Serious Trekking

To round up our trekking experience in Peru we took almost a day of bus ride upon us to get to the trekking capital of the northern part: Huaraz. It is the main city around the Cordillera Blanca mountain range.

As a serious trekker should know, good weather is temporary. Here we experienced the rainy season to its full. Some say there is no bad weather only bad equipment, but I can assure everybody, that even in the best rainjackets you get wet after walking around 3 hours in pouring rain (the difference is maybe that you don't get cold immediately as well). By the way: hail to the cheapest raintrousers from the cheapest campingshop in Dublin - they are really good.

For the two tours we did we took all the possible kinds of transportation: A motor rickshaw (of course the one with transformers deco - batman is out!) The public bus 20 ppl. for 12 seats. And taxis (Mr guide why is that everybody has Toyota Corollas? - Because they are the best cars - ...) dodging rivers, rocks and dead cows in the middle of the road, 6 ppl. excluding the driver.

We made important trekking experiences: We were walking without a guide. We were turning back on the same walk after being lost for an hour, without reaching our goal, but surviving. (hey it is all above 4000m remember!) We also added iceclimbing to our repertoire, so now we would be ready for a really tought ascent to somewhere above 5000m, but

Even though all this was nice, we have enough of suffering, so we are done with trekking for a while. Looking forward to be in hopefully sunny Brazil in a couple of days. Until then we head back to Lima for our last two days in Peru.

Sandboarding and Pisco drinking

From Nazca, we went directly to Huacachina (represented on the 50 soles note)- Huacachina is an oasis in the middle of the desert where the main activity is sandboarding. It was pretty cool..especially going down lying on the board (head first). The craziest part was not the sandboarding but the buggy. To go up the dunes, the best way is to use a buggy. We didn t expect that it would be so crazy or that our driver would be so fearless. Let s compare the feeling with a roller coaster but a roller coaster tour which lasts much longer than 90 seconds.
Today we visited (in the morning!)2 pisco wineries. After the first visit, we felt a bit tipsy..so we arrived at the 2nd one in great mood. A little peruvian guy gave us a quick tour of the "Museum"..It was not a museum just a room full of mess: Imagine some old pisco ceramics mixed with some old phones, stuffed crocodile, stuffed seal and some cables, plastic bottles. I would call it a "Joyeux Bordel". Our good mood reached its top when the guide showed Peter how to drink the liquor shot and by doing so spilt the drink on his tshirt (without noticing).

High above the Nazca Lines

After 9h of bus with the luxury company Cruz del Sur (They deserve to be called luxury as there was some toilets paper in their waiting lounge in Arequipa) it was time for us to discover one of the main attractions of Peru: The mysterious Nazca Lines in the middle of the desert. All the lines represent many shapes: a monkey, a bird, a whale..The funkiest: an astronaut (it looks like ET). Apparently these lines have been designed by the Nazca culture 2000 years ago: I prefer to believe that they were designed by extraterrests.

The best way to see the the lines is of course by plane..the smaller, the better. Our plane had 6 seats-pilot included. Pretty cool as we never before flew in such a small machine. The views were amazing, it was a magical experience, we were very euphoric until we started to feel sick. Yes somehow such a small plane is the best place to get motionsickness. Peter got scarry white and the woman in front of me had to use the emergency sickbag..All of this making nice holidays souvenirs:)

Stories from Arequipa

We have just spent 5 days around Arequipa (2nd largest city in Peru), 9 hours away by bus from Copacabana. Despite Arequipa is surronded by high volcanoes and snow caps, it s much warmer there: no need for our winter hat anymore.
From the arrival at the bus station, everything went pretty smooth: a policeman even escorted us to a taxi from which he took the drivers name and number plate. We thought he was so friendly until we learnt by other (spanish speaking) travelers that there were recently some attacks in cabs. Arequipa and its surrondings feel pretty safe, so no worries we have not been facing the human fat traffikers. We have stayed 3 nights in Misti Casa which was not only cheap with friendly staff but super located (2 mins away from the central square: la placa de armas).
We spent 2 days discovering the city and its cool sites : 2 very beautiful covents, nice churches ( I can t count anymore the number of churches we have been visiting over the last weeks) and the museo del sanctuary. This very interesting museum is dedicated to Inca human sacrifices which we were not familiar with so far. In the area of Arequipa, scientists found over the last 10 years more than 10 frozen bodies of kids at the icy top of some volcanoes: the most famous body is the one of Juanita.
As we became so sporty during our journey, we decided to go for a 3 days trekk in the Colca Canyon: the 2nd biggest canyon in the world (it doesn t look like the US Grand Canyon as we discovered). The streets of Arequipa center are full of agencies selling similar tours. After benchmarking the different offers, we took one for 40€ per person..So cheap compared to the Inka trail! The departure for the tour was at 3 am (yes 3 am, pretty hardcore). On the morning we went by mini bus (on very bad gravel roads) to el Mirador del Condor where we could see many condors flying around in the mountains. It was really impressive, so impressive that we took hundred of pictures (which are a hell to sort out). The afternoon was dedicated to a 3.5h hike down the canyon: the path was very steep but we all managed ok except one Belgian girl who seemed to suffer a lot. After the hike, we went to our sleeping place: very dusty but charming mini bingalows in a very tiny village. We all woke up in good mood except the Belgian girl who started her day with a lot of tears as she had a bad night. We all tried to cheer her up until we started our walk (an easy 3 hours) where she became hysterical shooting at the guide. You can imagine the awkawrdness in the group when this happened. Ha travelling allows us to meet all kind of people;) The group was nice otherwise, they were 2 others French so I could finally speak French after many days:) After the 2nd day hike, we arrived to an Oasis (aka the Paradise") at the bottom of the Canyon for an afternoon of sun bathing and swimming pool. The hard part of the trekk was for the final day: 3 hours uphill. Yes we made it but yes there were some swearing involved and even some blood (a stupid mule pushed me against the mountain).

In Arequipa, there are not only Canyon and museums, there are as well some food specialities that we had to try (nothing as disturbing as the Guinea Pig this time). We tried the Chicha (a corn beer) in a "piquanteria" where the smallest bottle was one litter. Surprise when it arrived on the table, it is a pink drink with a lot of sediments..We didn t manage to drink the full bottle as we are concerned for the health of our stomac. Peter ate some "Pancita Dorada con chuleta de cancho" (of course with our little spanish, we had no idea what this would be) and I tried the Aeequipa "chupe de camarones": it was wonderful and gigantic (I am a prawn fan). Of course as I am a real lady, I had to spill the first spoon on my trousers and the 3rd one on my teeshirt.

Around the Titicaca Lake

So we left Cuzco and took a bus to Puno, which was conveniently stopping at some Inca and pre-Inca sites while we were making our way across the Andean high plateau.



Puno is a nice little city, without too many things to see except for the lake, which is reedy and dirty on this side. Nevertheless it was one of the most laid back towns so far. Some other noteble things from Puno:

• There is a really big concrete skatepark
• Internet caffees are full with locals, we were struggling to find a place with finally ending up in the upmaket "Google" shop.
• There are some floating islands here, which are full with tourists (remember not too much else to do) and overweight locals, which has to come from eating reed. You can basically do everything from reed: Islands, houses, boats and you can eat it of course.
• Ate my first guiney pig here

Then we thought that we will have a look at the Titicaca lake from the Bolivian side. This included some walking at the border as we were used to it from Costa Rica and Panama. I was a bit scared because of the Hungarian terrorist threat in Bolivia, but the borderguard didn't seem to know/care about it.

We ended up in an place called Copacabana, which is even more laid back than Puno. The highlights:

• We took a room in one of the main hotels of the town, but could not check in, because they did not have a working pen.
• The beer is 620ml (not 2/3), sate brewed and has won the prestigious Monde Selection award, which everybody who knows Sopron beer will know to appreciate.
• There is a big white concrete anchor statue in the harbour. The top ring is made out of a painted car tyre.
• There is one ATM in town, which is guarded by a dedicated policeman, looks like the cockpit of a fighter jet and does not take foriegn cards (no worries we have good old cash)
• As the Titicaca lake is the highest commercially navigable lake on earth we could not resist to take a duck shaped pedal boat
• Real boats on the lake have two engines but only run with one (energy efficiency)
• The first time I saw the boat hitting the harbour wall hard was in Copacabana, it was our boat. (nobody/nothing got injured we all had a laugh)
• Isla del Sol has the nicest trekking path above 4000 m i have ever seen (and i have seen one already)
• We had the hotel with the best view in Isla del Sol for 4.8 EUR the night (cheapest yet)
• We had two unforgettable meals:
  On Isla del Sol every house is a restaurant at the same time, you go in, you order and the lady of the house will start to peel the potatoes. No fast food for sure. We had a great blackout during the meal. The whole island was without electricity until the morning. We were originally thinking that the candles were for decoration...
  In Copacabana went in for a pizza. The guy (one person restaurant) was watching TV (even flakier than usual) and told us that he had only pizza. Alright that's what we wanted - with some lemonade. When we told him this, he looked at the huge glass doored fridge next to his chair. It was empty except for a bottle of Fanta and a Coke. We understood our choices...

I don't know if it is clear from this, but I love Bolivia (and let's not be nationalists) the whole Titicaca lake area.

But a not so hard trek..

Our first day of the Inca Trail, we met all at 6 for 2h of bus before reaching the official starting point: the km 82 (2600m). This point was quite buzy as most of the trekking groups start from here. To avoid walking during 4 days around many other trekkers, we walked one hour further than all this other groups. This last hour was of course the steepest: our 2 guides used this hour to analyze our walking style and determine the level of the group(did they notice our amazing walking pole handling?). What came as a surprise is that Peter and I did quite well in going on the steep path and we even reached the camp before 70% of the group (including the Navy guy and his athletic wife). At the camp, everything was ready for us: the dinner and the tents were already installed by the 22 local porters who were incredibly fast.

The second day was supposed to be the toughest: 12km and 2 passes to reach : the first one had the promising name of "Dead woman path" and is at 4300m. We kept our magical technique combining focusing on breathing and on chewing cola leafes and we made it:) This was quite a relief as this pass is the hardest moment of the all 45kms. We rejoyed for a few minutes after realising that stairs down were waiting for us. Surprinsly going down is much harder for the legs especially on irregular inca stairs. God or Pachamama bless our walking poles which have been so useful.
On the 2nd night at the camp, it was time for a bit of celebration with some peruvian rhum as the hardest was behing us.

The 3rd day was mainly 8km going down on these damned stairs. Fortunately the landscape was really super amazing and we knew that a warm shower would be waiting for us in the campside at Winay Wayna. This campside was pretty gigantic as all the trekking groups sleep here. It was quite a shock after 2 days in the peaceful mountains: We even had dinner in a room with music and beers:)

The 4th day was the final day: 7km down to the famous Machu Picchu. In order to reach it first, we woke up at 3:45 am. Unfortunately when we reached the gate to the National Parc (it opens around 5 am), there was already a group. Once the gate opened, people got a bit mental and started walking super fast. I swear I saw some people running. The pace was so exhausting, I almost suffered the most during this last hour of trekk. We finally reached the sun gate from where we could see for the first time MachuPicchu. Picture time!!
Our main guide Fredd (a 25 year old quechuan)gave us a 2hours tour of the ruin. He studied archeology in Cusco with a professor specialised in the Inca civilisation. This PH doctor died before publishing his controversial findings about the Inca, so we heard very interesting facts about the Incas..We are quite perplex about some of them but they sounded quite cool: Incas were very tall (2m30) and had one more bones than any other human races. Despite they neither used the wheel or the writting, they were very advanced in building, agriculture, astronomy and medicine.

After the tour, we had a final lunch with all the group: everyone was almost falling asleep on their chairs. As we had a bit of time before our train, we went with 3 of the Aussies to the hot springs of Agua Calientes. The pools looked quite dirty but after 4 days of trekking who cares? The hot water and the 2-3 mojitoes we drank in the pool cured our sore muscles! Peru is defintely a magical world:)

Now it is time to show the pictures (I have to repeat one more time that the scenery was amazing and very diversified):

Difficult beginning

We are back from the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and I think it was one of the best things we have done so far, but it did not start easily:

We were supposed to have our first meeting with the group on the 5th, but on the same day we decided to finish visiting the sights in the Sacred Valley, so we went to Ollantaytambo first, which is very nice, but most people appearently don't leave the place around 1, when we planned to. The only way to get back to Cuzco was to take a common taxi with an Argentinian and a Peruvian guy, who wanted to visit three more things on the way. First we were not too happy, but finally we saw an amazing array of salt pools, and inca agriculutral lab, that looked like an alien landing pad and even a church. The only problem was that we almost missed our meeting, but our great driver got us to the location on time. Needless to say that the meeting started 15 minutes late.



At the meeting we had a first chance the meet the others:

• A girl and two guys from Miami, who were sponsored (?) by a fitness regime. (They said that if you don't throw up you don't train hard enough)
• Two mountain guides from Colorado, who live above 2000 m all year round
  
• A navy guy and his wife, who got 7. at the Athens Olympics (sailing but still!), their common hobby was triatlon
  
  - At this point we started to think that we made a serious mistake when signing up -
  
  
• 4 Australian guys, but only two were present at the meeting, becasue one of them broke his hand in a barfight the day before. (all four were participating in the walk)
• Finally a normal couple with the husband working on a research project in Irak

It was a great team i have to say.

At the meeting we were introduced to our guides Fredd and Dalmiro, got some details about the trail and were given matrasses and sleeping bags + the porter bag. The company is providing porters for the really heavy stuff like tents, food and cooking equipment, but if you want to have a light bag you can rent your own porter, for 60 USD / 9kg (not that the porters would carry only 9 kg - far from it). We rented one for two, which was a good decision, because only the sleeping bags were 3kg each.

The next day we were ready to take the bus at 6. To be continued...

Cusco es magnifico!

The beauty of Cusco and its surrondings (aka the Sacred Valley) have allowed Peter to move on from the Leatherman incident. In the last 3 days, we have been buzy visiting many inca ruins. It seems we did the best from our boleto touristico : In Cusco, you must buy an expensive entrance ticket which includes 16 sites, even some you don want to see. Surprisingly we managed to see 11 out of 16! We experienced Cusco public buses and as well the taxis collectivos. This afternoon we struggled to find a taxi collectivo back to Cusco..as we were in a remote village at the wrong time. After 30 mins, a cool quechuan taxi driver offered us to take us for 10€ with 2 other guys to 3 inca sites and then back to Cusco. It was a pretty funny team, the 5 of us cramped in the taxi (the driver, 2 crazy young tourists from Argentina and Peru and the 2 of us) driving super fast on dusty roads where we met at every corner some pigs, chickens, donkeys, cows, sheep and even more donkeys and dogs.
We as well used the last 3 days to train for the 4 days Inca Trail: 45km above 2500m with the highest point at 4230 meters. We had the introduction meeting tonight, it seems pretty scary..especially the guide was adressing an audience in which i didn t recognize myself "Don t go too fast, please don t skip the breaks, it s not a race etc.." Me I needed to hear "You can do it, many people do it every day, we are here to help you. believe in yourself"..
If everything turns out fine, we will see the Machu Pichu on the 9th of November (which should be the birthday of Ilana and Lasse).

Anyway, here are some pics:

From Lima to Cuzco (aka the Leatherman Incident)

We spent our last night in Lima eating out and wondering why people prefer to open all possible doors of the restaurants, if it is cold. Back in the hostel Amélie (head of the organizing committee) went to sleep early, while Peter (simple member of that committee) was trying once again to upload pictures. We were to leave at 7:30 the next day, but I was assuming, that Amélie set an alarm already, and i just used our 50 cent alarm clock to set up a security alarm for 7.
Next morning we woke up at 7:15 because the small alarm clock, which i broke into pieces afterwards, was 15 minutes late in 7 hours. To show the strenght of our team even under pressure we managed to get ready on time, but a fatal mistake happened...
We got to the airport ok and were enjoying a coffee after check in, when i realized, that my precious Leatherman was still in the hand luggage. There was no time to check that in as well, so we decided to give it a try. I carefully placed the leathal weapon in the camera bag (big piece of metal) and remembered what our guide told us about Peruvian prisons: most people spend a couple of years there before their actual trial, as the juridical system is too slow.
As expected my backpack caught the attention of the security person. Lets also not forget that terrorist activities were just as common in Peru as in Northern Ireland in the recent past. I was taken aside and he told me that there is a scissor in the bag. This came as somewhat of a surprise, because i was thiking he will point out, that the 8cm blade was not allowed on the plane, but i started to empty the bag and saw that our medical pack was in there too. We checked that, but there was no scissor in there, then i had to show the leatherman, which they confiscated, but the security person said, that this is nice and well, but we are still looking for a small scissor. Then after the second search we really found the scissor in the medipack, but as it was small they didnt even take it away. After clearing up the issue i was let to enter the plane.
The key learning is, that i could have gotten the Leatherman through security, if only i would have found the medical scissor in the first place. Well i am sure he is happy with all his brothers and sisters in the big plexi box these things end up in.

Otherwise we safely arrived in Cusco and after carefully reading about all the symptoms of altitude sickness we had all of them: thirst for air, insomnia, tiredness, bad stomach. Otherwise Cusco is very pretty.