After our tough but amazing trek to Laguna 69, we left Huaraz and headed south to Lima, where we were joined by another 12 people and a replacement tour guide. The new additions to our group were: Andrea and Caz – 2 kiwi friends on holiday for a month; Alex – a young Aussie guy travelling after living in Denmark for a year; Melissa – an English girl who is the youngest at only 18; Aoife, Steph & Lynne – 3 Irish girls who are travelling till Christmas before moving to Australia for a year (Steph & Lynne are fellow accountants!); Siobhan – another Irish girl; Shabana – a Brummie teacher; Mike – a young English guy from Portsmouth who’s been travelling round NZ for a few months; Hazel – an English girl who’s travelling whilst between jobs; and finally Chrissy – another English girl who’s worked for a year post uni to save up for the trip. Miguel decided that being a tour guide wasn’t for him after a month with us, so Scoota’s best mate Max, who has been a tour guide in Australia, stepped into the breach. We also had to switch trucks as Trevor had major issues (a broken chassis for one!), so we borrowed Frank the Truck and Eddie the Scouse driver for a week, while Scoota tried to sort out Trevor.
Our first night in Lima was Claire’s first night back on the beers after a month off so she was up for partying – many cocktails (our first taste of pisco sours) and some bad salsa lead to a fun night in a couple of clubs in Miraflores, the going out district of Lima, situated by the sea. After a late start the next day we ended up heading out to a football match in the afternoon as Peru were playing Costa Rica at one of the city’s stadiums. For only 50 soles it was an entertaining afternoon and Peru won 2-0 so the locals were happy! Overall I wasn’t a big fan of Lima, although the tour of the San Francisco Monastery was really interesting, with its history, art collection (including a painting of the last supper with guinea pig as the main course!) and the catacombs housing tens of thousands of bodies.
Our enlarged group headed south to Paracas for a boat trip out to the Ballestas Islands, which are nicknamed the ‘poor man’s Galapagos’. We saw the famous(?!) three-pronged candelabra etched into the sandy hills and lots of seabirds, such as the Peruvian Boobie, the Humboldt Penguin, Cormorants and Pelicans, along with Sea Lions, all lazing around on the rocky islands. Every 7 years the guano (bird poo) is collected from the island and it takes around 3 months to harvest as it is 2m deep!
Next stop was Huacachina, which is surrounded by mountainous sand dunes. These were to be our playground for the next 24 hours as we went on an overnight dune buggy trip. Our dune buggy driver succeeded in thrilling us with a rollercoaster ride over the dunes, interspersed with a spot of sand boarding. It was somewhat scary standing at the top of an enormous sand dune knowing that I had to lie on the board and slide down it head first! My technique was some lacking though and I managed to roll off towards the bottom, but my tumble was surpassed by Max who fell off about halfway down and rolled over and over down the dune – hilarious to watch and Le Roux even managed to capture it on camera. I was more successful on my second and third attempts but I bottled the final dune as it was so high and I couldn’t make myself do it! The others had a bit of a competition going on re who could go the furthest with Lindsay and Sally fighting it out at the top. Lindsay managed to turn a corner at the bottom of the last dune and succeeded in going down a second dune which bagged her first place.
We watched the sunset over the dunes which was beautiful. Once the sun went down the boys had a bit of a bundling session with each of them trying to push the others down the high dune. Matt managed to get himself some very fetching sand highlights and we all got sand absolutely everywhere and were finding it in places for days after. As it got dark we headed to our overnight spot in the dunes where dinner, drinks and a campfire had been prepared for us.
We celebrated Hazel’s 26th birthday by drinking far too many pisco sours and cuba libres at our private party in the desert and I ended up falling asleep fully clothed on top of my sleeping bag at 10pm as I just lay down for a little rest and that was the end of my night! Le Roux had to remove my shoes and put me to bed when he came to find me a bit later. As we were in the middle of the desert we had no facilities so it was highly amusing trekking off into the dunes trying to find a private spot for a pee – not much cover in the desert! It was really cool sleeping out under the stars which were numerous given the lack of ambient light. Next morning we all felt a little rough and the rollercoaster dune buggy trip back to town tested our stomachs. A great excursion and we all had a lot of fun.
Next stop was Nazca, a desert town famous for the mysterious Nazca Lines, which are geometric engravings of plants and animals in the earth. Le Roux and I had decided to take a flight over the lines (despite the recent fatal crash, as Tucan uses a different company), so only I went up the little observation tower and took a couple of poor photos of 2 designs. However, due to the recent crash being connected with the previous fatal crash earlier in year, the CAA opened an investigation and this meant that the airport was closed and we didn’t get to do the flight in the end. We saved $70 each, but we were both really disappointed not to get to see the lines as you can only appreciate them from the air. This is in fact the 4th time that I’ve had an aerial activity cancelled – a flight over Whitsunday Islands in Australia; a flight over the Tongariro Volcano on New Zealand’s North Island; and a microlite flight over Victoria Falls in Zambia were all cancelled due to bad weather. Le Roux has said he won’t let me book the next aerial thing so that he actually gets to do it!
On the way to Puerto Inka, a very small beach resort further down the coast of Peru, we stopped at another museum of the dead – the Chauchilla cemetery which exhibits a lot of very old mummies with dreadlocks which satisfied Le Roux’s macabre taste. I preferred the view of the highest sand dune in the world, which was poking out from behind the surrounding mountains. At Puerto Inka, we camped on the beach which was the first time I’ve camped right by the sea. The waves were thunderous and the sea was pretty cold, but some of the gang took the plunge, albeit only briefly!
Le Roux and Eddie tried a spot of fishing from the rocks but the fish weren’t biting and the waves were so big that they swept away some of Le Roux’s fishing gear from the rock – not a happy boy! We were celebrating Hannah’s 23rd birthday, so we had a BBQ on the beach and then headed to the local disco, which was so small we effectively took it over when we arrived. When we woke up the next morning there were several red headed Peruvian vultures sitting on the football goal posts – a slightly bizarre sight first thing.
Along the coast road from Puerto Inka to Arequipa, Peru’s 2nd city, were a lot of shanty towns, and when we finally arrived in Arequipa we found ourselves camping in the front yard of a hotel on the corner of a major raised road junction, with a very noisy and early rising cockerel as a neighbour – 2 not particularly restful nights! However, as we got up at 2:45am to head off on a trip to Colca Canyon, we didn’t have long in bed anyway! 8 of us organised our own overnight trip to the canyon.
After a 3 hour drive we arrived in Chivay for breakfast before heading onto Cruz del Condor to view the enormous condors flying around on the thermals. There weren’t as many as we’d expected as we later discovered that they are an endangered species, however, with my zoom lens we managed to get some great close up pictures. Next we headed off on our trek down into the canyon which was a 3 hour epic walk down a dusty path with plenty of loose rocks – beautiful scenery but my legs were absolutely dead when I reached the bottom. I never thought I’d say this but I think I actually prefer going up to down!! After a lunch of stir-fried alpaca, we continued along the bottom of the canyon (the terrain was what the locals call Peruvian flat, ie. undulating!) to reach our bed for the night at the Oasis, where we promptly got straight in the pool as it had been roasting hot all day. We slept in little reed bungalows and given the ridiculously early start we all headed to bed straight after dinner.
Next morning was another early start with those who were doing the 3 hour hike back out of the canyon setting off at 5:30am. Hannah, Lindsay and I set off slightly later as we’d decided to ride back up the canyon on mules as my legs were dead, Lindsay’s feet were a mass of blisters and Hannah had had enough of walking! As we weren’t looking at where to put our feet the whole time we got the opportunity to properly enjoy the views, which were spectacular. Le Roux managed the climb in record time (under 2 hours) and in fact beat us up as we’d started later - very impressive effort!
At the top we arrived in Cabanaconde, where lots of villagers had gathered in their traditional dress for some local elections – I took advantage of my zoom lens to capture some of them from afar. On the drive back to Arequipa we stopped again in Chivay in order to visit the hot springs, which felt amazing on our tired and sore legs. Overall a great trip, but it did mean that we didn’t get to see any of Arequipa as we left for Cusco early the next morning.
Cusco is a charming city, albeit a little touristy. The main plaza and little passageways had so much character and many many tempting shops. We purchased quite a lot of alpaca clothing (so hard to resist as it’s so soft and warm!) as well as some extra walking and camping gear for our trek to Machu Picchu and we had great fun bartering with the shopkeepers. As we had a couple of days before the trek began to acclimatise, we all headed out for dinner and a few drinks, which resulted in Aoife dancing on a table and swinging from a beam, the boys bundling each other on the sofa and Eddie dancing on the bar (and breaking it!).
Le Roux and I decided to do the Lares Trek (along with 6 others from our group) rather than the Inca Trail as 500 people a day seemed like a lot to be sharing the path with and the more deserted Lares Trek allowed us to see more of what village life was like in the region and meet some of the local people. We set off at 4am with our first stop being the market in Pisaq for some little bread rolls to give to the local children along the route. Next stop was the Ancasmarca ruins but it was so foggy at that early hour we could barely make out the old stone walls, so we headed on quite quickly for breakfast in Lares. The trek began on a gentle hillside with various medicinal plants in the hedgerows – there was a bush for curing fevers and another for coughs. Shame there wasn’t one for jippy tummies though! Our guide gave us a handful of coca leaves to roll up with some quinoa ash, which we then had to put in our mouths and chew like the locals do. It acts as a slight anaesthetic and makes your gum go a bit numb after a while. Interesting to try but not the most pleasant taste so none of us managed to chew it for the requisite 45mins! After not too long we came to our first village where the local children came out to meet us – I guess they know that the gringos come with free bread (well, only the price of a photo!). We saw many llamas and alpacas on the hillsides, along with women spinning and weaving colourful garments, and other women and children running across the hillsides rounding up their flocks. We were all surprised when lunch was a 3 course meal served up on a table in a dining tent – all very luxurious and tasty! The first day ended after 11km of walking and a climb from 3,500m to 4,200m.
Before settling into our camp at Sondor for the night, we visited a local family just across the hillside, where we got so see how they lived in a small mud hut with no windows (its warmer that way) and with guinea pigs under their bed. The old lady of the house put a traditional hat on me and invited me to be her daughter-in-law! We watched while her daughter was busy weaving and Le Roux even tried a spot of spinning. I couldn’t resist buying some more alpaca stuff from the family and picked up a pair of lovely soft warm gloves for the equivalent of £3. The next day was Le Roux’s birthday so as he’d been saying how nice it would be to have a tot of whisky to warm us up before dinner, I decided to give him his birthday present of a hip flask filled with Jack Daniels at 6pm as it would be his birthday back home in the UK. We were all grateful for a small nip as it was really really cold at 4,200m on the mountain. This was further borne out by the fact that it snowed overnight and Le Roux woke up to his first ever white birthday. Poor Melissa and Hazel had to deal with their tent collapsing on them in the middle of the night, although Hazel didn’t actually wake up until Melissa nudged her to come and help re-erect the tent in the rain and snow!
Day 2 started at 6am with a wake-up call from the porter who bought us cups of coffee in our tents – a great way to start the day! It improved further when Le Roux was presented with a home-baked, iced and decorated birthday cake by the cook for breakfast. The Peruvian tradition is to take a bite from the cake before it is cut up so Le Roux ended up with an icing moustache. On day 2 we had to walk 17km and reach 2 high passes of 4,600m (Pumawanka and Wayruruyoq) so far from an easy day, especially as there was some further rain and snow at the first high pass.
It is traditional to take a stone from the beginning of your journey and place it at the high point so that Pachamama will grant you safe passage, so we piled up the stones we had carried from the starting point at Pumawanka. Adrian had bought Le Roux an ”Oxy Shot” as a joke present so on the way up to the high pass we were testing it and at the top, even though it was only 9am we had a tot of whisky to celebrate Le Roux’s birthday and the fact that we’d made it up so high! Having done the hardest part we were then treated to some amazing views over Laguna Aruraycocha. We trekked through more villages and lovely mountain scenery before reaching our campsite for the second night which was much lower at 3,220m on Pallata’s football pitch along with some cows and horses.
Day 3 started at 5am with a hot cup of coca tea thrust through the tent flap. We had to cover 8km today, but in only half a day as we were getting the train to Aguas Caliente at lunchtime. As we were lower down, the terrain was different and there was far more vegetation and much of the land was being farmed. We stopped at the Pumamarca ruins on the way to Ollantaytambo which were deserted apart from us which was lovely – not surprising though given the climb up to them and the out of the way location. The train journey was through the river valley at the base of the forested mountains and in places we could see the old washed away track from the floods earlier in the year. On arriving in Aguas Caliente, the gateway town to Machu Picchu, we discovered that it was the most expensive town in South America – dinner here was the equivalent of 4 dinners elsewhere in Peru! It is an odd town perched on the steep mountainside, with train tracks running down the middle of the main street. We did take advantage of the hot baths though after our 3 days of trekking and of course, Le Roux and Adrian indulged in a few cold beers whilst soaking their limbs.
Day 4 was yet another early start – we were up at 3:40am in order to be among the first people on the buses to Machu Picchu as only the first 400 are allocated a pass to climb Huaynapicchu mountain (the pointy mountain in the background of the classic Machu Picchu photo). Luckily we made it onto the list and booked in for the 10am climb. Despite our early start we still had to share the site with so many other tourists which was a horrible shock to the system after 3 days of pretty much no gringos on our trek. We spent a couple of hours with our guide wandering around the specific features of the Machu Picchu ruins before heading up the many many steps to the top of Huaynapicchu. Our efforts were rewarded with amazing views over Machu Picchu and the surrounding valleys. We were also reunited with the rest of our group who had had a great albeit exhausting time trekking to Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail. Machu Picchu is a very impressive sight and is well worth visiting, even if you have to deal with swarms of other tourists (and damn sandflies!).
After the trek we had a further 2 days in Cusco so Le Roux and Adrian decided to hire motorbikes for the day, and with me and Sally on the back, we headed out into the Sacred Valley. Along the way we stopped at an animal sanctuary where we saw Pumas, Andean Cats and Condors. We were able to enter the Condors enclosure and see them up close and really appreciate how big they are. Next stop was the market in Pisaq where I took yet more photos of the brightly coloured garments and artwork – no room in the rucksack for me to buy anything so my souvenirs are photos instead! After lunch we visited the salt flats at Salineras, set in the hillside and the Inca ruins at Moray. A great day out and I loved riding at speed on the motorbike with Le Roux. Despite Scoota’s best efforts, Trevor was no longer roadworthy so we moved onto our third truck, Doris, and we said goodbye to Eddie and Frank now that Scoota had made it down from Lima.
From Cusco we headed to Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca (which means Puma Rock). The journey was somewhat longer than expected as our new truck Doris broke down and we had to wait 3 hours to be rescued by another bus. We passed the time sitting in the sunshine playing the name game which everyone seemed to enjoy. From Puno we headed out onto the lake for a 2 day excursion to various different islands. We were picked up from our hotel and taken to the lakeside by bicycle taxi. Here we bought some groceries for the family we would be staying with on Amantani Island.
First stop was the Uros Islands which are floating islands made out of reeds. They have become very touristy but somehow have managed to retain their charm. The people were very welcoming dressed in their very bright, traditional clothes. They showed us how the islands were constructed and what the inside of the reed huts were like – they were actually very cosy and comfortable looking with radios and TVs powered by solar panels! They have to lay new reeds on the floor every week in rainy season and every 10-15 years they need to construct a new island. The ladies on the island earn money through home-made textiles and the guys row you round the island in elaborate reed boats. We succumb to both by buying 2 cushion covers as well as going on a boat ride!
Next stop was Amantani Island where we met our hosts for our overnight stay. Le Roux and I had a host papa called Segondino, who was a lovely 44 year old guy who spoke Quechua and Spanish but very little English. Given our command of Spanish was and still is very limited we had some interesting conversations via sign language and random words. We trekked up the hill to his mud house stopping a few times on the way to get our breath back given the altitude, and having made it we were pleasantly surprised as our accommodation was nowhere near as basic as I’d expected as it had plastered walls and an electric light, although the outside toilet did require flushing with a bucket as there was no running water. Segondino and his wife cooked us up a traditional lunch of quinoa and vegetable soup followed by rice, potatoes, oka and fried cows cheese – tasty but carb overload! Having each been given a crazy woolly hat to wear we headed out to meet the others for a game of football and a climb up the mountain to watch sunset. At the top of the mountain is a temple to Pachatata (Cosmic Father) and it is said if you circumvent the temple 3 times anticlockwise, then your wish will come true. We all gave it a go and we’ll see what happens! A hot chocolate in the local hostelry followed by dinner of yet more soup and carbs (pasta with a veg and potato sauce) set us up for dancing in local dress.
I was dressed up in 2 full skirts, an embroidered blouse, wide colourful belt and decorated shawl, while Le Roux wore a poncho and the crazy woolly hat. We then spent the evening dancing with our host families to a live band – luckily for me the style of dance was very simple and repetitive so even I managed to get it! Segondino’s wife was very shy at the house, but she came out of her shell during the dancing and kept dragging us both back onto the dance floor. After a comfortable night in our lodgings we were treated to pancakes and jam for breakfast, before heading down to the harbour and the weekly local market. We’d enjoyed the cheese so much the day before that we decided to buy a lump of cheese to take away with us and we bought an extra one to give to Segondino and his wife to say thank you.
We left Amantani island having said our goodbyes and headed off to Taquile island, where we hiked up to the main square, again struggling with the altitude. This island reminded us of the Greek Islands and our lunch venue had the most amazing view over the beautiful blue lake. 500 steps later we were back down at the port on the other side of the island from where we sailed the 3 hours back to Puno. Lake Titicaca is an incredible place, being the largest high altitude lake at 3,800m and 8,400 sq km. You can’t really appreciate that it is a lake as it is so big and the views are so clear with bright blue cloudless skies.
Back in Puno, we went out for a group meal as it was our last night in Peru after a month in the country. Unfortunately for Adrian there was confusion over the restaurant’s name and he went to the bathroom at the hotel at the wrong moment and then couldn’t find us. Sally had to go back and hunt for him after we realised he was missing! Le Roux and I had 2 excellent dishes – one of alpaca and another of lamb (not commonly available here). In the bar after dinner, the music switched from Spanish to English cheese as soon as us gringos arrived, and Le Roux and the other lads were pretty unimpressed when “Shania Twain – I feel like a woman” came on! A good night was had by us girls though.
I’ve really enjoyed our month in Peru and had not appreciated the diversity of the scenery, the amazing history and the spectacular sights that we have covered in that time. I’d highly recommend a trip to Peru, but don’t just do Machu Picchu as there’s loads more less well known places out there to discover too.
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