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Hello from Peru!
Having the most amazing time. Arrived in Lima (10 hours later than planned due to a fault with the plane in Miami ), and found it full of crazy people, beeping cars, and very little understanding of English anywhere. Luckily my 3 week group tour was starting straight away, and so once I'd met my group, 14 others, who are all very nice, variety of ages but mostly between 20-30, we could get out of Lima!
It started well with a trip to Pisco, where we sampled the Peruvian speciality, the Pisco Sours, alcoholic of course! Our next stop was the Ballestos Islands, which are described in the Lonely Planet guide as the "poor man's Galapagos Islands" but having never been to the Galapagos I thought they were pretty cool. From our rocky boat we saw lots of birds, seals with their pups, and most importantly, lots and lots of Penguins! So cute!
On route to our next stop, we had a brilliant time sandboarding. We went into the sand dunes on a sand buggy, which was so much fun, and then went sliding down the dunes on boards. All was going well until the last, and biggest sand dune, where right at the end I got a mouthful of sand! We were all finding sand everywhere for the next week!
We then made our way to Nazca which hosts the famous Nazca Lines - huge shapes paved out in the sand, which can only be viewed by air. This meant 3 of us climbing into a tiny 4 seater plane with the pilot, and taking a pretty shaking ride over the mountains to see these lines. They were actually pretty amazing from the air - they include a spider, dog, alien and several birds. No one really knows how they got there, but the people of Nazca had better hope they stick around, as there is nothing else there except a dodgy looking town centre and some pervy men! We also visited a cemetary, where they keep mummies, which was as good as a cemetary possibly could be!
We had to get a public nightbus from Nazca to our next stop, Arequipa, and so while we were waiting for the bus, which was running late, we sampled the Nazca nightlife, which was ummmm...interesting! Bus turned up and it was horrible and smelly and really made you feel ill as soon as you stepped onto it. Unfortunately I was on the top deck and near the back, which i don't think helped! It was the longest and smelliest 12 hours I've ever spent!
Things were looking up the next day, as Arequipa was a really nice town. We had some time to explore, and so a few of us decided to go to a monastry. We got slightly side-tracked by a cheap market selling all sorts of wooly and woven things, but once we made it, we had a long tour around the monastry which was good, and followed this by dinner at a steak house, where I tried Alpacca, a sort of smaller version of Llama, which was pretty nice!
We then headed to Colca Canyon, which was at a fairly high altitude, so we were trying to aclimatise. Even walking up 3 steps made you out of breath! After a couple of hours treking, we went to some hot springs, which were actually a bit disappointing, as they were basically a couple of hot swimming pools - one was outside so you could look up at the stars which was nice, but after a while your head got cold! The Canyon was famous for its Condors, and so early the next morning we headed out to a viewing point, and sure enough about 6 Condors soon started swooping about. They were really nice, and very big! That afternoon I surprised myself by going horse-riding. It was all going well until we started going round the side of a cliff, and my horse decided it particularly liked the side, which was pretty scary! I won't be getting on a horse again anytime soon! In the evening our tour guide took us to a restaurant, which had local dancers. We were a little shocked when they started whipping each other and woofing like dogs, but apparently it was some kind of mating ritual. However, when they started pulling people up from the tables and whipped them, that was the time to hide!
Our next stop was Puno, which was the base for exploring Lake Titicaca. We had a private boat for our group, and the first island we visited was Taquile Island. We walked around this island for a while (amused by the local men walking around knitting!), before heading to Amantani island, where we were to split up into groups and stay with a local family. This was a bit difficult as they speak their own native language, Quechua, and also some Spanish, but as none of us could speak either, conversation was a little tricky! After we had dinner with them and walked up a mountain for sunset, they dressed us up in traditional costumes and took us to a dance. Both the costumes and the style of dancing were rediculous, but quite amusing!
We left our family the next morning, and heading to the Uros Islands, known as the floating islands. They are made entirely out of reeds, and when you step on them it feels as though you are going to sink right through. It was quite commercialised and when we got onto a local viking type boat, some women started singing "row row the boat", but it was good. They had made little islands within the island for the chickens and guinea pigs, each with their own little houses!
Because of a huge strike going on, we then had to get onto a bus as soon as we left Lake Titicaca and take the back road down to Cuzco. This took 11 hours of bumpy, winding road on the side of a cliff, with particularly dodgy driving - did not get much sleep!
Cuzco is a really nice town. Its a lot more advanced than the others we had visited, and has plenty to do, as well as nice shops and restaurants. We started off by visiting the Inca Museum, which was interesting, and then went to a bizarre restaurant for dinner. The tables were baths with fish swimming around in them, and clear glass over the top, and had very strong cocktails! We then tried out the clubbing scene in Cuzco and once again found it a little odd, although good fun!
The next day in Cuzco we went and visited some ruins just out of the town centre. Walking back we got picked up by some tourist police who took us back to the centre, which was bizarre but very nice of them!
Our 3 day trek started on the 6th July. We took a bus to some hot springs, which again were a bit too swimming pool-like, and this time they were a brownish colour because of the Sulpher in the water and so we decided to give these a miss! After lunch we started out on out 6 hour trek to the first campsite. It was uphill all the way, which combined with the altitude made it really hard work. However, we were spoilt because we had porters, cooks, horses and Llamas to carry everything, and set up the tents, do all the cooking etc. We even got a cup of coffee with the wake up call in the mornings! Athough it was hot during the day, as soon as the sun went down, it was soooo cold! Even with all my clothes on and a sleeping bag meant for minus 20 degrees, I was freezing all night! The next morning we woke early and had another 6 hour trek uphill to the top of the mountain (which was surrounded by glaciers and ice). The altitude at the top was 4780 metres above sea level, and so it was such a struggle to get to the summit, but we all made it, although someone had to get a lift with the 'emergency' horse! From the top it was downhill all the way, with a stop after an hour for lunch, and then about another 3 hours to the campsite. You could appreciate the beautiful scenery a lot more coming down as you weren't struggling so much to breath!
After another cold night, and a lot of dog woofing (apparently to keep the Puma's away ), we only had a few hours of walking, downhill again, yay! The next morning we reached Machu Picchu which was amazing. After a 2 hour tour around the ruins, a few of us decided to climb up the mountain next to the ruins, which was probably a bit stupid given that we had just spent 3 days treking. It was a pretty hard climb, having to crawl through caves and rock climb sometimes, but we made it to the top, where I was persuaded to sit on the top of a rock jutting out over the ruins at the very top (see picture when I manage to upload it!). It was petrifying, and so I was just crawling around on my hands and knees and being laughed at by a guy jumping around from rock to rock! It was almost as hard getting down the mountain, as the rocks were all steep and slippy and you kept meeting people. But I'm glad I did it, as they only let 400 people on the mountain a day.
The next day we were left on our own to relax and recover! A few of us decided to hunt out a handicraft market which was highly recommended and then decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Jacks, a very Westernised cafe/restaurant which is the first place we've found in Peru so far that knows what Tomato Ketchup is!
Tomorrow, off to the Jungle....!
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