Peru - Cusco to Lima

BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL BY PAUL

Cusco, Peru 

The centre of Cuzco town was very, very pretty.  It felt really old and grand with many large buildings and ancient churches built on the old Inca foundations.   

We did a 3D2N tour to Machu Pichu.  The tour was dodgy from the beginning.  Because Angus and Naomi wanted to go for a "reputable" company from the guidebook, we booked this tour through one of the recommended companies. 

It was ok until they were 1 hour late to pick us up and we had to wait at some petrol station for a bigger bus to arrive.  By the time we actually left Cuzco it was well past 9am and we were supposed to get picked up at 5:30am. 

We arrived in Santa Maria where we had lunch and had to change to a minivan due to recent landslides.  By this time Naomi was already so frustrated with the timing that she had an argument with the guide.  She had her point though.  We were supposed to be Santa Maria by about 10am, the next town Santa Teresa at midday, then to walk the 6 hours to the final town of Aquas Calientes where we were to stay the night.  As we were about 4 hours behind the schedule, that meant we would have been at Aquas Calientes at around midnight! 

The route to Santa Teresa was quite stunning with many waterfalls and small creeks which we crossed in the van.  The road was also very, very windy and narrow with hundreds of metres of cliff on one side and the mountain on the other side.  Angus sat next to the window and he nearly had a heart attack.  I think his eyes were closed most of the time while he pretended that he was asleep.   

After we arrived in Santa Teresa, the guide then told us it was too dangerous to walk at night and wanted everyone to stay there overnight.  Naomi was by this point almost about to kill the guide.  He actually pulled her aside and told her that we can go on if we wanted.  There was another guide available to take us up to Aguas Calientes. 

After we all sat in the car and were ready to go, he jumped on and warned us that it wasn't his responsibility if something happened to us or if we died.  Literally!  I was just like "Mate, if you did what you said you would do, we wouldn't be sitting here right now".  By then it was already 5pm. 

By the time we started walking it was 5:30pm and all of us were thinking we wouldn't be at Aguas Calientes until midnight.  Not a very fun thought.  The first part of the hike required us to cross a muddy area.  It was actually the hardest part of the hike.  The mud was thigh deep as one girl later experienced.  But luckily the workers put some large planks, rocks etc there to make it more accessible. 

We then needed to cross a river by sitting in a flying fox cart with our backpacks on the side.  It was crazy that that little red cage of 1m by 1.5m could fit 4-5 people on it together with their backpacks.  As there were lots of other tourists all wanting to cross the river at the same time we had to wait for another hour so until we could cross.  So by then, it was totally dark.   

Somehow our guide got a bit impatient and tried to push in for us whilst we waited at the flying cart crossing.  Other tourists were very defensive and wouldn't let us through which was fair enough.  Eventually however we got to the other side, we started our long hike. 

Our guide somehow also became other tourists' guide as their guides fell behind to help other tourists out.  However as the other tourists didn't let our guide push in, he was deliberately being unhelpful and wanted us to walk faster to loose the group. 

As it was pitch dark, with the exception of Angus, we all had our head torch on and walked as fast as we could to get to Aquas Calientes.  The long 5-6 hour walk wasn't spectacular as it was dark and it was in fact quite boring.  The journey however ended up taking us only 3.5 hours as we power walked the whole way. 

By the time we got there at around 11pm, we were all exhausted and all we wanted to do was to have dinner and go straight to bed for another early start to Machu Picchu. 

This was when the bombshell fell on all other tourists.  The restaurant that we all went to apparently ran out of food and our guide told them that there was no dinner for them and they had to wait for their guide to arrive before they could get any food or shown to their hostel. 

He however led us through to the back of the restaurant and got the chef to cook a pizza for us.  Angus, Naomi and I were so sure that the other tourists were going to murder us when we walked out past them.  To be fair, the pizza was not even that nice, it had a few pieces of tomato and bacon and a lot of cheese on it and that was it.  We ate the whole lot though as we were starved. 

One girl from the other group decided that she could go hungry no more and decided to eat other people's leftovers.  She literally went through someone's leftover pasta and ate another person's salad.  I am sure she ate the crumbs of the pizza bread left on the other tables.  Unbelievable. 

They later also stayed in the same hostel with us.  It was not a pleasant sight having these people death-staring at us.  To be honest, I was glad that we actually went to a more reputable company this time and actually got looked after better.  Apparently our tour company was called Condor Travel... 

Anyway, the next morning I got up at 5:30am to go and get my special student ticket from the tour guide and then I met Naomi and Angus.  And we were finally ready to go to Machu Picchu! 

Machu Picchu was nice.  It definitely wasn't THE most amazing ancient architecture I have ever seen.  I mean, the Forbidden Palace in Beijing was amazing, Angkor Wat was amazing and they were all older than Machu Picchu. 

It was nice though to finally see the city and to walk around in it.  The construction was impressive as everything was made out of rocks stacked on top of each other perfectly.  The Incans also seemed quite knowledgeable with their astronomy and predicted the sun's position really well.  I think they worshipped the sun as their God. 

We stayed in Machu Picchu for around 5 hours.  We then retreated to our hostel for an afternoon nap as we were just exhausted having only had 4-5 hours sleep for the past 2 nights. 

On our third day, we started hiking back down to Santa Teresa at 8am as we were told that the van would leave from there at 2pm.  No problem.  We got to Santa Teresa at just before 1pm and had a nice lunch.  Then all of a sudden someone from the restaurant said that the road to Cusco was blocked by landslides and we had to wait.  We also had to wait for our guide who ended up arriving at around 3pm. 

Oh, just before we got to Santa Teresa, we had to pass through the mud patch again.  It was the same one that we passed on our first day.  Naomi tried to walk on the mountain side this time as she thought it might have some solid dry ground.  After about 3 steps into it, she decided it was too muddy.  While she turned around, this French girl in our group decided to march on Naomi's footsteps into the mud.  One step, two steps, three steps, four steps.  Oops, she's stuck.   

As she was trying to pull one of her legs out of the mud, she unfortunately took the 5^th step forward.  By this time, the mud was thigh deep and she was totally stuck.  She was screaming and panicking.  She kept yelling that she was going to sink through the mud.  I tried to pull her out by offering the end of my hiking stick. But she then broke my stick in half.  So I handed her part of the stick so maybe she could use it as a leverage.  Luckily there were two local workers nearby rushed to her aid.   

She was screaming as they tried to pull her body out of the mud.  After they rescued her they were unfortunately stuck in the mud themselves and it took them few minutes to get out.  It was horrible.  She was so devastated that she just rushed off without giving the workers a tip to wash herself in the river.   

We all felt sorry for her, yet we laughed our guts out in secret as she thought she was the smart one.  And as especially Naomi told her the mud was too deep and too difficult to pass.  Some people...seriously. 

Eventually our guide arrived at Santa Teresa and arranged for some transport to pick us up on the other side of this new landslide.  So we had to walk over this landslide that was only about 15 minutes drive from Santa Teresa.  By the time we crossed that landslide it was 4:30pm.  We were not sure whether we could be back by 7pm as the guide promised.  Other people in our group were more worried than the 3 of us considering they had flights to catch the next day. 

Everything was smooth running until....umm...the landslide that nearly killed us.  I was asleep in the van when I heard this loud bang noise.  The driver stopped the van.  He got out of the van and went to check out what was going on.  All of a sudden, the whole mountain came down just on front of us.  There was a small landslide when we got there, and heaps of mud came down while we were there.  We were so lucky that the driver didn't decide to drive over the mud.  If we were there while more mud was coming down, we would have been pushed over the edge of the cliff. 

By the time we went back to a roadside restaurant for dinner and came back to check the landslide it was past 11pm.  The driver just said we would have to wait till the next morning.  Our lovely trip just got better....3 days into 4 days... 

As there were 16 passengers in the car that only fit 15, I was lucky enough to sleep on the floor next to the sliding door.  I had the sorest back the next morning.  As the door step had 3 levels, I had my feet in one, my ass in the second and my head on the third.  It was NOT fun.   

I just couldn't wait to go back to Cusco to have a proper bed and a proper sleep.   

When we finally got back to Cusco the next day after the landslide was cleared we were so relieved.  We spent 2 more days there to rest, shop and also checked out Sacsayhuaman and few museums in town. 

We headed to Arequipa after Cusco. 

Arequipa, Peru

The centre of Arequipa was beautiful.  It was another UNESCO World Heritage Listed place.  I spent my 29^th birthday here.  You heard it right....29.  I feel so old that even now I can't believe that I am 29. 

We had a nice lunch in the food court of a modern shopping centre, went to see a romantic comedy movie (I can't even remember the name), then went for drinks and a lovely dinner.  I was lucky to have Angus, Naomi, Rene and Stephanie there to celebrate it with me.  I felt very warm and spoiled.  I believe my presents are still coming from Naomi :) 

I went out after dinner with Rene.  Angus promised a HUGE night out with me but he chickened out.  Maybe his soft stomach was not agreeing with the food again or something.  But it was still nice to go out for a couple of drinks with Rene and a few dances.  Well, only me dancing. 

Colca Canyon

In Arequipa, we also did a 2D1N tour in the Colca Canyon.  Apparently Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world and it was almost twice the depth as the Grand Canyon.  The scenery was really beautiful along the way.  Oh, we had to hike about 7 hours the first day and about 3 hours the next.  The trekking was not too difficult but it involved a lot of up and down hill.  I hurt both of my knees the very first day and struggled in the afternoon.  I was also unfortunately left behind by my mates.   

By the time I got to the Oasis where we spent the night, Naomi and Angus were already having a cold drink by the natural spring pool.  Bastards! 

But at least I made it on my own both days.  Up and down.  Angus wanted to ride a mule the second day as he said he was too tired to get up at 4:30am.  It must have been a funny ride.  I have never ridden a mule before.  Horses and yaks yes...mule, no. 

Someone also stole my board shorts here in the Oasis.  I mean, who would steal other people's worn clothes???? Seriously... 

I also planned on going on a 2 day 1 night hike to Mt Chachani which is a 6000m+ mountain the very next day.  I had to cancel it as my knees were about to explode.  I was very disappointed in this as I really wanted to do a big mountain in South America.  Chachani is also meant to be one of the easiest 6,000m+ mountains in the world!  Aaahh... 

Pisco, Peru

We got to this unfortunate town as the book said it was quite pretty with beautiful islands and desert nearby.  We didn't realise that the town suffered a major earthquake 2 years after our guidebook was published.  So we got there and we were just like "What is this place?".  It was like a war zone.  Collapsed houses, dusts, dirt roads, construction everywhere.  Gosh. 

We did a day tour to see the Ballestas Islands and Paracas National Reserve.  Apparently Ballestas is similar to the Gallapogas Islands  full of penguins, sea lions, birds etc.  It was really nice to be up and close to these animals.  Paracas was also nice.  It was a desert next to the sea.  Really strange phenomenon.  You have the ocean on one side and desert the other side. 

Lima, Peru

We spent about a week in Lima.  This was where Angus and Naomi both left me.  We went to check out a couple of museums in the centre.  We stayed in Miraflores which was a very nice touristy area.   

Lima itself was a lot better than expected.  Yes it was a big city with many cars, people and pollution.  But the centre was really historic and Miraflores was quite nice as it was on the sea.  The food was also really good in Lima as they had all the food from all parts of Peru. 

We went to visit Plaza de Armas which was another UNESCO World Heritage listed plaza.  It had a really old cathedral from the 16^th century and ancient government buildings.  We also visited La Merced church was also from 1546.   

Naomi and I also visited Museo Arqueological Rafael Larco Herrera and the Museo Nacional de Historia for a bit of insight on pre-Columbian Peru history and artefacts.   

Oh, how can I forget about the Chinatown in Lima.  It was THE best Chinatown in South America by far.  The food was authentic and it looked similar the Chinatown in Brisbane.  The food was amazing.  We had some duck noodle soup and mixed bbq rice. 

Angus and I went out the Friday before he left to the chic suburb of Barranco.  It was one of the best party nights of this trip.  We did heaps of dancing to Salsa and Reggaeton beats.  The locals loved us.  We first went to a bar with live music and I am sure that we were the only non-Peruvians in the whole bar.  We then carried on to a club where dancing kicked in.  It was great.  Except Angus' stomach was a bit weak and he couldn't handle his drinks well and wanted to go home early at around 2:30am. 

Naomi also did fair bit of shopping before she left.   

Lima was actually quite cool at night as it was on the beach.  I was bit surprised considering it was in the latitude of central Queensland.  But of course, I always welcome a bit of a chill. 

I also bumped into Mike the English guy again in the Cruz del Sur bus terminal.  It's the third time I saw him in a matter of 4 months in South America.  We first met him in Santiago, Chile, then bumped into him again in Sucre in Bolivia then again in Lima, Peru.  Such a small world and I guess it is a lot easier if you are doing the gringo trail run. 

Bolivia to Peru - PC

After La Paz, we spent a couple of days in Copacabana which was on the shore of Lake Titicaca which is supposed to be the highest navigable lake in the world

We did a day tour over to Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun). We hiked for 3 hours to go from the northern end to the southern end. This island apparently was the birth place of the Incas. We did see many ruins from Incan and pre-Incan days. It was a very beautiful trek with sapphire coloured waters all around. As most of the way was nearly 4,000m, we were very, very puffed pretty much the whole way. Angus was suffering from the altitude and the sun when we got back.

We are on our way to Cusco now. Home of the Incan empire.

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

PC

 

Iguazu Falls were one of the best natural wonders I have ever ever seen. It was very easy to get to the park actually. We jumped on a local bus from the bus terminal which only cost 10 Pesos return.

We spent one whole day there in the park exploring different sections starting from the Park Information Centre to the inferior (lower) section trail, to the superior (higher) section trail, then train to the Garranta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) which was by far the highlight of the day.

Along the trails, we saw many different kinds of weird animals. We saw this animal that looked like a giant possum but with a pig-like nose and pointy ears. These animals were not scared of people at all. In fact, you could pat them while they tried to rob you off your lunch....or anything you have including your camera case or backpack (as Naomi experienced with her belongings while I patted them)! There were also millions of different butterflies all over the park.

It was such a hot day that we pretty much exhausted a quarter of our bottle of sunscreen and drank all the water we brought within first 2 hours. There were also a lot of tourists suffering. Naomi first saw some Asian tourists stripped to their undies and bikinis which she thought was pretty hilarious. She stopped laughing after she saw more other European tourists walking around with barely anything on. It was probably a great idea considering the humidity and the heat. I was also suffering a little when we walked around Garranta del Diablo. I felt like I was being roasted in an oven during Christmas. Although I probably still wouldn't walk around in my knickers....

The waterfall was nothing short of majestic. I never expected it to be so HUGE. I don't even know how to describe it. There were probably millions of litres of water going through the waterfall every minute. From the top, we could not even see the bottom because of the mist from the water. We had been really excited when the local travel agencies tried to sell us tickets to go to the Brazilian side of the falls, but ended up disappointed when we found out that we needed a visa to enter Brazil.

The town of Puerto Iguazu itself was quite small. One amazing thing about it was the Ice-Cream!!! They had the best and the cheapest ice-cream we ever had in Argentina. We tremendously enjoyed our quarter litre ice-cream of strawberry and choc-mint in the late afternoon heat.

Salta, Argentina

We arrived in Salta after around 20 hours on the bus. This is where we serendipitously met the German couple, Rene and Stephanie, whom we travelled with for the next 2 weeks.

Sometimes when you travelling or on long term holidays, you really forget which day of the week it is. I thought I was coming up on top during a little debate with the ticket seller in the bus terminal when I was trying to buy a ticket to go to San Pedro in Chile. I was only to find out that I was the goose that had somehow lost a day in my life! I was so embarrassed especially after the ticket seller checked the computer screen and also asked his colleague what day of the week was.

Salta the town was a little dull. It was serene and pretty just like any other South-American colonial town, but there wasn't really much to do in the city. We just relaxed there for a couple of days then hired a car with the Germans to visit a sevon coloured hill and some other sights in the desert. There were heaps of giant cactus trees out there! Some of them were like 2-3 metres high. I also found out that there was wood inside the cactus which the locals use to make furniture. The scenery was quite spectacular and we felt bit sad on leaving Argentina – land of great steak and wine.

San Pedro, Chile

Chile is like our second home. Every time we crossed back to Chile from Argentina, we just felt like we were coming home. It was the first South American country we ever visited and we also made a lot of friends there.

San Pedro de Atacama was in the middle of the desert. It used to belong to Bolivia before Chile took it over after the discovery of nitrate in the area. It was a very small town. In fact, it was a very small town big in touristy stuff.

We did a tour to the salt lakes one afternoon. Before I went, the travel agency told me that it was like the dead sea and people just float in the lakes. I have tried floating many times before, and the last time was in Ko Phi Phi in Thailand. Naomi spent countless minutes tried to teach me how to breath and use my body in order to float on top of the water. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do it! So when the office woman told me that EVERYONE floats, I just thought it was just more sales talk.

We got there. I was one of the first to jump in. I jumped in, I swam, I stopped swimming and I started to sink. Because the "lake" (big hole on the ground rather) was quite deep and the water was cold, I thought I was going to drown. I started doing back-stroke except only using my legs. I knew this would definitely keep me float, as always. I moved my legs gently and looked the clouds in the sky whilst dwelling on my own thoughts. Some minutes passed, I woke up from my daydream and realised that my leg were no longer kicking. I WAS FLOATING!!!!! Oh my gosh, I was floating for the first time in the water!

Naomi also had a salt-mud bath. It was not really my thing to be covered fully in mud. It supposed to clean your skin and make them more clear. Except that she was covered in salt again after the swim in the lake. We both looked like as if we were being snowed on with dry salt hanging in our hair and arms.

We also visited a small salt pan. It was pretty cool to see so many dried salt lumps. I have never seen anything like it before. It looked like snow actually from afar. We stayed there for sunset and had some pisco sours.

The next day we and the Germans hired bikes form the hostel and rode to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) for sunset. It was around about a 17km ride through the desert into this mountain range that was full bare. There was no vegetation whatsoever on it. Again, the scenery along the way was awesome. Rene and Stephanie were a little disappointed that we didn't actually see the sunset as we left a little late. I still loved the scenery though. There were many snow-peaked mountains over 5000m and cacti just off the side of the bike path. On the way back, Naomi and I rode in the darkness, but luckily we had our head torches which turned out to be awesome. When we turned them off, we could see the galaxy with millions of stars shining above our heads.

Salar de Uyuni tour, Bolivia

As the salt flats in Bolivia were supposed to be one of the biggest attractions in Bolivia, of course we had to be there! We organised this 3D2N tour with the Germans with this cheap company that made a lot of promises. Of course, it turned out to be a lot of bull. Luckily, I wasn't the one being blamed this time as I actually wanted to go for a more expensive company.

I mean, to be fair, it wasn't exactly THAT bad if we had set our expectations low. We were told that the vehicle would take 5-6 people. They picked us up, 7 people in one car. Lie number 1.

We were told that the car was in top shape and it would have no problem. 2 hours into the tour, we heard this cluck-cluck-cluck noise. Engine problem. Lie number 2.

We lost count of the number of breakdowns we suffered.

The scenery was excellent in the first few hours with beautiful blue lakes and flamingoes and high mountains. After that, it was pretty much same old, same old. Same lakes, same flamingoes. Although we did see this lake called Laguna Colorada which was red from the minerals in the water. We spent around 1 hour there taking photos of the 3 different types of flamingoes and the llamas.

The second night we spent in a salt hostel near the edge of the salt flats. Everything in the hostel was made out of salt. The bed, the kitchen tables, the dining tables, the chairs etc. I really enjoyed that. Over dinner, when someone asked for salt, I just picked up salt cubes from the floor and handed them over to the person.

We also got up super early at around 5:30am to see the sunrise over the salt flat. It was freezing cold, but the experience was well worth the early morning start. The Salar de Uyuni was as big as Belgium, so the sunrise over the horizon was nothing short of spectacular.

Although we weren't confused between the salt flats and the sky as the Lonely Planet Guide said we would (by the way, we are using the Footprint Guide which was a lot better than the LP guide), driving on the salt flats was a great experience as it was white everywhere you looked.

The salt flats were definitely the highlight of the tour. The first two days were ok, but it was nothing compared to the majesty of the salar.

Naomi just reminded me that she lost her wallet on our last day of our salar trip at the restaurant where we had lunch. It was very unfortunate, but luckily she took most of her cards and money out before we entered Bolivia. The police report was a pain in the ass though as no one seemed to be present in the official police station and the Tourist Police office was always shut.

Sucre, Bolivia

We spent one night in Uyuni before we headed off to Sucre. I was so frustrated when our 7 hour bus ride turned out to take 11 hours. The bad roads together with the loud Bolivian folk music playing over a single speaker overhead nearly drove me insane. This Brazilian guy sitting across the isle must have also had enough after we saw him pull the speaker out of the roof, wrap it in a plastic bag and push the speaker back in. Heck, welcome to Bolivia!

Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia. Apparently La Paz is the political capital and Sucre is the judicial capital. The town itself was really pretty with many many white colonial buildings, churches, monasteries etc. The whole town centre was white at night.

I visited a few museums and 500 year old churches. Naomi also really liked her Textile Museum which I did no enter. Instead I went to visit a museum which was full of Pre-Columbian artefacts, colonial paintings, silver artefacts and some modern day stuff.

I also visited a few churches/cathedrals. I have never been in churches that were established in 1500s. It was just so beautiful looking at the decorations on the walls, the ceiling, the candle chandeliers, the stained glass windows etc. I was also lucky to visit these churches on a Sunday when they were full of worshippers. It was an experience to watch how faithful some South Americans were.

Stephanie and I also visited Cerro Churuquella which offered great view over the antique city.

We spent 2 days there in Sucre before going on a crappy old night bus to La Paz.

La Paz, Bolivia

We got to La Paz a day early to wait for Angus to arrive the next day. He is spending 5 weeks in South America.

We checked into an amazing hotel which only cost us around $8 and gave us an great view over the city from our balcony and windows. You could see a couple of 6000m plus mountains just outside the city centre.

La Paz was a little chaotic for me with many cars, pollution and people. The layout of the city was really interesting though. As it was around 3600m high and surrounded by many mountains, all the houses were built on the hills. They actually look like Lego buildings from afar. So many little red-roofed buildings everywhere on the hill. I actually quite enjoyed looking at these buildings from our balcony.

We did a whole day bike ride along the world infamous "Death Road". Yes, we survived....just. Our palms and our asses were fully bruised. I didn't think riding down hill would be such tough work until that day. As most of the road was dirt and covered with rocks, pebbles and mud, riding on it was not exactly a piece of cake.

The scenery was amazing too. There were so many jagged cliffs, waterfalls, and forests along the way. As we started riding at 4,800m above the sea level, we also saw the gradual change in vegetation as we descended to the finish line at 1,200m.

The road wasn't exactly narrow, but if you fell off the cliff, you can guarantee to kiss your life good bye. I stacked a couple of times, but luckily they weren't anything too major.

I thought the company that we chose to do the tour with was ok. But Angus and Naomi (especially Naomi) just couldn't stop whinging at me about it. Yes, maybe the bike wasn't exactly world-class, but at least we made it......the tough way! I did have a couple of little problems with my bike...the gears were dead and peddles weren't working properly.......and my back wheel fell off. But hey, at least the scenery was great while the guide tried to fix my bike.

I think Naomi had a heart attack after her tire exploded. I think that probably increased her whinging about the bike company and the bike. As Angus and I were in the front, all we heard and saw were this big BANG and a puff of dust in the air. Then a minute later, Naomi walked up to us without her bike. She was bit pissed off so she just left her bike there for the guide to fix.

Yes, maybe the equipment was not top-notch, and the support vehicle guy was reading porn magazines in the van, but at least the scenery was awesome and the lunch was filling. It was actually the same lunch as the people who paid 200 Bolianos more than us.