domingo, 30 de septiembre de 2012

18/09/2012 - 21/09/2012 - Salkantay baby!

T-Bird and A-bomb keeping warm in the morning


























Our bible for the next 5 days
A rude awakening at 4am was the start of our 5 day Inca trek, which was a sign of things to come. The following 3.5 hours were spent trying to get back to sleep on a minivan, frustrated by the driver’s repeated horn-honking, keeping his window open to the stiff breeze and the dodgy Peruvian roads… Upon arriving at Mollepata, during our breakfast Hipolito (our guide, a.k.a. Hippo, or ‘lito) told us that the first day was a boring 6 hour walk over dusty roads. Great. Fortunately, there was an alternative – a 45 minute journey in truck for 5 soles each then a ‘delightful’ walk up to a lake where he’d pay us the money back if we didn’t like it. Sounded like a no-brainer, right? Wrong, obviously:

And...stuck! At least we had a good view
 - Took almost 2 hours to organise the truck, during which time we had no clue what was going on and the only entertainment was watching someone in another group doing the same thing get more and more annoyed with the situation. The guy happened to look like Michael Phelps as well, which increased the amusement!
 - The truck drive was 20+ people crammed like cattle into the back of an open top van typically used for carrying equipment, and you had to cling on to the sides for dear life to avoid falling onto the floor and sustaining serious injury. One girl shouted out ‘can we walk instead’ after less than 5 minutes. She wasn’t joking.
 - If that wasn’t enough, the road was narrow, so you had to either take your hands off the side to avoid oncoming foliage and increase the aforementioned risks, or literally take it head on…
 - After 30 minutes in the truck, we caught up with our supply vehicle (basically the same thing, but with our additional gear, food, and tents in, along with the cooks and assistants) stuck at a point where there were roadworks. This took approximately an hour to get through as the truck was stuck in mud!
The view of the lake made it worth it!
 - We arrived at our lunch stop at the same time as our lunch, so had to wait longer than usual for that to get set up. 4 ½ hours since we’d arrived at the so-called start of the trek, and still not a single step walked…
 - Due to the delay, we had to get back in the truck after lunch, and were stopped shortly after following the driver scraping a parked vehicle. The vehicle owner proceeded to throw a punch at our driver through the window (providing some much needed entertainment!) prior to extended negotiations of how to deal with the fallout. Unreasonably, according to Hippo (but totally understandable from where we were standing), compensation was requested, but denied…

Reflecting on the journey
Thankfully, we got to the campsite shortly after, and could actually start walking! The ascent up to the lake was a slog, particularly given the altitude. The lake was superb though, with stunning reflections and a superb view of the surrounding snow-capped peaks. 

Back at the camp we were served up a gourmet 4 course meal (so much for losing weight on the trek!) and then into our tents. It had been a while since we’d been in a tent – felt like home!
     




Mixing it with the snow-
capped mountains
After no small effort, reached the pass
Second day was the toughest of the trek – a climb from the campsite (c. 3,900m) to the Salkantay pass at 4,629m, then about 18km downhill to c. 2,600m. The uphill section was tough, but this was rewarded with awesome views and a fun Incan salute to the snow-capped mountain gods at the pass. 

A traditional salute
Feels like home
The long descent to lunch proved the back breaker, with altitude sickness unfortunately getting to one member of the group. Luckily the break proved to be the necessary tonic, and as the mist descended further, so did we for the remainder of the day, ending up at camp at dusk. Walking through all daylight hours meant a Cusquena (local beer) was well deserved over dinner, and Adam introduced us to another card game – Asshole. Basically the equivalent of Lemon, for any Sturge family readers. Needless to say, Tony was in the presidential seat for the whole game!
Waterfalls galore

Not our usual
shopping centre
Dodgy bridge action

 
Coffee time
I love a bit in the morning!
Day 3 was a morning spent enjoying the delights of the upper jungle, with Hippo pointing out the remaining 4 out of 5 naturally growing orchids in the area. Tony’s still not quite sure how it happened, but he ended up being involved in a bet of who could spot these orchids first. Amazingly, the guide won, and was a beer better off that evening!  Got to the campsite straight after lunch, then spent the afternoon is the Santa Teresa hot springs, an amazing tonic for weary legs! Could have done without the giant cicadas, a scorpion (dead in the springs, fortunately!) and the multitude of biting gnats around the springs though…  A quick lesson in making coffee was given by the locals before another healthy feed and then wrapped back up in our tents.


Time to rest those weary limbs
llactapata with the gang (L-R: Siew,
Poh,Adam, Shilpa, Aliza, A-bomb,
T-dog, Li Li)


You can see it, promise!

Inca steps - remind us
again why we wanted to get
onto this trail?!?
A bit clearer now...
We got involved with a proper Inca trail on the fourth day – slightly controversially given we’d been told we wouldn’t be doing it at the end of day 2. We put a massive guilt trip on Hippo following that news, basically bullying him into doing it, but getting to the Inca settlement at Llactapata made it completely worth it – we just hoped the rest of our group felt the same way! The descent was another knee and thigh killer, and relief all round when we were able to get a cold drink at Hydroelectrica. Not wanting to do things in half measures though, we plowed on for another 7km alongside the train track to get to Agues Calientes where we had the joy of a bed and a hot shower! Annoyingly, we hadn’t been told we wouldn’t be getting our main bags until later that evening, much to the disappointment of the ladies, who had to postpone their shower… Restaurant food also awaited – we decided the tourist menu on offer wasn’t quite enough, and a family size pepperoni pizza was dispatched with ease by the group!
Llatctapata - surely that's in
a MJ song?!?

Key Learnings:
1. Orchids and strawberries are frequent friends in the upper jungle.
2. Llactapa (yakta-pahta) is great fun to say aloud, and ended up being Adam's favourite word.
3. Asking a tour group for feedback at the end of a long day of walking is not always advisable.


16/09/2012 - 17/09/2012 - Peru-sing

Hopefully all the beers in Peru are this size!























Found Annaliza's arch - in a bus
station in a different country...
On the road to Puno



A day coach to Puno gave more good views of the lake, plus another border crossing, but little else. Didn’t even venture out of the hostel in Puno – it was our first experience of rain since we’d arrived on the continent so four hours watching rubbish cooking/home improvement shows on Fox Life was deemed the better option (the rain didn’t stop, otherwise we’d like to think we would have wondered around the town!).
 

Another street excavation on
our doorstep - bonus!
Inca Cola - Mmmm!
After umming and ahhing about our best route through Peru, we ended up heading straight to Cusco – the Incan jewel. Casa Carlos was our first Air bnb venture this trip, and despite some dodgy electronics it was great to be so close to the Plaza de Armas (main square).






Cusco from above
Knees together, arms out wide...
The amount of tour operators in the city even topped San Pedro de Atacama, but fortunately we already knew who we wanted to do our ‘Inca Trail’ (Salkantay) trek with – our bartering exploits proved fruitless though despite booking the day before. It did however give us two more opportunities to get a run down on what the trek entailed – at this rate we potentially wouldn’t even need to do it! After rambling through the city streets to get to the second most famous set of ruins in the area, Sacsayhuamán (read “sexy woman”- much more memorable!), we found that it was daylight robbery to enter. This is where Annaliza’s knowledge was right on the money, and a half an hour detour to nearby Cristo Blanco almost gave us full views of the Incan ruins – cashback! Unfortunately, the descent from here resulted in the scariest of our travel experiences to date, with a dog bounding up to us and biting Annaliza on the leg. Not what you need, by any stretch of the imagination, but after stumbling through a trip to a doctor they deemed her safe and not requiring a further injection just a course of antibiotics (thankfully we’d both got rabies boosters prior to travelling!!!).

Sexy woman...
Cusco from above #2
Cusco's Plaz de Armas



Trying to smile post dog bite...
Not sure what's for sale in here...
Key Learnings:
1. Inca Kola tastes nothing like Coca Cola – more like Vimto in fact. Sounds cool though.
2. Beware of random dogs at all times – throwing rocks at them is a much better deterrent than acting passively and hoping they piss off

viernes, 28 de septiembre de 2012

14/09/2012 - 16/09/2012 - At the Copa… Copacabana


The Incan ruins at Chicana - not sure why we're looking in different directions!






















Can't believe we're trusting our
luggage to one of these barges!
Good to see the bowler hat fashions
still hitting the streets



OK – Not the “real” Brazilian Copacabana, but since Bolivia is land locked (something they're not too happy about!) the shores of Lake Titicaca are the closest it comes to a beach resort in this country. Being there, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking out onto an ocean, that is until you walked anywhere to realise that you’re 3,841m above sea level...


Sunset over Copacabana beach - hard to believe
that Bolivia's landlocked...

Sunning it up lakeside











Tony's fire-making skills
were still up to scratch,
cheers Rich!



A kitchen - can you believe it?!?
The journey there was quite dramatic, leaving our bus and belongings to get across a stretch of water on a barge, but fortunately no incident. We’d decided to go for a little more luxury than we’d been used to, given the relative cheapness of Bolivia – a real treat to have our own kitchen, bathroom and even fireplace!






The Inca archways
Bowler hats still out in force on the Inca steps...
A trek across Isla del Sol was calling, where we got our first taste of Incan ruins (and supposedly the birthplace of the Inca legend) where it was great to have got ahead of the crowds on this Gringo trail to enjoy Chicana by ourselves for a bit. Arrived at the other end of the island in good time, but despite our searching couldn’t find the dramatic Inca archway providing a magnificent view over the lake. It was only when we had internet access again that Annaliza realised this was on a completely different island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taquile_Island - only in a different country!) – once again her memory was proving second to all!
Isla del Sol
I could do with a job like this...

Llama's also loved the lake air

Getting lost in the ruins

Key Learnings:
Enjoying the sunset from our pad
1. Take care when purchasing produce in Copacabana – the street side veggies we got were lovely, but the tuna and cheese left quite a lot to the imagination... That’s what Tony’s blaming his poor cooking performance on, anyway!

12/09/2012 - 13/09/2012 - Living the high life

Ready to rock and roll at 5,345m!

























The fashion on the streets was
bowler hats - can't believe we left
ours in the UK!
Yep - it's high alright!
The title isn’t a declaration of our frivolous behaviour – rather La Paz is the world’s highest de facto capital city (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz) so we were literally staying in the heights! Added to this our room was on the 4th floor of our hostel, so we were out of breath every time we had to make that journey! After one of the scariest night buses, bouncing over horrendous dirt roads leaving us occasionally clutching each other for our lives, our first day was a pretty chilled saunter round the city.



Um... They drink it in the Congo?
It was all downhill from here...
 The next day was the big one – due to miner strikes (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19565981) we couldn’t get to the WMDR (world’s most dangerous road), instead having to settle for the largest* mountain bike descent in a day. From 5,345m to around 1,000m is a couple of earpops – http://www.gravitybolivia.com/index.php?mod=tempview1&id=1288116708. Despite the spectacular views, our group was the most interesting element: an older Aussie couple, where the lady basically didn’t shut up (thankfully we weren’t in the same transport as her!); another Aussie couple who were in the process of splitting up; and a South African lady as a tour guide who started the day off by telling us how nervous she was as she had never taken a group on this ride and had only been down it once 5 months ago – reassuring!!

Try as she might, Annaliza couldn't catch the Aussie mum...
A bit of a break by the stream
The ride started at an abandoned ski resort – once the highest in the world but following global warming the glacier has disappeared… We had a quick intro into how to ride the bike, with a practice up a small slope which left everyone struggling for breath (nothing is easy at this altitude), before heading off.  The order of the group was settled fairly quickly with the guys leading out and the ladies bringing up the back. Annaliza wasn’t last but suffered slight humiliation by being beaten by the Aussie mum! 6-7 hours of adrenalin later, after numerous chain incidents and we headed back to La Paz enjoying the sunset over the city, well satisfied with our efforts!
Stunning views on the return journey
Stunning views on return journey #2

Literally setting the city alight!

Key Learnings:
1. Ladies wearing bowler hats are all the rage in Bolivia – we think this fashion trend should take off in the UK…
2. A new T-shirt is required for the largest* decent in a day mountain bike ride – it wasn’t quite the same getting one for the WMDR when we hadn’t managed to set foot on it!

* - allegedly...