We spent a day in the nice city of Arequipa
with coble-stones on the streets and a lot
of old Colonial buildings. Here Vanessa and
I met up with Ian, an English friend we both
met on the Encounter trip some three years
ago. The next day we headed to Colca Canyon
which is supposed to be the deepest canyon
in the world. The roads were not the best.
There were so many pot holes in the road so
the driver preferred to use the semi-desert
at some places instead. Here we toured the
beautiful landscape and tried to avoid getting
altitude sickness with the coca tea you drink
daily. Supposedly you would show positive
for cocaine two weeks after drinking the tea.
Two people didn´t cope with the altitude
and suffered vomiting and with bad headaches.
The only real cure is getting to a lower altitude
and rest. We also saw quite a few condors
using the thermal up-winds in the mornings
for hang-gliding upwards. These gracious animals
with a wing span of more than 3 meters were
amazing to see up close.
We took the imperial night bus to Cusco which
meant it did include some food, bingo and
a movie. The bingo was a good exercise of
the numbers in Spanish. Returning after a
late dinner the first day in Cusco, our travel
agent was waiting for us telling they had
double booked the Inca trail and we had to
leave the next day early in the morning. I
had hoped to cure my Achilles which was sore
since last trek and my tummy which had found
a new bug which it didn´t like. But
there was no time for this so the only thing
we could do was to pack our stuff and sleep
some three hours before we should get picked
up.
The company fancied picking us up more than
an hour late the next morning so we were a
tired, afraid that they missed us and angry
at our travel agent. On top of all, the trail
was also fully booked since they only let
so many people in every day so we started
a bit outside the normal trail to have something
to do the first day. This meant we had to
do the normal trail in three days instead
of four. Vanessa unfortunately did a misstep
and injured her knee, an old sport injury,
the first day. One of the porters carried
her to the camp that evening and she had to
get the train back the next day.
The trek was actually harder than I had expected
since so many people does it. We carried all
personal things about 8-10 kg. The porters
were amazing carrying 25 kg jogging and running
past. They are really impressive just wearing
shorts, t-shirt and a pair of open sandals
in the not always too warm weather. We were
10 tourists and had one guide and 8 porters.
The porters carried our tents, cooking tent,
eating tent, tables, table clothes, camp stools
and all the good food they kept serving us.
So we got kind of spoiled with good food and
warm tea in the tent in the morning. This
made things heaps easier. I had some problems
in the beginning with my tummy though. Hoped
the gases I was producing could lift me over
the hills or at least warm up the freezing
tent at night; neither worked. The trail mainly
consisted of steps steep up-hill and down-hill
so it was very tough on your knees. The nature
changed from temperate to cloud forest to
almost jungle like. There were some nice Inca
ruins to visit along the way before we the
last day arrived at Machu Picchu which was
just incredible. This remote city was built
high up in the mountains with an astonishing
architecture all surrounded by high extremely
steep green mountains.
Our guide was very good even if he had had
a pretty rough time. The day returning from
his last trip he got mugged by a taxi driver
and got a broken nose. When he finally made
it home he received the news that he had to
make another tour the next day - no time for
doctor. Then Vanessa hurt her knee which meant
he had to get her to the train. They almost
missed the train so they had to hang outside
the train till the next stop. Then he had
to run all the way we had made the first day
to catch up with us. He was very knowledgeable
and it was really helpful to have him explaining
all the sites and the Inca culture. Never
appreciated guides before but even I can change
my mind I suppose. Some day I might even appreciate
museums, knock on wood.
After the Inca trail we did some touristing
in and around the beautiful but over touristy
town of Cusco. There where heaps of interesting
places and temples mainly from the Inca period.
Cusco was a good place for souvenir shopping,
even if it´s not the cheapest. Most
things are fairly cheap anyway.
All of Peru has been pretty cold so far and
some parts of the country like Puno have been
inaccessible at times since they had some
25 below freezing and loads of snow. Were
afraid of heading to Puno this morning due
to the weather but it was only 2, 3 degrees
so we survive even if I can´t work on
my non-existing tan. So we´re now in
Puno on the lake of Titicaca, the highest
situated navigable lakes and also the largest
lake in South America. We visited an old steam
boat today which was brought from England
in some 3000 pieces. It took 6 years to get
all parts with boat to Peru, train to the
Andes and on mules over the mountains. Tomorrow
were heading out to some floating islands
on Lake Titicaca.
Many chilly but warm hugs my friends, Emil
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