Peru

Ok so there appears to be a bit of confusion over the last post. Appears a few people thought I had a girlfriend and I hadn´t told them. Dunno what they´re on about - talk about reading into things too much!

A lot has been happening in a very short amount of time. On the 22nd-23rd after the Amazon we stayed in Cusco and looked around. On the 24th we had a rather big day. We started out early in the morning and went to one of the archaeological sites near Cusco called Sacsayhuaman. I´m not going to give a history lesson, click the links if you want to know more!


You get a really good view of Cusco from that site as well.


There were some locals there with llamas and you have to pay them a few Soles for a photo. 1 NZD = 2 Soles roughly.


After that we went to the alpaca/llama farm to feed the animals which was quite fun.


After that we went to the Sacred Valley and visited Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Did a bit of shopping at the local markets as well.


Then we went to another farm where they made beer out of corn. We tried some of the beer, which didn´t taste that great, then went for a look at the guinea pigs. They´re not used as pets here, they eat them (local delicacy)...

That night we stayed in a small town ready for the next big day. On the 25th we took the train to another small town called Aguas Calientes. From there we took the bus up the mountain to Macchu Picchu, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. This was my main reason for coming to Peru and the views were amazing.


There are also some cool lizards around the site, we managed to spot one.


A few of us were planning to hike up Huayna Picchu (the big mountain up the back) but we got there too late. They only allow 400 people up a day and usually the quota is met by about 11am. I have no idea why the tour company decided it was a good idea to go at 1pm but it was very annoying.

There was another, higher mountain behind Machu Picchu which I decided to climb anyway. I went as far as the Sun Gate, because I didn´t have time to walk to the summit (3hrs round trip). You get a better view of the site from there anyway because Huayna Picchu has more of a birds-eye view being so high up.


After a day of looking round the site, we took the train back to Cusco (3 hours). The next day was a resting day and people could go for a look around Cusco, do some shopping, get massages etc. I went horse-back riding for the first time with the Bulgarian couple on the tour (Ivailo and Asseneta) .

That was a lot of fun and we had some great laughs. It was about 4 hours in total and we visited some of the other archaeological/tourist sites around Cusco on the horses. The horses were a bit hard to control and had a mind of their own really, they´d just start galloping for no reason and start racing each other. I didn´t fall off which was good.

One of Assya´s many stories was there were Ticks on the horses that would bite us and then we´d have to endure horrible removal procedures with tweezers. And even then the head could still be stuck under the skin and we´d die from infection. But like most of her stories, it never came true.

Ivailo and Assya on an Inca throne:
Cristo Blanco in Cusco:
So after that the jungle group (Christeen, Liesel, Tenille & myself) went for dinner. On the way to dinner I was pesterered by a kid to shine my shoes. It´s a pretty common thing in Peru. My answer is usually ¨NO gracias¨to unsolicited offers from street people, but he was persistent. Eventually I gave in (my shoes were pretty dirty). We agreed on a price beforehand, I would give him 5 Soles, which was probably 4 Soles too high.

So he was working away, taking longer than the 1 minute it was supposed to take. Then he says, ¨Now I´m going to put on some stuff to protect the shoes from the rain¨. Yeah ok whatever, just hurry up, we are hungry. Then he was nearly finished up, and he says ¨The price has now gone up to 30 Soles¨. Six times the original price! We weren´t having any of that scam so we told him we agreed on the price at the beginning and he should have asked before doing anything that would increase the price. He kept complaining about how it was unfair or something. Little scam artist. In the end I gave him the loose change I had, about 17 Soles and just walked off with the group to have dinner. Christeen sent me a photo of him but we don´t have one with a clear shot of his face. If you really want your shoes shined it´s best to get one from the street stalls where its more official rather than street kids in a dark alleyway at night.

The next day we took a bus to Puno, a small town on the shore of Lake Titicaca. The lake is 3812 metres above sea level making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. I had been taking altitude prevention/sickness pills since Cusco (3300 masl) as the effects of altitude sickness aren´t nice. I was fine but a few other people on the tour got some bad headaches etc. That night we had a big group dinner in Puno as 9 more people had joined the tour group at Cusco (13 total). They had a cool band and dancers that come in and performed while we had dinner. They have shoe shiners in Puno as well, even more persistant than the ones in Cusco. I had about 5 following me at one stage but I wasn´t falling for that trick again.

The next day we got a ride in some Tuc Tucs from the hotel. They are like little cars but there is a local guy on the back that has bike pedals to make it go. There are also motorised ones. There were about 8 or so tuc tucs in a big line and we made our way to the local port nearly causing a big pile at one of the intersections along the way.

Then we took the boat to one of the main islands on the lake for lunch provided by the locals which was delicious. The scenery along the way was awesome.

After that we walked back to the boat and went to another island where there is a local village. There we were introduced to our new ¨Mamas¨(the local family) where we would stay the night at their place and have dinner with them. Erwin, another guy on the tour stayed with the same family as I did. The family had three young boys in school and Erica, a 17 year old girl that had just finished college. They only spoke Spanish and Quechua (the local language). I was glad they spoke some Spanish because I had no idea how to speak Quechua.

Sunset on the island:

The dinner was very nice, we had vegetable soup, potatoes, rice and coca tea. After that we got dressed up in some outfits and went to the main hall for some local dancing which was pretty fun.


At night time on the island the temperature drops below zero because it´s so high up. I had my new sleeping bag and blankets so I was pretty warm during the night. I´m just glad I didn´t need to go to the toilet in the freezing night because it was barely better than a long drop and in a little shed outside the house. We also had to bring our own toilet paper - maybe the locals don´t use any... The two very strange but very entertaining South African girls on my tour taught me a little trick to make that last bit of toilet paper go a long way. You may have heard it before, but here goes:

First start with one square of toilet paper:
Then fold it in half:
Then into quarters:
Now peel off the corner:
Now unfold the piece of paper and it should look like so:
Stick your finger through the middle of the paper and use that to wipe:
Ok now use the paper to wipe your finger like so:
Then use the little corner piece to clean your finger nail:

And that´s it, if you´re in an emergency situation with only one piece of toilet paper left you can use this method. The Bulgarian couple forgot to bring toilet paper to the island, so we gave them a square each.

Ok moving on...

The next day I got up early to see the sunrise which was awesome.

We had pancakes for breakfast, said goodbye to the family and took the boat back to Puno. Along the way we stopped at some of the reed islands where other locals live. The islands, houses and boats are made from reeds from the lake. They also have a massive condor as their pet.


We had one more night in Puno and a farewell dinner as some of us were going back to Lima, La Paz and others on to Arequipa. I got harrassed by another shoe shiner kid. I was trying to hide behind some of the other tour group members but he had eyes like a hawk and spotted my black shoes. I kept telling him I like my dirty shoes but he wouldn´t give up. He was pretty sad about it and I thought it might be his only form of income so no money for food, so I paid him 1 Sole not to shine my shoes. He went away quite happy and I haven´t been bothered since. If you´re ever in Peru, wear running shoes or hiking boots, something unshinable. You´ll save yourself a lot of grief.

The next day, the Bulgarians, the South Africans and I flew back to Lima. At the Puno airport in the boarding area, out of nowhere this band starts playing their banjos etc. They play one song, then they went around each of the passengers and asked for a tip! Though that was a bit ridiculous, I didn´t ask for them to start playing, so no they didn´t get a tip.

When we got to Lima I went on a quick tour of Lima again with the local guide, this time at night.


Then Ivailo, Assya and I went for a trip in a taxi to Miraflores, the upper-class district of Lima. Apparently you´re supposed to use the yellow taxis as they are official and safer. Whatever! Worst drivers ever. I think we could have been in 10 accidents on the 20 minute drive, zipping in and out of traffic at high speeds, running red lights, cars crossing your path barely metres in front of you. Traffic is pretty crazy in Lima, but yellow taxis are far from safe.

We had dinner at this really expensive restaurant, it was outside on the site of yet another archaeological site. Miraflores is really nice, good quality hotels and safer. If I´m ever in Lima again, I´ll be staying in Miraflores, not dodgy downtown Lima that´s for sure. After a good meal the restaurant ordered us a white taxi back, the apparently unsafe ones because they are not official. But yeah that was the safest ride I´ve had in Lima yet, he didn´t speed, followed road rules and there wasn´t any dodgy driving.

Ivailo and Assya flew out the next morning (31st May) to Mexico then the UK. I did a bit of shopping with Liesel and Christeen (the South African girls) during the day and they flew back to Sao Paulo and South Africa last night.

Tonight (1st June) I´m flying out to Venezuela. I´d feel safer with a bullet-proof vest but not sure where to get one. ;) Anyway, looking forward to the nice beaches and relaxing in the sun!

P.S. I´ve got heaps more photos but no time to upload them all. If anyone wants the higher resolution photos for their personal use, just email me. I´ve got the full size 12.1MP JPEG/RAW files.