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And so finally I am able to write the last entry to our South America blog...
Following our relaxing few days in La Paz and some sad goodbyes to some of our other monkey loving friends! We headed back towards the Peru border and to spend a couple of days in Copacabana on the shores of the beautiful Lake Titicaca. Elena and Bimala, having stopped here before on their way down to Bolivia, headed north to Cuzco; while Inez, Will and I took the three hour (not very speedy) speed boat to the north part of the Isla del Sol (island of the sun), the legendary birthplace of the Incas. The views were spectacular, you felt like you were on the edge of the sea with beautiful blue sky and sandy beaches; but the cooler temperature gave away the altitude and in the distance you could see the shore of Lake Titicaca with snow capped mountains lining the horizon. We had been recommended by Beastie and Matt to visit the less touristy north end of the island and it felt like you were a guest in a very local farming village that probably hasn't changed much for years! The donkeys in the narrow streets had dreads and there were tiny little piglets running around the beach! We ony stayed one night on the island and spent the first day walking across one area to visit the Inca ruins, which were surprisingly untouristy and seemed to just make up part of the local farmland! With not much else to do we spent the afternoon chilling before eventually leaving (after a few hours wait) on the boat the following day.
Arriving back to Copacabana we booked tickets, ours to Arequipa in Peru and Inez to Cuzco, ate a meal and bought a few presents; only to return to the tour agency to discover that the buses didn't exist! After a bit of negotiating we managed to get our tickets changed, to Puno just across the border, and the rest of our money back. This left the challenge of trying to reach our final destinations once we'd arrived in Peru! Following a straight forward border crossing we reached Puno, found Inez a night bus to Cuzco and decided that we would stop overnight and catch another bus in the morning!
Our plans for Arequipa didn't work out very well, originally we had been trying decide between climbing Misti, the city's guardian volcano, and going down the Colca Canyon, one of the deepest in the world. However after several days of Will suffering from stomach problems we decided to take a couple of days out to do nothing!! I managed to fit some shopping into this nothing time, and we both had to suffer from Will's shoe shopping requirements! On our last day we visited the really interesting museum featuring Juanita the Inca ice princess. The museum illustrated the Inca custom of child sacrifices upon volcanoes and mountains. The Incas believed that mountains were deities that needed to be kept happy in order to avoid them becoming angry in the forms of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other natural disasters!
We took an overnight bus to Cuzco, where we met up with Elena, Bimala and Inez again in order to arrange our trip to Machu Picchu. Firstly however we headed out to the sacrid valley to stay overnight at a Finca (small property or farm) with one of Bimala's friends. The scenery was beautiful and we had the opportunity to go to a Hare Krishna temple to hear the mantras.
Machu Picchu is in the mountains several hours outside of Cuzco and there are many different and all very expensive methods of reaching Aguas Calientes, the tiny tourist trap town in the valley below. We had heard a lot about the train journey through the valley and decided we would travel by bus or taxi part of the way and then caught the train to Aguas Calientes. The train journey was beautiful with amazing scenery and windows even on the roof of the train! Once we arrived, and managed to escape the tourist market which you must pass through to leave the train station! We found a hotel and after dinner headed up to the thermal baths at the top of town!
Very early the following morning we were up and queuing for the bus up to Machu Picchu. That morning the Inca city was completely shrouded in mist and fog. We had tickets for the early morning 7am climb up Wanu Picchu a mountain that towers above the ruins and can give views of the whole city. Upon arrival at the ruins at the top of the mountain we were still unable to see anything due to the clouds and therefore decided to wait. It was really frustrating watching all the clouds moving across the valley with big gaps forming pretty much everywhere except over the ruins! But, eventually the clouds all suddenly lifted and it was worth the wait!!
We then made the decision to walk in the opposite direction from Machu Picchu to visit the "Grand Cave". In hindsight this wasn't the best decision ever!! After about an hour climbing down the ridiculously steep Inca steps, and several wooden ladders when it just became too steep, we arrived at the not so grand cave and then had to climb back up the mountain! The afternoon was spent exploring the ruins of Machu Picchu, although by this point following our mammoth mountain climbing we were getting pretty exhausted!!
Arriving back in Cuzco we said our goodbyes to Inez and the four of us boarded our 20 hour bus to Lima! The following evening we headed to Creamfield Peru!! Lots of big thank yous from all of us to Andy for arranging the tickets! The set up was the same as Creamfields at home except a little bit smaller and a one night event. It was like a little bit of home coming out to visit us!! We had a great night but did require a Dominoes pizza the following day to help with recovery!!
We said a sad goodbye to Elena and Bimala the day after as they were heading back to Cuzco. Then we headed south ourselves to Huacachina a sandy desert landscape just of the south coast. Huacachina is a small oasis town which seems to have been created solely for tourists who want to explore the sand dunes. And so, we did just that the following day on a roller coaster buggy tour and sandboarding trip. The slightly crazy buggy drivers made sure we were strapped in and then proceeded to drive mentally up and down the dunes! The only stops being for a bit of sandboarding (which was more like sandsliding!) where waxing the boards consisted of rub them with a candle! The following day we took a long awaited wine tour, which included several different vineyards and tasting of different wines and pisco. We had a great day, the only worrying thing being that our driver seemed happy to join in with the wine tasting!
The final few days of our trip were spent back in Lima for a final shop at the local markets and the last bit of exploration. We returned to England mostly in secret, spent a few days with our parents before heading up north to Jenn and Andy's party at there house. The surprise on Jenn, Andy and Ed's faces when we arrived at the door was amazing and made travelling home in secret well worthwhile!! And we owe a big thank you to Kat for being our inside informer of party related information!!
All in all we had another amazing adventure, and now back home in sunny England, we just need to start planning the next one!!
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