So from leaving Cosco early on the Thursday morning, we arrived in
Ollantaytambo, where we spent the afternoon and night. Including teaching
Melissa and Ruk to play Texas Hold ‘em….with matches for chips.
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| The view from the hotel in Ollantaytambo |
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| Ollantaytambo |
The following morning we woke early and headed to KM.82, otherwise known as
the start of the Inca Trail, a 3 day 44Km trek. Starts off pretty beautiful as
soon as you arrive.
On Day 1 we trekked from KM82 to Llactapata where we stopped for lunch before
heading onto Wayllabamba where we camped for the night.
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| This water looks sooooo fun to me!!! |
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| Lunch stop |
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| Our campsite on Day 1 |
Day 2 was the “Hard” day, we left our campsite and made way to Dead Woman’s Pass
which is 4,215Km above sea level. It took a good few hours to get up there but
our guides let us go at our own pace which was perfect for me to power on up
there. When I arrived at the top it was pretty cloudy, but this is wet season
here, but as the weather so often does here it frequently changes and the
surrounding area cleared. After spending about an hour up the top, we began our
decline down to Paqaymayo where we stopped for lunch, we were meant to be
camping for the night, but as the weather was so bad in our next campsite we carried on
to Chaquiqocha stopping off at Runkuraqay and Runkuraqay Pass along the way.
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| The potters backing up our campsite... |
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| ....These guys carry 25Kg whilst they do the trek! |
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| The view for my pee break! |
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| On route to Dead Woman's Pass |
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| Heading down again! |
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| Cloud Forest |
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| Runkuraqay |
Day 3 started off fairly clear but as we left our campsite the cloud came in
(but this is a ‘Cloud Forest )…..and with the cloud came the rain, real heavy
rain in fact as we arrived at Wiñaywayna where we stopped for lunch! After lunch
the decision was made for us to carry on for the last two hours to Machu Picchu,
I’ll admit I that I did wanna camp for another night, but I don’t regret the
decision at all. We arrived at Sun’s Gate about two hours later (the first point
of view of Machu Picchu) again cloudy at first, but not before too long the
clouds cleared for some epic views. We then carried on down for another half an
hour for even more epic views of this world famous site! The best thing about it
was, the original plan was to wake up from our campsite early the following
morning, hike the two and a half hours and arrive there before most/some of the
crowds…..we arrived a whole night before the crowds….IT WAS EMPTY! Amazing!
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| So much cloud on arrival.... |
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| .....but it cleared |
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| Flying the Red and White flag! |
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| Cos you do have to have one of these photos |
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| I love traveling |
We ended up spending that night in a small mountain town Aguas Calientes as we weren't camping. After a meal, Ruk, Claudia, Jackie and I went out
round a few of the local bars to “celebrate!” I'm not gonna lie, the Inca Trail
really wasn't that hard at all, far from the hardest thing I've ever done, but
it really really is amazing at parts!
After about 2 hours of sleep (I think, maybe 3, I have no idea what time I
went to bed) we headed back up to Machu Picchu for the tour.
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| Go on Claudia |
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| "Excuse mate, I'm just tryna take a picture....can you just.... |
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| .....mate seriously, get out of the....... |
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| .....Thank you!" |
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| This one's for Danny G, James and Lee |
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| A Flock of Canadians |
Later that day we jumped on the train from Aguas Calientes back to Ollantaytambo
and from there got back on our bus and headed back to Cusco, for another night
out!
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| Big crazy Peruvian burger! |
That following day Melissa and I headed to Chinchero just to get out of Cusco for a
bit, before heading back later that day, and not really achieving much! Good
times.
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| Lake Puray |
We then woke up early the next morning to catch a 7 hour bus from Cusco to Puno,
right on Lake Titicaca, which I was kind of excited about….hmmmmmm! That night
we headed out for a few drinks and ended up in some really random local bar
where we somehow stayed out until 5am (I honestly dunno how that happened), and
ended the night chilling out on our Hotel roof which looked out over Puno.
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| Puno |
Some huge slide Claudia and I found!
Two hours later, wake up call, breakfast and then onto the Lake. The most
touristy day of my life…..I honestly hated it! Like really hated it (and I'm happy cos I know I wasn't the only one). Our boat first took as to some
floating islands which were impressive, but it was just an excuse to try and get
us to buy things! We then headed to Luquina Chico where we did our homestay,
real nice family, again I wish I knew more Spanish, but still a great
experience. We later played some football with the locals, then did this
pointless dress up thing, again, I really didn't see the point of it! I'm pretty
sure if you’re friends with me on Facebook you will eventually see photos, but I didn't take any.
After doing a little bit of sheep rearing yesterday morning, we said goodbye to
our host family and jumped back on the boat to Isla Taquile where we stayed for
a few hours, and headed back to Puno……I couldn't have been happier. Lake
Titicaca is pretty, and it is up 3800m ish, but really I didn't enjoy any of
this set up at all! And I've seen fair more impressive Lakes! Sorry, but it’s
true!
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| I'll just watch Lisa do all the work! |
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| On Isla Taquile |
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| After being awake for a about two minutes, a jump from the boat's roof into Lake Titicaca before going back to sleep again! It was cold! But I really wanted to jump off of a roof! |
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| The view from my room on Friday night, looking out over Lake Titicaca.... |
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| ....And again on Saturday morning |
And onto today,currently on the 6 hour bus ride from Puno, Peru to La Paz, Bolivia, which is meant to be the highest capital in the world. I have no internet at the moment, so I will hopefully be able to post this once I arrive in La Paz later on today. County number 17, and just over a month left till England.
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| Leaving Peru and into Bolivia |
So everything passed this point is written on Tuesday (today/now), I wrote everything above on Saturday, but I've been having issues with the internet!
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| Lake Titicaca looks a lot better on the Bolivian side |
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| Going through more customs! |
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| Cos being a vegetarian isn't normal! |
After arriving in La Paz, we had some food, and headed out for the night. Again, after only getting two hours sleep, I woke up to conquer Death Road, A 54Km down hill ride on tarmac then gravel for the last 34Km. I have more pictures, but the computers here are really slow at getting the pictures from my disk to my USB, so I'm just gonna stick these few that I have on here! It was amazing, not the hardest ride I've done, but still the best by far...it just went on and on and on.....at parts going down the road at about 70Km/h!
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| La Paz |
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| Half way down the gravel path with Ruk, Angela and Clare |
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| One of many waterfalls that were down the track! |
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| Weird things in the Witch market in La Paz yesterday |
Left La Paz last night via a twelve hour night bus, and arrived in Sucre. Just kinda chilling at the moment!
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| From what I've seen so far of Bolivia is that it has a lot going on in the cities, and an amazing vast countryside....perfect for me! It is definitely a lot poorer than Peru, and you can see it straight away. Hopefully it's not like Peru for the amount of rubbish that is just lying around (seriously, they just let it collect and build everywhere), but hopefully it's like Peru for it's charm, it's friendly and helpful people, and it's variety in landscape! |
And now today is one month till I return back to England!
And Happy Mother's Day to my Mum for Sunday just passed!
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