The manifold delights of the Cusco area

Well hello folks, it's been a while since my last post. There's a lot to do down here in Cusco. I arrived here back on the morning of Saturday 20th and I've been doing rather a lot since. I begun by doing some ruin bashing, in the local vicinity of the town. I'm too stingy to go to the sacred valley so I went to some local unsung ruins instead. Imagine then my astonishment, when I realized that the rip-off ticket for the local ruins included those far more famous ones in the sacred valley as well! You would have thought I'd have been pleased at this unexpected revelation, until you consider the fact that I discovered this, oh, less than half a day before I was due to go off on a trek to Machu Picchu. Hence, my 12 pound ticket (and that's extortionate for Peru), which was only valid for a few days, went largely unused, and I ticked off just five of the twelve possible sight entrances that it allowed me.

The Cusco area offers lots for tourists and travellers. I won't bore you with pictures of mundane ruins here, since there are some more exciting Machu Picchu ones at the bottom of the post instead. Rather, I will show you some photos of other things. A week ago, I went river running with some jolly nice American and Czech people.



It was a bit rubbish, but good fun nonetheless. The river did get a bit rougher than the photo suggests, but not a lot. The second most exciting thing I did pre-trek was eat some carrot cake.



The next day I embarked on a trek with a friend of mine called Dale. He's a molecular biologist, but otherwise OK. In fact he's a lucky bugger, because he lives in Seattle and gets to play in mountains all the time. Anyway, we had met on the Chiva party in Quito back at the end of November, and by chance we were in Cusco at the same time, and ready to explore the mountains. Dale likes both proper cultural travel and trekking, so we're a good mix. We set off early on the morning of Thursday 25th for the Salkantay trek. It is an alternative trek to the Inca Trail, that lacks the Incan sites, but gets much more into the wild, and closer to indigenous communities. It's a longer trek (usually advertised as five or more days), and sounded to us like good fun.

It didn't quite work out as desired, owing to a severe back pain that overcame Dale pretty much as soon as we got off the bus at our start point. Dale's not the kind of guy to manifest pain in order to avoid trekking, and we eventually concluded it was probably the undesirable product of two nights' worth of nightbuses in a row. We worried that this would jeopardize the whole trek, but we decided to walk for a couple of hours and set up camp at a nice spot overlooking the general area, with the thought of reassessing the situation in the morning. The sun was beating down on that day, and we eventually came up with a cunning shelter, with the aid of my tent outer, a few pegs and a couple of trekking poles.



As it turned out, we deemed it best for Dale to turn around and nurse his back in Cusco, which was, by the next morning, causing him crippling pain. I was gutted to lose him as a trekking companion, but I carried on anyway.

I had a great trek, saw some excellent mountains, spoke to some very friendly local people, and got to Machu Picchu Pueblo in only three more days. It is a beautiful walk, around 88km in total, and includes the Salkantay mountain pass, at 4700m. Numerous different types of terrain were passed through, including mountains, lush valleys and cloudforest.











I have been speaking more to local people lately. I've found that my Spanish has come on a long way, just from having been in Spanish speaking countries for so long. I can now understand South Americans far more easily than Spaniards, who to me sound like they're harbouring an overallowance of ping pong balls in their mouths. This friendly guy saved me on the last day by providing me with bananas and sugary drinks. He was lovely and very hospitable, but was quite lacking in the tooth department.



I eventually arrived at the Machu Picchu hydroelectric station, about 9km from the town below the ruins. The final 9km was hence along these train tracks in the searing heat, which didn't agree with me at all.



I arrived in Machu Picchu Pueblo on Sunday afternoon and pretty much couldn't move my legs. I was very tired, and put off Machu Picchu itself for another 24 hours. I finally ended up at the ruins yesterday morning, on the first bus, at 6am before the crowds arrived.



Machu Picchu was better than I expected. If you spend any time in Peru you are constantly shown pictures and postcards of Machu Picchu, to the extent that you start to become numbed to the wonder of the ruins. However, when I actually arrived there, I was stunned into contemplation about how long these ruins had gone un-discovered by the modern world. The Spanish completely failed to find them in the conquest; they were discovered hundreds of years later by an American historian. I find it fascinating that such a huge Incan city could go unnoticed, and so unspoilt, for so long. These ruins are something to get excited about.



Enough of Cusco, I'm outta tomorrow morning. I'm heading to Puno on Lake Titicaca, before entering Bolivia there.

Before I finish, I want all of you to buzz positive vibes to Emma, my brilliant girlfriend who is on the verge of submitting her PhD thesis. All being well, it'll be done and dusted tomorrow, and there is the hope that she may come out to Bolivia next week to visit me. I think the collective brainpower of all the distinguished readers of this blog can push this thesis over its final hurdle. Thanks!

The Nazca Lines

It's been an expensive week. Two touristy type tours - that's not like me; but I feel that for the things I'm seeing they're quite necessary. I've noticed that the rate at which I blog is proportional to the amount I'm spending (currently quite a bit more than ten pounds a day).

The Nazca Lines begged to be flown over - there is a tower that you can observe some of the figures from, but the view is quite limited. After some Spanish haggling that I'm quite proud of, I got the total price of a flight down from $60 to $43, and so this morning, I boarded a Cessna for a thirty minute flight over these famous and mysterious markings in the Nazca desert. I got to sit up with the pilot - woo hoo!!



The lines were first noticed by a German mathematician (get in) called Maria Reiche. Despite the fact she blatently looks like a man, she became a respected authority on the Lines and had lots of good solid mathematical theories behind why they exist. A number of slightly less well educated personalities have since come up with all the inevitable 'out there' theories, involving aliens and so on.

The Lines comprise a number of animal figures, tonnes of straight lines and many 'trapezoid' figures. It's intriguing to wonder how these huge objects were marked out from the ground, with no advantage of an aerial viewpoint.







I'm enjoying myself very much, but occasionally I get tired of being in this part of Peru. After having been in Ecuador and northern Peru for so long, I had forgotten the downsides the the 'gringo trail'. The tourism industry is much more prolific here, and it shows. There are more taxi drivers beeping at you for business and trying to rip you off, more annoying Peruvians shout out 'gringo!' and 'mister!' (it's sir) and more tourist company employees who try to grab you straight off the bus, telling you anything you want to hear for their commission. I say this as I'm imminently going to board a bus to Cuzco - here the rip-off factor will no doubt be unsurpassed. But nevertheless, I am really looking forward to seeing Machu Picchu and the other sites, before heading on to Lake Titicaca and Bolivia. Roll on 14 hour bus!

Sandboarding above the oasis

At the moment I'm staying in the beautiful oasis village of Huacachina, which sits amidst towering sand dunes close to Ica, a major city on Peru's coastline south of Lima. I left Lima on Monday on my way through from Huaraz; meeting a bunch of nice people in my hostel along the way. This is the sort of building that characterizes Miraflores, the more modern part of Lima:



Huacachina is a popular tourist destination for Peruvians living nearby, but its idyllic loation is attracting more and more foreigners too. I didn't know such beautiful oases existed.



Lots of locals go swimming in the pool, in which it is reputed a mermaid has her abode.



Yesterday a few of us from my hostel went on an excellent buggy trip into the desert, where we drove at high speed across the extraordinary landscape, and had a go at sandboarding too. All the hotels run these trips at the same time, in the late afternoon. Any earlier than about 4pm, it is too hot to go sandboarding. I tried to walk up a sand dune at about 1pm on the day I arrived, and after about ten metres I was running and squealing like a little girl into the nearest bit of shade, the sun was so hot!









Sandboarding turns out to be much harder than snowboarding (or that was our excuse). The sand isn't very responsive and when you land on it, it's a lot harder than powder. But it's still great fun! After a couple of disastrous foot attempts, most of us decided the stomach option was preferable.





I'm next going to head to Nazca, the location of the famous and enigmatic Nazca Lines. Whether my budget will stretch to a flight over the lines waits to be seen. Either way, I'll probably spend one night in Nazca before getting on the very long bus journey to Cuzco.

A change of plans

I changed my mind about the Amazon, realising that I wanted to use that time to explore more of Southern Peru and Bolivia. There are too many tempting options on this continent! Thus began my journey south.

Since leaving Vilcabamba, Ecuador, I have travelled for over 36 hours in five different types of transport (car, pickup, combi, truck and bus), and I have ended up here, in Huaraz, Peru, again. I like this town, and I thought it would be a nice place to spend my birthday. I had come here with the intention of going mountain biking again, but I've just discovered that my guide from before, Julio, is out of town, so that plan's out the window. I've also discovered that Huaraz is a different place out of the May to September trekking season. Nearly all of the traveller hangouts - book exchanges, cafes and so on, are closed. A bit of a let down then, but I'm still happy to be here, in the shadow of the beautiful mountains.

Let me tell you about my journey here. It turns out that travel through southern Ecuador and northern Peru takes time. The border itself was the easiest part. I've heard some stories of border guards asking for bribes and so on, but the ununiformed official on the Peruvian side who met my French companion Thierry and I across the border was very friendly and gave us a genuine welcome and a smile. This particular point of entry is an infrequently used frontier, and I believe Thierry and I were the only gringos to pass through that day, as the man opened up his office specially for us. When Peru and Ecuador put an end to their war in the late nineties they agreed that this small bridge south of Zumba could become a legal crossing point.

Before making the border we journeyed from Vilcabamba south to Zumba, and from there on to the border in a truck. The journey from Zumba to the border was going fine, until we came upon this.





After the border, we took a 2 hour car ride to San Ignacio, where we stayed the night. In the morning we made our way to Jaen, where we went our separate ways. Thierry headed off to the east to Chachapoyas and I headed west to Chiclayo. My night bus to Chiclayo was supposed to take six hours, but ended up taking over twelve, due to a landslide. I'm not complaining - I don't think my South America trip would have been complete a landslide or public unrest causing a major hold up! This particular hold up seemed very mysterious at the time. At about 1am the bus stopped in the middle of the road and turned its engine off. After an hour or so of not moving, I assumed we had broken down, so I patiently waited and caught a bit of sleep. When it was light at 6am I went outside, and imagine my surprise when I saw buses, as far as the eye could see in both directions.



I previously had no idea that there were other buses around us and I was quite pleased that the whole of northern Peru was at a standstill (for this is the main route through northern Peru), instead of just us. The rocks were eventually cleared and we went on our way again, seven and a half hours after having stopped.

Another two long bus rides got me to Huaraz. Tonight I'm going to celebrate my birthday with Tommy (Nelly's son) and his friends at one of Huaraz's fine discotecas. I'm in half a mind to do a bit of trekking before I leave the area, but I may decide it's best to hit the road and find the South.

En route to Northern Peru

On Thursday evening I left Quito on board a 17 hour bus to Loja, 500 miles to the south, and the most southern major city in Ecuador. My plan is to head into the Amazon basin via Northern Peru, eventually ending up in Iquitos, a large river port Peruvian city, in about 10 to 14 days. At the moment I´m sitting in an internet cafe in Vilcabamba, a nice spot to stop for a few days. I had planned to come straight from Loja to Vilcabamba without stopping, but a severe case of diarrhoea convinced me to stop and take advantage of the medical services in the bigger city of Loja. I´m on two sets of antibiotics to make whatever is causing it go away (they seem to be working)!

Vilcabamba is in the famous "valley of longevity" - residents here claim to live to 100, and some claim to be 120 years old, due mainly to a low fat diet and agreeable climate. Vilcabamba reminds me of Baños in the sense that it´s nestled among tall hills. This morning I took a hike up one of the hills surrounding the city, and captured these views.





In a couple of days I´m going to head to the Peruvian border, about four hours away. From there it is a similar length of time to Jáen, the first largish town in Peru, theoretically reachable in one day from here. From Jáen I plan to take my time stopping at various places en route to Yurimaguas (the end of the road), from where it is a two day boat trip to Iquitos. Along the way from here to Yurimaguas, there are one or two pre Inca ruins that I would like to see, and some jungle/waterfall excursions I could do. After spending a few days in Iquitos, I´ll fly back out to Lima.

I´m now well over half way through the South America part of my trip. I put my flights to New Zealand back by a couple of weeks, to the 2nd March, but I´m flying out in less than two months! In that time I hope to get to Iquitos, then explore southern Peru and Bolivia, before dashing to Chile to catch my plane. I´m really enjoying my time here, but I can´t wait to join Emma in New Zealand.

Happy new year everyone.

Photos from the cloudforest

Today I arrived back in Quito after 30 days stay in what became a very special place for me here in Ecuador. Now I finally have some fast internet, I can show you what it looks like. Some of the photos below are by Rebecca - I´ve mentioned which ones. Hovering over images (in Internet Explorer at least) will give you some information about what the photo is about.

It all started off with a bus ride from Quito to Chontal, about 60km away and a 3.5 hour bus ride.



When I got off the bus I met up with Rebecca, Jose (the man who made the Reserve what it is) and two Spanish tourists who were visiting Los Cedros for a few days. After a short while we jumped on some mules for the ride up to where we would be staying for the next month.









The bunkhouse in which volunteers, scientists and tourists stay is situated in an idyllic area, part of a complex which also comprises Jose´s house and the kitchen and dining area.







On the first full day, Ray, a long term Canadian volunteer, took us out on a hike to show us some of the trails in the bosque nublado. We did some river crossings, and went to see the waterfall that lies about 3km walk away from the bunkhouse.





Most days we would go out on the trails, be it looking for monkeys or for our own enjoyment. We even had our own swimming pool, naturally formed by the river.





I had a number of encounters with animals, some tame and some less so.





The best animal I had a glimpse of in the forest was a Jaguarundi, on Christmas Day. I was incredibly lucky to see it - Jose said he´s seen about five in his 20 year time in the forest. Suffice to say it was too quick to fall victim to a photo.

Christmas Eve was a very fun event. We had several more people up at the Reserve: myself, Rebecca, Jose, Pedro (Rebecca´s boyfriend), Tony (a Spanish artist), and Courtney and Elise (from Colorado). Much rum was drunk, and much dancing was engaged in. Christmas Eve is the main Christmas event in Latin America so who were we to pass up the opportunity of a good party?











Reserva Los Cedros has many species of bird that are endemic to the region (not found anywhere else). During my stay I saw amongst others, several species of toucans and parrots. This poor creature succumbed to being held only because she was knocked out when she flew full pelt into one of the bunkhouse windows. We later picked Rebecca up off the floor and told her to try to be more aware of where the windows of the bunkhouse were in relation to the doors.