
Fran and Turl xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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